Spinach Garlic dip

I made this for my stampin' up party yesterday. It was so good. It is based on this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/118103

Ingredients

1/2 large package frozen spinach , thawed and drained (about 200 grams)
1 (250 g)package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup onions , chopped
4 garlic cloves , minced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese , shredded

Directions

Blend all ingredients in food processor, except cheddar cheese, adding as much milk as necessary for a smooth and creamy consistency. (I used one clove of garlic and the rest garlic powder. I used a garlic press and crushed the clove over the cream cheese then added garlic powder until I liked the taste)
Spread in pie plate and top with shredded cheddar cheese.
Bake at 375F for 20 - 35 minutes or until heated through and cheddar cheese is melted.
Serve with pita crisps, crackers or tortilla chips.

I made this ahead of time and let it sit uncooked in the refrigerator until it was time cook.

Cute Baby

My baby is now nine and a half months old. She is starting to babble. I was worried because she wasn't babbling for quite a while, but I think that was because she was perfecting her pincer grasp. Anyway, here's an exchange we had while I was changing her diaper:
Me: You're a wet baby.
Baby: wababa
Me: Yes, you're a wet baby.
Baby: wababa
Me: Now you're a dry baby.
Baby: dababa

Babies are so fun. She also grabs by hands to play pat-a-cake. She won't clap her hands, apparently mine are much better.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

My kindergartener said something interesting the other day. She mentioned how her teacher hadn't been born when King was alive. The same is true for me. This means the civil rights movement is now in the time of grandparents. I remember going to school and some of the older teachers had marched in the demonstrations, my parents remembered the times. Those events didn't seem that long ago to me. To my children though, it will seem forever ago, like World War II seemed to me when I was young. Equal Rights for African Americans, to my daughter, won't seem like something recent, but the way things have always been. And maybe that is the way it should be.

Utah Republican's Worst Nighmare

I've been watching the caucus results in various states (huckabee will win...no wait McCain will win...wait Romney will win...) and I've come up with the worst possible combination for my voting: Hillary vs. Huckabee. I don't think I could vote for either of them. I've never liked Ms. Clinton and Huckabee lost my vote when he started underhandedly attacking Romney over religion. If those are my choices, I may have to vote for Dave Barry. I think he's running again this year as a write-in candidate.

review of the nokia n800

I'm typing this review from my Nokia n800's thumb pad and so far it isn't too bad. Far better reviews than mine have been written, so I'm going to list the pros and cons. I am running os 2008.
pro:

- screen is nice
- handles flash reasonably well-I can watch Chuck previews
- much more stable than my Dell Axim- couldn't run that pda without it running out of memory
- on-screen thumbpad so I don't have to type with the sylus
- runs blogger, mostly
- plays flash games on PBSKids (actually, this is probably a con since my children think it is cooler to play on mom's n800)
- battery life is reasonable
- can use autocomplete as a spell checker
- charger is a cell phone-like plug-in charger (much better than dell's weird plug)
- can run a bunch of Palm software with its emulator

cons:
- my thumbs must be small because it doesn't autodetect I'm using my thumbs. (but I can push the button in the center of the dpad to make it come up)
- video has to be re-encoded to play well on it
- no equivalent of jawbreaker available for it yet (Update 12/31/07: found one that runs on Garnet VM)
- lots of cool software, but a lot of it is in beta (but then in linux you come to expect that
- no always visible clock/time/date
- a little too big. This was the trade-off for a larger screen. In its case (see hint below), it doesn't fit in my purse, although I expect it will some day when I don't have to keep a diaper and a pull-up in there.

hints:
Wal-mart has a case for the Nintendo ds lite that fits the n800. It cost me $7. Take your n800 with you since not all ds lite cases will fit.

