We need new windows

When I got up this morning and went out to feed the cat, I noticed something odd when I pushed aside the little kitchen curtains. Ice.

Solid ice, maybe half an inch thick, on the window, INSIDE the house. Now I realize that it got down to -4 degrees last night (per the NCAR website). And we have old crummy windows, and lots of condensation forms on them inside the house. But I'd never seen ice before.

Here's the twins' window:

And the window in the office (which is also cracked):

The only windows in the house that aren't 60 years old are the bathroom window:

No ice. And the living room windows:

Ice, but all outside. Also Jack Frost left some pretty patterns on the outside of the windows. (Baby A: "Who is Jack Frost?" Me: "He's an imaginary person who comes at night and draws pictures on the windows." Baby A: "Is he invisible?" Me: "Well, he's imaginary." Baby A: "What does imaginary mean?" Me: (almost said "Like Santa Claus," but caught myself in time) "Oh, never mind.")

So we have this wonderfully efficient new furnace, but our windows are so bad that ice forms on the inside. I realize that it's partly because we have shades and curtains on the windows, so not much heat reaches them at night. But still. The kitchen window only has skimpy cotton curtains, no shades. And ice, thick ice, formed on them too during the night. Soooo not good.

Still, it's beautiful today, with the sun out. This is what the mountains looked like this morning, rising up to the west of us: