56 Days: Passing Grades and Shedding Skin

Whooooohoooo! Helmut finally got word via email from the Professional Engineer Association that he passed his test. He has been stressed out about it since he took the test on April 15th. The test was given in scantron format, so I am not sure why it takes 2+ months to correct them. I know it is graded on a curve, so either Helmut did better than he thought, or everyone else was even more unprepared than he was. He signed up for a review course at the University of Houston but his work schedule combined with a lame instructor left him feeling unsure. In the end he passed. It is a pass/fail test and he never has to take it again. As long as he pays his dues and takes one ethics class (which he is currently teaching once a month at Bechtel) a year, he keeps his “Licensed Professional Engineer” status.

In other good news…Argos shed his skin yesterday. This is the first time he has done it since we got him. It is a very interesting and disturbing process. It started a few days back with his eyes clouding over and changing color and the skin around his head bubbling up. Once he got it started, it only seemed to take him about five minutes to slither up and out of his skin. Little Helmut is so relieved, because according to him, a shedding snake is a healthy snake. He has been very stressed over the last couple of weeks (a few tears have been shed) that he isn’t taking proper care of his snake. Argos has gotten some rocks trapped in his mouth a few times and Helmut insists that this can cause an infection very easily. I am bound and determined never to take that snake to the vet. It kills me to take my dog to the vet and spend money on him. My parents never took an animal to the vet my whole life (or the groomer for that matter…but that is a subject for another day) and I don’t like to vary from the way I was raised (especially when it involved wasting money on pets). I am getting a little carried away, but the snake shed…healthy snake.