fries from food truck

 i went to a meetup event in the evening, after i had a meal at home. usually, i don't get any food when i go to a micro-brewery, but i saw a food truck outside of it and saw their menu listed fries, among other things. i was inside for over an hour, after getting a beer, and chatted with various people. then i went outside after i had finished my beer and ordered some waffle fries. i also got some bottled water. i liked how the fries were in a round container. i used some of the BBQ sauce but not a lot. i walked over to my car about two blocks away and started eating the fries while in my car, and i was done before i drove all of the way home. when i got inside my home i looked at what was in the bottom of the bag. not just some black napkins, but also a piece of orbit chewing gum, a nice touch. the world series, game six, was on at the venue, but i didn't watch much of it. i saw the score, how the dodgers were leading the bluejays, 3-1. i watched the last few innings at home and this score held up, so there will be a game seven the next day. i was wearing the only Halloween costume that i have ever owned, the slasher from the 'scream' movies, i have had it for decades and i like how it still fits well. i don't wear the mask though, as it is too hard to see when i have it on. at work it was a low volume day for check printing, but there was a mortgage file. thankful it was just thirteen checks, as we know it has been way more than that before. i noticed one thing after i sent all of the envelopes to the UPS drop box. one of the payees was listed twice and i wasn't sure which tracking number was correct. i have seen the system spit out two tracking numbers before, but thankfully not too often. i entered both into the tracking system and as of the next business day, i can let them know which one was picked up as that one will have some activity on it and the other won't. when i discovered this happening before, if able i void the one that i know isn't being used. there was a dial-in meeting, it was a town hall and one of the speakers was the CEO. no surprise how one of the questions was about possible layoffs, i have seen this happen before. 

iowa cubs batboy

 i made it home earlier than typical and when i turned on the TV it was still on CBS from trying to watch the late local news from the night before. it meant seeing the start of the national news and there were previews for the segments to be covered. this included one about the batboy for the Iowa Cubs, a minor league baseball team that i grew up watching. since it was an off day in the world series, this served as the baseball news of the day. u guess his jersey will be on display at the hall of fame soon. in the evening i went to Eagan and made a second visit to hobby lobby, then went for groceries at the nearby Hy-Vee. i bought three Charlie Brown items at the former, making it there in the final hour of the night. this was some coasters, air fresheners, and a Christmas block. i bought ten items when i was at the grocery store, this week's visit was moved up one day as i am already booked on Halloween. at work there was a team huddle, i joined it remotely even though the boss was in the office next to me. many others were working from home. i let vacation replacement know about an oddity from this newer 'Cincinnati check file'. i said i largely like it, where i don't have to create any overnight labels, just print them as the business line creates them for me. except one lady was asking when the funds would be debited, which prompted me to check the tracking number. i found out it is still in transit; there was a flight delay and now it is due to be delivered a day late. this same lady sent me the overnight label and could have checked the tracking number herself. i also had to say that i just overnight it and it is up to the recipient as to what is done with it once delivered. one thing i didn't say, but I've seen it happen before, is that the package is refused by the recipient. not sure why when this happens, do they know that a check is inside? 

pumpkins at skyway level

just after midday at work i went to see the pumpkins that were decorated for the season on the skyway level. there were thirteen of them, and two of them stood out to me. one looked like the plant from 'little shop of horrors' and the other was snoopy on his doghouse. i had just visited another floor to get a small bag of treats for the season. while looking at the pumpkins i also picked up a cookie. i also picked up some copy paper when on that floor. there was a check copy request that i was unable to find, this is rare. i said there was nothing found under that check number or payee name. i said i don't have access to checks printed by a branch. in the evening i watched game five of the world series, the blue jays beat the dodgers to go ahead 3-2. actually, i was listening to it on the radio when it began as i was on my way to the French alliance. the blue jays hit back-to-back solo home runs to start the game. i was under the impression that there would be a party on the 50th anniversary of the organization's incorporation as a nonprofit. there was some mention of it on the website, and it said 'more information coming soon' but it didn't give a start time and there were no details later on despite it saying there would be. i parked and tried both doors, both were locked, so i left. i picked up a 50th anniversary shirt on a visit there this summer to the art gallery as i had attended enough events there over the years that it meant enough to me. good thing i decided to 'get while the getting is good' as i still saw some there over the weekend but not that many. on the way home i stopped at a holiday gas station and got some string cheese, hash browns, and hard-boiled eggs. i wanted to use up some of the salt and pepper packets i had saved from plastic spoons. now i am noticing these eggs do have some salt and pepper included, i know this was not always the case. i was pleased that there were some hash browns at that time of day when i am used to seeing them mostly for the breakfast part of the day. i listened to the first three innings on the radio and then saw the rest of the game on TV at home. i don't mind listening to a game on the radio as i feel the announcers usually describe the action well enough that i still know what is happening. 

