Andrew Wiseman has lived in Columbia Heights for 2½ years, but he’s been in DC for more than ten. The son of an Air Force officer, Wiseman says that’s a record: “I love DC—so much so, I’m even a Nats fan.”

Wiseman has been blogging about Columbia Heights since March 2008. He tried out lots of names for his site—Heights of Columbia (taken), New (Columbia) Heights (corny)—before settling on New Columbia Heights, a celebration of all the new shops, restaurants, and development in the DC neighborhood. Not surprisingly, Wiseman writes to an audience comprised mostly of his neighbors. He pens features on local bands, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, real-estate development, and even celebrity sightings.

We caught up with Wiseman to get the scoop on what’s new in his neighborhood. The best pizza spot? Architectural eye sore? Bizarre crimes? Read on for his answers.

Mike Prada’s blog was named Bullets Forever by mistake. He’d been blogging under the name Bullets Fever—a nod to the Nils Lofgren song that was recorded after the team won the 1978 championship—when sports site SB Nation approached him about joining its blog network. Prada accepted, and when asked what he wanted his URL to be, he said “Bullets Fever,” but they heard “Bullets Forever.” “It was probably a blessing in disguise,” says Prada. “I bet a lot of Wizards fans don’t know who Lofgren is, and besides, lots of people—including myself—wish the Bullets never changed their name.”

Prada, a 22-year-old Bethesda native, has been a Wizards fan all his life. He started going to games with his dad in the late 1990s and continued to follow the team during college at Brandeis University. He wrote about sports for his college newspaper but missed being able to talk to fellow Wizards fans about his hometown team. That’s when he decided to start a blog.

Prada says he writes for an audience of avid Wizards fans who know the game and the team inside and out. He opens a comment thread for every game and encourages fans to post thoughts and commentary as the game is being played. Prada was able to score press credentials this season, so he also does interviews and reports during games and practices. Readers can blog, too—a section called FanPosts allows anyone to post a link, picture, quote, or video.

We caught up with Prada to get his predictions for the 2009-2010 season, which got underway two weeks ago with a win against Dallas. There’s already a lot to debate—the team’s new coach, Flip Saunders, and Gilbert Arenas’s health, for starters—so read on for Prada’s answers. Then leave your thoughts on the team in the comments section below.

Jason Samenow launched Capital Weather Gang, a blog about Washington weather, in 2003. Back then, he was the only contributor. “I immediately recognized a blog’s potential to facilitate a two-way dialogue between readers and forecasters,” says Samenow. “I also liked the dynamic nature of blog content given the dynamic nature of weather.”

In 2004, Samenow enlisted weather techie Jamie Jones, who converted the site into a group blog and helped add contributors. Last year, the Washington Post picked up Capital Weather Gang to host on its own site. Entries run the gamut from daily weather forecasts (obviously) to weekly commentary on climate-change issues. Says Samenow: “We try to write accurate, informative, and entertaining posts for the Washington-weather consumer.”

Today the site has more than a dozen contributors, almost all of whom have other full-time jobs. We sat down with Samenow, Jones, and lead meteorologist Dan Stillman to get their bests and worsts on Washington weather. Read on for their predictions about everything from government snow days to Thanksgiving Day weather—and find out what they’ve promised to do if they’re wrong.

DCBeer began as Mike Dolan’s personal blog—he’d post updates every now and then, but he lacked a real focus and regularity. Wanting to start a blog about the local beer scene, Dolan relaunched his site in June as DCBeer, and he and his friends Andrew Nations, Mehan Jayasuriya, and P.J. Coleman began posting about local craft brewers, homebrewing, bartenders, and more. They even started an e-mail newsletter and a homebrewing club, and they’re teaming up with bars to host tasting events; the second one is tonight at the Black Squirrel.

The site is geared toward beer drinkers, brewers, and bartenders, but you don’t have to be a connoisseur to get something out of it. In fact, the writers don’t even consider themselves experts: “I’m a beer enthusiast,” says Dolan. “But I guess I’ve read enough and tasted enough to at least pretend to be an expert.”

