Me Myself and Jonna

“Time waits for no man”

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Not only is that a quote that has arguably more sources than the alphabet does letters, but it’s something that most adults will argue becomes truer after becoming parents.

Here I sit almost a week after Halloween and I've realized that Halloween has come and gone and I look at my calendar and see the looming November and December months waiting ahead. It’s like driving into a dark tunnel, you know there will be light at the end of it all, but the thought that you won’t make it out is always in the back of your head. This one weekend of Halloween festivities was exciting and fun but it was hectic and chaotic at times, and the thought of that lasting for 2 months straight, accompanied by travelling, shopping and cooking, tied in with Christmas parties and festivities and everything else that comes along with the Christmas cheer – scares me.

Every year seems to spin by faster and faster, leaving me less and less time to do things I need to get done, let alone the things I want to get done.
But, with every year before, I look ahead as I sit the week after Halloween, and then halfway through the thick of it, I realize that I’m having fun and it’s not really as bad as I thought it would be.

So, I think I’ll spare myself the grief for the next week or two and just jump into the looking forward to egg nog (and brandy) and have myself an old fashioned Griswold.. er.. whatever.. Christmas!

St. George Scenery

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:13:00 +0000

This is some video that was forgotten about on my Flip until today, so I just wanted to share with you a little of what I consider to be Southern Utah's beauty.

Tattooed & Curly

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

At least for now.

See, I have an inner fight with myself & my curls and well, right now the curls have won.

But we will see for how long.

But for the meantime, you can read all about my curls here and at my other wonderfully neglected blog.. A Girl and her Curl

Video killed the blogging star...

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:08:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve last blogged and I blame video for that. I am looking to go almost all vlog format now and keep my text posts to a minimum, and I still have all intentions to do so, however my little nit-picky self made it to a point that I was spending entirely too much time on the editing part of the video that by the time I got a video where I liked it, it wasn’t relevant anymore!

So.. I think I’m going to stick to my spontaneous posts in text and vlog – it seems to work much better for me in the long run. I may not have the fun little graphics and whatnot but at least it’s relevant and timely, plus you get a lot more material to make fun of me for when I wing it.

Behold, the suitcase destink-a-fyer!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:57:00 +0000

Almost a year ago, we went on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach to have some family portraits done and while there, we bought my son a very cool Lightnin’ McQueen suitcase (which now, I can't find a picture online to save my life, so I'll have to snap one later to post) from the Disney store at Boardwalk at the Beach.

Upon getting back to our rented house and opening the suitcase up, we found there was an absolutely gag-i-fying (which in real people vernacular means it stinks big time) smell in the suitcase. It smelled like burnt plastic wrapped in sweat, in 100 degree weather, near a landfill. You get the point.

I was certain this wouldn’t be a problem, so I just drenched the bag in Fabreeze and went on my merry smell good way. The next day I check the bag and now it smells like burnt flowers, wrapped in burnt plastic, wrapped in sweat… and so on and so forth. Literally, over the past year, my husband and I have tried everything. Baking Soda didn’t work. Vinegar didn’t work.. in fact that was a big mistake. Airing it out for days didn’t work. I was really getting concerned that the bag was going to just sit in the attic because I couldn’t get the smell out.

In the meanwhile, I bought a new luggage set off of Woot! for our upcoming trip out West and when we opened them… there was that exact smell again!! What’s the odds? It must be something in the way they are made! But now… it’s not just one Lightin’ McQueen suitcase, it’s now a total of 3 suitcases!

Then, last week my husband sends me a link to Tap-A-Drop on Amazon and asks me to order it, that he was going to give it a try – I mean, really what did we have to lose. So the Amazon box arrived on Tuesday and we ripped open the box and ran upstairs to the bonus room, as if we had just acquired some secret spell book and was about to perform some life changing ritual.

