Roku2 Streaming Players – Gift Ideas for Him

Roku 2 was a foreign name in my household. I was told about Roku at work by a co-worker when we engaged in a conversation about Netflix, cable, and the insane costs to maintain cable. From there I did not hear mention again and disregarded our conversation. However, our family took huge cuts to our budget and eliminate frivolous spending. With that we began to research alternative options to cable and I stumbled across the Roku box and the options and streaming channels with Roku.

Not knowing what it is about I asked to review the Roku2 XS for my husband. We love it. The amount of streaming channels, Netflix, and let’s not forget the full blown edition of Angry Birds, this gadget is great for him and the entire family. In addition to the streaming from Netflix, catch all your live sports, UFC fights (my husband’s favorite), music from Pandora, scroll through your pictures on Flickr, entertain the kids with Disney, movies on Crackle, choice of your favorite shows on Hulu Plus, the options are endless.

In addition to all the cool streaming options and channels, is the full blown edition of Angry Birds. This feeds an addicts urge to slaughter some pigs with those angry birds. Hours of fun to be had!

The setup for the Roku box is the most simple; plug and play, and no need for any fancy or complex remotes and installation instructions. You probably want to go out and buy an HDMI cable for those of you who want your HD like we do, so that is the only additional cost to the box. My husband did all the setup while I was at work and I was blown away at how little this device is, yet how powerful. So not only is it energy efficient, it does not take up a lot of space, it also has the smallest energy footprint, using less than 2 Watts when youâ€™re watching a movie. Thatâ€™s less power than a nightlight. 15 times less than a DVR. And 60 times less than a popular game console (Roku.com, 2011). A selling factor for this green family when considering purchases for our household.

If you are looking for the perfect gift for him, her, or the entire family the Roku2 is a great gift for any and every member of the family. Prices start at $59.99 and was revered as a CNET best for 2011. For more details visit the Roku site.

September 11, 2011October 6, 2014

How to avoid food poisoning

So this last week I was sent to Atlanta, Georgia for work.

You can see the details and ME here.

But what I can tell you is how you can avoid food poisoning which is by avoiding the famed Taco Mac restaurant. Curse you Taco Mac and your 130 beers on tap and your buffalo wings. But those cursed wings are what made me ill. Next time I am in Atlanta, I will be avoiding Taco Mac, sad….they were so good going down.

March 13, 2011August 2, 2015

Nintendo America Superb Customer Service

Customer service is vital for the success and or failure of any organization. Not to mention that customer service is a huge selling and marketing point to consumers. I am one to rant and rave about terrible customer service by companies and their employees. My recent trip to my local Mesa Starbucks resulted in me never visiting that location again due to an assistant manager (sad that managers have this poor customer service) by the name of Sean who treated me like I was a third rate citizen and argued with me despite my simple request. Sigh, I digress because my focus is about fantastic, exceptional, no questions asked customer service where an organization values their customers.

This Christmas Big G was given Guitar Hero Heroes of Rock for Christmas in addition to Sonic and The Dark Knight and other miscellaneous games on behalf of family to play on the Wii. Our family LOVES, let me stress, LOVES our Wii. We workout to the Wii Fit and love the sports games and Mario Cart to name a few favorites, and we enjoy a family game afternoon where we all get involved. So when Grant got these cool games to enjoy all for himself (and mom and dad when he’s not looking) we immediately wanted him to play the games and get his initial fix. However, the poor guy did not get to enjoy his game at all. When we loaded the discs into the Wii we received an error.

We thought nothing of the error at first because the boy had lost his privileges to the game console for a bit. Maybe the unit just needed a good cleaning and maybe had an excess of dust or just needed to be rebooted. After these trials had failed we resorted to our owner’s manual and then to the web. These fixes did not bring our poor Wii back to life.

Finally the hubs called Nintendo America to find a service center or more information to find out whereÂ we could get our Wii repaired. The service specialist on the other end of the line told us that we would be better off just sending our Wii straight back to Nintendo to have it repaired. Furthermore Nintendo added that the shipping to them and back to us was included along with the full refurbishing and repair of our Wii. They would tear apart, clean, rebuild and make sure the entire guts of our Wii are in proper working order for us to begin enjoying our Wii again.

More so, we sent our Wii in and within two weeks we receive our Wii delivered UPS to our doorstep. Nintendo America told us that the repair would be six weeks so the delivery was a great surprise to us. Now here is the best part…the cost. The cost was totally minimal, $92 for us to have our Wii cleaned, repaired and the guts all in working order and all the shipping costs. Needless to say I had to brag about how awesome and wonderful Nintendo was to us and our Wii.

