The agenda for Monday's ANC 6D meeting has been sent around (although not posted on their web site, sigh), and it has a couple of Near Southeast items. There will be a presentation on the plans for the Waterfront Park at The Yards, in advance of a May 29 Southeast Federal Center Overlay District Review covering new structures that will be built to house retail pavilions at the park. There's also apparently a public space permit application from the Onyx folks at 1100 First Street for a fence along L Street, plus garden masonry piers and light fixtures. And the developers of the 250 M Street office building are back again, after having not gotten very far at last month's meeting with their request for support for a second-stage PUD modification at a May 28 zoning hearing to increase the building's height (but not its square footage) from what was originally approved, since the commissioners wanted a new round of community benefits in return for their support, which W.C. Smith balked at given that the project isn't requesting to take any new amount of public space. We'll see if there were any negotiations since then. The meeting will be at 7 pm at St. Augustine's church at 6th and M streets, SW.

* Don't forget the Metro track work this weekend, and the impacts it's going to have on getting to the ballpark. Read Metro's press release for how it will handle getting fans to and from Saturday's and Sunday's games. (Dr. Gridlock's posted about it again this morning.)

From the greatest source of news ever: "An 8,976-foot foul ball off the bat of Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman crashed through the U.S. Capitol Building rotunda Sunday afternoon, prompting both the Nationals and the opposing Pittsburgh Pirates to gasp, turn to each other in shock, and immediately run full speed out of Nationals Park. 'As soon as I hit it, I knew it was headed straight toward Capitol Hill--I just kept saying to myself, 'Not the dome, not the dome, not the dome,' Zimmerman said.

The Post has a piece about last night's community meeting assessing the first 30 days of the new Performance Parking plan that restricts curbside parking in Near Southeast, Southwest, and southern Capitol Hill, so I get to skip the basic roundup (yay!); there were also reporters from other outlets there, so I'll link to those as they appear, though the ABC7 report is so full of errors that I will pretend I didn't see it. I'll just hit a few points that stood out for me (keeping in mind that my focus is south of the freeway):

(Remember when I used to do two of these a day?)

* A reminder that tonight is Tommy Wells's community meeting to get feedback on how the new on-street parking regulations are going in Near Southeast, Southwest, and on Capitol Hill. It's at 7 pm at the Capitol United Methodist Church, at 5th and Seward Square, SE (on the south side of the Square). I'm sure it'll be a blast.

Word has arrived (and EYA has confirmed) that people who snagged reservations for market-rate townhomes at Capitol Quarter are starting to be brought in to sign actual sales contracts. Those with the earliest reservations (which go back to October 2006) are having their contracts written this week, and over the next few months all reservation holders will do likewise. Construction is still expected to start this summer, with some of the early-reservation-people being told to expect delivery of their houses in early 2009, though perhaps a bit sooner.

I've been meaning to mention this after hearing about it last week, but it wasn't until I saw this article in Tuesday's Post that I actually believed it--on Tuesday evening (May 6), there is a high school baseball game being held at Nationals Park, between my alma mater Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and arch-rival Whitman (at least they were arch-rivals back in MY day). Go Barons! Admittance is free, with gates opening at 5 pm for a 6 pm game.

From the folks at the Capitol Riverfront BID, word that the Farmers' Market is returning for its second year, starting May 6 (tomorrow!) and running through Nov. 18, from 10 am to 2 pm each Tuesday. They've moved the location slightly--it's now at Third and M Street, SE, on the pedestrian plaza between the two US DOT buildings.

From the WashTimes: "It appears that Don Henley's 'Boys of Summer' -- the Eagles -- will likely play the first concert to be held at Nationals Park, on July 26. Although no such date appears on the Web site for the Eagles' summer tour, a VIP ticket request form obtained by The Washington Times lists an Eagles show on July 26 at the new baseball stadium in Southeast. Washington Nationals officials confirmed talks are taking place for such a show. 'It remains a discussion,' team President Stan Kasten said. 'There really isn't a deal yet. But there is no question we would like to be in the big concert business. We hope to know one way or another soon.' "

Those of us at the Nationals game tonight got an unexpected fourth-inning stretch when some of the banks of floodlights went dark. There were two banks of lights out on the first-base side, and two more on the third-base side along with the large lightpole by the third-base foul pole. MLB.com says that it took about 25 minutes to get them working again. The delay to get the lights fixed plus the slow pace of the game caused the cancellation of the planned postgame fireworks display, to the chagrin of chanting fans. But they cancelled them for you, ballpark neighbors! They didn't want to disturb you! (Anytime a game ends later than 10:50, the fireworks get cancelled.) All of this and an 11-4 loss did not make for a cheery evening, but at least the weather was nice!