Hey all… great weather today in the District, and to boot, it’s Friday! I’ve had a great, productive week here in the office and I’m looking forward to checking out for the weekend in about three hours, but before I do, here’s a few random things I’ve come across this week, some funny and some not:

–>We’ve had some rainy weather for pretty much the whole week, and last night, we got some thunder and lightning. A great picture here by Flickr user Cazimiro;

–>The Daily Show had a great response to Marion Barry’s speech in response to the DC Council voting to acknowledge gay marriages legally given in the few other states that do allow them;

–>The Nationals, playing the Dodgers - undefeated at home this year - in LA, won last night. I went to bed shortly after they took the lead 9-6 in the top of eighth inning, fully expecting them to have lost the game by the time I woke up in the morning. Imagine my surprise… the Nats both win a game and hand the Dodgers their first home loss of the season!

–>Speaking of the Dodgers and losses, we all know by now that outfielder Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Sad, really. At this point, we should all be able to say that most major league players were using performance enhancing drugs at some point, even those players on our favorite teams. But still, when it hits home like this, it sucks real bad. Download and listen to some of the ESPN podcasts as Mike and Mike, Wilbon and Kornheiser, and Pasquerelli and Karabell discuss it at length. The Sports Guy has also written about it here.

Have a weekend, everyone, and long live baseball!