Clean Currents, the Washington area’s leading green energy company, supplies local homes and businesses with clean, renewable wind power. From April 3rd – May 6th, Clean Currents will guide you to some of the greenest spots in town.

Use your smart phone to check in at wind-powered businesses and you’ll be entered to win a $2,000 grand prize with many other lesser prizes at stake! Plus, select a non-profit when you register and Clean Currents will match your reward with a donation to that organization!

To play, simply have your smart phone ready to check in at DC wind-powered locations.

Scan the QR Code (using the QR Reader App) or by visiting www.greenpassportdc.com on your mobile browser to earn credit for playing Green Passport DC.

All locations are sustainably operated businesses, wind-powered by Clean Currents. Scattered throughout the city, these green destinations include popular establishment like Bus Boys and Poets.

Get out in the city, support Wind Powered businesses, and enjoy!

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

DR Martin Luther King

This country has seen some dark days.  Darker days than the darkest days you might imagine.  Days where muffled cries were drowned out by laughter or in more menacing ways.

Cries for sanity. For thoughtfulness. For justice. For fairness.  For reason.

For a sliver of hope during a seemingly never-ending storm of hopelessness.

Let’s be clear, I’m not in the best of moods as I write this post.  And I don’t want to be.  Not today.  Today is a day to be fucking mad!

Pissed off!  Righteously indignant.  Frustrated!

The type of anger that makes you grab your car keys and jump in your car when there’s nowhere to go.  Because you KNOW something needs to be done,  and you just want to be somewhere to do it!

Get to the point you say?

Sure.  But I won’t rehash what happened to Trayvon.  I just would rather not.

What’s important is this:  There are thousands of people heading to Washington DC this Saturday to say something about it.  To have their voices heard.  To be counted among those people that won’t CAN’T remain seated when it’s time to stand up!

There’s really nothing else to say!

One of DC’s coolest boutique bakeries has an immediate need to raise funds for equipment in order to keep the business going.

Thought I would drop a quick note to let you know about it.  Beryl Hall of the famed B Hall Bakery is in need of a new oven and is raising money from fans, friends, and fellow DC lovers to make it happen.

Beryl managed to find a deeply discounted oven, but the clock soon runs out on the amazing price she has been offered. In the spirit of small businesses and entrepreneurs everywhere, I would love you to make a donation, no matter the size, to help keep Beryl’s in business!

The goal:  $8,500 in next 3 days. Only a little over $2,000 left at the time of my writing this, so it would be great to help her make it to the finish line!

Here’s where to go to donate.

Thanks to Kristin from Delectabelle for giving me a heads up about this.

I  seriously want to thank you for following along on this crazy ride for the past year or so.  Can’t thank you enough, this has been great fun for me.

A Quick Favor of Support

D.C food blogger and friend Lauren Desantis is in the running for the American lamb Pro-am Finals where voters get to choose their favorite recipes.   Lauren has always been so supportive of all we do here at District365 and has been a wonderful ambassador for the DC area with her show, cookbook, and great blog.

Let’s show this great D.C ambassador some love in 3 minutes flat!

We would love to see Lauren featured in the finals of this recipe competition.  You can check out her recipe here: http://capitalcookingshow.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-lamb-was-made-for-you-and-me.html and when you’re ready

Vote For Capital Cooking in 3 Easy Steps

1) Click Here: http://dc.fansoflamb.com/pro-am-dc/ .

2) Look on the right hand side and see her recipe, it’s the third from the top and is called “Roasted Leg of Lamb with Caramelized Onions” by Capital Cooking Show

3) Submit your vote

Just takes a few seconds and would really help.  Thanks so much

That’s it.  I really appreciate you taking the time.  And thanks for hanging with us for our first 159 posts.  The next 100 will be even more fun and there’s plenty of cool stuff on the horizon.

Much Luv

Hiiiii Rohan!

