theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Mount Pleasant

  • Lantern Walk

    Lantern Walk

  • Porchfest

    Porchfest

  • a tree falls down…

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  • sunset

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  • night snow in mount pleasant, d.c.

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  • photos: snow in mount pleasant, d.c.

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  • snow falling

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  • while you were out…

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    … it snowed.

  • out: radius

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: radius

  • leaves

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    leaves

  • foliage

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    foliage

  • changing leaves

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  • tree

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    looks like the ginormous tree in our neighbors front yard is going to be coming down — hopefully in a planned sort of way, but we’re not really sure. this week, two tree experts came by and both said that it had less than two years to live, give or take, and it’d be better to pull it down than to let gravity and old age do the work for us.

    it’d be a shame if it weren’t so obviously dying. when it comes down, it’ll be the 5th tree we (or our direct neighbors) have lost in the last three years…

  • found: each peach

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  • latin dance night

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    latin dance nights, columbia heights, washington, dc

  • bike: lamont park

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    bike: lamont park

  • found: beans

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  • out: don juan’s

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  • found: no human being is illegal

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  • out: don juan’s

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  • out: radius

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: radius

  • rainstorm

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    rainstorm

  • out: don juan’s

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: don juan’s

  • car, pt. 2

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    turns out that there are people in the city who are morally opposed to whole, functioning car windows.

    from our ANC representative, Jack McKay:

    Thefts from auto have been a plague here, and in many other DC neighborhoods, forever. It’s just too easy to bust into a car, snatch whatever’s there, and run off.

    No clues are left behind, and the police don’t invest much effort in trying to solve such a minor crime. Thieves breaking into cars are usually caught only when an alert neighbor happens to spot one in the act.

    Mount Pleasant averages about 10 such thefts a month. That’s about half the rate of 10 years ago. In March, there was a flurry of thefts from auto, totalling 21 for the month. That’s more than the 10 “normal”, but not spectacularly so.

    What was remarkable was a rash of 9 of these on one night, that of March 27-28:

    (1) 3402 – 3451 block of Mount Pleasant Street
    (2) 1800 – 1899 block of Monroe Street
    (3) 1800 – 1899 block of Newton Street
    (4) 3200 – 3233 block of 19th Street
    (5) 1800 – 1899 block of Monroe Street
    (6) 3200 – 3233 block of 19th Street
    (7) 3200 – 3233 block of 19th Street
    (8) 1800 – 1999 block of Ingleside Terrace
    (9) 1700 – 1799 block of Kilbourne Place

    Nine in one night – most of them within a few blocks! That’s something I’ve never seen before. This was more vandalism than theft, as the perps damaged cars that were unlocked, and cars that contained nothing of value.

    As for the rest of the month, aside from this one-night rampage, there were 12 thefts from auto, which is about average for a month.

    for the record, our the reason our car is in the shop is because we’re #3 on the list above.

    well, that and because there were two recalls on our prius, and our headlight was out, and we haven’t had an oil change or service in the last 15,000 miles.

    but, besides that, everything is great.

  • white boxing day

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    white boxing day

  • panorama: post-hurricane waters

    [Hurricane Sandy]
    Rock Creek at Pierce Mill, Washington, DC

  • out: mount pleasant library grand re-opening

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  • out: ice cream

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: ice cream

  • bancroft fair

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    [talimo]
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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    bancroft fair

  • out: don juan’s

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: don juan’s

  • the tree

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    our back yard is dominated by a large, but sickly looking maple. it hasn’t been well maintained, a second trunk has grown out of the base at almost a 60 degree angle, and the whole thing is within 4 feet of the retaining wall that keeps our back yard out of the alley.

    the tree is actually on the opposite side of the fence with our neighbor, but it turns out that it’s actually (mostly) in our yard which is irritating on two fronts — we have to chip in on maintaining the tree, and we really need to replace our fence considering it was built about 8 to 12 inches on our side of the property line.

    fortunately we love our neighbor(s) so it’s all good.

    last week, we decided to take the tree down, so that it doesn’t fall over and doesn’t push down our retaining wall. we had an arborist come out, and he said it’s just under the size (55 inches in girth) where a permit would be required.

    when he started actually cutting the tree, however, another neighbor — not on our street, but on the other side of our back alley — came out screaming.

    neither the lady sparkler or i were there for the exchange, but the general gist was that she (strongly) believed we needed a permit, and even if we had one, we should let the tree live, let the retaining wall collapse, and then just keep rebuilding everything (wall, yard, fence) as often as necessary to keep the tree alive and well.

    so, the city came out to moderate the dispute, and the tree is right on the cusp of needing a permit (of two measurements, one was above the requirement and one was below) so they’ve asked us to apply for a permit.

    the bureaucracy/paperwork isn’t that big of a deal — if you complete the form, and have a good reason to take the tree down, you can — but the permit cost will triple the price of removing the tree.

    #hippies.

  • food truck thursday

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    food truck thursday, mount pleasant, dc

  • found: awesome neighbors

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  • found: next door

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  • out: lamont park

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: lamont park

  • out: pollo sabroso with the nanny

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: pollo sabroso

  • raking the leaves

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    raking the leaves, mount pleasant, washington, dc

  • found: hanging in lamont park

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  • found: rainbow

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  • out: storytime at the library

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    i’ve never been to storytime at the library, but it seems like a toddlin’ place, and the nanny, sparket, and el español caliente come here every tuesday morning.

    (it helps that the library is three blocks from our house.)

    i’ve heard rumors, but can neither confirm nor deny, that sparklet’s favorite activity is banging on the computers — which, ironically, is exactly the same reason why it’s taken me over 10 minutes to write this post.

    she’s really good with the backspace key.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: storytime at the library

  • out: walk

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: walk

  • flexday: mount pleasant, d.c.

    [19th Street NW, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC]
    [18th Street NW, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC]
    [Ingleside Terrace NW, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC]
    [19th Street NW, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC]
    [Newton Street NW, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC]
    [Kenyon Street NW, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC]
    it’s the most wonderful time of the year again — when summer flex hours start, and good conservationists get every other Friday off.

    a couple months ago, the lady and i were looking for photographs of mount pleasant to hang on our walls when i realized that i hadn’t taken any — like none in the four years i’ve been here, outside of a couple batches from snowstorms.

    so, during my flex days this year i’m going to spend some time wandering around the neighborhood.

    this week i knocked off all of ingleside, 18th and 19th streets, most of lamont street and half of newton. map of the route here, and photos below.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    flexday: mount pleasant, d.c.

  • video: dancing at haydee’s

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCiQaq7JGjs

    shakira, again — at least this time it’s with the bff.

