Food for Cash? Are you crazy?

This morning my Dad, Bard, Ara, and I stopped in at Barnes to browse for books we never plan to buy and of course an Italian Soda (raspberry) from Starbucks. Ara missed her morning nap so I had to keep driving her around in her stroller to keep her entertained. When we finally gave up we headed for this Italian Bistro my Dad had heard was really good. Everything was cheap, hot, and pretty darn delicious. We had the all-you-can-eat pasta, salad, and sandwich bar. Ara sat in a high chair watching all of the people and practicing her amazon woman yell. She was in heaven because we were sitting right in the path of the buffet and everyone in the restaurant stopped by to tell her she was adorable. One by one she threw all of the teething toasts I had packed on the floor. I was reading in the "What to Expect in the First Years" book recently about how basically 'dirt don't hurt'. All the same though, I wouldn't eat something off of the floor so I don't see why I should encourage Ara to. I know that at some point she will probably be licking floors like those but... never mind lets not think about it. We had her in the new car seat, that we agonized over and, guess what? I'm completely having second thoughts about the model we chose! We originally got a Graco from Target that was forward facing and when we got to reading the manual, it went straight back. It's crazy that Graco wouldn't mention that the requirement was 20 pounds, 27 inches, and (the part they left off) at least 1 year old. So next we went to the shiny baby stuff emporium, ortherwise known as Baby's-R-Us. We touched, poked, and pulled on every seat in the place. I wish we had the budget to buy the super safe, side impact protected, cushy Britax seat, but alas $300+ was a bit steep. The chair we chose was another Graco and was in the $150 range. It has really thick memory and EPS foam, but does not have the special side impact protection, AND it's u-g-l-y. Wow, I certainly digressed there from my restaurant story. So, anyway the bill came and as we went to pay the very stressed out waitress starts explaing that their card machine is down! Everyone was in a panic. What were we to do? Seriously, as I glanced around the restaurant and I saw people rumaging in their bags and shooting confused looks at their dining partners. Cash, what is that? Eventually, we sorted out our bill by leaving cash for the tip and paying with a (pause for dramatic effect) check. We were told this was an exception because they normally don't accept checks. By the way when did people stop accepting checks? I didn't even notice, can you still write them in grocery stores and Targets? Poor waitress lady explained that they wouldn't have a new machine until tomorrow morning. I wish I could have stayed... What would we have done if I didn't randomly have my check book on me? Wash dishes? I think when I began this story I was planning on summing up with some witty conclusion about how we seem so advanced but take away our 'machine' and we are totally helpless. In retrospect that conclusion doesn't seem all that witty. You know something else that wouldn't seem witty? Well, I could post this without running spell check! I crack myself up. Haha.