I haven't been ignoring you, dear Webbers.

The Herald-News copy desk go hit -- nay, smacked down -- by the flu for about a month. We all took turns feeling like death warmed over. So in addition to being slowed by recovering or oncoming sickness, we had to fill in for whoever was currently feverish. Not conducive to blogging.

Then, I had a week of vacation. Woo-hoo, right?

Wrong. First my car broke down, followed by my iPod, my furnace and my space heater.

It's getting to where I don't want to touch anything.

The upside of the furnace is that we're finally letting our 20-year-old Heil furnace go toward the light. It's an inefficient beast. It began rumbling like it was going to explode on Friday night. My amazing heating & air-conditioning guy had the new one working at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

This is one of those cases were reusing wasn't the best option. The Heil is so inefficient, and involves long drives to get parts. We just jumped from 60 percent efficiency to 80 percent. Yay us, yay earth.

Why isn't green girl getting an Energy Star number?

• I'm eco green, not made-of-money green. That's a HUGE investment that would never pay off in my hovel.


• Hovel=small. Apparently the 90-percent plus efficiency guys are just too much for my tiny abode. It's like putting a hot-rod engine on your moped. Ain't gonna' be pretty.

So tonight, I won't freeze and I won't have to cringe every time the furnace comes on because the neighbors won't be able to hear the object of my shame anymore.