meetup picnic near zoo

 at midday i went to a meetup picnic near Como Zoo in St. Paul. it was hard to find a parking spot, as the lot nearest the picnic grounds was full. i ended up finding street parking a few blocks away. i brought a box of twinkies much like before and ate two of them there. i left with seven, so it meant that just one was eaten by somebody who wasn't me. one of the games i played after eating, ladder golf, was with this man. this was the third meetup picnic, out of six in the series, i have attended this summer, and i said it will be the final one. there is another one in three weeks, postponed from an earlier date, but i prefer to avoid getting annoyed and i was at two of them, including this one. in both cases, it was due to others being critical of my nametag. i had plenty to eat there, including a hamburger and a hot dog along with desserts and some potato salad, and i slept when i got home. for this reason, i had very little to eat in the evening, just some popcorn saved from the show i had attended the night before. i performed at an open mic in the evening. i did stories about the picnic, the bank, a Facebook posting about being spotted, and movies i had attended. i was the final performer in this show. 

relay movie

 in the afternoon i went to see a movie at St. Anthony main in Minneapolis, it was 'relay'. i chose it as i like a thriller, and this one kept me guessing until the end. the setting was New York city and was about a man that called through a relay service whenever someone needed his help as a whistle blower. i was planning on attending the 1pm screening but changed it to the one at 4pm. with the errand running i was doing in the morning, i still wanted to be able to enjoy the sandwich i ordered at jersey mike's instead of wolfing it down. after lunching there in Richfield, i went to the nearby target and bought two frames for posters. when i got home i went to Aldi for groceries. two of the comedy posters recently acquired were put into frames, replacing two that had no pictures of performers on them. i still have ten posters from comedy shows for this reason. essentially, the two frames i bought meant that two posters I've had for years, not related to comedy, were finally framed. one of the frames i realized was too big, at 24 by 36, for most of the posters i have. but i noticed the 'Herky on parade' poster, from a visit to Iowa City, fit in it nicely. the other one was from an advance screening of the first 'Shrek' movie. some of the shuffling was due to realizing that some frames were kind of big for the posters i had in them, and wanting to cut back on the 'empty space' that one might see. there is one more that i want to get a frame for, it was from a St. Paul Saints baseball game this month. some posters i realized that i didn't value them enough and were ripped up and tossed in the trash. there is one bag full of rolled up posters and it now has nineteen in it, down from twenty-three. in the evening i went to a comedy show at the parkway theater in south Minneapolis, called 'the brothers'. i knew many of those on the lineup, including school bouncer and the fancy comic. the first member of the ring of honor performed as well, who now lives in Boston. i bought not only a can of Hamm's beer there but also some popcorn. it is a much nicer venue for comedy than what i am used to, including the bathrooms being cleaner. guess this should be expected when it isn't a dive bar, and this venue still sometimes shows movies. 

patterns movie

 i made another visit to the Trylon cinema tonight, my second in this month of august. it was to see 'patterns', a corporate drama written by Rod Serling. i knew i was tired before i departed for the theater, but i managed to last until the end so i was pleased with that. when i left the venue i said 'passion', as there was plenty in this movie. i said i like passion in my entertainment, but hearing that much arguing in my own life, no. it was about a new executive who agreed with an older one that was in conflict with the boss over ethics. while there i said the popcorn smells good, but i didn't get any during this visit. i already have a ticket for another movie at the same venue next month though. guess i am saving the quarters i have for another event that i plan on attending on Labor Day. i do pay attention to the promos before the feature, in this case a series called 'Nixon land' in October. i looked it up after getting home, looks like mostly horror movies from the era when Nixon was president. i am not big on horror movies but this cinema has plenty of other offerings that i like. for the evening meal i went to McDonald's and had the limited time meal known as McDonald land. this is the second 'gimmick meal' i have had this month, the other being at Wendy's of course. i chose a quarter pounder this time because i wanted something different after having chicken nuggets before. the shake was good, and i liked the tin that was included with the meal. it was a 'luck of the draw' and i got the one about Mayor McCheese. there were some stickers inside, a passport, and two postcards, the thing i liked the most. i know, shocking. i have to give the edge to McDonald's here as i recall those characters from my childhood. and i made more visits there as my hometown had one but not a Wendy's. i saw a Facebook posting when i got home. mason city, a fellow comic, spoke of seeing me, likely either when i was walking to the fast-food place or after i had left it. at work the tech arrived around mid-morning and the parts were swapped out. it was an assembly put in, so it meant seeing the machine taken apart essentially. we tested it and it works fine once again, and i am caught up on check printing and the overnights. thankful that the number of emails i will have to send out about the printer being down for a day will likely be done. 