brothers deli

 we had a birthday luncheon at work. it was at Brothers Deli, and we walked over there in the skyway system. it was my first time eating there. had a California Reuben sandwich as i know what i am getting with a Reuben. notable while there was seeing an autographed photo on the wall of actor Walter Matthau. this was when i was waiting for my sandwich after ordering it. i said it was one of my dad's favorite actors. the boss spent part of the day in the check shop and showed me an email about following up with a building manager about getting janitorial staff in there to do cleaning. in the evening i watched game four of the world series. the blue jays won to even the series. local boy Louie Varland was pitching for the blue jays near the end of the game. it is a reminder of how i once was attending high school football games in North St. Paul. 

coat on statue

 i got a picture of the Humphrey statue outside of the government center in downtown Minneapolis as i noticed that someone decided to put a coat on it. i have seen things added to statues before. at work i sent three mail tubs to the mailroom at the end of the day. usually, the volume is not that high for a Monday but i know it is all dependent on what we get from the two Fargo files. i had a craving for popcorn at work and got some cheesy popcorn out of the vending machine. in the evening i went to perform at an open mic. i was on near the end of the night as i fell asleep after work, while watching the world series. a piano player was on after me. i did stories about the Czech dinner, a klondike bar, a museum visit, and a bank story about a fall-themed event. i watched some of the world series at the bar, it was game three. it was the only thing on after the Monday night football game had ended, chiefs beat the commanders. i watched some more of the world series after getting home from the bar but decided to retire for the night when it was still tied at the end of the 13th inning. i figured i could find out in the morning as to who won. it was just as well as the game lasted five more innings, and the dodgers won it with a home run. 

lauer flats

 i went to a dinner at the Czech and Slovak building in St. Paul for lunchtime. i bought the ticket a month earlier at their festival. when i was going back to my car after it was done i noticed a building that had a national register of historic places plate on it. this was the Lauer flats, some residential townhouses that was listed on the national register in the 1970s. i found the Wikipedia article about the building and it said the Lauer brothers also did some work on the state capitol, as well as some churches in the area, and the former Schmidt brewery complex. i had attended this dinner before, it was a celebration of a Czech national holiday. i was at a table where all of the other attendees appeared to be related. a young lady there went up front to sing the American, as well as the Czech, national anthems as she has been an ambassador for the organization. a man seated next to me was trying too hard to be funny and said the door prize in the drawing was for a month-long trip to the Czech Republic. i even called his bluff and said that vacations are usually not that long. the door prize was for a glass pumpkin. i was given a shout-out by one of the speakers as i was one of seven who paid for the event at the festival. it was the only event that i had booked for the day, which is typical for a Sunday. before i went to the event i watched a DVD, it was one of three i had recently bought from a goodwill store. this was '42nd street', from the 1930s, ginger rogers was one of the actors in it. after getting home from the event i watched another DVD, called 'rockabilly legends'. it was inside a book i had bought at a silent auction many years ago. i finally got the disc into its own case after watching it. i had seen it once before, not long after acquiring it. i also bought some Halloween-themed cookies at target as well as a six-pack of klondike bars as i had a craving for ice cream. 

cedar riverside documentary

 i stayed active as usual even though it is the weekend. first order of business was the post office; one order was picked up. then it was on to drop off recycle near the capitol. there road was blocked off due to construction and this meant parking one block over and walking the rest of the way. not a big deal to me as i have done it before. then i made a stop at the French alliance to see a display in the art gallery. it was a retrospective of the past fifty years since the organization was officially registered as a non-profit. when i was done it was midday by then so i went to have a sandwich at Jersey Mike's. i wasn't home for long after lunch as i wanted to get to a lecture at the Minnesota history center about the cedar-riverside area of Minneapolis. it was a free event that included a screening of a short documentary. i had been to that part of town many times before as this is the general area for many of the venues for the fringe festival. and i have performed at a venue that was profiled in the documentary, riverside cafe, now known as Acadia. notable was how it included a clip from the TV show 'Mary Tyler Moore' as it was about the construction of the high-rise housing complex and the clip was from that time period. when i got home i watched a college football game, Iowa was playing Minnesota in Iowa City. it was halftime when i turned on the TV and Iowa was up 31-0 and went on to win it, 41-3. after having the evening meal i went to get groceries at the Aldi, then watched game two of the world series. the dodgers won to even the series. first two games were in Toronto and the next three will be in Los Angeles. 

lanyard at hobby lobby

 i was looking online for what stores sold poster frames and one of those was hobby lobby. i found the size i was looking for and bought two Charlie Brown items as well. one of them was a lanyard with a sticker attached and the other was a metal container that held hot chocolate mix. i knew i had to get started kind of early due to their listed closing time, so after watching 'big bang theory' reruns i was on my way. it included the final episode, part two. then i went to groceries at Hy-Vee in Eagan as it is in the same complex. i also figured that the earlier i got started, the earlier i would be home again, thinking of how the world series was starting. i was unable to find it on my car radio, but on my way home i heard what possibly was a song i hadn't heard in a while, 'informer' by snow. at least that was my best guess. once the song was done i knew it was a Spanish language radio station once i heard the deejay speaking. when i found the song on YouTube i also found the 'Jim Carrey version', due to the comments on the song. this was a parody on the show 'in living color'. the blue jays beat the dodgers in the opener of the world series by a wide margin. at work it was a low volume day for check printing, i was able to fit all of it into just one mail tub. 

