(Via.)

Tomatoes, corn, and zucchini:

• 21 great recipes for tomatoes
• 8 corn & tomato recipes
• Zucchini, banana and flax seed muffins
• Stuffed zucchini blossoms
• Zucchini, tomato and ricotta tarts
• Crispy baked zucchini fries

Etsy finds of the week:

• Wicked witch bookmark
• Yaaay felt pennant

Listen: Download Stereogum’s Cruel Summer 2011 Mix

Automagic: Instagram filters as Photoshop actions

Organize: 10 practical ideas for better spice storage

Refreshing: Chilled avocado soup

Unhealthy snack: Make a single serving brownie in a mug in the microwave in one minute

Somewhat healthier snacks: 10 uses for ripe bananas

Etsy find of the week: Charlie Brown fleece dog (or cat) jacket

The POREfessional (get it?!) has a nice velvety feel to it, can be applied under or over makeup, and it actually does what it’s supposed to do: minimize the appearance of pores. Recommended.

Don’t laugh, this thing is awesome. I’m generally not a fan of single-purpose kitchen appliances but this is an exception, it makes the Best Popcorn Ever. Kettle corn, anyone?

2. The BusyBodyBook day timer

I still like to make lists and write things down on paper. I’ve been using this day timer for the past couple of weeks and it’s everything I’ve always wanted in a day timer/planner. There’s room for notes, a to-do list, and a weekly grid with five (five!) customizable columns. I’ve never felt so organized in my life.

Rogers never have any iPhones in stock so to get one you pretty much have to go to the Apple store and deal with their stupid process for getting an iPhone: you have to go in person to make an appointment to come back again later that day. So I went by yesterday morning at about 10:15 and got lucky with an appointment for 10:30. Awesome. I went to Sephora to pick up some lipstick and then back to the Apple store for 10:30 but the Guy who was supposed to be helping me was still busy with someone else so the Apple Guy who checked me in told me to “wait over there”, which I did even though there were like six other Not-Busy Apple Guys standing around. Ten minutes later I’m still standing there and finally one of the Not-Busy Apple Guys asks me if I need any help so I explain that I had an appointment for ten minutes ago to upgrade my phone and he said, “I can help you with that” and I said, “yay!” So we go over to a computer and he asks to see some photo ID and I’m like, “uhh, I don’t have any on me.” And he says, “Oh. I can’t activate your phone without seeing some photo ID.” And I’m like, “seriously?” and he’s like, “seriously. But we could reschedule your appointment for later today,” as if I didn’t have anything better to do than to walk home to get my passport and walk all the way back to the Rideau Centre in the pouring rain. I asked if I could make an appointment for tomorrow now instead. No!! You can only make same-day appointments.

So I went back this morning first thing and made an appointment for 11. I show up at 11 and everything was going smoothly: I had photo ID! They had a 32 GB iPhone 4 in stock! Apple Guy deactivated my old SIM card! I signed a new contract! All that was standing between me and my new iPhone was to ring it through the payment system. Apple Guy scans it using his wireless payment device thing. It doesn’t work. He tries someone else’s wireless payment device thing. It doesn’t work. We go over to a cash. IT DOESN’T WORK. Apple Guy goes to talk to his manager. He comes back and says, “I’m really sorry but our payment system for iPhones and iPads isn’t working right now.” And I’m like, “seriously?” and he’s like, “seriously. But the phone is yours, it’s all ready to go. I’ll just put it on hold and we’ll call you to come back and pick it up when our system’s working again.” I asked if he could tell me when they expect it to be working again. He said “probably within a few hours” but couldn’t guarantee it. I pointed out that my old phone isn’t working anymore and I wasn’t interested in being left without a phone for an indeterminate period of time. Apple Guy was apologetic but didn’t offer any solutions. Good thing I suggested he put my new SIM card into my old phone in the interim so at least I still have a functioning phone. But I will have to make a fifth (!) trip back to the Apple store likely later today to finally get my mitts on that fucking phone. Grumble grumble grumble.

UPDATE: I got my phone last night. It’s great!

Funnily enough, I found myself back at the Apple store this morning—not for the phone but for my MacBook Air. About a month ago, Poppy had lunged at the screen in an effort to “catch” the cursor and snapped the hinge. It was still intact and workable but it made a crunching noise every time I opened and closed it and it gradually got worse and worse and last night it finally fell apart. So I made an appointment online and brought it in this morning. I explained what happened to yet another Apple Guy and he immediately said “we’ll fix that for you for free.” And I was like, “seriously?” and he was like, “seriously.” My laptop’s not under warranty anymore so I was expecting to pay a few hundred bucks but they’re FIXING IT FOR FREE!! That’s so awesome. Way to totally redeem yourself, Apple store.

And this:

And this:

(Not my Pouchee.)

I lug a lot of stuff around with me most of the time. My phone, keys, lunch, gym clothes, wallet, camera, a small cosmetics bag, sunglasses and/or an umbrella, three different shades of red lipstick, hand sanitizer, hand cream, a lens cleaning cloth, kleenex, some band-aids, a pen and notebook, mints, a brush, etc. Oh, and sometimes my laptop. (And I wonder why my shoulders hurt.)

Carrying multiple bags is annoying so I just buy giant purses to accommodate everything. Consequently, I could never find anything in my purse and always spent way too much time fishing around for stuff in there.

But now? Now I’ve got a Pouchee. It’s a purse organizer insert and it’s awesome. My purse still weighs a ton but at least I know where everything is.