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YummySoup!

9 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

How on earth did I forget to mention this gem of a program? YummySoup! is only the best recipe program ever that I have seen, and I have the joy of it being a Mac only program at that! (Joy only because how often is a program PC only? Only almost every time!)

http://hungryseacow.com/From their site (my comments in red):

Organize, Share, Cook & Shop.

Try YummySoup! free for 15 days. If you decide to keep it, use PayPal, e-check, or any major credit card to purchase.

Here are just some of the features that make YummySoup! the best recipe app for your Mac.

Not only does YummySoup! support fully automatic web imports, but also boasts the most intuitive interface for importing recipes from any website! (<- my fav feature, btw) There are fully automatic web imports from a growing list of sites and the new AnySite Web Importer for everything else including any web site, text based PDF, and text files. Both these features are simple and intuitive. Check out the new video tutorial on these features!

Browse your recipes with the adjustable full screen view, that gently fades into view. Use your Apple remote to flip through your recipes, or have your directions read to you! Cook with ease, assured that you won’t have to touch your keyboard or mouse since sleep timers are deactivated when using this view.

Send rich formatted emails with pictures. These emails look exactly like prints. If your recipient also has a copy of YummySoup!, then they can add your creation to their library with the included export file, sent with every email. (this feature is awesome too!)

A seamlessly integrated user contributed Online Library. (with some fantastic recipes, I might add)

Keep track of your favorite Wines, Beer & Liquor with the built in Wine & Spirits manager.

The navigational structure of YummySoup! is fantastic. Groups of recipes can have subgroups which makes finding the right meal easy. Browsing any one group, will show you not only the recipes belonging to that group, but all the recipes belonging to all subgroups.

Smart groups are powerful. Whether you want to find all the recipes you can make with a handful of ingredients, or just want to find a Spanish style Main Dish that is not only easy to make, but has a five star rating. (love this too – I found catagorizing them to be a bit of a pain (as far as is this an appetizer or a snack?), but this way I can just search for ingredient A and find what I am looking for)

.Mac backup and restore.

YummySoup! uses a family-pack style license. You are free to use your license file on any computers in your home that belong to you or your family members residing in your household. YummySoup! is also a constantly evolving application. Many users have suggested great ideas which I have either added, or am in the process of adding to YummySoup! Have a great idea? Let me know!

I normally hate paying for programs, esp. when they are so many reasonable free ones out there, but this one is worth every penny of the 20$ and then some. It is one of the best, easy to use, nice interface, multi-functional recipe programs I’ve seen. I just might start entering frequently used recipes from my books and see about packing them away or donating them… at least the ones I know I only use one or two recipes out of ;)   Seriously? If you have a  Mac, and you cook, and you have a bazillion recipes (I have a bazillion loose recipes I am in the process of entering) you need this, yesterday. I needed it a few years ago.

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you are into superheroes or other speculative fiction…

4 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

As per my lovely husband, this looks to be quite interesting. In the spirit of my new informational blog, here is some information!


If you are interested in picking this up, see about buying it on the day it is released to help boost the interest in it on Amazon.

The Amazon write up is as follows:

The shining metropolis of Seventh City is the birthplace of super powers. The First Wave heroes are jerks, but they have the best gifts: flight, super strength, telepathy, genius, fire. The Third Wavers are stuck with the leftovers: the ability to instantly make someone sober, the power to smell the past, the grace to carry a tray and never drop its contents, the power to produce high-powered excrement blasts, absolute control. over elevators. Bar owner Keepsie Branson is a Third Waver with a power that prevents anything in her possession from being stolen. Keepsie and her friends just aren’t powerful enough to make a difference. at least that’s what they’ve always been told. But when the villain Doodad slips Keepsie a mysterious metal sphere, the Third Wavers become caught in the middle of a battle between the egotistical heroes and the manipulative villains. As Seventh City begins to melt down, it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and even harder to tell who may become the true heroes.

You can also check out the author’s site if you are interested in more. She has a few running Podiobooks as well.

But wait, there’s more! (edited to add on 8/05)

From [info]sailormur, the author herself,

Thank you for the write-up! I do want to mention that people can download the entire book in audio form for free, if they’d like to preview the book.

Very much appreciate the post! Thanks for the support!

