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Before I had my pico-de-yoppo episode, we’d been on a chicken wing tear, here are the findings.

Grilled Wings:
Top honors go to Austin Grill. (The spice is unbeatable, and the house made Ranch dressing for dipping is perfection)
Second place is Hard Times Cafe. (Great flavoring and served smoking hot temp.)

Fried WIngs:
Top honors go to Buffalo Wild Wings. (OMFG … Asian Zing, Honey BBQ)
Second place is Cluck You. (Don’t let the cover of this book fool you, made to order. When they say “HOT”, believe it.)

We went to check out Facci last weekend for lunch. Am I glad we did. Despite the fact that the TV’s in the bar were showing my beloved Terps getting hammered by Dook, I still had a great time. We knew we were off to a great start when the bread came out … and went in about 3 seconds. The pizza is amazing. It reminds me of the pizza Lisa and I devoured in Italy, thin, crispy and fresh. Erin had spaghetti and meatballs. (thanks for keeping the price down on such a simple dish) Austen had spicy sausage and peppers, delicious AND spicy.

We had great service, that’s notable since they’ve only been open 5 weeks! Lots of patrons were sipping wine, either by the bottle or glass. Don’t let the cover of this book throw you, the inside is decorated nicely. If you were driving by you might not stop. Please do, you won’t be disappointed. Read Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema’s First Bite review of Facci.

Oh the humanity. If I could list all of the failed chicken soup recipes I’ve tried, Ina’s, Joan’s, American Test Kitchen’s, on and on. I’m being a little harsh with the word “failed.” Failed in the sense that they failed to rise to the Gold Standard of Chicken Soup for TheDadReport.com family. And that would be Max’s Deli in Highland Park, IL. If you’re ever near there, GO. Really hungry? The answer is Mish Mosh. Mish Mosh = chicken soup, kreplach, rice, matzo ball, noodles. Oh, don’t forget the brisket sandwich on Challah. (That’s pronounced Hall-uh, not Chal-uh, ugh.) A close second is the chicken soup at The Stage Deli in NYC. I digress.

After much searching, the winner is from the Pioneer Woman Cooks. This chick has mad skills. Here is her recipe, with pics yo! When you print out her recipe to make the soup, and you will, note I have some mods. Her recipe is simple, fast and delicious. My mods are as follows, I’m sure you’ll have some of your own.

- 1 Carrot instead of 2
- 2 Teaspoons of Season-All Seasoned Salt instead of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
- Deleted 2 Teaspoons of Jane’s Crazy Mixed-Up Salt or other salt blend
- 3 Teaspoons (heaping) of Better than Bouillon Reduced Sodium Chicken Base instead of 2 Tbs chicken base (See, I name names bitch)
- 1/4 Teaspoon Celery Salt
- 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Locally, the TDR team is very partial to the Chicken Soup at the Hollywood Diner in Rockville, Md. A very close second is the soup at Woodside Deli in Silver Spring, MD. Woodside is in desperate need of a renovation, so just don’t look too close at any one surface. Taking kids? Sit more to the front, the walls are covered in old black and white pics. Toward the front, the pics are more or less from US History, (A subject they don’t teach anymore) toward the back the pics are more or less Fluffy Soft Porn, (A subject you can’t get away from) think naked pin-up gals. All are covered in the requisite 50 year old Woodside dust. Clean the fricking pics will ya! Drives me nuts. Oy!

With great anticipation TheDadReport.com crew headed down to DC to visit the newly re-modeled National Museum of American History. Not good. My advice, do not plan anything around a visit to this museum. The space itself is divided up into East and West wings with a center hall, all rightee. In doing so, it renders each little space in the wing(s) oddly compact and without life. For example: Popular Culture. You wait in line, the first thing you see as you enter is an electronic portrait of Stephen Colbert, uh, okay. Not the first person I think of as representing U.S. Popular Culture but okay, he’s funny and timely. That’s pretty much the highlight right there. Once past “Colberrrr”, you see Archie Bunker’s chair from All In The Family, a few shoes, a few baseball unis, Kermit and you’re out the door. Wow, not much to US pop culture. And the space is devoid of character. The little area where Archie’s chair resides has zero graphics on the wall, nothing indicating more to see ahead. It looks like a temporary exhibit where someone said, “uh, where are we putting this fricking chair?” “Just put it in a glass case and shove the whole shit out the door there to the left.”

To be fair there are a couple of exhibits worth your time. The Star Spangled Banner is super cool and well worth it. This exhibit is nicely designed, you see the flag and then read the history on the way out. Nice. I also enjoyed seeing Julia Child’s kitchen. It is her actual kitchen from her Cambridge, MA. home. Though I can see it only being of interest to a certain age of visitor. You can hear many parents telling their kids who Julia was. A lot of blank stares and “uh huhs” ahead. “Bon Appetit!” indeed.

