Searching for that Perfect Cup...Without So Much Garbage

I "won" this Keurig Elite from the HSC Charity Auction last fall. 

Like millions of other Americans, we have become Keurig customers.  It's like a revolution in coffee...Keurigs give you a "perfect" cup of coffee with very little work.  The American dream, right?

We got our first Keurig, a "Mini", just before we moved from Nebraska to Florida in fall 2010.  After the movers took our regular coffee pot, it was a nice way to keep having our coffee in the morning.  It's small and we didn't have to keep coffee grounds on hand, just a box (or two) of K-Cups and some disposable coffee cups. That one ended up in Dave's office.  We like how it turns itself off after the cup of coffee brews.  We get a bit paranoid about coffee pots being left on.

This past fall we got one for the home.  It's been great.  When you register your machine with Keurig, you get coupons for free K-Cups.  BOGO for 2 boxes of 48 K-Cups.  This was a great deal after Christmas when the Starbucks K-Cups became available online.

K-Cup-brewed coffee is delicious and perfect every time.  No doubt there.

My conundrum: K-Cups are very wasteful and are expensive.  After all, traditional coffee pots brew through compostable coffee filters and then you can go on to compost the spent coffee grounds.

You can compost coffee grounds -- and as a bonus, they also offset the odors in your compost pail.

But with K-Cups, you're dealing with a plastic cup that has a paper filter glued to the inside...all topped with a foil lid.  The very ambitious can peel off the foil lid and compost the meager amount of grounds inside.

Not only do K-Cups generate a lot of waste, but they're also expensive.  

Let's talk about the cost.  Your typical box of 12 K-Cups will run $6-10.  Starbucks will cost more (because they can, people are buying them anyway).  The prices vary considerably, based on the brand of coffee and the number of K-Cups in the box.  It goes without saying that the large multi-packs will sell for less-per-cup.

I often seek out the big deals for the cups: Keurig's own website has good deals, military commissaries have the best non-sale prices around, and you can use the Bed, Bath and Beyond and Kohl's coupons for some good deals also.

My goal is to keep the costs under 50 cents per cup.  I'm usually pretty good about that, even with the Starbucks cups, which tend to run closer to 80 cents per cup.

So I decided to try the "My K-Cup" contraption, which is found where Keurig machines are sold.  You remove the K-Cup holder from your machine and replace it with this grey cone, inside which you put a fine mesh filter with 1-2 Tbsp. of coffee grounds.

My first attempt at using this was a gi-nor-mous FAIL.  My first cup of coffee was super-weak, but when I added more grounds, the system overflowed and I got a countertop covered in hot water and loose coffee grounds.  I attempted to adjust the size of the grounds to make the coffee stronger...unfortunately, if the water flows too slowly through the filter, the machine will stop flowing water...and you end up with a smaller-than-planned cup of coffee.

I asked friends on Facebook for advice -- and received all sorts of ideas, which I've tried.  My Mom clued me into some replacement filter baskets that are bigger than Keurig's.

The BB&B filter is on the right.

This helped somewhat.  But the coffee was still weak.

One of my Facebook friends told me about Keurig addressing the waste problem by launching a brand-spanking new coffee brewing system: The Vue Brewer.  Sounds promising...but....

...what about the millions of us who have already invested in a coffee maker that only uses K-Cups?  I'm hoping for some backwards-compatibility here...Amazon has so many options out there to make your Keurig machine more efficient...let's see what we have, shall we?

I also tried a friend's idea to simply stuff a standard paper filter into the "My K-Cup" grey cone.  It was on its way to brewing a nice strong cup of coffee but then the water began to overflow around the filter.  Oops...another mess on my hands.

How about a standard paper filter in My K-Cup?  That didn't work so well either.

What am I doing?  I'm back to the standard, expensive, wasteful K-Cups.  For now.  I've been trying to get my coffee right for two weeks with the more resource-friendly options and so far haven't been successful.  On weekends we revert to our classic French press coffee maker, no filters, and the grounds go straight into my compost pail!

The Hunger Games Movie...The Odds are Definitely in its Favor

This was at the Rave theater near Cordova Mall in Pensacola.  Someone had a good time making this out of posters.

Today I did something very anti-social.  I went BY MYSELF to a movie.  I can't remember the last time I did that.  I just didn't feel like coordinating with anyone else.  I knew I could go on Friday while the kids were at school and I didn't want anyone to stop me.

I had been drooling to see The Hunger Games movie for about a year.  Probably because I read the trilogy about a year ago.  For the past 12 months, I discussed with the GeekMoms on our message board every time photos from the film shoot, posters and trailers were publicized.

