Best of Washington: Round-the-Clock Help Online

By Garrett M. Graff , Catherine Andrews

6:30 am
Woke up remembering that today is your anniversary. Amazon.com just launched same-day delivery in Washington and Baltimore. Order any of the thousands of available items before 9:15 am, and the package will be delivered by 8 that evening.

8 am
Check out the Weather Blog on CapitalWeather.com before you leave home to help decide which coat to wear. Sign up for alerts from Metro’s Web site, Wmata.com, to learn about train delays. Driving? Go to WTOP Radio’s traffic-camera page to check the commute at WTOPnews.com.

9 am
Get all the political news about the 2008 race in one place with Mike Allen’s Playbook at Politico.com/playbook, which rounds up coverage from blogs, newspapers, and TV. For your gossip fix, check out PopSugar.com, HollywoodRag.com, or AOL’s TMZ.com.

11:30 am
Need a great pair of boots? Zappos.com is the mother of all shoe-shopping sites, with a wide selection, great return policy, and free overnight shipping if you order before 1 pm on most days.

2 pm
Plan your next vacation by checking out Kayak.com for the best possible deals on airfares. Kayak.com searches airline booking sites all over the world. Farecast.com also offers comprehensive listings and shows whether a ticket price is likely to rise or fall before your trip.

4 pm
Get a jump on weekend planning by checking out upcoming concerts at Dclicio.us, a site that pulls together concert schedules from most venues in the Washington region.

5 pm  
As you leave work, find out when the next three trains are scheduled to depart from your Metro station at traincheck.com/dc. Send a text message with the name of your Metro station and line to dc@traincheck.com and you’ll get a message back, usually within a minute.

8 pm
Check out the going rate for babysitters, the latest on cold medicines, and news on just about any parenting topic at DCUrbanMoms.com, a Web site and mailing list of local moms and dads. You can also tune into Mommycast.com, a podcast by two Northern Virginia mothers on topics ranging from troublesome teens to the superwoman syndrome.

10 pm
The anniversary present got you by—barely. Check Us.lastminute.com for discounted weekend package deals and tickets that you can buy at, well, the last minute.  

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