A Morning Love Story

Joelle said at some point on December 1, 2007

Taken this morning in my kitchen window with my Nikon.

Sunday’s Fashion of Choice

Joelle said around mid-afternoon on December 2, 2007

Nobody said anything about "sexy".

I Love the Smell of Geek Humor in the Morning!

Joelle said at some point on December 3, 2007

To preface this snippet of a post-code victory conversation with Deltus this morning, I had to first share with you our Yahoo messenger avatars.

Joelle: well, you will always be our hero.  thank you for all you do, Deltus.

Deltus: Welcome.

Deltus: Just, put in a good word for my avatar with your avatar, k?

Joelle: I’ll see what I can do.

Deltus: Kathy’s avatar, btw, said your avatar is a slut.

Joelle: that’s ok, her avatar has crabs

Deltus: My avatar hadn’t heard that.

Joelle: really? I heard her avatar got it from some new avatar in beta.

Joelle: you never know where they’ve been.

Deltus: Her avatar would be the good, proper choice for my avatar to want to go out with.  It would make my mom’s avatar very happy.  But it’s your avatar he really wants.

Deltus: My mom’s avatar would not be as pleased.

Then, a few minutes later:

Kathy: My avatar told Deltus’ avatar your avatar got the clap from this guy:

Joelle: You bitch!  That was supposed to be our secret!

I fully realize no one may be amused by that exchange other than the three of us, but it’s Monday.  I’ll take amusement where I can get it.

Well, I Never!

Joelle said at some point on December 4, 2007

“Never” is a weird word if you type it a couple times.  After a while, it starts to to look foreign.  Like “What’s a never?” Anyway, I digress.

As I’m getting older, I’ve started noticing more things I’ve never done.  You think when you’re younger that you’ll have forever to do adventurous and bizarre things, but as Janet says in the movie Singles, “Somewhere around 25, bizarre becomes… immature.” Not that I want to do anything too bizarre, but when you wake up on Monday morning, blink and it’s Friday night, you start realizing that time takes no prisoners. So, I’ve started an informal list of things I want to see or do in my life, be it monumental or trivial.

Last night I saw a woman on TV building a gingerbread house. It occurred to me that I’ve never done that.  Not in all my 34 years have I ever built a gingerbread house.  I don’t recall my mom ever engaging in that with me. Maybe we would have eventually, when I was old enough to figure out all the bits n’ parts, but we just never got that much time.

When I was about 11, I vaguely recall my future stepmother doing some kind of Christmas candy making when my dad first told me he was dating her. She invited me over to her house to watch movies and make cinnamon lollipops to distract me from the fact that she was making the marital moves on my dad… but no gingerbread house.  That’s a fine how-di-do!  Some woman shags your dad and you can’t even get a lousy gingerbread house out of it.  What kind of a world do we live in?

I don’t even recall building one as a school project or ever picking up one of those “gingerbread house kits”. Suddenly, I want to make a gingerbread house just for the sole purpose of having done it.  I also kind of want to get my art on, as gingerbread houses hold no edible appeal for me. I think they just look pretty, when done well.

I smell a project… like I need another one.  All the projects piled up around here are starting to stink up the joint, but maybe this time I’ll actually find time to do it.

You know, after I make fudge, write my Christmas cards, finish shopping, wrap presents, mail packages, finish clients, launch our websites and roast the partridge in a pear tree.

I’ve never seen an actual partridge either.  Add that to the list.

Anyone?

Joelle said around mid-morning

Sometimes, I’m truly vexed as to what constitutes legitimate talent anymore.  Surely this is a joke.

My fave is the close-up of the girl around -1:35 (about 30 seconds in).

“I can see you through your blinds...”

Who’s Jolly Now?

Joelle said during happy hour on December 6, 2007

Please. Like we don't know the Robot. Click it!