The excitement was pretty palpable by the time I bought my ticket this morning at a theater in Pensacola.  I had to haul out that far because that was the only place in 50 miles offering showings before noon.

Not counting the midnight showings, of course...but I couldn't do that last night, Dave was TDY and just got home today.  If he was home I might have gone.

(Warning: contains some slight spoilers)

The movie was phenomenal.  The crew did an amazing job recreating the grey physical and emotional demeanor of District 12 (Appalachia/coal country).  When Effie Trinket (played by Elizabeth Banks, who you might remember from Zack and Miri Make a Porno), the Capitol representative assigned to the District 12 tributes, steps onto the stage to draw the names, she and a flag of Panem above her are the ONLY splashes of color in an otherwise grey and brown world.

The scenes of the mountains, coal mines, the train, the Capitol and the over-the-top appearance of those who live in the Capitol are all very well done.

Being that I knew the story well, I could mentally fill in the blanks with what WASN'T being shown in the movie (they couldn't cover everything, you know).  For example, even though it wasn't shown, I knew Katniss had a hard time finding water in the first several days.  They just skipped that part in the movie, she was contentedly filling her canteen in a pond within minutes of the start of the games.  To be honest, it wasn't a huge part of the story...except to provide some time setting.

The minutes before Katniss stepped into the "tube" that transported her up into the arena were amazing.  Numerous closeups of Kat shaking like a leaf.  Her eyes convey fear unlike anything I've ever seen in film...not even Carol Ann Freeling!  You're scared right along with her.

Rue's death.  Oh my goodness.  It's a VERY emotional part of the book, and the film paid that scene every respect it deserved.  I got slightly teary eyed when I read the book...I bawled during the movie.  Less Rue's death itself, but when Katniss puts three fingers to her lips and then raises her fingers to salute the cameras...and the reaction of District 11 (Rue's home district).  WOW!  Yeah, I'm glad I had plenty of napkins leftover from my concessions.

The film was entirely shot in North Carolina.  Asheville, Concord, Charlotte and part of several National Forests.  The scenery is stunning...

When I posted to Facebook about seeing the movie, I got a couple of inquiries about whether the movie was appropriate for their kids.  It's rated PG-13, and the crew worked VERY hard to keep it that way.

My two boys want to see the movie.  They've seen enough of the trailers on TV, and a couple of Jacob's friends have already read at least the first book.  I said "No" to them.  I MIGHT read the book WITH them later this year.  I haven't decided yet.  I know Jacob can handle it, he seems quite resilient when it comes to delineating what's real and what's not real.

I can't say whether you should take your child to the movie outright, but I will offer my perspective:

• I read the book before I saw the movie.  The book's descriptions of the violence, the freaky genetically-engineered creatures and the heartlessness that you feel for those in the Capitol are MUCH more vivid than what's shown in the film. 
• The "bloodbath" in the first two minutes of the actual games is very graphic in the book.  But the cinematography during that scene is done such that you can't actually see much at all.  In an attempt to capture the chaos that Katniss is experiencing, the camera is very shaky and does a lot of quick pans.
• You WILL see several of the tributes get killed.  Those scenes aren't gory, though...just sad in some cases, brutal in others.
• The romance/love triangle is really played down.  A couple of kisses, but the dialogue and emotions that Katniss are feeling isn't at the forefront of the story.  The thrill of the hunt is definitely the priority here.

Let me point you to two reviews written by GeekMom colleagues today.  They also offer similar perspectives.

GeekMom review by Amy Kraft.
GeekDad review by Kathy Ceceri.

There's definitely some drama going on between the incredible craze The Hunger Games has caused...alongside the huge flop that is Disney's John Carter.  This article offers some insight to how The Hunger Games' producer Nina Jacobson ironically used to be co-president of Disney Motion Picture Group.  I wouldn't be surprised if The Hunger Games earns more this weekend than John Carter's worldwide totals so far (as of this writing, about $180M).

Another Shameless Pitch: Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant

I can't believe I'm pitching deodorant!  But I am.

I happened across this product about a month ago at my local Walmart.  It sits high up on the top shelf of the women's deodorant section.  There's a nice, neat row of white boxes, all titled "Secret: Clinical Strength".  Lots of scents, and at least two sizes for each scent.

I decided to choose the "Marathon Fresh" scent.  After all, I was training for a half marathon and it seemed appropriate.  See the running girl on the box?

I was sold!

Read more »

Because I Got a Bit Busy Today...A Review of Disney Universe for Wii

Disney Universe for Wii retails for $45-50.  Click this link to go straight to Amazon's listing.

