7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 7)

------ 1 ------

A good friend of mine wrote on my Facebook wall yesterday, "No updates for a while. The weather must be nice there in MN!"

She knows me well.

Sunshine + warm temperatures + open beaches = no blogging. Or Twittering. Or Facebooking. Or commenting.

Sorry. I feel vaguely guilty. At this point in the blog game, y'all are my friends; when I'm not online, I feel like I'm ignoring your phone calls or something. But such is life, and I know you understand.

If only we could all meet up for an iced coffee. That would solve everything, wouldn't it?

------ 2 ------

The nice weather has also lead to a rash of after-school stops at the neighborhood A&W. It's an honest-to-the-1950s drive-in, and it sells icy cold draft root beer, which is the only soda worth drinking, in my opinion.

Problem is, both times I've stopped this week I've spilled my drink as I've been driving -- as in, the cup drops out of my hand in slow motion, the root beer sloshes under the center console and runs toward the gas petal, I gasp and reach for the cup even as I steer in traffic.

It's getting annoying. And sticky.

I think I need a sippy cup.

------ 3 ------

My mailbox has been catalog central, lately. Most of them go straight into the recycling. They don't catch my eye in the least.

And then yesterday, I got a catalog called Athleta.

Apparently, it's a catalog for women who are athletically inclined, so how I got on this list I have no idea. I have an athletic build, according to most magazine quizzes, but that's the only time the word "athlete" has been attached to my name. I have never, in all my life, played a sport. I like to be active and I love to be outdoors, mind you, but I have never been on a team.

But this catalog! Oh my. They have the cutest swimsuits and cover-ups.


I love their casual dresses.


And this pants and t-shirt combo? This is how I dress every day of my life. (Except for the day of my wedding. But otherwise? I live casual.)


So while I have no money to buy anything right now, I'm keeping this catalog on my desk just so I can smile at it. It makes me happy.

(Note to the people at Athleta: If you need a blogger to promote you, I'm your girl. Also? If I could order the abs of this model...

... and the arms and legs of this model ...

... I'd be yours for life.)

------ 4 ------

A few weeks ago, I inquired on Twitter about water and sand tables. Since we're sans yard right now, the only place Teyla can play semi-safely (this is Teyla, after all) is our tiny little deck, and a water table seemed like a better way to keep her occupied than my newly planted pots of flowers.

I did tons of research online. (Story of my life, y'all. Story of my life. Corey should be glad Google wasn't around when we started dating.) I ended up with the Sand and Water Transportation Station (which I got at Target, naturally, and on sale, bonus).

I'm completely delighted with it. It's got two compartments, so we could theoretically put sand in one and water in the other. (It's all water for now. I don't need the mess.) The water pours down those funnels and splashes through do-dads and is carried around by the trains. The boats can also be scoops and the table has a cover and the compartments have plugs to the water can be drained when it gets too murky. (Also, in Minnesota, standing water is like a seedy motel to mosquitoes. I'm not allowing that kind of behavior on my deck.)

Awesome buy. Teyla is using it right now.

------ 5 and 6 ------

Can we pretend this is point five and six? Because Natalie just got home from school, and wow, the last four points took me an hour to write. Guess those blogging muscles get lax quickly when you don't use them.

Sort of like my ab muscles. (See point #3 above.)

------ 7 ------

Quote of the week, courtesy a devotional from Chuck Swindoll:

C. S. Lewis once likened his role as a Christian writer to an adjective humbly striving to point others to the Noun of truth. For people to believe that Noun, we Christian writers must improve our adjectives.

Amen.