Who the hell went out last night looking for celebs? Even my sister (who has the connects, the gossip, and the determination) was considering hanging up her designer shoes. I'm pretty sure she stayed home....

D.C. Gov extends the registration date for tour buses to today. Three thousand buses have registrated so far for the inauguration. That's less than the anticipated 10,000 buses. The New York Times debunks more of the hype.

D.C. Gov notes that the Circulator buses are changing it's schedule to make way for the inauguration. Monday's schedule:

The Convention Center to the Southwest Waterfront route will stop operating at 1:00 pm. Passengers are advised to utilize Metrobus route 70 as an alternate, but buses will not be allowed to cross Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Union Station to Georgetown route will operate regular service between 7 am and 3 pm. At 3:00 pm, DC Circulator will no longer be able to access Union Station and buses will use an alternate route.

All Union Station passengers are advised to use the nearest stop located at North Capitol Street and H Street, NW. Traveling toward Union Station on Massachusetts Avenue, NW buses will turn north on 5th Street, NW, travel eastbound on K Street and terminate on North Capitol Street at H Street.

Traveling toward Georgetown, buses will begin on H Street, NW at North Capitol Street, travel down H Street to Massachusetts Avenue and return to their regular route.

Tuesday's schedule:

All regular Circulator service will be suspended.
Metrobus will operate replacement east-west service downtown from H Street, NW at North Capitol Street (near Union Station) to Washington Circle (24th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW) via L and M Streets.
Special service Metrobuses on L Street will begin on the south side of Washington Circle, just east of 23rd Street, NW, and end at H and North Capitol Streets near Union Station. These special service Metrobuses will have placards indicating "North Capitol Street" as their destination.
Special service Metrobuses on M Street will begin at H and North Capitol Street, near Union Station and end on 23rd Street just north of Washington Circle. These special service Metrobuses will have placards indicating "Washington Circle" as their destination.
Georgetown service will be provided by Metrobuses on Wisconsin Avenue and M Street between Friendship Heights and Washington Circle. Georgetown buses will begin and end on Pennsylvania Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets, NW, just west of Washington Circle.

Penn Quarter Living has it's own great inauguration roundup. Prince of Petworth has compiled his own list of inaugural options.

New Columbia Heights offers a guide to the neighborhood (for those out-of-towners willing to brave the cold, the security checkpoints, and the possibly large crowds). It's classy:

"Wonderland is the focal point of the neighborhood, tons of people go there and they have DJs upstairs sometimes and pretty good bar food. The Heights and Red Rocks have booze too, but are more restaurants. CommonWealth is, as noted, a pub, and farther north at 14th and Spring is the Red Derby, a great bar with lots of beer, but only in cans - cheaper that way - you'll probably want to take a cab there and back."

Here's our own inauguration guide?

Capital Spice, the self-descibed blog of a couple of D.C. food geeks, did what the rest of us didn't, and it's paying off in links and hits. Mike Bober, who runs the blog with his wife, Elizabeth, read in the papers that 213 bars and restaurants were approved by ABRA (D.C.'s Alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration) to stay open until 4 a.m. for the inauguration. But there was no list of where to go and definitely no map. So Bober got on the horn with ABRA, got the list, and spent an hour or two typing the establishments into Google maps.

We've linked to his genius repeatedly, Marc Fisher at the Post is also a fan.

Read More "The Go-To Inauguration Booze Map Is Still Going" »

Dan Snyder's non-liquid theme park chain, Six Flags, has decided that if it's going to go down, it's going to go down tipsy.

In 2008, firms that were nowhere near as leveraged as Six Flags, which is anywhere from $2 billion to $3 billion-and-some-change in debt, tended to sign on for Chapter 11 protections or just go away.

But Six Flags, albeit with its stock still cratered (down from a Snyder-era high of $11.93 to just 16 cents a share a couple months ago) and its future bleaker than Levi Johnston's, made it through with no such filings.

And with the new year has come the first good news of Snyder's disastrous reign atop the corporation, which began with a stockholder coup he led in late 2005 amid promises he'd boost the stock price and make the parks more family friendly: A barrister in Texas on Friday ruled in favor of Six Flags after a nasty battle over the chain's request to be allowed to sell booze at two parks in the state.

From the Dallas Morning News:

Read More "Update: SIX Flagging" »

While the fur continues to fly with our federal friends and their thoughts on whether or not we can keep slammin' our Obama Slammers well into the a.m., City Paper's favorite bar owner has been quietly killing it on the Adams Morgan Listserv with his rapier sarcasm.

