ONCE UPON A TIME, WE TOOK VACATIONS to reinvent ourselves. Cancel the mail, lock the door, hit the road and become someone else. We were unplugged, out of the bosses’ reach and able to fully experience our ice-cream cone as we watched Old Faithful spew.

Today, we might be wearing flip flops and shorts far from home, but it feels like we’re still in high heels as we frantically resend files from our Blackberries in the midst of our vacations.

I vow to stay unplugged at least every second day on my vacation this year, one small step for womankind to re-sharpen the lines between work and “life,” formerly known as leisure and family time.

Here’s what I’m telling myself:

• I’ll do better at whatever the task if I come back refreshed.
• Ideas need incubation time. Vacation for me is a time to dream and gain confidence in life (and work) possibilities.
• Is it really less stressful to handle a work issue right away without documents or a work frame of mind?
• What am I saying to family and friends if I can never be with them fully?

Think of the room in the suitcase if you leave behind the PIN numbers, passwords, to-do lists, day timers and negative thoughts of non-stop news. Think of the time!

If willpower fails, you can always go where cell phones don’t. To the moon, Alice. To the moon.

I STOPPED COUNTING AFTER 5,040: Fitness-related applications for the iPhone, that is. Wait, aren’t computers supposed to count such things for us?

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Anyhow, the next and certainly not final frontier in exercise entrepreneurship seems to be software for smart phones that somehow helps with our workouts. You can track exercise sessions and duration, calculate calories burned, log calories consumed, read exercise descriptions, watch demonstration videos, even go through guided sessions for inspiration or relaxation.

Some concepts are simple: Hundred Pushups ($1.99) helps you follow a six-week plan to be able to do 100 consecutive push-ups. (There’s also Two Hundred Situps ($1.99) and, soon, Twenty-five Pullups.)

Others are more comprehensive and can be a little scary: The RunKeeper (free for basic version, $9.99 for pro) uses the GPS capabilities in a 3G iPhone to track your pace, elevation, duration, calories burned and actual distance traveled — and traces your actual path on a map. Very cool. But wait, that wasn’t really me ducking into Mrs. See’s after that workout…

And some fall into a familiar trap: The SixPack App Pro ($.99), for example, nicely shows a range of exercises for the abdominal muscles, but as everyone who’s fallen for an infomercial ab machine knows, a six pack is visible only if one also gets rid of the layer of fat that covers most bellies.

Smart-phone exercise apps do indeed hold the promise of making exercise easier. And, yes, tracking exercise better. But still there remains the age-old problem: Actually doing it.

BUYING A NEW COMPUTER CAN BE PARALYZING: So many variables, so many dealers, so many sales. And yet not enough clarity about what fits your needs now, not to mention what might come in handy down the road.

Of course you can find many online guides to buying a desktop or laptop; simply search for “computer buying guide” to become familiar with the main components in play.

Having recently replaced all three of our home computers, I found that a few other factors also helped get me to make the leap and click “Buy”:

• Don’t wait until you understand everything. That is likely to never happen.
• See what discounts you can get by starting to shop at a rebate, credit-card or membership site.
• Build around a component that’s key for you: Storage, for example, if you have tons of photos and videos. Or the quality of the video card, if you’ll be doing gaming or video editing.
• Get a configuration built and priced online at one dealer. Then call another dealer and ask if they can beat that price for that configuration. Or, as often happens, offer better components for a comparable price.
• Once you have model numbers for parts, Google them to look for reviews or common problems.
• Get the at-home, next-day service warranty. If you use your computer for work, this is essential to reduce downtime in case of problems.
• Remember that whatever you choose, you’ll probably spend more time using its features than lamenting ones it lacks.

Unfortunately, once you’ve clicked buy, another potential paralyzing moment looms: Computer setup. But don’t worry; there are sites for that, too.

I AM A RELUCTANT SOCIAL NETWORKER. I was an early adopter of LinkedIn back in the day when LinkedIn was a tool for job-seekers and business networkers. It had structure, boundaries and privacy. There wasn’t much “social” about it until people started using it more sociably. If I had to engage in social networking, LinkedIn was my comfort zone.

Facebook was another matter. I resisted it wholeheartedly and enthusiastically. Nudged gently (!?) along by friends and colleagues, I was gradually coaxed into reconsidering. At first I was tentative, like a 5-year-old learning to ride a bike with the training wheels on and oh, by the way, not interested in taking them off any time soon. While my comfort zone with Facebook has increased, I am still not (and will probably never be) the power-user my 15-year-old is. Puleaase.

