July 2010 - Angry Julie Monday

The Garage Incident

July 29, 2010

It never fails. When I have an event to attend or a vacation to go on, something happens. I’ve had the awful acne, bad haircuts, lost credit cards, etc. I leave for New York City in a few days to go to the BlogHer Conference. This is a conference with Bloggers. Bloggers take photographs, and lots of them.

I was prepping my garage yesterday for my new washer and dryer. As the delivery guys were unpacking their truck, my dogs lost it. They barked so much that I almost lost my mind. I instantly jumped to my feet and tried to put the dogs out through the dog door into the backyard. Wolfie, my stubborn dog refused to go out into the backyard. I finally shoved her outside, and pushed down the plastic piece that locks the dog door.

When I came up from bending over (shoving the dogs out the door), I slammed my face into my bike. How did I do that? What the heck? Well, my bike was hanging over the dogs play area/pen. I slammed my nose into the spikes on one of my pedals. I then stumbled away, with little tiny stars floating over my head. Well not really, but ouch it hurt real bad. The delivery guy had the washing machine on the dolly, and asked if I was ok. I mumbled something like,”yes, but I’m a little dizzy.” He then replied, “well, there is blooding running down your face.”

This was my solution to my bleeding/scraped nose. Seriously, facial cuts bleed and bleed and bleed. It would not stop. I stuck this bandage on my nose for thirty minutes because I had to leave for work soon after. I did not go out in public like this, if you were thinking that. Cause I know you were.

I went to work about an hour after “the incident occurred” and the cuts were still bright red. I had put some medication on it, to numb it a little. But, EVERYONE was asking about my nose. I told my story, and people almost didn’t believe me. Seriously, why would I make up something like this. I couldn’t wear my sunglasses or eyeglasses either, because the bridge of my nose hurt too bad to wear them.

I feels a little better today, but it is still sore. I’m able to wear my sunglasses, but only for a short period of time. And YES, people are still asking what happened to me. I think they like to make up their own little creative stories.

My nose looked like this after I took the bandage off.. I took the photo with my Macbook Photo Booth program, and my house was dark. You can see the cuts on my nose, but you can’t see the bruising. I have black and blue bruising around the top of my nose, and slightly under my eyes.

I blurred the photo a little. I do not want to see all the pits and valleys in my face. So if you see me at BlogHer, you will now know what happened to my face. And if you take my picture, please Photoshop this mess out.

Angry Husband had no sympathy for me at all. I’m pretty clumsy, and I’m always hitting cabinets, doors, you name it. He went outside and had me explain to him what happened. He could not understand it all. Like I would make this dumb story up? Geez…

Filed Under: Just Julie 17 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Delicious Frosty

July 28, 2010

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”! If this your first time here, HELLO! I am doing a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) that you took in the past week and link back to it here.

I’m using a new thumbnail version of linky. By using this version, you are able to see a thumbnail of all of the pictures. Please use a thumbnail of the photo for your Wordless Wednesday Post.

Filed Under: Photography, Wordless Wednesday 15 Comments

I hate big purchases

July 27, 2010

We are getting to the point in our marriage and family that we have to start replacing things. We’ve had about five couches since we’ve been together. Our current couch needs to be replaced. We bought it for our old house, which had a much bigger family room. I don’t know what we were thinking when we bought a down-stuffed chenille couch? You can only imagine how it looks after five years with a kid who had reflux as an infant, two dogs, and a husband with male friends who come over often. We need a new couch, but I just haven’t found “the one”. I’m not settling with our next couch.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with our washer and dryer set since it was about two months old. Well, mostly, I love to hate it. I think we’ve had both of them serviced about two to three times each. When our warranty finally expired last year, we decided to not renew it. We were done and said that when they broke again, we would buy new ones.

I think that it was a foreshadowing in April, when I posted about “Airing my Dirty Laundry” and going to Arizona. I attended a Blogger Retreat hosted by Bosch Appliances. They provided us with “laundry training” and also educated us about their products. Before attending this event, we started having major problems with our current LG washer and dryer. Angry Husband and I had been discussing buying a conventional top loading washing machine instead of a front loader. I was intrigued to see what Bosch had to say.

