Pretty in pink

The only room in the house that is mostly unpacked and decorated is the master bathroom. There is also a very pink rug on the floor, which didn't fit in the picture.  It is very hard to photograph a bathroom, it is all funny angles.  This is sort of "my" bathroom, and the front bath is mostly Derek's. So mine is pink and white. His is sort of blue and white, but I have had a hard time finding anything in the right shade of blue, which is sort of like Wedgewood blue. I wanted to match some towels and rugs we already had, but apparently this medium blue color is very un-hip right now. Robin's egg blue, slightly teal, is MUCH cooler. Sigh. Once again, I am behind the times.

The best part of "my bathroom" is the huge tub. Unfortunately, I never seem to have enough time to soak in it as much as I would like.  We finally put up curtains and Derek frosted the window with some stinky spray, so I feel that I can actually undress and take a bath without anyone peeking in.  Let the bubble baths begin!


Now, don't let the pictures of the one tidy spot in the house fool you: we're not all unpacked. Here is a picture of our garage.



We can only get one car into the garage because of all the boxes. Derek has been parking his car in the garage over night. Then, when he leaves at 6 am, he puts my car into the garage so it can thaw out enough to start. I usually don't even have to scrape it, but the frost makes little dribbles in the garage.  Our poor floor is no longer all clean and pretty.  It was nice while it lasted, but I have higher priorities than scrubbing the garage floor.  

Maybe I'll unpack some more this week, after I put away the Christmas decorations . . .

I (heart) my heater!

This week is going to be a good test of our new heater. Record lows, down to perhaps 2 degrees Fahrenheit, are forecast. Our new house has a heat pump. As I understand it, a heat pump takes heat out of the outdoor air and puts the heat into the air that then blows into our house. It doesn't create heat on its own, just redistributes it. In the summer, of course, it does the opposite, blowing cooler air into the house. There is also a small backup heater, which the home inspector called a "strip heater." This is just an old fashioned electric heater, producing heat through resistance, which helps out when the air is too cold for the heat pump to find any heat to pump. The electric heater, of course, uses lots more electricity than the heat pump. And it will be working hard this week.

The backup heater also kicks in when you turn the temperature up a lot, because the heat pump can only gradually raise the temperature in the house. Therefore, the HVAC guy who came to check on why our office was so darn cold, suggested that we NOT turn the heat way down at night or when we were at work, because the strip heater would be used to heat up the house when we got home, and it would use way more electricity than the heat pump would have used to keep the house at a constant temperature. He also said our house is new and well insulated, so the heat pump wouldn't have to work very hard to maintain the temperature. He also said something I didn't totally follow about how hard it is to raise the temperature in the whole room by heating the air when the objects in the room, like the floor, walls, and furniture, are cold. Yeah, I guess couches are denser than air?

Although his advice sounds counterintuitive, we are giving it a try, and are keeping the thermostat at a constant 68 degrees. We have been a lot more comfortable, and the house seems warmer all the time (is that something to do with the cold furniture?) The HVAC guy also "balanced our vents." He closed some of the vents closer to the heater all the way or part of the way and this seems to have left more warm air to blow all the way to the far reaches of the house, in the master bedroom and the office. It is hard for me to imagine that closing a vent in one part of the house doesn't force the heater and the blower to work extra hard, but it does seem to have warmed up the colder areas.

Our house is all electric, there is not even a gas line into the Highlands. I feel this is probably safer, since I know someone whose parents were killed by a gas explosion in their home, and you often read about people harmed by carbon monoxide poisoning. (Yes, we have three CO detectors, thanks.) Some people in Indiana use heating oil, which is much more expensive this year than in the past, because of the rise in oil prices (not the same oil, but related.) Our electric bill for November was $115. This is higher than it was for our apartment, which was about half the square feet, all electric, with 8 foot ceilings. This house has 9 foot ceilings, plus a cathedral ceiling. And we now have a washer and dryer. So I think that the higher bill is appropriate. In the apartment, our bill was usually about $80 a month, but the drafts were wicked. You may have heard of using a candle to look for drafts? When the candle flame flickers or bends you have a draft. When we tried that in our apartment, the candle blew out. And it was not exactly a charming older building, either.