  • walk

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    yesterday, sparklet walked up to me, handed me my shoes, and dragged me out the front door.we walked around the neighborhood, through the little plaza where the farmers market is each weekend, and got caught in the rain. it was a beautiful thing.

    today, she said did the exact same thing — but she stopped on the way out to grab my wallet first.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    walk

  • found: storm clouds

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  • missed the cherry blossoms

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    not sure what the heck we were doing, but we completely flaked on the cherry blossoms this year.

    mount pleasant is a lot of things, but “hot bed of Yoshino cherry trees” is sadly not one of them — though i guess that means it’s also not a “hot bed of tourists in ugly shorts jacked up to their necks.”

    you win some, you lose some.

  • out: lamont park

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    walking back from the park today, sparklet started doing something i didn’t understand.

    (i know, i know.)

    after throwing a complete hissy fit that i was actually making her walk, she’d walk for a couple steps with her arms over her head, then she’d stop and put her palms on her shoes, and then she put her hands over her ears.

    then she’d stop and squat to her knees, and then put her arms over her head, and the put her hands on her ears. rinse, repeat.

    and then she straightened out the order — head, shoulders, knees and toes.

    ahhhhh.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: lamont park

  • hippies

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    why, yes — that is a bicycle painted blaze yellow and hung from a tree. oh, and a three-wolf-moon-worthy mural painted on a garage door.

    i [heart] mount pleasant.

  • coming unglued

    well, i think i’m about done with the real estate thing.

    this afternoon we took a long second look at a house on the 1800 block of monroe street nw, and the details didn’t look so good upon closer examination.

    it had been recently renovated, but the finishing just wasn’t where we’d have liked it to be — and if what we could see gave us pause, we were pretty nervous about what was hidden behind the drywall.

    this is the third place that looked at where all the original character was gutted during a recent renovation and replaced (seemingly) by whatever home depot had on special that week.

    our real estate agent calls it a “gaithersburg remodel” — gutting a District home and treating it as if it was just another townhouse in the suburbs — which would be funny if we weren’t absolutely weeping inside at the loss.

    so, after this round of bad real estate karma we’ve started coming a bit unglued — enough that we actually ventured over to capitol hill to check out a place (400 block of 6th Street NE) that just came on the market there.

    it was stunning and had everything that the last couple of places in mount pleasant have lacked — original woodwork, original layouts, period decor.

    to make matters worse, it was in our price range, had big beautiful bedrooms, was in the absolute best part of capitol hill, and was surrounded by excellent elementary and middle schools.

    we thought long and hard about putting an offer on it — even though we haven’t seriously been considering moving to capitol hill.

    but during the drive home to mount pleasant — along the tree lined streets, around the zoo, past our favorite restaurants and playgrounds — we realized we just couldn’t do it.

    our neighborhood is just too awesome to be replaced by even a spectacular home somewhere else.

    we’re not ready to give up on mount pleasant — not yet.

  • for sale

    anybody looking for a two-bedroom condo in dc? if so, boy, have i got a deal for you …
    See the Listing on Redfin:
    park road nw, washington, dc

  • out: bancroft’s new playground

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: bancroft playground

  • mtp

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  • out: lamont park

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: lamont park

  • wall photos: mount pleasant

    [Snow, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC.]
    [Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC.]
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    Photo by Chambo25 (used detail of Heller’s and Pfieffer’s signs).
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    Photo by jajajav.
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    Photo by katmere (used detail of National Baptist Church on left).
    [View of Mount Pleasant street with the three churches of 16th street.]
    Photo by mindgutter.
    we’re adding some local flavor to our place, celebrating how awesome mount pleasant is.considering i’ve take over 9,000 photos since i’ve moved here, i figured it would be super easy — but it turns out exactly three photos of them depicted mount pleasant (well, and didn’t include either baby sparklet or snow).

    i need to get out into the neighborhood more.

    the photos we used are above — with special thanks to the photographers.

  • found: somebody who is having a day worse than mine

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  • mount pleasant-er

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    we might be in the market for a house.

    we’re not moving — at least, not moving out of mount pleasant — but there are a couple things going on that make us (er, the lady sparkler) think that it could be time to upgrade.

    • interest rates are down 2+ percentage points from when we signed a last mortgage. when you add that savings to what we pay each month in condo association fees, we can have about a 50% larger place without paying a dime extra per month.
    • we were planning on moving in the next 2 to 3 years anyway, and *man* our place seems a lot smaller than it did, saaaay 16 months ago.
    • the market has stabilized enough that we’re sure we can get all our money out of our current place.
    • the economy is starting to show signs of life again, which means that housing prices only have one direction to go (and that would be “up”).

    that said, if we can’t find a nice little fixer-upper row house in mount pleasant that we can afford now, we’ll just stay put until we’re on the other side of our daycare payments.

    we love our neighborhood, and haven’t given up on the idea that we can raise baby sparklet here. we love our friends, we love our nanny. we love the fact that our vote for federal office is basically meaningless (wait, scratch that last one).

    and, besides, there aren’t a lot of other options …

    within D.C., we certainly wouldn’t move east of 16th street (too speculative), nor south or west of mount pleasant (we couldn’t afford it), and there really isn’t much in D.C. that’s north of us (all residential, little commerce, reduced transit).

    outside of D.C., we have the same problems we’ve always had: new england and chicago are too cold (for my beloved); texas is utterly without seasons (for me); the pacific northwest is really far away and people there actually slow down at yellow lights (the latter is a “third rail” for the lady sparkler).

    and besides, we all know how much my beloved likes change.

  • out: tricycle in lamont park

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: tricycle in lamont park, mount pleasant, washington, dc

  • halloween in mount pleasant

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    our neighborhood takes halloween very seriously.

    kids flock in from all around the city. streets are shut down to make room for the hordes. there is even a certifiable street-to-street rivalry to see who’s going to throw the biggest block party.

    sparklet spent her first real Halloween — last year didn’t count for obvious reasons — over on hobart street where every house was open for trick-or-treaters, at least one in every three houses was decorated, and one house even had a fully scripted halloween performance (“haunted hobart street has talent!”) with scheduled showings at 7 and 9pm.

    unfortunately, sparklet’s wasn’t doing so well.

    it’s officially 7 to 10 days after her first year vaccinations, which is when all the nasty side effects are supposed to kick in — and boy are they kicking in. she made a good run at trick or treating, but just didn’t make it very far before the crankiness consumed her.

    she did, however, get her first real lick of candy — eg. not through a wrapper or cardboard box — a cherry dum-dum lollipop which mommy dutifully unwrapped for her.

    she made it through three of four licks before she took it out of her mouth … by the wrong end … got her hands all sticky … got the lollipop stuck to her hands … and spent 30 seconds trying to toss it on the ground, to absolutely no avail.

    priceless.

  • photos: halloween

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    photos: halloween with the talimos, mt. pleasant, washington, dc
    picasa: photos from the talimos

  • dc state fair

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    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    dc state fair, columbia heights, washington, dc

  • samber market

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    sparklet and i were in samber market today — buying our usual array of beer and ice cream — when sparklet started flirting with one of the incredibly nice korean owners of the place.

    the nice lady grabbed a little bear keychain from off the wall, and gave it to us gratis.

    i love mount pleasant.

    p.s. sometime when i’m feeling brave, i’m going to ask the owners about their life story — their english isn’t great, but there is a picture of the husband in full marine dress uniform behind the cash register.

    something tells me there is a great story there.

