7 quick takes friday...

i stole this idea from some blogs i follow. so sue me.

1. borders is closing. i just got the e-mail today but it's been a long time coming. it makes me so sad that i kind of want to cry. i LOVED borders, and a "borders date" in which my husband and i just wandered aimlessly throughout the store without buying anything, was one of our favorite old standards (maybe that was part of the company's problem)...
   
2. which brings me to a related issue that my husband brought up this morning...in our younger years, we were super against the huge chains like borders and blockbuster because we thought that they would kill all of the local business. now with the rise of the "digital age" or whatever where you are supposed to buy everything online, there are no local bookstores or video rental places, and i'd kill for a blockbuster or for borders to stay in business!
3. my vacation starts tomorrow, and i'm kind of excited because since we're vacationing with my entire family, we have lots of babysitters and that means a ton of early morning bike rides and maybe even some v & teddy only yoga on the beach! yay! but it also means that if we want to go anywhere as a group, it'll take at least two hours. boo. on a related note...
4. one can never have too many beach towels. i used to hate the beach. i still don't like it, i guess, but i love the ocean even though i have an intense fear of aquatic animals. i don't like to sit on the beach and bake. it's just not fun to me. but i do like to swim intensely for long periods of time, and when i get out, i always want a fresh towel, so we bring like 10 towels every time we go to the beach. the nice thing about island beach is that we can leave and come back (with new towels, if necessary) after lunch or a shower or whatever. there is nothing worse than a wet, sandy towel to dry off with. though it might be good for exfoliating.
5. my teddy's last show is tonight (probably) and i don't know what he is going to do with himself afterward. he writes a ton of songs even when he isn't trying to, so without anybody to play them, i wonder if his head will explode? he is always talking about the mental/emotional issues that are specific to men that i as a woman could not possibly comprehend, and i think that we've stumbled onto one of them here. and incidentally, i don't get it.
   
6. the nj state fair/sussex county farm and horse show website is pretty terrible, and sometimes just flat out lies to me (like when it says that online ag entries are no longer being accepted after midnight on july 22nd but it's not midnight on july 22nd yet). i feel like they make information harder to find so that the committees and all of their buddies can also win in every category. i will delve deeper into this conspiracy as i chronicle my dealings with the ag and home ec exhibitions this year.
7. 7. making baby food is supremely easy. i wonder why more people don't do it? i know that some people don't feed their babies solids until they are like 3, but stenni has pretty much weaned herself (which i was hoping wouldn't happen for another few months and kind of breaks my heart a little but i guess she knows when she's ready, and couldn't have picked a better time than right before vacation) and wants to eat whatever we eat. now obviously i'm not about to feed her popcorn or hot dogs or cheesesteaks, but she eats a ton of fruits and veggies and cheeses and now that we've got the garden it's even easier. this makes cheerios a Godsend though because i can't always give her spicy thai curry or whatever, but usually i have a stockpile of apples and mangoes and whatnot in the freezer that i've already made. yay for local, organic, homemade baby food. she eats better than we do!

that's it everybody! see you in about 10 days!