Visit to the Dentist and The Speaker's Handbook

Today being a holiday, EDSA Revolution Day (or something), DH scheduled the 4 for the dental cleaning at Dentista Inc. at Alabang Town Center using their HMO cards.

Che, Karen and Sandra were all cool with the cleaning coz it wasn't their first time although the ATC branch was a first. While waiting (only the 3 were accommodated), Renz was simply joking around and dancing at his ates. He had a grand time making fun of the older sisters.

Gardening and Watering Plants

With a 3-day weekend, we visited Pampanga. It was breezy but Renz still managed to water SOME plants in the afternoon. Here's the "hardinero" for the day under the supervision of Tita Divine.


Of course, DH was loitering the garden the whole time. Me? I suppose I was so tired that I slept from 12noon to 2pm. And felt lethargic until 4pm! :(



The Magical Refrigerator

Ahhhhhh.... Time for a facelift. THIS blog's facelift, that is. Do you like the new layout and graphics? Thanx Lene, for the tip!

Occasionally (well, except for Karen who does it almost everyday), the kids would leave notes on the refrigerator on things they'd like to remind or some requests. Here's Karen's notes.

Could it be Piriformis Syndrome? Sciatica?

The doctor that looked me up last week didn't come in today. I was complaining of some dull pain near my right butt at the hip area. And last week he suggested a pain-reliever, Mobic 15 gms, for 5 days - and hot compress.

Well, it's been over a week and the dull pain still goes on and off. I can even feel a slight muscle pull on my hip with my fingers as I walk.

I've searched over the internet and the closest that describes the pain is Piriformis Syndrome. The pain could extend towards the lower leg when the Sciatic nerve is irritated - or Sciatica - which could be worse because the pain can be excruciating.

It is much like the pain that I felt when I worked under a unit's sink in the apartment. My whole body was all scrunched up under the sink and I knew my vertabrae was not in the best position when I felt this searing pain that ran through my right leg. Ugh.

Anyway the pic below shows where the piriformis muscle is and where the pain is.


There are many exercises that can be done to stretch the piriformis with different positions, supine, prone, etc. But by far the simplest stretch I've seen that can be done anywhere is in a sitting position as shown below:


The nice thing about this exercise is you could even position the warm compress (hot water bottle for me) and sit on it. Isn't that convenient?



If There's a Will ...

... There's a way. And that's what describes this plant I saw at home. Among the potted pink and red Euphorbias at home, a plant grew out of a pot's drain hole.

When it was small, I thought it was a weed of some sort. Until one day it sprouted a nice yellow flower and really coming out on its own.





Grilling Fish

I think I'm getting into this grilling thing. Today I put tilapia (stuffed with onions and wrapped in foil) and hotdogs on the grill.

Even with a strong fire, the tilapias don't get burned much coz of the foil. They tasted really good. And its really fun grilling stuff under the mango tree with the cool breeze chatting away with DH.

Shy Birds

Today we went over at Tony Lim's. Dada and Renz went with us. That's our first stop on the way to Sony Service Center at Alabang to have the Digicam fixed (again!) for free coz it's still under warranty.

Tony gave us a pair of Lovebirds (Parakeets). The blue is a female and the yellow with pink eye is a male. He shared with us his passion for his hobby with so many stories.

We put the birds inside a big cage (big enough to house a monkey!). And I even fashioned a carton box for a bird house. But somehow the two just didn't seem to click with one another (hindi nagiimikan). What's up with that?

Che's J-S Prom as a Junior

After some last minute preparations (hunting for a gown to use), it's finally Che's prom night. I quickly sneaked out of the office around 4:30pm. JP was having the birthday bash at MOA (more rounds of "buling-lingan" or bowling) and I've already excused myself from that.

We reached Bellevue Hotel at around 5:40pm. Gemma and her mom went with us. We skipped the "retouch" appointment with the parlor coz the girls looked fine already. As I did in the service awards night, we parked at the basement and then proceeded to the lobby.

Body Pains all Over

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It's been 3 days since our swimming last Sunday but I still feel like my bod has been hit by a truck! There's so much soreness EVERYWHERE.

Must be the my poor old aging body unable to recover as quickly as before. Well, in fairness, I've been out of the pool for almost 3 weeks already.

And last Sunday was so enjoyable that I gave demos of my graceful Butterfly stroke here and there, every now and then. It was DH and the kids' first time to see it.

First Experience at Blumen Resort

Although it rained very hard this morning, nothing was gonna stop us from going to Blumen resort at Paliparan crossing and GMA Cavite.

I first heard about this resort from Prince when he was scouting for an alternative to our pool that closed down. For a moment, I thought we would have overcast skies all day.

But when DH came (she went to work early) at 10:30am, the sun was out. I even had to recreate my map using the trusty Wikimapia.

Got a New "Work-Related" Book

It's been quite a long long time eversince I bought a "work-related" book. Most books that I've bought pertained to swimming or some other hobby I have.

Because why buy when so many articles are out there at the internet, right? But today I bought a book I've seen sometime ago at Booksale.

The title of the book is "Results Without Authority" and written by Tom Kendrick. It's got the subtitle "Controlling a Project when the Team doesn't Report to You" - and that particularly piqued my interest.