They say the first year of marriage is the hardest, but Michael and Vanessa Nicholas-Schmidt never would have guessed that their marital bliss would be cut short by a pile of dirty containers.

As the university “summer” session began, there were a few things I had come to dread: the sweltering heat, brussel sprouts and the accounting course I am taking this summer.

I dreaded this course because one small miscalculation could completely render the following equations inaccurate, and the thought of failure due to one simple mistake seemed a daunting prospect. You might say the same can be said of mathematics of any kind. True — to some extent. But, unlike most other “mathematical sciences,” basic accounting focuses on a notion of balances: assets = liabilities + investments.