Category Archives: Product Reviews

What does the Midlife Second Wife recommend? Read her product reviews and find out!

Enter to Win a KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor!

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Giveaways, Product Reviews, What's the Buzz?

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The Midlife Second Wife, Marci Rich, KitchenAid, Viewpoints

Can’t you just picture this beautiful food processor in your kitchen?

This contest is closed. Watch this space for the announcement of the winner!

I’m thrilled to partner with Viewpoints, a leading product ratings website, on an exclusive giveaway. We are inviting you to try your hand at winning a KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor—just like the one that I’ve reviewed for Viewpoints. With a suggested retail price of $599, this is by far the biggest, most valuable giveaway I’ve ever hosted on the blog. Yowza!

Viewpoints helps consumers make smart purchase decisions through the use of honest reviews. And as regular readers of the blog know, I’m a member of Viewpoints’ Blogger Reviews Panel. (You can read some of my other reviews here.)

Viewpoints sent me the KitchenAid Model KFP1642 (pictured above) to test for about six weeks, after which I wrote my review for Viewpoints’ website. Comparing KitchenAid’s Pro Line Dicing Food Processor to my trusty Cuisinart really wasn’t much of a contest; the Cuisinart came up short in more ways than one.

The Midlife Second Wife, KitchenAid, Viewpoints

In this case, size does matter. The KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor, on the right—as big as a MINI Cooper—dwarfs my old Cuisinart, seen in the left corner. The KitchenAid food processor, along with the accessories shown in the center and the two additional work bowls, are included in what you’ll win.

My review addresses the pros (and a con or two) of the KitchenAid. You can read the full review here. (Viewpoints is giving the food processor that I tested to me in return for my six-week-long test and impartial review. The one you’ll receive is brand spanking new!)

The Midlife Second Wife, Viewpoints, KitchenAid

Revolutionize your kitchen! Enter to win this!

How to Enter:
If you’ve ever fallen in love with a product (or wondered how something inferior ever made its way to market), Viewpoints wants to hear from you. This is your chance to tell the world what you think—your opinion is your entry card! Here’s what you do:

  1. Sign in and register for a free Viewpoints account. Just head over to the  Viewpoints website and set yourself up with a username and password.
  2. Write two qualifying reviews on Viewpoints by Tuesday, August 6 in the Refrigerator, Freezer, Dishwasher, Microwave, Espresso Machine, Washing Machine, Dryer, Air Conditioner, Fan or eCommerce Website categories. Want to write more than two? Go for it! Each review is an entry, so the more you review, the greater your chance to win. Ya gotta write at least two, though.
  3. What qualifies as a qualifying review? Each of your two reviews must be at least 700 characters long to qualify. The character counter at the bottom of the review form shows your review length before publishing. Viewpoints is a stickler for quality, so write engaging reviews—as though you’re talking to a friend or a family member. Write about what you liked, what you didn’t like, and whether or not you’d recommend the product.
  4. Comment on this post (see the section for comments at the end of this article) with the links to your reviews and your Viewpoints username. If you’ve never commented on my blog before, please take a moment and register by adding your name and email address in the fields after you’ve written your comment with your review links and Viewpoints username.
  5. For good giveaway karma, be sure to like Viewpoints and The Midlife Second Wife on Facebook.

The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, August 13.

Here’s a short-hand checklist so you’ll remember what to do:

REGISTER on Viewpoints
REVIEW on Viewpoints
REPEAT on The Midlife Second Wife by posting links to your reviews, including your Viewpoints username, in the “Comments” section at the end of this post.

Got questions? Email support@viewpoints.com with Giveaway as the subject line. One of the gracious Viewpoints staff members will get back to you!

The Fine Print
As with any sweepstakes giveaway, there are a few rules and regulations. I strongly suggest that you read the Official Rules found on the Viewpoints website, noting the restrictions on eligibility. In a nutshell:

Employees of Viewpoints, its affiliates, agents (including Blogger Reviews panel members), and its advertising and promotion agencies, and their respective immediate family members (spouse, children, parents and siblings) and those living in the same household of each (whether or not related), are not eligible to enter.

Now go forth and go for it, friends! I can’t wait to see which one of you will be the lucky winner!

Good luck!

Do DROIDS Dream of Electric Sheep?

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Product Reviews, Technology

≈ 8 Comments

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Marci Rich, DROID, Verizon, Motorola, The Midlife Second Wife

The DROID RAZR MAXX HD. Photo taken with the my iPhone’s camera.

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Boomer Voices program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.

Here’s what came to mind the first time I powered on Motorola’s DROID RAZR MAXX HD, a smart phone that I’m testing as a member of Verizon’s Boomer Voices program: the science-fiction thriller Blade Runner, directed 30 years ago by Ridley Scott. It wasn’t so much the resonance with the product name and the title of the film’s source material, Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as it was the vision that appeared on the screen and the sound emanating from the device.

