Musings and a toy

I've hit a blogging plateau. Most, if not all of my entries are about my family, my work, or Likha. I haven't updated consistently, cuz sometimes my blogs feel repetitious. I know it's my space, so I can write what I want. But today, to switch it up, I want to talk about a new toy that I bought.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, this.

It's a knockoff of the Little Giant. Maybe you've seen or heard about the Little Giant! If not, here's the TV informercial that I caught late one night...or better, it caught me!

Although it's a knockoff made in China, mine also has the same functionality that the Little Giant possesses. On Friday, Tina and I split the ladder into two separate ladders to prep our room for painting. On Saturday, I used it in stair mode to change the bulbs on and refocus some tracklighting. Sunday, I used it to clean up the leaves from our gutters. Soon I'm gonna use it to put some wall decorations on a high wall in our living room...16 feet up!

I'm just a ladder using fool!

I showed it to my pops the other day, and he said (insert fatherlike Pinoy accent) "Wow, is that the Little Giant? I was wanted to buy it on TV, but it costs about $300!"

I exclaimed back, "I KNOW! expensive!! But I bought mine for only about $170 + tax"

I told my friends about my purchase, and now I'm the popular kid on the block! They all want to hang out with me!

"You got that telescoping ladder? Niiiiicce."

"Hey Ed, come over next Saturday. Oh yeah, and bring your ladder so we can hang my Christmas lights!"

There are some drawbacks. It's heavier than a normal ladder. So, Tina has to drag it around the room. But you should see her arms now! Sexy and toned! Also, it's a bit more expensive than other ladders. But it's like buying 5+ ladders in one, so what I paid was a bargain!

Overall, I must say I'm very satisfied with my knockoff Little Giant. I can't wait to go home and climb it :)

Read more!

Bits and pieces

The countdown has begun: two more weeks of lecture and then one week for finals. Then it's about 3 weeks of vacation *big big grin**

Running has come to a grind since Tina and Isaac got sick last week. I hope to pick it back up soon.

Working on the house has been fun. This past weekend, Tina and I patched, prepped, and primed the master bedroom. We'll start painting this week. I took advantage of Black Friday and picked up some good paints (and a ladder) from Orchard Supply Hardware. Yesterday, I climbed up my ladder to clear leaves and other debri out of the gutters. I've also been continuously sweeping out the yard of fallen leaves.. So far I've collected two full trash bins of leaves.

The house is coming together, if slowly. We got our couches last week and on Friday, picked up an area rug from Expo.

And most importantly: Happy 1 year wedding anniversary (our 2nd!) to my beautiful wife. As she said in her blog, it's been all ups... I love you 8D

Read more!

Oh, the trials

Poor, little guy is wailing and wailing right now. From someone, somewhere this weekend, he must have caught a bug. He's got a runny nose and is fairly tempermental right now. This is the third time that he's been sick. Is that too much for a 4 monther?? I know that kids get sick because they don't have a well-developed immune system, but are we exposing him to too much?? This past weekend was my cousins housewarming. Between that shindig and all the rehearsals that we went to, Isaac was passed between hella hands. Tina and I are still learning to be more assertive with relatives and friends, but it can be tough without appearing over protective.

Read more!

The BOB

The BOB
Originally uploaded by rondallanut.

Here's Isaac in the BOB jogging stroller. We really like the stroller. It doesn't weigh much, there's a parking brake, a 5 pt harness, and even shock absorbers. You can also get an all-weather attachment for rainy days. We're gonna need that soon, but luckily not yet! Tina and I are working on an interval running program that builds us up to hour long runs. Hopefully by next spring, we'll be back in better shape to run a few races. Weather permitting, we're hoping to take Isaac on the Bay to Breakers race in May.

In other news, we're getting a new couch set next week! It'll be our first major purchase for the house. Next up is painting the upstairs bedrooms before we put in the new carpet.

Read more!

trading spaces

if you've read tina's blog then you've read that we just purchased my parents' house from them. this transaction has been in the works for several months and is now in it's final stages. my parents moved out of the house a few days ago, almost all of the their furniture, rugs, decorations, and kitchenware.

Aside from their gamit in the master bedroom, the house has been skeletonized. It's amazing how much sound echos when there are no objects to absorb or deflect it.

The recent move was abrupt and even unexpected. We thought that they would take a few months to transfer their stuff. So having a practically empty house is a bit of a shocker for us. We don't yet have a plan for what to do with the rooms and carpet and painting etc.

In fact, it's a bit overwhelming. We have to change the carpets, prep and paint several rooms, buy some furniture, buy a TV, move all our stuff from our room to the master bedroom, remove old wallpaer from the walls, etc. Now, I'm the kind of guy who likes to run up hills when we jog (at least until I cramp up or pass out!). These hills represent harder than normal challenges, and I like to charge and take 'em head on.

So with all the household tasks now on my plate, I automatically went to "let's go! go! GO!" mode. I wanted to charge head on and get these tasks done ASAP.

Luckily Tina's here to say, "Whoa, whoa! You need to simmer down there." She reminded me that it's ok to spread things out. There's no rush to get everything done right away.

Like stressing over a project deadline, only to find out that it's been postponed, a sense of relief did wash over me. Tina and I are still gonna have do some more comprosing on the overall timeline, but I'm open to easing up a bit.

Read more!

Catching up

As has been posted on several of my favorite blogs, there's been a wave of blog-slacking going around. I'm guilty of this too, preferring the role of lurker than author. I don't have my own links, but prefer to use links on other people's blogs. My main conduit is my wife's blog. Her links are fairly comprehensive, covering peeps from over here and over there. I have a few other blogs I like to check out and to get to them, I have to navigate through two or three other people's blogs. Lucky for me, they're all just a few clicks away!

The homestead has been great. I'm no longer sick, but i still have minor, minor nasal congestion. It could probably be allergies now.

Isaac is now out of his ear infection and is in much better spirits. Yesterday he surprised mommy and I with real laughter! Tina and I were talking, while Isaac was sitting on my lap. All of a sudden he let out a hearty laugh. It wasn't the little shrieks or yells, but a good chuckler with punctuated exhales. It was soooo coool! Mommy's eyes started watering, and we exchanged "Oh...our baby is growing up!" looks.

On the Isaac note, it was our first Halloween together. On Friday, Tina and I took him to a pumpkin patch. There we put him in his little costume and took pictures. Haha...guess what he was? He was a skunk for Halloweeen! Guess who picked out his costume? Haha you know it was me :)

Last night, we had made plans to hang out with my high school buddies. Rich took his son Max out for trick or treating and Tina and I brought Isaac along. Isaac still has some things to learn about trick or treating. But his cuteness factor scored him some extra sugar!

Tina and I headed back earlier than the others. We decided to trick or treat a house along the way. Tina rang the doorbell and when the lady answered, both Tina and I shouted "Trick or treat", while holding Isaac up to the door. Hahaha, it was almost exploitive! Well, we only did that once cuz it just wasn't the same without my friend's toddler! So, we decided to call it a night.

I'm at work right now, so if Tina doesn't do so, I'll post some pics later. Gotta run...

Read more!