Month: August 2010

Beau Thai- Definitely Monday

I saw some movement in Beau Thai on the way back home. I got excited. excited for nothing and yes, guy from the city, I’m blaming you. Guy from the City was excited that we in the neighborhood are all excited but he blames the hold up on some office closing 3 minutes early. So he says, “Definitely, Monday.”

The owner, she did not look happy. She looked seriously unhappy.

She’s got a bunch of food she can’t serve because well, it would have helped if Guy from the City had shown up Thursday and gotten her a Certificate of Occupancy or what ever his magic seal of approval. He knows we’re all blaming him, but you know the process of what it takes to open a business in DC is cloudy from the standpoint of a citizen. We don’t know what all the hoops and hurdles are that stop a business that we’re starving for, from opening because one of the city offices closed shop early on a Friday.

So, we’ll see, Monday.

Have you paid your property taxes?

This morning I found in today’s Washington Post the big list of District properties that have failed to pay their property taxes. Check the list here (PDF) to make sure your mortgage company actually paid your taxes. One year I noticed a neighbor’s property was listed, mentioned it to him and it seemed to be a snafu on his mortgage company’s part.

Now let me head off the usual questions I get regarding the tax sale with telling you what little I know based on my own limited experience and 2nd hand experiences of others who did more follow through.

1. You just can’t go to a tax sale and buy a house. All you are buying is the tax lien that gives you the right to foreclose.

2. There is a time limit of when you can and cannot foreclose. The owner has so much time of when they can pay the lien and you’d have to foreclose by a certain time. The details of this I’m fuzzy on.

3. If you foreclose it does not give you a free and clear title. If there is a $300K loan on the property, the bank still has a claim, then there is everyone else with a lein on the property, and any others that would challenge the new ownership. You are responsible for the title search.

4. If you’re only interested in the interest, as most property owners pay the tax bill, with interest, keep in mind that the amounts listed are the starting points. You will only earn interest, which last I heard was a sweeet 18%, on the amount listed. If you bid, and most likely you will, over the amount, that extra earns no interest. So get out your spreadsheets factor in actual interest earned, minus $150 Tax Sale Fee the District charges you, and decide before you go what amount you’ll stop at.

5. The tax sale is filled with idiots who think they’re bidding on a house. They will jack up the bids and make the interest you’d earn pointless. But considering I’m only earning 1% at my bank on a good day, it takes a lot to reach pointless.

6. Before you bid you need at least 20% deposited with the DC Treasurer’s Office. Failure to have that will nullify your bid.

Since every single cent I have is going to the weddings, and after that some overdelayed home fixin’, I won’t be participating in the tax sale. If I were, I’d aim for unimproved land and parking spots in condos in neighborhoods where parking doesn’t exist.

Beau Thai Maybe Thursday, Maybe Friday, We’ll see

I ran into the owner of Beau Thai after work. She was waiting for the C of something, I gather the person is the last ok from the city to go ahead and start serving us food.
Anyway I asked for a menu. We’ll see how Mr. Scanner is acting later tonight. Hopefully the last inspector will bother to show up this evening and give the go ahead. If he doesn’t show up today, then tomorrow, pushing the opening back to Friday.
The menu has two different prices for lunch and dinner one dish meals and entrees. I remember when Thai X-ing opened the lunch service went away due to a lack of people to support it. Anyway it’s got some usual favs, Pad Thai, Satay, Panang Curry, Red & Green Curries, Larb Gai, and spring rolls. Appetizers run between $5 and$ 6, one dish meals $8 or $10 and entrees $9 or $11.Beau Thai Door 1

Wedding planning and Shaw

I’d like to announce the engagement of Ms. InShaw (me) to the guy known as The Help. So postings may get a little light as I get distracted with trying to plan two low-cost weddings on two opposite sides of the country.

One of the challenges I’m dealing with is finding a location that has all the things I want that won’t mess up the miniscule budget we have. One of those desires is to have a reception in Shaw, if not Shaw Mt. Vernon Square, if not MVSq, NW/NE DC and if not NW/NE DC, PG County… near a metro. I’ve asked friends and brainstormed with a friend who is also trying to plan an event for him and his partner. But with the budget the way it is, another friend’s suggestion of the church basement, an ipod, and a box of doughnuts is looking pretty good.

When looking for places or thinking about places I get a lot of inspiration from the Off-Beat Bride site, which had me considering art galleries, small museums and theaters, but in the brainstorming session I discovered they were outta my price range. Since most of my family members are Baptists, it’s more than likely going to be a dry reception so that opens up other places to me like schools, government owned buildings (think National Park Service and Maryland-National Park & Planning Commission opeated buildings), spaces run by non-profits and other organizations, churches with facilities better than my default location, and Shaw is chock full of churches. Shaw is also chock full of empty storefronts which is another idea, but the cost savings might be lost when renting or buying tables, chairs, plates, linens and insurance are factored in.

