Chris Moss Online

James and I stopped for dinner on the way home from a meeting tonight. The TVs in the establishment were tuned to Fox News Channel. Evidently, the only things that happened in the world today were:

1. Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for mudering his wife and unborn child.
2. Robert Blake was acquitted of charges that he murdered his wife.
3. The Michael Jackson trial continued.
4. Major League Baseball players have been subpoenaed to appear before Congress.

I guess if it didn’t happen to a famous entertainment celebrity, it didn’t happen.

I suppose President Bush didn’t nominate Paul Wolfowitz, a controversial figure who is blamed by many people for many factors relating to the war in Iraq (most of them bad) to head the World Bank, a job which a lot of people feel Mr. Wolfowitz has no qualifications for and, incidentally, Mr. Wolfowitz would need to gain the support of many of the leaders he has previously alienated in order to be effective in his job.

I suppose the Senate didn’t pass a bill to allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve.

I guess Israel didn’t hand control of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority today.

Apparantly, 200 protestors in Kenya demanding that Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki keep a campaign promise to change the Constitution to limit presidential powers following a string of corruption scandals weren’t dispersed by riot police using tear gas and water cannons.

28 people didn’t die in a plane crash in Russia.

I’m sure there are a lot more things that didn’t happen today, but even if they did I guess no one would care.

Ian’s parents came to visit them this weekend, and Bobby & Ian coordinated a trip with them and other friends to the Dallas Arboretum, which currently is presenting “Dallas in Bloom” as all the spring flowers start to turn out. It was really pleasant.

After, we all went to lunch at Mattito’s for Mexican food. It was 85 on Saturday, and we were all ready for cerveza y margaritas, so we had some. The service was surprisingly slow, but once we got our drinks and some chips, we didn’t care anymore. The company was excellent, and the weather was great, so we whiled away a long lunch, and it was really fun. Thanks to Ian’s parents for picking up the tab. *doffs hat*

That afternoon, the dogs and I went to the dog park and attempted a few caches. We found the first one, the second one is now gone, the third one was on the other side of a creek I would have had to wade across, and it got too dark to do the third. It was great fun, though, because the dogs hadn’t been to the park to run around (leashless) and play with the other dogs in quite a while.

Saturday night was simple and quite (for a change) and that was great, too. Grilled hamburgers and roasted corn on the cob, then had Blue Bell for dessert. Yum!

Today was spent geocaching primarily. I am so addicted to this, I just needed to get out and find a bunch – and find them I did. I nabbed 10 today, and my total is now 55. I try to do a couple during lunch here and there. It won’t be too many more weeks when I will have done all there are to do in Frisco. I’m doing some close to the office, and then will work to get all those in between. Then I’ll have to branch out from there. There have to be at least 1,000 in the DFW area.

Did my taxes tonight, and James is killing up a storm playing Halo 2, which he hasn’t done in a while. Next week is his spring break and I’m glad he has a chance to slow down for a few days.

Current mood: Sleepy
Current music: “Back to the Island” Jimmy Buffett

I hate getting my hair cut. But, I also don’t like my hair too long. In a perfect world, I could get my hair cut quickly at a convenient time and place about every 3 weeks. But I don’t like investing the time required to get my hair cut – inevitably I end up waiting quite a bit.

Until recently, this wasn’t a problem. For about 3 years, there was a stylist at the local JC Penney who did a really great job cutting my hair, and she was usually running on time. I could call up, make an appointment, get in and out, and quite happy with the product. The only stressful bit was that I never know how to handle tipping a hair stylist. The price at JC Penney varies depending on the seniority/skill level of your stylist, and the one I liked cost $20 for shampoo/cut/dry.

I tipped her a couple bucks a couple of times, but I found it awkward. When I paid, I would use a credit card, and they always ask, “Do you want to put anything extra on your card?” Is this a tip? It was never clear. If I said yes, they would just hand me whatever cash amount I said (e.g. “three dollars”). So, then I would have to walk back to the salon area and hand her the money or put it on her workstation. I just thought it was weird. I don’t understand the tip phenomenon, anyway, I figure the price is whatever the price is.

So, I decided I wasn’t going to give her a tip each visit, and I just gave her $40 extra at Christmas, like a Christmas bonus. She cut my hair about every 5 weeks, so that probably worked out better for her, it made me feel better about it, so I was happy.

