Newest Member of the Bramer Family: iPad

Well, it finally happened. An Apple product was introduced into my home this past weekend! Apparently Tom had too much time and too much cash available during his most recent trip to the US. He felt compelled (maybe he was drunk?) to purchase an iPad. Being an IT Professional (no jokes), I have had a long time relationship with Microsoft and, eh, it's productivity tools. Hence the blog entry. Now I am not ignorant of Apple technology, I have simply chosen to ignore it up to this point. So, now this Microsoft Family is being forced to learn how to also hate and despise Apple (as if I have any frustration left after my Windows 7 upgrade!).


Enough lamenting. Thought I would use the blog to share my thoughts and learning. There are a lot of people out there considering such a purchase, so thought I might help by exposing, I mean sharing, our journey to integrate and use this technology in our MS home.


Day 1/2/3
Determined that the iPad will not connect to our current wireless routers that we are using in the house. Simply stated, the iPad requires wireless support of the latest wireless standard, 802.11n. (Check out the wiki for a  quick overview of what that means). Sounds reasonable, right? Well, our NetGear router does not support that version, nor did a router firmware upgrade help. Nor does the newer NetGear router upstairs, which I just purchased two years ago.  So at this point, we cannot access wireless inside our home.  


But we have determined it is a great to play Mahjong on! Natalie and I are competing to see who can finish the round the world game first! (I am winning)


More later...

Group Video Calling on Skype

Just updating to the new version of Skype. In this major upgrade, Skype now has ability to support video calls with more than two people. Once you’re all set up, it’s easy to start a group call – just use the Add button to invite people into the conversation, and click the Video Call button. If you want to use this feature, the person you want to add has to have upgraded to the newest version as well. Note that this is a beta feature, soe there may be a few hiccups, but I think it is great!


You have to use this link to access the Beta 5.0 upgrade, it is not the 4.2 release that just came out!

Avocado Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing

It's summer. And that means salads. Ran across this one looking at an old Goop newsletter. I love avocados and this carrot ginger dressing sounded fabulous. Of course, I am the only one in the house which will like this, but I am rarely deterred by that small issue! I did make the Ayi try a small plate of this salad. She said the dressing was good, but she can usually barely choke down any raw lettuce! Also, it was the first time she had eaten avocado. Her description was that it was "not sweet, not sour, buttery". I think that is a marvelous description of an avocado!

The major changes I made to the recipe were to decrease the miso and used olive oil (not EVO) instead of grapeseed. Plus I upped the amount of avocado (the original called for a single one). Note that different miso varieties will give a slightly different taste. The original called for white or sweet miso, but I had only some red that I had purchased in Tokyo. I reduced the amount accordingly as the red is really salty. This recipe has a real bite to it from the fresh ginger and the shallot. If you don’t want quite the same level of ginger taste, use one tablespoon instead of two. 

This recipe makes more than enough dressing for these four salads, but you can use the extra as a dip for vegetables. I even got Natalie to eat some with celery. Tonight I am going to try some on top of fried potatoes. I think the pairing of dressing with the starchiness and bit of crunch will be fantastic!

Foreign Accent Syndrome

I believe I will start writing a book, Steven King-style, which involves humans who awaken from a long sleep and realize they are now speaking their mother tongue but with a foreign accent. I'll have to work in some type of time-travel or something. Not sure.

Damn, started the research and realized this is a known "syndrome" Who knew.... (I apologize in advance to any of the known 60 cases of this syndrome read this blog. I do not mean to belittle your... illness... in any way. It's just that anyone who can actually inflect a Chinese accent without ever studying FOR MILLIONS OF HOURS has definitely had some sort of fantasia experience that needs to be studied.)

Official Google Blog: Imagery for Qinghai, China earthquake

Anyone who has Google Earth installed should take a look at this link. It shoes some up to date pictures of the area of the earthquake. It is unbelievably sobering. Download the KML file, and then open in Google Earth. Wow. Zoom out and look at the just how remote this place is. There has been some criticism about the level of help that arrived. These pictures helped me have a bit more perspective on that!

Official Google Blog: Imagery for Qinghai, China earthquake

Souptoys - New News and Featured Playsets�

Man, this is a really fun thing to play with! Not just for your kids, though that is what is geared towards! I installed and played for 15 minutes before I realized I had found yet another TIME WASTER! So, maybe not good for me, but great for the kids when they are bored! And considering how bad the weather has been in Shanghai, you might need something to keep them busy! I would have taken a picture of my screen to show you how much fun, but am embarrassed at the pile of cast of toys I left laying on the right bottom of my screen...

Souptoys - New News and Featured Playsets�

Interesting Packaging

So, this happens a lot, Chinglish on items you get or purchase here in China. I have determined that the fascination must be with the Latin characters, as more often than not, the actual usage of those letters in a word or phrase does not make sense. However, this one is especially hilarious!
After Easter, I grabbed a bag from our stock of recycled bags and put all of Natalie’s Easter Candy into it.

