Market Volatility: Option time

I bought a couple of options on the Dow last month. First when Dow crossed 13800 I bought some puts. The only problem is that I bought July options when I should have bought August.
The options were expiring within a week and market didn't have time to fall. So, I lost about $1000 instead of making $3000+ if I had bought August.

Recently, I bought 5 September 135 Dow call at 3.75 and and another 2 at 2.90 for a total of 7 Sept Dow 135 calls at an effective price of 3.47.

Update Monday Aug 6th 2007:

Today, I pared this down to 5 selling 2 at 3.5 as I wanted to reduce my exposure before the Fed meeting tomorrow. If the market goes up before the Fed and my options are above $4.00 I also plan to take more profit before the Fed meeting minutes at 2:15pm, may be pare down another 2-3 options