So, yeah, go check out Mighty Mur.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

so much going on

2 August 2008 By Leave a Comment

Last Monday, no, two Monday’s ago, we took the kids to the dentist. It was a new dentist, one whose name was given to us by CMS and who took everyone’s insurance. Well, we were fine, we were fine we were fine, then it was time to go back and M freaked out. Couldn’t even get him in the chair for x-rays. So after he screamed, the staff did nothing but look at me (I had D go first, so M could watch, it didn’t work) and then closed the freaking door to muffle from the waiting area, I left. Michael had the other two kids looked at and cleaned and I phoned CMS, told the nurse about the office and asked for another number. I was given the number for Nova Southeastern, mainly because they can do pediatric sedation dentistry. Well, I left a message that day, and the machine said to expect about a week before the call was returned. I called back on  this past Thursday (over a week later) and was outright told the person had my info and forgot to call back, and I could expect a call to get my information to get into the system in 2 – 3 weeks. Um, no. My kid has a cavity that needs to be fixed, and it needed to be fixed last month, not next month. Now, just before all this happened, I called around and located the dentist we saw last time (who does not take M’s insurance, but does take the other two) and D has an appointment to have his teeth sealed (as suggested by the awful office we went to on Monday). Michael phoned Dr. Al to see how much having M’s teeth taken care of would cost out of pocket, and it turns out the day of D’s appointment is Dr. Al’s last day there, she is opening her own practice. So we’ll find out on Monday where that is and what ins. she will take. Long story short? The lady to said she forgot to call me back called me back about an hour later and got our address and stuff to put into the computer, but there is still a waiting list to be seen, so we’ll ask on Monday and see about having Dr. Al take care of his teeth in the mean time. Struggle!

Last Tuesday we took M for his PT intake. On Thursday we took him for his OT and ST intakes. While we won’t know for about a week, it sounded like they are going to focus on OT and ST and skip the PT. The office manager said it would take about a week to have the write-up done and sent to us and the doctor and we’d go from there.

The school hasn’t found out yet if M was approved for his aid for this coming school year. School starts in a few weeks, so I hope we find out soon! We haven’t gotten a denial letter yet, so that’s good news, right?  Speaking of, the meet & greet is on August 15, which is M’s birthday, and is the last day of camp, which kind of sucks because they are having a party at camp and since it’s his birthday I don’t want to pull him away from it. I am thinking Michael and I will go meet the teachers without the boys. School starts on the 18th!

The night of the 15th I am going to have cupcakes or something for M, and give him his little gift.

I got some 1gig MP3 players on super clearance at Target (15$!) for the boys for their birthdays. We’re still putting cash away for the swing set, so they wont have it until a little after their birthdays, I think.

Speaking of saving cash, I am going to attempt to try to be a little more frugal. Our credit score is coming up, our debt is coming down and I am pretty excited about that. Our monthly bills are a lot, but not a lot, if that makes sense. Set bills are

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Filed Under: Body Modification, Mishpucha Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Raw Food Diet

25 June 2008 By Leave a Comment

First of all, I am snooping around this site: http://www.rawfoodtalk.com It’s a raw vegan diet (as in what you eat, not as in diet foods) site. From the site:

I do not promote a high fat raw food diet which some claim. I promote freedom of choice. For those of you who think I promote a high fat diet, my first response to you would be… READ the book! My second response to people who think I promote a high fat raw food diet is, “no, what I promote is a no starvation diet. That means that if I eat my typical daily diet of juice, smoothies, salad and fruit but once in a while I want something else, like mock salmon pate on top of my salad or if I want a dessert after eating simply for a week or so, im going to have it. My point in doing raw food is not to analyze everything I put in my mouth and not to beat myself up if I want to eat something other then a fruit or vegetable.

My diet is probably much simpler then most peoples here so it’s funny when people say I promote high fat. I think they say that because they get so neurotic about having a handful of nuts once a week or they eat so lightly and then god forbid they have a raw dessert. It’s also bizarre to me that the people who are the strictest and have the most rules are the ones who are not 100% raw or who fall off the raw wagon constantly. My philosophy and book do not promote a high fat raw food diet. I talk about all of this in my book. I talk about transitioning and using lots of recipes at first and then moving away from that to a lighter diet. Im not sitting around making calzones all day. I eat mostly whole fruits, veggies, juice and salads.

