Bounce by Mohu Review - Give Me The Juice

I'm a person who loves technology and gadgets.  You may have possibly read Leaf by Mohu Review- Best HDTV Antenna, and I absolutely love my Leaf .  My new gadget is another from Mohu as well called the Bounce.  It is a neat little WiFi enhancer.  On the packaging they claim "3x extra juice for your WiFi".  When you pull the device out of the box it's kind of an egg shaped hunk of plastic looking thing.  On first glance I can not help but wonder if this plastic thingamabob is actually going to do anything, however after the luck that I had with the Leaf antenna I wasn't too skeptical.

Just slide the Bounce onto an antenna!

The way this nifty gadget works... well I can't tell you exactly how it works, that is a mystery hidden within it's egg shaped walls.  But, to install the device to boost your WiFi just slide it right over one of your router's external antennas, and wahlah!  It works!  Simple = Awesome!

I have both a pc and a laptop.  In all honesty I prefer using the pc most of the time.  One of the reasons being that since the pc is jacked directly into the router with a wire it loads things much more quickly than the laptop.  I'm the typical impatient person that prefers instant gratification when it has anything to do with waiting on stuff to happen on the internet.  Buffering is a royal pain in the butt!  So of course one of the first things I tested was going to my bedroom where I would typically use the laptop and firing up the web, which loaded pretty much instantly.  Never has that happened before.  Then I went to watch a video online that I had tried watching on the laptop before and remembered being irritated by the lag time and there was absolutely no lag and the video played right away.  Woohoo!

I do not really use my laptop outside, but my phone is Wifi capable and I do not get much signal in the dog park next to my apartment, so I decided to go and check that out.  In this photo I'm standing in front of the wall where my router and Bounce are located about 4 feet behind me, and if you squint your eyes and look for the arrow I inserted you can see the brown picnic table in the distance.  That's where I spend my time while Balue is having his park time.  Usually I get 1 white bar with WiFi at that table, I now get 3 green bars, and 4 is the most that would be on my phone.  So 3 out of 4 green bars, when before I had no green isn't too shabby!

I do have other electronics in my home that run on WiFi and it does seem that everything is running more smoothly since I slipped this nifty little guy onto my router's antenna.  If your WiFi is needing a boost and your router has an external antenna I suggest giving it a shot.  It is an American made product and you can purchase it on Amazon for only $25!!!  And it is eligible Super Saver or Amazon Prime shipping.

Mohu is quickly becoming a favorite brand, and I'm currently awaiting their new Leaf Plus Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna to come in the mail, so expect to hear from me fairly soon on how that works out.

Have you tried the Bounce and seen a difference?

Much Love!


Oh hey! It's Friday, WiFi just got better and David Bowie is forever sexy... LETS DANCE!




Let's Dance (Single Version) Only 99 Cents!

Leaf by Mohu Review - Best HDTV Antenna

Since I've been living alone one way I've found to cut my monthly bill costs is not pay for satellite or cable television.  And I do not miss it, mostly I do not miss those insane bills!  Between local television and things like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and internet tv there is plenty for me to watch.

Since analog television went extinct and we are left with digital television, aka DTV, I was frustrated with the reception of the signal I was receiving with DTV.  Between not getting local stations and then the few I was getting constantly digitizing and me having to do everything I could think of to get reception back... I decided I was fed up and there had to be a better antenna than the one I had with the big huge rods sticking to the sky and the stupid round pointless thing in the middle.  I had enough of cutting the power off to things and turning it back on, adjusting rods and changing channels.  I was spending more time just trying to keep a signal than I was watching the show.  Despite over the past year what I was experiencing with DTV, I still wasn't so frustrated that I was willing to pay huge bills every month to watch tv!!!


So began my reading of reviews, and more reviews, and even more reviews.  I wasn't sure how much I was going to be willing to pay for an antenna but I was seriously looking at reviews for everything from the cheap stuff to the ones into hundreds of dollars.  It had to be an indoor antenna since I live in an apartment.  I finally found it on Amazon.com, yes I know I refer to Amazon a lot but I am an avid shopper of Amazon and I find my best deals there and I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't shop there myself!  So what did I find on Amazon?  It's called the Leaf HDTV Antenna made by Mohu.  It is a paper thin indoor antenna and it is made in the USA.  It also has a black side or a white side so you can fit it in with your color scheme, or you can put in a window or behind some furniture, or I saw pictures where people just taped it to the back of the tv.  There is a super thin ring of plastic around it that they have provided if you'd like to secure it with push pins instead of tape.

