Beyond the Big White Gate

It is time once again to sign up for a community college class. This will be for the Spring 2012 semester. I found a class I liked. My boss at work signed off on it. The class needed certain other classes to be taken first. Now I did take those classes. But I took them at another college. That means I need to go talk to an advisor to waive the restrictions.

I am off from work today. This seemed like a good time to go to advising. It was raining though. I looked up the info on the advising center by my house. Then I drove there in the rain. The directions said I could not park in the building parking lot. I had to park next door in the shopping center. There were specific instructions to walk through the shopping center, head down the alley, and enter the building from the back.

When I followed these instructions, I came to a tall fence with a big white gate that was closed. I approached figuring I did not want to walk all the way around to the front entrance. There was a security device, which I thought would unlock the gate. I pressed on the gate. No luck. Then I thought I might try a pull. When I pull the gate, it swung open. Whew. It took a few calls by my advisor to approve my class. But it got done.

Back in the car I tried to determine my first day of school so I could write it down. Something was not right. The class meets on Thursdays. But the schedule of classses listed the first day as a Friday. Doh. I had to go back to the advisor to inquire if there was a misprint. She checked in the system and found a different start day. She called up the main campus and confirmed that the schedule of classes date was wrong. Glad I cleared that up.

Shopping Plans

Yesterday Momoko was going to go grocery shopping. However she stayed up late the night before doing homework. Then she got caught up late at work. The result was that Momoko spent the evening sleeping on the couch.

So for today we had some dinner ingredients. But that's it. And Momoko has class tonight. Do you know what that means? Time for me and Kit Kat to go grocery shopping. I decided to take the old pick up truck. That's easier to load groceries into the back. We went to Weis Markets. That's the store which is close to our old house.

Kit Kat and I were all business at the grocery store. She had a list and we stuck to it. Groceries are really expensive. We still shelled out some bucks for the goods. But now we are ready to cook dinner all week.

Early Alarm

Yesterday I did a lot of laundry. It seemed easy to be distracted during the day with TV and such. I only spent about an hour working in the yard.

So when everybody went to bed, I went to work. I paid the bills. Then I started studying for my class. We are wrapping up the semester soon.

This morning I had to get up early. Momoko went to the doctor's. So I needed to drive Little Kat to school. I mentioned Grannie Kat's new HHR vehicle to him. He said he did not know about this recent car purchase. Oh man, we need to get out to visit Grannie Kat. Let's start the countdown.

Bait and Switch

I wanted to take a web programming college class this Fall semester. So I did my planning and homework. Figured out the exact cost of the class. Then I found the required textbook for the class. It cost a whopping $172.

That's ok. I tallied up all the costs, and convinced my company to pay for them. I even had my company front me an advance for the course. When I registered for the class, I felt secure in paying for the course. After all, I was just forwarding the money my company provided.

You would think all I need to do is ensure I do a good job in the class. That way the company does not make me pay them back. I also can't leave the company any time soon. I checked that the school bookstore had my textbook. Bamm. Two new textbooks were added for the class. They total up to an extra $200.

What kind of rip off is this? Now I got to figure out what to do. Should I pay for these books out of my pocket, and hope the employer pays me back in the end? I don't know.

Ready For an Ending

I never thought I would get sick of field trips but I am getting there. I have another field trip on Saturday. This one is over an hour away and I get to do some hiking. I am just ready for my summer classes to end. I think after the field trip I only have 3 classes left of this class and 5 more with my other one.

Today I am trying to get things ready to paint Little's room. Black helped me move some heavy stuff and disconnect the cable from the TV. I hope the kittens are doing well because I haven't heard from them in awhile. I guess they are having too much fun to remember to check in with me.

Dinner Plans

I am in a week long class. They provide breakfast. So I grabbed some bagels and cream cheese this morning. Mamma Kat has to go to school tonight. She asked me to pick up some dinner as we are running low on groceries. Mamma Kat requested some pasta from Pizza Hut.

Before leaving work, I thought I would get some Pizza Hut info. I discovered that Pizza Hut now has lasagna. In addition to some pasta, I think I will pick up a lasagna too. Garfield would be proud. I am sure the kids will approve too.

This is the first time I have attended training at this facility. Fujitsu is the company that is doing the training. I like it here because they give you all the drinks and snacks for free. It probably costs them a couple bucks a day. But it makes me happy.

Quiz and Test

I attend a community college class on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Today class night. After work I dropped by the house. Kit Kat was sleeping. I did some errands. Then I drove to class.

The instructor seemed to rush through his presentation. I asked a few questions. One other cat asked a question too. We had another hour and a half left. The instructor said that if there were no further questions, we would have a quiz.

This caused a few groans in the class. I get the feeling that the students are not studying. Next Thursday is our first test. This must have been the wake up call to get students serious about studying. Good luck to all the school cats.

Back to College

At work I am thinking I may need to learn some more programming skills to prepare for the long haul. The next version of the system I work on will use technologies I am not familiar with. My plan is to go back to college to help my studying.

Today I took the morning off from work. I went to the local community college where I recently enrolled. I had read the schedule of classes and identified where visitor parking was. The problem was that the lots were not clearly marked. Eventually I parked in the right place.

After registering for a spring class, I decided to get a parking sticker for my car. A worker in the book store pointed me out where the Campus Police substation was. When I got there, it was empty. They are the only ones who can issue a parking sticker. That's ok. I decided to go to the Campus Police main office in the facilities building.

This is where it got strange. I had a campus map. I followed along to the edge of the parking lots. Then I passed some tennis courts. There was a small concrete path that I followed. The path ended at a tiny shack. I had to proceed on a dirt path. Finally I made it to Campus Police. Ooops. I did not have my registration. So I made the trek back to my car. As I was walking back on the dirt path, a pickup truck making a lot of noise came up behind me. I bolted toward the concrete path in the front. This college campus is not very cat friendly. Let's hope the class I signed up for is good.