Friday's Freebie...

If you love reading and have a Kindle or the Kindle app then this is for you!  Get a free book every day if you want at eBook Daily.  I have found a few books already that I can't wait to read, and these are not the books you usually find for free, these are new and current in a variety of genera like romance, mystery, science fiction and biography, there are even self improvement and children's books.  Its free to join and free to download the books. 

Have a great Friday!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

I enjoy browsing the app store on iTunes for new fun stuff and was really in luck the other day when I came across Flipboard.  Currently it is for the iPad but the iPhone version will be launching very soon and is worth the wait.  I must have been under a rock because it was named one of Times top 50 innovations of the year in 2010.  (Figures I am a year behind.)  So what does it do?  I allows you to create your own digital magazine which includes articles of interest to you, full or partial newspapers like USA Today, FaceBook, Twitter, Tumbler, Flicker as well as many full magazines like The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Oprah and tons more.  It puts just what you want all in one place, laid you the way you want them.  So you get all this greatness rolled into one place what what could be better?  The price.  Its free.  This is my "go to" app before bed at night to catch up on things I may have missed during the day, a little fun, a little news, a little social media, all mixed together, the only think I don't like about this app is that I didn't find it last year!

Hope you all have had a great weekend.

C.Q.

Friday's freebie...

Looking for some fun Halloween ideas?  Download the free Mr. Food Spooky Treats and Party Eats cookbook for some fun ideas, like Vampire Sangria, Bloody Witch's Fingers, Yummy Mummy Dogs or Halloween Witch's Cupcakes.

Hope everyone has had a great week!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

Recently I have added some new apps to my iPad so it is ready to take on vacation.  Surprisingly my favorite way to pass time now is playing UNO.  Gameloft has a great app for only .99 cents and it allows you to play against another person or play the AI in a single game or in tournament mode.  In the tournament mode there are a variety of rules to play through and win, standard rules, penalty rules where you can play a draw 2 on a draw 2 and so on until the last player standing has to pick up a bunch of cards, the 7-0 rules which require you to change hands with a player of your choice when you play a 7 and all cards go one person left or right, depending on the direction of play, when a 0 is played, and jump in rules which is just that, when you have the same card, both color and number as the card played you can jump in and play it.  All these variations make the game a ton of fun and can be hugely entertaining for kids or adults.  You can find the game on iTunes or at the Gameloft site.

The other app I found came to me in an email from Conde Nast Traveler Magazine, I currently subscribe to and love their magazine, now it is available to me on my iPad for free as part of that subscription.  You will need to enter your magazine subscription number which should be on your mailing label.  Some subscribers are having issues logging in, I had no problem however.  I was more than willing to download this app and wait for the fix if I needed to, its one of the magazines I look forward to being delivered!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

C.Q.


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Sunday's media madness...

You may have seen the movie trailer recently for The Help staring Emma Stone.  The movie is based on the best selling book of the same name by Kathryn Stockett.  I love reading the story before seeing the movie, usually the move doesn't do the book justice and so much seems to get left out.

The Help is a story base in fact and takes place in the 60s in Mississippi.  A writer gets an assignment to write some stories told from the point of the help, the black maids who help raise the white children but are not allowed the same privileges, such as using the bathrooms in the homes, as the people living in the houses.  Eventually she puts the stories together in the form of a book that becomes the center of attention and debate in the south.  I like the poignancy of the book, I was born in the early 60s and its still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this has only changed in my lifetime.  I am so glad we have come so far, but it took so long.  This book is a must read for me and I think it would be an eye opener for some of the younger folks who don't know how hard life was and how much things have changed.  The book is also a look at enjoying life, no matter what your circumstance and it is sprinkled with humor and love.  I hope everyone gets a chance to read it before they see the movie version.  I was able to find the book in paper back for the lowest price at The Book Depository for $8.49 with no shipping fees, you can download the Kindle printed version of the book for $9.99 from Amazon, or you can download the unabridged audio version from Audible.com for $26.60 and they will give you two free movie tickets from Fandango so you can see the move on them.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

One of my best friends was thrilled to go see Michael Buble in concert last night so I though I would list one his CDs as my choice for today.  The one I chose is the Crazy Love Hollywood Edition because it contains his two latest albums together.  The lowest price for the CD set is at Red Tag Market for $21.66 with free shipping.  I found this for the lowest price at Grooves-Inc for $11.00 if you want to download the album right to your MP3.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

Father's day is just around the corner and if you have a dad who is into sports and reading there is a new book out called Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN.  Here are some reviews of the behind the scenes look at ESPN from Amazon:

"Those who work in the business of sport will devour the book...[readers are] granted the kind of behind-the-scenes access that sports media junkies are rarely given..." (SportsIllustrated.com Richard Deitsch )