I read dozens and dozens of reviews about it on and off of Amazon.  There are over 700 customer reviews on Amazon, actually that is what caught my attention because I believe it had the most reviews of any of them that I saw there.  It of course had mixed reviews as expected.  Some people live in areas where they really just aren't going to have much luck no matter what they use.  However in over 700 reviews less than 100 were 2 stars and under, 5 stars being max.

So I decided to give it a try!  I ordered it on Sunday and it arrived today on Friday via USPS mail.  The I opened it up and it resembled not much more than a piece of laminated paper with a wire attached.  I had it delivered to my office and had said to my coworker as I was showing her my new technology discovery, she has a love of technology like I do, that I was going to be pissed if I got home and it ended up just being a piece of plastic that didn't do anything!

I get home I take it out of the packaging, take the old crazy bulky antenna and toss it to the ground triumphantly now that I wouldn't have to look at the eyesore anymore, and hoping that this Leaf actually worked!  Oh no did I break the eyesore?  Well if I did it doesn't matter because the Leaf works beautifully!  When I first hooked it up there was no change in the channels and everything was still digitizing and I was like dang it!  Noooo!  Then I thought to go into my tv menu and have it re-tune the channels doing an auto-scan and my tv who is much smarter than I automatically tells me as soon as it starts the scan that it detects a new antenna and will be rewriting all the previous saved channels.  Why do I love technology?  That's why I love technology!  I'm thinking maybe this is why others had issues with the Leaf is because they didn't take the time to go into the menu and have it reset and wait on the tv to re-auto-tune the channels.

I checked with TV Guide online and looked at what the actual local broadcast area channels were for me and I now receive all but one with the Leaf!  From what I understand some areas have lots more channels available to them, and some people assume that since it was so widely broadcasted when the switch was made that it was going to be better because there would be so many more channels now, however that does not mean that they are all actually broadcasted in your area.  I suggest going to TV Guide putting in your zip and seeing what available to you.  Also the other exciting part, besides more channels, is the tv has been on for 7 hours and not once has it digitized!  I'm so excited over this more than anything because the digitizing was bad.  It would do it every few minutes before and sometimes I'd fully lose service for hours at a time. I would get so frustrated with the digitizing I'd just switch to watching a movie or tv show on Amazon Prime or Netflix! 

I know I've only had this thing for a few hours and it's working beautifully now and maybe I'm jumping the gun on writing this this long review, however I just couldn't wait to share this new discovery of mine with you.  And since I had read so many reviews where people had them for several months or over a year and they worked great I feel confident in telling you about this now!  But I promise if I have a problem in the near future I'll definitely make an update and let you know.

If you are frugal like me and prefer to not pay some corporation your hard earned dollars just to subscribe their overpriced service to watch television and are sick of only having 3 channels that you can barely watch anyways then I suggest try out the Leaf!

OH WAIT!!  I forgot one of the best parts!  This miracle antenna only cost me $37.59 and it was free shipping!  What what!  Yep that's right!

Ok Balue is sick of me giving you guys so much attention and is now laying here pawing at me and would love for me to spend some time snuggled up with him watching our perfectly clear awesome television picture.

Much Love! Have a wonderful weekend!

UPDATE: 5/1/12 - Antenna still works awesome!  No digitizing in months.  LOVE IT!

Best Box Brownie Mix

This evening I experienced the best boxed brownies ever.  Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix is superior awesomeness.  I've always loved their little candies being the chocolate phene that I am, but the brownies.... holy cow!  Not only is it dark chocolate mix, but there's chocolate chips in the mix making these gooey super awesome... really I need to stop before I drool on my desk.

I would love to visit the Ghirardelli factory some day.  If you want some fun facts for next time you are having some water cooler chocolate chat visit the Ghirardelli Difference page to see what makes them so special!

If you want to wow some people without going through the work of making some kind of insanely intense homemade brownie batter take the easy route and give these a try!  You will be in looove!  If your local stores do not sell them click here to buy Ghirardelli brownie mixes at Amazon.com.
 

