Read this to the tune of Jay-Z's 99 Problems

If you're havin' blog problems i feel bad for you son,
I got 99 problems* but a blog ain't one.

—Jules-Z

*I don't actually have 99 problems, but I do have about 99 things to blog about and will be back to it very soon. Maybe even later today!

In the meantime, and having nothing whatsoever to do with Jay-Z...

My sister has found a way to get our dad to write down some of his legendary hijinks.

Over 50 years later and he still cries from laughing every time he re-tells this first gem. Being a little sister, I can particularly relate to the sweet, fist-pumping-in-the-air kind of karmic victory he must've felt over his big sister the morning that this happened:

The Best Tuna Fish Sandwich That Ever Was

After you read it, I think we'll agree that my dad is the man.

Love you Dad, and love you Missy for getting him to start writing this stuff down already!

It's probably better that I haven't done this

The fam & I spent a good part of Saturday at my older nephew's Lacrosse tournament. He plays for The Warriors and at every match I say, I didn't bring bottles to clank together but... Warriors, come out to play-ee-aye!".

Unfortunately, nobody else gets that 80's movie reference, and that makes me shed a little tear. I even put it up on Twitter, and someone (who will remain anonymous unless he outs himself in the comments) guessed that I was referring to a scene in the Disney movie Pollyanna, which was such a hilariously awesome guess because of it's polar opposite themes that I'm still laughing to myself about it. Sadly, he came the closest when it came to throwing out guesses.

The Warriors is a terrible classic. Terrible. But, like I said, classic.

The lacrosse season ended on Saturday, but since I'm posting the actual scene from the movie I have high hopes that someone will bring three bottles for my clanking purposes to the first match this coming spring!


I'm much cuter than this creep when I reenact this scene, trust me.


Some of you may recognize the head Warrior as the main character from Xanadu!

525,600 Minutes

I lost my sweet friend Nic one year ago today. I have felt such a profound void in my life without her here, and the past couple of weeks have been rough. How can an emptiness be so weighty?

I miss my Superhero.


Seasons of Love, by the cast of RENT & the goose-bump inducing Stevie Wonder

Tonight, in addition to the usual gratitude I feel for the time she had with us here, there will be margaritas in her honor. She'd expect nothing less from her sidekick.

Viva la Free Download, Part 3!

Today Coldplay is offering their live album, Left Right Left Right Left as a free download!

Get it HERE! It might take more than one try to even load the page since the whole world is attempting to get it from the same link. Took me about 10 tries, but it's SO worth it!

Stop! Hammer Tiem!

Yesterday, I was telling how in college some friends stole a stop sign. They hung it in their dorm room with pride, and then one day their R.A. walked by and asked where they got it from. After getting the runaround, he went back to his room and called campus police.

Need I say that their R.A. was a buzzkill? I think not.

I was in the room when the fateful "Open up, POLICE!" shout/knock at the door happened, and I listened to my friends very calmly explain to the police that they had "liberated a hexagon*", not stolen a stop sign.

Then I watched my friends GET AWAY WITH IT. Man, I loved college.


Hammer Tiem? I took this picture of a stop sign in Key West, where everybody is a little bit dyslexic and a little bit drunk. Photo ©HouseofJulesPhotography

*Yes, yes. A stop sign is an octagon, not a hexagon. That's partly why the story is so funny.

Ain't nothing gonna break her stride!

If you've surrounded yourself with the right people, the line between friends and family blurs until you no longer see it. I guess if there has to be a name for it, I'd use "framily".

Speaking of framily, here's a note from Seestor Amy:

To my wonderful friends & family~
I wanted to let you know that with your amazing generosity in giving for the MS Walk 2009, I was able to raise almost $3500!  I am unbelievably touched by your support. I've attached a picture from the walk...as you'll see, it wasn't the most ideal day for it, but I think we all still had fun! Hopefully next year the weather will be more cooperative!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Take care of yourselves!

