For as far back as I can remember (which isn't very far!), October has been one of the busiest months. I don't know why, and this year was no different. Three weekends out of town and one weekend with 2 parties didn't leave much free weekend time.

It doesn't help that work has been absolutely crazy busy. We're in the processing of overhauling the accounting/purchasing procedures and this has increased my workflow a lot already.

Right now the College uses American Express as the credit card of choice, and most departments have 1, 2 or more people with a card. This allows them to purchase items on their own, without ever having to get Accounting involved.

With all the new procurement guidelines that are being placed upon us, it's time to start cracking down on these people who can just spend, spend, spend. As of December we're switching to Mastercards and only issuing a handful. So all those purchases that people were making on their own are now going to have to come through Purchasing, and then to Accounting.

While this is putting more work on us, we'll be able to have more control over purchases made college-wide, and that's the way it should be. It does make for a busy day though and the feeling that I'm never caught up.

As you know, we celebrated our first anniversary a few weeks ago, and last week we finally received our album from our photographers. While it did seem to take an awful long time for it to arrive, the blame is definitely ours in taking an extraordinarily long time in choosing the pictures.

The album though, looks great! I haven't weighed it yet, but it's pretty hefty. The pictures turned out beautiful though. I wish I could print digital pictures that clear.

This week will be the end for my Tai Chi class. I have really enjoyed it and plan to take it again in the spring. And hope I haven't forgotten everything I've learned! In the meantime, Michaels offers a lot of crafty classes so a coworker of mine and I have been contemplating a cake decorating class. It's been nice to do something different at night other than watch tv.