Where’s the heat?
Hey good morning everyone!
Hope you all had a great weekend! I must admit my apartment troubles turned worse after we last blogged on Friday! (see Doorknob entry below…) The landlord did fix the doorknob, but the trade-off was NO HEAT! We went heat-less for much of the weekend – until Sunday when we got the living-room radiators working, but the bedroom remained icy cold. Considering we never went above the freezing mark on Saturday, we could pretty much see our breath in the bedroom. When the official “heating guy” showed up (not sure of his official title – I was too cold to care), he said that the whole system needed to be replaced. Lovely. Ahh the fun of living in Manhattan…I’m just thankful that my son is still warm and cozy right now, and we didn’t have to deal with this after he makes his official “landfall!”
At any rate, we do have a bit of a warm-up (relatively speaking) today here in the Northeast ahead of another system that’s currently bringing more snow across the Great Lakes. The associated cold front with this storm stretches all the way down to the Gulf Coast, and will bring rain over the Tennessee River Valley, the Southeast and the Midatlantic tomorrow.
And a big change is on the way for California as a system moves in tonight and tomorrow bringing with it some rain that will linger across this region into Thanksgiving. I’ll have a “Travel Forecast” for you later on today.
I also wanted to pass along NOAA’s official winter outlook December through February. Nothing too earth-shattering, but I know a few people have asked what kind of season we’re in for, so here’s the forecast, and the article that goes along with it. (You can click on the diagram to enlarge it)
That’s about all for now…Happy to be warm and cozy in my office right now! 
Hey Janice,
I’m sorry you had heat problems on top of your door knob problems–that stinks! I would hate being without heat in this weather! I hope you can get things repaired quickly. To illustrate how cold it’s been around here–when it got up to 41 degrees yesterday I thought it felt warm! It got cold again last night and it’s cloudy now so it’s back to being ugly. I hope it warms up quickly today or else the rain they’re calling for will fall as some form of frozen precipitation. I’m supposed to go out to lunch with a friend and it looks like the rain should arrive just in time for that!
I hope you have a good day today and that you get your heat fixed so you’ll be nice and toasty warm! I want both you and your son to be nice and warm! Hang in there (have some chocolate or some other yummy treat!)
Margie
I think I’ll have some hot chocolate before I head home Margie, and yes, 40 degrees does seem downright balmy compared to Saturday’s frost!
Ohhh Janice…what a miserable way to spend the weekend….it was very cold out and I hate the cold pain that goes with that…hope that aggrivation is resolved and behind you….
(Guillaume….the articles were how warning signs with the economic melt down were present but ignored….not clear if it was a state of denial or a state of not caring….I compared it to allowing a very drunk friend t drive after a heavy night of partying….allowing them to get behind the wheel of a car and get on a busy highway only to cause a very large multiple car pile up….)
There were lots of blankets, and space heaters. It was warmer in the hallways of our building! Hopefully they’ll fix soon!
Good Morning All!
Janice, your weekend woes sound just like the things that always seem to happen to we military wives as soon as our husbands go overseas. It’s pretty typical that something will break, break down, leak or otherwise fall apart when you feel least equipped to deal with it – kind of a military murphy’s law! I hope they get your heat fixed soon – at least it sounds like you have a landlord who responds quickly to problems.
Here’s a cute break video to cheer you up. The link was sent to me by my mom and is entitled, “Why The Printer Doesn’t Work.”
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/PerthPurplePenguin/vids/?action=view¤t=cvUMHvLZ.flvad
Have a good day, Friends!
I couldn’t get to the video Gina! Do you have another link?
Just sent a message that probably hit the spam filter, probably because I included a link to a very funny pet video. Hopefully Janice can rescue it!
Had a really nice weekend at the wedding. It was so emotional, in a good way. The young woman is a very dear friend who we love like family. She met her fiance about a year ago and we fell in love with him too, so it was a very joyous occasion. She and I spend alot of time together and I’m often asked if she’s my daughter – I always say, “No, her mother won’t let me have her!” So, we are thrilled that she has found a loving mate to share the rest of her life with.
As I mentioned before, we just happened to stay in a hotel next to an outlet mall and I must say there were lots of good deals. Seemed like the markdowns that normally occur after the holidays were available now. We spent about two hundred dollars on clothes – I got three tops and my husband got two dress shirts and two tee shirts from Eddie Bauer. I got three dressy tops from Chicos and some “unmentionables” at the Hanes outlet as well. Now, technically we were supposed to be Christmas shopping, but not even one gift was actually purchased. Oh well, we had good intentions!
