Liquidity

Yesterday was the first day of school on the U. of Maryland Campus in College Park, which is roughly a 1.5-2 hour drive from here. Hanna apparently was registered in some courses there as well, because she followed me up the coast. It was quite the white-knuckled event, as I drove right into the teeth of the storm. Water, water everywhere, and cars spinning out every which way. Not a lot of traffic though; who drives in a tropical storm if they don't have to? We got about 6 inches of rain in these parts--the remaining ripe-ish tomatoes in the garden all split open on the vines because of all the water. The grass greened back up overnight though.

Some thoughts on U of MD: the campus is huge, but there's hardly anyone there on the weekend. Are they sleeping in or studying, or do all the students go somewhere else (home?) on the weekend. The approach to the main gates is on a seedy part of Rte. 1. Just before the gate is an enormous liquor store. What kind of message does that send? And how rich is that particular business owner? You terps think you got football weekends with fans in the stadium, tailgating and bad behavior everywhere (mostly on the part of the old folks who are the alumnae)? Go to the U.T. Knoxville campus during a football game. Now there's some bad behavior. Also, UT has the "Rocky Top" song. Try not singing that in your head for years after you've heard it played on someone's customized car horn.

Some thoughts on attending college in this century: more and more textbooks are coming as looseleaf volumes. Genius--you only need to carry the chapters you're working on, although you have to make sure you don't lose some pages. Also, I signed up for the wonderful notification of cancellation for weather and other emergencies via text to my cell phone. Note to MD: only useful if you actually cancel classes due to weather emergencies.

What we discussed in my intermediate accounting class: liquidity! Solvency and insolvency. Statements of cash flows. The difference between recording assets at cost vs. fair market. And my favorite of the day: that the accounting profession has not figured out what to do in terms of issuing a rule about gift cards--those things that people lose or forget they have, or don't use up completely. Companies carry those balances on the books as a liability. In some cases (think Best Buy) they're huge liabilities. Fascinating stuff--darn good reason to climb in the car and risk my life (kidding--really it was an interesting discussion and it reminded me that I have a $24 balance on my McCormick & Schmick gift card).

A couple more motifs on "Dorothy's Garden" (you're stuck with this until the mail arrives from Attic Needlework and The Sampler Company).


And a word from Pink: "Mom, there's some liquidity on the carpet in the corner. I didn't do it."