Mental Vomit

Mercedes and I went back to the bay area last weekend. We had such a great time when we went at the end of June, that we wanted to visit again. Todd and Carrie graciously offered us a room in their house which happens to sit in the Napa area. This was an opportunity that we could not pass up. We were able to get together with Julie, visit with my Aunt and even see Frank. It was a good trip.

Here is a list of the places we hit:

Go Fish, Wicker Vineyards, Ladera Vineyards, O’Shaughnessy Winery, Dunn Vineyards, Neal Vineyards, Madrigal Vineyards, Schramsberg, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Chateau Montelena, Travigne, Model Bakery, King Tut Exhibit at De Young, Absinthe Brasserie & Bar, Citizen Cake, Taylor’s Refresher

Jesus! That was a lot of drinking and eating. Anyway, here are the pics:

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David Cooking, Friends, Vacations Absinthe, Chateau Montelena, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Citizen Cake, De Young, Dunn, Go Fish, King Tut, Ladera, Madrigal, Model Bakery, Napa, Neal, O'Shaughnessy, San Francisco, Schramsberg, Taylor's Refresher, Travigne, Vineyards, Wicker Vineyards, Winery

Little late with the pictures, but Mercedes and I took a weekend trip to Tombstone and Bisbee in Southeastern Arizona. We went with the same group of friends we have vactioned with twice before this same year. Good group and we had a good time. Bisbee is a cool little town and if you have not been, you should go for a weekend.

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David Vacations Arizona, Big Nose Kate, Bisbee, Copper Queen Hotel, Doc Holiday, OK Corral, St. Elmo, Stock Exchange Bar, Tombstone, Wyatt Earp

I have wanted my PMP Certification for about 3 years. For those of you who do not know, the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification is offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and certifies that PMPs have a thorough understanding and experience implementing project management practices and principles according to PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

This spring two things came together to allow me to finally get my cert. The first was that I finally met the requirements to take the test. In order to qualify to take the test you must have a bachelors degree (you can also substitute additional experience for a degree), at least 36 months where at least 4500 hours have been devoted to professional project management and 35 hours of professional project management training. With my work at the county, I finally qualified. The second event to occur that helped me attain the cert was that I completed the Project Management Certification program at the University of Arizona. The classroom lectures helped me better grasp the knowledge that was required to pass the test.

Qualifying for the test was one thing, passing the test is a different story. The unsubstantiated rumor I read on one blog was that the test has a 70% fail rate (I could not find official numbers, so this might not be true). Failing the test would suck, as you have to pay hundreds of dollars each time to retake the test and you can only fail three times or you have to wait a year to retest. To ensure I passed, I spent an ungodly amount of money. Here is the breakdown:

UofA Project Management Certification Program – $1578
PMI Membership – $120
PMI PMP Registration Fee – $405
PMP Exam Prep Book – $106
PMP Simulation Exam – $300

Grand Total – $2509

The Exam Prep Book and the Simulation Software were both from rmcproject.com. I can not say enough good things about Rita Mulcahy (who runs rmcproject.com). Her books and simulation software helped me enormously. I read the PMBOK from cover to cover, but Rita’s book made the information more interesting and her examples helped to place the terms into real life scenarios. If you are planning on taking the PMP exam, you can not go wrong with Rita’s PMP material. Read the book, do each exercise and take her simulated tests and you can not fail.

So to wrap this up, I am glad to finally have the PMP Certification that I have wanted for years. Saturdays and week evenings can finally be mine again. I appreciate the knowledge I learned and I am going to apply it to my job right away, but I hope to not pick up the Exam Prep Book again for some time.

David Interesting Body of Knowledge, Certification, PMBOK, PMI, PMP, Project Management, Project Management Professional, Rita Mulcahy, RMC Project, Test Simluation, University of Arizona

Last weekend, Mercedes and I took a trip with six other friends to the Mogollon Rim (near Heber, AZ to be exact) to camp for three days and two nights. We had a blast, ate a cheeseburger sandwiched between two Krispy Kremes and got introduced to Geocaching. Below are the pics. I am trying a new setup where the gallery is actually hosted in the post, we will see how well this works.

