Post by tjaman on Aug 21, 2006 23:10:09 GMT -5
Yesterday wasn't worth posting. Got the place in some semblance of order, sorted some recycling and watched "The 4400" and "The Dead Zone" and, because I was having trouble sleeping, "House."
Today was an odd mix. I got up early enough to hit the gym and take the garbage out, got a reasonably good workout in for a very pleasant hour, and then I got to work where I proceeded to be completely worn out for a good portion of the day -- despite having had some breakfast and my usual coffee. I threw a relatively uninspired education page together and once again cursed my food writer. The artwork accompanying her recipes was approximately the size of a postage stamp.
I'm good, but I can't build a convincing food section with a bunch of factoids she pulled from web sites and three postage stamps.
Along with her recipes she turned in her resignation. She'll do two more weeks of stories for us. I'm glad she's quitting. Saves me having to fire her. She asked why, if the piece I ran last week about brownies was what we wanted, why didn't I tell her that sooner?
I asked my assistant, who'd been sitting in at the meeting six months ago, if I'd been reasonably clear about what I'd asked her to put together each week, and she said that I had been, so ...
It's hard to demand of someone "do what the last person did," but that's ... kind of what I'd been getting at when I outlined my expectations.
Anywho, if she hadn't decided to quit I'd have had to fire her. Well, I can't really "fire" correspondents. She can write anything she likes -- I'm in no way obligated to use it. But there's a couple of people I have in mind to ask and we can always put another ad in.
And there's always wire copy (shudder).
Along with slapping together a lackluster back-to-schools page -- at this point with a mild but persistent headache that went away eventually with some ibuprofen -- I drove around and took three or four photos for this week and next week's arts pages and when I got home, instead of doing the laundry that's piled up, I had to peel and cut up some apples and prepare a recipe for our food page Wednesday so I could take a picture of it because of, well, the whole postage stamp thing.
And here's what I came up with:
APPLE PIE PIZZA
I've seen worse. Anyway, I get reimbursed for ingredients and the dessert's tasty enough -- brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg on apple slices and walnuts with butter dots along the top of it arranged on a pie crust fluted into a pizza shape on a bed of shredded cheddar.
It's just that that wasn't initially what I was going to be doing with my night.
I got my dad's birthday gift in the mail on my way home -- the first season of "The Rockford Files" on DVD. I seem to remember that being on when I was growing up and I don't remember it being me who was watching it so I hope he likes it. I guess I'll find out soon enough.
Anyway, between waking up way too early and baking and mailing and watching a great season premiere of "Prison Break" and a not-terrible installment of "The Closer" I'm beat, so I'll probably go stretch out in a little bit.
Man I hope our next food writer is in any way up to the task. I can't be baking things every week.
Today was an odd mix. I got up early enough to hit the gym and take the garbage out, got a reasonably good workout in for a very pleasant hour, and then I got to work where I proceeded to be completely worn out for a good portion of the day -- despite having had some breakfast and my usual coffee. I threw a relatively uninspired education page together and once again cursed my food writer. The artwork accompanying her recipes was approximately the size of a postage stamp.
I'm good, but I can't build a convincing food section with a bunch of factoids she pulled from web sites and three postage stamps.
Along with her recipes she turned in her resignation. She'll do two more weeks of stories for us. I'm glad she's quitting. Saves me having to fire her. She asked why, if the piece I ran last week about brownies was what we wanted, why didn't I tell her that sooner?
I asked my assistant, who'd been sitting in at the meeting six months ago, if I'd been reasonably clear about what I'd asked her to put together each week, and she said that I had been, so ...
It's hard to demand of someone "do what the last person did," but that's ... kind of what I'd been getting at when I outlined my expectations.
Anywho, if she hadn't decided to quit I'd have had to fire her. Well, I can't really "fire" correspondents. She can write anything she likes -- I'm in no way obligated to use it. But there's a couple of people I have in mind to ask and we can always put another ad in.
And there's always wire copy (shudder).
Along with slapping together a lackluster back-to-schools page -- at this point with a mild but persistent headache that went away eventually with some ibuprofen -- I drove around and took three or four photos for this week and next week's arts pages and when I got home, instead of doing the laundry that's piled up, I had to peel and cut up some apples and prepare a recipe for our food page Wednesday so I could take a picture of it because of, well, the whole postage stamp thing.
And here's what I came up with:
APPLE PIE PIZZA
I've seen worse. Anyway, I get reimbursed for ingredients and the dessert's tasty enough -- brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg on apple slices and walnuts with butter dots along the top of it arranged on a pie crust fluted into a pizza shape on a bed of shredded cheddar.
It's just that that wasn't initially what I was going to be doing with my night.
I got my dad's birthday gift in the mail on my way home -- the first season of "The Rockford Files" on DVD. I seem to remember that being on when I was growing up and I don't remember it being me who was watching it so I hope he likes it. I guess I'll find out soon enough.
Anyway, between waking up way too early and baking and mailing and watching a great season premiere of "Prison Break" and a not-terrible installment of "The Closer" I'm beat, so I'll probably go stretch out in a little bit.
Man I hope our next food writer is in any way up to the task. I can't be baking things every week.
