We went up to Berkeley with a couple of bags of books, the result of a quick cull this morning to gather duplicates, books I bought for research purposes and no longer need, books I bought and couldn't get into, etc. It didn't even make a visible dent in the shelves, as I was pulling one or two books from each shelf, not enough to make an appreciable amount of space. Nevertheless, Half Price Books took them all and gave me $75 (quite a bit more than I expected). I spent a little bit of it, buying a book of Basho poems and an Oliver Sacks book, and Heather and I decided to spend the rest of the money on an afternoon of fun.

We ambled around downtown, stopping in at The Other Change of Hobbit -- where they had a copy of Rangergirl in the window! So I went in and chatted with Tom and Dave, who told me they got the books in on Wednesday, and that they've been "selling like crazy." They'd ordered 15 copies, and only had 6 left. I signed their stock, which they tell me should make the remaining copies move even faster. (So if you want a signed copy, and you're local, head over there.) My first sighting of Rangergirl in the wild! It made me so happy.

Then we headed to Au Coquelet (very festively decorated), had some drinks and cake, and browsed the local movie listings. We decided to go see Shopgirl, and it was a nice, sweet movie, with some fun moments. Not a great or ambitious film, but a pleasant one. And what's not to like about Claire Danes's naked behind?

After the movie, we strolled up the street and down it again, finally deciding to dine at a nice Irish pub with good fish and chips and lots of great beer on tap. We conversed, and laughed, and generally had a great time. It turned out to be a rather sweet date, really.

I'm as happy and content as I've ever been. And that's pretty happy and content.