darn those socks

I got tired of a hole in a sock, big enough for my big toe to poke through. so I decided to get out needle and thread and closed the hole while watching the 10pm news. I understand this is called 'darning' a sock. I have done this before, and for the same reason. I wanted to save some money, since it is way cheaper to mend than buy replacements. this is especially true for those that are rare, such as the st. paul saints baseball pair, or the ones I have on now, bought at the airport in Iceland in 2012. nothing wrong with being frugal, and I have been cutting back on shopping outings to mostly just food now. when I searched the term online, I found mention of 'darn good socks'.
  at work there were problems with the sealing machine or 'stuffer'. so the trainer was called in and I would like to think I learned something. the first error was cleared, I was shown how the middle parts need to have the sensor to match up. then the other error that happened later on was apparently due to bad envelopes, only partially sealing. so a service call was made, although they will not arrive until the next morning. it didn't take all that long to get caught up, even though it was a high volume day. since the check printer was still working fine, I saw that all the checks were printed when the files dropped onto the dashboard. there was a request to pull out a check, going to a state government agency, it was for over a million. I sent it inter-office since there was another check going to the same place, the other check arrived in the return mail. the trainer was in for about two hours and then went home, and shortly after that it was lunchtime for me.
   in the evening I went on a walk after eating and picked up 2 cents. the 'big bang theory' rerun was when sheldon went to the 'zone zone' and leonard had a dream about eating people. I fell asleep after work and missed the first one.

neil young bands

at the open-mic tonight there was a musician that was right before me in the lineup and asked what song to do as his last one of the set, a cover or an original. I said I was fine with neil young, or even something from one of his bands. but he hadn't heard of bands he was in, such as crosby stills nash and young. or even the one before it, Buffalo Springfield. he's just a kid, but one would have figured he would have heard of these bands. another performer asked him if he had heard of paul mccartney, and he was the one that spoke of Buffalo Springfield. I have some of their songs on CD, from movie soundtracks. from buff, it is 'for what it's worth' on the movie 'Forrest Gump'. for CSNY, I have 'taken at all' on 'up in the air'. there are other songs that CSNY is likely better known for, especially the one about the kent state riot of 1970, 'four dead in Ohio'. I am familiar with how this band would change names based on whether or not neil young decided to be in the band, so at times it was 'CSN'. as a soloist, I know neil doing songs such as 'rocking in the free world', which was in a michael moore movie, and 'heart of gold'. for my set, he ones that got the most reaction were stories about seeing a deer as well as the music in the movie 'Arkansas'.
   this was my first day at work on my own. I think I did fairly well, but needed help on some things that I wasn't too familiar with. one of those was the deposit on refund checks at the bank branch. the printout arrived and the same figures was on it compared to Friday when we found all of the checks. so I didn't need help with that, but when my boss emailed I asked if we needed to do a check on the final totals to see if they were accurate. and who I am to send the deposit tickets to for approval. this led to my trainer being summoned into the office, which helped with asking what to do with some of the incoming mail. there was another item, a magazine, to be left at the desk of a manager. near the end of the day, I had to ask if we could send an overnight envelope to Canada, and we can. but it was the first time doing so, and I wasn't sure how to have the provinces pop up. it was a field I had taken for granted when all previous envelopes were domestic. I stayed a few minutes past my normal leave time, but I got all of the highest priority tasks done. the remaining items can be done the next morning when I am waiting for big check files to drop. after eating in the evening I went on a walk and found 2 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when sheldon spoke of compromises, followed by one about two visitors from fermi lab in Chicago.

harold kumar,white castle,movie

I watched another DVD movie this morning, 'harold and kumar', the one where they go to white castle. it was found at a video store near my workplace. I had to see it after the trainer kept telling me about it. this was a stoner comedy, and harold was more like me, caring a lot about work. they do make it to white castle in the end, after getting sidetracked numerous times. there was plenty of crude humor in it. I did recognize neil patrick harris in it, as well as ryan reynolds, and gary riley. naturally, they could have went to eat somewhere else, but the story would have been less funny. it was no doubt a farce, plenty of ridiculous and unlikely things that happen. normally I would say 'idiot' a lot when watching a movie like this, but I did not. it was all right. I will likely see the other two in the series, about going to Gitmo, as well as their christmas movie. with the music, notable to me was hearing 'hold on' by wilson phillips. I do like road movies, but this is probably not what would be considered a typical road movie since they are stoners. watched some of the special features, and this included two theatrical trailers. it was there that it is mentioned how this movie's director also directed another stoner movie, 'dude, where's my car?'
   it was a fairly leisurely day for me, but nothing wrong with that. I did a long walk in the late afternoon and picked up 34 cents. I got caught up on a few things, such as calling to confirm receipt of a benefit card. I filled two bags from the paper shredder as well. it has been raining off and on today, thankful I made it home from the walk before the rain began.

