I'm back from Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Watch the video below to hear staff biologist Derek Woodie describe a typical day for a beluga whale at the zoo. And check out Saturday's paper to get an update on Qannik, who arrived in the summer.

(As seen in Tacoma Mall>

The backwards S? Forgivable if it’s a toy store. After the digits? Kinda annoying. Together at the same time? That’s a big enough mistake to warrant a place on Learn to spell, Washington.

Remember this little critter that came to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium over the summer?

I'm heading over there this afternoon to see how Qannik, the 6-year-old beluga whale, is doing.

You can read an earlier story about him here.

(And if you're a parent and your kid is gung ho about being a reporter, you can always get him even more stoked by saying that journalists can get into the zoo for free if they're working on a story there. That just might be enough to overshadow the doom-and-gloom news from Wall Street about our industry.)

Call it the gift-card effect.

At retail stores across Tacoma, the usual post-Christmas return-line crush seemed more like a hard push. Many customers at Tacoma Mall were there to shop, not return that DVD of “Jane Fonda's Complete Personal Trainer Series.”

“Our foot traffic looks like it’s about the same as last year,” JCPenney store manager Keith Burke said. “The customer base will come in today in large part because of gift cards.”

Many stores hoped to capitalize on the rising number of people who opt to purchase the cards. Almost every storefront at Tacoma Mall advertised a sale or clearance.

“We transition to you – shopping for yourself – instead of gift giving,” Macy’s store manager Shelley Louderback said.

Gift receipts expedite the process of returns and make for shorter lines, Burke said. Another increasing trend, gift purchases online, might have contributed to the shorter return lines.

Burke said he wouldn’t know until probably next week if returns were indeed down.

“The traffic in the mall does look heavier than most weekdays,” he said. “And I walked around at about 8 or 8:30, and it seemed pretty busy then.”

Hope everyone out there had a fun Christmas. I've spent the past 24 hours in a magic wonderland known as XM.

Some folks, though, weren't so happy receiving the latest straight-to-DVD American Pie movie or that T-shirt that's two sizes too small. So my editors are sending me to several different stores today to check out the return lines.