My Afflation

I have flown through a few episodes of LeVar Burton Reads on my commute, and it has made it so much more enjoyable. If you happen to follow me on twitter , you know exactly how I feel about Boston drivers. And yes, I know that I am so very late to this particular podcast party. Flip side, I get to binge, which is how I have been consuming most of my media lately.

Courtesy of Google I've been using the Pixel Buds for the last few months, and I have to say I'm largely impressed. But let's get the negatives out of the way first.

Unboxing Pros Google Assistant in my ear . It also showed me that I really need to clean out numbers for everyone on speed-dial. Took entirely too long when speaking because Assistant kept asking me which number to use for the various contacts I wanted to call. Instead of, you know, the one that I text and call all the time . So for all you conspiracy theorists, Google does not know all, even when it's on your phone . Either that or the AI needs a lot of tweaking. Google Pixel Help - Can it be broken? Just hand it to me. I'll QA that thing in ways you never imagined. via GIPHY The Google Chat help techs were good, even if I did eye-roll once or twice (because, help desk, and I am contacting you because I couldn't figure it out on my own and I am not a normal user).  I haven't had a chance to play with translation , but the Babelfish ability was the main selling point. Cons This list was surprisingly easy to come up with starting within just the ...

I got a chance to see a pre-screening of Eddie the Eagle this past Wednesday and, of course, I jumped on it because .. Hugh Jackman and that kid from Kingsman . This is one of those really uplifting stories that you will want to add to your video library. Eddie is one of the most determined individuals you will ever come across and depending on your mood, some scenes are quite emotional. Damn allergies. Other scenes will make you laugh and you'll come out feeling like "If he can do that, I better get off my ass and do something with my life." Especially since I love proving people wrong too. I will probably drag my daughter to see it later this month. SYNOPSIS : Inspired by true events, Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good story about Michael “Eddie” Edwards (Taron Egerton), an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself – even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach (played ...

I'll try not to give away any spoilers. I went into this movie a little skeptical because as much as I adore Matthew McConaughey's accent, I wasn't sure I could take him seriously as a father and the hero of a serious sci-fi movie. I wasn't sure that I could take Interstellar as a serious movie for that part either, but OMG! Did it ever deliver! Disclaimer up front, I took Physics for Dummies in college. The topic fascinates me, but the math is entirely over my head, so I won't be addressing any of that below. First off, I was stunned and impressed by the score , and lack of it. The silence was used perfectly. By the way, the IMAX theater I saw it in had no issues with the sound mix. I wasn't taken out of the movie at any point due to sound issues. The score did exactly what it was supposed to and then some. The Hunk was with me (and he's an A/V nut) was so stunned by the visuals of the gargantuan and I quote "What music?" He did notice ...

Last night I discovered Pepperplate in the in Nook Color app market , I think I am in love. Menu planning may have just gotten enjoyable (along with cleaning the toilet, it's one of the chores I hate the most). It's much easier to use than BigOven or Allrecipes . I feel like I'm taking pictures to the grocery store. I already have a bunch of recipes pinned on pinterest ,  and it's been a cinch to go to that board, pick the recipes I want, open the source page, and hit the pepperplate bookmarket. Within seconds it's on my Nook. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I'm going from a source other than straight from the web. This will make menu planning so much easier! I can search for vegetarian on EatingWell , other people's recipes on pinterest, and of course, I have almost 10 years of favorite recipes on Allrecipes, most of which I have printed into my own personalized cookbook, but it would be nice to have them digital again. I like the fact that...

This past weekend we watched Real Steel on vudu . We argued over this film. I've wanted to see it since it debuted (honestly, only because of Hugh Jackman, plain and simple). My daughter wasn't all that into it -- it's boxing, not hockey, softball, basketball, or soccer, know what I mean? And the Hunk wasn't all that thrilled about it because it was clearly a "family film" and likely sappy and lame. And he didn't want to watch me drool over Hugh for two hours. 30 minutes in and we were all hooked! At the end I wanted to watch it again and we all agreed that it's a movie worth owning . This is a story about a man (Charlie Kenton played by Hugh Jackman) growing up and out of a selfish self-centered, short-sighted jackass and finding himself to be something more lovable. It's also about a street-smart, strong-willed child who knows what's best for his father, and a robot with a secret. But Max (Dakota's character) doesn't come acr...

Source: i.imgur.com via Annette on Pinterest No, really, at least according to Dr. Oz . I don't have a trifle pan, but this works well on a plate too, considering how fast it disappeared! 5-Layer Flat Belly Dessert Recipe by Gail Simmons This was featured on the Dr. Oz show. We actually skipped the flax and walnuts mixture when I made it, but I will add it the next time. We thought it would last a few days, but my teenage son ate about half of it when he got home. I only got one slice! The only one who didn't like it was my daughter, apparently she doesn't like coconut! Nice to know that I can replace egg and oil with Greek yogurt (or probably any yogurt). Rating: ****** Will definitely make again Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes Total time: 45 minutes Yield: 12 servings give or take Ingredients 1 box devil's food cake mix 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt 1 cup water 4 cups fat-free...

