853rd Friday Blog Roundup

I’ve been super into French mysteries this summer, either in translation or written by UK writers living in France. This past weekend, I ran into a mystery bookstore, hoping to pick up the first books in two series, and they had used copies in mint condition from both. I was so excited that when the owner was ringing me up, I started babbling about how much I love French mysteries since I was introduced to Martin Walker’s books.

“He’s my neighbour,” she commented.

“Here?” I asked, looking around the Maryland bookshop.

“No. In France. We also own a home in France, and we moved there because he told us about the town.”

She pulled out a bound photo book behind the desk and showed me pictures of her home in this tiny town in France. Sure enough, one of the pictures contained Martin Walker, cooking dinner.

She rents out her French home, and she gave me the information so we can book it next time we travel. And she reminded me to read quickly because he has a new book in the Bruno series coming out this summer. If you can’t travel, you can always go mentally to the French countryside with a story.

Completely random moment that I did not expect to happen while picking up books.

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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:

• “Die dritte Zahnbürste” (Die dritte Zahnbürste)
• “The Murder & The Funeral” (Lavender Luz)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Happy birthday to In Quest of a Binky Moongee. I loved this post because the things needed to make the day feel special were so simple. Food she wanted to eat. People she wanted to be with. She writes: “Last year they had to stand outside with a cake to sing me a birthday song. The fact that we could all be under one roof to sing a happy birthday song and enjoy a birthday cake is such a blessing. That was all I wanted.” Glad it was a great celebration.

Infertile Phoenix went through a difficult (fifth!) move, but she learned lessons along the way. Like she can do really hard things. And I love this thought: “I just kept moving away from what I didn’t want and moving toward what I did want.” Yes!

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ has rounded up great quotes that speak to the experience of living child free after infertility. The quotes are great, but so is Mali’s thought: “Being open to the future, rather than clinging to the hopes of the past, is really what sets us up for a happy No Kidding rest of our lives.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Random moments in bookstores. 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 July 9 – July 16) 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.