Stormy Weather

Joelle said in the early morning on December 7, 2007

It’s storming.  In San Diego sometimes it’s hard to tell what constitutes a storm because the news media and everyone else panic when we get a condensation two counties over and declare it StormWatch ‘07.  But right now, I think it’s safe to say it’s officially storming. There’s actually a bay full of sailboats in that photo. Who knew?

While it sucks that it’s been raining and blustery on the weekends and gorgeous during the week when I’m busy, the rain is welcomed. It gives me yet another opportunity to work bundled up with my laptop and spiked coffee (quickly becoming a Moxie Girls Friday Tradition).  My desktop is made of glass and as my desk is right under the window, it gets a little chilly.  I suppose I could put on warmer clothes or get a blanket, but then what excuse would I have to work from the couch?

We’ve been getting more reviews on Amazon for our book!  That’s been exciting.  Some good, some concerned that it’s a bit fluffy for a tech book, but that’s to be expected. No hard feelings — it’s not for everyone and Blogging with Moxie is definitely meant to be a fun book for beginners and not a big meat n’ potatoes manifesto on blogging.  The only thing I wish people would relax a little about is the cocktails.  A couple reviews make our book sound like it’s more cocktails than tech talk. There are two cocktails for pete’s sake, along with salads, face masques, party ideas, beauty tips and pie.  It’s just a champagne cocktail, y’all, we’re not saying mainline Jagermeister while you install WordPress.  Though, given my recent experience with WordPress, I may consider adding that in a second edition. 

Oo! Oo!  We did get some nice press today, though. We were recently interviewed for an article on Healthy Travel Tips for AOL (for those who don’t know, Put Down the Donut is making it’s triumphant return January 2008).  You can check it out here. We’re #10… airplane food. Sexy!

Happy Friday everyone! Stay safe. Drink some nog.  Or watch someone else drink some nog because seriously, that stuff is nasty.

(If you’d like to contribute your own review of our book, we’d welcome it!)

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Joelle said during happy hour on December 8, 2007

I don’t really dig most of the newer pop Christmas tunes.  I enjoy Christmas songs in reasonable doses, as long as they’re not overly religious (though I do have a soft spot for O Holy Night) or Barbra Streisand’s Jingle Bells.  But I just don’t really care to listen to every Tom Dick n’ Britney’s Christmas CD.  OK, maybe not Britney, since I don’t recall her releasing a holiday CD, thankfully. I could look it up on Amazon, but let’s not destroy my fantasy — it’s Christmas.

I’m talking about albums like Hansen’s Snowed In, N*Sync’s Home for Christmas, or Jessica Simpson’s Rejoyce (not only is she an incredible (over)singer, she’s a talented speller, that one!).  Not even Christina Aguilera’s My Kind of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, Christina has some pipes (questionable fashion choices sometimes, but damn fine pipes), but I’m just not into it.

Perhaps that’s unfair. I’ve not listened to the CD and since she does have a great voice, maybe I’d like it. Given that I don’t really listen to any of those artists outside of this discussion pretty much guarantees I won’t dig their holly jolly offering, anyway. Anyone who wishes to release a Christmas CD is more than entitled and I’ll admit there are a few newer albums that have made their way into my collection. Michael Buble’s Let It Snow, Sarah Maclachlan’s Wintersong and both of Brian Setzer’s to name a few.

Overall, I am just partial to the classics. Growing up our house was filled with Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney. Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole… those versions of Christmas songs are the classics to me, anyway.  Now, why I decided the cut-off for “classics” was Wham’s Last Christmas is beyond me, but it’s true and I won’t be ashamed!  For some reason, it’s just not Christmas until I’ve heard that song.  (And I won’t pretend Run DMC’s Christmas in Hollis isn’t hiding in there somewhere.  )

I wonder if when the kids of this generation are our age, they’ll think that Hanna Montana’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree is nostalgia in a song.  Why Last Christmas is OK with me and Miley Cyrus is not, I can’t say, but it does remind me to send Reilly some more Jazz for Kids CDs.  *note*

Here’s one of my faves, remixed on Merry Mixmas, uploaded for your listening enjoyment.

