It will also help me figure out how much medical expenses thru deductibles and copays I have been spending.

This will be my christmas gift and I thank God for taking care and watching over her….

Weekends are the worst enemy in terms of dieting. The workdays are easily controlled by packing lunches or just limiting yourself to the salad bar. On the other hand when weekend comes the variety of places you can bring your family are countless!

 Start with the pizza buffet like cici or the all time favorite the chinese buffet where you can pig out like there no tomorrow.
Have you ever been in a japanese buffet? Even worse! The food there is so good you will overstuff yourself just because of the different flavor sensation.
One of the factors that contribute to this weekend binge is that its actually a family affair. Usually after church or after the regular oriental grocery shopping. Sometimes when we go shopping at the mall. I always managed to make an excuse to eat out.

This weekend is the worst ever! I started off on thursday with a lunch buffet with my katrab. At the chinese buffet near our wrk plc then an invitatuion came from a gang of friends for a firday buffet lunch! Fine. But here some saturday with a post wedding invite where the gathering is like a feast by itself! Cool! All my bulate are probably rejoicing right now!

So dear people, here are some basic tips on surviving the summer heat and your electric bills.

• Wind/Fan turbines – those are the ones installed in your attic.  It helps the circulation of hot air and reduces the attic temperature.
• 78 degrees thermostat setting – Somehow its the magic number for all thermostat setting in the household. Imagine if you have a cathedral ceiling? How long will it take your HVAC to reach the 78 degrees mark? ouch!
• HVAC service checkup – do you need a freon recharge? Are all the wirings intact and critters hasn’t used it for lunch?
• Weatherstripping – get those incense out and walk around your house with a lighted incense to see if your weatherstripping are still functioning. loose ones needs to be replaced. gaps or if you see smoke gets blown at a spot then add more insulations.
• Filter – 30 days rotation people! some filters are being sold with 45-90 days use. Your best bet is just to check it every 30 days and if air doesn’t pass (not passing gas!) then time to replace.
• Ceiling Fans – on some newer fan there’s actually a switch that will change the direction for air flow. If you are like me and don’t know to which direction your ceiling fan is turning then use that lighted incense again to see the direction of the smoke. If the smoke is being pulled up then that’s good. Mean the hot air will be pulled upwards and cold air will be kept down.
• Cooking Outside – You have a grill? Most of the new model have those gas burner on the side. Use that but be aware that soot will build up on your precious pans.  Another alternative is an electric skillet.  The whole idea is to keep the heat of cooking radiates out of the house.  But you can achieve double points if you use the gas burner. Duh!
• Laundry – Do it in the morning. Why? it’s still cooler in the morning and you can turn off your aircon while doing it.  Triple points if you do your laundry at your parents house..or better yet-your mother-in-laws house!  -kidding!-
  if you are not too picky use the laundro-mat. Saves you mucho dinero.
• Take cold showers – ay nako.  so simple.  use soap please?

Well that’s it for now. Hope it helps you a little bit.

For the last 2 weeks I had been craving for taho and thank god I have been able to subdue that craving.  Heard a lot about the beneficial results about soybeans but while I was researching the net on how to make taho I came across some articles about it that makes me think twice.

The main ingredient – soybeans – there are some issue about it like if its gmo soybeans or not.  gmo (genetically modified) soybeans are those that are very resilient from pesticidies and probably other plant diseases but I’m guessing that it might put a detrimental effect on humans? I don’t really know the whole story but you can probably google it for more info.

Next is the coagulating part – yes I think I remember the times when talks about plaster of paris is one of the ingredients of taho.  and I think i stopped buying it for a while. There a couple of discussion about it around the net.

Well those issues was starting to dampen my spirit in pursuing this matter pero hindi pa rin. I still love taho and will continue to buy them at my local oriental stores and maybe I’ll have some time in making my own taho…like my plan on baking my own pandesal….promises..promises…