Nokia n800 links

This seems to be the easiest way to keep track of random things I want to remember about the nokia n800:

• Good forum: http://www.internettablettalk.com
• how to video call/ video conference: http://www.rahulnair.net/blog/2007/05/02/video-chat-on-the-nokia-n800-internet-tablet/
• how to turn off auto-capitalization on n800: http://madabar.com/techblog/2007/12/08/updating-the-n800-to-os2008/ (short answer) Panel->Text Input->Languages->Settings->Auto-capitalisation

this is a test from my nokia n800

I bought a nokia n800 and really like it so far. The thumb keyboard is ok for short messages, but I wouldn't want to write “War and Peace” on it

Circuit City ships fast

I've been pleasantly surprised at the speed of circuit city's free shipping. I bought a christmas present for my husband and it was here in three or four days. I ordered a present for me on black Saturday and it is here by Wednesday. That means it got here in 5 days with a weekend in there. To me that is really good.

Upgrade my PDA? on finding a portable wifi media device

I'm considering upgrading from my Dell Axim x30. I like it. But it has been flaking out recently. (Note: since I've started looking at other devices it suddenly decided it had 2 more megs of memory and has stopped crashing so much.) I really do like my Axim. It does everything I want it to, at least most of the time. Since it is older it has started having trouble with flash-based webpages (ebay crashes it almost every time). With Christmas and my birthday coming up, I decided to take a look around and see if there were any devices worth upgrading to. First thing I learned was that Dell has stopped making Axims. Oh well.

The devices I came across that mostly fit my needs were the nokia n800, the iPod touch, the Asus 626, the archos 605, and the Sony mylo.

I've noticed I really don't use the PDA functions of my Axim much. It might be because text entry is such a pain in the fanny. The hand writing recognition just doesn't work for me, so I'm typing on the little key board with the stylus. This means I use it for reading email, but not responding.

Features I want:

1. can read ebooks
   
2. Wi-fi
3. email
4. rss
   
5. general web browsing
6. flash support
7. resonable text entry
   
8. decent battery life
   
9. internet videos (like homestarrunner.com and nbc.com)
   
10. music and movies
11. can add on programs
    

Here's the devices I've found so far that might work. They all fall in the $200-300 range and have WiFi:

1. Nokia n800 (internet access device)
2. iPod touch (media player)
3. Asus mypal a626 (PDA)
4. Archos 605 (media player)
5. Sony Mylo

Note: please be aware that except for the Axim x30 I do not own any of the above mentioned products. I'm basing my reviews on my needs and the reviews of others.

Products in depth:

Product Name: Dell Axim x30
Size: 3 in x 0.6 in x 4.8 in
Screen Size: 3.2, 240 X 320
Weight: 4.9 oz
Battery life: 4 hrs. 30 min, or 2.5 hrs according to mobile review
opperating system: Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition
memory: 64 MB, 64 mb ram
memory expansion type: SD
browser: Pocket Internet Explorer
flash: sort of
formats supported: mp3, wma, .txt,
text entry: stylus
quirks:
websites: cnet



1. Product Name: Nokia n800 Internet Tablet PC
Size: 5.7 x 2.95 x 0.5 inches (WxHxD)
Screen Size: 4.1 inch (800 X400 pixel)
weight: 7.27 oz
Battery life: 3 hours
opperating system: Maemo
memory: 256 MB flash, 128 MB RAM
memory expansion type: SD (2 slots, 2 gig limit)
browser: Opera
flash: flash 7
formats supported: AAC, AMR, MP2, MP3, WAV, WMA, Real Audio
text entry: stylus, touch screen keyboard
quirks: video play back issues, lots of free programs available, video camera
websites: cnet, amazon

2. Product Name: Apple ipod Touch
Size: 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.31
Screen Size: 3.5 inch,
Weight: 4.2 ounces
Battery life: 6 hours
opperating system: apple
memory: 8 gig
memory expansion type: None (no extra slots)
browser: safari
flash: no
formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible 2, Audible 3, Audible 4, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, mpeg-4
text entry: touch screen
quirks: can't paste text, you tube player which means safari can't handle youtube
websites: cnet, amazon