  • thank heaven for little girls

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    i was walking around the neighborhood today, trying to get baby sparklet to take a nap, when i passed a stressed out mom dealing with three boys on bicycles.

    one of the boys was babbling about how his bike was a rocketship, and how he was having a really hard time making sure it didn’t explode.

    i smiled, inwardly, thanking heaven for little girls.

    half a block later, i see a 6 year-old girl in a fancy pink fairy dress, pell-melling down the hill at full speed, oblivious to the traffic, screaming:

    i … am … SUPER PINKY!!!!!

    now *that’s* more like it.

  • firsts: saturday market

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    photo of the week // week thirty-one

  • the zoo

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    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    the zoo

  • almost there

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    our entrance to the zoo (the bridge, by the petting zoo) has been closed for construction since february, which has put quite the crimp on our spring. wondered by today, and its all back to normal. of course, we didn’t have enough time to make it past the sign, but maybe next week.

  • good friday

    unlike last year, we didn’t go to awesomest Good Friday pagent ever — sparklet was in bed asleep — but Darrow Montgomery from the City Paper went and shot a couple of rolls.

    my favorite is the guys with the lightsaber in the middle.

  • nanny, nanny

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    we have a nanny(-share)!

    back before christmas, we found a great family about six blocks away (still in mount pleasant) and started interviewing candidates earlier this year.

    we had a couple hickups along the way, including one candidate who said (as the wife of a diplomat) we weren’t required to pay taxes on her salary … which was great, until we check with hillary clinton’s state department and found out (less than four hours after we sent the email!) that it was sadly not true.

    for the record, it’s amazing how the gaze a tax-and-spend progressive starts wandering at the notion of (legally!) not paying taxes.

    so, we forged on and finally found our nanny. she’s got a decade of experience — including tons of early-childhood education study — and a real drive to get the kids out of the house. the crazy thing is that she’s also a DC-native-who-still-lives-here, which (baby sparklet excluded) i thought only existed at the hypothetical/mythological level.

    anyway, she starts for us on March 1st … the other family joins in on April 1st (their baby is a bit younger) when the whole nanny-ing operation will switch over to run out of their (much larger) brownstone.

    but the main thing is that we’ve got a nanny we love — which is a good thing, because it’s a little late to get baby sparklet on any daycare waiting lists.

  • exodus

    we’re back, and it looks like DC had every bit as much “fun” as we thought while we were gone.

    while we were out, one of our favorite ways of keeping up with the snow was by following darrow montgomery’s photos at washington city paper’s blog. the above photo was taken about 100 feet from our place (for those who know Mount Pleasant, that “open” sign is at Heller’s Bakery) during the height of the second storm.

    i can’t really fathom what it must have been like.

    in the end, our long weekend in Austin for Auntie Nadine’s wedding turned out to be an 11 day journey. and, based on the size of the snow drifts, it seems being “stuck” in 40 degrees-and-rainy Austin was probably the best option.

    still, it’s good to be home.

    PHOTO: the above photo is courtesy Darrow Montgomery and/or the Washington City Paper. check out the rest of Darrow’s work, and the City Desk blog.

  • how at&t has made me hate my iphone

    I think I should have guessed something was wrong last fall, when i accidentally left my iPhone in the car overnight. the next morning, when i realized what i had done, i secretly wished that my window had been smashed in and my iPhone taken.

    Rock bottom came two months later, when I dreamed that my iPhone was stolen … and i woke up bummed that it didn’t actually happen.

    Don’t get me wrong, i love my iPhone. It’s arguably the best thing that I have ever owned. it’s just not a phone — because for it to be a phone, i’d have to occasionally get AT&T coverage within the borders of Washington, DC.

    It turns out that my problem is a mixture of the science behind AT&T’s network, and location-location-location. The range of each cell tower shrinks as more and more people us that particular tower. In DC, all the towers are on the beltway. When the network gets busy, the coverage retreats from the center of the city towards the edges … which is exactly where I don’t live.

    So, once the new version of the iPhone came out (and another gazillion people started using AT&T’s network) my reception went from spotty to non-existant.

    When I walk around Mount Pleasant on an average day, I get limited, spotty access to AT&T’s vinatge EDGE network. I’ll average about two hours of cell coverage a day in my house, but more often than not those tenuous bars disappear as soon as I try and make a call.

    In Columbia Heights, I don’t even get that … my phone tells me I’m roaming. Last week, I actually ducked into the Columbia Heights metro station because I needed to make a call. As far as i can tell, the best chance of getting a signal up here is to go underground.

    To date, my only hope for salvation comes because Gizmodo.com is giving away a new Google Android if you write in to them and tell them why you deserve one. Which I did.

    I need it because I’ve had 36 dropped calls in one day … because I regularly get voicemails a week after they are sent and text messages the following morning … because I now give my wife’s cell phone number out to friends and family … because I can’t stand the thought of riding out the last 6 months of my current phone contract.

    So far, they have had 12,000+ comments, so I’m guessing i’m not going to be first in line to win. Either way, my contract with AT&T is up this summer, and once it expires, i’ll be long gone.

    It turns out that it doesn’t matter how great your phone is, if your network blows chunks.

    PHOTOS: Street in Mount Pleasant, DC by Chambo25 via a Creative Commons license; Darth Phone image courtesy Gizmodo.com.

  • first christmas, part 2

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    IMG_1050, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    truth be told, we knew going into today that sparklet’s first christmas was going to be a little underwhelming for her — we’re still at the stage where the only thing about Christmas that captures her attention are the Christmas tree lights, and the tree’s been up for four weeks now.

    we got her a couple of small things centered around Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman, but this was definitely the calm before the storm … we slept in until 10 am, dawdled around with breakfast until noon, didn’t start unwrapping presents until 2 pm, and took our dear, sweet time. i’m pretty sure that’s the last time we’ll be able to say that.

    if sparklet has a christmas of awe and wonder this year, i’m thinking it’s going to be when we go to see the Christmas lights display at the National Zoo. she’ll stare at our little tree for hours, so i can only imagine what will happen when she sees dozens of displays at two or three times the size.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    first christmas

  • photos: snowfall in mount pleasant, dc

    [Snow, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC.]
    IMG_3102, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    holy moses, it’s actually snowing?!?

    it seems like every other year, the D.C. weathermen predict at least one “major” storm that will paralyze the city … although, seeing that three inches of snow is more than enough to bring D.C. to its knees, i guess “major” is a relative term.

    we’re supposedly at 10 inches, which would already puts us in the top five storms of the last twenty years. we got 24 inches of snow my junior year of college, a much smaller storm (maybe a foot?) in high school, and i remember using a yardstick to measure a 20+ incher back when i was seven or eight.

    outside of those, we’ve had way more false alarms than anything of interest … which is a good thing, because in the end D.C. is a southern town, and southerners (a) refuse to walk or use public transit, and (b) only think they know how to drive on snow.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    snowfall in mount pleasant, dc

  • first pub

    Sparklet’s First Pub: Holiday Party w/ Ashley, Sarah, Jennifer and Ryan @ Tonic, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC.

