Got permission from my [uphill] neighbor to install a catch basin underneath one of her downspouts that always floods our yard when it rains. Dug a shallow trench about 20ft. to an existing storm drain and tied it in.

No more flooding my yard.

That’s a tough one. There’s not a ton of great options for personal accounting apps, much less self hosted ones. I used Pocket Smith (subscription based) for years which actually does what your looking for. Decent product overall. I switched from them to Quicken mostly because I’m an anal retentive personal accounting nerd and the fact that they couldn’t produce a conventional income statement or balance sheet was a long running frustration of mine.

If I had to choose another platform again, I would go with spreadsheets since it can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. I know that’s not really what youre looking for. Wish I had a better suggestion.

I’m holding off major home improvements because I can’t afford to do them at the moment. 🤷‍♂️

Most organizations in the US don’t value cybersecurity as anything more than an abstract concept. The reasons for that can be numerous but in my experience it’s usually a combination of cost + survivorship bias.

Lack of serious consequences is another factor. Had a breach? Pay a small fine and an even smaller settlement (or should I say your insurance pays) and then it’s back to business as usual. Even in situations where the breach is due to gross negligence, the consequences are minimal (see Equifax).

Well there’s a thought I did not need in my brain today.

Kirby model 513 from 1953. Still works great after 72 years.

Me: “The Vacuum is not going to hurt you. Calm down.”

The vacuum:

Jokes on him. A lot of corporations will gladly tell Orange Julius whatever he wants to hear, true or not, as long as there’s a financial incentive to do so.

0/10. Do not recommend.

One time I came home from work and found a deer in my front yard that had been hit by a car. It was still standing but it looked awful. I seriously thought about putting it out of its misery but before I could do anything, it limped off into the woods right behind my house where it collapsed and died.

About three days later, I opened my front door and got hit in the face by the most horrible smell I have ever smelt. Imagine the smell from when you leave a meat package in the trash for a day or two. Dial that up to about 1000. Set it in the hot sun for three days and you’ll probably be pretty close. It’s so strong it stimulates your gag reflex. I have a pretty strong stomach but I thought I was going to be sick. I couldn’t go outside for a week after that because that’s how long it took the scavengers to clean up the carcass.

Since you’re already working in C#, an ASP.Net Core backed, with whatever database you prefer, will do what you want.

You could self host it, but I wouldn’t call that easy. There are plenty of cloud providers that can integrate with your preferred git repo and really streamline the build and deployment process. I run a few applications as “Apps” on Digital Ocean. Once you get it configured properly, deployments are quick and easy.

Some of the features you’re looking for led me to switch to Quicken a few years ago. It’s a legacy desktop app (Quicken Online sucks) and it’s not very fast but it is still the gold standard for personal accounting software. I’ve honestly been happier with it than I was with anything else I’ve tried.

Thankfully Intuit sold it off so they can’t enshitify it anymore.

Even if your BIL lives a long way away, you can always call him for advice. I’m pretty good with doing most of my own electrical work but if I have a question I just call my dad since he’s a retired master electrician. He can usually tell me what I need to know without even looking at the job.

About 12 years ago, I promised an agent at Safeco (AKA Liberty Mutual) that they would never get another penny from me because they wouldn’t honor the terms of my policy, refusing to pay the full amount on a vehicle collision claim. They’re just another business that doesn’t keep their word. But I absolutely plan to keep mine.

TLDR: Keep your firewall – or any device directly connected to the internet – up to date. Not doing that can have serious consequences.

I would advise against it. Separation of concerns isn’t important until it is. If your host server is unavailable for any reason, now EVERYTHING is unavailable. Having your server go down is bad. Being unable to browse the internet when your host is down and you’re trying to figure out why is worse.

There are also risks involved in running your firewall on the same host as all your other VM’s without adding a lot of complex network configurations.

I also wondered what kind of rock OP lives under. I use email every day, multiple times per day. I probably send more emails than texts.

This week’s project is improving the heat transfer from our massive double sided fireplace. It has a steel firebox with a very basic heat exchanger. Airflow through the heat exchanger is poor. I’m adding a blower in the basement to draw air from a nearby register and force it up over the firebox, out the vents on top.

Basically trying to squeeze every single bit of efficiency possible out of a very inefficient heat source since I don’t currently have the time or money to install an insert.

Will there be other drains from the same room tied in? Your drawing should work but it may need to be altered a little if there’s a toilet on the same branch.

At some point I need to migrate off Hyper-V. Probably to Proxmox.

Ugh. I don’t wanna.