Overheard a guy at the supply yard say his bricks were 'singing' to him

I was picking up a pallet of red commons this morning at the yard in Denver and this old bricklayer was telling his helper that the bricks 'sing' when you tap them with a trowel if they have the right moisture. He said dry ones sound dead and wet ones sound thuddy, so listen for that ring. Anyone else pay attention to the sound of their bricks before laying them?

Update: A project in Austin fell apart because we didn't define 'final deliverable' in the contract.

The client argued that 'final deliverable' included ongoing support for a year, which cost me nearly $2000 in lost time and extra work, so now I list every single item and revision round in writing before starting anything.

Remember when we used to cut everything with a handsaw? Tried it on a herringbone pattern last week and the angles were all off.

Question about a bank transfer that got stuck in Chiang Mai

I was trying to pay my rent for a villa here last week, but my usual international transfer service flagged the transaction and held the funds for 5 days. I had to scramble with a backup card and explain the delay to my landlord. What's your go-to method for reliable, fast money transfers while moving between countries?

A comic shop owner in my town just got hit with a huge price guide scam

I was at my local shop, The Panel Page, last Thursday picking up my weekly pull list when I saw the owner, Mike, looking totally stressed. He told me a guy came in claiming to be from a big price guide company, saying he needed to 'verify' the shop's inventory for their online database. The guy spent two hours taking photos of all the high-value back issues, especially the graded ones in the locked case. Turns out, it was a total scam to case the place. A week later, someone broke in and stole only the exact books that were photographed, about $8,000 worth. Mike didn't ask for any ID or a formal agreement, he just trusted the guy because he seemed to know his stuff. Now he's out the books and the insurance is giving him a hard time. Has anyone else's local shop dealt with something like this? What kind of checks should they be doing?

A chat with my accountant about my quarterly tax payment

I was at my accountant's office last week, going over my numbers for the year. She looked at my estimated tax payment and said, 'You're still paying based on last year's income, but you're up 30% this quarter.' She pointed out that if I don't adjust my payments now, I'll get a big bill and a penalty next April. I had just been on autopilot with the old amount. Has anyone else had to scramble to fix their quarterly payments after a good month?

Just noticed how my plant watering changed after a trip to the desert

I used to give all my houseplants a little water every other day, thinking that was the right way. Last spring, I visited Tucson and saw how the local plants survived on deep, infrequent soaks. Now I wait until the soil is bone dry two inches down, then give them a huge drink. My fiddle leaf fig put out three new leaves in a month. Does anyone else have a plant that did better after you changed your watering routine?

Just swapped out a 4-wire for a 6-wire keypad run and it saved the day

I was finishing a job in a big old house and the original plan was a basic 4-wire run to the new keypad location. The homeowner asked for a second keypad at the last minute, and instead of running a whole new cable, I pulled a 6-wire I had in the van. Having those two extra wires meant I could power the second unit without needing a separate transformer or tapping into another circuit. It took maybe 15 extra minutes during the pull, but saved me over an hour of work later. Anyone have a favorite go-to cable for these kinds of last-minute adds?

I thought using a drawing tablet without a screen was a waste of time, but my friend in Austin proved me wrong.

For years, I stuck to my old Cintiq because I thought looking at my hand while drawing was the only way to get good lines. My friend kept telling me to try her basic Wacom Intuos, saying it just took a few days to get used to. I finally borrowed it for a project last month, and after three days of shaky sketches, something clicked. My line work actually got cleaner because I was forced to look at the monitor, not my hand. It made me focus on the final image way more. Now I use it for all my rough drafts and it speeds things up. Has anyone else made the switch from a screen tablet and found it helped their process in a weird way?

I used to write down all my passwords in a little black notebook, but after my neighbor's house got broken into and they stole a laptop with a sticky note on it, I switched to a password manager.