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Grab yourself a snack and tune in to this packed episode where we discuss all things geek AND food with Kat and Dave Curlee of the shows "Cooking with Kat" and the new "The Kitchen Gadget Show." Who knew just how much tech and geek talk could be involved while discussing cooking! Discover your inner geek — on the other side of the screen — in the KITCHEN! Listen to the Curlees share their cooking tips, family stories, production techniques, favorite links and cooking tools — all this week on Moms Gone Geek!

Social Networks & Recipe Sharing

Cooking with Kat www.KatCurlee.com

The Kitchen Gadget Show www.KitchenGadgetShow.com

Facebook Fan Page www.facebook.com/CookingWithKat

Dave's Website: www.DaveCurlee.com

Kat on Twitter: @KatCurlee
Dave on Twitter: @DaveCurleee 

Meal Planning
Kat's Ten Back-to-School Meal Planning Tips That Can Save You Money

1. Make fewer trips to the grocery store—or fast food restaurants—and cut your fuel costs. Frequent trips to the grocery store waste time, gas and money. So, create your meal plans for the week and make all of your purchases in one trip to the store.

2. Eliminate wasted food that goes uneaten in your refrigerator. When you plan your meals you make better use of the food you purchase and reduce spoilage. For example, soups and stews are a great way to make use of extra vegetables, milk or cheese.

3. Buy fresh produce in season—when it’s cheaper. You’ll pay more for food purchased off-season so choose recipes that use seasonal ingredients.

4. Build meals around sale items featured at your grocery store. Take advantage of what’s on sale by searching our recipe database by ingredient.

5. Clip coupons and check store promotions for foods you buy on a regular basis. This is a money saving habit that can really add up over the long term.

6. Stock your pantry when items you can store in the cupboard or freezer are on sale. In addition to saving money up front, buying more of your kitchen staples when they go on sale will also ensure that you always have healthy food on hand for those nights when you don’t know what to cook.

7. Eat a healthy breakfast from home—decrease spending on expensive convenience foods eaten on the go or purchased from vending machines. Breakfasts do not need to be complicated. Having simple foods on hand, such as yogurt, whole-wheat bread, fruit and cereal, provide important nutrients often lacking in convenience foods.

8. Pack your lunch. Lunch and snacks prepared at home save money. Packing your lunch will keep you from feeling pressured to purchase expensive and often less nutritious meals or snacks from convenience stores, vending machines and restaurants. If you’re already making a lunch for your children, it only takes a few more minutes to make an extra sandwich or snack for yourself.

9. Buy in bulk. Purchase and prepare your favorite and frequently eaten foods in bulk—such as, purchasing two for one gallons of milk. Preparing dinner "in bulk" by doubling a recipe or adding another serving or two will cost very little extra and leave you with leftovers for lunches or another dinner later in the week.

10. Eat at home. Make time for family meals at home. Meals prepared at home are often more nutritious and less expensive than restaurant meals. In addition to providing your family with nutritious meals and cutting food costs, eating at home gives you the invaluable opportunity to talk to and connect with your family.

Creating Digital Cookbooks

DigitalCookbook.tv
PanDigital.com sells a Kitchen HDTV Digital Recipe/Picture Frame using Bon Apetite collection. Can be used as a counter top device or install it under cabinet.  

Favorite Sites

MealsMatter.Org
Hershey's
Kraft Food & Family
FoodTV
GroceryGame.com
Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller

Favorite Gadgets in the Kitchen

Sankotu Knife
Egg Slicer
Kitchenaid Mixer
Great Grandmother's Cast Iron Skillet

Kat's Favorite Tech Tools from a Mom's Point of View

iPod Touch!!! "I can keep my schedule, pictures, music, check weather, etc. It's my FAVORITE!"
"My notebook in my kitchen!"

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We're gettin' goo-goo geeky-ga-ga talking about technologies surrounding birth and parenting. It's fascinating thinking about how far technology has advanced in this area of our lives — or hasn't in some cases. We've gone from polaroid pictures to online web albums; from paper journals to websites and blogs. We're curious to know what it was like when you were having kids? What kinds of tech was available for new moms and moms giving birth 10, 20 or 30 yrs ago? We want to know what was something you thought revolutionary for its time? It's all about Baby 2.0 Tech and how we're ga ga for baby gear — all this week on Moms Gone Geek.

Bonus Trivia Question

Can you identify the musical reference to a John Hughes movie at the end of the show? What was the name of the movie, song title and artist?

Pay close attention to the lyrics and I bet you can guess the geeky reference it also points to. The answer is at the end of this post for attribution. Don't cheat now!!

