Seeing things in a bad light

I'm working on reducing our energy consumption around the house.
I've been walking around turning off lights and unneeded appliances and I've got programmable theromostats delivering heat to only the parts of the house where there are people. The fact that we're having a remarkably warm January makes me hopeful that we'll save enough on natural gas consumption to offset the post-Katrina price hikes.
And slowly but surely I'm replacing the most heavily used lightbulbs with the spring-shaped fluourescent bulbs that deliver lots of illumination for much less electricity.
Maria discovered from her quilting sources that there's a color-correct daylight version of these high efficiency bulbs. We bought one for her quilting table lamp and another for a lamp in the parlor where she quilts while watching TV. She loves them and swears she can see better and with greater color accuracy.
So when I was at the Home Depot yesterday afternoon looking to pick up a few more replacement bulbs, I snarfed up a three-pack of Commercial Electric Daylight Lamps, rated at 90 watts of illumination, but only drawing 23 watts of power.
I decided the three-light ceiling fan fixture over the kitchen table was probably getting the most use of any conventionally bulbed light in the house, so I replaced its three 60 watt bulbs with the new Daylight Lamps.
I hadn't anticipated there would be such a difference from a combined 180 watts of illumination to 270 watts. The color quality was quite unexpected at this intensity as well.
This end of the kitchen now looks like it's being lit by one of those mercury vapor outdoor security lights. It certainly doesn't feel like daylight - too much blue/purple. And it makes the can-mounted floods on the other end of the kitchen look positively yellow.
I also noticed a warm-up period for these bulbs. They come on a little dim and build to their full intensity over a period of about 30 seconds or so.
Rather than evoking the warmth of natural sunlight, the quality of the light strikes me as stark and cold. In fact, it's making me feel a little queasy. Daylight? On what planet?
Maybe the non-daylight 60 watt version of the energy saving bulb would be a better fit for the kitchen table. I can install the 90s in seldom-used living room lamps and derive my advertised $201 in energy savings that way.