As for my wife, she not only took on the task of marrying a man who had a traditional Italian mother, but she’s now the mom of a very active, curious, climbs-like-a-monkey boy.  Here’s the trouble: I don’t know how to show either of these awesome women how much I appreciate them. When I was a kid, we’d go see a movie with my mom every Mother’s Day. Back then, my mom got to pick the movie and we’d take her out to dinner. But looking back on it, I realize we saw a lot of kids’ movies and ate at restaurants better suited to kids than moms.

This year, I’d like to carry on that tradition of a date night for Mother’s Day with my wife, and maybe do it sans the active boy. Luckily for me, I have the Fandango app. I’ll ask her to choose the flick and I’ll use Fandango to find the closest movie theater, find the best time and buy tickets before we even leave. The Fandango app is great because I can view trailers, see interviews, read ratings and critic reviews, so I know exactly what kind of movie my wife is taking me to.

As for my own mom on Mother’s Day, I’m sad to say that she’s on the opposite coast so a movie is out – for me. Hey dad, ready to learn about Fandango?

What are your Mother’s Day traditions?

I remember a series of fill-in-the-blank tests and not doing so hot on those. So my mom sat with me at the dinner table for hours after school for more geographical reinforcement. She flipped flashcards over and over again. I complained, groaned, and crossed my arms, nothing would budge my mom to let me get out it. Finally after hundreds of flashcard flips, I learned all 50 states, capitals, abbreviations, locations and bordering states. I was something of a U.S. geography wiz and it was all thanks to my mother.

My mother has the patience of a saint, I tell you. I don’t. So I’m kicking off the geography lesson with a little help from technology. Stack the States has four different game types, interactive maps and hundreds of questions. And it’s fun. I’m brushing up on my geography lessons as I prep for a painless (I hope) geography lesson for my son.

How did you learn your geography?

But my family can only take so many nights of guacamole and crock pot carnitas. Or the alternative: grilled flank steak and guacamole. When I need to expand my Mexican food repertoire, I turn to the recipe app, CookIt 123.

CookIt 123 has hundreds of recipes for Mexican dishes. You can filter all of those recipes by meal type or ingredient and when you find one you can mark it as a favorite and download it or print it. Better, once you’ve downloaded the app, all of the recipes are stored in your computer so you don’t need internet access to see them.

I’m using the app now to figure out my birthday/Cinco de Mayo dinner. Maybe something with poblano chilis? Or how about trying something new with avocado?

What’s your favorite Mexican food recipe? Any recommendations on what I should try for Cinco de Mayo?

Not wanting my son to suffer the same fate as me, it’s my goal to expose him to as many languages as possible.  Hopefully this way he doesn’t grow up making people cringe whenever he tries to say a word in a different language. I’m also going to use this opportunity to improve my Spanish, as impossible as that might seem.

So I’m giving Superstar Spanish a try. It’s good for kids ages 5-10 (this is right in my wheel house) by using phonics to teach kids Spanish. Users see and hear the letters and numbers, then play games to reinforce the words. Stars are awarded too!

I’ve been playing it with my son and so far he’s doing great. Okay. That’s not true. I’m playing it for him and I’m doing okay. I’ve gotten a few stars and I’m working my way toward my first certificate. My high school Spanish teacher would be so proud!

Are you using Superstar Spanish? What are your favorite games?

I’m using Reading Trainer to double my reading speed while improving retention. Yes, it can be done! Here’s my take on it – when I’m snowboarding at top speed, my brain is working just as hard on focusing to keep me from falling. The same goes for reading fast. The words are moving at a fast pace, allowing no time for me to drift off and lose focus.

Reading Trainer uses eye exercises so my eyes will move that fast and gives me strategies to retain the information and recall it easier. So far, I’m noticing an improvement. It takes me less time to get all the info I need from those way-too-long emails I receive and I’m able to remember it until long after I’ve shut down my email for the evening.

I’m even trying out my new reading skills while reading articles and posts.  I might even get daring enough to grab an actual printed book in the hopes of finishing it in a reasonable amount of time.

