about ten years ago I got a new set of pots and hung them up on the kitchen wall…
over the last year I have replaced a few of them and the new pans fit well on the original screws…
except for the lid for one of the new pots… it was just a bit too close to the bottom of the largest pan… my solution had been to hang the lid on top of the pot it worked with…
yesterday morning I decided to move the screw with my new Christmas screwdriver…
it was a bit of a process, as I had to find the correct bit, and figure out how to reverse the direction on the screwdriver, lol…
took about ten minutes total and now the lid finally has its own spot again…
interesting how some days those big girl pants fit so well…
many people start their New Year’s Day with a cold plunge;-)…
I like to start with a hot tub… it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, there wasn’t much wind, and the chickadees were busy at the feeders…
a lovely way to begin the year…
I took out the fancy selfie stick and set it up to get a photo of me in the tub, even though Google told me it felt like -20° Celsius… which it didn’t, lol…
I did look at the plunge tub for a hot second as I walked past it, lol… if my housemate had been home I might have gone in…
New Year’s Eve hasn’t been a big deal for the last few years… in fact, I’ve slept through it a few times, lol…
usually I’ve had a dark haired person to first-foot the house on New Year’s Day, but this year no one with dark hair was available… currently my hair is gray but in my earlier days it was a dark brown;-)…
I did some research and discovered I could first-foot myself as long as I was out of the house before midnight…
I also learned about the tradition of opening the backdoor to let out any bad vibes and then opening the front door to let in the good…
so I packed up my little bag of goodies, opened the back door to leave the house just before midnight and left it open for a few minutes…
then I went into the garage and out the big door, walked up the driveway and watched some fireworks across the creek for a few minutes before entering the house through the front door… the doorbell camera caught me as I entered;-)…
the tradition is supposed to be a tall, dark haired man, but really, I have had a few women do this cause why not…
my bag held a candy cane, heel of bread, an orange, 3 pieces of charcoal, a little bottle of Baileys, and a cookie…
it was fun to have the actual charcoal, because that is what my dad procured just before New Year’s each year to add to the little bags that he distributed to family and friends just after midnight;-)…
I did laugh when I discovered that I did the same thing last year, although on New Year’s Day morning, lol…
on Thursday the blue screen of death showed up on the laptop…
apparently on Monday, when the camera kept failing during our video call, it was a harbinger of the computer’s end of life…
I spent quite a bit of time on Friday morning searching for the sales slip from January 2nd, 2020, when I purchased it in Ottawa, without success… I did find the record in my credit card statements, but after contacting Best Buy, discovered there was no extended warranty…
did some research and went to Best Buy… had a plan to purchase the same computer, but an updated version…
in the end I found a slightly higher quality machine and was happy they actually had it in the store… after consulting with my two computer geeks, brought it home and we spent time in the afternoon getting it filled with all “the stuff” I need…
the old machine fit beautifully into the box the new one came in, and will take a trip to my son-in-law to see if he is able to save anything on it…
I had some fun in the evening doing some personalization and making it my own, lol…
it will be interesting to see what I forgot I needed, lol…
yesterday morning the furnace people arrived around 8 am, just when they said they would… the temp had made it up to 18°C…
people came and went, bits and pieces were removed and then the new high efficiency furnace made it into the basement after tarps were laid down to protect the stairs… Harry worked all day, with helpers coming and going as needed…
it took two of them to get the heavy oldie out of the house…
I was out for the afternoon and when I arrived home the temperature was at a toasty 20°C…
the basement was perfectly clean, all of the bits and pieces which had gone into the backyard were gone and the vents had been raised so the snow shouldn’t be a problem in the future…
and this pretty thing was snuggled into the space… reminds me a bit of Barbie, the barbecue;-)…
I am very pleased with the whole process and would happily recommend M1 Mechanical for furnace replacement or repair…
the furnace has been misbehaving for nearly six weeks…
it started when my Nest app advised that the furnace had been off a number of times over a few weeks starting early in November and suggested I be in touch with a technician… this had never happened before…
I contacted the usual company and they said as long as it was working they couldn’t tell what was wrong… they booked me for an annual maintenance appointment which wasn’t until December…
since the beginning of December I have listened to the furnace starting and stopping close together, a sound which was certainly new… different from previous problems when it had stopped due to snow plugging the vents…
when the technician came for the annual checkup they advised that the furnace needed to be replaced… apparently it is 37 years old… it was working fine while they were here although it was doing a bit of the on-and-off business…
I called another company for a second opinion and on Friday they agreed that it needed to be replaced before too long…
Saturday when I got up, the temperature was 14.5° Celsius and it took hours for it to even start raising the temperature in the house… I was worried it had finally stopped;-(… eventually it made it to 17° C… Sunday it stayed around that temperature…
Monday it was down to 16° C and was quite chilly, lol… I called and a new install was scheduled for Wednesday…
Tuesday, it was 14.5°C when I got up… I raised the dial on the thermometer to 32° and it took a very long time to start to warm up…
then it got too hot, but I was afraid to lower the temperature in case it stopped working again… eventually I lowered it to 22 before bed…
this morning in my Advent box I received a kaleidoscope of butterflies…
I love that name for a group of butterflies;-)…
some of them had broken free of their original home and had stuck themselves all over the inside of the box… it took a bit of time to get them all out, lol…
the glue on them is just down the centre of each one so their wings raise up a bit and they do look as though they are fluttering…
I put them on the bathroom mirror and they look very sweet there…
we will see if they stay or flutter to the ground as there isn’t much stickiness to them;-)…
herbiggirlpants 