Cold week

It has been very cold this week. Two days I wore long johns to stay warm while walking to/from the bus. Since the start of the term, only two days have had slippery roads. This week had all dry roads, so walking wasn't a problem.

We've had some nice ice formations on the edges of our pond this week. The pond doesn't get any sun, and it hasn't been warm enough to thaw in the shade, so the splashed water from the fountain just keeps building up on the ice and freezing. I'll post some pictures soon.

We almost had frozen pipes the first morning it was below freezing. I turned on the faucet in the bathroom, and it stopped running after a few seconds. I thought, uh-oh. John woke up right away and came to see what was going on. (That's the best way to get up him up in the morning - some kind of crisis. Works great.) He decided to just keep the water running. There was enough running water to break up the ice in the pipes, and we didn't have a problem. Since then, we've kept the faucets dripping at night. The reason we have such a problem in our bathroom is that while adding the addition and the master bathroom, the previous owners put the pipes in the attic and ran them right along the roof. The pipes are very sensitive to changes in temperature. We should add some insulation or find out something else we can do for them to lessen the effect of the weather.

The first day we moved into the house, the pipes tried to trick me. It was a hot summer day. I thought I was running cold water, but the water was hot, and it kept getting hotter. So I moved the handle over to the left. It stayed hot. I moved it back to the right, and it finally got cooler. Now, if I know it's hot outside and want cold water, I have to wait longer. The insulation or whatever fix we figure out to do, would help with that too.

Interview

Yeah! I got an interview with the accounting firm I applied to. The position is an internship with them this summer. They were the only ones left in the area still taking applications for the summer internship. So to get into the biggest firm in the area, I have to get in with them.

Sorry, I'm not going to drop names to protect my privacy.

I'm very excited to get the interview because of what I overheard some people saying about internships and this company in particular. One person applied, but didn't get invited to interview. I had first assumed that everyone would probably interview if they applied, but I guess that's not the case. Maybe some day, if I get the position, I will be able to find out what percentage of people get interviewed.

Dog boots

Hey, Mom, you should check out these boots for dogs. From the story that Nate and Andrea told, it sounds like they work great. I'm not sure where they got them, though.

Busy, busy, busy

I'm done with my first week of classes this term. I like all my professors and the classes, too. I'm most excited about the intermediate accounting class. It's the real meat. Oh, there's accounting information systems that will be cool too. I get to design an information system in Excel that includes ledger accounts and journal entries, and financial statements.

I have a three-hour break on Mondays and Wednesdays so I brought enough to study during those times and took advantage of it. I also went to the gym yesterday and walked around the inside track. In total, I exercised three times in the last five days. Plus I walk to the bus and walk home.

This term looks to be very busy. There's a meet-and-greet next week that will get my foot in the door for the internship interview process starting late January. Also, I'm going to get certified to be able to participate in VITA, which does free income tax preparation for low-income people in the area (including students). That will be good for the resume and put me in a good position to run for an officer position in the accounting club, which I'm a pledge for this term. There's also a thing that's organized for early February that pairs people with CPAs in the area and we get to have dinner and find out more about their careers. Very exciting, and it's free!

Three classes online

Now there are three classes on the online school system. I can see the last class, math, in the list, but all the folders are empty. I'm not sure if the prof. hasn't allowed access to the website yet, of if there is a glitch in my access to the class. I'll find out tomorrow at class I guess.

Christmas gift card projects

For Christmas I received a generous gift card to a craft store. This week I used the card to buy stuff for some projects I've been wanting to do.

First, I got really soft brown yarn for a scarf. I'm planning on finding a unique, challenging pattern in my Encyclopedia of Knitting book that will look nice in the uniform color yarn.



Macy is always around for a pose!



I also got beads for a brown necklace. I have lots of brown shirts and sweaters, and I made a brown bracelet last fall. I'm still working on some brown earrings, then the necklace will complete the set. I'm excited to start the necklace. Since I'm busy reading for school already, and I go back tomorrow, the necklace will probably have to wait until next weekend.

Started reading

I started reading for school today. This term is going to be very heavy in textbook reading. Also, the textbooks are very heavy themselves. The four books for my four classes together weigh twenty pounds. I don't think I'll be taking all three books to class on the days I have three classes. Two will have to do.

The class I needed

Yeah! I'm so excited! I finally was able to register for the class I need to go through the accounting program in a reasonable amount of time.

They made me take Math 242 again, so I couldn't apply to the school of business until this coming term, and I couldn't register with everyone else for the classes I needed. I needed to get into Accounting 320 because it's a prerequisite for almost everything else. If I wasn't able to take it this term, then I'd have to extend my schooling a whole extra term. When I found all this out in November, I really freaked out.

Thursday I was sent an email from the adviser at school wanting to know if I still needed to register for it because there was one empty seat. I didn't read the email until today, so I replied and hoped I didn't miss the deadline. A few hours later I tried to register online, and I got in! Yeah!

Getting ready for school

I now have access to two of my classes via an online system. I printed the syllabi and the first couple weeks of assignments and readings. I put everything into my three-ring binder. Tomorrow I get to pick up my textbooks.

I also put the assignments and readings due dates in my Outlook calendar. Last term I printed out one week from Outlook on one side, and the second week on the other side. I kept only one sheet of the calendar with me in my notebooks. This term I'm going to print out the whole term, so I can reference more weeks in advance. I saw lots of people using a spiral calendar, and I thought I wanted to get one, too. But I figure it would just take up more space, and I can accomplish the same thing using my computer.