Joelle: how was your weekend?
Kathy: If I could do it over, I’d rather swallow hot pokers and crap them out sideways. How was yours?
She comes up with the best descriptions. I startled my neighbor with how loud I laughed at that.
The lovely Lisa Wess from Ellis Lab interviewed me recently about one of our client’s sites, FashionJunkie.com. Dara Fleischer, the owner and editor of FashionJunkie was a wonderful client and while the project was mammoth, she was really great to work with. She’s a hip chick, that Dara. 
We used Expression Engine to manage her content and I was very honored to be featured.
If you’re interested in reading my interview, mosey over to Expression Engine’s Showcase. This was my second Showcase Interview for Expression Engine, the first was for Darby Creek Dog Bakery. (The site appears to be offline now, but the interview is still there. I hope they didn’t go out of business; they are really sweet people. 
)
And by the way, if I haven’t yapped enough about Expression Engine lately, let me say this: 1.6.2 is full of asskickery, but EE 2.0 is coming! And it’s makes me all tingly in my bottom. With all the hard work by the team and feedback from the EE community, I’m sure they’ve outdone themselves. I can’t wait to see the Sneak Peek at SXSW. One of the peeks conflicts with our reading, but we’ll definitely be at the early “showing”. Woo!
I’ve mentioned that I like Ace of Cakes because it reminds me of some of the crazy, yet creative projects I would do as a kid. Bear in mind that these projects were never assigned, it was usually something like “write a one-page book report on a book of your choice"(mine was Nancy Drew and the Phantom of Pine Hill, if I recall correctly...). I would always write the one page report, but it would be accompanied by props and stage lighting in some capacity. My presentations involved drama! (Insert jazz fingers here.) If I had a chance to paint a refrigerator box as a kid, by god, I took it. I think I get that from my mom… she was a theater arts major…
Anyway, as I was watching Ace of Cakes the other day, I was reminded of my Glacier Cake I made as a science project in 8th grade. Yes, leave it to me to make pastry a tool for scientific theory. As I watched Duff carve a cake into the shape of a German shepherd, I thought about how I did the same thing with my Glacier Cake. The project was just to do a report and maybe a poster board-type display of your chosen scientific topic. I chose glaciers, for some reason.
Each layer was a different flavor and there was assorted icing in between and each layer with various stuff in it (nuts, sprinkles, whatever) that represented a separate layer of the Earth’s crust. I designed it so there was a cross-section of the cake cut out so you could observe the layers (my dad took the burden of eating that piece), but it was carved to look kind of like a mountain… like a ski slope. I even made little trees that went on top.
Look, people. If you can eat cake and get extra credit, you’re a fool to pass that up. And extra credit is what all these sorts of responsibility-avoiding projects yielded me. I don’t know how beneficial this was to my actual education as I got away with presenting very little actual information sometimes. I’d manage to pull an “A” because my creative b.s. was just that creative. It’s the element of surprise, I think.
Plus… there is the cake. Cake always works.
Last night I worked myself into a frenzy over SXSWi. You ever have those moments when you’re just like “ohmygodhowamigoingtogetitalldoneican’togonatriprightnowvodkaPUBLICSPEAKINGholycrap!"? You know that feeling? Yeah… pretty much like that.
I realized that there was just no way in hell we were going to get all our clients to a comfortable “save point”, for lack of a better term and finish up our redesign before we leave (at 6am!) on Friday morning. Oh, and somewhere in there, I need a mani/pedi, a haircut and a new pair of stylish flip-flops (because my dogs remember the blisters of ‘06 and it wasn’t pretty). Oh yeah, and I’ll still need to throw a bunch of stuff in a suitcase that, if history repeats itself, will either be crushed beyond recognition or lost. If I show up with clothes that match, I’ll consider myself lucky.
To say I was bit wound up last night is putting it lightly. I realized that if I didn’t cut something off the list, my head was going to pop right off my neck and I don’t think Continental counts one’s head as an approved carry-on item. Our clients are the first priority, so that’s not up for discussion. And if you saw my hair right now, you’d agree that the haircut isn’t negotiable either.
We also realized that everyone and their third cousin, Bubba, was probably launching their own re-design, re-opening, new product, (insert geek porn of choice here) in time for the conference, and we don’t want to be just one of many awesome redesigns, thank you very much. So, we decided to postpone relaunching our new site for the millionth time, but this time it’s by choice as well as necessity. We’d rather wait until all the SXSW ballyhoo has died down. We still have a super-cute, solid site design that we love and rather than tear our hair out rushing to release our new (also fabulous) look, we’d rather go to SXSW with a more Zen approach.