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David Friends, Hiking, Vacations Arizona, Black Canyon Lake, Camping, Geocaching, Heber, Hiking, Krispy Kreme Burger, Mogollon Rim, Payson, Smores

Last October, my boss at the time told me about the Tucson Portrait Project. The City of Tucson was rebuilding the 4th Avenue underpass to create a better link between the 4th Avenue shopping/bar district and downtown Tucson. While rebuilding the underpass, they were going to take thousands of photos of everyday Tucsonans and place those photos (on ceramic tiles) on the walls of the underpass. He suggested that Mercedes and I get our photos taken.

We were interested and so we went to the website and found that they were going to be taking pictures at the St. Philips Farmers Market on Saturday, November 29th, 2008. We went to the farmers market, strolled by the homemade soaps, salsas and handmade crafts and found the photo tent. We filled out a form that stated you were allowing them to do whatever they wanted with your picture and waited our turn. They took about 4 shots of you with different poses then they chose which one to use. You got to see the pictures, but got little say in which one would be selected. We left the Farmers Market and soon forgot about the whole thing.

Well on Thursday, August 20th, 2009, they had a big Tucson Birthday/4th Avenue Underpass party and they unveiled the walls (not all of them). I was excited as I had forgotten about the pictures. I have not seen the actual walls yet, but the art company that did them setup a website where you can search for photos and view each one. I think the whole idea is pretty fun and much more interesting then the typical bronze, copper, cement desert critter/plant that usually adorns our public structures. You can see all the photos by going to this site:

www.tucsonportraitproject.com

To find me just search for “David Smith”, you can also search for Mercedes too. If you are on the wall, shoot me an email or comment and let me know. I am trying to find out how many people I know are on the wall. I like my picture, I think it is different.

David Funny, Interesting, Uncategorized 4th Avenue, Downtown, Modern Streetcar, Photos, Pictures, Public Art, Tucson, Tucson Portrait Project, Underpass

So I have had this plastic, fake parking meter thing that my father bought me years ago. I started placing my loose change in the thing at the end of each day and when it fills up I take the change in and get cash. I usually do this once a year. The meter is about %50-%60 full and I usually get about $150-$170.

Last year when it was time to take the change in, I decided not to. I said that this change would be my iPhone fund. I was 1 year into a 2 year agreement with T-Mobile on my Blackberry. I knew that once my contract was up, I would be getting an iPhone. So I have saved the change in this parking meter for 2 years. It is full to the brim and I am not sure exactly how much cash is in the thing. The holding tube is 31 inches tall and the diameter of the tube is 2.75 inches. A 32GB iPhone 3Gs is $299.

How much do you think is in the parking meter? I am cashing in tomorrow (Wednesday night) and will update this post with the results. I am getting the iPhone on Monday.

UPDATE: I cashed the coins in and got $321, not too bad.

David Interesting Apple, Blackberry, Contract, iPhone, iPhone Fund, Loose Change, Parking Meter, RIM, T-Mobile

Mercedes and I took a morning hike to Romero Pools in Catalina State Park this morning. We went with Mercedes’ Dad Mike, his wife Karen and their friend Melissa. You can see the pictures here:  Catalina State Park – Romero Pools

David Day Trips, Hiking Catalina State Park, Desert Tortoise, Hiking, Romero Pools, Waterfalls

I decided to concentrate on my diet and lose weight this year. My wife recommended that I count calories and not worry about other aspects (such as carbs, protein, sugar, etc). I had previous success with the low-carb model, but the cravings for carbs became too strong and I went right back to eating shitty. I thought I would give the low calorie method a try. On January 5th, 2009, I weighed in on my first day on the diet. 237 pounds was the result. I am pretty sure that was the most I had ever weighed in my life. My wife was crucial in implementing the plan. She bought a food weight scale so we could measure portions, she threw out all the high calorie, processed foods we had in the house, and she started cooking low calorie and writing down all the ingredients in the meal. Without her help, it would have failed.

