This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

• The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer (Ragnar Jonasson)
• One of Us (Elizabeth Day)
• Caller Unknown (Gillian McAllister)
• The Magician of Tiger Castle (Louis Sachar)
• Mad Mabel (Sally Hepworth)
• Seduction Theory (Emily Adrian)
• A Beginner’s Guide to Dying (Simon Boas)
• Loved One (Aisha Muharrar)
• O Caledonia (Elspeth Barker)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favorites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

• Adjusted this cucumber salad to remove the fish sauce and add cubes of tofu
• Potatoes dauphinoise
• Trader Joe’s appetizers for dinner

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

• Season 2 of the US Traitors. The US Traitors is infinitely less interesting than the UK Traitors because people enter already knowing things about the other people because they were on reality television shows. In the UK, at least in the first three seasons, everyone entered as strangers.
• We started Murderbot, which is pretty funny. We’re a few episodes in.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

• “Children’s Crusade” (Sting)
• “Solfeggietto in C Minor” (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s piece played by Tzvi Erez)

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

• Warby Parker glasses
• The Threatened Swan (two people I knew were going to Amsterdam)
• Weasley family (could not remember Bill – up until 1 pm running through men’s names until I finally googled it)
• Seasoned baked potato wedges with ranch (Nitty Gritty)
• Finger puppets from Folkmanis
• Mrs. Meyer’s fall multisurface cleaner options
• Agafia Lykova’s Wikipedia page
• Pictures from the defunct Fred Flintstone Park in South Dakota
• An article about Xando, the defunct restaurant that merged with Cosi. I could not remember the name of either place
• Menu for a fish restaurant opening in DC this fall that I want to take the Wolvog to when he’s home for Thanksgiving
• An article about visiting Framlingham Suffolk

Micro-Joys

• We went to hear Tituss Burgess perform, and he brought people up to the stage for a Q&A session in the middle of the concert. One woman mentioned that attending the concert was her birthday gift, and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to the woman. She burst into tears. It made me happy to see someone else so happy.
• While Josh was at a conference, I gave myself a special treat book for while he was away. These are books I save up to read when I need a book I know will be a really good book. This time, it was Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

Mood

• Super sad that the kids are going back to school soon.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

I lost my copy of The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, and it’s all my fault.

Back in March 2024, I decided to re-read His Dark Materials. I was near the end of the first book when I told Josh I was doing this, and he commented that he had never read the books but maybe would now because he knew how much I loved the story.

I wasn’t ready to go on to the next book, so I took my copy of The Subtle Knife off the bookshelf and put it… somewhere.

Over a year later, Philip Pullman announced the final book in the series — The Rose Field — would be published in October. Amazing news and what great timing — I needed something that would make me feel good, and I decided I’d start again, go in chronological order, and finish up The Secret Commonwealth right before the publication of the final book.

Except I couldn’t remember where I put The Subtle Knife. I’ve checked all bookcases, drawers, and book stacks in the house. I think everyone is a little gleeful because I hid the book to hoard it for myself. And now I don’t have it.

Joke is on them: We’ll have to purchase a new copy. In the meantime, I started with The Collectors, skipping Once Upon a Time in the North, continued with The Book of Dust, and then restarted The Golden Compass again.

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.