Hey, this Wordpress app is pretty cool. I am able to add photos from my photo library or take one with the camera on the iPhone. I tried to take a photo, but it crashed the app. Will have to settle on pulling one in from the library. (this photo was taken last night right after I got the kids to bed. Sorry, honey.)
Right after posting this, my iPhone crashed. Don’t know if it was coincidence or the app.
With the launch of the new iPhone 2.0 software, there are now applications available via the iTunes App store. There are some cool apps already built and I can’t help to think of ideas to build one or two of these. One of the apps that I have downloaded is the Apple Remote app. The app is pretty cool and offers a way to control iTunes or AppleTV over wifi. This means, you do not have to be near your computer to control them. It may not seem like much, but I did some testing today.
I have an Apple Airport Express set up in our bedroom hooked up to a printer (that does not work) and some speakers. I connected my laptop iTunes to the remote speakers and connected my iPhone to iTunes with the Remote App. Worked like a charm and controlled songs and volume. You can actually choose from the iPhone which speakers to use, the computer or the remote speakers. There is a support page for more information.
There is a limit to this app. You can only play the tunes that are on the computer that you are connected to, you cannot stream from your tracks on your iPhone. You cannot make new playlists from the iPhone… bummer. And when I tried to break the app by switching computers to run on the speakers, it crashed the app repeatedly. Maybe an update in the near future will enhance it. There is definitely room to expand the features but I think it is a pretty cool application as it is.
I tend to listen to the guys over at Warehouse Beverage when they recommend beers and they are always on target. When I heard a patron ask for a “hoppy beer” of course my ears perked up to see what was recommended. One of the store owners, the “beer guy”, was the one there to answer. He mentioned the Stone Ruination, one of my favorites, and then told the woman that Hop Wallop was a good one too. I have seen this beer, but always neglected to try it due to the unflattering label.
This weekend I picked up a six pack when I went on the “mission for wine”.
Hop Wallop is a very good pale ale and packs a lot of hops into a well priced beer. It is not the bruiser that Hopslam or Ruination are, but it provides the dry, hoppy taste that I like in a beer. The three things that I judge most beers on are taste, ABV, and price and when all is added up, this beer ranks pretty high on my list of Pale Ales.
Lollapalooza 2008, Chicago is coming up soon (2 weeks) and the tickets just arrived this week. After receiving the tickets, I also received an email from the festival saying that iTunes is one of the sponsors and donated 10 tracks on their service.
Boogie - Black Joe Lewis
Chicago X 12 - Rogue Wave
Fighter Girl - Mason Jennings
Keep Your Head - The Ting Tings
Pieces of What - MGMT
Right Hand On My Heart - The Whigs
To the Light - Newton Faulkner
Transliterator - DeVotchKa
88 - The Cool Kids
100 Days, 100 Nights - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
So I downloaded the 10 Lolla tracks that they offered. I have also purchased many tracks from the artists that will be performing. You can view my itinerary on the lolla website.
Monday night was the big Terra Madre Bastille Day Celebration at Bar Cento. This event put on by the Slow Food Northern Ohio group celebrated the local chefs that were selected to participate in the Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy in October. It was a fundraising event and at a price of $40 per person, it was a steal of a deal.
People were lined up out the door and down West 25th Street waiting to get in and taste the culinary creations of chefs Jonathon Sawyer, Bar Cento/The Greenhouse Tavern; Matt Harlan, Lolita; Paul Minnillo, The Baricelli Inn; David Uecke, Anthe’s; Michael Symon, Lolita and Lola; Rocco Whalen, Fahrenheit.
The food was delicious and with most people taking multiple trips up to the bar to get more, the chefs were surely working for their donations. After the pace slowed, I was able to take a break from the photography to enjoy much of the food on display. It is amazing to me to see events like this happen with so many talented people working together to create an amazing culinary experience. The people that ran the event (Nancy, Kari, Linda and Fred) were awesome and it was nice to make some new connections.
View all of the photos on The Greenhouse Tavern website and a selection of the photos on my flickr account.
Even when we have no plans on a weekend, we end up making plans. Friday was a nice relaxing night at home. Saturday morning started with Erika going out for a run in the heat and humidity. The kids and I met her half-way through her run to supply some water, but she still had to cut the run short due to the heat.