3. Product Name: Asus mypal a626
Size: 2.8 x 0.6 x 4.6 inches
Screen Size: 3.5-inch TFT LCD touchscreen with 65k colors, 240 x 320-pixel resolution (QVGA)
Weight: 5.57 ounces
Battery life: 4.5 hrs
opperating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0
memory: 128 MB Flash ROM and 64 MB SDRAM
memory expansion type: SD
browser: Pocket IE
flash:
formats supported: MP3, WMA
text entry: Stylus
quirks:
websites: zdnet, mobile review, amazon

4. Product Name: Archos 605
Size: 5.1 x 3 x 0.65 inches (W x H x D)
Screen Size: 4.3 in, 480 x 272
Weight: 9.5 oz
Battery life: 4.7 hours
opperating system:
memory: 4 gig
memory expansion type: SD
browser: Opera (extra $30)
flash: yes
formats supported: MP3, WAV, WMA, protected WMA, JPEG, BMP, PNG, MEGP-4, and WMV
text entry: touch screen
quirks: have to pay for other features, doesn't appear to do email
websites: cnet, amazon

5. Product Name: Sonly Mylo
Size: 4.8 in x 0.9 in x 2.5 in Screen Size: 2.4-inch LCD display (320 x 240 resolution),
Weight: 5.3 oz
Battery life:
opperating system: linux (closed source)
memory: 1 Gig
memory expansion type: memory stick pro duo
browser: opera
flash: no
formats supported: MP3, WMA, ATRAC3
text entry: keyboard
quirks: for college students, doesn't seem like it will do ebooks
websites: cnet, decent review

Conclusion:
if I upgrade, it would probably be to a Nokia n800 or the asus mypal 626

Birthday list 2007

OK, it's November, here's my birthday list (it's much shorter thanks to all the early birthday presents):

• Sound of Music DVD
• spectrum pad (stamp pad with multiple colors)
• aqua painter size medium or large (it's a pen that holds water for watercoloring)
• stamp scrubber and stamp cleaner
• metalic colored eyelets
• buttons (all shapes/sizes/colors)
• flying cow (http://www.handhelditems.com/slingshot-flying-with-sound-p-5064.html)
  

I can dream (aka really expensive):

• willow creek nativity
  
• winter carols nativity
• breadmaker that will make 2 lb loaf
• trip to hawaii

Utah School Vouchers

This is an unorganized post of me trying to think my way through the whole school voucher debate. Currently I'm undecided, so I should be relatively neutral. (Although if they keep running those stupid anti-voucher adds all the time I'm going to vote FOR the vouchers) here's my areas of research:

Why would vouchers hurt schools?
The voucher money isn't coming from the general education fund.(1)
How do schools get money in the first place?

What happens now if a child goes to a private school? If a child is home schooled?

How does this change with the vouchers?

If vouchers pass:
If, as a blog post I've seen seem to imply, that vouchers don't really help the poor, does that matter?
Yes, the voucher doesn't pay the full amount of tuition. It does pay part which means that people that were close to being able to pay can now pay.
How many children are currently enrolled in private schools? (I will assume that all of these will apply for vouchers.)
How many children go to private schools for a while (less than 5 years), then come back to public schools? or conversely, how many children go to private schools for their entire education? See, after five years, the public schools loose the extra money from the vouchers. If a child returns during that time, the school gets the full amount of money.
Will more people put their children in a private school now with the vouchers? Will home schoolers switch to private schools?
If they make vouchers and no one "new" switches to private schools then does it matter if the bill passes?
Is it constitutional that public money can go to religious schools?
The ACLU thinks this is wrong, but then, as the anti-voucher supports point out, a voucher won't cover the full cost of tuition. Does this mean that the public money can go to the public part of the education and the parent's money can be seen as paying for the religious part of the education? :)
If no one uses vouchers, is it better to have them to let people have a choice or is it better not to have them and reduce bureaucracy and cost to the state?

