this phrase came to me last night in my dream. it was kinda funny.

so i dreamt of a colleague, for some reason unknown, last night. (i wasn't even very close to that colleague.)

i dreamt that he's injured. a doctor gave him a check-up and said, among other things, that his "level of gaiety" is way off - only 25% of the normal level!

supposedly i totally understood what this meant (something horrible apparently) and related to other folks: his level of gaiety is only 25%!

btw, i'm suffering from a low level of gaiety myself today. only 10% or so. : (

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the best kind of book sale is a library book sale. the books are just so affordable even in this economy. and it always has this element of treasure hunt.

for example, yesterday we went to such a library book sale and EP found a Bill Bryson's In a Sunburnt Country. the book is so-so among all Bryson's creations, but at 75 cents, you really can't lose.

then later last night, while i flipped through all the books we bought at the sale, i noticed that this particular book was author-signed. (i actually had to google up bryson's signature just to be sure). and per some website, for such an autographed hard-back (mint condition!) first edition, it could fetch up to 40 bucks!

fancy that kind of ROI!

EP immediately put the book away. and we agreed that he should borrow the book from the library if he ever wants to read it. : D

and my level of gaiety would be at least up 500 basis points if any of our other investments performed remotely as favorable as this one. or just break-even!