Truth be told, I have come to like Facebook: Staying connected and reconnecting with friends and family around the world. “Fanning” pages and groups. Sharing causes and events that are important to me. And imagine my surprise when, at a party recently, an old friend—with whom I was not yet “friends” on Facebook—told me over cocktails that she is a fan of our Lifestyle Insights blog.

Lately, however, I’ve noticed that LinkedIn is becoming more Facebook-like, with expanding social networking features. People are updating their status multiple times a day, joining groups and using applications. Facebook, on the other hand, is adopting some of the structure and boundaries that initially made me more comfortable on LinkedIn. And more and more businesses are using Facebook to connect with users and customers.

Stay tuned… er, I mean, signed in.

SHOCKING BUT TRUE: I still don’t own a flat-screen TV. Not because I don’t want one. It’s just that every time I walk into my local Costco there are newer, better and cheaper models. So I wait. But I confess, I never really thought about the energy efficiency of my televisions. Until now.

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I don’t live in California, but if it’s true that as goes California, so goes the nation, then energy efficiency of our big screens is something I am going to be paying more attention to. Large flat-screen TVs — combined with their associated DVRs, DVD players, cable or satellite boxes, gaming consoles and other various and sundry peripherals — now consume 10 percent of all household electricity in the Golden State. Although California has the lowest state-wide per-capita energy consumption levels in the country, that’s still a hefty chunk.

The California Energy Commission is proposing mandated energy efficiency standards for flat-screen televisions up to 58 inches, increasing energy efficiency up to 33 percent beginning in 2011, and increasing to 50-percent reduction in energy consumption beginning in 2013. These new standards will simply be mandating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy’s Energy Star ratings, which are currently voluntary across the country.

The California Energy Commission has an FAQ on their website explaining the basics of the program, including a downloadable list of TVs on the market as of September 2009 that meet their proposed 2011 standards.

Now I’m glad I haven’t yet bought one of these babies. I’ll be taking that list on my next trip to Costco, and may finally bite the bullet, secure in the knowledge that it’s as green as it can be, at least for now.

JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOUR TWEEN HAS LEARNED the art of good manners — whether it’s keeping elbows off the dinner table or courteously addressing adults — there comes yet another form of etiquette that needs to be conquered.

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Call it Textiquette: the art of texting without being rude to those around you.

Since recently becoming a 3-out-of– person texting family (Santa surprised our 10-year-old daughter with a cell phone!), we now communicate via texting more than ever before.

At this age, our daughter has only a few contacts, and most are family members. So while we don’t yet worry about whom she is communicating with, we already see how texting could become a distraction.

Textiquette is like any other learned behavior, so we figure it’s best to establish rules from the beginning so we don’t have to change habits later.

There are a handful of no-brainer basic rules that every tween, teen and even adults should follow:

• Never text while driving (or doing any activity that requires your full attention, like riding a bike or skateboarding).
• Never text where it’s not allowed — in class, in church or synagogue, or in other obvious public settings.
• And never, ever text inappropriate pictures or messages.

In teaching our daughter when it is — and when it’s not — appropriate to text, we’ve realized that many adults (ourselves, included) could stand to brush up on their Textiquette. Consider:

Keep text messages short and to the point. If it lasts longer than a few minutes, use your phone for a real conversation.

Don’t text another person when you are in the company of someone else. It’s just rude.  If you must take the text, politely excuse yourself from the room.

Don’t use texting as a forum to gossip or say mean things about other people. Tweens should understand how texting can impact others — and how they are ultimately responsible for what they text.

IN THAT NEVER-ENDING CHALLENGE to be a more efficient wife/mom/chef/chauffeur, there’s nothing like the iPhone to help make every day go smoother.  These are four of our most fave iPhone apps that make managing family life a little easier and a lot more fun!

SOURCE: APPLE.COM

4 Ingredients

Who it’s for: The working mom who is driving home wondering what to make for dinner.

How it works: Pick a specific ingredient (i.e., Beef) or a Food category (Dinner) and then choose from a plethora of 4-ingredient recipes, which come from the Australian cookbook of the same name.

Cost: $3.99

ShopALot

Who it’s for: The family member who does all the grocery shopping, week after week.

How it works: This app lets you do everything from create grocery lists and see nutritional info to compare pricing of products and see images of products so you can find them easily on the shelf.