pumpkin is here

 my visit to Hy-Vee for groceries was moved up one day due to being booked on Friday evening. i got a picture of the fold-up sign near the entrance saying, 'pumpkin is here'. it was an ad for pumpkin spice coffee from Starbucks. this was a small order, nine items. i am aware of how i skipped a week there, didn't need enough from that store. at work there was a notice about the parts needed for the check printer. guess there will be a delay, i said we prefer in the morning because someone needs to be present when any maintenance is done. easier for me to test it when ready as well. i decided to print as much as i was able to, even if it meant some from the Fargo file would be held until the next morning to be run through the inserter machine. it also meant making choices on the overnights, still a day behind on getting those out. i have a life outside of work and didn't feel like staying until late in the evening just to get those caught up. this is especially true when i know the driver picks up from the UPS box just once a day and anything put in after that time waits until the next day anyway. i know the best game plan is to print all i can before the tech arrives, then switch over to doing the overnight labels. 

our god, our help in ages past

 i usually don't talk about 'the news of the world' in this forum, as i prefer to talk about my own life. this evening i watched the vigil on TV held at a school in Richfield related to a shooting at a catholic school and church in Minneapolis, two fatalities. three if you count the shooter, who turned the gun on themselves. the first song during this vigil, shown on fox-9 plus instead of the 7pm news hour, was 'our god our help in ages past'. we all know i like the hymns better than scriptures at church services, because i am a more active participant in hymns. i liked this hymn, i think because it was sung by the church choir in the movie 'cold turkey', which was filmed in my native state of Iowa. when i heard it in the movie, the line i liked the most was 'our shelter from the stormy blast'. when i looked it up online, i saw how the hymn has been around for a while, apparently going back to 1708. and the inspiration is much older than that, apparently being from psalm 90. proverbs, as well as psalms, have the most meaning to me in the bible. it makes sense that psalms would, when those are most like poems and songs or music. at work, we did see a technician about the check printer, in the afternoon. we were able to get printing again, a temporary fix. some strong glue was used on the plastic part that broke off in the output tray that was causing it to jam. we were told to let it dry for a while, more than an hour. when i got back from a team huddle on another floor, we started it up. one thing, though. those two parts, which work in tandem, were often staying up after about five checks saying it was full when it wasn't. we found out it meant having to push it down for it to keep printing. i was able to get hundreds of checks printed this way, but we still have a way to go to get caught up. i was told to send checks to the Marshall office, and about a hundred checks were sent there, mostly the PDF files. this included four that were marked as overnights. the final file sent there was the midday i-pay. 

chair massage

 a little after midday, i did my first chair massage at the workplace since i moved to this office less than a year ago. it was about fifteen minutes and i liked seeing cans of LaCroix sparkling water so i got one. if i am not mistaken, this was the same place that had the puppies not too long ago. i went there shortly after the check printer started jamming and i couldn't get it running again. i wasn't about to skip this massage when i knew nobody was coming right away about the printer. i opened a ticket about it after i got back, and i ate lunch before i went. no surprise, nobody came by the end of the day. i sent out as much as i could, but there was plenty that i couldn't print. this included a little over a thousand Fargo checks as it was a high-volume day. it jammed on a three-check file, kept trying to print the same check. first one notified was vacation replacement, and then eventually the team lead and the boss knew. this is why i wasn't thrilled that our alternate printer was picked up nearly two years ago, although we've lucked out that it was the first time breaking down since then. 

