All tangled up in the eggs ...

In spite of telling myself I'd drive every day for a while so I get used to it, I didn't drive again until today when I went to Ikea to pick something up for Brandon 'cuz my vehicle has more cargo space than his ... and that amuses me to no end.

Barbara, Anailese and I went to Pat's sister's place for dinner with her and her family on Monday. Pat's nephew talked his Mom into letting him play Clan Lord so she talked me into going out there to help him get started. Danny very much misses his uncle, so we play and talk about him. I e-mailed Delta Tao's Nancy from Cathy's house before dinner and we had a serial number to plug in by the time dinner was done.

Both the city inspector and the VerdaTech inspector came on Tuesday. The new furnace and water heater passed the city's inspection, and the VerdaTech guy checked the place out for the EnerGuide for Houses program. I was hoping for more suggestions than I got, but he said I was already doing a lot of the stuff they recommend. I need twenty more centimetres of cellulose in the attic for R20. He recommended capping the old chimney, since the gas fireplace draws and vents out the side of the house. He said that the guys who installed the furnace and hot water tank didn't seal around the exhaust pipes very well and that I should call them back in to do it right. He recommended foam baffle dealies for the plug-ins and light switches on the exterior walls. My toes found a draught under the linen closet door and after a thorough search, we found that there's a ten centimetre gap above the door on the inside, so attic air comes in that way. So I do whichever of these things I'm going to in the next year and a half (the furnace and water tank will count toward this, as I've just had them done) and call them back to do a second inspection, then they file for a grant for me. Short of peeling the outside of my house and adding cellulose insulation under pressure, I haven't much hope of bringing the exterior walls up to code. That may happen some day, but not soon.

Brandon came for Tuesday Night Dinner And A Movie On Wednesday last night. I made a kind of channa alu matar butter masala thingy and brown rice. It was pretty good, but the sauce wasn't what I was going for. We watched Brad Pitt In A Dress. Yummy. Actually, it was pretty durned good (aside from the absurd fake accents ... why does Hollywood think that fake English accents sound more historical?).

Neige is amusing himself in Japan trading cooking with the Taiwanese girls. He wows them with crêpes and they cook various things for him. He gave me his crêpe recipe the other day. I especially liked the part about mixing everything 'til the four is all tangled up in the eggs. His description makes so much more sense than any other recipe I've ever read for them. I want to try making them soon so I can make Crêpes Florentine.

Mona just left me a one-sentence recipe for an amazing-sounding cauliflower soup that I'm going to try soon, too. I probably won't serve it with raisin bread, though.

I have a rescheduled date tomorrow afternoon with my Dawn Chicken and Hugh to tie-dye a couple of white T-shirts he was given by someone.

Stuff and Nonsense ...

Daylight:

Length of day: 9:49
Hours of dark: 13:00ish
Sunrise: 8:23 am
Sunset: 6:12 pm
Start of twilight: 7:47 am
End of twilight: 6:48 pm

Current weather: Mostly Cloudy. 2°C (36°F), humidity 90%, wind ESE 8 km/h (5 mph.), barometer 29.54 in. Hg

Forecast:

Tonight.. A few clouds. Low -2°C (28°F).
Friday.. Sunny. High 6°C (43°F).
Saturday.. A mix of sun and cloud. Low -3°C (27°F). High 10°C (50°F).
Sunday.. Cloudy with 70% chance of showers. Windsy. Low -3°C (27°F). High 5°C (41°F).
Monday.. Sunny. Low -5°C (23°F). High 5°C (41°F).
Normals for the period.. Low -5°C (23°F). High 8°C (46°F).