At the last minute, I decided to stamp/crop our family Christmas cards this year.

I'm tapping into a lot of the materials I have on hand to save a little money, and I used the Splitcoaststampers website gallery to search for design ideas for the Stampin' Up sets I have on hand.  All I had to buy was some gold ribbon, clear envelopes and a gold pigment ink pad.

I guess I'll need stamps, too.

Because I got a bit busy with the cards, for today's daily post I'm just going to direct you to the Disney Universe for Wii video game review I did for GeekMom.com a week ago.  I was so pleased that the review got picked up by the BlogHer network for further sharing.  The week it was released, I wrote to Disney Interactive for a "review copy" of the game and I received one 5 days later!  Wow!

To summarize, the kids love the game, and I was a bit surprised at how twisted it is, considering it's Disney.  It's clear Disney was trying to replicate the incredibly popular LEGO video game style made popular by Travelers Tales games.

This week I'll be working on another free-game we received for review: Cabela's Adventure Camp for Wii.  I'm kinda liking this GeekMom gig :-)

Marshmallow Fail!

Before I get into the main topic of this post, first let me say that this was a much much better day for Dave's recovery.  He woke up in a good mood, and seemed to do well while I was briefly at a Hurlburt Spouses' Club board meeting during mid-morning.  He even took a couple walks to the mailbox and back.  Things are looking good.  His surgery sites are still very sore, but at least he's prepared for that pain and is coping.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was pretty rough.

So, marshmallows.  I like marshmallows a lot.  I always have.  S'mores are a favorite dessert at our house, which we'll make in our backyard on summer evenings in our firepit.

I made a stupid impulse purchase at Walmart yesterday while grocery shopping.

My word, these things STINK!  I smelled them in the car all the way home, then they took over the smell of my kitchen.  Some sort of artificial chocolatey chemical smell.

I ate ONE. It was 90 calories.  Didn't feel so hot afterwards.

Yeah, it's pretty big.

The rest are in the trash, and that's $2 wasted.  The odor was nauseating.

What was I thinking?

On the other hand, I found these ketchup packets for sale at Walmart and am glad I no longer have to steal have extras of them from Chick-fil-a.

Today I was at the same Walmart picking up a prescription and when I picked up some last minute groceries (I'm always suckered into picking up more than one item at Walmart, don't you?) and I walked past the endcap with those stupid marshmallows.  Oh, the SMELL....

Update and a Product Review: GoPicnic Meals

Today I got home from my two-week AF Reserve tour.  Having to get on a plane and fly to my two-week tour is actually a first for me...unless you count the year I deployed, which I'm not.  I'd have had to fly to that one no matter where Dave was stationed :-)

A tad chilly in Omaha this morning -- they had to de-ice our plane before we took off!

No details about the work I did, it's the same as what I always do, which is challenging work, but rewarding when all's said and done.  I happened to be on night shifts -- which I was two years ago -- and it's seeming like pulling night shifts is getting harder and harder on me.  Perhaps it's the time I'm putting between having to work nights, perhaps it's my getting older?  I don't know.

Dave has back surgery on Monday.  The super-perceptive will start to realize a trend.  For those who haven't been reading for as long, "let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (to quote Indigo Montoya).

It's autumn, and it seems it's time for Dave to have surgery again.  His back has been deteriorating pretty quickly this year, in part from the more intensive fitness regime he's had here.  After talking to several peers here who have had successful back procedures, he decided to meet with a neurosurgeon who suggested Dave would be a candidate for a procedure called an AxiaLIF.  It turns out his case made him a candidate so he goes in on Monday, but should be out of the hospital on Tuesday.  If the procedure is successful, Dave's recovery will be quicker than a traditional vertebrae fusion procedure.

This post from 2010 will provide a little more detail on his past surgeries.

I've a couple posts brewing that I'll get up here in between surgery and Halloween updates.  I'll start with this one.

Another shameless pitch...

I came across these products at the little bookstore/sundries store at the airport during this trip.  I bought them for meals while I was working, since I stayed in a hotel with no fridge or microwave.

For about $7 (airport prices) these little meals were organic, well-balanced and sensibly-sized.  The meal on the left is gluten-free: tuna salad, rice crackers, applesauce and dark chocolate.  The meal on the right is salami, processed asiago cheese spread, crackers and trail mix.

These GoPicnic meals are shelf-stable and fit nicely in my backpack for when I went to work.  Each of the meals weren't more than 350 calories.  The clerk at the airport shop told me that the salami meal could go through security, but the tuna meal couldn't because of the larger container of applesauce.  This particular airport store was on the ticketing-side of security.

