89. Always use reusable shopping bags and 91. Join a CSA

Obviously, there's no way I can finish all my 101 things. Waaay too optimistic last summer. But, socking away $50 for all the unfinished items will certainly do me good, as my current "emergency fund" contains enough funds for my half of the rent for one month. I'm working on it.

Reusable shopping bags have become all the rage, so much so that I have quite the collection without spending a cent. I have three from the Stanford Credit Union, and Etsy one (my favorite) I won in a raffle at the Maker Faire, Facebook and Target ones from career fairs, and a Lion Brand Yarn one, again from the Maker Faire. I keep them in my trunk and usually remember to bring them with me shopping. Sometimes I'm even good enough to remember to use them at other stores, too! And in the end, I don't have a million plastic bags scattered throughoug my apartment. Win-win.

What I do still have scattered all around the apartment, though, are the smaller produce bags. I haven't quite trained myself to go without the bags and just throw the produce willy-nilly into my cart/basket, though that also makes sense. Instead, this won't be a problem for much longer, as I've joined a CSA!

CSA stanfords for community-supported agriculture. Basically, I support a local "community" of farms (my current CSA) by buying "shares". In return for these shares, I get a certain amount of fresh produce every week. I've also heard that other CSAs offer labor shares (work on the farm and get produce in return). I am technically paying more per unit of produce than I would at Safeway or probably even the farmer's market, but the food I get is about as fresh as it gets and I am also supporting local small farmers. And I picked a CSA that allows me to pick what produce I want from a list of stuff in season. That way I know what I'm getting each week, instead of being surprised by cantaloupe/zuccini/eggplant/any number of things I don't like.

In other news, on the "read classic novels" front, I have given up. Several weeks ago I went to the Burlingame Library (GORGEOUS) for the first time. I checked out The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Watership Down, and The Count of Monte Cristo. I never finished the thickest one. Well, I started The Count, but I didn't like the language/translation. Everything moved too slowly, too. So after the guy gets arrested I just ended up reading the sparknotes. And it looked very very interesting. I think I'll try to get my paws on a different translation and see if I like it better.

Sooo....yesterday I went to the library again. Well, two libraries. And got the first five Harry Potter books. And Tales of Beetle the Bard, because, you know, it was right there and I hadn't read it yet. I'm so excited about re-reading the series. I (like so many people) was planning on reading the first six before the seventh came out, but never got around to it. So, here I go! I finished the first one last night, and am starting the second one tonight. And CoS and PoA are in BRITISH! The only thing I really noticed was that the Brits use apostrophes instead of quotation marks. I'm on the lookout for colours and favourites and theatres and centres, but I don't think I'll actually catch them. Especially since I'm pretty familiar with British slang already.