Hopping on the Meatless Monday bandwagon? Or going even further? Here are some great places where you can get your grub on without slicing into a bit of meat. You’ll still leave with a full belly!

1. Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant — This is my all-time favorite vegetarian place. They also provide vegan meals. The flavors tend towards Asian favorites. You’ll find sweet & sour, General Tso, won-ton soup, and even a sort of sushi, all 100% vegetarian. In addition, there are many more creative vegetarian creations that I encourage you to try. The Seven Corners location is newer and more formal than the original location in Vienna, which is a bit cozier. But they are both equally tasty!
2. Java Green — When in downtown D.C., this is the best vegetarian sandwich available for miles. Their barbeque sauce is unbelievably tasty. It’s a small shop, but when the weather is nice, they have some nice outdoor seating available too. I very much recommend this for the doubting Thomas that doesn’t believe meatless can be filling.
3. Amma Vegetarian — There is a location in Vienna (the Georgetown location sadly closed recently) with carry-out available. It provides very tasty southern Indian cooking, all vegetarian and VERY spicy. If you like it hot, stop by and give this a whirl. Yum!

If you’ve got some other ideas, please share in the comments!

I just wrapped up my first year as a volunteer with GirlsRock! DC, and what an experience!

About 70 campers from all over the District, Maryland and Virginia put on an unforgettable showcase on Saturday morning at the 9:30 Club. As a girl, I had recitals for flute, violin and voice. I performed in plays and musicals. But nothing I ever did before college was like this.

These girls were so confident on stage, all performing original songs or DJ sets. It was really overwhelming, especially after spending two days with them earlier in the week as a workshop teacher. I’d seen them just learning to get along, just meeting each other, and here are all these great cohesive bands up on stage looking just as good as any college band. (Sometimes better…)

If you didn’t get the chance to attend the show on Saturday, I encourage you to click around the GirlsRock! DC website. See what they’ve done and check out some of the stories that have been written on them. (Donations would be appreciated, I might add!) This is really a super opportunity for families that rock to take in together, and for girls 8-18 to take part in.

For older girls like me, I encourage you to follow my lead and volunteer some time. It is all kinds of inspirational and FUN!

If you have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I found this great volunteer organization to donate some time to.

On August 14th at 11:00am, more than 70 Washington area girls will take to the stage at the 9:30 Club, just as many legendary rock stars have done before them. Girls Rock! DC (GR!DC), a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, is launching its third annual, week long rock camp for girls ages 8-18.

During the week of August 9th – 13th, a volunteer staff of female educators, musicians and community organizers provide campers instruction on electric guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals and turntables. The campers form bands and are coached by counselors to write, collaborate and perform original songs and DJ sets before a live audience at the 9:30 Club.

The aim of Girls Rock! DC is to create a supportive, inclusive and creative space for girls to build community, stand up and rock out! With a base in music education, the camp will focus on building girls’ self-confidence, leadership and cooperation skills.

Campers also attend workshops on team building, performance and body confidence, songwriting and other skills young women need to take over the world of rock. I’m on the media literacy team. Whee!

I encourage you to join us (bring your kids!) at the showcase on Saturday to see these girls rock out. I can’t wait!

The girls will showcase their original works at Washington’s 9:30 Club on Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am.
The showcase is open to the public.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Free admission for youth 12 and under.
More information is available at the Girls Rock! DC website: www.girlsrockdc.org.

Girls Rock! DC is part of a national Girls Rock Camp Alliance. There are Girls Rock camps all over the world.

UPDATE: We got some coverage from NPR’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show (check out the video)

After months of fundraising, today I crossed the finish line at the National Walk for Epilepsy with my biggest supporter, my husband. It felt great to have worked for this cause that affects me every day, and to be part of this effort to raise awareness for this condition.

There were so many thousands of people there this morning, families and friends supporting each other. It was empowering. There were also NFL athletes and local and national celebrities there to help draw attention to our cause. Of course that means we grabbed some autographs and pictures, you know me!

The money we raised will go to fight stigma, raise awareness and find a cure for epilepsy. My hope is that this Walk will help bring more families closer to seizure-free lives, and help people better understand what epilepsy is all about. This year’s theme is Talk About It. There is a great new website at TalkAboutIt.org to explain epilepsy to the world. I hope you’ll check it out!

ALSO SEE: Why I’m walking for epilepsy

I’m looking forward to embarking on a new adventure as a corporate tweeter. As such, I’ve taken a good deal of time accumulating best practices for corporate accounts. Many of these are the same as I would recommend for anyone operating a business Twitter account for themselves:

1. Have a mission/message in mind before you post your first tweet.
2. Your message should also consider your target audience.
3. Twitter directories are a good way to gain some followers initially, but there is no get followers quick solution.
4. Be selective in following. There is no need to follow everyone who follows you.
5. Be careful of your language. This is even more important for corporations than for individuals.
6. Your posts are 100% public. Remember that bad news travels faster than good news and anything your shareholders wouldn’t like will travel out of the Twitterverse and onto TV screens and into newspapers.
7. Corporations need to select a voice. It’s best if one person, or a couple of people, man the account, for consistency, and to be sure there’s no redundancy. Most corporations invoke the royal ‘we.’  Other more customer-service oriented Twitter accounts have used an individual speaking from the first person.
8. A regular stream of content is important to any Twitter feed to maintain followers. Appropriate corporate topics include:

• • respond to follower/customer inquiries
  • retweet satisfied customer tweets
  • link to updated/interesting information on corporate websites/blogs
  • retweet updates from affiliated Twitter accounts
  • Twitter contests
  • advance notice of corporate news
  • Twitter discount codes
  • stimulate Twitter discussions with product-related questions
  • product-related trivia
  • run online surveys
  • photos of corporate events

Have some other ideas? Please share in the comments!

