You do have to keep track of the days yourself. Remember the first day is free! I mostly just kept track of my Mondays.
You can no longer do the Painter Extraordinaire Aspiration because they changed the requirements for it and you now have to go to the museum. It used to be just view or admire 30 paintings, and you could do that at home. If @have2admit has not done the updates that changed that, then he would still be able to get that Aspiration.
You can raise social chatting online. Your Sim does not actually 'meet' them (they do no show up in your list of Sims you know like they did in TS3), so you can not call them.
Have fun with this challenge everyone! I did! And post pics of your homes, I love those!