There are Thanksgivings that evoke general thanks, and there are Thanksgivings that evoke specific thanks. For the Ganey family of College Park, this year it will most certainly be the latter.

The opening of a bike lane down one street in the District generated a lot of interest among readers [ Dr. Gridlock, Nov. 15 ]. I think one reason is that we don't get many chances to talk about innovation in our transportation system. Another is that changes in travel patterns tend to divide...

Think your home is less polluted than a city street? Think again.

Before she went rogue, Sarah Palin got lost. She was stalking "majestic dall sheep with their thick curled horns" in a national park, she writes in her new book, "Going Rogue." "I was only about eight years old, and for a couple of anxious hours of climbing hillsides and calling my name, no one...

On this day, as the nation sits down for the annual feast that launches the holiday season, it could be the way you say something to a friend or relative -- and not your mother-in-law's gravy -- that makes or breaks the day.

I have an eight-year-old kousa dogwood, chosen for its purported disease resistance, that lost its leaves from the inside out over most of the summer. The leaves just yellowed and dropped, and by late August the tree had leaves only on its outermost tips.

Dear Dr. Fox: My 10-year-old male cat had to be euthanized.

Deborah Tannen's advice on how to create a living room that encourages people to talk to one another:

"We'd like this to be the informal area where we can eat dinner without worrying about spilling on nice dining room rugs."

As the holiday looms on the calendar, I sometimes think it ought to be called Angstgiving. Assembling the throng is tricky enough.

Washington Shakespeare Company presents this play by "Spring Awakening" playwright Frank Wedekind. The title character is a mistreated woman who makes her way through the upper-crust rungs of German and Parisian society. Lulu, played by Sara Barker, is a dancer who falls into poverty, dabbles in...

Nov. 26 ARLINGTON BELL RINGING Celebrate Thanksgiving by ringing a vintage Pennsylvania church bell. Sponsored by the Bluemont Civic Association. Noon. Constitution Bicentennial Gardens, North George Mason Drive and Wilson Boulevard, Arlington. 703-525-3786. Free.

Brooklyn-based pop-rock trio GrooveLily performs this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl." The mix of musical theater and live concert is about a guy who wants to avoid the world on New Year's Eve. The production was written by Brendan Milburn, Valerie Vigoda and Rachel...

Gathering today with your nearest, dearest and others? Holidays, much like relationships, can be "made, maintained and broken" through conversations, says Georgetown University linguistics professor Deborah Tannen, who has written many books on analyzing conversational styles.

After being mesmerized by the slow and pretty leaf drop of autumn, we wake up around Thanksgiving day to the reality of the naked garden.

Do the planet and your garden a favor by recycling fallen leaves. Leaves can be added to the compost pile or spread as mulch over garden beds. They should be chopped up first with a lawn mower to speed decay.

No report was available from the Alexandria Department of Real Estate Assessments for today's Local Living section.

Having a sale? The Sales Talk column is looking for super deals on home furnishings, accessories and services at stores across the area to share with our readers. Let us know the details at least two weeks in advance. Write us at localliving@washpost.com , or call 202-334-4409.

Mold grows like crazy in all my bathroom toilets, in four of the seven faucets and in one of the two shower heads.

The holiday season brings with it an overabundance of advice on how to avoid gaining weight in the face of all those festive meals, cocktail parties and plates of cookies brought in by co-workers. Depending on whose advice you're inclined to heed, you can cut back on carbs, mind the glycemic inde...

Picture this: You and a dozen other people are gathered on couches somewhere today, watching a football game on the big screen and consuming a ridiculously fattening selection of snacks that precede an enormous and even more fattening Thanksgiving meal.

Near the end of her struggle to find the right high school for a son who does not always share her tastes, Tracey Henley was overjoyed to discover that some of her son's best friends had endorsed her choice and that his resistance had vanished. "So now we don't have to forge his signature on the...

Here is an edited excerpt from The Post's On Parenting blog. Read the latest posts at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/parenting .

These cases were handled by the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, which operates the city animal shelter and provides animal control services to the city. The shelter is open from 1 to 8 p.m. weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. weekends. For information or to report emergencies involving animals 24 hours...

Dogs, cats and horses can relax while listening to music. Who knew?

As tall cranes line Columbia Pike and development plans offer the Arlington County neighborhood a new future, lawmakers, developers and nonprofit groups agree that the ability of Buchanan Gardens residents to remain in the area is at risk. They are the face of affordable housing, and they are the...

Enrollment in Northern Virginia schools has skyrocketed throughout the past decade, fueled first by boom times and lately by the economic downturn.

The city of Alexandria will hold its annual tree-lighting ceremony Friday at 7 p.m. in Market Square, 301 King St. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature Mayor William D. Euille (D), a visit from Santa, a performance of "Santa's Frosty's Follies" by the Metropolitan Fine Arts...

Michael Kearney has started his Thanksgiving Day at 4 a.m. for the past 15 years. He is certainly not the only one.

The governors of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware have announced a partnership designed to promote and coordinate the development of wind energy off the mid-Atlantic coast.

34TH ALEXANDRIA TURKEY TROT FIVE-MILER, a flat, fast USATF-certified course, sponsored by Del Ray Business Association and D.C. Road Runners Club. Bring two nonperishable food items on race day to support ALIVE! Registration, 8:30-9:30 a.m.; race, 10 a.m., Cora Kelly Recreation Center, 25 W. Reed...

St. Michael's Episcopal Church , 1132 N. Ivanhoe St., Arlington, will hold a "Celebration of Pipes" service featuring organs and bagpipes at 10 a.m. Thursday. 703-241-2474 or http://www.stmichaelsarlington.org .

AARP Tax-Aide seeks volunteers to complete and file 2009 federal and state income tax forms electronically for low- to moderate-income individuals. Training provided. 703-534-7359, dldake@comcast.net , or http://www.aarp.org/taxaide.

These food establishments were closed because of health code violations. The list, compiled from health department reports, reflects actions taken by the departments.

These were among incidents reported by the Alexandria Police Department. For more information, call 703-838-4636 or visit http://www.alexandriava.gov/police .

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT GROUP, for mothers with a breast cancer diagnosis and raising children. 1-2:30 p.m., Virginia Hospital Center, Cancer Resource Center, 1701 N. George Mason Dr., Arlington. Free, registration required. 703-558-5555.