Toto, Uncle Ago and Tin

My bf's brother died yesterday, November 1 at almost midnight.  He hanged himself with a rope tied to the ceiling of their bathroom.  On the same day but in the afternoon, his uncle, who used to take care of him during high school died of heart complications.  A week ago, his cousin who is very close to him, died of sickness.  I'm not really sure what kind of sickness.  I cannot describe to you how devastated he feels and I don't know how to console him but I'm trying as hard as I can.

A Woman's Woes

It's 1:40 am as I type this.  Lately, I've been pondering about our future.  A couple of days ago was our 8th year anniversary.  Yay right?  

I've always wanted to get married and have kids.  I denied it when I was in my mid 20s but deep inside me I always knew.  It's painful for me to say it but I don't think we'll ever have kids.  I don't even think he wants to marry me.  We had the discussion but it was always me who initiates it and all throughout, he was very uncomfortable.  I'm a sensitive person and I don't want to be but it's just me.  

Eight years ago, he told me he would marry me in 3 years.  I laughed at the idea because I never thought we would last this long.  Now I think about and wonder why we're still not married.

I'm tired of waiting but I don't know what to do next.

iMop 360 Tsunami Spin

I bought an iMop for 675.  It used to be 1499.75.  I know it's geeky to be expressing such happiness over a cleaning tool but this makes me HAPPY!

Get Rid of Roaches

I was very thankful when the flood finally subsided and we were able to clean the house but a new problem arose that needed dealing with.  I've seen a few roaches scampering about my kitchen sink and that totally freaked me out.  I knew something must be done to avoid a bigger infestation.  Chemical sprays were out of the question and like everybody else, I searched online for a natural way of pest control.  My search has landed me here.  It said I will only need 2 ingredients, borax and sugar.  Mix together and put container in the place you see them crawling about.  Seems easy but I don't have borax at hand and I didn't feel like buying a new box of borax.  I asked a chemist friend what would be an alternative for borax and what do you know, he said I can use chalk or the blue cube that you rub on the ends of pool sticks.  I chose the chalk, easier and cheaper to get.  After that, I started making my own batch of roach food killer recipe.

I used these materials:

1. A container, in this case a McD ketchup dish because I like to reuse stuff.
2. Chalk, I used 2 different chalks. A plain one and a Baygon chalk roach and ant killer.  I was trying to find out which one would be more effective.  I could have used the baygon chalk by itself but I didn't like the idea of inhaling chalk powder while I scribble it on the wall.  Also because it's unsightly. The first batch which I used on the first day was plain chalk.  The next batches with baygon chalk.
3. Sugar or anything sweet. I used my expired pancake syrup for this.  At least I found a use for my expired syrup.

Next step:

1. Need to make my chalk powdery and a hammer did the job.
2. Add sugar or in my case, syrup to the dish. Just enough to cover the powder then stir until the chalk dissolves.
3. I left my batch in the kitchen sink.

 

The next day, I went straight to the kitchen to see if it worked and it did.  I know it's gross but I wanted to show you that it worked so I took a picture.  If you click at the left picture, you'll see that it even attracted some ants.  The website was right.  It said that the sugar is what attracts them and the borax is what kills them.

I did mention that I tried a plain chalk and a baygon chalk. The baygon chalk was far more effective. The plain chalk works too but the other provided a faster result.  But if I were to choose, I prefer using the plain chalk for health reason.  It just so happen I have leftover baygon chalk to use for this. 

I was told by  my chemist friend to continue serving the roach food killer for 2 to 4 weeks to make sure I get them all.  I've been doing this since Sunday and everyday since then, I'd be sweeping a few dead roaches in the morning.  This morning I notice the roaches are a lot smaller (younger?).  Could it be I'm close to getting rid of them all?  Oh well, I'll keep doing this for a month just to be sure.

BFF Visit Part 2 (the furry kind)

Meet Tam-Tam.  He is Gail's furry baby and her favorite.  She's got 2 furry babies.  He wasn't really fond of me taking a snapshot of him.  He bolts every time I aim the digicam towards him.  I really had to be quick taking this pic so the angle wasn't what I wanted.

Now this is Cookie.  They named him that because he simply couldn't get enough of cookies when he was a wee little pup.  He is Leo's (Gail's hubby) favorite and mine too.  I don't know why Cookie is my fave but I'm really sure I'm his fave too.  He snuggles next to me every time I visit.  See how adorable he is with one ear in the air and the other one flapped down to the side of his head?  It didn't used to be like that.  He had an ear infection.  It was so bad it swelled to the size of a tennis ball overnight.  Gail didn't know cookie scratched his ear too much that it became raw.  The vet said surgery was needed and after that, Cookie lost control of the muscles in his ear so it only stays down even when he's excited.  That was a year ago.  I remember because Gail was so upset and she was crying when she told me.  Cookie was so sick.  Aside from the ear infection, he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection.