Then, she moved to Phoenix.

Although I’m not really picky about my hair (like some people I know – good lord!), I have had a really difficult time finding a good sylist that I want to keep going back to. A couple of the others at JC Penney have been downright horrible. One lady cut my hair following my natural part, rather than the way I asked her/had it when I came in. After that, I just went where James goes – to Supercuts. It costs only $12. I wasn’t optimistic, but it was a pretty decent cut. But, I decided to try Penney’s again, and this lady drew $27 for the same service. She cut my hair along the natural part, too, and now I don’t want to go back.

Yesterday, I got it cut at Supercuts again, and again the cut was fine. I’d rather pay $11.95 and tip her $3 and get in and out than pay so much more at JC Penney’s – even if I could get a decent cut there. So, for the time being, I’m going to Supercuts.

Mash ups are multiple songs mixed together to make a new song. I first heard about this concept a few weeks back, went to a website, and didn’t like what I heard. Ian mentioned yesterday one he found that was good, and when I walked in the door today from a meeting, James was listening to it.

The mash up in question can be found at DJ Earworm’s site and the title is “No One Takes Your Freedom.” It is a bit like a symphony, the way clips from the various tracks are blended together. This is especially true towards the end, as you hear George Michael singing the word “freedom” repeatedly, from his song of the same name, and Aretha Franklin singing the refrain “freedom….freedom…whoa-oh FREEDOM” from her hit “Think.” It’s like they’re the same song, and it’s pretty amazing.

This one really works well, and hopefully it will inspire these DJs doing mash ups to take it to the next level.

Current mood: boppy
Current music: “Policy of Sweet Dreams” – Depeche Mode vs. Eurythmics – DJ Earworm

Like most Americans, I have a bit of debt. Mine is probably a bit more than average. Fortunately, I have sufficient investment assets (not counting my 401k) that I could pay it all off if I wanted to, so it doesn’t worry me. I recently made the last payment on my car, so the money that was going to a car payment each month now goes towards paying off the pile of debt.

I thought that this month would be the first month in a while where I would pay more on my credit card than I charged (plus interest), thereby moving my total balance down. Despite my trip to the UK, I did pretty well. Unfortunately, I also got hit with my annual membership fee ($50) which put me about $15 north of being even for the month. Grrr! But hey, I went to London so I only have myself to blame.

I was just going over some of the charges from London which some of you might be interested in:

Starbucks Gatwick – 4.35 pounds = $8.48
(1 grande carmel macchiato & 1 blueberry muffin)
Watergate’s Chester – 13.20 pounds = $25.75
(3 gin & tonics, 1 coffee, 1 tea)
London Underground – 18.00 pounds = $35.11
(3 Tube day passes)
Retro Bar London – 15.55 pounds = $30.33
(adult drinks for 5)
Garfunkels Gatwick – 16.75 pounds = $32.88
(breakfast for 2, including fresh OJ)

London is a more expensive city in general, but this is usually in terms of hotels, clothing, parking, cars, fuel, etc. I guess the Starbucks wasn’t that bad – I probably would have paid $6.50 at home – $2 more doesn’t seem like a lot, but percentage-wise that is a 30% load. $25.75 is about $7 per G&T and $2.50 for each coffee and tea. The Tube is a pretty cheap way to get around, and considering the amount we used it, it was probably very cheap per trip or per mile ridden. Again, $30 for 6 drinks is about $5 each, not too bad. $32.88 for breakfast is a rip!

You math genuises might notice that the exchange rate got worse as our trip progressed (the entries are in chronological order). Here’s the exchange rate for each of the above transactions (cost for 1 pound)

$1.9494
$1.9508
$1.9506
$1.9506
$1.9630

The last time I was in London, the cost for one pound was about $1.60. That was 2 1/2 years ago. The first trip I made about 6 years ago, it was about $1.50.

I paid cash for some fuel for Neil’s car; it was 10 pounds even, but I think that was only 15 liters’ worth.

In Australia 6 years ago, AUD$1 cost about US 80 cents. So that was quite the bargain, especially since things (except clothes) were pretty cheap to begin with. I remember paying about AUD$35 for dinner for 4, including 1 adult drink each. That was at a pretty decent restaurant, too.