To wit, regarding (presumably) ANC Commissioner's Bryan Weaver's comments in the Post poo-pooing extended inaugural hours---"To have 3 1/2 days of 24-hour service without any input from the community, there's going to be hell to pay from a lot of neighborhood associations"---"Bill D" responds:

To hear these extremely low level, local politicians speaking out about how they should have been consulted before decisions were made about this grand international event is absurd. I'm surprized there has been no ANC demand that one of their exaltd leaders be designated to hold the bible for the swearing-in ceremony. Apparently these other elected officials who passed legislation without conferring with Bryan and Mindy beforehand just do not understand the importance of the Adams Morgan ANC...they will live to regret their impudence.

Read More "Inaugural Booze: Bill Duggan Apologizes (Wink, Wink!)" »

The vote is 9-4 in favor of extending hours of alcohol service at local taverns and nightclubs until 5 a.m. in the days leading up to the inauguration.

The real drama was in a 8-6 8-5 vote as to whether nightclubs would be offered the extended hours or not. Here's who fought for your right to party: Harry Thomas Jr., Yvette Alexander, Marion Barry, Kwame R. Brown, David A. Catania, Mary M. Cheh, Jack Evans, and Vincent C. Gray.

LL ran down the drama.

DCist points to a load of confusion over the District's plans to extend drinking hours in the days leading up to the inauguration.

Here's what LL knows: This is not a done deal, and it looks likely that the 5 a.m. hour will change.

This morning, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham walked into the pre-legislative-session breakfast meeting and told his colleagues about his plan.

LL noticed that Graham seemed somewhat tentative over the prospects for the bill, and he did not in fact mention the 5 a.m. cutoff in his initial remarks on the matter. He said that "negotiations are ongoing."

"The debate is about the time," he said, "whether it's reasonable."

For the record, many of Graham's colleagues issued strong support for the 5 a.m. time, including Chair Vincent C. Gray, Ward 2's Jack Evans, and at-larger David Catania.

Ward 6's Tommy Wells raised an interesting point: "What's the point of 5 a.m.? So you can start drinking at 8 again?"

Graham expressed the likelihood that he would hold off on presenting the bill, negotiate whatever needs to be negotiated, and bring it back for the council's final legislative session on Dec. 16. Evans was more gung ho: "Just pick a number---we'll support it!"

Catania got the last word in: "After eight years of Bush, we all need a drink."

Here we are at 6:30 p.m., and the drinking-hours bill has not yet come up. The bill is emergency legislation, which traditionally comes last. ("Emergency" means that it's a bill that will go into effect immediately; it's distinguished from regular legislation, which doesn't go into effect until a congressional review period is up. The trade-off is that emergency legislation expires after 90 days and needs nine votes to pass.)

LL will update here when they get to it.

UPDATE, 6:45 P.M.: Graham spokesperson David Lipscomb says the bill will come up today. The only change that will be made, he says, is that nightclubs will be exempted from the extended hours, at the request of the mayor.

UPDATE, 7:15 P.M.: OK, they've started the debate. Here's Mendo the party pooper: "There are very few people I know of who are out partying at 5 o'clock in morning...who are not out getting drunk." Duh! He cites an already overstretched police force for voting agin' it.

UPDATE, 7:25 P.M.: In initial vote, on emergency declaration, vote is 12-1, with Mendo dissenting. Bah humbug.

Now they've moved to the bill itself. Catania is Mr. Party---introduces amendment to scrap the nightclub exception! Graham says to keep it, citing discussions today with "various stakeholders...not the least of which is the mayor."

UPDATE, 7:30 P.M.: Marion Barry, who knows from a good time, supports the Catania Amendment, as fine a piece a legislation as has moved through this august body today.

UPDATE, 7:40 P.M.: Here's the Catania Amendment tally. Party people: Thomas, Alexander, Barry, Brown, Catania, Cheh, Evans, Gray; party poopers: Mendelson, Schwartz, Wells, Bowser, Graham. Woooo! Nightclubs are in!

UPDATE, 7:41 P.M.: Mendo, Carol, and Bowser end up voting no. Graham votes no "in order to honor the commitment I made to the mayor." Tally is 9-4 in favor of LATE-NIGHT DRUNKENNESS!

LL approves.