Yesterday Was A Volleyball Day. And An Eating Day

I should mark this before it gets too far into the past.  Saturday was a day where the Minnesota State High School League Girls' Volleyball Tournaments were holding their three class championships, and where the University of Minnesota volleyball team was hosting #1 Penn St. at the Sports Pavilion.  Like I said before, I would rather watch volleyball than rake leaves.  I mean, every day is better than raking leaves, but I don't know if there's ever going to be as big a day for volleyball in the Twin Cities than Saturday.

So I decided to take in lunch at Cossetta, which meant I had to leave the house early.  Like I had hoped, I went to Dinkytown and managed to find a free parking spot, then used the Green Line to go to St. Paul, thus not needing to worry about finding and/or paying for parking in St. Paul.  The championship games were hit-and-miss.  The A one was a classic, where the underdog won the first two sets but the #1 seed and six-time (?) defending champs took the next two, the fourth set in extra points, before the underdog team won the fifth.  There were two courts at the Xcel Energy Center floor for the tournament, a black curtain separating each, and the AA champ game started in the middle of the A champ game.  After the A game was over I went over to the other side, where Belle Plaine was putting the finishing touches on Concordia and a three-set sweep.

I thought about staying for the AAA championship game after I heard the Penn St.-Minnesota game (pitting the #1-ranked Nittany Lions against the fourth-ranked Gophers) was sold out, but I boarded the light rail back to the Minneapolis side just in case I could get in on my student ID.  I, in fact, couldn't -- it was that sold out.  But I bought a ticket from a scalper.  Not just any scalper -- I have a scalper I go to, and one who, apparently, is branching out in his business.  I'm kind of ashamed to admit this, but I paid $30 for a volleyball ticket.  A volleyball ticket!!!  I'm pretty sure I could have gotten into Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, where the Minnesota Lynx won this year's WNBA title, for less.  But hey, at least it was worth it because I saw the Golden Gophers sweep them Lions, and convincingly!

Since I was out, eating out, to me, naturally goes along with that.  After eating at Cossetta I had a hot dog and Coke at the X, then had time to buy a hot dog and a Coke at the Pav.  And after all that and not finding a spot to have coffee, I went home, but decided to go back out, to My Favorite Late-Night Italian Place, because a couple of Pac-12 games were getting intriguing and I wanted to watch the end of those games on television.  (Turns out that the two games would up as upsets, and both of the teams I wanted to lose lost.  Yay!)  And of course I had to buy something to eat.

So I had a veal Parmesan at Cossetta, two hot dogs, two Cokes, and a soup and salad.  I thought I was going to lose weight while my parents are gone.  That's not the case.