November in a Nutshell

I’m not sure what happened to November, but it flew by. So here is November in a nutshell:

School
 Decided to go back to school. Actually, I have been wanting to do this for long time, but it just never seemed to work out until now (and still everything in tentative). It was a stressful month trying to figure out the direction that would be the most beneficial in the shortest amount of time. Lots of going back to the drawing board only to end up where I first started. I’ve been accepted to the program, had the student loan approved, and now waiting for the school to approve the student loan so that I can enroll in my first two classes. All goes well, starting in January I will be getting a Certificate in Meeting and Event Management from the University of Massachusetts. If everything goes according to schedule, I should be finishing up this time next year. Nervous about going to school online (requires much discipline on my part) but excited to finally have a speck of light and the end of this tunnel that has felt like a dead end.

Mixer

I recently posted about my mixer that was leaking oil. Getting it fixed was going to be pricy, so I was going to borrow my mom’s through the holidays. Well, my mom went off and left hers at her house before coming to see me Thanksgiving. Even though I wanted a larger mixer, I was okay with getting mine fixed, but after my mom forgot hers, we decided to price them the day after Thanksgiving and she said if we found a good deal, she would get it for me as an early birthday present. As luck would have it, we ran across this is Sears:

It’s a Kenmore instead of a KitchenAid, but many of the accessories I had for my KitchenAid fit the Kenmore, plus the Kenmore has a more powerful motor than the KitchenAid of equal bowl size and over $100 less. I’m looking forward to putting it to use. Now I just have to figure out what to do with my old mixer. I hate to just throw it in the trash, but not sure where to recycle something like that. A co-worker suggested putting it on Craig’s List which I might do because if someone is mechanical and knows how to repair small engines, they might be able to fix it.

 

Window

This was the most eventful part of my weekend. Wednesday night, a fly ended up in my house. I spent the next two days trying to kill it but was not successful. Friday afternoon, I was in the other room when I heard my say “Oh No Stacey!” I walk into the kitchen and she has her hands on her face and just kept saying “I’m so sorry!” I look up to see a big hole in my window. My mom saw the fly land on the window and thought it would be a good idea to just smack it with her hand. Problem: 1) it was really cold outside and 2) my windows are really thin. She got rid of the fly all right…and put a big hole in my window in the process. So I now own the title of neighborhood redneck until Wednesday.

And sadly, a JCPenney sack and duct tape is equally energy efficient as my current windows.

BTW, the place that was recommended to me by a local hardware store is almost $100 cheaper than any of the other places I called. If they do a good job, I’ll let you know.