Half Price Books – sale

So, after leaving the state fair grounds this afternoon, I said to myself, “Self: we have a huge opportunity and if we do not take it, we’ll most likely regret it.”

So, that’s how I ended up at Cosettas this afternoon, getting myself some take-out, after leaving the “Half Price Books” book sale.

Since I’m not up in the downtown Saint Paul area as often as I was a few yrs ago when I was taking classes at Saint Thomas, I decided to buy myself enough “stuff“ to last me a few days.

Upon getting home, and not having had any lunch, I had myself a slice of their sausage pizza, yum. [Only bought one slice.]

A few hours later (for dinner), I then had the antipasto salad.

Tomorrow, I’ll be having either the CHICKEN CACCIATORE, or the SAUSAGE CALABRESE.

Both are to die for…

[sorry for the uppercase letters, I copied/pasted the entree names from their online menu.]

On Monday or Tuesday, I’ll have the second entree.

Although they are only twenty miles away, it seems I won’t go up there (to eat) unless I’m already in that area for another reason. Wish they were a bit closer.

[Wish “Beautiful Downtown” Apple Valley has some good “fine dining” restaurants…jus sayin’]

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Re: Today’s book sale. Bought twenty books for $40.

Mostly nonfiction (political biographies: Cheney’s “In my time”; Bush’s “Decision Points”; a real oldie: “The running mate”, by Joe Klein; “Game change”, by Heileman/Halperin; and Walter Isaacson’s “Kissinger”).

Several software development nerd books, and then “The last lecture” by Randy Paush which I believe I read was a great book to read, and a book titled “Train” by Tom Zoellner (which I’d previously started reading on my Kindle but never finishined it, even though I was enjoying it at the time).

A thin two hundred pager with the title of “50 successful Stanford application essays”, edited by Gen and Kelly Tanabe, which looked to be quite interesting – and after reading one or two of the essays tonight, might just be one of my best purchases of the bunch – imagine yourself as an 17/18 yr old, and having to write an essay to apply to one of the top schools in the country – pretty nerve wracking I would suspect.

Then, not sure why I picked this one up, by it is titled “The Screenwriter’s problem solver”, by Syd Field. [looks like I could be writing a screen play sometime in the future.]

And finally, a coffee table (11”x14”) book, titled “Orbit” (Jay Apt, Michael Helfert, Justin Wilkinson), with awesome photos of (outer) space and our planet from above.

All of which were only $2 each.

Glad I got out of the house today, enjoyed shopping with dozens, if not hundreds of other book geeks (of all shapes, sizes, and whatnot), and cannot wait until I can scarf down that sausage calibrese sometime tomorrow afternoon!

And, how did you spend your day today?