Double Journey

Whenever I go out with friends, I make sure to always leave more than I should when it comes to splitting the bill.  I find that most people leave too little, usually forgetting tax or tip or often not paying for the drinks that they had.  I normally don’t correct people when this happens, I hate squabbling over a few dollars, but it definitely does bother me when people don’t pay their fair share.

The thing is, someone is always underpaying.  I usually don’t take any money back and we usually leave the right amount.  So if I’m overpaying, someone is underpaying.   I often wonder if people realize this.  Do they think other people just don’t notice, and that they are getting away with paying less than they should?  Or do people generally not know how much they should be paying?

I like to give my friends the benefit of the doubt.  I think most of them are fair and honest people and definitely not just trying to save a buck or two at my expense.  However, when I go out with people I’m not as good of friends with, I often wonder.

What are your thoughts and experiences?  Do you find yourself paying a greater portion of the bill than you should?
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There is another birthday in my household. My cat’s birthday was yesterday. I actually almost forgot about it because I’ve been so busy.

I don’t know if it is his actual birthday. I picked my cat up off the street. He was just a stray that kept coming around my apartment. I took him in one day and he stayed (or I wouldn’t let him leave depending on who you ask). I know I’m approximately right because he was about two or three months old when I found him and I picked him up in June.

He is now six years old. I feel somewhat like a parent in that I can’t believe he is already six years old, it certainly doesn’t seem like it.  I used to give Bandit gifts for his birthday, but I realized he doesn’t realize its his birthday nor does he really care.  I just said, “Happy Birthday” to him and he just ignored me.  Maybe he has reached the age where he lies to everybody how old he really is.
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Almost time to re-enter the market. The market opened sharply down and recovered after the Fed announced a 3/4 point rate cut.  One quick comment on that.  Not sure what type of house that my former professor is running.  I would prefer to see the fed leading the way rather than reacting to every little thing (OK a 500 point drop isn’t little) that happens.

I still think that the market is flat to down over the next few weeks if not month.  But it is impossible to pick the bottom of a market.  If you can take the long term pain, you should start thinking about putting your money back into the market.  Financial stocks are going to be the first to recover, but they might still be pretty scary here.  I still like my MO and I really want to by Home Depot, but I’m holding off for now.  Bottoms take a long time to form.  In 2000, it took months before we actually reached bottom even though there were several sharp drops.

There is still weakness however.  Apple is touching the 130’s in after hour trading.  They had a good quarter, but their outlook was grim.  That is going to be the theme for a lot of companies.  Good earnings, grim outlooks.  Thank god I passed on it at 195.  Tech is going to be a hard place to be.
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