Monday Night Bits & Pieces

1. I got another letter from my congressman today. This is weird, because it was all about the executive order on immigration. I'm pretty sure I didn't call him about that. "You just got on his list of troublemakers," says my 17yo. "He said, 'Well, I'm making another bad decision; better send out a letter to Jamie Gladly about it.'"
2. You guys, I had an anti-plagiarism plan. I spelled it out in my syllabus: how I define it, and what the penalties are. I drew their attention to that paragraph on the first day of class; I cautioned them when I was explaining this assignment. And...guess what turned up in my first batch of undergrad assignments? It is not the sort of borderline thing where you can see where someone's ideas came from but you can also see some attempt to change it up. It's straight-up copy/paste. I am giving a bunch of zeroes. Alas. 
3. I would like a new sports watch. I was given a Garmin Forerunner awhile ago that measures pace, and I bought a secondhand Garmin Vivofit in 2015 that measures heart rate, but it is clunky to wear them both and the Vivofit is showing its age. Any recommendations for a gadget that will measure heart rate and pace and count steps, while also looking like something I can wear to work? P.S. I have a frugal streak.
4. The car we bought to replace our emphysemic Focus is a frugal person's dream. It's a hybrid, and I get the most ridiculous charge out of optimizing the mileage. I turn off the heat when I am driving it, because you get better mileage if you're not heating the cabin. The trouble is that I don't drive very much and my husband is not very interested in mileage games. My 17yo has a frugal streak too, though. "52.9 miles per gallon," I told him when I came home from the gym. "Impressive," he said, as he headed out to pick up his brothers from Scouts. "Only 48.1," he reported when he returned. Game on!