The first to appear on the touch-screen was Motorola’s red, Batman-like logo, followed by the voice of the DROID—robotic and synthesized—saying (by way of introduction, I guess): “Droid.” Then, immediately after, a lightening-laced, fractured vision that could have been a split-second scene from Blade Runner. After all that, finally, a flickering-red-power-star-encased-in-a-diamond image came into view, signaling that your smart phone is ready to receive you now.

I’ve used an iPhone for years. Turning it on has never been this much fun. Score one for the DROID.

But is fun enough? I’ve been paying close attention to the similarities, differences, pros, and cons ever since returning from Chicago at the end of June, where Verizon Wireless hosted my program colleagues and me to a day-and-a-half of training on this device and related products. Here are a few of my loves and—since hate is too strong a word—dis-loves when it comes to the DROID RAZR MAXX HD:

Voice-Recognition Software
This is, by far, my favorite feature of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD. After unlocking the phone, all I have to do is swoop my finger from the bottom of the screen to the top and Google appears, ready to search at my command. I click the microphone and ask it do to my bidding. For example, I asked Gigi (for that’s what I’ve named this miraculous feature, deciding it made a fine derivative of Google): “Call the Rocky River Public Library.”

“Calling now,” she replied. And just like that, I was connected.

Oh yes, I know all about Siri. I have an iPhone 5, after all. But it’s been my experience that Siri pops up when I least expect her, and when I do need her she’s difficult to find. Google’s voice-recognition software on the DROID RAZR MAXX HD is easier to use. Her tone is slightly more pleasant and human-sounding than Siri’s, too. You can almost hear the smile in her voice.

Again, shades of Blade Runner.

I’ve also had more success with the DROID’s voice-activation in getting to websites than I have with my iPhone.

Google Now
While we’re on the subject of Google, let me just say that I love the “smart cards” that appear beneath the search field when I do that upward swoop thingie. Yes, you do have to allow Google certain permissions for these actions to work, but I’m over that. I like being able to see what’s on my calendar for the day, what the weather is like, and some of my most recent Google searches. If the screen gets too crowded I can simply swipe them away.

For those unfamiliar with smart phones and their operating systems, I should take this opportunity to point out that Google owns Android, which is a Linux-based operating system. Unlike Apple’s operating system, Android is open-source, which means that other developers can create software for it, yielding myriad choices in apps. Apple is an organic entity unto itself—it’s apples to apples all the way. I’m not saying that its closed-system philosophy is a negative—quite the opposite, actually. I’ve been a loyal Mac user ever since purchasing my first desktop back in the late 1980s. But it has been fun to experiment with a different operating system. (Fun. There’s that word again.) We’ll come back to that.

High-Definition Screen, Color, and Instant Photo Uploads
The high-definition screen of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD is a thing of beauty. If you’re reading this review on a DROID RAZR MAXX HD, ask Gigi—er, I mean Google—to pull up a website showing the color spectrum. What do you think?

I actually wonder, however, if the colors I’m seeing are true-to-life. Here’s why. Schopenhauer and color theory notwithstanding, when I use the DROID camera, the image I’m about to shoot doesn’t appear as real—as true-to-life—compared to the camera of my iPhone; the colors seem off. That’s when I look through the viewer, but I’ve noticed it on some of the resulting photos as well. Here’s a picture I took of my iPhone with the DROID. Contrast this with the photo I took of the DROID with the iPhone above. I set each shot the same way, with the same background. I auto-adjusted the color, as I always do, in Photoshop before saving the final image. The backdrop of the iPhone shown below is closer to real-life, and this shot was taken with the DROID. That said, the colors of the iPhone itself are way off. This could be because I’m taking a picture of something with a lit background—even though I cut the brightness of the iPhone’s screen back.

The DROID’s screen in the picture above, taken with my iPhone, is closer to what my eye sees. I hope I haven’t confused you too much. (Can we get a philosopher to weigh in on this?!)

iPhone, The Midlife Second Wife

A picture of my iPhone 5, taken with the camera of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD

I have to wonder if I’m willing to sacrifice visual veracity for ease and speed in uploading. When we were in Chicago, one of the tech trainers set up my DROID so it would automatically upload the photos taken with it to my Google+ account. Talk about magic! This feature saves me the trouble of having to email my iPhone photo to myself, or of having to attach the iPhone to my laptop in order to download images to iPhoto, which I then have to save again to a designated file on my laptop. Once the DROID picture appears on my Google+ page, all I have to do is download it. That’s all. I absolutely love the time this saves me.

I haven’t even begun to tell you other important things, such as the size and shape of the DROID versus the iPhone, the network speed, the battery life, and overall ease of use. I’ll be back again to share more of my thoughts on the DROID RAZR MAXX HD. For now, I’d like to ask your opinion on this:

I’ve often thought there are are two kinds of people in the world, and that they can be summed up in three categories:

  1. Those who prefer Coke over Pepsi
  2. Those who like coffee more than tea
  3. Those who are passionately pro-Mac versus those who are PC

What do you think? And if you are a devoted Apple fan, would you ever change sides? Even for one product? Let me know in the comments below!