This is the cut to the chase, how to de-skink-a-fy stuff!!
We took one cotton ball and a safety pin (and I say we, meaning my husband did while I watched) and we doused the cotton ball with the Tap-A-Drop and then pinned it to the inside of the suitcase and zipped it up.

Fast forward 2.5 days (today!) and we open the bag to smell… NOTHING! In fact, it smells… GOOD! I’m so thrilled, it’s only taken a year and, who knows how much money, for us to resolve the stinky suitcase issue but it’s done.

And that my friends, is my gift to you… the power to defunkify your suitcases!! I'll be posting a review on Amazon for it as well because it's just that awesome!

218-724-2094 who?

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:23:00 +0000

For those of you who didn't know, a few months ago I got a brand spankin' new cell phone, the superlicious LG EnV Touch and with that came a nice, clean phone number.

You know, the number that no one has, that you have total access control to. Or so I thought.

I started getting random calls from 218-724-2094, I would never answer because I didn't recognize the number. And they never left a voicemail so it was just one continuous cycle of calling and not answering.

Well I googled the number and found out from 800notes.com the following:

This number is in fact Teleresources. They are calling on behalf of either Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, Allstate Insurance Roadside Service, columbia House, J J Keller, Centele Telephone. Basicially if you are now or were a subscriber to any of these services and your subscription has run out, Teleresources is calling to see if you want to re new your subscription. To find out why they are calling you simply call the number back and punch extenstion 111 to be removed from the list.

So, I called the number back, pressed the 111 extension and talked to a very friendly person who said he'd take my number and put it on their "do not call list" and that within 24 hours the calls should stop.

It actually went very smoothly.
Now, let's just hope I didn't activate my number on some random, weirdo porn company's list of "haha we got 'em" who they end up calling once a week with strange voicemails.

Don't let "Guide To Pirate Parenting" Walk The Plank!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:38:00 +0000

Guide To Pirate Parenting

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:10:00 +0000

Find Guide To Pirate Parenting on Amazon

Check out the author's website

Follow @PirateParenting on Twitter!

Also, if you really are bored and want to see why I will never be able to do live reviews.... watch this:

Slippy Slide Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:33:00 +0000

LG enV® TOUCH

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:30:00 +0000

I’m going on day 3 of using my LG enV Touch, and I have to say I didn’t want to like this phone, I really didn’t. I wanted to have a legitimate gripe about it so I could guilt trip my husband into driving me over to AT&T and guying me an Apple iPhone.

What? At least I admit it!

But, it turns out that I like the LG enV Touch. (I really really do!)

My quick review is: The LG enV Touch isn’t an iPhone, but I’d consider it to be 2nd best to on if that’s what you like!

My long review…

Looks: it’s pretty, the design is great. It has a 3.0” external touch screen that is second to the iPhone when it comes to touch-technology. Also, the screen has touch vibration so you can tell when you touch it. Because its sleek design hides the full QWERTY keyboard, when it’s closed, it’s very minimal.

Functionality:

Touch Screen: the touch screen works wonderfully and the screen adjustment when you turn the phone from vertical to horizontal is fast! It does take a little getting used to if you aren’t used to using a touch screen and for the first little while you end up opening applications instead of scrolling over them, but once you get the feel for it, it’s super easy.

Camera/Video: The camera is a 3.2 megapixel camera which has video capability. My one complaint was resolved when I realized I could use the “Camera” button to start and stop taking videos instead of the touch button which was difficult to access when doing a “self video”. The camera offers autofocus, flash, self timer, and an image/video editor including color effects. Not to mention you have the option of 4 different resolutions up to 2048X1536.

Music: the enV TOUCH also can be used for MP3 playback. You can supposedly synch your PC to your phone but I haven’t been able to do that yet, only because I haven’t had time to try. I’ll post about that function once I get to it. The playback of music (the preloaded stuff) is nice though, doesn’t sound too bad for being a phone.

Bluetooth: Nuff said.. Bluetooth is Bluetooth and it works, that’s all that matters.

