This cemetery near Dumbarton House has seen better days. The disrepair reminds me a bit of Holy Rood cemetery in Glover Park.

Though many moving headstones can still be found:

This is one of the cooler door knobs I’ve ever seen.

Ed. Note: If you’re wondering it does feel a bit strange for me to write a sentence like that. But seriously – check out the details and the two key holes…

I can’t wait until this awesome Georgetown house goes for sale so we can look inside these awesome rooms:

Photo by PoPville flickr user mosley.brian

From an email:

“The event is called “RFK Appreciation Day Special – FREE Stadium Tours”. The event takes place on October 29, 2011 at RFK Stadium 2400 East Capital Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003. There will be 3 tours that day; the tours will start promptly at 10 AM, Noon, and 2 PM. These are behind-the-scenes tours of the stadium that include visits to team locker rooms and the field. These tours are free to the public. To reserve a spot please e-mail RFKStadiumTour@eventsdc.com, limited space available.”

The DC NoMa blog shares the sad news:

“Chef Gillian Clark’s Kitchen on K Street will not open on the ground floor of the Loree Grand as planned. Cooked up as the “second-generation” Colorado Kitchen, the venue’s arrival was much-anticipated in a neighborhood with only one full-service restaurant to boast.”

This obviously also doesn’t bode well for any who still held out hope that Chef Clark’s Petworth project would be coming anytime soon (or at all)…

Is it fair to call the one above art deco? Both of these are from Dupont. Which do you like better?

If you have any fun or interesting animal/pet photos please shoot me an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say what neighborhood you’re from or upload to the PoPville flickr pool with your pets name and neighborhood. I can’t guarantee I’ll get them all posted but I’ll do my best.

“Merlin and Maggie hugging it out in Woodley Park. They are my adorable foster kittens from the Washington Humane Society.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user pablo.raw

“This is Loki! We live on the cusp of Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant right on 16th St. the border. This is him wearing his favorite bowtie.”

And a reader asks:

“Dear PoPville,

I know we recently discussed dog walker recommendations. I’ve gone through the list of recommendations and have contacted a few of the suggested walkers or businesses. However, none seem to provide the service I need in the neighborhood where I reside. I live in Northeast, just off of North Capitol (across from Bloomingdale, south of the Hospital Center, north of Rhode Island Ave). I am looking for an evening, and primarily weekend evening, occasional dogwalker for times when I am out of town and my other half is at work. Given that his hours are 3 or 4 p.m. to approximately 4 a.m., I need to find someone who could ideally come around 8 or 9 p.m. and take the dog out for his nightly walk. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.”

This rental is located at 1936 Calvert St NW:

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The Craigslist ad says:

“Large 1 Bedroom English Basement Apartment (~800 ft2) available November 15. Front entrance to Calvert street with secure area for bicycle etc. Back entrance to garden / alley. Dishwasher, a/c, washer/dryer for unit.”

$1625 sound right?

Photo by PoPville flickr user caroline.angelo

“Dear PoPville,

I’m hoping some readers can recommend reputable estate appraisers/companies in the area that could advise me and help facilitate the sale of some of my grandmother’s belongings–silver, china, crystal, artwork, collectibles, that sort of thing. Mostly items from the 1920s-50s.

Many thanks!”

Photo of ‘Great Blue Heron Silhouette’ by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

Follow PoPville on twitter here on facebook here and google+ here.

Photo of ‘monumental hawk’ by PoPville flickr user philliefan99

Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80

From a press release:

“WEEKLY RESIDENTIAL STREET SWEEPING ENDS MONDAY, OCT. 31;
LEAF COLLECTION SEASON BEGINS MON., NOV. 7

(Washington, DC) The DC Department of Public Works (DPW) announced today that weekly residential mechanical street cleaning will end for the season Monday, October 31, 2011. “No Parking/Street Cleaning” restrictions will be lifted and motorists may park on posted, alternate-side, daytime sweeping routes without moving their cars on street-cleaning days. Residential street sweeping will resume March 1, weather permitting.

Residential street sweeping is suspended for public safety concerns and to allow the employees to transition to leaf collection duties, which start November 7. The sweepers release a fine spray of water to control the dust as they sweep. When the temperature is at freezing or below, the spray can freeze and cause accidents to vehicles and pedestrians.

Overnight sweeping along the District’s major roadways, e.g., Pennsylvania, Georgia, Constitution, and Independence avenues, will continue all winter, as weather permits. Motorists should obey the street sweeping signs posted along these streets.

By suspending the street sweeping program, DPW personnel can focus on leaf collection, which begins November 7, as well as the upcoming snow removal season. The 2011-2012 leaf collection season begins November 7, 2011 and will run through January 14, 2012. Leaves will be removed from treeboxes at least twice. Loose leaves raked into the treeboxes or bagged leaves placed there will be collected and composted.

New brochures announcing the fall/winter leaf collection season were mailed to residents in October. The 2011-2012 leaf collection schedule also can be found by visiting www.dpw.dc.gov, selecting “Education and Outreach” and then “Brochures and Fact Sheets.”

For those who are super interested:

DPW To Discuss Leaf Season During Live, Online Chat, Wed., Oct. 26, at 1 PM

The Department of Public Works Street and Alley Cleaning Division will discuss how to prepare for leaf collection season and answer residents’ questions during a live, online chat Wednesday, October 26, 2011, from 1 pm – 2 pm.