When you open up the box, you're greeted with individually wrapped parts, and a very fun box:

These were the contents of the meal pictured on the right above.

Fun nutrition facts.

Fun food facts.  I love that peanut butter statistic!

I loved the Sudoku puzzle at the bottom of the box.  I saved it for several days thinking I might have time to work on it, but I didn't...

The final verdict?  I liked everything except for the trail mixes that were included with each of the meals.  The nuts seemed soft, probably because of the lack of preservatives (which is a good thing).  All of the ingredients are top quality, with no artificial flavors, colors, high-fructose corn syrup, trans-fats or MSG!

If you see them at your local airport, I recommend them!

Our Beyblades Adventure

Those happy kids are creeping me out.

It all started with a neighbor's birthday party...not long after we moved here.  One of Jacob's new Cub Scout den-mates invited both Jacob and Timmy to his birthday party.  It was a Beyblades tournament.

Our sons weren't familiar with Beyblades at the time, I had sent a starter kit as a gift to my college roommate Megan's son for his birthday late last year, but that was direct through Amazon, and none of us were familiar otherwise.

After the birthday party, our boys were hooked.  Similar to Cars, Bakugon, Pokemon, etc., each individual toy was inexpensive, but once your kids start learning about all the toys that could be acquired, they began to ask for more and more Beyblades.

Six months later, I was watching our boys play Beyblades in one of their stadiums, and they were discussing "balance", "stability" and "agility".  It got me thinking about physics.  In July on a trip to the planetarium, they boys realized how many of their Beyblades are named after characters in mythology (Pegasus) and astrology (Libra).

This led to a blog post for GeekMom.  You can read it here.

About 6 weeks later, I received an e-mail from a representative at Hasbro, asking if we'd like to "sample" their Fall 2011 Beyblades product line.  From what I saw in the e-mail, they were offering us $65 worth of products, free of charge, if we would check it out and I'd write up a follow up for GeekMom.

The box arrived in late September, the boys played with it for about 10 days and they (by "they" I mean "Timmy") gave me some very detailed feedback.  Here is the follow up blog post reviewing the products.

Jacob showing off the interchangeable plates for the "Triple Battle Stadium".

Timmy took his newest Beyblades to his after-school child care today (I'm in the midst of hiring a bookkeeper for the base Thrift Shop and we had interviews this afternoon) and the lead provider asked me at pick up time where Timmy got the Tornado Beyblade he had.  She said the other little boys who were playing with Timmy were admiring it and planning to ask their parents for one.  I had to explain that it came from Hasbro for our review and should be in stores really soon.

These Beyblade XTS Tornado battlers should be in stores by now.  You CANNOT take these ones apart, which makes them less-authentic, apparently.

A Blast from the Past: Smarties!

A small British grocery store opened up right up the street, called The British Pedlar.  The ladies who are running the store are very kind and they have just about everything that I remember from my childhood, when my mom would frequent the British grocery store in Virginia Beach OR she'd bring things back from our trips to Hong Kong when I was a kid.

The store has everything I remember except one thing: Bovril!  Click that link to read more about Bovil not being available in the U.S.  The ladies said it's just too complicated and the FDA is really slow-rolling the customs approval process even for the non-beef version.

On my last couple of visits to the store, I'd pick up some treats for the family: locally-made banger sausages (Mom, we'll hit the store and I'll get you some while you're visiting next month, they have THREE brands to choose from!), McVitie's Digestives, Cadbury's Dairy Milk bars and Smarties candies.  I'm accustomed to the Smarties being sold in small cylindrical containers like this:

Ha ha!  Fooled many of you, didn't I?  Perhaps the introduction about British food tipped you off...but I'm sure many of you were still thinking about "American" Smarties:

For the unfamiliar, Nestle's Smarties are very similar to American M&Ms.  Chocolate drops covered in a hard candy shell.  But there's a...well...fruitiness to the Nestle Smarties that I've always enjoyed.

Anyway, on my most recent visit this week, the store was out of the smaller packages of Smarties, so I picked up a bigger box.  I'd never seen the bigger box in detail, so I was intrigued by the picture on the back.

Love the "colours"!

Spirulina?  Really???  http://www.foodnavigator.com/Legislation/Spirulina-faces-legal-questions

I knew there was a fruity flavor (flavour?) to the Smarties but I never realized I was tasting the all-natural coloring to the candy shells!  The kids got a kick out of the picture and the information, then got a bit squirmy about eating any more of the green ones, ha ha!

Eating Nestle's Smarties brings back so many memories, and I enjoy sharing these things with the boys.

