Defective Modems

Went to a high school football game tonight, in North St. Paul. Mahtomedi beat them 18-7. As usual, it was no surprise who won and who lost. The visitors were able to convert on 3rd or 4th down 3 times in the first half to keep drives alive, and got 2 long pass plays to set up a touchdown, leading 11-0 at the half. The only score for North St. Paul was set up by an interception return. I hated seeing mistakes deciding the game, but it happens fairly often. North St. Paul had a 1-yard punt due to an unlucky bounce, followed by a fumble by both teams. There were also some 15-yard penalties, not sure what for, but also an impact play.
  Before the game I went to the mall to replace my modem. The one I was given never got off the ground. So I began this entry at a Fedex Office location, and will have to go back and get another one. The odds of having 2 defective modems have to be astronomical. One of the messages I saw was on Facebook, from a classmate about the reunion next year. They went into greater detail than another did about the planning, and I liked having more information available to me.

Knowitall

I dealt with a knowitall tonight, hated that. Couldn't wait to leave the event when it ended. It was one of the few times where I showed up a little early, it was due to some computer problems. Normally I don't make it on time as I like to check my email right after work, but I'm unsure as to what is wrong.
    I could tell the event coordinator was getting a little annoyed as well, but was too polite to say anything. It was because she said 'hold on a second' at one point. I think we've all dealt with these types before, and in spite of this that doesn't make it easier to handle each time we see them. I'm sure these people have their story and their reasons for acting this way, but it is no excuse to me. They like to bully people into thinking they know everything, when in reality some of them don't know anything. I should know, I've been able to poke holes in the claims of one know-it-all before.
    After the event ended I went to to library until it closed, got a few event tickets printed like a Dairy Queen 2 for 1 Blizzard coupon. Now I need to find out when I have the time to use it as I have 2 weeks until it expires, possibly this weekend. Checked to see if a copy of the movie 'Grumpy Old Men' was available, but it was checked out. Will have to try again soon.

Flash of Genius

I may have had a 'flash of genius', like the movie about the intermittent wiper, tonight at the comedy club. It was after hitting my head while going up the stairs to get a beer. I wrote down 4 jokes shortly after it. Sometimes inspiration is in spurts. One friend said this is why he keeps pen and paper near his bed, so he can write things down right away after being inspired. What can motivate me is knowing I may forget it quickly if I don't write it down. My memory may be good, but it's still best to help oneself out by writing down as much as you can.
   I did another advisory session at Roosevelt HS in Minneapolis earlier today. I was the first one who arrived, despite waiting at a left turn signal for 5 minutes due to the light rail. One of the things I noticed in the homeroom was a Chilean flag as it was a Spanish classroom as well. The instructor had the students vote for a homecoming king and queen, even suggesting they vote for themselves if they had no other ideas. I knew their homecoming game was moved back a week due to not fielding a varsity football team this season, not enough upperclassmen. So it is now a JV game, against St. Clair, a school near Mankato, also just fielding JV instead of varsity for the same reason. But their opponent is a much smaller school. After I introduced myself, along with the other volunteers, we went into the auditorium and saw a presentation on the screen there for the rest of the session. I was expecting more material to be covered, but it was the introductory session to the students.

Ditched Bike

I'm still amazed at all of the people watching available from riding the bus to work. In the evening I saw a rider get on and left behind a bicycle to do so, he said he was giving it to the 3 kids at the stop. It looked like a nice red bike. He said it was given to him, but of course many would wonder if it was stolen at some point. The same man then hit on a young woman who was reading a book, then stopped after it was revealed she already had a boyfriend. Then he said he already had a girlfriend. At first he lost interest, then started up talking to her again. Not sure how it ended, as my stop was before theirs. I went to a shop that had some tasty cookie crackers. A good friend of mine was at the comedy club tonight, he was doing some new material but I still yell out 'Lugar!' in hopes he does that joke for me. Also saw 2 Charlie Brown and Snoopy items tonight. One was a giant Pez dispenser and the other was a Build-a-Bear.
  Also liked finding some more songs on Youtube, especially Eminem. This included 'We Made You' and 'White America'. Found those while looking for favorites like 'Please Stand Up' and 'Need a Doctor'.  

