Earthquake rocks Bethesda at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday.
I was in La Madeleine in Bethesda eating lunch. The place started shaking like a train was passing by. Ground felt slightly like a trampoline. Lasted about 10 seconds. felt a very small aftershock afterwards. People started running out. Throngs of people standing outside office buildings in Bethesda.
Reports state that it was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered about 100 miles south of Washington, D.C.
The line stretched across six stores and restaurants as people waited for the iPad 2. Photo by Mike Frandsen.
At first I thought the long line on Bethesda Avenue at Bethesda Row was for Georgetown Cupcake. At least the line turned out to be for something more useful, though I can’t imagine wasting time in line instead of waiting a few days.
The line that numbered a few hundred people stood outside the Apple Store in Bethesda for the launch of the iPad 2. I will say this about the iPad – it has a lot of good, cheap applications for kids and adults with disabilities.
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People wait in line for the iPad 2 at the Apple Store in Bethesda.
Kids Enjoy Exercise Now held its 9th annual sports festival Sunday at Hadley Park in Potomac, Maryland. The sports festival is an annual celebration in which KEEN families participate in sports and games with their children and siblings, along with volunteer coaches.
KEEN is a national, non-profit volunteer organization that gives children and young adults with disabilities a chance play sports and recreational activities in a non-competitive, welcoming atmosphere. KEEN athletes include children with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and autism.
For the rest of my article on examiner.com, click here.
At last November’s annual Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders conference in Bethesda, Maryland, Dr. Stanley Greenspan was walking and talking a little bit slower than he had in previous years. The reverence and respect that the audience had for Greenspan was palpable, and at the end of his speech, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. The people in the audience knew they were witnessing something special.
Greenspan, the founder of Floortime and the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-based model (DIR) for autism, died yesterday at the age of 68.
To see the rest of my article at examiner.com, please click here.
I had a flat tire the other day. I took my car to Eastham’s Exxon on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. They patched it up and had me on the road again in 10 minutes. That was great because they could have easily said they had people in front of me but went ahead and did mine fast. It’s a concept taken straight out of David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done.” The idea is that even if you have items on your to do list that are more important than others, if you can get something done quickly even if it’s less important, go for it and get it out of the way. Anyway, that was good service. They also could have said I needed a new tire and I wouldn’t have known the difference.
Another great place is Auto Centro in Rockville. Hidden in an industrial park about a mile behind the Rockville Metro, they always do great quality work. They have the double check from “Consumer Checkbook” magazine for quality and price. Paulo and the crew will do a great job and even find a car for you to buy if you need one. I’ve been going there for 15 years.
The Washington, D.C. area got about a foot and a half of snow today. Here are a few pics – one from NW and three from Bethesda, MD.
Barnes and Noble at Bethesda Row
Christmas Tree on Bethesda Lane
Rita's Crepes on Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda
Chesapeake Street, NW
I thought I’d remind people of the rules for driving in a parking garage. They’re not that much different than regular driving rules, really.
This was inspired by the parking garage in Bethesda between Bethesda Ave., Woodmont Ave., and Elm Street. I know, I need to find more inspirational things to write about.
I love Honest Tea and Honest Ade drinks. They taste great, are healthy and organic, and they only have a little bit of sugar – 12 grams per serving for the juices, and less for the teas. Most iced teas or fruit juices either have way, way too much sugar (usually more than twice the amount of these drinks), or have artificial sweeteners like Aspartame or Sucralose that can be unhealthy.
My favorite Honest Tea/Ade drink is the Cranberry Lemonade. I don’t mean to sound weird, but I love this drink so much, I can’t get enough of it. I have about 3 a day and the only reason I don’t have about 10 a day is that I need to drink water the rest of the time. The Cranberry Lemonade only has water, sugar, lemons, and cranberries in it, plus carrot extract and citric acid. It is definitely one of my favorite drinks of all time.
They have a lot of cool flavors. The Superfruit Punch has yumberry, goji berry, pear juice, grape juice, strawberry juice, berry flavor, carrot juice, and cranberry juice. How can you go wrong with that? There’s also Orange Mango, which sometimes has Mangosteen in it (don’t ask me why other times it’s just plain Orange Mango).
