I am a book nerd; the numbers speak for themselves

[dr4b]

0900 - the time my alarm was set for

0935 - the time I actually got up

8 - the number of CDs I brought along in the car for the ride

6 - the number of hours I spent driving today from home to Redmond to Portland and back

387.7 - the number of miles I drove today

43.9 - the miles per gallon my car got along the way

6 - the number of hours we spent in Powell's Bookstore

9 - the number of books I bought

$97.10 - the amount I spent on said books

$0 - the amount of sales tax paid, hooray for Oregon

16 - the number of plates Brian and I had at Sushi Takahashi

3 - the number of cream puffs we consumed at Sushi Takahashi


Yeah, it was a good day, though I feel silly driving 6 hours to spend 7 hours in Portland.

If anyone cares, the books I bought are:
The Curious Case of Sidd Finch by George Plimpton
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Robert Creamer
Perfect by James Buckley
Maybe I'll Pitch Forever by Satchel Paige
I Ain't No Athlete, Lady by John Kruk
Sweet Seasons: Recollections of the 1955-64 New York Yankees by Dom Forker
Slick: My Life In And Around Baseball by Whitey Ford
Now Pitching: Bob Feller, by Bob Feller
You've Got to Have Balls to Make It in This League: My Life as an Umpire by Pam Postema

I read through a TON of other books while I was there. I mean, Powell's baseball book section is like an entire side of an aisle. It's awesome. I'd just pick up books and start reading. My qualifier for actually buying a book was 1) less than $15 2) hadn't seen this book on the shelves in a new bookstore 3) drew me into it so I didn't want to put it down. The thing is, for example, they had a book about George Brett which was neat but I read the entire thing in 10 minutes since it was mostly pictures. Or they had a book from the 50's about baseball form, with a lot of pictures of the 50's Yankees and Dodgers -- but, it was like $25.

There really was only one book I was kinda hoping to find and that I didn't see there: 61*, like the movie. Ah well, maybe I'll spot it in a HPB sometime.

And yes, aside from like maybe 40 minutes (20 minutes eating lunch), I spent my entire time at Powell's in the baseball book section. Wheeee. It was like heaven, but with no comfy chairs.

I wore my Moyer t-shirt today and he won the game! Wheeeeee.

Comments

[arya.livejournal.com]

44 miles a gallon? Wow. What kind of car do you drive?

[dr4b]

Civic Hybrid, yo.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

I feel so dirty being happy when my car somehow gets almost 31.

[arya.livejournal.com]

Hybrids are AWESOME. That's nearly as good of gas mileage as my motorcycle gets-- and that's a 600cc engine on something that weighs about 600 pounds. The hybrids weren't as great in Austin, though. The A/C cutting off at every red light is just unbearable in Texas heat. But now that I'm on the coast again, if I were to save up for a new car, I'd love to get an Insight.

[msde.livejournal.com]

Any idea how that compares to the Prius? I'm trying to decide between a mini cooper and a prius right now, but I'm having trouble with the prius because it's ugly and more expensive.

[oren.livejournal.com]

Any 600cc bike accelerates about 10 times faster than a Civic Hybrid though. :)

If they made motorcycles not geared for performance, it would get better gas mileage.

[mithramuse.livejournal.com]

Just last week I drove my car down to my sister's place; 1,294 miles, got around 47 mpg. (Note that the A/C was on only a little, in the latter part of the trip; but the whole thing was also at pretty high speeds, from 65 to breaking 80 in parts of Georgia & Florida.) Had some hilly sections through the Appalachians where the milage was not as good (around 44 mpg, near as I can tell, though I only stopped for gas three times so it's a bit hard to break out) but long, flat stretches did quite well for me.

This is a 2002 Prius; the 2004/05 gets better gas milage, from what I've read, though I haven't driven one.

I guess the ugly bit is eye of the beholder type stuff; I like the look, personally....