You Are Viewing Reviews

In 1979 I was living in Charlotte, NC. My then 7-year-old son had just joined the Cub Scouts and as a good parent, I was getting involved with is cub scout troop. One of the other mothers worked at BoJangles which was then a new fast-food restaurant. She was their biscuit maker and was quite proud of the fact that her biscuits were light and fluffy and that they sold zillions of them a day. That’s when I fell in love with BoJangles biscuits. If I had been asked to make a hometown video of Charlotte, it would have HAD to have included the Bojangles on Freedom Drive!

When we moved to Greenville, the closest Bojangles was not very convenient and as Ken didn’t care for the spicy batter they use on their chicken we didn’t eat there very often and I forgot about those delectable biscuits.

Now we live in Donalds where there are no fast food restaurants at all — here’s a video I made of our hometown so you can see just what a tiny town it is. We don’t even have a traffic light and I love it that way.

My Hometown

Last weekend as we drove to Columbia, SC for the dog shows, we passed through Laurens, SC and right there on Hillcrest Drive is a Bojangles. Since Ken insisted wanted me to choose where we would grab a bite of breakfast on the way, Bojangles popped out of my mouth and that’s where we stopped. That was Saturday — Sunday it was HIS choice and guess where we stopped?? Yep…Bojangles.

Saturday, we just got a biscuit and milk but that first bite had both of us in raptures. Sunday we each got a combo which included hash rounds and oh-my-GOD were those WONDERFUL! Nice and crispy on the outside and wonderfully moist and tender on the inside. Unlike ANY of those found at the other fast-food places, these have onion in them! My only complaint was that they were a tad greasy, but the overall flavor and texture made up for that slight negative.

So, if you’ve never eaten a Bojangles biscuit, you really should try one — they are fantastic! And unlike any other place, they’re made from scratch right there in the franchise. All the other places use frozen…bleah. And don’t forget the hash rounds!

ê¿ê

**UPDATE** EATING WORDS AFTER ONLY TWO DAYS!!

EntreCard rolled out a new toolbar addon for Firefox browser. It’s supposed to make visiting blogs, dropping and advertising easier.

I’ve been testing it for the last two days. I wanted to make myself very familiar with it before I wrote anything about it. Sometimes I get excited about something new and write positively and then feel like an idiot when I have to eat part (or all) of my words

Positives:

• It installed easily
• It makes it much simpler to switch between blogs
• it doesn’t let you get logged out every 3 sites
• It lets you add blogs as favorites easily
• It keeps track of your drops as you go along making it easy to tell how many more you have to reach the max.
• It makes it very easy to jump to other areas of EntreCard such as the Blog or some of the Forums.

Negatives:

• It brings up some of the same blogs over and over again
• When limited to the INBOX, it only brings up about 25 different blogs even if you have more in there

Semi-negative:

• It only lets you load 10 blogs at a time. While you can click the 10 button multiple times, you increase the number of duplicate blogs you open.

**EATING THESE WORDS**

• It was supposed to make advertising on the blogs easier, but I can see no difference.
• There is a HUGE difference in advertising on a blog and I totally missed it!! {smacking forehead} If you’ll LOOK at the toolbar, you’ll see that there is an “ADVERTISE” button with the cost of the ad right there. The great big humongous advantage here is that you’re seeing the blog, verifying the widget placement, page rank, Alexa score and ******drum roll****** ta da! UPDATED CONTENT before you spend your credits on a dead blog.  W00T! There’s also this nifty drop down menu where you can click the sites’ profile page to see what it’s popularity and how many drops it’s given you in the last 30 days. Those might be other criteria you use to advertise. At any rate, it’s all there in a click or two. NICE!

**END WORD EATING **

** ADDED STUFF**

Some people are having trouble switching accounts from the link page. Don’t switch from there. Use the tool bar to switch. Just drop down the button to the far left and choose the blog you want to switch to, then next to it, you’ll see how many credits you have on that account and how many drops you’ve done for the day, click on that and you’ll get a drop down menu that includes dashboard, messages, your ads, statistics, linked blogs (that one is redundant IMO) and buy credits. Just click one of those and you’ll go to the relevant account’s whatever-link-you-chose.

Right now, the toolbar seems to be fighting with the main dashboard pages, but if you’ll let the toolbar lead the dance, you’ll do just fine.

** END ADDED STUFF **

My “normal” drop method was to use a list. I have a couple of them and switch between them so as to mix up the blogs I drop on somewhat. I can open 25-30 tabs at a time in FF which makes dropping on 300 blogs pretty quick and simple. I could do one set of 300 along with quickly browsing the newest post and commenting on some in the hour before leaving for work in the morning. Then do a second set at lunch and my last set after dinner. I haven’t managed to do 300 per blog yet with the tool bar although I came pretty close Sunday. It takes a lot longer due to the duplications.

** MORE ADDED STUFF **

Ok, I’ve done an experiment that has worked better than my wildest dream. I opened my list(s) and opened 30 tabs, dropped through those (reading and commenting as I went along) and repeated until max drops were reached on one blog, then clicked another account, and began again. I was done dropping 900 cards in about 2 hours (complete with reading and commenting on many of those blogs!). The toolbar kept track of my drops, so I always new how many I needed to finish and the sites loaded quickly. I was never logged out the first time, was able to report blogs that had lost their widgets or had been closed by google and all was wonderful in my EntreCard world.

** END MORE ADDED STUFF**

So, it’s a great start, but I would say it’s still in Beta testing as far as I’m concerned.

