Hi! I'm Joelle, the brunette half of the Moxie Girls of Moxie Design Studios (formerly BlogMoxie for those kickin' it old school). I'm a freelance web designer who feels like the luckiest woman every day because I get to work in my pajamas on my sofa "with" my best friend and business partner, Kathy, making the Internet a prettier place. I met her through this very blog on the day I launched it now almost five years later, we're peas n' carrots. Or clam dip. You'll have to ask her about that one. We are also co-authoring the first book in a brand new series from Wiley Publishing called The IT Girl's Guide to Blogging with Moxie (in case you didn't notice from the 300 mentions of it) due out this Fall.

I love to sing more than anything, but don't do it nearly enough. I love jazz, especially Ella Fitzgerald. I've played the piano since I was 3 and singing since I was roughly the same age, but didn't get serious about my voice until around 14 years old. If I could pick any job in the world (besides what I'm doing right now) it would be professional singer. Though, while I can sing and do it in public all the time, the minute someone says, "Sing something for me" every song I've ever done is immediately wiped from my brain.

I am a mixology enthusiast, which is a fancy term for someone who really likes cocktails. It's actually more than that, it's about the chemistry of cocktails and what makes them what they are. A few drops of this or that and you have a completely different drink. I have a special "thing" for vintage cocktails, but my favorite drink is a slightly dirty Grey Goose martini with three olives and just a whisper of vermouth. And yes, I know 20/20 did a study on people who drink Grey Goose being trendy poseurs, but John Stossel can kiss my lily white rump. I'll drink the cheap stuff in a Cosmo, but rarely in a straight up vodka martini.

My mom is my idol. She passed away in 1984 from breast cancer, but she inspires me every day. You can see why, but aside from that she was talented, wicked smart and just about the most warm, loving human being. My dad was pretty awesome, as well! He was a giving, hilarious, totally swanky kinda guy with a penchant for piano bars and golf. He passed away in 1994.

Sunny San Diego, California is my hometown and they're not kidding when they call it America's Finest City. Sometimes I take my laptop out to my front yard and watch the sailboats. Yes, I'm rubbing it in.

I probably have something else to say, but you'll just have to come back here again, now won't you?

This blog was started January 22, 2003. In 2005, I got a wild hair and thought it would be cute to call it something else (SnappyHour.com*, which was inspired by some of Derek Yaniger's amazing art), but I just wasn't feeling it. Then I changed it to YetUpbeat.com which is a little in-joke with Kathy that came from the chick flick, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I wasn't really feelin' that either. I had The Burnout, so I took a year off. But, I'm back and I am ready to rock.

* I've since gifted snappyhour.com to Derek. He's totally swell.

I use ExpressionEngine because it's the cat's ass of content management systems (CMS). That's a good thing, I swear. And we're hosted with Hosting Matters, which has great hosting packages, runs Cpanel (a must, as far as I'm concerned) and their attentive staff responds to our urgent help tickets and still love us anyway.

Tenth Muse has been optimized for a 1024x768 monitor resolution or higher. If you're still using 800x600, you respectfully need to upgrade to a newer monitor and invest in some bifocals. I also recommend you upgrade to IE7 if you're using IE6 because I am boycotting it... at least for this site. I've made it viewable, but if you want to see how it really looks, upgrade. Better yet, dump Internet Explorer altogether and get Firefox. Welcome to 2007, kids.

This site has entries dated back to 2003, but I am in the process of reviewing my archives. Archived entries will begin appearing as I read through them, so keep your eye on the archives if you are interested in reading those.

Everything on this site is copyrighted by us, the Moxie Girls, unless otherwise indicated. All illustrations were created expressly for us by the incomparable Derek Yaniger. Please do not swipe them — he has lawyers and so do we. Ditto for our code and HTML, por favor. We totally understand the desire to learn how to do XYZ, but please ask. Thanks! :)

I have no time for assholery, nor do I care about the shenanigans of Blog Valley High. Take your crazy somewhere else. I'm all stocked up here.

Love and kisses,
The Management