vet on the light rail

 when i was riding home after work on the light rail, i was asked by a man if he could sit next to me. i said we weren't strangers, just friends that haven't met. we chatted for a while, the man said he's a vet. i also heard a joke from him, it was about a doctor appointment. at work i was asked in two separate emails about overnighted checks. i was able to send a tracking number for the first one, it was from this month. it was 'returned to business line', in St. Louis. the other i found out was a day off for me, when i was at the state fair in august. vacation replacement was able to supply that one, and it was delivered as well. we did our jobs, so it was up to the recipient once it is delivered as to what happens to it. a payroll rep showed up in the afternoon to pick up two checks, i am told there might be more soon but it is all about when a check is approved. much like for our tax specialist, i know it is best to have the checks in an envelope. the backlog of checks was eliminated, as usual as the week wears on it usually drops in volume. after work, i didn't go home right away. i went to target first, as i wanted to pick up another box of Halloween cereal. i found what i wanted there. it was fruity pebbles. i also got a pack of cheese slices while there. i went to the nearby liquor store after i had the evening meal and picked up two beers. it was a bottle of Stella Artois, and a can of a craft brew from Michigan. i drank the can of blue moon with the evening meal, so now there are five beers waiting. i also went online and paid my membership fee to the historical association. i pay annually and it was due to expire in a little over a week. 

donut holes, art page

 there was an event just after midday held by the building manager on the skyway level. there was supposed to be apple cider, but when i arrived i was told it was all gone. even though it was just halfway through the two-hour time allotment. i had some donut holes though, plenty of those remaining. and i picked up two art pages, one of them was of the city's skyline. i didn't stay for long, just a few minutes, as i still had plenty of work to do. in the morning, vacation replacement showed up with the new hire, who had seen the check shop before. i was given most of the returned checks, after the ones that were from our internal business line was sorted out. it was the first time i had done these checks in a while, sending them back to two business lines in an interoffice envelope. it was well over a hundred checks in all. i once again shaved five hundred checks off of the backlog near the end of the day, it meant just over a thousand were left over. also, the first time in a while that we saw the mortgage file, it was over thirty checks. i didn't enjoy it because of having to do so many more overnight labels. i saw to it that the most important ones went into the UPS box, and i saw the driver shortly after i dropped them in the box. 

it's not a branch

 at work i was asked for a tracking number on a check i had overnighted last week. i said it was 'returned to business line', meaning i sent it to another bank office. i was asked if it was a branch, i said it was not. i was also asked what to do about it, i said take it up with that office. something about if a stop payment was needed. the 'one on one' with the boss in the morning was mainly about the open case on the overflow pages. at the end of the day, there was just over two thousand checks left over. i was able to shave five hundred off that total near the end of the day after all other checks were run through. previously i was fine with running through as much as possible until just before lunchtime. but anything that means fewer checks have to be run through the next morning is a good idea. 

scanned check samples

 at work we still have an open case related to overflow pages. i was trading instant messages with who had just taken it over and then was asked about doing a call. i didn't like how we were getting bogged down in semantics, and he seemed lost as to what i was referring to on the checks that i print. then i decided to scan samples of checks that have overflow, additional, or addendum pages. the rep also cared about some things that i didn't care about, seeing things about the printer that weren't relevant to the ticket. i said these are identical check printers, but the rep didn't understand how i was able to print on both, saying the newer one wasn't configured the same as the other. i hadn't seen any difference on check printing though. i really don't like how the ticket keeps getting passed to someone else, and i have to start over with each rep as i figured these reps would be reading the notes on the ticket. and we already know it wasn't me that wanted the ticket re-opened, it was my boss, for something we don't even encounter that often. i was on the call for thirty minutes, and apparently, we are nowhere near resolving this ticket. i don't like being stuck on a call this long, but the check volume was low enough that i could afford to be. just over a thousand checks printed for the day, usually it is not that low. i had a thousand checks carried over from Friday that i ran through in the morning. in the evening i went to perform. there were not just the bank stories, but also seeing two movies, and mention of other performance outings. the baseball playoff game was on at the bar and i did watch some of it but not a lot. i saw the three-run home run that put the blue jays ahead, though. the blue jays beat the mariners in game seven of the league championship series and advanced to the world series. the open mic had just ended and i stayed to see the end of the game. 

