Three Months

Our third month started without much fanfare. Things seemed to settle down nicely and my asthma attacks rapidly reduced when my parents cut their vacation short. The attacks were caused by stress of having to manage two households. We finally managed to get our groove back and started managing our home better. (The secret is Mom's cleaning lady who comes in half a day once a week).

No more mishaps! Or so we thought.

By mid-month we were faced with the most disgusting home problem, a septic tank that was probably ready to blow up. The drain at our first floor bathroom was bubbling up the grossest debris imaginable. Thanks to Maynilad and our land lady, the problem was fixed within a few days.

We enjoyed the rest of the month though. The boys ran their first marathon during the Unilab Wellness Run and the rest of the month was spent preparing version 2 of dishes, puttering around the garden with Mom, squeezed in some time to go to Tagaytay, and playing Plants vs. Zombies as a family! Whew! The septic tank problem was as nerve wracking as the washing machine and smokin' sink issues, but I'd say these are just tiny things that make married life more exciting.

Plants vs. Zombies

I try to stay away from playing games because I end up getting addicted to it. The last time I got hooked was when Miguel was a kid and the culprit back then was Pokemon. My parents weaned me with books for distraction instead of playing video games. The only gaming gadgets they bought me were a Pacman watch and a Game & Watch. I only managed to play Super Mario rarely when I was allowed to go to the neighbor.

It was Miguel who got me to play Plants vs. Zombies. I indulged him because he was talking about PvZ a lot and I couldn't relate to him anymore. He coached me the first few games and actually still managed to stay away from playing. I actually stopped playing because my wrist hurt for a few days.

But...

Sometimes things could just get frustrating and you just want to kick some b**t. The poor zombies didn't have a chance the past 2 nights because my frustration level was beyond its normal limit. It was exhausting though and it took a few hours before I fell asleep.

Ayun, puyat din si Sweetie.

I wish I could be a chomper and just chomp away all those annoying zombies in our lawn called the Philippines.

The Tricycle School Bus

Saw this tricycle filled with 8 kids plus the driver the other day on the way to the post office. Yes, EIGHT KIDS were in this tricycle. Good thing though traffic was a bit heavy so the kid at the back managed to hang on pretty well. Obviously, safety is the least priority of the driver. I wonder though why the police didn't flag them.

Hang in there kid.

Ipanema's Colorful Sea Collection

Ipanema launched its newest Gisele Bundchen collection last week. Dubbed as "Colorful Sea" the new line will help raise funds and awareness for Brazil's turtle population and our own local marine life. The Philippine Ballet Theater made an awesome performance during the event. Here's a short video of the show -



During the event a WWF Philippines Vice Chair and CEO Lory Tan gave an impactful presentation about climate change. He shared projections about what may happen in the coming years as a result of global warming. He showed images using maps on what may happen to our coastal lines once water eats up 12 meters of land. Boracay will be halved. Caticlan Airport will disappear. Mactan will go underwater. Most of our airports and ports will disappear and other possibilities. He said that it is not enough to give donations to causes or sign petitions to do stuff, but each of us have to do our part to prepare for this catastrophe. (I know I should've asked for a copy of that preso!)

Here's a couple of (trying hard) photos I took during PBT's performance -

The collection's really cute! Check `em out at Bambu (Glorietta) and I also saw some at The Landmark.

Election Entertainment

This has got to be the most entertaining Philippine elections. Check out this vid by MommoyPalaboy with Sen. Dick Gordon.



At least we know he has a sense of humor.

Happiness is...

It took me a year to get over my allergy. But I can happily say that I can now drink Coca-Cola again! Weeee! Tuloy ang ligaya!

Tenant Be Good, Tenant Be Bad

My frustration level rose up several notches last Monday when my Network Magic detected an intruder in our wifi network. I promptly blocked off the intruder and realized that I needed to protect our home wifi network from being leeched. We keep it open because we use different types of devices with different OS' so we've been using Network Magic to keep the buggers out.

Tuesday came and I was still quite annoyed at the intruder, so I spent some time cleaning up the network map and securing our network. My attention was soon taken by our first floor bathroom. For some strange reason septic tank debris was coming in through the shower area drain. It was really disgusting to clean up. Several hours passed and it happened again. Cleaned it up immediately since my Mom was visiting to help us out with re-potting the plants. Soon after she used the toilet almost 2 inches worth of debris bubbled up from the drain. I felt like I was in Dante's Inferno (the third circle). Good thing that the water subsided after dinner so it was easier to clean up the shower floor (thank God for long brush brooms!).

