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 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.
My sewing room is situated on the front of our house. When I’m not sewing, I’m pretty much oblivious to what goes on outside with our neighbors, I can’t see any of their homes from the back of our house. But, when I am sewing, things go on with the neighbors that can really be surprising. Here is the soap opera going on outside my sewing room window.
Back in April, I watched out the window as quite a bit of activity took place next door that was all very curious. We’d only been living here for about a year, so we didn’t know our neighbors that well, but we knew something was going on.
First, a “For Sale” sign went up in the front yard. Then, within a few days, a truck with a couple of men backed into the driveway and started loading up items from the house and garage. As quickly as it appeared, it was gone. A few weeks later, my husband ran into the guy from next door at a restaurant and got filled in on what was going on. Turns out, his wife was having an affair, in the house, and he decided to move out. So, he and their high school aged son moved into an apartment where they’ve been living. In the mean time, the wife has carried on with her affair next door, I’m really disgusted by it. The two of them are always trying to hide so that they aren’t seen. What kind of relationship is that?
A week or so ago, the husband stopped by as we were standing in our driveway. He let us know that they were getting a divorce and she was moving out of the house and he was moving back in with their son. The husband has lost so much weight, I didn’t even recognize him. I get the feeling he was completely caught off guard with the entire ordeal and I hope that he will soon be able to find peace with it all. Who knows, maybe he’ll find the love of his life!
I think he and his son will be moving back into the house this weekend. Once they get settled, I may just have to tell him that he can visit True.com and search for free to find that someone special. Sign up at True.com is also free, so what’s he got to lose? Obviously I don’t know all that went on next door, but I do believe that everyone deserves to be happy and to be loved. I hope he finds his happiness.
Amazing! For 52 weeks, that’s a full year, Fun, Crafts and Recipes has been hosting my favorite meme, Four Foods on Friday. I love this meme for several reasons, but, besides the fact that it’s all about food, when it’s time for this meme, I know it’s time for the weekend to begin!
This has indeed been a stressful week, 3 softball games, a band competition, a visit to the vet for our puppy, and a parent meeting on sexual abstinence which led to a one on one conversation with my 12 year old daughter this morning on that very subject. That last event makes me want something strong in my coffee, but, no worries, I’ll just take cream this morning!
Anyway, back on topic, here are this weeks questions and my answers:
#1. Name something you use cream cheese in/on. Well, I do put it on bagels, but I can’t remember the last time I had a bagel. I also use it in tuna casserole, it gives it a nice tang and takes away the fishy taste.
#2. Do you use yogurt in any recipes? I can’t think of anything I use yogurt in except parfaits and smoothies. Seems like there should be a cake or something that uses yogurt. Maybe another participant will have that!
#3. Macaroni salad. What do you like/put in yours? My macaroni salad is similar to my potato salad. I use elbow noodles (of course), mayonnaise, mustard, celery salt and pepper. I like a little pickle relish in the mix too.
#4. Share a recipe that you use sour cream in. Now, I know I’ve got a cake recipe that uses sour cream and it’s delicious! Darned if I can find it though. If I do, I’ll be sure to post it.
If you’re here to drop EC, please click through to my guest blog’s site as well!
I don’t normally do this, in fact, I’ve never done this, but I know that advertising prices have been quite high at EC lately and I always like those blogs who have paid EC to advertise on my site to get their “money’s” worth. Unfortunately, today, I am not advertising very heavily and so won’t be getting many click throughs myself, which in turn means, the widget on my site probably won’t be getting many either.
Weekends are supposed to be a time for relaxing, spending time together, and just enjoying each others company, right? So, why do I feel like our weekends are becoming all about chaos and trying to get things done on the fly?
We started yesterday morning with a softball game, then breakfast at a local diner, all before 10 a.m. Once we got home, I got my stuff organized and I headed out one direction to run errands and my husband headed out the other. My bright spot was getting to go the quilt shop to buy some fabric. Unfortunately, with my recent job loss and the holidays looming around the corner, I didn’t have the heart to spend my money on fabric that I didn’t have a specific project for, so, I bought the one yard I needed to finish a tote bag and headed back out.
