Category: Old Blog Posts Reposted

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.

ANCs- A really short history

The following is a very simplified history, which hopefully will give some understanding of the present. During the Big Bear ABC license kerfuffle there were a few emailers questioning the rationale for ANCs or Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
ANCs are a product of Home Rule. Prior to Home Rule (via the Home Rule Act of 1973) Congress (the Federal government) ran the city. It wasn’t until 1974 that DC residents were able to vote and have some real say in how the city ran. Before Home Rule the mayor and the city council were federally appointed. Neighborhood wise there were citizens (white) and civic (black) associations that appealed to Congress and city government officials for things like neighborhood improvements, traffic, crime and so forth. As far as I can tell civic and citizen association leaders were elected by the association’s membership. These groups could only beg or appeal to bodies and officials whom they could neither vote for or vote out of office.
With Home Rule, neighborhoods got something new:

… the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs), brought the city administration closer to ordinary voters than any other elective units. The city council created 36 ANCs and 376 smaller single member districts, each representing about two thousand residents. The ANCs were intended to serve as neighborhood mini councils that advised the council on local problems.
—City of Magnificent Intentions: A history of Washington, District of Columbia 2nd edition P.584

BACA/ NE Shaw- I wanna have a small canning party

Here’s the thing. I want to have a small canning party. Thing #1 my kitchen is crowded with 2 people in it and three people it just isn’t happening. Thing #2 I know some folks out there are curious about small scale canning, which is what I tend to do as I hardly ever use up a whole pint of anything to justify canning that much and I’d like to share what I know. Thing #3, I’d like to share my knowledge close to home.

Yeah, I could post what I know on-line but there is something about hands on learning.

So if anyone has a kitchen that would work well for show and tell and wants an intro to canning (I’m no Master, I just do my own canning and so far, so good) and has a few friends who want to learn as well,

UPDATE- A canning party has been organized. Thank you.

Do you give a fig?

Lunch today will be some goat cheese from the 14th & U St farmer’s market, some charcuterie boar meat stuff from the Cork Market on 14th, and some figs from the next block. I can’t believe I have never noticed this fig tree in all the years I lived here. I know about the plum tree at 3rd & Q, but the fruit is too high and the resident at the place there couldn’t tell me if the fruit was any good. But a few days back  I was running some finishing things related to Flower Power that was held back on June 26th. While running around I noticed this fig tree, with rip figs, and picked a few that were hanging over the sidewalk and they were delicious. I snuck back the next day picked a few and more from the sidewalk. Today I noticed signs of someone being home, knocked on the door and asked if I could pick their figs.
I was given permission and started throwing figs in my bag. About halfway in my picking another family member came out and asked how would you know when they were ripe for picking. It’s just like tomatoes, you give a gentle tug and if they come off, they are ready. I will wash them, as I also picked up some of the perfectly fine looking fruit that fell to the ground (I trashed the ones that looked like the birds or ants got to them).
The take away from this experience is to ask people with fruit trees if you can pick and the reward is some sweet lunch.