Month: December 2008

Take the cab

I type this advice as I remember my last trek home at night I walked alone. I did take a series of buses, and wound up at a point (5 blocks from the house) where I couldn’t mentally justify paying for a cab. I completely acknowledge that it wasn’t my brightest moment.
Tuesday there was a Shaw murder where the victim was walking home. Truxton resident, Durval Martins, was killed at 11th and Q around 3 AM.
If you’re cheap like me you probably loathe spending money for a cab, but if you are going out at night, mentally add cab fare to that night’s expenses. Tuck away $10-$20 bucks before you head out to the clubs or wherever, for cab fare. Seriously, if you’re coming back home in the wee AM hours, be safe and take a cab. The eyes on the street have gone to bed and you’re on your own. Hail a cab. If there are no cabs where you are, get over to a major street and keep a sharp eye out or have the establishment where you’re leaving call the cab for you.

214 P St NW


Vacant on P 2
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Broken windows, bad paint, weedy yard, just a lot of ugly. According to the DC tax database this vacant house is a class 3 exeception, so it is paying regular taxes, and not the vacant house rate. The owner is Steward Investments in Clinton, MD and they came to possess it in 2006 for 419K.
I am not going to quibble about that value, as the house next door is up for sale for $750K.

Inauguration Musings- Neighborhoods get f’d

I’m reading the Post article about transportation and the inauguration, and it looks like some close in neighborhoods are going to get screwed for three days. When I read “Neighborhood parking rules and meter enforcement in the District will be suspended Saturday through Inauguration Day,” I see a nightmare for everyone who parks on the street living within 1-2 miles of the Capitol. Tell your friends who will be crashing at your place, to carpool.
So far no one knows what streets will be closed off, and when, and how much driver chaos will seep onto neighborhood streets. Hopefully, the closures will be short lived, for a few hours. Who am I kidding? Several hours. Stock up on stuff before the crowds arrive because it will be like a marathon, Sunday church parking, and rush hour rolled into one.

There is something new at Timor

Okay, new to me, not so new to Kim, as he told me whatever I discovered had been at Timor for about 3 weeks. New to me is the laundry soap and other soaps from Union Street. The laundry soap is vegan (is that an issue?) and according to the instructions 2 tablespoons will do a load of laundry.
Thing #2 new to me is the clearance wine. Don’t bother running over there now, but this morning, I and another woman bought all the $5 bottles of wine in the clearance section.
Thing #3, new to me, Port. Kim is carrying Dow’s Fine Ruby Port. Okay, now I can stop drinking up my lemoncello.
Not new, but usually there, weekend morning coffee. Hang out with Kim, drink coffee, yak. Kim supplies the cups, you supply the yak.

Chef, Church, Contractor, Coffee

This posting is for stuff on the backburner I’d been meaning to post. So, going in alphabetical order

Chef
Chef Jean Claude LeLan that is. About a week ago I took my 3rd or 4th class with him and they are always wonderful learning and eating experiences. His classes tend to be on Sunday mornings at 10 at his home in Mt. Vernon Sq., so even after having a rich meal and a good deal of wine, I can toddle or waddle back home for a good nap. The next class he’s having is the sauce class January 11th. I’ve taken it and it is well worth it because Chef Jean-Claude is a hoot, you get to take some sauces home and the after class meal is brunch. I also recommend that you take good notes and ask questions because the handouts are general and some steps are not mentioned or can be adjusted or are estimates or there are ideas that come out of the class.
Chef Jean Claude also offers catering and cooking classes in your home. I am tempted to have him cater, but a cooking class would not work. My kitchen is tiny.

Church
Church of the Immaculate Conception at 8th and N NW is one of two Roman Catholic Churches in Shaw, the other is St. Augustine. The pastor of Immaculate Conception, Rev. Msgr. James Watkins resides in Shaw, so he is a part of the community. Mass is as follows- Saturday 5:30 (29 minutes or less or your next mass is free); Sunday 9AM (1 hour), 11AM (about 1.5 hours), 6PM (Latin. Fr. Watkins’ Latin is lovely, everybody else….eh). And don’t bother with the website, it is stuck in Dec 2006.

Coffee
Not exactly in Shaw, but close, and they asked nice, and I needed another ‘C’…

Hi,
I’m Ongisa and we just opened up CocoLibre at 786 Harvard St. NW. It’s a Fair Trade Cafe’ that specializes in certified tea, coffee, and chocolate- plus your typical coffee shop fare like paninis and pastries. I know we aren’t exactly in Shaw, but we’re close. If you could give us a shout-out or something, that would be great. Check us out on the web- www.cocolibre.com. Feel free to hype us up and stop in for some great organic (and ethical) tea! Thanks.