Thank you Nintendo.

For anyone who has trouble with the Nintendo gaming consoles or their personal gaming unit be sure to contact Nintendo before you waste your time and money with the traditional repair centers.

November 4, 2010April 15, 2018

Fresh Produce – Lifestyle Clothing

As a mother of three and business woman I try to find clothing that is fashion forward, comfortable, choice materials that are sturdy, and feel good. My wardrobe is rather diverse in that matter due to the various positions I hold personally and professionally.Â Some days I carry a full business garb due to my position with my employer, other days I am jeans and a tee for running errands, and finally some days I just want good, clean, comfortable clothes for playing with the kids at the park.

What I found is that finding comfortable clothing with substance, willing to move and flow with me while I run around with the kids is hard to find, until now. I have had the opportunity to wear, run, lounge, play, and live in some truly comfortable clothing built for my lifestyle. Fresh Produce clothing is lifestyle clothing constructed for women who like to live a beach lifestyle. Flowing, comfortable, fresh, clean clothes that are fashionable, colorful, easy to care for, maintain, and put together.

Fresh Produce is a “Made in the USA.” Founded by Thom and Mary Ellen Vernon and spawned by the revenue generating event of the 1984 Olympics where the dynamic couple birthed their concept of bright, colorful clothing and fashionable jewelry to those visiting the Los Angeles area for the summer Olympics. For more than 20 years the

Fresh Produce, clothing, lifestyle clothing, beachwear

Vernon’s have been clothing women, men and families with their bright, crisp, trendy apparel to spread the infectious feeling of the beach lifestyle.

The folks at Fresh Produce put together an outfit for me that fit me perfectly as well as my lifestyle. I received one of their infamous screen printed tees in black and a pair of safariÂ Capri’s. Fresh Produce tees are soft comfortable, and the outfit is one of my favorite to wear on the weekends.

I can just jump out of the shower, do my hair and put together my outfit in a short amount of time. Throw on a pair of Chuck Taylor’s and I’m off to play in the grass and sand at the park with my kids on these cool fall days in Arizona. Moreover I can keep my same outfit on while I run over to Costco and grab the few things my family needs.

Even still I can swap around the outfit to wear the tee with a pair of jeans or just theÂ CapriÂ pants alone with a tank and pair of flip flops. That is the fantastic, beautiful, and versatile wonder that makes Fresh Produce clothing a fitting for your lifestyle no matter where you live. You don’t have to live at the beach to have a beach attitude and lifestyle.

April 4, 2010April 15, 2018

Organic Home Pest Control

As the weather begins to warm up and the family gets out and about to play, our insect friends are doing the same. They too are enjoying the warmth and unfortunately at our expense. Invading our homes, yards, and causing annoyances and grief to keep them at bay.

I am a firm believer in not using chemicals in and around my home because my kids can get into them, the residuals can get on their skin, and even my dog can get sick from the chemicals used inÂ home pest control.

So I sought out non-toxic, alternative, safe methods, for the most part, an organic ant killer. I tried cinnamon, I still use diatomaceous earth (for my pool mostly) but also to ward off scorpions, fleas, and other exoskeleton buggers. I even found that corn meal can get rid of ants, but did not repel them.

EcoSMART is my savior. When I received the package I immediately surveyed the ingredients. How in the world could an insecticide, ant killer, andÂ repellentÂ be organic? Non-toxic? The answer? The ingredients are all natural oils, like peppermint oil, thyme oil, water, the ingredients are easy to understand and read.

I noticed as well after I received the package that our back patio is acquiring ants again. I went to work onÂ eradicatingÂ the buggers so I did not and do not have to worry about my any of my kids being bit by the ants and my bulldog being besieged. I sprayed the ant killer around my back door, and where the ants were congregating and watched as they died on contact and as others came within any distance of the spray they immediately hauled off.

The scent was also completely tolerable. No smell of chemicals, just a fresh minty smell and as my kids were walking in and out of the back door, I did not have to worry about them coming into contact with the spray. While I did wash their hands and feet, I felt safe knowing that them coming in contact would not require me to take IMMEDIATE action or fear calling poison control.

Fact is that children are more often hurt in their own homes by products that we use everyday and assume to be “safe.” Additionally, bugs and pests are becoming more and moreÂ resilientÂ to synthetic pesticides and as the formula’s change and the insects evolve combating the problem is only a band-aid and causes further harm to our children, pets, home, and family as we spray over and over and over again.