Apps: My one complaint about this phone (compared to the iPhone) is lack of 3rd party apps. However, since it has a nice web browser, V CAST Videos and Music with Rhapsody, Mobile Email, Mobile Chat, VZ Navigator (which I’m not using) and visual voicemail.

Tools: the phone comes preloaded with a calculator, tip calculator, calendar, alarm clock, stop watch, world clock, note pad, drawing pad, document viewer (which actually reads MS07 stuff!), and voice recognition. I do have some issues with the calendar, I wish it had a little more functionality, but for a standard calendar and appointment keeper, it’s not bad.

Overall I give the enV TOUCH 4 out of 5 stars!

Lasting Impression (Oops!)

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:17:00 +0000

Recently my husband and I decided that we were interested in having a cleaning service come to the house once a month to help take care of some of the chores that we both fall behind on (read as: we hate to do them so we just, don’t). Things like cleaning baseboards, windows, mirrors. If I were to be honest I could make that list much longer but for the sake of trying to keep my reputation as somewhat of a homemaker I’ll pretend I actually like doing laundry, dishes and dusting.

So, I call a local company and I set up a time to have them come to the house and walk through it with me for an estimate of cost. I am generally very critical of people being on-time for appointments, especially businesses. So, when my appointment time of 5:30 came and went, I was annoyed to say the least. So, my husband and I hop in the car and I tell my father-in-law (who will forever be known as “The Mean Greek”) that if they do show up to tell them we no longer need their services.

I must interject here.

There’s one thing about the Greek’s I love. They are absolutely the most blunt people I have ever met. Here in nice ole’ lil’ South Carolina, they come off as rude – to me, it’s heaven. You never need to wonder what they are thinking because not only have they already told you, but they’ve probably informed 15 people around you as well.

So, my husband and I are at Academy Sports picking out his father’s day gift and my phone rings, I don’t recognize the number so I don’t answer, but what I do realize is that my calendar of appointments has just informed me that my appointment time with said no-show-cleaning company was really at 6:00pm not 5:30pm, and the time was currently 6:02. Of course I had to scream “Oh-my-god-Chris-I-totally-goofed-and-forgot-the-appointment-time-and-it’s-like-now!” to which my husband replied, “ok, so now what”.

Before I could answer that my phone rings again with an unknown number and I’m sure I know who it is so I answer. It was the gentleman who I spoke to the previous day to set up our appointment, except now, his voice isn’t so welcoming.

The conversation goes something to this extent:

Him: Hi, Jonna this is So-And-So from Angry-Cleaning-Company and I just got done speaking with someone at your house.

Me: Hi, let me first apologize, I’m so sorry, I made a mistake about our time and thought our appointment was at 5:30 and literally, just now realized it was supposed to be at 6:00. I’m very sorry again to make you go out of your way.

Him: Yes, that’s fine, however who was the gentleman I spoke with at your house?

Me: He’s my father-in-law…

Him: He is extremely rude and I understand that you made a mistake and we can reschedule for another time for me to come back out and do an estimate however I have to ask, does he live there or was he just babysitting.

Me: He lives there and let me explain..

Him: Well, is he going to be there if we come out and clean because honestly, I’m not sure I want to subject my employees to that because honestly, I’m just going to be honest here, he is a mean, grouchy old man.

Me: Well, yes he can be, but only because he was under the impression that your company had pulled a no-show on me and I was irritated as well. But Sir, I’m not available right now to reschedule and I would like to, and I apologize…

Him: I mean I have never been talked to that way and I have to say..

Me: Yes I understand and I apologized, it was a misunderstanding and it was my fault and…

And that’s when it hit me. I finished the conversation up telling him that I would call back tomorrow if I wanted to reschedule the appointment. I apologized again for his inconvenience because it was, for him to drive out all that way to get cussed out for no reason.

