Here's a picture of the Washington Monument and the Treasury building at sunset. This was taken on 15th Street NW, looking down towards Pennsylvania Avenue on a cold autumn evening, on my way home (I was walking to the parking garage).

The beltway was a mess today; we had several incidents involving tractor trailers - one on Interstate 95 in Maryland, and one that I personally witnessed on Branch Avenue early this morning with what appeared to be a truck that ran off the road. I tried to get a picture, but it was still dark and the traffic wasn't slowing down enough to allow me to snap anything. Somehow, I think the authorities would have something to say if I decided to stop and take pictures. It's snowing outside right now as we speak, so I'm sure the traffic will be even more miserable by the end of the night.

Adding to the chaos of the week was the "limited" release of Xbox 360. In Virginia, an EB store was held up at gunpoint and the thieves walked off with every one of the game systems allocated to the store. The store manager was found in the bathroom, bound in duct tape. Do you think maybe those Xbox 360 systems showing up on eBay for $3000 might be part of that stock? As if that wasn't bad enough, here's a story about another stampede at a Wal Mart, this time in Maryland, over the same highly sought after Xbox system. What is it with Wal Mart and people stampeding over purchases of "hot" items?