Bird art by Triax Mills.

It’s been nearly a week of snow, snow and more snow. The Washington, D.C. area set records for snowfall and for consecutive days of the Federal government and the D.C. government being closed. My husband and I set records for consecutive days of talking to no one else except each other. How did we survive? Well, the Internet helped a lot. And my husband’s unbelievably huge DVD collection. And the fact that we only lost power for two and a half hours. But there were some other key things that I was really very glad we had with us, and I’d like to make a note to keep this stuff on hand, just in case disaster strikes.

• iPhone – I did not have to worry about whether we had power or not to check Twitter, e-mail and news websites thanks to my iPhone. Oh, and I could post photos of our deep snow to Facebook easily, too. It charges fast and keeps its charge. I’ve got a solar charger, too.
• Battery-operated radio - The radio offers updated information and music. In a power outage, sometimes you just need some tunes to keep you sane. Be sure to keep batteries on hand.
• Dry goods and canned foods - Fresh veggies are the best when you can get them, but when you can’t get out, it is a huge relief to have a good stash of things that are easy to make by just adding water, or by just heating them up. Stuff like ramen noodles, instant soup, canned soup and vegetables, as well as pasta and rice all keep well without refrigeration for long periods.
• LED nightlights that convert to flashlights when the power goes out or a circuit breaker trips. These are very low-energy and we keep one in every room, so when the power went out, these went on. They’re not super powerful, but they are enough to help you find what you need, like the other members of your family.
• Heavy-duty flashlight or camping lantern – It’s useful to have something like this to light up an entire room that isn’t a candle. Because candles are, well, flammable, and dangerous, especially around pets and children.
• Long-burning fireplace logs – If you have a fireplace — which I definitely recommend if you are going to experience a power outage in the cold — stashing a six-pack of these long-burning logs in your basement won’t keep your house toasty, but it will give you some light and comfort with much less work and ash than a wood fire.
• Water filter – Rather than a case of bottled water, which has an expiration date and creates plastic waste, we have chosen a large filter for our refrigerator. This works just fine for two or three people. Larger family groups may want to consider an extra filter or storing one or two large bottles of water for emergencies.
• Candles – Rather than candlesticks, if you have pillar candles or tall votives, these will be much easier to move around your house and safer to leave burning for a length of time. Be sure that you don’t leave any candle burning near drapes or on a tablecloth: use heat-resistant plates to catch any drippings. And never leave a flame unattended.
• Gas stove – This is a long-term decision, along with having a fireplace. Those of us with gas stovetops were able to warm up soup or make pancakes for breakfast even when the electricity went out.
• Matches – Most of our gas stoves have electric lighters now. So without matches or a lighter on hand, our gas stoves, fireplaces and candles would all be useless. Matches are much less popular these days as smoking is being phased out, so be sure you have a handy box of kitchen matches on hand, as well as a long barbeque lighter for those hard-to-get-at places.

P.S. Here’s a great recipe that is a tasty way to use your canned beans. Black & White Bean Primavera Salad

Got some other ideas? Please comment to share the wealth!

On Saturday, March 27, 2010, I will be participating in the National Walk for Epilepsy on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Why? Because I was diagnosed with epileptic seizures at the age of 16. I’m lucky enough to be able to control my seizures (which generally occur at night) with daily medication, but not all people with epilepsy are so fortunate.

I have a friend suffering seizures caused as a result of a brain tumor, who is still working to find the right medication for her. I have another friend who has seizures that were triggered by her second pregnancy. Taking medication at all during pregnancy is scary, but not as dangerous as a seizure could be.

Epilepsy — which refers to a number of different seizure disorders — affects lots of people in different ways, and seizure management is a tricky business.

For me, epilepsy means daily medication which I’ve taken since I was first diagnosed (over 20 years ago). The worst thing I have suffered from a seizure is biting my tongue in my sleep. (Although that can be a pretty severe bite.) Learning I would have to take medicine to be ‘normal’ for the rest of my life was a tough thing for a teenager to get used to. But it’s not so bad.

I have been lucky to have pretty great health care, constant coverage via my parents or corporate plans, and access to top-of-the-line research hospitals to be sure I’m getting the right medicine for me. Not everyone is so fortunate. But I like to pay it forward. I contribute to websites that give me free services. And I want to help the research that has helped me. So…

The money I’m helping to raise through the Walk will go towards research for better treatments, to raise awareness and maybe even to find a cure for epilepsy. My hope is that this walk will help bring other families closer to seizure-free daily lives.

Please donate whatever you are able. I know there are many worthy causes asking for donations now, but this one affects someone you know — and maybe some other folks that haven’t had the guts to tell you yet.

Here’s my fundraising page:
Heather’s National Walk for Epilepsy Page

Thank you so much for your support and friendship.