It seems spring has sprung in the woods around DC; the Virginia bluebells are nodding their dainty little heads. Bull Run Regional Park near Centreville has a huge crop of these soft, floppy flowers, and the blooms are predicted to peak next week.
On Sunday at 2 p.m., as they’ve done for the past 30-odd years, park naturalists and rangers will hold a special Bluebell Walk.
This sounds wonderful. I’m imagining a Disney movie, with folks wearing Easter bonnets and their Sunday best, strolling among the wildflowers and singing little melodies along with the birds. Ah, spring!
Unless this is your first time here you’re well aware that we’ve become a little obsessive over Jack Bauer’s tour through our city. We’ve got 15 17 hours worth of 24 recaps under our belt and fully intend to laugh (in order to fight off the tears) through the remaining 9 7 hours of Hollywood’s molestation of our geography. (Yes, Tiff, I suck at math.) So really, about the last thing we needed was to be further encouraged.
The folks over at the museum’s retail store sent us some toys to play with, after having been entertained by our 24 recaps. So early in March, three items arrived in plain brown boxes by an unmarked panel truck. In the middle of the night.
After some email haggling, jovial threats and bickering, the WLDC staff managed to split up the loot gifts and proceeded to play with them: a micro-cam recorder, a ninja sword umbrella and night vision goggles. And now, we’re going to tell you all about it.
For the month of April – and in honor of Spring Break – the Spy Museum is hosting an extra evening of its fun and fabulous Spy at Night. So head over to the museum in Penn Quarter on Thursdays in April from 6 – 10 and enjoy spy games, drinks, and participate in a mission to save the world. Just like Jack Bauer!
Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey, courtesy of "Out of This World Party"
I don’t know about you, but I am chomping at the bit for the weekend. Maybe it’s spring fever that makes me in the mood for something totally different and out of this world. So, I’ll be heading to the aptly named “Out of this World Party” at the Warehouse Saturday night for their Countdown to Yuri’s Night extravaganza. I don’t see how I can resist the call of a party celebrating man’s first space flight with crazy smart burlesque by the divine Trixie Little and Evil Hate Monkey – let alone free massages, $4 Stoli drinks, weird science fair, and an alien egg hunt.
Burlesque shows at 9pm and 11pm in the large theater, band Atomic Mosquitoes (they have a theremin!) in the smaller theater, and a gallery show with DJs upstairs til 2am. Oh, and a Celestial Costume Contest! Did I mention this sounds like a super insane night? $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Now where did I put my silver space boots?
City Bikes is at it again with their group rides, except this time it’s pairing two of my favorite things… my gorgeous bike with CUPCAKES! Food + Bikes = yay! The bicycle-enthusiast and pastry chef for Tryst, Open City and The Diner, Sol, is partnering with City Bikes to create the Cupcake Ramble, a relaxed easy/moderate paced group ride.
The ride starts at City Bikes Adams Morgan, through the car-restricted Rock Creek Park, to City Bikes Chevy Chase. “Once there, we’ll enjoy pastries baked by Sol, before heading back to City Bikes Adams Morgan,” says the ride description.
To sign up for your guilt-free cupcake intake, head on over to the City Bikes Web site.
Earlier this winter WLDC Author Jasmine, along with another friend and I, headed out for a ladies night in Old Town. We made our way down King Street, and wound up at The Majestic where we snagged a seat at the bar and sipped some very classy cocktails.
The cocktail menu boasts, “Our cocktails are made with fresh ingredients and take a bit more time than most. Thank you for your patience. We promise they are worth the wait!” Having a front row seat to the two mixologists behind the bar, the menu isn’t joking. They bartenders pick fresh mint out of a large bundle and hand crush it carefully for the Mint Julep. Decorative twists are done one at a time, fresh for each cocktail. I was smitten, each drink is incredibly labor intensive, and the longer we sat there, the more impressed I became. Continue reading →
Via the National Zoo we behold Harrison Ford, his fiancé Calista Flockhart, and her son Liam at the National Zoo, getting a closeup view of 5000 pound Nile hippopotamus Happy. Word is that Ford was able to personally feed the hippo, whose diet, like a Nabooan shaak, consists mainly of grass.
No word on whether Mr. Ford then pulled out a whip to fend off the hippo from stampeding his future family. Anyway, ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
DC Fire & EMSreports via Twitter that there is a person dangling from the Wilson Bridge, and that water rescue units have been dispatched. WTOP’s traffic map indicates “police activity” on the bridge, which seems like an understatement. So if you go home that way… consider getting dinner in town tonight.
