good news about CJ,Suzi.

and I am asking for more ma~~~. jobma ~~~ specifically . Matt has a second interview at 2pm. he has had some good opportunities, but the economy keeps snatching them away. We're ok for a little while, but he wants to be working

Or maybe he needs the extra time cause he haz no computer skills? This is often me.

he said flat out that he considers taking three to four hours for each page is a perfectly reasonable amount of time.

Am I nuts, thinking this is way too much? or is he?

He's nuts, unless he wants this to be a collectible that generations will treasure.

Thanks for the input - I thought he was pushing it.

(For background - we do a monthly journal; he edits and does some writing, we get stories from members, I do some writing, copyediting, develop graphics - as much as possible from photos authors send us - and the final layout. I'm also responsible for wrangling our ads, compiling the lists, and getting everything to the printer. HE was referring to a previous job where the graphics people expected to spend that kind of time ... but that was a place where they had an actual STAFF, not two people putting out a 48-page journal every month.)

I didn't spend that much time on a journal-sized page when I was working with wax, an Xacto knife and border tape.

Dear Admin,
The thing you are talking about will take me 45 seconds to do. Why are you making me spend 5 minutes convincing you that it's okay for you to ask me to do it, even after I've told you I am the person who is supposed to do it?

I'm sorry to be such a one note wonder today. I just realized that this whole "Gifted and Talented" program thing isn't available in California anymore (or is on a very limited basis) due to their budget cuts. One more bonus for moving.

And as much as I am enjoying Colorado, I am very much looking forward to my California weekend!!! Just a few more days!

Let me see, Toddson -- 3.5 hours (splitting the difference) per page times 48 pages equals 168 hours that the two of you would spend on the journal. Which means, according to boss, you each should spend two weeks each month doing nothing but that journal. With one of you putting in an extra day.

it's not quite that bad ... about 18 to 20 pages would be ads. But, yeah, I get antsy after spending two hours on a single story ... the thought of spending three to four hours on a page ... there just isn't that much time in the world (and he doesn't do any layout ... he may sit and tell me what he wants me to do with the layout, but he doesn't do it himself).

I've spoken with our COO and, now that schmuckface is a contract employee, I'm cutting back to eight hours a day.

Suzi, I've been sitting here reading along and bouncing and grinning with joy for you and CJ. Yay for his new confidence (eager to enter a poetry contest! How awesome is that?) and a fresh start and a school system that's giving him the opportunity to be his best self!

I'm still bitter that California couldn't do that for him and that we don't still get you 24/7 instead of on a thrilling but rare weekend every once in a blue moon, but mostly just SO HAPPY for both of you.

Tons of ~ma to your dad and your family, Calli.

And lots and lots of germ avoidance~ma to you, Kristin. Your poor body has been flogged and flayed by illness for way too long. All the sick in LA needs to go find someone else to pick on for a while--or, really, just to go find nobody else, give up, and leave.