Episode 2: In which we spend vast sums of money.

So Molly and I have taken out student loans in order to pay for the tuition, books, etc... for this program. If only that was where the spending ended.

Over the last couple of months we have done considerable stressing over how we are going to keep up with the workload. One of the strategies that we agreed on was that we would need a comfortable and efficient place to work at home. We are fortunate enough to already have a room that was "mostly" dedicated to being a home office. I say "mostly" because there was also a bed in there so that this office also acted as a guest room. But this office space was not comfortable, efficient, or inviting. Nor was it set up to accommodate the two of us working at the same time. The only logical conclusion - re-do the office!

Over the last several weeks we have:
Hauled everything out of that office
Recycled or gave away most of the office furniture
Moved the bed to another room - now the converted guest room
Painted the new office in a nice, rich tan
Bought two new desks
Bought two new bookcases
Bought one new filing cabinet
Bought a huge cork board in order to display calendars and notes
Bought a shopping cart full of various office supplies
Bought a variety of needed devices (monitor, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse...)
Bought and installed a ceiling fan

On the plus side, we now have a comfortable, efficient, and inviting office in which to work. Now if we can just solve the whole having-time-to-do-this-doctoral-work issue . . . In any case, the program starts on Monday!