Like playing word games on your iPhone? If you love scrabble, there’s two options out there for you to play with your friends – one’s free, one’s a bit pricey. I’ve got them both loaded on my phone, and they’ve got pros and cons for each.

Scrabble – the obvious con is the cost. You can get more info on this game HERE.$4.99 is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it’s more than I usually spend on an iphone game. What’s cool about the official scrabble? It connects up with your facebook account, so you can play with that group of friends, and they can play online so they don’t even need an iPhone to throw down tiles with you. Scrabble also has a neat feature where after you play your words, it will show you what a better option might have been – or let you know if you did the best you could. It’s also got this neato list of all the two-letter words acceptable to their dictionary. Always handy!

Words with Friends is another version of this same game – with a few less features. You need to play with other iPhone users, there’s no little tutor to let you know if you’ve done the best or not, but other than that it’s a highly enjoyable version of this game. It’s FREE, although there are some ads, and you can buy an ad-free version for a minimal cost. The ads don’t really bother me, though. Get more info on Worlds with Friends HERE.

Either way, both games are a great way to pass time, interact with your pals, and learn a few new words. I like them both!

Ravelry.com has been in beta for a long time, but this growing online community of yarn-obsessed folks is incredibly strong and filled with content.  Before I procreated, I had tons of time to knit.  One year, I made custom scarves for everyone on my Christmas list, carefully picking out yarn and patterns that I thought matched each person’s style.

Now that I’ve got rugrats, I have very little time to knit along with a large yarn stash that I had been building for years.  I’ve also added to it a little bit over the past few years with the good intentions of knitting for my kids and my friend’s kids.  I have lots of half-finished things floating around: a sweater that I never did the sleeves for (can this just be a vest?), a dolly that has two legs, one arm and her head knitted but not sewn or stuffed together, and even worse, bags with patterns, needles, and the yarn … but not even cast on.  What is the most disturbing is things like the bag of baby cashmerino yarn in lilac that I purchased with every intention of making a baby blanket for my daughter Serena (who turns five in a few months).

In a quest to use this (very expensive!) yarn to still make something beautiful and useful for my daughter, I searched Ravelry.com at the recommendation of a knitting expert friend.  Enter in the name of the yarn that you have, and you will see pages upon pages of suggestions for it’s use along with photos, patterns, and details and comments from others that have made the item as well. You can limit the results of your search if they are too overwhelming, the tool that lets you search the patterns and yarns archived in the community are really excellent.

How wonderful for someone like me, who works days and is home nights with the kids to find a community of like-minded knitters to talk to, trade patterns with, and get advice on how to use my yarn stash.    Take the tour and see what Ravelry is all about.

I regularly watch video content on my computer – whether it be hilarious clips on YouTube or catching up at Hulu.com, I’m always cruising for content.  I rarely get to watch what I want to watch on my television as I live with a 2-year-old (Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba), a 4-year-old (anything Noggin or Disney Channel) and a 38-year-old (Sports, Sports, Sports).  It’s just easier to tune the tv to what they want to watch, and then pull out my laptop and headphones.

So today, I headed over to NBC.com to look for episodes of Parks and Recreation (one of my fave new shows, if you have not seen this yet give it a chance – it’s quirky and very funny) and noticed a section of their video content that I’d never paid attention to before: NBC Video Rewind. In there, I found a virtual paradise of video from the 1980’s: Battlestar Galactica, Charles in Charge, Buck Rogers, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, The Bionic Woman, and Simon vs. Simon.  Be still my heart, I cannot wait to tune my tv to Yo Gabba Gabba and let Charles be in charge of me. 

Check out the classic TV site that goes along with this content: http://www.nbc.com/classic-tv/

Thank you, NBC – for bringing back some good old content instead of just pumping out a few more stupid reality shows!

So I’m finally realizing how unhappy I was with Type Pad and am migrating my blog to Word Press.  I’ve done so much development with Word Press in the past, I’m not sure why I even decided to use Type Pad in the first place other than to challenge myself and learn a new platform.  But with my experience and general unhappiness over the past few months in working with Type Pad, I’ve decided that I’m DONE and I’m now rebuilding my blog into what I know and love.

