Lately I’ve been itching to give the red car a makeover, but since we don’t have enough money to afford a new paint job or new leather seats, I thought about a small facelift instead. I thought about replacing the front grills with a new set - a more sporty and imposing set of grills that would stand out even from afar.

I wanted to look for Ford grills or those shiny GMC ones that grab you and simply say get out of the way I’m passing through type. I surfed the net for places that offer really good ones but unfortunately, nothing fits the dimensions of the red car. You see, since it’s almost 20 years old, people don’t make new grills for these models anymore. They said they’d have to reshape the whole front to make the new grills fit.

I said now way! I didn’t even have enough money for a paint job! What more for a body kit?!

There was a very nasty heat wave that struck the country this summer. I don’t exactly know if it was a direct result of  global warming but it sure felt like it. Especially because our room faces the afternoon sun, andrea, mateo and I could feel how warm it was during the day because our walls would continue to give off heat long after the sun has already set. In fact, there was even a point when I felt so irritated with the heat that I got up in the middle of the night, sweaty and all, and I wanted to go to the nearest furniture and hardware store to shop for exterior shutters to cover the walls outside - anything to shield the walls from all the heat!

Good thing the summer heat wave ended already. Now that rain has already started to fall almost every afternoon, I look forward to going home and sleeping in our now cooler bedroom.

It’s been a while since I last thought about having a house of our own. I mean, with Mateo and all the paper work keeping us so busy lately, it has never crossed my mind again… well not until yesterday.

You see, two days ago, I asked my mom and dad to sleep over and to look after Mateo for a day (since Andrea and I are both needed in school for an orientation), but I forgot about the other bedroom being occupied already by Andrea’s sister. So when they came, I had to arrange the living room and provide a makeshift bed for them because they had no place to sleep. Humiliating! It was a good thing that my mom and dad are not picky!

Anyway, after that, I started thinking seriously about buying a house and lot of our own - when would be the closest possible and how much would it probably cost! It need not be a mansion surrounded by beautiful gardens and adorned with fiberglass columns. It just has to be big enough to provide shelter for my family and hopefully mateo’s grandparents!

Working in a school named The Little Farm House, one would normally expect to see farm animals around. I did see them - chickens, dogs, and even cows. But in this unique farm house, there are more than just farm creatures. There are also lots of other exotic and wild animals like pythons, owls, crocodiles, carnivorous fishes, giant hairy spiders, and even scorpions.

Actually, I’m thinking if The Little Zoo would have done more justice to the place. You see, aside from the animals, it also comes complete with cages, labels, caretakers, and even an elaborate system of pet supplies (where they grow the food they use to feed the other creatures). It’s really like a small zoo that serves as a classroom for students - a venue to learn hands-on, experience and appreciate nature at its best. It’s a zoo that teaches that’s why it’s a zoo school and a school zoo at the same time.

Even before taking up Biology in college, I already knew that babies undergo a growth spurt or a period of rapid development. But I was still surprised at how rapid rapid was. You see, every time I look at Mateo, I couldn’t help but be amazed that he was just half his present size just 15 months ago.

His now tight baby clothes are solid testaments to that. His shirts and shorts that once were too large for him are now tightly stretched against his body. In fact, most of his clothes seem to be shrinking in relation to his fast-developing limbs and torso.

And actually, if baby clothes didn’t cost us money, I’d be completely amazed and perfectly content just watching our little baby grow out of his clothes. Haha!

A few days ago, Globe finally came to the house to answer our application for a faster broadband connection. At first, I wasn’t really happy to see them because they’ve been more than a week late for the agreed date of installation. (In fact, I wasn’t just indifferent towards them. I was really frustrated.) It was only after they left that it all sank in, that, yes, we now have a faster connection.

So right after dinner, andrea quickly tried surfing the net to see how much different it was from the previous service we had. She was happy… and of course I was too… until I realized we overlooked something important - the wireless router configuration.

You see, we already configured our router using our Smartbro antenna’s address. And now that we’ve switched to Globelines, the router will need re-configuring. Unfortunately none of us could remember how we did it before. It took another 30 minutes or so to find the router’s manual from God knows where. Then it took another 30 minutes or so before we could completely re-configure the blasted device. But in the end, it paid off.

