September 2009 - Page 2 of 3 - Angry Julie Monday

I gave in…more technology in our house

September 22, 2009

We are slowly turning into an Apple family. I got a Macbook in March and now we have (2) new editions. Yes, we jumped on in. We are iPhone people now too. I loved my Blackberry. It was pretty much my BFF, sorry Stacey, but you know my addiction to my phone. But Angry Husband’s phone broke for the third time. He told me that there was no phone from Verizon that he desired. He was a very strong advocate for getting iPhones. You would think that I would be excited to get an iPhone. I’m a blogger right? I am into technology. But I was addicted to the keyboard on my Blackberry. I’m not a big fan of touch screens. We use them at work, and I get extremely frustrated.

I really had no choice but to go with Angry Husband’s decision. We are on a family plan with a corporate discount. We would have huge bills if we stayed with two different cell providers. So we jumped on it. We went to the AT&T store two weeks ago. We walked away with two brand new iPhones.

I haven’t been tweeting or blogging as much, because I’m completely overwhelmed. Yes, overwhelmed. I use my phone for everything. It’s been a hard transition for me to the iPhone. I have (3) e-mails addresses, (2) twitter accounts, Facebook, and my calendar to manage. I’m losing e-mails because of my Mac Mail and the iPhone syncing. It’s hard to figure things out.

My biggest frustration is the texting. I’m a super huge texter. I’m used to speed texting on my Blackberry. I got so frustrated now that I just end up calling people. Because it’s easier.

I know that I will come to love this phone, but right now I’m frustrated.

One of the big bonuses for me is that the iPhone has solved some of my OCD issues. I used to jump for my Blackberry when I saw the red blinking light. Since there’s no light on my iPhone, I don’t stalk it as much.

So I’m pretty conservative with my choice of apps. I have the basics…

Which apps do you recommend? Any great tips?

Photo from Apple.

Filed Under: Just Julie 8 Comments

If I Could Bottle His Energy

September 20, 2009

We took Angry Toddler to a birthday party yesterday. It was a four hour party at an amusement type place. They drove race cars, they rode carnival-style rides, played laser tags, ate pizza, and video-gamed to their hearts content.

Angry Husband and I were so exhausted that we issued an order for a family nap. Angry Toddler wanted no part of a nap. He kept going….that is, until we dropped him off at my parents…

Angry Husband took some videos of Angry Toddler and his friend dancing on one of those you know what I’m talking about, dancing games. It was hilarious. I don’t think they knew what they were doing. But they had fun.

Filed Under: Parenting 3 Comments

Angry Taco Salad

September 18, 2009

The salad is not Angry, but it’s our variation of it. So hence, the Angry Taco Salad. This is one of our go-to meals in the Angry Household. Even Angry Toddler likes it. It is a bit random and there are several different variations of it that you can make, so feel free to adapt it to your taste.

If you’ve read my blog for awhile, and know me in real life…you know that I don’t cook. Angry Husband made this and I um, bought the ingredients and took pictures. I’m a good wife like that.

So let’s start…

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef (you can use more than one pound, if you want)
1 package of taco seasoning mix
1 can of pinto beans
lettuce shreds (you can shred yourself, but we are lazy and buy pre-shredded)
2 cups of shredded cheese (we use the pre-shredded Mexican style)
Catalina Salad Dressing
Tortilla Chips, Corn Chips, or Doritos-style chips

Optional Ingredients for Your Own Preference:

Chopped Tomatoes
Chopped Green Onions
Salsa
Ranch Dressing instead of Catalina
Thousand Island instead of Catalina

Directions:

1. Place ground beef in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring to crumble until well done; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix.

2. Add pinto beans to beef (which has already been seasoned with the mix). Put on lid to skillet and let beef and bean mix simmer for 10-15 minutes, depending on how soupy the mixture is.

3. Set beef and bean mixture aside to cool.

4. Get large bowl and crush tortilla chips (we use Dorito’s) into bite sized pieces. Add meat/bean mixture(after it has cooled for a few minutes), lettuce shreds, and cheese. Toss it all together. Depending on your preference, you add more/less chips, cheese, lettuce.

5. Add in Catalina Dressing and toss the salad all together.

6. Scoop in bowls and eat.

*I would say that this mixture feeds about four adults with hearty helpings.

**We don’t buy particular brands for this recipe. We go with the whatever-is-on-sale or generic theory of grocery shopping.

Filed Under: In The Home 15 Comments

I Like Them Better as Adults

September 17, 2009

High School was the probably the worst four years of my entire life…no joke. I moved to the area in 7th grade. There were already established cliques. It’s an Orange County thing. The kids who went to Junior Lifeguards, played volleyball at the Bay Club, and they surfed. Well I came from Los Angeles County, and this was an entire new world for me. I traded my tennis shoes for flip flops and Birkenstocks. I got a beach cruiser. But I never learned to surf. Probably one of my downfalls. I had a small group of friends through school, but I was never really part of that group.