Special Guest

Pat Fauquet of MacMousecalls.com and Partner of Dr. Mac Consulting with Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus

Thanks for the awesome feedback to Freida, Jodi Spangler, and SwitchingGranny just to name a few.

Geeky Parenting Meme

Share with us something geeky you did or are currently doing as it relates to conception, pregnancy, parenting, grandparenting, etc.

For example, TheMacMommy used Apple's iCal to track her fertility for both pregnancies. (Tip: don't email your husband calendar invitations from your fertility calendar, it's just not sexy.)

Uber Geeky Mom Allison Sheridan showed Melissa the spreadsheet (pre-Excel days!) she saved of her basal temperature when she was trying to conceive her daughter. What an adorable little memoir!

Baby Registries

Suggestions for Baby Registries

External Hard Drives for backing up all those precious memories and all the data our kids now generate

Products

Pumpin' Pal

ItsBeen Baby Timer

Digi Time Capsule

Resources

BabyCenter

BabyNames.com

Babyname Wizard

Awesome Geeky Dads at DadLabs.com

Reviews

TheMacMommy Reviews Diaper Pails

TUAW Reviews Parenting Apps for the iPhone

iPhone/iPod Touch Apps

Baby Monitor

Baby Namer

My Baby (for saving your favorite baby names)

Pregnancy Kick Counter

Total Baby

Baby Tracker: Nursing

Baby Tracker: Diapers

Pregnancy Tracker

Special Thanks to Aaron Griffith of Baby Activity Logger for the iPhone.
TheMacMommy will be reviewing the app to report on later. Thanks for the review code!

For Fun

Lilypie Tickers

Bonus Trivia Sound Clip Answer

The Song: "Full of Love"
Written by Stephen Duffy and Roger Freeman
Performed by Dr. Calculus

The Movie: "She's Having a Baby" directed by John Hughes 1998 

 

Babies Don't Keep

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Listen to this episode of Moms Gone Geek.

We're drinkin the Google Juice! It's so yummy and refreshing! Won't you join us? We discuss GTD with Google IMAP and CalDAV along with the myriad of apps and products that go good with Google. What the heck are we talking about? Listen to this episode to find out more and get your fill of geeky goodness!

What is IMAP?

Everything AND the Sync

This Nuevasync hack predated Google Sync, but you might want to take a look at it for comparisons. BusyMacwas another tool that predated Google Sync, but it costs $25.(whatever blows your skirt up, if you think it's easier!)

Getting Started with CalDAV Support for Syncing Google Calendars iCal and iPhone or iPod Touch

TheMacMommy's Review of Syncing Google's Mail and Calendar Products: Household CTO Tools of the Trade

As part of my "Nesting" phase in this pregnancy, I became very determined to find a way to easily sync the communications and scheduling information my husband and I share between several devices. Those devices being: our iPod Touch (a.k.a. "The Practice iPhone"), MacBook Pro and my husband's PC at work. Between the two of us, we manage several work and personal email accounts and calendars. Now with children added to the mix, they'll also have their own calendars for scheduling information like school activities and doctor appointments. I wanted a solution that would enable us to easily see the same information no matter which device was accessed for emails and calendars. I also wanted the ability to read as well as modify each others' calendars. For example, our first son now has his own Google account with calendar. He's only 3, so we manage it for him and share that calendar between all of us. Some time after the baby is born, I'll likely set up an account for him so I can easily manage his doctor appointments. For the time being, a secondary calendar will work fine. We also have another secondary calendar dedicated to our activities and events — things we do together as a family. This calendar is then shared with other family members like my mother-in-law. Either my husband or I have the ability to modify each others' calendars so that any changes made are synced no matter which computer or device is accessed. When my husband is at work, he can easily log in to his Google account and check all our calendars to see what appointments I've scheduled here at home. Since he doesn't have time to make phone calls during the school day at work, if I schedule a doctor's appointment for him, I can put it directly onto his calendar for him to see and email him a reminder. He's already entered his work activities so that makes it much easier for me to book appointments when needed and make sure there are no conflicts. If he has an activity that needs to happen after school like a social or after-school meeting with a parent, he can enter it on his calendar while at work and then I will see it when I log in.

So, how did I accomplish this and achieve my Sync Zen?

