How to Lose Weight

What it all boils down to is that a diet of sausages and mashed potatoes simply is not as slimming as a diet of salads and fresh fruit. Just remember, if you really are what you eat, would you rather be brown and mushy or green and snappy? You choose.

I'm Not a Pro Blogger

I like my blogs, I like to write, take pictures and share about my life. I don't have a lot of advice to give. I don't have the incredibly mind altering, earth shattering, life changing experiences of other bloggers. I am not a single mother who offers advice on how to get back into the dating game or what brand diaper suits the urban green momma. I don't take the time to blog about everything I do: every walk I take with my dog, every time I get together with friends, every television show I watch, every dream I have, every argument with my husband, every time I miss my family and friends. I haven't even blogged about how difficult it has been to relocate to an English-speaking European country. And believe me, I could write endlessly on the differences one faces when making this kind of move. Although, hasn't that already been done? Aren't there dozens of blogs focusing on the American Expatriot? I confess, I haven't scoured the Internet in search of these blogs. I do know however, that there are dozens of books on this very topic so it stands to reason that someone out there blogs about it - and probably very well, I might add.

I know there are all kinds of things you can do to increase traffic to your blog, maximize your audiance's time on your blog, get folks to subscribe and become a fan and actually re-visit your blog. I know you can link it to all of the social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Myspace among others. And I try. I honestly do try to do all of those really important things to get more people to read about me and my expriences, to stay interested, comment on postings, basically become active readers. I also know that I have a tendency to lose interest in such things. Flake Out as the saying goes.

Take Myspace for example. Only two and a half years ago I was absolutly addicted to Myspace and my Myspace friends. My virtual world was expanding and I was becoming much more aware of the potential of this virtual social network I was creating. It was a new beginning for me and I was loving every second of it. Then I joined Facebook. It seemed to be a progression; a natural next step. I didn't like Facebook and believe I had a mere dozen friends for the first two years until somewhere along the line about a year ago, people from my past started to find me. Now I check my Myspace page on average once every three to four weeks.

I joined Twitter a year ago and still only have about two dozen followers (a couple of whom I do not know but think I am supposed to). Although as of late it seems that everyone is discovering and using it. Now Twitter is following in the Facebook steps in that I have a tendency to only open Twitter and update my status as I know it will show up on all of my other social networking profiles. I know this too will fade as LinkedIn is now the up and coming professional social network. Yeah, it's great and all. It's similar to Twitter in that you only have to update short blurbs about yourself, your day, a project you are working on, you name it. You don't have to give it the ol' pulitzer prize attempt at writing about your life. And again, it's great. It's easy and it's easy enough to link all of those blurbs into your real blog, Myspace or Facebook page.

The damn thing about all of this? I'd still just rather be on Myspace. I miss the simpler days when that was the cool site. It is no longer enough to virtually chat with folks, leave comments on pages and share photos, etc. Now it is much more interactive with games and applications, surveys and quizes. We've become bored with just getting to know one another with silly bulletins and blog postings.

What it all comes down to though is, you'll read about me if you're interested. You'll follow me if you have nothing better to do. And, you'll find me on the Internet if you want to take the time. Take your pick, I'm on them all - or at least all the ones I know about.

The Last Schnitzel

When Claire, James, Justin and I went to the pub for dinner a week ago we were faced with the dilema of there being only one pork schnitzel left on the menu. Both Claire and I wanted the pork schnitzel. What were we to do? Ever so gracefully, and much to my delight, Claire backed down and allowed me to have the last schnitzel. It wasn't without dissapointment on everyone's part however. We had to do something to cheerourselves up and what's better than a pint of delicous pear cider to raise the spirits? Well, not much, unless of course there was a second pork schnitzel. But, the perry alone did a great job!

And just look at his amazingly delicious pork schnitzel!

After all was said and done, Claire was quite happy with her second choice entree. And, I could not have been happier with the almighty last schnitzel.