"Packed with entertaining stories of unpleasant people and awful behavior....[Those Guys Have All the Fun is] offers a nuanced look at ESPN, does some top-notch TV-biz reporting on the early days of the cable industry, and offers compelling behind-the-scenes stories...[It is] a serious, impressive, piece of work." (Entertainment Weekly Rob Brunner )

"A revelation: what goes onto the TV screen turns out to be just the glossy tip of an iceberg of ugly backstage drama. Miller and Shales must be extraordinarily talented interviewers, because their subjects are surprisingly uninhibited and frank and willing to dish and slag....[They are] good at zeroing in on a debacle and getting everybody involved to weigh in...by the end of the book you're amazed at the disconnect between the chaos behind the scenes and the relatively slick end product." (Time Lev Grossman )

"As highly anticipated by sports junkies as a Chicago Cubs championship, [Those Guys Have All the Fun] provides painstaking details on how a nutty idea concocted by a father-son team developed into a brand worth more than the NHL, MLB and NBA combined...Shales and Miller manage to create a page-turning document about the ultimate dysfunctional workplace" (Minneapolis Star Tribune Neil Justin )

"...Perhaps the most anticipated book in sports media history." (Newsday )

"This treat for sports fans has a cast of characters that is huge and varied." (New York Times Janet Maslin )

"What a story: larger-than-life personalities, salacious gossip, backstabbing and corporate intrigue set against the backdrop of the rise of cable television as an economic and cultural force....The quotes flow seamlessly, and the voices are fresh and vibrant...The depth and breadth of the interviews make it not only the definitive account of ESPN's first three decades but one of the best books yet on how cable shaped American culture." (Hollywood Reporter Andy Lewis )

"A rollicking glimpse behind the guys and gals who sport around at ESPN, America's sports church. Amen." (Publishers Weekly

I was able to find the book in several formats:  The lowest price for the hardcover was at GoHastings for $17.95 with free shipping; the audio version of the book is available for $23.09 from Amazon on an unabridged CD; The kindle version is $12.99 at Amazon, or you can download it from iTunes to your iPod or iPad for $12.99, the iTunes audio version is $21.95.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

My husband loves to watch Ellen and the other day I was walking by when she announced the live performer for that day.  I had never heard of Jessie J., but somehow I have a feeling I will be hearing more from her.  What an amazing voice!  She is great with her new song Price Tag, but to get a real sense of her voice be sure to listen to the acoustical version of Who You Are at the end of the CD.  You can buy her new CD debut album Who You Are right from her website in either the CD or download the MP3 in either the explicit or the edited versions.  The CD is $10.00 and the download is $7.99, you can purchase the individual tracks at both iTunes and Amazon.  Price Tag, Do It Like a Dude and Who You Are are less expensive at Amazon.  The whole album MP3 download is only $4.99 at Amazon but is missing the acoustic version of the title track and the Digital Booklet.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

C.Q.

Friday's freebie...

I love to read and when you can do something you love for free that's an added bonus.  Today I have two great freebies. The first is the Kindle version of A Stingray Bit My Nipple!: True Stories from Real Travelers and it is available for download to your Kindle or iPad app for free.  This book is put out by the editor of Budget Travel Magazine and is a look at readers stories of the weird and funny things that have happened while on vacation.  It also has photographs that readers have sent in as proof that going on vacation really can be stranger than fiction.

The next book is by one of my favorite authors, Jess Lourey.  You may recognize the name from the post I did for her new book last Sunday.  Because her series is called the Murder-by-Month Mystery series Barnes and Noble has made her book June Bug as one of the free Nook download books for the month of June.  "Local legend claims that a diamond necklace was lost nearly a century ago in nearby Whiskey Lake, not far from the present-day Shangri-La resort. Mira, a part-time reporter, goes fishing for the story behind the legend. Diving into the lake only gets her into a terrifying tango with a waterlogged corpse. And so begins the treasure hunt. Buoyed by frozen Nut Goodies and a diminutive circus performer, Mira embarks on an exhilarating search for the jewels that puts her face-to-face with menacing forces that threaten to tear the small town apart."

Today is also the last day to get in on the Swap: think about where you live and with a budget of at least $10 purchase something that represents where you are, package it up with a postcard from your city or state and mail it off to a person that I pair you up with.  It should be a lot of fun!

Have a great day everyone!

C.Q.

Wednesday's learn and earn...

