2013

The day before Smashburger’s December 11 opening in Bethesda, I was invited to a media preview event. In the interest of full disclosure, I can confirm that I am more than willing to blog in return for hamburgers. So, off I went to sample a number of Smashburger’s signature burgers and chicken sandwiches. If you are a burger aficionado — or simply burger-curious — I can highly recommend Smashburger.

Smashburger’s Stacie Lange — who did a great job of presenting each of the sandwiches to us — was frank in saying that Smashburger had identified the same market demand for “better burgers” that had been pioneered by Washington’s Five Guys chain. Despite a number of competitors including Z-Burger and Shake Shack, Lange believes the market is big enough for all of them. She also described what distinguishes Smashburger from the others.

I've been a bit remiss in following up my post about our experience with Rent a Coop's month-long backyard chicken experience. Part of that is because I've been distracted with other things and part is that the second half of the hens' visit wasn't particularly eventful. But, because there have been requests to update the original post, I thought I probably should get to it. The bottom line is that the month-long urban farming experience worked out well. We really enjoyed the chickens on a short-term basis. However, keeping chickens long-term would require a bit more infrastructure and is not something in which we are all interested.

We and our two hens fairly quickly settled into a routine. Each morning we would find one or two eggs in the pen. Once or twice a day, we would let the chickens out to range freely in our yard. The chickens identified their favorite places to forage, they became more comfortable with our dog (and she with them), and the hens became less a novelty and more like pets. We started to recognize the hen's personalities and they seemed to get to know us. When the chickens were free, they would often come to us and try to get some attention. If we could speak chicken, we probably could have had some nice conversations.

Backyard chickens have been a topic of great dissension on DC Urban Moms and Dads. There have been multiple threads on the subject with one epic discussion reaching 21 pages. While some posters have argued the merits of raising your own hens, others have said the practice screams "I am poor" and has other associated negative characteristics. Thanks to the local company Rent a Coop, we have had the opportunity to temporarily have our own backyard chickens and investigate this topic firsthand.

Rent a Coop, the creation of Tyler Phillips and Diana Samata of Potomac, MD, offers two main programs: 1) monthly rental of a chicken coop and two hens; and 2) a chick hatching experience. We were offered a complementary rental package in order to review the service and decided to give it a try.

By Gary Huggins, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, and Dr. Rick Bavaria, senior vice president of education outreach for Sylvan Learning.

After that last dismissal bell of the school year sounds, many children don't pick up a book all summer.

The reason? Summer is supposed to be fun, and most kids don't put reading high on their list of fun summer activities. In fact, according to a new Harris survey on summer reading commissioned by Sylvan Learning, less than half of American youth ages 8 to 18 identify reading as a favorite summer activity.

From the moment our babies start crawling away from us, we are concerned with safety from nearly every angle. But while you are frantically baby proofing every square inch of your home, don’t forget that there are things you can do to ensure the business of being Mommy doesn’t bring you any aches and pains of your own. Consider these tips for keeping healthy and pain-free while your little one keeps you on your toes!

• Lifting your little one: Out of the crib, on top of the changing table, into the car…sometimes there seems to be no end to the amount of lifting you do on a daily basis. And this is on top of lifting many other things—groceries, strollers, sometimes other children! To avoid injury, it’s important to know how to properly lift and carry children of all ages. Bend at the knees getting down to their level to take the extra weight into your legs as opposed to your back and shoulders. Keep your back straight and resist the urge to twist. Finally, keep them close to your body so that you have better control of their movements…this prevents them from making too many jerky movements, which is safer for both of you.

Occasionally, I'll browse through a farmer's market and select fresh, high quality ingredients for the evening's meal. After leisurely chopping, measuring, and mixing as required, everything goes into the oven to produce a delicious and healthy meal. But, more often, there is no time for shopping and the only energy I have for food preparation is taking a handfull of ground beef, flatting it, and tossing it onto a grill. This week I had the opportunity to try a dinner provided by scratchDC, a meal delivery service made for people like me.

ScratchDC, delivers everything you need for a great meal, all cut, measured, marinated and ready to cook. Ingredients are packaged in what scratchDC calls "bundles". A bundle is suitable for serving two adults. The best way to explain how scratchDC works is just to describe our experience with it

By Elizabeth Polis, PT, DPT
Core Wellness & Physical Therapy

My physical therapy practice is full of mothers-to-be with similar complaints—leg and back aches, swelling, sciatica—and other painful issues common in mid to late pregnancy. Many of them are nearing or have entered their third trimester when both body and baby start to rapidly put on additional weight. The uterus has also fully expanded, putting a considerable amount of pressure on the diaphragm, causing shortness of breath and other discomforts for mom.

I’ve found that a simple, effective way to ease these common, yet often debilitating, pregnancy pains is through kinesiology taping. Also called simply “taping,” the process includes using cotton adhesive strips stretched around the skin or a particular muscle to provide a gentle pulling or lifting force. How and where the tape is applied and the direction of pull impacts how it will provide benefit to mom.

Tomorrow DC voters will go to the polls to elect an At Large Council Member. Even at this late date, the race appears wide open with four possible winners. Yesterday, a bit of controversy was provoked by an article in the Washington Post disclosing that the campaign of Democrat Elissa Silverman had approached fellow Democrat Matthew Frumin asking him to drop out of the campaign in order to unite the progressive vote. Frumin declined, rightly believing that he has a chance to win.

This campaign has been marked by the seemingly inability of candidates to avoid self-destructing. Indeed, one possible winner, Michael A. Brown, withdrew from the campaign. However, since his name will still appear the ballot, he could still affect the outcome.

Democrat Anita Bonds was plagued from the beginning by questions concerning her poor management of the DC Democratic State Committee which included getting appointed by that committee -- which she chairs -- to the interim At Large position. In addition to that conflict of interest, she is employed by one of the largest city contractors. But, most controversial is her suggestion that she thought it was a good thing for voters to choose candidates of their own race. As the only black Democrat in the race, Bonds would benefit from racially-aligned voting. However, one would hope that DC would move beyond this type of racial politics.

Estate planning needs a new name.When most people think of estate planning, words like elderly, wealthy, ordeath often come to mind. It also conjures images of vast tracks of landsurrounded by high fences and homes built in the image of Versailles, right? Oris that just me? However accurate the word associations that go with “estateplanning” may be, one thing is certain: Everyone needs some form of estateplanning, even the young, single, and broke. Bet those words didn’t come toyour mind though! 

Living Plans forthe Young

There are three essentialdocuments that everyone needs, whether you have a family with children or are asingle professional in the corporate fast lane.

April is election season in the District of Columbia. In April 2011, DC held a special election to fill the At Large Council seat vacated by Kwame Brown after he was elected Council Chairman. April 2012 witnessed the primary election to select candidates for the November general election. This April, DC will again be be filling a vacant At Large seat; this one left open by Phil Mendelson when he was elected to replace Brown as Chairman. Brown resigned after a bank fraud conviction and may hold the record for creating a need for special elections.

At least six, and possibly as many as eight, candidates will be on the April 23 ballot (the nominating petitions of two candidates have been challenged). This week I had the opportunity to sit down for a discussion with one of those candidates, Mathew Frumin. Frumin proved to be a thoughtful candidate with a somewhat unique take on the campaign. Where it is common for candidates to point out what is wrong with the city and explain how they plan to change it, Frumin prefers to describe what is going right and how he would like to continue it and widen its benefits. This positive outlook was clear throughout our discussion.