Let's start with Apple Mail. Here is an example of how I've configured my Mail application to manage several accounts at once. Log in to your Gmail account. Click on Settings in the upper right, then click on Forwarding POP/IMAP and then click the radio button to "Enable IMAP." You'll need to do this before you set up accounts in Mail. Follow the instructions from Google on how to configure your Mail application. Be careful when reading Google's instructions for Recommended IMAP Client Settings. I got a little confused and frustrated in the beginning when my messages wouldn't delete when I deleted them by pressing the delete button on the keyboard or by clicking the delete icon in the tool bar. Manually dragging each message to the Trash folder was annoying. Turns out you just have to ignore the information where it talks about deleting messages off the server. Basically, just leave the Mail trash settings as they are.

Google does not explain how to make the Inbox, Draft, Sent and Trash Mailboxes in Mail act as one — or at least not where I saw in the instructions. For that part, I followed the advice found at 5ThirtyOne by Derek Punsalen. Thanks Derek! Here is an excerpt from his instructions: Properly sort Drafts, Deleted, and Sent mail in Apple Mail

Highlight ‘[Gmail] Sent Mail’ in the sidebar and select ‘Mailbox’ (menu bar) > ‘Use This Mailbox For’ > ‘Sent’.

Highlight ‘[Gmail] Drafts’ in the sidebar and select ‘Mailbox’ (menu bar) > ‘Use This Mailbox For’ > ‘Drafts’

Highlight ‘[Gmail] Trash’ in the sidebar and select ‘Mailbox’ (menu bar) > ‘Use This Mailbox For’ > ‘Trash’

Highlight ‘[Gmail] Spam’ in the sidebar and select ‘Mailbox’ (menu bar) > ‘Use This Mailbox For’ > ‘Junk’

If you're like me and are managing multiple accounts in Mail, you'll need to repeat those instructions for each folder in each account. I took these instructions a little further and manually dragged — what Gmail calls "labels" which are actually displayed as folders in Mail — to the parent [Gmail] folder in Mail. This is also referred to as an IMAP Path Prefix in the Mail Account Preferences. I achieved it by manually dragging those folders and it was much easier than trying to figure out what to type exactly in the account configuration. 

Next, let's take a look at Google Calendar, Apple's iCal and the iPod Touch/iPhone Calendar layouts. The colors are consistent. Whatever changes I make on one device are immediately synced to the others.

Following Google's instructions, I was able to set up several calendars in our separate Google accounts and then manage them in iCal and on the iPod Touch using Google's CalDAV Calendar Sync. Similar to Gmail, while logged in to your Google Calendar (or anyone else's), you'll need to click on Settings in the upper right, then Calendars from the tabs at the top. Once on that page, you'll need to edit the Sharing Settings for each calendar you set up and also in each account you have access to. For my family and I, my husband and I each have access to each others' as well as Lucian's Google accounts. I went in to each of their calendars and shared them with myself and gave myself the ability to "make changes and manage sharing."

Once you have your Google Calendar settings configured, you're ready to set things up in iCal Preferences. Here is what that may look like. Once you have added the "Delegates" you can then make changes, edits, additions, etc. in iCal and they will all be reflected in Google's web UI (user interface). You'll notice the individual calendars appear in the left sidebar in iCal. I don't like the fact that there is a parent for each item. It's kind of redundant to have to click another triangle down to get to the calendar, but it is what it is for now.

 Now let's move on to configuring the iPod Touch/iPhone. This is where it gets a little tricky. In addition to Google's instructions on configuring the settings for the iPod Touch/iPhone, you'll also want to read this article on how to set up the secondary calendars. Google Calendars Sync Both Ways, Including the Secondary Calendars (Special thanks to Allister Jenks for this link!)

For example, on our iPod Touch, I have added all of the accounts for myself, Lucian, and Nate — both Gmail and Google Calendars. I've found it's really pointless to use POP mail accounts because it's a pain to have to delete messages on different devices.

Within my own Google Calendar, I have 2 secondary calendars that I share with Nate and Lucian. One is for my freelance consulting (TheMacMommy) the other for our family activities. I also plugged in the calendar for Moms Gone Geek that I share with Naomi for scheduling. Once they are all added and configured, it's easy to see them all at the same time and see where conflicts and scheduling might overlap because everything is a different color. I LOVE color-coding everything! It just makes things so much easier to see when you have limited concentration and lots of dis

This all seems like a lot of work, and it was, but when you view it in the List view on the iPod Touch or iPhone, it's all nicely color-coded and cohesive and flows nicely. It was worth all the work and tinkering. I feel much better now! :)

I hope you've found this helpful. Remember, you can right-click on the images and load them into another page to see them larger. I blurred out some of the information I didn't feel comfortable sharing, but I think you get the picture. Ha ha! Picture!! Get it?!!

This concludes my review of how Google Juice does a body good by managing all of your communications as the Household CTO. I hope it's just as tasty for you!

