5 Things: Baseball, Live Music, Laundry and the ThighMaster

Happy hump day, Del Ray! Here are 5 Things for you to consider this Wednesday.

Baseball or live music? — I'll let you decide. The Alexandria Aces return home to host the Vienna River Dogs at 7 p.m. at Frank Mann Field. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 6-12. Children under 6 are free. 

There’s also some live music for you to consider, including Dr. John at The Birchmere (7:30 p.m., $45), Emily Henry at St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub (8 p.m., free) and Judge Smith at Evening Star’s No. 9 Lounge (8 p.m., free).

No More Wash-And-Fold Service — Tuesday’s story about Norge Laundry on Mount Vernon Avenue closing garnered a lot of comments on the Del Ray Patch Facebook page.

“It's a loss for different groups for different sets of reasons and I think the impact on the elderly is often over-looked,” Rebecca Stone Gordon wrote.

“They did a fabulous job and were a life-saver for us (two working parents). I am sad that they weren't able to find a new location. Last time we talked to them, there was some thought to do a pick-up/delivery service,” wrote Angela Mills.

Five stores are clearing out of the retail strip in the 1500 block of Mount Vernon Avenue to make way for a new Walgreens store.

Get Involved at Duncan Library — The Friends of Duncan Library have their monthly meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. in the branch’s meeting room. Learn how you can become more active in the programs and events at Del Ray’s library, located at 2501 Commonwealth Ave.

Exercising Ingenuity — Actress Suzanne Somers may have popularized the ThighMaster in the 1990s, but who created it? Mystery solved when you go to the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum, located in the atrium of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 600 Dulany St. in Alexandria. The current exhibit, “Exercising Ingenuity,” highlights patents, trademarks and inventions that emerged from the fitness, nutrition and exercise industries. The museum is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. It is accessible from the King Street and Eisenhower Avenue Metro stations.

Were dragons real? — These and other questions will be pondered over at a National Gallery of Art talk and tour at 1 p.m. titled “Dragons in Art,” looking at the gallery’s own collection. The 50-minute discussion begins in the West Building’s main floor at the rotunda. The gallery is located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th streets, NW along Constitution Avenue.