Love,
Amy

Here she is... the woman of the hour. You can really see our framily resemblance here (our standard photo pose is very similar):

Do you think a little rain stopped this woman from doing her thang? OF COURSE IT DIDN'T! Her only complaint was that her jeans were too rain-soaked for her leg to get higher.


Team Seestor Amy, after being rained on all day! Go Team!

I'm thrilled to say that other people in my extended framily (who aren't lucky enough to know my seestors personally) contributed over $700 to Team Seestor Amy and Walk MS 2009. Love you all and love to my Seestors Amy & Nancy!

I can't hear you, I'm trying to enjoy myself!

I'd like to introduce you to my favorite YouTube "star", John Roberts. I came across THIS video and loved it so much that I then did something really embarrassing; I signed up for an account just so I could subscribe to his channel.

He did a great one for Mother's Day 2 years ago (which you can see by clicking HERE), but my favorite one by far is last year's version, in which he absolutely nails every Mother's Day cliché there is. Double click on either 'play' arrow if you have trouble:


"C'mon, let's go. Let's go! I want my presents! Oh, look at the ducks!"

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you get to enjoy yourself!

Speaking of Seestors...

A few of my friends & I have been known to close our e-mails with "Love you long time," or "LYLT,". Last night after replying to an e-mail from Emily (Seestor/college roommate/friend of a lifetime)  with our standard "LYLT" sign-off, I had a random memory flashback. 

You may already know that my friends & loved ones have referred to me as "Steel Trap" because I remember nearly everything in great detail... even things people have told me about themselves that I didn't experience personally.

I often have these memory flashbacks, so it was nothing new to feel that rush of remembering time, place, circumstance. Unfortunately, it wasn't clear who I had this particular shared moment with, but I had a suspicion it was Emily. So I sent her another e-mail right away to find out:

Speaking of "LYLT", I had a random flashback to a little fun-fact someone once told me about themselves and I think it was you.

When you were in middle school, did you think "LYLAS" was the spanish word for love?

I remember hearing that from the person and then laughing our asses off.

Em's reply:

I don't remember. I do remember that I said my favorite jewelry was beef in my French oral test, though, so I wouldn't be surprised. Steel Trap!

I can't blame her. Who's favorite accessory ISN'T beef?


As for the initial random memory flashback that had me giggling for half the night? Whoever said it, I totally LYLAS* them.


*LYLAS=Love You Like A Sister

Help a Seestor out!

When thinking about my favorite people, my college roommate Emily, her siblings, and their spouses dominate the list. Lucky for me, I've been symbolically adopted by the lot of them and taken my rightful place among them as a "Seestor"! Make no bones about it, this is a big deal to me. Every person in their family is crush-worthy. I get woozy when I'm around more than 2 of them at once. This is no joke as they make up a huge group of people. HUGE. Remember that show, Eight is Enough? Well, Emily's parents didn't think so! It's a good thing they had more than 8 kids because Emily is the 2nd youngest. I'm really glad they didn't stop with Em because one of my favorite memories includes the "baby" in the family: Seestor Amy.

Oh, darling Amy! She officially became one of our college group of peeps when she stayed at our off-campus house a week before Emily's 21st birthday. The timeline is only important in that there may have been a run-in with the police, who were doing I.D. checks at our favorite little bar in town, and there may have been people running away on foot from the police and some of those people may have been caught. There may have even been a fundraiser to pay for the tickets issued for underage drinking and running the eff away from the scene. That's a story for another day, though. Oh man, is it ever a story! I mean, maybe it's a story and maybe it's not. Could be, or I could be making it up. But I'm not, so keep that between us.


Amy & Emily, at Em's wedding. This isn't their mugshot. Not that they have one.


Joking aside, I'm really writing this post for a serious reason. One of their older sisters, Nancy, got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis thirteen years ago. I remember being in our living room at college with Emily when she got the news. It was devastating. Nancy is an incredible person. Perhaps without intending to be, she's also an inspiration to not only her whole family, but to everyone around her, including the adopted seestor typing in this blog post (me!).

