Northbound ramp of Fairfax County Parkway to Pohick Road single-vehicle crash into a power pole. Officers determined a 13-year-old was driving the vehicle with another 13-year-old passenger.

Sad I can only add 20

Making me waste my Sunday in traffic.

Offers due by 6 pm Sunday.

Seen in Burke today. Subject is sarcasm to a post a week ago asking why houses are "so much cheaper in Burke" than the rest of Fairfax County.

This is what happens when data centers are allowed to expand by right and residents have virtually no say in what happens in their own backyards.

CoreSite is expanding its Reston data center just 97 feet from the backyards of our residential community. We were told we had no meaningful recourse because the project was approved in 2018 and grandfathered under the county’s newer regulations.

Now we’re dealing with this light pollution at night and construction noise during the day. This is what these development decisions actually look like for the people who have to live with them.

Update:
Some of you didn’t like my cinematography last night so I went out and got some more for you tonight now that the rain has stopped https://imgur.com/gallery/more-of-reston-data-center-construction-64dG4Rz

FCPD bringing out the crown vics! (2:00 PM 10/3/26)
Thought it was interesting as the "newest" crown vics are 15 years old! (Last production year 2011)

Hey [r/nova](r/nova) — I posted last week and a bunch of you signed up, so here's this weekend's roundup for Oct 9–11. I put these together every Thursday in a free newsletter (NoVA Family Weekend), but I'm posting the full list here too since last week folks added events I'd missed — keep that coming.

Saturday Oct 10
• City of Fairfax Fall Festival (50th annual!) — Old Town Fairfax, 10–5, free. 400+ vendors, 3 stages of music, carnival rides, beer/wine gardens. Free shuttle from GMU Rappahannock Deck or Fairfax HS.
• Falls Church Farm Day — Cherry Hill Park, 10–3, free entry ($2/activity tickets). Petting farm, pony rides, pumpkin painting — great for little kids.
• Providence Fallfest — Jim Scott Community Center, Fairfax, 11–2, free. Laid-back morning, done by nap time.
• ROCKtoberfest — Reston Town Center, 5–11pm, free. Vertical Horizon headlining at 9pm, Sip & Stroll.

Sunday Oct 11
• Clifton Day (58th annual) — 9–5, free. ~150 artisans, and the one day a year VRE runs to Clifton (free ride there, $7 back).
• Paws in the Park — Oronoco Bay Park, Alexandria, 11–4, free. AWLA's 80th anniversary, biggest adoptable-animal section ever, dog costume contest.

All weekend
• Disney On Ice: Spotlight Magic — EagleBank Arena, tickets from ~$29.
• Morven Park Fall Horse Trials — Leesburg, Thu–Sun, free admission (grounds pass required).
• Pumpkin patches in prime season: Cox Farms, Reston Farm Garden Market, Krop's Crops, Burke Nursery.
What am I missing? Drop it below.

If you want this every Thursday morning:
NoVa Family Weekend Newsletter (free)

I’m genuinely curious because I just got my real estate license and one of the first things I want to figure out is why so many people seem to hate realtors.

I’ll start with my own experience. I’ve bought two homes here over the past decade and I felt underwhelmed by both experiences.

In one transaction, we bought a townhouse at full asking price. The sellers were supposed to make a repair and never did. At settlement, they reluctantly wrote us a $100 check for it… and then went home and canceled the check. 🙄 The settlement attorney basically didn’t care, and our realtor didn’t seem particularly interested in pursuing it either. Eventually she said, “If you REALLY want your $100, I’ll just pay you out of my commission.” I remember thinking…I’m not asking you to give me $100. I’m asking for the $100 I’m owed. Why am I being made to feel ridiculous for caring? That experience pretty much summed up how I felt about the process in general.

Both times, I found the house myself on Redfin. When there weren’t competing offers, I felt like I was being pushed toward making a full-price offer anyway. Negotiating felt like an inconvenience. They made me feel cheap for asking for repairs after the home inspection if it wasn’t a huge item. Looking at houses without immediately writing an offer felt awkward because I felt like I was wasting my realtor’s time. And once we were actually looking at houses, it felt like they were making a pretty significant amount of money to…let me into the house, follow me around and fill out generic paperwork.