minimal carryover

i started off the day at work with some carryover, not just about a thousand Fargo checks but also ACH statements. i was pleased that the carryover was minimal by the end of the day, just six Canadian checks. when i have to change the stock for Canadian checks, i usually don't print those first. when i knew the next day is likely going to be a high volume one, i preferred being caught up again. it meant sending out three regular mail tubs to the mailroom. i did see vacation replacement for a few minutes shortly after i had returned from lunch. we swapped a few stories, as usual. no surprise how some were about my day off. in the evening i went to perform at an open mic. one performer was an elderly man who sang two show tunes and did not want to climb the stairs to go onstage. one of them was from 'paint your wagon'. it was a small list of performers for the night and i went on after this man and there was just one performer after me. i did stories about a former boss, a Walgreen cashier, attending the state fair, a bank story, and a venue closing. the road construction near the venue is still a mess. 

hike and brew, meetup

 not much on the docket for the day, it is how i prefer a Sunday. i gave my car the day off, as the only event i had planned i was able to walk to, a meetup event known as 'hike and brew'. we did a hike at a nearby park, then went to a micro-brewery. i have done some long walks around the neighborhood this summer, but i think this distance was even longer. i had done some hikes in this group, but it was the first one since November, and those were usually evening hikes that i had done before. i am a brisk walker, and this is helpful when i get annoyed with one hiker and want to talk to someone else. in this case it was a lady who showed up right before we began, who was being a 'contrarian' and trying to provoke an argument but i wasn't taking the bait. i prefer being near the front, close to an event coordinator anyway. i saw one organizer before the hike began, she thought she had arrived at the wrong entrance to the park and left but then came back. i went by what the map said as to the meeting spot. my guess is that not everybody from the hike went to the brewery after it. i had one beer and then i left, and some left even before i did. when i went home i had a TV dinner for the evening meal. i am aware that the lynx, the local women's basketball team, was playing the Indiana fever. i had a last-minute ticket offer but when i inquired further about it the night before, i heard no response. i said i passed on the ticket offer from a few days prior as those seats were all upper level, and when i saw this same matchup a year earlier my seat was lower level. the one lynx game i had attended this season was a free ticket, and this game was a hard sell as the fever's star player, Caitlin Clark, is still sidelined with an injury. the game was in the evening, and it would have been hard to attend it and do the hike, so it was just as well that i heard nothing back. i was signed up for the hike more than a week in advance. 

coptic church festival

 we all know i like to attend festivals. i found another one to attend this summer, and it was at the Coptic church in South St. Paul. i went there around midday and had lunch first, a gyro sandwich, some fries, and some baklava. then i did the church tour, where i learned something. i know, shocking. i put me in situations all the time when i do. in this case, it is how 'Coptic' refers to a 'dead language' that looks like Greek. i bought some souvenirs as well, two postcards and a magnet. all these items are about Egypt; the magnet was of 'king tut' and Nefertiti. one of the postcards had a camel on it, a reminder of an earlier church festival i had attended. i also bought an item from the bakery section in the same room as the souvenirs, it was a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread. before i went to the festival i went to the post office, two orders picked up. then to the copy store where i printed an event ticket. after the festival i went home and had the evening meal, then got groceries at Aldi. later in the evening i performed at the final open mic at a venue that i hadn't been to in a while, the corner bar in Minneapolis. i know full well why i had been absent for a while, as even before covid i said i would go to venues only if i get stage time. i did have some nice memories of when i had performed there, and i enjoyed seeing some comics that i hadn't seen in a while. one of those now lives in Kentucky, in the college town, but spoke a lot about being in Florida before that. i attended his dad's memorial. i did stories about a boss at a former job, attending the state fair, a cashier at Walgreen, and a bank story about I.T. issues. i took plenty of pictures, not only of some comics onstage but also of the venue, including the list of those signed up for the mic, using a marker on the wall. plenty of show posters were put out in the bar area on the upper level, i claimed three. mind you, i did not attend any of those shows, but the performers on it i recognized. a few small items such as a paper clip and a bottlecap were claimed out of the 'green room'. some joked about looting, and i guess that does happen when a venue reaches the end, where it tends to be stripped for souvenirs. the wolf tagged me in a Facebook posting about being there, where it showed John Wayne on a quaker oats container saying, 'listen up, pilgrim'. 