…And Now a Word from Murad About Those Pores…

19 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by in Product Reviews, The Beautiful Life

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3rk594Regular readers of The Midlife Second Wife know that I’m a huge fan of Murad skin care products. I’m writing this quick post to update you on an important development. A number of you have written to me to say, basically, that “I’ll have what she’s having.” Here’s a note a follower wrote me on Facebook:

About a month ago, Marci Rich recommended Murad’s Age Reform Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture for Eyes. I bought it. Several times since, I’ve gotten that strange, puzzled squint from someone…’What’s different about you? You look really nice” which I choose to take as a compliment. So, Face Queen Marci [I love that!], thank you. What do you do for the rest of your face?

I wrote back, referring the Facebook correspondent to my first Murad post featuring the company’s Vitalic skin care line. These products have been my go-to regimen for keeping my Mediterranean skin clear and smooth for nearly a year. I love them. For my money, they are the second-best thing—after my husband’s kiss—to ever touch my face.

I can’t send you to Sephora, however, in search of something you might not find, which is what has happened to me the last couple of times I’ve tried to buy the T-Zone Pore Refining Gel. So here’s the new development: The product line is still around—thank God!—but it has a new name. What once was Vitalic is now the Pore Reform line. Makes perfect sense, because my own pores have been completely rehabilitated.

The new Pore Reform Line features two products in the second-step phase (the first is my beloved Daily Cleansing Foam):

T-Zone Pore Refining Serum (the new name for my old T-Zone Pore Refining Gel)
This targeted serum lifts away dull, dry skin cells to even skin texture and tone and dissolves surface skin-clogging impurities to refine pores. T-Zone Pore Refining Serum is a Step 2 treatment product that normalizes oil production and keeps pores clear to maintain healthy, glowing skin.
(2.0 FL. OZ., $42.00)

Blackhead & Pore Clearing Duo
This fast-acting, two-step treatment, consisting of Blackhead Remover and Pore Refining Sealer, helps reduce blackheads and provides pores with lasting protection against impurities. Blackhead & Pore Clearing Duo extracts stubborn debris from deep within the pores and is clinically proven to reduce the formation of blackheads by an average of 58%*.
(2.0 FL. OZ., $49.50)

For the third, moisturizing step, I turn to the phenomenal eye cream that my Facebook friend raved about.

I cannot wait to try the blackhead and pore clearing product in the new Pore Reform line. I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve had a chance to let it work its magic.

Gotta go wash my face now!

Hey Boomers—Verizon Will Hear You Now

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Product Reviews, What's the Buzz?

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VerizonBoomerVoices

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Boomer Voices program and will be provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.

Now hear this: Verizon is partnering with a select group of midlife bloggers across middle America as part of a new program called “Verizon Boomer Voices,” and they chose yours truly to lend her voice to the chorus. This an important step in the right direction—for boomers and for Verizon.

According to “The Boomer Consumer: Preparing for the Age Wave,” our cohort controls 77% of all U.S. financial assets and 50% of discretionary spending. And a 2012 article in the Huffington Post reported on a study by the media ratings firm Nielsen and BoomAgers, a creative company that assists companies in marketing to boomers. The study’s findings reveal that boomers, which will make up half the U.S. population by 2017, are “the most valuable generation.”

Pardon me while I indulge in a brief editorial digression:

Duh.

And yet, despite our obvious value, boomers have been largely invisible to advertisers and television programming executives. A segment on HuffPost Live last year, “Over 50, Under Counted,” focused on this oversight. One of my very smart boomer blogger friends, Darryle Pollack (in a previous life Darryle was a television reporter), contributed wisely to the conversation. And it delighted me to see that a comment I sent in during the segment’s live stream received attention by the moderators, even if the impossibly young woman did mispronounce my name as Marc. I. Rich.

With Verizon’s program, it appears as though at least one mega-brand recognizes that it’s good business to pay attention to our colossal clout.

Here’s how they’re doing it: Verizon will put some of its best technology into the hands of boomer bloggers who are keenly interested in learning more about tech and becoming something of an expert in the realm. Those among us who have felt sidelined by advertisers and the mainstream media should take heart by Verizon’s initiative. Verizon gets it. They care what we have to say. (And no NSA jokes, please.)

In an e-mail, Verizon Social Media Strategist Iskra Dobreva explained the evolution of the two-year-old Verizon Voices program, which, she notes, was established “to pull together like-minded bloggers to check out some of the latest and greatest Verizon devices, products, and accessories, and then network and share their experiences with one another, and with their readers and social following.”

Since its inception, the Verizon program has, according to Dobreva, “pulled together bloggers that focus on a variety of topics and interests, including sports, fashion, health and fitness, food, family life, etc. Boomer Voices is the latest group Verizon has launched.”

While the Verizon Voices program exists in a variety of markets in the United States, Dobreva notes that the program in which I’m participating is “a Midwest-based program and … the first time a group of Boomer bloggers was formed.”