I could not help but feel bad for my 80-year old landlady. She's my Mom's friend and her daughter went to school with my Ate. She is such a sweet Tita and has been a caring landlady. Sweetie and I decided to start renting the place before the wedding because we wanted to start moving stuff. Our landlady tried to have everything fixed before we moved, but she had difficulty because she can't move around that much, so essentially we had to take the initiative to have things repaired.

It was quite unbelievable how much stuff we had to have repaired. All the window screens had to be replaced, the doors and cabinets had scratches, the bathroom sinks were falling off and leaking, the toilet innards had to be replaced, the stairway banister wasn't attached to the wall anymore (still have to have it fixed), a broken window glass panel and the house was full of roaches (to name a few repairs). It was heartbreaking to recount all the repairs that had to be done to my Tita.

I was honestly shocked with how the previous tenant used the house. It was my first time to move in my entire life and my Mom saw to it that whatever was broken at home was fixed immediately. My Mom explained to me that such people exist. They just don't care about other people's property because they feel that since they are paying rent they can do whatever they want. I feel really frustrated because I feel that the last tenant deliberately left the place in disarray. And I failed to mention that the last tenant left unpaid PLDT bills. Kainis diba?

I'm glad to report though that we had repaired most of the stuff save for the stairway banister and the shower floor needs grout. Hopefully the drain will be fixed tomorrow and that Maynilad will show up to clean out the septic tank. Unfortunately though the cause of this inferno is just around the corner.

Lesson learned: Aside from taking care of property that isn't yours, be wary about leaving a place in disarray because who knows the next tenant might know that you are someone popular.

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Update: The septic tank revealed some gory secret. Kwento is here.

The Pi Day Engagement

A year ago a big conspiracy happened. For several months I received cryptic clues from Sweetie and it came to  a point I got so annoyed that I just ignored any additional clue he gave me (haha).

So March 14, 2009 came. We were in Davao for the Davao Food Appreciation Tour and I was just expecting to eat lots of yummy food. I lost a lot of weight prior to DFAT because of my allergies and looked forward to gaining some weight in Davao. My other primary concern was not to have an asthma attack, so I wasn't really looking forward to the trek to the zipline. I tried to get out of it the day before, but everytime I brought it up Sweetie got stressed and dizzy. He said that he wanted me to zip down the mountain even if he had to carry me on the trail.

I was cranky half-way to the top since I was wheezing badly. Anyway, you can read my recount I wrote a year ago here and here's the video of the proposal.

The First Run

Last Sunday my husband and son joined the Unilab Wellness Run. We woke up at around four and left home before 5 in the morning. Even though we left early it was a bit hard to find a free parking slot. Good thing BHS security opened one of the fields 3 blocks away from the venue so we managed to catch the 10km gun start.

I didn't join the run since I'd probably drop dead within 5 meters but I certainly felt the energy of the runners. Everybody was excited and I felt I wanted to run along with them. I had to content myself though by staying at the sidelines, taking videos and photos. The hubby gave a hearty wave when he passed me and Miguel. Soon enough Miguel had to join the throngs of people for the 3km run.

I stuck around the barrier since it was fun to watch the runners. There were really young kids and elderly people. I noticed though most of the runners were really fit. I was pretty worried about my boys because I felt they didn't have enough preparation. Eventually though Miguel arrived and Jay followed after a few minutes.

We had breakfast at TGIFriday's (yup they were open) and I was glad to see that my boys got hooked on running. Woohoo! Till the next run!

Heat Exhaustion

Summer came really early this year. We started feeling it last January when we usually use blankets until middle of February. The past two weeks have been unbearable hot and I've really tried to stay out of the sun.

Last Sunday though I had the misfortune of being under the sun for a few minutes. It was midday and we were at the parking lot at The Fort. I stayed under a tree while waiting for Sweetie and his Dad fix some stuff in the car. It was unbearably hot so I put a towel on my head. After awhile we had lunch, but experienced the heat again when we walked back to the car (why doesn't The Fort have shaded walkways anyway?). (I should've brought an umbrella!).

Things started going bad on the way home. I felt dizzy and very hot even with the car aircon. Immediately dressed up in cooler clothes when we got home and turned the aircon on. I still felt very hot and felt that heat was trapped inside my body. It was a terrible feeling and I eventually lost my lunch. I felt a bit better after that but still felt nauseous. I wasn't able to hear mass too since my body felt really heavy.

In the evening I did some research on Google and found out that I was probably experiencing heat exhaustion. I got scared since people with heart problems are more prone to it. It took more than a day, lots of water and rest before I felt well.

I usually bring a water bottle with me whenever I go out. I guess the heat is just really unbearable (PAGASA has recorded the past week to be the hottest in the past 40 years!) and it's better to stay indoors (not even under the shade, but INDOORS) until the rainy season sets in.

