While we were at the beach, my flip-flops snapped. I love these flip-flops; they’re one of the last things I have from BlogHer. I’ve already hot-glued them back together once, and I knew I could do that once we got home, but in the meantime, I didn’t have shoes. But I was in a beach town. Surely I would be able to get beach shoes.

The first store did not have flip-flops in my size, but they started at $20 and only went up from there. The second store had flip-flops in my size, but they were $55. For a pair of super ugly flip-flops! I was going to give up and see if the hardware store had duct tape I could use to repair them when I decided to duck into a third store while Josh ordered dinner. This store had the most hideous beach slides for $11 (win!), but as I was about to bring them to the register, I looked down and saw a bin of flip-flops for $1.99. I took them up to the cashier, and she told me they were indeed only $1.99 because they had a weird stain that looked like spilled soda. Yes, I would like these stained flip-flops for under $2. I walked out feeling like a queen.

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I enter Goodreads giveaways all the time, but I rarely win. Until I do. I won a giveaway for the new Maureen Johnson book, The Velvet Knife. I haven’t won a giveaway since 2024. Thank you, Goodreads!

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What would be the third thing? If the flip-flops were on the weekend and the Goodreads book was mid-week, would I end the week with one final win?

Yes. Yes, I would.

There are Great Western Railroad posters up in train stations offering “delay pay” if your train is over a half hour late. We have had plenty of delayed trains over the years, but this time, Josh decided to submit a claim and see what happened.

GWR accepted the claim (the train was more than a half hour delayed getting to our destination), and sent us paper train vouchers, which would have been awesome if they had no expiration date, but they did. And they were going to expire a few months before our next trip. There wasn’t enough time to mail them to the Wolvog, who was still overseas, and we couldn’t transfer them outside the family.

Josh asked them if they would refund us in cash, and we went back and forth for weeks, proving we destroyed the vouchers, filling out more paperwork, etc. Finally, more than two months after our trip, we received our delay pay! My third win in a single week.

Epic.

The Washington Post had a somewhat great opinion piece on Dolly Parton last week, pointing out that “She was a reassurance … that parenting is far from the only way to invest in the kids who are all of our future.”

I say somewhat great because the repeated framing (emphasis mine) is that she hadn’t wanted kids.

• “She was a vocal nonparent who nevertheless cared greatly about kids.”
• “She was proof that a person could be an advocate and friend for children while personally choosing against parenting.”
• “She was a reassurance that voluntary childlessness doesn’t reflect inherent selfishness.”
• “Parton was a hero in ‘child-free’ circles, too, for publicly recognizing the choice to not parent as a valid and rewarding one.”

The writer acknowledges, “In the early years of her 58-year marriage to Carl Thomas Dean, Parton has said, she tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant.” But then goes on to keep repeating this narrative of they didn’t want to parent, which feels like they’re only telling part of the story, which is closer to they wanted, they couldn’t have, they made a choice based on that information, and they lived happily ever after.

Dolly saw the positives in not having children, felt at peace with the decision, and was even happy that things happened as they did. But her story was never, “Nope, never wanted to parent and glad I stuck with that.” Life is more complex than what can be contained in a handful of quotes.

And I kind of wish they had also used the space to point out that there are so many reasons a person wouldn’t have children along with so many ways we can all invest in the future generation.

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

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I’ve written before that we put on first-person walking videos and walk in place in front of the television listening to an audiobook. This site is a really good compilation of these types of videos with steady camera work. As you can imagine, not all first-person videos are well-filmed, so you want to head toward YouTube accounts that do a great job filming so you don’t get dizzy as you walk.

We watch videos before we go somewhere new so we know our way around before we get there. Or we revisit places we love and walk there. Or, frankly, sometimes I just sit and watch, remembering being in a space.

Enjoy.

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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.

