Maybelline Sky High Waterproof is the only mascara that keeps my curl, and I had to try both of the other Sky Highs to figure that out. My lashes are stick straight. Curl them, add a normal mascara, and they're flat again before I leave the house. My sister has the same lashes, and she's the one who told me to quit experimenting and go back to the waterproof.

This is the one, Very Black: amazon.com/dp/B08H46YXYH

I wore it first and only switched because taking it off is a pain. The washable Sky High gave me length, but it smudged by the afternoon and the curl gave up long before this one does. Then I tried Sky Tubes, the new tubing one, because everyone says it slides off with warm water. It does. My curl also dropped about as fast as I could put the curler down.

With the waterproof I curl first, do a second coat while the first is still wet, and they stay up through a full workday and a sweaty walk home. It won't do the curling for me, though. Skip the curler and not much happens, and by late evening the curl has come down a little.

Soap and water barely touch it. I hold an oil cleanser on my lashes for about 20 seconds before I wipe, and if I rush it I still lose a lash or two. If you want a mascara that comes off at the sink, or waterproof formulas make your eyes water, this isn't the one. If your lashes still drop with it, a few people with even more stubborn lashes swear by Heroine Make Long & Curl.

Anyone else with straight lashes found a remover that takes it off in one pass?

The old mat in our tub had reached the point where I was stepping onto it carefully because one corner would move if I put my foot down wrong. It had suction cups underneath, technically, but maybe half of them still did anything. Once soap got under it the whole thing felt worse than having no mat at all.

The replacement I got is the Gorilla Grip tub mat, the long 35 by 16 inch one: https://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Grip-Shower-Bath-Mat/dp/B01F5K9YNS/

It covers most of the part of the tub we actually stand on instead of giving you one little safe square in the middle.

The suction cups were the reason I bought it and they're also the part that matters. I put it down on a completely clean, smooth tub, pressed around the whole thing once, and it stays where I leave it. I still push a foot against it before getting in because I'm not trusting any piece of plastic with my teeth, but so far it hasn't shifted while I'm showering.

There are drainage holes all through it, so water isn't sitting in one big puddle underneath. I still pull it up after showers and hang it over the side of the tub. Leaving one of these stuck down permanently is how you eventually discover an ecosystem growing underneath it.

The top has a little pebble texture. It's softer underfoot than I expected and doesn't have those hard raised bumps some cheap mats have. Soap rinses through it pretty easily too instead of collecting on top.

I've put it through the washing machine a few times now, cold with normal detergent, then hung it back over the tub to dry. It hasn't curled at the edges or lost suction afterward. That's probably the biggest improvement over the old one, because cleaning that meant standing in the tub with a brush and questioning every decision that led me there.

One thing I'd check before buying it is the floor of your tub. The suction cups need a smooth surface. If you've got a textured shower floor, tile, or one of those built-in non-slip patterns, this isn't going to magically stick to it. Mine is smooth and that's why it works here.

It's still just a bath mat. But it stays flat, drains properly, goes in the washing machine, and I no longer think about where I'm putting my foot when I step into the shower. That's pretty much all I wanted from it.

I wanted a speaker I could move between the kitchen, garage and patio without turning it into another thing I had to be careful with. The little cheap one I had before was fine for podcasts, but music got thin as soon as I turned it up and I stopped taking it outside because I didn't trust it anywhere near water.

The one I ended up with is the Bose SoundLink Flex: https://www.amazon.com/Bose-SoundLink-Bluetooth-Waterproof-Dustproof/dp/B0D6WD2QSQ/

It's small enough to pick up with one hand, has the rubberized bottom and loop on the end, and it's IP67 rated, so wet hands and leaving it beside the pool aren't something I think about anymore.

The sound was the reason I kept it. At normal volume there's more low end than I expected from something this size, but it doesn't have that cheap-speaker thing where the bass is there until you turn it up and then disappears. Vocals stay clear too. I use it a lot in the garage where there's already plenty of background noise, and I don't have to run it at full volume just to hear it.

It isn't a party speaker. Outside, once you get several people talking over it, you start finding the limit pretty quickly. Indoors it fills a normal room without much effort. That's about the size of job it's good at.

Battery has been boring in the good way. Bose rates it for up to 12 hours at moderate volume. I've never timed a full discharge because I charge it before that happens, but I can use it on and off for a few days without thinking about the cable. USB-C helps since there's already one lying around here.

The body has held up well to being moved around too. Mine gets set on workbenches, countertops and outside tables instead of living carefully on a shelf. The fabric picks up a little dust and the rubber shows marks, but nothing feels loose or rattly.

One thing I'd have wanted to know is that you're paying more for the combination of size, sound and build than for sheer volume. If I needed something for a big yard or parties, I'd go larger. If it was only going to sit on a desk, I probably wouldn't pay Bose money for it either.