meetup group postcard

 in the evening i went to a meetup event in the micro-brewery group, it was at dual citizen in St. Paul. when i arrived i liked chatting with the event coordinator, and there were postcards on the table where i picked up my nametag. i got one and a sticker as well, why not? i attend more events in this group than any other, by far. i did catch up with those i recognized there, one is a former coworker from the bank. another is a dude that wears a cowboy hat, who once lived in Austin, Texas. then there was a dude i know from the comedy circuit, who made an intro for me to a man from Austria who spoke about his homeland and Europe in general. i didn't go to Hy-Vee after that i like i normally would as i didn't need much, i just went home. at work an early morning PDF check file had over two thousand checks in it, i saw that all of those went out. ACH statements and some of the Fargo checks did not, but i can run those through the machine the next workday. i was just about to leave for the day and got an instant message saying a check needed to be stopped. i said the regular mail tubs had already been sent out an hour ago. then i found out it was a check i had overnighted as it was for over two million. it is still annoying how often i am asked to clean up other people's messes. i have intercepted checks many times before, and it is easier to do so when i hear early enough in the day. but i can still only do so much for others. 

flight beers, state fair

 it was a day off to attend day one of the Minnesota state fair. i went to McDonald's for an egg McMuffin and hash browns for breakfast, normally i have cereal at home. before leaving for the fair, i got a text message from vacation replacement, asking where the Canadian check stock is. i said where it was, then heard okay, thank you, and as expected i didn't hear any more from work the rest of the day. i got on a bus less than thirty minutes later, the first leg of the journey as it meant getting a transfer to another bus once i reached downtown St. Paul. and then when we got close to the fairgrounds, it slowed down a lot, so i got out and walked the rest of the way. a staff member said she didn't want to be late, working in a ticket booth, and when she got out i did too. i was leaning towards doing so even before she got out. i did a few activities before i met up with a friend from meetup groups, the retired postal worker. i brought quarters from taking carts back to Aldi and used most of them. there was the 'all you can drink' milk booth where i got a cup of white milk and chocolate milk. then there was the giant slide. finally, i bought a sticker at the 4H building that reminded me of a green day song. then i got a look at the newspaper museum near it. those things cost 10 dollars, and for the rest of the day what i bought went on the debit card. when i met my friend, it was at the agriculture and horticulture building, where we got flight beers. later on, we stopped there again and i got a different set. first time was pilsner, second time i got award winning ales. i got a Schell's Oktoberfest at the hangar. for food i got fish on a stick, walleye, then plenty of garlic fries for lunch. for dinner i got a pork chop and a dr. pepper. after both trips for flights, we sat in a gazebo nearby and he chatted with those next to us. near the end of the night, we stopped at the DNR stage for some music. i left the grounds shortly after that as it was a little after 9pm and many places had already closed for the night by then. i got to some of the things on my list, but not all. didn't make it to the fine arts building, it was closed by the time i made it over there. i decided it would be fine to make a second visit, on the last day of the fair, Labor Day, as i have nothing booked on that day just yet. there are a few other things i can see besides fine arts by giving myself a second day there, such as finish my punch card of historic places at the fair. i found five and that means there are seven left to find. it means buying another ticket, guess i can get it online if i want to avoid standing in line to get one. music was everywhere i went, notable were songs by Carrie Underwood, Mel McDaniel, Marc Cohn, and Jelly Roll. 