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 Witches of Cambridge (Alice Hoffman)
• The Good Parts (Evann Normandin)
• The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances (Glenn Dixon)
• Between Yesterday & Tomorrow (Luan Goldie)
• Laura Clark Is Away from Her Desk (Helen Russell)
• The Year of Living Danishly (Helen Russell)
• The Fox of Kensal Green (Richard Tyrrell)
• Time Travel for Beginners (Jaclyn Moriarty)
• Oscar from Elsewhere (Jaclyn Moriarty)
• We (Christelle Dabos)
• Twist (Alice Feeney)
• The Murder Mystery Mystery (J.D. Brinkworth)
• Karro (Jenny Mustard)
• The Brightness (Chad Harbach)
• Fair Ones (Lydia Millet)
• Fallow (Sarah Anderson)
• Helle in Venice (Oskar Jensen)
• Members Only (Emma Rosenblum)

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

• Smitten Kitchen’s cacio e pepe. She claims it’s foolproof, and I completely agree. But the clean-up was bonkers. So… delicious, easy to make, but difficult to clean up.
• I’ve already written about making tiramisu, but it’s worth another mention because it was delicious and easy.
• Vegetarian wonton soup.

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

• We are four episodes into Unacceptable. It’s a standard comedian panel show where they share unacceptable opinions and try to convince the audience to agree with them. It’s very funny.
• Mali turned us onto Would I Lie To You, another panel show where comedians tell a story and the other team have to decide whether it’s true or a lie. We play along at home, but we’re terrible at it.
• We started the new season of Ted Lasso. It’s a little rough around the edges, but we love being with the cast again. Plus I like that it’s a new team vs. more of the same.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

• “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (Oasis)
• “Somewhere Only We Know” (Keane)
• “Karma Police” (Radiohead)
• “Wishing Well” (Sananda Maitreya)

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

• The words to the “We like to drink with…” chant.
• The Wikipedia page for Myrddin Wyllt, thanks to a book I was reading.
• A simple sugar bun recipe.
• Tom Kerridge meat-free recipes.

Micro-Joys

• This may be the most adult sentence ever, but I felt true joy when the plumber charged us the same amount he estimated the job would be.
• Watching a tiny Atlantic ghost crab for an hour crawl out of his hole, toss some sand, and then race back down to hide.
• Choosing a book at random and having it be the perfect read on the beach.

Mood

• Super sad that the twins are going back to college soon.

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

I am now the owner of a new coffee maker. Our old coffee maker stopped working, and after some scientific Googling, the Internet agreed it was probably a blocked valve. No problem. I found a tutorial on YouTube, and asked the Wolvog if he wanted to help me fix the issue.

“That looks like an afternoon activity,” he mumbled, half awake.

Or, I decided, it could be a now activity. I first tried to remove the tubing, which ripped because it was about 15 years old and completely dried out. No problem because the local hardware store assured me that if I brought in the tubing, they could cut me new tubing to the same size.

Because the tubing already needed to be replaced, I decided I could cut into it to get to the one-way valve. Big mistake. The piece shot out of the tube and shattered on the floor. My broken coffee maker was now broken beyond repair.

We went out and bought a new coffee maker that night because we could not live without caffeine. It was sad to say goodbye to our coffee maker, but it had a good life. Right? I feel like if I had just opened the tube over a soft surface, I would still have our old coffee maker.

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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.

No Kidding in NZ proves research correct: When we feel terrible, helping others can make us feel better. She gives advice and guidance to a friend about to go on a trip, pulling in her own extensive travel knowledge. Personally, I would love her to set up my eSim on my next trip. She’s a good friend.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix celebrates creating the life she wants to live. She talks about the last move: “I didn’t want to do any of it. I did it anyway. And I’m calling this the finish line. I did it. I’m done. I have arrived. It’s time to stop and smell the roses. I created a life I want to live.” I love that. What a gift to yourself.

The roundup to the Roundup: Welcome to our home, new coffee maker. 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 21 – 28) 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.