Whew.
Speaking of tips, what is your tipping philosophy? Like, for service stuff? At a restaurant, I tip 15% for breakfast/lunch and 20% or more for dinner, depending on how great the service is. I usually don’t go below the minimum for said time of day unless the service was particularly bad. I realize that servers work for tips. I have a friend that says 15% is the default tip across the board, even for dinner. Ultimately, it’s a personal choice, but which is socially accurate?
When it comes to the salon, I’m usually 20%, which I believe is the standard tip, no? I’ve always heard that a stylist/colorist gets 20% and if you have separate shampoo person, they get like $5 or whatever. Which then you’re then basically paying for your shampoo which should be included for the cost of your first born, but that’s another discussion. I do 20% for my manicurist and waxer, too. I figure if you are going to scrub people’s feet and wax parts one can’t even see without a mirror, you deserve 20%. Kudos.
Where was I going with this...?
Ladies and gentleman, I just fulfilled one of my Top 25 Things to Do Before I Die: I just bought two tickets to see Eddie Izzard at Spreckels Theater in August. Excuse me a moment.
*JIG*
I am so happy! I knew signing up for his mailing list would pay off! We received advance notice and a special code to pre-purchase tickets before they go on sale. Woo! I never hear about his tours until it’s too late. I missed him by two days for his Sexie tour in 2003 and any other time he’s been here, it’s been a last-minute scheduling or I’ve just not been aware of it.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I get to see Eddie Izzard! I get to see Eddie Izzard! I splurged a bit, but you only live once. Best available, Mister Ticketmaster, please. Cha-ching! Center Orchestra, Row O.
Oh, it’s a good day.
I’m taking 5 minutes of quiet this morning to blog. Though, I can’t think about anything else other than I need to finish sending this mock-up to development before I get a manicure. And whether or not I’m going to remember to pack my toothbrush and if my laptop battery will die before I even get on the plane. But other than that…
My flight to Austin for SXSW leaves at 6:40am tomorrow. If I can get everything done, which shouldn’t be a problem, I will probably try to go to bed early, but what usually happens is insomnia. I worry that I’ll oversleep, miss my flight, etc. so I often have a hard time sleeping before an early flight. I can always sleep on the plane.
There are some new developments for us regarding our schedules at Southby this weekend. I’m a little disappointed we’re going to miss the Filching Design panel because I really was interested in what they were going to say about that. We all know how I feel about it. 
We’re also going to miss a Core Conversation I was interested in checking out: Growing Pains: Your Web Company’s Getting BIG. Both of them conflict with our reading and/or prep for our reading on Saturday, but hopefully there will be notes and/or a podcast of them.
So here’s a quick run-down of what we know for sure we’ll be doing. If you are going to be at one of these things, please say hi. Or if you see us walking around, just holler “Hey, you!” Or you could be more discreet. It’s up to you. 
Saturday
There are some panels and core conversations in there we might attend, but the majority of the panels we wanted to go to either conflict with our reading or with each other.
Sunday
Again, there are some panels in there we might attend, but I have to be honest and say that the panel schedule as a whole doesn’t really speak to me this year. That’s all we’ve got set in stone, everything else is kind of “play it by ear”.
If you’re interested in calling in to the BlogTalk Radio show to ask questions, you can do so by emailing me for the number. You can also call in to listen to the show on your phone (for whatever reason) and it will also be streaming live on both Wiley.com and BlogTalk Radio.
OK… must wrap some client stuff and then I’m off to beautify and find a new pair of jeans that is kind to my ass.
On the plane waiting to go to Austin from Houston. Plane was delayed. I’m ready to get this party started! Don’t forget our reading on Sat.
So, Kathy and I can unclench our jaws now… our presentation is finally over. We were up until 2am last night going over things… 20 minutes is both an eternity and a millisecond, so we wanted to make sure we paced ourselves. (Though, when we quit at 2am, we were still being entertained by the drunken screaming pillow fight next door.)
The turnout for our reading was decent, less than the guy before, but more than the guy before him. “Not too shabby,” Kathy says from the bed where we’re lounging and eating imported gummi bears. We were late getting out to our book signing, as we had an interview with DocuBloggers and then stopped to say hi to Lisa and and one of our editors, Ellen. But, we still managed to sell a handful of books and sign them, as well as signing about 10 for their stock. If you get one, let us know!
