Homeless man gets his Thanksgiving wish

Less than two weeks ago, NewsChannel 3 shared the story of a homeless man staying at a Norfolk mission who posted his request online for a family to take him in for Thanksgiving.

And this Thanksgiving, Neal Shytles got exactly what he was looking for – a family to spend the day with.

After his story went viral, Neal was overwhelmed by how many people nationwide who reached out to him.

It was Ashley McLemore and her husband Cory, a military couple in Newport News, that reached out to Neal first. And Neal accepted their offer.

They picked Neal up from the Union Mission on Thanksgiving morning and took him back to their house to spend the day with them.

“He is a wonderful person who is selfless and I’m so blessed that he’s going to be part of our family,” Ashley says.

Neal seemed to fit right in with the rest of of the McLemore family, exchanging stories and sharing a warm Thanksgiving Day meal with all the trimmings.

He even got to carve the turkey!

But what Neal didn’t expect was that Cory’s coworkers also wanted to help him.

“They have actually donated $400 directly to you. And this was done in two days. They did everything they could to help you out,” said Cory.

The gift broke Neal down to tears.

“You didn’t have to do this. I just wanted a meal,” Neal says.

Now the Union Mission in Norfolk, where Neal has spent the last year and a half, is getting much needed donations because Neal had the courage to reach out.

“I hope people learn that the homeless are not what sometimes you picture the homeless to be,” Neal says. “I could sit there and just cry because people are doing so much for the homeless now.”

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How a bride and groom threw a 100-person wedding for $4,000

Abigail Dalton

When my husband and I got engaged back in 2010, I felt simultaneously thrilled ... and like I needed to brace myself for an oncoming wave whose only purpose was to sweep over me and pull all of my money out to sea.

The engagement wasn't a surprise -- being mature, rational adults, my then-fiancé and I had discussed marriage, finances, child-rearing and any number of important topics we thought we should cover before agreeing to be legally bound for life -- and I had already been poking around the internet, looking at wedding-themed websites and blogs.

I'd therefore had plenty of time to feel my heart drop into my stomach as I looked at people's budgets. From lovely outdoor weddings where tent rentals ran up to $20,000, to charming hotel affairs that cost $175 per person, I knew that a conventional (and expensive!) wedding wasn't for us. We're in our mid-twenties and have savings, but we certainly didn't want to spend them on a one-day event.

While I would have been happy to run off to City Hall and cover dinner for a few close family members, my husband had other ideas. He has a big family that expected a wedding ... so we gave them one, on our budget.

The Surprising Thing We Booked Sight-Unseen ...
After examining our finances, and considering our spending priorities, we thought about what kind of wedding we could agree on--and came up with relaxed and simple. That is, lacking tiny, expensive details that would stress me, and by extension, him, out.

The venue needed to be somewhere we could hold both the ceremony and the reception. Once we realized that a full meal was out of our budget (given that we would likely host about 100 guests!) we decided on a dessert reception. We also considered flowers and photography, as well as necessities like an officiant and invitations, and decided on a budget of $4,000.

A lot of crafty wedding blogs feature weddings where everyone involved seems to have some kind of incredible talent--

"My graphic designer brother designed all of our invitations!"

"My best friend is a professional florist and put together all of the flowers!"

I know my limitations. I am not even a little bit crafty. I can repair buttons and socks, poorly, and that's about it, and I felt uncomfortable outsourcing details to my friends and acquaintances.

But we found our perfect (and fantastically inexpensive) venue in Southern Virgina, where my husband is from. My mother-in-law had suggested looking at local parks for venues, and one option had a beautiful lakeside gazebo for a ceremony, and an indoor facility with a wraparound porch that would be a great location for the reception. We booked it sight-unseen (minus a largely ineffective Google search for "Claytor Lake State Park") for $1,000.

Flowers, Food and More
After receiving another excellent recommendation, we met with a local florist who very kindly took the few magazine photos I'd torn out and put together 12 beautiful mason-jar centerpieces with hydrangea and delphinium, and a bouquet and boutonnière for $400. She also very politely listened to me say "No" to just about everything -- "No, we wouldn't be having a bridal party"; "No, we don't need flowers for the gazebo"; etc.

