#200!

So here is your fearless blogger, posted nattily in front of Borders #118, Thousand Oaks, CA.  Which opened on November 18, 1995, and which on August 10, 2009 became the 200th Borders superstore visited by yours truly.

27,854 square feet, located in a former bowling alley.

That sign next to me is an old-style Borders "cafe espresso" sign.  This is one of the few Borders in the country (the store on Park Avenue & 57th St. in Manhattan is another) not to have been converted into a Seattle's Best cafe, generally due to lease restrictions of one sort or another.  However, while the NYC store is a real time-warp location that maintains its ancient Borders cafe look, this store serves Seattle's Best coffee products but without the food goodies and general look and feel of the Seattle's Best cafes.  In fact, it currently serves no food at all.  So it was kind of half-retro.

I celebrated this momentous occasion by purchasing two bags of Lindor truffle balls to leave for the store's break room, and the new issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.  Which I'll probably never have time to read, but I wanted to get more than just a 45¢ truffle ball at my 200th.

More posting on my recent trip to the LA area TK, as I dig out from accumulated e-mails and such.