Across the District line is Hyattsville, a small Maryland town with a very nice yarn store. And right across from the yarn store? Franklin’s Brewery, Restaurant, and General Store.

Franklin’s is half brew pub and half general store. The restaurant is on the lower half and offers tasty fare of both a meaty and a meat-free variety. I’ve enjoyed every dish I’ve had there — from fish and chips to a peach salad to a delicious and ridiculously huge vegetarian cottage pie. And the desserts are also lovely, but if you want dessert, I’d suggest going the salad route so as to have room at the end of your meal.

Upstairs is the bar. Franklin’s brews their own beer, as well as offering a reasonable slate of other beer. They also make their own root beer, which I heartily endorse.

They’ve really made a nice use of the space, adding colorful paint, bright tablecloths, and cheerful artwork.

Once you’ve eaten and drunk your fill, pay your bill and then cross into the old one-room hardware store, where you’ll find more stuff than you can think of what to do with.

Need beer or wine? They’ve got several aisles filled with it — in cases and in singles and domestic and from around the world. They also offer a supply of hot sauce, as well as penny candy.

Want to decorate your kitchen or bathroom? They’ve got soap, candles, pancake flippers, and butter dishes. They’re particularly strong if you like to decorate with color and with fun prints.

They also offer alarm clocks, banks, aprons, and pet toys.

And that’s just the back of the store.

Head up front and you’ll find the toys of your childhood.

Board games, kites, jokey gag items á la Spencer Gifts, bouncy balls, toy cars…

I’ve bought a couple of Smurfs there, as well as some Silly Putty…

And, Grey Kitten, the front windows house the stuffed animals. I assume it’s so they feel almost like they’re free to go outside if they want. Or maybe it’s so they can pretend not to be real when they see grown-ups coming…

I’d definitely recommend heading north to Hyattsville for a visit to Franklin’s if you have a chance (and a car). It’s well worth the visit.

(As always, click on the photos to see a detailed view.)

I think Hillary is the only other person to post a My D.C. this week.

Do I want to spend Saturday this way?

Last Thursday seems eons ago. It seemed like so many lovely things had happened in the meantime that it was just wrong to pick just three. So you’ll get three sets of three instead.

Three beautiful things from Karen and Michael’s wedding:

1. Karen was a lovely bride. From her hair to her dress to her beaming face whenever she looked at Michael, she was stunningly beautiful.

2. You could not have asked for a more autumnal day. Deep blue skies. Eye-popping foliage. Comfortable temperatures. Everything conspired to make the backdrop one to remember.

3. A quality cake cannot be overvalued. Karen’s was lovely in its simplicity — three white squares formed a tower atop which sat a bouquet of yellow frosted roses, which perfectly tied together the cake and the bridesmaids’ bouquets. Lucky for the guests, the cake not only was pretty, but also was tasty. It was a moist lemon cake with the right ratio of sweet frosting. A solid success.

Three beautiful things from the rest of our vacation:

1. Mum baked apple crisp crumb pie to celebrate Dad’s birthday. Hers sets the standard against which all others are judged.

2. Sunday was sunny and 80 and I sat outside all afternoon. I knit and chatted with my folks and Gramma and admired the family pumpkins and generally embraced the loveliness of an autumn afternoon with no obligations.

3. Have I mentioned the New England fall color? The Mass Pike was aglow Friday afternoon. The dogwood outside Gramma’s window was red with bright berries attracting all manner of winged creatures. We snapped photos on Monday along 91 and in Northampton. And looking out the window as we flew southward I loved the fiery orange hillsides of Connecticut and New York.

And, finally, three beautiful things from the rest of the week:

1. Two feral kittens scamper across the sidewalk to skitter under a parked car. The black one lies down under the car. She looks a smidge bigger than the tabby (maybe a teenage mother?) who darts back to the walkway and then to the protection of a bush. A cockroach scuttling by merits jumping on. A third kitten, another tabby, climbs up from the neighbor’s basement entryway.

2. We watched last night’s debate from Trusty’s, a neighborhood dive over on Cap Hill where we also followed the Super Tuesday results, with Sarah and Michael. As Sarah said, there’s something cathartic about being able to yell at the television with a room of others doing the same thing.

3. I pulled the photos off the camera last night. The colors of the full shots, while not as perfect as Mother Nature’s, were much better than my tiny camera screen had led me to expect. (I’ll upload photos tonight and share them over the weekend. I haven’t been home long enough since returning to D.C. to take care of that yet.)

