peanuts celebration, valleyfair

I went to valleyfair today, first time in 8 years. they were having the peanuts celebration, and as a big charlie brown fan I knew I needed to go. I said 'worth it!' early on when taking plenty of photos there. I bought a few small souvenirs, including a linus magnet, and a large charlie brown coin. I got food there as well, one item was 'charlie brownies'. and I got two slices of pizza. I went to the water park first, since I wanted to eat and I knew the weather report before departing for the park. I got one run in on the lazy river, and shortly after I got out they shut down the water park due to the weather. I did plenty of walking around there, and went to a few shows including one medley of road songs across America. it started with 'life is a highway'. near the end of my time there I went to ride the antique cars and then thunder canyon, the water ride. had to share the ride with two young men, one of them said he went to community college in iowa, in Estherville.
   it was the early evening by the time I got home, and I decided to eat and I went to Walgreen as well to put a photo order in. I picked it up about an hour later and uploaded a few photos to facebook. one photo, with the whopper's cousin, already has 5 likes. he was a pro baseball player. no surprise how I hadn't put in a photo order for 6 months, and only found 5 photos of me since then. I don't take that many of me.
   I also made it back to kaposia days in south st. paul, for the pancake breakfast this morning. I got a few more ideas about what to see in that town after speaking to a city employee. I went to valleyfair right after I was done there.

washing pillows

I don't wash pillows that often, but I did this afternoon at a laundromat. there was three, along with two sets of bedding, and when I opened it up at the end of the wash I saw a hole torn in one of them and the cotton coming out. so I placed that one in the trash. I think it was one I claimed when I was a the office working in suburban Chicago.
   I got plenty done today, it helped that I made a list. it started with getting my license plate renewal done. I chose the one wearing the twins baseball jersey. it was across the parking lot from its old home, the sears store north of downtown st. paul. I also went to the post office before it but there was no orders to pick up. after it I went to the library to print my ticket for valleyfair. after dropping off some things at home it was on to south st. paul for kaposia days. I noticed some of the cars at their show had labels from the fairgrounds car show from a week ago. I got a corn dog and some bottled water, although it was small and it looks like the hot dog was a better deal, a dollar less and more meat than what I got. you live, you learn. I wanted to find the Croatian hall and I did, a half mile from the library. I spoke with a young man outside of it when I was taking a picture, I think he was out having a cigarette. he went inside when he saw a dog running at large, it looked like a huskie. I wanted to just go home and rest but I also knew I needed to do laundry, so I did that shortly after returning from the festival. then there was grocery shopping. it was evening by then, and I turned on the fox game of the week, pirates-brewers. the brewers won 3-1.
   after the late news I went to do karaoke, and sang 'lonely people' by America. when I put in the song I spoke a little with the karaoke jockey, who suggested having lunch together sometime. I said we weren't connected on social media, so a friend request was sent and I accepted it. upon arrival I wanted to park across the street but when I was backing up it triggered a car alarm so I parked on a different street. also notable was how it took too long to get a beer, so I got it for free. when I was going through the song book a lady in a red dress sat down next to me, wanting to see it after me. she had a nametag on, reminding me of my class reunions, and she was there for hers from st. paul central. I said I had been there to find a snoopy statue. when I spoke of being from central iowa, she spoke of attending nearby Grinnell college.

just doodling

I asked a coworker about a drawing on a post-it as he is one row in front of me. it was a fairly detailed smiley face. he said it was just doodling, I had wondered if he was any kind of an artist. this was during our afternoon break, and he spoke about seeing classic movies. this was after I said I liked going to see French movies as well as 'art films'. we finished another prompt near the end of the day and started the training for the fifth one, but did not get to the training session. the number of essays read dipped a little compared to the previous day. I left a voicemail with an agency but they called me back near the end of my morning break, I said I didn't have enough time to talk. I was told they would try again during lunch, although I didn't tell them when I had lunch, but they didn't call at all after that first call.
     I went to a Walgreen to pick up a few items I needed after work, but the paper wasn't there so I had to go to a gas station to get that item. in the evening I picked up a festival button for kaposia days in south st. paul, it was at a dairy queen. I ordered a blizzard as well. the parade was going on nearby so I got a glimpse of it after I finished my ice cream. then I went to the burger king. although it was a little annoying about how it was double the price for a whopper junior meal depending on how it was ordered. after the news I sang some karaoke, it was 'die another day' by Madonna. it was still on my mind after seeing the 'drag brunch' as well as her recent gun control song 'god control'. of course the one I sang is from the james bond movie of the same name.

