Once these cool they have a great crunchy texture—even my personal trainer binged on the container I gave her. Since this recipe is egg-free, the raw dough is always safe for "testing" (by the tablespoon). The dry ingredients and extra add-ins are available in the bulk bins of stores like Whole Foods.
Vegetarian / Vegan
Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 30 minutes
Source: Variation of Joy of Cooking Quick Oatmeal Cookies
If you're female and having a rough day (let me know if this works for guys too), try Cute Overload. It's a frequently updated site packed with adorable critter photos. You can also find links to other photo sites like Stuff On My Cat and e-commerce niches you never knew existed like guinea pig costumes.
I've spent the last four days at the National Speaker's Association annual convention. Imagine 1,700 people who love to talk, give advice, and be the center of attention. Now turn up the volume another few notches.
Despite the occasional din, this has been one of the most fabulous professional growth experiences I've ever had. While Toastmasters is an excellent place to learn how to speak more coherently (especially if you have "um" problems), NSA is a place to learn how to manage the business of being a speaker. They have four core competencies they develop in their members:
I was recently responsible for IT for a software/Web services company, and along the way developed some tracking spreadsheets to document server status. While they were created for disaster recovery, on a day-to-day basis they turned out to be very helpful for troubleshooting problems and configuring new folders or servers.
Here's a template with the more generic tabs I used. It's all set for Windows LAN and Web servers, including detailed NTFS and IIS permissions.
Enjoy!
I've finally found a great program for managing data on my desktop and laptop!
My primary system is an Alienware desktop, and then I have a Vaio SZ for when I'm out and about. (Yes, I like nice toys.) I keep my data organized by topic—personal, business, clients, etc.—in folders off the root. This takes care of most of the data, but there are also a few orphans under Documents and Settings such as my bookmarks and iTunes library data, some of which reside in folders where I only want to grab one or two files.
All of this adds up to about 10GB of data that I want to have synchronized when I switch from the desktop to laptop and back. I've used two applications, one paid but worth it, and one free but useful.
Google has snuck out yet another service (no doubt to be terminally in Beta). This one I heard about through an article about eBay stock dropping, despite having both AdWords and Analytics accouts.
I find Google Checkout very intriguing for two reasons.
First, they've undercut most of the reputable merchant account services, even Costco which was the least expensive last time I crunched the rates. Not only are the basic discount rate, per-transaction and monthly/annual fees lower, the fact that you don't need a separate payment gateway like Authorize.Net for real-time processing is another savings. Their simplified rates are also a nice change from the bait and switch experience with many merchant services companies. Many will advertise rates which can only be achieved by brick and mortar or high volume vendors, and it's only when you dig through the fine print that you learn you'll be paying a full percentage point more.
Mom would make a batch of this soup, put it in pitchers in the fridge, and we'd all just cruise by a couple times a day and fill up a pint glass (the slurpable aspect makes it great for picnics and BBQs). This is a casual and easy version of gazpacho, though it dresses up well for dinner parties with some croutons and diced cucumber as garnish. The soup can be prepared a day in advance, and is best with at least a couple hours to let the flavors blend before serving. It's also monstrously healthy, as it's 100% vegetables, fat free and low sodium. Serves 8+ as a soup course.
Vegan
Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 0 minutes
Source: Janet Ray
I grew up calling these "Snow Mounds," a much more descriptive name for these easy, crumbly sugar coated goodies.
Vegetarian / Vegan
Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 30 minutes
Source: Ann Rainey