If you follow my complaints tweets about how protein bars in general aren't very tasty (FullBar for example), and give me a massive headache and nausea. I've started increasing my water intake, so hopefully that will stop the headaches (and bloating). One bar that I have found that I love all flavors of and doesn't make me nauseous is Promax. Right now I am noshing on Black Forest Cake for breakfast (I overslept). Last weekend I had the Fudge  and went for a bike ride. No ill effects either time. The chocolate tastes like chocolate, not like something wanting to be chocolate. The texture is easy to chew and swallow, more like a fudge bar than  ... bird-food like, chalky, and generally unpalatable. The only bar I like better are the Snickers Marathon bars, which, unfortunately, are out of stock on Amazon in the flavors that I like. I'm going to have to stock up on these in all their various flavors until I am sick of them.

Tweet I have a household full of kids and pets. OK, two kids, two dogs, and a guinea pig (and you can't even tell when you walk into the house, at least that's what the pastor said). Only one kid is in sports (the girl!) Though the boy generates his own brand of smell by virtue of being a teenager. Last month I received a sample case of Febreze® SPORT to try out. So I gave one to each of the kids and I keep one near my gym bag and one in the den for quick touchups around the den/kitchen area. I haven't used it yet on my bag, but my daughter uses it in her room, and it gets rid of guinea pig smell! I kid you not! It works on the dogs beds, too. So not only does it work on sweat, it works on pet smells. Double win! The   Febreze®   SPORT   collection is specifically formulated to find and eliminate sweat odors on shoes, apparel and gear. Recently teaming up with TV personality and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, Dhani Jones,   Febreze®   SPO...

Good morning! I hope your milk is still cold. Mine certainly stayed that way after 6 hours of running errands yesterday! I've been on the hunt for a new lunch bag and always stop in that aisle at Costco (a few months ago they had some really nice "designer purse" looking lunch totes). This time, next to the beach chairs and umbrellas they had these 2-piece tote sets! My favorite color is blue, but I didn't like the treatment the bag had been given (multi-colored stripes) and the red/brown just wasn't my style. This green/brown one fit the bill perfectly ($15.99 at Costco). That's about what I was going to pay for one small "designer" lunch tote. For the same price I got a very large insulated tote and a medium-sized lunch tote. Very large! I fit 4 gallons of milk and a box of Healthy Choice chocolate ice cream bars. I couldn't believe that the milk was still cold and even better, the ice cream bars were still frozen! At the beginning of summer...

Noah Ringer as Aang in M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) … as in “hang” not as in “hong”. And Sokka is sock-a (who was NOWHERE near as funny nor as concerned with food as he should have been. Jackson Rathbone needs to stick to the Twilight franchise). Those were just the first few things that grated continuously on my nerves as I sat impatiently through The Last Airbender . I *really* wanted to love like this movie. I adore the series. I have been re-watching it over the last few weeks, and probably know more about it than any other middle-aged mother who’s kids have outgrown the series should. I sat impatiently because I was waiting for it to get good. I wanted to disbelieve the reviews, it couldn’t be that bad, right?  When you have such a beloved series as Avatar:The Last Airbender, you do not rewrite and eff it up!!! That’s two hours and $20 I will never get back. I can’t believe Nickelodeon signed off on this adaptation. None o...

I'm really putting myself out there for this one. I usually only post photos of myself here when I know I look good. Today, you get to see the before and after.   http://cmp.ly/2 Clean up nice, don't I? I'm ready for my close-up The "Before" is pre- foundation, gloss, and eye-makeup. I was given a sample of Covergirl's Smoky Shadowblast in Silver Sky  to try out ( http://cmp.ly/2 ). Now, I don't get out much to do "smoky eyes", but there was this fundraising dinner theater  for Josh's trip to Haiti that I thought I would glam up a bit for. I really appreciate that the CoverGirl Shadowblast came with instructions on the back of the package on how to create a "smoky eye" and I think I pulled it off. The one bad thing was that towards the end of the night, there was creasing and it looked really bad. Otherwise I loved it, quick and easy to put on, the applicator fits in a small bag for the inevitable touch-up, and that amazon ...

