Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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NASA has a tool where you can write your name (or any word) in Landsat satellite images. So a winding river may become the S, and a jagged mountain range may become an M. Sometimes you need to squint to see the word emerge in the images. But did I immediately put in all four of our names and pull out images? Yes, I did. And did I text those images on our family text chain? Yes, I did. And did anyone else think it was as cool as I did?

Well, no, they did not.

But I like them.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

A few weeks ago, Infertile Phoenix encountered an old journal while decluttering where she recorded her temperature. I did this, too, though I wrote it daily on the calendar. I still have these old calendars — technically datebooks — though I haven’t looked at them in over 20 years.

I kept taking my temperature even after I entered treatments, even though it was pretty pointless. I don’t remember when I stopped the first time around. It was probably a few months into pregnancy, though I may have kept it up until I delivered.

Reading her post made me wonder how many people still do this. Do people still read Toni Weschler’s book? It looks like her site is still active, and I received a pop-up asking if I wanted to beta test her new app. I guess people use apps more than paper. I used a different site on my computer and then printed it out. My login still works — I bought a lifetime membership. It looks like my last chart was in 2007.

It was strangely emotional to remember all of this. To see a chart again.

Last winter, we checked into a hotel and realized that it was attached to a football pitch. As we were getting our key, we asked the woman at the front desk whether we’d be able to see a game from our room, and she looked at our reservation. “Oh, yes, you’ll be able to see half the pitch, and there is a game tomorrow.” This was the best news ever.

Except we were there to do other things, and weren’t going to be near our room during game time. We missed the game, but when we got home, we signed up for Peacock so we could watch the Premier League games.

I told Josh that from now on, all we’re doing is watching games every weekend. I’m sure this will stop by the end of September — I know myself — but right now, it’s footie. all. the. time. Quentin loves it.

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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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Infertile Phoenix has a new job. (Congratulations!) She recounts a conversation with a new coworker about kids, and she writes: “I used to feel so embarrassed by my infertility and ashamed of being childless not-by-choice. Not anymore. Not at all. I’m just living my life. And currently my life involves being excited for my new job working with kids!” Happy news all around.

Lastly, Scientist on the Roof has a super interesting post about going back to the town where she grew up in Latvia after 30 years away. She writes: “Walking around the streets, seeing my old apartment building, the school, the railway station – it was meaningful in ways I did not expect and that I am still trying to process.” Her kids got to see her old apartment building. It sounds like a very moving trip.

The roundup to the Roundup: Football all the time. 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 August 15 – 22) 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 like chocolate. I like pistachios. I like kadayif. I wanted to try Dubai chocolate, but for like… under $8. Preferably less than that.

Trader Joe’s had their version of the chocolate for a hot second, but it sold out within a day, and they’re not getting more until the fall. Places we’ve found it were selling it for much more than $8, so we passed. But we finally found a bar of Dubai-style chocolate — made in Turkey — for $5 and grabbed it.

The bar was fine. Not amazing. I couldn’t really taste the pistachios or kadayif. Better than the chocolate itself was their website, which contained this strange line: “You’ll called for yielding male, so lights Stars abundantly, is their.” What could this possibly mean?

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We’ve watched the Taskmaster seasons out of order, but we’re finishing Series 19, and it is an excellent lineup. We liked all of the comedians very much, and even the Wolvog, who does not love television, joined to see all of the episodes. If you’ve never watched Taskmaster, it’s a good lineup to start with because everyone was really funny.

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Quentin’s favourite thing is to beg for me to fill his ceramic dry food bowl with baby food, stand next to it to make sure I’m watching, and then pick it up with his teeth and throw it so the food goes everywhere. Then he runs around in a circle, wheeking and popcorning with happiness while I yell, “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” It’s actually pretty impressive because the ceramic bowl is heavy for a little guinea pig mouth.

But on the plus side, he will never pee on you. If he has to go to the bathroom, he will bite your shirt and gently tug (and then frantically tug if you do not immediately start moving), holding it in until you set him down in his cage. Good piggy.

Andrea Gibson’s “Wellness Check” is the most profound and simple guide to focusing on the right thing:

In any moment
on any given day
I can measure
my wellness
by this question:

Is my attention on loving
or is my attention on
who isn’t loving me?

— Andrea Gibson (@andreagibson) December 28, 2020

I put it up on my computer screen as a sticky note so I wouldn’t forget when I started going too far down the worry road.

P.S. Hate to link to Twitter, but this was the only place where I found their words on their own account.