Pack Your Patience: Weekend Metrorail trackwork can be routine. Sometimes single-tracking through a work zone can be painless. But anyone headed to or from downtown this weekend on the Red Line can expect some pain and misery. Trains will be sharing the same track between Judiciary Square and Farragut North, with some trains terminating at Dupont Circle and Union Station. Take the bus? -3

Sweet Goodness: Eh, at least you can get some free froyo on Saturday. +1

Another Big Box Retailer? First Walmart, now a Kohl’s? D.C.’s tragic pleated Haggar pant shortage comes to an end. +1

Room and Board: It’s good to know that in our expensive city, there’s still crazy group-share housing with rents below $500 a month. One house in Greater Big Bear Land comes complete with “a queer Healer well-versed in Spanish lore with a penchant for gold and an aversion to wheat” and “a Thief who designs wonderous things for [non-profit organizations] on a magical box that transmits knowledge to others via a ‘web.’” Perhaps MTV should return to the nation’s capital to give Real World another shot. +2

There Goes the Neighborhood: It’s been a bad week for Penn Quarter! First, an NPR intern was stabbed in a “random attack” on 7th Street NW. (But she’s apparently OK, so that’s good!) Then news broke that Foggy Bottom is getting a Whole Foods. (Haven’t Penn Quarter residents been bellyaching about not having a Whole Foods for the past five years?) Now, there’s sidewalk vandalism involving a Cat Power song! When Penn Quarter hurts, we all hurt. -2

Laboring Before Labor Day: Saloon on U Street NW is always a favorite spot. But it’s always slightly annoying when the place closes down for the month of August. However, the summer shut-down is always for a good cause. Over the next month, the Kamal Foundation and Saloon will be building schools in Ethiopia and Uganda. +3

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 36 Today’s score: +2 Today’s Needle rating: 38