We're number 48!

Forbes released their list of The Best Places For Business And Careers and Bethesda ranked number 48. And this wasn't on the "Best Small Metros" list, it was on the overall best metros. This was better than any other place in Maryland (Baltimore was next at 51), Northern VA came in at 45, so there is still some work to do. I'm a little surprised that places like Knoxville, TN and Omaha, NE beat us but it looks like the high cost of doing business and cost of living really hurt our ranking.

Maryland actually seems pretty poorly represented with just Bethesda, Baltimore, and Hagerstown on the list. The "Small metro's" list adds Salsbury and Cumberland but that's it, no mention of Silver Spring, Frederick, or Anapolis.

Putting the finishing touches on the Apple Store

The Bethesda Row Apple store move in in progress. They are putting the finishing touches on the new store. I saw a bunch of people in the old store yesterday, I think getting training for the new store. Both stores are closed March 31 to April 3rd then the new one at 4860 Bethesda Ave, Bethesda, MD opens.

Silver Spring Transit center

I do occasionally make it out of Bethesda and last week went to Silver Spring to see what was going on over there. The new transit center is slowly moving along and doesn't actually look very different from a month ago. It is still all bare dirt but it looks like they have excavated a lot towards the back of the site. They were actively digging while I was there.

[where: Silver Spring, MD]

Train derails at Bethesda Metro station (aboveground photos)

Following up my last post about the incident at Bethesda, MD Metro station...

According to metro officials, around 4:30 a train traveling towards Glenmont with 84 people on it had mechanical problems and another train was sent to help. The last car of the original train and the first car of the helper train derailed (I guess that means the second train was pushing the first).

As you might imagine, this caused major problems. Although no-one was injured, they had to single-track around it and closed Bethesda's subway station. The fire/rescue response also caused backups on the surrounding roads.

The only mention I see of this on the wmata site right now (11:15pm) is:

Disruption at Bethesda. Trains are sharing the same track between Medical Center and Friendship Heights due to track maintenance. Expect delays in both directions.

No mention of the problem that caused them to do the track maintenance, though most of the local news places have a story about it.

Here are some more pictures I took earlier today.


update 3/28 7:50am
It looks like track repair will take a while so if you are using the red line today or tomorrow be prepared for delays. I find it interesting that metro's alert now says they are single tracking for "scheduled track maintenance", Yeah, scheduled around 5pm yesterday when the train derailed. Their alerts go to great lengths to minimize what happened.

Incident at Bethesda Metro

Twitter tells me that a metro train derailed near Bethesda Metro station (Bethesda, MD) Lots of emergency equiptment on the scene.

It closed the metro station as well as the bus bays (fire/rescue parking there), two southbound lanes of MD-355 (Wisconsin Ave) and one lane of Old Georgetown Road northbound.

WTOP reports that the last car of one train and one car of another train derailed coming into Bethesda station.

Freeze dried Strawberries

This is what two pounds of freeze-dried strawberries look like when they are sitting in a chair. Just in case you are interested.

Social Sports of Bethesda

Now and then I have worked at a place that had a sports team, mostly casual softball. I never gave much thought to who organizes those. In Bethesda, MD there is an organization called Social Sports of Bethesda that handles Football, Dogeball, Softball, and Volleyball (but not Kickball, that is done by WAKA). It looks like Social (ie drinking) is just as important as sports.

They are also one of the sponsors of the Bethesda Spring Bar Tour on Saturday March 28th from 1 to 9 pm.

[where: Bethesda, MD]

What's up with Elm Street Park

I went by Elm Street Park in Bethesda, MD (on the border of Chevy Chase, MD). And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but loads of fences criss-crossing the park. According to the sign, it is a "Tree Protection Area", but most of the grassy/tree area is still accessible, just not from all directions. You can see one of the fences in the picture and from the side I was on you could walk right up to it, you could also walk up to the other side if you went along the path. The park's signs were down too. Odd. The playground area was unaffected.

[where: 4600 Elm St, Bethesda, MD]

Save the Trail (by littering)

On March 7th, the Save The Trail petition sponsored a 10k run and Guided Walk. As part of the walk, they put purple ribbons on trees along the Georgetown Branch Trail that will/would be cut down when/if the purple line gets built. I'm all for people protesting both for and against the purple line (save the trail is against it) and the ribbons can make the impact more apparent, but, they really should have taken down the ribbons when they were done. I went for a walk on the trail today and many of them are still up. It has been over a week, at this point, it is littering, no different than the various bits of trash and fast food containers you see on the trail. So you people, show your appreciation for the trail and clean up after yourselves.


[where: Bethesda, MD]
[where: Chevy Chase, MD]

Review: Dogfish head 90 minute imperial IPA

According to the label it is :

an imperial India Pale Ale featuring a single, constant 90 minute hop addition. It's balanced by a ridiculous amount of English Two-row Barley. Then we dry-hop it in every tank.

The result is a beer that is bitter right from the start, with a very bitter after taste that lingers for a good 20 seconds. This beer is perhaps the worst beer I have tasted. It takes alot to rank below the bland cheap american beers you drink in college (natty bo, milwalkie's best), and maybe it is better than a warm one of those (but not a cold one). I like a lot of Dogfish Head's beer, but this one is downright awful, I won't be getting it again.

To be fair, I don't care for IPA's in the first place, so me not liking this one is hardly surprising. If you like IPA's and and so drunk that anything tastes good, and have destroyed your taste buds through years of eating all-to-spicy foods, then you may be able to tolorate one of these.

[update 3/23/2009]
Want a totally different second opinion? The folks at RateBeer rank it in the 99 percentile! I think I just failed as a beer connoisseur .