For living in a relatively modern house/apartment, it sure is cold in here in winter. I've known the culprit for years, I just never got around to fixing it: Crappy weather seal on my crappy door. My front door is actually a set of double doors, which are poorly-installed (the frame is crooked) and warped (impressive feat for metal doors). So, the center doesn't seal properly. Additionally, the scrapers on the bottom of the door are practically gone, especially toward the center of the pair. Thus, most of the seals around the doors either don't actually contact the doors, or they've been worn away so badly that they're non-existant, leaving most of the seals so useless that light is actually visible through them.
But, through a combination of laziness and cheapness, I've never bothered to fix this. Plus, by the time it frustrated me enough to do it (last winter, when I worked from home), I had my mind set to move and didn't expect to be here another winter. Since it's looking like I'll be stuck here again, especially if I get the new job I applied for, I decided to go ahead and fix it.
It took me about a full day to acquire all the materials and actually do the work, but at long last, my door nearly has a proper weather seal. There are two trouble-spots left, which I can take care of with some stick-on weatherstrip, but the main problems (under and between the doors) have been fixed. It's kinda nice to not have cold air rushing under the door in sufficient volume to freeze water (seriously, I tried that last year, a bottle of water half-froze when I set it in the entryway on a cold night); aside from the aforementioned trouble-spots, there's no airflow around the door at all! I have to dead-bolt the door to maintain a good seal (the doorknob's receiver hole is loose enough to give over a quarter-inch of play), but since the lock on the doorknob is practically unusable, I usually do that anyway.
Unfortunately, mom is still convinced that space heaters are cheaper on the electric bill than running the heat pump, and she still insists on running her high-output electric fireplace within 10 feet of the only thermostat in the house. But, one little heater now seems to be able to heat my entire office/living room, where it previously could only keep the area immediately surrounding my desk warm (and even that was a stretch on a really cold night). So, this is acceptable.
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Completely unrelated, but this summer, Foxcub introduced me to pho, a lovely meat-and-noodle soup from Vietnam. And, I loved it, especially for lunch. I managed to get some every time I went up to visit Fox, sometimes twice in one trip, but I didn't really have a place to get it where I live.
Recently, it occurred to me that Harrisonburg has a Vietnamese restaurant (Saigon Cafe) that I've never been to, but they've been open since '96, so presumably they're making enough business to stay around. I tried to get someone to go there with me, since I hate eating alone, but no one local wanted to try it (wusses), so I went there for lunch and had some pho. And, it wasn't just "good", it was by far the best pho I'd ever had! It was even the best soup I'd ever had, it was that awesome.
I finally managed to get mom there to try it, and despite her reluctance, she tried some chicken stir-fry that she quite liked. Since mom liked it, and our collection of restaurants to go to with grandma (like we do every weekend) is small and constantly dwindling with grandma's pickyness, I wanted to get grandma there to try it.
Yesterday, I talked them into doing that for dinner, since it's a parent weekend for JMU, and all the other restaurants would be packed (plus, Saigon Cafe is away from most other businesses in town). Mom and grandma both got some sort of salmon dish, which they both loved! Grandma even described it multiple times as the best salmon she'd ever had. Awesome :-)
As for me? I tried a beef and ginger stir-fry instead of my usual pho. And, it was literally one of the best meals I've ever had in my entire life. It surpassed everything, it was mind-blowingly, orgasmically, delicious.
So, I pretty much have a new favourite local restaurant. I'm not sure why I've never been there before, aside from being afraid of trying something new (common in my family, I try to be better about it than the others), but I'm glad I discovered it. There's a tasty chinese restaurant here we used to go to all the time, but I'm not in a hurry to go there anymore; Saigon Cafe has better food, a wider variety of stuff I like, more sensible portions, and it's cheaper. Awesome :-)
But, through a combination of laziness and cheapness, I've never bothered to fix this. Plus, by the time it frustrated me enough to do it (last winter, when I worked from home), I had my mind set to move and didn't expect to be here another winter. Since it's looking like I'll be stuck here again, especially if I get the new job I applied for, I decided to go ahead and fix it.
It took me about a full day to acquire all the materials and actually do the work, but at long last, my door nearly has a proper weather seal. There are two trouble-spots left, which I can take care of with some stick-on weatherstrip, but the main problems (under and between the doors) have been fixed. It's kinda nice to not have cold air rushing under the door in sufficient volume to freeze water (seriously, I tried that last year, a bottle of water half-froze when I set it in the entryway on a cold night); aside from the aforementioned trouble-spots, there's no airflow around the door at all! I have to dead-bolt the door to maintain a good seal (the doorknob's receiver hole is loose enough to give over a quarter-inch of play), but since the lock on the doorknob is practically unusable, I usually do that anyway.
Unfortunately, mom is still convinced that space heaters are cheaper on the electric bill than running the heat pump, and she still insists on running her high-output electric fireplace within 10 feet of the only thermostat in the house. But, one little heater now seems to be able to heat my entire office/living room, where it previously could only keep the area immediately surrounding my desk warm (and even that was a stretch on a really cold night). So, this is acceptable.
=============
Completely unrelated, but this summer, Foxcub introduced me to pho, a lovely meat-and-noodle soup from Vietnam. And, I loved it, especially for lunch. I managed to get some every time I went up to visit Fox, sometimes twice in one trip, but I didn't really have a place to get it where I live.
Recently, it occurred to me that Harrisonburg has a Vietnamese restaurant (Saigon Cafe) that I've never been to, but they've been open since '96, so presumably they're making enough business to stay around. I tried to get someone to go there with me, since I hate eating alone, but no one local wanted to try it (wusses), so I went there for lunch and had some pho. And, it wasn't just "good", it was by far the best pho I'd ever had! It was even the best soup I'd ever had, it was that awesome.
I finally managed to get mom there to try it, and despite her reluctance, she tried some chicken stir-fry that she quite liked. Since mom liked it, and our collection of restaurants to go to with grandma (like we do every weekend) is small and constantly dwindling with grandma's pickyness, I wanted to get grandma there to try it.
Yesterday, I talked them into doing that for dinner, since it's a parent weekend for JMU, and all the other restaurants would be packed (plus, Saigon Cafe is away from most other businesses in town). Mom and grandma both got some sort of salmon dish, which they both loved! Grandma even described it multiple times as the best salmon she'd ever had. Awesome :-)
As for me? I tried a beef and ginger stir-fry instead of my usual pho. And, it was literally one of the best meals I've ever had in my entire life. It surpassed everything, it was mind-blowingly, orgasmically, delicious.
So, I pretty much have a new favourite local restaurant. I'm not sure why I've never been there before, aside from being afraid of trying something new (common in my family, I try to be better about it than the others), but I'm glad I discovered it. There's a tasty chinese restaurant here we used to go to all the time, but I'm not in a hurry to go there anymore; Saigon Cafe has better food, a wider variety of stuff I like, more sensible portions, and it's cheaper. Awesome :-)