~WORD OF THE DAY~

lavation \lay-VAY-shun\ ~ noun

DEFINITION: the act or an instance of washing or cleansing

EXAMPLES: "Instead of careful lavations with a few minims of the miraculous water, she bathed daily in one or another of the springs, and imbibed gallons of the fabulous flow of the streams." -- From Jack Vance's 2004 novel Lurulu

"In Maycomb County, it was easy to tell when someone bathed regularly, as opposed to yearly lavations: Mr. Ewell had a scalded look; as if an overnight soaking had deprived him of protective layers of dirt, his skin appeared to be sensitive to the elements." -- From Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird

DID YOU KNOW? It sounds logical that you would perform a "lavation" in a "lavatory," doesn't it? And it is logical: both words come from Latin "lavare," meaning, appropriately, "to wash." English picked up a few other words from this root as well. In medicine, the therapeutic washing out of an organ is "lavage." There is also "lavabo" (in Latin, literally, "I shall wash"), which in English can refer to a ceremony at Mass in which the celebrant washes his hands, to the basin used in this religious ceremony, or to other kinds of basins. Even the word "lavish," via a Middle French word for a downpour of rain, comes to us from "lavare."

~THE REBATE~

Does you or your guy like to sing in the shower?  With the purchase of specially marked packages of Schick razors you get a code for free song downloads.  There are 12 different artists to choose from including Blake Shelton, Devo, Uncle Kracker, Toni Braxton and Estelle, each artist has at least a dozen songs to choose from. Razors include the Schick Hydro for men and he Schick Quattro and Intuition for women.  Just look for the packages and then enter your code on the Schick website and your all set to download your music.  Note some packages are good for 10 songs and others are only good for one song so make sure you look closely.  The offer ends June 30, 2011.

Also remember to enter my Pizza contest for a chance to win a free Freschetta Pizza and bamboo cutting board.

Have a great day!

C.Q.

Finding quality and savings at the farmers' market...

Today I went to the local farmers' market to get a few things to make soup with and I was struck with how much of a good thing there was in out area, we have an abundance of local growers with the freshest produce available every Saturday morning.  This got me to thinking, there are a few things about farmers markets that folks tend to take for granted.  First is that everything is fresh picked that day.  In fact, some things are picked through out the week and held for market, so just like the grocery store its important to check for freshness, also some growers don't care if the birds have pecked at their peppers or the slugs have slimmed the squash, so be sure to check for the overall quality as well.  When you are looking for the freshness of an items there are simple things to look for, beets, carrots, celery root and radishes should be sold with the top on, then you will know how fresh they are, if the greens are wilted they were not picked that day.  I found a really nice fruit and vegetable buying guide from the University of Tennessee that you can download and print out for future reference.  There is also a great app available at iTunes for $2.99 called Harvest, you can also watch the demo movie and get more information about the application at the developers site, I really like this app because it also gives you information on the pesticide levels in your produce.

The other thing a lot of folks assume is that buying at the farmers' market means its organic, as a matter of fact this is not the case at all.  Each state has requirements to be certified organic and in most cases if the vendor stall doesn't have the certification certificate then they are not organic. 

I am usually overwhelmed but the amount of great stuff and tend to over buy if I don't go with a plan, so here are some tips to help you save money when you go,  first and foremost, treat it just like going to the grocery store, make a list of the things you need.  Today I made home made Gazpacho so I knew I needed tomatoes, garlic, corn, onion, cucumber and leek, once I had those items then I could use the remaining cash I had for other goodies.  That brings me to the second thing, have a budget.  Most vendors are not equipped to take checks or credit cards so bring a set amount of cash and when its gone its time to go home.  Once you get to the market check out all the vendor stalls before you buy, remember, not all vendors have the same variety of goods or the same quality.  The final cardinal rule is to get there early, our market opens at 7:00am and if you get there at 8:00am things are pretty well picked over, also be prepared for a crowd, folks that frequent the farmers' markets know the early risers get the best stuff.  If you aren't sure if you have a local farmers market near you the USDA has a web page that allows you to do a search.

Once you get your produce home be sure to store it in the right areas, corn (wrapped in a wet paper bag placed inside a plastic bag), and peas are best in the front area of the fridge.  Artichokes, asparagus (after trimming the ends and placing upright in shallow cool water, then covering with plastic), beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chiles, cucumbers, eggplant, fresh herbs, green beans, leafy greens, leeks, lettuce (after washing and drying, rolling loosely in a clean kitchen towel inside an unzipped zip-lock bag), mushrooms, peppers, radishes, scallions, summer squash, turnips and zucchini are best in the crisper drawer.  Tomatoes are best placed upside down on the counter or on a plate.  Garlic, onions, potatoes, shallots, sweet potatoes and winter squash are best in the pantry, closet or basement (where it's both dark and cool).

Do you have any wonderful summer recipes using your garden's harvest or good stuff form the farmers market?  I would love to hear about them.

Have a wonderful weekend.

