Why I Love Google

June accidentally deleted one of the apps on my iPhone the other day. At least I think it was an accident...it's always possible she has a personal vendetta against the Maps app.

When I searched the phone itself to retrieve it, I couldn't find any answers so I turned to the web.

The Apple website led me on a wild goose chase through links and troubleshooting and forums and FAQs:

Then I tried Google. I typed in my question and found my solution in the second link:
This is why I love Google and also why I'm terrified they will once rule the universe.

The Superhero Cape

For Kai's birthday I decided to make him a superhero cape. This was my first real project with my new sewing machine and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It's not perfect, but I love how it looks and loved the look on Kai's face even more when he opened it.

I looked around for some ideas online. The thing I most needed to know was measurements and I only found one useful site. I made some adjustments because most capes I saw were only one-sided (I wanted two) and had ties at the neck (I wanted velcro).

Here's my finished product:

Here you can see the blue satin side versus the shiny red side of the lining.
I also made a mask for him.
I just love the way stitching looks, don't you?
There was a sort of collective gasp among the kids when he opened it and put it on. The sound sort of made my heart break of happiness?
The mask was a little tight but that is an easy adjustment.
He zoomed around to give me and Michael hugs and then wore it as he opened the rest of his gifts.
A couple of women approached me afterwards to ask if I would make them a cape or two. Just in case anyone is interested, leave me a comment and I'll get in touch with you. Make sure to include your email address (I will delete the comment after contacting you so others don't see it).

And just for fun, I decided to make some little tags for the gifts using the leftover felt and some paper. (Made another one to Kai from June).
These tags took about 3 minutes to make. I love my sewing machine.

My Take on Contraception

This post is in response to Rush Limbaugh's comments regarding Sandra Fluke. I know I said I would try to stay out of politics, but I just can't help it anymore. Also, when I say "Republicans" I am not talking about ALL Republicans. Lastly, I realize that many people are not against the use of contraception but are against corporations' requirement to provide insurance coverage of contraception. This post highlights my feelings about the people who are not only personally against the use of contraception but also trying to inflict their personal beliefs on other people.

This is how I understand it:

Some Republicans (mostly men) are against the use of contraception. If women don't want to get pregnant they should just stop being "sluts" (Rush's word, not mine), "keep their legs closed" and "just say no."

Many women who use birth control are married women. Are these Republican men suggesting that every woman who has sex without the intent of getting pregnant is a slut - including married women? Including post-menopausal women? Should their own wives "just say no" except for the 3-4 times in their marriage when they are trying to conceive?

Many women who use the contraceptive pills use them not for pregnancy prevention but for other health reasons, such as prevention of ovarian cysts and assistance with endometriosis. I wish these people would stop saying "Go buy a condom, that costs $1." There are much bigger issues here.

Men don't want to "pay" for the pill for women because that's basically like paying for them to have sex. Can't the same be said for all the plans that cover Viagra?

These men do not want to pay for contraception. Are they then willing to pay for the added prenatal care, maternity leave, birth costs and all pediatric costs that could result from this action?

If we want to open this door - of denying health services to individuals or groups because of personal beliefs - then we are coming upon a dark time. A time when a company can deny assistance for any number of issues. I don't like smokers, so I deny medical coverage to those that brought lung-related health issues upon themselves. I don't believe in ADHD so I won't cover the meds to help it. I am in support of 100% homeopathic and holistic approach to healing, so I will cover nothing for my employees.

These men don't support women preventing unwanted pregnancy and don't support a woman's right to end an unwanted pregnancy. But once she has been forced to have an unwanted child - even if she is too young or too poor or too immature to actually have a child, they also don't support assisting her through welfare or other government assistance.

When men think that the sex lives of women is their business, there is a power imbalance. When men use words like "slut" and "prostitute" to refer to women who have sex, that is not courage in the support of your religous beliefs - that is hatred toward women.

Festivus for the Rest-of-us

My birthday started off at 5 am when one June the Bug decided it was time to play. Thankfully she fell back asleep a half an hour later wedged against my back, which I had turned to her to protect sensitive body parts from her flailing and kicking.

We went out for breakfast and Michael had the server put a candle in my flapjacks! He and June sang me "Happy Birthday" but June was a bit pitchy.

Then we headed over to June's school for a little festival. Our favorite part was the petting zoo.
There was an alpaca. Need I say more?


There were a bunch of games for the kids. June was too little to do most of them but we were happy to take her around to watch the older kids. We also got to meet the parents of some of her classmates, which was a bonus! It's funny to now be known as "June's Mom."

Birthday Beginning

Hey y'all! It's my birthday!

We have a lot planned for this weekend (my nephew's birthday party, a dinner for me and going to see the musical Wicked!) so I'm looking forward to getting some blogs done.