This process will take some time for the re-skinning, as I’m in a new job, I’ve just moved my family of four.  Both my work life and my home life are hectic right now and for the moment, this blog will not exactly match the rest of my site as it had previously. Don’t worry, I’ll get to it!

I have posts lined up on lots of new apps that I’ve been testing out – including the Weight Watchers app, some cool new games, and new fun podcasts I’ve discovered (have you heard of Crimes Against Food?  It’s hilarious!)

More posts coming … I promise!

This definitely fits under the “just for fun” category – the super-cool new Hello Kitty jewelry line that Kimura Lee Simmons just came out with. It’s freaking adorable, you can check it out on her web site at: http://www.hellokittyfinejewelry.com/. (Don’t bother with http://simmonsjewelryco.com/, it just points to all her sites and doesn’t do much else. Wut up, Kimura?)

Just … drool! Kimura really knows how to overdo things in just the right way – well, except for the web. She could use a little help there. I have a few digs: I saw the ad for her new line in this month’s issue of Marie Claire, yet when I went to the web address listed in her full page ad, it didn’t point me directly to the place (there are two hello kitty jewelry lines on her main site listing, which one is the one I want?) and the product that is the focus of the ad is nowhere to be seen on either site.

Kimura, love the merch. Could use some help on the UI.

In need of extra cash, and have a web connection and a brain? August 24th’s issue of First Magazine highlighted the following three cool options for getting extra green while sitting on your couch in your pajamas. (Which I can then head over to Old Navy’s clearance area with …) I’m a member of lots of marketing survey groups, and I earn bits of money here and there filling out forms (as I’m in the coveted marketing group of women 30-40 who have two kids) but these seem much more fulfilling, particularly the first one:

Associated Content

Pays $3-$30 per accepted submission plus $1.50 for every 1K views..
Yes, that’s lower than a traditional freelance writer, but what if you’re just getting started? This seems like a great way to accumulate clips as well as earn cash.

LivePerson.com

This site offers pay-per-minute fees to chat online with experts. So, what are you an expert in? Whatever your knowledge, most experts charge .50-$3.50 an hour, LivePerson takes 30-35% of that as commission. Work the hours you want, and hope that people are looking for the answers that you have.

MechanicalTurk.com


This one is the lowest paying, but also needs the least amount of brain power. Owned by Amazon.com, you earn your money by doing what they call HITs – Human Intelligence Tasks. What the heck is that, you’re asking yourself. It’s doing things like transcribing audio recordings, identifying photos, and other menial tasks. Of course, you can have your earnings dumped directly into your amazon account.

In no way am I suggesting that you could earn your living using these tools, but rather as a means of lowering the cost of things you want to purchase online. As for me, I feed my iPhone app addiction.

My assignment? I signed up and quickly reviewed the list of available tasks and found the perfect one for me – get paid to test and write a review for an iphone app, and the added bonus of getting the app for free. I followed the instructions, played with the app a bit and posted my review. Okay, it only earned me a buck fifty, however, I got a free app and I can use that small earning to go get ANOTHER one without guilt. I reviewed a program called Where to Eat, visit http://www.ondemandworld.com/ for details.

Not that I want Hallmark to go out of business (okay, I really don’t care!), but I used to be the type of person that would pick up 5-10 greeting cards just for fun to send to friends in faraway places. Now, I save paper, stamps, and TIME and send e-cards. I ran across a nice little site for this recently, www.someecards.com, and their cards are truly funny. Today’s featured card for Bastille day really made me laugh, and reminded me of why I love the web.

Check out this cool free resource for clever online e-cards, and drop a line to someone in the most earth-responsible way possible.

So I posted about free coffee earlier this week, now here’s the perfect compliment – free Jamba Juice. Print out the coupon from this link, find a friend, and go get some juice!

Don’t forget to visit your local Baskin Robbins today and support the National Volunteer Fire Council by buying a small scoop of ice cream for just 31 cents.