Kuliling

location: Essex, VT

mood: excited

     There are several reasons to be excited over this weekend.  First of all, it's officially spring here in Vermont.  Our weather transition towards becoming warmer is a little delayed compared to other parts of the world.  Would you believe that it was snowing last Easter?  In the Philippines, Holy Week is typically scorching hot, but here...yes we still have flurries.  April showers only started this week, but this weekend...a high of 82 degrees baby!!  That said, we are so looking forward to go biking in a real bike path this time.

     We decided to make our work-out routines a little more family and fun-oriented and not self-indulgently running in place going nowhere on a treadmill.  So we bought a couple of bikes at the start of spring.  We didn't realize what we got into though.  I sought my sister's advice on this decision, and being the bike freak that she is, we got a lot more advice than what we hoped to get (luv 'ya sis!!).  It was all good advise though since we absolutely have no clue when we contemplated on getting $100 disposable bikes from Walmart.  Hubby and I got a his and hers Trek 820.  I wanted the aluminum framed version of this bike, the Trek 3700 which is $50 more, but seeing the other miscellaneous costs that comes with owning a bike (hitch for the car, a bike rack, helmets, child seat, extra tire, pump, racks...when will this ever end????), scrimping on little stuff may go a long way.  If we aren't hard core trail bikers, we don't need that much sophistication anyway.

While we are looking at bikes, we saw Coleen's face looking longingly at the kid's bikes and asking us if she could have one of those.  She didn't know that we already bought her bike but have yet to be assembled since this was meant to be a birthday gift (her birthday is on June).  We couldn't take seeing her that way so we had to prematurely show her her birthday present-- a 16in Disney princess bike with matching Disney princess helmet and Disney princess elbow and knee pads (yes,  we're tired of pink princesses too...we're just hoping she gets off this stage finally).  Of course she just had to hop on it right away...so we had the pleasure of watching her learn how to pedal alone even as she seeks a little push once she is stopped...or cringe even if she had to make that first fall.

     Will post pretty Vermont spring pictures in multiply once I get the chance.

location: living room, south burlington, vt

mood: amused

music: "This is Me" - Theme from Camp Rock (courtesy of Coleen)

This weekend was a breath of fresh air after a week of drizzling in a supposedly beautiful summer in Vermont.  It was surprisingly sunny all day long. 

We started off Saturday with a brunch with friends at Skinny Pancake along the Waterfront in Downtown Burlington.  That place is packed even at 10am!  It got a lot more crowded as it approached lunchtime and seriously...if you arrive 10am and go on queue, you'll finally get your order taken after 20minutes...and wait for your order to arrive within another 30-45min.  By the time you eat your food it's just about lunchtime anyway.  But it was a good serving of healthy breakfast.  i had an egg feta crepe (aside from the egg and the feta...it was stuffed with spinatch and olives) with a side of fresh greens.  Hubby on the other hand had "The Lumberjack" which was pretty much ham and cheese crepe.  All in all it was all good and well worth the wait...granted that it was a nice day.

After brunch we hung out at the waterfront with the toddlers (Coleen and Matty) walking hand in hand.  They looked so cute together!  If only arranged marriage is not a dated concept, I would definitely pursue it.  Hahaha...being in a foreign land gives us a lot of nightmares...so arranged marriage would have been convenient.  Anyway, the kids had fun feeding the ducks with Pops cereal.  Though Coleen is just an inch or two taller than Matthew, her wide range of vocab obviously shows that she's 9 months older than him.  Plus of course, she's a girl, which puts her in a better spot as far as vocab goes (us women are more advanced in the talking field for reaons obvious to most people).  After finishing a whole pouch of cereal, we realized that we were not supposed to feed the ducks. :-) oops! our bad..

What we have been planning for for weeks now is to watch a movie in a drive-in theater.  I only saw the concept in TV shows where people watch movies from a parking lot.  It would be cool to be able to get into one and experience this part of the American culture.  Plus the fact that we could go watch a movie with the toddler without bugging the other moviegoers with all the whining and noise looks like a convenient concept for  us. 

Since it was a non-rainy day Saturday...we pushed through.  There were four movies showing and when we entered a piece of paper was given to us which shows the corresponding radio frequency we should turn our car radio to to hear the audio for every movie.  If we are parked between "Dark Knight" and the "Mummy", we can actually decide to watch either of the two movies by just a change in channel.  If that is not cool enough, we got to watch two movies in one night for the price of one (because we stayed to watch the second film showing, Hancock).  What's coolest is that we don't have to hire a babysitter because Coleen is asleep in her carseat, sleeping like a log.

location: office

mood: sleepy

music: Overkill -- Men at Work

     I wasn't a keen observer of my dental health.  It doesn't help too that I have a family of weak teeth.  I have always dreaded having to go to the dentist to be judged how many teeth do i need to have filled. 

     But since big bucks are being taken out of my paycheck for medical and dental insurance, I thought that I should take advantage of that...to sort of get the ROI from that.  So I did go to the dentist two weeks ago and was diagnosed to require a root canal on one of my tooth to save it. 

     I knew I needed that because the last dentist who has taken a look at my mouth (from two years ago...a handsome dentist from Dentista, SM Southmall Branch) already told me about that and actually did a root canal on one of my tooth as well.

     From what I knew, a root canal is an excruciating process from both the dentist and the patient. The last time I had it, I had two appointments and it took the whole afternoon to do it.  Anesthesia shots takes a while and even if my mouth feels thick and numb, I could still feel the pain whenever the doctor sticks needles into my nerves!  I also expected tired mouth muscles because of the mouth being dry and open for such a long time.  So I had an idea on how bad it's going to be and I was ready for my appointment this morning.

     I had the first session of my root canal today.  I had the morning appointment because I was bracing myself to have the whole morning session.  When I first sat down, there was a TV in front of me and a headset and the remote control was given so that I could watch TV on my own convenience and privacy.  It was like being in a business class flight.  Cozy...

     When I was given the anesthesia shots I wondered why I wasn't as numb and my gums didn't feel as thick as I thought it should be.  So I worried that during the process I might still feel the pain.  Ironically, once they had their hands on my mouth, it was smooth sailing, almost pain free and problem free!  It took a measely 1 hour to get the first session finished...and to think the dentist was even multi-tasking between me and two other patients!

     I started to feel the difference of being in the first world country vs being back home.  Don't get me wrong, my dentist from back home is not bad either.  It was a high tech facility from a Philippine standard.  I also thought my dentist from back home did a good job on my first root canal.  I guess it's just that there is more access to technology out here...and probably because dental services are more expensive so they have more money to invest on technology...I don't know...

     I guess I'm starting to lose my fear of going back to the dentist.