Guy named Rick, been welding since before I was born, saw me with my new auto-darkening hood on a job last month. Said I was gonna miss stuff and get sloppy. Laughed it off at first. Then I had to do this tricky pass on a 2 inch tube sheet in tight quarters and the sensor kept flickering on me. Switched back to my old fixed shade number 10 for the rest of the day and honestly my welds looked way cleaner. The auto ones have their place but for precise boiler work I think he had a point. Anybody else stick with the old school hoods for certain jobs?
She's been baking since the 70s and told me I was ruining every pie by not blind baking. I always thought it made the crust too dry and crumbly. Last week I finally tried it her way on a peach pie from my CSA box. Used pie weights and everything, baked it for 15 minutes at 375 before adding the filling. Man, the bottom crust came out perfectly golden and not soggy at all. I've been fighting wet pie bottoms for years and this simple trick solved it. Has anyone else had a relative give you advice that you ignored for way too long?
I was looking through some mail from the county assessor's office last week and almost dropped my coffee. My property tax assessment jumped from like $3,200 to $3,776 in a single year. No improvements on the house or anything, they just decided the neighborhood's worth more now. Has anyone else in Everett gotten a big surprise like this from their tax bill lately?
I finally switched to Bitwarden last month after getting locked out of my bank account for the third time - the difference is night and day. Anyone else dragged their feet on this and regretted not doing it sooner?
Did a 40 foot hallway last week and tried using the gripper for a change. Knee kicker had me sore for two days but the seam was perfect. Gripper was faster but I ended up with a visible seam line in bad light. Going back to the kicker for any run over 20 feet. Anyone else find the gripper only works for small rooms?
I was in my basement in Detroit two months ago and heard this weird hissing from the water heater. Thought I could just tighten a valve to stop a slow leak, but the whole thing burst open and flooded half the floor. Ended up turning off the water main at 11pm and spending $200 on a wet vac from Home Depot. Has anyone else had a simple repair turn into a disaster like that?
Was counting some inventory for a big order I had to fill by the 15th and I tallied up my headband count. Turns out I passed 500 sometime in late November. I've been binding books for almost 12 years now and I never really kept track before. My grandma taught me the stitch when I was visiting her in Ohio back in 2012. She always said "don't count your stitches or you'll jinx the book" which is silly but I guess it stuck. Now I'm wondering how many total I've done over the years. Has anyone else hit a random milestone that caught them off guard?
I finally got my group to play Cities and Knights last weekend after a year of nagging them. The base game feels so bare once you add in barbarians and knights. We had 5 players and the game went from 90 minutes to almost 3 hours but every turn had real decisions. Playing just the base version now is like eating plain toast when you know jam is in the fridge. Does anyone else find the base game unbearable once you've tried the expansion packs?
I live in Portland, and last spring I finally figured out why my tomato plants kept dying. I had a big compost bin in the corner that I never turned, just added kitchen scraps for 2 years. Turns out it went anaerobic and was leaking this nasty runoff right into my vegetable bed. I tested the soil pH and it was way off, like 4.5 or something. My neighbor who gardens said I basically poisoned my own plot. Anyone else accidentally wreck their garden with bad compost?
I was installing LVP in a house in Phoenix last week and an older guy walked me through how he checks moisture in concrete slabs. He said most new installers skip the calcium chloride test and just pray it works. Has anyone else gone back to doing more prep after talking to someone with 30 years in?