CafeChatNoir

Yes, it’s time to really get in gear about moving elsewhere.

A controversial new program announced today that would create so-called “Neighborhood Safety Zones” which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don’t live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there.

It’s quite one thing to have an increased and visible police presence in neighborhoods that are having crime problems.  It is quite another to be impeding the flow of travel of a supposedly free citizenry.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve been in this area for over 20 years and yes, DC does have a crime problem and in some neighborhoods things have improved, and in others, it’s gotten worse.  But just closing off areas isn’t the answer.

And yes, there are situations where controlled access to an area is appropriate.  Aftermath of a tornado, hurricane, flood, building collapse or other disaster.  But while the crime problem isn’t trivial, it isn’t the same.

Went to the cardboard boat races today. It’s been going on for years and this is the first time I’ve gotten over there. Should you ever decide to go there, a few observations…

– There is a PITA chokepoint getting in and parking because they do charge for parking for the event. I spent 20 minutes traversing an length of road that normally would take 1 minute… The parks department might want to think about throwing an extra body at parking $$ collection
– Bring a nice picnic lunch. Even though there are food vendors, they’re just not quite ready for prime time. Not very long lines, but slow as all get out.
– The spectators are kind of vicious. There is as much, if not more cheering for capsized boats as for the winners.
– The range of boats is pretty spectacular, from a bunch of cardboard boxes taped together with packing tape, to a space shuttle.
– It’s really worth the $4 parking charge and the bit of a wait – very fun and I’d do it again.

Scavenged cardboard: $0
Paint & Magic Markers: $15
Being able to say, “We did it ourselves!” AND winning your heat? Priceless.
Boat: Swordfish

I’m fairly certain the little one on the right was the one I heard later saying, “Dad! The boat tipped over and we fell out! Did you see it?! It was AWESOME!!”

More pics after the jump

Continue Reading “A Day at the Races”

Small Earthquake Felt in DC and NoVA

I felt it – and couldn’t figure out what it was – first thing I did was look outside expecting a large truck to be going by.

So, locals, if you felt your house shake a bit, or heard the windows rattle and couldn’t figure out what it was, it was an earthquake.

Having been in larger earthquakes in Japan, this was definitely a little one – so little I certainly didn’t recognize it for what it was.

I think it’s finally here for real!! Ran up to the store yesterday and it was SO NICE to have the windows down and the sunroof open!

Seriously, I need to step up my “move south” plan so I can get spring sooner – it took WAY too long to get here for my taste.  There are places in OBX for under $300K…  Of course, to do that right now would entail selling this place and leaving little bro homeless unless he wanted to move south as well.  Probably need to put that off for a while.

One minor downside to spring – flying critters in the house, thanks to the dog going in & out constantly. This morning there was a hornet-like thing lazily flying about the living room. All was fine and well until I stood up to open the back screen to get him out – then it was, “Oh, HI! Where did YOU come from?! I didn’t see you before!” Eep. So I’m trying to get the back screen open while ducking his trying to buzz my head – he did quickly get out once he realized his escape route was clear. But I could have done without the “friendliness”, thanks.

I’m going to upgrade WordPress this weekend – be interesitng to see if it breaks all my plugins or not.

It got very windy earlier today and I didn’t really think anything of it – just got a call from my brother who is running errands and apparently pretty much all of Burke is without power. Which isn’t the end of the world in and of itself, but seems that the police aren’t bothering to work the major intersections.

Let’s face it – folks around here can barely handle a regular 4 way stop – expecting them to have the good sense that a dark intersection automatically becomes a 4 way stop is pushing it. Fairfax County PD – please get out there before some moron crashes into my brother’s car.

I did find a nifty little outage map courtesy of Virginia Power:
http://www.dom.com/news/northva.jsp

We seem to be lucky to still have power.

ETA:  Brother is home in one piece and not exactly pleased with the utilization of resources by the local police.  He saw 4 cruisers wandering about – 2 on our street.  Our neighborhood street, which is still fully powered and in no need of traffic assistance.

I don’t know what it is about this area, but people seem to have a lot of troubles with 4 way stops.  There is one on the way out of our neighborhood.   Today I discovered how you can make it even worse!

Have a police car parked in the median at said 4 way stop.  Everyone is so paranoid about the cop sitting there and trying to remember the “proper” way to go through a 4 way stop, everyone ends up staying stopped for about 3 times as long as usual.

