Cleaning the Stainless Steel Tank

Gerry Tubero has been insisting on cleaning the stainless steel tank the last time he was here. We deferred to having the cleaning in May and so the next will be around November (every 6 months as he advised). We called him today coz our water upstairs recently had a rusty color indicating that cleaning was due.

Since he assembled all the pipings and fittings for this new tank, we imagined the job would be a breeze. He started draining the water - but made the mistake of draining the concrete tank ("bato") instead of the stainless steel tank ("stainless"). Duh! Well, long story short, he ended up cleaning the concrete tank as well as shown below.

Super Marlin Speedo Goggles - Almost Good as New

I was starting to worry that all my old Super Marlin Goggles would be totally useless. That's the other reason I bought a new pair on sale.

I've had the 3 Speedo pairs (2 blue and 1 amber) more than 4 years ago and I've stopped using them because of they got too blurry. I've described this problem in this entry. It got so frustrating that when I lost a black pair which had the same problem, I wasn't too disappointed.

How to Fix Cabinet Drawers that are Breaking Apart

When once I was rummaging for some stuff in our drawer, I felt the stuff inside sinking like the entire drawer was collapsing. Upon close inspection, I realized the wood parts were detaching at the joints.

These immediately presented a couple of problems.

New Goggles -Zoggs

When we went to the Mall of Asia (MOA) after visiting Manila Ocean Park, I immediately scoured the the sports shops. This is typical of me when we go to malls.

One of the sport shops at the Mall of Asia is Toby's. I didn't want to waste our trip there and so I looked for swim items that were on sale. And here's one (Zoggs-Otter) I got for Php230. You know it's on sale when shop personnel has HANDWRITTEN the price on it.


With a swimming family like mine, you can't go wrong with plenty of spare goggles. And so I buy goggles on sale. Cheap for me is less than Php300.



Pahiyas and Tsinelas Festivals 2009

In this road trip, it's our first time to go to Lucban Quezon. After much rescheduling to accommodate Karen's confusing upcat review sked, we finally pushed through. We left Alabang at 5:45am and reached Lucban, Quezon around 9:00am. It's far and there was heavy traffic along SLEX.

There was a long queue at the paid restrooms near the church and here's us while waiting by the plant shops for Sandra and DH.


Swim Lessons Graduation 2009

Graduation time!

Finally, the two-week swim lessons of Sandra and Renz for this year came to a close. After many years of enrolling kids to lessons I observed swim lessons typically take two weeks. Anyway, today's the culmination of all those early morning wakeups, tiring drills and new learnings.

Here's Sandra and Renz by the lap pool. There were no more lessons this day. It's just for show (to parents) and the awarding. Hmmm, I wasn't too happy with that idea.

Prevent Furniture from Scratching Wall Paint

When we got our new dining set, the logical location for it would be this corner. I noticed though that at dinner, the kids would move the dining chairs that they unintentionally push the chair's back toward the wall.

This results in some ugly scratches and dings to that wall. So, how to prevent the chairs (or any other suitable furniture) from scratching the wall? Carpet tiles!


Too Young to Swim

It has been drizzling in the mornings of the past few days and today was no exception. The photo below was taken last week and yes, it was drizzling then too. But the two boys in the picture below are still in the same pool spot and not really "progressing" swim-wise.

I'm not sure of the intent to enroll kids these young (3 or 4 yrs?), but if the purpose is to have them learn how to swim, then I don't think it'll happen. I think they're just too young to listen and take instructions from a swim coach.


Exercise for Anterior Right Shoulder

My last entry on my home therapy was way back in November 2008. I've not had any significant pain or soreness thus far except for some discomfort.

I always noticed the discomfort while at church when standing and holding my arm as shown below. I would apply some tension and pressure to see where the exact pain is. The discomfort is on the front of my right shoulder.


Manila Ocean Park 2009

Thanx largely to the Manny Pacquiao - Ricky Hatton fight, we were able to plan on finally going to the Manila Ocean Park and Mall of Asia. Why? Coz there's no heavy traffic during a televised Pacquiao fight!

My only misgiving during Pacquiao fights is that most Pinoys are so tuned in to the fight on TV or radio that some forget their other tasks. I'm talking of salespeople in department stores who'd rather not attend to customers but watch or talk about the blow-by-blow accounts of the fight.

Anyway, back to Ocean Park. It's been a long time since we visited the Roxas Boulevard breakwall. That structure at the right is a new addition to the Manila Ocean Park. Here's their website.


Sandra's Confirmation

Today was Sandra's turn to receive the sacrament of Confirmation at the St. Peregrine shrine. Che and Karen had their confirmation a couple of years ago and it was around the same age as Sandra. Sandra attended a 2-day seminar for this.

When we arrived there were already many people inside. Most of the Confirmation candidates were around 12 years old. The girls were on the right side while the boys were on the left.