Stuff For Your Eyeballs : "The LEGO Movie" Review

"The LEGO Movie" is a kid's movie in the same way that the first "Toy Story" kid's movie - full of double entendres and references no "kid" under the age of 30 is likely to get. It's a winner, even if you don't have kids, if you ever loved LEGOs, go see this film. 

We went on a busy Saturday afternoon, the first warm weekend after Atlanta had been brought to a frozen standstill for more than a week- to say it was a full theater was an understatement. Kid-focused movies are the only ones I love to go to in full theaters. The kids get so excited, mine included, and make the best kinds of utterances. There is a, let's call it 'catchy' song (it's also in the trailer) that you will unlikely ever get out of your head, but all the kids were singing along. 

I had seen the trailer and figured, like other kid's movie trailers, that the best adult focused jokes were part of the trailer. I could not have been more wrong. We all laughed and laughed from beginning to end. The tone set in the trailer is the same throughout the movie. 

One part of it was certainly the expert animation. One part of it was certainly the writing. The best part, overall, was the cast. Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Will Arnett, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman.... I mean really do you get a better comic cast? They do a great job of timing the well-written script. 

There is also the part that is you have to love LEGOs. In my house, they are a way of life. Robert and D'mitri both love LEGOs and always have. This movie does an excellent (and at times, heart-tugging) job of reminding youngest and the oldest in the theater why these tiny little bits of fit-together plastic are the foundation of some of the best family memories. 

App Review: Pepperplate

What its for : Recipe organization, meal planning, shopping list organizing, weekly food packing.

Personal Technology: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.0 (app & Chrome) & HTC OneX (ICS app) & Windows 7 (Chrome)

I'm taking a little break from the Portland posts to laud the wonderfulness that is Pepperplate.

I've been looking for a menu planning app that may all my wants in a single app and this one comes the closest.

Pepperplate gives me a place to collate my own recipes, many of which only existed in my head or on random scraps of paper stuck in cookbooks, along with ones I pull from my favorite websites. Those recipes can then be organized into menus, those menus into plans and those plans into shopping lists. It makes my little organizational heart go pitter-pat.

When you are ready to start cooking, you can set several timers to help get it all on the table at the same time. I've found this a little clunky, but it's still helpful to know in the beginning of cooking a dish when you should start your sides, but if you aren't good at getting a meal on the table (like me) this isn't going to help you much.

East of access is king in this app - from my laptop (at work when I come across some awesome idea for a meal), my phone (at the grocery store while I'm shopping), and my tablet (while I'm cooking in the kitchen) has meant better meals and less frustrating shopping experiences. 

The sync feature is my largest gripe and that's pretty minimal. Occasionally, the sync doesn't complete until you restart the app, or, reverts to a prior shopping list while in the middle of a shopping trip. Annoying, but it's not enough to make me not want to use it.

Being able to make notes on recipes that came from somewhere else is helpful, since I have to make adjustments for the tastes in my household.

The applet Chrome uses on the tablet doesn't function the way the developers obviously wanted it to. You can't easily import or copy and paste. Again, annoying but until I run out of interesting things from Bon Appetit and allrecipes.com it's not keeping me from using it.

You can get the app from Google Play (or iTunes)  and from here on the Web.

App Review: Out of Milk

My love affair with lists is close to obsessive. Notepads full, word docs with bulletized lists, scribbles on the backs of envelopes. It's both a twitchy comfort and a safeguard for my shitty short-term memory. Going to the grocery without a list has resulted recently in remembering to buy hot dogs, but not the buns that go with them. Since I really try to only shop once a week or every two weeks- it makes for extra trips or wasted food. 

Google Play (I'm an Android / HTC OneX  girl) is heavy with task list apps, shopping list apps, to-do list apps, pantry management apps, time management apps. I'm not very fussy as a user. I like a clean UI and easy edit capabilities. I found after trying several to-do and shopping list apps that being able to update them online was my key to the best app. 

Out Of Milk has been the app that has stayed on my phone. My choice is not based on a specific set of test guidelines, nothing that scientific. I go and search the Google Play store, find a couple with decent reviews and that are free or have free trials and load them on the phone. After setting them up, playing around with them and then closing them, the winner ends up being decided by what app I come back to later when I really need to use the service. Out of Milk is that app. 

Image thanks to the Google Play store

Getting a 4.5 out of 5, the reviews are pretty accurate. It's quick to get the hang of and easy to create lists. Not as intuitive when it comes to deleting, editing entries or deleting lists, but once you figure out how that happens, it's a snap. 

I've just started using the pricing and coupon functions. I'm honestly too lazy to scan all the bar codes in, adjust and correct pricing, but I am going to try to get a better handle on our food costs, so this should help me plan my grocery budget. More updates when I have tried that feature. 

I'm using it for all things move related and will be able to test out the sync, share and online edit features more thoroughly. 

Worth mentioning that the $1.99 Pro upgrade is well worth it. Fully featured, this app does everything useful for list organization without adding too much you just don't need.