Have a fabulous day everyone – I’m often to buy a Turkey, gobble gobble!!!
I wish I could do the outlet malls right now! It’s one of my favorite things to do, but these days I’m lucky I can waddle to and from a taxi!
(Guillaume…these were the stories I was referring to)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/22/AR2008112202213.html?hpid=topnews
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/economy/17gramm.html?bl&ex=1227070800&en=0fd3c2f76367617a&ei=5087
I was just so angry that very real and serious warning signs were completely ignored…Whether out of ignorance or down right “not giving a damn”
Gina,
Amen to your military Murphy’s law. It seemed that every time my husband left, whether it was for a few weeks or a few months, something broke or quit working, or we had an ice storm or hurricane and were without power. It just never failed that as soon as his plane took off, something went wrong at home.
JD,
Hope you get the heat fixed soon. It’s no fun to be without heat, especially on cold wintery days. I’d been closely watching the NYC weather since my friends were up there this weekend. So I know you were really cold. Like you say, glad the little weather guy was warm and bundled up for the weekend.
Hope everyone has a really good day!
Gwen
Hey Gwen and Gina — Thank goodness my husband was home for part of the weekend to help with the heat situation — but you’re right — many times when things have broken down he’s been working a 24 hour shift!
Hey Janice…
Yikes..it sounds like a miserable weekend with no heat!! That had to be rough…I’m glad you have warmed up, and hopefully get your system in winter working order. I have an electric heat pump central system, a space heater I use when it’s real cold, and my gel can fireplace when I want some fire heat. In other words, I hate being cold!!
It’s been raining here all morning…and a bit chilly too.
I will be on granny-duty in the afternoon for awhile. My grandson’’s daycare closed, so I will be picking him up at Headstart and bringing him to my house until his mom gets in from work. I am actually looking forward to it..he is a sweetie. And his favorite word right now is “Why?”..Why everything!!
Have a great Monday…and a warm one!
Deb
Hey Deb! At least his favorite word is not “NO!”
I think that’s a hard one to tackle!
Ha, JD..that’s his second fav word!
And every toy he sees on TV..he says “I want that for Christmas”..he now has a very very long list.
Hey gang,
I just came back from lunch. It’s such a lovely day with snow, sleet, and rain. The temperature is hovering right around freezing so that’s not good. It’s supposed to get up to 44 today but I don’t see that happening. At least I have heat!
I’ll see if this link sends my post to the spam filter–the health system has posted all kinds of great holiday information on the web site. I did a section on holiday food safety and healthy eating and there is also stuff on stress management and all kinds of holiday safety stuff. If you want to check it out, here’s the link:
http://www.wmhs.com/for%20your%20health/holsafe/holsaferoot.cfm
Stay warm everyone!
Margie
Somehow I knew my streak of successfully posting links would come to an end and the spam filter sucked up my last one. Stay tuned folks because there’s a link there for great holiday stress management tips, healthy eating and all kinds of safety stuff.
Hey Deb,
Your grandson sounds like my niece. For the kid who has everything, she always winds up wanting something else! I guess I should start thinking about what I’m going to get the kids for Christmas. I want to get them things they like. We shall see…
Margie
Hey Margie,
It is pouring rain and real yucky here too..temp is 47.. I am fixin to grab my umbrella and head out the door. And do I ever hate driving in rain.
Thanks for the link..I’ll read up on it later this evening..
Hope you have a great day in-spite of the nasty weather conditions.
Gotta go, Granny-duty begins..
Deb
Well that’s just weird, I as able to see the video link I posted earlier directly from my mom’s email, but guess they want you to join the website if you link otherwise. It was basically a cat who is transfixed by the operation of a printer. He swats at it and gets up on his hind legs when the paper is coming out like he wants to pounce (and has that wild-eyed look cats get too) then at the end he wops the printer with his paw, BAM BAM BAM, and paper — and the cat — go flying.
Got my turkey thawing in the fridge and now I’m having such a fun time doing piles of laundry accumulated from our trip and the mountain of dirty clothes my son managed to create while we were gone. I must give him credit though, he cleaned up his dishes and straightened up so I didn’t come home to a complete wreck of a house. His room? Another story. I’ve been pretending that it isn’t actually part of our house, I just close the door and label it his “college dorm room” in my head since that’s what it would be if he’d gone away to school.
I ended up with a 20 lb. turkey, by the way, and that was one of the smaller ones they had. I got a Butterball, but all the turkeys, including the store brands, were HUGE this year. The first one I picked up was 30 lbs!! Looks like I’ll have lots of leftovers for sandwiches and the turkey a la king I always make, served over the leftover dressing.
