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

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This game annoys me for two reasons. First, it often resets, especially if you are playing on your phone and walk away from it. It is annoying to need to go through a board again.

The second reason is that I cannot pass level 3. LEVEL 3! I keep coming close, but then I forget how I got that far and mess up the pattern. I would keep at it, but I fear that if I’m having this much trouble with level 3, I will only be annoyed with level 4 and/or the game resetting and needing to win level 3 a second time.

But maybe it’s your cup of tea.

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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.

Last weekend, Josh met the Wolvog in Philadelphia for a concert. They got a hotel room because the concert would get out late, but all in all, the whole thing was going to be a 24-hour trip.

It was my first time sleeping alone at home since the twins were born.

I know that sounds impossible, but there have been times when Josh has been away but the kids have been here, and times when the kids have been away but Josh has been here, and times when I have been away at a conference and sleeping in a hotel alone, but never everyone away and Melissa at home.

It would have been a normal weekend if I hadn’t realized that fact before Josh left. A lot of reading. A little exercise. A little television. I got takeaway for dinner. Spoke to the ChickieNob. But knowing that fact made me notice the quiet.

The Fords love a good spreadsheet; the more tabs, the better. Colour-code it, and the Fords bliss out. So it should come as no shock as we come closer to adding a new guinea pig to our family that I added a new tab to the guinea pig spreadsheet with potential names.

For the record, while everyone has mocked and rejected some of my name offerings, no one has added their own.

The spreadsheet has columns for the name, notes about the name (think of it as the elevator pitch), and possible nicknames. We like to gather four possible names and then see which one best fits the pig.

It is really hard to wait until we’re a pig-full house again.

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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.

Apron Strings for Emily has a series of posts about her beautiful dog, Kirby, who died a few months ago. The letters posted earlier in the month, but they only entered my feed reader this week. A few of the letters talk about infertility, and I think many will relate to the way an animal companion (still testing out terms) can bring comfort and tie someone to community. She writes: “Many women or couples felt uncomfortable when they found out we had no kids; we were less relatable … But WOW, that changed when you became part of our family.” Click over to read how Kirby the Beagle helped her form connections.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled covers the Canadian elections, which are run so differently from American elections. She outlines how they vote — for a single person (the local Parliament member) via paper ballots. It’s cool to read about another county’s system.

The roundup to the Roundup: Coming up with potential guinea pig names. 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 April 25 – May 2) 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.

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)

• One Love (Matt Cain)
• The Margaret Code (Richard Hooton)
• Sharpen Your Knives (Lauren Ho)
• Just Another Dead Author (Katarina Bivald)
• Murder Takes a Vacation (Laura Lippman)
• The Queen Who Came in from the Cold (SJ Bennett)
• One Death at a Time (Abbi Waxman)
• The Usual Desire to Kill (Camilla Barnes)
• What a Time To Be Alive (Jenny Mustard)
• Death and Other Occupational Hazards (Veronika Dapunt)
• Acts of Cupidity (E.S. Drake)

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

• Tomato risotto and a fig and burrata salad for Pesach.
• Southwestern salad with cilantro lime dressing.
• Vegetarian “chicken” parmesan. (I know… sounds odd. Tastes great.)

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

• White Lotus 3. Finished it. Do not understand why Rick went to Thailand now vs. years ago but enjoyed it nonetheless.
• The Diplomat 2. Finished it. The second season felt a little uneven, but we’ll definitely watch the next season when it comes out.
• The Pitt. Started it. It’s intense.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

• “Made in Thailand” (Carabao)
• “The Pit” (Dead Milkmen)
• Gil Shaham and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra playing Concerto in F Minor, Op. 8, No. 4, R 297 from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (Largo)

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

• A Google search on jackalopes because I thought it was a real animal (a small wild hare?) and discovered it was not.
• Checking a statement that neutering extends the life of male guinea pigs. Unlike dogs and rabbits, it does not.
• An article about how Lay’s is now selling All Dressed chips in the US.
• The menu for a new ramen restaurant.

Micro-Joys

• Another Beorn story — Beorn couldn’t eat his beloved vitamin C tablet. He normally begged for it every morning. One day, I had the idea to dissolve it in water — it took about an hour — and then thicken the solution with a little critical care. I have it to him with a syringe, and he got to enjoy the taste of his tablet and get the super important vitamin C. I felt like a superhero.
• Having my nephews hold my hands while we were crossing the street.
• Lunch with my niece at a cute sandwich place, relaxing in the sun.

Mood

• Pretty damn sad after worrying through Beorn’s infection and then losing him. This has not been a good month.

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

I read a story in a newsletter and then tried to explain it to Josh as we drove home one night from a concert. The writer talks about a dog scared of people entering the house.

Instead of shutting the dog off in a room, a trainer worked with the dog, and he now has a place to go when he gets stressed out. The owner says, “Place,” and the dog walks to their bed.

It doesn’t stop them from getting stressed out, but as they get stressed out, they take breaks until they can release the stress and stay where they are comfortable. Their “place.”

You can read the technique here.

The writer goes on to explain how she uses the same concept on herself when she’s getting anxious. She allows herself to get anxious, acknowledges that she’s getting anxious, and then steps into a mentally calming place. Repeat until you can stay in the mentally calming place and leave the stressor somewhere else.

I think it comes down to acknowledging the thought instead of trying not to think the thought, which is a core practice within meditation. But it helped me to envision myself creeping up to the thought, feeling scared, retreating from the thought to a safe space to take a break, creeping up again, and repeating until I can leave the thought behind and gaze at it neutrally from a safe space.