Recently, my girlfriend has been quite taken with the TV ads for Klondike Bars that depict a man nodding off at a kitchen table while his wife rambles on and on about some inanity in the background. She stops to take a breath, and he interjects something relevant about her story. The announcer chimes in: "He listened to his wife, give that man a Klondike Bar!"

That's how I feel sometimes at Planning Board meetings, from which I've just returned. While the board's work is vastly important to our city, and relevant to all of our lives, it can sometimes get a little tedious, especially when the board isn't expected to take any important votes, such as in tonight's meeting. Tonight the board reviewed plans for several sites, on which it will vote at later dates. Obviously important to the planning process, but not ideal for a newspaper. Just how does one write a story about how the board discussed -- but took no action -- on one subdivision after another?

Usually, I sit at planning board meetings and do my damndest to pay attention, take detailed notes, and then duly report to you what the board did. But sometimes they don't actually do anything. Then I have to come back to the office and cook up some way to present a whole lot of talk that can really be described thusly: The board considered plans for several proposed projects.

And yet, I manage to write these stories every other week or so. Do I deserve a Klondike bar?