Most obnoxious claims

• Vouchers will help reduce the burdon on public schools -- this bugs me. Since we have decided public schools are a good thing, it is up to the legislature to make sure all children can be educated and not push it off on private schools.
• More than half of utah counties do not have access to private schools (2) - yes, but the majority of Utah's population is only in a few counties. Assuming that the counties that don't have private schools are also the least populus, those counties have a population of less than 15,000. Also, anti-vouchers shouldn't point this out because this means the arguement of "parents can already send their kids to private schools if they want" doesn't hold true in half of Utah's counties. Thus, vouchers wouldn't change anything in those counties, except maybe encourage a private school to start.
  

Thoughts


Useful facts:
The bill is HB 148
The ammendment is HB 174
Sources

1. KSL's analysis of annoying adds.
2. daily herald
   

No-sew Felt Pea costume

I've been wanting to make my baby daughter a pea costume, but I didn't want to buy one. Here's what I came up with:On Halloween she'll be wearing a green onesie or blanket sleepers. Here's it again without the baby (the hat isn't attached to the body of the costume, it is just sitting on top):


Here's basically how I did it:
materials:

• 3 pieces dark green felt
• 2 pieces light green felt
• 2 foam balls
• small pieces of Velcro
  
• hot glue gun

for the hat:
I measured my baby's head height and circumference. On the felt I drew a half circle that high and half the circumference long. I cut out both halves of the hat at once so they would match. For the stem, I cut out a small rectangle of dark green felt and folded and glued it in half. I put the stem inside the hat and glued the two halves of the hat (wrong side out) and the stem together. I turned the hat right-side out. I cut four, slightly curved triangles out of light green felt and glued them around the hat.

For the Pod:
I took a piece of dark green felt and folded it in half lengthwise. Then I cut out a curved shape. When unfolded, it makes the pod shape. I cut out two rectangular pieces of felt and glued them at the top of the pod to form straps to go around the baby's neck. I glued on a piece of Velcro to attach the straps behind the baby.

For the Peas:
I took some foam balls I got on clearance from wal-mart and wrapped a piece of light green felt around each one. Once I was happy with how the "pea" looked, I cut off the excess felt and glued the felt directly to the ball. (I only covered the top and sides of the ball since the bottom wouldn't be showing.) Then I glued the "pea" to the pod.

total cost: $3

Shark Steam Mop review

So yesterday I bought a Shark Steam mop. I had seen the infomercial and I too wanted to clean my floors without toxic chemicals. Also, my current (non-steam) mop has been on the way out for about a month and I needed to replace it. Why not replace it with something that costs ten times as much? What a great a idea I thought. I dragged my children down to Sears and purchased the coveted item.

This morning I got to try the shark steam mop out. (I did read reviews found here before I bought it.) It was easy to assemble. I washed the microfiber pads as directed. Then I mopped my floor. Mopping with steam is fun. I wasn't sure if I would like the "steam as you push forward" feature, but I actually do like it. I just need to remember to pull back hard. In my usual mopping I do most of the cleaning pushing forward, but that doesn't work as well on this mop. I also need to buy some distilled water for it since the water here is very hard. I have a small kitchen, dining room, and two small bathrooms that I mopped. I used both pads and had to refill once. I saw some spots afterwards that I went at with my regular mop and it couldn't get them up either, so it did an OK job. As one of the reviews said, this will clean about as well as a regular mop, although I like it better since it picks up all the dirty water instead of the water staying on the floor like it did with my old mop.

The pads need to be washed separately from other laundry. I tried wrapping them in a pillow case and washing them with everything else, and they still came out covered in weird little things the microfibers picked up from the other laundry.

Pro:

• Floor is dry almost instantly because the steam evaporates quickly.
• Relaxing hissing sound from the steam
• Arm workout since I am pushing forward and back more than I usually do. (This is good since most of my mopping consists of "the floor is wet, that must mean it is clean".)
• Cord is long.
• You can refill the reservoir without waiting for the mop to cool.
• Works well on my wood floors.
• Got a big glob of dried yogurt up off the floor. (I had to go over it a few times, but at least I didn't have to get out my putty knife like I usually do.)
• Mop stays more sanitary since I will clean the microfiber pads every week.
  

cons:

• Does not work well on my upstairs bathroom vinyl flooring. I'm not exactly sure what the deal is since the shark mop works fine in the kitchen and other bathroom, both of which have vinyl flooring. I think the texture might be giving it problems. My regular mop doesn't like that bathroom much either.
• It can sanitize, but I'd have to mop very slowly.
• It would be nice if the handle could turn, then I could store it against a wall.