Verizon is flying me to Chicago this weekend for some training on the device I’ll be testing. In return, I’ll post about the device once each month through December, and I’ll augment those posts with tweets and Facebook updates. One could nickname this program “posting and hosting,” since I’ll also host two house parties where I’ll invite friends, family, and neighbors to eat good food and check out the Verizon goods. I’ll also have to attend monthly webinars, so you can see that this endeavor will keep me busy.

It goes almost without saying that I’m thrilled they chose me for this program, and not just because of the perks. (One of my favorite lines from All About Eve is when Bette Davis says, “I’m … not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut.”) What Verizon is paying for is my honest opinion, and that’s what they will get. If you’ve read the product review I wrote for Viewpoints on a kitchen appliance, you know that I play it as it lays.

I think it’s great that Verizon cares what boomers have to say about the products we buy in the marketplace, and that we use as an integral extension of our daily lives. I should note that I’ve been a loyal Apple consumer ever since my first desktop back in the 1980s, so if I’m to be playing around with non-Apple devices, doing so will mark a first in my own consumer history (except for the Kindle I received from my husband as a Christmas gift). I don’t count the Kindle Paperwhite that I reviewed for Viewpoints, since I donated that to the Richmond Public Library.

Suffice to say that if I encounter any cumbersome learning curves, I’ll try to make reading about them enjoyable for you.

So let’s all raise a glass (and a salted peanut) to Verizon for thinking that the opinions of boomers have value. And for being willing to listen.

Updated on June 22, 2013.

Get Rid of That Baggage with Murad

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Product Reviews, The Beautiful Life

≈ 14 Comments

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CreamonEyesFNL

Self-portrait with Murad eye cream

Today we are going to talk about baggage, which—given the title of this blog—should come as no surprise. Longtime readers might remember an early post about baggage, but I should warn you that what you’re about to read concerns luggage of a different sort: the bags we’ve been hauling around under our eyes ever since passing through that fun house portal known as midlife.

I can’t remember when I first noticed mine, which suggests either a woeful lack of perception or a state of blissful denial. My almond-shaped brown eyes had always been my best feature, the only place on my face where one could discern anything resembling fine bone structure. (When I was taking my seat for my kindergarten school portrait, the photographer asked: “Where did you get those big brown eyes?” Without a moment’s hesitation, I told him: “My father.”)

It’s sad when what you take for granted goes away. Oh, the brown eyes are still there, although one of them betrayed me several years ago. And with prescription eyeglasses, I can see just fine, thank God. But when I look in the mirror, I can’t help but notice the bags underneath.

The Web site for the Mayo Clinic explains that the aging process causes the swelling and puffiness we see beneath our eyes. Because the tissues around our eyes, including some of the muscles supporting our eyelids, weaken, the fat that would ordinarily help support our eyes migrates forward into the lower eyelids, causing them to appear puffy. Fluid accumulates there, too. It’s all part of what I call the great downward migration.

As go the eyes, so go the breasts. But that’s another story.

Short of plastic surgery, what’s a gal to do?

The Mayo Clinic recommends the following:

  • Getting enough sleep at night
  • Sleeping with your head slightly elevated
  • Applying a cool compress, using mild pressure, to the skin under and around the eyes.

Now, I happen to love sleep and get lots of it, so that’s not an issue. Admittedly, I’m not good about employing the other remedies. But I do love me some good skin care products, and I believe I have found something that has reduced the appearance of that unsightly under-eye luggage.

Last year, Murad gave me some of their skin care products to try. Their Vitalic line had me at hello; I was smitten, and shared my enthusiasm on this site. I did, however, wish out loud that Murad had something else that might help me:

I think my skin looks great! Now if Murad has something to address those bags under my eyes....

I think my skin looks great! Now if Murad has something to address those bags under my eyes….

Although the Vitalic line does not include an eye cream, Ginelle Torres, Murad’s broadcast and digital media specialist, told me they had a product that I might find useful: the Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture for Eyes from Murad’s Age Reform brand.

SONY DSCI’ve been using this product since Ginelle sent it to me in November. Soon after receiving it, I had a professional photo taken. While I’m wearing makeup, including eye concealer, in the photo below, I think you’ll agree that there seems little evidence of under-eye bags. The photo has not been retouched, other than to obscure an object in the background that detracted from the shot.

121107_8180Asq

Photo credit: Elli Morris

As with my other review for Murad, I made no promises that I’d write a positive review. I test the products and form my opinion. But here’s how much I love this eye cream:when I began running low, I shelled out $62 to buy it at Sephora.

