To know, or not to know.

As you get older, you are sometimes faced with more responsibility. As you progress in a company, you are sometimes burdened with the inner workings of the company, and information is passed on to you, sometimes for your benefit, sometimes to keep you informed. Sometimes, you wish you did not get passed some of this information.

Such is the case now. I have been with my company for almost 8 full years now. While I am not a partner, I am given information that is not shared with other employees. right about now, i wish I did not know, what I know now. I can see the writing on the proverbial wall, (as much as I hate to use that saying) and I know that the economic times that we are faced with have a major impact on our workload in the architectural profession. We are running out of work. Well, more so, we have nearly run out of work, period. Present tense. And as such, some job cuts might have to happen for the first time in the companies 11 years. 2 cuts. Not my job, and for that I am extremely grateful and thankful. But two other people will be out of work, in about 2 weeks time. One of them, probably should have never been hired in the first place, and the loss their does not bother me. The other person, is the troubling thing for me. her personality fits in so well with our office. She is a good worker, competent, and does not need a lot of supervision. I have been working alongside her for the last month on a project. And she has no idea. None. She makes comments about "we will work that out in a couple weeks at the next stage of the project", and knowing what I know, it is hard to stand there and have a conversation. I will be disappointed the day she leaves. She has only been with the company for 6 months. She was laid off by her previous employer. And now she gets to go through it again.

Sometimes, I think it would be better to not know. Maybe the ostrich has it right, when it hits the fan, get low, stick your head in the sand.

Southwest Vacation: Part 2

One of the other adventures we are going to go on during our vacation is a hot air balloon ride. Hot Air Ballooning is something I have done before, my friend photog and I actually participated as crew members for a 2 balloon operation in Houston when we were in our younger years. That was always a lot of fun, it had to be to drag two teenage boys out of bed on Saturday mornings at 5 am. On two occasions we got to go up in the balloons and the experience, to this day, is still something that I remember vividly. There is such a sense of weightlessness and it is so peaceful. Since you float on the breeze, there is no wind, just a calm environment. When I discovered that Hot Air Balloon Rides were very popular in the Sonoran Desert, well, I knew we had to go.

Hot Air Expeditions will be our tour of choice. They come very well recommended from all of the reading and research I did online about the various outfits to choose from in the area. We are really looking forward to seeing the Sonoran Desert from 400 feet in the air. I will make sure I get good pictures.

Southwest Vacation: Part 1

Now, don't those look like fun.

In about 20 days, we will be taking off to go visit the US desert Southwest. A part of the country that neither of us have ever been to. About 8 months ago we started planning this trip. Thankfully, a large portion of it is being paid for by all of the business travel I did last year. Our plane tickets, and most of our hotel nights are all free as a result. Sometimes those frequent traveler programs pay off. Anyway, we are going to Phoenix, Joshua Tree National Monument, Tuscon, Sedona, The Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. I am pretty sure I will have more than enough photos to keep me busy for a long time after this one.

But, while we are in Phoenix, we are taking a guided Tomcar tour with Desert Wolf Tours, and that picture is a Tomcar. Our tour will be a half day, taking us to remote parts of the Sonoran Desert, that are not really accessible to the visitor any other way. And, we get to drive this thing, not the tour guide, we drive. How cool is that! And the pictures that are going to come from that little trip, I can't wait to see them.

But most of all, we are looking forward to a great vacation for just the two of us. We have not been able to take more than a weekend where it was just the two of us since our honeymoon. So, we decided it was time. And I am glad we started reserving things when we did. Because if we started doing it all now, well, who knows. But most of this is paid for, and the rest has its funding. So, we are going to go, and enjoy ourselves.

More to come.

For the sake of comparison.

Sometimes in life, you have to paint a picture, so that others can accurately understand a point you are trying to make. I am going to start painting now.

Lets say, that you are a fortunate person, and you spend your daily commute behind the wheel of, oh, lets say a Ferrari 430 Scuderia. Quite possibly the pinnacle of the development of the motor car as we know it.

You get to drive one of these everyday. You are good with it, you know how to extract what you need from it, you are one with it, and you enjoy it. You are never surprised, and never let down.

But then one day, you are required to take a drivers exam, because someone thinks that you need to prove your worth and ability. You show up for your test, keys to your Prancing Horse in hand...and they inform you that you will be driving this:

A 1985 Yugo. Russian Made, whose pinnacle was the addition of fuel injection.

That is about what it is like taking my current round of registration exams. I use AutoCAD, and am required to use the NCARB program for these tests...the equivlent of a newly injected '85 Yugo.

Oh yeah, took the second one today. It was a blast. Two down, one to go.

One Down, Two to go!

I took my first of the last three tests today. I don't know if I passed yet, but I am confident that I did. I should, since this is what I do everyday. but i won't know for 4-6 weeks, which is crazy, since the test is scored by a computer. It should be scored in a matter of days. But the idea that design is scored by a computer is insanity in my opinion, design is subjective, not objective. It is also open to interpretation, which a computer is not capable of, at least not that I am aware of.

Oh well, that one is done, time to prepare for the next two.

Snow Day

Yep, March 1, 2009 in Atlanta is a snow day. The news folks had been telling us all week that we might get a nice wintry day today, and no one believed them. While sitting around the table doing some work today, at about 11 am we realized that it was, in fact, snowing. We were sure none of it would stick, after all, this is the south, and snow should know better. But no, it stuck, and it got heavy at times, it was a very heavy, wet snow. It did not stick to the roadways at all, which is good, this town gets paralyzed by the thought of snow on the roadways.

Even the dog got in some snow time, she really enjoyed running around in the wet stuff, and loved to chase the snow balls that were soon flying through the air.


The last time we had snow was January of 2008, and we were at the airport waiting to fly to Paris. We did not get pictures of the house in the snow then, so I made sure we got some this time.

Now we have had our fun in the snow, now it is time for this mess to stop, we have to go to work tomorrow, and I don't want to do it in the snow. Once a year is enough, time for warm weather now please, ok, thanks.