anxiety club movie

 as usual, i like how there is not much planned on Sundays. in the afternoon i went to see 'anxiety club' in Edina, the 50th and France theater. this was part of the twin city film festival, and i like how this venue was added to the lineup, same as with the other film festival that is held in the spring. because it is nice having the parking ramp right next to the venue. this was a movie about stand-up comics, and performing is a way of them managing their anxiety. Marc Maron was one of the comics, i hadn't heard of any of the others. a lady comic was shown in sessions with her therapist, as a comic i know many of us have seen a therapist. i liked how another lady comic joked that she was cured once her therapist raised the rates. there was a q and a session after the screening with the director. the auditorium wasn't full, but it was still a decent crowd. when it was the only screening for this movie at the festival, and we were told it was the premiere in this state, it stands to reason how it would be a good crowd on hand. i saw another attendee of the festival in the lobby and he asked for me to take a picture with his friend and i did. this man was on the way to see the Boy George movie. i am used to seeing just one movie in these festivals, for two reasons. one, the ticket prices are a little higher. two, the scheduling for those that interest me doesn't always fit my schedule. i like knowing that some of these movies will have a wider release outside of the festival. the one about the lady boxer is due to premiere in early November, it is the only one that made my list. already saw a poster for that one in Eagan this weekend. in the morning i did the laundry. i could have started it a little earlier but then i realized i already had a frozen meal at home that i could eat for lunch and didn't need to go to a booya at a church. i went to just one booya this season. after the movie i stopped at a nearby speedway gas station and got a bottle of tea, some popcorn, and cheese curds. i watched some of the Sunday night football game in the evening, 49ers beat the falcons. 

soul on fire movie

 in the afternoon i went to see the movie 'soul on fire', in Eagan. at the outset, i wasn't planning on this being a two-movie weekend but i had sent a text message to my friends in St. Louis to ask if they had heard of this movie. i had seen postings in my Facebook news feed about it and knew there was somebody playing jack buck. my friends had seen it a few days earlier and said they liked it. the movie will be notable in more ways than one. it was likely the first time i had ordered food at a movie theater, besides popcorn. i wanted to eat at the nearby taco bell but the bathroom door was locked and i needed to get to the bathroom, so it meant getting to the theater a little earlier than planned. i ordered chicken and tater tots and it was delivered to my seat in the auditorium. there is an early scene in the movie where the main character threw up. i hadn't finished eating just yet but i knew i had to finish my food and i did. the movie was hard to watch at times, but i knew it was a serious story about a kid being burned so i didn't expect to be laughing at all. i don't recall any bad words in it, but i didn't mind. but i think this was a faith-based movie so i don't think i should have expected any. i wiped away a tear multiple times, probably more often than at any other movie i had seen before. according to the closing credits, the movie's subject, John O'Leary, does have a cameo in it. no surprise there, as i have seen it before where a movie is based on a book and the author appears in the movie somewhere. another credited cameo was baseball player Ozzie Smith. part of my interest in the movie is that is a St. Louis story, since i visit the city annually to see my favorite baseball team, the Cardinals. and i like biographies as well. i saw posters near the door and got one as i was leaving. guess that is a good thing about seeing it on the second weekend as it was more likely to get one. i went to dairy queen after the movie and got a blizzard treat, and it was cool to see a classic car, a Packard, in the lot. then i went to target and got a box of Halloween-themed cereal, froot loops, as well as a frame for the poster. it was a busy day all around but i didn't mind. in the morning i went to Walgreen and got two shots, for flu and for covid. then i picked up two orders at the post office, and some stamps. i recall a college instructor referring to William Buckley, that is who is on the stamps. i tried going to the poster sale at the Trylon cinema but the line was too long, couldn't afford to wait in line, so i left and went to Eagan as i wanted to be on time for the movie. i wasn't home for long after the movie, going to Aldi for groceries. then it was off to a haunted house for some performing, first time in six years. last year all i did was strike, or tear-down. it was fun as usual, saw and heard plenty of priceless things. and i like the anonymity from performing in a darkened room in a costume. i was an orderly in the re-education room. i had to put on a cloak when going to the bathroom to cover my costume and liked how i managed to make it through the entire performance without needing a bathroom break. also liked chatting with other performers in the green room before and after the show, sharing the stories from the field. i was called out of the bathroom for what was called 'post-mortem', which was a more formal version of 'how did it go?' one performer, who had the same name as a former coworker who likes Japan, said 'auto-bots, roll out' at the end of the night. i had some snacks while there before the show, some peanut butter crackers, and a slice of spam before i drove over to the venue. i didn't do much after getting home. songs heard just before and after it on my car radio were 'tub thumping' by Chumbawamba, and 'don't speak' by no doubt. 

hop on call, blocked file

 in the morning i was asked to hop on a call about a blocked PDF check file. i did once i was back from the bathroom. there was only one like this, something about a 'potential policy violation' where the system thinks it's a credit card, but it isn't. i sent out three more toner cartridges for recycle, and there is three left that i can send out on Monday. the backlog went down some more, just under a thousand checks left over at the end of the day. i sent out three regular mail tubs. there was an instant message from a branch manager in California, i had overnighted a check there. i then copied the branch manager on an email to our customer service shared box to find out what to do with the check. i knew the payee on the check said it was for the city government. the invoice supplied by customer service said it was for a fee to the police department. it was a low amount for an overnighted check but i don't question it if the business line wants it overnighted. in the evening i went to a meetup event at a brewery, Summit in St. Paul. then i went grocery shopping at Hy-Vee in Eagan. i was pleased to find another Halloween cereal, it was captain crunch, on my second look through that aisle. it was on the bottom shelf, and it looks like i got the last box. i also got a silly hot dog greeting card that plays music, after seeing it was the last one. i had opened it to hear the music for weeks, as it reminded me of attending Oktoberfest in New Ulm. 

