My son took a course last spring called Introduction to Fiction. He studied some of my all time favorite novels like "The Moonstone" and "Wuthering Heights." The only book on his course list that I hadn't read was "Dracula". I'm reading it this week.

I finally put the book down a few minutes ago to clean up the kitchen and to do 20 minutes of weight work. While I was cleaning and exercising, I tried to think about a blog. But Dracula is on my mind.

It is an incredibly suspenseful book - both for the characters and for the reader. It's interesting how many times one of the characters urges another to eat something to keep up his strength. One of the things that makes the BTD easy for me to follow is that I don't skip meals or measure out servings. I eat often, and I eat until I'm satisfied. Skipping a meal never saves me time, because it adds to my stress and that makes me less efficient.

I got so involved in the plot, that I found myself as tense as the characters. So I snacked more today than usual. But it was all good Type O snacks: figs, prunes, apricots, watermelon, and homemade sweet potato chips.

My son just came in to give me a hug and say good night. When he saw what I was writing, he started laughing. "Hmmm," he said, "I wonder what type Dracula was."