This was our morning, although it was cold enough to keep a fire going. We keep our house cold, 64 during the day, 57 at night. Our upstairs is usually warmed by the sun, but we spend most of our time in the kitchen and family room. If I keep the heat down but have a fire, I can usually warm up our area enough to be pleasant. I can't stand the thought of giving the power company that extra money. We've kept our winter utilities lower than our summer bill, when we endlessly pour water on our grass.
My dear neighbor is from Arizona. (Well, Alaska too, but that's beside the point.) Whenever I go to her house, it's like being at the beach, and I mean that in a good way. Her house is so toasty warm. She wears tank tops. When it's 20 out. Really. While I was thawing out in her house the other day, we were discussing our heating bills. Hers is twice what mine is. Just the thought of that makes me shiver. I won't be turning my heat up, but I'm thinking about visiting her every day. :)
The kids raced through most of their school work. We decided at the last minute to get Lucky's vaccinations updated. We drove to the vet and Holly snapped a few pictures on the drive.
Lucky is the worst behaved dog ever in public. He's an embarrassment. There's a reason Robert wasn't anywhere around. Our dog completely goes hyper. He couldn't be any more opposite than the slug he is at home. If he acted like this at home, he wouldn't live here. It's truly mortifying. We know people at the vet's and honestly, I try to avoid them so they don't see my obnoxious dog. We were able to leave him there for the afternoon. I even felt guilty about that, knowing that he'd bark incessantly for the rest of the day, and they'd have to listen to him.
It also meant that Robert would have to bring Lucky home from work. We met up with Robert in the parking lot and traded cars. Eeek! I've only driven his new car once, to the library just a few blocks away. It's much higher and skinnier than my low wide van, and it drives totally differently. I successfully dodged all the nasty potholes, and we went coat shopping (unsuccessfully) for Holly and stopped at the library to trade books. This is the view from the library . . . the parking lot.
When we came home, the kids finished up their Latin and zoology. I later realized they forgot to "candle" their eggs today, so they can catch up on that tomorrow. Trevor's friend Tucker came over, and I printed out oodles of Spiderman coloring pages that I found on the internet.Robert wasn't hungry at all for dinner, since he'd gone out for a big, late lunch. It was a YOYO night, You're On Your Own. Isn't that a cute phrase? I can't take credit, I "stole" it from Diann . . . Trevor had to eat a real meal (which means it included a vegetable), but I let Holly slide by with Carmel Popcorn. It won't kill her once in a while, and she sure thought it was a great treat! She even got to eat in the family room while we watched one of her favorite shows, Nanny 911. My kids are always truly shocked by how naughty the other children are, but they never really like the ending when everyone's behaving nicely again.
Lastly, one of my loopie friends forwarded a video from YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI
a terrific clip on some of the math curriculum currently being used in various public schools. Very interesting. Scary.
3 comments:
LOL...you dog made me chuckle. Our dog gets very excited when people come to visit and jumps all over the place. She is a couch potato when it is just us.
I love the YOYO. I'll have to remember that one.
Always love your scenery pictures.
I also love the YOYO night! I am still envious of all your landscape scenes :-)
Speaking of heating bills and temps... our indoor setting depends on how cold it is outside because we have an air to air exchange.. so our cost doesn't increase except what little energy it takes to run the fan. Our heater doesn't kick into the propane until it's below 20 degrees outside and then it foes to the propane. Otherwise, up until that point it's take what warmth is found in the air and turning it into heat for the house. I'm sure there is a more technical way to describe it. But anyway, my point is that I'm SO glad we can keep the heat up because I'm always cold. We keep it at 68 during the day and 65 at night. In the summer our air to air reverses and takes cool air from outside (even if over 100 degrees) and turns it into the cold air for the a/c portion to cool our house. So, our bill stays fairly constant year round.. but we did have to pay for this unit .... sigh.... well worth it though, I think, in the long run. I do miss having a wood burning stove though! I LOVE the heat from a wood stove.
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