refund checks in lobby

 there was an email i was copied on where it was said that i could accept some refund checks as no one else from our team was onsite for the day. just before i went to lunch i went to the main floor by the security desk and took ownership of them. there was nine in an envelope and i will hand them off to a colleague sometime next week. i did not send out any toner cartridges as i wanted to get caught up on running checks through in the morning. thankful the backlog went down, as it usually does, as it was just over two thousand left over at the end of the day. one of the tickets is still open, it is the one about overflow pages. i was getting annoyed with having to enunciate everything and repeating myself with the tech assigned to it, then near the end of the day i was told it would be sent to someone else who might be able to do more with my boss's request. 

navigate municipal elections

 there was an email at work about a forum where one could 'navigate municipal elections'. there are some in the area this November, for mayors. i guess this is a nonpartisan way of our employer helping out with understanding who the candidates are for various elections. unsure if i will use it though, when i have already been sent some literature in the mail. i sent out three more toner cartridges for recycle, if i do three a day for the rest of the week then all of them will be gone. it was a high-volume day on check printing, more than three thousand checks from a Fargo file were left over and can be run through the next morning. i had pizza for lunch as i had left my lunch bag at work the previous day. i didn't want to carry the bag around at the event i had went to the night before. i still brought in snack items such as a granola bar and a box of raisins in a plastic bag. then i took it all home at the end of the night. 

saddled bunny, rain taxi

 after work i went to an event at the loft literary center, where i am a member after having taken writing classes there. in the hall near the performance venue i saw a display honoring the 30th anniversary of the magazine called 'rain taxi'. there were plenty of magazine covers depicted on the wall, most notable to me was the saddled bunny. another one depicted a former mayor of Minneapolis. i liked reading some recently written poetry at their open mic, it was my playlist. i mentioned twelve songs that have marked the time for me. i liked chatting with a man who as at the same table as me when i was having some goodies before the program got started, i liked the cheese slices the most. the dude performs at open mics for music, and his instrument is an autoharp. i also wrote down a 'mockumentary' about folk music and will try to look it up soon to see if this movie is available on disc. since it was mostly snack foods at this event, after it was done i walked over to the nearby Bobby and Steve's. i got a pork sandwich and a small bottle of juice, then got on the light rail and rode it back to my car. not much fun doing all of the walking in the rain, but it can't be helped as i needed to get somewhere. at work a supplier notified us that the check stock order due this week will be arriving a day earlier than expected. i also got started on getting the used toner cartridges shipped out for recycling, after the boss noticed them under a table. there are twelve i can send out, so if i do three a day those will be gone by the end of the week. i didn't do it for a while as it wasn't a high priority thing. but it also doesn't take long to get it done once i get started on it. the main thing is to write out the return address on the label and then tape up the box. then of course put them on a cart and send it down the hall to the mailroom. best time to get it done is in the morning when there aren't many files to print. first day after the bank holiday but the check volume was manageable, three regular mail tubs sent out late in the day. 

ikea art at goodwill

 i stayed active on the day off, a bank holiday. one thing on the list i got to in the afternoon, it was sending a donation to goodwill. much like before, i don't like waiting in line and hearing my car idling so i go around the other side on foot and drop off my donation, in two plastic grocery store bags. then i went inside to see if anything was worth buying. i got a good look at the discs and bought three CDs and three DVDs. i was looking for a frame for the poster i had recently bought in New Ulm and found one there. it meant taking out the poster that was already in it, though. it was art from Ikea. since there is plenty of white border in the poster i plan on trimming this off and finding a smaller frame for it. the caption at the bottom said it was photography by a Frenchman. the day started off with doing the dishes, as i wanted to stay bust while fasting. i knew this meant skipping breakfast since i was doing the annual physical just before midday. after the appointment was done i went to Mall of America and had lunch at A and W. i saw two Charlie Brown items at the Japan store and bought one of them. it was grape mouthwash. it had Charlie, Snoopy, Woodstock, and Lucy on it. although it seemed weird to see some of those characters wearing glasses. it was cheaper than the other one i saw, a ceramic pot. after i was done at goodwill i made it home and watched 'jeopardy'. the final jeopardy question was about refused Oscars. i knew one of them, 'Patton', but not the other, 'godfather'. i watched some of the baseball playoff game as well, game two in the series, mariners won to go up 2-0. in the evening i went to perform, and one thing i did was cover a word origin, looked up on my phone, along with the typical bank stories. 

