Post Scripts

Yo, LK! What's for dinner?

Last night it was chipped beef on toast - a cream sauce with dried beef ladeled over toasted white bread. It's also known as SOS in the armed services.

My Aussie friends probably don't know about chipped beef, since it isn't sold there. So allow me to explain using the Chipped Beef page in Wikipedia. (Yup, chipped beef has its own page.)

Chipped beef is very thinly sliced dried beef. And it is verrrrry salty. Probably the most telling part of the Wiki information is this statement from Hormel, which makes chipped beef. They describe it as "an air-dried product that is similar to bresaola, but not as tasty."

Which does make you wonder why you wouldn't buy bresaola instead. But that's another issue. Anyhow, when the grocery store didin't have all the ingredients LK needed for the dish she intended to make last night, she shifted gears and made chipped beef on toast - an American classic that we hadn't eaten in more than 20 years since we moved to Oz. And it may not be the most lovely dish in the world, but it is tasty and even saltier than I recalled.

But no, this is not becoming a food blog, although it surely would be more popular if it did. The heading, picture and description of our dinner is an affectionate allusion to LK's cousin Jo who does write a food blog. LK is hooked on it and on more than one occasion she has been known to get friends to sit and look at page after page. Caroline even said she was going to bookmark it.

And speaking of Caroline and blogs, yesterday LK got an e-mail from our friend who wrote that she had been reading my blog. And she couldn't resist adding, "Let Don know ... he needs to stop whining about the cold!"

Gee thanks, Caroline. I appreciate this constructive criticism. Could you let me know if you mean the cold temperatures outside or the head cold I have. I have been whining about both, and I will stop whining about whichever you are referring to.

I also got a little kick in the blog pants the other day when Judy commented on my post after I hadn't written anything for four days. "Thank god!" she wrote. "A new blog. Was starting to wonder if you' died."

So now Jude has joined my mother and wife as people who try to guilt trip me if I don't post often. But I know what they mean. I get frustrated when my favorite bloggers don't post for a while.

Lately, I've been reading the new blog of my friend AB and I was starting to wonder when the next post would appear after he skipped four days. Not-so-creatively titled "My Blog",  I enjoy keeping tabs on him and his family. And unlike certain people I know, I would never dream of suggesting to Andrew that he stop whining about his diet. No, Caroline, I would never do that.

But since this has been one of those dreaded blogs about blogging, I guess I should end by adding one more wonderful thing about Judy. I was looking at her Facebook page the other day and discovered that she obviously had heaps of spare time and had just completed a 4Q Marathon:

I have just spent the last couple of days reading a friends blog. . . This is one of the funniest, most heartwarming stories I have ever read. We have learned so much about this warm, funny man, his wonderful, practical wife and amazing family and friends. Thank you, Don, for allowing us to be part of your story.

Well, if that doesn't make me go all gushy and gooey. And it certainly earns Jude the right to nag me about posting any time she wants.

But I couldn't help noting that after she wrote that entry on Facebook, one of her Facebook friends started this exchange with Judy:

Georgia: "You write lots of words"
Judy: "Would have written more, but they have a limit."
Georgia: "Hahah aw that's sad."

See Jude, once you write online, everyone becomes a critic.