You would think that a family of three would not have a ton of laundry, right? This is what our laundry area looked like before I went on that trip to Arizona. Angry Husband and I both wear uniforms for work. Angry Kid has a habit of changing his clothes at least 2-3 times a day. This makes for a very large laundry pile. We also have an issue of our towels having a mold smell. No matter how few towels, or how fast I put them into the dryer, they smell.

For about two weeks now, our washing machine has been making these crazy noise. It sounds like it is ready to take off and fly away. Angry Husband gave me “that look” about a week ago. He said, “we probably need to look into buying a new washer and dryer soon”. I was in total denial. Even though I hated our current washer and dryer, I didn’t want to justify spending that much money. Have you looked at appliances recently? They are not cheap, plus you always need some kind of accessory/cord/etc. to go with it.

Angry Husband and I were both off today. We were organizing the house and cleaning the garage. This is what people do when their son is at camp for the day. I was doing laundry and the washing machine was even more obnoxious. Angry Husband stated again, “We need to go look at washers and dryers. One day, you are going to NEED to do laundry and it isn’t going to work.” I think he made his point. After we picked up Angry Kid from camp, we headed towards Best Buy.

Really, it was an easy decision for me. I glanced at all of the other brands, but my heart led me to Bosch. I’m a researcher and I felt that I HAD DONE the research. We went with the Bosch Vision Washer and Dryer, 500-Series. We did not get the stands. We have stands with our current washer and dryer. We have NEVER used them. I think we are going to get some type of countertop to put across the top of the washer and dryer for storing the laundry products, etc.

My hand shook a little when sliding that credit card for payment. But then we came home and saw green goo dripping from the soap dispenser on our washing machine. We just sighed with relief.

The new Bosch Babies are coming home on Wednesday. Angry Husband is going to prep for their arrival tomorrow.

Disclosure: I didn’t receive anything from Bosch to post this. They sent me to a Blogger Retreat in April, where I became obsessed with their products. Knowledge is power! Plus, there are ton of rebates for Bosch products. My new washer and dryer is sponsored by my new diet of eating Ramen and having really clean clothes. Ramen = poor, but happy Julie.

Filed Under: In The Home 16 Comments

Too much caffeine, makes Julie crazy

July 21, 2010

I was in utter panic last week. I had to leave for work and could not locate my keys. I was yelling at Angry Husband for like an hour. I ran an errand real quick, and took his truck. I came back and tossed the house again, looking for my keys. Gee, guess where they were? I never use my keys for the front door, so it was not the logical place for them to be.

I would like to thank the 32 oz. fountain Dr. Pepper for that flip out.

I’m participating in this RAD Pro Blogger Challenge with the SITS peeps and The BlogFrog. You may have seen the hashtag on Twitter #31DBB. If you are not on Twitter, just ignore my rambling, because none of this will make sense to you at all.

I just followed a ton of new people on Twitter, because of this. I usually follow people with caution, check out their stream, and see who else they are following. I really don’t want to see randomness all day long. I’m a Twitter addict. I like my Twitter with my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even late night snack. Twitter is like a comfort food to me.

But ack, seriously….I’ve gotten at least fifteen to twenty Auto DM’s today. What are DM’s? They are direct messages on Twitter. I get it, you are thankful I’m following you and stuffs, but your pre-programmed messages, well they suck. I’m tired of getting the “Thank you for following me, I appreciate it, please check out my website at iliketoautodmyoutodeath.com for more info”.

So I got a little stabby finally, and tweeted out that message above. I may have been drinking an awesome 32 oz. Dr. Pepper from Del Taco. But then again, too much caffeine makes Julie a little stabby and a little crazy, all at the same time.

The moral of this story is, “Help Julie find her keys, cause she loses them a lot, don’t Auto DM because it’s annoying, and keep the Dr. Pepper flowing if you want entertainment late at night.”

P.S. I just saw that I totally wrote a post in 2008 about losing my keys. I think I have a problem.

Filed Under: Just Julie 19 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: July Sky

July 21, 2010

I’m using a new thumbnail version of linky. By using this version, you are able to see a thumbnail of all of the pictures. Please use a thumbnail of the photo for your Wordless Wednesday Post.