switching between games

 much like the song 'manic Monday', i like knowing that i don't have much planned on Sundays. the main thing was attending an event through meetup at a micro-brewery, lake monster in St. Paul. i had lunch at home and then went there. thankful the rain held off for the most part. in the evening, there were two games on and i was switching channels between them fairly often. there was the baseball playoff game on Fox, mariners-bluejays. and there was the football game on NBC, lions-chiefs. the mariners won, it was game one of the league championship series. and the chiefs won, although when i first switched over to the game the chiefs were trailing. after the kneel downs ended the game there was a fight, cameras revealed it was started by a Lions player. the one thing i normally do but didn't was the dishes, but i still can the next morning since it is a three-day weekend. 

fall is fun festival

 i started off the day with my typical chores and errand running. this included going to the post office, only item to be picked up was the postcard i sent myself a week earlier. then it was on to drop off recycle near the capitol and dumping change into my savings account at the credit union. the most notable event of the day was the event i attended at the Saints baseball stadium, called the 'fall is fun festival'. it was a family-friendly Halloween activity. i liked using colored pencils on the art page we were given. it took me a little while, but i colored most of the page and used just about every color that was in the container. it surprised me a little to find out that a baseball game was being played upon arrival. the stadium employees said it was Hamline university's team playing their alumni. it was just after midday when i arrived, so it was time for lunch. i ordered a hot dog, cider, and two cookies that looked like Jack-o-lanterns. i ate one cookie there and the other was taken home. there were various photo-ops where one could stick their head inside a hole, and one had the Saints mascot, Mudonna, asking 'how tall this fall?' i liked some of the games there as well, including cornhole, as well as some bowling. it was an orange rubber ball and fifteen pins. when i was walking back to my car i saw some art in Mears Park, it was photography on display. one of them was of the Saints stadium, and another was of the city's mayor. and at a stoplight i saw a station wagon designed like the car from the 'ghostbusters' movie. in the evening i had a sandwich at kersey mike's, first time having a hot sandwich there. it tasted fine but i will likely stick to cold cuts as i like having the sandwich made right in front of me, not having to wait for it after i have paid for the order. 

animals of the world

 in the morning i made my weekly visit to Walgreen. sometimes i get more than just a bottle of tea, and some cookies, if see anything else that is good. this time it was a booklet from Rand McNally, coloring adventures. there was two, but i knew i already had the other one, festivals of the world. i bought the one that is animals of the world, for just a dollar. there is an elephant on the front cover and a buffalo on the back cover. and we know how i like the symbolism of both animals, especially when buffalo reminds me of Emerson Hough, who helped protect the buffalo at Yellowstone Park. in the evening i went to Cub Foods first, in hopes of seeing some Halloween-themed cereals there. based on my online searches, it said there were some except the only one i bought was pumpkin spice special K. there were some classic versions of Kellogg cereals, such as apple jacks, but not the Halloween versions. i also got two Charlie brown items in the card shop. i know, shocking. both had Halloween themes, some stickers, as well as a greeting card saying the great pumpkin is coming. i am aware that a different kind of card is sold there, made by American greetings, so it is worth it to see what they have. i am used to most stores having cards that are made by hallmark. i bought five items there, the other two were some pumpkin spice eggnog, and a slice of German chocolate cake. i didn't have any when i was in New Ulm for Oktoberfest, although normally i do, so not a big deal to have some a week later. then i went on to Hy-Vee, seven items bought. i did see the cashier that knows my name and asks what my weekend plans are. i also liked seeing some balloons in the store to celebrate the season, one of them was snoopy inside of a jack o lantern, with Woodstock on his head. i made it home in time to see the re-airing of the final episode of 'blue bloods', i missed the original airing back in December. as i recall i was at a meetup event that night. i am aware that some episodes were being re-aired as a way to introduce a spinoff starring Donnie Wahlberg, who played Danny Reagan. i also watched some of the baseball playoff game on fox, tigers-mariners, game five of the series. it went into extra innings and i fell asleep before it ended but found out the mariners won to advance to the next round. 

hamburger bun claimed

 in the evening i went to the liquor store and got a can of Michelob, and a can of lift bridge, so now there are five beers waiting as i drank the can of surly with the evening meal. on the way back i saw some unopened dinners in plastic trays, made by mom's meals from Ankeny, Iowa. it looks like what i would expect from the 'meals on wheels' program. i have claimed these before, but not tonight. the one time i did it was subzero weather so i was sure those were still good. the one thing i did claim was a hamburger bun still unwrapped, and i ate it when i got home. i hate seeing things go to waste. another notable thing about the day was driving home and seeing some turkeys near the road. it was slow trying to merge into traffic so i had just enough time to get out my camera and get a picture of two of these turkeys. there was another mortgage file, but thankfully it was much smaller than earlier in the week, just seven checks to overnight. i was given a physical address for two checks carried over from the previous day, going to Arkansas. had to ask for one when we can't overnight to a PO box. the business line based in St. Louis not only emailed us an overnight request, but i found a check going to a foreign land as well, before they emailed us that too. good thing i did as the second request was late, after i had sent the regular mail tubs to the mailroom. it doesn't take that long for me to look for overnights and foreign checks and get it in the foreign pile if there are any. i look for those even if there is no email. 