So what is it about Murad’s Age Reform line that makes it so great? The PR materials claim to “effectively reduce the signs of aging resulting in smoother skin, restored resilience, and increased firmness.” In the case of the Ultimate Moisture for Eyes, the product features Murad’s proprietary Collagen Support Complex, which infuses the eye area with essential nutrients for immediate hydration to firm the eye area. Here are a few other features and benefits:

  • Osmolyte technology helps maintain critical water balance for more youthful-looking skin
  • A peptide blend, based on natural elastin, awakens eyes by improving skin firmness
  • Collagen Support Complex (in conjunction with Hyaluronic Acid) boosts skin’s resilience and smooths the appearance of fine lines
  • Immediately hydrates to firm and awaken eye area
  • Maintains optimal moisture levels for eight hours

If you’re still skeptical, let me tell you this: I rarely wear full makeup anymore. Working from home, I have the luxury of letting my face breathe. You’ve seen a picture of me in full makeup; here’s one I just took today, about an hour after applying the Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture for Eyes:

AfterEyeCream

Photo taken June 2013

Now compare this with the photo from last year, when I began using Murad skin care products but did not yet have the Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture for Eyes:

I think my skin looks great! Now if Murad has something to address those bags under my eyes....

Photo taken October 2012

I see a considerable difference. Are my bags completely gone? No, of course not. But are they as overstuffed as in my bathrobe photo?

Well, you tell me. What do you think?

Now about those breasts…

The NeatDesk Scanner Wins My Battle Over Paper…and my Heart

13 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in Product Reviews

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MessyDeskRock-paper-scissors.

I have all three in my office—rocks gathered from different hikes in Northeast Ohio, a beautiful pair of scissors that I inherited from one of my favorite uncles, and paper. Piles and piles of paper. In my office, in my life, paper has always been the winner, hands down, a fact made abundantly clear when I began organizing my office in January for our move from Virginia to Ohio. Just take a look at this photo. See what I mean?

And so it was that I embraced the opportunity to review the NeatDesk Desktop Scanner as a member of Viewpoints Blogger Review Panel. The timing could not have been more optimal: Not only did I have to purge what seemed like tons of paper files, separating the wheat from the chaff (and here I must give a shout-out to my trusty Fellowes paper shredder), I also realized that many documents moldering away in buff-colored three-tab files were in need of digitizing. Moreover, my husband and I were in the process of purchasing a new home in a western suburb of Cleveland. Our lender, several states away in Minnesota, needed about a zillion documents from us, verifying everything about us, from our identities to our net worth to our hopes and dreams. (Ah, for the old days of corner neighborhood banks. But that’s another post.) Of course everything that our lender required must be sent via secure email. Of course none of what he needed was e-mailable.

One particular item that our kind but gently insistent broker insisted upon was a profit-loss statement for my business. For that I would need a bookkeeper (up to this point I’d been muddling through with my cockamamie system). But a bookkeeper would need access to an entire year’s worth of receipts. Of course the bookkeeper I selected was in Ohio. I was in Virginia. Her location would be convenient for future fiscal years; for the one at hand, not so much.

No, I needed a dependable scanner. I had a scanner, mind you, but it was a dinosaur, part of the bulky copier that once belonged to husband. You might be familiar with the process: place the document face down on the screen, open up your computer’s scanning program, hit overview, wait, hit scan, do it all over again because you forgot to switch modes from JPEG to PDF…As a nice finishing touch, the scanner I used accented each document with a rugged black vertical line somewhat right of center.

Readers, I was in dire need of scanner relief.

And so the NeatDesk Scanner, which filled me with such joy upon its arrival that I marked the occasion photographically:

ScannerArrivalNeatDeskBoxI found the software easy to install (I used the version for the Mac—PC versions are also available—but I’ve subsequently learned that those using a MacBook Air rather than a MacBook Pro had considerable difficulty in that the MacBook Air lacks a CD-Rom drive, essential for installing the NeatWorks for Mac software.) You can read the reviews of my colleagues on the Viewpoints Blogger Review panel here, and learn what a NeatDesk spokesperson had to say for those using Netbooks.

You might also want to take a look at our Viewpoints video on YouTube, featuring our opinions about the NeatDesk scanner.

I should note that when I  first used the scanner, I ran into a spot of trouble. I called Tech Support and the person I spoke with could not have been more helpful and patient. For someone such as myself, who knows enough about technology (and I actually think I know a fair amount) to be dangerous, clarity, patience, and successful results from Tech Support is critically important.

One final caveat: In addition to being sent the scanner, which I do plan on keeping (thank you, Viewpoints!), we were all given a 30-day free trial of Neat’s Cloud service. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always been leery of the Cloud. I have an Apple Time Machine that backs up my computer, so losing files isn’t a concern. I don’t consider my modest operations so critical as to warrant information access across all my devices (iPhone, iPad, laptop). At $14.95 per month (I kept the Cloud service for two months), I just couldn’t justify the cost and so I canceled the service.

Now to what I simply adore about the NeatDesk scanner: how swiftly it turns paper into PDFs. I run a document through the scanner, and it shows up on the Table Pane in the NeatWorks software. All I have to do is drag the scanned document to my desktop and voilà! Instant PDF! Although the scanner populates information from a receipt intuitively, it doesn’t always do so accurately. Like any task involving the transmission of information, one must check one’s work and the work of anyone (or anything) done on your behalf. I did not find this a negative; it took me a nanosecond to enter the correct information. I also found that selecting the “document” mode rather than the “receipt” mode eliminated the problem, and also empowered me to enter information the way I wanted.

