It seems that men will always be men when it comes to cars. I have friends who dress their cars and can talk about them as if they are women for hours and hours. While most men actually just want to dress up and pimp their cars, there are those who want the thrill of driving cars fast – so they go into racing.

There are welter weight race cars that are for racing. They are called dwarf cars as well primarily because of its size.

Dwarf cars are 5/8 scale replica models of vintage 1928-1948 American made automobiles.  They have full steel roll cages; sheet metal bodies, and powered by 4 cylinder motorcycle engines up to 1250cc.  They have full racing suspension and are capable of speeds over 100 mph (160 kmh) on the straight-aways.  With their size and quickness, they are perfectly suited to asphalt track oval racing.

Dwarf cars are "real" race cars, not family go-karts.  With modern design suspension, Dwarf cars are achieving speeds similar to the fastest full size cars.

You can go to the website of Peter D Motorsports to look at their online catalog of body parts and cars for sale. Their auto parts are personally CAD designed by their in-house engineer.

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I have been doing a bit of reading about medicine again for the past few days. Well, it has covered a span of a few weeks actually. It started when I was rearranging things a bit around the house and I took out my nursing books for full view (so I can see them all the time and maybe be interested enough to open one).

Medical-surgical nursing has been one of my weakest areas when I was studying. So I decided to open that one first. I stumbled upon the inflictions or diseases on the cranial and facial nerves and read that aside from the most popular/most common disease, Bell’s Palsy, there is a disease called Trigeminal Neuralgia that afflicts an estimated 1 in 15,000 people. It is often misdiagnosed so the numbers may actually be a bit higher, considering it develops most often after you hit the age of 50 and more cases have been reported with women.

What is it actually? It is commonly called tic doloureux or prosopalgia and what happens when you are experiencing TN is that you have stabbing and excruciating pain in the eyes, lips, nose, scalp, forehead, and jaw. It sometimes is a short experience but gradually becomes longer.

However, there is hope for treatment. At the Skull Base Institute, you can get treatment under its director, Dr. Shahinian. He is the only doctor of today who has gone lengthier training to be able to perform skull base, craniofacial and microvascular fellowships.. Skull base surgeries are done using minimally invasive endoscopic techniques. It is actually the only institute doing fully endoscopic surgery to treat acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm.

How do they treat TN? Patients can find this special expertise at the Facial Pain, Spasm and Paralysis Center (Facial PSP Center) at The Skull Base Institute. The endoscope is used to treat TN by inserting it to a dime-size opening behind the ear. Through this opening, surgeons insert a 2.7 mm endoscope. They can then identify the problem and perform the procedure – meticulously separating the nerve and blood vessel, and inserting a Teflon disk between them. Once the pressure has been relieved, patients often report immediate and complete relief from the pain.

Pituitary Tumor diseases are often the ones the go undiagnosed for a long time given their common symptoms. It is still best to consult with your doctor if you have been experiencing common pains more frequently and for long periods of time.

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1. How many members of your family not living with you did you see on Christmas Day?
More than 40. Edil’s side of the family is huge and we saw all of them.

2. When spending time with family, how long after you arrive do you begin to feel “antsy” about being there too long?
It’s not really the company I get antsy about but the heat and humidity of Manila. I cannot stay there longer than a day now – I guess if we were booked in a hotel with 24/7 airconditioning that would be OK

3. Is your family more likely to have pleasant discussions or heated arguments during a big meal? Do you join in or quietly listen in?
Pleasant discussions. I join in – I will be the loudest most likely.

4. Take the quiz: How Do You Really Feel About Your Family?

You Feel Misunderstood By Your Family

You are very quick to forgive your family for wrongdoings. You don’t expect them to be perfect, and you try to help them out whenever it’s possible. You have confidence in your family to take care of itself and make good decisions. You especially have this confidence in the younger generation. It’s sometimes hard for your family to understand who you are now. You’ve changed a lot, and they have trouble accepting the new you. You are honest and very outspoken with your family. You sometimes hurt feelings by saying things they don’t want to hear.

5. Consider the family member whose views are most opposite of your own: If your friends or co-workers met the person, what single topic would probably be the source of the most embarrassment for you if your friends heard that person talking?
Well, most of my family members are as eccentric as me.

6. Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas? What one thing that you didn’t get would you like to have received?
Id like to have a small business franchise so that we can finally be financially stable.

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1. What was the best thing that happened to you personally in 2008?
We were able to move out on our own – and I was able to take care of the kids personally.

2. What was the worst thing that happened to you personally in 2008?
No bad things. I choose to be happy.

3. What was the best thing to happen to all of us in 2008?
We were given another year to live!

4. What was the worst thing to happen to all of us in 2008?
Global financial crisis and oil price increases.

5. What was the best gift you received during the ’08 holidays?
The best gift was the joy I saw from my kids’ faces when they opened their pressies.

