Lise Howe, Assoc. Broker and Attorney Licensed in DC, MD, VA,Coldwell Banker

My favorite pizza in DC is 2Amys on Macomb St and Wisconsin Ave., just down the street from McLean Gardens. With its wonderful wood fire to bake the pizzas and open kitchen, this neighborhood treasure has become a popular destination for dinner, particularly on the weekends. It has been voted the best pizza by Washingtonian Magazine readers, and Tom Sietsma of the Washington Post said: "Yep, it's noisy. And some days the place is so filled with half-pints and their handlers, the scene could pass for one big children's party. Just get a glass of vino and relax: You're about to eat some of the best pizza in the country. Two Amys specializes in the Neapolitan variety - puffy, yeasty and baked in a wood-burning oven - which it decorates with such finery as cockles, house-made pork sausage and mozzarella di bufala (the real deal), and prefers to serve the Italian way, uncut."

My favorite pizza is the Calabrese with tomatoes, onions, anchovy, fresh mozzarell, parsley and olives but my daughter always chooses the one with meatballs. Yum!

Don't forget the appetizers like the hot roasted olives or the salt cod croquettes! The only downside of Two Amys definately is the crowd at any time that you probably want to go for dinner! Yes, the place is filled with happy munchers, families, and children, who are always welcomed. If you are looking for great pizza without children in tow, don't worry. You will fit right in!

I grew up in DC just a few blocks from 2Amys and I remember that there were only a few restaurants in the neighborhood, and nothing like this Neopolitan style pizza restaurant. Now there are some great restaurants near McLean Gardens, making it a perfect place to live. If you want more information about McLean Gardens, just give Lise Howe a call at 240-401-5577.

I agreed to chair the Cystic Fibrosis Wine Opener on October 3rd in Washington DC, at the US Chamber of Commerce. I had helped out with it in the past and knew that the CF Foundation staff is fabulous and most of the event seemed to run on auto pilot because the staff is so good. It certainly seemed like something that I could do. The event is a lot of fun - with a wonderful meal and even better wine. Tickets are about $150 per person, and then of course there are the wonderful items that you can buy at significant discount at the silent and live auctions.

Now here it is in mid August and the event is just 2 months away. We haven't sold nearly enough tables. I am sure we don't have enough goodies to auction off, and my committee is on permanent vacation.

Is there anyone in the DC metro area who needs a good cause to adopt? Would anyone like to get involved? If you want more information about cystic fibrosis, I will be glad to provide it to you. If you have a weekend home that you would like to donate or great aunt Sophie's vase that you want to unload, we would love it! Would you like to give your clients a really nice evening out on the town for a very good cause? This would make a real point of how committed you are to good works.

My daughter and I need your help!

My morning started with a bang - literally. The top of a very tall tree fell over at start of our street -the taking down electric lines in the neighborhood and the phone lines. (Not that land lines are very important to many people any more.) The owner had had the tree trimmed several days ago, but the tree still fell over anyway.

I asked the electric repair lineman what had caused the very large limb to fall over since it didn't look diseased, and here was his explanation.

The mid Atlantic region has had six or seven years of drought, which of course stressed all the trees. This summer is a wet wet one, and the trees have thrived, putting out lots of leaves. The combination of lots of leaves and rain has been more than many tree trunks and branches can handle in their weakened state, and they are falling over, splitting at the trunk.

So..... if you live in the Mid Atlantic region, you should talk to an arborist about whether your trees' branches should be thinned out a little of excess leaves and smaller branches to reduce the strain on the branches and trunks. That way when there is a heavy rain or snow, the tree will be strong enough to withstand the strain.

And you thought that rain was good for all living things! Hah!

Lise Howe

I said good bye to my tenants of three years today, who lived in a rental house we own down the street from our own home. They are a lovely family of a father, a mother, four children, a Chihuahua with an attitude and a very relaxed cat. The father has been here in the United States as the deputy ambassador and trade minister from Uruguay. Before coming to the United States they were in Geneva where he was at the GATT, and now they are moving to Bogata, Colombia, where he will be the Uruguayan Ambassador to Colombia.