I found our photographer during a late-night Craigslist search. Her photos looked lovely, and she was just starting her business in the area, so when I asked her if she could photograph our wedding day for $600, she agreed. After seeing constant reminders that wedding photography can start at $2,000, I was incredibly happy to have found someone willing to work with our budget (and the photographs turned out beautifully).

Especially since our reception was dessert-only, our most important expense was the cake and pie we'd be serving, as well as the drinks (an open bar was a non-negotiable). We found a local baker who makes wedding cakes as a hobby; she created a delicious three-tier confection for $200. We picked up a dozen pies the night before the wedding, and we bought beer and wine from a wholesale liquor store, bringing our total food and drink cost to $650.

A wonderful friend made pennant flag bunting for the reception venue as her wedding gift to us, and it was the perfect (and only) decorative detail, in addition to the flowers. My mother bought my wedding dress, which came in at $750, because she knew I would buy something cheap rather than something I loved, and wanted me to be happy with what I was wearing.

My mother-in-law anticipated we'd need extra hands on our wedding day, and found a few local students who served drinks and cake (and kept it all replenished) for $100 each. We rented the cheapest chairs available for $316 (even though they were a less-than-attractive brown) because I reasoned that people wouldn't be paying much attention to what they were sitting on. They didn't.

When we started planning, I kept things simple because I didn't want to add stressful detail after stressful detail to my plate. In the end, the simplicity made our wedding lovely, and kept us under budget.

The End Result
I did my own hair, a friend did my makeup and I felt perfect.

Once we threw in the incidentals -- the official's fee of $150, the invitations I found at an online press for $275, the $40 guestbook, the $30 marriage license, and the quirky $70 cake-toppers that sit on our mantle now -- we came in a few hundred dollars under budget.

Most importantly, the things we'd said "no" to didn't matter. Guests commented on how much they'd enjoyed the wedding, and no one seemed to notice that we didn't have a DJ (we used an iPod and speaker system), or that a professional hadn't done my hair, or that my husband wore a navy blue suit he'd owned for years.

We even ended up in the DC/Maryland/Virginia edition of The Knot, and our photographer threw in a CD of our photographs to thank us (for which some photographers charge extra).

The wedding industry constantly attempts to up-sell brides and grooms on so many items, and it was reassuring to realize that none of those (expensive) superfluities mattered.

At the end of the day, we have photographs we love, memories of delicious cake and happy friends, and the relief that we could throw a party without drowning ourselves in debt or liquidating our savings.

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Virginia to fight same-sex marriage ban

Mark Herring

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring will announce Thursday that he believes the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that Virginia will join two same-sex couples in asking a federal court to strike it down, according to an official close to the attorney general with knowledge about the decision.

The action will mark a stunning reversal in the state’s legal position on same-sex marriage and is a result of November elections in which Democrats swept the state’s top offices. Herring’s predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, adamantly opposes gay marriage and had vowed to defend Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning such unions, which was passed in 2006 with the support of 57 percent of voters.

Herring, too, had voted against same-sex marriage eight years ago, when he was a state senator. But he has said that his views have changed since then and that on Thursday he will file a supportive brief in a lawsuit in Norfolk that challenges the state’s ban, said two people familiar with his plans.

Herring will say that Virginia has been on the “wrong side” of landmark legal battles involving school desegregation, interracial marriage and single-sex education at the Virginia Military Institute, one official said. He will make the case that the commonwealth should be on the “right side of the law and history” in the battle over same-sex marriage.

He has not informed Republicans in Richmond about his plans; an uproar is likely. GOP lawmakers have worried that Herring would change the state’s position — such decisions are up to the attorney general — and have contemplated legislation that would allow them to defend the law in court.

The attorney general thinks that is unnecessary, the official said. The clerks of the circuit court in Norfolk and Prince William County are defendants in the suit, and both are represented by independent counsel.

Janet Rainey, the state registrar of vital records, is also a defendant. Although she and Herring will urge the court to strike down the ban, she will continue to enforce it until the courts act.

The move in Virginia is part of a quickly changing legal landscape reshaped by the Supreme Court’s rulings in two cases on same-sex marriage in June.

In one, U.S. v. Windsor, the court voted 5 to 4 to find unconstitutional a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which withheld federal recognition of same-sex marriages performed where they are legal and denied federal benefits to those in such unions.