mullet baseball card

i went to sing karaoke tonight and I saw some friends of the button while there. he said he liked collecting baseball cards where the players had a mullet hairdo. one of them was actually a pokemon card. he did a roger miller song, 'chug a lug'. I did two, 'you're gonna go far kid' by the offspring, and 'edge of glory' by lady gaga. the former I had heard at this venue recently and it sounded good. the latter I had in mind as I had heard it at the 'drag brunch' over the weekend. one man said he liked hearing the offspring song, and I would have preferred it stay on that subject. because it devolved when I went to the back room to do 'ladder golf' or whatever is called. we just weren't on the same page, when he wanted to talk about sitcoms. and eventually it got around to politicians he hates. it got to the point where I said 'i can't do this anymore'. it was time for me to leave anyway.
   at work I read 182 essays. we closed out another prompt and moved on to another one, the fourth of this project. they say we might end a day early, next week. I am still working on getting something else lined up. I was pleased to see an email when I got off work, it was from a contact from the university alumni chapter. somebody I saw at a recent event, he sent me a job lead. so hopefully something good will result from it.

edible spoons

we finished another prompt this morning, about edible spoons. the first two were about it. there was mention of sorghum being a part of it. we are now on one about schools after the franco- prussian war. I scored 134 essays today, up from 78 the previous day but of course I had a full day this time. although I am still bristling about validity papers being brought to me, having to justify them and re-read them. there were postings at the end of the day about later projects, but I was not on the list. so it explains the flurry of applications filed on indeed tonight, after getting back from performing. I uploaded a resume to a place that a fellow performer told me about as of this morning, but I haven't heard anything from them yet. I was the first performer tonight, after the MC of course, wasn't expecting that. I tried to get a beer before I went onstage but it was taking too long, so I did it after my set.

flickering monitor

at work I was asked by the team lead if I noticed a problem with my computer. this was at midday. I said I hadn't, this was when I made it into the testing room to leave my lunch bag before going outside for a walk. well once lunch was over I tried to log into my computer, but after I did I saw how the screen kept 'jumping'. so after 10 minutes I said 'I have had enough' and decided to move to another monitor. he left a post-it on the one I abandoned, saying 'flickering monitor'. we were going over the qualifying papers during this time, so not a big deal. but I wanted something to change by the time I went to actual test scoring. at least for as long as I was there today. I had to leave at 2pm for an appointment, actually a job interview. I lucked out on how I was qualified on the new prompt before I had to leave, as it meant I only will miss those 2 hours and nothing more. this is way different from other projects I have done, as I am told there will be 6 prompts covered in just 8 days.  at this point I look forward to returning to work in the morning, ready to go. with the interview, it was for call center work. so I am not too thrilled about it, but I still have to consider it when no other offers have arrived yet. it is sad that I have to consider call center work just to get my foot in the door at some companies, despite all of the experience that I have.
    I was tired so after the interview I drove home and decided to lay down shortly after getting home. then I was up again in the early evening, so it was time to eat by then. then it was time to go out again, but at first I went to the library to do a data entry test related to a job application. as well as convert my resume to a PDF to send to another employer. I let a fellow performer know that I tried to submit one online but it wouldn't go through, as it needed to be a PDF. saw him at the performance venue tonight, and his cousin said I should try doing story-telling in Chicago. I said I am an ex-suburbanite, still visit there annually. another performer liked my bit about semantics. after the show some performers decided to go to another place for a drink, I walked with them for a while. but I had other things to do so when they arrived I continued on to my car. actually I had parked near the venue, and  we passed by it during the walk, but I didn't tell them that. I enjoyed the conversation too much as well as the company. and of course the exercise, from the added walking.

starburst gummies

the show runner liked to bring candy, and tonight it included starburst gummies. I hadn't heard of these before, but they tasted good. much like gummy bears do. the show runner likes to do the southern accent when he introduces me. I was fine with going on fairly early, in the first ten, as I was tired and knew it would get me out earlier. I liked hearing a musician duo doing a song mash-up, it included Lauren daigle's 'you say' and 'secrets' by one republic.
   at work we started a new project, and it meant nearly half of the day was training. I ended up scoring 111 tests. sounds like we will go through prompts quickly on this one. at the same time, a sign-up sheet was passed around, basically an 'inquiry on availability' through late july. I stayed in during lunch break as it was raining. I got a voicemail about volunteering at fringe festival, sounds like I can do the orientation remotely soon, online.