Thirty-four minutes until kickoff. Nowhere to watch the game. My options were slim. Atop the parking garage where the red pass is required, a security guard motioned fans away from the rails overlooking the new field. The university doesn't want anyone up here, the guard said. And it makes sense. Everyone should have to buy a ticket.

OK, we're almost finished, and I'd like to thank you for your patience with the DMV. I know it's been a long couple of days here. Just one more thing before you go: the photo. So, if you can just stand on that X, I'm going to run through a quick set of rules before I click-click.

The Ultimate Movie Experience is slightly less than ultimate, depending on where you go. Six months ago, the AMC movie complex at Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach added IMAX capability to its 18 theaters, meaning movies are blasted onto an oversized screen. A blue banner announcing the feat hangs above the entrance. But the Lynnhaven IMAX is probably not the kind you're thinking of.

Please clip this column, fill in the blanks and send it to your local congressman. Together, we can make a difference. - Mike   Dear (insert the name of your congressman or congresswoman here), I am writing to you today about a very important matter: HR 2175 by Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia.

Last month this newspaper finally started running marriage and engagement announcements for gay couples. Of course, Thomas Brown and Joseph Jagodzinski Jr., the first couple celebrated, won't be getting married in Virginia. They can't. They'll tie the knot in Canada later this summer.

It wouldn't take much imagination to believe the federal government is paying for the barbecue ribs this weekend at the Chesapeake Jubilee. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to believe the Treasury Department paid for the portable toilets or the staffers or the giant sponsorship signs or to bring in a country music band still in search of the spotlight.

As if he had nothing better to do, will.i.am, frontman for the pop/hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, mastermind behind a star-studded sing along in support of Barack Obama, came to Virginia on Monday to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at the Norview Community Center in Norfolk.

We're all on drugs. That's no secret. Especially since last week, when a so- called hack-for-cash hooligan with a Yahoo account said he broke into the state's prescription Web site and stole more than 8.2 million patient records. Now someone other than our pharmacists may know about the 35 million mystery bottles in our collective medicine cabinet.

IT STILL FEELS GOOD. Even after a wasted summer, even after all the months in a suffocating air cast, even after the hobbling around the neighborhood, it still feels good to slip these pale, bony toes into a pair of flip-flops this spring. Oh, it feels good. Like some kind of male Cinderella thing, but much more macho.

The lights were so hot at Evan Callaway's latest exhibit, my scalp started burning. The reason the lights were so hot was because the only place for the artist's exhibit was in a 17-foot rental truck, and when you're standing in a 17-foot truck, there's not a lot of headroom. The lights are just inches from your head, ready to set your hair afire.