feed your holiday spirit

 i got mail from a restaurant that said 'feed your holiday spirit', gift cards included. except it isn't a good deal at all, 20 off 100 and 50 off 250, from buca di beppo. i had been doing thanksgiving dinner there, in order to get airline miles. but it seemed like their good deal had vanished so i found an even cheaper dinner at the grocery store, no surprise there. also notable about the day was the music i was hearing on the drive home. the announcer said that songs of recent rock and roll hall of fame inductees were being played, this included eminem's 'lose yourself'. it brought back memories. seeing '8-mile' when i lived in suburban chicago. seeing Em in concert at MSG in NYC, a weeklong vacation in the big apple. and it was my first karaoke song. i went online to confirm it and an article said another one of this year's inductees is dolly parton. i toured the rock hall on labor day weekend, the same year i saw '8-mile'. at work there was a question about when some letters were picked up and sent out by the postal service. eventually i had to add energy park people to the thread as i couldn't answer their question. hard to understand why they care so much, as the letters are low volume, usually less than 10 per day. and i send out thousands of checks per day. an overnighted check was returned, it was damaged. so i re-printed it and let the business line know i was re-sending it, part of my daily send of tracking numbers. in the evening i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 28 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when raj was labeled as spoiled and decided to stop spending his dad's money. it was followed by the one where howard was working on the space toilet, and leonard screwed up his karma by giving bad advice to stuart about dating penny. i laughed a lot at this one.

it is now gdansk

 i was reading through the daily entries i get from the garrison keillor writers almanac and it mentioned danzig, germany. never heard of it. found out it is because the city is now known as gdansk, poland. it was part of the territory germany ceded after world war one ended. i had only known danzig as the name of a heavy metal band, found out it had the name as it was the frontman's stage name. guess it explains the first battle of world war two being the invasion of poland. what i also found out about gdansk was that the solidarity movement from 1980, led by lech walesa, started there. and wikipedia said there is a park in that town named for president reagan. i like what i learn when i decide to look up things. i found some ways to stay active throughout the day, it included shredding some junk mail after having breakfast in the morning. and i ordered 2 comedy CDs that had been on my list for a while, done by a local record label and i know the performers. this might be it on getting comedy albums, as it is harder to find those on CD as many are no longer made in that format. an MP3 download is all the rage now. once midday arrived i watched some pro football, dolphins-bears was on CBS. saw the first half, then laid down and fell asleep, the bears lost a close one. in the evening i performed at an open-mic, cul-de-sac brought a lady friend and an intro was made. in my set i started off with mention of wearing my leather jacket onstage, and the story about re-claiming my coat a while back. i was told i buried the comic after me, so i must have been a tough act to follow. later on i went on a walk and found 68 cents.

copshop movie

 this afternoon i watched a DVD movie, a redbox rental, 'copshop'. it had been on my list for a while, and i had rented it before but found out i was stuck with a blue-ray i couldn't use. so i decided to search where i could still find it in the format i could use, and it meant going to a cub foods instead of a holiday station. there was plenty of action throughout, a high body count. it was all right as a thriller, but still a far-fetched story. for one thing, criminals being able to shoot their way into a prison. and prisoners being released because they might be able to help the good cop against dirty cops. along with a cop hi-jacking an ambulance although she appeared to be near death for a while. notable was the rival hit man who poses as a balloon delivery man, i didn't like him because he just wouldn't shut up. the setting was nevada, and part of the story was the murder of the attorney general. assassinations are rare now, so this also made it far-fetched. the movie will be memorable because i decided to get a new DVD player. the one i had kept stopping and i said 'i have had enough' and went to target to get another one. it was wrecked by a damaged redbox rental a while back, where the commands on the screen switched over to portuguese. i ended up with the same model, a Sony. as i just wanted a simple player. i saw some pigeons flying around in the store while there. and i got some discounted halloween cereal and candy, along with a pair of socks. the first disc i watched on it was a charlie brown special, 'it's magic', on the same disc as 'great pumpkin', which i did my annual viewing of the previous weekend. 

i did the typical errand running, picked up 4 orders at the post office. just after midday i went to the taco bell in eagan for my lunch. i wanted locos tacos as they were promoting them in the world series, 'steal  a base, steal a taco'. didn't get a free taco though, it would have meant signing up for their app and i am trying to keep it simple when i don't eat out much. i got some candy at the nearby walgreen, a total of five for the day so now i have 31 pieces of candy in the bag at home. it will last for a while. not a big deal how watching the movie in full was delayed until afternoon, still had plenty of time to watch it and get it back in order to pay for just one day of renting. nothing was planned for the day in terms of events either. in the early evening i went to aldi for my weekly grocery order, after having some pizza. i made it back before the world series began. it was game 6, a scoreless tie for a while. astros beat the phils 4-1 to take the series 4-2. later on i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 90 cents. i picked up a can of surly from the nearby liquor store so now 6 beers are waiting.