Take a look at my desk’s “After” picture. Not only did the NeatDesk scanner help me to eliminate the visual clutter threatening to clutter my mind, it allowed me to zip through the myriad requests of our lender in record time. And now, for the first time, I have a proper profit-loss statement for my business. A task I had been dreading was actually fun—the sense of accomplishment gained by scanning all of those receipts and shuttling them off to my bookkeeper was almost as gratifying as putting the finishing touches on an essay!

NeatDesk

Now you might say that I was primed to love the NeatDesk scanner, having needed it so desperately. You might say that I would turn a blind eye to any faults. And to a certain extent that’s probably true, despite the aforementioned caveats. My approach to any new technology claiming to help me gain efficiencies is this: I learn what I must learn in order to accomplish what I need, and that is all, until I need to learn more. I downloaded the User’s Guide for the scanner and it’s there for me when I’m ready to tackle more complicated problems. Some have said, upon digging deeper, that the scanner itself is complicated to use. That might be, but I did not find it to be the case. I’m sure that the NeatDesk scanner is capable of far more than my current demands, but to take me from the first photo to what you see above was, in my view, an Olympian accomplishment worthy of my highest rating: five gold rings.

Viewpoints Product Review: The Panasonic Flash Xpress Toaster Oven

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Product Reviews

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ToasterOven_TheMidlifeSecondWife_Viewpoints

The Panasonic Flash Xpress Toaster Oven, carefully positioned to do no harm.

Here’s how I roll: I use my traditional stove for cooking, my traditional oven for baking, and my microwave for reheating—usually mugs of coffee. When I want toast, I use my toaster. I never understood the point of a toaster oven just as I never understood the point of a rice cooker: both have always struck me as redundant kitchen appliances. (What? You can’t throw some water, rice, and salt in a covered saucepan and read the instructions on the label? Seriously?)

No, it’s just never made sense to me to dedicate valuable kitchen counter real estate for something that, to my mind, has little real utility. Don’t take away my blender or my mixer, and don’t you dare touch my coffee maker, but to a toaster oven I say, “Meh.”

Such is the preconceived bias with which I approached this product review as a member of the Viewpoints Blogger Panel. (You can read my review on the Viewpoints website, along with those of my colleagues on the panel.) I thought there might be a ghost of a chance that I could be convinced, thus becoming a zealous convert to the joys of toaster-oven-cooking. But after using the thing twice, I’m sorry to have to say no. That didn’t happen—the Panasonic Flash Xpress Toaster Oven has not made me see the light. (Although we’ll get to the oven’s light, and its potential hazards, in a moment.)

Let’s begin with first impressions.

The thing looks like a toy. The Kenner Easy-Bake Oven I played with as a child surely had more heft and substance. The toaster oven is ten-and-a-quarter inches high, thirteen inches deep, and twelve inches wide. It weighs a mere seven-and-a-half pounds. This is all fine if you’re short on space and upper body strength, but as I said in my first paragraph …

I must add that I found the oven’s numerous disclaimers slightly alarming, especially this one:

Do not use the toaster oven near wall or cabinet.…Keep the toaster oven away from flammable materials (wooden wall or cabinet) as follows: Rear: more than 10 cm (4 inches) Top: more than 15 cm (6 inches). Side: More than 10 cm (4 inches).

I carefully (and nervously) measured the area around the oven before I determined it was safe to proceed.

Infrared ray heating elements heat the surface and inside of the food efficiently. But the cautionary bullet points in the owner’s manual include this advice: “Do not stare at the near-infrarde [sic] ray heater for a long time. It could cause injury to your eyes.”

I felt like Carol Anne in The Poltergeist, being warned to STAY AWAY FROM THE LIGHT.

After regaining my composure, I began my test. I purchased all-natural frozen whole-wheat waffles, and decided upon a three-tiered experiment. First, I prepared the waffles in the toaster oven according to the package directions on the waffles. Ten minutes? Really? Okay, Van’s. If you say so.

ToastingWaffles_TheMidlifeSecondWife

The waffles are toasting. Don’t look at the light!

Ten minutes were clearly too long. And I cannot blame the toaster oven for this; I followed the package instructions. The waffles looked like hockey pucks and tasted like shredded twigs.

PreparedWaffles_TheMidlifeSecondWife

A couple of mornings later, I prepared the same breakfast, but this time I followed the toaster oven’s directions instead of relying upon the waffle’s cooking instructions. I placed the waffles on the rack, same as before. (I never did use the oven tray; perhaps one of my colleagues on the Viewpoints panel did.) This time, I pressed the button for “waffles,” stood back (not looking at the light), and let the product do its thing. I had waffles in about four minutes. Nothing could have been simpler. And I have to admit, they were nicely browned, with a nice exterior crispness. My eating experience was as pleasant as one could expect, considering I was eating frozen waffles. (I do own a waffle iron, by the way. Guess I’m old-school.)