I have a confession to make: I am now a member of a DCKickball team. Further disclosure: It’s actually really fun. Even so, reservations remain when it comes to participating in this particular DC ritual, stereotyped as a perennial pastime for shameless district yuppies/drunkards/bros. I imagined the league would be a fratastic bro-fest and signed up steeled with my shield of pseudo-hipster irony. (So it goes.)
DCKickball’s Constitution Division Scrimmages marked our team’s first foray into the sport since the playground days. Back in those days, I used to jack the ball up against the convent walls across from my elementary school, so as usual when it comes to sporty things, I was feeling over-confident. Turns out that playing kickball now takes some practice. Also, the regulation ball is roughly the size of a large beach ball and extremely difficult to field/catch. Continue reading →
I’m not sure if anyone has noticed but I’m fast becoming a brunch aficionado. Brunch is so trendy, so spring, so social – in short: brunch is so now. (Wow, I just sounded very fashion-magazine-y. Forgive me!) My new-found obsession with all things brunch is simultaneously wonderful and horrifying. Wonderful because nothing says joy quite like reading “brioche stuffed french toast with chocolate drizzle and bacon” on a menu. And horrifying because brunch is preventing me from fully enacting Operation Hot Summer Bod 2009. But so it goes – the rough life of a food blogger. So hard to be me, you should probs pull out the mini-violin now.
Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, brunch. No holiday quite screams brunch like Easter. Easter, my friends, is perfect for brunch. You think Easter (in the nonreligious sense, really) and you think eggs, chocolate, bright colors and summer whites. All these things translate gracefully into brunch. In my world, this is a math equation that winds up with Easter = amazing! So as my gift to you this holiday, I’ll do what I do best – a foodie round-up, Easter-brunch style. So… all the brunch that is fit to eat in the District on Easter Sunday. Continue reading →
If you’re itching for a concert tonight, head over to the Rock & Roll Hotel for three bands, plus local DJs Garutachi, all for only $10. I would probably skip opener Seas, whose super mellow sound doesn’t seem to match the rest of the lineup, but make it there by 9:30 pm to catch Lissy Tullie and then indie rockers U.S. Royalty.
This past weekend, I rode my bike for the first time since winter — down to the Washington Monument for my first-ever experience with DC Kickball (more on that later). It was glorious. Well, the trip down was glorious, the ride back — not so amazing, because it is clear that my bike, a Ross road bike from god-knows-how-long-ago, needs a tune-up, stat.
Living on the hill, my nearest and best resource for all things bike-related seems to be Capitol Hill Bikes, on 8th St. SE across from the Marine Barracks. Cap Hill Bikes has a beautiful showroom and store with all the gadgets and legit bike additions that are too professional for my joy-riding biking needs, as well as an adjacent servicing outfit with replacement parts and all that jazz. Their website also boasts some sweet mapping tools for riding around town.
It’s so great to see commuters back on their bikes and saving energy (while expending a little of their own). What great bike resources do you utilize in and around DC? Do you bike to work? Favorite places to bike?
So, you’ve got your garden under way. Or maybe you’re anxiously awaiting the beginning of your CSA. You’ve armed yourself with a good cookbook or two so you’ll have some basic recipes for that eggplant you inevitably end up with. You wander through your nearest farmer’s market every week, wistfully looking for the first hothouse tomatoes of the season. And then there’s the inevitable result: the moment the Westmoreland Berry Farm strawberries look any good, you buy 8 quarts, get them home, and realize that even if you could fit them all in there, they only keep in the fridge for 3 days, and that there’s no way you can possibly eat that many in that time. Not that this has ever happened to me. I’ve certainly never walked out of a farmer’s market wondering how I managed to buy $90 of fruit and had to hold a sangria party to consume it all… *ahem*
When you can’t foist any more zucchini on your neighbors and coworkers, when you’re tired of pesto, and when you’re embarrassed at the number of peaches you allowed to go bad in your dining room while you were looking for the right cobbler recipe, you realize: You’ve got to find a way to preserve this stuff. Continue reading →
We all love to complain about our commutes here in DC, but what if traffic congestion isn’t such a bad thing? The Smart Growth Speaker Series continues on Tuesday the 14th with a lunchtime presentation at the National Building Museum on how transportation projects can be successful even if they don’t tackle congestion. Ellen Greenberg, former Research Director for the Congress for New Urbanism, will discuss various ways to measure success in transportation that don’t necessarily make cars move faster. It’s often difficult to get support for transportation projects if they can’t promise fewer traffic delays, but a lot of things that make good urban places (like narrow streets and pedestrian crosswalks and bike lanes) don’t really improve congestion. The event is free and open to the public.
