Erika and I had a fun weekend including some wine tasting with Zach, Karen and Melina, an 80’s themed birthday party for Joe, a cold early morning photowalk, the Porsche clutch giving out (again…), a woodworking project and dinner with the Stav’s….

All written in one sentence it seems like a busy weekend but it was actually pretty relaxed.  We met Zach and Karen at Old House Winery and then went on to an old favorite – Prince Michel for some tasty wine and good company. Melina is beautiful and is holding on to those blue eyes!  I joined my photo meetup group for a 0800 walk at Scotts Run Nature Preserve (in McLean), it was very cold but fun. Check out some of my pictures from it here.  Unfortunatly as I left the Home Depot to come home the clutch pedal ‘pin’ gave out and stranded me.  (it is being fixed and should be ready tonight or tomorrow…)  Below are a couple pictures from the wood working project which is a long time idea we had to be able to use the trunk and not always have to clear off the top to get it open.  it needs some tweaking but I’m happy with the overal appearance.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Tony and Erika

Good luck to all who may be trying to get into the city! Here are a couple pictures I’ve liked from the past week or so;  if you like these and want to keep up w/ my non-friends and family pictures keep an eye on my Flickr Photostream!

I also took a ton of pictures so here are the highlights;

This one actually links to a further gallery of pics I took when I actually dragged myself out of bed in time for sunrise at the Washington Monument. It was a gorgeous morning and really not that cold.  This shot was obviously later in the day but still a cool shot.  Here are the rest; Xmas, Pittsburgh trip (including a lovely day at the Strip District downtown), Wine Tasting at Barrel Oak Winery, Eastern Market and a few others!

Hannukah candles through my wine glass… yes the B.A.G. itself!  (xmas tree in background)

  
                Our tree with presents!               My new wine stopper, thank you Erika!!!

Ok so I’m really proud of this one, no photoshop, check out the upside down candle flames reflected off the glass into my lens…. invisible to the naked eye!!!!

It’s Christmas in DC and though I don’t know my neighboor to the right (our place is on the left) I can tell that we’ll get along.  That is after Erika and I go to the store and buy a bunch more lights for our windows.  We can’t be outdone of course!

We visited our tree stand from last year, out New York Ave in NE… its not your average place but we got a great tree,  a great BIG tree as you can see from the pictures!  We probably underestimated its size in the lot and had to make some trimming adjustments back at the house.

Congratulations to Jeremy and Jaimie Dodd, Erika was Maid-of-Honor in their wedding yesterday (pictures coming early this week) and we had a great time in Virginia Beach Thurs-Sat celebrating.  Enjoy the photo’s of our decorating so far and rest assured that we will get some updates of our window in the next day or so!!!

I’m not the first and won’t be the last but my recent Nikon D80 purchase and rekindled interest in photography has led to three new-to-me lens purchases since September.  Luckily I got two screaming deals on older model lenses that are undervalued for their quality.  (thats what I keep telling myself!)  I’ve also been able to defray the cost by the sale of lenses I am not using.

But I’m done for now, at least on lenses.  I now have my fast f/2.8 trio of a 20mm, 55mm Micro and 180mm.  All three have good reputations as being fast (good in low light) and sharp.

In other good news, The Yards development is close to a deal with a Brewpup-Alehouse for the Boilermaker shop behind the DOT building down here in Capitol Riverfront.  Check out the story… The Boilermaker Shop is the very same I showed in this picture, as you can see it has tons of glass and will be a striking location.

Speaking of Capitol Riverfront, in the interests of spreading recognition of that term for this ‘Nat’s Ballpark, Southeast, Near Southeast, Navy Yard, M St SE’ area that we call home I’ve started a Flickr group that hopefully will grow with submissions from residents and visitors… we’ll see.  Check it out for yourself!

In support of the BID and our new neighborhood I guess I will now start calling this area ‘Capitol Riverfront’ as well.  Check out the BID Websitewhich is an interesting view into the future of the neighborhood.

But getting to the best part of last night is that we met 20-30 of our neighbors, not just here in Capitol Hill Tower but also neighboors from the new Jefferson Apt Building and I think one person from the surrounding town home/row home places.  At the conclusion of the party in fact Erika and I brought the party upstairs to our place and we had a great time getting to know people, and distracting me from the depressing VT-Miami game.   How bout those Jets though!?!

Anyway, here’s hoping that last night is the beginning of several new friendships and a closer relationship with our new community!

Between my lack of attention (untill last night) and the District of Columbia managing to get my name right on my drivers license and wrong on my voter registration card Mr. Robert DeFicippo got to vote this morning at the Van Ness Elementary School right out in front of the Navy Yard.

I have only myself to blame, I didn’t even punch out the voter ID card from its attached sheet till last night.  Luckily the friendly ‘Vote Captain’ in charge of the voting station told me to merely present the incorrect voter ID card, vote and then submit a change of name form in the near future.  Overall it was a good voting experience, only about a 15 minute wait at 0715 with friendly volunteers.

I think I recall having a similar reaction during the 2000 election (an unfortunate absentee mistake on my part precluded me from voting in 2004) and that was I had paid alot of attention to the National level elections and was completely taken by suprise and not prepared regarding local elections.

I tried to get in front of this on the most local level, ANC6D07’s Advisory Neighboorhood Councilman and I was dissapointed with the lack of personal/election related websites for the candidates.  I know I am spoiled by the firehose of information available all the time on just about anything, and I know that ANC’s aren’t really earthshattering.  But it would have been nice too have some more information about the most local election that affects me. 

The candidates were; Bob Siegel the incumbant, a wealthy long time SE residant and prominant member of the Gay community, and Capitol Hill Tower (my building) resident Geoffrey Kreiss who has family in the area but less community background.  Some other blogs (the only places I found anything on this) remark that it is somewhat of a confrontation between what SE has been in the past and the direction it seems to be going in the future.  On the extreme micro level it got me very interested in the election… can’t wait to see what happens!

A couple pictures to get you into the right seasonal state of mind! Plus a couple other random ones I hadn’t gotten around to posting lately.  The Redskins managed to eek out a victory today which saved the football weekend! (not sure if you saw the VT or UT games – if not your lucky!)