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Well it is official. I have my BS degree in MIT now!! Graduation was yesterday and all went well. I graduated with Cum Laude. If it was not for two classes in Spanish, I could have had Magna Cum Laude. I missed that by 0.045, my final GPA was 3.455. We bought a nice frame so I can display my degree in my home office. Funny, I don’t feel smarter than the day before I had that degree.

After graduation we went down to Elizabethtown, where we used to live, to a fund raiser for Raymond. One of Erica’s friends mother put the dinner together to raise money for Raymond’s medical bills. It was nice with an excellent turn out. Good ham loaf and very good pot pie. (PA style pot pie, us southerners would call it chicken and dumplings with potatoes added!) Food was very good and we got to see a lot of people we have not seen in a long time.

Today, the weather has turned cool. I went out this morning and it is only 52 degrees. I was shocked at the temperature drop over night. It is suppose to stay cool until mid week, and the best part is low humidity! Little gray outside, but otherwise a nice day!

It feels really strange not having a class to attend, no paper to write, no project to work on!! I paced the floor last night wondering what to do. Tonight, Jennifer and I went to the gym. That helped. I have a long list of things to do at home, but for now, I am just adjusting to no school work. I am still waiting for my final Literature grade to be posted, then I will have a completed transcript! (no clue what my grade will be though…Think it is a B)

Next week, I will adjust to no work!

Baby Raymond came home last Friday. It was such a surprise as Erica did not tell us. We walked in to find her holding him in her living room!! He has a heart and lung monitor and is on oxygen and has lots of doctor appointments, but he is home. It was so nice that I finally got to hold him. Isabella seems to like that he is home as well. She really likes when they put Raymond on her bed and she can lay next to him. I think Isabella will be a great big sister to him.

Ok, so I have one week of school left and two weeks for employment left. May’s Calendar is wide open!! Any cheap suggestions to fill the time

My senior project is wrapping up. My team created, with some programming help, an Article Manager plug-in to be used with WordPress for Parkland School district. This plug in allows them to upload files to a directory while capturing title, journal it came from, publishing date, and description from the user and store that info in a table within WP database. Then a page in WP will display the articles with a hyper-link to the file. A special search engine was created to search just the articles and display those meeting the search criteria. Sounds simple, but trust me, it was hard. All we have left on the project is to finish the documentation and present it to the professor. We already delivered the product to Parkland and they were very happy with it.

On Thursday, I have a LIT final exam as well as an Literary analysis paper due. At the end of that exam…. I am DONE!!!!! Finally, a B.S. degree.

I started my career counseling this week. Mack is paying for the service for me to use for 4 months. They will help write my resume, practice interviewing, teach how to search, help focus on what I want to do when I grow up, etc. Seems like it should be a great benefit to have. Hard to believe that after May 4, I will be unemployed after 23 years of loyal service. Hmmm. Bigger and Better things are to come I am sure!

I finished my final exams tonight for the summer session.  What a relief.  One bright note, I was wrong about fall classes starting the next day…. I have until Saturday Free!!!!  Next session I again have three classes.  Saturday mornings (yuk) I have Quantitative business analysis (bigger yuk!).  On Tuesday’s I have Systems Analysis and Design and on Wednesdays I have Intro to Fiction.  So another full session!

This past session I had Database Analysis and Design as an online course.  That was horrible.  We had 6 assignments before the mid-term with absolutly no feedback on how we were doing until the week before mid-term exams.  I found I wasn’t doing as well as I thought.  Then no feedback after the mid-term.  A few days before the final, we got an email stating if we wanted to see our mid-term exams before the final, come to the final exam early.  What good does that do me just before taking the final!  The book was horrible.  I couldn’t understand half of what the author was talking about and when I figured out what he was talking about, I wondered why he complicated things so much!  I was glad this evening to find out the other students felt the same way I did about this class.   I have no clue what my final grade may be!

Principles of managment class I had as a hybrid.  It turned out to be a very easy class as far as subject matter.  But he had a lot of work that had to be done.  Each exam was take home and 6 questions with a minimum of two page answers per question.  Along with in class vocabulary test.  On top of that, we had to do two 6-8 page case studies for the class.  And each week we had to write an article answering some questions and then respond to two other students articles.  Also each week we had to write a few paragraphs about a case study in one of the three chapters we had assigned each week.  So a lot of work, but easy material since I have been exposed to most of that material over my career.

Finally, I had a religion class “As Jesus Speaks”  That was an extremly enjoyable Class.  Father Bob George tought the class and made it very interesting.  I was hoping for an A in that class, but will probably end up with a B or B+.  The exams were more memorizing lists and terms, but for the class, I learned a lot about critical thinking when reading the scripture.  I think I now have a whole new perspective when reading the Bible.  I will actually miss taking this class.  If you are ever taking classes at DeSales,  look for the ones taught by Father Bob!!!

So the end of the tunnel is nearing and the light is getting brighter.  I am on track to finish in April!!  I can’t wait!  I will have the entire next summer free from school!!!  Jennifer will be glad as she is getting frustrated hearing me say, no I need to do school work.

I have two weeks left of summer classes.  Two weeks, but a TON of work that must be done.  I should be crazy by the end of the two weeks, and I am sure Jennifer will be ticked at me!  Here is what must be completed:

Management Class:

By Saturday, post my weekly article online

By Wednesday, write answers to my final exam – 6 questions, two pages per question (12 pages total)

By Wednesday, know 50 key words for in class exam

By Friday, respond to two other students online articles (normal weekly event)

By Friday, write a short response to an online case study.

By Friday, write a 6 page response to any case study in the book. (or create a case study and respond)

Database Analysis and Design:

Complete Module 7, reading two chapters and answer a bunch of questions

By Wednesday, complete a project of creating, in Oracle, a database containing 5 tables, linked by primary and foriegn keys, have constraints applied to many fields, use at least one of each type (Integer, Real, Char, String, Date).  Create SQL statements to create  reports.  Test, debug and submitt all SQL statements, reports, etc.  According to the instructor notes, this will earn a grade of C.  To get higher, I must be creative and go well over and beyond the requirements!

Monday, Final Exam

Somewhere according to sylabus, there should be another project due before Monday’s exam as well as another module.  Not sure where that is going to come into play!

Theology:

Done with everything except Final Exam on Tuesday 8/12.

So I guess I will be a busy person for the next week.  Sorry if I don’t call you, answer your calls, or if I sound grumpy!

My Class schedule for fall begins the day after my final Theology Class exam.  This fall I have classes every Wednesday 6 – 9, Thursday 6-9 and Saturday 8 – 10:30.  I will be taking Systems Analysis and Design, Quantitave Business Analysis (Statistics), and Intro to Fiction.  After 8 weeks, the Intro to Fiction will be done, and I will begin Spanish I as I continue the other two classes until December.  Then in January, I will begin my final 4 classes!  APRIL is the end, yes I am beginning to see the light at the end!  What will I do with my time next summer!