But I know that the reason most people fall off of this diet is because they get too rigid. Yes, you may after a time of eating raw foods move gradually to a simpler diet. But if you put rules on yourself around what you can and can’t have within a raw food diet, there will be a day when you want a flax cracker, dessert, pate or a prepared raw recipe and if you don’t allow yourself to have it, you’ll be driving to the local pizza hut. Or, you’ll be white knuckling it. What kind of way is that to live? Certainly doesn’t sound like a fun, easy way to live to me. This diet is supposed to be about, in my opinion, freedom. Don’t make this more complicated then it is. Stress causes just as much if not more sickness in the body then what you eat. Relax, eat raw, and live.

After my post yesterday, and some chatting it out on Punky Moms this is the way for me to go right now. I am looking into getting a nicer juicer than the one I have (I have a cheapie 20$ one, I am looking into getting an Omega 8003 from my organic delivery co.) and juicing it up in the morning, having a nice lunch with DH in the afternoon, and a fabu salad at night. I’ll still be making chicken and stuff for everyone else, but from what I see, this is the way to go.

I picked up a book today as kind of an “intro to raw foods” book. It’s simple, easy to understand, lays it all out. I’m am really excited about this! I want to order a couple of other books, recipes and stuff.

I feel a lot better today. Why? I think it’s because I have something to focus on. I have some new tubes coming tomorrow, so I can work on tattooing, and I have my new camera (I know, I haven’t posted shit – most of the Orlando shots were taken with the new cam) to keep me busy. I just need my brain constantly occupied. I still feel huge, but I really believe this raw food deal is going to help take care of that. Slow but sure, anyway. Plus, it’s basically GFCF, so I can put Malachai on it too. I’m pretty excited about that. We’ll see if it helps him any.

Filed Under: Body Modification, Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Busy Little Bee

7 April 2008 By Leave a Comment

Today we went to two food stores. I saved almost 50$ at Albertsons, whoohoo! I probably didn’t save shit at Sams, but I never do.

We dropped Sasha off to be groomed. We can see her face! Michael called around to find the cheapest place for Scarlett to get her shots and then be groomed. The place we go wouldn’t take her without proof of rabies vaccine, which we didn’t have. Poor puppy. She goes in on Thursday for a check up, shots and grooming. We also looked into training, but it’s quite expensive. She went on the pad in the bathroom last night, and I didn’t find any errant shit anywhere else, so maybe it’s a good sign. Then we just need to work on her excessive barking. All the time. At everything.

Michael phoned the camp we’re sending the boys to in order to find out when the latest we can register is (May) and if they could go without vaccines. Yes, we just need a copy of the exemption (which is currently at the school). I am still undecided on sending Shivie.

I made an appointment with the MW that was attending when I had Dorian. Sheila is no longer there, she is only at the hospital. I am very, very upset over that. I don’t especially like the other MW, but I don’t dislike her either. I am taking my sister for her first check. It dawned on me last night she has never been to anyone other than the pediatrician and I thought it better she know what to expect and have it done by a person I know and trust than stumble around trying to find a doc in a few years not know what is normal for a check. I told her she could be mortified I am taking her now, but in five years time she’ll be glad it was me and not dad and that I took her so she knows what to expect. She said that’s fine, but I’m 16 now and I can be embarrassed. Fine with me.

Michael just took Dorian out for a haircut, because we forgot to go yesterday. Yesterday we went to see my gram and zaide. They look well :-)   As we left zaide gave me a huge hug and told me I am doing a good job. Yay, go me. It was well timed although somewhat random.

I think that’s all the current news. We’re having mini turkey burgers, twice baked potatoes and fries tonight (I want the potatoes, Michael wants the fries b/c I keep forgetting to make them on his off days). I’ve got the potatoes in now since they take the longest. I am thinking about applying to one of those online schools for a degree, but we are in debt already, I can’t see racking up more for a degree I’ll probably not use (I was thinking early childhood education, which is birth to eight years). Tattooing fell by the way-way-way side. I had a somewhat steady stream of work, but it’s slowed to a stop right now. Not a big deal, it gives me time to putter around. I’m knitting the marsupial bag out of one of the Stitch n’ Bitch books. I’m about five inches into it, so a couple more days of working on it at night and then felting it. I think I might line it too… I guess it depend on how it felts.

So that’s it!

Filed Under: Education, Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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