CrashPlan Status: UNSUCCESSFUL

Not a complete fail, but a "mostly" fail.

Today I officially gave up on the CrashPlan 30 Day free trial to send files to "the cloud": the CrashPlan Central offsite servers.  I had a 30 day free trial to try this out, and after 27 days, I had only uploaded 60% of the files.

I didn't get enough time to test restoring the files after a full upload, therefore I cut my losses and will do backup another way.

Besides, with the recent news about Mozy, I wonder how much longer "all you can eat" offsite data storage will remain affordable.

By the way, until the end of February, CrashPlan is offering a 15% discount to Mozy customers who are bailing because of Mozy's recent price schedule changes.

Paul and I attempted some file transfers to each other, but that wasn't very stable either.  Our network settings had to be very precise to maintain a connection.  Paul's fiber broadband pushed about 2/3 of his files to me, but my slower connection only allowed us to give him about 1/3 of the files.  I have dynamic IP addressing -- so a system reboot would change up our settings and kill the connection.  We pushed our respective computers into our firewall's DMZs, which made me incredibly nervous, and if that's how we had to keep things permanently, that was also a no-go.

I will caveat things to say that it wasn't a complete wash.  Without paying, you can still use the CrashPlan GUI to manage in-house backups free of charge, as well as backups to friends.  I'm probably going to stick with that.  It's the only GUI that allows "cross-flow" between PCs and Macs.  It also allows you to attach external HDs and network-attached-storage into the setup.  Other programs, such as Mozy and Carbonite, have restrictions on that.

While I'd read dozens of testimonies to how great CrashPlan worked for their individual needs, I feel that our family's network setup simply wasn't going to support things.  We have an AT&T DSL connection coming into the house that typically allows for about 7 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload speeds.  When CrashPlan was running, those speeds dwindled down to about 20-40%.  Especially when CrashPlan was running on our PC and was uploading data to CrashPlan Central.

We couldn't watch videos anywhere else on our network (i.e. via Netflix streaming, Wii or on YouTube on our computers), so I removed Crashplan from the PC and suddenly things sped up.

This morning I re-installed CrashPlan on the PC but cut it off from external network connections.  I am hopeful that will be okay.  I will keep it to back up our 3 computers' files to each other, and we at least have that.  Better than nothing, right?

In the meantime, I'm pricing 2 TB external HDs and will be replacing our two smaller external HDs for day-to-day backups.

Like Watching Paint Dry

Paul and I have gone nearly a week uploading to each others' computers with CrashPlan.  It's been quite successful, in that we are successfully connecting to each others' computers consistently.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that I'm seeing just how slow my AT&T DSL network is.  I purposefully selected a data plan that matches what we'd need it for the most -- which did not include extreme gaming or running a small business.  Something middle-of-the-road.

With his FiOS network on the East Coast, Paul has already uploaded all his data (nearly 100 GB) to "the cloud", while I'm less than 10% through.  No fiber availability in my area, unfortunately.

Paul's upload rate to my own machine is more than twice as fast as my upload to him.

At my house, we're also challenged with trying to do other things on our network while CrashPlan is active, like uploading pictures and videos.  I have to shut down the data transfer if we're doing particularly important work.

Ever the optimist, I really want to see this through - I wholeheartedly believe that once the initial transfers occur, you can leave Crashplan on and it does periodic updates only...requiring much less bandwidth.

Fingers crossed!

The Star Wars Cupcake Decorating "Kit"

This week my youngest son is celebrating his 6th Birthday. I won't be specific about which day, but with family in town this weekend, I made some pre-birthday cupcakes to serve as dessert.

Last weekend we were at our local mall-like-shopping-location. It isn't really a mall, since it doesn't have that old-school enclosed building thing going on. It's of those open-air places, where you walk outside between the pretty-people stores.  Each of the past 4 locations we've lived has had one nearby.  Most of you who live in suburban America know what I'm talking about, right?

We ventured into Williams-Sonoma -- the lure of free samples usually attracts my boys. The thought of one day having a kitchen like what's in their catalogs attracts me. There was a lovely display of Star Wars-themed kitchen supplies. Of course we were attracted to the display like white on rice!  There in the middle among the cookie cutters and pancake molds were these "cupcake decorating kits".



My kids begged "Please? Please? Please?" for one of the kits, so I caved in and let my youngest son choose the kit.   I'm so glad he picked the Rebel Alliance kit instead of the Galactic Empire one.  I thought the set was pretty cute, and at the time I didn't think anything of paying $12 + Northwest Florida tax for it.  How could I turn down classic Star Wars???

Tonight my mom and I made some cupcakes for dessert, using 1/2 of the baking cups and toothpicks.

