I’m On Vacation!

Wahoo! I’m off from my full-time job for an entire week! I planned this vacation many months ago– it just happened to be right after my resignation. Thankfully, my bosses were cool with me taking the time off.

I have so much to do with my sister’s upcoming wedding (this weekend!!!) and my trip to California for the POM Harvest Tour. I definitely need some time to myself to get my life in order.

Dinner

There were a zillion fresh veggies in my fridge, so made a big ol’ salad with them for dinner tonight.

In the mix:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Leftover eggplant “parm”
• Almond slices
• Balsamic vinegar

Of course, dessert followed. Cheesecake has no chance in my house! 😉

Writing at Work

I learned all sorts of good stuff at the writing workshop this morning. I think a lot of it will help me become a better writer… with lots of practice, of course. Writing is not easy! And writing for me is really difficult!

I could go on and on about what I learned today, but here are a few bullet points of info that I thought were especially helpful:

• No one should ever have to read a sentence twice to know that it means.
• The essence of writing is rewriting.
• Take the time to organize your thoughts. Brainstorm, brain map, outline: What does the reader need to know?
• Rough drafts only belong to the writer. They should not be polished or finished. Get yours thoughts down on paper.
• Your audience should drive your message.
• A paragraph contains only one topic and begins with a topic sentence.
• Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks. Exceptions are rare.
• Periods go outside parenthesis if what is inside the parentheses is not a sentence and inside if it is a sentence.
• Use strong verbs. Write in the “active voice” as much as possible.
• Be specific and leave no room for interpretation. Poor writing generally results from a lack of clarity and precision rather than a problem that could be clarified as being “wrong” versus “right.” Readers cannot know what you are thinking or trying to say.
• Tell a story to your reader.
• Read your work aloud.

If you want to learn more about how to improve your writing, here are a couple of the resources that the instructor recommended:

• William Zinsser’s On Writing Well
• A Writer’s Reference

Springpad

Check out the newest feature on Carrots ‘N’ Cake: Springpad! 😀

You can now save your favorite CNC recipes by clicking ‘Spring It’ and the bottom of my recipe posts. Springpad will capture the text, images, and original URL of the recipe to your Springpad site, so you can access the recipe for later. Pretty cool, right?

I’ve only added this feature to a few of my recipes so far– mostly just my favorite recipes. But, here’s a little sampling of the recipes that I’ve add to Springpad so far.

If there are recipes that you would like to save, please let me know and I’ll add the Springpad feature to them right away.