The other exhibit worth mentioning is The First Ladies. The docent told us the exhibit will get larger, though it’s worth the time now. Take a look at all of the First Ladies portraits around the room and see if you can tell who the first one was to actually smile. As we sport 2 daughters, the First Ladies Inaugural gowns was a big hit. By-the-by, can someone take a better portrait of Michelle Obama? It may have been updated since we were there, but it looked like someone took Michelle’s pic with a cell phone. Come on.

So that’s it. It has a few things worth seeing but I’d skip it if I had a time crunch. I recommend the Natural History Museum, especially with kids in tow. A tip on parking: The Ronald Reagan Building. Located only a block away, you can park on weekends for $10 a day. Very convenient to the museums as well as the Washington Monument. Plus, it has super clean bathrooms and decent food court. It’s a nice place to stop for a drink or food and relax.

First day at our new pool, Northwest Branch. In the water with Erin who recently broke her finger playing/not playing dodgeball. We have her hand wrapped in plastic so as not to get it wet. Ooops, got it wet anyway :-) Erin spies a little pal from RMSC practice group. The conversation goes like this:

Little Pal, “What happened to your finger?”
Erin, “Broke it playing dodgeball.”
Little Pal, “Well, at least you didn’t break your neck and get paralyzed.”

Jesus. How many times did I say that to Lisa when she so gently inquired as to my plans for the heap of old computer crap I was hoarding. Yeah, I’m gonna fix some 20yr old Macs and sell them on Ebay. For what, maybe $20.00, maybe? “I need to go through each computer and get any upgrade cards I put in, I’m gonna sell those on EBay too . . .” Yeaaahhhh. It’s funny the roadblocks you put in front of yourself when you don’t want to do something. Like, say getting a colonoscopy cuz yer getting near 50 years old. “No one, including a gastro Doc is touching the button, got it?” That’s a fight for another day, back to the computer crap. Read more »

Looks like I’m late on this one, but get thee to Maryland Day tomorrow. The weather is going to be great. This is a must for all ages, but a super must for families.
Wind tunnels, FREE Ice Cream, Insect Zoo, Robotics, Music, Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Art, Music . . . and that’s just the first hour. Maryland Day simply can’t be described, you have to actually go to understand how great it truly is.

I wrote about it last year after the fact. I hoped to get the word out sooner this year, oops. :-) Been kinda busy.

As a dad of 2 young softballers we’re always on the lookout to watch as well as play. Nothing better than going to University of Maryland and taking in a Terp softball game. The Terps play in the Robert E. Taylor Stadium right next to the Comcast Center. You can drive right up to it and roll right in, all the games are FREE. The seats behind home are very comfortable, there is a concessions stand (yes they take credit cards, no you can’t bring your own food in) and clean bathrooms. (Important to some of us clean-freak-don’t-touch-anything-in-this bathroom-types.) The play is top-notch. You will see it all, homers, strike-outs, plays at home, rundowns, fly balls and more. It is perfectly fun, family fare. Not to mention girls/womens sports get overlooked far too often and that alone makes a trip worthwhile. Girls rule, boys drool. So there. Read more »

I just want to say up front that we’re not the kid-overscheduling-parent types. But I guess having 2 daughters play on 3 different softball teams, 3 games per week, plus 3 practices just wasn’t enough for us. Throw in a few pitching and hitting clinics plus getting at least 100 swings a day in, well . . .  Why not join a swim practice group to get ready for a summer swim team that we’re not even on?

Enter RMSC practice swim group. The girls have never been part of a practice swim group, much less a swim team. This is a practice group to get one ready for summer swim teams, which I’ve been led to believe are fun affairs and not as serious as fall swim teams. Let’s hope so cuz I was ready to hurl after watching how many laps my gals went through on the first practice. Whoa, they ain’t playing these RMSCers!

After the third set of “give me 10 fifties, freestyle,” Lisa and I catch the attention of Austen as she is about to make the turn for another lap. She clearly mouths us this concise message, “I hate this.” Okay. Read more »

It was just too nice today to sit around. So, last minute TheDadReport crew ran up to Baltimore to catch the Orioles vs. Yankees (cuz the Nats were out of town). It was hard to tell who the home team was. There were as many Yankee fans as O’s fans. Reminds me of a Nats game last year vs. Cubs, it was a sea of Cub blue. Hate that shit. In fact just today Tom Boswell wrote about Gnat President Stan Kasten inviting Philly fans down to Nats town, wtf? Put real MLB playas on the field and we won’t have to ask hated rivals like Philly to bring down some more of their obnoxious ilk. For that matter, you could put my daughter’s softball team out there and I’d still never want a Philly, Cub, Marlin or Met fan in the house.  Read more »