I was so happy to try the dos command line to check out my ip configurations and finally confirm the connection. And YES, the new connection is great! Woohoo!

I never thought that having a baby meant so much change in one’s lifestyle. In my case, for example, before mateo arrived in our lives, I would often find time to engage in various sports - badminton, a little basketball, and even soccer.  Or sometimes, if there are no games to join in, I’d settle for jogging, pumping some iron, or just simply doing push-ups and sit-ups. Now, however, I don’t even have time to dream about doing any of these things (well except now… because the little one is still asleep). I guess it’s true that having a baby is more than having a full-time job.

I guess what I’m really afraid of is that without all the usual activities I did before, I’m slowly becoming out of shape. In fact, just recently, I started experiencing some back spasms - all because I had to carry mateo, and a bunch of groceries altogether at a certain time. What a wussy! I mean, I used to carry heavier stuff when I was in college (back in the golden days of weight training) and I’d feel no pain whatsoever.

This is why I can’t help but think that age and senescence will catch up to me faster now that I have a baby. I’m afraid that if I don’t find a way to get myself in shape now, I might just need a stair lift in the future just to get up and down the house.

While casually chatting in class this morning, I was a bit surprised to hear one of my students gasp in awe after I announced to the whole class what my age is. You’re only 27 years old! She said out loud in a surprised tone.

It was the first time I heard such a reaction from anyone. What in the world did she mean by that? Am I starting to look older than my age. You’re ONLY 27 years old… but what? I wanted her to continue but she just simply smiled in response. So the moment I got home from work, I started looking at the mirror and inspecting my face. There are indeed lines on my forehead already…wrinkles! I’m not even at my thirties and I’m already forming wrinkles in my face.

Is it alright for me to be having wrinkles at this point in time? Am I already at the age of wrinkles? Is it already time for me to start using anti wrinkle cream?

I mean, I don’t want to be vain or anything nor do I have any desire of staying eternally youthful. All I want is to look my age! Is this what it means to be a daddy professor? Huhuhu!

I’ve never given up on my dream of purchasing a brand new car… well at least until yesterday.

You see, I’ve always thought that somehow we could find a way to afford one. I mean, I always believed that it was only a matter of time before something comes along and provides us with an opportunity to actually go for it.

When I heard about Kia’s promo - the trade-in-your-car-to-get-a-new-kia deal, I figured this must be it - the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. Since they were accepting any brand and any model at any year, I thought I could finally get enough money for a down payment of a new vehicle by simply trading in our trusty old car. So yesterday, while I was out on a chore, I quickly passed by the nearest Kia outlet to have the red car appraised (without andrea’s knowledge that is). But as things turned out, the red car’s worth was not even enough to pay half of the down payment for the Picanto, Kia’s cheapest model. Even the general manager went out to inspect the red car in order to help with the trade-in, but 50k was the most that they could offer.

I guess this means we’re stuck with our beloved lancer, perhaps for the rest of our lives. Because the way things are going, we won’t be expecting any dramatic increase in the inflow of money any time soon. Huhuhu!

It’s just the first week of April and there is still more than a month of summer to go, but it seems like the summer sun is already pouring it on. Even though we have air-conditioning, it’s still not enough to beat the heat because the blinding rays of the sun are warming up the window panels in our room.

The house, you see, is facing the west and our room directly receives the sun’s fury all the way from mid-afternoon until just before it sets. In fact, the coolest place this summer seems to be the living room and the nanny’s bedroom. Unfortunately we can’t sleep in any of them. So andrea and I are currently thinking of ways to address this problem. As of now, our only options are to either put a large wooden panel outside the windows to block the sun or to put additional layers of curtains or roller shades to insulate the windows. Unfortunately, the first one totally ruins the house’s looks from the outside while the second one is gonna cost us a bit of money (which we don’t have at the moment).

Which one should we choose? We haven’t figured it out yet. So until we do, I guess we don’t have any choice but to bask in the summer heat! Huhu!