With EcoSMART you can spray over and over without the worry of residual effects of a synthetic pesticide to harm Â your family. If you would like a safe, alternative to ward off pests be sure to check out EcoSMART which is available at Home Depot and other home improvement stores. Or you can enter my giveaway which ends April 15th, 2010. *I received product in exchange for a review and giveaway promotion.

March 16, 2010August 16, 2015

Palm Pre Plus Review

Maybe you have seen all the UBER (yes, I said UBER) promotions for the Palm Pre Plus? I had actually only heard of the Palm Pre before I actually receivedÂ¹ my phone. Completely unaware of all the capabilities, functionality, fun, and the sheer ease of use with the Palm Pre Plus.

First and foremost the Palm Pre Plus is a smart phone. For those of you who are really unsure of what a “smart phone” may be (because really I had no idea until I bought a smart phone); a smart phone is a mobile phone with PC like operating capabilities. In a nut shell your phone is a pocket laptop.

Now as Â a smart phone, or pocket PC owner, the first thing to be done other than allowing the battery to completely die and begin charging, is to check for updates. Â While I should have known to update my phone and the OS installed on the phone, I made the “assumption” that the phone was current and up to date. I mean why roll out a BRAND NEW phone that you have to install updates to right? (*cough Microsoft) I found my phone needed an update thanks to Twitter. A quick conversation using my #verizonpalmpreplus hash-tag and VOILA! An angel of my friends swoops in to tell me to update my operating system to receive the newest capabilities.

Secondly your phone will have a set amount of storage, memory, etc. Be sure to check your total gig (if any) of storage to determine if your phone will have the capability to handle document storage, pictures, videos, the multiple functions you carry out on your phone. The Palm Pre Plus is a 16GB phone even with the installation of the operating system. The amount of storage allows me to take plenty of pictures, save documents (including PDF’s), and archive my email in the event I want ALL of my email saved to my phone.

Third, be sure that your phone is compatible with your PC or the PC you will be using to back up your information. Since many of us are on the go, we conduct a great deal of business, personal, and miscellaneous transactions on our phones. I personally have all my emails synced on my phone, my calendars, not to mention pictures and fun videos of my kids. Most phones do come with an installation disc for your PC while others simply require that drivers be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. In the case of the Palm Pre Plus, I downloaded drivers and saved my photos, ring-tones, and videos in the unfortunate event my phone becomes inoperable. In addition to backing up your vital information, you can update and sync all your calendars together with Outlook, Google, Facebook and more!

With your smart phone being a PC in your pocket, you want your phone to multi-task. I found with my Blackberry this was nearly IMPOSSIBLE! One. Thing. At. A. Time. Which is fine if I was not on the go, dealing with the kids, making dinner and trying to Tweet. Basically, this scenario was never fine!

The Palm Pre Plus allows for the multitasking like a PC. For example, I was talking with my mother the other day on the phone. We were discussing the Celtic Woman concert I am taking her to for Mother’s Day. While speaking with her I was able to minimize the touch screen dial pad on the phone, open my calendar and tell her exactly what time and the day the concert was held. Whereas if I were on my Blackberry I would have had to tell her I would call her back with the details.

The Palm Pre Plus from Verizon is very simple to use. No thick books or manuals to walk you through the functions. Much like a PC with a user friendly layout, operating system, and superior HELP capabilities the Palm Pre Plus is a great choice for any mom or adult on the go who needs multitasking capabilities.

Â¹ I received a Palm Pre Plus on behalf of Verizon Wireless as part of their campaign to promote the Palm Pre Plus. In no way was my opinion or view of the phone swayed by this factor, my opinion is purely informational as an opinion from a consumer and should be considered as such.

March 15, 2010August 2, 2015

Pom Wonderful

Have you heard of free radicals? In case you have not or are unsure, free radicals are molecules that float around until they bond to something. Free radicals are pollution, sun rays, anything in the air that cause premature aging, tissue damage, and some believe diseases are causes from free radicals.

Science and research are showing that many of our foods are POTENT in anti-oxidants and vitamin C which have been suggested to fight free radicals, improve skin and health. But I won’t bore you with all the great facts about POM Wonderful as a daily beverage to provide you with wonderful health benefits.

And….the beverage tastes WONDERFUL (really….it does), makes for great additions to food recipes, and as the research suggests, good for you.

Our family has been fans of POM for some time and they even have a hybrid tea/juice and is superb! My twins are hooked on POM, 100% pure Pomegranate juice. So much so that I had to restock the fridge as we drank all of our samples rather quickly.

