Now that the District has its own boys of summer, baseball fans can head to RFK Stadium for evenings of homers (we hope) and hot dogs (a must). But locals who’ve grown rusty on the game — Washington’s last team, the Senators, skipped town 34 years ago — or new fans looking to figure out the national pastime may need to learn the basics of tallying who’s on first.

Maybe you’ve got a garage full of junk you’re dying to unload. Or you need quick cash — and your grandmother told you those vintage Barbies would be worth something someday. Whatever the case, eBay, the successful online auction site, (www.ebay.com) can be the key. But how do you maximize your haul? Read on:

After a string of restless nights sunk into the couch until 4 a.m., watching a marathon of TiVo’d “West Wing” episodes, I began to believe Jed Bartlet really was president and that he needed my advice on issues. I was creeping into Crazyville and the tube wasn’t to blame — I needed sleep. “We are all getting less and less,” says Alon Avidan, director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic at the University of Michigan Medical Center. “In D.C. you have all these young professionals with demanding schedules and they can’t do it all, so they take time away from their sleep.” What’s more, with daylight saving time ending this weekend, your body’s going to be even further out of whack. So how to get those seven to eight hours of z’s? Follow these tips:

DIY facials using everyday ingredients are a therapeutic way to revitalize.

Extreme football fans who earn TV airtime during a game may look crazy, but they’ve beaten the odds: Camera pros estimate that during a typical three-hour football broadcast, spectators are shown only about 20 times; about half those screen grabs are crowd shots, meaning individuals remain indistinguishable. So, unless you’re a parent of the star running back or resemble Pamela Anderson (who was “discovered” by a cameraman at a 1989 football game in Canada), you’ll need these game-stopping tips to make your prime-time debut.

George Clooney, P. Diddy, Beyonce and Jay-Z — thanks to the tabloids, even the most casual gossip fans know that when these mega-stars travel, they’re just as likely to rent a private villa as to hole up in a hotel room. But villas — rentable, privately owned homes that often come fully staffed — are within the regular traveler’s budget, too.

When “Web” and “log” were combined to form the word “blog” in 1999, few foresaw the power these online journals would wield. Now, blogs number near 4 million and deal with every conceivable topic — from favorite recipes to education reform to Mick Jagger sightings. The influential commentary of political bloggers earned them invites to last summer’s national party conventions, and in September, bloggers pulled the curtain on Dan Rather and those spurious National Guard papers. Want a piece of the action? Running a great blog and gaining loyal readers isn’t easy, but use these tips as you hop on the bandwidth bandwagon and you’ll be on your way.

The end of the year is fast approaching, which means jingle bells, shopping hell, eggnog and . . . annual reviews. If you’ve been nice, not naughty, that also means it’s prime time to ask for a raise. Maybe your company’s performed well this past year, or maybe it’s cutting corners, but either way, if you know you’ve done a great job, then by all means, step up and ask for what you’re worth. Here are some tips on how to finesse your way into a salary upgrade:

Undo your holiday indulgences. Try a DIY detox regimen to start the new year right.

Buying digital music can be confusing. On one hand, you have an alphabet soup of acronyms, all referring to varying formats. On the other hand, you have a slew of online retailers, each furiously competing for your hard-earned music dollar. And in the middle, you have an avalanche of players, each of which offer different features and work with different formats.