what's up the pike: no snow dances, ever

Better tell their kids to wear their pajamas right-side out tonight, because I'm not interested in any of the twelve inches of snow we're supposed to get this weekend. It's February, for gosh sakes. Doesn't that usually mean rain around here? Anyway:

- DeJaBel Cafe on University Boulevard in Wheaton is closing today, or so says What's Up, Wheaton? on Twitter. The coffeeshop, also known for its empanadas and wine, had quickly become a local institution in the Wheaton CBD after opening at the end of 2008 but struggled to make ends meet. It's another casualty for Wheaton but another lost coffeeshop for the area after Mayorga Coffee Roasters in Silver Spring abruptly closed in December 2009. Unlike Mayorga, which is reopening at a smaller location in Takoma, DeJaBel won't be moving anywhere.

- Two Catholic schools in Silver Spring - St. Camillus on New Hampshire Avenue and St. Michael the Archangel on Wayne Avenue - may close or merge at the end of this school year, says the Post. They're two of five schools in the area that the Archdiocese of Washington wants to downsize in order to fill empty classrooms across the Catholic school system. (Having been turned away from St. Michael's as a kindergartner many, many years ago - I wasn't raised Catholic - I wonder if they may want to loosen their conditions for enrollment.)

- A Takoma Park graphic designer was written up in the Guardian for her blog Musings of a Fatshionista, a response to the lack of attention given to clothes for plus-size women. "When your options are seemingly limited, how do you stand out and be as fabulous as everyone else? By not being afraid to take risks," blogger Christina Lewis tells the British paper.

- Hollywood Video's closing a new round of stores, meaning that East County's remaining branch of the movie-rental chain - at Georgia Avenue and Shorefield Road in Wheaton - will soon go dark. Hollywood Video has already closed stores in Colesville and in Downtown Silver Spring.

- Next Stop: Silver Spring, a documentary from local filmmaker Walter Gottlieb about the B&O Railroad station, has won "Best Outside DC" award in the upcoming Our City Film Festival. It and Gottlieb's Shepherd Park: Past and Present, about the neighborhood in D.C., will be screened at the festival on Valentine's Day Sunday, February 14. (Nothing says love quite like a documentary film festival.)

BTW: did you know that episode six of Gottlieb's new web series The Videomakers is now online? You can watch it, and the rest of the show (which we profiled in a series last fall) by going to www.thevideomakers.tv.