My Week that Was - January 24

D-I-Y in the garage. 1/17/2026 dwm

 As a rule, I'm very selective when it comes to do-it-yourself projects. 

 Two reasons: I don't like most of the things I 'could' do myself, and I'm not very good at such things. That's why we hired a handyman to install the dishwasher. 

 I probably could have figured it out, but it would have taken hours and whether I did it right would haunt me.

 This week, the stakes of the projects were lower. I can change light bulbs, however, the first time I replaced two LED bulbs with new ones, they didn't work. I pulled down the glass bowl protecting the bulbs, tightened things a bit, and they worked. Allelulia!

Broom holder. 1/17/26 dwm

Then there was the matter of getting some of our household tools (brooms and mops, not pictured) organized. Since we moved in 10 years ago, most of the time we leaned some against the wall or hung them on nails. 

The problem was the leaning brooms and other items posed a trip hazard. We bought two items. One uses gravity and a little sandpaper to clamp brooms and mops into place after you slide the handle up then lower the clamp into place. The other is a four-foot metal strip with 17-holes where you can screw it into the wall. 

The first item also needed to be placed on the wall. I've learned over the years the value of wall anchors when making holes in drywall, and they were helpful with the gravity holders. For the long strip, I put in so many screws into the strip and into the wall, I am fairly confident that it will hold the rake and other items.

A more practiced D-I-Y-er would have made short work of these projects, but it took me a while. Afterwards, it was time to watch the Badgers win their fourth in a row with a home victory over Rutgers, then a drive to Kwik Trip. 

Kwik Trip now makes candy! 1/17/26 dwm

 As I waited to check out with my Diet/Mt Dew mixture in a Big Buddy cup, I saw a box holding candy in a bright yellow wrapper.

 It's a Kwikz, pronounced Kwiks, rhymes with tricks; AND it was on sale for ninety-nine cents!

 The Twix bar is a long-time favorite of mine. The combination of chocolate and carmel on a crisp cookie is a wonderful treat.

 I thought the Kwikz was pretty good. It didn't taste exactly like the Twix, because the cookie wasn't as crisp as the original.

There are a lot of things I like about Kwik Trip, making a less expensive version of a tasty treat is another thing to like! 

By now, virtually everyone has received a phishing email trying to separate you from your money. The scammers are getting better at their jobs, too! 

The coldest day. 1/23/2026 dwm

Wednesday morning, what looked like a work email from a colleague came to me, asking if I had time to talk about something via email. Without a second thought, I replied, "Sure." 

The reply came five minutes later, explaining that my colleague was trying to do something for the special, hard-working employees, but was having a tough time ordering gift cards. Would it be possible for me to help, they wrote.

Red flags were flying in my brain after reading just the first sentence: why would you ask me to do this? and then I moved my cursor over the name of my colleague to unveil their email address, and it was NOT my colleague after all. My next move was identifying it as phishing and sharing it with our information technology team so they could be on the lookout. 

If you get an email that's out of the ordinary, especially from a familiar name, think two or three times before you reply and be sure to check the email to see if it's the right one. It's certainly worth taking 30-seconds to be sure.

While most of the country was worried about a big winter storm, a little further north, in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, the coldest weather of the season arrived Friday. Schools closed across the state, even universities closed because of dangerous wind chills. The day's high was -8. 

When it's that cold, it is usually sunny because the clear skies allow heat dissipate. It was still cold last night, but by Sunday we should get back above zero.

The new week won't be much better, we'll be lucky to get into the mid-teens above zero and it won't approach 20 until next weekend. Thanks for stopping in and reading the blog, stay safe, and stay warm!