death on the diamond movie

 i watched a DVD movie tonight, a recent purchase from amazon. it was 'death on the diamond', as a big baseball fan, especially of the St. Louis Cardinals, i liked finding this one. and as a history major, this one spoke to me as i knew it was released in 1934, and i liked studying the great depression. there is an NRA image at the end of the movie, the national recovery act or administration, with the eagle, sometimes it also says, 'we do our part'. child star Mickey Rooney played the batboy in this one. this was a whodunit that kept you guessing until the end. the cardinals were in a pennant race, and their players were getting bumped off. the movie was kind of short by today's standards, running time given on the case was 71 minutes, but i didn't mind as the story was still good enough. at work i swapped out the toner cartridge fairly early in the day, then opened a ticket to get another one. it always seems to be a struggle just to get one, i was trading instant messages about it near the end of the day and still not sure if one is being sent even though i really need it to get my work done. i wanted to see that i was caught up by the end of the day as i have the next day off, it meant sending out five tubs of regular mail. normally i think i would have held back about a thousand Fargo checks so then i would be only sending out four tubs. 

little ham sandwiches

 i went to a picnic in the evening at Como Park in St. Paul, sponsored by an organization i had joined a while back. there was plenty of food there, i had some of the little ham sandwiches, three in all. along with some potato salad and some peanut butter cookies. there was food left over, and the event coordinator encouraged people to take some of it home, and i did. i claimed three sandwiches and will have them for the evening meal the next day. i did speak with one couple there, they live in crystal. i said i had once worked nearby, one town over. at work we mostly got caught up after the 'idle day'. i could tell it was a big deal as i heard from a senior leader that i hardly ever hear from in the morning, by instant message. i said i would try importing files. first one i couldn't, some already were. the others i was able to import. the one i couldn't, i notified the business line, and they worked it out with someone from I.T. we had a replacement file to print by the end of the day. i sent out four mail tubs as over six thousand checks went out. just over four thousand were printed but didn't go out same day. i will run them through the machine the next morning. with the high volume, it wasn't realistic to be completely caught up in one day as the highest number of tubs i have sent out in any day is five. and i rarely send out as many as four. vacation replacement was helping out in the shop, tending to the inserter machine, as it freed me up to do the overnight labels in a timely fashion. there were just over forty sent out, although five were labels supplied by the business line that i didn't have to create, only print. this makes it easier for me. 

only pdf checks printed

 i thought i had seen it all in my time at the bank, but i am still seeing more issues if what can prevent me from printing checks. i was unable to print most of them for the day, due to server issues apparently on the system where most of them are found. a small number are emailed to us in a PDF file, i could still print those. it also meant the overnight volume dropped a lot, i sent out just seven envelopes and one of them was returned checks going to Ohio. the team lead said to notify business lines, i notified three. those were the ones that email us with their overnight requests. although she had emailed most business lines and asked me, as well as vacation replacement, to follow up with calls to all of those business lines. except i am used to communicating with them by email. the one i tried, i couldn't get through, not knowing what prompt to press, so i was hung up on. it was largely an idle day, and hopefully we are back up and running the next day. i performed in the evening and did bank stories. other subjects were seeing a movie, attending a baseball game, and getting a fast-food meal. i saw the show runner of another mic when i was leaving, and he spoke with tonight's show runner. eventually there was a lady who showed up with a guy, didn't know her but she said she had performed stand-up but had quit. she told stories for over thirty minutes and i was bored, and she was shouting down anyone else who had tried to talk. i was not impressed with her at all. 