In the other, it allowed to stand a federal judge’s opinion that California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional. The court ruled that the case was not before it in a way that allowed a ruling on the merits.

The justices sidestepped a critical question: whether state bans on same-sex marriage violate the Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.

But federal judges in Utah and Oklahoma have said that the reasoning used by the court majority meant that constitutional amendments in those states banning same-sex unions cannot stand. Gay marriages took place in Utah, but both decisions are now stayed pending appeal.

The highest courts in New Jersey and New Mexico have held that gay couples have the right to be married there. The District of Columbia and 17 states — including Maryland but not counting Utah and Oklahoma — now allow such unions.

The Obama administration took a position similar to Herring’s when it announced it would not defend DOMA, which Congress passed in 1996 and President Bill Clinton signed into law. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. joined the legal challenge against the key part of the law, and House Republicans hired a lawyer in an unsuccessful bid to save it.

Similarly, Democratic attorneys general in other states have said they think their bans are unconstitutional. Democrats in California refused to defend Proposition 8. And last summer, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane bowed out of challenges to her state’s law.

Herring, whose race against Republican Mark D. Obenshain was so close it was not decided until Dec. 18, has been in office just two weeks. But he faced a tight deadline in deciding whether to change the state’s legal position.

U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen has scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 30 in the Norfolk case. It received a jolt of attention last fall when lawyers Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who brought the federal challenge of Proposition 8, announced that they were joining the plaintiffs’ side.

In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the Virginia ban in a federal suit in Harrisonburg. That case is not as far along.

Virginia has been a particularly appealing place for a challenge by supporters of gay rights because of the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws against interracial marriage. Those who support same-sex unions often draw a parallel.

Herring will make the same point, according to a person who has seen the brief he will file. The state will say that Loving upheld the fundamental right to marriage, not the right to interracial marriage. The question at stake now, the brief states, is not a right to same-sex marriage but whether the fundamental right to marriage can be denied to “loving couples based solely on their sexual orientation.”

Democrats are sensitive to charges that it is Herring’s duty to defend Virginia’s law regardless of whether he agrees with it. They point out that Cuccinelli refused to defend one of then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s education reforms in court, saying he believed that the legislation (for state takeovers of failing schools) was unconstitutional.

Herring also will say that the state’s law will be defended in the Norfolk challenge. Norfolk clerk George E. Schaefer is represented by a private lawyer paid by the state’s Department of Risk Management. Prince William clerk Michèle B. McQuigg, who asked to intervene in the case, is represented by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Source

Virginia is a test state for a new gun program

Virginia has become the test state for a planned nationally linked program that will allow every law enforcement agency in the commonwealth -- if they choose to participate -- instant access to a shared database of records on recovered crime guns and investigative traces of those weapons.

In the eight weeks since the program was launched, 25 of Virginia's 352 state and local law enforcement agencies have signed agreements to share crime gun trace data with their participating state colleagues through an enhancement of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' eTrace system, an Internet-based firearms tracing and analysis initiative.

The shared information can help authorities link a suspect to a firearm in a criminal investigation, identify potential gun traffickers and straw purchasers, and detect intrastate patterns regarding the sources and types of weapons used in crimes.

"It's basically a pay-to-play system," said April Carroll of the ATF's eTracing unit, in explaining how police agencies must share their data to receive information in return. "If you opt in, you have access to all the other pool of data for all the other agencies that have also chosen to opt in. So it's reciprocal, and the data is immediately available and it's instantaneous sharing."

The Virginia initiative, which started in mid-July as a first-of-its-kind pilot program, is an expansion of the federal Electronic Tracing System based at the ATF's National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W.Va.

Authorities have deemed Virginia's start a success and are in the planning stages of expanding the program to other states. Illinois and Maryland are next in line, Carroll said.

Once other states come online, participating law enforcement agencies could collectively share trace information well beyond their states' borders. But for now, Virginia's system is limited to in-state use.

"In the past, if a firearm was trafficked from Chesterfield into the city of Richmond, the city of Richmond and Chesterfield County may not know that that firearm had been trafficked from one jurisdiction to the next," said Melissa Merola, resident agent in charge of the ATF's central Virginia office. "So by the new opt-in (provision) that we share through our eTracing system, local agencies and state agencies can make choices and agree to share the data with one another.