I'll add more later after I've used it a few more times.

Update (11-17-07): So I have mopped with it a few more times. A few more things I've noticed. One of the pads seems to mop better than the other one. I'm not sure what the difference is. Also, I think my mop is slightly broken, but I think the problem is easily fixable (my best guess is a little part at the base popped out). I just need my husband to look at it to confirm my suspicions and help me pop it back in. I'm waiting for the mop to cool down. Also, if there is water in the mop and you lay it down or turn it upside down, it will leak water.
Update (12-04-07): I don't think the mop is broken. Still mopping away with it.
Update (12-17-07): Still mopping away. My final verdict is I'm not sure it is better than a regular mop, but mopping with steam is cool. I'd feel bad if I had spent budget money on it, but since I used my own spending money I like it just fine. I've also found a way around the upstairs vinyl problem...I just mop that with a rag under the steam mop instead of one of its mircofiber pads. Seems to work just fine. I'm wondering if my pads have shrunk (I did run them through the dryer once.) I'll have to remember to check my mom's and see if hers are slightly larger.
Update (10-17-10): my steam mop died several months ago.  It no longer heats the water.  I'm back using a regular mop.  I miss the quick drying time, but I don't miss it enough yet to go back and buy another one.  (Unlike my roomba.  When it died, I replaced it with in a month.)

My dream house

Your home is a Magic Coder's Manor Your study has every language reference book ever written, including now-useless titles like Learn Javascript 2.0! and C++ Programming for Windows 95. (Why are you keeping those?) Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

Build YOUR Dream Home!

I like "Chuck"

The other night I caught the season premier of "Chuck" on NBC. (Disclaimer: I majored in computer science.) What a great show. I thought it was funny, action packed, and sweet. Who doesn't like a nerd going out with a hot CIA killer who wears poisoned hair chopsticks (sorry don't know what those are really called) and a bomb being defused by a downloaded computer virus? I hope the writers can sustain it because the first episode was a blast.

lunar eclipse -- totality

lunar eclipse -- totality
Originally uploaded by rcstanley

My husband is really into astronomy and photography. I decided to take a picture of the lunar eclipse through his telescope.

Irresistible

Irresistible
Originally uploaded by rcstanley

Well, by definition....

febreeze

I finally tried out febreeze. I kept seeing comercials for it and finally had a coupon. Anyway, it seems to do a good job of elimating odors. I sprayed it on one of my jackets that I'm not sure will wash well and it seemed to do OK. Of course, now that I have it I can't think of anything that really stinks to try it out on. But the smell (I have like spring flowers) is just fine. I'm pretty smell sensitive and get sick of smells quickly, but I think this smells nice.

As Time Goes By

OK, if this show is on where you live you have to watch it. "As Time Goes By" is a british comedy on PBS that I stay up late for, or rather if I'm up and start watching it I stay up even later. Basic plot is (I missed the first few shows so not exactly how it starts) but an older, successful business woman meets her old wartime sweetheart and they rekindle their romance, get married, etc. It is very funny and sweet. Unfortunately it isn't on digital tv yet, so I can't record it on my computer. The tragedy!

I've now seen more movies in the past 3 days than I've seen in the past I don't know, about a year. Since my sister was in town, I celebrated by going to see "Evan Almighty" and um... Pixar's rat movie..

Evan Almighty was OK, fairly clean, but not worth full movie price. It was interesting from the perspective of "What could it have been like for Noah?" See this review for a good description of what to expect.

Pixar's rat movie was pretty good. Sarah and Josh thought it was too scary. Considering I don't like rats or France, the movie exceeded my expectations. I wouldn't mind seeing it again, but I wouldn't pay for it. Philosophically, I don't think I could eat food a rat cooked, even if it was good.