Medical Records. Everyone has them. Have you ever had to go on a hunt for your shot records from decades ago because an employer or school required them? How did that work out for ya? Trying to keep track of and remember all of your family's medical information can be a daunting task. If you're like most of us, you've got a stack or stacks of papers scattered throughout the house — or in one room if you're really organized! We're on the lookout for an easier, more efficient way of keeping this information organized and safely accessible when needed.Whether you're a single person or managing a family with multiple records, or traveling with the military, is an online medical record-keeping service for you? Fast, easy, secure, reliable and compliant is what we're aiming to find out about services currently available for medical record-keeping. Anything that will help make managing a family easier and more efficient is what we're all about, so this is what we're discussing this week on Moms Gone Geek.

Special Note: When Googling information on this topic use the following terms and acronyms: PHR (Personal Health Records) or PHRM (Personal Health Records Management).

There are a lot of applications and services out there for managing your personal medical records at home on your computer, up in the cloud for online access or both — so much that it's overwhelming. We've reviewed just a few that we'll discuss here, but please give us some feedback on services, methods and apps you've tried and liked.

Melissa reviews and discusses the current state of EMR for public and private sectors and what you should consider before investing the time and effort into the task of electronically documenting your medical records for the family.

What You Need to Know About Privacy in Medical Records

Understanding HIPAA Privacy for Consumers

Articles on Healthcare Reform in Politics and Technology Concerning EMR

State Privacy Laws May Undercut Electronic Medical Records (via ars technica)

Obama: We need EMRs; NAS Report: Be Careful What You Ask For (via ars technica)

NY Times reports: “Our experience here is that it’s just hard,” Dr. Mostashari said. “It’s not impossible.”

Personal Consumer Services & Applications for Managing Yours and Family Records

Polka

iPhone app for Polka Health
(called My Health on website)

Google Health

Review Notes

• Google Health is currently only available in the United States. Polka is available for registration outside U.S., however, all records are stored in the US where US privacy terms apply. (Probably a good thing?)

• Use Google Health at your own risk understanding that transmission to third parties, for example, a prescription service, is governed by THOSE sites, their technologies and security methods. You're safe with Google, but you open a hole when you share with third party services, so be sure to thoroughly review their privacy and protection policies as well before sharing information.

• Section 4 Use of Your Information in the Google Health TOS states: " Google is not a "covered entity" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the regulations promulgated thereunder ("HIPAA"). As a result, HIPAA does not apply to the transmission of health information by Google to any third party."

• Polka discloses the following in their Privacy Statement under Use of Contact Information (emphasis is our editorial): "In addition, we may use your contact information to market to you, and provide you with information about, our products and services, including but not limited to our Service. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such information or communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications."
  
  
Furthermore, they also state in their Information Sharing and Disclosure regarding Service Providers: "We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, hosting and maintenance, customer relationship, database storage and management, and direct marketing campaigns. We will share your personally identifiable information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to binding contractual obligations requiring such third parties to maintain the privacy and security of your data."

These are just some things to consider when signing up for these services. Both services are extremely similar in their TOS and Privacy Statements, just worded slightly differently. Polka clearly states they may use your information for direct marketing campaigns which may be kind of disconcerting no matter how carefully your information is closely guarded. It may be that Google Health does the exact same thing in a different way, but they have not chosen to word like this. As always, use at your own risk and know your mileage may vary.

Another thing to look for when deciding if a particular service or application is right for you is what kind of continued support you can reasonably expect. If a service loses focus or goes belly-up, where does your data go? There have been applications released in the past few years, but when I went to their site for a review, the information was grossly outdated or the link had a bad address. Look for services that have a large following, lots of reviews (and positive ones at that) and also look at their help or support section. Check to see what, if any kind of exporting features exist. If you're able to export your data into a PDF or text file, at least you'll have a backup in case the service fails your expectations. Think carefully about sharing your digital information with third party partners or affiliates. Do the same kind of homework on them as well. Review their privacy policies and TOS.

It would be a good idea to have a printed hard copy of the most important emergency medical information in your wallet near your ID because what good is digital data on your phone if your device is either locked or too cumbersome to access by hospital staff? Think of a mobile app as a handy way for YOU to access the information you need at the time you need it, but don't think of a mobile app as something to be accessed by emergency personnel. Research in public forums concludes that most EMTs will not be checking your mobile device for information in a crisis situation so do not count on an app to assist in saving your life. Google Health does have a print wallet-sized feature and I thought that was handy and a good idea.

For you non-Google supporters (we still love you) there are other PHR web services out there, but we're only going to list a couple:

Microsoft HealthVault

PassportMD