I'd put it more in the middle of the portable-speaker budget than the cheap end. If someone just wants a small speaker and wants to spend less, the JBL Go 4 is around $50 and is a pretty easy cheaper option. It's smaller and doesn't have the same fullness as the Bose, but for podcasts, travel or background music I'd have no issue going that route.

The Flex makes more sense for me because it gets moved constantly and I actually care how music sounds on it. That's what I've ended up paying for.

I put these office chair casters on about a year and a half ago, after someone on a work call asked what the grinding noise was. It was me shifting around in my chair. Laminate in the spare room I work out of, no rug under it. The hard plastic wheels it came with were loud on that floor all day.

These are the ones, the Lifelong 5-pack: amazon.com/dp/B01G643EU6

What I was worried about was the floor. The chair covers the same small circle every day, desk to shelf and back. I shifted the desk a few weeks ago and had a proper look underneath. The finish where the chair turns is the same as the finish under the desk, and I had expected a dull ring at least. They sit the chair about an inch higher than the originals, which bothered me for a week until I dropped the seat.

The chair went before the casters did. The cylinder stopped holding in June, so I replaced the chair and moved the five wheels from the old base to the new one. Took a minute. They push in by hand, and mine took the 7/16 by 7/8 stem. They do not fit IKEA chairs. The noise I bought them for has not come back either, and nobody has asked about it on a call since.

They roll so easily it takes getting used to. Lean over to reach something and you drift, so I plant a foot now. The two people I know on thick pile kept their mats. They help there, but a lot less. Mine was out of warranty. If yours is not, leave the originals in, or a cracked base turns into a claim they can refuse. On a floating floor with seams standing up a little I would be careful.

Anyone got a set that has been through more than two chairs?

My adjustable dumbbells went up in 5 lb jumps, and my physio finally told me to stop using them for lateral raises. 5 pounds is a big jump on a side raise. I went looking for a pair that moves in 2.5 and landed on the Results Series 552: amazon.com/dp/B0FRNG2N5H.

I went through the usual answers first. Ironmaster feels the closest thing to a real dumbbell, but you only get to 2.5 by adding micro plates or living with one side heavier. The REP QuickDraw gets there with two small plates, if you do not mind that same little imbalance. I nearly ordered magnetic add-on plates for a Core set before someone pointed out the magnets do not grab Core's plastic coating.

The dial does it without any of that. 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and on up to 25, then fives to 50, and 52.5 at the top. So the fine control stops at 25, and that is the honest limit of the thing. Takes me about 7 seconds from the bottom setting to the top, and both dials have to read the same number or you lift a lopsided one.

The part I would want to know before buying used: the old 552 was recalled last year because the plates could work loose off the handle. This is the version they put out after that, with metal parts holding the plates on instead of plastic. How it holds up in year five I cannot tell you, and nobody can yet. Parts are covered for 2 years. The frame and the dials still are not metal, so I set them down instead of dropping them, and at 16.9 inches they are long enough to make some presses awkward.

Anyone had the Results Series since launch, have the metal discs stayed tight?

I wanted an electric scooter for the trips that were too far to bother walking but stupid to do in the car. Grocery store, coffee, a couple errands around the neighborhood. I wasn't trying to replace a bike or commute 20 miles, so the $800 scooters with suspension and 30 mph top speeds were solving a problem I didn't have.

The one I ended up with is the Gotrax GXL V2. 250 watt motor, 15.5 mph top speed, 8.5 inch tires, and roughly 26 pounds. It folds small enough that I can put it in the trunk without rearranging everything first.

15.5 mph turned out to be enough. On a smooth road it feels quicker standing six inches off the ground than that number sounds. The acceleration isn't dramatic and that's probably a good thing. You kick once to get it moving, throttle from there, and after the first few rides I stopped thinking about any of it.

The 250 watt motor is also where the budget part shows. Flat ground is fine. A mild hill is fine. Give it something properly steep and you can hear and feel it running out of enthusiasm. If my normal route had long hills I would've bought more motor.

The pneumatic tires are one reason I kept this instead of getting something with solid tires. There's no suspension, so the air in those 8.5 inch tires is doing most of the work. Normal cracked pavement is manageable. Potholes still need avoiding, and hitting one at 15 mph teaches that lesson once. The downside is that they're tires with air in them, so pressure is another thing to check.

Gotrax says up to 12.5 miles of range. I don't treat that as 12.5 miles I can spend. Speed, hills, rider weight and temperature all take their share, so mine gets charged well before I'm anywhere near empty. For short errands that's never mattered. If I needed ten miles every single day I'd want more battery.

The folding mechanism has been more useful than I expected. Fold it, carry it inside, stand it somewhere out of the way. At 26-ish pounds it's light for an electric scooter, not light in the normal sense. Carry it up one flight of stairs and it's fine. Carry it several and you'll start wondering why you didn't just ride a bicycle.

The display gives me speed and battery, there's a headlight, and the hand brake feels normal enough that there wasn't much of a learning curve. Nothing about it feels fancy. That's sort of why I've liked it.

