Damn the torpedoes, and full steam ahead

So, ended up with straight As.  Got a 90% exactly on my engineering final, which means I got a 90.4% in the class.  Squeaked by.

I've already registered for next semester, which doesn't start until mid-February.  I'll be taking two programming classes (second part of the C++ classes, and Matlab) and the second half of Chem 001 (which is mostly analysis, so a lot of lab work).  Two of my three profs are ones I've had before and enjoyed, so that'll be nice.  The third - Chem - I couldn't get into the class with the professor I had last time, so I'll just have to see how this one is like.  However, since I did Chem 1A over the summer without any issues, I'm not too worried about doing Chem 1B in twice the time.

I still have two applications to finish, both due in February.  I'm almost done with one - just waiting on a recommendation, but I also need to talk to a counselor about getting an academic report for them (as well as a few other things).  I'm going to try to do that Tuesday, as I'm heading to Palm Springs for a bit of a break Wednesday and not coming back until Saturday.

I'm also still looking at financials.  It feels a bit weird to be 40 and doing retirement planning, but I suppose it shouldn't.  Anyway, assuming I have to pull the full cost of UCs from my IRAs (~$50k for two years, including taxes), I should still be more than fine as long as I can keep this job part-time while in school (which my boss is pretty adamant about having be the case).  Now, that's not realistic - even if I have to pull that amount out, it would be in several chunks over two years - but it at least provides a realistic baseline.

Using that, continued contributions, a conservative view of the average rate of returns for my accounts, and estimates of salary that I think are realistic, I should still be well above my targets for retirement.  In fact, I should theoretically (without factoring anything else) be a millionaire by 50, at least by the numbers.

With all of next week off, I'm trying to decide if I want to head down to the Abbey at all this weekend.  I haven't been down there in ages, and I'm certainly not going on Sunday (it'll be a madhouse), but maybe tonight or tomorrow night for dinner or something would be nice.  That raises the prospect of having to talk about why I've been away and what I've been doing, however, and I'm not sure I want to go there just yet.