Time for a career check-in: ​Nicole is embarking on a new career, Catherine is pondering a switch from freelance to staff work, and Terri just works all. the. time.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup: Catherine shouts out Just Add Ice orchids, because she's been able to keep hers alive (and blooming) for six months now. Nicole welcomes the addition of peanut M&Ms to her family's favorite Costco trail mix. And Terri gives a happy two thumbs' up to Dan + Shay's new album, "Good Things." Mentioned: Interview with Bobby Bones; performing at Bobby's wedding. Visit https://parentingroundabout.com for links.

'Tis the season--are you ready? We're here with some hard-earned advice that goes beyond "Don't forget to buy enough pencils." Have you nagged the special-ed office yet? Checked to see if last year's lunchbox still has last year's lunch in it? Signed up for a school photo? We're here with your to-do list.

We are nothing if not predictable. If you bugged our homes, here's what you'd hear--over, and over, and over again. The major topics: Pets and meals.

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, Making It is back with its usual contrived stories about why these projects are happening. Let's just let the makers make stuff!

We also checked out Kevin Can F Himself, starring Annie Murphy (late of Schitt's Creek) as a sitcom housewife who's also living in a bleak drama. It's a high concept that's well done, but requires the viewer to live with a lot of unpleasantness. Mentioned: Pop Culture Happy Hour's discussion of the show [https://www.npr.org/2021/07/19/1017885733/no-laughing-all-crying-the-sitcom-reconsidered-in-kevin-can-f-k-himself].

Next week: Making It episode 7, and we return to Veronica Mars season 4 one last time with Veronica Mars Investigations' wrap-up episode [https://www.veronicamarsinvestigations.com/vmi/investigations4].

On this week's Round 1, a Tiktok (of course!) prompted us to look back nostalgically at our university years, in the time before Internet, cell phones, and laptops. You know, back when we used a quill and an inkwell to write our papers.

Here's a this or that for you: delicious ice-cream-rich beverage, or something people use to hide spinach and worse? Yeah, Nicole and Terri are all-in for milkshakes. Catherine ... well, we'll stay her friend, we guess, but we're not going to drink anything she gives us.

Some childhood fears we've gotten over. Others have stayed with us. You just never know when Jaws is going to come up through the drain of a swimming pool! Mentioned: This 2016 episode on what was scaring us at the time [https://www.spreaker.com/episode/18923142].

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup: Terri recommends the cheerful "Fancy Like" fan video from Walker Hayes [https://youtu.be/E08puACaHfY], which he kindly posted on YouTube for those of us who can't handle TikTok. Nicole's Instagram Minute returns with geoscan.show [https://www.instagram.com/geoscan.show/], a business that puts on drone light shows (so if you liked the one at the Olympics, you might enjoy this account). Catherine's singing the praises of a Knox Rose summer dress from Target [https://www.target.com/p/women-39-s-short-sleeve-wrap-dress-knox-rose-8482-pink-floral-m/-/A-82044440], plus a side recommendation for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin [https://www.jmkac.org/].

Last year, we fretted about Nicole's impending empty nest [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/the-emptying-nest]. And then, she got a one-year reprieve as her daughter stayed home and took her classes online. Now she's leaving, for real, and Nicole's still not ready. Mentioned: You Need a Budget [https://www.youneedabudget.com/].