It’s the last day of the month and just thinking about it reminds me of what my high school classmate wrote as her dedication on an autograph, “So much, too soon!” Oh well, the month of March has been a whirlwind for me… just as February had been… and January… tee hee. I just long for relaxing days ahead. Can this wish be met next month?
With the Lenten Season starting this coming Sunday, I long for some slack in my schedule and hope to find time for more personal reflection. Sigh. How nice it would be to have a weekend getaway and just leave our home sometimes.
Are you successful with computing your monthly budget and staying on top of things? If you are, then you have my sincere admiration. I highly esteem individuals who take the time to manage their personal finances and actually knowing where their daily expenses go and how much income they have left, as well as projecting future financial goals and expenses.
If you’re finding it hard to keep up with managing your finances and taking account of where your money goes, it’s best to sit down and look more closely at your day to day expenses as well as your sources of income. This is the first step to financial intelligence according to the business gurus.
As I’ve read somewhere, whether it’s on a simple notepad or a complex accounting software, what matters most is making a budget and sticking to it. I’ve discovered a simple budget analysis online software that could just get you going. Follow this link from the Allsup.com site: http://www.allsup.com/Personal-Finance/Financial-Planning-Calculators/Home-Budget-Analysis.aspx
All you have to do is enter your monthly income (click the “Paycheck Calc” button) and expenses (click the “Expenses Calc” button). Clicking the “View Report” button opens up a popup window with a list of your actual and target payments so you can analyze where to adjust or make better your finances.
This simple home budget calculator is just one of the financial tools at Allsup.com, a Social Security Disability & Medicare company which offers free Social Security disability evaluation. They provide financial and healthcare services specifically for clients with disabilities. This company assists in the application process for disability insurance to facilitate faster approval and has represented many clients since 1984.
Whenever we’re on vacation we just let somebody stay and watch our house since we don’t have a home alarm or some home surveillance gadgets. Thank God, we have a trusted couple from our community who does this for us. The hubby works in a car repair shop nearby. While we’re away, the wife drops by to check our house during the day and they would sleep in our house during evenings.
This setup usually works for us and with our recent Cebu mini-vacation, we’re confident that our house is in safe hands while we’re away. It’s nice when our house is taken care of without our presence and I consider it a warm welcome when we arrive home and see the house in order. There’s also our watchdog to be fed twice a day, so letting somebody stay in our home when we’re out is a must.
Most folks going on an exercise and diet routine with weight loss goals have experienced going through that phase where the scales are not tipping any lower and it seems like their weight refuses to move down even just a bit. Oh well, this is what I am currently experiencing these days, that discouraging weight loss plateau phase. My weight at 47 kgs just seems to be stuck and I don’t know how to make it go down further. I still am not the desperate to try any of those weight loss pills though, but it just can be so frustrating sometimes. Any suggestions on this dilemma?
Hiya all! We just got back from a mini-vacation in Cebu. We weren’t there for a tour but just to be there for my nephew’s college graduation celebration. Our gracious hosts treated us to dinner on Friday evening at the Terraces in Ayala Business Park. The place is definitely one of Cebu’s destinations for fine dining with a series of restaurants, bars and cafés lined up around a beautiful landscaped central park. Truly a romantic place for dining and strolling.
Our first choice was at Hukad but since many are celebrating graduation that evening, almost all the restaurants were jam-packed that time and Hukad was no exception. The clients waiting to be served was simply too long. We went on to Café Laguna but found it to be full of waiting clients as well. So we finally decided to have dinner at Bigby’s.
We still had to wait for about 15 minutes though. Anyway, the wait was worth it… all the dishes served were yummy and tastily cooked especially the baby back ribs.
And since the dinner was also a celebration of my nephew’s birthday, the Bigby’s crew sang an upbeat birthday song for him and put on a funny birthday hat on him as well. Even though they were not dressed up in sexy French maid costumes, they really had fun singing for my nephew in their loud enthusiastic voices. And to top it off, they gave him a complimentary birthday chocolate cupcake treat.
After stuffing ourselves with Bigby’s delicious food, we lounged a bit at the park and off we went to IT Park. No more parking spaces for us though, so we proceeded to Mr. A’s, a restobar at the top of the hills. It’s situated at Nivel Hills in Lahug, just few minutes away from Marco Polo Hotel. Here’s a view of Cebu city by night as seen from Mr. A’s.
Went home at almost midnight and ready to hit the sack. Oh yes, I am missing Cebu now.
Whether it’s the offline or online world, computers need maintenance. Aside from concerns regarding viruses, organizing and backing up files is an essential routine for keeping computer files safe and intact. For instance, I need to clean up the local version of my blog which nowadays needed to be organized.
Synchronization between the remote files in the server and my files here in my computer is a must. When the remote files are updated, the local version should also be and vice versa. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way after my travel blog went down and I didn’t have an updated backup. Oh well… salesmen selling cheap auto insurance know very well how it is important to have something to fall back on in case some accidents happen.
Beware of those friendly technical guys (not those offering insurance quotes) knocking at your doors offering to check your gas range tanks and citing government approval even if it was not a scheduled check-up or visit.
Well, they would first inquire if your gas tank has passed government standards or quality check. If you reply no, then they would tell you that they’re here to check on that. After which, they would introduce a high quality accessory to your gas range tank and explain the reasons why you should own one. So, after all, they’re here to sell something, yeah?
