A Few Random Observations

Posted by missjunebug on November 6, 2010

This is not a good year for two of missjunebug’s favorite teams: the Longhorns and the Irish.

missjunebug’s dog Spoonbug is just about the sweetest creature missjunebug has ever known.

The days before Daylight Saving Time ends are ridiculous. Sunrise at 7:15. Really?

Capital One Rewards are awesome. missjunebug just purchased four monetarily significant gift cards with miles she’s “earned” by shopping, one of the things missjunebug does best. Money for nothing and the chicks are…nevermind.

missjunebug loves, loves, loves her iPhone, iPad, and Kindle and can’t imagine life without them. facebook, on the other hand, she can take or leave. Sorry, M.Z.

Homemade biscuits made with buttermilk are so much better than regular biscuits but using up the quart of buttermilk before it goes bad is impossible. Buttermilk packagers Listen up! Make smaller containers for this cooking ingredient: nobody drinks the stuff!

The best prayers are pithy. missjunebug is sure God is familiar with Strunk and White‘s Elements of Style.

Real Simple magazine is simply wonderful.

Marketplace from American Public Media on NPR rocks. missjunebug wakes up to it every morning and it never disappoints.

Working as a background actor is one of those jobs that makes missjunebug say to herself “I can’t believe I get paid for doing this!”

And blogging is more shiny-delightful than a Mason jar full of fireflies on a dark night.

American Idol Talk 2010: Finally Something to Write Home About

Posted by missjunebug on April 7, 2010

missjunebug has shown great forbearance in withholding judgment on this, shall she say, ho-hum, lack-luster American Idol 2010 competition this year. But now things are getting marginally interesting. Interesting enough for missjunebug to have cast two votes last night on her fav object, her iPhone 3G (G=Greatest tech device ever, and yes, dear reader you guessed right, missjunebug does not have an iPad…yet.) But she digresses.

missjunebug knows you are wondering Just what numbers did she text the word VOTE to?

Drumroll, please.

5705 and 5707.

Those two blonde, gorgeous, smokey-voiced, real-deal singers with the great do’s. Yes, perhaps Casey has it over Crystal in the looks dept by a smidge (She does (God bless her little dread-locked heart ) need to consult Invisalign asap; his teeth are pearly white and perfect). (Wow, did you notice missjunebug is now using parenthetical comments within her parenthetical comments!!) But she digresses.

This isn’t a beauty contest after all! It’s a singing contest! Last night to the tunes from the Lennon and McCartney songbook, these two blonde wunderkind took over the competition as far as missjunebug is concerned.

Crystal’s rendition of the Beatles Come Together, one of missjunebug’s fav songs of All Time was spot on. But what? What that’s African American guy wielding next to her? Why it’s a didgeridoo! A wind instrument cooked up by some Australians of the way, way, way outback no doubt mainlining Coca-cola. And guess what? It worked. No where else but here on AI10 will viewers experience the mystical wonders of the incantation Come Together in such a fresh and slightly twisted way. Which happens to perfectly fit some of the slightly twisted lyrics of this Lennon-McCartney esoterica classica. For the uninitiated, missjunebug suggests checking all the lyrics out. Here’s a sample:

He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say “One and one and one is three”
Got to be good-looking ’cause he’s so hard to see
Come together right now over me

missjunebug is pretty sure the key to the universe is secreted somewhere within these way-ahead-of-their-time rap-like lines. And her mojo filter tells her that Crystal will be around for a few more rounds for sure.

As for that tall Texas drink of water, Casey, singing with brilliant acoustic guitar accompaniment mjb’s favorite artist of all time John Lennon‘s bone and soul-deep song A Jealous Guy from his blue-skyed Imagine album (and yes, it was an album back when missjunebug listened to it, okay? Live with it), he was brilliant.

Eye candy for sure (And yes, everybody’s kind of tired of that Kara Dioguardi earlier cougar-effusiveness, that she is still back-pedalling from). But the kid from the smokey barrooms of Texas can sing like no other. John Lennon himself (may he rest in peace) and Ono too would have both given Casey a nod of approval at the constrained, pitch perfect vocal that gave the song a soulful, want-to-cry-your-eyes-out dimension. So yes, missjunebug was happy to pay for text message 5707!

Nine Still Shine at Idol Time but 2 Out Bright the Best!

Long live Bowersox & James!

missjunebug is Crazy about March Madness!