Filed Under: Orange County, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 14 Comments

Awestruck by the iPad

July 20, 2010

Angry Kid is an Apple Kid. Without a doubt, he can work an iPhone better than I can. I will probably ask for his assistance in the future. When I was his age, I begged to go to the toy store. My kid, he begs to go to the Apple Store. It almost looks like he is praying to the Apple gods…

He spent over thirty minutes playing with the iPad last night at the Apple Store. What was he doing? He was playing Plants vs. Zombies. He was quite impressed with the size of the iPad and how nicely it fit in his tiny little hands, with his dirt caked fingernails. I feel bad for the Apple Store employees, and all of the nastiness that paws over their products.

Angry Kid saw this display outside the store and asked Daddy for an iPad like this. Angry Husband responded, they don’t make iPads that big, that is basically a TV. Angry Kid just turned around and gave us both the Angry Face.

I was telling my mom about the iPad experience last night. I told her that Angry Kid was obsessed with an iPad. She inquired about the cost, Internet service, etc. I swear that she might actually buy one. I told her that you can watch movies on it.

But mostly, this post is brought to you by Angry Husband’s iPhone4. This photo was taken with his phone and barely edited. He got a new phone and I got a dress. His phone was all messed up and mine is still fine. I’m not paying a bazillion dollars for a new one, especially since mine is fine and I’m not due for an upgrade.

I think this photo is quite perfect for Sweet Shot Tuesday. I need to participate more frequently. I have been a photo slacker lately.

Filed Under: Photography 11 Comments

An Elevator Pitch

July 19, 2010

Today is Day 1 for me of Pro Blogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. I’m participating in this along with members of the SITS community, and The BlogFrog Community, as well.

The topic for today is to “Write an elevator pitch for your blog”.

According to Wikipedia, “An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words) seconds or 100–150 words).”

I think that this is a good start for the challenge. It helps define your blog. I can’t tell you how many times that someone has asked me, “What is your blog about?” Mostly of the time, I ramble something like, “I work full-time, married, one kid, and live in Orange County.” But then I shake my head and think, Julie, you sound like an idiot. You are letting these few things define you. I am more than a full-time working mom who lives in Orange County.

But alas, it is ok to have two types of elevator pitches, and each type can be used for different situations.

The Short Version:

“Angry Julie Monday is about the life of a working mom in Orange County, Ca.”

This short version covers a few key points about me, who I am, and where I live. I’m Julie, I work full-time, I am a mom, and I live in Orange County, Ca. But as I pointed out above, this short little phrase does not define me, but really helps to summarize what this site is all about.

Did you see that I used the word “site”? I don’t always use the word “blog” when talking to people about what I do here. I often refer to Angry Julie Monday as my personal website. I think it is important to know your audience when talking about your blog. If someone knows the terms of social media, they will understand terminology such as blog or weblog. For much of mainstream society, “website” is sometimes a better fit.

The Long Version:

“Angry Julie Monday is an online diary consisting of stories involving my family, friends, fashion and photography. I illustrate the tales of my daily life with my Macbook and my Nikon camera. Whether it be my latest dress, reality television, tales of childhood, or trips to Disneyland, I document it. I try and portray what daily life is like being a wife, mother, full-time employee, in Orange County, and attempting to not lose my mind.”

Gee, I actually wrote a paragraph without talking about caffeine, ADD, or Twitter. Seriously, that is quite an accomplishment. I did get a tad wordy, and there were lots of commas in there. I need to work on that, way too many commas in my posts.

Did completing this task change your blog, or change the way you think about your blog?

I think my short version was conceived from my tagline mostly. I’ve had this tagline for three years, and it is a good fit. My long version is more or less many of the roles than I maintain in my life. In between all of these basic roles, I try to fill my life with personality, whether it be my passions (or obsessions), photography, and my randomess.

I think this task helped me realize that my blog is what I want it to be. My blog has had peaks and valleys in the past few years. It all depends on what is going on in my life at that time. At the end of the day, I am a hobbyist, and this blog is my hobby.

Filed Under: Blogging 6 Comments