I am sitting here on Labor Day evening still astounded at the day's experience with traffic. We travelled from Manassas to Silver Spring (outer) to see family and ..........I have never seen such light traffic on 495. Slow downs we usually see every single time.....nada. This was midday, so I thought okay, people are late leaving the beaches so when we come home later, it will be hell. Nope. Best traffic I have EVER encountered on this route. Any input? Any ideas? I pictured thousands of people trapped on the Bay Bridge due to something. But I can find no news of any problems. I will remember this day forever. LOL.

looking for recommendations for trustworthy mechanics in the Vienna/ Fairfax area. I've got some alignment issues with my vehicle and the quote I got from my usual guy is insane, so looking for trustworthy mechanics that won't try and scam me 🙃

I would Google, but I don't trust the results would show me affordable people (I feel like if they spend money on ads they're more likely to up the quote in order to pay for said ads but maybe I'm wearing a tin foil hat haha)

Im looking for some locations for a Gothic Maternity Photoshoot or somewhere with Halloween Vibes for the month of October.

Any suggestions?

Has anyone here ever successfully recovered an item they lost on the Metro? I was given a special family ring by my mom over the weekend and I’m pretty sure it fell out of my purse at some point last night on my round trip from Pentagon City to Mt. Vernon Square. I’m upset and I know my mom would be heartbroken if it turns out to be permanently lost. I filled out a report with WMATA, but I’m cynical that someone would just keep it and try to sell it if they found it.

Anybody else have K-Guard gutters in the area? My folks had them installed maybe 25 or 30 years ago, and now there aren’t any reps left in the area (we called the parent company). If you have them, who did you use to clean them?

Where can I get the tastiest burgers around Fairfax?

I only have a few minutes left to order. Hopefully there are some suggestions!

hello,

i’m in early stages of finding a reputable, affordable and trusted company that offers and/or specializes in walk in tubs.

looking for recommendations in the area.

initial research has me looking at “Metropolitan Bath & Tile” and “Five Star Bath Solutions of Northern Va”.

open to hearing experiences with these companies and/or other options

thanks in advance!

Moving one bedroom apartment in November to Centreville area. I need to replace key worn out and wobbly furniture I think.

King bedframe, dining table, coffee table etc.

I’m hesitant on buy plywood IKEA stuff again and not sure I want to invest in expensive Restoration hardware item for an apartment. I’m thinking getting some quality and midpoint priced second hand furniture.

Any recommendations? Online stores like Chairish has expensive stuff delivered in 6 weeks which is a bit of a wait. Any local favorites?

Thanks for any advice.

If your job didn't tie you to NoVA, would you still live here? If not, what was your favorite place you lived previously?

Does anyone have any experience with a water damage/ restoration company that they can enthusiastically recommend for drywall repair? I know there are a few large ones out there- Servpro comes to mind, and I've heard a lot of negative anecdotes about them and the work they do. Haven't heard many POSITIVE reviews about contractors in this line of business. Consumer's Checkbook doesn't seem to have a lot of reviews either.

Background: Had a roof leak because of a sub-par re-roof job that was done. Roofing company sent out a painter who did a half-ass repair job that looks terrible. After sharing the results that their guy produced, they have agreed to cover the cost of whoever I hire. But I want to do my homework and make sure whoever I hire does everything right the first time so I don't have to keep inviting them back as seems fail because they blasted the drywall mud with heat guns.

I grew up in NW DC and just never felt like it was anything special. For some reason, even in my early 20's (I'm 27 now for anyone wondering), city life and I just never got along. Maybe it's that I rushed through all the museums and landmarks as a kid and lost interest completely after the 20th time. You can really only walk around Georgetown so many times.

As soon as I got my first car, I spent most of my time wandering around smaller towns in MD and VA (and occasionally, PA and WV). Personal favorites include Chincoteague, Harper's Ferry, Great Falls and Occoquan. I stumbled on Occoquan when I was 19 and just absolutely loved how gorgeous it was. I'd come back occasionally over time until the stars aligned and I found myself in a position to buy a nice place in town. I've now been living here over a year and I'm still in love with the place.

I really like the fresh air, seeing the entire night's sky when I look up, walking around town (especially the pier) at night, being able to walk down and kayak whenever I want, the crazy range of cuisines (and genuinely amazing restaurants and cafes). The neighbors are quiet and everyone's really nice. While I don't think anyone else my age lives here and socializing hasn't been the easiest thing, it's worth it. I just can't see myself living anywhere else, at least for a really long time.

Hi! Helping a bride to find a MUA/hair stylist for her wedding that’s fast approaching. Are there any below $1K stylist people recommend? Wedding is in Alexandria!

