The Walking Dead

Tomorrow night (Saturday, the 22nd) the third annual Silver Spring Zombie Walk will invade downtown SS.  I will be there, dressed as a zombie bridesmaid grunge person from the nineties (it's going to be too cold for my bridesmaid dress!), along with several of my zombie friends.  Even if you don't want to dress up, this zombie walk is truly a sight to behold.  Also, the AFI will be playing two excellent movies that night - Dawn of the Dead at 9:45 (which all of us zombies will be lurching to) and Susperia at midnight.  I will going to both, but I'm probably most excited about seeing Susperia on the big screen.

One day, all of us Wheaton zombies will have organize our own walk, but for now, come on down to Silver Spring to participate.

Here are a few links:
Silver Spring Zombie Walk
Gazette Article
DCist review of the movies
AFI recap of Dawn of the Dead (get tickets early!)
AFI recap of Susperia

See you there!

Dinner at New Kam Fong

My boyfriend and I enjoyed a great dinner at New Kam Fong last night.  After seeing Good Eatin' in Wheaton's mention of a recent review of the restaurant, we decided to head back over for a meal.  It's been about 8 or 9 months since the last time we dined there.  After seeing mentions of it in several reviews, my boyfriend tried the twin lobster entree with scallions and ground pork sauce.  The waitress told him he could choose from a number of sauces, but he went with the ground pork, which ended up being a good choice.  The dish came out on a huge platter, and the plate was postiviely teeming with big chunks of lobster.  The lobster was still on the shell, but had been cut into large pieces.  It had been fried so that the pieces of meat were nice and crispy.  The green onions and ground pork were an interesting addition to the dish, and they worked really well.  Even on its own, the ground pork sauce was fantastic.  Add that to fried lobster, and it's pretty much the best thing ever.  Be prepared to get messy if you get this dish.  Picking through the sauce-covered shells to get to the meat takes some work, but it's worth it.  The dish cost $23.99, which seems like a pretty good deal for all that food.  It was enough to feed two people if they weren't super hungry.

I got the 1/2 Beijing roasted duck, which came with pancakes, some interesting fluffy fried things in various colors (white, orange and pink), and thinly sliced raw scallions.  The pancakes were very similar to tortillas, making this dish seem similar to fajitas.  The duck had a crispy fried skin and the meat was very juicy.  Another nice bonus of this dish is that the meat was already separated from the bones, which made for very easy eating compared to some of the roast duck I have had at Chinese restaurants.  While this dish wasn't as flashy as the twin lobster meal, I still really enjoyed it.  Also, the waiters were very nice and friendly throughout our meal,  but they got kind of swamped when a large family group came in and took up several tables at once.

Ever since the new Hollywood East opened, we've been heading there for dim sum on the weekends to satisfy our cravings for Chinese food.  Our meal at New Kam Fong is a good reminder of all the other Chinese options here in Wheaton.

Alleged Wheaton Tire Slasher (and Duck Murderer?) Apprehended

A few days ago, the Gazette posted an article describing a series of recent tire slashings in the neighorhood just east of the Wheaton metro station.  The crimes appear to target Hispanic homeowners in the neighborhood.

The Washington Post later had an update that a local Wheaton resident has been arrested in connection with the crimes.

Now, this morning, there is yet another article stating that the same person is suspected of killing and decapitating a duck being kept in the yard of one of the tire slashing victims. 

There is contact information listed in the articles for anyone who may have additional information regarding these crimes.

Possible Community Garden in Wheaton

I'm on the email list for updates on community gardens in Montgomery County, and the email update that I received today had some promising news for gardeners in Wheaton.  There is a community garden being proposed near Wheaton Regional Park along Kemp Mill Road.  A meeting is scheduled on October 21st, 7:00-8:30pm at 11721 Kemp Mill Rd (Silver Spring Center/Randolph Academy) to share a powerpoint presentation about the proposed plans and gather input from the community.  The meeting will be held in the large meeting room in the school at that location.

I would have to drive to this garden since it's not quite close enough to walk to from my house, but it's still encouraging to see a possible community garden coming to the Wheaton area.  Information about existing community gardens in the county is available here.

Safeway Update

It's seemed like the whole Safeway project is taking for-ev-er.  Why don't they just tear the old building down already!?!?!  Well, I've recently heard an update about the status of the project.  Plans are still moving forward, and the developer has a hearing on October 28th with the planning board (I'll post more info when I have it) for their final site approval. Once that approval is reached, their site plan will be approved, which I *think* means that they can begin demolition and prepare the site for the new building.  All the rest of the building permits will still have to be approved, but it will be great to see some progress.  I didn't get any information about when the demo work might actually start, but it's encouraging to know that things are moving forward.

I also got some info about the planned design of the project.  The Safeway store itself will be more than twice as big as the existing store and will have either a Starbucks or some sort of coffee stand inside of  it.  On my recent vacation to Washington, there were Safeways all over the place, and they all seemed newly renovated.  If we get anything close to the new stores I saw in Washington, I'll be happy.  There will be about 150 spaces for shoppers in the parking garage on site.  This isn't alot of parking, but I think that the store will get alot of foot traffic from people leaving the metro, apartment dwellers, and local homeowners (like me).  The apartment building will have just under 500 units, and it sounds like there will about an even mix between studios, 1 bedrooms, and 2 bedrooms.  It also sounds like they are planning lots of nice amenities for their residents, like a roof deck pool, outdoor space on the top floor, fitness center, washer/dryers in units, etc.  This could all change as project moves forward, but it's good to see that they're aiming high. 


Rendering from a Gazette article about the project



I'm back, baby!

I apologize for being MIA for the past month and a half.  First, I had to deal with several weeks of 12 hour days at my job (not fun), then I had a 2-week vacation to Seattle and Washington state (very fun).  I'm happy to now be back home and finally have some free time on my hands to work on some posts.

The trip to Washington (the 'other' Washington) was great.  I spent one week hiking and camping in Olympic National Park...

Rialto Beach

Including a few days staying in the Twilight-vampire-crazy town of Forks...

Yes, there a stand selling Twilight-themed firewood

Spent a few days in Mt. Rainier National Park...

Yep, that's Mt. Rainier

Drove up the coast along Chuckanut Drive...

We had an amazing dinner at Chuckanut Manor, which included this great view of the sunset from our table on the deck.

To the interesting town of Bellingham...

We enjoyed an awesome beer sampler and tasty food at this brewery.

Then wrapped up the trip with a few days in Seattle.

The neighborhood of Fremont in Seattle was lots of fun and we enjoyed walking around to enjoy all the public art.  Fremont is well known for its gigantic troll sculpture that is hunched underneath one of their highway overpasses.

Yes, that's a real VW beetle in the trolls hand

The Fremont troll got me brainstorming ideas for a distinctive public art piece for Wheaton that would have a similar impact.  I decided that the field of antennas along University present an excellent opportunity for a cool/weird public art piece that would be a landmark for Wheaton region.  So, I present to you my design concept for this public art piece (using Microsoft Paint on my home computer)...the Wheaton King Kong!

Be back in a few days with some more Wheaton info!