We went to the EE 2.0 Sneak Peek. Dude, DUDE. If you were interested in EE before, 2.0 will totally blow your dress up. Sweet moses, I am so excited about 2.0. And can I just say that the EE team gave us the warmest reception? We had to miss their 10 am Sneak Peek to prep for our own reading, but when we entered the 3pm edition, we were greeted with hugs from the entire team. As silly as it is, it made my day. Kathy thought so, too. We just love the EE team and everyone from Ellis Lab — we’ve always considered them friends, as well as colleagues. Ask Kathy said, “I just want to squish ‘em!” Seriously… what a great team. Nice, quality people who really care about their clients and the product. You really can’t beat that.
I will admit that I do have a special fondness for Derek Jones and his bold fashion choices. Propers to you, sir.
Ok, I forgot my power cord to my laptop, so I’m rationing my battery. We’re sharing libations with the aforementioned team tonight at Moonshine for the Ellis Lab party, so we need a disco nap.
Good morning, class! How y’all doing? Kathy‘s in the shower, so I thought I’d take a sec to blog. I finally feel a bit rested, despite the fact that our alarm clock went off at 6:30am this morning for no apparent reason.
Saturday night’s Ellis Lab party was really fun! As was Solspace‘s afterparty. It was really nice to hang out with the EE guys. And the lovely woman who poured the wine at Moonshine was generous, so a good time was definitely had by all. If I recall correctly, I think I not only uttered “boobs” about 40 times, but the evening wasn’t complete without at least one mention of both hookers and vaginas. It was very formal, can you tell?
Yesterday was such a good day! We were no longer nervous about our presentation, so we were able to relax and have a good time. We met up with Susie Gardner, Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Peter Flaschner, Lucia Mancuso and Paul Chaney at the Moonshine Grille for our informal “designer brunch”. Basically, it was an excuse to drink mimosas and pick each other’s brains. Kathy and I were discussing last night how glad we are that we got to get to know everyone more. I’d met most of them in 2006, but this time, I feel like we all got to bond a little more. They’re all really top folks.
After brunch, we hit the Exhibition Hall and scored a bunch of free stuff that may or may not make the cut when I repack, but I am intrigued by the freebie version of Microsoft Expressions that we picked up. I’m an Adobe girl, but I was impressed by some of the features they showed in a Flash-like program they’ve created called Silverlight. We also chatted with the people at Friends of ED, Izea and Zappos (who was wisely giving out free shot glasses — they know what’s up).
We got separated from the herd during that, but met up with Lisa so we could go do our respective interviews with BlogTalk Radio. Let me just put this out there right now: John Haven is a funny, funny man. He was our host for the interview and also the VP of Business Development. That was the most relaxed and fun interview we’ve done to date. And John couldn’t have been more supportive in our endorsement. I think we all just really were having fun… in fact, we were all cutting up so much, we didn’t realize we’d gone live. haha! Oopsie! If you didn’t hear it streaming live, there will be a copy on the BlogTalk Radio website later on today, I believe. I’ll also post it here when I get home. The WiFi cut out a few times while we were “on-air”, so there are some kooky spots, but that’s to be expected when a few thousand geeks are Twittering simultaneously in the immediate vicinity. I’m looking forward to hearing our interview, as well as Lisa’s, who was interviewed right after us. She did great!
Last night, we hit up the Web Awards After-Party with Geeky. She is just so cute and funny. I’m glad we had a chance to meet up with her. Again, I’d met her in 2006, but she and Kathy hadn’t met yet and I wanted to see her again, too. We’re in the same hotel, so we walked over to this place called Emo’s, which is one of those clubs where it smells kind of like stale beer, insecurity and B.O. Pretty seedy, but probably a decent place to hear bands. We had a couple free drinks, saved Kathy from some dude who wasn’t getting the hint and then walked back to the hotel. Then Kathy and I ordered some room service and watched Sex and the City in bed… a bit more our speed.
OK. I need to get my ish together. We need breakfast and a proper cup of coffee. Hope everyone has a great Monday!
Sitting in the Austin airport going on 7 hrs now. Weather causing delays all over. Had to buy another ticket on Southwest. Where’s the bar?
Did we mention that we loved our interview with John Haven at BlogTalk Radio? Well, we did. We want to drink beer with that man. If you’d like to take a listen, please clickety-click that widget right there.
Don’t mind the very occasional sound issues… it was due to the intermittent WiFi and the fact that we were streaming live (or the hoardes of attendees shuffling past). Ah, technology! We both started spontaneously singing “Let’s Get Together” from the Parent Trap, which I find amusing. Fortunately (or unfortunately), you can’t hear it that much.