"And it's a free resource to every agency."

Merola said the system will allow state and local police agencies to look at patterns of firearm trafficking "and in turn give us a better analytical capability to look at where these firearms are going."

Tina Fey and Katie Couric share their UVA confessions

Virginia body shop fixes bullied kid's car for free

After having his car vandalized four times, Jordan Addison said it would cost $2,500 to fix the damage. And Addison says he believes he was targeted for being gay.

"The first time there were some homophobic slurs keyed into the side of it," the Roanoke, Virginia, college student told WDBJ7-TV. "Then the second time I had [die] keyed into it."

Addison says the vandals damaged his car both when it was parked at his home and on campus. And despite wanting to have the car fixed, Addison wasn't sure he could afford it. "[F]or a college student that's a lot of money," he said.

But the manager of a local auto shop stepped in and not only repaired Addison's car for free but also enlisted the help of several other auto specialists to give the car a substantial upgrade.

"Once I saw the vandalism that was done to it I said that's uncalled for we're gonna fix your car that's the least we can do," said Richard Henegar Jr., manager of Quality Auto Paint and Body.

Henegar says his shop and 10 other businesses (Parts Unlimited in Vinton, Advance Auto Parts, Moon's Auto Body, Rice Toyota, Val's Automotive, The Rod Shop, B&C Exterminating, Twists & Turns, AJ's Landscaping, and Sunnybrook Auto Spa) went to work on Addison's car, giving it a new paint job, tires, tinted windows, a new stereo and security system. He estimates the total value of the new parts to be over $10,000.

"We can't afford to do this ourselves," Henegar said of the outside help. "We might have all the good intentions in the world but I can't finance something like this ourselves."

"It looks great," Addison said. "It hasn't looked that great the entire time I've had it."

Source

Funny weather report

Restaurant Review: Mala Tang

If you're a fan of Melting Pot, then you should give Mala Tang a try. It's a Sichuan restaurant where you cook your meats and veggies in a small fondue pot at your table. I tried it on Friday night with my boyfriend after my roommate suggested it.

We started off our meal with pork dumplings which were delicious but they kind of fell apart as we were eating them which got annoying. I'd suggest passing on those and trying another appetizer. For the main dish my boyfriend ordered a hot pot combination entree with mala beef, "American" veggies (potatoes, mushrooms, and brocoli) while I ordered a la carte sirloin beef. We split the veggies and each meat came with a side of white rice. This was a perfect amount of food for two people...I suggest it instead of ordering two combination entrees. The meat takes about 30 seconds to cook in the broth and the veggies take around 2 minutes. I also suggest their spicy cucumber martini if you're looking for an interesting cocktail to try; it's a yummy combination of hot and cold.

Another cool thing about the restaurant is the sauce station where you can combine different ingredients to make your own custom sauce. There is a guide at the table though in case you are completely clueless about what to make like I was.

All in all, the food was incredible and the price was reasonable. It's a great alternative to Melting Pot that has delicious food as well but is too expensive to go to often.

The menu is here.

Address: 3434 Washington Blvd. Arlington, VA 22201

Most expensive house in the DMV area

The ongoing ping pong match between Northern Virginia and DC over who has the most expensive listing has swung back over to Virginia. No longer is sixteen million enough to top the market. It's going to take eighteen million at least. In the leafiest part of leafy McLean is a new to market house asking $17.9M. You'll have to trust us on the leafy part since the seller would prefer not to disclose the address (he's a mega-successful lawyer at a mega-successful law firm). But we took a drive by to check out the digs and confirm the overall high-end, top of the market, river views, sweeping driveway. etc. etc. Indoors there are six bedrooms and nine bathrooms, but we didn't make it anywhere close to seeing inside and the photos don't show anything of the sort.

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Restaurant Review: Quarterdeck

Artsy instagram shot.

Quarterdeck is a crab shack/seafood restaurant that one would appropriately describe as a "hole in the wall." I had heard such great things about it that I thought it would be the perfect place for a casual dinner with my dad, boyfriend, and roommate on Monday night.