How about a little survey?? I make sweet potato casserole every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas. My husband pouts if there aren’t miniature marshmellows melted on top. I know other people prefer a brownsugar and nut topping. What’s your vote??
Gina I vote brown sugar and nuts
I’m not found of marshmellow in general except toasted over a campfire…smores..or peanutbutter and fluff sandwiches…(with a diet cherry coke!)
Other than that no thanks
I’m in charge of the green bean casserole for Thanksgiving dinner and was just asked to bring something for the post Mass coffee gathering Thrus morning ….gonna do a sticky buns contraption thingy for that I think…..hope it turns out ok..getting things in and out of the oven can be a bit of a hazard :I
Hey Gina,
I have to be honest and say that I’m not a sweet potato person. I love mashed potatoes! If I liked sweet potatoes I’d probably go for the brown sugar and nut topping even though I love marshmallows. Marshmallows are a better dessert item.
It sounds like you’ll have plenty of turkey for Thanksgiving. Twenty pounds is a lot of bird! I hope you have a great time.
Thanks for the description of that video. It sounds like it was a hoot. I’m sorry the link didn’t work, but your description was great.
Have a great week.
Margie
Hey Gina..
I love sweet tater casserole..and all of the above topping sounds good to me(yeah, all 3)…or you could do a half and half and then everybody is happy.
Hey Margie and Dawn, I vote for nuts and brown sugar too!!!LOL I told you, it’s my Husband who likes the marshmellows. But frankly, the nuts and brown sugar aren’t important enough to put up with the aforementioned pouting, so marshmellows it is!!
Good luck with the sticky buns, Dawn. The oven has always been a hazard for me, I regularly burn myself when I take food out. I’ve been cooking for over 30 years now – you’d think I could manage it without maiming myself. I bet it’s a challenge to get the oven door down and food out while keeping your chair out of the way. When I was outlet shopping at one of those gourmet kitchen store I saw these huge oven mitts made out of silicone – maybe that’s what we need. I think I’d need a pair that comes up to my elbows!
LOL. Deb, you’re half and half idea might be just the ticket for the “taters”!!
Oh Janice, you don’t want me to start my rant about the heat in NY!!!!
This is one of the issues I would NEVER ever understand about our beloved city: the HEATING system.
In 17 years of my New york life, I never had a decent regular heater at home!
And none of my friends had.
From fancy loft in Soho to small studio in the East Village to brand new luxury condos in Battery Park City , heat as ALWAYS been an issue: either super noisy or excessively hot with no control…or no heat at all when it breaks down – which occur more often than we expect!
The perfect inconsistency.
I will never understand!
Even two weeks ago I didn’t have any heat in my bedroom while the rest of the heaters in the apartment worked.
So I complained and I complained but in vain.
I finally bought a small heater with oil (the safest one from the well-known Italian brand) which works perfectly (blankets were not enough as I have many drafts EVEN THOUGH they did replace the windows last year!) and sure enough, four days after I got my new acquisition, the standard heater in my room worked again..but WAY too much!
I’m dried up every morning!
I remember when I used to lived in Little Italy when I first moved here, the heat was so extreme that I spent my time inside in shorts and tee-shirts all winter long!
So just like for the subway, Janice, heaters drama are part – alas – of the New York reality routine!!!
Hope your landlord is going to act fast and responsively and pay for everything.
Guillaume
Thank your for the links Dawn!
I found the one in the NYT to be particularly interesting.
But to be fair, I do believe many persons – included president Clinton – got it wrong and didn’t realize the consequences of what they signed or were hoping for.
Something I’ve been complaining (at least to AN through emails) in the last two years is the lack of realistic point of view when it comes to the economic/financial situation.
I understand it’s not always easy to interpret early signs, even for professionals -
economy is very complex indeed – but I wish more economist had spoken up earlier.
For instance I often wondered about the weakness of the dollar. I understand not everybody can be concerned as I am (it has been so painful to go back to Europe when you have dollars!) and I always wanted to know if this was just a random consequence of the free market or a voluntary policy of our government; I asked many times but in vain.
Luckily, the other day, Steve Forbes was interviewed on AN and he mentioned the weak dollar and seemed to indicate it was part of a policy. Bill got actually surprised this issue hasn’t been more widely talked about.
By the way, Dawn, there was an interesting editorial last Thursday in the NYT about the electoral college, its origins in history and its relevancy today (I remember we talked about it!).
Guillaume