  • first halloween

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    photo of the week // week three
    well, a month ago, we certainly had a different image of halloween.

    we obviously didn’t think that we’d have a sparklet to costume … and we really thought that the lady sparkler could go dressed up as Juno, or maybe a pregnant Mary Magdalene to my Jesus.

    our beloved m.o.h. (maid of honor) actually went out and bought sparklet a pumpkin costume, but it unfortunately didn’t live up to its advertised sizing (it was “one size fits none” not “all”).

    so, yesterday when we were in dupont circle, we ran to the local children’s boutique, and bought the last decent costume off their shelves (giraffe) at 40% discount.

    if anybody from work asks, we picked out the costume as an ideological statement … and she’s dressed up as either (a) the Conservancy’s adopt an acre in africa project, or (b) the number one teething toy in Paris.

    halloween is quite a big deal in mount pleasant, and our neighborhood shuts down streets to make room for all the trick-or-treaters who come in from around the city.

    we wandered around a bit with the baby giraffe-let in her stroller, but it was way too early (5:00pm) and it was raining to boot. even so, we saw tons o’ princesses and vampires, and more than a few ninja outfits from a children’s television show that i couldn’t figure out.

    no candy was purloined (she’s too young for us to keep a straight face) or purchased (our building requires card key access, and has no other kids) but it was a lovely afternoon none-the less.

    oh, and a nice warm up for next year …

    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: first halloween, washington, dc

  • first: dupont circle

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    ECPA20091030_0539, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    i had an inadvertent day off today.

    i’ve been stockpiling vacation days in expectation of sparklet, but apparently did too good of a job. now i’m maxed out on how many vacation days i can save up and HR won’t let me accrue anymore unless i use a vacation day every two weeks.

    don’t get me wrong, it’s a good problem to have … i just wish i figured out I had to take today off before i spent two hours sitting at my desk.

    anyway, the lady sparkler and i are still negotiating with our work to nail down the details of how our maternity / paternity leave is going to look.

    for now, it looks like mommy is going to be off from now through Martin Luther King Day (that mid-january, for anyone in arizona) and i’ll be off the four weeks following (through President’s Day).

    once we figured that out (and shipped the notion off to our respective office places) we took a quick trip down to dupont circle to get some fresh air, and show sparklet her first neighborhood outside mount pleasant.

    and, needless-to-say, mommy was tickled to have an extra set of hands for the day.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    flexday: dupont circle, washington, dc

  • milestone: baby’s first target run

    []
    ECPA20091024_0369, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    few things are as important in one’s life than your first target run. come to think of it, if you are the first born daughter of the lady sparklet, i can’t think of *anything* more important than your first target run.as the texas grandparents stay has progressed, they’ve started getting out of the house more and more. they headed down around the White House today, so the lady spakler and I took the chance to pack up stroller and run a few errands.

    it’s fun walking around Mount Pleasant with a new baby. we saw some friends we hadn’t seen since the birth, a family walked by and pointed from a far (“wow, a newborn!”) … obviously, with said newborn we kept our distance (and kept sparklet out of any flu-laden enclosed spaces) but it was good to get mommy and baby a little fresh aire.

    the good news is that sparklet has been packing away the liquids. at our pediatrician appointment on Friday, she had tacked on a quarter of a pound in just three days … and the early-birth jaundice is completely gone, too.

    mommy and doctor were both elated.

    and while the picture taking has slowed down a bit (which is a good thing, so sparklet won’t go blind from all the flash bulbs) we are still capturing a few here and there as she finds a new way to look so ridiculously cute.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: week two, washington, dc

  • first walk

    []
    ECPA20091021_0322, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    we took our first walk around mount pleasant tonight … well, our first walk that didn’t involve coming back from the hospital or going to the pediatrician’s office.

    fwiw, the lady sparkler is laughing in the picture because she couldn’t figure out why i was (temporarily) refusing to take the picture … until she saw a nubile young twenty-something with a ridiculously obvious thong-line walk out of frame.

    you can’t say i’m not well trained.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: first walk, mount pleasant, washington, dc

  • photos: national zoo

    [National Zoo, Washington, DC]
    ECPA20090919_0087, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    quick trip through the zoo. the last time we went, i got *really* great pictures, and then proceeded to have my camera stolen at the bar afterwards. no where near as good pictures this time, but at least we all came home in one piece.
    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: national zoo, washington, dc

  • crown molding

    ECPA20090826_0041
    when we moved into mount pleasant, the lady sparkler and I quickly noticed that there was one room in the house that didn’t have crown molding.

    we didn’t really care (because we were planning to redo the room anyway, once we got pregnant) and just chalked it up to the previous owner having a short attention span. 

    but, I’ve recently discovered that none of our walls are flat.  and our ceilings sag.  and the corners of our walls aren’t actually square.

    and now I’m starting to think the previous owners might have known what they were doing (er, not doing) by loosing inerest in molding before all the rooms were done.

    I’m not exactly a slouch with wood-working, from a father who raised me with power tools in the garage, to 15 years of theatrical design, and a groomsman generously let me borrow a power mitre saw to do the heavy lifting…

    but nothing really prepared me for putting up straight boards around a room with nary a straight line in sight.

    it took two weeks to put up forty feet of molding. it took two and a half tubs of wood putty to fill in the gaps between the molding and the ceiling.  it took four sanding blocks to get the joints in the molding to look like someone this side of a three year-old did the carpentry.

    in the end, it looks pretty okay … and thank the good sweet lord that I decided against covering the bottom half of the room in wainscotting.  

    (I would have been %#$&ing about how hard that was until baby sparklet turned at LEAST 16.)

    everything is finally starting to come together.

  • i do elevators, too

    ECPA20090820_0036
    I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks on crown molding in thhe nursery, and just as it’s winding down … I find out have to recarpet the elevator.

    yes, the elevator.  

    shortly after we moved into our building in mount pleasant, I was elected to our unit-owner association’s board.  i wish it had been some Capra-esque moment, but I was the only one at the annual meeting who wasn’t already a board member.

    long story short, our management company misplaced $30,000 in funds … money which we had already spent to replace our 30-year old elevator.  now we are short on funds, don’t have a functioning elevator, and even the hippies in the building are starting to riot.

    last night I discovered that the only thing separating me from a functioning (though still not entirely paid for) elevator was a 55 by 80 inch fire-resistant carpet, required in order for us to pass inspection.  

    not sure why it fell to me (the rest of the board lives two flights of stairs farther up than I) but I decided I couldn’t risk going into november without a functioning elevator.

    the lady sparkler pitched in and called five different carpet vendors, one of which had something suitable that fell off the back of his truck, and would be waiting for me after hours at their family’s Afghan-Pakistani restaraunt in northern Virginia.

    I picked up the rug and a pound of baklava (the lady sparkler dropped ~27 hints about how good the desserts’ reviews were) and settled in for a long evening of carpet installation.

    turns out my carpeting skills gives my talent for breakdancing a real run for their money, but it went down with two tubes of construction adhesive (replaced duct tape as my universal repair tool of choice) which got our elevator inspected, and back in service.

    in the meantime, i’m glad that my life is going to settle down this winter, and become moderately less bizarre.

  • found photo: mount pleasant, dc

    []
    ECPA20090613_0631, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

  • photos: snowfall in mount pleasant, d.c.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: snowfall, washington, dc

  • anarchy and chaos in mount pleasant

    img_1696_smanarchy and chaos has broken out in our quiet little corner of mount pleasant.

    our building is replacing each of our 35 year-old (single-paned, leaks like a sieve) windows, and workers are up and moving (and banging, and crow-barring) at 6:45 each morning.

    as if that wasn’t enough excitement, D.C. has decided to rebuild Park Road between us and Columbia Heights as part of a streetscape project. We’ve got new storm drains going in, new (shiny!) marble curbs, and sidewalks are being widened for better pedestrian flow.

    of course, that’s another cacophony of sound each morning (7:00ish) as the jack-hammers, earth movers and angry commuters all battle for auditory supremacy.

    obviously, the lady sparkler and i are adult enough to see the benefits coming after the passing trauma, but the big loser in all this is Emily the Cat.

    the poor thing thinks she has been shipped off to a war zone.

    we took her to the vet today, and no kitty prozac for now … but she has a follow up appointment this weekend, so she may still get the good stuff if keeps at it.

  • found photo: mount pleasant, dc

    [Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC.]
    IMG_0449, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

  • home installation: cropp-metcalfe vs. the aircraft carrier furnace

    so, i’ve been fibbing about how idyllic our life in dc’s mount pleasant is …

    sure the neighborhood is great, and the food authentic, and everything is walkable. our space is big, with lots of windows and beautiful hard wood floors. sure, we’ve decorated and painted just about every square inch of our abode.

    but, our ac/furnace sounds like you are living on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

    … right at the base of the aircraft catapult.

    … during the first 24 hours of the Operation Desert Storm.

    so, i did what any reasonable home owner would do, which is coincidentally what the lady sparkler did when she wanted a new coffee pot: i bribed our cat to destroy the heat exchanger with an acetylene torch so that it “had” to be replaced by a quieter model.

    (and, by “bribing our cat” i mean “it was at the end of its lifecycle” and, by “destroy the heat exchanger” i mean “it apparently kept catching itself on fire.”)

    being the expert and savvy city-dweller that my wife is, we quickly came to the conclusion that uncontrolled fire in our home was a bad thing, and that we should (indeed) replace our beast with a model whose white noise wouldn’t encourage me to kill the Beatles.

    so, we solicited ourselves some bids (by “we” i mean “she”), selected a vendor who ridiculously underbid the job for the equipment they were giving us, and i stayed home from work today to see it through (by “see it through” i mean “sat here and stayed out of the way.”)

    cropp-metcalfe was great. our home inspector couldn’t believe their price, and we had a friendly install team comprised of a 60-year old west african who couldn’t really speak any english and a 20-year old latin american who couldn’t really speak any english.

    the language barrier was funny enough during the installtion — they seemed to have fundamental differences of understanding on the words “up” vs. “down” and “back” vs. “forward” — but the situation became farcical when it came time to explain to me the many features of our brand spanking new (and shiny!) Carrier Infinity Series 2-stage, variable speed high efficiency furnace (58CVA).

    but, it’s up and running, works like a champ, and the whole unit makes just a whisper of a hum, compared to our old unit’s voice of God which passeth all understanding and causes our frail human melons to explode.

    if i sound giddy … it’s because i am. it’s like christmas, only in october. it’s like that independence day movie when the fireworks going off after the alien ship blew up, only better. or like when hellen keller learned to sign the word “water,” only more poignent.

    so, i’m going to celebrate tonight by (a) sleeping through the night, (b) watching TV with the sound about 20 decibels lower, and (c) going out with my wife to celebrate our anniversary.

    good night, and god bless you, and god bless the United States of America.

  • hiking in rock creek park (why we love dc #9)

    it turns out that rock creek park (of Chandra Levy fame) has a network of trails … *actual* trails with switchbacks, elevation gain, wildlife, streams, and mud. not just the paved rec paths or glorified sidewalks you would imagine in a city park.

    it amazes me that residents of Mt. Pleasant won’t shut up about the glory that is the National Zoo — though it is pretty awesome — and yet they neglect to mention the National Park-grade liking trails less than three blocks away.

    even more stupefying is that we had the trails to our selves. sans a couple or dog owners and a pair of septuagenarians warning us about the perils of poison ivy (they had just been interviewed by News Channel 8 on the topic) there was nary a human in sight on a stunningly beautiful Sunday afternoon.

    there are two main trails around the park … the western ridge trail and the valley trail. we looped through the bottom third of both in about two hours. the trails go from the Zoo all the way up to Maryland, but we weren’t that brave (and, frankly, should have been in better shoes).

    we did get lost (yes, in rock creek park) and used my fancy-pants new iPhone’s GPS locator-thingy to save our bacon. I’d like to think that the coolness of the iPhone balances embarrassment of actually using it in the “wilderness” … but, sadly, it’s still just humiliating.

    speaking of maps, those provided by the Park Service show the trails as one unintelligible smudge, which makes navigation (without an iPhone) that much more exciting. there are larger, more printer friendly rock creek trail maps here:

    Map: Hiking Trails in Rock Creek Park (South)
    Map: Hiking Trails in Rock Creek Park (North)

    Explore the Photoset:
    Hiking in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC

  • We Love D.C.

    Well, it’s been exactly one year since we moved to D.C. proper, after a combined 20 years of living around the periphery (well, I did 2 years in Glover Park, but that hardly counts). so, in the spirit of the new(ish) local blog We Love DC, the lady sparkler and I spent a walk through the neighborhood recounting why we love this place.

    National Zoo
    Denizens of Mount Pleasant refer to the Zoo as their “backyard” and in a lot of ways it is. I know more about the Prairie Dogs than I do some of my friends. Free summer concerts on lion hill, winter solace because the tourists stay away, spring babies, and the best fall foliage in the city.

    Free Stuff
    It’s easy to take this for granted, but we are reminded everytime we leave the city … everything in D.C. is free. From concerts, to movies on the mall, to museums, to monuments. The first time the lady sparkler and I went to NYC together, we just couldn’t shut up about the $18, $25, $30 tickets to see anything of culture. No wonder they are so grumpy up there.