One thing to note is that if you're planning on ordering crabs, it's a good idea to make a reservation so that not only are you reserving a table but you are reserving your crabs as well. This way you can get first pick for the biggest crabs that the restaurant receives that day. They don't know how big they'll be till the morning of but if you call then they can put you on the list for top picking. We only got a dozen of the regular size (smallest size) and boy we're they a lot of work. I would definitely consider ordering a small entree or appetizer with your crabs too.

Our server was kind and patient when I asked "How am I suppose to open these things?" because it was my first time. I had about four of the crabs in total and my hands were aching and covered in old bay. It was a fun experience though that I think would be perfect for the next couple months when the crabs are in season. They have an outdoor area that could seat a good amount of people and plenty of beer pitchers to go around

Don't bother with their soups. My clam chowder was lackluster but you should try the onion rings!

Menu is here.

Address: 1200 Fort Myer Drive, Arlington, VA 22209

Restaurant Review: Guajillo

I've been to Guajillo Mexican Grill several times over the past couple of months but this is my first post about it! It's located right next door to Ray's Hell Burger and it's my favorite Mexican food place in the area. The menu is extensive, the ingredients are fresh, and the atmosphere is always lively and fun.  The place is authentic Mexican food that stands out in the world of Tex-Mex restaurants and burrito chains.

Every time I've been there, they start you off with a basket of chips and salsa along with some kind of cheese sauce. It seems like it's different every single time.

I'm partial to the quesadilla (I've had them with beef and with chicken) but my friends love the enchiladas, tacos, and burritos. The guacamole and salsa are very tasty sides to add to your meal. The portions are HUGE so you'll probably end up taking half of your meal home to eat the next day. I think the service is great and the margaritas will get your night started right.

Check out the menu here.

Address: 1727 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22201

A Virginia State Delegate Gets “Porn-y” On The Floor Of The House

Delegate David Albo's wife was apparently so upset about his name being attached to the state's controversial “trans-vaginal” ultrasound bill that she rejected his sexual advances. This is a totally appropriate anecdote he relates on the floor of the Virginia House Of Delegates while having “porn” music play.

Bikram Yoga deal in Arlington

Today there is a bikram yoga deal for Arlington: 10 classes for $39. Get it on LivingSocial!

Restaurant Review: Mad Rose Tavern

On Thursday, myself and three of my best friends went out for dinner and drinks at Mad Rose Tavern in Clarendon. None of us have been there before but the location was ideal and the menu looked pretty good. To be honest, the restaurant doesn't look very special from the outside but inside is a mix of a lounge and a restaurant with a dark ambiance.

I ordered the Asian chicken wrap with fries which was very delicious and fresh. Some of my friends order the flat bread individual pizzas which looked very yummy as well.  The menu is very reasonably priced so it's a perfect setting for a date or a group of friends. The drink menu was typical but they did have an extensive wine list. The only bad thing was that sometimes the place would get so loud from the happy hour crowd that the waitress had trouble hearing our orders and vice versa.

Clarendon area is full of great restaurants and I think Mad Rose Tavern is a great choice. After dinner we danced the right away to a local top 40s mash-up band called The Cortland Fiasco. They were great - check them out because they have a few upcoming shows in the DC area.

Here is the Mad Rose Tavern menu.

Address: 3100 Clarendon Blvd, Ste PL15, Arlington, VA 22201

Restaurant Review: Ray's The Third

My best friend Rachael kept telling me about the new Ray's restaurant called Ray's The Third across the street from the infamous Ray's Hell Burger. It's advertised as a cross between Ray's Hell Burger and Ray's The Steak. Since it's basically down the street from my apartment, I finally got a chance to try it out this weekend.

When you first walk into the place, you are immediately hit with a waft of steak. We were seated very quickly which I always appreciate. The restaurant doesn't have much decor but it really doesn't need it and it just opened this fall. I think the lively atmosphere was enough with a wide array of people - families, couples, friends, etc. If the place was dead though, I think it would look really empty since there is literally nothing on the walls.

I ordered the filet mignon with frites and it was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly. My boyfriend ordered the Blue Devil - a hefty steak with blue cheese and garlic. I took a bite and it was fabulous even though I'm not a fan of rare steak like he is.

My only complaint was the awful service. We waited way too long for the waitress to take our order and to give us our check. If she had been the one serving our food, I'm not sure if we would have made it out of there in a reasonable amount of time. I won't fault the restaurant itself for that because our food was great.

