Lusot

The super did end up calling me back this afternoon - but the property management company did not (BOO!) - and told me that he had not gotten any reports about clogged drains today. He also told me that kitchen sinks do tend to clog and that it's a fairly normal occurrence.

I wanted to explain to him how careful we were with the sink drain but I stopped myself. I figured, who admits to abusing their drains ? And explaining that would only make me sound defensive, there was nothing the super could do after all.

By 3pm, the kitchen sink was still clogged. Hubby wanted to try clearing it again ourselves tonight (he had read up on some tips during the day) but I was determined to get a plumber. I recalled TV ads offering to clean and unclog drains for a flat fee of $45 or $49.95. I found several companies but they only service NY.

In NJ, I got estimates that range from $100 to "$175 or more", so that kinda put a damper on the plumber option. By 6:30p, I needed to prepare dinner. I wasn't looking forward to washing stuff in the half bathroom downstairs and I called hubby to ask him to just get some take-out for dinner. While on the phone w/ him, I turned on the kitchen faucet on a whim. I thought that since we won't be using it anytime soon, I might as well fill it up with hot water and let that work its way down the pipe.

Imagine my surprise when the water drained out.

Ha ?

I turned the water on again...

and again, it drained out.

Seems like our problem has fixed itself. This does give our theory about the clog being somewhere in our neighbor's some weight. The neighbor probably fixed their issues.

The best part is that we can run our very very full dishwasher tonight (whew!). I love it when things work out without us having to pay for anything. Imagine if we had called the plumber in earlier in the day,... tsk tsk.

Clogged

Our kitchen sink drain suddenly got clogged last night and we dare not run the dishwasher for fear that it leads to the same drain as the sink. Both hubby and I are puzzled as we are very careful with what goes down the drain - we use a mesh strainer and it catches most of the solid waste and leftover oil from cooking is poured carefully into jars for separate disposal.

Hubby tried using a plunger (a brand-new one which we keep for emergencies like these) then poured in lots of Drano and even used a snake to try and see what the clog was. Our drain seems clear ... up till the part where it goes into the wall. I'm still trying to get in touch with our property manager and the superintendent of the bldg to try and see if someone else has reported a clog. We suspect that the issue may be with the bldg's drainage and not ours. I would hate to have to call and pay for a plumber and not have the issue fixed.

It all seems so easy but I've been having difficulty tracking down the super. Our property management company has kept the residents away from the super and would like to have all calls routed through them. I have no problems with this, except that the contact people (two in all) we have with the company are usually out or on a call whenever I call.

Times like these, I get the urge to lobby for the replacement of our current management company with Real Property Management. After all, what good are they if you cannot contact them during emergencies ? RPM manages over 20,000 properties nationwide, received the Franchise of the Year Honorable Mention Award last year, was featured in the Bizjournal of Cincinnati and Columbus , has an exclusive agreement with Freddie Mac AND is a member of the National Association of Residential Property Managers. With credentials like that, where can we go wrong ?

Towel

I gave hubby quite a scare last night. I took a shower and didn't realize that I had no towel in the bathroom. When I reached out for the towel and found none, I shouted for hubby and asked for "HELP!".

Now, you have to understand... this isn't something new. I forget to bring a towel a lot of the time and I always ask him to help me the same way. Unfortunately, I forgot that this time, it was different. I am pregnant and it has been months since the last time I forgot to bring a towel.

So after shouting "HELP! HELP!", I heard banging sounds... loud and hurried footsteps coming up the stairs, down the hallway and into the bathroom. The door opened and hubby's face peered in. He was pale and flushed and looked.. well,.. scared.

I swear, I heard his heart beating fast too!

Ayun pala, when he heard me shout for help, he was coming up the stairs and didn't know how long I've been shouting for help. Also, me being pregnant, a lot of different and scary scenarios ran across his mind.

I was thoughtless. Kawawa naman my hubby.

So afterwards, I sat him down and talked to him so that we could agree on code words to prevent panic. What to shout if I need a towel ? hmm. I thought about a lot of things - "need assistance", "tulong", "nakalimutan", all sorts of words and phrases popped into my mind. None seemed appropriate for a missing towel.

It wasn't until I was telling this story to my friend when she suggested, why not just shout "twalya" or "towel" ?

Oo nga. Bopols, haha!

Bad luck bill

When Mom and Dad were here, I remember talking about the peso currency which I still have in my "Philippine wallet" - the one which I use when I'm in Manila. Mom looked at my wallet, saw the contents, one of which was a P200 bill and exclaimed, "Uy, you have to spend this right away ah, don't keep this."

Concerned, I asked why ? Was it not valid anymore ? Was it going to get taken out of circulation ? And Mom says "It's still valid but people just say it's bad luck to keep a P200 bill, you have to spend it right away".

It wasn't until I looked more closely at the bill when I realized why some people would call it bad luck - check out the back portion and see who's taking the oath of office.

Haha!

And then there's this MB caption - I'm sure that this wasn't intentional. MB, after all, is a decent newspaper.

Kawawa rin.

Our first harvest

Our tomato plant, a gift from good friend A, has flourished and gifted us with our first harvest of the season.

Hubby got a bit sad again as he was taking these pictures and snipping the ripe tomatoes off of the vine. He has been the primary caretaker of our little container garden and he gets very sad at the thought of this tomato plant dying at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of our rosemary plant grown from snippings that we got from A too.

Laki na no ? (pwera usog)

I'll be using these to make some baked porkchops soon.

Web Hosting Ratings

I've blogged a few times about wanting to have my own website with its own domain but I never really got around to that. You see, there would be times when I'd think that I have found the best web provider for me, I wait a few days and then I'll find another one with a different plan that fits in with my budget and needs even more.

I still feel undecided about pushing through my getting my own website as it is very convenient to just maintain my blogs on free hosting sites. However, I would have more freedom and flexibility if I were to maintain my own website and I'm sure many of my blogger friends can attest to this - there are quite a few blogs which I follow who have already switched from free hosting to paid hosting services.

It does feel timely to come across a phpbb web hosting review site that gives me more details about each provider. I also like the fact that they have rankings based on different categories such as Awards or even by Rating.

I believe that this will help me & hubby with this decision as we do want our own site - after all, we're having a baby soon! - and we do not want to spend too much on this indulgence, especially during this recession. How about you ? Check out phpbb web hosting and let me know what you think.