Knitting

Somebody on the bus this morning was knitting. Another rider asked them what it was and they were informed it would be a scarf. I didn't see metal needles, which is typical, but wooden ones and they were quite big. But the yarn was thicker as well.
   Saw half of the comedy show tonight, needed to leave early to get caught up on errand running as I didn't get around to things like the trash and dishes due to calling my dad the night before. It was a long call as usual, about an hour, and he told me about watching the Ken Burns documentary series about Prohibition. It may have been just as well, since I noticed the dumpster was full last night, actually overflowing. It was nice being back at the club after having to skip last week for a writer meeting, haven't heard yet when the next writer meeting will be.

Parade of Homes

Went to see the Parade of Homes today, the final day for it. Saw 6 homes in all with my date, one was in Little Canada, where I once lived. 3 were in Eagan, 2 in Edina. Memorable will be the one where it was a $5 admission fee, it meant not just taking off shoes but also putting on those booties like in the hospital or the airport. Some were hard to find with GPS, so it meant going low-tech and looking at the given map. Found out it was due to some homes being in new neighborhoods where the streets had just been finished. One of them had an Ansel Adams book, I flipped through it. All of them had interior designers to make them look lived-in. There was plenty of old movie posters in the basement of one, a 'man-cave' which had a game room and a big movie/TV screen. Liked the Simpsons episode tonight as it was about Theodore Roosevelt, it prompted me to look up IMDB to find out what movies had a TR character in them besides 'Night at Museum' and its sequel, and there were 2 about his time with the Rough Riders.

New Ulm and Sleepy Eye

Went to Oktoberfest in New Ulm with my date today, an event I like doing annually. We did stop at a few places along the way, like in St. Peter at a Swedish shop so she could get candy, licorice apparently, I tried some of it. Then it was on to Sleepy Eye to get a picture of the Linus statue there. It is in front of the library on the main road in town. We saw how the heart in his hand had been bolted back on, so it's much less likely to have the same problems with vandalism like before. This is especially true when there were floodlights surrounding it. This was the best time to get the picture, when the town is just 14 miles from New Ulm.
    We did find many of the buildings in New Ulm on the National Register of Historic Places, but there were so many it would have been hard to find them all. A good number of them were ones I had seen before, like Turner Hall, where I like to have a drink. There were some painful reminders of how the town, like many other small towns, have been left behind by the economy. I saw some empty buildings near the middle of town where the festival was held in the afternoon. One of them was a convenience store that had a sign in the window, saying it was to be sold at a 'tax forfeiture auction' the previous month. Not sure what that is, wondering if it's much like a foreclosure auction. We did do the horse wagon tour, it did go near the B and B that was destroyed by fire in July. It was a downer to see it charred and a fence surrounding it. The tour guide said there were no immediate plans for it, unsure why. It may come down to who owns it now, since the owner died in the fire. And it is part of a historic designation, but it looks like it would be hard to salvage or rebuild it.
   As usual, I not only made it to Turner Hall, but also to German Park. It was nice to pause in front of the fountain and read the pillar from the Wanda Gag home with the poem about kindness. Also made it to the winery outside town and my date bought 2 bottles of wine there. I climbed to the top of the 'Hermann the German' monument and got a smashed penny souvenir on this site. A new thing I did was go to Martin Luther College, where we found Old Main as it's on the National Register. Nearby, there was a statue of Luther himself. We saw part of a glockenspiel show shortly after arriving, and I pointed out the Wanda Gag home. There is a sign out front now, with a cat on it as she was famous for writing a children's book called 'Millions of Cats'. We finished the evening at the Holiday Inn, where I made it in time for the keg tapping. The food and music was good as usual, we listened to some polka music in one room and then went to the main room or 'poolside' where we eventually went up front and danced a little. I liked seeing the costumed Narren characters, found out it means 'fools' in German. We heard some college football games on the radio on the drive back home, and some asked me how the Iowa Hawkeyes did today. I told them they had the week off, no game scheduled. I was wearing my Hawkeye sweatshirt. I had hoped to see the couple from Plymouth that I first met at the Fest many years ago, but I heard from them by email and was informed how they are going on the second weekend.