The menu can be viewed here. They have tons of stuff besides steak too.

Address: 1650 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22209

Miracles Salon

I'm very picky when it comes to my hair so I've been to three different hair salons in the past year and a half and wasn't thrilled with any of them. I think I've finally found a winner and I wanted to share with my friends! It's called Miracles and it's the little salon next to the Roti by the Rosslyn metro.

For only $30 I got a shampoo, cut, and style and was out the door within 45 minutes. You really can't beat that kind of deal for a great haircut. My stylist was Maria and not only is she really good at what she does but she's also a sweet, funny person who loves chatting with her clients. She really listened to what I wanted and emphasized with the fact that I like to keep my hair long even after a cut. I've had way too many stylists who try and sway me to cut more off when I'm very reluctant to do so.

If you're looking to switch up salons, definitely try this place out! They do both men and women. I've seen online that men's cuts are around $20.

Address: 1501 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22209
Phone: (703) 516-9800

100,000 Christmas wreaths heading to Arlington Cemetary

Twenty years ago, wreath company owner Morrill Worcester and a dozen other people laid 5,000 wreaths on headstones at Arlington National Cemetery. It was Worcester's way of giving thanks to the nation's veterans with leftover unsold wreaths.

This year, Worcester has arranged for up to 100,000 wreaths to be placed on gravesites at the military cemetery on Dec. 10 in his biggest wreath-laying undertaking yet.


A convoy of more than 20 trucks left Worcester Wreath Co. in the eastern Maine town of Harrington on Sunday to begin the six-day journey to the cemetery in Arlington, Va., outside Washington, the final resting place for hundreds of thousands of veterans and a tourist site that draws 4 million visitors a year. Along the way, there'll be ceremonies at schools, veterans' homes and in communities in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

Worcester never expected the wreath-laying effort to grow from a single tractor-trailer carrying a few thousand wreaths to 84 big rigs delivering wreaths to Arlington and hundreds of locations. Besides the Arlington ceremony, his Wreaths Across America organization has organized more than 700 other ceremonies at veterans' cemeteries and monuments across the country and overseas involving 225,000 wreaths.

"We haven't really tried to push it; it's really just grown on its own," Worcester said. "We have a hard time keeping up with it."

Worcester, who has never served in the military, came up with the idea of a wreath-laying ceremony 20 years ago when he found himself with an extra 5,000 wreaths in December, too late to bring to market. He decided upon Arlington National Cemetery, which he had visited as a child.

After that first year, Worcester continued donating wreaths and holding ceremonies at the cemetery. The event remained relatively small with little fanfare until a photo, showing thousands of green wreaths with red ribbons nestled against headstone on a snow-covered ground, made its way around the Internet about five years ago.

After that, Worcester got thousands of emails and letters from people wanting to donate, and inquiries from others asking how they could hold wreath-laying ceremonies of their own to pay tribute to those who have served in the military. So he and his wife founded the nonprofit Wreaths Across America to take in donations and organize hundreds of wreath-laying ceremonies at veterans' cemeteries.

Wreaths Across America put 24,000 wreaths on Arlington headstones last year, and initially hoped to put them on virtually all 220,000 headstones this year. That initiative fell short, but Worcester said he's still pleased that they'll be able to put out 100,000 of the laurels.

Of the 325,000 wreaths in all of this year's ceremonies, Worcester is donating 25,000. His company makes the rest, but they are paid for through donations from groups and individuals and through corporate sponsorships.

The growth of the event doesn't surprise Joanne Patton of Hamilton, Mass., the daughter-in-law of World War II Gen. George S. Patton and the widow of Patton's son, Maj. Gen. George S. Patton IV, who is buried in Arlington.

On Monday, Patton will receive one of Worcester's wreaths in a ceremony in Topsfield, Mass., which she will then lay on a tank in Patton Park in Hamilton, Mass. She has participated in past Wreaths Across America events as well.

"It's an amazing expression of honoring the spirit of service," she said.

Figuring out the logistics of resting so many wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery was complex enough when there were only 5,000 to worry about, said Wayne Hanson, who is in charge of coordinating the ceremony at Arlington. If the weather is nice, Hanson expects more than 10,000 people to participate in Saturday's event.