I'm in love.
Why don't I marry them then?
Well I would if I could, I'm pretty sure our relationship has been consummated.

Much Love and chocolate!
 

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

One of my favorite cool weather cakes to bake is pineapple upside-down cake.  It's fantastic warm and melts in your mouth.

I had this great recipe that I used for years however was unable to find it this round, and though I could have done it by memory I decided to look at one of my favorite recipe websites, allrecipes.com, and found this recipe that had over 400 reviews of positive feedback and almost 10,000 people have saved it to their recipe boxes, Anne's Pineapple Upside-Down Cake VII.  It uses a lot more brown sugar than I'm accustomed to using and called for a cast iron skillet which I do not have, however I thought I'd tackle it anyways, and of course give it my own little tweaks that I've incorporated over the years of baking them.


Pineapple Upside-Down Cake VII

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 45 Minutes

Ready In: 1 Hour 5 Minutes Servings: 12

"This pineapple upside down cake is made in an iron skillet. It's quick, easy and so beautiful."

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple

10 maraschino cherries 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

Directions:

1.

Melt the butter over medium high heat in the iron skillet. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly to cover the butter. Next, arrange pineapple rings around the bottom of the pan, one layer deep. Place a maraschino cherry into the center of each pineapple ring. Prepare the cake mix as directed by the manufacturer, substitute some of the pineapple juice for some of the liquid in the directions. Pour the batter over the pineapple layer.

2.

Bake as directed by the cake mix directions. Cool for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a plate. Do not let the cake cool too much or it will be stuck to the pan.

My tweaks:

• As mentioned before I do not have a cast iron skillet so I just used a 9x13 glass cake pan.
• I used yellow cake not white cake.
• I soak the pineapple slices in about 1/3 of a cup of spiced rum in a zipper bag or a plastic bowl with a lid, shake them or turn them every so often to get even soaking, the longer the better, try at least an hour to overnight.  Still save your juice from the can!
• Replace some of the liquid called for in the cake mix recipe with the rum from the pineapple soak and then the rest with the leftover canned pineapple juice and finally water if you need more liquid.
• I place cherries in the voids around the edges of the pineapple rings and around the edges of the pans this way you get your full cherry satisfaction.

Flipping tip: If you've never made an upside-down cake of any sort the easiest way to make your flip without resulting in a pile of mess... place the dish you are turning your cake onto on top of the pan you baked in, and then flip placing your dish on to the counter, I like to give the pan a few pounds of the palm on the bottom in case there are any lingering pineapples or cherries, however if you do not let it cool too long it should not be an issue, then remove your pan and find a perfectly flipped beautiful cake.

I did somehow manage to think to take a quick shot of the cold
yummy leftovers before they were dished out.

This cake turned out absolutely delicious!  It looked so good and I didn't even think before we cut into it to take a picture of it fresh and hot for the blog I was sure I'd be writing.  But who can blame me, our mouths were watering and we were intoxicated by the smell. 

It melted in our mouths and the large amount of sugar formed the perfect crispy crusty wonderfulness around the edges of the pineapples.  I will definitely be purchasing a cast iron skillet to try to make this in as well.  One of my coworkers told me that is how her grandmother had done it and there is no other way to eat them.  I found that Amazon has a 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Skillet that looks perfect at a great price and eligible for free shipping.  I cannot wait to try this again in that skillet!

If you've never tried to make a homemade pineapple upside down cake it's truly an easy cake to make and is so yummy it will have your friends and family in awe of your Domestic Goddess skills.  Give it a try and you will not be sorry.

Much Love!!

Online Dating?

Online dating… kind of scary and freaky. I’ve done it. Finding strangers online didn’t work out too well for me. I actually formed my last relationship that lasted 2 years from us meeting online. I knew it was over sooner, it just took me awhile to realize what I knew had no option but to come to fruition.


One thing I've learned from my own mistakes as well as from other people is that if you put too much information out there about yourself there is no mystery.  Some people will take advantage of knowing too much about you and put up a false front because they know exactly what it is you are looking for. By the time true colors come shining through you’ve already invested time and heart strings, and then comes the dilemma of dealing with the real person for the love of the one you fell in love with or just moving on.

