My family uses Slack. It’s pretty interesting. | Labs – I started off rolling my eyes at this, but by the end I was getting some ideas. The Snook and I have used Google Hangouts for years, which is great because the whole history is searchable. But it doesn’t really have integrations like this… Hmm. Ideas. (Link courtesy of @mpesce).

Spotted on Ask Metafilter: this incredibly useful list of regular maintenance-type tasks that grown-ups should know about. We just discovered that our new air conditioner’s manual recommends cleaning out the filters inside every two weeks. Whaaa? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

But we are getting pretty good at this grown-up stuff. We have a shared Todoist project of recurring tasks. I’m reviewing them now alongside the Metafilter list, as well as this Art of Manliness checklist too. Anything else I should have on there?

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I nearly forgot to share the finished bathroom photos with you! The Snook spent the last day of his Christmas break painting the cornice and the ceiling. So remember, this was the Before. And here is the glorious After:

It’s just so pretty and pristine! (I can’t stop cleaning it. I even bought a shower squeegee.) By swapping the shower and the toilet, our shower is now quite a lot bigger. We’ve got more storage. We’ve now got an exhaust fan so it doesn’t get so steamy. We’ve got a fancy shower with both a rain head and a wand. We’ve got a 4-way LED light fixture that provides a lot more light. I love it.

In terms of styling, we’ve gone with grey, white, stainless steel, and glass. (I can’t believe I just said styling. I have a room in my house where everything goes together!  HOW GROWNUP IS THAT.) That said, most of it’s from IKEA: Grundtal Toilet Roll Holder and Door Hanger, Strapats Pedal Bin, Nordrana Hanging Storage and Set of 4 Baskets, Immeln Soap Dish, Kalkgrund Toilet Brush Holder, Toftbo Bath Mat, and Sinnlig Calming Spa Candles. From Costco: Charisma Bath and Hand Towels. From Aldi: Rubber-coated Ceramic Soap Dispenser. And our toothbrushes are in a mug from Rediscover Ceramics.

I’d say that overall this is pretty much 95% what I envisioned in my head when we started out. I didn’t get my black grout, and the toilet had to be moved forward due to an errant support beam. But other than that, it’s perfect. And not only that, but we also had gas installed to the house, two instant-on gas hot water heaters, a reverse cycle air conditioner (with units in the bedroom and living room), and our two old electric water heaters were decommissioned. This was a massive project, and I have to give all credit to the Snook. He pretty much project managed the whole thing, and he did a fantastic job!

* Okay, so we’re still going to paint the door one of these days as well as the grotty old window frame, but that can wait for a while…

First bike ride with the Snook in a very long time!

Saw it for a second time today with Kunaal and Kriti. So good!

Me : mangoes :: Kramer : Mackinaw peaches.

(Related life goal: have a mango tree, and when they’re in season, eat nothing but mango until I’m sick.)

How cool! The Free Universal Construction Kit is a set of adapters for complete interoperability between 10 popular children’s construction toys. That means you can connect your Lego up to your Tinker Toys and more. And you can download the plans for free to print on a 3-D printer!

Signalnoise :: The Work of James White – GASP. I want all of these on my walls. They’d go perfectly with our bookshelf Museum of Obsolete Technology.

Hmm.

Now I am envisioning a series of cross stitches with obsolete tech on them! All of these, plus an iPod and a Walkman and a Zip drive…

Happy Berry Crochet: How to Crochet a Spiral Granny Square – Not gonna lie – this blew my mind for like a full minute this morning. And then I watched the YouTube video which totally demystifies it. And now I kind of want to make a giant spiral granny square blanket…