arkansas movie, john malkovich

I watched a DVD movie, a Redbox rental, this morning, 'Arkansas'. I recognized John Malkovich and Vince Vaughn in it. The director, Clark Duke, also had a role in it. It was about drug runners. Notable was Vaughn wearing a St. Louis Cardinals hat, as he liked listening to them on the radio. I will admit that it was a little disappointing to see Malkovich in a fairly small role. also notable was when they got to Hot Springs, the welcome sign says it is the hometown of President Clinton. I am aware of how it is based on a book, this may explain how it was told in various chapters. naturally, there is a body count, since it is about drug running. there were some twists and turns throughout, so it may well be apt to call it a thriller. it was odd that one shooting was depicted without hearing a weapon being fired, likely for dramatic effect. the movie was all right but not that great. this is why I am thankful I only do some movies as rentals instead of at theaters as there is less money involved. one thing I know I really liked was the music in it, by the flaming lips. Because I recognized the songs as covers of country music standards. There was 'stopped loving her', 'country boy can survive', 'all the gold', and 'looking for love'. and it was weird to have one of them played on an 8-track, but still funny when the concept of an 8-track was explained to somebody who probably hadn't seen one before. the band appears in the movie to play one of those songs, when the main character is on a date. so this can happen where the music is better than the overall movie itself.
    when I went out to return the movie, I also went to Fed-ex to get the other two plates of reprinted baseball cards. eventually I put all four in the same plastic with cardboard protecting it, in order to save space. this was where I found out that this item was discounted by two dollars apiece, so this was a nice discovery. a sticker on the plastic was covering up the original price. Cy Young and Chief Bender were on the two I bought today, the third and fourth plates. plenty of minor league players as well, though sadly they largely ignored 'fly-over country' as the only ones from the Midwest on these reprinted cigarette cards were the St. Louis Browns. I also went to pick up e-bay orders from the post office, where I saw the loopy employee who likes to tell jokes. I was able to pick up five of the six orders, and asked about what would happen with the other one since next Saturday is the 4th of July. I was told that mailings are kept for 30 days, so having to skip a week is not a big deal. especially if the item fits inside the mailbox. so I did not place any more orders for now. I picked up 66 cents while walking. then of course there was the evening visit to the Aldi grocery store.
   after eating in the evening I did some more e-rewards surveys. I have cut back on doing them since it can be overwhelming to do them as well as the ones directly from an airline. so now I have enough to 'cash out' a reward on a different airline so I can have the time clock start over on activity. some airlines say 'miles do not expire' but others say some activity is needed at least once every 18 months to avoid mileage expiration. it would be nice to see the exhibit at the Minnesota history center about the music venue known as First Avenue, but on the website it just said 'closed for now'. I understand they are closed until the end of the month, at least, but that is coming soon. so I had expected some more information, but it was not available.

snickers ice cream bar

tonight I went to hy-vee in eagan after the evening meal. I bought 10 items, and one of them was a snickers ice cream bar. it was all right but not as great as I had hoped on the taste. I wanted some ice cream I could consume right away, without a spoon. the wrapper had stars and stripes on it, so a patriotic theme. this makes sense as the 4th of July is coming soon. I also noticed a difference on the sales taxes again when doing the self-checkout. there was tax on the reese's peanut butter, but not the kit-kat. much like with the potato/tortilla chips, same section, same company. so it doesn't make sense. I really like reese's peanut butter so I am fine with paying the small amount of sales tax. It was discounted to a dollar, so the tax was just 8 cents. when I got home I did a walk, and picked up 27 cents. not much postal mail, just an advertising card that I threw out. I am fine with how the mail volume has dropped. there is much less junk mail due to ending most of my magazines and memberships. I think Thoreau spoke of 'simplify', guess that is what I am trying to do.
   at work it was a busy day, but I got caught up by the end of the day, the normal leave time. I decided to do just half of the waiting UPS labels and then go to lunch as it was 1:30 by then. this is probably the final day of having the trainer there, so now we will see how it goes when I am there by myself. it has been nice to have somebody to advise me, but I am ready to go it alone now. I was shown how to do the bank branch deposit, finding the checks scanned to another department on a list that was supplied. it was rather simple to find them by the amount, in most cases. it helps to be organized on where to find the checks as well, as the trainer created another stacker or bin for the documents that have been scanned. this is easier to handle than just putting them in a manila file.
  the 'big bang theory' reruns were when then friends clean out an office, followed by raj and anu being 'on again-off again'. after raj spoke with his dad.

    

mattress in dumpster

I noticed there still was a twin sized mattress on the grass near the road, when I drove home from work today. not sure how long it had been there, but I finally decided to do something about it. so I got out my gloves and moved it into the nearest dumpster, which was fairly close. it meant moving it end over end to get it there. when I did a walk in the evening I picked up 16 cents.
   at work it was busy as usual. I stayed a few extra minutes after stamping out, having noticed there were some checks left in the stacker. so it meant running the machine again to do the last batch, which was 63 checks. I got sidetracked when the trainer said we hadn't pulled out a check that was for taxes to a county in california. it would have been better to put the invoice in the stacker to remind me, since there was two files dropped during the day for that business line. I lucked out on finding it, the 6th check I looked at when checking the box of completed ones. and it meant wheeling the cart back in from where it is left at the end of the day, and cutting off zip ties for one of them to get the last batch in there. not a big deal, I hadn't left yet. I started thinking about it right after getting back from the bathroom. did it save my job? maybe. I know it is a business line that must go out same-day. and it didn't take all that long to do.
   the 'big bang theory' reruns were when leonard had surgery, followed by a paintball game with all of the friends and stuart was skittish about moving in with denise.

tried to get it too

I was out on a walk in the evening and I eventually noticed a deer that was near a bank. I tried getting closer but the animal must have been scared off by something and ran back into the woods. there was a lady in a sedan that was closer to the animal, stopped at a sign. and she said 'I tried to get it too', referring to how I tried to get a picture but ran out of time. there were no antlers that I could see so it must have been a doe. I picked up 84 cents on this walk. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when there was a prom, followed by a 'crossover' episode from the show's prequel, 'young sheldon'.
   it was busy at work but we got things done. it led to me taking a late lunch, as I wanted to eat up the backlog of UPS labels to create. by the end of the day I had made 24. I liked how the trainer was willing to 'run interference' when there was an email from another department, calling into question where I had two foreign checks sent. it wasn't clear enough that they wanted them sent back to the business line. and I knew well enough to stop one business line after 15 minutes since it was taking too long to send all of the emails. the trainer found the check that was holding it all up.