Pillow fight, plus...NYC was Borf'd?

I hope everyone had an opportunity to take in the absolutely lovely weather we enjoyed this weekend. Certainly one of the best Easter/cherry blossom weekends we've had in recent memory, weather-wise that is. The tourist volume has been intense the past few days, but will hopefully quiet down to a dull roar as families start to head home this week.

Those of you who happened to find yourselves in Dupont Circle yesterday may have noticed a peculiar sight: a bunch of people engaged in pillow fights. However, despite the spontaneous appearance of the feathered fights, it seems they were actually a coordinated effort. Yesterday was some international pillow fighting day or something, at least that's what the Huffington Post is saying.



And speaking of peculiar sites, the Mrs. and I recently returned home from a trip to NYC. During our meanderings around Greenwich Village, we encountered this scene, which should be familiar to many of you around DC:



I guess I didn't realize that Borf made it up as far as NY?

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood for shopping, dining...and a robbery?

Well, today was certainly a lovely day. The Mrs. and I took advantage of the wonderful weather and dined al fresco on the second floor deck of Bua this evening--and tomorrow looks to be even better.

Which is good news for the businesses in the neighborhood. As it happens, tomorrow is the date of the monthly Third Thursday, where area businesses stay open later and offer special deals and discounts, with a number of area restaurants providing free treats for the browsers. Pretty much every area business seems to be participating, so there's far too many to mention here, but you can head over to the Mid City Business Association's website for more information. Hope to see you out tomorrow evening.

And, sadly, one additional way we know warm weather is here: word came through from the Alert DC system this evening of a robbery involving two women with guns at approximately 10 PM along the 1600 block of S Street. Sigh.

Spring must be around the corner - street sweeping to resume on March 22

My, but wasn't this just a lovely weekend. It's hard to imagine that it was only a month ago that we were in the midst of the snowiest week in DC's history. This weekend's sunny skies and near-60 degree temps seem to bring the entire city out of hibernation. Mr. and Mrs. 14thandyou took advantage of the nice weather by embarking on a casual stroll into Georgetown on Saturday, plans which seemingly were shared by half the people in the metro area. Normally, we might be a bit more averse to sharing the sidewalk with so many Virginians and Marylanders, but considering that it was the nicest weekend we've had since at least November, we didn't mind so much. Drinks and munchies at the Brickskeller (and a Caps win) capped off an enjoyable day.

Nice weather doesn't just mean more people out in the dog park and dining al fresco, it means something else to DC's residents: the start of another year of street sweeping. As in years past, residents and others will be granted a one week grace period from receiving fines for street sweeping parking violations, after which time--beginning the week of March 29--tickets will be issued. Considering the mountains of trash and other detritus left over by this season's storms, I'm actually quite excited at the prospects of the city's street sweeping vehicles coming by and sucking it all up. But street sweeping also means alternate-side parking and, most likely, a parking ticket or two for those among us who forget to move their cars.

Such is life in DC, I'm afraid. Those looking for more information about the city's street sweeping program--including the enormous amounts of gunk that gets picked up by the sweepers every year, head on over to DPW's website.

Fear the White Death

Update 11:24 AM:  If you're reading this now, you're too late.  Godspeed.

Cover your children! The Capital Weather Gang is calling for anywhere from 7"-14" of snow this weekend to blanket our fair city. As a transplanted Ohioan, all I can say is "Wheeee!"

However, this is DC, and I have noticed that things are done a bit differently here. With that in mind, I present a few items of preparation which you should immediately embark upon in order to ensure the survival of yourself and your loved ones throughout the coming White Plague:

• A foot of snow might create a mild inconvenience for those attempting to get to the grocery store. Thus, be certain to head out tonight and purchase ridiculously huge quantities of milk, bread and toilet paper. This will be useful for creating milk & TP sandwiches when your power goes off and all of your other food is destroyed.
• Do you have enough batteries for your flashlight? Do you have a flashlight? Make a beeline for your local hardware store and purchase at least one flashlight for every room in your house, along with 2-3 spares. Then, purchase at least a dozen batteries of every type in order to ensure appropriate periods of light for the inevitable dark weeks ahead.


• Do not, under any circumstances, expect to rely on candlelight for your home lighting needs during the coming storm. You will need to save your matches in order to ignite the pieces of flooring you will be ripping out in order to make a fire to stay warm. Pine flooring tends to burn quite well, I am told.


• Have you noticed that people who live in hurricane-prone areas of the country tend to board up and/or tape their windows in advance of an approaching storm? You should do that too. We are, after all, talking about 7"-14" of SNOW, for god's sake. Who cares if you perceive no real risk to your home's insulated windows? The white death can attack in many different ways. Better to be safe than sorry.


• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, please head immediately to your nearest gas station and fill up your tank. For added peace of mind, bring along several gas cans and fill them up, too. After all, with a foot of snow expected, you never know when your local gas station might reopen--and you do not want to be stranded without an adequate supply of milk, bread and toilet paper when the White Death comes.

As for myself, my preparations will include ensuring that I have an adequate supply of Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, and a well-positioned seat on the sofa to watch Armageddon. Flashlights are nice and all, but beer is better.

Thunder 'n Lightnin'

So, how was your commute in this morning? In spite of some truly fantastic thunder amd lightning over our fair city, this dutiful corporate citizen was up and out the door by 8 AM, and had no troubles whatsoever catching the Metro to work. Of course, that's because I don't take the Orange Line, which by all accounts was a giant cluster.

The great thing about loud storms is the wonderful responses they tend to generate. For the "Storm Comment of the Day", we turn to DCist, where commenter AMDCer had this to say, with regards to traffic light outages:

All of the traffic lights around Dupont Circle were flashing red this morning due to the storm. Not surprisingly, traffic was moving much better than usual...

Hear, hear.