I had a player here, but it was just so unsightly, I had to ditch it. Be a dear and save it to your desktop, won’t you?
Kay Starr -The Man with the Bag (Thunderball Remix)

And Now for Some Shameless Promotion

Joelle said around mid-afternoon on December 10, 2007

I’ve had this whole entry I’m crafting in my head about yesterday’s trip to Target and the man with the diaper cream and submarines, but I’m running a bit behind today, so it’ll have to wait until later.

In the meantime, I thought I would share this adorable bit of Moxie love from Leslie Camacho, VP over at EllisLab (and his darling daughter Sofia – seriously cute).  Despite that fact that have over the years become friends with the fine folks at Expression Engine, we’re on their advisory board and yes, we’ve sent them baked goods on occasion and celebratory champagne when we couldn’t be there at SXSW, Les does his best to give an unbiased review.  Sort of.  Let’s put it this way, he gives a very sweet and much appreciated somewhat unbiased review by proxy. 

And for that, he rocks mightily.  Thanks so much!

In other news, Kathy and I are going to be on Sirius Satellite Radio in the evening on December 19th, so if you’ve got Sirius, tune in and listen to us dish with Derek and Romaine on what our publicist says is the 2nd top rated show on Sirius, next to Howard.  I’ll be damned!  I don’t have Sirius, but Kathy does.  Yeah, I could pretend we’re all cool about it, but we’re totally squealing like little girls. We own it.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Joelle said during happy hour on December 11, 2007 while listening to Wham! - Last Christmas

Just now, during our usual “I just mailed your Christmas preseeeeeeeent!” tease we do every year.

Joelle: I think you’re going to be really happy with your gift. It’s solely for you, it indulges no one else but you. It’s for you to totally enjoy and tell everyone else to piss off.

Kathy: do i need to open it in private? my parents will be here.  hahahaha!

Joelle: no. lol. it’s all G-rated

Kathy: ok, just checking before I open a giant rubber fist in front of my mother.

Well, shoot! There goes her birthday gift.  *sigh*

Burgess Fisherman and the Discount Diaper Cream

Joelle said in the early morning on December 12, 2007

Sunday morning, I was up super early and ran out to the grocery store to pick up some peppermint extract. (I hand-rolled 100 homemade chocolate truffles in 4 different flavors. Go on, call me Bree again. .) Afterward, I realized it was only about 10 minutes until Target opened, so I pulled into the parking lot and waited. I needed some jellyroll pans.

About 7 minutes till opening, I decided to get out and stretch my legs while other shoppers started to congregate around the front doors.I sauntered up after them and milled around the front door with a brood of moms I would not want to mess with. Those women were there for a Wii and by god, they were going to get one. They all had their running shoes and game faces on.  I was actually a little concerned. I felt the need to let them know I had no interest in Wii and wish them luck lest they think me opposition and beat me down on my way to the cookie sheets.

There was another man standing near me who looked kind of like a cross between a weathered fisherman and Burgess Meredith in Rocky.  Standing about 5 feet away and without us making any eye contact whatsoever, he suddenly turns to me and says, “I like your coat. I used to have a coat just like that.”

“Thank you,” I said and smiled.  Wrong answer.

I was wearing my men’s black pea coat I bought for my trip to England, my “Rock Paper Scissors Champion” t-shirt that has the big fist on it (fists are this week’s theme, I guess), jeans and Chucks. Nothing too spectacular.  But after saying thank you, Burgess Fisherman continued on.

“I wore a Navy pea coat.  When you sweat, you’ll get a rash,” gesturing under his arms and along his torso and crotch.  “My doctor recommended that I use diaper cream.”

I wanted to say that if he was in the Navy, that rash was probably not from his coat, but I held my tongue and just said something along the lines of, “Oh? Well, I’ll bear that in mind, thanks.”