Next stop was the grocery store, a task I loath. We were out of just about everything, so I knew this would be a cart filler of a shopping trip. I also decided it’s time for some extreme value shopping and I left things on the shelf that I normally would’ve bought because they weren’t on sale or I didn’t have coupons. I managed to get everything we needed (I forgot to get the sour cream), and, after all my coupons, I was very pleased to have purchased an entire shopping cart worth of groceries for only $156. There were only 3lbs. of hamburger in that purchase, I tend to buy our meet at a different store, so I still need to go do that.
After coming home, I spent quite a bit of time trying to drop EC. I was never able to get the inbox to load, so I had to drop through a variety of means, most of which took much more time. I even tried going through Favorites on the EC toolbar, but that didn’t work out either. Not sure what’s going on at EC, but I hope they’re able to get it resolved.
I managed to stitch two of my appliques on my 12 Days of Christmas blocks before I was just overcome with the feeling of being tired. I received a book in the mail that I need to read and review, so I went back to attempting to drop EC’s while reading. Eventually, my daughter wanted to play Wii, so that’s what we did.
I finally finished dropping my 300 EC’s, and that was the last straw, I went to bed. I’m hoping today will be an improvement. I realize I got a lot done yesterday, I just have so much more to do. I have sold one tote bag and need to make another so that I can deliver both to their new owner. First though, I have to cut all the strips of fabric. So, that will be my first task of today, cutting. Hopefully my daughter won’t mind if I don’t attend her 3 hour softball practice this afternoon so I can keep working.
So, for me, Sunday is a day of catch up, not so much a day of rest. However, if I make headway, I do feel better about myself and isn’t that what Sunday should be about, sort of?
Oh my, it’s not even 7:30 and I feel a huge panic attack coming on. I simply have way too much to attempt to get done today and it starts off first thing this morning with my daughter’s softball game. I’m not sure who’s responsible for scheduling games at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, but I’d like to give that individual a piece of my mind!
Besides softball, I have grocery shopping to do as well as going to Target for some much needed cleaning supplies and laundry detergent. Once I’m finally back home, I’d like to sit down at my sewing machine, I’m really enjoying working on my 12 Days of Christmas project, but, before I do, I’ve got letters that need to be typed on the computer and blog posts that need to be written, as well as comments that need responded to.
One letter I need desperately to write is to cancel our lawn fertilizing service, they’ve done a horrible job. We’ve had five lawn treatments since early spring, and truthfully, my husband and I feel our yard looks worse now, with more weeds, than it did before we started the program.
I know I’ve talked about it before, but I really do need to get my hands on the Dragon Naturally Speaking software, which uses your voice to type, would allow me to multi-task, and, at the least, allow me to get all this typing done at a much faster pace so I can get on with other things. I found out just how much faster the typing would be when I took Dragon’s typing speed test! The Dragon software was at least 3 times faster than what I was able to to with my fingers, and, it was accurate! The only change I would have to make when speaking is to actually speak the punctuation, such as “comma” or “period”. The software can even be used with Blue Tooth noise cancellation microphones which is great if I want to go sit outside and enjoy the nice weather we’ve been having here lately.
If you’ve never seen the Dragon Naturally Speaking software in action, you really should watch at least one, if not both, of these videos.
I am thankful I made it to Friday. It’s been a week that I don’t care to repeat, except for the fact that I poured myself back into my sewing and am finding some psychological healing in my sewing room. In celebration of it being Friday, I am so happy to be doing my favorite meme, Four Foods on Friday. If you would like to join in, head over and check it out at Fun, Crafts and Recipes.
This weeks questions and my answers:
#1. I passed Costco and saw gas at $2.84 and have had Costco on the brain since. Share a cupcake, muffin or cookie recipe. Not sure how Costco and muffins fit together since I don’t shop there, but I’ll play along! My muffin recipe consist of following the directions on the back of the box for Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix. Eat them while there fresh from the oven with some butter on them and a cup of hot coffee.
#2. Cupcakes, muffins and cookies require something to drink. What do you drink with them? Whoops, I gave that answer in the above question, but I like a cup of hot coffee with my muffins.
#3. Which do you prefer, mini muffins and cupcakes or full sized ones? I prefer full size, but wont’ turn down mini!
#4. What type of muffin or cupcake pan do you use? Silicone, disposable, etc. I use the old fashioned muffin tins and put the paper cups in them. I mainly use the paper cups to keep clean up easier.
$99 basically gives you your freedom.