expedite a check

 i see overnight requests all the time by email, and sometimes it is for the Fargo file and when those arrive it says, 'expedite the check'. and i understand it to be 'overnight' it, and i send the tracking number when available. it is usually from the larger of the two Fargo files. sometimes the checks are marked and i pull them out without a request to do so when sorting by comments, but when emailed it is usually not marked as such. the backlog went down on the Fargo checks, now it is just under two thousand, but i am used to the volume getting smaller as the week goes on. i try not to send out more than three mail tubs a day if it all possible, and i need the time to get the overnight labels done so i end the morning run of checks through the machine just before i go to lunch. vacation replacement has brought the new hire to the shop, and this meant looking at some of the things i do such as the returned checks i receive. some i handle on my own and return to business line, but the ones my colleague handles are our own internal business line. i noticed the yellow 'reason for return' labels were not moved from the envelope to the check, but when someone is willing to go through those for me i am not going to be picky about the way it gets done. i usually let it pile up for a few days before i do them as i see it as 'busy work' and not the most important thing that i do. 

who's the guest of honor?

 the boss forwarded and email to us about a colleague being honored for forty years of service to the bank. one thing though, only the first name was given. then i had to ask, who's the guest of honor? found out it was someone i hadn't worked with. and i don't know that many people at the bank. another email said there would be cake and soft drinks in the afternoon. when i was caught up on work i had some. i had to go to another floor for it, something i try to avoid as often as i can. the lady spoke of being in Ireland for the recent Vikings game, and something about a scam involving lodging there. one of the check files i handled for the day was from the mortgage department, twenty-six checks, but about half were return to business line so this made it a little easier for me. there were also overnight requests from the fraud file, as well as a business line based in St. Louis. as usual, it was a bust day with the Fargo file, and three thousand checks were left over and can be run through the next morning. 

two pens and a bottlecap

 i went to perform in the evening at a venue i hadn't been at much in recent years, in northeast Minneapolis. there were couches that performers could sit on, and i found a few items in the cushions. it was two pens, and a Bud Light bottlecap. i consider them to be comedy souvenirs, although i do plan on using the two pens. this was the venue i saw a show at a month prior, as i knew brawler was in town. i led off the show, after the MC of course. i did plenty of bank stories, as well as the 'long strange trip it has been' to get into performing. after i had been onstage i went to the upper level to check the score of the football game, chiefs-jaguars. a 'pick six' by the jaguars happened during that brief time there, and the jaguars went on to win a close one. i had some of the fried cheese sticks that were made available for the comics. i didn't know that many of the performers there, but i am used to that by now. there is a constant wave of newer performers. at work the senior leader kept his word about wanting to do something related to the toner cartridges on the check printers. i was asked the printer names and IP addresses by instant message. it led to a ticket being opened to get them back on auto-ship so i don't have to order them each time i need one. i also did a re-calibration of the sensors on the inserter machine as the errors were piling up. i like how that simple solution is available, it meant getting out the note page where the code to enter as a 'supervisor' is found to get it done. 

booya, season opener

 i like going to booya events in the fall, where thick vegetable beef soup is served. this one was in a park in St. Paul. i went to Rosedale mall in Roseville first as i needed to do a return and exchange on shoes. the ones i had bought three weeks prior were hurting my feet. i tried on four pairs this time, and it meant back to shoes that have laces. i liked those slip-in kinds, but some of those in my size had the shoes tied together with the anti-theft device, which makes it harder to do a test walk in the store to see how they feel. i got another pair of socks as well. i got a small bowl of booya when i made it to the park, there wasn't much left by then. there was some live music being played, including a gin blossoms song, 'follow you down'. i later heard the same song in the evening on the jukebox at the bar where i was performing in an open mic. what are the odds? i did more bank stories, along with mention of being at the festival. in the morning i had breakfast at McDonald's, an Egg McMuffin sandwich. then it was back to the airport to return the rental car. another annual thing i have been doing on Oktoberfest weekend, started during the pandemic, was getting pictures at the photo booth in the mall. i did this after i made it to the JC Penney to get the shoes. 