The results of test number two? I used less energy by cutting the cooking time in more than half, and I ended up with tastier waffles. So what did I do for my third test?

You guessed it!

I popped two frozen waffles in my toaster, set the dial to a medium setting (I referred to the package instructions for toaster cooking), and in two minutes—two minutes, people—I had delicious waffles. Warmth being a matter of personal preference, I put the plate of waffles in the microwave and zapped them for an additional 15 seconds. Perfection. Lightly crisp on the outside, moist and tender on the inside…

The prosecution rests.

I’m in the midst of preparing for our relocation to Ohio, so unfortunately I had to sit out the discussion with my colleagues on the panel. When Viewpoints posts it I’ll add a link so you can see if I’m all alone on this toaster oven limb. I’m donating the toaster oven (with reservations, given my less-than-stellar review) to the Safe Harbor Shelter of Richmond, Virginia, with the proviso that they give it to a deserving family without small children.

I give the Panasonic Flash Xpress Toaster Oven two gold rings.

Viewpoints Product Review: The Kindle Paperwhite

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Product Reviews, What's the Buzz?

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What happens when you invite seven women bloggers from diverse areas of the United States to discuss the merits of Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite? I mean really discuss—together as a group—despite their geographic limitations?

Here’s what happens. Take a look:

This video of the Viewpoints Blogger Review Panel represents our first-ever Google Hangout chat, which took place on Tuesday, November 13, 2012. Carol Fowler, vice president of content for Viewpoints, moderated our discussion and recorded it live, as it happened. You’ll see and hear us address such aspects of the Paperwhite as its battery life and overall durability, the touch screen and its readability—even the colossal Amazon library. It will probably take you about 35 minutes to watch the video, so feel free to come back later if you’re short on time.

If you prefer your opinions in written form, I wrote a review of Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite for the Viewpoints website, as did my colleagues on the panel. You can read it here, if you like. I’ll even provide you with a teaser from my review:

Reading with the Paperwhite is, I imagine, like driving James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, had it been manufactured five minutes ago: smooth, sleek, and with all the latest gadgetry. Reading with my old Kindle is like driving the first car I ever owned: my grandfather’s 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne. No power steering, no power brakes, no power anything really except for a gigantic motor.

The differences are that substantial.

As you might have gathered, I own a Kindle Keyboard—John bought it for me for Christmas two years ago—and last year I wrote a post about the experience of reading books versus the Kindle. If you’d like a side of context to go along with this review, please feel free to check out that earlier entry. I’ll be glad to wait for you.

You’re back? Okay. Good. Now before I give you my rating, I’d like to highlight one aspect of the Paperwhite that impressed me so much that I’ve illustrated it here with a graphic. It’s the social media sharing function—an incredibly cool feature that the Kindle Keyboard apparently has as well,  but I never noticed it and therefore never used it.

Say you’re reading and a wonderful quote or passage just begs to be passed along to your friends. I experienced this many times while reading Arianna Huffington’s On Becoming Fearless: In Love, Work, and Life. I dragged my finger across the Paperwhite’s touch screen to highlight the text I wanted to share, synced up with my Facebook account, and voilà!

Take a look:

You can see the three quotes I shared on my Facebook page by clicking to enlarge this screen grab. What do you think? By all means, join the conversation by leaving a comment below!

Okay. Enough preamble. You’re busy. Maybe you’re one of those cut-to-the-chase kind of people and you just want to know whether or not I recommend the thing already. Okay. I’ll tell you.

I give it five gold rings.

One of the ways in which Viewpoints ensures the honest and impartiality of our reviews is to require us to donate the products that we test. I’ll be donating the Kindle Paperwhite to the Richmond Public Library.

Now before you go I have one small favor to ask you. if you do plan on buying a Kindle Paperwhite as a gift this holiday season, and I think that’s a fine idea, please also stop by your local bookstore and pick up a book or three. I say this to you as a bibliophile, as a reader, and as a writer—credentials I hope I’ve established during the time you’ve spent with me here. And tell your bookstore owner that The Midlife Second Wife sent you. Thanks! Happy holiday shopping!

Related Articles:

Test-Driving the New Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Paperwhite: ‘The Viewpoints Blogger Reviews Panel’ Test

TMSW Partners with Viewpoints to Test Consumer Products

Top Female Bloggers Join Viewpoints Review Panel to Test Consumer Products

Your Kindle Can’t Do That

Product Review: Murad’s Vitalic Skin Care Line

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in LifeStyles, Product Reviews, The Beautiful Life, The Healthy Life

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Three amazing skin care products from Murad‘s Vitalic Line: Energizing Pomegranate Moisturizer, Energizing Pomegranate Cleanser, and T-Zone Pore Refining Gel

Thanks to my Sicilian-Lebanese heritage, I’ve been blessed with Mediterranean skin. It has served me well for 56 years—I have no wrinkles or fine lines to speak of, my skin is rarely dry, and it has an elasticity that would make Gumby proud. You do know that there’s a ‘however’ coming, right?

