It's a major award!

It's no leg lamp, but a $12,000.00 award to learn while traveling the world is certainly nothing to shake a 'Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time' at.  Through the R.E.B. process, I was able to to write a proposal that requested anywhere from 4 to 12 thousand dollars.  Once I came up with a loose idea of what I wanted to do, I started working on a budget.  Now, let's get one thing straight: I am not overly proficient with handling money.  Fortunately I married a woman who is, and I have been able to get by on that for the last 10 years.  The first budget I worked out came in at a scant $21,000.  See what I mean when I say I'm not money savvy?  My original plan started with a stint visiting Sweden, but that was the first thing to get the axe.  This brought my new total down to somewhere around 13K.  This was more like it.  I could work with this.  After cutting back on a few things, including my food allowances, which you know I hated to do, I ended up coming in just under the cap at $11, 990.  Not knowing how much The Community Foundation liked nice round numbers, that was the sum I submitted.  When I received my award envelope at the Library of Virginia in November, I was surprised to see that they actually rounded my proposal up the additional $10 that I had not included in my budget.  Just so you know, I have already re-allocated that money to my food budget.  Specifically, my fish 'n chips budget.