So much for going to the beach. Sniff.

7-Elections

One thing about the elections that fascinates me is that it breeds creativity. Candidates would sell themselves in many different ways, forms and means. Some are cute, most are just plain annoying and because of that I've developed the skill of muting the TV in Flash Gordon speed.

I've so far refused to attend any election related-event, especially FGD's with candidates. I'd like to remain impartial and since Senator Jovito Salonga ran for president I never supported anyone else. My choice, my vote will remain a secret. I am still mulling over whether I would make a post and how I will choose and hopefully I'd get to do the Google Squared I've been planning the past few months.

I've been closely monitoring the level of interest of internet users though on presidential and vice-presidential candidates. I do this through "Insights for Search". It's a great way to check out who people are interested in at a given period of time. Here's a sample of searches done using the names of 5 presidentiables in the last 12 months. Notice how Villar bumped up in January, perhaps because of the gazillion of ads he has everywhere.



The above chart is based on searches on Google. 7-Eleven recently launched their project called `7-Elections'. It's essentially where people who purchase their Gulp beverage can choose their presidentiable based on the cup they purchase. The cups have barcodes that would record the choice and tracking can be monitored through the 7-Elections site. One cool thing I'm looking forward to is the fact that 7-Eleven will embed the points on a Google Maps overlay (woohoo!).

Here are the cups that's expected to hit 7-Eleven stores starting March 10, 2010.

And here's Ate Glow doing a really funny rendition of "Bongga Ka Day". 

Housewarming

I just realized it's been awhile since I made a post about hanging out with blogger-friends.

We recently had our first housewarming party and we did this with friends. We were quite nervous since we had help from both our parents during the house blessing and we didn't cook anything that time. For this party we prepared the following:

my spaghetti
Indonesia brew coffee
salad (strangely tasted like carbonara)
soda
rice
banana

Our friends brought a lot of food (Jayvee did most of the shopping):

pizza
chicharon and chicharon bulaklak
lechon kawali
mocha roll (my favorite!)
ice cream (3 flavors!)
white wine
and Juned's Pickfresh dalanghita drink (uber yum!)

We all first hung out at the sala. Markku fixed up the wifi connection so everyone can be online.

Markku, Andrew, Hana, Sha, Gail, Winston, Jay the Hubby,

Karla, Juned and Marc (not in photo are Jayvee, Fritz, Poyt)

And then had a poetry reading... err... blog reading. Andrew did the reading and he was quite out of breath. It was really hilarious (see Gail can't stop laughing!).

We moved to the garage for dinner. After eating Jayvee brought out his toy. I don't quite remember the name of the game, I just remember though that the word of the night was "Bang".

Dunno what Markku was doing here. Hrhrhr.

And the special surprise was... a box of Lachi's sansrival!

Thanks guys for warming up our home!

Domesticated Goddess

I wonder what March has in store for me. January and February passed in a blur since it was filled with activities and new adventures! I don't know how I managed to fit in a trip to Singapore, Tagaytay and Davao in those two months. I also remember smoking up three things at home: Sweetie's vacuum cleaner (only because it was in storage for the longest time), our electric stove (first time to turn it on!) and our sink. I hope that since it's the last month of the quarter I don't smoke up anything else.

The past 2 months flew by because of all the changes since I got married. I didn't really notice New Year (because I was sulking over my "lost passport") and Valentine's, I guess because I have been on cloud nine. What has drastically changed though is the fact that my lifestyle has totally changed. Sweetie pointed this out to me yesterday. He said, "Isn't it before we married you usually go out for lunch and then take naps on Sunday afternoons?" Yup, those were the happy days when I lived with my parents. 

One of the things I dreaded about getting married is chores. I always wondered how my Mom managed to cope in the past 50 years she's been married. She did things without any effort (well except cooking) and didn't have to consult my Dad on a lot of things. While I usually consult the hubby and if doesn't know anything about it I ask friends or turn to Google and Youtube for tips and tricks. Thank God for the internet!

It's funny really how we started our new home with boxes all over the place. We slept on the floor for a few nights until we realized we had a bed frame and just need to buy a mattress! Then we fed on canned goods and leftovers for a few weeks. Experienced a dancing washing machine. Eliminated 98% of cockroaches. Had a pesky domestic problem. Cat problems. And the list goes on, but I can proudly say I am on my way to becoming a domesticated goddess. Something that my best friends, Darwin, Anne and Tappy, never imagined would happen. They will probably do cartwheels when they see this post. 

People change and it really depends on one's priorities.