spill before twins game

 my alumni chapter had their annual outing at the Minnesota Twins baseball game. we meet at a bar near the stadium. this was the first year where i already had the ticket, did not have to pick it up there. because it was sent to the ballpark app. although i prefer the paper tickets. i didn't make it right when the time allotment began as there were some things i wanted to get done before i got on the light rail. but i got them done and made it a little after midday. i had some of the appetizers ordered for us, enough food that i knew i wouldn't need to eat anything at the game. this time it will be memorable as an event coordinator spilled a cup of water at a table i was sitting at, while eating some chicken. some of it got on my pants, guess i didn't quite get up in time. the dude apologized twice, i said it could have been a lot worse. i had ordered a beer, a can of Pabst. i saw that i finished it before leaving for the stadium. i was there for about thirty minutes by then, and most people were leaving as the gametime was fast approaching. but then it was delayed as there was a team hall of fame induction, the game started about twenty minutes late. even though there was rain in the forecast, i am thankful that it didn't rain at all. the twins won, 8-1, over Detroit, aided by three home runs, one of them a grand slam. there was one dude a row in front of me that was in our group that i found to be annoying. he talked a lot during the game, especially about places to eat, and i was there to see the game and it was harder to follow the game because of him. will i do things differently next year? probably. one man got up a couple of times during the game and took a walk, sounds like a good idea to me! my entrance and exit from the stadium were from different points. i knew the main entrance had guitars on the wall that celebrated concerts at this venue. i wanted to see what they had for the show i saw a year earlier, green day and smashing pumpkins. got a picture of this 'guitar' on the wall, along with other shows that i didn't attend. but they were bands i had seen in concert, just not at that venue. there was pink, Billy Joel, foo fighters, and pretenders. i slept for a while when i got home, after having the evening meal, and then called my dad and spoke of being at the game. 

superman movie

 there were plenty of things on the docket for the day, and one of them was to see the movie 'superman'. it had been out for a little over a month, but i had other things to do for a while. i was out of town, i went to see other movies, and then there was two weekends of the fringe festival. still a decent crowd at the screening i attended. at times i wasn't enjoying it, as one would see superman being pushed around by the villain, Lex Luthor, for quite a while. but i kept watching, figuring it probably wasn't going to end that way. much like a James Bond film, or other superhero movies, good wins in the end. this movie did make me laugh at times, such as seeing a slow garage door and then one of the robots taking care of superman quipped about names. i knew there was a scene filmed at a baseball stadium, this was a rather short scene. i did like the message given by the movie how superman couldn't do it all on his own, as there was help from various people along the way. i saw this one in Eagan. i did have to change my schedule a little, but not much. i made it to the post office first, four orders picked up, including a DVD ordered from amazon. then i printed two event tickets at a copy store. next stop was the French alliance to see an art display; it is closing in a week. i am used to those art shows lasting just a month. some was paintings, some was sculptures. one painting was of De Gaulle during World War Two. what changed in the schedule was related to meals. i went to Jersey Mike's for lunch and decided the India-fest at the capitol in St. Paul could wait until evening. i ordered a chicken platter at the festival, and took half of it home with me, plenty of rice in it besides the chicken itself. i had a blizzard treat at Dairy Queen after the movie, another one of those superman blizzards, a notable way of promoting the movie. then i got groceries at Aldi before i went to the capitol, where i dropped off recycle besides attending the festival. i watched part of the baseball game on fox when i got home, tigers beat the twins. 

meal of misfortune, wendy's

 i had seen an ad recently about a 'meal of misfortune' at Wendy's, promoting the show 'Wednesday' on Netflix. i had to go online to find the closest Wendy's locations for me and decided that one in Eagan worked best for me. i had the evening meal there, then went to Hy-Vee for groceries. it was a small grocery order this time, just seven items. there are two Wendy's locations in that town but i chose the one closest to the grocery store. when it arrived i said 'i love it' with all of the packaging being specialized for this meal. the bag saying, 'there's nothing happy about this meal', 'the spoon of gloom' for the frosty treat, and for the frosty itself it said, ' best served cold, like revenge'. the food itself was what one would expect at a Wendy's, and that is fine with me. the dipping sauce for the chicken nuggets was spicy, but i was smart enough to pace myself when using it and made it through without any issues. only used it on the nuggets, the fries were fine by themselves. i usually have ketchup for those and didn't see any and didn't ask for any. at work the backlog of checks was eliminated, although more than six hundred Fargo checks were run through the machine in the afternoon as i was getting the 'hot product' error before i went to lunch. i went through the returned checks and opened over a hundred envelopes, then had them sent in inter-office envelopes. good thing i did all of those as i was given some more later in the day. 

