Weather report: 41^o.  Brrr.  This morning Shirley and I leisurely drove back from Carlsbad, where we spent the night after the Aperio Christmas Holiday Party (it was pretty fun, thanks for asking, although I might have had too much Merlot), and this afternoon I did a short ride around Westlake; my scrapes are healing and didn't bother me too much.  Cycling shorts make a good band-aid.

At Aperio's Holiday Party we traditionally have a white elephant gift exchange.  As our staff has grown managing this has become more and more difficult; last night it was pretty hectic but didn't quite descend into chaos.  We managed to emerge unscathed with the gift of the night; a large aluminum acorn.  Woo hoo!

{ I must note parenthetically that Eichhorn means squirrel in German.  And squirrels like acorns. }

Powerline sarcastically notes it's a good thing we have a Republican administration, "otherwise, we'd have rampant government intervention in private industry".  That rampant intervention is exactly what we do have, and it's disgusting.  The auto industry bailout bill didn't pass the senate, so the federal government is taking it upon themselves to use our money to bail them out anyway.  Whatever happened to government for the people?  Isn't the whole purpose of the Senate to represent taxpayers?  I've lost the thread.  Powerline's conclusion is dead on: 

The most disheartening aspect of the current bailout spree is the spectacle of executives from the banking, investment banking, insurance and auto industries begging the government for cash like teenagers who have blown their allowances and are abjectly asking their Daddy for more money.  The government as Daddy--wasn't that supposed to be a liberal concept?

Here we have numberspiral.com.  I love this stuff.  The amazing thing about such properties of numbers is that they are so pure, so divorced from Humans, Earth, or any other context.  These same spirals and curves could be drawn by any intelligent life anywhere, and they would be just the same. 

If you're a football fan, this is a dead weekend.  The college seasons are all over, and the bowl games have not yet begun.  (BTW here's a nice ranking of the bowls, with the Orange FedEx Bowl not taking place until Jan 8; how stupid is that?  At least we'll have the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, featuring Pac 10 against Big 10, USC vs Penn State.  That will be a great game...)  The pro season is winding down but the playoffs haven't yet arrived.  A good weekend for shopping... 

It's Christmas shopping season... can't figure out what to buy?  Here's CNet's guide: What Would an Editor Buy?  And Amazon helpfully lists the Most-Wanted Holiday Toys.  

Meanwhile Shirley is baking cookies.  I want some of those :)