what's up the pike: my external hard drive is broke

- Good Eatin' in Wheaton gives the thumbs-up to New Kam Fong, one of the Wheat's ethnic-dining gems, but pans Mi Rancho in Downtown Silver Spring. I'm conflicted about this. I got food poisoning after an eighth-grade Spanish class trip there, but I really enjoyed whatever it is I ate at the #DTSStweetup there last Friday.

(Speaking of which: because I haven't done so already, let's take a moment to remember the recently-departed Silver Spring Penguin, which co-organized the event in addition to filling all y'alls blog readers with news and info about Downtown since October 2006. You will be missed.)

- Local builder Ruppert O'Brien, currently putting the finishing touches on their Albany Grove neighborhood in Briggs Chaney, has started a blog about all the awesome things you can do in East County, like visiting the Gardens Ice House or shopping at the Mall in Columbia. (Alas, it's easier to leave here than to find something to do here.) Check out our interview with principal Sean Ruppert from way, way back in 2007.

- The Examiner writes about the "environmentalists' enclave of Quaint Acres, the neighborhood where biologist Rachel Carson lived and wrote Silent Spring in the 1960's. Surprisingly, the article's paints the surrounding area in glowing terms:

"Less than a mile away is White Oak shopping center, which boasts an impressive array of ethnic restaurants including Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Caribbean, and Mexican."

Who needs Langley Park when you have that in your backyard?

- Jerry McCoy notes on his blog that blasting will start at the Silver Spring Transit Center today and continue at 11am and 2pm each weekday through March 5. (Kinda jealous, kinda glad I don't work in one of the NOAA buildings across the street.) The work will cut through bedrock to make room for a new bus terminal. When completed next year, the Transit Center will look like this.