After my relationship that had formed online ended I decided to try again. Scary. I didn’t put out as much information about myself and what I was looking for this time. I came in contact with this guy who was super and nice and sweet, a little clingy which I find annoying but with time it becomes tolerable. A few days into talking to each other he found me on Facebook and I accepted his friend request.   Then the fun started. Within a day he starts telling me that I am now his girlfriend and he wanted me to delete all the other men on my Facebook page and did not want me talking to any other men at all. Whoa!! What!! It hasn’t even been a week since we started talking and we haven’t even met! Deleted and Blocked.

I’ve known people who have successful relationships from meeting through online dating. Typically it seems they actually talked online for quite awhile before meeting, some for weeks, some months and some years. One of my favorite online love stories was recently posted by my friend Dinosaur Mommy in her post A Borrowed Blog. At first look it is long, but it's so worth the read, even though I already knew how it would end I was on the edge of my seat the entire time hoping they would end up together.


Taking it slow and getting to know each other probably sounds less appealing for some people who are lonely. However a major advantage is people are much more open via online correspondence than they are in person. This works with friends as well. If you are a virtual chatter you probably find that you end up telling your friend who you speak to online through instant messengers, emails, and other services, even text messaging more than what you tell your friends who you spend more time with hanging out in person. This isn't the law for everyone, I just know a lot of people are like this.  And I do not see how actually getting to know someone before investing your time and heart into them can be a bad thing.

In this cyber age I am sure we will all hear more and more stories from our friends about how they met their one and only online. Do you online date? Have you had a success story or find yourself with failure after failure?

Much love and many wishes for relationship success! 


If you are looking for a book to help, you will find that Amazon has many Dating Books for advice and stories etc for great prices, and many qualify for super saver free shipping.

Music Is Life

I truly love music, all kinds.  I will always have a special affection for rock and roll because I was a little girl growing up in Texas during the 80’s rocking out to the sounds of Pink Floyd, Tina Turner, Guns N Roses, Joan Jett, Aerosmith etc.  In our house rock and roll was pretty much all that was "allowed" on the radio, go ahead and deny it Dad, all radios in the house were to be tuned to, I’ll never forget, KBat.  Granted I was able to get away with New Kids On The Block and Tiffany and other 80’s pop music icons, but I couldn’t blast it.

My dad did grow out of that phase.  The first time he told me about how good this rapper was that my younger brother had shown him I think I about went into shock.

Now that I’m a grown ass woman, and live a few states away, I can gleefully admit that when my parents were not home I would scan the radio stations and listen to different kinds of music very loudly.  One of my favorite past times was recording songs on cassette tapes using my stereo/record player/cassette player/8 track player.  Oh yes I rocked the 8 track. 

I think my favorite song that I had recorded off of the radio onto cassette that I’d either play really low with my door closed or full blast when I had no parentals around to say something like “what in the hell is that, turn it off” was Will Smith or back then DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, Parents Just Don't Understand.  Oh yes, they truly didn't.   I remember having friends over and sneakily playing it, and the other awesome songs I had found like I Can't Live Without My Radio by LL Cool J.  Keeping it low for my friends to hear, feeling like the coolest 9 year old little girl on earth playing my contraband and exposing them to music that they had never heard.

Music has changed in the past 30+ years that I’ve been alive and it will always continue to change.  I will always love it.  Though rock is my favorite, on any given day I may listen to anything from P!nk to BB King, from Taylor Swift to Snoop Dogg.  I love the way it can soothe your soul or amp you up.  There’s music for every mood and every emotion. 

I couldn’t imagine our world without music!  A great place to find all kinds of music of every genre from over the decades is the Amazon MP3 Store.  You can download singles or entire records.  It’s great and it’s affordable!  The best part is that your purchased music is available to you everywhere.  You can log into your Amazon account and play it anywhere on your Kindle Fire, PC, Mac, iPad, or Android device.  All of which are also conveniently available at Amazon.  Friggen awesome! 

With the holidays coming up do not forget that music is a great gift.  You can purchase Gift Cards that do not expire at Amazon and your children, friends, and family can pick the music or other merchandise they love.  I also love that you can email or Facebook Amazon gift cards, this is great for friends and family who do not live nearby and saving money on postage and avoiding your gift being delayed in the mail during the holidays is not a bad thing.

Much love and pump up the jams!