Cost: $1.99

Proxido

Who it’s for: The errand-runner/family chauffeur

How it works: Enter your Tasks and To-Do lists and this app will read your GPS coordinates and remind you what you need to do in the vicinity of where you are.

Cost: $.99

Time Out

Who it’s for: Naughty little ones who need to be punished when you’re out and about.

How it works: Kids acting up at a restaurant or in the car?  This app is a timer for tracking Time Outs. Just enter (up to 4) kids’ names and the amount of time they have to serve. An alarm goes off when the time is up.

Cost: Free

THIS WINTER WE BOUGHT a TV, a DVD player and a chair to watch them in. You, my fellow consumer, told me what to look for, what to avoid and when to make the leap. You were right on every count.

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I love consumer reviews. Nine times out of 10, the written words of people who have used the product lead to my best purchases.

I don’t always make the right choice. But I buy confident that I’ve done my research.

If you read enough of user comments — cross checking between sites, typing in “problem” with the model number, finding forums for the big items — you develop an ear for separating whiners from legitimate complainers, real people from company plants.

Tips:

• For a big purchase, like a car, read formal sites like Consumer Reports for possible problems. Then type a short reference to those problems into Google search with the name of the vehicle.
• If you can’t decide between two products, type “compare” this to that.
• If one site doesn’t have reviews but has a great price, type in the model number to find reviews on other sites.
• Watch for patterns. Does the “horrible red line” show up in reviews from three people who bought that TV? Don’t risk it!
• Decide what you can live with. I pined for a chair on sale online. One reviewer loved it; one found it too hard. I went for it without enough evidence. Darned if the critical guy wasn’t right.
• Consumer reviews are anecdotal not scientific. Their strength is context: Will you use this product the same way?

Two other sites with extensive reviews:

• Amazon.com
• ConsumerSearch

Oh, and many thanks to the reviewer with the “buy right now” tip just as I happened to be trolling: I saved $600 on the TV.

“MOM, WHEN CAN I GET A CELL PHONE?”

“I don’t know … probably when you get to middle school.”

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This conversation apparently transpired between me and my grade-school-aged kids during some car ride a few years ago. (I don’t recall when it happened, since conversations like this take place every time we’re in the car!)

Now the kids ― especially my 10-year-old, fifth-grader daughter, who begins middle school next year ― are holding me to my promise.

While my initial “middle school” answer was arbitrary (I’m sure I thought it was a long way off), research and advice from other parents of middle schoolers are proving it’s a reasonable, appropriate age (at least for my child; all families are different) to have a cell phone.

For tweens, getting a cell phone is a both a step toward independence and a status symbol among friends. It’s also kind of a lifeline to a support group of family and friends, which becomes so important when you enter the middle-school “big pond” world of multiple classrooms/teachers and general adventures in adolescence.

For parents, the benefits are more tangible. You get to keep in touch with your child at all times and you’re provided with a sense of safety and security, especially in emergency-type situations. Texting is a great way for teens to discreetly communicate with parents. Plus there’s the practical aspect, i.e.: “Call me when you need a ride home from soccer practice.”

Like any form of technology, it’s best to establish rules of use. Consider:

• A pre-paid plan with a limited number of minutes so you don’t face extra charges.
• The ability to put limits on what the phone can do, such as turning off web access.
• Devising a plan for monitoring your child’s text messages.
• Have a discussion about serious cell phone issues, such as the dangers of driving while on a phone, cyberbullying and cell-phone etiquette.

IT’S NOVEMBER, so we all know what that means: Cozy gatherings, warm memories,  favorite foods, treasured gifts ― and that feeling of dread about pulling it all together.

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Technology often adds to that overwhelming feeling as the holidays approach, with email backlogs, photos piling up, gadgets not working when you need them the most. But with a little planning, technology can instead be your friend during the holidays.

For your electronics:

• Stock up on batteries. Check all your electronic devices and keep a backup set for each type needed.
• Buy extra storage devices. Memory cards and flash drives have come way down in price that it’s easy to keep a few spares around so you’ll never miss a photo.

For your email:

• Stop deleting unwanted emails and newsletters and start unsubscribing from them. One or two a day will lighten your email load through the holidays and get you off to a fresh start for the New Year.
• Control how often you check email. You have better things to do!
• Create a “holidays” email folder or tag holiday newsletters. Then you’ll be able to easily delete or unsubscribe from them after the season. Or even save them for ideas for next year.