I have no idea why he would be there – he was visible from all directions, and that particular intersection doesn’t seem to have a lot of people go blowing through the stop signs.  Could have been looking for someone, I suppose, but all he seemed to be accomplishing was really mucking up traffic.

Bill being introduced in the Virginia legislature to ban testicles on trailer hitches.

Kinda gross? Sure. Worthy of legislative action? I’m not so sure.

A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect from 3 PM this afternoon to 11 am EST Sunday.

OK, it’s 3:05 – where is my wintry armageddon? I’m ready! I have milk, bread, and toilet paper. As well as things that are actually useful in a storm, too.

So, bring it on!

Or anyone else for that matter.  HGTV is doing a contest to makeover a neighborhood somewhere in the US.

Anacostia is among the potential winners.  Anyone from around here knows that it’s an area that has seen better days and could definitely use some help.

So, unless there is another neighborhood on the list that is near and dear to your heart, give Anacostia a little love.  Lord knows it needs it.

Food & Friends is working with Bread & Chocolate to bring Thanksgiving Pies to their clients.

You can order pies for yourself, or for Food & Friends, or both.  I beleive there is only a day or two left to get orders in, so if you’re interested, best get over there soon.

Food & Friends is one of my favorite local charities – basically it’s Meals on Wheels for homebound folks with illnesses such as AIDS and cancer.

Your weed dealer may be having some supply issues in the immediate future…

With the heat back, we’ve got our storms back.

Power went out, back on, cable out, half-back with audio, now getting some video.

FedEx field emptied because of the lightning – game delayed at least 20 minutes – if they let them play, hopefully there will still be a few fans around. My buddy Melissa is probably rather soaked and pissed off right now as she is at the game. (Or in the parking lot.)

The lightning has been great, but I’m glad I’m not out in it.

The dog is in the basement, the cats are simply annoyed.

Somewhere, in a drab little cubicle, there is a government accountant that bursts into tears every month trying to reconcile the rent accounts because the Cubans won’t cash the damn rent checks.

For the locals: If you’re contemplating a trip to Lucky’s Sports Theatre & Grill – they do not have pool tables. (I don’t know why I thought they would, but I did, and they didn’t.) It’s as if Glory Days, Q-Balls and the old video arcade at Springfield Mall had a drunken threesome and produced a love child. The OTB feed is a nice touch if you like to watch the ponies, though.

Found out about this one via DCist – the first annual Brainfood Grill Off!

It’s this Thursday, 6/28, and there are still tickets available. $75 for dinner, open bar and “entertainment” (which may be the kids setting the kitchens on fire, who knows.)

Brainfood is “a non-profit youth development organization based in Washington, DC. Brainfood has been a community presence in the Columbia Heights neighborhood for several years, and in the fall of 2007, a second Brainfood site was established in Chinatown. The Brainfood kitchen is a place where young people come to have creative, constructive fun. We believe that supervised, fun activities are a young person’s right, not a privilege, and we have found that most of our students do not have access to such opportunities.

In keeping with these beliefs, we have created after school and summer programs that allow kids to be kids, while also challenging them to develop new skills and raise self-expectations. Brainfood is a safe place for teens to try new things, make mistakes, and grow. We reach young people through a positive approach based on one of the oldest and most universal of human traditions: food. Through listening, reading, shopping, measuring, chopping, whisking, roasting, cooling, collaborating, presenting, eating, cleaning and volunteering, Brainfood students learn life skills and have fun.”

Well, damn, I am certainly down for that. Even got little bro hooked in for it. (Which makes me think that maybe dinner tonight didn’t turn out as well as I thought it had.)

I sometimes feel bad that I tend to look at all other drivers in Northern Virginia as completely incompetent, but they just keep proving it to me. This morning I pulled up to an intersection in my neighborhood, stop signs at all points, and proceeded to watch a woman in a minivan go blowing right on through, without even so much as a slowdown at the sign.

And folks wonder why I take extra time at stop signs before I go through an intersection…

But yet again, I’ve gone to the gun show and returned empty handed. Not many H&K’s this time around it seemed. Was also reminded of how much I like the feel of the Walther P-22’s…and the Glocks. So much for “Yes, I really know what I want.”

Little bro came along as well. Best quote of the day: “Not sure about a place where you can get a gun, a ski mask and a book on ‘learn everything possible about burglar alarms’.” (What can I say, I’m used to the history books next to “how to field strip any weapon” next to “How to beat down The Man” books.) But he seemed to enjoy it.

I always have a good time, if nothing else for the off the wall stuff that you see, and some good people watching.