There are so many ways to introduce a product but when it is done in the pretense of doing some quality check supported by the government, it just feels like you’ve been duped. Even if you didn’t buy the product, you just wasted your time letting them check your stuff and listening to some product presentation afterwards.
We’ll be off to Cebu again! Our flight is already this evening via Cebu Pacific airlines. Our tickets were bought online and at an incredibly low price of Php316.32 for a one way Bacolod-Cebu flight with the no-baggage option.
Here are just some tips to avail of really low Cebu Pacific tickets:
1. Buy your tickets online
2. Buy your tickets at least 2 months before departure date
3. Travel light! you get Php200 off if you don’t have a check-in baggage
Note that you have to include the Php200 for terminal fee, so the total expense for flying Bacolod-Cebu would be about Php500.
When comparing bus rates from Bacolod to Cebu and air ticket prices via Cebu Pacific, the latter sometimes is more economical considering the travel time and the cost. The only important consideration is to buy the ticket months ahead. If you’re buying your air tickets for a flight that is just few days to go then the air tickets would definitely cost more compared to the bus rates. Hmmm… do I sound like somebody selling you discount shower faucets? 
I am so happy today! Aside from this very day being the Feast of Saint Joseph, it’s also the birthday of my nephew and the wedding anniversary of his parents (my big bro and SIL).
There’s also something that’s making me all smiles today, I just discovered that one of my Capri pants is not that fitting as it used to be. I tried it on this morning to match with my lavender blouse and found out it is already loose on the tummy and hips! Wow! I really am losing weight after all. Now, do I still need some diet pills? 
As the month of March will soon end, most schools and universities will be holding graduation exercises. For instance, my nephew will be graduating from college this weekend. Yey, he will soon be an electronics and communications engineering graduate. I pray that he will find a career related to his course which would truly showcase his talents and skills. Incidentally, my little niece also just graduated from prep school.
Whether somebody studied postsecondary technical and vocational courses, medical-related courses or engineering courses, what matters most is the determination to succeed in life. Graduation is just another milestone in a person’s life, it’s a doorway to more opportunities and challenges. Hang on graduates!
Last night I was browsing over some forums and was quite interested with one thread about a lady who just lost her pet hamster. I know losing a pet is just like losing a part of your family especially if the pet is lovable and playful. It’s always sad to bury a pet.
Incidentally, Oprah Winfrey just lost her adopted puppy Ivan, a cocker spaniel, to canine parvovirus. This is an infectious disease among dogs attacking the gastrointestinal tract. And Ivan’s litter mate Sadie is currently fighting the disease as well and undergoing treatment. Anyway, I hope she can make it.
If you’re a pet-lover, make sure your pets are properly groomed and nourished with the right pet food and have undergone vaccination.
How do you clean your computer files from viruses and malicious software? Do you follow a system of arranging and organizing your files? Is there a regular schedule for backing up your files? These are just few of the concerns we need to address with regards to computer housekeeping.
When my online site went down for about three days, I felt so helpless and swore to myself that I would backup my data regularly and take care of my files and value them even more. Imagine the sleepless nights I went through just to recover my lost files! It was such a painful lesson indeed.
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Wow, I can’t believe I’m now back to my previous weight of 47kgs instead of the heavier 51kgs early this year. How did it happen? I just excluded RICE from my diet. Yup! Well, I am more of a viand eater than a rice eater anyway, so the process of completely eliminating it from my diet was not that difficult.
Now, rice is not the only food belonging to the carbohydrate group, so I also had to SAY NO to bread, pasta, noodles, sugar and other white flour products. Saying no to rice is easy but saying no to pizza or baked buns? Aargghhh…it’s an agony!
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My friends and I were a bit tired with preparing and packing up our things, we had to check out at noontime from a budget hotel room and transfer to a much better and spacious luxury accommodation. Anyway, upon arriving at our next hotel room, we were just so glad to see it well-kept with the beds looking oh-so-comfy!
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Finally… my travel blog happysteps.net is now transferred to another web hosting service! Thanks to my techie bro for helping out with backing up my database and going through the process of moving my files to the new server. At least I won’t have to deal with unreliable webhosting (Ploghost, that is) anymore, and I hope there won’t be frequent unscheduled server downtimes and unsatisfactory technical support in the future. What I’ve learned from the whole experience is just simple: back up your blog regularly!
Blog maintenance is very much important, and unfortunately, I haven’t backed up my database files when the unexpected disaster occurred, when Ploghost’s server crashed. They didn’t have backups of my website, so my site was recovered with a database that was dated to October 2008.
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Who wouldn’t? After browsing over the CitySights NY site, I just go dreamy about traveling to New York City, known as “The City that Never Sleeps” and “The Big Apple”. Well, the CitySights New York Tours onboard their double-decker buses are just enough to make me wish I was riding in one. Sigh. If I were to choose which of their special tours I would take, it would be the Downtown Tour which includes the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. These two landmarks are just some of my dream tourist attractions in the NYC.
Getting onboard the double-decker bus is an advantage since the second level of the bus allows passengers to have a higher viewing level as it speeds along the city sights. Famous places of interest in NYC include Wall Street, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the site of the World Trade Center and more.
One of my best friends will be touring the US soon, and she also wants to include New York City in their trip itinerary. Wow, I’m so happy for her to finally tour NYC with her family. So, when would my time come? Hmmm…who knows it might be sooner than what I’m hoping for!
