Manhattan

Manhattan enjoys taking off to Europe for the long Thanksgiving weekend. He does, however, hate to miss out on celebrating a holiday (especially one that involves a good meal), so he celebrated the weekend before the big day with his family in Fawn Lake. This year there were some new additions to the always delicious meal –the chipotle sweet potato puree and butternut squash and kale bread pudding were amongst his favorites. He was also shocked to discover that when sliced and sautéed with garlic and chili peppers flakes he actually liked Brussel sprouts.


The day after the feast, in the tradition of Black Friday (event though it wasn’t), he decided to hit the local mall. He thought about visiting Santa and telling him what wanted he wanted for Christmas, but he didn’t really want to wait in the long line, and all of those articles about Santas wanting their H1N1 shots sort of took the magic out of the experience. When he was done with his shopping he had a quick lunch - it wouldn’t be a trip to the Spotsylvania Towne Center without indulging in Costco’s pizza and frozen yogurt (of course only after sampling everything vegetarian that Costco had to offer…calories don’t count during the holidays, of course).

Goldie

Goldie loves museums, big and small. Some people may think they are elitist institutions, others just boring places housing dusty old things, but she loves spending her time wandering their halls, losing herself amongst displays of art and material culture (she’ll happily pass on science museums, however). Luckily Washington has many institutions for her to explore, from the not so well known Art Museum of the Americas, which she recently became involved with, to the popular National Gallery of Art, one of her favorites.


Goldie waddled over to the latter this past Thursday, as she realized she had limited time to catch the exhibition The Art of Power – Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain. Anything Spain related always puts her in the mood for sangria (the key when making it is to soak the fruit in brandy for at least half a day), so after perusing the show her mind turned to happy hour (not that she is a lush).


Despite her thirst Goldie made time to check out the flowers in the museum's rotunda. While she loves the poinsettias that surround the fountain during the holiday season, she was impressed by the current autumn colored display. As a yellow/orange penguin she often feels slightly out of place, but in this case she fit right in!

Zibbie

Zibbie is a fashionista, known amongst his friends for his impeccable style and crazy hair. He devotes much of his free time to keeping up on the latest trends, and always likes a good fashion show. He thus found himself at the Bloomingdale’s in Chevy Chase this past Friday, for the Washington Ballet Women’s Committee fashion show, Runway en Relevé Redux.


He enjoyed checking out the latest in winter and evening fashions as he sipped away on bubbly. When the show was over he engaged in some socializing, flirting with the models and gossiping with friends, while drinking more bubbly and snacking on various tasty treats (he was a fan of the white chocolate truffle lollipops). Luckily he didn’t completely lose track of time, and was able to get in some shopping before the store closed, as 10% of all proceeds went to the Washington Ballet.


Zibbie had invited some friends over the following evening, so he spent Saturday whipping up assorted goodies. An avid baker, he tried two new recipes – spiced ginger cookies (he is always looking for a recipe that does not require molasses) and Jamie Oliver’s peanut butter blondies (He added more peanut butter, as suggested. You can never have too much of a good thing). Zibbie was in a cozy kind of mood, so he lit a fire, put on some opera, and brought out all of his penguin partyware. He had a nice evening catching up with his friends, and even managed to get in a good night’s sleep – a rarity on a weekend, but necessary. A fashionista does need his beauty sleep after all.

Pom

Pom, like many of his friends, likes nothing more than art and socializing, and luckily for him there is no shortage of events that combine the two in Washington. He started this past weekend’s art and socializing activities Thursday evening, with a Corcoran Contemporaries event, one of a series where local art patrons open up their homes and collections to members. He happened to know the two fabulous art collector hosts, and was happy to finally have the opportunity to see their diverse collection. Art made its way into every corner of their apartment, including the bathroom, where Pom admired a soap on a rope sculpture by Sebastian Martorana.


Friday Pom hit some of the openings being held in conjunction with FotoWeek DC. He started out at the Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts, where he saw Dulce Pinzón’s The Real Story of the Superheroes, a satirical documentary style exhibition consisting of pictures of Mexican immigrants in New York City, wearing superhero garb in their daily work environments. He then went to the Hamiltonian Gallery to check out the exhibition of works by Anne Chan and Michael Dax Iacovone, and to Project 4, to see the work of local ceramic artist Laura Lukaszewski (which he loved).


Pom decided to end his evening early, as he was anticipating a drunken Saturday night at the Transformer Gallery silent auction and benefit party, and would need his beauty sleep.


Pom predicted correctly - he had a grand time at the party, held at the Mexican Cultural Institute. Sadly he did not win the work by Melissa Dickenson that he had his eye on, but he enjoyed perusing the art, and admired the Day of the Dead décor still up at the institute.


And of course there was the bubbly and the dancing…luckily Pom is a wise penguin and knows not to make plans for post-party Sundays.

CP

Halloween is a time to dress up, to show off one’s creativity and express one’s alter ego. For CP, however, dressing up is a yearlong activity. He may be a cow, but he has always felt that he was meant to be a penguin, and therefore chooses to live life as one. And since he is always in costume, CP doesn't stress over what to wear for Halloween, a day he celebrates to the fullest (what can he say, he has a sweet tooth).


This year he spent Halloween in Fawn Lake, where he got into the spirit by designing a Jack O’ Lantern and handing out treats to neighborhood children (he swears he didn’t dip into the stash…although he might have tried to push what he didn’t like, in the hopes that there would be leftovers). CP also ventured to downtown Fredericksburg to see the doggie trick-or-treating. He was impressed with the varied costumes and thought about joining in on the fun, but then he found out that dogs aren’t supposed to have chocolate, so he decided to stick with shopping.