Do you need a massage? Of course you do! A mani-pedi? Quite possibly, yes! An antioxidant facial? Duh. Can you afford these luxuries? PSH, NO! Except, wait, cause yes you can! DC Spa Week is fast approaching, from April 13-19th, spas all across the DC metro area are offering $50 special spa treatments. Hot spa treatments open up the skin’s pores, help the body to ward off toxins, and also encourage the body to burn calories. Additionally, deep tissue massages can help the body to break down fatty deposits through the pressure and friction exerted on the skin.
The Med Spa list includes such upscale locations like the Red Door Spa by Elizabeth Arden, and The Pearl at the Ritz Carleton alongside individually operated spas in the area, you would be mesmerized by how easy it is to set an appointment online thanks to their incredibly easy to use website, you could read more to see how they manage to do it.
Massages are the most popular treatment, but you can snag a hair cleanse and gloss, body scrubs, green tea facials and some places are even offering highlights and haircuts for $50. It’s like the Restaurant Week of relaxation. Treatments that may be provided include body massage, hair, foot massage, facials, waxing, microdermabrasion, body treatments, manicures, pedicures, aromatherapy, moxibustion, ear candling, and gua sha (scraping). To book an appointment or buy spa products, visit the emeraldspa website.
It goes without saying that visiting a spa is a fantastic way to relax and de-stress. A visit to the spa offers a great opportunity to separate yourself from life’s everyday stressors and have some precious ‘me time’. Allowing yourself this time to wind down and relax has so many additional benefits, such as a clear mind and increased productivity once you leave your treatment!
Sign up to view all the deals, and snag one at a spa near you.
In the wake of first Iowa and then Vermont legalizing gay marriage in the last week, the DC Council just voted, unanimously, to recognize gay marriages from other states. Gay couples married in other states were previously automatically recognized as domestic partners under DC law, but today’s vote specifically recognizes gay couples married in states where it is legal as married couples.
Hot damn, DC Council. Yes, this is going to piss off the very same Congress that doesn’t want to let DC make its own gun laws. And yes, it’ll only get worse for Home Rule if DC tries to legalize gay marriage itself. But as Council member Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) says, “We as a council need to stand in the right place and take the gray area out.”
I think we can all agree that one of the reasons “we love DC” is the arrival of spring each year when our city is transformed from a bleak, gray land of zombies into a cheery land of fresh-faced partiers. The harsh winter weather is behind us, the cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom, girls swap their jeans for skirts, and it’s time to start planning how you’ll enjoy every waking minute before the sweltering heat invades our city.
What better way to celebrate the disappearance of winter than checking out the National Cherry Blossom Festival? While it officially started on March 28th, it runs until April 12th and is packed full of fun things to do, ranging from blossom tours to photo safaris to wicked awesome Japanese-themed art fashion anime parties. Say what? That’s right, on Friday the Pink Line Project kicks into gear again to throw a party that is sure to be the highlight of this year’s festival. Enter stage left: Cherry Blast.
‘DSC_0007’ courtesy of ‘captpaddy@sbcglobal.net’
If you think your water smells like a swimming pool this week, you’re right. The District and portions of Northern Virginia are putting chlorine in the water to keep biofilm–which sounds like scary gunk–from collecting on the pipes and impairing water quality. As part of this annual flush, you may also see water pouring from fire hydrants.
It’s entirely possible that I’m out of the loop here, but I’ve never seen a front page of a newspaper that consists entirely of an advertisement. The other day I picked up an Express for the first time in ages and thought, “What am I looking at? Where are all of the eye catching headlines that they normally sport on the front page?” Instead I was looking at a full page ad about surfing in Sandbridge, VA: “Live Passionately. Virginia is for Lovers.” Oh so that’s what it’s for.
Are times really that tough out there? If so, does this sort of scheme generate enough ad revenue to keep the WaPo from axing the Express? If most readers are like me, they’ll quickly turn to the real front page, never visit Virginia.org, and never develop a passionate love for surfing in Virginia.
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