Living in America... visitors welcome

[SuperBunny]

East Coast
MaNanny - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
MuminCT - CT
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
alarkaspree - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Poetmum - PA
Twirl - MD

South
Earlybird - TN
jabberwocky - AR
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot - NC
MadameDeathStare- AL

Midwest
SuperBunny- Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio
MonkeyLover
KickAssAngel - Ann Arbor, MI
MumofFivemeanschaos

Rockies
Alipiggie - Boulder, CO
Ribena

Northwest
AnnieLaurie - Seattle, WA
Dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau - Milpitas
loopsngeorge - Brentwood, LA
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach
CarmenSanDiego - San Diego

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop - Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding - Austin
Cosmicdust - East Texas

Canada
Hellish - Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton
Nooka - BC
Jacksmama - Langley

Exotic Islands
Anorak - Bermuda
cp - Trinidad
Barefeete - BVI

Brazil
Albert

Hi chefswife.

Hey, SB, we finally made mozzarella here today. At least DH did. It didn't work. He's pretty crabby about it, so we're not talking about it. I think the directions he used were poor, as I had several others that called for much longer cooking time, and better draining than his did. Oh well.

Well done for trying though Dooney. I have come to the conclusion that making cheese is not really worthwhile - it is fun but is labour intensive and a bit faffy. I would make paneer again with DS because we enjoyed it but it didn't taste significantly better than shop-bought stuff. I think I'll avoid making mozzarella

so, yes, the in laws were just sitting, hoping we'd skype them. sadly, though, they couldn't get their mic to work so we could only see them, and they typed in Qs. eventually, dh called them on jajah at the same time.
PIL never seem to be able to make the technology work, even though dh gave them lessons when he last saw them.

I loathe Skype - in theory it is a great idea but it never works properly and, on the rare occasion that it does, the call gets dropped. I hate to say it but MSN was far better but now it won't work with my antivirus

it works ok for us, but for some reason not with PIL, they always do things like forget to turn the camera on. so we suspect they had just 'muted' the computer & forgotten or something like that!

superbunny try updating your skype. i was having the same problem and it stopped after i updated.

I tried that, Chefswife. Will try again. I get all annoyed when technology doesn't work well!

well. dh set it all up for the PIL, and set up jajah for them, gave them demos etc (i was here, receiving stupid 30 sec calls & skypes)
they also have a friendly techi person
they still get it wrong - A LOT and have never used jajah.
sigh

my dad, who is a control freak, makes people sit/stand in a certain place, so i can see them, then doesn't let them move. heaven help my mum if she wants to get something from the lounge to show me!! it's like some old victorian phots where they have to 'pose' for the entire call!!

dh says he'll never be like this when he gets old, but i have a feeling that at some point we'll all get left behind from technology

What's jajah?

Is skype slightly out of synch? We video conference at work and I find it really odd and tiring because of the lag issue. I just use a VIOP service so that calls are free for us, and cheap for anyone calling from the UK (we have a virtual UK phone number). That way there is no set u, but I don't know if using web-cams would be more fun (I generally like lying on the bed for long calls, so not sure that I'd actually like anyone to see me!)

lol califrau at mom writing out her emails for your dad to type. my mom was a secretary and would take diction from dad. if he was alive today though he would love skype. i'd probably have to talk to him every day... well, that would be nice. now that i can use skype with ease, i love it. cell phones and land lines are expensive here. it was cheaper for me to use my uk cell number... not cheaper for people calling me though.

i only get lag once in awhile, usually if i use it during busy internet times

I laughed at cali's mum too. Argh, I typed 'mom' and had to go back and correct it.

jajah is a web site where you can make phone calls & you only pay for the local part of the call. if you google it, it comes up easily. you can set it up with a credit/debit card & it then deducts the cost of the call til you've run out of money. we put $30 on our account, but haven't used that much yet, or anywhere close. so you can call your mum for the same cost as if she was living in chicago, sb. you just have to have the internet on & set it up, then press dial

when reading to dd i say 'mom' as 'mum'. she's likely to get confused.

Hi all, I'm a bit behind on everything. I am locked out of my desktop and have wasted spent a number of hours trying to figure out what is wrong. Am waiting for a repair program with fingers crossed.

I just got a copy of the Sneaky Chef. Has anyone else used it?

Hello Jabber! What is sneaky chef?

Jajah sounds good

It is like that book Jerry Seinfeld's wife wrote about hiding vegetables and good for you foods in things like brownies and pasta sauces. I don't have a copy, but two people I know of have it, one loves it as her kids eat things they normally wouldn't, and the other one has a child that won't eat those recipes, anyway.

just had avery cute moment with dd.
she realised it's 4 weeks to my bday & said 'dad, we must get mum lots of presents'
i told her a kiss & a card were all i needed.
she said 'don't worry, we'll get you a toy!!'

bless.

now i'm worried she'll drag dh round toys r crap to get me something pink!

Oh, my friend has a book like that. I don't like the idea of health by stealth but I think I am lucky in that DS eats everything, especially broccoli and tofu. Strange child that he is.

Kickass, your DD is lovely

We were out on Monday and someone asked DS when he will be 4. He rolled his eyes and said, "At my birthday"

the best answer possible to that question!

Thankfully, that is what the man said!

Health by stealth. I like that. I agree with you, I think it just reinforces the idea that healthy foods are things that taste bad and need to be avoided. But I'm also fortunate in the fact that mine will eat any fruit and almost any veggie. However, I'm all for doing things like adding dried cranberries and pine nuts to Brussels Sprouts that they don't like very much on their own to get them to eat them.

You can't really argue with Dinner's logic at all, can you. I wish I could get away with responding to questions like that.

Actually, for a while I did call tofu 'chicken' - DS wouldn't try it so I told him it was like chicken so he tried it and liked it and from then on it was called 'like chicken' so I suppose that was a bit sneaky.

How is the book Jabber? Anything good? I love cook books. Is it the one with the purees? Tinned pumpkin is good in tomato sauce for pasta & pizza and no-one notices it is there.

I was looking for Julia Donaldson books in the library and found that 'The Smartest Giant in Town' is called 'The Spiffiest Giant in Town'

It's years since I heard the word 'spiffy'