I was proud and delighted to be home in Connecticut on Friday when the State Supreme Court handed down its decision saying that marriage is a right for all consenting adult couples. This is an issue that’s dear to Rudi’s and my hearts, and we look forward to the day when this simple human right is recognized as the law of the land and not just certain individual states.

California, one of three forward-thinking states that acknowledge the equal rights of same sex couples, has a ballot initiative on its ballot in November that seeks to introduce discrimination into its laws. Proposition 8 has been spun by its proponents as a helpful initiative to save nonprofit and religious organizations from being forced to part ways with their mission statements. Since no one can force any church to marry any couple — gay or straight — this just doesn’t hold much water. Nor does the concern that the flood of people rushing to marry will bankrupt state, local, or federal coffers. I mean, really, it would be far more helpful, if that’s your fear, to forbid rights to large corporate CEOs.

If you live in California, I ask you not to deny my brother, my best friend, and many other law-abiding, tax-paying citizens rights that you and I have the blessing of being able to take for granted. If you live elsewhere, but have the ear of those who will be voting on this issue November 4th, please talk to them. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and it would be easy to be confused about what the ballot initiative actually stands for. Please vote No on California Proposition 8 to keep human rights a priority in one of our largest states.

I liked this week’s Booking through Thursday, but since I already had a Thursday feature, I figured it would work well for today:

What was the last book you bought?

Used? Chez Moi
New? Let’s Go: France 2008

Last book I picked up from the library? Proust’s The Captive

Name a book you have read MORE than once

Little Women

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

Women in the Global Factory was eye-opening when I was in college. The book, which examines how women around the world are oppressed to manufacture goods for the U.S., is only 75 pages or so, but I kept finding such outrageous things in it that I must have driven the fourth floor of Freeman batty with how often I walked into rooms to read yet another quote.

More recently, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle had a similar effect on me, although it’s harder just to walk into people’s rooms to read to them. Honestly, it’s an insightful look into this country’s agriculture and how Americans eat. It’s made me consider taking up meat eating again, if said meat could be obtained (as with the rest of my produce) from local family farmers.

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

Yes! Seriously, I pick books for all sorts of reasons. Some are recommended by friends, others I’ve read about online. Sometimes I go into the library and just pick up books and read the blurbs until I find one that sounds palatable. (And, yes, books with pretty covers always get picked up first.) I usually only buy books I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy, though. If they sound iffy, they’re definitely a library acquisition.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

I like both, but I read more fiction. Non-fiction requires a different, more focused mindset.

What’s more important in a novel — beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

Both are important, as are interesting characters. In the interest of not sounding like John McCain, however, I’ll pick characters as most important. If I don’t like the characters, I won’t finish the book. Second most important would be beautiful writing. Housekeeping is an example of a book with just gorgeous prose (and not a lot of action. While the writing doesn’t have to be beautiful, it does have to be passable. If I feel the need to pick up a pen and edit your text, I’m going to put it down for my own sanity. Finally, I’d say gripping plot is also important, although less so. Thrillers have a gripping plot, but that’s never going to convince me to read them. It does help, though, if the plot is a little bit smart. Genre fiction, such as mysteries, have a lot of tripe in them and it’s terribly frustrating to be able to guess the entire trajectory of the novel from its first chapter.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

Jo March/Anne Shirley/Harry Potter

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

There are no books on my nightstand because I don’t have one. I assume this question is about what I’m currently reading or about to start reading, though, so I’ll offer you those instead:

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

I finished Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Tuesday. Chez Moi is back in my work bag for commute reading.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

Yep, although usually less than halfway. If I make it halfway in and abandon it, I will return to it later on to give it another shot. Usually that tends to mean I’m just not in the mood for it at the moment, as opposed to it not passing muster in general.

While many of the non-District locals probably think frustrated thoughts of protesters, particularly IMF/World Bank protesters such as those who’ll be in town this weekend, I tend to be rather fond of those who believe that peaceful protests will change the world.

You can always find protesters in the park across from the Chinese embassy on Connecticut Avenue. When we first moved down, they were Falun Gong protesters. This summer, during the Olympics, the focus was on the human rights issues in Tibet and treatment of North Korean detainees.

One protester, a North Korean woman recently granted asylum, took her mission so seriously that she staged a hunger strike that eventually ended with her hospitalization.

These photos were taken during the Olympics (on day 12 of the hunger strike according to the signs in the shots), so I can’t tell you if the focus remains the same or if they’ve shifted to other human rights objections with the Chinese government. There is always someone in the park, so all I can say is that a protest will be going on one way or the other.

Sarah, Hillary, MsP, and Rudi are other good bets for those sharing their unique perspectives of D.C.