If I were buying for hills, long commutes or rough roads, this wouldn't be the one. I'd want a bigger motor, bigger battery and suspension. For the little trips I bought it for, though, paying for all of that would've mostly meant carrying a heavier scooter around.

Shopping adjustable dumbbells that reach 100 lb per hand without a cage narrows the field to almost nothing. The names people shout first, Ironmaster and MX Select and the Freak Athlete preorder, were not buyable on Amazon the day I looked. What is left, the long-term reviews split on.

Out of what is in stock, the pair I'd buy is the amazon.com/dp/B0H1RS3HLJ .

On feel and speed they agree. 20 settings from 5 to 100 lb, one twist of the handle, no add-on plates. Men's Health lived with a pair for 5 months and called them about as close to standard gym weights as you get without buying a whole rack. GearJunkie ran 4 months and saw no plate shift on presses or overhead work.

They come apart on what happens when a set goes wrong. GGR dropped one from hip height at 50 lb and a piece came off the head. A friend of GearJunkie's dumped a pair at 100 lb after a failed bench; the plates survived but the mechanism has not been the same since. Drops are not covered, and the warranty itself runs 2 to 4 years depending on where you buy.

The plastic dovetails people kept snapping on the old 80 lb version are gone, steel plates on metal connectors now. Owners still report coating chips inside a month, from the fins hitting the tray. And it is a long dumbbell, about 19.25 in at 100 lb, which one S5100 owner calls incredibly bulky and cumbersome.

Not for you if you let dumbbells go after a hard set. The Snode AD80 is the answer there, GGR's founder tested it at its lightest and heaviest settings and it held, and its warranty covers drops from up to 32 in. It stops at 80 lb though, 85 with the add-on plates.

If 100 lb without a cage is the part you will not give up, the length and the chipped coating are the price, and you set them down instead of dropping them. Still the pair I'd buy.

Anyone a year in at the top of the range, has the twist stayed tight?

If you're shopping for the best water bottle for travel that keeps water cold, the Owala is probably on your list, and its price is what's stopping you. In two published tests that had both, the CamelBak came out colder. Both tested bigger CamelBaks than the 20 oz below, so don't expect the 20 to beat those numbers.

My pick for travel is the insulated 20 oz CamelBak Chute Mag, which costs less than the Owala FreeSip: amazon.com/dp/B07XRWTGV6

Prudent Reviews filled 8 bottles with water chilled to 43°F, no ice. At 6, 12 and 24 hours the 25 oz Chute Mag read 46, 49.5 and 54.5°F, coldest of the 8 at 6 hours and second coldest after that. The 24 oz Owala FreeSip in the same run read 48, 51.8 and 57.2°F, warmer at every check.

BottlePro left 33 bottles of ice water outside for 24 hours. In the 32 oz size, the CamelBak finished 2nd and the Owala 10th.

Food52 tested bottles in the 20 to 24 oz range, and their Chute Mag, most likely the 20, had the most ice left of 9 after a full day.

The magnet only holds the cap out of the way while you drink. The seal comes from screwing the spout cap down, so it goes in the bag screwed down. Done that way, it passed both leak tests it was given, while the 24 oz Owala let a few drops out in Prudent's tip-and-shake. The thin plastic strap holding the cap is its weak point. Prudent called it flimsy, and CNN's bigger one lost its cap in a drop.

Not for you if you want to sip one-handed without unscrewing anything, or if your bottle hits the floor a lot. If price is the whole decision, the Takeya Actives 22 oz with the spout lid costs less still. Its bigger sizes finished warmer than the CamelBak in every test that had both, though, and none of these tests had the 22 itself.

Anyone traveling with the 20 who's checked how much ice is left after a full day out?

Everyone shopping for the best color laser printer that takes refills ends up reading chip teardowns, and that is the wrong page to be on. What decides whether you keep printing is in the manual: what the maker says happens when a cartridge reads empty.

The one I'd buy is: amazon.com/dp/B0FMBLMP2Y

Canon's guide for this series lists a Canon Genuine Mode setting and ships it Off. There is normally no need to change it, the guide says. Its End of Cartridge Lifetime message recommends replacing the cartridges, and the replacing page warns that print quality may suffer if you keep using them. Nowhere does it say printing stops. Consumer Reports' spec list for this model says it can print with a color empty.

Brother's guide on the HL-L3280CDW is explicit where Canon's is silent. It counts dots and developer-roller rotations, and at Replace Toner the machine stops all print operations.

Nobody I found has refilled the new 075 cartridges and reported back. Older Canons offered a Continue Printing (Quality Not Guaranteed) choice at end of life; this guide documents none. The same message list carries a cannot-print message for a non-Canon or counterfeit cartridge, without saying which ones trigger it. On two older models Canon's support article ties that message to the Genuine Mode setting; whether that link holds here is undocumented. Two owners on 075 toner report streaks from aftermarket cartridges. The cartridges in the box are the small ones, 700 black and 500 color pages.

