My new frenemy

I was really a little surprised when I got up today and found it was pretty much like any other day. I had expected more of a change. A transformation even. Surely my life would be radically different.

I mean yesterday was the day I had been waiting on for months. It was around 10:29 a.m. when we heard a knock at the door. We all leaped from our seats and ran to make sure she didn't leave. The FedEx lady handed me the package, and I gave her my signature.

I was afraid to even open the box for the first few hours. I knew the excitement would be too much for us to concentrate on school. So there it sat. All wrapped up in its cute little white box just waiting to work its magic.

I had already been thinking of how I would use Facetime. I was imagining who I could iMessage. Oh, and the Reminders. Those were going to be amazing.

But in reality, not much had changed when I rolled out of bed this morning for my first full day with my new 4S. I synched her up, and my day started out like any ordinary day. I checked my e-mail. I checked Facebook. I texted a few people.

By the afternoon, I even used the phone feature.

I started playing around. All my apps were there. My music was there. But there was one button I was determined I would never tap. I had heard enough about Siri to bring back nightmares of that love-hate relationship I once had with my GPS. I have accepted the fact I simply have an unhealthy fear of automated voices telling me what to do.

I remembered how irritated I used to get when Richard, my GPS voice, would start shouting at me to make a U-Turn when I was simply trying to pull off the highway to get gas. I know my way around my own neighborhood so I would about lose it when he would tell me to turn left and take the long way out of the subdivision. And I can't even tell you how many times I almost veered into a line of semi-tractor trailers because Richard insisted that I "GET IN THE RIGHT LANE."

I admit it. I was afraid of Siri.

So, I guess that's what finally did it for me. I just felt I needed to conquer my fear. And what better time to do it than when I was browning hamburger meat and holding a cranky toddler on my hip. I needed to get my 9-year-old home for dinner.

I held down the center button and told Siri to text. I was nervous, yes. But I gave her my message plain and clear. Then she said, "Are you ready to send your message?"

Being the control freak I am, I couldn't help it. I reached up and tapped the send option myself.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," I told her. Could she hear me? What would she say?

I fully expected her to lash out at me or to tell me to make a U-Turn. Her screen didn't change. She seemed fine. No big deal. Whew.

My confidence was growing. "Add So-and-So to my contacts," I said.

"I'm not allowed to complete that request."

What? Not allowed? Hmmm. I could sense her passive aggressive attitude. I would show her who is boss.

"What can Siri do?" I asked.

She displayed a long, and I must say, impressive list of her functions. She could text someone. Call someone. Play a song. Search the Internet. Check the weather. Remind me of stuff. Set an alarm. And the list goes on.

I decided to give her a test.

"What's the weather?"

"Play Jamie Grace."

Not only did she do what I asked, she added on a few cheerful remarks, like "Let's hear some 'Hold Me'," or "The weather isn't looking so great this week."

I couldn't believe it. Maybe she likes me!

And you know what... I was starting to like my personal assistant. You might even call her My Office Manager. Except it just seemed so stereotypical. Why did Siri have to be a woman? If I was going to have an assistant, I think it would be nice to have a man to boss around.

So, I asked her how to change her voice. I went through about 20 voices with my GPS before I settled on Richard. She didn't know the answer (or so she said) so I had to figure it out on my own. I finally discovered that I couldn't change her voice, but I could change her nationality.

I decided to make her English (Australian). Now that sounded much better. Her voice wasn't as choppy and uptight with that nice Australian accent.

Only one problem. I asked her the weather and she gave me the weather in Sydney, Australia. I asked her to search for something and she said she couldn't understand me. I tried to convince myself that just because SHE was from Australia that didn't mean she could only understand me if I was from Australia!

Just because she was speaking English (Australian) didn't mean she couldn't understand what I was saying when I spoke English (perfect Midwestern United States of American with a slight southern drawl).

I asked her to "Show me Popeye," and she responded with "Show me Papa?" I asked her "Where is Olive Oyl?" and she responded with "Redial by?"

I wished I could set her voice to Swedish Chef or Yoda or Southern.... something — ANYTHING — I might be able to better communicate with. But no. I wasn't going to dare try Spanish or French. English (Australian) seemed like my best bet.

So, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Hopefully, it's all just a fluke. If not, maybe she'll be able to understand me all the way over in Australia. Or maybe I will be able to perfect my Australian accent by then.

I'm hoping I didn't irk her enough already. With my luck, she'll probably turn her alarm on for 5 a.m. and set it to shout, "Turn right! Turn right!"

September recipes

I think it's funny that a lot of my friends think I'm super organized when it comes to meal planning. The truth is that for about nine months of the year, I am scrambling around at 5 p.m. trying to scrape together various cans of this and whatever meat I can find in the fridge to come up with something edible before my kids start eating "chip sandwiches" because they are so hungry. (Yes, they do think that putting potato chips between two slices of bread counts as a meal.)

Many days, my husband will save the day by picking up some meat for the grill. At least once a week, I justify calling Papa John's since it's right around the corner, and they can cook dinner in less time than I can.

Finally, I hit rock bottom. I get mad at myself for not planning. I kick myself for not going to the grocery store. I scream at myself for my empty pantry. And when I get mad, I go overboard. I overcompensate by creating huge meal plans, cooking in bulk, freezing up a month's worth of meals. And THAT is the part that you usually see here on the blog.

I've noticed from reading my own blog, that I tend to do this right around the time school starts. I also seem to get organized around Jan. 1 and then again right before summer starts. For those three months of the year, I am totally organized and my family loves me.

