Food & Water, November 2008

Little Nio has a very healthy appetite. Although he's not as plump as he was a year ago, he's not at all skinny. He could use a couple more kilograms, but he's in great shape.



Here's Little Nio enjoying breakfast early in the morning.



He's having a healthy meal with rice and meat and some mashed up veggies. The froggie looking bowl is a gift from our friend Tata Montilla.



Like an Olympic gymnast, he finishes up his meal and prepares to dismount his high chair. Maybe I am biased... but I would give him a perfect score of 10.0 for that performance.



We are very careful about the water we drink at home and most specially the water that Little Nio drinks. We get our bottled water from a company called Sprinkle, which we all drink. Except that for the milk formula for Little Nio, his water gets boiled and filtered again. Standing on the first step of our staircase going up, Little Nio contemplates the finer points of water management.



Here he is playing with an empty water bottle from our dispensing machine.



Copying what he sees, Little Nio picks up the empty bottle and carries it over for a refill. He hasn't quite figured out the sequence of which bottle goes where, and when it should go there, but he knows that an empty bottle can get a water refill from the dispenser.



Here he is carrying the empty bottle over. He's pretty strong for his size and very determined once he gets his mind set on doing something. It sometimes makes it difficult to let him know that what he's up to isn't really the right thing to do.



One step up the staircase. He has single-handedly managed to lift the empty water bottle up the first step. If we weren't there to dissuade him, he might very well have made the attempt to go all the way up to the second floor.



Following the melamine food scandals in China affecting powdered milk formula, snacks and even eggs, we have been very cautious about what Little Nio eats.

"Manna" is a product made in Japan and it is a biscuit that is a calcium supplement for babies and young children. We've checked all the documentation online about the products and factories that have been affected, and this particular product passes with flying colors.



Not content with our check, Little Nio conducts his own careful inspection. He painstakingly spreads out the biscuits and gingerly sorts each piece.



He then breaks it down to smaller pieces and does a more detailed check. He diligently scrutinizes the pulverized bits to see if anything looks suspicious or melamine-like.



Once the product passes his rigorous inspection he gives it a smile of approval.



And, the snacking continues.

We're very proud of his progress and we are very happy that he is so very healthy, alert and active.

LEED AP Exam, October 2008

The office I work for is now a member of the USGBC (United States Green Building Council). The USGBC is the organization responsible for putting together the LEED Rating System, which is a third party certification process that validates and verifies steps buildings take to ensure that their projects, both during construction and through the life cycle of the building, are sustainable.

In this day and age, where "green" is the current buzz word. It is imperative that we do all we can to contribute to efforts that will halt and reverse the effects of climate change. On the other hand, it has also become a trend to simply get on the bandwagon and make sustainability claims without taking any real and tangible steps to actually help. This kind of "green-washing" is what the LEED rating system helps to discourage.

Not too many people know that I am studying to become a LEED Accredited Professional, but that's one of the things that has been taking up a lot of my time.

I seriously started reading the LEED New Construction Reference Guide 2.2 in late July, browsed through it casually from cover-to-cover and then hunkered down to start reading it in detail about six weeks ago. There are over 400 pages of very detailed information about the LEED rating system, sustainable design practices and green buildings in general. I put together a study group of around a dozen colleagues from work and we have been meeting for two hours each week, after work, to go through and discuss the LEED NC 2.2 Reference Guide.



It is a tremendous amount of information that needs to be digested, memorized and understood at a level where we can really implement it. I've downloaded a number of sample exams and flash cards to help with the study process, but at this stage we're really only at around 70% with the material. Still a very long way to go.

Earlier today I scheduled my LEED AP examination at a Prometric Center near our office. I take the examination at 9:00 AM, on January 9, 2009. Not that I am a believer in numerology, but it doesn't hurt to get the numbers 9-9-9 aligned in there for a measure of good luck. I will need it.