We caught up with the self-proclaimed beer nerds to find out what they’re drinking this fall. Read on for where they go for a good beer selection (not Brickskelller!), their favorite beer that comes in a can, and their ordering tips for beer virgins. Sláinte!

Kelcy Ostrega started her fashion blog, What She Has . . ., as a New Year’s resolution in January. She calls herself a “blog-posting camel. I can go long periods without posting, but when I do, I’m loading up.”

Ostrega has always been interested in fashion, she says, “but I don’t really think I had any idea what I was doing until two or three years ago.” She attributes her evolving sense of style to her husband, Piotr. “He’s Polish and has that innate sense of European style that a lot of Americans lack,” she says. “I used to buy a lot of things just because they were a good deal, and he’s taught me to buy things because they look great on me.”

Even still, Ostrega is a bit of a bargain hunter. As the blog title suggests, many of her posts are wardrobe wish lists, but she has a real knack for finding high-fashion riffs at more wallet-friendly stores. Need proof? Check out her Fabulous Finds Under $50 list.

We caught up with this 28-year-old fashionista to chat about Washington style. Read on for her tips on glamming up a work outfit, her biggest fashion pet peeves, and where she goes to flex her bargain-hunting muscle.

Endless Simmer might be a cooking blog, but persnickety cooks should beware: The writers post recipes, but they never include measurements—only ingredients. “To us, one of the best parts of cooking is being creative and a little dangerous with ingredients,” says Stefanie Gans. "We like to explore, even if that means messing up every now and then."

Gans—known as Gansie to readers—is one of the blog’s founders. She and her former coworker Brendan Spiegel started the site in June 2007 as an outlet for their growing obsession with food and cooking. “It started as a bunch of coworkers bringing in the previous nights’ dinner to share tastes, recipes, horror stories, and successes,” says Gans. “A blog was the next logical step.”

Spiegel, who still contributes to the blog, has since moved to New York City to pursue food and travel writing, so Gans holds down the fort in Washington; she’s both a writer and an editor. In addition to original recipes, the site includes entries on local restaurants, cooking shows, celebrity chefs, breaking foodie news, farmers markets, and seasonal cooking. “We’re basically somewhere between regular consumers of pop food culture and total snobs,” says Gans. “We can just as easily enjoy offal or destroy a Dunkin’ Donuts egg-and-cheese croissant.”

We convinced Gans to take a timeout from her busy eating schedule to answer our cooking questions. Favorite recipe? Biggest disaster? Advice for novice cooks? Read on for her answers.

What’s a dilettante? According to Webster’s Dictionary, it’s “a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge.” In other words, a dabbler.

That’s exactly what the four women behind the blog Dilettante Club consider themselves. They’ve tried lots of hobbies, but none has stuck permanently. And that’s why they formed the club three years ago—to indulge their inner dilettante and give them an excuse to do lots of activities one time only.

Here’s how the club works: Once a month, the group assembles for an activity. The activity must be a one-time event that runs no longer than five hours, cost $100 or less, take place in Washington, and end with a recap over drinks and food. Activities have run the gamut from hula-hoop-making to ceramics to palm reading to self-defense. The group’s successes—and hilarious failures—are then documented on the blog.

The club was formed after a cocktail party when the women discussed their sordid hobbying pasts. Kathleen’s dilettante tendencies led her to hold ten jobs in 15 years. Amanda has dabbled in languages and knows several—but only at a novice-to-amateur level. While Amy became a dilettante for strictly practical reasons—she learned flute, for example, to join the band and avoid gym class in grade school—Nicole has tried lots of activities, such as field hockey and dancing, for the cute uniforms.

We caught up with the dilettantes to talk about—what else?—hobbies. Read on for their favorite and least favorite activities, the strangest thing they’ve ever dabbled in, and one activity they hope they never have to try.