
The 4th Annual Ofrenda or Day of the Dead Festival at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria will take place this Saturday, October 30.
Day of the Dead is a centuries old holiday celebrated in Mexico and by Mexican Americans, It focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember those who have died.
Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed.
The official celebration occurs on November 2 in conjunction with All Souls Day.
The Day of the Dead at the Torpedo Factory includes an afternoon exhibit of ofrendas or altars by 36 local artists; sugar skull making; a parade from Market Square at 7:00pm; and full blown masquerade ball in the evening.
We're out of town this year but I'm putting this on my calendar for 2011!
I confess to knowing little or nothing about art or sculpture, so I'll refrain from passing judgment on this piece of public art, "Three Eggs in Space".

Located at the nexus of Mt. Vernon and Commonwealth Avenue in the north end of Del Ray, this is the work of Knoxsville artist Karen Bailey.

What say you?
Last week the battery in my laptop died - completely. I hadn't really thought much about it until I realized I had a long plane trip in my immediate future.
Knowing I didn't have time to order a battery from Dell, I put out a query on our local neighborhood list serv. Within minutes I got the same information from about 10 different folks - Batteries Plus in the Bradlee Shopping Center.

My experience at the Bradlee Shopping Center - situated between Braddock and King Streets at Quaker Lane - is pretty limited to Pat the Barber and Atlantis Pizza. How had I missed an entire shop devoted to batteries? It almost qualifies as a man cave!
So off I went and I am here to tell you that this is a homeowner's paradise. The first Batteries Plus store opened in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1988 and sold their first franchise in 1992. There are now well over 300 stores nation wide.

Bright and with well marked categories, Batteries Plus carries everything from watch batteries to tank batteries., literally.
These are just some of the categories I noticed:
Batteries Plus in the Bradlee Shopping Center - is a definite keeper. In fact, some of my new home owners may be getting gift cards from Batteries Plus.
It's days like today that make me wish that either I was a better photographer or had one of those swell 'professional' cameras with different lens and more settings than I know what to do with.
The 14th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade and Celebration was fabulous. The weather was perfect, it was the biggest crowd ever (well over 5,000 folks) and everyone had a great time.
A ferret won the best dressed pet contest, "Alice in Wonderful Del Ray" was a show stopper, nobody got lost and I've never grilled as many hot dogs in my life!
I'll let the pictures tell you the rest . . .
About 150 folks gathered yesterday for the 9th Annual Del Ray Chili Cook Off on LaGrande Avenue.

Officially slated for a 4-6pm time period, the party was still going strong well past 9:00pm. And why not - there was great food, music, chairs and hay bales for relaxing and lots of neighbors for visiting.




We still don't know the official winner but the Chili Calypso, a vegetarian offering and the Chili Cali, with toppings that included avocado and homemade tortilla strips were early favorites.
Now, on to the 14th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade and Celebration . . .
Michael and Virginia
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