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

This last weekend I was chatting with my nieces and nephews and was kind of surprised to find out that whats old is new in music still. I had thought it was just a phase that the kids were liking swing and jazz but it seems to have stuck. Don't get me wrong, they still like the new stuff as well, but even that has its nods to the past. While we were talking my husband chimed in that he found a band her really likes on XM Radio that he had never heard before called Volbeat. The kids had never heard of them either so I wanted to hear a little bit of what they sounded like. So to sum up the sound of the band, ummm well, lets see, they are, old rock, a little country, a little TV theme song sounding, a little heavy metal, a little....well you get the idea. Every song has a slightly different sound to it, depending on what the band is trying to get across to the listener, and yet they do have their own distinct sound.

This doesn't happen often, but I have to agree with my hubby, I really like this band (must be the eclectic in me). Volbeat is from Copenhagen and got together in 2001, not surprisingly their inspirations come from Metallica, Social Distortion, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. They currently have 4 albums out, The Strength / The Sound / The Songs (2005-2006), Rock the Rebel / Metal the Devil (2007), Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood (2008-2009). They have a new album called Touring and Beyond Hell/Above Heaven that is set to be released on September 10, 2010. In keeping with the old is new theme the band has even released some of their albums as, well, albums. You can find the vinyl versions with relative ease at Amazon.

If you are interested in the most recent album on the market, Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood you can listen to samples and download individual songs from Amazon or iTunes for $0.99 each or $9.99 for them all, or you can purchase the album CD for $12.12 with free shipping at Movie Mars. If you prefer the old school version of a vinyl record you can find it for $13.08 through a few Amazon sellers. You can also find a copy on eBay, although when I checked I was not able to find one as low as the new copy from Movie Mars.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

C.Q.

Friday's freebie...

Recently Subway and The Biggest Loser have teamed up to put together a new workout mix that you can download free at Workout Music. The song line up includes Telephone by Lady Gaga, In My Head by Jason Derulo, Revolver by Madonna, Empire State of Mind by Jay Z Feat and Alicia Keys, Hard by Rihanna, Bulletproof by La Roux, Hey Soul Sister by Train, Blah Blah Blah by Ke$ha, According to You by Orianthi, Whataya Want From Me by Adam Lambert, Russian Roulette by Rihanna and Need You Now by Lady Antebellum.

Have a great Friday everyone!

C.Q.

Happy 4th of July...

Its the first major holiday of the summer season and things are in full swing for 4th of July celebrations everywhere. Because its on a Sunday this year it seems like a lot of folks are planning on a two day celebration, and why not? It is, after all our nations birthday, and who doesn't like birthday parties? Whether you're planning on having an outdoor picnic or BBQ, going to a parade or just watching the fireworks this weekend, I have tried to put together some fun ideas.

Planning and outdoor family gathering? If you hare having young kids you can print off some cute pages for them to color in, if you hare having kids who are a little older here are some 4th of July word searches, you could even offer a small prize for the first one to finish theirs. 4th of July, signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the original 13 colonies. There are printing instructions near the bottom of the page for each puzzle.

Wow your guests with a great looking red white and blue Patriotic Drink, a fresh fruit flag, or Uncle Sam ice cream cones. For a new twist on your main course you could Mix up the tried and true BBQ chicken or burgers with Barbecue-Glazed Salmon or Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin.

If you are planning on going out to see the fireworks consider taking your camera with you. Kodak has some great advice on how to get the most from your fireworks photography.

If you are planning on staying home this weekend why not dress up your computer a little with free wallpaper or screen savers and check out some of the great sales being offered.

If you are sharing your 4th of July with a family pet remember that most animals will try to get away from loud noises. Trying to escape can mean broken windows, torn fences, chewed doors or dog crates, and result in lacerations, foot pad injuries, teeth and mouth injuries or worse as they try to run from the disturbingly loud noises. It doesn't matter if the fears are "rational" or not. It should be noted that scolding a frightened animal is not effective will only intensify the fears. It's best to keep your pet in a "safe room" like a basement or room with covered or no windows and some items to help ease the anxiety. Its important to note too that loud noises to us are deafening to your pet and can cause permanent hearing loss for them. Here are some steps to help your furry friend through the evening.

Here is a fun fact to share with your friends and family; On 4th of July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed only by two people, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Have a fun and safe weekend everyone!

C.Q.

Friday's freebie

If you love cooking I have two great downloadable cookbooks from two great cooks for you. First is the Martha Stewart Living Radio's Summer Grilling Cookbook. The book is 4 chapters and you can download them individually if you don't want them all. Chapter 1 is Salads and sides, chapter 2 is Appetizers and extras, Chapter 3 is Main dishes and chapter 4 is Drinks and desserts. If you want to get this book I would do it soon because the offer is limited but it doesn't say when it will expire.

The second offer is Emeril's 20 Year Anniversary Cookbook. The cookbooks celebrates the 20th anniversary of Emeril's Restaurant in New Orleans and features some of his best recipes. The 32 page book is in PDF format and ready for you to download and enjoy.

Hope you are all having a great Friday!

C.Q.