Tell me: How do you save electricity? At what temperature do you set your thermostat?

Derek is the king of turning off lights, often when I am doing something like putting up laundry (very annoying, when I go back into the closet with my hands full and the light is off.) I do things like unplug small appliances, look for energy star appliances, use fans a lot, and fill the dishwasher to the max. We are even using our ceiling fans in winter. Hot air rises, right? Well, especially in a house with high ceilings, the warm air will accumulate near the ceiling. This is even more true if you have a well-insulated attic. But if you use the ceiling fan to blow the warm air down, you will feel a breeze on your skin and feel colder (and actually lose body heat.) If you set the ceiling fan to blow UP the warm air will eventually circulate throughout the room, equalizing air temperature without chilling your bare skin. (I will refrain from ranting about people who wear short sleeves in winter but turn up the heater to 78. Get a sweater!)

Onto an only slightly related topic: Today we talked about the evolution of man in my world history class. We discussed why humans don't have more fur. Or, as one student with long hair put it, why we have long hair on our heads and not all over our bodies. He suggested that the hair was to keep our heads warm or cool, since the hot sun beats down mostly on your head (if you are bipedal) and shoulders. In the winter, we have all heard how you can lose half of your lost heat through a bare head, so hair should help with that problem. I think he may have a point. The day we chose the lot for our house we spent over an hour in the hot sun. I always wear sunblock, but this day I was very sweaty and didn't use a high SPF. I got a sunburn on my ears and face, but not on the back of my neck, because my long hair completely protected my neck. I don't have unusually thick hair, but it was enough to protect my skin. This isn't a perfect system: I once got a blistering sunburn in the part of my hair. We were in Florida and I wasn't used to the direct sun. I wore a sun visor to protect my face (hey, it was the 80's) but didn't cover my head. The sunburn was quite painful. For days I couldn't sleep or comb my hair without wincing.

My students were rather distressed to learn (if they even believed me) that everyone has the genes for dark skin. Only white people have a disfunctional form of the genes. So, white people are the mutants. And everyone is descended from dark skinned ancestors. Actually, I hate teaching evolution, it is so frustrating to argue with people about it, it makes many students very hostile, and, above all, IT'S NOT HISTORY! I don't know why evolution is supposed to be covered in world history and not in, say, biology. Oh well, it is over and we are moving on to one of my favorite topics: the agricultural revolution. No, not the one involving artificial fertilizer, or even the one with horse collars and a moldboard plow. The FIRST agricultural revolution, the domestication of plants and animals. Perhaps the most important development in the history of mankind. But I might be biased. I am, after all, a food historian.

Just one more thing...

Derek and I have decided there is one more thing we need to get to make our house a home: a puppy. Well, actually, I decided and then I talked Derek into it. The deal is this: he can get cable if I can get a dachshund. After several frustrations and disappointments (I called today with credit card in hand, only to find that the puppy I wanted had just sold!), I am going to put out the call to my loyal readers. Please let us know if you know any good breeders of dachshunds. We would like a female, short haired, miniature dachshund. We prefer black, brown, or red (or some combination), but color is not very important to us. We don't plan to breed the dog, we will get her "fixed," and aren't going to show her. We just want a healthy, affectionate pet. We would also consider an adult dog, not just a puppy. Gee, that sounds pretty picky, doesn't it? But I bet that someone I know knows of the perfect dog.

