It's been a month...

Vi is 10 weeks old, so that would be 2 months, BUT it's been a month since I took the dreaded PE exam. PE: Professional Engineer, or Painful Exam. Anyway, it's actually been 7 months since I first took it; you see, there are three parts to this exam. On Friday (it's always on a Friday,) there is what's called the 8 hour general exam. An 8 hour test. Uh-hu. Now in most of the US, passing this is enough to receive your license. But not in California. California has those things called earthquakes, and even though I'm never going to design a building, wouldn't it be nice to know that the streets aren't going get flooded after an earthquake because the person who designed the sewer/stormwater system designed it for earthquakes too?
So, then on Saturday there is the seismic exam in the morning (2.5 hours) and a survey test in the afternoon (another 2.5 hours). Yes, for some reason thousands of people volunteer (and pay lots of money!) to take this test. And here are the passing rates:
http://www.pels.ca.gov/applicants/ap08stats.shtml
It's amazing! We torture ourselves and the passing rate FOR EACH TEST is one out of three. (or one out of two if we're lucky.) The general exam has a lot of general questions, like stuff we haven't seen since college. Then the seismic and survey tests are on structures and geometry, respectively. And for those of us engineers who practice water engineering, both of those tests are pretty difficult. The saying goes that the survey test is the easiest followed by the 8-hour and the seismic.
The main problem with these test is that they are multiple choice. It is EXTREMELY unlikely for someone to pass out of shear luck, but it does happen. For the rest of us we wrestle with the phrase: choose the best answer. That's right, don't choose the right answer, or the correct answer, just "the best". It's a math/science test that's subjective. It's so incredibly difficult, hence the low passing rates mentioned above.
I found out in January that I pass both the seismic and the 8 hour, so I only had to take the survey test last month. Unfortunately, I still had to pay the entire test fee. (*2*7*5*DOLLARS!!!)
I'll find out in July if I can start putting the letters "PE" after my name. After all, I will have the license to do so.

My weekend: Test and Shopping.

This past weekend, I took the PE Exam (survey portion) for the second time. I'm not sure how I feel about it... I get my results in 3 months. We'll see how I feel about it then.
The big highlight of my weekend, other than spending it with my two girls, was having my wonderful husband take me to Baby Celebration. Wow. Talk about a winning weekend.

I must have entered at least 25 giveaways and drawings. (and I haven't even checked my email yet to see if I won any!) First, I got free tickets from DillyDally, from whom I purchase an adorable apron/smock for Jo. And speaking of, Jo had a GREAT time with the disney radio folks. (Hmmm... do I since another Disney fan?)

But, my favorite (and one of the last booths) that I visited was babysteals.com. I met Eric, the husband of one of the owners of the site. (I'm presuming her name is Jana.) And they were giving away the very same aden + anais winter wraps that they have available to buy, er, steal, today. (I love aden + anais, even if you don't have kids. Serriously.) Anyway, Babysteals.com is celebrating their 1 year anniversary. And I got to say congratulations! Babysteals is having a birthday celebration, and we're all invited:



So go, have fun, and I'll post later about the perils of professional licensing registrations.

Totally unrealated to water and winning (Sort of)

So, my husband sent this to me today, and it just tickled me so, I have to share. Enjoy!

Sure. Everyone talks about saving money and fiscal responsibility and all that, but nobody really talks about how hard it is, or how expensive it can end up being. I mean, when I was just starting out, my business professor told us all that one of the best things we could do to ensure our financial stability into the future was to have only one credit card, and then freeze it into a big block of ice. That way, anytime we wanted to make a big-ticket purchase, we'd be forced to contemplate it while we worked at getting the credit card unfrozen. "Mark my words," he said. "Most of the time, you won't even get halfway to it before you realize that you don't really need what you were thinking about buying."
Well, that made sense to me. The only problem was that I didn't have a refrigerator. So I had to go out and buy one, and damn if those things aren't expensive. So I was really happy I hadn't frozen my credit card yet and used it to buy this really awesome fridge/freezer combo with the ice cube dispenser in the door. I didn't really need the ice cube dispenser in the door, but I figured that if I was going to have my credit card in a block of ice, I wouldn't have much room left in the freezer for ice trays. So it made sense.
But then I didn't have anywhere to put the freezer. It was too big for the room I was renting. So I needed to buy a house. So I went to the bank and got my mom to co-sign on this awesome loan that didn't even need any money down and would have really low payments for like two years. And I knew that I'd be working by then and would be making good money, so that didn't worry me at all.
Then I needed something to transport my freezer in. I would have just rented a truck, but I figured that, you know, I'd be needing a car to get around and look for jobs and stuff. I thought about buying a used truck, but then I was like, you know, I don't want to buy someone else's problem. So I bought this biatchin' F-150 and got a pretty good rate from the dealer and didn't have to put anything down, either. They were really cool.
So I put my freezer in the truck and drove it to my townhouse and then realized I needed electricity to make a block of ice but they were mean at the electric company and wanted like a two month deposit and I didn't have any money, so I had to use my credit card again for that and thank God it wasn't frozen yet.
Then I needed a bucket to make a block of ice in, so I got in my truck and went to Target, and while I was there I figured, you know, I should probably buy some other things a house needs like cleaning supplies and food and toilet paper and towels and an XBox 360 and a few games. And boy, I don't know how I'd have bought all that stuff if I'd already frozen my credit card, but I guess someone was looking out for me.
So I took all my new stuff home and took it inside and poured water in the bucket and put the credit card in the water and put it all in the freezer and it was frozen solid by the next morning. And then a few days later I was out of food. And I went to get my credit card but it was frozen, and damn if I couldn't get it out of that block of ice. And I waited a while like the professor had said but it didn't make me want food any less. Heck, I wanted it more. And I got the block of ice out and took it out to the walk and picked it up over my head and threw it down on the sidewalk, but it just chipped a little so I tried again and this time it landed on my foot and I broke it. My foot, I mean. And I got taken to the hospital in the ambulance with my block of ice and it finally melted which was good because holy Christ hospitals are expensive. And by the time I got home I was realizing that this whole financial planning thing really sucks, because now my credit card is maxed and my bucket is cracked and I can't drive my truck because my foot's broken and how am I supposed to find a job?
Maybe I'll buy a computer and get that Quicken software. I heard it helps you track spending and stuff. Maybe that's what I need.

