680th Friday Blog Roundup

The Olympics kicks off tonight… or… I guess they’ve already kicked off?  I’m a little fuzzy on the whole time difference thing since we only watch the prime time coverage.  I know you don’t see everything if you only stick to the nightly coverage, but I really miss how we used to have television “events” where you and the rest of the world were watching the same thing at the same time.  It still happens from time to time with things like the State of the Union or the Super Bowl, but it feels like those moments are few and far between.

Like I remember watching the season finale for Friends when Ross said Rachel’s name at the wedding.  Our windows were open, and a collective shout went out across the apartment complex at that moment.  We ended up spilling outside, laughing with our neighbours once we realized everyone in the complex had been watching the same television show at the same time.

But I digress.

We’re watching the Olympics at night, and we’re so excited.  So even though you can watch the Opening Ceremony early if you go online, we’re sticking to waiting and seeing it at the end of the day.  Because we’re all traditional like that.  Top favourite events: figure skating, skeleton, and luge.

What are your favourites?

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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:

• “Women’s Blogs” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Lori!
• “Where We Are” (With Every Heartbeat)
• “Everybody’s Kids” (The Next 15000 Days)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Carolyn Hax gave cryptic adoption advice this week, but Lavender Luz filled in the missing information, including the point that kids take their cues from adults, so if the adults are on-board with openness, the kids will usually follow suit.  As always, I love this point that Lori often highlights: “Just because you’re showing pictures and having the occasional visits doesn’t mean you’re open. It means you offer contact. But understand that contact ≠ openness.”

The Road Less Travelled discusses a spot that infertile and fertile women often find themselves in when they enter a different stage of life; eager for someone else (a family member or friend) to have a baby, though infertile women know that you cannot put pressure on another human to build their family.  In this case, it is her nephew and his wife who would like a baby but believe that it isn’t a good time for them to try.  She points out that she knows first hand how terrible it is to deal with outside pressure, “It was hard enough to deal with then, when we assumed we would be parents someday, at a time of our choosing. It became excruciating once it dawned on us that parenthood might not be a given after all.”

Old Lady and No Baby has a funny post about her twins and their imaginary friend.  Their individual imaginary friends share the same name — Papa — and are, of course, awesome.  The ChickieNob and Wolvog both had imaginary friends, and we still reminisce about Bronner from time to time.  I mean, I miss Bronner (and her imaginary friend, Ursula, since the ChickieNob’s imaginary friend had an imaginary friend), and she wasn’t even my imaginary friend plus she made my life very complicated.  But, you know, imaginary friends rock.

Lastly, I love Slaying, Blogging, Whatever’s letter to her children who are going through a difficult time.  Her words squeezed my heart and also make me feel calm, and her kids are very lucky to have such a thoughtful mum: “Things you think should be easy are not and things that are hard are harder than you thought. Growing up is hard. No matter what we have done to prepare you, it is never enough… especially if you see and react to the world differently. It can seem like an endlessly, rough road.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Olympics are starting!  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 February 2nd and 9th) 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.