Both dogs are all grown up now and old.  Actually, if we convert their ages to humans, they'd be seniors now.  They are brothers, both 12 years old.  You can also tell that they're old.  a couple of years ago, they'd be running around the house all the time.  They would also play with me and any kind of sock.  Socks are their favorite play thing.  And they love jumping.  Tam-Tam can jump the highest especially when he wants to pee outside.  But now, most of their time was spent lying on the floor or on the bed.  They seem to be tired all the time.  They get up when they hear people outside or when it's feeding time.  

This is also one reason why Gail and I are friends.  We're both pet lovers.  We don't get bored talking about our pets. We both treat them like families... because they are :)

BFF Visit

I've been staying at Gail's place since Tuesday.  I finally came out to visit her.  Bummer that she has work but she managed to get Tuesday and Thursday off.  It's funny, we never ran out of stuff to talk about.  We always end up sleeping at 3 am because we'd be talking and talking.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find someone like her again.  We really get along so well.  My sisters have many friends.  I only have a handful and only one best friend, Gail.  I just wish that she would live closer to me.  She's always moving thanks to her and her hubby's job.  

Anyway, I'm getting the most out of this trip.  I took a picture of her new home and everything inside it but the picture above is my fave.  She already uploaded the photos in her FB but I plan to take more pictures later.  Hoping to upload more photos here.

Live Traffic Feed

It's funny for me that I installed a live traffic feed in my blog when I don't really attract that much visitor.  The few people that visit my blog I'd like to say thank you very much for taking the time.  I'm not really expecting to have a lot of visitor.  When I started this blog, I have no major goals than just to have my own place in the web where I can say what I want to say about anything and nothing and be completely incognito.  But for the few people that stumble upon my piece of web space, I'd like to know where they are from :)

Anyway, if you want to have one of your own, it's really really easy to install.  just check out the right side of my blog and scroll down till you see my live traffic feed widget.  You'll see a link there that says "Get Feedjit Now".  Click on it and it will redirect you to the website.  Follow the instruction there and you'll have your very own live traffic feed.  I assure you, it's really very easy.

Sad but Optimistic

These couple of days was (honestly speaking) depressing.  Trapped in a house for a week due to bad weather and flooding.  Like I said in a previous post, I feel like Rapunzel in my own tower.  Life is tough, I've always known that.  Actually my life is a lot better compared to others but it feels like it's a consolation.  I have things that I would like to do but don't know how to do it.  I guess this is what incomplete feels like.  When you feel incomplete, you also feel frustrated.  When you feel frustrated, you feel trapped.  Many times I read or watch a video about a person beating the odds, sacrificed a lot to do what they want to do and be successful about it.  They probably entered this phase I'm in now.  Oh God, let it be a PHASE.  Let me pass this phase and move on a better phase.

I resigned from my job last March for multiple reasons.  My chat friend thinks I'm crazy for doing it.  I know I am but still.  I could probably state a hundred reasons for resigning and most people would still think I'm crazy for resigning.  They all say the same thing, you should be practical.  If your body is physically telling you how much it hated your job, would you listen?  I was miserable with my last job.  I fell unfulfilled, it had no meaning and I was sick all the time.  The only job that I really loved doing was when I was a communication assistant for an IPRelay company until my body couldn't take the shifting schedule.  The graveyard shift did a number on my health and I was forced to resign since they would not give me a morning schedule even when I presented a doctor's note explaining why the night shift is deteriorating my health.  I didn't want to go but I had to go.

Right now, I'm still figuring out how to attain the things I'd like to do.  Bless my boyfriend, I love him so much.  He's been very supportive and understanding.  Without him, I would have probably broken down months ago.  I just need to figure out what I'm supposed to do.  I know I can.  If others can, I can.  

I know I'll figure it out.  Mumbling and rumbling again but it can be a good thing.

PS

I'm still decided to lose weight and even though the weather tried to dampen my spirits, I have not forgotten. Now that the floods are gone and the weather's better, I start running on Monday!  I can't do it tomorrow because I'll be using tomorrow and onward to clean the house and outside the house.  My goal for the rest of the week?  Clean and fix.  My goal for next week, JOGGING!

Basking in the Sun

First ray of sunshine and the cat's already basking in it.  Apparently, he took my piece of paper and I thought I misplaced it. Bad Cat!

Gail's SMS Request

I don't want to lose this:

From Gail [8/14/2012   16:22]:

(my name) pls nclude dad in ur prayer.he is now confined at d hospital in london due to hemorrhage cause by stroke,hi blood pressure.  Half of his body is paralyzed.  Onel is in bataan,this is such a difficult time for me,for us.  I hope i could see you.

 My reply:

You and your family are always in my prayers. I'd  like to see you too but I don't think it'd be sooner.  I should let the typhoon pass first.  I'll talk to (bf) when he gets home tonight.  Don't worry too much.  I believe your dad is in very capable hands.  I'll see you as soon as I can.

Gail was with me when my dad was dying in the hospital.  It breaks my heart that I can't just leave everything behind and rush to her.  I can't leave without telling bf, he doesn't have his cellphone with him and our city is in typhoon signal number 1.  I don't think it'd be safe for me to travel in bad weather especially since our area is still flooded.