96 Honda Civic running hot at idle.?

[jezuzgirl]

When my car idles the temp starts to go up, and if i raise the idle the temp falls back down where it usually runs, just under half way point on the gage. The motor Idles low, under 1rpm. I've checked to see if the fan is coming on and I have seen it running, but don't know if its running when its supposed to or as long as it's supposed to. I just took out the thermostat and dropped it in a pan of boiling water and it opened so I'm guessing its not that, like I thought it was. The other day before starting it, I made sure there was enough coolant in it. I let it run a while, and when the top hose felt hot, the bottom one didn't. The bottom hose actually didn't feel like it was full of water either (I don't know if its supposed to or not), and the fan didn't come on but the temp gage didn't go up either. The radiator is new, the thermostat is pretty new, this is driving me crazy. There is no water in the oil, and i'm not losing it out the exhaust so I crossed cracked head or bad gasket off the list. I am tempted to leave the thermostat out, but would have to eventually put one back in for winter to get my heater to work. I am trying to fix this by myself. Any help would be appreciated. Feel free to email me with anything I have left out, or point me to any forums that have answers. Thanks so much