Your name/pic is in the newspaper!

Your picture and name appeared in Wednesday's (May 15's) St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper! The newspaper ran article about my recent hiking book, "Headin' to the Cabin."

The article included a picture of us when you were just two years old when we were hiking Red Rock Canyon State Park in California. It also describes how to came to write my hiking books because of our experiences together and notes that the book is dedicated to you.

In just a couple of weeks, I'll be reading a hiking essay, which includes you in it, at three bookstores. The stores are in Stillwater, Minn., and Hudson and Menomonie, Wis.

I've saved a copy of the newspaper article for you to have one day. But the article also appears online.

Working in Crescent City, Calif.

After working in Palm Springs for a year-and-a-half, I made the big leap and became a managing editor of a newspaper once again. In October 2006, I went to work in Crescent City, Calif., at The Daily Triplicate newspaper.

It was a wonderful opportunity, and my staff and I made a lot of changes in the news we covered and the paper's look. Perhaps the biggest story we covered was when a tsumani wiped out part of our harbor. We won lots of awards for our writing!

I lived in a really nice three-bedroom ranch house with a garage and huge yard. It was about a mile or so from the Pacific Ocean.

But the most important thing that happened to me in Crescent City was that you were born while I was living there! I shall tell you all about that in a future entry!

Working in Palm Springs, Calif.

In July 2005 after working for 2-1/2 years in Iowa City, I landed a job at the largest newspaper I've ever worked for - The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., circulation 72,000+. I was their editorial page editor!

I did much of the same work in Palm Springs as in Iowa City. Probably the most famous person I met and interviewed was Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie actor and then governor of California.

I lived in a very nice one-bedroom apartment near downtown Palm Springs. From my bedroom balcony window was a beautiful view of Mount San Jacinto.

The job in Palm Springs is what brought me to California - which is where you were born and have spent most of your life (at least as of this writing)!

Working as editorial page editor in Iowa

After working for a couple of years in Manitowoc, Wis., I moved to Iowa City, Iowa. I got a job at the newspaper there, working as its opinion page editor! This was just the job I wanted ever since interning at the Duluth, Minn., newspaper some 15 years before.

While at the newspaper, I wrote the daily editorial, solicited/edited columns, selected the editorial cartoon, edited letters to the editor, spoke on behalf of the paper in the community, and wrote a weekly column called Cornfield Soul (I've posted some of those columns online).

As editorial page editor, I got to meet a lot of interesting people, including presidential candidates and governors. John Kerry probably is the most famous of them; he ran for president in 2004 and is the current secretary of state.

I received a lot of awards at the paper for my editorial writing and editorial pages. We were named either the best editorial or editorial pages among Iowa dailies for three years running!

My very first job after college

After college, my first big job was with the newspaper in Red Wing, Minn. I was offered the job in April, about a month before I graduated from college, and I actually started before I'd finished taking my final exams!

I got my very first apartment in Red Wing. It was very large - two bedrooms - and there was a small farm with horses next to it (the apartment building was at the city's edge). In the morning when I'd wake up, I could hear the horses neighing in the background while I enjoyed breakfast.

At the newspaper, I covered Wisconsin news for the paper, which meant writing about Pierce and Pepin counties, where the Red Wing paper was circulated. I also was a copy editor once a month, working on Friday nights editing and designing the Saturday edition.

Interestingly, I can't seem to find any pcitures of my time in Red Wing!

My work as campus newspaper editor

Campus newspaper offices

During college, I was the editor of my campus newspaper. The paper was called the Student Voice.

I began just helping the newspaper staff on Wednesday nights during my freshman year. Then I was asked to be the Arts and Entertainment editor, which I did during my sophomore year. In March of that year, I was named editor, a position I held for the next 12 months.

While the editor, I oversaw a staff of 72, redesigned the newspaper, and expanded its size to include more stories. It was a lot of work, and I had to cut back on my class load to make time for it all!

It also was a lot of fun. Many good friends were made during that time, and I learned a lot about newspapers, my abilities, and how to be a leader.

Maybe one day you would like to work on a publication, like a newspaper or a magazine?