Last week, I visited my family in Texas. I had a great time, of course, seeing both my brothers and my father, not to mention my stepmother. They're all always in fine form.

My brother, Dan, is on the Atkins Diet like me (as is his wife, Debby). Well, not like me, because he's more faithful to the diet than I am. But he sure showed me some additional ways to help me stay on the "straight and narrow," not the least of which was by making homemade ice cream. Zowee! That's some good stuff, and pretty much indistinguishable from the "non-Atkins" sort.

Dan is also very skilled at barbecuing on his smoker (you know, the kind that looks like a 55-gallon drum lying on its side, with a separate firebox attached to one end and a chimney at the other end). I've had this kind of smoker for several years, but I've never used it much and I've never been very happy with the results of my efforts on it. Dan has really showed me how to do it, though. I smoked a roast on Memorial Day, along with some salmon. The roast was fantastic, the salmon was pretty good, but a little dry. I still had some "heat management" issues, but I'm going to keep at it so I can get it down pat.

My oldest brother and his wife, Dick and Judy, are on a variant of the Atkins Diet. As far as I could tell, it's the standard low-carb Atkins Diet, with a twist: for one hour a day, you can eat what you like, whether it's on the diet on not. I haven't seen anything like this before, but it makes a certain amount of sense because you don't feel "starved" for things that you routinely deny yourself.

Dad and Rusty are the same as ever. It's always such a pleasure to visit with them. Although I tried to get Rusty to just cook whatever she wanted to and don't worry about my diet, she still worked hard to make the meals low-carb. It's always great to reminisce with Dad, look through the old pictures from my youth, etc.

So that's the latest with me. I don't expect I'll have another 3-week hiatus; my computer's back to full health. I might actually do something with my photos soon!

Okay, maybe not. But it's definitely a possibility!