It's been an up-and-down week in two days so far ..

* We were honored by our peers for excellence in newspapering. Staffers John Cruz, Bertram DeSouza, Bill Lewis, Joe Scalzo and Jeanne Starmack turned in great work in 2007, and it was honored Sunday.

* On Monday, a guy was irate that we had soft news like bulldogs on our Monday front page. I encouraged him that our aim is to show more slices of life. He said: I'm going to slice the Vindy out of my life (that was a pretty good snap back, actually).

* Then today at YSU, a lady stopped me to applaud soft stories such as the bulldog piece — saying the paper needs to be more than government.

* Last week, we had high readership for the Red Hat Society story. Today, we were taken to task for that story.

* We were too successful with our eagles story a week or so back. An angry reader called today to say that because we listed a map of the location, about 500 people showed up last weekend, creating a circus. The reader hoped we went bankrupt. 

* I learned that the stimulus check I already spent won't actually be here until June because I filed an extension, I guess.

* I've been concerned about the adult day-care facility closing in Mahoning County. It's a troubled population. It's a $60K bill to a county that found extra cash for staffer pay hikes last year. And it's going to close. Except for one of our most loyal readers -- Tony Lariccia. Tony stepped up today (Watch Wednesday's Vindy) to fund the operation.

* And as for my bullying item from last week (http://www.vindy.com/weblogs/your-newspaper/2008/apr/24/whats-a-dads-first-steps-when-a-kids-being-bullied/" target="_blank">read old post): The school intervened and had a huddle with the three kids. My son said the three of them left the room laughing together.