Dana's blog

I picked up an old, used paperback the other day, and I've been devouring it. It's by Dale Carnegie, one of the grand old masters of the self-improvement biz. You may well have run across at least the title of his best-known book, How To Win Friends and Influence People. It's a wonderful book, very much worth your time, and no doubt your local library has it.

I won't go into boring details, but I've recently had a fire lit under my butt. I've been neglecting my web presence, and after having first made a name for myself with a simple ezine, that's just plain dumb. So I'm brainstorming ideas, looking at info about how to improve my blogging and social networking skills, and generally getting myself back into gear. And about time, too.

Over this past winter, ending just a couple of weeks ago, I've been taking weekly classes in Chicago, a good four-hour drive away. I'd leave home around 1:30 in the afternoon, drive to Chicago, take a class from 6-9 their time (an hour behind Indiana), drive all the way home, and get to bed around 3 am -- if the weather was good, which it wasn't, always, what with Midwestern winters and all.

This morning, Andrew DiMino of CarbSmart asked me to be the editor of CarbSmart Magazine. Wow! I'll still be writing there too, of course, but now I'll also be reviewing incoming articles. Might even be looking for some new talent, who knows?

Too cool!

I have another apology for y'all: Quite a while back -- well over a year, at any rate -- The Webmaster, aka That Nice Boy I Married, made a change to my dana@holdthetoast.com email address. For years my Hold the Toast mail had been coming right to the inbox of my personal email address, and I saw it all as it came in. I didn't answer all of it, but I did answer a substantial portion. The Webmaster set up a separate inbox for the Hold the Toast mail.

I just snarfed this info from Jimmy Moore's facebook posting:

FIRST Mag to feature women who lost 100+ pounds on #lowcarb diet. Send pics to dsquilla@bauerpublishing.com w/name, age, city, state & bio.

Thanks, Jimmy!

Ladies, if you've lost 100 pounds or more low carbing, this is your chance to tell the world -- and, more importantly, other women who are struggling on a low fat diet.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” -- Mahatma Gandhi

I read this and immediately thought of the mainstream reaction to low carbing...

Just sent this email to my Congressman, Baron Hill:

Dear Congressman Hill:

See the top link to the right? 1001 Low-Carb Recipes? That's my new book. I've been asked why I didn't mention it, and I admit I've been remiss. The truth is, I had nothing to do with putting it together; it's a compendium of recipes from the books already published. My publisher put the whole thing together, I did no work at all, though happily if it sells well I will make a buck or two. Which is why you should all run out and buy at least a dozen copies.

A new study, just out, suggests that drinking as few as two sugared sodas per week raises the risk of pancreatic cancer -- the articles I found said the risk nearly doubles. Diet soda was not found to raise risk.

See? I told you sugar was bad for you.

Should have posted this donkey's years ago. It's an hilarious video called The Drugs I Need. Work-safe, unless you work for a pharmaceutical company. Warning: You will be whistling this tune, by the Austin Lounge Lizards, all day long. Catchy as all get out.

As predicted by sleepybeetle, I found the Golden Flake, the precious, precious Golden Flake, when I got to Baldwin County, Alabama. I bought over fifty bags, ate three while I was still out of town, and now have a freezer full of yummy, yummy cracklin's. I am happy.

Until they run out.

You may recall that last winter, after the Low Carb Cruise, I wrote about the snacks I'd encountered in Dixie, and my newfound addiction to Golden Flake Pork Cracklin's. Well, I'm now in Gainesville, Florida, blogging from a Super 8 motel, having gotten off the Carnival Fascination yesterday in Jacksonville. The cruise was fantastic, but I'll blog about that later. Right now my obsession is this:

I CAN'T FIND ANY GOLDEN FLAKE CRACKLIN'S! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Long-time readers know that I keep all my chicken bones in a plastic grocery sack in the freezer till I have a potful, and then make chicken broth. It's super-simple: Just dump the bones -- they can be picked absolutely naked, that's fine -- in a stock pot. Cover with water, add a teaspoon or two of salt (no more; it concentrates as the broth boils down) and about 1/4 cup of any kind of vinegar (this helps draw calcium out of the bones, so you get a high-calcium broth.) Put it over low heat and let it simmer till at least a quarter, maybe a third of the water's cooked down.

We've been getting a lot of blog "responses" here that are obviously only posted to put up a link to someone's completely unrelated website -- in other words, spam. Just so you know, you spamming jerks, we delete that stuff and block your email the moment we see it, and both the Webmaster and I are in front of our computers for much of the day. In other words, your link is gonna last maybe an hour.

So cut it the hell out.

Admin's note: Comments are now moderated. If you're a spammer, don't bother -- your crap will never see the light of day.