I dressed well, but I was a little chunky. In Orange County terms, I was HUGE. Looking back, I wasn’t that big. I’ve seen the pictures. I didn’t go to dances, well I went to Prom, stag. I played softball for a few years. But that’s about it. I hung out with my friends, because really I didn’t fit in with the rest of the crowd. Because I swear, the cliques were established at birth, probably at play groups on the sand.

I went to a local college, joined a Sorority and never looked back. But with the invention of Facebook, it’s all coming back. I’m seeing people, pictures, and comments from events that happened sixteen years ago. Wow, sixteen years ago I graduated high school. I’ve come into contact with these people at children’s birthday parties, through other friends, and after talking to people on Facebook. I love to see what kind of jobs that they ended up in, whom they married, what their kids look like.

But what I’ve realized now is that most of these people, I like as adults better. When we were in junior high and high school, it was about their parent’s money and where they lived. Now, we’ve all graduated from college, etc and have our families. We have a lot of the same issues.

I work near the city I grew up in. I’m seeing more and more people move back there. They want to raise their children there. They want to be close to family. I run into them daily. Especially while working. It kinda freaks them out to see Julie in the police uniform. But really, I’ve had great conversations. I felt like a complete outsider when I was in school, but people do remember me. Sometimes, I wish I engaged in things a bit more. Gee, if I had it to do all over again..well, that’s a whole other post.

But really these all came from a chance meeting last night. I ran into a high school classmate at a blog meet-up. No, she is not a blogger. But she just happened to be at the same establishment that I was at. We sat outside and talked for ten minutes. I was completely relaxed and it was not superficial. We discussed work, family, and people we were mutual friends with. We had a great laugh and talked about discussing things again.

So really, I might not have all these fabulous stories of growing up, as the fat girl, in the non-popular group. I am a great adult. I make good conversation. I love chatting with people and I’m definitely more approachable now. It takes a lot of the regrets away. Because I truly love my friends in my life right now, they are my family, and my network.

Filed Under: Just Julie 4 Comments

BBQ at Home with a Restaurant Feeling

September 16, 2009

We eat out a lot in the Angry Household. It’s a really bad habit, I know..We are trying to break that though. Ok, maybe a little. But when we are home, we eat a lot of hot dogs. Angry Husband has quite the obsession with hot dogs. I really don’t eat them, because they make my stomach do bad things.

But a few months ago, I stumbled across some cool things at Sur La Table. Angry Husband loves that store. I got these baskets and liners for sandwiches and BBQ’ed food. It gives that restaurant feel to our food. They are also very easy for clean up. Angry Toddler was confused at first, because he usually sees them at restaurants. They are pretty inexpensive, plus you could make the liners with wax paper.

I just like having fun things like this at home. It’s perfect when you eat out on the backyard patio.

Photo from Sur La Table website.

Filed Under: In The Home 7 Comments

My Paypal Debacle

September 14, 2009

On 09.09.09, I received an e-mail from Paypal at about 11:30pm. It came through my iPhone while I was trying to stay up and watch TV. I’ve known that people have received some fraudulent e-mails using Paypal before. I’ve seen the scams.

But, this Paypal e-mail came through the right e-mail address with Angry Husband’s name on it. It also had his nickname or abbreviated name that we use on the account.

The e-mail stated this:

Hello Angry Husband (real name obviously),

We were recently notified that one of your buyers filed a chargeback and asked the credit card issuer to reverse a payment made to you on July 1, 2009.

The buyer claims that this purchase was made without authorization to use the credit card. Their credit card issuer needs additional information from you about this transaction. Please respond within 10 days so that we can help resolve this
chargeback. To respond, log in to your PayPal account and go to the Resolution
Centerto provide information about this transaction.

The credit card issuer decides if the buyer’s claim is legitimate. Once the credit card issuer receives your information, it may take up to 75 days to make a final decision.
Because the credit card issuer has reversed the charge for this transaction, we’ve placed a temporary hold on the funds associated with this transaction until the case is resolved. Our user agreement explains our policies on holding funds.

You can learn more about chargebacks in the Resolution Center
tutorials.

This was related to a transaction that I made on 07.01.09. I sold some Boden clothing to someone on a large parenting forum. The chargeback was for a $100, which is a significant amount of money. I’ve sold on the forums for years, and never had a chargeback. The person I sold to had feedback. She left me feedback. I assumed the transaction was over with.