However, before we guzzled all the anti-oxidant goodness that is POM. I made a few spritzers for the kids with POM and Diet Sierra Mist. No caffeine, no sugary hype, and the kids loved it. I also made a wonderful POM reduction glaze for my fruit salad that we served over pound cake. Of course we drank POM Wonderful straight up too….why wouldn’t we?

POM Wonderful is a U.S. product, the orchards are located in California. Whereas other pomegranate juices are a mix of import products from pomegranates from Iran, Turkey, India and are mixed with fillers and other unhealthy additives. As a lot of you may know I am ALL about buying as much domestic and organic products as possible. I want my kids to enjoy every bit of “fruitful” benefits without all the fillers and harsh chemicals.

Not to mention that POM Wonderful pomegranates are like grape varieties, the breeds with wonderful health benefits and the other breeds that just have great flavor. To read more about how POM Wonderful can make a difference in your life and how your family can enjoy it’s many healthful qualities be sure to check out the website. There you can find lots of recipes and find out more information on health matters as well.

March 12, 2010August 2, 2015

Beauty of Mirra

Here lies Karie Noel Herring; beauty addict. Hi, my name is Karie and I am a beauty addict. Admittedly I love to try new beauty products and I have cabinets (and truly boxes) filled with tried and true and tried and failed products. I have invested in some of the finest products from France, Switzerland, and I have invested in some of the greatest bargain products available at your local grocer.

I recently was presented with the opportunity to try a new beauty line exclusive to Kroger brand stores, Mirra. The goal of the Mirra beauty line is for the effortless beauty care for women which are: Daily – routine personal care; Renew – a rejuvenating time out; and Inspire – quick transformations for a night out.Â The Kroger Company, on behalf of the Global Influence Network, provided me with the following products to review and share:

Shampoo
Conditioner
Body Wash
Body Lotion
Under Eye Wrinkle Cream
Daytime moisturizer and wrinkle reducer
Night time moisturizer and wrinkle reducer

Here is my take; I truly enjoyed the shampoo, conditioner and body wash. While they are sulfate free products they are wonderful for cleansing and moisturizing. My skin and hair do not feel stripped or quenching for thirst like some sulfate products that I have used. Especially because the shampoo and conditioner are the “volumizing” option which tend to strip hair a bit more to give it oomph. The scent is very light and not loaded with perfumes. The body wash, however, is a bit overwhelming with scent. I felt like I was bathing in gardenias. While a very lovely scent, I am not a big “flower” girl.

The body lotion is wonderful! Very smooth and silky and quenching. A little goes a long way and I did not feel greasy, thick, or heavy. Whereas the facial creams cannot be described in the same fashion. The under eye cream is nice, blending well and seeming to absorb well into the skin. However, when I would apply my makeup the under eye cream would appear to cake up and pill off of my face. Almost as if dry skin flaking off.

The day and night creams I was excited to use as well. My skin is not as supple as it used to be, especially because I tended to abuse it in my 20s with smoking, tanning, and inconsiderate care. But the creams seem to do more harm than good. After application my face would feel greasy and as if I had just spent time working out. Furthermore, my face DID NOT react well to the creams and I began to have breakouts. Upon discontinuing use my face returned to a normal state. While the consistency was very nice the cream was NOT for me.

Even though the creams were not for me and the washes and lotion were, doesn’t mean they cannot be your complete and affordable, total beauty regimen. You can win a beauty pack very similar to the products I received myself and receive a coupon for $5 off the purchase of two Mirra products at Kroger and Kroger brand stores. Here is how you can win:

Tell me in a comment your peeve with beauty products or the WORST product you have ever tried.

Extra entries:

Follow this blog with Google Friend Connect (right hand side)
Follow me on Twitter
Tweet this giveaway with unlimited tweets, no double entry: Win effortless beauty Mirra full size beauty prize pack with @KariewithaK Â http://goo.gl/3wbt Ends 3/23
Subscribe to my feed (Worth 3 entries)

CONTEST ENDS MARCH 23RD @ 11:59PM

March 6, 2010August 16, 2015

Palm Pre Mobile HotSpot

Upon receiving the Verizon Wireless Palm Pre Plus I knew the phone had lots of features. No let me restate that,Â LOTS of features, seemingly unlimited capabilities in a phone. I knew of the online web surfing option, a FacebookÂ app, and other data features I had seen with my Blackberry Curve. However, one feature that I was told about by theÂ Verizon staff was that the Palm Pre Plus has a feature called the Mobile Hotspot. Okay, do tell, as I am not as techÂ savvy as my husband, I need a bit more explaining.Â Basically the phone turns into a wireless hub, port, connection, a wifi hotspot for up to five users or computers. You can also make this a secure or open connection just as you would with a wireless connection in your home.