That's what this kit is: baking cups and toothpicks.  Probably about $1 worth of product, to be honest.




We devoured the cupcakes and the used baking cups went right into the trash, but I made a point to insist that no one lick the toothpicks and make sure to recycle them.  The pictures on the toothpicks are made of a slightly-waxed paper.  Not quite cardstock, but a little heavier than just plain paper.

My opinion?  $12 for this kit is a considerable indulgence.  My kids were smiling all evening from the cute toothpicks, and one could argue that doesn't make this all a waste.  If you aren't picky about the baking cups -- considering R2, C3PO and Chewie were all on the bottom of the finished cupcake where no one will really see them -- you might be able to get away with making the toothpicks on your own.

Consider how many different characters you could glue to toothpicks and stick in cupcakes!  Maybe this is what I'll do for next weekend's Mario Brothers cake that's been requested for the party next weekend.

CrashPlan Update

Isn't Schoolhouse Rock the BEST????  I Googled images for "Hooray" and this scene from the episode on "Interjections" appeared.

Yesterday we had success! Paul and I did a couple more tweaks with our respective firewalls, and after dinnertime, the grey lights turned green on our CrashPlan GUIs!

This point-to-point uploading is going much much faster than uploading to CrashPlan Central (i.e., "The Cloud"). Paul's machine to mine = 4.1 GB in about 12 hours, my machine to his = 1.7 GB in about 12 hours.

All of this is faster than my uploading to CrashPlan Central.

If this is successful, then perhaps I'll pick up a 2 TB external HD at Best Buy and use this as my official backup plan. What we're doing right now is experimental, lots of band-aids in place to make this work, but I need a long term plan still.

Free, Easy, Automatic Backup???

I called it. On Saturday I enrolled in CrashPlan for the 30-day free trial and so far I'm not that impressed. Their website claims "Free, Easy, Automatic Backup". So far, no.

Paul kindly offered to sign up also -- we can always backup to each others' machines with the CrashPlan GUI without charge -- and we've spent the past 48 hours attempting to connect to each others' computers without success. Too many firewalls, port settings and over-my-head troubleshooting going on here. Paul and I exchanged no less than 30 e-mails last night bouncing different ideas to make this work. Most of the ideas were his...since he's the one who does IT stuff for a living and understands it more than I do.

I guess using iChat or IM might have been easier to discuss this, but for some reason we didn't.

Until we get the point-to-point backup working, I have a batch of files uploading to "CrashPlan Central" which is their offsite server system. This is what I'd have to pay a monthly fee for if I choose to go beyond the 30-day trial.

Unfortunately, the backup to "the cloud" has been taking FOREVER. I have a 77 GB package I'm trying to upload (pictures, music, videos) and after 4 1/2 days, 7.9 GB has been uploaded.

Go ahead, do the math. About 10.5% uploaded in 4.5 days = 47.25 days to upload this batch of data. And this is only from the MacBook! This doesn't include the PC's data (another 125 GB).

One of the things I did to try to speed things up was direct-connect the Mac to the DSL modem, taking the computer off the WiFi altogether. I also closed everything this Mac was using that involved the Internet. Things like the webcam, weather station and my iPhone on the Wireless were still taking down the bandwidth periodically.

CrashPlan offers to send you an external hard drive to directly upload to, which caught my attention at first, but for $125 for that service, I figured the time would be cheaper.

I understand that once this initial upload completes, the worst of it will be over and we'll have our data in place. I'll see how this does through the weekend. If I see better progress, this might be worth keeping...but so far, I'm not quite impressed.

Ninja!!!!

"So -- first Yoshi?  Now Ninja???  What's next?  Ginsu?"

Yep -- this will be a more positive commentary than the Yoshi review, I promise!

Dave and I got a nice generous Bed, Bath and Beyond gift card from Dave's brother for Christmas.  Earlier this week we took a trip to Pensacola to run some errands -- which included a fail attempt at dinner at Bonefish Grill, boo!  After eating at Moe's Southwest Grill instead, we saw that we were just a couple doors down from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  So we stopped in and picked up a couple of much-needed kitchen accessories.  A burr coffee grinder and a new blender.

The blender is what I'll be discussing today.  My 15-year-old Oster basic-of-basic blenders was ready to kick the bucket: the motor starts to stink if it runs for too long, and the gasket sealing the bottom had some cracks and therefore leaks.

After pondering favorites such as the Magic Bullet (too small for mass quantities of margaritas or daquiris), we opted for the Ninja Master Prep Professional.  It looked like a, well, different blender concept.  Instead of the motor and blade pivoting underneath your food, it's on top.