Posted by missjunebug on March 17, 2010

March Madness junebug Family Picks! Photo by mjb2010

One of the most beloved traditions of the junebug family is the yearly divving up of Bracketology for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Mr.JB is master of ceremonies using vintage dice cups to roll for himself, missjunebug, ElderJB and TinyJB to determine selection order. This year missjunebug won with a five dice total of 19. Cool. Of course, she started with Kansas, the team that lead her to the Bracketology Championship last year! She is ready to defend her crown. What’s at stake? Biggest loser pays for the Friday night junebug family reunion dinner at TinyJB’s graduation from the University of Notre Dame in May!  missjunebug does not want to be the biggest loser!

The junebug family accomplishes all the March Madness bracketology selection process by setting up a time that works for everybody. West Coast 6am is 9am in South Bend and 3pm in Rwanda so coordinating the phone calls is pretty simple. With TinyJB on missjunebug’s iPhone speaker and Mr.JB talking on the landline to ElderJB picks are rotated seamlessly. This year three of four of the junebugs got their alma maters: ElderJB takes Hoya Saxa! Georgetown (3), TinyJB gets Notre Dame Go Irish!(6), missjunebug embraces her beloved “Hook ‘Em Horns” Longhorns of the University of Texas at Austin (8). Sadly, Mr.JB’s Fighting Illini did not make the cut. Please observe a moment of silence for the Chief.

Besides thoroughly enjoying the bracketology, missjunebug loves the potential for upsets. Yes, she and the other junebugs pretty much select by ranking, but, of course they all get stuck with the likes of the 15-rank Robert Morris, Morgan State, North Texas, and UC Santa Barbara not to mention the 16-rank LeHigh, Tennessee State and Vermont. The Wall Street Journal suggests upsets may come from Old Dominion, Murray State, Utah State, Richmond, and Louisville. The WSJ seers also warn against less than favorable outcomes for Purdue, Georgetown, Baylor, Butler, and Kentucky. missjunebug thinks this is just all part of the fun and it makes watching the games so much more interesting!

So bust out those brackets and fill ‘em in! You will be amazed how crazy-good March Madness is!

Happy Halloween!

Posted by missjunebug on October 30, 2009

OOOOOO! So Scary!!! Photo by mjb2009

missjunebug hopes you celebrate Halloween wherever you are!

If you need a good scare, just look at your 401K again or check out the unemployment numbers!

If you’re staying in, check out Martin Scorsese‘s best horror film analyses and clips on www.thedailybeast.com and watch the one you find scariest.

If you’re going out trick or treating, have fun and be safe. With the right app, you can turn your iPhone into a flashlight! Cool or what?

As for missjunebug, she’ll be dressing up as a carefree 1920s flapper! You know…one of those multi-fringed, short-skirted, drinking-out-of-their-bejeweled-satin shoe Charleston-dancing girls. Those girls had a real good time…right before the CRASH! Now where did missjunebug put her feather boa?

Happy, happy Halloween!

Apple Up!

Posted by missjunebug on October 25, 2009

missjunebug just celebrated her birthday: fun x 10! (except for the another-year-older thing) Last year for her birthday Mr.JB bought her an iPhone about which missjunebug has waxed eloquent on this very blog! What an amazing device. It has become her all-in-one phone, boom-box, e-reader, GPS, calendar, well, you get the idea. missjunebug could go on and on thanks to the ridiculous apps available for anything you want to have access to with one touch.

missjunebug was pretty sure her life couldn’t get any better, but this year she celebrated her b-day with her new MacBookPro thanks to her Mr.JB who finally acknowledged that it had a few features the PC couldn’t match. REALLY?

How did this major breakthrough for missjunebug happen? Her tech-hip children led the way. First TinyJB got on board the Apple Bus on his way to university a few years back. Then her ex-pat ElderJB gathered wondrous Apple gear to take back to his home away from home in East Africa. During his recent visit and procurement run, ElderJB demonstrated for his missjunebugmom some of the incredible features of his elegantly compact MacBookPro. missjunebug recommends that you check out the apple.com website to get all the details, but one thing she doesn’t want to forget to mention is onetoone, the program Apple sets up for a very reasonable 99 bucks to transfer PC docs, music, pictures, and whatever else is transferable right onto the MacBookPro as well as provide classes to help newbies Apple Up! missjunebug will be heading to her first Mac Basics class next weekend.

In the meantime, she is enjoying blogging from her sweet and juicy Apple! Believe her when she says, “It’s delicious!”