He quieted for a moment and the manager came out to tell the Mom-erators that there were was no shipment of Wiis and they would have to come back later. That didn’t sit well with them, so while they feasted on the manager’s soul, Burgess Fisherman took the opportunity to suddenly change tack and tell me that he had a stamp at home with Arctic wolves on it and a giant submarine underneath.  He proceeded to go into great detail about the wolves and how their expressions looked and how the submarine was sleek and how it made him feel powerful to have this stamp, which using his hands he indicated was only about 1x2 and only worth 10 cents.  I’m not sure what made him bring that up, but then he fell silent.

After the moms had their fill, the manager started letting employees into the store, but not customers, so I was stuck with my new friend a few moments longer.  After more moments of silence, he again burst out with a new topic, this time, “OH! The ceilings in Madrid, Spain are just glorious. And Italy and all the WORLD. Have you been to Spain?”

“No, I haven’t, but I intend to someday,” I said.

“Oh, it’s the most beautiful place on earth and the ceilings… the ceilings… the ceilings...” and he gestured in the air as though he were seeing them for the first time, his face contorting in awe. Despite saying odd things, he’d been acting relatively normal until this point, so I wondered if he was going to start smelling toast and have a stroke the way his eyes glazed over while he imagined Spain. But just as quickly as Madrid arrived into our conversation, it left.

“I like your fist, “ he said, referring to my t-shirt. “What’s your M.O.? I’ve partnered with law enforcement and that shirt says you know something. Tell me about that fist. What power do you fight?”

  “I bought this shirt here. It’s just a novelty shirt,” I said, trying to smile, but really starting to wish the half-eaten manager would open the damn door.

“I like the diaper cream here the best. It’s only $1.79. I can rub it all over...,” then he gestures all over, “and still have it last a long time. It really works on that rash. I work at a hospital and I am a hypochondriac, so when I need something, I tell the doctors that my skin rash is going to infect my heart and I’ll drop dead if they don’t see me immediately. It works every time.  Do you want me to get you some?”

Just then the doors opened and smiling at Burgess Fisherman, I took the opportunity to high-tail it through the Mom Mob and as far as away from Health & Beauty as physically possible.  Other than the Madrid moment, he sounded like a normal guy, just all of his topics were totally out of the blue. He didn’t seem threatening to me really, just probably a lonely old guy.

But I’ll pass on the diaper cream.  Thanks, though.

Deck the Halls with Sand n’ Snow

Joelle said in the early morning on December 13, 2007

It’s been really chilly here lately in the mornings.  Enough that I’m starting to worry that my hibiscus might not stand a frost this Winter, which in San Diego is more like what you’d find on the outside of a beer mug and nothing like what’s going on the middle of the country.

Born in Northern California and growing up in Southern, it was a very long time before I saw actual snow.  Like, on the ground… where you can touch it and step in it and make a snowball.  In fact, it was 18 years before I saw that and we had to drive a few hours up into the mountains to do it.  I do recall once when I was a teenager (I think I was about 14) that there were some freak snow flurries on Christmas Eve for about three minutes. That was the first time I remember seeing anything that remotely resembled snow.  I recall distinctly standing outside in my Esprit sweatshirt and Guess denim mini, asking my dad if this was snow and wondering if it would deflate my enormous bangs.

When I got to Texas, I eventually saw more snow (though ice most often) and a few proper snow falls, standing in my apartment in my bathrobe with a cup of hot coffee… the way nature intended.

I saw this article in the local news this morning and thought it was pretty interesting. Apparently, 40 years ago today, in 1967 San Diego saw real true-to-life snow… if only for a little bit.  I’m kind of into local history, so it was interesting to me, anyway.  Maybe if I wish hard enough it’ll snow here this Christmas.  Given the state of the Earth’s environment, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched…

Though, I don’t know what San Diegans would do… flip flops and scarves? 