Gun show at Dulles Expo Center this weekend.

Here you can go from 75 degrees with a bit of overcast to 39 degrees, pouring rain with snow and sleet to come later in the day in a mere 24 hours.

This weather is absolutely disgusting to put it mildly, especially after 3 days of really NICE weather. It’s responsible for about 80% of my crappy mood this morning, and it’s one of those moods that really requires a trip to the batting cages or driving range to smack the crap out of inanimate objects, but because of the weather, I CAN’T DO THAT.

I wonder if there are any walls in the house that need to be knocked out… I would like a larger closet…

On Sunday, Roanoke Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal decided in the spirit of the “Sunshine Laws” and to show the kind of information that you can obtain under it, that it would be appropriate to post a database of all holders of Concealed Carry Permits in Virginia, and write a rather…interesting…column to go along with it. I’m sure happy to know he puts sex offenders in the same category as CCP holders. The database has since been removed, ostensibly to have it “verified for accuracy” by the Virginia State Police.

The comments in response to the column were unsurprisingly negative, but at the same time, the vast majority were very rational and well thought out, and also showed the irresponsibility in publishing this database.

Now, I do not have a concealed carry permit, as I do not even own a gun at this time. In the future, it is highly likely I will have both. I have friends who have guns and CCP’s, and I don’t think it is the Roanoke Times business to be throwing their names and addresses out there, even if it IS public data that can be obtained with a little legwork. Should I ever have a concealed carry permit, I feel that no one needs to know besides my family and the authorities that issued the permit.

This entire situation seriously infuriated me, and I did something I only reserve for when I am REALLY angry – I got in touch with my state representatives. Yesterday I faxed off a letter to Senator Ken Cuccinelli, II (R) and Delegate Dave Marsden (D), simply asking if there was some way that a balance could be achieved between the FOIA/Sunshine Laws and citizen privacy in this matter.

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I’d get a response, or if it would be anything more than a “we got your fax” form letter. My phone rang today, and it was Delegate Marsden. We had a good conversation, and he agreed this was an issue and that he could definitely “get behind” doing something to protect citizen privacy when it comes to this. He said he supports the CCP process, as it requires folks to actually work for it and he couldn’t think of a reason that anyone should be able to get the entire list as the Mr. Trejbal did, nor any real reason that you’d need to know if anyone in particular has a CCP, given that you can have a gun and no CCP. He is going to get in touch with Legislative Services and try and get the ball rolling for the next session. Even though that will be a little while, he says it’s better to get started now, and said he would get back in contact with me in a couple weeks.

So, it never hurts to get in touch with the reps, even if you’re not on the same side of the political fence on everything.

So, you’ve probably heard by now that a US Appeals Court has struck down the DC gun ban. I live outside of DC, so this ban hasn’t directly affected me and the change really doesn’t affect me right now either, as I don’t own a firearm at the present time.

Now, the Mayor has indicated he is going to appeal the decision, AND “said the city will vigorously enforce its handgun law” as he said the ruling “only addressed handgun possession in the home, not whether the city can regulate handguns elsewhere” and frankly, I’m waiting for some form of legal injunction to effectively nullify the court’s decision for the time being.

So, obviously we’ve not seen the end of this just yet. What I find amusing & somewhat annoying is how CNN has been reporting it, with comments along these lines: “District residents are doing something this weekend that they haven’t been able to do in 30 years – have a gun.”

OK, let’s think about this. If you’re a law abiding DC resident, you don’t have a handgun. Given the gun ban, I’m pretty sure that no one has been able to set up shop in DC since Friday afternoon to sell firearms. So, unless every DC resident that wanted a gun came out to Virginia and bought one this weekend (and I’m not even sure that Virginia shops can sell to DC residents, regardless of this court ruling), then really – who is actually now walking around with a gun that wasn’t on Friday morning?

Sorry CNN, but I don’t think evey DC resident now has a gun.

He wasn’t as miserable as he looked, I swear I did not throw him out in the backyard for a photo op.

Just for this, the patch of Leyland Cypresses aren’t going anywhere anytime soon – a hound needs a dry spot…

And it’s not even a bad drive. Dave & I went out this afternoon to the wilds of Catlett, VA to go to the slaughterhouse/butcher that he had been telling me about (and making me drool in the process.) It is fantastic.

You walk in, there are 2 chalkboards with everything they have on them and a counter. No displays. No fridge of cut items. No – you tell them what you want and they cut it right then and there. Got 2 pounds of sausage, 2 pounds of center cut pork chops, a beautiful sirloin steak and a pound of paprika bacon, at an insanely good price.