6. What was the best gift (most appropriate or best received) you gave during the ’08 holidays?
Gifts for the kids – I guess we know what they will really enjoy.

7. Do you have any regrets about what you did in 2008?
I wish I had more patience when it comes to my kids.

8. Do you have any regrets about what you didn’t do in 2008?
The eternal I-wish-I-could-have-lost-weight.

9. Did you meet anyone that became important to you in 2008?
None.

I guess I better look at the life insurance quote that was given to me earlier. *sigh*

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I am going offline to enjoy the holiday season. God knows I need more time to spend offline to make sure our plan for Santa works! Wish us luck!

From our family to yours,
we wish you a very blessed season!
Reflect the real meaning of the season!

See you after Christmas!

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Matthew had a simple party at home when he turned eight. He was very excited and was hyper all day starting when the clock struck 12. He even gamely posed for me. Since Martha was already sleeping, it was just me and Edil who sang Happy Birthday to him.

His Dad gave him the new set of Pokemon Cards (which I cannot remember) and he was genuinely happy for it. I suggested to Edil he just give Matthew 500pesos so he can buy whichever books he wants and when his Dad told him about it, Matthew scoffed and said, “Ang corny naman ng gift mo Daddy!”. It only goes to show he is still a child – when I was 8, I was always praying for money as a gift, hahaha!

Look at his surprise (and delight) when he opened his lone gift:

He actually ran to his Dad (who was playing Cabal *surprise surprise, insert sarcasm here!* in the other room) to thank him (Obviously alam nya hindi ako nagregalo nun, LOL).

On the day of his birthday, I cooked a simple meal for us and my parents and sisters who went to the house. You can read more about it on my other blog.

He was quite surprised to hear us sing happy birthday to him at the start his simple get together so he was a bit bashful.

We had to repeat the song twice because Edil had the smart thinking to use the pizza as his “cake” as he conveniently forgot to buy one (to spite me I’m so sure. Hahaha. Matthew doesn’t eat cakes kasi).

Anyway, his Lola told him to make a wish and it took him a good ten seconds to wish for something.

When he was finished, his Lola asked him what was his wish and he answered, “Secret. Lahat ng winiwish ko di nagkakatootoo eh.” To which his grandparents answered, “If it’s good for you, it will come true.” I couldn’t have answered it any better Hee Hee.

So even if I don’t know what was his wish, I wish his wish will come true, IF it’s going to be good for him. My son deserves the best ~ and I don’t want to have him exposed to the dark cynicism of life just yet.

I want him to remain bright-eyed, child-like, innocent, with the whole world so good in his eyes for a little while longer. Because as long as he sees the world that way, I am led to believe and hope, that the world will be that way in the future, with kids like him, who believe.

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Matthew wrote this:
Matthew:
1. An art set
2. A Story book
3. A beautiful jacket
4. A new set of the new pokemon cards
5. I also a repaired teddy bear (his teddy from Santa which martha is using is damaged. he wants it repaired. LOL)

Martha:
1. A Teddy bear
2. A Storybook
3. A new dora DVD
4. A Elmo Doll
5. A Dora Doll

There’s a nice story here.
Originally he wanted hundreds of books. He wants Biology Psychology, Geology etc etc (he read that in an almanac). So I tried to dissuade him. I told him he needs to finish grade school so he will be able to understand things in the books. Hindi daw. Kaya daw nya un.

Ok FINE.

I told him, kawawa naman ung ibang bata ang dami mong gusto.
So he paused and said, mahihirapan ba gawin ni Santa ung mga books ko?
sabi ko hindi naman, pero syempre mawawalan sya ng time for other kids. E mas mabait ka sa kanila kaya ikaw uunahin (naks bola no)

Sabi nya, “Sige na nga, three books na lang.”
Mommy will he know the titles.
Edil and I exchanged looks.
Yes, we do. Hehehe.

**Day 6 of December ~ December Daily Album.

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I already have blogged about going to back to reading at an earlier post. My goal that time was just to read again, and entertain myself. Most importantly, I’d like to discover something I enjoy doing by myself besides being online 24/7 to blog, chat and scrap. I feel like I have been leading a very addicted life to the net (which is actually true, unfortunately). However, I can feel things are going to change drastically once the new year comes.

For one, my nursing books are out of the highest shelves and into the bottom rung where I can easily grab them and see them. I think seeing them will make me forced to read them. Case in point – I even took out my favorite books about maternity and child nursing and psychiatric nursing to reorient myself. I think I would need to get new editions of books too – most of my books are from two years ago. Borders, a bookstore, has latest editions of books these days.

Of course, fitness and diet books are still on my list. Maybe their presence would be enough for me to really go back on the road to fitness (HA!). Though law books are something I don’t really need since I’m not interested in anything about it but I know I can give it to a friend who is on her last year of law school.

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