concord steel

 when i went to put out the cart at the end of the day i noticed there was some carts out there, possibly with weights for the elevator as it said 'otis' on one side. on the other side it said 'concord steel, 500 pounds'. notable about the day at work was the shipment of check stock arriving, and when the courier called i said i would meet them on the upper level. then i realized the elevator was broken, so i advised them to go to the lower level. i did the pay-stubs early in the day, before lunchtime, and i liked how the machine didn't stop when i ran them. at lunchtime i went to a CVS pharmacy and i liked how there was some discounted halloween candy. usually i go to walgreen. i got a bag of snack sized reese's peanut butter, bat-shaped. in the evening i got some more at the hy-vee in eagan, which had multiple carts out with various discounted halloween items. i keep adding to the bag at home, now 26 pieces in it, which will last me for a month. so i probably won't be making too many more stops for candy. half of the 16 items bought at hy-vee tonight was the candy. later on i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 24 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when sheldon said 'nice try, blockhead' when the friends wanted him back on the team for the military project. it was followed by the one where sheldon learned about 'friends with benefits' from penny while the friends were in las vegas, and a hooker was hired for howard.

event choices

 i see various event invites, so sometimes i have to review them and choose which ones interest me. a meetup event didn't make the cut as it was an art tour, already have plenty of art. i chose another event because food will be served, a volunteer event. world series, game five, was tonight. astros won 3-2 and are now up 3-2 in the series. joined after watching 'young sheldon', where the dad is the football coach again. it was tied 1-1 in the second, so it was nice how i didn't miss much, just like the night before. astros went ahead 2-1 on a home run. later on i went on a walk and found 22 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when sheldon got an emotion machine, and many were revealed to be mad. it was followed by the one where leonard said 'take me to a bar' after penny went on a date with stuart. i drank a can of schell's with the evening meal so now 5 beers are waiting. at work some parts arrived for the check printer but it was still a no-go. i don't like the attitude of this tech, who was being sarcastic about how i could note the file.

fallen women books

 this evening i read the wikipedia articles i had printed this week about 'fallen women books.' i had noticed how elizabeth gaskell had been in garrison keillor's 'writers almanac' and i was interested in mention of two books by her, 'ruth' and 'mary barton'. it was part of covering the struggles of the working class in victorian england. one of the articles compared it to 'scarlet letter', by a different author, but from the same era. haven't read any of those yet but i had heard of 'scarlet letter' many times before. at work there was a team huddle in the afternoon, first time in-person in a while. in the morning was a dial-in quarterly meeting about the business performance. i logged in on time and there was nothing, so i did something else for a few minutes and tried again a little later and then it was on. odd how it didn't start on time. there was more about the buyout of a bank with a big presence in california, just received approval from the regulators. i still got checks printed during that one. after work i got some cheese at a target, and more discounted halloween candy at a walgreen. in the evening i watched 'the conners', then it was over to the world series. louise works with jackie at the diner, and darlene quits her job. liked how i didn't miss much on the series, only in the second inning by then. astros beat the phils 5-0 to even the series 2-2. it was a combined no-hitter. so these past two games prove the old adage about how the name of the game is pitching, as both were shutouts. astros scored with 'little ball', first run was when the batter was plunked with the bases loaded. later on i went on a walk and found 66 cents. 'big bang theory' reruns were when howard tried to avoid squeaky spots in the baby room. it was followed by the one where there was a catfight between penny and the new neighbor.

neck muscle

 there was a facebook posting from a writer friend in phoenix and it spoke of something i hadn't heard of, so i had to look it up. it was a neck muscle, the sternocleidomastoid. so i learned something. at work i saw a property tax bill for somebody in california, not addressed to the bank. so i sent it back to california, saying it was sent to a bank branch. online search had weird things about this man, such as a story about offering hush money. in the evening i watched the world series, game three. phils beat the astros, 7-0, plenty of home runs were hit. before the game there was going through email. notable was seeing the one about the gift card for the museum visits, so i gave my mailing address. and i saw another reminder about renewing my history association membership, so i paid it online. there were two event invites of interest to me, one of them from meetup, but i have a few more days to respond to them so figured it could wait for now. later on i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 15 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when bernadette had the baby blues, one of the stories shared about how the friends spent the holidays. it was followed by the one where the friends helped make penny blossoms.