The downside of a skin type such as mine is excess oil that can lead to the occasional pimple, and a tendency toward clogged pores. As blessed as I am to have the skin I have, it nevertheless strikes me as unfair that at my age I still worry about blemishes. Now that’s a First World Problem if ever there was one.

Stress tends to trigger my breakouts; in August and September, with stress levels high, four pimples appeared like four badges of honor on my face. In addition, my skin looked dull and tired—probably because I was feeling dull and tired. Then two things occurred that brightened my outlook considerably.

First, I went on the Digest Diet in September and lost ten pounds. I’ve blogged about my weight loss journey (I’ve kept the weight off, too) and as I noted, one of the side benefits to the diet was a new-found clarity to my skin.

Second, I changed-up my skin care routine. I’d used Bliss products for years and liked them just fine, but my skin seems to have outgrown them. My face just wasn’t feeling clean or bright. As luck would have it, I was given an opportunity to try three products from Murad‘s Vitalic skin care line. Let me tell you a bit about Murad.

Dr. Howard Murad is the man behind the company. A board-certified dermatologist and a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, he has devised something called the “Science of Cellular Water,” which looks at the ability of cell membranes to retain water within cells as the fundamental marker of youthful good health. Dr. Murad combined this with an approach to skin care he calls “inclusive health.” It’s no surprise that my dieting, in tandem with Murad products, resulted in glowing skin: internal care is one of the three pillars of Dr. Murad’s plan, with the other two being topical skin care and sense of self.

I was doing aces in the internal care component, which, according to the Murad website, “maximizes the body’s healing capacity through choices in food … that ensure it has the building blocks it needs to produce strong, watertight cells.” Admittedly, I still need to find time for those “sense of self”—activities such as facials and massages that also help to reduce one’s level of cell-damaging stress.

Here’s how my path crossed with Murad products.

When I was at the BlogHer12 conference in New York City, I attended a fabulous party sponsored by BOOMBox Network. The B(L)OOMERS PARTY, as it was called, celebrated the theme of beauty and wisdom, and brought together, in one sophisticated location near Bryant Park, a whole flock of women who blog about midlife issues. (I have so much more to tell you about this event, but it will have to keep for a future post. For now, here’s a photo from the party.)

That’s me on the right; to my left is Carrie Tuhy, co-founder of the Second Lives Club.

Many of the party’s sponsors were eager to meet with us to show off their latest and greatest products, samples of which could be found in the swag bags we received. Murad was one company that immediately caught my eye. Our gift bags included a sample kit of their Resurgence line of skin care products, which are designed to address the signs of hormonal aging.

When I got home I gave the products a try, but I sensed—correctly—that they weren’t what my skin needed. When I wrote to the representative I’d met at the party to let her know, she told me that another product line might suit me better.

She sent me three different products to try from Murad’s Vitalic Line, which was created to even oily and dry zones, clear clogged pores, and keep combination skin like mine in balance. Here’s what I promised Murad: if I was pleased with the products, I would write a review. There was no expectation that I would do so; I could have tried the products, hated them, called it a day, and you’d be reading something else right now.

But that’s not what happened.

The pomegranate-kissed products in the Murad Vitalic line are exactly what I’ve been looking for. I absolutely love these products. I love the way my face feels after washing it with the Energizing Pomegranate cleanser. Besides having a pleasant fragrance—something akin to pink lemonade—the cleanser leaves my skin feeling freshly-scrubbed but not dry. One of its main ingredients is witch hazel, a botanical used to produce astringents. That’s one of the reasons I feel so clean after using this cleanser—the witch hazel actually removes the excess oil from my Mediterranean skin.

After washing my face and neck with the Pomegranate cleanser, I gently massage the T-Zone Pore Refining Gel over my face and neck. The packaging tells me that I can expect the retinol in this gel to help improve my skin texture, tone, and radiance; the glycolic and salicylic acids act as an exfoliant to help clear my pores and imperfections; and the pomegranate extract neutralizes and protects my skin against free radical damage. Now I studied biology, not chemistry, but I’m sure that indeed is what’s going on. The proof is in the mirror.

I think my skin looks great! Now if Murad has something to unpack those bags under my eyes….

The third-step is the moisturizer, which is oil free and contains broad spectrum SPF 15 protection—a nice added benefit. I don’t use this moisturizer near my eyes, however; in fact, I’m still using the Renewing Eye Cream from the Resurgence line for that area. I’d love it if Murad would manufacturer an eye-specific moisturizer in the Vitalic line—maybe something that can reduce the puffiness under my eyes. The other two products I have yet to try are the Energizing Pomegranate SPF 15 Lip Protector and a Pomegranate Exfoliating Mask. It’s been a long while since I’ve treated myself to a decent facial, so I plan on purchasing the mask and give myself one at home.

Most Murad products are available at Sephora. Murad also has a line of professional spa treatments; if you visit the spa locator on their website you can find out whether there’s a salon offering Murad near you.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this review, or about Murad products in general. My glowing skin and I are happy to help!

Read this important update about Murad’s Vitalic skin care line.