But I won’t be calling back. See, here’s my opinion. Yes, I made a mistake, a big one. Someone got cussed out (not literally) for it, who shouldn’t have been. But seriously, I’ve worked in customer service for years and I would have NEVER told a customer that their relative was an angry, old man. Especially after learning that there was a misunderstanding to begin with to cause that to happen. Talk about unprofessional.

I’ll take my punches where they are due, I caused it all to happen but seriously, don’t call my father-in-law a grumpy old man. So, now I move on and find another company to work with (one that may be able to handle some lip from a 78 year old Greek guy) so HAH!

Help Whip Cancer!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Another Year Older (and wiser, too!) - Almost.

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:39:00 +0000

They say that with age comes wisdom.

I’m not really sure who “they” are or how “they” know, but for the sake of not complicating life anymore than I already do, I’ll just take “them” and “their” words at face value.

May 4^th is my birthday and I’ll be turning 1 year older – that is unless in one week’s time I find a way to rip a hole in the time and space continuum – which hasn’t really been a goal of mine so it’s highly unlikely.

I’ve never been one of those girls who are hung up on the whole age thing. I turned 30 gracefully, or at least what I can remember of that night was graceful. So turning 34 isn’t really any more of big deal.

Frankly, I’m already having to do the math of figuring out my age a few months before my birthday, so realistically that just puts me in the “You can’t remember how old you are anymore so you are just effin’ old” category.

And I don’t mind that at all. I am not trying to compete with the 20-somethings out there. I had my day in my 20-something glory. I had fun! But now I’m having a different kind of fun.

This usually doesn’t include hangovers or having to save up for the possibility of needing bail money.

I look back at all I’ve done throughout my life and I’ve learned so much and yes, I honestly do believe that with that sort of vision you do gain wisdom. You have a different perspective on life as years pass by and your goals and aspirations change. I love who I have been and who I am becoming as I change with each passing year.

But seriously, I make really dumb decisions every day. Just this morning I decided to wear a bra that I have known for months is uncomfortable – where’s the wisdom in that!?

So, looking back over this year and reminiscing on things done and said, overall I have gotten wiser and here are a few pieces of wisdom flair I’d like to share with all of my friends in hopes that you can save yourself some time, embarrassment and money.

Jonna’s 34^th Birthday Wisdom Bits

When your son head butted you 6 months ago and you managed to not scream out profanities – rejoice in your wisdom, because now he’s not the one teaching those cuss words to his friends in daycare – he actually just picked them up from one of his other little buddies.
Deciding to invest in your hair color instead of saving the money for a rainy day that one time may not have been the most financially sound decision you’ve ever made but damn your hair still looks good. HAH Mr. Trump, you may have riches but money obviously can’t fix that flop!
Chocolate is a food group and is acceptable for dinner on occasions.
Exercise really does make you feel better (especially after indulging in #3), but seriously, you can’t lose 10lbs in 30 minutes on the elliptical – I know, I tried.
Whenever you are feeling down about life, go get your hair done or a pedicure or a facial. Life may still suck later but at least you’ll feel a little prettier, which isn’t half as sucky as being all pouty AND ugly.
And finally (because I had to end on an even number!), use twitter all the time. Not only can you broadcast your thoughts instantly and live to regret them, but you will also realize that your such an open book no one even needs to ask you “what are you up to?” because they all follow you already!

Happy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:48:00 +0000

I feel like I've been celebrating Easter for a month. Because, I have. Almost.

Today is Greek Easter. Christos Anesti to all my Greek friends & family out there! We actually celebrated yesterday out by our firepit grilling, eating and generally being loud. Welcome to my big, fat, Greek family. I married into it, I'm allowed to make fun! Today we plan on staying around the house and just eating left overs.

Last weekend was what I call "regular" Easter. A much more formal event consisting of dressing up and going to Church. Or at least the attempt to. We missed Church but we at least got to dress up and go out to breakfast!