Well, I went on a meal-planning rampage this weekend. We were in the car for 12 hours, driving to and from a funeral. During the drive, I went through two of my favorite cookbooks and marked all of the recipes I want to try. Being the complete geek I am, I then tracked down those exact recipes on the web sites of the companies that published the cookbooks, and I e-mailed them to myself.

When I got home, I entered them into my profile on allrecipes.com. That's when I discovered allrecipes.com has a ton of new features which I have never used! I signed up to become a "supporting member." This means I can organize my recipes into meal plans by dragging them onto a calendar. I can also assign them to shopping lists, and print out exactly what I need to buy for that meal plan. I can save my menus, making it easy to repeat them later. I haven't had this much geeky, obsessive excitement since I bought the game "Myst" for my first Macintosh computer back in 1992.

I found enough new recipes to complete my meal plan for both September and October. This means I could have TWO full months of organization before my life falls back into disarray.

In the past, I think I have overwhelmed myself with my meal planning by assigning myself a new recipe every day of the month. This time, I decided that every other day I would throw in a no-brainer. These are the foods I cook all of the time anyway. I usually have the ingredients. They require no thought and very little effort. But I still have to put them in my meal plan to remind myself what I'm supposed to cook that night.

A few people on Facebook asked me to share this list, so here goes. I am majorly motivated by words of affirmation, so let me know if you would like to see my October list, as well.

All of the recipes (other than the sloppy Joe and chili) are from one of two cookbooks: "Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes" or Pillsbury's "Fast & Healthy Cookbook." In other words, you can either make them in the crock pot or they are quick recipes.

They also are all "family friendly" to some extent. With the exception of two of the recipes, which are risky, I'm fairly certain my family will eat them.

Finally, this menu does not purport to be healthy, low-cal or fat free. The recipes include tons of sour cream, cream cheese and red meat. Side dishes around here are usually green beans, carrots, corn or fruit cut up into slices. It's not fancy, but hopefully better than we would get from KFC or Papa John's if I didn't cook.

Well, I'm off to the grocery store to use the shopping list generated from my meal plan! In the meantime, let me know your meal-planning secrets. How do you decide what's for dinner every night?

My September Menu

Hamburgers on the grill
Cream Cheese Chicken with Broccoli
Spaghetti
Curried Pumpkin Vegetable Soup (with salad for those who won't try it!)
Tacos
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
Pizza (frozen, home made or delivery)
Italian Beef
Rotisserie Chicken (from the grocery store deli)
Chicken Club Wraps
Sloppy Joe sandwiches
My Favorite Chili
Hot Dogs/ Chili dogs
Company Pork Chops
Honey Mustard Chicken Wings
Pancakes with chocolate chips
Chicken and rice in crock pot
Hamburgers on the grill
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Spaghetti
Round Steak
Tacos and/or bean burritos
Beef with Apples and Sweet Potatoes (I'm not sure about this one, but I want to try it!)
Pizza
Caribbean Chicken and Pineapple Salsa
Rotisserie Chicken (from the grocery store deli)
Chicken and Apple Clams
Sloppy Joe sandwiches
Turkey and Twists in Tomato Cream Sauce

How do I love my iPad? Let me count the ways.

When I first heard about the iPad, I think I agreed with most of the world that it was probably one more gadget that I really didn't need.

But as I started hearing more about it, I became convinced that I would find ways to put it to good use if I had one. My husband had the same thought. He totally surprised me on Christmas Day with a rectangular box under the tree. Best. Gift. Ever.

People have been asking me if I really use it and what I use it for. Let me count the ways.

1. E-mail, Internet and Facebook. That goes without saying. I've heard a lot of people complain about the keyboard. It is definitely much easier to use than the iPhone. I can almost fit my fingers on the home keys and type like normal.

2. To do list. I use Toodledo, which was a download for $1.99. I LOVE this app. It allows me to create my to-do lists, organize them by category, give them a priority and due date, set up repeating chores and even set reminders.

3. Movies. I love watching movies while I walk on the treadmill or while I lay in bed, comfy and toasty warm under my electric blanket. I stream the movies through Netflix instant streaming.

4. Music. I love having my music library on the iPad. It's louder than the iPhone and can be transported around the house just as easily.

5. YouTube. I created a favorites list of music in YouTube and can watch and listen to my favorite songs.

6. Photo album. It's a beautiful, easy-to-carry photo album on the go.

7. Calendar. All of my calendars are now synched through MobileMe so I'm always up to date on my desktop and mobile devices.

8. The Bible. I downloaded the free ESV interactive Bible. It's lightweight and easy to find chapter and verse.

9. iBooks. Tons of books are available for free or for purchase and can be housed on my virtual book shelf. The iPad is compatible with Nook and Kindle.

10. Overdrive. This is the free app you need to download ebooks from the library.

11. Cookbook. I use the free AllRecipes application. The MacGourmet app also works on iPad, but it is only available as an iPhone app.

12. Globe. The kids and I use the free globe application when we don't feel like getting down the real globe for school.

13. Our school jingles. We listen to our geography songs and grammar jingles where ever we are in the house instead of gathering around the computer or CD player.

14. Board games. Our favorite is the Blokus app, which was 99 cents.

15. Pages. I downloaded the Pages app, which was $9.99. I have only played with it so far. However, I am planning to use it to edit documents for my job. We create most of our documents in Pages, so I thought this would be useful to take to staff meetings and add notes on the spot.