Eat well dessert? Originally uploaded by Nannerlady Since Fresh&Easy doesn't have a dessert line out for "Eat Well" yet, I took matters into my own hands : -)  Lunch was the creamy basil chicken. Dessert is the no sugar added, gluten free French vanilla pudding. It even has 4g of protein and only 110 calories. Bon appetite! ~~blogged from my phone

Chicken curry salad sandwich Originally uploaded by Nannerlady Yesterday I had lunch at Mendocino Farms with Oakley . Thank goodness I have a foodie for a friend. This sandwich was amazing. roasted chicken breast with green apples and dried cherries in a light mango curry dressing (no mayo), cucumber, organic farmer's market greens (like a spring mix), cranberry chutney, red pepper compote on curcama hazelnut bread I had to eat it in two sittings it was so filling. I've never had curcama hazelnut bread before, and I am not a huge fan of hazelnuts, but it worked for this sandwich. By the way, what is curcama? I couldn't find anything in English that wasn't related to either stress or GI cleansing when I looked it up.

Melts in Your Mouth - Fresh and Easy Sweets Review , originally uploaded by Nannerlady . So I had had a  satisfying dinner  and needed dessert. Then I remembered that I hadn't opened up my latest Fresh & Easy box. I was not disappointed. I have a new Hunk to enjoy on V-Day, some Swiss truffles that positively melt in your mouth and some kid-tested, mother-approved Snickerdoodles. Onto the cookies. I don't make these but my mom does, so here's her review: Pros: - Throughly cooked. Neither over- nor under-done - Not overly sweet - Quote "For a store bought cookie these are pretty good. I would buy these." Cons: - Not much crinkle on top - Needs more cinnamon. It should be evenly distributed over the surface of the cookie, not concentrated in the center. Kid (that would be me) tested - cinnamon and sugar in a cookie. 'Nuf said. Crumbly, sweet, delicious. Now where's my cup of milk? These would probably taste even better slightly w...

I've been "moblogging" for years, ever since Blogger introduced the go@blogger.com integration with MMS.  I used to mo-blog from a Motorola camera phone (NOT a Razr), then my Dash, but not so much with my G1.  It's just not as intuitive and the other night i discovered a word limit that I wasn't aware of. My work-around involves using AK Notepad to write the post, and then either email it, or if I had a photo attached, send photo and blog text to my flickr2blog account (yeah, I'm all over linking my accounts to my blog). This doesn't give a lot of control for formatting. I don't like blogging in the mobile blogger.com interface. It's actually more difficult to write, add pictures, etc. And if you lose data connection, there goes your post! For over a year I have been looking for a decent Blogger blogging app. The Android Market has had two really good ones for Wordpress and LiveJournal, and even a Drupal app. It has always puzzled me why Google d...

Well, my first impression was Oh, and the guy cast as Duke (Channing Tatum) was a nice piece of eye-candy with good on-screen chemistry with Marlon Wayans. Other than that … what the heck did they do to the back story??? The Baroness and Duke ? Scarlett and Ripcord ??? What ‘Verse are they trying to put this in?? Then again, I wasn’t a huge Joe fan as a kid. Much more my brother’s thing. I will have to say that at least this time people died. My father’s biggest complaint about G.I. Joe when I was a kid was that it didn’t correctly portray war. People die in war. The good guys don’t always win, and if you are in the military, you damn better well have better aim than the Joes did. (OK, he didn’t say damn). I needed some brainless action footage and G.I. Joe delivered.  

Image by FoXMuLD3R via Flickr Last night I watched Benjamin Button for the first time. A few months ago I read the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald . Talk about taking license with a story! The general premise was the same, but there the similarity ends. Events, characters, settings – all different. The movie changed the books events to coincide with Hurricane Katrina . I feel robbed. I would have liked to see Benjamin Button ride with Roosevelt and the Rough Riders , as well as show up as a 15 yr old in his uniform for the reunion. The movie really rode rough-shod over the latter half of Benjamin’s life when it truly became hard for him for him to deal with his very unique way of aging. The movie romanticized it to the point of being nearly unrecognizable. In the story, he goes to college, marries, has a child, and raises his son, all while aging backwards. This causes a similar set of problems as when he was first born. If you are so inclined, please read the story in Fitzgerald’s...

Image via Wikipedia DISCLAIMER: This post contains spoilers if you have not yet seen the movie. I am a child of the 80s. If my brothers hadn't gotten to them, I would still own the (mint) complete set of Aerialbots that my dad got me for Christmas one year. My first Transformer was Ratchet (even my toys reflected my desire to be a doctor). Then Bumblebee . I had that set until I left for college, when I "willed" it to my youngest brother, because, you know, I was too old for toys. -Sigh- All that aside, I loved Transformers when it came out because I went into it realizing that it would be nothing like my beloved cartoon. And that's why I love Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen . Image by Colony of Gamers via Flickr The story line continues from the first movie. Unlike Avatar: The Last Airbender , this movie translates fairly well to the screen -- if only taken as a highly action-packed summer blockbuster. Don't expect more from it than that. And that Mega...