The afternoon was pretty stormy and then the skies cleared up. We walked over to the St. Gregory the Great Festival just down the street. I was pretty amazed at how big it actually was. It was a shame that the rain made a mess of things as most of the rides and games were positioned on grass. It was like a swamp. We were suckered into a couple of games that were way over priced but at least we stopped there and did not let the kids ride the rickety rides that were $3 a head. For that price, we could have drove to and from Cedar Point and spend less with our passes.
The food was good, local and priced well. There were plenty of beer vendors as well. We opted for Italian sausage sandwiches and cavatelli and meatballs for the kids and fried dough and a waffle for dessert.
After a long day, I went to the store to pick up some ingredients for Patron Silver Margaritas. Patron, Cointreau and fresh lime juice over ice. The were pretty good, but I’d rather stick with a premium gin or a single malt scotch. We ordered Cloverfield on Dish InDemand and settled in for the night.
This morning was pretty soggy with the promise of sun in the afternoon. We stayed in and Erika made pancakes and then ran 5 miles – what a woman. We went to the pool in the afternoon and Kade showed me his moves that he has been learning in his swim lessons. He is learning a lot. After swimming it was time to address the lawn. I clipped the bushes out front and mowed. The cooler weather today made it more comfortable to do it.
I guess all the activities keep us all busy and out of trouble. It takes my mind off of work for a little while, until I check my email on my iPhone.
Erika found a great new website called The Pioneer Woman. Not only does she have great recipes, but she takes amazing photos of the food and the process of making her dishes.
Among her recipes is this one for Bacon-wrapped Jalepeno thingies. If you can believe it, they taste even better than they look. I think we will be trying more of her recipes in the future.
With the release of the new iPhone 3G today, the new software for the original, first generation, iPhone was released today too. With all of the excitement I went ahead and downloaded the new software, went through the install and then was greeted with the above error message. My iPhone was left with no service, no use whatsoever and I thought it was bricked and frantically searched for people running into the same problem. This happened to many people that downloaded the update. There were some message boards but no answers.
Take a deep breath, think.
The error seemed to be with connecting to iTunes store once the software was installed. That makes sense since everyone and their brother was doing the same thing that I was at the same time. So I turned off the phone, turned it back on, disconnected it from my computer and then reconnected it. Then, my iPhone finally connected to the iTunes store and began to sync with my computer. Whew.
After the new software was installed, I went to the app store and downloaded a few free apps. The 2.0 software is actually like getting an iPhone all over again. There are a few other nice things about the new software including the calendar which keeps things organized by category now and the mail management allowing deleting multiple emails in a more efficient way.
It would be nice to have the new 3G iPhone, but with these updates to the software that can be run on the first generation iPhones, I am glad that I did not wait for the new one. The two main upgrades are the speed of the network and GPS… I can live with my gen1 iPhone for a little while.
Today, my sister, Marcie, headed up to Toledo to have a procedure done. She has been having issues with her thyroid including rapid weight loss, shaking, vertigo and fainting spells. The doctors in Sandusky sent her to a specialist in Toledo where she will be for the next couple days. They will treat her with radiation to kill her thyroid which means she will not be able to be around people for a few days as she will be radioactive. She will also be off of work for almost a month since she handles groceries for customers.
I spoke with her yesterday and she was scared. She did not want to have to have any CAT scans done as she is claustrophobic. She remembers being a baby and having to be scanned and keeps asking if they are going to have to do that again.
Keep her in your thoughts as she is pretty scared of the whole ordeal. We all hope for a full recovery and before you know it, she will be back at Kroger bagging your groceries.
Steuk’s circa 1981
While we were in Sandusky for the July 4th weekend, I saw in the paper that Steuk’s Fruit Farm was scheduled to be torn down. It has been condemned and vacant for years, but finally listed to be demolished. When I read the news I did what anyone would do… I grabbed my camera and headed out to take some photos.
Steuk’s was a Roth family tradition. Every fall we would get as many of the cousins and aunts and uncles together and drive to Steuk’s to get some apples, fritters and cider. The kids would love to pick out different old fashioned candies, candy cane looking sticks of different flavors. One of my favorite parts was watching the large apple crusher twist down and press the juice from the apples to make the cider. Out back was a beautiful orchard and of course the wagon where we all had our photo taken.
It is sad to see a place like Steuk’s so neglected. We have a lot of great memories of going there as children. I am glad I was able to go one last time and revisit some of those memories even though it was hard to recognize some of them through the overgrown, weather beaten and broken farm.