Not for anyone who needs a refill route that is already proven, or who is counting on cheap compatible toner from day one. If you print low volume and mostly want cheap pages, an ink tank is the honest answer and I would not talk anyone out of one.

Anyone running one of these on 075 H and actually tracking cost per page? I'd like to know what it works out to.

The handheld bidet went on the downstairs toilet after I got tired of using half a roll of paper and still feeling like toilet paper was doing a pretty mediocre job. I didn't want an electric seat, didn't want another thing plugged in beside the toilet, and definitely didn't want to start replacing plumbing for what should be a simple spray hose.

It's the Arofa handheld one, stainless head and hose with the brass shutoff valve: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C497RS5Z

Install was easier than I expected. The T-valve goes on the toilet supply, hose screws onto that, sprayer goes on the other end. I mounted the holder to the toilet instead of drilling tile. First night I put a dry paper towel under every fitting and left it there until morning because I trust new plumbing connections about as much as I trust a weather forecast. Still dry.

Pressure took longer to get right than the installation did. The lever isn't really on/off. A light press is enough for normal use, and if you squeeze it all the way with decent house pressure you'll understand very quickly why that matters. After a week the amount of pressure became automatic and I stopped thinking about it.

The stronger setting is useful for the toilet itself. I use it around the bowl and under the rim when cleaning, and that's probably the second most common thing the sprayer does here. The hose reaches far enough without dragging across the floor, and the head hasn't developed a drip at the nozzle so far.

I shut the valve at the wall after every use. The hose and fittings feel solid and the seal hasn't leaked, but leaving a small pressurized hose beside a toilet 24 hours a day doesn't buy me anything. Turn valve, use it, turn valve back. Took about three days before that became habit.

The finish has held up better than I expected too. It gets water spots, obviously, but nothing has rusted or started looking rough around the threads. A wipe when I clean the bathroom gets it back to normal. The little port covers and fancy claims don't matter much to me; no leaks and a lever that still feels the same after repeated use do.

Two things I'd have wanted to know before buying one. The water is whatever temperature is in your cold line, so January wakes you up. And placement matters more than the mounting hardware. Put the holder where you can reach it naturally before tightening everything down, because twisting around behind yourself every time gets old fast.

I still keep toilet paper there, just use a lot less of it now. The sprayer is the part doing the cleaning. Paper is mostly cleanup after.

The fabric shower curtain in our upstairs bathroom went up in February. My wife had just repainted the room and said the old vinyl one looked like a trash bag against the new wall. My only condition was that it had to survive the washing machine, since I do the laundry here.

It's the Dynamene waffle one, the heavy version, 256 GSM on the listing, plain white, 72 by 72: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CYLLTJL

No liner behind it, on purpose. The fan runs through the shower and about 20 minutes after, and the shower head points down the length of the tub. What lands on it is splash off the tile, not the stream. It's heavy for a curtain, you feel it on the rings, and it doesn't blow in on you when the water's on. It hangs by the grommets on the rings we already had.

I check the bottom foot of it every time I scrub the tub, same spot, in daylight. 7 months in, it's still white. No black specks, no gray line where it sits against the tub, no smell when you pull it back.

5 washes so far, cold, gentle, in with the bath towels, no bleach, then back onto the rings to dry. Hasn't shrunk, still reaches the same line on the tub, same shade of white, and water still beads off it instead of soaking in.

The drying I timed once, at the corner by the drain, the wettest spot. Fan on, door open, dry to the touch at 1 hour and 50 minutes. Without a fan I wouldn't count on that number.

2 things I'd have wanted to know. The photos show a deep waffle, in person it's a tighter bubble texture, more hotel blanket than waffle iron. And the pictures say waterproof while the spec table says water repellent, and the table is the honest one. The one time I knocked the head sideways rinsing the tub, the bath mat was wet inside a minute. If your shower head points at the curtain, or the room holds steam after a shower, you still want a liner behind it.

Anyway, it's staying up. The next wash goes in with the towels like the other 5 did.

I bought a cordless tire inflator during the first cold week in Denver, when the SUV's pressure light came on every morning for all 4 tires and shut itself off by afternoon as they warmed up. I fill to the sticker inside the driver's door, not the number printed on the tire.

Got the AstroAI H2 Pro. Runs on its own battery or a 12 V cord to the car's outlet. Screw-on hose end, and you set a number and it shuts off there. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GGGTLJ9F

Timed all 4 tires off the battery, each from about 29 psi to 35. Tire 1 about 2 minutes. Tire 2 about 2 and a half. Tire 3 about 3 minutes, pump noticeably warm and slower by then. Tire 4 the battery quit with about 2 psi to go. Key on so the outlet was live, 12 V cord in, and it was done about 3 minutes after the battery died. So it does one SUV, barely, and that's it. Charged back up overnight on the kitchen counter off the same USB-C cable as my phone.

Checked with the dial gauge from the door pocket after it stopped, within about 1 psi of the target. I check because that dial gauge has been right for ten years and this thing is two weeks old. Matched so far. The screw-on end lets a puff out coming off, so I set the target 1 psi over. It's loud, lawnmower loud, so it's a lunchtime job in the driveway, not a 6 am one.