I encourage you to try Reading Trainer for yourself. I definitely feel better when I read more efficiently. Who knows what you can do with that extra reading time?

Khan Academy is a cool not-for-profit organization. In fact, they’re on a mission to change the world by providing free education.  Khan Academy has more than 3,100 free education videos and Intel teamed up with them to feature nine of them in the Intel AppUp center. These apps are optimized for your PC so learning is that much easier.  I usually watch a video during a quiet moment to switch gears. I get a little bit of learning in and because my brain is forced to work in a new way, I can tackle other projects with a new point of view.

Check out the Khan Academy apps from the Intel AppUp center. They’re a great refresher course, or a great start on interesting subjects. In just about 10 minutes you’ve learned something far more useful than the fact that a toddler and a dog will gladly share food or toys or whatever the vacuum hasn’t picked up. Hmmm…maybe there’s something in the Biology Khan Academy lesson about that.

Snapseed is an awesome photography app that lets me (and you) edit pictures easily. The interface is super intuitive and there are enough options to keep me occupied without being overwhelmed by choices (you know, all the filters you never use).

SnapSeed also includes photo editing options like tilt-shift and crop, rotate and straighten as well as sharpening the focus of your picture to highlight the details. It’s a great everyday photo app with advanced features even beginning photographers can use.

I’ve got a few pictures of my son (Jake) and my dog (Tank) that could use some editing. I’m just not sure SnapSeed has figured out how to remove tiny finger prints or dog drool filter the two of them got on my lens right before the pic!  

Think you have a cool pic that you “SnapSeeded”?  Post a link in the comments section and we’ll check it out!

I’m taking over the blog reigns here at App Life. Paula’s getting super technical with our friends at visual computing now, so it’s up to me to keep up on all things small dog and 80’s music. She leaves big shoes to fill, but I will try and fill ‘em with my one big dog (I think I read somewhere that one big dog equals three small dogs) and a lot of reggae and baseball. And of course, I’m always interested in your thoughts so let me know in comments or by email.

Like Paula, I see all of the apps that come through the Intel AppUp℠ center. This week, two apps caught my eye:  LibreOffice (a free app) and iStreamer (just $1.99, can’t beat that).  Here’s the skinny…

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an excellent free open source app for people who like a little bit of productivity in their lives.  It comes with Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base and it works for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux. Hey, it’s free. Try it out now.

iStreamer

The Internet moves pretty fast (gone are the days of dial-up!). Status updates and tweets can zoom by, especially if you are…I don’t know…working. iStreamer is a great way to capture the last 30 minutes of your timeline. iStreamer displays your timeline in 3-D so it looks cool too. Want to see it in action? Check it out on Vimeo.  

After you try those apps out, let me know what you think in comments or by email.

We all know that days off are few and far between and running errands on a day off is sort of a bummer. But when I use Local Recon, I map out my errands and throw in a few fun stops. Like cupcakes. And if I have a particularly great errand running experience, I can save that trip and recreate it and even add a note about the specific type of cupcake I tried and enjoyed and made that particular bit of errand running so much better and more efficient.

Cupcakes and errands. That pretty much says Rambo to me. Give Local Recon a try the next time you’re planning an errand running trip. Or if you’re saving the world.

Basically, I had just given up answering my phone unless it’s sitting right next to me. This wasn’t an excellent solution for my family or friends who seemed a bit miffed when I’d call them back about three minutes later and have to explain about the dogs, the phone, etc. What? What’s wrong with leaving messages!?

But everyone is feeling much happier now that I’ve downloaded Teleport Extender onto my PC. It’s a magical app that lets me text and talk on the phone from my PC instead of nearly injuring myself or the fur babies in a mad dash. All you need to start using Teleport Extender is a secure home WiFi connection. You’ll also get caller ID, forwarding to voicemail, and access to your phone contact list right on your PC.

If you’re a small dog owner, I highly recommend this app. If you’re not a small dog owner, well, you’ll like it too. And maybe consider rescuing a small dog. They’re really cute, you know.

*I made this number up. But it sure feels like a lot.