    Kennedy Center
    Truely the greatest “monument” in D.C., the Kennedy Center presents an amazing array of theatre, music and culture to the city. Sure, we should give a shout out to the Woolly Mammoth, Arena, Signature and Shakespeare Theatres too, but the top class productions in D.C. are good enough to rival those of other major cities around the world.

    Food
    A decade ago, “food” would certainly not make an area top list, but D.C. is now home to quite a few decent restaurants. Maybe they aren’t the most daring menus on the planet, but the food is top-shelf and the service is legitimately okay. Going out, we have had as many great meals as we do mediocre, and that’s a step in the right direction.

    Urban Parks
    It’s hard to believe in a city, but we really have trees and parks all over the place. Rock Creek is enormous, and just about every intersection of the big avenues has a park of some kind. Large and small, these parks are one of the reasons DC-ites are out and about so much.

    RFK Stadium
    While a source of scorn for a lot of people who just don’t get it (D.C. United’s owners to name a few), RFK Stadium is the last great municipal stadium in use in the country, and one of the truest places to watch a ballgame in the country. No doubt: we will cry if it ever gets torn down.

    Meridian Hill / Malcolm X Park
    Parisian fountains in the middle of the District … who can argue with that? Almost by definition, spring starts in the city when the park’s fountains are turned on, and it plays host to everything from picnics to drum circles. The best news, is that ten years ago it wasn’t save to think about entering the park. Now? Oasis in the city.

    Mount Pleasant
    I loved Mount Pleasant before I even knew what it was. I got lost here in the late 90s and again in 2005, both times thinking it was the most beautiful neighborhood in the world. I’m here for the amazing. She is here for the farmer’s market. It’s a win, win.

    Now, the one reason we hate this place: no one stays here … in the last 4 months, we’ve lost a handful of our closest friends to Seattle, Boston and now Mississippi. Mississippi?!? When you start losing people to the deep south, you have to wonder how great your city actually is … but why we hate D.C. (politics, interns) is a posting for another day.

  • spring has (preliminarily and tentatively) sprung

    [Photo]
    panda-porn, pt I, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    i have to lead with the panda-porn, well, just because … but this is actually only the third best thing we saw while we soaked up spring in our backyard (a.k.a. the national zoo).

    in second place, we saw a river otter do 50+ flip turns in the five minutes we were watching. he just kept going and going. i’m thinking maybe we need to put in for a bigger pool for him … maybe something Olympic sized.

    the pièce de résistance was seeing an orangutan actually use the so-called “o-line” around and above the Zoo. now, i have been coming here rather steadily since moving to D.C. eleven years ago, but i have never seen any animal actually using those cables they have strung above the sidewalks near the ape house. today? there they were … and they even dropped poo on the tourists.

    truly, a perfect day.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    National Zoo, Washington, D.C.

  • photos: zoolights

    [Photo]
    IMG_7564, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    Explore the Photo Set:
    Zoolights, National Zoo, Washington, DC

  • wedding: “green” weddings for the washingtonian

    so, the Washingtonian magazine is doing a “green” edition of their magazine this January, and have been looking to talk to a bride and groom about their “green” wedding.

    a friend of mine is the director of media relations here at the conservancy, and he suggested that the reporter talk to me. to make a long story short, the call is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10am.

    needless to say this, quite rightly, got me to thinking about whether our wedding was actually “green” or not. and by “thinking”, i mean “obsessing”. i’m pleased to report that, after about 24 hours of concerted panicking, i am pretty certain we actually didn’t do a half bad job putting together something that closely resembles a green wedding (which is a bold statement considering how caveat-laden i usually am).

    my first concern was the defining the term “green wedding”. we didn’t really start off trying to be “green” so much as we were trying to be thoughtful about reducing our wedding’s drain on ourselves and those around us. obviously, this meant we were looking for simple things we could do that would reduce our wedding’s strain on the planet as well. my second concern was that, in my head, the term “green wedding” was essentially synonymous with “hemp wedding dress” which i knew wasn’t going to fly (i didn’t even ask).

    in an odd stroke of coincidence, the month after the lady sparkler and i got engaged, the conservancy posted something about the simple things you can do to have a green wedding. reading this yeilded my first thoughts that a "green" wedding might be possible (or, more important, practical).

    looking back at the list now, we actually did quite a bit to reduce our wedding’s footprint:

    • central: we threw the wedding in downtown d.c. which — besides being home for us and most of our friends — was also decidedly central for most of our families (who hailed from Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and New England).
    • walkable: the whole weekend happened within four blocks of the church, including the hotel, the bachelor party, the rehearsal dinner, the reception and the after-party. once people arrived, they could opt out of transportation for the rest of the weekend.
    • organic favors: for wedding favors, instead of the usual rock with our name painted on it, we gave out organic “endangered species” chocolate and planted 35 trees in a national forest on behalf of our guests. (also, it goes without saying, but we used animal-friendly blowing-bubbles instead of having guests throw rice or birdseed.)
    • locally-grown: we tried to use local businesses as much as possible (more on that below), and the reception site we used (15RIA) billed themselves as “using a bounty of local fresh products.”
    • virtual: besides trying to reduce the amount of paper we used in our invitations (limited inserts, no inner envelope), we saved a few trees by doing an email save-the-date and by using a wedding blog to keep people updated about the weekend details.
    • eco-honeymoon: while the first half of our trip was at a resort with locally-grown/organic-friendly food, the second half of our trip was more legitimately eco-friendly at one of Belize’s oldest eco-lodges. we wanted to be sensitive, but we weren’t willing to honeymoon in a tent in our backyard.
    • green registry: we (ahem) "strongly encouraged" our guests to make a gift to MercyCorps instead of the more traditional registry gifts, and about 1/3 of them actually did it. obviously MercyCorps isn’t an environmental organization, but poverty is one of the largest barriers to effective conservation. (we also were given an acre of rainforest through the Conservancy and a pig through Heifer!)
    • offset everything else: we absolutely weren’t willing to uninvite people who had to use carbon-based fuels to get here (or make them watch on a web cam), so we offset everyone’s flights to and from our wedding — including our own flights to and from Belize. (the sum of everything, for the record, turned out to be around 18,000 lbs of CO2.)

    so, with all that, why am i hesitating about whether it was a green wedding or not? well, we have a couple of open items …

    • the hemp dress: while our tuxes were rented (it’s best to share tux resources with hundreds of other grooms and groomsmen) and the bridesmaids picked out their own dresses (this increases the chance they might be worn again, however slightly) we didn’t even consider going down the path of the organic wedding dress. there was just too much wrapped up in our (er, her) vision of the perfect dress to add this layer of complexity.
    • the rings: the lady sparkler got a diamond (and loves it however guiltily), and i got a gold ring (silver is less toxic for the environment). neither of them were used or recycled. we had a devil of a time trying to offset the rings (we tried, but couldn’t find anyone who would even approximate what would be required) so this one is destined to remain an open issue.
    • the cake: we tried so hard to use local merchants, but every cake place we tried within the district didn’t pass our admittedly lofty standards (yes, including Cake Love which was dry and over-hyped). so we ended up using a place in (God-forbid) Herndon. not two months after we “sold out to the ‘burbs”, we found an equally fantastic bakery in DC’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, and we will be definitely using them for all our baking needs in the future.

