WHY CAN'T PEOPLE BE LAZY LIKE ME?!?

I ask myself this ALL THE TIME!

You know what improves my mood? Wine. Way more than whine actually. I'm not convinced it improves my grading however, so maybe I should stop soon. But not yet. My grading is helping to motivate Frances to keep at her homework.

Ooh, I have wine. I think I need some food first, but then wine, yes. Thanks, Burrell!

Mmm, wine. That's tempting.

I should be doing work--I have a thing that's overdue, and another couple that are due soon. But instead, I caught up on Great British Bakeoff, and thanks to Burrell am now contemplating some wine. Tomorrow, I drive to portland for a dance convention all weekend. Not sure how that'll go--I have so little energy right now, and stamina is what's needed for these events, but...ah well.

Sad I'm missing the biannual warehouse sale for the awesome women's running clothing brand that's this weekend (their stuff is usually $50-100, and at the sale it's all $10, though often there's not much or it's ugly, I have a LOT of their clothes now). If I hadn't already paid for the dance thing (I think $100 for the convention and $140 for the room?) I'd stay home and do nothing. I fear that may be a recipe for hating the dancing, but hopefully not.

I'm playing school bus for one of my neighbor's tomorrow. Might mean I feel all mom again if I end up driving them with my hair half dried. Family is one of my friends' beloved new tenants, I've been getting to know them. Glad I'm able to help and that they trust me to ferry their kids. And I still boggle at this school system. It botched their transfer such that even though they live 2 blocks from the school, they don't get in. The fuck? Luckily, they did get in to a school the kids love, but they've gotta do transport. I do NOT like the way the public schools work here. My experience was so much more egalitarian,

I hope you have more fun than you expect, meara.

Wine was good. I failed to correctly follow the directions for foolproof soft-boiled eggs, but I ended up with an edible dinner, so it's all good. Will try again with the eggs.

I helped a friend with a college project. They are doing a SNAP food challenge for a week - $31.5 for a week's worth of food. It is such a good exercise to do, hard, but good. Just doing it for a week is very limiting, but it does not let you have the advantage of building a pantry like you would over a month or two.

Still, we got a week's worth of food and were under budget by a few cents. I think I may do this at a point in the future, for the moment I am going to focus on whittling down the pantry and buying as little as possible.

Our groceries for $31.50:

1 whole chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 lbs brown rice
1 can black beans with jalapeno
1 bunch celery
1 large sweet potato
4 red onions
1 head iceberg lettuce
1 lb spinach
1 package baby carrots
salt/pepper
1 carton oatmeal
1 granny smith apple
cinnamon
spice package with 5 Italian spices not mixed

Wow, that's a great exercise. I should try it with my students the next time I teach the food section.

Aww, I just read a thank you email from my grandmother. Her birthday was last week (89, I think) and I sent her an orchid and some chocolate covered strawberries. She said she'd never had chocolate covered strawberries before! I had no idea. Good thing she liked them!

It's so nice that your grandmother could have a new, good experience at 89.

meara, it's a miracle that they found and returned your kindle. So good.

Living in Cleveland and commuting for weekends in New York sounds banana pants. Which is, of course, the point.