Assignment #10,000!!!

By all rights, this should be a picture of the giant cookie I made that said Assignment #10,000 on it. Unfortunately, it was in the process of being consumed before I thought about taking a picture of it.  Sometimes I remember that I have a phone camera with me, but most of the time I forget.

Yes, let's first get this out of the way.  As much as I don't care to admit it, I do have a certain numbers obsession that may explain why parts of accounting may be attractive to me.  It's not a part of my personality that I like to dwell on, but it does exist.

When I began working at Higginson & Paulk in June 1999, I started to keep a list of the assignments I worked on, and how much time it took me to do them.  The person who showed me about this list was another staff accountant (the partner's son, Will, who has since gone on to be a very successful financial broker).  The list had a number by each assignment...I think Will's list was somewhere in the 800s.  I thought that was fascinating, and wondered if I could hit 800 myself.

Well, over time, I blew past that number.  Way past.  Even as we changed reporting systems, I insisted on keeping my numbering, even if it was only relevant to me.  On and on I went as the numbers cavalcaded by. 

I had always fantasized that when I hit Assignment #10,000, that I would stop and have a big party, with confetti and pizza and great desserts.

Well, after 16 years, 9 months and three days I finally hit the big Assignment #10,000!  It was on April 12th, and it was a tax return for a preacher and his family who had moved to Tennessee.  Being it was "that time of year", I knew that any celebration had to be more subdued than I had originally anticipated.

I made inquiries to see if anyone baked giant cookies that they could decorate with the words "Assignment #10,000" on it.  Time, shyness, and a lack of initial success convinced me it would be just as easy to make it myself.

So, thanks to a giant tube of Pillsbury, I made a large, round chocolate chip cookie.  Alison was impressed.  I took it to work yesterday morning, and decorated it with some icing and cake writing pens I had purchased.  I must not have gotten the right type, as the icing was thin, and the writing hard to see. Nevertheless, I did my best and brought it to the office's downstairs kitchen.

Talk about making no impression.  I finally told a couple of people that it was there, but I think that only myself and one other person ate any of it.  And then...someone brought the company lunch, a box lunch from Firehouse Subs, that contained a sandwich, chips and....a chocolate chip cookie.

Sigh.  Oh, well.  I guess some celebrations are more personal than group oriented.

Nevertheless.......Assignment #10,000!

Woohoo!

Maybe when I hit Assignment #20,000, I'll have learned how to decorate a cookie better.

And confetti.  Definitely confetti.

UPDATE:

YES!  I took a picture of what was left of the Assignment #10,000 cookie.  I hope you are all AMAZED at the sheer artistry and technical execution of it.