    … but all of this, to some extent, misses the point. we were looking for simple ways to reduce our footprint, and (to be honest) we as a society just might be a couple years away from “eco-wedding dresses” and “environmentally sensitive engagement rings” being an option for mainstream-ers like us. that, and we just had bad timing with the bakery.

    not that i am EVER going to have another wedding (ever, EVER!) but i’m happy to leave those three items open for future, er, motivation.

  • Halloween in Mt. Pleasant

    [Photo]
    CRW_7140.CRW, originally uploaded by [collin].

    Unbelievable the number of kids out in Mt. Pleasant tonight.

    After dropping a friend off in Northeast, I drove through Capitol Hill, Shaw, Petworth and Columbia Heights on the way home … and saw probably 20 kids in 20 minutes (that’s one kid per minute for those playing at home).

    As soon as I crossed 16th street, however, I saw packs (PACKS!) of kids toddling from house to house (princesses and angels were big this year, with a strong second for little boys in vampire caps). I would hate pull a National Park Service here, but the count was easily in the hundreds.

    I’m guessing not all of them were local, too. I saw every kind of car stuffed with kids heading into the fray — trick or treaters whose parents who had obviously driven across the city. One of the streets west of Mt. Pleasant Ave (not sure which, I drove for a very unusual 30 minutes looking for parking) was closed to handle the throngs.

    Anyway, the secret is out: if you are under 5 and in D.C. looking to score some halloween candy then Mt. Pleasant is the place to be.

  • Wedding: This weekend’s events

    IMG_0012
    © epmd

    We’re almost there, which made us think it might be nice to tell you all what the heck is going on this weekend.

    First of all, for those of you around (and not working) on Thursday, The Lady Sparkler and I will be having an open house at our new place in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of D.C. We’ll be there (1661 Park Road NW Apt 206) with some love and baked goods from 1:30 PM until 4:30 PM. Just take a taxi up 16th Street, amble up to the front door call box, press #206, and we’ll buzz you in.

    By now, we hope that you have certainly heard about Saturday’s wedding ceremony (10:30 AM @ Foundry / 1500 16th St NW), not to mention the reception to follow two blocks away (11:30 AM @ Doubletree Hotel / 1515 Rhode Island Ave. NW).

    What you may not have heard is that we are also having an after party that night on the top floor of Stetson’s (7:30 PM / 1610 U St NW) to help us relax after what is sure to be a wonderful day. Everyone’s welcome, so we hope you can join us.

    p.s. All this (and more!) is available on the printable map and schedule mention in the last post.

  • Photos: The Home Stretch

    Life is finally returning to normal in the Sparkler household, after a pretty crazy couple of weeks. Here are some highlights (or skip to the bottom for pictures of the new place):

    • Emily has regained control of her faculties — After spending three hours on move-in day hiding in her litter box, Emily decided that day two would be best spent trapped under the bathroom vanity. It took a saw and a couple of crowbars to spring her. The good news is that after two weeks in Mt. Pleasant, she is starting to mellow down to her usual high strung, psychotic self.
    • Our home air conditioner has stopped flooding water all over our hardwood floors — Somewhere around day six, water started spewing from our air conditioning. We had the previous owner’s AC guy come out who said that it was leaking because the condensation drain was plugged up from the floor below all the way to the floor above. They professionally installed a bucket under the drain pipe (which we replaced the next day with a funnel and fifteen feet of hose leading to the bathtub) while we waited for the condo board to send out a plumber. Somewhere around day twelve, the plumber came and liberated us from our MacGuyver existance.
    • The car has stopped breaking — A green, glowing “emissions” light come on about day four, followed by a bright, blinking red “engine overheating” light on day six (which nicely coincided with the car’s air conditioning failing), followed by another green, glowing “emissions” light on day eleven. So, during four trips to the dealership in the last ten days, we have replaced the catalytic converter, the oxygen sensor, a radiator fan fuse, and retightened an engine exhaust hose. The dealership assures us that everything is fine … for now.

    Fortunately, somewhere in all that we managed to unpack and finish setting up all the rooms. We still have about a car load of stuff in Arlington, and about 6 boxes of miscelaneous crapola that we have to give away, put away, pitch or recycle … but we are finally in the home stretch (pardon the pun).

    For those of you in town on Thursday before the wedding, we are going to host a little open house that afternoon so our beloved friends and family can see the new place. Until then, some more pictures below:

    Second Bedroom

    Master Bedroom

    Kitchen

  • Home: 7 days, and counting … (July Edition)

    Made you look. No, the wedding is still 86 days away (not that anyone is counting). We speak, instead, of the move.

    In fact, in seven days I expect to be painting our very own master bedroom a lovely shade of Chianti after earlier in the day giving our sellers the largest check I have ever seen in my life.

    To bring you up to speed … Since we last mentioned Mt. Pleasant nary sixteen days ago, we have:

