Happy Halloween everyone! I wish I had some cool graphics to offer this morning, but I’m too busy working on my daughter’s costume, nothing like waiting until the last minute!
But, to celebrate, here is my favorite meme. If you’d like to participate, visit Fun, Crafts and Recipes.
This weeks questions and my answers:
#1. What kind of pretzels are your favorite? I like the big fat fresh baked pretzels you get at the mall! I like them with salt.
#2. What’s your favorite way to eat pancakes? I prefer buttermilk pancakes with plenty of butter and maple syrup.
#3. Do you make garlic bread from scratch or buy frozen? I don’t do either. I buy it from the grocery bakery (if I remember), and just stick it in the oven to warm it up.
#4. Share a recipe that calls for mozzarella cheese. That would be lasagna which I just made last week.
brown 2 lbs. hamburger in 2 T. olive oil. Add chopped onion, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 2 tsp. leaf basil.
Add 2 cans tomato sauce and 2 cans diced tomatoes. Simmer for a minimum of 2 hours.
Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions.
Mix 2 eggs into 1 c. cottage cheese.
Layer:
1 layer of noodles
spread meatsauce on top of noodles
1/2 of cottage cheese mixture
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
repeat
Top with 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 6-8 slices of provolone
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Let cool just a bit, it will make it easier to serve.
Christmas is less than two months away, 55 days to be exact. That’s 55 days to get your holiday shopping done, no pressure!
This year our budget will be much tighter than previous years and what that means is that I want to make sure the gifts I’m giving are chosen carefully and that they are gifts that can be cherished. A new idea is giving the gift of family protection. That sounds odd, but it’s really very simple.
C’elle provides a safe and easy method for women to collect stem cells directly from their menstrual fluid. These stem cells can then be stored and, if needed in the future, can be used in treating a number of possibly life-threatening diseases that she, a parent, a sibling or even her children may face in later years, such as osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. While this may be unusual, giving a C’elle gift certificate is certainly a worthwhile gift idea.
Gift certificates can be purchased in amounts of $50 and up. Visit the pricing page to find out more information or to order now for a special gift.
I was hoping to be farther along with my Christmas sewing project, but, to tell the truth, I haven’t even worked on it in the last week. So, instead, I am posting a photo of when my sisters, mom & I had a booth at a trade show in Knoxville, TN back in July. We did okay at the show, but I came home with more completed bags than I had hoped too. My sister Grace is considering having a booth there again in November and I think she will do better since the holidays are so close. It’s the season for gift buying!
I spent the morning doing errands and trying to get some family business stuff taken care of. I’ve had some letters that needed to be typed on my to-do list for a few weeks and I finally got them done. They weren’t difficult, it just takes so much time to sit down and type. I’m a pretty fast typist too, but still, it’s hard for me to carve out the time it takes to get it done right. You see, between all of my sewing projects, keeping up with 2 blogs, EC and family obligations, I need ways to save time.
I’ve mentioned previously on this blog the product Dragon Naturally Speaking and how it can save time. A fellow blogging friend actually got to test the product and created a video to demonstrate how it works. I think it’s fabulous and wanted to share it with you. Here is Drew, form Benspark, in his own words.
Think about it, Dragon Naturally Speaking can help you to Type at 150 WPM for $99! When you consider how much time you will save, don’t you think it’s worth it? If you’re still not convinced, please read the following article.
Drew of the BenSpark has put together a great little video demonstrating Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Drew has been blogging for quite some time and he might just be one of the best mobile bloggers that I know. He is probably more famous for his picture a day work as he is an excellent photographer. But I can’t help be amazed at how much content he creates and the high level of quality in that content.
He’s definitely a blogger that employs best practices when he finds them. And based on this video, it looks like he might see some potential in Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Now I am not trying to put an endorsement in Drew’s mouth. Time will tell, but I do think he is off to an excellent start.
You’ll notice in his video, that the sound quality of his video is excellent. That’s actually an important aspect for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I don’t mean that you need good video quality or sound quality in a video to make Dragon NaturallySpeaking work. However you do need a good microphone, and it should be a noise canceling microphone at that. The better the sound quality, and the better able your microphone is to remove other background noises, the better your system will be able to recognize the words that you say as fast as you say them and transcribe them accurately.
Now Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes with a noise cancellation microphone that works very well when you buy it out of the box. Drew is working with a download version that does not come with a microphone, and so he had to supply his own.
As I write this article, I am using a wireless headset microphone from Logitech. I’ve been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for almost two years now, but I’ve just recently untethered myself from Dragon NaturallySpeaking and started using a wireless headset microphone with noise cancellation capabilities. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 does have the capability of working with Bluetooth wireless microphones, but my particular microphone runs on 2.4 GHz wireless technology. Now if you live in a household or work in an office environment where there are a number of systems or phones or microwaves, you may experience some interference with this particular headset. In that case, you will probably be better served with either a Bluetooth headset or a headset that is capable of being plugged directly into your computer through the microphone plug or through USB. I don’t have that issue, and so I do get excellent quality with little to no interference at all.
So if you take an interest in Dragon NaturallySpeaking and want to try it for yourself, I highly recommend that you get a boxed version of the software which you can order from Nuance online. You can even get a good deal on a Bluetooth wireless headset and a bundled option from Nuance. If you’re looking for entry level pricing, you can start using the software and get a headset microphone for as little as $99.
To put that in context, I’ve taken three typing classes over the years to boost my typing speed and spent essentially three semesters practicing at typing. It wasn’t the only thing that I studied, but I spent a lot of time building up my typing skill. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can invest $99, invest an hour installing the software (I’m being very conservative with that time estimate) and as little as 10 minutes training the software to recognize your voice before you can be off and running typing at 150 words per minute!
That is pretty amazing, and well worth the value of $99. Not to mention if you spend a little extra and get a wireless headset microphone, you can pace around your room or your office, you can exercise, or do a number of different things other than sit at a computer desk staring at your computer all day long. $99 basically gives you your freedom.
Best regards,
Brett Bumeter
www.softduit.com
My name is Brett Bumeter, and I wrote the article above and 4 1/2 minutes. The article is about 659 words long, and that translates into 144 words per minute. Add in two minutes for editing, and that’s still 100 words per minute!
I did it! I got up early this morning and, after dropping my daughter off at school for early morning band sectionals, I went directly to city hall and cast my vote for President. I was so surprised at how busy it was at 7:15 this morning, but, then again, they were lined up at city hall on Saturday, so I think a lot of people are just trying to avoid the crowds on November 4.
$99 basically gives you your freedom.
