I kept my emergency fund in a regular savings account for years, then my friend in Phoenix asked what the interest rate was.

Warning: my old coax stripper finally gave out on a job in Tempe yesterday

I was finishing a wall fish in a two story house when the blade just snapped clean off. It was a Klein VDV110-107, and I've had it for maybe eight years. I had to finish the term with my pocket knife, which was a real pain. Has anyone got a good replacement they like that can take a beating?

I just hit 100 cups on my new grinder and it's a different machine now

Got a Baratza Encore ESP about three months back and was honestly a bit let down at first. The grind felt uneven and my shots were sour. I kept a little log and just poured cup number 100 this morning. The change is night and day, everything is so much smoother and more consistent. I guess it really did need that break-in period to settle all the burrs in. Has anyone else noticed a big shift after the first few pounds of beans through a new grinder?

Had to pick between two dig sites for my volunteer week this summer

I was offered a spot at a known Roman villa site in southern France or a new potential Viking settlement dig in Newfoundland, and I chose the Viking one for the chance to find something totally fresh. The weather was brutal and we mostly found animal bones, but on the last day we uncovered a piece of worked antler that might be a gaming piece. Has anyone else worked on a site where the big find came right at the very end?

My neighbor in Austin said hand tools are just for show now

We were talking in my garage while I was sharpening a set of chisels, and he claimed power tools have made real hand skills pointless for most weekend projects. He said, 'Why spend three hours dovetailing by hand when a jig does it in twenty minutes?' That stuck with me because my whole woodworking joy comes from the slow, quiet process. Has anyone else had to defend the actual value of doing things the hard way?

I always thought you could get away with a 1/4 inch gap on floating floors. A job in Phoenix last summer proved me wrong.

TIL that new wireless comms unit from OceanTech is the real deal

I was sure the DiveLink 500 was just a fancy toy, but we used it on a 3-day job in the Gulf last month and the sound was crystal clear at 180 feet. The old hardwire system always got snagged on the rig legs, but this thing let me move around the whole structure without a single drop. Has anyone else made the switch and found it held up in colder water?

Just realized my whole approach to color palettes changed after a rainy day in Seattle

I was stuck sketching in a cafe near Pike Place Market, watching people's jackets and umbrellas blend together in the grey. That's when I saw this woman in a bright mustard yellow raincoat, and it just popped against all the concrete and navy blues. Do you guys ever get your best ideas from just watching regular street scenes?

My attempt to compost in a tiny apartment turned into a fruit fly circus

Last month I bought a small countertop compost bin for my kitchen in Chicago, thinking it would be easy. I followed the instructions, adding my coffee grounds and veggie scraps, but within a week it was a full-on fruit fly party. My partner walked in and said, 'Is that our new pet project?' I had to move the whole operation to my balcony. Has anyone found a good way to do indoor composting without the bug invasion?

Why does nobody talk about hobby tax babble?

I started selling knit scarves, and the tax code for hobby income is absurd. Now I spend more time deciphering forms than actually knitting.