    • Gotten the results of our home inspection back — Everything looks pretty great. The combination furnace/AC unit needed to be serviced and there were a couple of power outlets that needed work. The home inspector also mentioned something about our electrical circuit box potentially bursting into flames without warning, but not sure exactly what he meant. All in all, we were pretty happy.
    • Negotiated some extra dough from the sellers for the (potentially) flaming electrical box — Turns out that having a Federal Pacific “Stab-Lock” electrical box that could burst into flames at a moment’s notice is considered a “bug” as opposed to a “feature.” After a little negotiating, we managed to get some money from the sellers to get it replaced.
    • Tested Evan’s bicycle commute — I have been biking to and from work for about 6 weeks now, and hope to keep it up after the move. It should be easy. Our new place is right off the Rock Creek Trail (which meets my current commute) and forms a nice little seven mile commute each way. This past weekend, I tried the full trip from to Mt. Pleasant and back, and it was a LOVELY ride with some truly beautiful sections through Georgetown, Rock Creek and the National Zoo.
    • Determined Evan probably should not use a two decade old bike for commuting long distances — The following day, while commuting to work, I nearly wrapped myself around a tree because my 18 year old brakes and gears no-workey-so-goody, especially when wet. If I make it another 6 weeks of commuting via bicycle — ie. haven’t killed myself and haven’t given up trying — I am going to seriously ponder getting a bike made sometime *after* the first Bush administration.
    • Reviewed the condo’s bylaws and budget documents — Apparently, The Lady Sparkler and I share 5.2% of the voting power in our condo association. I am already wondering how best to abuse our new-found power. Perhaps we will start by repealing the bylaw that states that 80% of our *gorgeous* hardwood floors are supposed to be covered by area rugs.
    • Started shopping for rugs — Well, yes, but not because of the condo rule. We did some research and discovered that the current owners have never had more than 30% of their floor covered since the late 90s, and that most people aren’t meeting either the letter or the spirit of that rule. Not to mention: our unit is directly above the lobby, so there aren’t a whole lot of people to complain.
    • Gotten our appraisal back — Perhaps the most bizarre realization of the last two weeks was finding out that the bank felt comfortable verifying the value of our purchase without ever stepping foot inside the building. Not to mention, they *miraculously* appraised it at $1,000 more than we are buying it for (so we have already made a profit!)
    • Gone to Home Depot for paint colors — The only thing we are painting before we move in is the master bedroom, as it is currently a lovely shade of mango. To be fair, the color really is quite lovely, but our drapes are burgundy and our spread is olive and maroon, so keeping the mango isn’t really an option. The rest of the colors — seafoam living room, mango second bedroom, cobalt-ish halway, beige bathroom — match enough to buy us some time.
    • Found movers, electricians specializing in flaming electrical boxes, locksmiths, water/sewage authorities, a gas service and an electrical utility — Not much to add on this one.
    • Petted Emily-the-Cat — For two whole weeks, we said “wow, Emily is really taking all all this commotion well.” Then two days ago, she finally figured out something was up … and that 200 packing boxes might be something other than construction materials for the fort of her dreams.
    • Packed 60% of our belongings — Basically, everything is done except the kitchen. It took 16 copier boxes (and then some) to pack our bookcases alone, and that is after giving away four boxes of books. It is going to take years for us to get everything out again once we make it to the other side of the Potomac.

    So, there you go.

    Neither of us can wait ’til the end of October, when we can look back at this and start thinking that “shooting the moon” by moving and getting married on top of each other wasn’t the silliest idea we have ever had 😉

  • House, 2.1

    Yay! We got it 🙂

    We got the call today shortly before lunch, that the nice people who live in the place we want to buy accepted our offer. Actually, they countered with another offer that was 9k more than what WE offerered, but which was still 16k less than the list price and 1k less then we *thought* they were going to counter with.

    Needless to say, we are besides our self with happiness. The settlement is July 19th, and we don’t have to vacate our current appartment until the end of August. This give us almost 6 weeks to move. Oh, joy! Oh, rapture! I have no idea what to do with the extra time … except for plan a wedding of course.

    The home inspection is on Monday, July 2nd @ 4:00 pm, so no real news (and no better pictures) until then. However, before the MLS listing disappears, I downloaded it for posterity’s sake, and it is below.

    101 days until the wedding …

    Property Details

    MLS#: DC6435304 · Bedrooms: 2 · Bathrooms: 1 full · City: WASHINGTON · Status: CNTG/NO KO · Type of Home: Garden 1-4 Floors · Style: Beaux Arts · Year Built: 1925 · Lot Acreage: 0 · Subdivision: MOUNT PLEASANT · County: WASHINGTON, DC · Address: 1661 PARK RD NW #206 · City, State, Zip: WASHINGTON, DC, 20010 ·

    Remarks

    Comments: Gorgeous & Sunny 2 BR/1 Bath Condo in a GREAT Pet Friendly BLDG w/Bike Room**This unit SPARKLES w/UPDATES GALORE to incl:Kitchen w/SS Appls, Cabinetry, Silestone Counters, Remodeled Bath, NEW AC & Fresh Paint**Lovely HWD Flrs & Doors, Crown Molding**Large Rm sizes**W/D in unit**METRO, Rock Creek Park, Shops, Restaurants & Nightlife are here!!City Living at it’s Best**Sellers have taken PRIDE!

    Home Features

    Amenities: Crown Molding, Elevator, Shades/Blinds, Wood Floors · Appliances: Dishwasher, Disposal, Dryer, Exhaust Fan, Intercom, Microwave, Oven/Range-Electric, Refrigerator, Washer · Kitchen / Dining Info: Kit-Breakfast Bar, Liv-Din Combo · Heating System: Forced Air · Heating Fuel: Natural Gas · Cooling System: Central A/C · Cooling Fuel: Electric · Hot Water: Electric · Parking Info: Street · Water System: Public · Construction: Brick · Community Amenities: Common Grounds, Elevator

  • House, 2.0

    [Map]In completely unrelated news, The Lady Sparkler and I made an offer on a new place to live today. Yup, that’s right. We sat around last week, brainstorming about what we could do to make the last three months before our wedding a bit more chaotic, and this is the best we could do.

    Actually, truth be told, this has been in the back of our minds for quite some time. The housing market bottomed out (in DC, at least) in November of 2006, and is on the way back up. Interest rates are low, but climbing. Personally, our current lease expires in August, we are expecting another lease hike, and our building punishes you if you don’t renew for a full year ($300/month to go month-to-month).

    So, basically, the economic gods seem to be telling us something. Not wanting to anger said gods (Alan Greenspan?), ten days ago we found a real estate agent (Brandon Green) and a mortgage broker (Rob Riggins), both of whom came VERY strongly recommended and both very kindly gave us a crash course in home buying. After a weekend of getting oriented, and half a week of getting pre-approved, we hit about 20-25 different places this weekend.

    The primary goals were a 2 bedroom condo in DC (in the Circles area — Logan, Scott, Dupont, Thomas) or in Virginia (either near where we live now in Court House, or near were The Lady Sparkler used to live in Del Ray/Alexandria). Given our budget, Brandon chuckled warmly at his naive little charges, and politely showed us some places we could actually afford.

    The winning neighborhood by far was Mt. Pleasant, which is due north of downtown (16th street runs along the western edge of the neighborhood) and is nestled up against the back door to the National Zoo. The neighborhood has a fantastic diverse, family-friendly, funky vibe — those who know me know I don’t use the words “funky” or “vibe” lightly … darn hippie words! — and it seems to be one of the last true communities in the District.

    The place we are bidding on is 1661 Park Road, #206 and is located at the corners of 17th street and Mt. Pleasant Avenue. It’s about 2 blocks from the Columbia Heights metro (where a Target, Best Buy, Marshall’s, Starbucks/Caribu Coffee and Carvel are all opening), 3 blocks from Rock Creek Park, and 6 blocks from the zoo.

    (If you look on the Google Map above, the place we are looking at isn’t marked correctly … 1661 is actually well to the left of the green arrow, on the other side of the 5 townhouses you see on Park. It’s the building with 2 big trees between it and the street.)

    The apartment has a ton of windows, and gorgeous, dark hardwood floors. Two bedrooms, brand new kitchen. The pictures attached to the listing were so bad, that we almost didn’t look at the place.

    Anyway, we will obviously keep you posted as we keep moving towards the exciting conclusion of this very special episode of Extreme Makeover: Life Edition.