Culpie

Culpie is a curious guy, and loves discovering new and unique places and organizations. He was thus excited to check out Kossuth House, where a going away party he attended last Friday was held (And of course Culpie, like all of the penguins, loves a good party, although he prefers that they don’t involve friends leaving the area).


Donning his party hat, Culpie waddled down to Kossuth House, barely escaping the rain, thunder and hailstorm. Once safely inside he discovered that Kossuth House is home to the HungarianAmerica Foundation. He admired the various Hungarian handicrafts, caught up with friends, had some Hungarian wine and snacked on nuts and Sour Cream and Onion Ruffles (a secret guilty pleasure). He made certain to avoid the large plates of open faced cold cut sandwiches, which rather frightened his vegetarian self (but were popular with the other guests).

Kade

Kade immigrated to the United States from Berlin, Germany. Before moving to Washington he resided on the fifth floor of the Kaufhof des Westens (KaDeWe). There he had many friends to play with, and late at night they often snuck up to the gourmet floor, where they could choose from over 3000 wines, 1300 cheeses and 300 truffles and pralines. He highly recommends stopping by the KaDeWe if you happen to find yourself in Berlin (just don’t forget to ask him for his shopping list before you go).


Kade also frequented Berlin’s many museums, so he was pleased to end up in a city with many fine cultural institutions of its own. One of his favorite museums is the Corcoran Gallery of Art, where he recently viewed the exhibition William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008. After checking out the wonderful photographs he attended the 1869 Society’s Cultural Cocktails. He had lots of fun catching up with friends and partaking in Barefoot Wine’s wine tasting. As usual, he gravitated towards the bubbly (paired with popcorn, another favorite treat), and made certain to position himself near that tasting table all evening. Kade was excited to hear that the 1869 Society is now supporting ArtReach, which offers free arts education programs in local community centers, including THEARC and the Sitar Center. He can’t wait until the next 1869 Society event, and is really looking forward to Fall Fête on October 24.

Tess

While Tess, who hails from London, is not a diagnosed shopaholic, she finds it hard to resist a good sale. She was therefore very happy to join in on a recent family outing to the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets. Her favorite store there is Saks Off 5th, although she generally has better luck at the Off 5th in Arundel Mills…and who can resist the charm of a mall with both a Medieval Times and an Egyptian themed movie theater.

The Leesburg outlets, while lacking in such fine amenities, are not, however, all shopping and no play, and Tess was able to take a quick ride with Snoopy before heading home.

Tommy

Tommy, like many of the penguins, enjoys meeting up with his friends and going out for sweet treats. Recently he made a snack date at ACKC, where he always has such difficulty choosing between the fancy truffles, Kingsbury chocolate bars (so many yummy kinds!) and fleur de sel caramels.


He also loves their different hot (and frozen) chocolate drinks, but the humid DC day had made him really thirsty, so he opted for a lighter iced coffee (he could not, however, resist the almost as big as himself chocolate croissant).


After his feast Tommy decided to wander up 14th and down U Street for some window shopping. He was happy to run across some lovely penguins at Urban Essentials, and is hoping to save his pennies and take one (or both!) home with him.

Rocky and Chilly

While Rocky tries to avoid the suburbs as much as possible, he is always willing to trek out to Virginia to see the exhibitions at the Arlington Arts Center (he thinks that all art loving but suburb fearing DC residents should do the same). Friday he attended the opening of PARADOX NOW!, an exhibition of eight contemporary artists who approach history as a fluid dynamic, affected by the present and subject to revision. He enjoyed Anna Lucas’s film Little White Feather and the Hunter, and is considering purchasing the companion book.


Rocky also liked Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project, and had a great time making his own penguin hundred dollar bill!


Like Rocky, Chilly enjoys attending opening receptions at galleries. Saturday he stopped by three very different openings and saw lots of good stuff! He first popped by the Hamiltonian Gallery’s opening of new. (now). He especially liked the work by Lina Vargas De La Hoz (who knew a raincoat could be so versatile...).


Chilly then headed down 14th Street to see Not From Concentrate: A Juicy Art Exhibit, organized by The Pink Line Project. He is a great fan of The Pink Line Project and the many fantastic art events it organizes and promotes (he thinks that everybody should be a fan on Facebook). The crushed fruit photographs by Joshua Yospyn made him very hungry, so he was happy that tasty mini cupcakes (pink icing of course!) were provided.


This gave him more than enough energy to head to his final destination of the evening, the very very fun block party for the opening of Irvine Contemporary’s Street/Studio exhibition. His favorite murals were those by the Berlin based artist Evol.


Chilly had a wonderful time checking out the art (you should too) and catching up with fabulous friends, who had snuck in some bubbly from the nearby Whole Foods…much tastier than the block party keg beer!

Sparkly

Some people choose their wine by the label, Sparkly chooses his cereal this way. It should thus come as no surprise that he’s a fan of Walmart’s Great Value Sugar Frosted Flakes. And, while it may not be fashionable to admit it, he loves Walmart. Sparkly can spend hours waddling up and down its many aisles, picking up things that he may or may not need. Because DC has no Walmart, he makes certain to stock up on goodies whenever he happens to be somewhere there is one.


His most recent Walmart shopping spree was in Culpeper, where he also dined at The Stable. The monster sandwiches were tasty, and he loved the restaurant’s Civil War themed décor. It did sadly mean no penguins, but he thought the dogs were rather cute.

Peggy

Peggy may be a resident of career-oriented DC, but she thinks that life is much too short to get caught up in the rat race. Not only does she like to live in the moment, she knows the value of taking time to smell the roses. Friends and family are very important to Peggy, and she often meets them for long walks/gossip sessions.