You may have heard of "Six Degrees of Separation?" Aside from being a game (connect any Hollywood actor to Kevin Bacon in six steps), this is also a sociological theory. The idea is that any person on earth is connected, through relation or acquaintance, to anyone else on the planet through six steps or less. For instance, if I wanted to talk to a plant pathologist about a plague on wheat during the Middle Ages (hey, I'm a food historian, I love this stuff!), then I would ask my friend Emily to ask her Dad, who is a plant pathologist, who could either answer my question or find someone who could. So, if I wanted to find someone who had a little girl dachshund to sell, I should tell everyone I know, and if there is such a person (or such a dog) anywhere on the planet, I would eventually hear about it. Do you think it will work? (Click here for way more than you ever wanted to know about the theory of six degrees of separation.) My friend Elizabeth pointed out that more people than I suspect read my blog (including a guy I never met in the construction business who said it had a nice explanation of the building process. Funny, I thought I didn't know WHAT was going on during the building stage, but maybe that is normal?) Elizabeth didn't actually suggest that I look for a dog this way, but she started me thinking about how it is an amazingly small world, which gets even smaller on the internet. (Insert Disney song "It's a Small World" here--nah, that would be too mean.)

Actually, I kind of just want to steal my mom's dog, Holly. She is cute and sweet, unlike SOME dachshunds I have known. (My mom's previous dog bit my mother-in-law and peed all over my friend Naplover, among other transgressions.) But my mom likes the dog more than she likes me, so she would never forgive me. Admittedly, the dog has never talked back to her the way I did as a teenager. My mom even has a pillow that says "Let me get this straight, my grandchild is a dog?" Yep, that's right, mom. But you can still send our new puppy baby presents, okay? She might even get her own room, but most dogs prefer to sleep as close to their "parents" as possible. Derek swears the dog will not be sleeping in the bed. Yeah, that's what my Dad said, too. I will refrain from posting a picture of my Dad, sound asleep, holding the dog. But I do have one.



Holly, opening her Christmas gifts, with a little help from Mommy

Shameless plug...

Actually, I don't get paid for this, but I am very pleased with my new photo book from Shutterfly. We had a coupon for a free book, and it was quite cool. It is a hard-bound book with your photos printed on glossy pages. You can choose to have a picture printed on the cover, or have a leather-look cover, or a little window on the cover to show a picture on the front page. Then you can arrange anywhere from one to 12 pictures on each page, and type in any captions or comments. There are lots of cute backgrounds and fonts, you could get quite carried away. We made a book about the construction of our house. It sort of looks like a children's book, with lots of pictures and few words. Actually, it would be a neat present for a kid: Johnny likes to read. This is Johnny with his favorite book... I think it would have cost about $20 if we had to pay for it. I might be willing to pay that much for a photo book of a special event, like a wedding or graduation. It was fun to pick out the options and arrange the pictures. I can see why some people like digital scrapbooking, even though I prefer the old cut-and-paste version. I like making a mess, it makes me feel creative!

The mysterious plates

Here are the tiny plates. Or ashtrays. Maybe serving dishes for a tiny bit of caviar? Or doll tea party plates? What do you think?

The dishes

Wow, I can't believe anyone is still checking my blog for posts. I have loyal readers! Yeah!

As you can see below, there aren't many dishes in the china cabinet. Most of them are still in boxes at my Grandmother's apartment. The ones we have are interesting, though. They are these little two-handled cream soup bowls. I think they sort of look like Greek kraters, or wine bowls. I will try to refrain from flinging them across the room in drinking games, like the Greeks did. There are also some tiny plates, maybe 3 inches across. I'm really not sure what they are. My Grandmother seems to have used them as ash trays. Apparently she didn't mind if people smoked at dinner. That is not going to be happening at our house. They might be butter pats, to hold a single chunk of butter (in a cute little shape, of course, like a rose.) In our house, they might be soy sauce dishes. Or maybe tiny plates for individual petits fours? Or, better yet, for chocolate truffles?