The weekend before we went to a local Easter Egg hunt and watched a friend of ours in a play at our local Children's Theater. The play is called "Honk" and it's the story of the ugly duckling. Totally cute.

So, you all must forgive me if I'm to the point of being a little tired of Easter already but you see, realistically you shouldn't celebrate it for 3 weeks straight!

Support the March of Dimes

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:00:00 +0000

If you would like to donate through my family team, you can donate or even just sign up to walk over on my widget to the right!

Check out Sears @bustedmoms promo!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Hey moms! You need some extra cash right now in these economic times? Go check out the promotion put on by Sears and win $2,500 + big discount coupons on www.bustedmoms.com

In a Twilight Cave

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Image by Annafur via Flickr

I do believe that I am one of the last women in America who has yet to read, see or even care about Twilight.

Even my hair dresser is so enthralled that during my last appointment as I sat under the dryer, she sat next to me totally captivated in her book. She's on the 3rd, or was it the 4th?

Everyone I talk to who has read it is completely infatuated with "Edward" and the love story that makes up the books. It's the vampire lure, the love of the immortal hottie.

It's just something that I can't see myself buying, let alone getting wrapped up in. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe if I just read the first one I'll understand?

Either way, for now at least I'll continue to be in the Twilight Cave. I still have a list of true crime books to read first.

Trip Report: Kings Mountain State Park, South Carolina

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:19:00 +0000

It was off to Kings Mountain State Park this past weekend!
This camping trip was a lot of firsts.

The first trip of the season.
The first trip in our new travel trailer we bought way back when.
The first camping trip for my son.
The first trip to Kings Mountain.
The first time we've relied on others to help make us through.

But enough of that.

The trip was all around, great. Kings Mountain State Park is probably one of the nicest State Parks in South Carolina that I've stayed in. In addition to just being a beautiful park, the camp sites were laid out nicely and the staff was really friendly.

We arrived at the Park just after 3pm on Friday. We were a little worried about how long it would take us to set up the travel trailer, being our first time and all, but luckily for us our neighbor, Alex, helped us with a few key issues and got us right on track. He will be known to me forever as Awesome Alex, because without him we would have probably never had a level trailer and would have burned up our water heater. Our "RV newbieness" was totally showing.

The only downside to our trip was the weather. It was a little colder than I normally would like to camp in. Thankfully the RV's furnace worked perfectly and we stayed warm at night, but it did kind of hinder the outdoor fun. Not to mention, we are all coming down with either a cold or allergies are starting to hit us all.

Saturday morning, after breakfast we drove over to Kings Mountain National Park and went through the Kings Mountain museum. Also, there's an "encampment" exhibit where people dressed in period clothing and basically had a mini-camp set up to see how it was like living out in the battles of the revolutionary war. We got there just in time to see a demo of their guns, which was really exciting even for someone like me.

After that we went back to the camp grounds and while my husband and son played I went to the central area of the campgrounds for a Dutch Oven Cooking Demo put on by a lady who also works the Living Farm in the park. She was really interesting and knew her dutch ovens! Now I want one!

The two parks, the State Park and the National Park are literally a hop, skip and a jump away from one another and both are equally beautiful. I'm really surprised that I haven't heard about it before considering that I live under 2 hours away.

If you are a history buff or just someone who likes to do some camping, go to Kings Mountain State Park, it's worth it for the history and the beauty.

10 Reasons Twitter Is Great For The Average Person

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:53:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

As Twitter becomes more mainstream, I’ve seen people ask the question, “Why would Twitter be useful for me as an individual?”

Here’s my Top-10 Twitter Is Great Because…. answer:

I’ve been introduced to great wines
I’ve gotten suggestions for some great cigars
I’ve been given recipes that are scrum-o-licious
I’ve gotten the opportunity to do more product reviews
I found great reviews & advice for buying new gadgets
It’s re-enforced my addiction to reality television (not sure if that’s good or not)
I’ve had great political discussions
I’ve met local, great entrepreneurs and business people
I’ve been able to network with other mothers
Most of all, I’ve made some great new acquaintances and friends from around the world that I would have never had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

I don’t use twitter for business purposes. I use it for personal enjoyment and I must say that it’s been the best social network I’ve ever joined!

