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FYI, I happened to be looking around on Poshmark and there are lots of Blundstone boots there, NIB, for significant discounts.

We had a protein bar each for dinner last night. Try not to be jelly! 😂

We’re empty nesters, and I teach lessons from 4-7 Monday through Thursday, so dinner is often something DH can manage. HEB has meals ready to cook that are simple and healthy - we usually choose salmon and a vegetable or chicken and a vegetable. We probably have those twice a week on average. They just pop in the oven.

Other days, I might make something I can cook in the afternoon and reheat for dinner after I’m done teaching - soup or a stir fry works well. Or I might pre make a salad.

So there aren’t really a consistent three days I can point to, but it’s all pretty low key these days.

ETA: OK now I have my groceries here, so I've planned this for the next three days.

Tonight - Crispy sheet pan black bean tacos, carrot and celery sticks with salsa ranch. 
Tomorrow - Sheet pan Italian meatballs like this www.themediterraneandish.com/baked-meatballs-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-42746 except that I'm using frozen meatballs and then following the rest of the recipe as written. Probably a salad to go with.
Monday - Protein bowls from HEB with southwest chicken and vegetables.

Typical breakfasts - DH usually eats toast with peanut butter and some fruit. I often skip breakfast and just have a cup of tea, but if I eat it, I like greek yogurt with fruit and granola.
Typical lunches - DH often makes a turkey sandwich or will eat leftovers from dinner. I will also eat leftovers, or will just grab a protein bar or put one of those little tuna packs on some salad. 

Trump will never willingly give up power or the chance of power. I think he'll lose, but if he wins then I imagine the Republicans will either let him stumble on as a puppet president, or they'll 25th amendment him and we get Vance. I think the latter is unlikely as the RNC and its purse strings are basically controlled by the Trump family now.

It was always all about the domestic supply of [healthy, white] infants for Christian couples to adopt. Pre-Roe, teenage mothers were the primary suppliers. Out of my 37 first cousins on my mom's side, six were easily adopted in the 50s and 60s from agencies that took in "wayward girls." That doesn't exist any more because it doesn't need to and shouldn't have to.

The idea that women and teens exist to bolster population numbers at the expense of their own bodily autonomy is, indeed, outrageous. We have millions of people from other countries clamoring to come here and work and have a part of the American dream that our ancestors immigrated here for 100 or more years ago. A robust guest worker program with a path to citizenship would solve any and all population concerns (and would reduce exploitation of immigrant workers in the bargain), but there's a problem with that according to the right ... they're not white. And, of course, they're supposedly all murderers and rapists, but why let facts get in the way of a good scaremongering narrative.

Maybe change your focus from talking less to listening more?

IDK, I tend to be the opposite, and have to force myself to talk in many situations. I think you'll find that many people enjoy having a friend who carries the bulk of the conversation, as long as said friend isn't interrupting them when they do talk.

So once again, teachers are being asked to solve a societal problem created by someone else. Nice.

I had one where I waited well over an hour in a freezing cold room in nothing but a paper gown and underwear. I didn't go back there. If you as a physician can't be bothered to see that your office has basic time management skills and respects patients' time, how can I trust you to thoughtfully manage my healthcare?

Nothing new in parents making excuses for a kid who cheats. My first year of teaching was a in a small town in 1996. I taught a section of music history (high school) and assigned a short research paper at the end. Small town, small library, internet in its infancy. So when a kid turned in a paper that was clearly plagiarized, it was super simple for me to find the book he'd copied it from in the library. 

I failed him on the paper and stapled a copy of the plagiarized pages to his work.

The next day, the principal called me in and said the parents had called him. He wanted me to change the grade and give him credit for "trying." The parents were freaking out that their kid wouldn't graduate on time if he failed my course, and of course the parents had some power in the politics of this small town. 

I was already on my way out the door in part due to the nasty attitudes of the parents in that town, so I told the principal to do whatever he wanted with the grade.  

AI is a new spin on the ways that kids try to get out of doing work, but sadly, entitled parents are nothing new.

Oddly, there are AI-driven tools that teachers can use to determine whether the paper was written by AI.

But often a teacher can just tell. AI writing is often described as stilted. The paper may use vocabulary the student is unlikely to know, or turns of phrase that aren't typical for the age group.

Our state-appointed superintendent is having the curriculum department create many district learning materials using AI-generated passages and poems, and it's very obvious and awful.

Insane. Those parents are doing the kid no favors. The elite schools he hopes to attend won't accept his AI-written papers, either.

I rarely drink coffee. When I do, I prefer a local shop. So it's immaterial to me.

Yep. This was my brother in 2020. "What are you going to do when Trump is elected and the world doesn't end?" "He just says that stuff. He doesn't mean it."

Fortunately, January 6th and some other things (he lives in Georgia) caused him to re-examine his views. I doubt he'll vote for Harris but at least he won't vote for Trump.

ETA: my brother is definitely among the socioeconomic class that likes their Trump tax cuts. I've tried appealing to him on behalf of his four nieces without much result. As he and his wife have remained childless by choice, I hope that JD Vance's rhetoric about childless women and people is a big turnoff for them, though.