Apples and wine

Read this recently and had to share with all the good apples I know:

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they’re amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Now men… men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it’s up to women to stomp the sh*t out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.




Cheers!

Late News about that PE test

I've been meaning to post about the big test that consumed the entire first half of 2009: the professional engineering licensing test, also known as the PE test.

To make a long story short: I passed! I'm officially a Professional Engineer licensed in the State of Texas!

Here's my seal. What's that? Need a set of construction plans sealed by a Professional Engineer. Oh, well, I mean, I could help ya with that. Let me just grab my ole seal.... it's laying around here somewhere... heh



Now backing up:

The application process itself is a doozy, requiring you to submit a 12-page summary of experience covering the previous 4 years in which you detail all the engineering projects you've worked on and how your responsibilities have increased during that time. Then you gotta track down all the engineers that you worked under during those years and get them to sign off on this document. Good luck on that. One of my supervisors never responded to my attempts to contact him!

Anywho...then the "Board" reviews each application and lets you know if you've been accepted to take the test. Get that? You have to apply and get clearance just to take the test. So, that was submitted back in early December.

I got the good news back in February that the Board had accepted my application... whew!

During the time from December to February you are studying for the huge test which is in late April. You're not even sure if you're going to be allowed to take the test, but you have to take a gamble and start studying in hopes that you're accepted.

Have I mentioned by this point that the test is 8 hours long? And that the pass rate is around 50%?



Fun sidenote: When I got my admittance ticket for the test, I found out that I was to be seated at seat "PE 3"... that means seat #3 ... of over 500 seats. I was on the very front row. Seat #3! I was sitting basically IN the front door of the place..."the place" being the Austin Convention Center. Turned out to be a great thing, because I didn't get distracted with other folks since they were all behind me. Anyway, back to the drama...

From February to April, I was in hiding. No one saw me because I spent every moment studying. Ugh. So many books. You're pretty much re-learning everything you learned in 4+ years of college as well as cramming all the knowledge you learned as a practicing EIT (engineer-in-training) during the following 4 years, including all the things you never learned and types of projects you never worked on.

The day before the test a couple of gals and I agreed that we would spend the day (for me, half the day) NOT STUDYING. Instead, we went to see a movie. It was the day-after Earth Day, so we saw the big screen version of Earth!

The next day the 8-hour test commenced. It's open book, so you're expected to bring in any reference materials. Which means that almost all the folks bring in an entire box/luggage/icechest full of books.



Well, no, the books don't look like that. But they're huge, lemma tell ya. (PS: Yes, Rev is sitting on my lap, hidden by the tent-sized book)

So you take the test, then wait 8 to 12 weeks for the results. Talk about waiting!

Then one day in late-late June, one of the the aforementioned gals called me to tell me that the results were up. I logged in and started yelling with her still on the phone, happy yells, if there's such a thing. Then Rev and I jumped up and down for a long, long time. Then he asked for me to carry him after he got tired of jumping and the both of us jumped up and down. We were both laughing so hard that I didn't realize how tired I was from the jumping. The next day my Rev-carrying arm didn't work so well.

So there ya have it, a shortened version of the first half of my 2009.

We had to submit photos to the "Board" to go with our file. I had my best guy Brett come over the day after we found out the results. We both passed, and turns out Brett got one of the highest scores in Texas (according to him)! So we took these headshots of eachother in my backyard.





I didn't submit that exact picture, but dorky's more my speed, so there ya go.

Oh, and I got Brett's ring too. Go Raiders!



...And Go Longhorns too!

Heather and John married!

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of photographing Heather and John's nuptials (the slideshow is here)!







Because of our crazy schedules - me being in Australia and them moving Heather to Austin - we didn't meet until the day of the ceremony. Now, keep in mind that this event is only the small pre-event to the much larger destination wedding event that will take place in Cozumel in a few months. Apparently, before an American couple gets married in Mexico, they have to first be legally married in the States. So, my wonderful assistant and I drove to John's hometown, Brady - The Heart of Texas.



When we drove in, they were still getting ready. Everyone was staying in the (only?) hotel in town, including John's sweet dog, Abby.



The theme was sunflowers. These were on each of the tables. They are packets of sunflower seeds! Great idea, aye?







John's mom was to thank for all the decorations.






The ceremony. You can see John's granddad, the county judge, at the left-edge of the frame officiating.









Heather and her son, who thinks kisses are for sissies.



After the ceremony, the guys played golf and smoked stoggies.

Newest website: Breathtaking Blooms

A few hours, yes hours, before I left on the plane to visit my sister in Australia, I was doing some finishing touches on this website. I'm just getting around to posting it. My latest logo and website: breathtakingblooms.com, local wedding florists.

Australians don't have pennies

My first day in Sydney I noticed that everything I bought was sold to me at a rounded-off price. $3.96 for a train ticket only cost me $3.95. Or $9.43 for some food, and they only asked for $9.40. I sort of noticed it, but just thought people were being generous.

Nope, it turns out that Australians don't have pennies.

If you're paying cash, you're paying by some increment of 5 cents. That is their smallest coin. I even asked the bank. (Not really, but I forgot to take a picture of their money)



My Sydneysider sis informs me, though, that if you're paying by credit card, you can expect to pay the actual (cent-derived) price.

Moreover, their money bills are not only the brightest colors you've ever seen (hot pink, lime green, purple, etc.) but they come in various sizes. Makes it very easy to pick out a $5 bill versus a $20 bill!

You can check out the entire slideshow of my week as a Sydneysider (yes, that's the actual term for Sydney residents) in which my sister and I tried to pack as many things into 5 days as humanly possible.

My trip started with an unexpected 24-hour layover in San Francisco. Plus side was that I got to visit Mandy and Justin! Cousin and highschool classmate, respectively.



After a (sigh) ...long... 15 hour flight straight to Sydney, Moke and I

hit up Sydney Harbour to see Harbour Bridge at sunset...



...and do a tour of the famous Opera House



And even though it was winter, we made it to Sydney's famous Bondi ("Bond-eye") Beach, where signs that warned "Dangerous Currents... no swimming" didn't deter dozens of surfers from hitting the frigid water.



Other Sydney highlights can be seen in the slideshow!