A pour in Portland last month made me switch up my edge work

I used to just run a hand trowel along the forms to finish edges, but on a big slab for a new garage, the corners kept chipping after stripping. Now I use a 1/4 inch radius edger right after the bull float, then hit it again with a magnesium trowel before the final pass. That extra step with the edger makes a huge difference in durability. Anyone else have a specific tool they added to their routine that fixed a common problem?

I just realized I've checked my email 47 times today

I was looking at my phone's digital wellbeing stats and saw the number. It's only 2 PM, and I work from home in Denver. I keep thinking I missed an important message from my boss, even though my notifications are on. Does anyone else get stuck in a loop like this?

Warning: My old boss told me to always cut against the grain on a brisket flat

He said it would make it more tender, no matter what. I did that for a year at the shop in Tacoma. Every single brisket flat I sliced was tough and chewy. I finally tried cutting with the grain for the long muscle, then turning it to slice across, and it was like a different piece of meat. Has anyone else been given bad slicing advice that just made things worse?

Just hit my first full year of remote work from a single base in Medellin.

I used to pack up and move to a new city every 4-6 weeks, but after getting a steady project that needed a stable internet setup, I decided to rent an apartment here for a year, and the deep friendships and local routine I've built have been a game-changer for my focus and well-being.

The week a $2000 Leica M3 came in with a shutter problem and turned into a full CLA for a dozen cameras

This homeowner in Bellingham watched me frame a wall for an hour, then asked if I could just 'glue it'

I was putting up a load-bearing partition in his basement remodel, had the plates marked and the studs cut. He stood there the whole time, sipping coffee. When I started to grab the nail gun, he pointed at a tube of construction adhesive on my cart and said, 'Wouldn't that stuff be faster and quieter?' I had to explain why 16d nails in a specific pattern were kind of important for holding his house up. Ever have a client question the most basic part of the job while you're doing it?

Talked to a grad student in Tucson about how they date pottery shards and it blew my mind

I finally tried that new drafting software from a small company in Boise

My old boss in Tacoma kept pushing me to switch to VectorFlow, but I was sure my old setup was fine (you know how it is). After a free trial last month, I'm actually blown out by how fast it handles big site plans, like a 50-acre subdivision file that used to crash my old program. Has anyone else made a switch recently that surprised them?