January 20, 2008

Sunday And Gloomy

One of my favorite day of the week is Sunday, its a weekend, no rush waking up, no rush going somewhere. But when I opened the Weather Channel this morning the forecast for our area is gonna be raining for the rest of the week, supposedly starting tommorrow Monday and up to around Thursday. But i think the rain storm is moving in early, because it looks cold and dark outside with all the rain clouds moving in already here in northern CA. There is no sign of the blue sky nor the sun, just gray sky in sight.

But on the brighter side, we are not going somewhere today, we can just relax, watch TV, or do some blogging. We have leftover spaghetti sauce from the other night, and some Round Table King Arthur Supreme Pizza from last night, so its gonna be a tasteful meal without having to go through a lot of work cooking. I just need to boil some water and cook some spaghetti noodles to go with the left-over sauce. Might have to eat the spaghetti meal first because its older compare to the pizza and i think spaghetti sauce cannot be stored very long time even when refrigerated, or its gonna spoil.

Normally, when we prepare spaghetti sauce, we take note of the cooking date to make sure that we know how long its been in the refrigerator. When its more than 4-7 days old, we usually dont use it anymore, I am not certain the shelf-life of spaghetti sauce, but sometimes its always better to be safe than sorry, having it set for so long in the refrigerator might be unhealthy, so its important that you know the date of cooking so you can decide when its too old to eat anymore.

January 12, 2008

Warm Air In And Cold Air Out

During winter times, we usually keep the heater on whole day. Many households have automatic timers for their heater nowadays so that it will automatically turn on and off according to the specified temperature. But even if we have heaters, fireplaces, gas heater, and/or wood burning stove on most days during winter or cold season, there is no excuse why we should waste heat energy and not be economical about our heat resources. To save some on your electricity bill, gas, wood, or wood pellets, trying to make your home warm this season, there are some things that we can do to make the house warm and stay warm:

Windows Closed Tight. If possible, dont open the windows because it will be wide route for the warm air in the house to escape right away, and you are allowing the cold air outside to go into the house easier, which would make the house colder faster everytime you often the windows. If you have blinds and drapes in your window, it would be better if you close them to so that it will help block the cold even more. Drapes with lining works the best in blocking the cold in the window, and keeping the warm air in.

Open Doors Only When Needed. Just like the windows, doors are big opening that will easily allow warm air to escape and let the cold air to get in. Try to minimize opening the door all the time, only open them when you needed to, and dont let it open too long because it will only take few minutes for the air to escape, and before you know it, you need to turn your heater up again, eating more energy.

Temporary Seal Unused Vents. For example, if you are using the wood burning stove, not the central electric heater in the house, then you might want to try to cover the heater vents (only if they are in used), specially if they are run through the areas in your house that are not insulated, and the vent is not wrapped with insulation. Non-insulated heater vents that have direct exposure to the temperature outside, and is connected directly to several rooms of the house, will be another way for cold air to get through inside.

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