Did the spare in the back too, way down. It's a tire tool, not for an air mattress or anything big and floppy. If there's already a compressor in your garage, skip this one, and it isn't going to do a trailer tire or a big truck tire.

Rides in the cargo bin with the jumper pack now, cord wrapped around it. Next cold snap it's 2 on the battery and 2 on the cord.

I was shaving my legs often enough that I started getting annoyed at how temporary the whole thing was. Smooth for a day or two, then back to the razor. I'd looked at waxing and the more expensive cordless epilators, but I had no idea whether I'd even tolerate epilating, so spending a lot on the first one didn't make much sense.

The one I've been using is the Philips 2000 Series. It's about as basic as these get: one speed, corded, small head, massage cap. That was actually part of the reason I picked it.

First session was not fun. Lower legs were manageable, ankles were worse, and around the knees I had to keep stopping because I was going too fast and catching skin instead of keeping the head flat. The massage cap softens the feeling a little, but it's still pulling hair out by the root. By the third or fourth time it was noticeably easier, partly because I knew what to expect and partly because I wasn't trying to clear the same amount of growth.

It will catch hair pretty short, around 0.5 mm, which ended up mattering more than I thought. I don't wait for everything to grow out anymore. Once I see enough coming back, I run over both lower legs and I'm done in around ten minutes. I don't get four completely smooth weeks out of it, but I go much longer before feeling like I need to do anything again than I did with shaving.

The cord is the obvious compromise. Mine reaches the spot where I use it, so I stopped caring about it pretty quickly, but there's no battery and no using it in the shower. The single speed hasn't bothered me either. I'd rather have one setting that works than six settings I'd leave on the same one.

The head is small. That's fine for lower legs and probably part of why it's easy to control, but if I were doing full legs plus arms every week I'd want something wider. Cleaning is just brushing the hairs out afterward with the little brush that comes with it.

If you already know you like epilating, I'd probably spend more and get a cordless one with a wider head. I didn't know that yet. I wanted the cheap simple version to find out if ten uncomfortable minutes every couple weeks was better than dragging a razor out every few days.

For me it was.

I went from a regular riding mower to the Husqvarna Z254F mostly because I was tired of spending half the day turning around trees, backing up, and making three passes around the same spots.

Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Husqvarna-Z254F-Kawasaki-Hydrostatic-Riding/dp/B07NF3V21T/

The 54-inch deck was the part I noticed first. It covers a lot of ground, but the bigger difference is how cleanly it moves through an open yard. Once you get used to the lap bars, you stop thinking about three-point turns completely. Pull one side back, push the other forward, and you're already pointed where you need to go.

The 23 HP Kawasaki has been easy to live with too. It starts without much drama and doesn't feel like it's working particularly hard unless I'm letting the grass get way too tall. Top speed is around 6.5 MPH, although mowing flat out isn't really the point unless the yard is smooth. On rougher sections I slow down because the mower is perfectly willing to remind you that you're sitting directly over the rear wheels.

The hydrostatic transmission is probably one of those things I appreciate specifically because I don't have to think about it. No shifting, no separate transmission maintenance routine, just move the bars and go.

The ClearCut deck has been good so far. Discharge is pretty even and I haven't had the random strips of grass left behind that used to make me turn around and hit the same area again. It's a deep 54-inch deck with decent airflow, and you can mulch or bag with the optional kits. I've mostly just side-discharged because adding a bagger to a mower this size starts turning it into its own small vehicle.

Seat is comfortable enough for a longer mow and the controls are where you'd expect them to be. The anti-slip foot area is also one of those boring details you don't care about until you're climbing on with wet shoes.

The size is the tradeoff. A 54-inch zero turn is great when you've got room to use it, but it's not something I'd buy for a yard full of narrow gates and tiny sections. You also have to learn not to snap the steering bars around on soft grass unless you enjoy fixing little torn-up circles afterward.

For a bigger yard though, this is the first mower I've had where the time savings actually feels obvious. I'm covering more ground per pass and spending a lot less of the mow repositioning the machine.

I was skeptical of LED masks mostly because the before/after photos always look like somebody also changed the lighting, camera and possibly their entire face.

I ended up trying the Ulike Reglow and the first thing that made me actually stick with it was the eight-minute sessions. I've had skincare stuff before where the routine was annoying enough that it eventually ended up in a drawer. Eight minutes is short enough that I put it on while I'm sitting at the computer or watching something and forget about it.

Here's the amazon link for the mask if anyone is interested in checking it out: https://www.amazon.com/Ulike-Therapy-Infrared-Anti-Aging-Eye-Protection/dp/B0DT14FRPG/

There are four modes, but I haven't pretended to develop a scientific rotation for them. I've mostly used Glow and Firm, with Clear occasionally if my skin is acting up. It uses different combinations of red, yellow, blue and infrared light depending on the mode.

