Saving energy makes cents

We had a home energy audit done on Friday. The auditor came in with an arsenal of black plastic cases like one would expect to see at a crime scene investigation. Quickly he unpacked and within minutes our back door looked like our home was under quarantine with a red plastic door with a clear round peep hole resembling a port hole in a boat and underneath an opening for the blower fan that would be used pull air out of our house and produce a negative pressure.

We took a tour around the house infared camera in hand. It was like we had x-ray vision and could see through walls. Dark = cold. Light=hot.

The good news is our aging house is fairly efficient and we learned where an investment would best be spent. So the plan is to get estimates to have insulation blown into our outer walls between the joists. Next winter hopefully our heating bills will be lower and our toes warmer.

I wonder when "Fresh Cuts at Thirty Two" will go to press

A City Pages Article:

http://articles.citypages.com/2008-02-20/feature/skinheads-at-forty/

Daytona 500 Baby!

Here are our top 5 picks for today...

Heather:
Hamlin
Waltrip
Earnhardt
Martin
Johnson

David:
Hamlin
Waltrip
Earnhardt
Kenseth
Stewart

Quinn:
"No cars. Cars boring. 8"

Martin is in the 8 this year so we think she wants Martin to win today.

And no, David and I did not consult on our top 3 picks. Choosing the same drivers was purely a coincidence.

Blackberry Outage

My Blackberry Pearl has been acting up recently and t-mobile customer service helped me resolve the issue by making sure I turn it on and off every few days and to take the battery in and out once a week. I knew there must be a problem with the system when doing this yesterday didn't seem to help.

Supposedly there was a major hiccup in blackberry service nation-wide. I barely noticed. Other than receiving a text message too late and not being able to access the internet, I didn't experience too many problems.

Since my old blackberry crashed last year and I lost everything (I sometimes still mourn all the information I lost) I now back it up using David's PC about once a week. I would highly suggest if you have one to do the same.

Super Fat Tuesday: The school was bursting at the seams.

After having to work a little late, we got to our caucus a little later than we had planned. By 6:30 when the event was set to start, the cars were backed up about 3 blocks away from the school. Chaos. David knowing the neighborhood well, went around the traffic and got us a sweet parking spot in a back lot. After walking around the school to the main entrance after trying unsuccessfully to gain access through a couple side doors, we got to the front and encountered a long line. More chaos. Knowing our ward and precinct ahead of time allowed us to bypass the line of people waiting to learn what their's was. We made our way to the classroom and even more chaos. There was no sense of order. Blank pieces of post-it note like paper used for the ballots were being handed out to anyone who walked in the door without verification that the voters even lived in our precinct. Eventually, a couple people took over and made a sign-in sheet that had to be filled out before any ballots were exchanged. Chaos settled.

It was obvious that no one had predicted the turn out would be so enormous. Most of the classrooms were standing- room only with lines of people waiting outside the door for a chance to cast their presidential preference ballots and/or participate in the caucusing. Even David was impressed with the turnout. Having experienced the caucus 4 years ago, which he had expected to be just as much if not more popular, he was surprised to see well over double the turnout. People in the hallways running the show were exclaiming as much. I overheard comments such as "this is amazing, unbelievable, and exhilerating."

This experience motivated me after a 4 year hiatus to want to become an election judge again. When I get my invitation letter this year, this time I will accept rather than decline.

No Naps!

Quinn had decided recently that it is time to experiment with skipping her naps in the afternoon. She seems to think she can do it without any repercussions. But the other day it became obvious to us, after a mid-evening bath, that she may get tired a bit prematurely. Unfortunately, she doesn't yet understand that the evidence of this (below) should be scrutinized differently than any other series of Quinn photos.