Gold, Frankensense and Bacon

Joelle said at some point on December 14, 2007

On my way back from the dermatologist this morning, I decided to break my self-imposed sanction on Starbucks and grab a peppermint latte.  It’s Friday, I have lots of creative to send out today (yes, that means you and you! hee!) and I want to snuggle up for Work from the Couch Friday. The couch is where I get my best ideas. For some people it’s the bathroom.

So, as I was walking in, I noticed a homeless man standing off to the side, in front of the business next to Starbucks, huddled in a corner.  It was quite cold here this morning, enough that I busted out my scarf (no flip-flops, though) and he had draped dirty old blankets over himself like a cape to keep warm. He was a taller black man with a teddy bear body… the kind of person that probably gives great hugs.  I was walking past in a hurry already, not because of him, but as I did I smiled and he said, softly, “Good morning, miss.” and smiled back.

That was it. No plea for money, no pitiful play to my sympathies, no stories about how he’s got to feed his imaginary kids. Just “Good morning, miss.” I responded, “Good morning” and smiled again, continuing a few more yards into the Starbucks.  Once inside, I discovered it was absolutely packed and the line was at least 15 people long.  This is in addition to all the people sitting at the tables inside, enjoying their hot coffee and warm muffins.  I was struck by the thought of how many of these people walked passed the man outside without so much as a glance and that made me really sad.

It’s not like I’ve never walked past a homeless person. Of course I have, everyone has.  My usual rule of thumb is that I don’t give money, but I’ll happily give food, clothing or time. Many times, the homeless I encounter are not interested in that (does anyone remember the guy outside 7-11?) or they’re so sketchy and beggar-y that I fear for my safety, so I keep walking. But sometimes… sometimes I see someone who just speaks to me, literally and figuratively.

On my way out, I saw the man again, who looked me right in the eye when I approached him.  I admired that, especially given that he had very sad, kind eyes that sort of reminded me of a dog who has been kicked a lot, but is still willing to love you.  He smiled when he saw me and I smiled back as I approached.  When he saw me raise my hand and present him with a steaming hot bacon, egg and cheese sandwich from Starbucks, he looked so… I don’t know, surprised I guess. Grateful. And that made me grateful.  That look he gave reminded me not to overlook the simple things, not to spend so much time worrying about the small things and that in the grand scheme of life, while work and deadlines and meetings and clients and all that stuff is necessary, the endless quest for perfection is not. 

I said, “Merry Christmas to you, sir.” and he patted me, quite affectionately on the upper arm, giving it a small squeeze.  “Thank you, miss. And to you,” he said. “And to you.”

Sometimes perfection already exists in a tiny moment shared over a bacon sandwich.

Dogs Rule

Joelle said in the early afternoon on December 15, 2007

Behold, my favorite new commercial.  I’ve been known to rewind it and watch several times in a row.  It’s so cute, it kind of makes me ache inside a little.  This 15 second spot is just not long enough, in my opinion. 

Mornin’.

Joelle said around mid-morning on December 17, 2007

I realized I hadn’t shown my mug around here in a while, so I figured I’d snap a quick webcam shot this morning.  Not that you’re pining for a glimpse or anything, but it’s nice to periodically pop in and remind people that I’m a real live woman and not that caricature over there. 

I’m optimistic about this week, even though I have about 45 things on my “to do” list before we break for our Winter hiatus. We’ll be closed December 19th - January 2nd, returning in 2008 fresh-faced with a lot of new stuff going on.  I’m in a phase of Happy Accomplishment, where every time I scratch something off my list I get a little euphoric high and I’ll admit, I’ve become a bit addicted to it.  We’ve been implementing new practices around the office and it’s been helping immensely with my sanity, my bank account and my overall well-being. I took the day off on Saturday.  Like, the whole day… no client email, no “but I’ll just do this one thing...” The whole day. Off.  I shopped and I sat on my ass and it was utterly glorious.  I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I’ve got stuff, but I figured I’d at least pop in and say hi.  *waves* Hi.