Happy Monday, D.C. Today’s POTD comes to us from pixlesie, who captured an image illustrating nature’s resiliency and persistence despite the barriers humankind puts in its way. Well, it shows how well a tree can do in a pot on the sunny roof of the Air and Space Museum, at least. I like the lighting in this photo as well, which appears to be the product of the morning sun (the description says it’s…

Happy Monday, Washington. Many reasons to be smiling during the start of this week: fall appears to be settling in with some cool yet still-sunny weather, the Redskins totally (and finally!) kicked some ass yesterday against the Houston Texans, and Tim Gunn, Project Runway guru, will be doing a live chat on on washingtonpost.com at 11 a.m.! If only Jeffrey Sebelia would go ahead and get his mouth sewn shut, then we’d be truly happy….

Happy Monday, Washington. Looks like we might start the week with a little rain, no doubt the salty tears of a thousand schoolchildren as they tuck away the summer toys and fill their backpacks with clean notebooks and sharpened pencils. School is back in session this morning for the D.C. Public Schools, and just as kids everywhere feel unprepared in the face of a new year, the schools themselves may be just as unprepared for…

Happy Monday, D.C.! We hope you enjoyed your holidays. If you’re back at a half-empty office like DCist is, keep checking back for periodic updates – we’re still on a slower-than-normal publishing schedule, but we’ll have a few posts throughout the day. Thousands Killed in Southeast Asia: The big nonlocal news story is that a huge earthquake caused tidal waves throughout southeast Asia this Sunday, killing more than 20,000. The hardest hit countries were Indonesia,…