The folks at Pet Cabaret in Roslindale report they had to break the news to a caller yesterday that they don't carry ants:

... "Ants?" I say, "Why, no...you can get them outside..."

"Oh." came the reply and a polite "Thank you" followed. ...

This comes about a month after somebody called the store to ask if they sold piranhas (answer: no).

OK, more like art on a box: ParkwayBoston.com photographs some of the newly decorated utility boxes in West Roxbury and Roslindale.

Daniel Mitchell, 7, a second-grader at the Bates School, shows Gov. Patrick and Mayor Menino where his apartment is.

Gov. Patrick came to the Washington-Beech housing project in Roslindale today to sign legislation that will result in the 1952 project replaced by a series of low- and moderate-income townhomes and apartments by 2012.

Trinity Boston, a private developer, will replace the current dormitory-style buildings on the 7.6-acre project with townhomes and a 72-unit apartment building at the corner of Washington and Beech streets, which will mainly house elderly residents. The project will cost $90 million; earlier this year the Boston Housing Authority won a $20-million federal grant to help pay for the work.

Artist's rendering of the new Washington-Beech. You're looking south on Washington, past Beech.

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A Roslindale baker won

from a lottery scratch ticket. Insert your own "dough" joke below.

Cleary Squared goes to the new Staples in Roslindale Square, reports that if it wants to retain any customers on the weekends, it's going to have to instill some pride in the sullen, put-upon teens apparently running the place on Saturdays and Sundays.

Dan Miller reports he only goes to the School Street Starbucks because he needs his morning coffee, not because he enjoys "being held hostage by the designated drink maker, who thinks he's Tom Cruise in 'Cocktail.'"

Today was the Roslindale Day Parade, and we set up camp at our usual location, at Belgrade and Walworth Street. It was a nice parade, if a bit odd in that there wasn't a single fire truck (unless you count the ancient one used by the New Liberty Jazz Band). Seems the firetrucks ran about 15 minutes before the rest of the parade. And there seemed to be a lot fewer armed-forces/Junior ROTC/veterans groups.

More photos, natch:

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Wayne Wilson doesn't think the parade (this Sunday) is green enough, so he's going to stand at the corner of South and Birch streets and, um, I'm not sure, not watch the parade?

It has come to me from a reliable source that 4 yes 4 more Boston Public Schools will be closing. The announcement was supposed to be on the News at 6pm tonite. This is unbelievable. Rather that keeping these schools OPEN it has been decided to close them. If money is the issue ...Why don't we save some and eliminate the bus situation? Kids as young as 4 years old on a bus travelling across the city without any supervision.

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Normally, when a road gets torn up, you can expect weeks of unremitting commuting pain as you navigate among the barrels and raised grates. I was certainly expecting that when crews started tearing up the parkway between Washington Street and just past Bellevue Hill Road on Monday. But by last night, they were actually finished - the road is nice and smooth and all that's left is to put down the permanent lane stripes.

Rowe Street protest doesn't stop police. Couple had signed up for a mortgage worth as much as their monthly income; then they couldn't find somebody to pay as much as they'd thought they could get in rent and they fell behind.