Category — Friday Blog Roundup

Back in elementary school, the kids had to fill out a Valentine’s Day card for everyone in their class. Each kid also decorated a box, and then, before the classroom party, they would walk around and deliver their Valentine’s to each other by dropping it in the other person’s box.

Choosing your Valentine’s Day card design was high-stress because you were limited by the options, time had to be considered (making your own card made it unique but took a long time), and there was fierce competition for the best cards.

We always had a few leftovers that I shoved together into one of the earlier boxes (Spy Ruby Decoder Valentines), and it’s bittersweet to shuffle through the cardboard greetings.

Which is a long way of saying Happy Valentine’s Day one day early. And Happy Friday the 13th, if you celebrate that sort of thing.

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

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But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Gelebtes und Ungelebtes” (Elaine ohne Kind)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Speaking of Elaine, The Next 15000 Days pairs a quote Elaine gave her with a photo taken during a walk in the Julian Alps. It’s a simple quote, but I thought we could all use a reminder of kindness these days.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix writes about the impact of other people’s writing. She explains, “It has taken years to develop the habit of asking myself what do I want and what do I need before considering what others want and need.” So she understood the what, but she didn’t understand the how and why. Until she read something and understood herself (and others) better. I love this.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day (a day early). Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between February 6 – 13) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.

A and I were talking after I wrote about the toys, and she wanted to see Quentin in action, so I filmed him last weekend as he solved his wooden puzzle.

It usually takes him about 3—4 minutes to get all the treats now. He likes to check a few times during each session as to whether I’m going to move the pieces and hand him the treats, which I did early on when he would quit trying. But he always runs back to the puzzle and keeps going.

Ignore the dust in his fur. Right before I filmed him, he rolled around in some old bedding, and I didn’t notice and brush it off until after filming.

Isn’t my pig brilliant?

*******

Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

*******

But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

I’m a little late, but I read this last Friday. Dear John sends birthday wishes to her husband on what would have been his 55th birthday. It’s a quiet letter, but this part made my throat ache: “There’s a Robin Williams special on HBO – I was going to watch it today but didn’t quite feel up to it. I still have your picture with him hanging in our bedroom, even though looking at it sometimes reminds me of how you both died.” Sending a hug.

I love this guest post by Half Baked Life about her trip to India. It was her second time in India, and the two trips were very different. The trip was essentially a gift, and I love what she says about gifts at the end: “There’s an anthropologist who says one of the essential qualities of a gift is that it must ‘move,’ that if gifts aren’t passed on, that they lose their tranformative abilities and become just things.” Isn’t that a beautiful idea?

Lastly, All & Sundry goes through all of the big and little things she wishes were different, from the personal to the universal. The story about her patient, Isabelle, stayed with me for hours after reading the post. It is so hard only to be able to move forward in this world, moving to the next minute instead of being able to redo the moments that didn’t go quite right.

The roundup to the Roundup: Look at my smarty-pig. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 30 – February 6) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.

Josh shoveled last weekend while it was still sleeting, but after three hours, he gave up and came back inside. Everything was still completely covered outside.

On Monday morning, he opened the front door to tackle the walk, and the snow was gone. Someone had cleared our snow (and everyone else’s snow) and salted the sidewalk between midnight and morning.

The Wolvog heard the person at 2 am and thought about waking us. He said he was just a guy in a high-vis vest, walking the sidewalks with his snowblower and then salting them afterward. He couldn’t see the person well in the dark, but he said it was definitely a neighbour on foot, quietly taking care of all of us while we slept. It made me cry to think about someone doing something so thoughtful for everyone and slipping away without recognition. We have zero clue who did this, though we’re trying to figure it out so we can thank them.

There are some pretty terrible people in the world, but there are also a lot of good ones.