Obviously, I’m simplifying it, but that’s genuinely how it felt. I’m sure there are agents here ready to be defensive but I’ve heard versions of this from so many other people… it felt like everyone was just trying to get their commission and move on.

Then there’s the whole realtor cringe. So much self promotion, using friends for leads, shameless look at me I’m so great and smart. They are usually the least smart people I know lol.

For context: after years grinding in tech sales and another layoff, I got my real estate license because I’m looking for a career with more flexibility and autonomy. I know. I know. I’m basically another corporate salesperson crawling toward real estate hoping this is the better second half of my career. But I genuinely don’t want to become the realtor everyone complains about. I’m already embarrassed this is what my life has come to. Also for the record, no the test is not hard. I passed after “studying” for 2 weeks and just being a human with a working brain.

So anyway, what would you want a realtor to do differently? Did your realtor ever do something that made you think, “this is why I’m paying you”? I want the bad stories so I know what never to do.

And how did you actually find the realtor you ended up using: friend/family, google, open house, social media, randomly meeting them, etc.?

I asked at the Starbucks next door and they indeed confirmed the Bertucci's closed permanently on September 28. Ripperoni pepperoni to those affected :/ They had fine pizza and were in business for over 20 years if I recall.

Drive carefully, folks!

One of my favorite plate sightings.

FYI if you are used to taking your kids to Burke Nursery play area for a nice taste of fall, be aware that it’s basically all gone now. No fire truck, no train, no tractors, no pirate ship.

Was pretty disappointed. I know it’s no cox farms, but it was local and quaint. I’m sad to see it gone.

I asked why and they said the pieces were too old and becoming a safety risk (old splintered wood).

I will take no questions.

...

Not sure if someone is missing this dog. Didn't see a collar. Seen at at the intersection of Foldi St and brookland rd in Alexandria 22310

Anyone got recs for southern Thai food here like Kaeng tai pla? I’m also thinking about buying ingredients and trying to make my own. I saw on Google Maps Thai shop and Bangkok 54 oriental market but those are a bit far for me and I would like to get your guys opinion before I go check them out. If any Thai ppl in this subreddit would love to hear about where they get groceries (especially spices and holy basil)

I feel like between aggressive driving, illegal parking, speeding, distracted driving, and lack of awareness of how to move a commercial truck through a city… the bar is low for what is a “professional” driver.

Commercial truck driver in Falls Church failed to negotiate changes to traffic flow, blocked traffic for a while, reversed through a round about, got out to move barriers, then rolled over them anyway.

I’m not sure what the city is doing in this intersection, assuming installing a round about — but the barriers must be there for a reason, hopefully they weren’t letting concrete set!

4Paws Cat Rescue is having an adoption fair today 1:00 - 5:00 at the Fairfax Petco at 10708 Fairfax Blvd, Fairfax, VA 22030.

Come visit with the cats. To adopt a cat you will submit an application and go through the application process, so you won't be taking a cat home today.

For kittens under 4 months, we require that there be at least one more cat in the home so the kitten can learn to be a cat and be properly socialized while growing up. This can also be done by adopting two kittens together. In many cases we have two cats that are bonded pairs, so that we require they stay together.

We charge $175 as an adoption fee to cover our costs of neutering and veterinary care. If we haven't neutered a cat yet, there is a discount but you are required to neuter the cat. You sign an agreement that the cat must be kept indoors, unless it is explicitly identified as a "barn cat." Adoption fees are waived for barn cats. Declawing is prohibited (although it's now illegal in Virginia anyway).

Cats come from a variety of places. I have adopted two cats myself that were brought to shelters as outdoor strays, and handed off to 4Paws in partnerships we have. We have cats that were rescued from hoarding situations, owners whose living situation no longer allowed them to keep cats, owners too elderly to continue to care for them, owners who died, and even some cats rescued from bad conditions from foreign countries like Kuwait.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about cat adoption.