We’re still trying to price out other things but worst comes to worst, church basement, ipod, and we’ll splurge for cupcakes instead of the doughnuts.

Soon, as in Monday the 9th

A neighbor noticed that the “Coming soon” signs were down and I saw on Scott Robert’s email thing Beau Thai is supposed to open Monday August 9th for carry out.
Update- I went by after work and the doors are pretty well locked.
Prince of Petworth is reporting a Thursday opening. Since I almost always walk by I’ll mention when it’s open.

Busy Weekend

A lot is happening around this end of the hood this Saturday.

First there is the 1st on First, which last year the title was dead on, so more accurately it is the 7th on First this year, but 1st on First sounds better. Anyway, last year’s 1st on First was fun, 1st St NW from Florida Avenue to Rhode Island Avenue with artists and a few businesses opening their doors and letting folks get to know them. Well this year there is  Rustik Tavern and a Child`s Development Center. That’s two separate places but a Tavern /Child Development Center would be an awesome and possibly tragic combination, but mostly awesome. I’m sure that Rustik’s open house will be the big to do.

Also along 1st St and 3rd and Bates and several other streets in the TC is the 1st of 2 community yard sales that Saturday. It is sponsored by the Bates Area Civic Association and will take place in various yards.

In the mid-Shaw are there is an Arts Festival this and next weekend.

Oh and there’s stuff supposed to be happening on the other end of Shaw on 14th St. Dog Days of Summer I believe it is called from August 7th to 8th.

Special Parking

I got my temporary parking pass in the mail about a week or so ago for Ward 5 and handed it over to my roommate who is only going to be with me for less than a month. After he leaves I’m jacking up the rent. Anyway, when I got that parking pass I felt special. But not as special as a certain neighbor who got their own parking space on the street.

Now first let me say this is not a criticism, just an observation and I was a bit bemused at this neighbor’s chutzpah.

There is some history. This neighbor likes to park the car in front of the house they live in. Most people do or try and several years back you could get away with parking in the same space day after day and sort of thinking of it as yours. Like church pews, seats at restaurants or in classrooms, there is this claim of ownership on something you cannot own. But due to always sitting in the same spot over and over, time after time one starts to think of it as theirs. Anyway, there was a battle over the space between neighbor #1 and neighbor #2. Neighbor #2 would park his big SUV thing in neighbor #1’s spot. Both are old timers, living here since the crack dealers roamed the land in huge herds and so this passive aggressive fight over the space has been going on for a while. Last week or so, neighbor #1 got a street parking spot for handicap parking for one specifically tagged car. Basically, their own guaranteed parking spot. The handicap? My best guess is age plus walking difficulty due to weight.

It may be more than that because we really don’t want people packing on the pounds just so they too can get their own special reserved street parking.

Some PQ observations

I finally got around to asking the homeless guy who has been around the Archives/Navy Memorial what happened to Manhattan Deli, which closed last month with no announcement or nothin’. He said that one of the vendors around there said that the building owners bumped up the rent and so the Deli decided to pack up and move to Maryland. $6000 was the amount that did it. I don’t know if that’s $6000 a month or a week. Now where am I going to get slow surly service but cheap eats now?!

Another observation is there is a short cubby African American fellow engaging in some energetic air guitaring/ jogging between Penn Quarter and Gallery Place/Chinablock. He is not to be confused with jog in place guy who is tall and fit. Anyone else notice him? Has the PQ-GP/C corridor become known as the place where a Black brother can express himself freely with exercise and dance-like moves? One more jogging guy with headphones and funky moves and this becomes a trend.

My weekend- Out in the Virginia Mountains

Mt. Hazel River This post falls under ‘it’s my personal blog and I’ll post what I want’ category. For the past two weekends I’ve taken two mini-vacations out in the Shenandoah mountain area, one in Madison County the other in Rappahannock County. This is about the Rappahannock weekend.
I had booked this months ago and all I was looking for was a cabin, in the woods, in either Maryland, West Virginia or Virginia that wasn’t too expensive and something above a camping tent.I found Hazel Mt.Haven and greatly enjoyed my stay. The views from the yard of the mountains were wonderful. What can I say, I’m from Florida, mountains and really big hills wow me.
We were able to pack a lot into a few days. We hiked a NPS trail, visited a winery, poked around Little Washington (didn’t eat at the Inn though) and managed to upset Chef Gerard Pangaud (formerly of Gerard’s Place) at the Blue Rock Inn. We feel really bad about that last part, as we did not realize that the short ribs were cooked for 72 hours via sous vide because the meat was still reddish.Chef Pangaud came to our table to educate us on this when my cousin sent the dish back to the kitchen for being too red. We really feel terrible, but on the plus side, we got to meet the chef and the food was good.