So here's what we brought home:

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

This includes a single motor unit, plus three Lexan-type plastic pitchers in different sizes. Each of these pitchers includes its own blade apparatus:

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

So each pitcher has a special lid, with a small hole in the top, this is to fit the motor apparatus on top:

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

And here's the entire setup:

From 2010 12 30 Ninja Blender

Not your normal blender, that's for sure. It claims to "crush ice into snow" and "blend frozen fruit into creamy smoothies".  I checked out some reviews on Amazon.com, which were mostly very positive, with the occasional 1-2 star review (average review of 4 stars).  I noticed the same complaints from those negative reviews: the plastic fittings for the motor to turn the blades had shredded or rounded off.  Hopefully I can exercise some extra care in that area and make sure the motor is seated properly before turning it on.

The very next morning I broke out one of my frozen smoothie fruit kits and whipped up a smoothie.  It worked like a champ!  It blended up very quickly and without large chunks.  I think they have something there with the design of the bowl/pitcher...with little blades every 2-3" in the container, there's nowhere for the large chunks of food to hide.  I'm not quite sold on there being only one speed ("On") but apparently you have to show some finesse with how to pulse versus steadily run the motor to have things working right.

I've yet to use it as a food processor or to crush ice, assume that if those experiences suck enough, you'll hear from me about it.

The Yoshi Truth...

Opened up my Yoshi Blade...seemed to cut up an apple well enough.  But then I read the care instructions, which I've transcribed here for your reading pleasure.  Remember, this is NOT a metal blade, but a ceramic one.  Still, some of these warnings are a bit extreme...I'm kind of miffed about not using it to "chop".

"The Yoshi Blade is for slicing only -- not for chopping."

"Use Yoshi Blade on a plastic of wood cutting board only."

"DO NOT use the Yoshi Blade or the side of the blade to chop food"

"DO NOT use the Yoshi Blade to cut frozen food"

"DO NOT use the Yoshi Blade to cut hard cheeses"

"DO NOT use the Yoshi Blade for carving poultry or meat with bones"

"DO NOT cut on ceramic plates, marble, stone, glass or tile"

"DO NOT bend, twist, pry or apply force on the tip or side of the blade."

"DO NOT use Yoshi blade to smash garlic or other foods with the side of the blade"

"DO NOT place Yoshi Blade in or near open flame or heat source, as ceramic blade will get hot"

"Yoshi Blade is NOT dishwasher safe. Hand wash only in warm water with mild soap"

"NEVER let the Yoshi Blade soak in water for any period of time."

Yoshi!

This Yoshi?

No, this one:

Today I ran up to Publix, our local grocery store, for some last-minute items for chicken parmasean. While there, I came across a section with a bunch of those "As Seen on TV" gadgets...all marked down!

I very very rarely succumb to the "As Seen on TV" craze. I got Aqua Globes one as a housewarming gift, and some of that Mighty Putty to attach metal to metal (it served its purpose, it was temporary). I see the commercials all the time -- in fact, Mighty Fix It, which has been advertised a lot lately, looks intriguing to me.

But the Yoshi Blade was staring at me on that "As Seen on TV" shelf, with a sticker on the package that said "$10".

Half price, whoo hoo!

Well, not really half price. If you buy it from TV, you get two blades and two veggie peelers for $19.95 (plus S&H, which I gather is $6.99 PER knife/peeler set).

So I bought it -- I haven't opened it yet, but I've seen the commercials (which you can see here), and I'm curious about how sharp it is...and how long it'll stay sharp. I have the worst luck with good knives...

Major Mom the Geek Strikes Again...

Just showing off one of the gizmo gadgets I'm trying out here. This software is in my iPhone.  It ties into the GPS in the phone and records location, distance, speed and time.  I've downloaded the free version, which has some sort of screen saver glitch that prevents me from stopping the runs in time, so it isn't 100% accurate, but it's good enough for me.  In fact, in this case, the GPS didn't kick on until I was about 6 houses down from where I started running, so this route is about .1 miles short.

I love that it's translating into route information and elevation data.  You can even see that I run opposing traffic if you zoom in enough :-)

For more oohs...and aaahhhhs....click on "Show Elevation" towards the bottom. This is one of the hillier runs I do, and my knees usually pay me back for about 24 hours after this run.

Hypothesis Successful!

Yesterday morning I posted about the Hamburger Helper we were planning for dinner. I predicted that our dinner would be a beef-based gravy and it turned out that's exactly what we ended up with.