Because I’ve used Paypal for over seven years, I know Paypal’s policies. I did everything right. I accept the Paypal payment. I mailed the items out within a day. I shipped through the Paypal site. I used Delivery Confirmation. My response to the chargeback was an explanation, and a I also including the tracking number, which showed that the item was delivered to the correct address. Do you know that Paypal has a Seller Protection Policy? I complied with the Policy. Unfortunately the representative from Paypal said that it could take approximately 7-30 days to get my account re-instated. For right now, I have a negative balance.

Oh, and the best part of this. This woman did the same thing to several people on the same forum. I wasn’t the only victim. Some of the incidents happened in May and June. They were able to clear it up with a phone call and get their accounts re-instated. My main problem is that the account is in Angry Husband’s name. I did this for safety reasons, and it has given me problems more than once. I couldn’t get anything accomplished on the phone because Angry Husband was not present. And with us both being so busy, I still haven’t had time to have him call Paypal. They also advised me that the account name is established and that we can’t change it, even after this issue is closed.

Do you know what this really means for me? I can’t shop online. Well I can shop online, but not at etsy or e-bay, two sites I frequent DAILY.

Hopefully, I can get this all cleared up within the next day or so. Otherwise I’m going to lose my mind! I don’t know if I’ll ever sell any of Angry Toddler’s used clothing online again. I’m pretty pissed off about this. I currently have two totes of clothing to purge in my house. I might take it to a local consignment store soon.

I’m not against Paypal. I will keep using their service. I think it’s a great idea, even with all of their fees. But I’m still frustrated.

***Update 09.14.09…I got a hold of Paypal last night. They cleared my account. I can finally shop!!******

Filed Under: Just Julie 9 Comments

My Choices for Fall TV

September 14, 2009

I love TV. I think I fell in love with TV even more when we got a DVR years ago. I always wonder when the new seasons start so I thought I would do a post about it. I’m not going to list all the shows. Mostly the shows I watch. But I will provide the link to where I got my information.

Sundays
Mad Men (AMC) 10pm 08.16.09 Already Aired
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC) 7pm 09.27.09
Dexter (Showtime) 10pm 09.27.09

Mondays
Greek (ABC Family) 9pm 08.31.09 Already Aired
Gossip Girl (CW) 9pm 09.14.09
Dancing with the Stars (ABC) 8pm 09.21.09
Trauma (NMB) 9pm 09.28.09 NEW SHOW

Tuesdays
90210 (CW) 8pm 09-08-09 Already Aired
Melrose Place (CW) 9pm 09.08.09 Already Aired NEW SHOW
The Biggest Loser (NBC) 8pm 09.15.09
The Good Wife (CBS) 10pm 09.22.09 NEW SHOW

Wednesdays
Glee (FOX) 9pm 09.09.09 Already Aired NEW SHOW
Mercy (NBC) 8pm 09.23.09 NEW SHOW
Law & Order: SVU (NBC) 9pm 09.23.09

Thursdays
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) 9pm 09.24.09
Private Practice (ABC) 10pm 10.01.09

Fridays
Southland (NBC) 9pm 10.23.09

TV Guide Fall Schedule Guide

Which TV Shows Are Returning/Which Aren’t

Filed Under: Just Julie 8 Comments

Emily Post Inspired by Twitter

September 12, 2009

I’ve been wanting to post about this for awhile now. Sarah inspired me today via Twitter. She posted this:

I call Emily Post’s Etiquette by Peggy Post, the blue book. It is wrapped in a beautiful blue cover with a simple design on the front. I love this book and refer to it often. I have the 16th Edition, but now there is a 17th Edition .

I have also been known to give it as a gift. It makes an awesome bridal shower gift. Seriously. It’s the right price point and will be used throughout a marriage.

Here are some of the topics covered in it:

Correspondence-the appearance of personal letters (how to address them, when to send them, who to send them to).
Job Interviews-questions and interviewer might ask you, your attire, meeting and greeting.
Everyday Manners-going through doors, umbrellas, and chewing gum.
The New Baby-baby showers, thank-yous, gifts, and religious ceremonies.
Gifts for Special Occasions-anniversaries, business gifts, clients, and teachers.

But do you really want to know the main reason I give it as a bridal shower gift? A few years ago, some friends were getting married. They announced their engagement and we got an invitation to the engagement party. What disturbed me was the paperwork inside the invitation. There was more than one card stuck in there, with their bridal registry on it. I gasped. I called my friends. We discussed. You never enclose bridal registry information into an engagement party invite. Technically, per proper etiquette you are not supposed to include registry information in any type of wedding invitation.

So what did I bring to that engagement party? A card.

I’ve had some other issues with greedy friends and family, hence the gift idea. I always give Emily Post when I have no clue what to give the person, and/or the person needs deserves it.

Seriously, a great reference! You need it!

Filed Under: Blogging, Just Julie 14 Comments