Already today we've had a celebratory breakfast out at one of our favorite cafes and went to a little festival held by June's school. And not to be dramatic or anything, but there might have been an attempt to pickpocket me. Michael managed to catch the culprit on camera.

Rude!

Long-Sleeved Onesie

While dressing June up in cute clothes or matching her outfit to mine is fun, sometimes she's just the cutest in a simple long-sleeved onesie.

My Leap Day Story

I don’t know when it was that I read the rules about leap year, but I did somewhere along the way.

Yesterday I was sitting and working dutifully in my cubicle when my boss’s boss, “Paul” and another male staff member, “Ryan” came over. They were talking to my boss, “Brenda” about leap year and about how easy it is to figure out if that year is a leap year. If the year ends in a number easily divisible by four, it is a leap year. Except if the year ends in 00. I was subconsciously listening, waiting for that last caveat. They didn’t say it, so I couldn’t resist.

“Except if the year is also divisible by 400,” I said.

“No,” the men agreed. “Like, the year 2000 wasn’t a leap year.”

“Yes it was,” I said. “2012…2008…2004…”

“Keep counting, you’ll get there,” Paul said.

“Go ahead and look it up if you want,” Ryan said.

The condescension was out, and JULIE WILL NOT STAND FOR THAT SHIT.

I wheeled back to my computer and Wiki’d this issue to death. I sent an email to the three of them with the following imaged Snipped into it: But since it's blurry and too small to read, let me quote from Wikipedia:

“Years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.”

“Hey-a, Ryan, want to…I don’t know…come over and…read this?” It’s very difficult for me to contain my gloating when I have been on the receiving end of such reckless condescension.

He came, he read, I danced.

I leaned back in my chair and kicked my legs straight up in spastic movements. I stood and fist-pumped into the air. I river danced. I ran up and down our little hallway while giving low-fives to imaginary people, then another lap to give them high-fives.

By then end of it, Paul was purple in the face from laughing so hard, Ryan was shaking his head slowly and Brenda was saying, "What was that they were saying about 'keep counting, you'll get there'?"

It was a Leap Day Victory and it was fine.

Launderer

I hate doing laundry.

Fortunately I am the sole victim of the consequences of this hatred, as Michael and I each do our own laundry. This means that Michael, a responsible launderer, always has nice clean clothes, whereas I sink into the dregs of fashion options as the days (and often weeks) go by. It is only when I am faced with committing major fashion faux pas when I finally break down and do a load. (What is the plural of 'faux pas'? Faux pass? Faux pases? Faux pi?)

The only time I don't hate laundry is...when there is a baby in my laundry.

I'm not sure if it was just her mood or my smell or what, but this baby was so content to lay back in this pile of clothes and point at stuff around the room.

Also: this little photoshoot gave me yet another way to put off doing laundry. Bonus!

The Zoo

On Sunday we met our friends Lyndsey, Fabricio and Matteo at the Phoenix Zoo. This was June's first time going to to zoo and we knew she'd love it because a.) she loves animals, and b.) she loves pointing at things. i.e.:

So she got to show us all how she could point at every living and moving thing in the zoo, including but not limited to bushes, other people, garbage that got caught in the wind and of course elephants.

My favorite part of the day was the petting zoo, where June petted two goats and also one unsuspecting middle-aged woman.

No picture of the woman, sorry. But here's one of otters!



It was another long and active day for the Junebug, who enjoyed a car ride nap on the way home and even went back to sleep in her crib long enough to let Mommy and Daddy watch most of "Drive."
What an exhausting but fun weekend!

Fountain Hills Fair

On Saturday - with both of my parents in town - our little family split up for some adventuring. Michael went off with the menfolk to golf while I went to the Great Fair of Fountain Hills with my mom and an out-of-town guest. June and I matched in red skirts, and I'm pretty sure that matching her is about the most fun thing in the world.

That Great Fair really was great!
Hundreds - or at least what felt like hundreds - of booths with local art and festival food. I tell you, if I were in the market for turquoise jewelry or hand-crafted pottery or large metal art, I would have been in heaven. I was really hoping I'd find some beautiful, large, dramatic and affordable piece that reached out and grabbed my soul and said "YOU NEED ME" but it didn't happen.

Still, I had a great time walking around on this girls day!
At one point we stopped for a bite (and a nurse) and what a view we had.
That's my BBQ sandwich in the blurry foreground.


We went home and rested while we waited for the guys to be done with their game.
Look at those baby blues!
Later, we all went out to dinner. June was hamming it up for all the grownups, dancing to the live music and clapping her hands when we did.

We had plans to watch a movie that night but after a long, hot day out in the sun, we just wanted to go to bed early. June included.