648th Friday Blog Roundup

Linus loves biting in the same way that I love to sleep in on Saturdays.  A guilty pleasure.  He waits until he has your undivided attention, and then he slowly chomps down on your shirt and yanks his head back in slow motion while he watches you.  When we say, “No!” he drops his mouthful of shirt and looks at us in confusion.  How could we not like that?

He loves to reward me for giving him a back massage by biting my hand, and then follows that up by happily wheeking and jumping about in joy.  He bites the bars of his cage as if he’s attempting a prison break.

The only thing he hates?  Biting things that are meant to be bitten.

I got him a colourful chew toy, but he gives it wide berth.  I bought him chew sticks that I was promised guinea pigs love.  He does not.  And an empty toilet paper roll?  Forget it.  That thing is terrifying.  He makes special care to never walk near it lest the inanimate rubbish attacks him.

He’s lucky he’s super cute.

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I am working on a research project for Reward Volunteers about the intersection of volunteerism and social media.  If you have 3 minutes after reading the Roundup, commenting on all the great posts, and telling me your second helpings, then can you fill out this survey and tell me why you volunteer?  You’ll be entered to win a $200 gift card if you do.  If you’ve already filled it out, thank you!

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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 in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

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

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Not an infertility post but definitely a feel-good post.  Pics and Posts writes about a special teacher as she retires as well as a very cool project she did with her students about freedom quilts and the Underground Railroad.  I love this post because she captures something I have always felt about the special place a former teacher holds in our family: “I love her not only because she is awesome but because she just loves my son, and even today–three years after he finished second grade–she is a friend of his heart.”

With Every Heartbeat recounts a difficult conversation with a clueless couple 9 months after losing her daughter.  As I said in her comment section, we teach kids how to say they are sorry or thank you, but how many people teach their child how to interact with someone in mourning?  How to ask a question and be a good listener?  Offer comfort?  These are the lessons we should be imparting to the next generation because you get clueless, thoughtless adults when you don’t.

Lastly, Bent Not Broken muses on her experience on Mother’s Day.  “But despite all of the love and support from friends there was an intense feeling of being different, especially when it came to my family.  I was caught in the middle of a group chat with my mom and my sisters. Messages were flying back and forth. Plans for the day.  Pictures.  Descriptions of gifts. Not one big hurt, but 100 little hurts.  And not one inquiry about me or how I was doing.”  It’s that death by a thousand paper cuts that makes living with infertility and loss so painful.  Sending a hug.

The roundup to the Roundup: Cutest little biter in the world.  Take the survey.  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 May 19th and 26th) 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.