leaking fluid, pump issue

 the second service call of the week was in the morning. the inserter machine was leaking fluid even though it was still running just fine. i knew i couldn't ignore the leak though. technician said it was a pump issue, and it was handled right away. i pointed out another error in a different part of the machine, when it reached the end of the stack and i would auto-end it. i was told this was a sensor issue and it was handled as well. the backlog on the checks went down some more, now it is just over five hundred. a box arrived, found out it was the data-vac that was ordered two days ago. i put it on a back table as my normal duties were more important. i was given refund checks to overnight, as vacation replacement is on vacation for the week. i was also given plenty of returned checks that i will go through when i have the time. i did another long walk around the neighborhood, but it was shorter than the previous two days as the skies looked threatening. 

three boxes already picked up

 the team lead was in the shop, and as usual said 'knock-knock' but i was sitting down in my office so i didn't get up right away. but i didn't have to say who's there as i knew who it was. i had to say that the supplies recently ordered had been signed for by me and were picked up by our boss already. also notable about the day was getting booked for a chair massage appointment, for two weeks from now. it was due to getting an emailed newsletter from the same organization and going back to the bank's monthly events announcement. i saw one appointment available and signed up for it near the end of the four-hour time allotment, but it is just 15 minutes. since i moved to the building over six months ago i had wanted to do that but it seemed to be all booked up rather quickly. either that or i was avoiding the QR code. this time i used the code and it led to what was available. i did another evening walk after watching reruns and the news. also at work the backlog of checks went down, to under two thousand. but it usually goes down as the week goes on, but it means sending out four full mail tubs. usually the most i will send out per day is three.  

datavac ordered

 at work the service call happened in the morning. the tech said the problem was caused by a straw from the air cans being stuck in the machine. we were told to order a data-vac instead. it means just one purchase instead of ordering air cans all the time. the machine moved along at a brisk clip after that. there was still a backlog though, due to the high volume on the Fargo checks. it meant over five thousand checks were left over, but i am used to some kind of carry-over on most days. my boss announced a schedule for the next two weeks, due to visiting California for his daughter's surgery. in the evening i took a long walk around the neighborhood, first time in a while. i felt better after it, but had to push myself to get out there as i felt tired after work. 

century link service canceled

 i finally made the call in the morning when i was at work, it was to century link to cancel my internet service. i had switched providers and the service i am getting seems to be better than theirs. it was time to call them since they were finally going to do something about the cables, but it was too late. it had been down for two weeks, even said that was unacceptable. at work i placed a service call as the inserter machine wasn't folding properly. technician said arrival would be in the morning, there was another one in front of us. not that much was left over though, just over a thousand Fargo checks as well as five hundred ACH forms. in the evening i went to perform and part of my set was about internet service, along with a bank story, attending fringe, and the art search at a baseball game. 

search for paintings

 went to the St. Paul saints baseball game this afternoon, my ninth game attended this season. saints beat the Iowa cubs, 3-2. this was 'artsy-fartsy' day, i went because of the team card set giveaway. it was one of two, though. the other giveaway was a poster depicting this year's program cover, i will likely get a frame for it soon. part of the art events was a scavenger hunt, there was various paintings throughout the stadium. there was code words from each one to write down. the standard to get the prize was twelve, i found thirteen. then i was told i had missed one. i went around again and found it, there was two hot dog paintings. i liked how one of these fourteen depicted Charlie Brown. i didn't do much after getting home from the saints game, i laid down and fell asleep. when i woke up i did the dishes. i had lunch before reaching the stadium, getting a deli express sandwich from a gas station near it. 

palmer's bar closing

 i had heard the news how the bar known as palmer's, in the cedar riverside area of Minneapolis, is closing soon. i went there in the afternoon, after attending a fringe show, and drank a can of grain belt. i heard a johnny cash song on the jukebox, 'Sunday morning coming down'. i knew i had to wait until after the show to go to the bar as i saw the plate on the door last week saying it was open at 3pm. i saw two fringe shows, the one in the afternoon was a variety show at mixed blood. i saw a fellow comic on the way in after stepping off the light rail, wanting to avoid the traffic at the Vikings exhibition game. she has a solo show at fringe, and i said i would see it later in the day and i did. i sat next to her during the variety show, liked the burlesque performer the most. it was 25, a Fargo native now based in la-la land, who had the solo show. it was finny at times but also honest. it was in the final time slot of the night, 10pm, at Rarig. i am thankful i saw the volunteer coordinator after the mixed blood show, who said there were sandwiches from Caffrey's at Rarig later on, along with popsicles. this was part of volunteer appreciation day. i went to an Arby's near me for lunch, and didn't have much for the evening meal due to the Caffrey's sandwich. fringe is an 11-day festival, and there is one day left, but i am booked at another event on the final day so this capped my fringe involvement for the year. 

