Insulated

Last year during a power outage some of the pipes that supply hot water to my baseboard radiators froze. They froze in a corner on my house that has always been cold. I had used towels and a small blanket to try to insulate that area but it always seemed that cold air was blowing in. After reminding my landlord about this again this year and proposing a solution that he hated, he decided to have a contractor do the work. It's much warmer in that room now and the hole to the outside in the basement has been filled with insulation. Here's the work in one corner (they ended up doing all the corners in the living room):
You see the funny colored wood cut out next to the upright post? That had basically just been a hole in the floor, though it didn't go all the way through to the basement. They added insulation and closed up the hole. The contractor also ran caulk (in brown) along each side of all of the posts in the room. I'm hoping that I don't have the same freezing problem this year.

In order to be even more insulated, I've just finished the plastic on my windows. I have 5 new windows in my place - upstairs. But there are a total of 8 old windows. These are old windows where I have to slide the screen up and a second pane of glass down in the winter. Yet, cold air still blows into my house. I've done the plastic trick each year and it seems to help. I also do passive solar heating, meaning I open the blinds during the day and close them at night. This works especially well since I have a southern exposure in 80% of the windows. Here's a photo of my handy work.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I was visiting friends from grad school. It was fun, the food delicious and the chance to catch up wonderful. But, I ended up driving quite a bit; I must give a shout out to the toll transponders... what an awesome invention.

Sometimes I wish...

I was a food blogger. I made a delicious dinner tonight. Simple whitefish with lemon and herbs accompanied by orange-glazed brussels (is that "s" at the end really correct?) sprouts and carrots. There is also some Arborio rice cooked in broth which was left over from last night but made a nice addition to the plate. Here's a picture:
(Okay, so I'm not the best food photographer, but it was delicious.) This is my first attempt at cooking fish in parchment paper. I've always wanted to try that but never had. It turned out quite nicely. And I must say it's a little funny that I just had parchment paper lying around. I can't remember what I purchased it for, but there it was in the cabinet just waiting to be used.

Otherwise, I had a fun day. I slept a lot last night. I needed it. This morning, I worked on an assignment for my students. I am about half way finished. I need to do some of the calculations myself before deciding exactly what I will ask them to do. That can wait until tomorrow morning. This afternoon, I did my part to stimulate the economy. I shopped and shopped some more. I had some brilliant ideas for holiday gifts for friends and family. And so I got a significant amount of gift buying done. It was fun. I sometimes need some retail therapy, even if I'm not buying things for myself.

Blooms

I have been neglecting my blog recently. I have been busy at work and in my personal life. But many of the things that have been happening are not things I want to blog about or I feel like I can't blog about them (especially when it comes to interactions with students). Things are blooming around here. It's especially nice since there's a chill in the air on some days. Here are a few recent blooms:
I think my cacti must be Thanksgiving cacti. They bloomed at about the same time last year. I'm looking forward to the white blooms opening on the mixed cactus. See the coral and pink flowers above. You might also be able to spot a white bud or three that haven't yet opened. The larger cactus (entirely pink) is in full bloom. It's lovely.
These were a big surprise. There was a dozen but I didn't think to snap a photo until some of them were a little droopy. They are absolutely beautiful. And even a few weeks later now, 1 or 2 of them still look great! I have them in the cut out between my kitchen and dining room. I can gaze at them while I do the dishes.