Hanson is optimistic that some year soon all the Arlington headstones will have wreaths placed on them for the ceremony.

"We can work toward doing the whole cemetery for our 25th anniversary," he said.

Source

Who makes D.C.'s best sandwich?

The results are in from last week’s completely unscientific National Sandwich Day poll. The question we asked was, “Who makes the best sandwiches in the D.C. area?”

Well, it was a total landslide: After 2,162 votes, the runaway winner was SUNdeVICH...at 35 percent! Taylor Gourmet was the runner-up with 18 percent, while the Italian Store finished third with 11 percent.

It’s worth noting that there was no one-person, one-vote rule in play here. But despite having a weird name and being notoriously hard to find (it’s located in a converted garage in an alley near the Convention Center), SUNdeVICH is deserving of the honor, making globally-inspired sandwiches that are nonpareil in this town; where else will you find beef tongue, mustard and pickled vegetables on a baguette around here?

Fast Gourmet finished with just 3 percent of the vote, a shockingly-low total for a place that, despite being situated in a gas station, has won unrestrained, euphoric raves from bloggers (here, here, here and here) and food critics alike.

Also receiving write-in votes: Jetties, Cornercopia and Le Petit Corner Store.

Here's the full list of results:

A.M. Wine Shoppe: 3%
Booeymonger: 3%
The Butcher’s Block: 7%
Earl’s Sandwiches: 2%
Fast Gourmet: 3%
G Street Food: 1%
The Italian Store: 11%
Mangialardo and Sons: 7%
SUNdeVICH: 35%
Taylor Gourmet: 18%
Wagshal’s: 3%
Other: 7%
Total votes: 2,162

Source

New businesses opening in November

Taylor Gourmet Opening on 14th Street Mid-November

Taylor Gourmet has some of the best sandwiches in DC but their two current locations - H Street NE and K Street NW - are not easily accessible for most people in the city. Well construction is underway at their new location on 14th street near T street. I frequently walk past the empty building and I am counting down the days till it opens!

Not only do they have delicious sandwiches named after Philadelphia streets but their sides are to die for as well. Um, hello fried risotto balls! And if the line that forms is too daunting for you then of course you can opt for their online ordering system.

Check out their full array of sandwiches and sides here. And for those that live in the U Street/Columbia Heights area - keep your eyes open for it's grand opening hopefully sometime mid-November.

Trader Joe's Opening in Clarendon Sometime in November 

The opening of the new Trader Joe’s in Clarendon is about two months away.

The company announced today that its grocery store at 1109 N. Highland Street will open at some point in November. The store is 12,300 square feet in size and will offer underground parking.

Interior construction started early last month. Freezer cases and other food-related accoutrements are now visible inside the under-construction store.
With the opening forthcoming, Clarendon residents will soon start receiving Trader Joe’s sales flyers.

“Many area residents after the store opens can expect to receive a copy of the Trader Joe’s ‘Fearless Flyer’ in their mailboxes,” the company said. “The Fearless Flyer is a somewhat irreverent description of a timely selection of Trader Joe’s products. It’s been called a cross between Consumer Reports and Mad Magazine.”

There are more than 350 Trader Joe’s stores in 30 states.

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Restaurant Review: Pho 75

When the weather cools down, one of my favorite things to eat to keep me warm is pho. If you don't know what pho is then here is a brief description from Wikipedia:

"Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef or chicken. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Vietnamese basil, lime, and bean sprouts that are added to the soup by the person who is dining."

My picture from dinner a few days ago.

You can also add hoison sauce and/or sriacha sauce to the broth if you want more sweet and spice. There are tons of pho restaurants in DC and VA and I've tried a handful. My favorite is Pho 75 located next to Ray's Hell Burger in Rosslyn. The price is excellent and their meat and broth are the best I've had. I would suggest this place before trying any of the pricier options like Pho DC in Chinatown.

If you like your brisket meat to be a little more well-done then I would suggest ordering the pho chin, but if you're into rare steak then go with the pho tai.

Another great thing about this restaurant is that you can be in and out the door within 30 minutes. The staff seats you right away and your bowl of delicious goodness come out of the kitchen not long after you order.

The address is: 1721 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209