white meat chicken tender bites

 during the morning walk i found five unopened packs of jack links white meat chicken tender bites. i ate one of them right away and it tasted fine, I've had this kind of snack before but not too often. at work, it was a case of 'good news bad news'. check stock order for the month arrived, nearly a week late. but it was dumped in the hall, all forty boxes of it. saw it on the way to lunch. i ate lunch and then got out a cart, moving eight boxes at a time into the shop. i told my boss that i am cool with letting him argue it out with the supplier about the way it was delivered. in the evening i went to Hy-Vee in Eagan for groceries, ten items bought. Saints baseball game against the Iowa cubs was on fox-9 plus, but the Saints were way behind. saw some of it before, and after, the grocery run. listened to the game on the radio when i was in my car. i laid down and fell asleep and missed the ending of the game. 

mad magazine, 80's spoof

 i picked up more than just the typical bottle of tea and some cookies when i was at the Walgreen in the morning. i also decided to get the special 'mad' magazine, that spoofed pop culture things from the 1980s. most of it was familiar to me, except for the TV show 'dynasty', as i didn't watch that show. there is another special magazine i am seeing that i will pick up eventually. i got this one at Walgreen as i got points on my loyalty account there. also saw it at Hy-Vee but usually don't get points when i run my card there. 

modem picked up

i saw the UPS tracking number from the modem order and entered it at work. this was mid-morning and found out it was delivered to the store less than an hour prior. i found the time in the evening to pick it up just minutes before closing time. now we are back in business! i didn't waste any time getting things done once again, after too many trips to check email at a fed-ex office location. i placed an amazon order and registered for a meetup event later this month. 

whiter shade of pale

 when i was out and about recently, i heard the song 'whiter shade of pale'. it probably wasn't the original, as that is from the 1960s. it sounded good, then i looked it up and it said the song was inspired by drug addiction. well i know that inspiration can be found anywhere, but i still like the song. 

month of transition

 over the course of my life, i have noticed how the month of august can be one of transition for me. i have moved residences twice during that month, ended friendships and dating relationships as well when i said 'i have had enough'. and now another case of change when it was necessary, as my home internet provider service was no longer performing. i shopped around for another provider, it will be cheaper and hopefully more reliable. the modem had to be ordered but it should be arriving in a few days. 

husk/vessel show

 i attended three shows at the fringe festival. the one standout for the day was the first one, a non-verbal dance show called husk/vessel. sounded like it was performed by an out-of-town dance troupe, but they were really good, using curtains as props with their dancing. this was at the southern theater, the second show was right after it at the rarig. then i went to perform at an open-mic and then went home and did the dishes. third show was the final time slot of the night, 10pm, about a lady artist that died decades ago. the second show was about storytelling. there were some bright moments from those other two, but in my both fell short for various reasons. 

nightshift, british movie

 i did the second and third ushering shifts for the Minnesota fringe festival in the afternoon. at the third and final one the box office manager had stickers, and i got one, it said 'bang!' reminding me of seeing Eminem in concert. in the morning i did the pancake breakfast at Canadian days, then the car show, but no bagpipe band this year. in the evening i went to the trylon and saw the movie 'nightshift'. this is the British movie about a hotel desk clerk. it had the feeling of a documentary without a narrator, i liked it. 

pop and a pizza

this is what i heard from a pizza vendor when i went to canadian days in little canada. also got a can of dr. pepper besides a slice of pepperoni, and a tweety-space jam ice cream treat as he also owned the ice cream truck next to it.