Via Gizmodo, our new local Best Buy in Columbia Heights is part of the free electronics recycling test.

Starting June 1, 117 stores in the Baltimore, San Francisco, and Minnesota markets are inviting customers to bring in no more than two (2) units per day, per household, for recycling at no charge. Customers can bring items such as televisions and monitors up to 32”, computers, phones, cameras, and other electronics devices and peripherals in for recycling.

This is really great for DC residents, because while the dump does take electronics to be recycled, my one experience there ended with a never-ending line that I soon abandoned. And now the old and busted computer sitting in the trunk of my car can finally have a new home!

A couple weeks ago, I started planning a happy hour for the Columbia Heights Forum because people were starting to argue a bit too much, as people tend to do on forums. I figured it would be more friendly if people met each other in person.

So the happy hour was last night at Wonderland, and it was pretty cool. I met a few people I "know" from the forum, and we had some local blog coverage (The Heights Life has a picture of our group at that link).

There was a bit of discussion about making these meetups a little more regular, so we'll see what happens. There are still a few forum regulars I'm dying to meet in person.

Edit to add: In the comments to the Heights Life post, there is a discussion EXACTLY like the discussions that prompted me to plan the happy hour in the first place. People get angrier discussing things on the internet because you can't see a person's face, you can't hear the tone of their voice, you can't get the non-verbal cues that tell you what the person is really saying. And it's anonymous - it's much easier to hate someone you don't actually know. So I think it's kind of amusing that the post about the happy hour generated exactly the sort of discussion that the happy hour was supposed to prevent.

The banner is gone! Apparently the contractors fixed their mistake, and our street is no longer mistakenly identified as Mount Pleasant.

Nice turnaround time on the fix, too. Isn't it nice when everything goes your way?

Many of you in the DC area have probably seen the street light banners advertising various neighborhoods around the city. I think it's a cool idea. It can help you identify a neighborhood, and I think they try to contain a little bit of the unique elements of each neighborhood.

But Mount Pleasant, an otherwise lovely neighborhood, is infringing on our turf. The eastern edge of Mount Pleasant is 16th Street. This makes it a little surprising to see one of their banners proudly displayed on the 1400 block of Harvard Street.

I'm not sure if I should really be so annoyed about this. The wife tells me that, back when Columbia Heights was getting its Metro stop, they wanted to call it Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant. At the time, Mount Pleasant was a much nicer neighborhood, and wanted nothing to do with Columbia Heights.

Now that Columbia Heights has a new infusion of shopping and restaurants, apparently we're not so distasteful anymore.

I emailed Mount Pleasant Mainstreet, the organization that sponsors the banners, to see what the big idea was. I'll let you know what they tell me.

Edit to add: I got a reply from them already.

If that's true then it's a huge mistake from the contractor.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll bike over and take a look and have them
correct this. We're missing several on Mt Pleasant St.

Thanks,
[Mount Pleasant Mainstreet guy]

The parking saga continues. A response today from DDOT, and the email I sent back are here. The wife wrote the email that I sent back. I may be the complainer in the household, but she's better at snippy. We make a good team.

At the wife's request, I did not take the bus this morning. She might not have made the request if she had, as I did, gone outside to take out the trash. If she had taken out the trash, she probably would have decided that it was raining too hard, and that we should take the bus.

But she didn't take out the trash, so we walked. For those of you not in or near DC, it's been raining for a while now, and things are starting to flood. Not serious floods, but minor property damage and hydroplaning cars kind of floods.

So, we bundled work clothes and lunch and whatnot into bags, put on our raincoats, and set off.

It wasn't as bad as I had feared. There weren't that many people walking, so there weren't too many umbrellas to avoid. Umbrellas and puddles are the scourge of the city rain walker. Especially those giant golf umbrellas that take up the entire sidewalk.

So I arrived at work, slightly damp but okay otherwise. I changed my clothes, and realized that my backpack is not entirely waterproof. The two things that got wet - my laptop power supply (Although not badly - I wiped it off and it's fine) and my brown socks. So now I'm wearing brown slacks, brown shoes, a brown belt, and little white athletic socks. Oops.

Perhaps the brown socks will dry, or perhaps I will just wear these all day. Only time will tell.

Posted a new Angry Letter today. I'm tempted to tear down a bunch of "Emergency No Parking" signs. But I probably won't.

As some of you may know, I drive out to Falls Church for work every day. As I go down 14th Street NW in the morning, I look fondly at the bike path, trying to ignore the frequently double-parked cars, right turners, and other obstacles, and imagine biking to work.

How smug I would be, getting some exercise, some fresh air, shrinking my carbon footprint. I mean, in terms of yuppie street cred, commutes go something like this, in increasing order of smugness:

1. Drive
2. Carpool
3. Metro
4. Long bus ride
5. Metro from a "sketchy" stop like Brookland or Navy Yard
6. Telework
7. Full time grad student (Only if you're at least 4 years older than most of your classmates)
8. Short bus ride
9. Walk
10. Bike

I was thinking, though, how much longer it would take to bike than drive. And then I passed a guy on a bike. I passed him around P St, or maybe T. I thought to myself how it must take him forever to get to work. I wondered if I had that kind of dedication.

And then, I got stuck at the light at N St. And he passed me. The light changed, and I nearly caught him, but then he was off as I waited at the light at the circle. I lost track of him after that.

First, let me say it is truly a joy to pay a ticket at the DC DMV website. Of all the things the DC government does, extorting collecting money through the DMV website is something it actually gets right.

I got a speed camera ticket on Michigan Avenue near Catholic University a few weeks ago. There were all of two cars on the road, and I was doing 37 in a 25. It's pretty annoying, because I really don't speed much these days.

It's a $50 fine and no points, so I guess it isn't too terrible in the grand scheme of things. It just bugs me because I'm mostly a law-abiding (though aggressive) driver. Every day, I see people doing things in a car that are unsafe and illegal with no consequences, and I get a ticket for speeding on an empty road. What about the cabbie who zipped around me to run the red light at 15th and Mass NW yesterday? Or the four cars that turned right on H from the middle lane of 18th because they didn't feel like waiting in line?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my $50, DC. I hope it makes you very happy.

I walked past Columbia Heights' new Target last night on my way to Wonderland. I've never seen so many white kids in the neighborhood. It's like a big magnet.

It's good to see people coming to the new stores, but I'm afraid that people are glossing over the problems that still remain. There has apparently been a big spike in crime this past week - muggings at gunpoint in broad daylight and on the Metro, and Target has serious theft problems.

I imagine things will calm down a bit, but spring is coming, and with it the yearly crime spike when it gets nice outside. I hope Target and the rest of DCUSA are prepared.