Contractor
Some of y’all wanted my contractor’s contact info. Well my 2007 big renovation job and my 2002-2003 kitchen job were done by David of Something Different Contracting, 2/321-6416. I do recommend him for your big house projects (things that may require permits). David is very communicative, and lives close, in Frozen Tropic land (Old City 1). He has worked with older homes and will work with you to salvage any old beauty that may still exist in your home. You can email me at mari at inshaw daht com if you have questions you want to ask.

Anyone in the Upper TC or MidCity region need fresh laurel bay leaves?


Baby leaves on the bay laurel
Originally uploaded by jpob

I brought my laurel bay in the house for the winter and I need to cut back. I’m going to dry a bunch of the leaves and give them away as Christmas gifts. I am aware of crafts that involve green laurel bay leaves, so if anyone needs a branch of green leaves, and you live within a quarter (0.25) of a mile of the intersection of Q and NJ Ave I’ll be happy to drop some off at your house. Email me at mari at inshaw periud com.

Radiators- Radiator Keys


Nora Bombay, my formerly VA friend, is now a Chicago friend. I called her up to see how she was doing and she told me it was 60F in her apartment. She has radiators, but as far as I know this is her first year living with radiators.
I asked if the radiators had been bled. She didn’t know. The problem is when there is more air than water in the radiators, you won’t get much heat. As part of my HVAC service the technician bled all my radiators. Previously, that was something I did every year, and I used radiator keys and pliers (don’t use pliers if you can help it!).
You can get radiator keys online at ACE Hardware. I got mine from some Maryland plumbing supply place we had to hunt down, no one should have to suffer through that. I’m quite sure they can get you some radiator keys at Logan or 5th Street Hardware, as they are an ACE store and there are still several houses around here with radiators.
Anyway, once you have your keys there is something else important to have when bleeding the radiators, a cup. The cup is needed to catch the first couple of teaspoons of hot water shooting/dribbling out. You sit the cup under the valve, turn it with the key slowly till you hear a hissing sound, or water comes out. When you get water, turn it closed.

LINK-
Old House Journal-How to take care of your radiator (warning there is a pop-up.

Empower DC

I’m in a good mood. I’ve got my hot cup of British blend tea and a warm bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on multi-grain toast. Life is good. So in this good mood I’m looking over the newsletter sent to me by Empower DC.
Normally, I’d just delete it as it is lefty activist stuff, but as I said, I’m in a very good mood.
According to their email “Empower DC seeks to enhance and improve self-advocacy efforts to improve the quality of life of low-and moderate-income people in DC.” And looking over their newsletter, which is not available via their website (as far as I can tell) and their website they are challenging developers and private uses for DC owned property. Their newsletter has a series they are documenting and they describe it as so:

This is the first in a series of regular reports, entitled “People’s Property Now”, to be released by Empower DC’s People’s Property Campaign, providing information and analysis about the fate of public property in DC.

Empower DC’s People’s Property Campaign asserts that:
• As long as community needs exist in DC, there is no such thing as “surplus” public property.
• Public property is the common trust of the residents of the District of Columbia and must be maintained as public for current and future generations, and used for the public, not private profit.
• DC’s current law only provides a process for disposing of public property. Legislative change is necessary to create a transparent, community-driven input process to determine new public uses for available public properties.

I’m near the end of my sandwich and tea, so let me add my gently to the right opinion. One, why so critical of charter schools? Kingman Park is listed as being an example of ‘currently threatened property’ because it is slated to be a charter school. In the TC part of Shaw, Armstrong School languished as a city owned property and finally (it seems to have taken forever) the school has been cleaned up by the charter school in charge of it now. I do applaud Empower DC recognizing that McMillan Reservoir is green space, however it isn’t accessible green space, except to Canada Geese. My last comment is on DC owned land. It is not that once land is sold that DC won’t or can’t get land ever again. The DC government, as many governments have the power of eminent domain, they can seize property for unpaid taxes or other wrongs against the city and add to the city’s catalog of properties. Also DC owns enough nuisance properties, and we can point to a dozen city owned problems in Shaw alone owned by the city. If the city can offload these problem properties, turning them into housing (luxury, rentals, mod-income, mixed-use, whatever), with people who pay income taxes, the city and the surrounding community benefits.