To participate in the session once it has begun, place dpw.dc.gov/livechat into the search browser or visit www.dpw.dc.gov and select the “Chat Live” icon up at the top of DPW’s homepage. Transcripts of all chat sessions can be reviewed after the session by following the same instructions listed above to join the discussion.

This condo is located at 1020 Fairmont St, NW:

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The flier says:

“JUST REDUCED $15K! Be first one to enjoy this 2 BR/1 & Den (you decide). Gorgeous Hrdwds, stainless steel, gas cooking, stunning cabinets, spacious layout complete with breakfast bar, low condo fee & space for in-unit W/ D (Comm Laundry in Basement). Compare with the competition! Just steps to 11th St. restaurants, Col. Heights/METRO and U St. ! Buy BB & T w/ zero down!”

You can find more info here and photos here.

So what are we deciding whether or not it is 2 bedrooms or 1 bedroom with a den? Anyway, $309,900 ($212 monthly condo fee) sound realistic?

Tim Prendergast is a Certified Cicerone® and the Assistant Beer Director and Cellarman at Meridian Pint.

In April 2010, I spent a few weeks in Belgium, a pilgrimage for any committed fan of beer. I slept in fanciful barges on beautiful canals, ate wonderful food, and of course drank a wide variety of the most amazing beer you could ask for. All of it flavorful, and appetizing, and strong. I quickly had to adjust to the fact that drinking a beer that wasn’t the Belgian equivalent of Budweiser meant that you were usually drinking a beer over 7% abv. I’m a little guy, I got drunk fast. When the time came to leave Belgium, I made my way across the English Channel only to find out that an Icelandic volcano with an unpronounceable name had halted air traffic over virtually all of Europe. I was stuck in Europe for an entire week longer than I anticipated. Poor me. I was afforded a few days in London. What to do?

I headed to the pub, of course. I ordered a beer named Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. The beer arrived in glass that seemed gigantic. I was used to the Belgian serving sizes that were 9-12 oz., this beer was a massive 20 oz. To this day I remember the smell, it was earthy, and grassy, and tantalizing. It tasted somewhat sweet, somewhat bitter, subtle and still complex. I remember having an overwhelming urge to drink A LOT of it. And I did, because even though the brewery calls it a strong pale ale, it was only 4.1% alcohol. To put things in perspective, Miller Lite has more alcohol in it than this beer does.

Thus began my love affair with so-called “session beer”. What is session beer? Think of famous beer slogans, like Miller’s “tastes great, less filling” or Schaefer’s “The one beer to have when your having more than one.” That’s the basic idea behind session beer, now apply it to beer that tastes great and doesn’t spend millions of dollars telling you how unmanly you are (or, if you’re a woman ignore you altogether). In all seriousness, there is great debate over what session beer is, with most of the debate revolving around how much alcohol a beer can have in it and still be called a session beer. British folks tend to put the number around 4%. I’ve seen British beer bloggers call beers at 5% “loopy juice” because it’ll get you so drunk. Americans tend to put that number at 5% or above. I tend to subscribe to the definition of session beer put forth by influential beer blogger Lew Bryson:

► 4.5% alcohol by volume or less

► flavorful enough to be interesting

► balanced enough for multiple pints

► conducive to conversation

At the end of the day, in a very basic sense session beer is a beer that you can and want to drink a few of. Isn’t that what we all want in a beer when we go out with friends? A beer that you can have a few of without getting too drunk or tired to continue your night doing something else. A beer that is drinkable AND flavorful. A beer that engenders conversation by teasing out the gift of blarney rather than making us blubbering fools. It’s certainly what I want.

Continues after the jump. (more…)

Standard is located at the corner of 14th and S St, NW. You can see their menu here. How’s the bbq? Anyone try the donuts yet?

Full disclosure – after I took the photo above they gave me an apple cider donut. It’s hard for me to judge because I was starving at the time but in the .2 seconds it took me to devour it, I thought it was delicious.

“Dear PoPville,

I rode in a Unity Cab last night via a forced shared taxi setup at Union Station. It seemed like a good idea when the dispatcher started grouping riders by location, especially as the line of people waiting for a taxi grew: group shared taxi = lower costs all around, right? Unfortunately, my taxi driver broke the law when he did not reset his meter after each dropoff. Worse, when I questioned him about the fare, he lied to me, insisting that Union Station fares are an ‘exception’ to the law. Even though I asked, I still paid almost the full fare but instantly regretted this (at 1 am, who really wants to get in an argument with a taxi driver, even if they are in the right?).

Looking online, this seems to be a pretty entrenched operation at Union Station not limited to Unity Taxi – other taxis do it too, and have been for a while. What’s annoying is that they probably get away with it most of the time, especially late at night and with out of towners.

As soon as I got home, I confirmed what I already suspected: If you’re forced to share a taxi, or even if you share one with a friend, the cabbie is required by law to reset the meter each time a passenger gets out. No exceptions or exemptions. And, you can decline to share a taxi with other passengers.

I wrote to Mary Cheh (on the transportation committee) who forwarded my note to Ron Linton, the Taxi Commissioner. No matter what happens at the city council level though, I want to do what I can to raise awareness of this lousy practice. I admit that I cringe almost every time I get in a DC taxi, expecting the driver will come up with some extra fee for something totally arbitrary – it’s extremely rare that I ever encounter an honest cabbie in this city.

In the meantime, I’m curious if anyone else has experienced this, or another form of taxi scam in DC?”