The mask itself is more substantial than I expected. There are 272 LEDs and it sits slightly away from your face rather than having the lights pressed directly against the skin. Coverage looks pretty even around the cheeks, forehead and jaw, which was one of the things I was worried about with these masks. The eye pieces block enough light that I can actually keep my eyes open, although walking around wearing it is still not something I'd recommend unless you want to meet a door frame.

As far as results, this wasn't an overnight thing. The first change I noticed was that my skin looked a little calmer and more even after I'd been using it consistently for a couple weeks. The fine lines took longer. They're obviously still there, but after about a month the skin around them looked smoother and generally less tired.

I'm not putting much weight on claims like 97% fewer fine lines because I have no way of measuring my face to a decimal point. What I can say is that I notice enough of a difference that I keep using it, which is probably the better test for me anyway.

Comfort is decent. The straps hold it in place and the one-centimeter gap means it doesn't get uncomfortably hot against my skin. It's still a thing strapped to your face for eight minutes, so I wouldn't call it invisible, but it hasn't bothered me.

One slightly dumb thing worth mentioning: keep the controller charged. I thought mine had stopped working once and it was just the remote being nearly dead.

I still think red light therapy is one of those things where consistency matters more than obsessing over specs. If you're expecting eight minutes to erase ten years off your face you're probably going to be disappointed. I've kept using this one because it's easy enough to fit into the day and, after giving it some time, I can actually see why people bother with these masks.

We did a week in Washington DC with the kids in June, and by the second day my wife gave up on the little socks that hide inside her sneakers. They'd slide under her heel before the first museum and she'd be fishing them out in a bathroom. She borrowed my ankle socks after that, which showed over her shoes and she hated in every photo. Her feet were sore by dinner anyway, because the ones she'd packed were thin as tissue.

When we got home I ordered these for her, and they're what she reaches for most days now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKWY22R1

The reason they stay is a grippy strip inside the heel. Nothing on the outside, it just holds the sock to her foot instead of letting the shoe work it down. She wore them for a full day at the State Fair in August, which is more walking than DC was, and never once reached down. Merino instead of cotton, so she says they don't get that damp feeling by the afternoon, and she's washed them a lot since with no thinning I can see. The toe is basically seamless, which she noticed before I did.

What they are not is a thick sock. The listing calls them light cushion in its own spec line, and that's accurate. There's padding under the foot, more than the paper-thin ones, but anyone picturing a plush trail sock that disappears inside a sneaker won't find it here, and I'm not sure that sock exists. They're sold by the pair, so a week's worth adds up fast. And with the one pair of her shoes that has a stiff collar, the edge rubs her ankle bone because there's no sock there to cover it. Those days she goes back to the ankle socks.

The thickest ones I kept running into while shopping were the tab kind, the ones with the little loop at the back. More padding, but they stick up out of the shoe, and that was her whole complaint to begin with.

Every load of laundry here goes down two flights of stairs and back up on my hip, because the washer is in the basement and the bedrooms aren't. That's how I break them. The last cheap basket made it about a year before a handle cracked at the rim on the way up with a wet load. What was left of the handle took a chunk out of my palm on the next trip. I taped it, carried it another month, then the other handle went too.

The one that's been doing the stairs since spring: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4TSZ2A

The shape is why I bought it. One side is scooped in and rides on your hip instead of sliding off it. There are 3 grab-through handles instead of 2, so I change grip halfway up and I'm not hanging a full basket off the same 2 spots every trip. It's the 2.1 bushel size, bigger than the one it replaced, and a full week for both of us plus the dog's blanket goes in without me stuffing it down.

The handles are still the part I'd worry about. They look chunky, but look under the grip and the rib that's actually taking the weight is thinner than the outside suggests, and I won't pretend it'll never crack. What I do now is fill it less and go to two hands on the last flight, which I should have been doing all along. It's white, and there's already a grey scuff line along the hip side from the railing. And it was more money than I think a laundry basket should be.

If you two-hand it the whole way anyway the shape doesn't buy you anything and a plain cheap one is fine. I nearly got a smaller one with the handles molded right into the body instead of cut through the side. Supposed to fix the same problem a different way, but we fill the big one every week.

I spent most of a summer making iced coffee the dumb way, brewing a normal pot and pouring it over a glass of ice. By the time it was cold it was brown water. I tried doubling the grounds and that was closer, but I was eyeballing it every time and it came out different every morning.

This is what's on the counter now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWBCC7RJ

It has a separate iced button and a routine that goes with it. You fill the carafe with ice up to a line marked on the glass and fill the tank to a different, lower set of markings. Then it brews it strong straight down onto the ice. Less water for the same grounds. First sip is strong, and by the time I've stirred it it's regular coffee, cold. First time I used the regular water line out of habit and got the same thin stuff I'd been making all summer. Second time I read the lines.