When you work at home, you need to keep your surroundings interesting or you go stark raving mad. I decided my living room needed some freshening up. I’ve been dying to bring that aqua color in for ages and finally I had a reason to when I found that pillow at World Market.
Those tables are just two old stools from Target (like 6 years old) that I’ve been meaning to repaint for a long time. One can of aqua spray paint and a couple $5 glass circles from Target later and voila! End tables! I put away my red velvet curtains by my desk and replaced them with these new cool aqua blue velvet ones from Target, as well. A couple months ago I put up those bookshelves ($14.99 at IKEA) and I have matching ones in the kitchen. The mirrors over the couch are from also IKEA and the rug is indoor/outdoor but surprisingly soft — also from World Market.
I love my living room. 
I’ve mentioned before that one of my many guilty pleasures is watching The Bachelor. I won’t pretend like it doesn’t boost my own ego watching all those desperate bimbos women clamor for the attention of some guy who is just going to dump them when the show is over. I watch self-righteously from my favorite corner of the couch, thinking “I would never do that! I can’t believe these women...wait, rewind!! Did she just bite that beer can open?” I’m a prime time armchair judge and jury when it comes to that show… we all have our thing.
So the new season premiered last night… did anyone watch it? It’s called The Bachelor: London Calling which made my innards recoil on behalf of The Clash. The new bachelor is “a proper English gentleman from London” — some 27-year-old banker guy. I think the producers are overworking the “English gentleman” angle a bit… seriously, they practically had him clicking his heels with an umbrella on London Bridge crying “Pip pip! Cheerio!”. If they’d pushed it anymore I’d have to speculate the bachelor was Mr. Belvedere.
There were more than a few moments when I covered my face with sheer embarrassment for these women. Now, I’m a sucker for an accent, too… I can’t pretend I’m not. I blame it being programmed into American DNA, like claiming you’re half-Irish or that french fries are good for you. The girls were all swooning over his accent, though fortunately, no one asked if he was from Australia. If I heard one more bad attempt at an English accent I would have had to turn it off. Though, I will say his attempt at an American accent made me laugh out loud.... because we totally sound just like that. He wasn’t far off, at least for us West Coasters.
He seems like a nice enough guy and at least he had the good common sense to find the soused blonde with the tramp stamp as abhorrent as everyone else. Seriously, do you really expect to find true love, the man you want to marry, the man you want to grow old with by stuffing your trashy knickers in his pocket while slurring incoherently in his ear? Yes, that’s always been my approach. Nothing says “Mom, this is the woman of my dreams” like the Frederick’s of Hollywood clearance bin.
Don’t get me wrong. Frederick’s says something… but it ain’t that.
We may have mentioned before that Kathy and I usually kick-off our day with a song we call our Lowrider. The song itself isn’t “Lowrider”, though I won’t pretend I don’t dig that song. (Woo, War!) Anyway, the song varies, but we call it our Lowrider because in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds, Nicholas Cage listens to the song “Lowrider” before they go out to steal cars. I’m not saying this is quality cinema, mind, but that little bit stuck with us.
So, for the past three years or so, we’ve been starting our day with our Lowrider of the Moment. It’s been everything from Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback” to Hendrix’s “Red House”, Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” to OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again”. We get on a kick and keep a song for anywhere from a week to a month until something else strikes our fancy. I have no excuse for our Fergie phase, though. I blame that on Kathy. 
I think the longest running Lowrider we’ve got right now is “Because I’m Awesome” by The Dollyrots. We absolutely positively cannot start our day (and end, in my case) without this song. It’s fun to listen to, fun to sing along to,fun to dance around the house to… *cough* Not that I do that or, um… anything.
I think we’re going to work on putting together a playlist/soundtrack of our fave Lowriders, if anyone’s interested. Stay tuned for that…
In the meantime, take a listen to our current fave…
Happy Hump Day. 
(Edit: I just realized it’s Thursday. I’ve been in a work cocoon, forgive me. haha!)
I got this recipe in my inbox this morning from one of my favorite sites, CocktailTimes.com. This looks so light and refreshing… the perfect alternative to the usual beer for 4th of July weekend. I would mix … MORE...
archives • blog • about • photos · contact · goodies • The Moxie Girls™ • blogging with moxie
© 2003-2007 Tenth-Muse.com (We have lawyers.) • Illustration created for The Moxie Girls™ by Derek Yaniger. (So does he.)
couture blog design by 
Moxie Design Studios™ • HM is my co-pilot. • Expression Engine means go!