Pomegranate Blue and Pomegranate White Tea with Acai are full of antioxidants. There are a bunch of flavors of teas – green, white, black – that are all great too.
Honestly, the kids flavors are really very good, even for adults. The Goodness Grape, Tropical Tango Punch, and Berry Berry Good Lemonade are all healthy and taste great. They come in packs of juice boxes for kids.
Again, sounds weird, but I was so excited when I saw Honest Tea in California last summer that I bought several cases. I’ve been drinking Honest Tea almost every day since I found out about it several years ago.
One sour note is that recently I bought three Superfruit Punches that tasted and smelled very bad. There was absolutely something wrong with them. I’ve noticed this a few times in the past with this flavor, and I think a couple of times with the Cranberry Lemonade. We’re only talking about this happening about 10 times total, and I’ve probably drank about 3,000 bottles of Honest Tea and Honest Ade.
I emailed and called the company at their location in Bethesda and got no response. That was disappointing since I’m one of their best customers, but not unexpected. No matter what the organization, it seems that people think the best way to solve a problem is to ignore it, not reply, and hope it goes away. I’ve also asked them if there are ways to buy it in bulk for a cheaper rate and they sometimes don’t respond, and other times they say no.
Anyway, I write this blog entry neither to promote Honest Tea nor to bash them, but just to say that I think they have some really great, healthy drinks. The only thing that could be improved would be if they offered large bottles at a lower price per ounce. Imagine how much healthier Americans would be if they drank these drinks instead of sodas and coffees.
Just being honest.
Update – 6/17/09
Well, they contacted me back after the second email. It turns out that because they don’t use preservatives, there’s a slight chance that a small percentage of the drinks may be less than perfect. However, according to my calculations, less than one percent of the drinks are affected (I drink more than 1000 a year). That’s a small price to pay for something that is natural and organic.
In fact, one of the great things about Honest Tea and Honest Ade is not just what’s in it – great flavors and antioxidants – (can you imagine anything with more antioxidants than the Pomegranate Blue or Mango Acai White Tea flavors?) – but what is not in it – any type of preservatives. They are also made without “antibiotics, pesticides, irradiation or bioengineering.” The lack of pesticides is important because pesticides and herbicides have been implicated in all sorts of health problems, including autism and breast cancer.
So, anyway, I went to the Honest Tea Offices, and they took me to their vault, where there are cases and cases of every flavor of Honest Tea and Ade. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Well, okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. Maybe it was more like Christmas. I got to choose a few replacement drinks. I even got a glimpse of the 64-ounce teas.
My only regret is that now there are so many great flavors, it’s impossible to try them all.
Update, 7/10/09 – Some more of the Cranberry Lemonades and Superfruit Punches are a little off. Maybe it’s the summer heat. I’m reluctantly switching to the Orange Mango with Mangosteen, Blueberry Pomegranate, and Peach White Tea for now…
Pizza Zero in Bethesda has to be one of the best deals in town. A small restaurant just off Restaurant Row (http://www.bethesdarow.com/), they specialize in wood-grilled pizzas. The pizzas are a decent size – I’d say about a little more than a foot in diameter – enough for a filling meal. The pizzas have a great taste from the wood-burning oven and they have 32 different types of pizzas, or you can get one to order.
They have all the usual toppings plus some more unique ones: Argentine sausage, arugula, chimichurri sauce, heart of palm, brie, goat cheese, manchego, mascarpone, Spanish boquerones, and Spanish sausage. The owners are Argentinean and the restaurant makes really good empanadas. The lunch menu is a really great deal with the average cost of a pizza at $6.50, and some as low as $5.50. Empanadas (Beef, Chicken, Caprese, Spinach/Mozzarella, Corn) are very tasty and only $3.00. They have a large screen TV that usually has sports on and there’s also a cool little bar with flat screen TVs to watch games. It’s also kid-friendly with a few large photos of animals.
Pizza Zero is just off the main area where most of the foot traffic is on Bethesda Avenue, one block west of the Apple Store. It’s on Bethesda Avenue across from the Mercedes dealership and behind Giant. You can park in the garage at the corner of Bethesda Avenue and Arlington Road. The taste of the pizzas from the wood-burning oven is well worth it.
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