Cut And Color!

Katie finally got her wish of a nice haircut today and a little place in Beverly Hills, although not one of the places a looked at with the flashy Web sites. She also got her wish of an English speaking person in the form of a man who was actually from England. More impressive than that was the fact that he was the first straight male hair dresser I have ever come across. Pink shirt and flip-flops be damned, he had a son and a wife and the whole works! By the way, Bill and the guys at the Tyrone Barber Shop are not anomalies because they are good old fashioned manly barbers, and not hair dressers by any measure. I have no idea what goes on during the course of a woman's styling session, but I looked over once and her hair was festooned with tin foil, she looked like a cross between the Lion King and a TV antenna. Fortunately she came out looking like a million bucks. As I said, this place was in Beverly Hills, where upon leaving I was treated to the sight of a Mercedes-Benz SL500 absolutely flying down the street, and judging by the unholy howl it was letting out, it was certainly tuned by the boys at AMG to put out some crazy power! Here's a tip for you guys out there: if you girlfriend has just dropped $140 on a haircut, the first thing out of your mouth should not be "Did you see that car?"

Speaking of ridiculous speed, I paid for my speeding ticket online the other day. After negotiating a maze of "Pay Your Fine Online" and deciding that my citation had nothing to do with hunting or fishing but was more than 30 days old and did indeed happen in Pinellas County but did not require a court appearance and a myriad of other options to narrow down just who was paying which ticket, I think it would have been easier to just have a tab marked "Alex's Speeding Ticket." The kicker came when I had to pay a 3% "convenience fee" for doing all this on the most inconvenient Web site ever conceived. I also got a little smile when I finally found my ticket, I got to put it in my virtual shopping cart. That made me feel good because for a minute it felt like I was actually buying something of substance, when in reality I was paying to keep my face off the wall of the Post Office. I guess I got a two-for-one deal, because the same price allowed me the one-time opportunity to drive really fast down a residential street. I was actually looking forward to contesting this ticket in court. I don't think I would have won, but it would have been fun to give my argument a shot. Not to worry though, once I get back behind the wheel of my sled and work out my frustration at having driven a station wagon for so long, I don't doubt I'll have a fresh new ticket to argue in no time.

I have taken to exercising these past few weeks for a few reasons. First of all, I have a lot of free time between dropping Katie off at work at 10 and going back to retrieve her at 6 and working out has become 'something to do.' Second, a person of my age should be able to perform rudimentary exercises without becoming light-headed. Finally, because I live in L.A. for crying out loud, and I would be branded an outsider and ostracized if I didn't at least appear to obsess about my appearance. They have ways of dealing with those who are full of self-confidence out here! It all started innocently enough with my decision to take the stairs instead of the elevator when I could. It has since progressed to an assortment of exercises that I try to engage in on a daily basis, and is accented with a casual concern for my diet. I can't say whether or not any of this is actually progressing toward visible results, but at least I feel better at the end of the day.

Now, I must ask those reading this for some technical advice. My computer has been plagued with increasingly obnoxious ads for various products. Most malicious is for something called "WinFixer 2005" which I have found to be some sort of program that I got unintentionally. I have updated my Windows security patches, have been running McAfee anti-virus since before my computer was connected to the Internet, and regularly run SpyBot and AdAware, but all to no avail. I also don't have any sort of file sharing program installed on this computer, and have used it purely for simple Web browsing. If anyone has any solutions, I would greatly appreciate them.