Their children are always well mannered and pleasant. They arrived speaking French and Spanish, but no English. The children immediately were enrolled in the Montgomery County Public Schools, Whitman, Pyle, and Burning Tree, and they all became completely fluent in English in short order. As best as I could tell, the last three years have been a good experience of American life, and their oldest son learned to drive here, and all of the children made lots of friends. The father obviously thrived as his next posting was an ambassadorship earlier than he had expected. As the family thrived, the mom has kept everyone moving forward, safe and happy. With four active children, it seemed that she was forever doing laundry, piles and piles of laundry. She has been consistently gracious, ingenious in fixing things around the house, a gardener who left my yard better than when I gave it to them, and a lover of goldfish. In the yard, she took the time to create a lovely lily pond with small goldfish swimming in it. I confess that I have always wanted a lily pond, so it will be very special to me.

When we walked back into the house, she started to cry a little bit, and immediately headed for the last load of laundry tossing in the dryer about to be put into a suitcase for the trip to Colombia. Embarrassed, she explained that she was very tired, and her husband joined in the explanation. I am sure she was very tired, but I also thought of how hard it must be to get up for yet another move, a new country, a new house, new schools, a new job, and the hope of new friends.

As realtors, we see so many people relocating from other parts of the US and the world. Generally we see them with smiles on their faces, happy to be wherever they have just arrived, but seeing this very sweet woman getting ready for yet another move, it made me realize yet again, how hard it is on those relocating families. So, when the next relo pops up for you, treat them very kindly. They probably have just moved from someplace they called home, and it is up to us to help them make this new place home all over again.

Good Luck!

Lise Howe

My husband and I watched Good Bye Mr Chips last night on cable - the original 1930s version with Robert Donat and Greer Garson. I think it actually was her first movie and she is magnificent, of course. If you don't know the movie, which is based on a book by James Hilton which he wrote in only four days. (He also wrote Lost Horizon), it is about a teacher in the 1880s-1920s, who taught Latin in an boys school in England. He doesn't get it right at first because he is a bit of a stick in the mud as a young man, but then he meets Greer Garson and marries her. She brings out the best in him, dies in child birth, and he lives on to become the dearly beloved old school teacher that we all wish we had had.

Oh - actually, I had the female equivalent when I was in high school, who also taught Latin. Miss Helen Shearman, a graduate of Wellesley College, dedicated her entire life to teaching young women a "dead" language at the Holton Arms School in Bethesda. You know - Latin killed the Romans, and now it's killing me.

At 65 she had more life and energy in her than most 20 year olds. If you made a mistake depending on her mood, she would throw a rubber super ball at you. If you used "ma'am," a term which offended her Yankee sensibilities as being subservient, she would collect a penny from you. (Since I grew up in the South, I had to forfeit lots of pennies.)

Besides Latin, she taught us word derivations, sculpture, Roman history, mythology, geography, and even a little Italian. So much of that broad education has stuck with me. As an adult, in honor of Miss Sherman, I make sure that any trip to a city of any size includes a trip to at least one museum. I have passed that love of museums on to my children. While Miss Shearman never received any credit for teaching me Latin, she did enjoy a certain distinction for having taught Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when she was at Holton.

Great teachers aren't limited to Latin teachers. My son was blessed to have Mr. Dixon, an English teacher, and Bob Condit, a science teacher, both at the Landon School in Bethesda, and my daughter studied with Miss Day at the Washington Ballet School.

At the end of Good Bye Mr Chips, as he is dying, someone says, "What a shame he never had any children of his own," and he says very softly, "I had lots of children, hundreds of them." That really reminded me of Miss Sherman and the other wonderful old school educators who truly gave their entire lives to educate young people. I hope that Miss Sherman, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Condit, and Miss Day all knew or know just how important they have been to so many people and that their lives were as rich as ours have become for knowing them.

Thanks Miss Sherman! and you should say thank you to your special teachers too.