If there were a 12 step program for chocolate addiction, that’s how my speech would start.  I know, I”ve already declared my love for Co Co. Sala here, and yes, I’ve had many more amazing experiences there as well.

Isn’t that enough? Nope.

This Sunday Feb 12th at 2:00 pm, they’re having their Chocolate and Champagne Tasting Class. It sells out every year so click here quickly to reserve your place.

Co Co. Sala chocolate in its purest form paired with a flight of champagne and sparkling wines, served in the comfort of their private room?

Yes please.

Yes.

Tickets must be pre-purchased so don’t tarry.  Enjoy!

929 F St NW
(between N 9th St & N 10th St)
Washington, DC 20004

http://www.cocosala.com/

Return Home for More Things to do in DC

But I quickly stopped myself!

What’s the use of being a DC blogger with my own unique voice if I’m just going to echo the typical Valentines day experiences?

I wanted to find something that was slightly weird, different, and fun! Tamara Rasberry to the rescue!  She messaged me about The Debate Game Valentine’s Day Event at the National portrait Gallery, and I thought it would be a perfect experience to share with you.

Oh, and dagnammit, it’s FREE!

So on Valentines day, you can spend the evening at one of DC’s most gorgeous locations, The Kogod Courtyard, mingling, playing the debate game, participating in the speed dating event (if you’re so inclined), taking part in their sexy games, or just letting it out on the dancefloor to their special collection of love music.

Singles? Couples? You’re good either way.  Expect a crazy, random, fun evening.  A sort of anti-valentines day, valentines day experience.

Can’t beat that!

Contact  thedebategame@gmail.com for more info or the Smithsonian Institute ‘Art of Love’ project at artoflove@si.edu Please be sure to pre-register if you want to get in on the speed dating.

So from 5-7Pm on Valentines Day.  Enjoy!

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Courtyard
Eighth and F Streets NW,
Washington, D.C. 20001

And yes, this is a departure from the typical Things to do in DC posts you’ve come to expect, but I wanted to do a wrap up of our 12 days of Christmas Giveaway and talk a bit about this collaborative effort that ended up being retweeted more than 1,000 times on Twitter.

The Anatomy of Our 12 Days of Christmas Multi-blog Giveaway.

So as most of you know I love blog collaborations.   In the 11 months that this blog has been around, I ran a Foodie survey with about 50 DC Food blogs {Results Here} , put together a Collective of over 90 DC blogs to help share marketing opportunities, and profiled some cool DC bloggers to help share the love.

In December I had the crazy idea to do a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway where 12 DC blogs (and multiple DC businesses) came together to give away a new prize each day for the first 12 days of December.

Here’s the Players

Prizes: Local DC businesses donated close to $2,000 in prizes (See the full list here)

Blogs: 11 DC blogs signed on and to run the giveaways and help promote each other’s featured days. (See the full list here)

Social Media: We got going and each blog was featured for one day, and on that day everyone else helped promote that blog’s giveaway through Twitter, Facebook, on their blogs, carrier pigeons, you name it.

The Results (Promise I’ll Keep this short)

Multiple blog posts were made to highlight the businesses that donated (from the  International Spy Museum to awesome spots like the Rock and Roll Hotel and Red Palace).  This drove traffic, links to their websites, and awareness for their businesses.

Spikes in traffic for participating blogs.  One blog with a huge followings 365ThingsDC (57,000 fans on Facebook), reported the highest traffic ever during the giveaway.  District365 also had the highest traffic day ever as well.

Twitter: The contest hashtag was retweeted 858 Times with total retweets well over 1,000 and the contest trended on Washington DC Twitter.

Wrap up

All of this fun stuff was made possible by businesses being open to work with bloggers and bloggers being open to work with each other.  If your goal is to build an audience, you HAVE to find other like-minded folks to work with.

Thanks to all the blogs that participated and thanks to all the businesses that thought it was a cool enough thing to do.  I have an idea for this year. And that’s all I’m going to say about that! (Forest Gump Voice).