I know I had promised just a comment at the bottom of yesterday's post about the outcome of the Hamburger Helper. But this was worth a separate blog post because of a suggestion from a friend (which I'll mention below).

So here's what we ended up with:

From 2010 05 01 Hamburger Helper

Howie's vomit? No..."Beef Pasta" flavored Hamburger Helper.  Let's show it nice and up close for you:

From 2010 05 01 Hamburger Helper

I don't know about you, but I don't find this appealing looking one bit. It tasted edible, and only Jacob liked it...I can't believe I loved this stuff as a kid!  My hypothesis was correct in that the flavor of this dish was based on a creamy beef gravy. You add milk along with the browned beef and water. If you manage through the preservative-y saltiness, you can taste a beefy-type flavor.

Why is this a separate post? Because when I posted this picture to my Facebook page, one of my friends, who maintains a gluten-free household, brought this blog post to my attention. Homemade Hamburger Helper! Without the preservatives, sodium and other unpronouncable ingredients! Yay!

I was thinking that Hamburger Helper would make a good camping meal, so I'm looking forward to this alternative! Now, to choose a flavor, Suzanne made so many options!

Big Top Cupcake -- Love It or Loathe It?

I'm currently in possession of a Big Top Cupcake pan.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

A giant cupacake. The ad claims it's 25x larger than a standard cupcake, but I'm not sure what they're using to measure that --

Math Time!

I put about 1/4 cup of batter in a single little cupcake. For this cupcake, I used 4 cups of batter.

By my calculation, that's a 16x larger cake than a standard cupcake. However, as you'll see as I go through the pictures, I probably could have gotten away with up to 6 cups of batter, thus making a 24x larger cupcake. Then you have to trim a bunch off...so I personally think 25x is a stretch.

Our neighbor behind us, who I affectionately call "Dave the Neighbor", posted some Facebook pictures this past Saturday of his son's Big Top Cupcake creation from this past weekend. I commented about how cool that cake was, and we conversed some about the pan. I asked if I could borrow it sometime, and about 15 minutes later his son ran over with the pan. Quick service!

I rifled through my pantry, looking for what ingredients I had on hand to use for a recipe with the cake pan. I found enough stuff to make a modified version of the Boston Cream Cake recipe in the book that comes with the pan:

- 1 box of yellow cake mix, plus the oil, 2 eggs and a carton of egg whites (for the equivalent of the third egg)
- Two packets of vanilla Jell-O singles
- Half a bag of Hershey's MILK chocolate chips
- 1 can of condensed milk.

Hmmmm....most of the recipes call for about 1 1/2 boxes of cake mix, but I figured we can make do. As for the chocolate chips and condensed milk, I can combine those for a yummy chocolate pourable frosting.

So here we go...

Here are the pans. The apparatus at the bottom goes over the "bottom" pan to put a pocket on the top of the cake with which you can fill with icing, pudding, etc.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

And here's the cake mix -- nothing spectacular. Jacob will like yellow cake:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

Mix the ingredients together:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

This is what I use to grease my cake pans. It's so easy to use, much easier than shortening and flour!

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

So I messed up in forgetting to take pictures of me filling the pans, but the pan on the left is the bottom of the cupcake, while the pan on the right is the top. I wish I had put more batter in the top...and you'll see why in a moment:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

I'm not completely sure that 350 degrees is appropriate to bake these -- the edges got VERY brown, and the center was barely set. If I try this again, I should try it at 325 degrees.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

And then these huge cracks appeared:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

I have to admit, when I turned out the cakes, they didn't look bad.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

But when I put the top onto the bottom, it seemed that the top of the cake could have been more substantial. That's okay, it'll still taste good.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

I used this Jell-O Singles shaker thing to mix up the two packets of vanilla pudding.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

Then I filled the pocket:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

Whaddya think?

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

How about some chocolate icing? Using my poor girl's double boiler, I mixed together 1/2 a can of condensed milk with what was left of my milk chocolate chips.

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

This tastes JUST LIKE chocolate doughnut icing -- YUM! I poured it on top of the cake:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

Uhhhhh....

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

I had my boys laughing their heads off at this mess...

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

Oh wait! Let me put a fork next to it so you can see how big it is!

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

It cut pretty cleanly, and we all enjoyed a yummy dessert:

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

There's one happy Timmy!

From 2010 03 08 Big Top Cupcake

So do I love it or loathe it? I don't know...neither. I'm glad I had a chance to try it out, and as it stands right now MAYBE I'll buy one. Maybe I'll get one as a gift? I currently have quite a repertoire of cake pans and there are several I haven't used in years. Thank you Dave-the-Neighbor for letting us make a yummy dessert with your pan!