A five day weekend just isn't enough these days. After going home for five days, I didn't want to go back to work, yet here I am. I wanted to just sit at home for another week and just be lazy and watch TV. But bills need to be paid, and people need to be able to shop online.

The store had a good showing this holiday season (although it's always the best year ever every year, since there's still growth). But there were 108 million items ordered, including 3.6 million on our peak day of Dec. 12. That's 41 items a second. And some poor sap paid $94 000 for a pair of diamond earrings that topped our most money spent list.

It's only another two days until the weekend again, and it's a three-day weekend, so it'll ease me back into working again.

from Reuter's 2005 Images of the Year.

At work, I have to walk through this hallway where some HR people have their cubicles, and apparently they're having a little decoration competition with some other part of the building. There's an excess of Christmas lights, ornaments hanging everywhere, and two trees. I feel like I'm going through some sort of reverse horror house everytime I walk through there. That's too much spirit for me.

I'm heading to the great white north tomorrow, going to have a meetup with the friends in Waterloo, and then heading to some secret remote resort up north with the parents. But I'll be back in Seattle for the New Year spectacular.

Can it be? (via Christine).

I've always had a soft spot for beef jerky, especially when it's not too dry, and had just the right flavour. I had some good jerky on the way up to Whistler (thanks Fiona and Bernard), and that insipred me.

I recently bought a dehydrator, so I can make beef jerky myself, among other hodgepodge of dried foodstuffs. The first batch worked out pretty well, a little marinade of worcestershire sauce, soysauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, red chili peppers, and salt, rubbed into the meat by yours truly. A night of marinating, and 10 hours of dehydrating later, I have a bunch of beef jerky to eat.

Batch 2 is drying right now.

If you have any good jerky recipes, let me know.

The past weekend marked day 8 of skiing for this season. Pretty good considering it's only mid December. But in my haste of going to the hill every weekend, I haven't had much time to let my body recover. Add to that 2 days of soccer a week, and I'm hurt all over. My legs, my shoulder, my wrists ... it forces me to remember that I'm not 18 anymore.

Maybe I'll take it easy this weekend, and try to recouperate.

Today is the last day you can legally smoke inside bars and restaurants in Washington state. At 12 midnight, a new law kicks in that forbids smoking inside, and within 25' outside bars and restaurants.

The 25' restriction is a bit much, but it's great to finally see us catching up with the rest of the world. I think a couple of bars are planning smoke outs tonight.

It's snowing hard, with giant snowflakes in downtown Seattle.

Things like this doesn't happen very often. Too bad it's not sticking.

Snowboarding should be good this weekend.