Squirrel Busters Update

It has been awhile since I discussed the squirrel situation, and I am sad to say that it is not over yet. To date we have captured 8 squirrels. Yes, 8! And remember, they have a bounty on their little heads. We pay per squirrel that is caught. I told my financial advisor that I may need to take a withdrawal from my 401k to pay the bill. Hopefully that is an exaggeration. I am feeling pretty confident that we have gotten all the family members who were hanging out in the front porch area. It has been really quiet out front.

Unfortunately there is still at least one in the storage area of the attic. I can hear him when I get ready in the morning, and it kind of creeps me out. Jim doesn't understand why it bothers me, so I videotaped the sounds to play back for him. I have taken to listening to my iPad while I am in there, and I swear the squirrel is up there practicing his dancing with the stars moves until I turn the music off. And he is a wily one. Most squirrels come straight out of the hole they have made, which is where the trap is placed. This one comes out of the hole, thumbs his nose at me and then scampers off to the left and down the roof. I think Squirrel Busters is going to add a second cage off to the left to see if we can outsmart him. One of the mating seasons takes place in February, so we definitely want every one out before any babies arrive. Hopefully none of the sounds I recorded were baby-making noises!

College Tuition? Check!

I wrote the final tuition check for Katie last week. Well, if I am being totally accurate, I authorized our MOST 529 plan to write a check to the college for her last semester tuition. It is another one of those parent moments that marks the passage of time and transitions in our children's lives. In some ways it seems like only last year that we wrote our first check to Columbia College, then packed up all her stuff and delivered her to the dorm in Chicago. Since that time she spent nine months in a wonderful condo-like apartment in the city, five weeks in Prague, two weeks in Seoul and nearly four months in Shanghai. She wraps up her final semester in Los Angeles, with semester being defined as a five week time period of attending classes all day, five days a week. (The school knows that no college student - or their parents - could afford to live in LA for more than five weeks.) When she returns the latter part of February it will be time for her to begin the job hunt. She seems to feel that she will not have any problem getting a job. I admire her confidence and pray that she is right. It is still such a tough market out there right now.

Due to the fact that Katie is graduating in less than three years, we have money left over in the 529 plan. That is a great position to be in, but we don't want to withdraw the money and be penalized. So, what to do with it? Do I hear a PhD calling my name?