new ulm poster

 this was my annual visit to New Ulm for Oktoberfest. during the downtown part of the event i got some souvenirs, including a poster. it says, 'city of charm and tradition' and the Hermann the German monument is in the background. in the foreground we see a gnome with an apple. i will want to get a frame for it real soon. my first stop when i made it to town was to get lunch, at taco john's. then i went to the family dollar, as i saw two men holding up signs advertising a liquidation sale there. i bought three items, an ice cream treat, dish soap, and a box of toaster pastries. i used up some of the quarters at this sale. i parked near the baseball field on German street and saw a park with a sign that spoke of their sister city in Germany. i got some popcorn at the wagon next to the county's museum and went inside the museum as well. i looked at my postcard collection before i departed in the morning and knew what i already had, and for this reason bought just two. i bought a magnet depicting the museum as well, it is in the former post office, and the building is German-inspired architecture. music was everywhere, as expected. a cover band was in the middle of town, and notable from their set was a Miley Cyrus song, 'party in the USA'. i made it to the glockenspiel show, then got some ice cream and a bottle of soda pop. i found the brick i had bought in German park a few years back and rode the gravity rail swing. and i drank a bottle of Schell's beer at Turner Hall, where a server noticed i was wearing a shirt from the Turner festival from two years prior. then it was on to sleepy eye to see the Linus statue. i liked hearing an Alice in Chains song, 'would', on the drive there. during my short time in town i saw a train pass through where i was parked, at the Hardee's, across the street from the library. it surprised me that i was able to catch up with the train and pass it before i made it back to New Ulm, and i was going the speed limit. it was a fairly long freight train, Canadian pacific, with three locomotives. two were in front and one in the back. the evening events were happening by then, and it meant getting to the hotel at the edge of town. i got the evening meal there, the German plate. it was potato salad, bratwurst, and sauerkraut. i had to get the beer, a grain belt, at the bar. there was a break between music acts, but eventually we saw another cover band. the set began with an Eddie Rabbitt song, 'driving my life away', and this seemed appropriate to me. because i had the drive back home in front of me at the end of the night. also notable was more country music, including songs by the Charlie Daniels band, and Merle Haggard. i made one stop during the drive home, at the Holiday gas station in Jordan, where a truck nearly hit me on the way inside. i got some fig newtons and a pumpkin spice cappuccino, and then it was back on the road. there was a grab bag of programs i found on the radio during the drive. there was an episode of the 'green hornet', and a profile about a Vietnam war POW from Iowa. i still like being able to find faraway AM radio stations at night, the latter program was on a St. Louis station. i found some college football as well, and eventually found a baseball playoff game, tigers-mariners. it was in extra innings, and on when i made my only stop. i didn't want to waste any time in the morning after picking up the rental car. i went to the post office to pick up orders, three in all. then after i dropped those off at home i was on my way to the festival. 

tour guide for senior leader

 at work a senior leader finally showed up to get a look at the check shop. it was the first time since we had moved it downtown nearly a year ago. i didn't mind being a tour guide at all. there was some mention of being on the same floor because of having to pick up something from the mailroom. i said i didn't have too many complaints about my work at this point, the main one would be how hard it can be to get toner cartridges for the check printers when i need one. i was advised to email this senior leader about it, so i will see if anything can be done. it was nice getting caught up on running checks through the machine, as i am usually able to do by the end of the week. good thing i went to the Walgreen fairly early in the morning for a snack as a courier did show up a little later with the big envelope order. in the evening i went to the Hy-Vee in Eagan for groceries, and i was able to get another big box of trash bags. at Walgreen these are locked up, but not at Hy-Vee. i prefer not having to wait for someone to unlock a case. i got a picture of the small pumpkins decorated for Halloween. no plans to buy any of them but the drawings on them with markers were good. 

trumpet player sighting

 when i was taking the first of two buses home from work i boarded and decided to sit near the door next to someone who looked familiar. it was a trumpet player i recall from some open mic shows i had performed at pre-covid. the dude called me a celebrity when i was getting off near the hockey arena, i had to laugh about that as i don't see myself as one. at work the boss was in the shop, it was unexpected as it is usually just once a week. some mention of too noisy on his floor due to construction workers. it led to me re-opening the case on the newer printer, although it led to an annoyance on my part. there was no warning that the printer would be re-booted remotely, and it was in the middle of printing one of the Fargo files. it was a total of nearly two thousand checks in the file and i had to re-print most of them. when it was re-booted remotely earlier in the week, i didn't care as much as no files were printing at the time. the boss wanted the case re-opened due to overflow pages, and we don't get that many of those. i drank a can of miller with the evening meal and now there are four beers waiting. when i was taking a cart back to a nearby store i noticed there was something still in it, an unopened pack of trident gum, it was bubble gum flavor. i claimed it. on Facebook there was plenty of postings about the 75th anniversary of the first Charlie Brown comic strip, and no surprise how i hit 'like' on most of those that i saw. i even spoke of getting a shirt and jersey this season at baseball games that had this theme. 

another a.i. meeting

 we had another A.I. meeting, but this time it was in person and on another floor. the boss didn't like that i was a few minutes late but i had to take two elevators to get there, and there is always something to do in the shop. i was still trying to get the Fargo checks from the previous day run through. still not convinced how it will help me do my job, when most of the time when i communicate with others it is to send tracking numbers. or to say i can print the file when it is approved. when i made it back to the shop the tax specialist was waiting to pick up a check. in the morning i made another trip for coffee, this time it was to the caribou. there was an email about various promotions for the week, and i liked knowing it was a double point day. the baseball playoffs have started, the wild card round. still a question of when i will see a game on TV as the early round games are often only on cable. the news did speak of police officers using A.I. but it is still a reminder of needing to be careful with it. i know this from seeing an 'overview' when i google things as not all of it is accurate or sometimes things are left out.