Jan 14 - go figure !

Sandy brought down two of the "hugger" fixtures that she picked up in Sudbury for $15 apiece. There's another closet where I'd probably replace an ugly fixture but the best price online is $28. Amazon has it for $30. None of those prices include shipping. I think that I'll just bring down another one, or two, next trip !

We have a million of these fixtures up north !

------

I checked out the X5 front end and sure enough, the left front lower rear control arm needs replacing -- that's the one with the ball joint that I did on the front right last year. Since the right front lower front needs replacing, I'm going to do both sides this time. Replacement of those looks fairly easy.

I had to chuckle when I was doing some research on these control arms -- one person's comment was that "these cars eat control arms on rough roads". Well, in our case sheer miles that we drive plus the rough roads up north create that appetite !

Other items on the agenda for today -- replace a furnace vent on the now-not mirrored wall and install Sandy's Christmas gift -- the backguard for the stove. That, of course, wasn't as easy as expected. There's always something to make a simple thing "a project". In this case, it wasn't getting the existing granite out on the right side, nor was it moving the stove, rather it was getting the granite backspash piece back in. Of course it was too big by about 1/16" so I had to use the angle grinder to do a trim, as I did last year on the piece of counter. At least this time I knew what I had to do and had the tool handy.

I just got back from picking up some wine at Peter's Wine Shop that he'd advertised in a blast over Christmas. I had asked him (actually Sandy in this case) to set aside a case for me, which they did.

----

27F this morning. Will the banana plant survive or will I be cutting it down and hauling it out to the curb again ? For that matter, will I have frozen pipes and a frozen fountain ? The internet says that it's 36F ... it lies !

Shrimp for dinner last night along with rice and lima beans. Frozen lima beans is one of our quick veggies, like frozen peas, when food shopping has lagged.

Today -- Mass then hopefully a bike ride. I have the luxury of waiting until it warms up.

Onward !