When we were first married, we had a lot of dinner parties. They weren’t potlucks — I did all of the cooking — but they weren’t sit-at-the-table parties because we only had four chairs. And they were all metal folding chairs. People plopped down on the sofa or the floor with their plates, and we’d hang out all night, eating and listening to music and talking.

Then we moved to a different place, and we held one or two of those old-style, sit-on-the-floor dinners in our basement. But at some point, we graduated to a smaller group—usually just a handful of people—all around the table. I came to think of the floor dinners as part of new adulthood and the table dinners as part of being a grownup.

The dinner parties dried up entirely during COVID and haven’t returned.

I miss those dinner parties on the floor. Watching where you stepped so you didn’t knock over a glass. People constantly shifting to a new space and talking to a new person when they returned from refilling their plate. I don’t know why I ever thought the floor wasn’t grownup.

Dinner parties are the thing I miss the most from pre-COVID.

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

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It started with one suggested calligraphy video in my Instagram feed. A disembodied hand was showing how to create illuminated letters. I watched it, and the next day, three calligraphy videos were in my feed. And for days after, a third of my feed was disembodied hands creating gorgeous letters.

And then came the embroidery videos. One was mixed in with the calligraphy videos, and within a day, the calligraphy videos were replaced with embroidery videos. There were embroidered flowers on jeans, embroidered designs on collars, and nimble disembodied hands showing me how to create seven different kinds of knots in thread.

I’m not sure what they’ll deliver next or if I’ll be stuck with embroidery videos for a long time because I bookmarked them, intending to return to them when I purchased some thread and could try out the knots myself.

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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.

Yesterday was lördagsgodis in Sweden, a weekly custom known as “Saturday Candy.” Food and Wine explains: “Every weekend, children and adults alike spend part of their Saturdays cozy at home, eating through an assortment of their favorite candies.” You build anticipation during the week and go all-in on Saturday.

A quick Google search brings you IKEA’s offerings, a BBC article, and an Etsy shop dedicated to the tradition.

ChickieNob and I have something similar on Fridays that I started years ago. We take a mid-day break (either together or in our own space when she is at college), eat a few squares of chocolate, and watch a few minutes of a favourite television show. Doing it during a workday as the lunch break feels a little more decadent than Saturdays, which are already exciting because you’re off work. But I like the idea of an entire country taking a candy break at the same time.

A few weeks ago, we went to see the Pixies. Josh loves the Pixies. I like the Pixies. But Josh has been accompanying me to the symphony (more on that another day). I love the symphony. Josh likes the symphony. So these are the things you do for the people you love, and we love each other, so at least we match up there.

It was a great show — they played “Wave of Mutilation” twice, once fast and once slow. We danced through most of the set, though there was a moment when they played “Here Comes Your Man” when I closed my eyes, and for about three seconds, I honestly believed that I was 19 again and getting ready to go out for the night. And when I opened them and saw that I was at a concert with a bunch of other grey-haired people, I was so profoundly sad that you can’t go backwards and revisit favourite moments in time.

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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.

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And now the blogs…

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 writes about how to participate in interviews or essay collections when you have an anonymous blog. In other words, how do you come out as a blogger when you’ve kept that side of your life from other people in your day-to-day world? She makes an excellent point: “I don’t find it necessary that all my family and friends should know everything about me. We all share different parts of each others’ lives, so it is fine that other parts of my life are relatively separate.”

Lastly, The Barreness writes about being the responsible one. This moment captures so much: “When my dear friend was hospitalized and told she needed a new kidney and a heart, I immediately thought, can I donate mine? I mentally volunteered mine, before researching if it was even possible with my chronic illnesses.” And, of course, what do you do when life throws a curve ball, as she reveals by the end of the post? Sending a lot of good thoughts.

The roundup to the Roundup: Time only moves forward. 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 June 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.

I only learned about this place when it closed for the year, but I’ve put it on my to-do list to go to this fall. Tivoli’s Astounding Magic Supply Company describes itself as “The District’s premier (and only) magic supply store, illusionarium, and de-lux haberdashery is also the official storefront for local nonprofit 826DC. 100% of your purchase supports 826DC’s free writing programs for DC students ages 6-18. Extraordinary!”

Isn’t that brilliant?!?!

The way I understand it, they are using the entrance to the writing center as a magic store, and anything purchased in the magic store benefits 826DC, which is a writing center for kids.

And I am completely in love with the names/storefronts in other cities.

Something to look forward to when school starts up again.

Have you been to the one in your area?