Joelle said in the late morning on July 2, 2007
I miss being able to design blogs for personal bloggers more often. We tend to get caught up in long-term projects and are unavailable. Once our schedules open up, we fill up so quickly, I know that some bloggers feel gypped. Well, no more! I’ve just put up some really snazzy pre-designed (or Pre-Fab, as we call them) templates for your purchase. There’s a variety to choose from at reasonable prices, especially for those who don’t wish to wait for us to have an opening. These were all designed by yours truly.
These templates include the HTML template, CSS (including styles for comments), customized title/tagline and up to 5 customized sidebar title graphics (or the default of about, categories, links, archives and blogroll). The credit must remain active in the template, but other than that, the design is yours to keep. It will never been resold and once it’s been purchased — that’s it! It’s gone forever. (If more than one purchase for the same template is processed, I will accept only the first payment and refund the rest immediately, then mark it as sold and remove the Buy Now button.)
So, get while the gettin’ good. 
Thus endeth my Moxie Girls PSA for the week.
Ladies and gentleman… we just wrote a book. It’s finished! The book is finished. DING DONG the book is done!
Kathy and I just put the last period on the epilogue and the glossary and away it goes across the Internets to our editors. The knot in my stomach can now commence unraveling.
Honestly, writing this book has been an amazing experience. We’ve had a great time and compared to some horror stories I’ve heard from other first time authors, I have to say this has been a fairly painless process. Our editors Katie and Kim really let us share our voice and seem to really dig what we’ve written. It’s getting rave reviews in-house, so hopefully the public thinks the same.
Who wants a glass of champagne?
Joelle said around lunch time on June 26, 2007 while listening to As - Stevie Wonder
I’m absolutely swamped today. Not feeling well last week and over the weekend have left me slightly behind, but I think some Moxie-style asskickery should sort it all out today. I have assorted things I’d like to blog about, but I really, really need to wrap up these logos I’m working on for my really sweet client. She’s been a peach.
I also need to get these chapters off to our editors before poor Kim and Katie line the dog crates with them. We go to press on Monday. 
Insert assorted shrieking and flailing about like headless chickens here. A little stressed out? You bet! Excited like an 8th grade girl? Totally!
During my ever-so-brief lapse in anything worth griping about, I bring you a few comics I’ve been digging. Click the thumbs to get a larger version of the last two.
From FreelanceSwitch:
From Married to the Sea and Toothpaste for Dinner:
Happy Tuesday!
I’ve been wondering this for a while now, but a recent movie release brings up a question that begs to be asked: what is Hollywood’s obsession with men dressed as big fat women?
I just do not get it. I don’t. I don’t get it. Women spent 99.9% of their time trying not to be big fat women. Actresses can’t get a job if they’re big fat women. But, lo, if you’ve got gonads, it’s apparently no problem.
At first, it was Eddie Murphy doing his whole Nutty Professor thing, which I didn’t really take issue with. Whatever — I figured it was a novelty. Then he did the sequel and I let it slide. Imagine my dismay when that same year, Martin Lawrence starred (and I use that term loosely) in Big Momma’s House. Still, I assumed it was a fad and it would go away.
It’s been ten years since Nutty Professor, kids, and guess what? We’ve had not only these three, but Big Momma’s House 2, Medea’s Family Reunion, Medea’s Class Reunion, Medea Goes to Jail (Is she the new Ernest or what?), Medea Takes Manhattan (not really), Norbit (sweet mercy) and the pièce de résistance: Hairspray.
Oh my god, Hairspray. It really makes me wonder what John Waters must be thinking. Sure, the original film had Divine — a man dressed as a woman, but I think we can all agree that Divine is a far cry from John Travolta in latex and a girdle. Divine was an eccentric, outlandish and totally authentic transvestite. Not a scientologist just looking for another excuse to dance on screen. What, Wild Hogs wasn’t doing it for you, Travolta? I suppose I could see how donning a dress might be the next logical step after pretending to ride motorcycles with Martin Lawrence, but seriously… Seriously.
I also don’t understand the whole “Let’s make a musical out of a movie, then make a movie out of the musical” trend that’s been happening but that’s a discussion for another day. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going go buy some support hose and a prosthetic penis and see if I can get a role playing someone’s obnoxious relative.
Joelle said around mid-afternoon on June 22, 2007
I’ve not been feeling well lately. Nothing catastrophic, just a bit of a summer bug, I think. So, I dragged my sorry self out to the grocery store. I figured it would do me some good to get out in the fresh air and off the couch, plus, I really needed some diet 7-up and saltine crackers.
I’m standing in the last aisle of the store (seriously, why do they put the soda and the crackers way at the end by the tampons and dog food?), deciding between fat-free and regular multi-grain saltines for a good couple minutes and noticed a woman out of the corner of my eye, perusing the soda. To paint a picture for you, she was a heavyset black woman, wearing skin-tight orange stretch pants, a poncho, a knit beanie, flip flops and sunglasses. She had her own unique style I guess. She reminded me a lot of Big Shirl from What’s Happening only with Paris Hilton-style paparazzi glasses — for all that press we get in the snack aisle. Anyway, she turns to me out of nowhere and exclaims, “Giiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrl! Why they trippin’ like dat?”
Startled, I looked around and smiled at her in that, “I’m not entirely sure what you’re on about and I am friendly, but please do not encroach on my personal space” sort of way. She started going off on this rant about how soda costs nothing to make and how could those “soda folks be all frontin’ like dat!”? I was polite and laughed where appropriate. I was cordial while she went on about how she got the “2 litter” apple green tea for only “fiddy cent” at the dollar store and “these co-prit mothafuckas are robbin’ us! Just robbin’ and frontin’!”
Apparently, the “frontin’” didn’t sit too well with my new friend because she started shuffling all the 2 “litters” all over the shelf, putting things back in different places, determined to undermine the “soda-frontin’ mofos”, as she put it. After a few seconds of this, I wished her a good day and tried to scoot before she roped me into some crazy Thelma & Louise crime rampage that might leave me flashing a Coca-Cola truck driver or taking the store manager hostage over an overpriced bottle of Yoo-Hoo. I’m not going off a cliff for Big Shirl.
As I finally turned the corner, she was moving on to the other end of the aisle and she stopped and called out, “You know, you cool, sugar. Wanna help me mess up some of that toilet paper?”
Tempting… but no, thank you.
Moxie Design Studios™