783rd Friday Blog Roundup

Why did February get to be the month that gets the extra day during a Leap Year? Why not add a day to any of the months with 30 days? Or add the extra day as December 32 to make an extra long vacation that year since many people take off for winter break? I get that February is the shortest month and this stretches it closer to all other months. But since it still doesn’t reach the length of those 30-day months, why bother?

In the Hebrew calendar, we get a Leap MONTH. As in, we repeat a whole month, twice. It happens about every three years. (I think the actual calculation is something like seven out of nineteen years.) The repeated month is the best month–Adar–which is the month we’re in right now. It contains Purim, which is a totally wild, celebratory holiday with a lot of drinking (if you’re older) and dressing up in costume (if you’re any age). I highly doubt Adar was chosen as the repeat for that reason–it’s the last month in the year. (The first is Nisan, which coincides with the spring.) But it works out to have double awesomeness regardless.

Though this year is not a Leap Month Year. Even though it is a Leap Year on the Gregorian calendar. These are dual calendar problems.

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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:

• “It’s my birthday (soon) and I’ll party like I want to” (The Full Stop Podcast)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Much Ado About Nothing is weighing her birth control options. Medications paired with a wonky cycle has her mulling over the idea of tubal ligation. But it has an emotional side, too. “If I go through with that, everything would be final final. No going back. It sounds so silly because of my age and history, but I can’t help but feel like I might regret it, or come out being upset and mentally and emotionally affected by it in a negative way.” It’s a big decision, and she’s taking it slowly.

Jewish IVF is marking her transfer anniversary now knowing happily how the cycle turned out. She writes, “This time last year I was up at night because I was sad and anxious about the what ifs of this never happening for us. These days I’m up at night because of dirty diapers and chapped nipples and I couldn’t be more grateful.” It’s a very sweet post of celebration.

Lastly, Torthúil has a post about February 17th, the day she got pregnant during a canceled cycle. She reflects on the ups and downs of that year, noting: “And yet, in the years since, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that rather than a happy ending, my life split into two parallel universes in February 2014. In one of them there is no AJ, and in one of them there is.” It’s a post about things coming full circle.

The roundup to the Roundup: Enjoy your extra day. 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 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.