Living it up in the Nation's Capital
Not going to spend much time on this one, but just wanted you all to know that “nothing is homemade” at Pasta Mia. This was from the mouth of our server which appeared to be one of the owners.
So…..
I think that sums up Pasta Mia in Adams Morgan in a nutshell!
I came in around 9:15 for my 9:30 – 1:30 volunteer shift at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum yesterday thinking it was just another Sunday. I was quite surprised to see a line of visitors at the doors. Usually there are a few early birds that want to get in right at 10 AM, but not 100! Still, it was summer and being the most visited museum in the world, did not think much of it.
The daily brief for volunteers indicated a book signing today. Usually there is a current Airforce pilot, or a previous White House Chef, but no, there were 3 Apollo astronauts signing their own book today!
Slightly reminiscent of “Jerry Maguire” where the Baseball star would only sign “Upper Deck” cards of himself per contract. These guys were only signing their book, and in some cases where more than one book had been written, a specific book! To make things more fun, all three were to be lined up at a table which of course means, you have to buy all 3 books in order to not make one feel bad. LOL. Not really, but that is the reason I shelled out $40 for Alan Bean’s book 🙂 which by the way is full of his amazing artwork!
Okay…so you need to have the 3 books. You were discouraged from bringing in them from outside vendors as “they had the right to limit the number of outside books that were signed.”
This is the line to get books. The line grew past the center of the museum before 10:10 AM and extended to the other end before too long. Not sure when they opened up the sales, but the line seemed to move at a snails pace.
Okay…so you have your books. If you at the head of the line you likely did not have to wait in the signing line too long, but by the time I was ready to get my books signed, at the end of my shift, the lines were almost even 🙁
There was no personalization going on, so I had no idea why signing books would take so long. You would think in the time it took to pay for your books, someone could have had all 3 signed. Alas, that was not the case.
This announcement was made at 1 PM, an hour before the end of the official signing. As you might expect, the sales line dwindled. I originally was past the end of the line which meant I was not going to get my signatures. I was really upset at myself for not getting my books signed earlier, but I wanted to volunteer as much as I could not expecting the line to get so long and get advance warning of line closure. Thankfully there were some visitors behind me that were thowing a fit. Many of them had just bought their books and were told that “Yes, you will get your books signed.” So, when the coordinator came down and recognized those folk behind me, Barbie moved the back of the line which thrilled myself at those behind me.
Just before 3 PM I was able to get my books signed. I was in my volunteer garb and mentioned to “Buzz” that he was the reason I was here volunteering. I have a love of space and he was one of the first explorers. I was hoping to get some kind of response from him, but instead got nothing 🙁 Quite disappointing. His designated spokesperson seemed to hear my comments though and thanked me.
Perhaps the unwillingness to talk was because it was close to an hour after the signing was supposed to end, or just that he has done so many of these that he no longer has the “spark” to talk. He also is getting a little old, so perhaps he had already had his share of conversation before I arrived. In any event, I now have 3 more signed books for my collection.
After looking for the “Pure Cane Sugar” Coke tonight at the local Harris Teeter, I decided to check out the Redbox by the exit which boasted $1 rentals. I was thinking with todays marketing schemes like “up to 50% OFF,” or the Mega Bus $1 fares (If you book 3 years in advance.), that the $1 rental would be reserved for “The Breakfast Club” and other old classic movies. I decided to research these mysterious “Red Boxes” when I got home. I discovered that the machines are loaded weekly and DVDs are reserved online.
For those of you that don’t know, I tend to buy great movies the day they come out to get the best price, and for other movies that I like….wait until they go to the “3 for $20” or “4 for $20” at Blockbuster. So when I saw $7 for a relatively new movie “Bolt,” I swiped my debit card….and in a few moments, out popped by DVD. While it came in a rental box with no cover art or inserts, I did get a genuine DVD!
I was thinking that the machine would burn DVDs on the spot which would simply require a network connection or a server of digital movies inside with a high speed DVD burner. This way there would be no need to reserve movies online, and the kiosk would never be out of a title and have every title! I would rely on Light Scribe to provide the DVD label and not sure about the sales.
Perhaps I would make DVDs that would work for a few days and expire like current rentals available at some truck stops across the country..I actually bought one for $4.99 to see if it indeed become unreadable after 72 hours…and it did! If this was the case, I would put a deposit on the DVDs….once they were returned, and recycled, the deposit, probably $3 would be refunded to you.
Another option, sell the DVDs as the Redbox does.
Perhaps DVD burning is not fast enough yet, or the industry would not allow such media to be created, but my idea really is very easy and low maintenance! All that you would need to do is stock blank DVDs and sleeves, probably paper or cardboard which is very recyclable, and update the machine with new movies if not directly connected to a high speed network connection. The high speed connection would be the best actually. I would have the new titles downloaded in the early morning to be cached on the server for instant burning.
So..not sure that I will subscribe, though it seems very nice at this point if there is no monthly charge, I may be stopping by to check out the “previewed” collection as they all cost $7.
After hearing so much about Pasta Mia, I took my partner out to celebrate his new job. Forgetting that the restaurant in the Adams Morgan section of DC opens at 6:30, we waiting in line about 30 minutes early. We were not the first in line!
After proving to not be “Smarter than a fifth grader,” we were seated and glanced at the menu. A few things stuck out…
So….after not seeing anything that really struck us as a must have, we left and celebrated at the “Duplex” diner at 18th and U street.
Having owned our own restaurant…..and not requiring a minimum charge amount or a minimum per person food cost, we were a bit discouraged. Seriously…Mc Donald’s and Subway accept charge cards! Based on the prices, I don’t think it would break the business if they were to accept the service fees associated with charge cards.
I do think that I will try Pasta Mia someday since so many talk about it, but will certainly have to be in a 100% pasta mood and have hit the ATM 🙂