Have you downloaded the EC Toolbar? What are your opinions on it? Is it something you’re going to continue to use?

ê¿ê

Image via Wikipedia

While we were at the dog show last weekend, we decided to go out to dinner Saturday night. Outback Steakhouse has long been one of our favorite places to eat and when we spotted the sign for one, we made the snap decision to eat there.

It’s a typical Outback, so there were no surprises with decor or wait times for seating. We were actually seated pretty quickly despite the line as we agreed to a table by the bar. I enjoy sitting by the bar as I get to people watch moreso than when I’m sitting in the regular dining where you can only see the people at the tables adjacent to yours. You get to see more people at the bar and combined with the level of inebriation present, a wider variety of behavior to enjoy

We both ordered the Prime Rib which with their signature seasoning on it has a nice flavor. Our waiter was quick and thorough; bringing us freshly baked bread and drink refills promptly and without a lot of fanfare. It seems irritating to me for a waiter to ask me repeatedly if I need a refill when I’m obviously at the beginning of my meal and my glass is empty or nearly so. I can understand it if my plate is empty and we’re obviously ready for the check. My only regret was that I had no room for dessert after the delicious main meal. Outback has some wonderful desserts on their menu.

And speaking of checks, when our waiter brought ours, I paid for it with a credit card and then for some stupid reason on my part, proceeded to leave my wallet on the table. I missed it right away when we got back to the hotel room, but it was a nightmarish wait to get someone on the phone to try to find it. I didn’t remember leaving it on the table and thought I might have dumped it out of my purse when I dug out my cell phone as we were leaving since I thought I heard it ringing. Ken drove back to the restaurant and the hostess took him back to our table, but they didn’t find the wallet. When he called me to tell me they couldn’t find it, I convinced him to go back and check other tables that were on the way out the door still thinking I could have dropped it. That’s when they thought to ask our waiter if he had seen it. It turned out that he had and had turned it in to the manager. The hostess had not thought to check with either our waiter or the manager to see if it had been turned in. Nor had the person I talked to when I phoned about it.

I feel like Ken needs to take out some child life insurance on me as I’m regressing in adult behavior with moves like this one. I felt so stupid for leaving the wallet on the table! I didn’t have any cash in it, but I had my social security card, voter registration card, not to mention credit cards in it. The repercussions of losing all of those things would have been devastating if the waiter had not snagged it off the table before someone unscrupulous had.

So, if you’re ever in Huntington, WV try the Outback Steakhouse. Not only is the food good, but the staff is honest and trustworthy.

ê¿ê

America’s Greatest Dog premiered tonight. Ken and I and all the dogs were watching it.

I think Ken was disappointed in it, but then again he went to bed after the first round which was nothing more than to see who got to sleep in the “dog bone room” — a lavishly appointed room that any self-respecting dog would eat itself into oblivion in.The next competition was a little more entertaining.

I see many recipes for disaster with this show. First off, while some of the contestants had actually TRAINED their dog, there were some obviously untrained animals on the show. Uncontrollable and untrained dogs is going to end up in a dog fight at some point.They all have to train their dogs to learn new things all through the competition. Only two of the people have any background in dog training and while that MIGHT give them an edge, what I saw tonight says it’s not going to be much of an edge.

It’s an interesting panel of judges — Victoria Stillwell, Allan Reznick and Wendy Diamond are the judges. Victoria Stillwell is the host of “It’s Me or the Dog” which I’ve watched from time to time. She uses positive reinforcement training methods and has a great insight into dog mentality. Allan Reznick is currently the Editor-At-Large for Dog Fancy and Dog World magazines, but has an extensive background in showing dogs. Wendy Diamond is the Chief Pet Officer, Editor-In-Chief and founder of the animal lifestyle magazine and website, Animal Fair, dedicated to fairness to animals and responsible breeding.

Of course the guy voted off was complaining about it being unfair, but the judges told him that it was all about the DOG and not about HIM. He had a cute chocolate Boston Terrier that was actually pretty smart and fairly well trained, but the guy kept upstaging the dog.

And then there’s the super cocky guy with the English Bulldog that skateboards He won the first night in the dog bone room and thinks he’ll have permanent possession of the key to it, but there are some other pretty awesome dogs in that competition, so he better watch his p’s and q’s.

There is one lady that just makes me want to gag, though. She dresses her dog up in outfits to match hers which in and of itself isn’t terribly weird — it’s just that she stated that if her dog wasn’t dressed, well, it was just naked! DUH! That is just too far out there for me. She also has one of the lesser trained dogs, so I don’t see them going much further in the competition but I’m prepared to eat that prediction

Another lady is getting married later in the year and she invited all the participants and their dogs to her wedding which will feature her own dog as ring bearer. One of the guys very rudely told her he thought he had to drink bleach that day, so wouldn’t be able to attend. What a thing to say on National Television!

There’s an older gentleman from Georgia with a Brittany who just seems to be overwhelmed by all of it. He’s being a great sport and I just love his dog. She’s a real sweetie  and it’s super obvious that they have a true bond for one another. His dog saved his wife’s life by alterting him  that she had gone into a diabetic coma. For me, this dog has nothing else she needs to prove, so win or lose this particular contest, she already IS a Great American Dog.

These are by no means all the contestants, but are the ones that made the biggest impression on me tonight. You can read more about the contestants and judges at the CBS website.  There are even video clips of some of the performances by the contestants.

ê¿ê