Every year since Nancy was diagnosed, Amy has been raising money towards a cure for Multiple Sclerosis by getting pledges for her participation in the annual "Walk MS". It was something she could do to really show support for her seestor.

This disease does not discriminate: Nearly one year ago, in May 2008, Amy was also diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

In her own words:

I wondered where my donations went, what I was REALLY walking for, and if the MS Society REALLY utilized their money/resources wisely, since Nancy was not getting any better.

Then with my diagnosis came the answer...there was immediate assistance from the Society guiding me through each step of the process of now living with MS. All of that monetary help from every sibling, friend, spouse or loved one of someone with MS revealed itself. It was in the financial assistance of my medication; the check-ups from RNs on a regular basis; and the continuous support of people who truly understand all that I'm going through now.

I've registered for Walk MS 2009 because I want to do something for the people who have been diagnosed and because I want to do everything to prevent more people from learning what it means to live with this disease. Today, there is no cure for MS, but hopefully with the support from you, we'll be that much closer to finding a cure!

Nancy, was diagnosed with MS about 13 years ago... to everyone's surprise. She has shown amazing strength and determination in battling her illness, so I had a guide as to how to deal with adversity. I've been relying on her example when dealing with my own illness; I can only hope that I'm making her proud.

Nancy & Amy. You make ALL of us proud!


Nancy and Amy have inspired me to offer the following: 

Everyone who donates $10 or more to Amy's Walk MS team before THIS SUNDAY will get a one of my photographs (your choice, see the teaser shots below) FOR FREE. They'll eventually be for sale for in my halfway-completed Etsy store for... more than that. 

If you donate $20, I'll send you 2 photographs of your choice. See how this works? I'll ship them right to your door, at ZERO cost to you. 

Mother's Day is coming up, you know. Someone you love is about to have a birthday. You deserve a little something! A beautiful photograph would be perfect for this occasion, don't you think?

Go on, click HERE and give up some cash for my beautiful seestors Nancy & Amy, and for everyone else affected by Multiple Sclerosis. Amy is already 91% of the way to her goal! With 48 hours to spare, help her get there!

E-mail me after you've donated (or leave a comment) with your information and donation amount so we can get this whole thing rolling.

All of the following images ©HouseofJulesPhotography. All rights reserved. Ahem, please don't steal.

Mini-Gallery:

All images ©HouseofJulesPhotography. All rights reserved. Ahem, please don't steal.

CLICK TO DONATE HERE!!

If things go well, you might be showing off your O-face!

I've already written about how my job has involved many pitch meetings for different products, and that I probably pay attention to commercials, slogans, and advertising in general more than the average person does. I think about what goes into a pitch meeting, and how I'm sure some advertising agencies must be amazed when a client goes with (and pays big money for) some half-baked or unintentionally hilarious idea.

For example, I was surprised by this product name and was saddened by this spokesperson/song, and I couldn't believe that this winter accessory actually made it into production. The last marketing campaign that caught my attention was way back in November, and it was True North's"extraordinary nutsnacks". I even asked my friends Spammon & Lindsey to be the official House of Jules extraordinary nutsnack taste-testers. You can read that post (and I highly recommend it, for the nutsnack comparison photos alone!) HERE.

Since that time, I haven't seen any glaringly awful or awesome product advertising, that is until this week when I saw this:



1. Yes, they are asking you to "upload your O-face*" so people can VOTE ON IT.

2. Not only do they want you to "upload your O-face*", but if you win, your O-face* will be featured in a national ad campaign. C'mon. Nobody wants to see that.



I'm guessing the nice people at Three-O Vodka told the female model to act like she walked into her own surprise party, and told the male model to act like he was being held up at gunpoint, giving a sad, new meaning to stick 'em up. I bet they just want everybody to think to themselves how easy it would be to win. Sneaky bastards.


*"You know what I'm talking about...O! Yeah..."