EEGADS!

IT DOES?

SWEET!

Or so I thought.

Our trip to San Diego was a perfect opportunity to test out the Palm Pre Plus Mobile Hotspot. After we got out ofÂ town and the kids were entertained or fast asleep I decided to pull out my laptop to get some blog posts done. IÂ grabbed my Palm Pre Plus and began to look through my navigation menu. The only option available was a Wifi icon.Â This was not the mobile hotspot option. So I began to Google on the phone to find the name of the app. Only afterÂ spending roughly two hours and nearly draining my battery I found a decent article that stated how the mobileÂ hotspot works on the Palm Pre Plus. Here is what Verizon DID NOT tell me:

You must pay a $35 activation fee for the 3G (or is it now 4G?) service capability to make the phone a mobileÂ hotspot for the Wifi capability. This fee then notifies your account of the available hotspot app. However this option is FREE only with the Palm Pre phone, the activation fee applies to all other phones.
You must then search through the THOUSANDS of apps in the app catalog for the Palm Mobile Hotpost specific app. Or as I did….update your operating system….AFTER you spent countless wasted hours searching needlessly.
Only after paying the activation fee, searching endlessly for the app, you must yet again pay another fee. Yes,Â I did say you have to pay another fee, another $40 per month for what Verizon calls the Mifi. (Minus the former MifiÂ card that came with the service since your phone is now the air card per se.) However, again, what Verizon does not disclose is that this fee is waived for all Palm Pre Plus owners since this is a feature ONLY to this phone.

I was HIGHLY annoyed and frustrated at the lack of communication in part from Verizon regarding the Palm PreÂ mobile hotspot capability. Fantastic my phone can dial space but if I don’t pay the tolls and fees to talk to aliensÂ then the option is fairly moot correct? More or less my annoyance was due to the fact that I was TOLD that I alreadyÂ had the mobile hotspot on my phone which meant I “assumed” I could use my phone for Wifi on the road and I could

post wonderful blog fodder.

All in all I am extremely happy with the phone, however, I am a bit disappointed that the Verizon Wireless staffÂ failed to mention the fine print of fees and activation IN ORDER to make the phone a mobile hotspot at the time thatÂ I had activated the phone. Plus the mobile hotspot does have a data limit of 5MB for your usage, unless you have the unlimited data plan, so be sure to check with your provider to see what your data limit may be. In the event you areÂ looking to game or do anything other than maybe check your email you will more than likely go OVER your data usageÂ thus resulting in additional fees and charges and waiting until your next billing cycle to renew your data limit. But again, totally happy and satisfied with Verizon Wireless and the Palm Pre Plus, just disappointed with the communication at the store level.

February 27, 2010May 8, 2019

Saved by a Palm

No not that palm.
This Palm.

The Palm Pre Plus saved my life this week. Not literally in that it is not a secret defibrillator, though I am sure there is an app for that, but for the last week I have been terribly ill. I mean I was hacking a lung, running a fever of over 100 degrees, not pretty, all I wanted to do was sleep. The last thing I really wanted to do was fire up my computer and blog, check my email, send a tweet all while sitting in front of my laptop. I had no desire. But I knew I was receiving emails in my inbox, PTO, bills, blog giveaway entries and winners, I had to be able to read these emails, respond, and or forward important information.

Had I not had the capability of email on my Palm Pre Plus, had I not had the Synergy capability that syncs my emails, my calendars, my notes, everything I use on my laptop in Outlook I would be so behind. More so than I already am, but I am glad I was able to respond to my email recipients and read important emails with ease and without having to fire up my laptop. All while laying on my couch sulking in my misery of being sick. I know….rough life huh? In all seriousness the email capability is so seamless, streamlined and easy to access in the Palm Pre Plus.

Oh I also need to add that since the hubs works from home too I use Google talk to message him during the day. “What do you want for lunch?” “Dinner?” Or a quick may-day to tell him I am drowning with the twins. So while being sick, trying to maneuver to his office to tell him I need help or need something as close to impossible as well. The Palm Pre Plus has a messenger option too through SMS text and Google talk. I just logged in my Google account and VOILA! I can message right from my phone, again without firing up my laptop thus again making my life so much easier as a mom and a business woman.

*The Five Fish, Karie Herring, received a Palm Pre Plus on behalf of Verizon Wireless to review and share my experience with the phone. In no way has the review influenced my opinion of the product, my review is my opinion about the product.