Although she avoids the suburbs when possible (city snob that she is), she does occasionally meet up with friends in Clarendon, where she grabs a cup of coffee at Le Pain Quotidien and plays in neighborhood gardens.

Ditzy

Ditzy may be small, but he’s a supersized kind of guy. Whether it’s a Super Big Gulp or magnum of champagne, he’s always ready to take on the biggest thing out there. It should therefore come as no surprise that his favorite store is Costco. He loves perusing the random items available, purchasing his favorite products in bulk, and trying the numerous samples. Of course what he looks forward to the most is ending his shopping trip with Costco’s generous serving of frozen yogurt. He always opts for vanilla, but has been known to steal bites of his dining companion’s twist.

Alfie and Fred

The penguins know the importance of regular exercise. It keeps them healthy in body and mind, and gives them more energy to live their very social fast-paced lives. (Some of them are also quite vain and perhaps more concerned about maintaining low body fat percentages.) Each penguin has his/her favorite means of staying fit, some preferring team sports, others solo activities.


Alfie loves to swim, and looks forward to weekends in Fawn Lake, where he can spend the day swimming in the lake by his grandparents’ house. Otherwise it’s the pool at the Sports Club LA, where he keeps fit by swimming laps.


Fred likes to keep fit by jumping on his trampoline, a perfect activity for his bouncy personality. Most of the time he just jumps around playfully, but when he’s in the mood for some serious exercise he does an urban rebounding video.

Lucky

After a weekend of festivities the penguins like to relax and partake in various lazy Sunday afternoon activities. Lucky enjoys wandering aimlessly around Georgetown, window (and sometimes real) shopping. This past Sunday he was very excited to see penguins, the work of artist duo Kozyndan, on the window of the Puma store. The couple has designed a fabulous penguin t-shirt for Puma, but unfortunately the store does not carry his size.


Lucky also likes to indulge in the numerous tasty treats available in Georgetown. He loves the falafel sandwich and fries at Quick Pita, but his favorite treat is the divine peanut butter frozen yogurt at Thomas Sweet. He thinks that the Oreo frozen yogurt is rather good too, and when he’s feeling really decadent he gets the rum raisin ice cream.

Waddles

Waddles is a great fan of the opera (he counts Lucia di Lammermoor and L’italiana in Algeri amongst his favorites). A regular at Washington National Opera performances, the Opera Ball is one of the highlights of his social calendar. This year he began his evening with dinner at the Colombian Residence; the Ambassador was such a gracious hostess that Colombia has moved up numerous slots on his must-visit list.

Waddles then taxied over to the German Residence, where lots and lots of treats and visual pleasures awaited him. He loved the people dressed up as characters from The Magic Flute, and had fun watching marzipan creations being made. Of course he had more fun trying the different delicacies, including numerous chocolate treats and strudel from the strudel bar.


The highlight of the evening, however, was a performance by Ute Lemper, his favorite German chanteuse.


After the concert Waddles danced the night away, hoping to burn off some of the calories from all of the sweet treats (and to keep himself away from the bubbly). Having fun truly is exhausting!

Lil T

Life is one big arty party for the penguins. Lil T loves attending events held in museums, and the Corcoran, Hirshhorn and National Gallery are his favorite party spots. He does, however, like to expand his horizons, and hopes to hit every museum in town in the after hours. He recently attended the Sackler Gallery’s Asia AFTER Dark, where he saw some art, socialized with friends, had a few cocktails and ate yummy vegetarian-friendly food from Mie N Yu.


A creative type, Lil T enjoyed making an origami business card holder (only in DC). Next time – an origami penguin!

Isabella

Isabella is the most recent addition to the penguin family, having been adopted in London last week. Before packing up to come to Washington (she made certain to stock up on tea, Penguin Biscuits and other essentials), Isabella went to Greenwich to visit some friends.

She did a little shopping, trying on the latest fashions at Beauty and the Bib, and then painted ceramics and indulged in some carrot cake at Biscuit Ceramic Café.

Isabella is enjoying life in Washington with her new family, and is happy that she has lots of fellow English penguins to hang out with in case she ever feels homesick.

Allie

Tippety is not the only penguin who found his/her way to London last week; he was joined on his journey by Allie. Allie is an avid waddler, and enjoys spending her days wandering around cities, exploring their many nooks and crannies. Pedometer in hand, she logged 20,000 steps strolling around the back streets and parks of London, from the Barbican to Victoria to South Kensington. A lover of all things dairy (and rather thirsty from the substantial distance covered), she was tempted to take a sip of the freshly delivered milk she encountered along the way.


Allie also wanted a little art in her day, so she stopped by the gallery Eleven to check out Kent Christensen’s paintings of sweet treats. His images of ice cream, pancakes and other goodies made her very hungry, so she hurried down to the King’s Road Le Pain Quotidien, where she indulged in some baguette with Blandice, her favorite spread.

Tippety

Tippety, like many of his fellow penguins, enjoys jetting off to faraway places. As a fan of both the graphic arts and off the beaten path places and events, he was very happy to be in London for the first Leather Lane Biennale, thrown by Omni Colour and K2 Screen. Tippety learned about print production, and admired the various commissions and artist editions, a few in particular catching his eye.


He also caught up with friends while enjoying wine, juicy vodka melons and the very tasty guacamole and salsa verde provided by Daddy Donkey; he can’t wait to hit its burrito cart the next time he is in town. Tippety had a grand old time, but all that eating, drinking and socializing was hard work!