Everyone has their thing of what makes a butcher the real thing – for me, it was the fact that they had chitlins on the board. These folks have everything. It’s a great place, and I will be making return visits.

It’s Wilson Farms Meat Co. Take 234 to 28 South, and then left at the second light after the “Welcome to Nokesville” sign/barn with the pig & cow on it, and an immediate left. Hours are M 8-5, T-F 7-5, Sa 7-4. 540-788-4615

And it’s really not a bad drive out there at all, and completely worth it.

ETA: I don’t know if they take credit cards, didn’t see a machine and I was paying cash anyway.  Checks only for “established customers”.

As of 6PM last evening, it was supposedly snowing in Rockville, a mere 30 miles from here. As of 11 PM, nothing. As of 2 AM, nothing. As of 6 AM, nothing. By 9 AM, a dusting. Now, it seems to be tapering off already.

I thought we were going to be looking at the end of the world today?

Or something. They’re calling for snow on Tuesday. They have no idea how much but are saying it could be “significant” – which means, “we have no freakin’ idea.”

What this means is get everything you need to hold you through Wednesday at the market tomorrow, cause on Monday, the locusts will be swarming in and the aisles will be cleared of milk, toilet paper, bread and boneless chicken breasts. I on the other hand, will be purchasing beef, tortillas, and porkchops if they have ones that look good.

Oh, , I found the plug-in that lets you subscribe to comments over on the WP side so you can get replies! And it seems to actually work! (I may eventually just turn off the LJ comment side so I can have everything in one place.) Unfortunately, I still don’t seem to be able to get the comment count thing working – it works in the RSS feed, but not in the crossposted stuff, which is frustrating, because it seems to be working for . It’s not the end of the world by any means, but annoying nonetheless.

Virginia is on the Texas bandwagon now, but there will be opt-out options.

Link via DCist.

Perfect for lunch on a cold, snowy day: Pulled pork sandwiches. Made it last night and oh my but the leftovers are GOOD.

Finally saw Alton Brown’s Feasting on Asphalt last night. Cross country motorcycle trip in search of road food. What’s not to love?

Hey locals – the chocolate festival is just around the corner – Feb 3/4.

On a completely unrelated note, check out this thread if you’re in the market for a fake ID in the DC area – maybe the answer will eventually appear… Damn, it’s been deleted. Doesn’t everyone post in a public forum asking where to buy a fake ID?

Pulled Pork Goodness

Note: I make no claims of this to be “authentic” of any type or style of pulled pork – it’s just how I make it and it’s tasty. Takes a while, but worth it.

First, I use pork tenderloin. I know lots of folks use pork butt for this, but it just makes too much, and a lot of the time I’m making it w/leftover pork tenderloin from a previous meal, so when I am making it as the first meal, I still stick with the tenderloin cause I know it works.

Brine the pork tenderloin in a salt/sugar brine for 1-2 hours. (about 1/2 c. kosher salt & 1/4 c sugar. Feel free to toss in some peppercorns, garlic, whatever spices float your boat.)

Rinse and rub down with cracked pepper, garlic, onion, thyme, again switch it up to suit your tastes, and then pan sear.

Transfer to saucepan, add enough liquid to cover it about 1/2 to 2/3. I use some beef stock and a bit of wine or dark beer. (Would have used pork stock if I’d had it, but it works.)

Start simmering on low…for a long time. (I think it ended up going about 2 hours in total) Check it every 20 minutes or so to turn things and see if it’s “pullable” yet. As the liquid reduces, I start adding barbecue sauce. Once it’s to the point where you can pull it, start shredding it, keep simmering and adding more barbecue sauce. I think I kept it on about 30 minutes past the shredded stage.

Start eating. (I think it’s great on toasted onion rolls.) Great the next day and freezes well, too.

Has anyone heard anything about the state wanting to implement waiting periods for gun show purchases? Little bro heard something in passing about it yesterday, but I haven’t been able to find anything on it this morning.

I can only guess some legislator has decided that the background checks that are done at the shows aren’t adequate. (Or just doesn’t understand that they actually DO background checks at the shows…)

If anyone has any info, can you let me know?

ETA: VCDL has nothing on this, that was the first place I checked this morning.

It’s probably not news to you, but I’ve been cut off from most of the world for the past 2 weeks.

Nation’s Gun Show at Dulles Expo Center this weekend!!