Mornings it's just a normal 12 cup pot with a strong button, and there's a pause so I can pull a mug before it's done. Glass carafe on a warming plate though, so the second cup an hour in already tastes cooked. Same carafe for both, which was the point. I didn't want a second machine on the counter.

It is still hot coffee poured over ice. If you want that smooth cold steeped taste, this doesn't make it. The controls are a flat touch panel, which I don't love on a thing that lives next to the stove.

If I only ever drank it iced I'd have gone with one of those little single cup ones that brews into a tumbler. I wanted the pot.

The water cooler at work was my problem because my desk is closest to the break room. 11 of us, a rented cooler at 30 bucks a month, plus about 16 jugs a month at 8 each. The empties stacked up in the hallway and I was the one hoisting a full 5 gallon jug upside down onto the thing 3 or 4 times a week. In March our office manager slid the invoice across my desk and said find me something that isn't this.

30 a month is 360 a year for a machine we didn't own, before a drop of water. I priced a bottom loading jug one first so nobody had to hoist, but that leaves the jug bill where it was. What went in instead is the Avalon bottleless one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJ86F7L

It runs off the building water. It only worked for us because the sink is 6 feet from where the cooler stands. Without a line close by there'd have been nothing to plumb it into and we'd still be on jugs. Our plumber put a tee on the cold line under the sink and ran a thin line through the wall, an hour of his time. Floor standing stainless thing, hot, cold and room temp taps, filter inside. I checked the filter was NSF before ordering.

The filter is the other cost. 2 of them, about 50 each, every 6 months, so call it 200 a year. The gallon rating is around 1,500 and we don't get near that in 6 months, so it's the date that gets us. Well under the rental, but not zero, and nobody comes out to change it for us. I put it on the shared calendar because I know this office.

It runs a self cleaning cycle on its own. Saw the light the first week and thought something was wrong.

We're 6 months in. The machine cost less than 7 months of the rental did, and the jug bill is gone. Nobody has slid anything across my desk since.

I walk about 3 miles a day without trying, the train to work and back plus whatever errands land at lunch. The pair before these still looked fine on top when I threw them out. The foam under the heel had packed flat and the insole had worn through. I'd kept wearing them 2 months past that because the outside gave nothing away. My sister, who walks dogs for a living, pressed her thumb into the sole and said that's dead, that's been dead a while.

What I've been in since last August is the New Balance 574, the women's one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093QKDQHC

Suede and mesh, and it looks like a sneaker, not a gym shoe. Nobody at work has asked if I took up running. The sole is the part that mattered. There's a firmer rim of harder stuff around the outside of the soft foam, you can see it from the side, and I think that's why mine hasn't gone flat. I'm past the year now and when I press a thumb into the heel it still pushes back, not like day one but nowhere near flat.

It is firmer than the pillowy kind. My coworker walks in Hokas, tried mine on and handed them straight back. The first week my arches noticed, then they stopped.

The suede is where I've paid. February slush left a white salt line across both toes before I got around to spraying them, and I haven't got it all out. It's not a waterproof shoe. I also wore them every single day for the first 4 months and the outside edge of the heel started to round off. Swapping in an old pair of Vans for the short days stopped that.

The color I wanted was gone in my size, so I'm in black.

That same coworker has the Skechers Arch Fit ones, canvas, cheaper, and she throws them in the washer. She's only had them since spring though, so I can't tell you how they hold up.

Mine are 13 months old. Still tread under the ball of the foot, still that salt line on the toes.

Our front room faces south and there's nothing but glass on that wall. Half the year the sun comes off the snow, and by noon the old set was a mirror with a game playing somewhere behind it. I went out to buy a 65 and came home with a 55 on purpose.

This is the one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1DRNWP7

The couch decided it, not the picture. Ours runs along the short wall, so on a Sunday somebody is always sitting way off to the side, and that seat used to get a washed out gray version of the game. Comparing them, the spec sheet listed a different panel type on the 55 than on the bigger sizes, and I gambled on that being the thing. It was. From the end cushion this one holds its color, and the 65 I'd been standing in front of didn't.

The sun stopped being the problem the first afternoon. What I didn't know going in is that this size is the dim one in the line. The listing throws 5,000 nits around, and it was only after it was on the wall that I worked out that's the bigger sizes and the 55 is rated 3,000. It's still bright enough that a full white screen doesn't wash out the way the old one did, and the 165 Hz is doing something for hockey. The screen's glossy though, so after dark a lamp behind the couch turns up in the picture.

The blacks are worse than on the 65, which is what the wider angle costs you. And almost every review and measurement you'll find for this line was done on the 65, not on this size. Half of what I read while shopping didn't apply to what I ended up with.

The one thing I'd change is the wall. If ours were long enough for a 65 I'd have gone bigger, and then I'd be right back to somebody at the end of the couch watching a gray game.

I went through 4 of the cheap flexible ones in about 3 years. Thick curly hair, and they all failed in the same place. The teeth splay out sideways, the pad warps, and it stops catching anything. You feel it going before you can see it.