—-

So what plans do you have to collaborate with others (even competitors) this year?

(Great timing right?)

At a time of the year when everyone was getting their resolutions together and figuring out all the wonderful things they had planned for 2012, I hit a brick wall.  I had allowed myself to be pulled in so many directions with work, relationships, projects, and a gazillion other obligations, I felt like I had just run a marathon uphill in the sand.

So I took a break.  From the blog. From Twitter. From my job.  And just relaxed.  I spent the last couple of weeks just trying to re-center myself. (You may have noticed the lack of blog posts).

But now I’m back.  With a renewed focus to continue doing the things that I love to do, but to do so in a way that is more sustainable and healthy.

On The Road To Simplifying My Life and a simple service that helped

Funny thing is, what saved my January was hiring a maid service to de-clutter my place, do laundry, clean, and prepare my meals for the entire week.  No I’m not rich, I’ll tell you who I used and how much it cost at the end of this post.  You’ll be surprised.

I was too out of it to take before pictures, but here’s the after shots.

My living room:

Dining room

and here’s a quick shot of the kitchen with food the two-person team prepared for me for the entire week.    Mashed potatoes,  chicken breast, broccoli, and an assortment of other veggies I like.  So in the morning, I can just grab a container and go!

It’s funny how something as simple as having your home cleaned, laundry done, and a week’s worth of food prepared,  can go such a long way to a peace of mind.

I used a fun little cleaning service called MaidsinBlack.com.  I liked them so much I signed on to help them with their online presence.  They came out and

1) Cleaned my place WONDERFULLY

2) Did grocery shopping

3) Cooked and prepared my meals for the entire week

4) Did my  laundry

5) , and even dropped off my dry cleaning.

This came as a bundle from their “Creations Package” and  everything listed here cost me $397.  Well worth it, and they did a wonderful job.  A great start to my year, and freed up hours of my time to work on the things I enjoy.  Can’t beat that!

Here’s the link where you can get all of this stuff.  (Click Link, simplify your life.)

As for this blog, there are a couple of cool things in the works.  Stay tuned!

So a while ago I made a post about the awesomeness that is the Malcolm X Park.  You can catch it here: Meridian Hill park.

A while later I got this email:

“Name: Gionatan Tecle
Email: jhonny16@hotmail.com
Comments:
After reading your article about Malcolm X Park, i was inspired and made a video about the whole experience. Thank you so much for making this city so interesting with your useful resources.
Thanks,
Jonni.”

And what Jonni attached is one of the most moving videos I’ve seen.  This video seriously makes me happy to call this wonderful city home.  If you prefer to see this in full screen, (which I highly recommend) check out the Malcolm X Park Drum Circle video.

To use Jonni’s services you can reach him at jhonny16@hotmail.com and check out his site at http://jonnibravo16.tumblr.com/

As their motto goes, “You can play here, but you can’t stay here!”

Don’t let the “Hotel” in the name fool you.

The Rock and Roll Hotel is one of DC’s coolest lounge/nightclub/live entertainment and hang out spot.  Go there for great concerts, an awesome bar, and to rub elbows with DC folks that are in the know.

You just can’t spend the night, because it’s really  not a hotel.

The Rock and Roll Hotel pulls young professionals and the DC college crowd.  On any Saturday night you’ll get a mixture of Top 40 music mixed in with classic old school jams from their in house DJ.  I think you’ll love the quaint design and awesome randomness of the place.

A fun crowd, excellent servers, fair pours, and weirdness like a laser light show and weekly trivia contests, I think you’ll enjoy this awesome underground spot on the H Street Corridor.

Check out their calendar of events and shows , find something you like and go check them out.

All ages are welcome, but 21+ on the second floor bar area.

Have a blast at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC.
1353 H St NE(between N 14th St & N Linden Ct)
Washington, DC 20002

http://www.rockandrollhoteldc.com/portal/home/