Wednesday WTF?

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Did I seriously just read a news article that said, “a man who stuffed his girlfriend’s cat into a makeshift bong and smoked marijuana through it”?

Oh yes, I did. Right Here

What the hell is wrong with people? They didn’t want to discipline the cat by swatting or spraying it but they wanted to get it so stoned that it would just chill out, eat some grub and clean itself?

Please tell me these people don’t have children.

I do have to credit the guy for one thing, at least he’s honest. He’s probably right, he’s probably not the first person to ever do it, just the first to get caught.

Dummy.

Snow Day 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Because here, in South Carolina, snow days are celebrated more than state holidays!

Prime Pimpin Gear

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Prime Pimpin

((Forgive the choppy editing, I'm learning!!)

Lucky Charms Crackhead

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:48:00 +0000

I made the mistake of falling into my kid's trap. He asked me for some Lucky Charms and I fell for it.

and this is what he turned into...

C is for Cavity

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:00:00 +0000

So, my son had his appointment with his dentist for the 2nd time since, well, ever. The first dentist he went too, I wasn't very fond of, so we switched.

And, he has a cavity. He'll go back to get it fixed in a week and I'm still a little confused how they are fixing it because they told my husband they won't be using a drill. However, they will be giving him some laughing gas. Lucky little fella.

In one aspect, I feel really disappointed in myself. I prided myself on the fact that I had him brushing his teeth since he cut them. However, apparently I wasn't watching him closely enough as he brushed, or I was missing a spot while brushing. Regardless, I'm sad he's only 3 and already has a cavity. But I vow to try harder to keep this from happening again. I had a lot of cavities before my permanent teeth came in and for that reason I dreaded the dentist, to the point of almost having anxiety attacks during cleaning appointments!

On the plus side, my kid loves the dentist. But then again, why wouldn't he. They didn't really bug him, they just cleaned his teeth and then turned around and gave him a toothbrush and a toy!

Let's hope this sentiment carries over after they go prying around and fixing cavities on his molar.

A Little ASP.Net Master Page Geekery

noreply@blogger.com (Jonna) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I'm an ASP.Net programmer and I can admit, I don't know everything. In fact, since upgrading from Visual Studio 2003 to 2005, I really feel like I don't know a lot.

One of the major pluses to VS2005 was the use of Master Pages. But I came across a problem that was it not for the help of some seriously smart geeks on experts-exchange, I doubt I would have ever figured it out.

The application I was writing is using 2 masterpages.

The first one (Main.master) is parent for all of my pages except login.aspx & error pages, it contains a banner image (located \img\TitleBanner.gif) and an asp:menu control.

The second one (Misc.master) is the parent for the initial login.aspx page & any generic error pages that I am redirecting to. It is identical to the Main.master page, minus the asp:Menu control.

In Visual Studio, everything looks fine & all images are showing. However, upon debugging when the login.aspx page loads, the banner in the Misc.master is not showing (red X), however all contents of the contentplaceholder are fine.

When I log in successfully, it will redirect me to my Main.aspx which is a child of Main.master and the page looks fine, then if I log out (which redirects to the login.aspx) then, and only then does the banner image show correctly.

Initially, both Masterpages were pointing to the same banner image in \img\TitleBanner.gif but I've tried copying the image into the root of the project (outside of the img folder) but still no go.

The Answer!!

The Answer was given to me by someone named guru_sami and basically he lead me to figure out that since my web.config file was blocking all anonymous access that it was also blocking access to the images within my folder to show on the master page. So, the solution was to create a second web.config file within my \img folder giving allow all users access, which then allowed the images to be used in the master page!

These are just one of the coding things I wanted to share! Enjoy!