You can wash, but be careful

I just read this lovely post by Cars for Girls: How to Hand Wash Your. Allow me to say that I love this blog, and they host some really nice giveaways. (Hmm... I wonder how I found out about them?!?)
Anywho, I was quite disappointed when I read the post about washing your car, and it mentioned NOTHING ABOUT WATER CONSERVATION! Now, being in California, where all things are shiny, beautiful, and no less, splashy, I strongly believe in a clean car. And what better way to get a little sun yerself (and save some $$$) than to wash your own car? Well, that's fine and all, if you don't live in an HOA. Our HOA now has a $500 fine (yes, five hundred dollars) for anyone who washes their own car.
Here's the reasoning: Soap is actually not all that clean, at least, not once it's in water. Do you want to drink a half palmolive/water cocktail? No. Okay... The soap gets rinsed off of your car and goes straight into the storm drain, which goes straight into the Ocean. Now, I'm quite certain that if I don't like the dish soap cocktail, most of the swimmers and marine life at the beach won't like it either.
So, what's a girl to do? Not wash her car? Be doomed to spend $20 every month @ Wash 'N Detail R Us? Nope, there is salvation for homeowners: wash your car on or next to your lawn so that the water will get soaked up by the ground before running off into the gutters. The grass seems to tolerate the soapy muck. Up to a point.

Golden, Sew Golden

I love babylegs. Yes, I have a baby that I can use them on, but I also put them on my arms at work because the a/c likes to run full blast over my computer. Brrr....
So, BabyLegs Leg Warmers is having a contest. Buy a package, potential win a trip to Seattle. Sounds good to me. You can buy some babylegs here, at A.B. Baby Boutique.
Or, to enter without purchase send your name and contact information to babylegs headquarters. See the rules.

Good luck!

The leg bone's connected to...

Ah, it's been a while since my last post, but I suppose if you were really observant, you would have already figured that out.
I really wanted to touch on water today. Most people know of FEMA (federal emergency management agency), but do you know where it comes from or what it does? How about water quality? Who's in charge of that?
Allow me to break it down:
The president picks out all of the heads of the beauricratic agencies like FEMA, the EPA and even the USDA. These agencies then might have state agencies associated with them. In the case of FEMA, the president is the head of the agency, and the whole group of FEMA works as the body. As an engineer, I do a lot of FEMA mapping requests. FEMA doesn't have the resources to be everywhere all the time, so it relies on citizens to make requests as necessary.
The EPA is a different entity all together. The president still acts as the head, and the EPA still acts as the body, but it has "arms and legs" in every state. Here in California, there is the State Water Resources Control Board. It has 12 regional districts around the state which dictate how business can discharge water and which construction measures need to be in place in order to minimize mud and pollutants being washed downstream if it rains.
The system has a lot of room to be what I call "politicized". It's a beaurcratic process, for sure, but I assure you that it works most of the time, and water quality around the US is getting better than it was in the 70's.
But, there is also room for improvement in the political area. It's our duty as citizens to be aware how this process works so that if something goes wrong with our water, we know who to call. (Just to clarify - it's not a doctor!)

Another JuJu Beane Tout

So, I must irriterate what I first wrote about JuJuBean:

I love Ju Ju Beane for 3 reasons:
1. The name of course reminds me of Jojo Bean.
2. I got an email from them when they opened up e-shop, and wow. Let's just say, they know sales.
3. Cuter than a Ducks Butt. Nuff said.

So go, check it out now. Ju Ju Beane Boutique

But they are sponsoring another contest on pink lemonade contests!



Oh I do love Jojo Bean, I mean of course, Juju Bean!