The pattern is called "Shadow Rose" and is of brown roses with gold leaves. They look sort of ... Goth, in a dark, un-cheerful way. I think they might be nice for a Halloween feast, with a black tablecloth and dried dark red roses. The little bowls looked nice with black olives in them at our Christmas dinner, though. My Grandmother remembered what year she bought them: 1957, the year my aunt was born. They lived in Germany then and the dishes are made by a German company, Rosenthal ("Valley of Roses," which seems appropriate.) I found a chocolate brown tablecloth to go with them, but they still look a little ... grim. As one friend said, "You're not supposed to like them, they're family heirlooms!" I wonder if any of my junk will ever be a family heirloom: "This was my great-grandmother's iPod. It still works!" Hmmm, maybe not.

A China Cabinet, too

For Christmas, my Grandmother and Mom gave me a china cabinet, to hold my Grandmother's china. She lives in an assisted living center, so she wasn't using it very much. I was supposed to only be getting this for Christmas, nothing else, but it didn't exactly work out that way. (I do love all the books I got, and the clothes, Mommy!) This is the china cabinet. It was very hard to find a china cabinet that wasn't 1. enormous 2. covered in goopy carving and gold stuff 3. really, really pretentious. I suppose the point of a china cabinet is to be slightly pretentious? I think this one was fairly understated. I also like the fact that it has sliding doors. On the top and on the bottom, the doors slide so you don't have to leave as much room in front of the cabinet to open the doors. And there is plenty of space underneath to store less decorative items. There are even two cute little drawers with velvet liners for silverware. I wonder if my silver earrings would tarnish less if I put them in there, since I don't have any actual SILVERware?

And a new bed

We knew it was time to replace our mattress when EVERY SINGLE mattress in the store felt better than our current one! We have had that one for over 9 years, and since I sleep a lot, I think it wore out faster than usual. We decided to get a queen sized bed after sleeping very soundly while visiting Derek's mom in Kansas. Her guest room has a queen sized bed and it was very comfy. Of course, we talked ourselves into getting a headboard, too, since otherwise the pillows might mess up the wall when we sat up in bed reading.

Actually, it was hard to find a headboard that was well suited to reading in bed. Reading in bed is one of my favorite activities! We both sit together in bed and read before going to sleep almost every night. But a lot of headboards had scrollwork or molding that poked you in the back or the head if you tried to lean back against them. We can't be the only people who read sitting up in bed, can we? We also saw several headboards with little dividers down the middle--sort of like "you stay on your side of the line, and I'll stay on mine." That doesn't seem auspicious for your marriage, does it?

In the interest of comfortable reading, we chose a sleigh bed, and it is very nice. And our mothers (both of them) sent us new sheets for the bigger bed. I think our comforter will fit the new bed, since it is that strange size called "Full/Queen." It is very nice to have a new mattress, too. I worried it would be hard to fall asleep on the strange bed, but that has not been a problem!

New table

I can't seem to post more than one picture in a posting, so here is a picture of our new table and chairs. It is very nice to be able to eat off them when stuff is spread all over the dining room table (like it is right now!)

We wish you a merry Christmas

It was really fun decorating our new house for Christmas. We didn't have a very big tree, so we set up two small trees. They looked cute standing in the two windows beside the fireplace. My mom sent us stockings to hang on our mantel (and stocking holders--no nails in the new mantel!)

The day after Christmas, Derek got up early and went to K-mart to buy a big tree on sale. It is 7 1/2 feet tall. It looks a lot larger in our house than it did in the store. I guess everything does.

We had an open house to show off our new place. Derek took pictures of the house, but he didn't take any pictures of the people. Actually, so many people showed up at once that he was pretty busy serving drinks and making introductions. Our friend Fox even started opening the door and passing around drinks, too. And people brought us presents for our new house. That was unexpected, but very cool! Everyone has been very generous and lots of friends have sent us things for our new house. We really appreciate it.

Derek's Grandmother made a contribution toward some new furniture. So we now have a cute little table and chairs in our breakfast nook. They match the card catalog, and the chairs coordinate with our dining room table, too.