Comfort food

Today started out really good. I had a great night's sleep. I was pretty happy with the way Phoenix and I ran over the weekend. He did some great stuff. I got up and did my treadmill for 30 minutes. Phoenix did his treadmill for 20 minutes. We had breakfast.

I had time before leaving for work to catch up with all those piddly-diddly little chores that frequently escape me in the morning: dishes, laundry, making the bed, cleaning off the kitchen counter (again - where does all that junk come from!). Stopped at the vet and refilled Jamie's prednisone. He's on target to lower the dosage again this week - down to 10 mg every other day.

So I was feeling pretty optimistic when I got to the office . . .

. . . and found out both our town editor and sports editor have resigned. Both are effective April 1. Rox is taking a new position in a marketing firm. Doug is leaving for personal reasons and to get his life back together. They're good moves for both of them and I wish them all the luck in the world.

This leaves me in the sole editorial staff position in our office.

Not sure where this is going. The trend around here in the last few years has been if someone leaves voluntarily or is downsized, their position is eliminated and the work is spread out among the remaining employees in that department. Believe me, I've "inherited" two other people's jobs that way. Their jobs, yes. Their salaries, no.

Our HR gal is optimistic these positions will actually be filled this time. Probably because there's no freaking way I could absorb them, too. The town editor is a 60 hour per week, nights and weekends job. They offered it to me. No thanks. I have a life. I'd like to keep it. And me as the sports editor? Don't pee your pants laughing. (Well, they didn't offer me that position.)

I'm hoping there are some crazy young j-school graduates this spring who would think working 60 hours per week, nights and weekends is just the coolest thing they've ever heard of. There aren't that many journalism jobs out there, trust me, I've looked from time to time. So hopefully these positions will be snapped up and our writing staff will soon be, well, staffed.

I'd planned on taking a week's vacation in April to go to malinois nationals. That seems up in the air right now in light of 2/3 of the editorial staff resigning. Frustrating but that's life. Fingers crossed. Everything happens for a reason and although it is clichéd, everything will work out.

So in light of unsettling news, I do what I usually do: look for something to eat. Here's one of my favorites that accompanied me to the agility trials over the weekend. It's like an orange pound cake, very yummy. Sorry, no picture. It's um . . . well . . . orange.

ORANGE BREAD
1 pkg. orange cake mix
3.4 oz. box vanilla instant pudding mix
4 large eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1/3 C. oil

Preheat oven to 350. Grease/spray two 9x5x3 loaf pans. Combine ingredients in large mixer bowl and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool briefly in pans and turn onto wire racks to cool completely.

Freezes well.