And more than a week later, we still have some candy left. Last night, I was sitting at the table just staring at the bag (wishing I could eat a chocolate egg, but that should be another post) and finally read the stuff that was written on the outside of it. Imagine my surprise when I took a good look and read a VERY inappropriate phrase on it! [Note to keep the blog a bit cleaner, I will not type it, but check out the top left corner of the picture below!

So of course I emptied the bag and placed the bag into our “We love China” box. Oh, and to explain how this happens, we can blame myspace, facebook, etc. When I googled that specific phrase, I received 20,800,00 hits primarily due to social networking entries. Oh, and don’t forget Big telling Carrie he loves her on Sex and the City Season 02, episode 10! Someone in China watches that, sees that the phrase takes off and decides it would be perfect on a bag printed cheaply and used for fake market purchases.

Shanghai Aquarium Visit

Last week, the Concordia elementary school kids only had to go to school two days. So by Friday, they really needed to get out and let off some steam. There is only so much DS you can play! Suzanne Crew’s original plan was to head to the zoo. Unfortunately the Shanghai weather was not good that day and we decided having the kids tramp around in the rain and maybe ending up sick was not not worth it. (There are baby pandas there so we want to get to see them sometime!). So off to the Shanghai Aquarium!

 

This was a cute picture of Aerin and Natalie. I have three other from this set with Natalie making goofy faces.

  

Three penguin-huggers…

Walking/running through the tunnel.

It seemed like the kids ran and yelled through the whole tour. Or maybe it was just Natalie. Seemed to catch her every time with her mouth open telling someone to “look at this” or “this is so cool”. Needless to say they had fun. And the Coldstone Ice Cream afterwards helped seal it as a great day. The best part was that they were tired!!!

   

This trip also turned out to be great way to get totally frustrated with how to manage the lighting when taking photos. I already was getting a bit testy trying to figure out how and when to flash, but this trip sealed it. I have included the few pictures that I took that seemed like I got it almost right. Even then, there is too much light on three of them.

Oh, well. I guess that is the cost of improving a hobby or skill. Expectations just keep going up!

 

Funny, but this turtle covered his eyes with his flipper after I flashed the camera right in his face!  Made me feel bad!

Digital Home Thoughts: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

I have been researching good photo book creation sites, and ran across this review. It is very extensive and a great place to start if you are also looking. I have not created accounts for all of these. But I've used Shutterfly (didn't work well in China), Snapfish (hated it), and Kodak Gallery. I am going to try out the AdoramaPix now! Enjoy!

Digital Home Thoughts: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

U.S. Navy Captures Pirates After Gunfight - WSJ.com

Wow, Somali pirates attack the Navy. That just seem really stupid, right? ANd why don't pirates have cool names anymore, like Bluebeard or Blackbeard? The pirate mentioned here was referred to as Mr. Fanah. That seems strange.

U.S. Navy Captures Pirates After Gunfight - WSJ.com

Recipe - Cranberry – Sweet Potato Bars

Finally got around to baking these yummy bars again. Haven't made them since moving to China. The recipe calls for Sweet Potato baby food, and that is not always so easy to find! I made these for Natalie when she was a toddler, she loved them. It tastes a bit like cobbler, though without the extra fruit. They are also pretty good as an ice-cream topper too! You can throw one into the micro for 10-15 seconds and then onto a big bowl of vanilla ice cream.


I used to make these with a mixture of dried fruit and fresh fruit. The ones I made today, I threw in about a cup of fresh cranberries. But remember that plain, fresh cranberries are really sour! If you only use fresh, you may need to add a bit more sugar. And there are lots of other dried fruit you can use, such as apricots, mango, peach, etc. Whatever you like!

Also, I don't worry too much about using exact measures for this recipe. It is pretty forgiving. I am careful about how the dry/wet ratio so that they are not too dry or too moist.

Walk on the Promenade

Saturday we spent a family day and went to the fake market, took a walk on the Promenade near Huangpu River, and ate at Hooters. Not your typical family day, but our family day none the less. Thought I would put up some pictures from our walk. The weather was not great, but there was a TINY bit of sun. Cold though. I think it is never going to warm up here in Shanghai.  We didn't get the Promenade until after 4pm, too much shopping at the fake market I guess. There were lots of people as this is a holiday weekend. Chingming Jie is Monday, which is Tomb Sweeping day. So, hard to get a picture without heads in the bottom. The pictures here are of the Bund, across the river in Puxi. They have been doing reconstruction over there for months. Last weekend was the first weekend it was open. You can see from one of the pics that the Bund walk was FILLED with people. That is why we decided to stay in safe Pudong!

One of the funny things was seeing this woman "grooming" her husband. I got a few pictures, and she seemed non-plussed that she might be attracting attention.

Natalie had some ice cream from Hagen Daaz and then we headed back to the Super Brand mall for some shopping. Had to buy an Easter outfit for Natalie. She picked it all out on her own. And you can tell she is a girl because she told me she HAD to have the shoes that went with the outfit she wanted. And you can tell I am a woman, as I bought them! Then we ate at Hooter's. Tom loaded some video to Facebook.