*******

Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

*******

But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Toys!” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Phoenix!
• “So Many Kids But Not Me” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ looks back on a year of blogging, especially the themes that bubble up in a year. I’ve appreciated all of the posts she has written about giving and receiving support. This made me a little teary, and it’s what I love about the blogging world: “Thanks to those who have stuck by me this year. And whether you comment or not, whether you’re a long time reader or have just stumbled across me for the first time, I want you to know how much I appreciate you.” Back at you.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix writes about the children in her life. She writes, “It’s like I just realized that among my friends there are, like, a billion kids. And that’s what they’re all doing … I like my life. I like it a lot actually. It’s just weird to live a life that’s completely different from what I pictured and from what everyone else is doing.” It’s a thought-provoking post.

The roundup to the Roundup: Thank you to the person who took care of the sidewalk. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 23 – 30) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.

I know it’s boring to read about someone else’s dream, BUT in my dream, all newscasters around the world had stopped reporting on the news and were reporting solely about what I’m about to tell you. So technically, the dream-you already know all of this.

In my dream, the ChickieNob got a new, lemon-yellow guinea pig named Pepper, which was one of a new breed of guinea pig that were born without hair but covered entirely by the clear side of velcro. So about the size of Quentin when he was three weeks old, lemon-yellow body, no hair, clear velcro. The plastic tips on some of the loops were burnt, leaving a smattering of what looked like black dots through the plastic; hence the very uncreative name of Pepper. (Come on, dream-ChickieNob. You can do better than that.)

But all of that wasn’t what made Pepper newsworthy. What was so amazing about Pepper is that if you lined up a row of normal guinea pigs, all facing forward, Pepper would crawl underneath each one and pause to touch noses (which is how guinea pigs actually kiss) before crawling underneath the next one. And his Velcro body would never stick to the other guinea pig’s fur. Newscasters could not get over this fact. They kept running report after report about how Pepper had crawled underneath another row of guinea pigs.

This is how badly my brain is begging for a different story when I read the news.

*******

Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

*******

But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

A Separate Life took an amazing trip to Egypt, and she brought us along through a post and photographs. I am most impressed that she did the trip piecemeal, pulling together lodging, transportation, and tickets herself. I know that smartphones make a lot of things easier these days, but it’s still a huge undertaking (Cairo is enormous), so I was extra impressed. Click over to see Cairo and Luxor.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path writes about giving away the glider. Goodwill and a consignment shop felt wrong. An individual felt right, but it still hurt to give away an object that was symbolic of a larger dream. She writes: “It doesn’t negate the love that I had for a nonexistent, completely elusive child. But there was something about that glider being gone that reopened a long-shiny scar, at least for a couple of hours.” Sending a hug.

The roundup to the Roundup: Pepper the velcro guinea pig. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 16 – 23) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.

We spent last weekend at the beach. We needed a break, but we also learned that the US Fish and Wildlife Service was dismantling the visitor’s center in January in preparation for the moving of the beach in 2027, and this would be the last time to see it. It was the site where the ChickieNob first decided that she needed a pet clam. And while we hadn’t been inside in many many many years, it was still sad to think about its demolition.

It was a little grey and misty on Saturday, and a small section of the building was already missing. But I was able to take a few pictures to remember the building. We found a park that allowed us to look out over the water once they close the current beach. And we ate a lot of ice cream, watched Taskmaster, and read books.

It was kind of perfect.

*******

Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

*******

But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Barreness asks the question many of us think when we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror. She captures well the emotions of the moment, too: “It is a strange time we are living in, and being here in the states makes it even more surreal by each hour. I am heartbroken and exhausted and constantly worried about something or another.” I absolutely loved this truth: “Fear presents itself differently in us all.” Sending a hug.

Swistle captures how I feel when the kids leave to go back to college. She writes, “Having all the kids home reminded me that my main job (taking care of all the kids), which has long-since stopped being a full-time position, is ever continuing to diminish—which makes me look around at what is left.” Change is hard.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ is back from an amazing trip, and she recounts how children mostly didn’t come up as a topic or consideration during their travel. She compares it with another blogger’s trip and wonders what factor made their two experiences so different.

The roundup to the Roundup: Goodbye, visitor’s center. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 9 – 16) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.