This is the one that ended that: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00197623M

7 rows of nylon pins sitting in a rubber pad, and the whole pad slides out of the plastic body. That second part is why I still have it. The pad is the piece that wears out, but you can order a pad on its own instead of a whole brush. Mine has gone a bit soft at one corner already and doesn't sit quite as tight as it did new, though I've had it out a fair few times.

Taking it out is also how you clean it properly. The old ones went grey and furred up right where the bristles meet the base and there was no getting at it. On this one the base rinses out, because the pad lifts off it.

It wants wet hair and conditioner. Dry, it pulls, and I come out frizzier than I went in. Took me two goes to learn that.

The tugging is real. The rows come out of it, so I've pulled a couple out of mine to take some of the drag off. If I'm properly knotted I get through it with a wide tooth comb first and then this. Straight onto a knotted head it drags, and if I lean on it the curl comes out closer to a wave.

I'll probably order a spare pad before this one goes.

A heated mattress pad with two controllers is what finally got my wife and me sleeping under the same amount of bedding. She sleeps in a hoodie with socks on. I'm out from under everything by 2 in the morning.

This is the one under our sheet: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088AHKKW

Two controllers, one per side, and that's the whole reason it works here. She runs hers up, mine sits a good bit lower and comes up in January. There are 12 steps on the dial, which sounded like marketing until her side settled on one number and mine on another. The timer shuts it down on its own, so her side is cold again by the time the alarm goes.

I tucked my controller under the pillow the first night and it got warm enough that I moved it off the bed for good. The connector where the cord meets the pad does not want to come apart either, so the first time I needed it off I ended up on the floor working the plug loose with a fingernail. Our mattress is thick with a topper on it, and the skirt still went round the corners.

She put a glass of water over on her side in the spring and I had the pad off the bed inside a minute, which was more running around than it needed to be. It gets washed anyway, because you sweat through a sheet onto it. The first time, I nearly ran it with the controllers still clipped on, but caught them with the lid already open. It goes in cold, and then it sits a good while before it can be plugged back in. I've done it twice.

Second season on it now. It gets heated and cooled every single night, so I'm not expecting to hand it down to anybody. If you sleep alone this is the wrong version to buy. And if you just want something warm over you on the couch, a heated throw is cheaper and easier to replace.

I kept going cheap on non slip work shoes, and one Tuesday in June cured me of it. Black mesh runners off a big-box shelf, the kind with vent holes across the top. Somebody clipped a hotel pan off the rail 2 feet from me and I felt it come in through those holes first. Finished the shift in wet socks.

These are what I wear now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014JLYPQ

It's the Bistro, the version with no holes in it. One moulded piece, no seam across the toe, and a thicker patch sitting over it. Nothing has come in over the top since, and it doesn't soak anything up, so when the shift's over they go in the sink and stand by the door till morning. The old pair never saw the inside of a sink. The flip side of a closed shell is that there's nowhere for air to move, so by the end of a long summer shift my feet are damp anyway, just from the inside.

The tread is deeper and cut crossways, not the pattern on the ones people wear to the lake. On the wet stretch by the sinks I stopped doing that little shuffle you do when you don't trust your feet. The channels are tight though, and they pack full of rice and bits of onion. I dig them out with a butter knife every few days. The 2 times I let it go a week I could feel it going slick again.

There's basically no arch in them. First week my feet were aching by hour 6. Drugstore insoles fixed that, but if you have flat feet, buy them the same day. They run roomy as well, so I went down to the next whole size.

If your place wants a real shoe on your feet these won't pass, because they look exactly like what they are. Then it's a plain black lace-up from one of the slip-resistance brands, and I'd be watching the glued seams on those. Mine have one scuff across the right toe from a dropped pair of tongs and that's the only mark on them.

Second week of June I woke up at 3 with the sheet stuck to my back and the comforter in a heap on my wife's side, third night in a row. We keep the house at 66 at night, so it wasn't the room. A box fan on the dresser bought me about two weeks. Then a guy on my rec league team said he'd quit the puffy kind and bought one of the cold ones, the slick kind.

The one on my side of the bed since June: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094C72SZ4

It's a quilt more than a comforter. The bed looks flat with it on, and it barely hangs over the sides of our queen. The outside is slick and cold when you first get under it. Give it a minute and it's warmed through, then it just stays there. It never got to that stuffy point the old ones did. The puffy ones I'd been buying, the last one a Bedsure, were holding a layer of warm air on me, which is the one thing I didn't want. First week I still woke up a couple of times waiting to sweat and didn't.

My wife tried it for one night and was back under her old one by 2am, so we're a two comforter bed now, hers puffy and mine flat. Nobody's sweating and nobody's cold.

Washing it is the annoying part. Cold, gentle, in a mesh bag, then it hangs over the shower rod, and it's not going in the dryer. Three months in, and that's the entire track record. It hasn't seen a winter. The cold is in the outside fabric, which is the part the machine scrubs every time, so I'm not going to guess what it feels like after 20 washes. Ask me in March.