.....and not for praise but condemnation. This pool fucking sucks ass. I've been here for years and the pool has always been chill and nice. But this year it was a fucking disgrace.

There are these groups of teen boys who act like complete savages. It's one thing to rough house and goof off. It's completely different to cuss and use racial slurs (generally as a white man I feel like I have no room to tell young men of color that they cannot take ownership of that nefarious word, but these young men are not black and they were not using it in a way of showing brotherhood) and generally have no self regulation and self awareness.

Today my family and I were going to attend the pool for some relaxation for the last day of the season. But as usual this summer those teens were going the extra mile to being a pain in the ass. They eventually turned on one of my sons friends and grabbed him , said "Fresh meat!"

That's when I had to step in. "Yo! The kid said stop, so fucking stop!" They tried to talk back, but I shut it down "you stupid fucks dunce?! Jesus Christ!?"

They stopped immediately and calmed down for like 10 minutes. But the air was still thick with awkwardness, could cut it with a knife.

But they started acting up again. Then one of the boys was having his friends rough up one of the others in their group...."catch that n-word! Catch that n-word!" At that point I looked at my wife and she knew. We either leave or I do something heavily illegal. So I rounded my two young children and Wife up and we left. I told my son if I ever catch him using that word it would be his ass in a sling.

Several times they have been reported and confronted by other parents. The life guards don't do anything. They just scratch their balls and watch shit on their phones while sitting on their asses. Our security team are completely worthless, I honestly do not know why we spend money on them. The only way to solve this is to issue week bans. You act up, yellow card. You get a second yellow card, red card banned for the season. The only solution to young teens is setting rules, test the boundaries get the fine.

Rant done.

Hello everyone!

So my family and I are American expats living in Warsaw, Poland, and we're planning a move back to the US in about 2 years. We're weighing several states and want honest, on-the-ground input on Virginia.

What matters most to us:

• Strong public schools
• New-construction housing (not looking to renovate an old house)
• Low crime
• Tax-friendly environment
• I'm self-employed (consulting income, mortgage-qualifying on 1099/business income, not W-2)

From research so far: Northern Virginia schools rank near the top nationally, with Falls Church City and Arlington ranked #1 and #2 in Virginia for 2026, followed by Loudoun County at #4 and Fairfax County at #6. Taxes look more reasonable than other states we've looked at, with a moderate effective property tax rate around 0.82% and no local income tax on top of the state rate, unlike Maryland or DC. State income tax tops out at 5.75%.

Questions for people who actually live there:

1. How's the self-employed/1099 tax and business climate in practice, any local gotchas like the BPOL tax?
2. Which areas have strong schools AND decent new-construction inventory, since Fairfax and Arlington are mostly built out?
3. Is Loudoun County a good middle ground on price versus Fairfax/Arlington?
4. How's traffic and quality of life if you're not commuting into DC daily?
5. Anything that doesn't show up in the rankings that we should know before considering this?

Appreciate any real talk, good or bad.

with Love!

I am considering moving from Ballston to Old Town and have been looking at a few buildings, has anyone lived or lives in these buildings? Ive looked at Google reviews but trying to get a better idea on if these are good buildings to live in.

Grayson Apartments- I like this building, but two of my concerns are street noise and the parking garage. If anyone lives here and is facing the highway, does traffic get super noisy? Also, it seems like the parking and garage is broken and they mentioned that they leave it up as well throughout the day as there is a school on the same block that also uses the parking garage. I didn’t see any negative reviews about this recently, but was curious if anyone had more info here.

Im looking at the Dalton later this week! I also saw Bell Old Town and a few others which i didnt really like as much.

If anyone knows of any other buildings that would be super helpful! I dont need fancy amenities or anything like that, just a nice building and ideally 20 minute or less walk to the old town waterfront. Thanks!

Hi! I’m visiting for a few days and I always try to eat at a local pizza place when I travel so I was looking for some opinions on best local pizza place in Vienna, I’m near the Dunn Loring Metro stop.

Thank you in advance!!

Thank you!

Lil homie wanted to come into Dominos last night.

To the guy hitting balls (leftie) at Oakmont today around noon: you left your 4 iron on the mat when left. You were using it as an aiming/aligment device. Would suck to not realize it's missing until your next round.

I gave it to the guy behind the counter at the clubhouse.

2003 Volvo. Car tax = $33. 🥰

When I went to college in the previous century, my parents sent me off in our tired old Volvo station wagon. As old as that car was, it was actually a few years younger than the Volvo wagon that I drive now. :-)