I won’t go into much detail other than to say that I kept my consumption to 1500 calories or less a day and I went to the gym 5 days a week. I did 30 mins of cardio each of the 5 days, and did resistance training 3 of the 5 days. About a month into the routine, I ended up buying a heart rate monitor (HRM). When reading message boards I learned that HRMs were recommended for accurately determining the amount of calories burned during exercises. The HRM also helped to determine if a certain exercise was working my heart sufficiently. It changed the way I workout and I recommend one.

My goal is to get to or below 175 pounds. I have also decided that this has gone further than being a diet and is (hopefully) a lifestyle change. I now look for whole grains on menus, consider the amount of food in the serving and plan snacks and meals a head of time. It sounds lame and like a lot of work, but it is easy once you setup the process.

Here is a big list of the Products, Services and Restaurants that helped me in losing the weight so far:

Big Help

Calorie King, Food Scale, Under Armour Boxer Jocks, Champion, New Balance, LA Fitness, Timex Heart Rate Monitors

Contributing

Fiber One, Chick-Fil-A, Rubios, Subway, El Pollo Loco, Jimmy Johns, Chipotle, iTunes, Triscuits, Diet Coke, Egg Beaters, Eggo, Mission Tortillas, Oroweat Bread, Laughing Cow Cheese, Men’s Health, Fruits, Vegetables, Meat

David Cooking, Interesting 50 Pounds, Calorie King, Calories, Champion, Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle, Diet Coke, Egg Beaters, Eggo, El Pollo Loco, Exercise, Fiber One, Food Scale, Fruits, iTunes, Jimmy Johns, LA Fitness, Laughing Cow Cheese, Meat, Men's Health, Mission Tortillas, New Balance, Oroweat Bread, Rubios, Subway, Timex Heart Rate Monitors, Triscuits, Under Armour Boxer Jocks, Vegetables, Weight Loss

A little over a month ago, some friends of Mercedes and I called us and asked us if we were interested in joining them on a trip to Northern California. This was an interesting proposal as we had just hung out with another friend who works at a winery in the area. We have a few friends in the are and it was a good time to go. We had to take offer, it was just too fortuitous.

The trip was filled with food, wine and good times. The area was absolutely beautiful and full of things to see. We were able to meet up with an old friend named Frank. He is living it up in Northern California and knows a lot about wine and the wine industry.  But the best part of the trip was seeing our friend Todd at his place of work. He works at Cade Winery and the place is just absolutely amazing. The tour of Cade was the best part of the entire trip. Todd was also impressive as he was able to answer all of our wine questions. The guy is going be a big deal eventually, he just seems to fit in with the industry perfectly.

You can see all the pictures from our trip in the gallery

One thing I pointed out to our travel group later in the trip is that we all have to work and work generally is not fun. However when Todd goes to work, he gets to work here:

David Vacations Armstrong Woods, Boon Hotel, Cade, Food, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Napa, Plumpjack, Russian River, San Francisco, Wine, Winery

Every time a space shuttle launches, I become fascinated with space travel again. It is an amazing feat to be able to launch 7 humans 70 miles into the sky in 8 mins. The Space Shuttle program will end next year and there will be no more shuttle launches. The amazing craft will be sent to Air and Space museums across the country. In 2014, NASA will begin the next stage in space exploration with the Constellation Program. The first highlight of this program is a return trip to the Moon.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to catch a Shuttle launch live before they are grounded. I hope to one day watch a live launch during the Constellation Program. For the time being, you can watch a 10 min video of  today’s Atlantis Shuttle launch:

David Interesting 2010, 2014, Ares Rocket, Atlantis, Constellation Program, Grounded, Launch, NASA, Return to the Moon, Space Shuttle