meetup picnic near zoo

 at midday i went to a meetup picnic near Como Zoo in St. Paul. it was hard to find a parking spot, as the lot nearest the picnic grounds was full. i ended up finding street parking a few blocks away. i brought a box of twinkies much like before and ate two of them there. i left with seven, so it meant that just one was eaten by somebody who wasn't me. one of the games i played after eating, ladder golf, was with this man. this was the third meetup picnic, out of six in the series, i have attended this summer, and i said it will be the final one. there is another one in three weeks, postponed from an earlier date, but i prefer to avoid getting annoyed and i was at two of them, including this one. in both cases, it was due to others being critical of my nametag. i had plenty to eat there, including a hamburger and a hot dog along with desserts and some potato salad, and i slept when i got home. for this reason, i had very little to eat in the evening, just some popcorn saved from the show i had attended the night before. i performed at an open mic in the evening. i did stories about the picnic, the bank, a Facebook posting about being spotted, and movies i had attended. i was the final performer in this show. 

relay movie

 in the afternoon i went to see a movie at St. Anthony main in Minneapolis, it was 'relay'. i chose it as i like a thriller, and this one kept me guessing until the end. the setting was New York city and was about a man that called through a relay service whenever someone needed his help as a whistle blower. i was planning on attending the 1pm screening but changed it to the one at 4pm. with the errand running i was doing in the morning, i still wanted to be able to enjoy the sandwich i ordered at jersey mike's instead of wolfing it down. after lunching there in Richfield, i went to the nearby target and bought two frames for posters. when i got home i went to Aldi for groceries. two of the comedy posters recently acquired were put into frames, replacing two that had no pictures of performers on them. i still have ten posters from comedy shows for this reason. essentially, the two frames i bought meant that two posters I've had for years, not related to comedy, were finally framed. one of the frames i realized was too big, at 24 by 36, for most of the posters i have. but i noticed the 'Herky on parade' poster, from a visit to Iowa City, fit in it nicely. the other one was from an advance screening of the first 'Shrek' movie. some of the shuffling was due to realizing that some frames were kind of big for the posters i had in them, and wanting to cut back on the 'empty space' that one might see. there is one more that i want to get a frame for, it was from a St. Paul Saints baseball game this month. some posters i realized that i didn't value them enough and were ripped up and tossed in the trash. there is one bag full of rolled up posters and it now has nineteen in it, down from twenty-three. in the evening i went to a comedy show at the parkway theater in south Minneapolis, called 'the brothers'. i knew many of those on the lineup, including school bouncer and the fancy comic. the first member of the ring of honor performed as well, who now lives in Boston. i bought not only a can of Hamm's beer there but also some popcorn. it is a much nicer venue for comedy than what i am used to, including the bathrooms being cleaner. guess this should be expected when it isn't a dive bar, and this venue still sometimes shows movies. 

patterns movie

 i made another visit to the Trylon cinema tonight, my second in this month of august. it was to see 'patterns', a corporate drama written by Rod Serling. i knew i was tired before i departed for the theater, but i managed to last until the end so i was pleased with that. when i left the venue i said 'passion', as there was plenty in this movie. i said i like passion in my entertainment, but hearing that much arguing in my own life, no. it was about a new executive who agreed with an older one that was in conflict with the boss over ethics. while there i said the popcorn smells good, but i didn't get any during this visit. i already have a ticket for another movie at the same venue next month though. guess i am saving the quarters i have for another event that i plan on attending on Labor Day. i do pay attention to the promos before the feature, in this case a series called 'Nixon land' in October. i looked it up after getting home, looks like mostly horror movies from the era when Nixon was president. i am not big on horror movies but this cinema has plenty of other offerings that i like. for the evening meal i went to McDonald's and had the limited time meal known as McDonald land. this is the second 'gimmick meal' i have had this month, the other being at Wendy's of course. i chose a quarter pounder this time because i wanted something different after having chicken nuggets before. the shake was good, and i liked the tin that was included with the meal. it was a 'luck of the draw' and i got the one about Mayor McCheese. there were some stickers inside, a passport, and two postcards, the thing i liked the most. i know, shocking. i have to give the edge to McDonald's here as i recall those characters from my childhood. and i made more visits there as my hometown had one but not a Wendy's. i saw a Facebook posting when i got home. mason city, a fellow comic, spoke of seeing me, likely either when i was walking to the fast-food place or after i had left it. at work the tech arrived around mid-morning and the parts were swapped out. it was an assembly put in, so it meant seeing the machine taken apart essentially. we tested it and it works fine once again, and i am caught up on check printing and the overnights. thankful that the number of emails i will have to send out about the printer being down for a day will likely be done. 

pumpkin is here

 my visit to Hy-Vee for groceries was moved up one day due to being booked on Friday evening. i got a picture of the fold-up sign near the entrance saying, 'pumpkin is here'. it was an ad for pumpkin spice coffee from Starbucks. this was a small order, nine items. i am aware of how i skipped a week there, didn't need enough from that store. at work there was a notice about the parts needed for the check printer. guess there will be a delay, i said we prefer in the morning because someone needs to be present when any maintenance is done. easier for me to test it when ready as well. i decided to print as much as i was able to, even if it meant some from the Fargo file would be held until the next morning to be run through the inserter machine. it also meant making choices on the overnights, still a day behind on getting those out. i have a life outside of work and didn't feel like staying until late in the evening just to get those caught up. this is especially true when i know the driver picks up from the UPS box just once a day and anything put in after that time waits until the next day anyway. i know the best game plan is to print all i can before the tech arrives, then switch over to doing the overnight labels. 

our god, our help in ages past

 i usually don't talk about 'the news of the world' in this forum, as i prefer to talk about my own life. this evening i watched the vigil on TV held at a school in Richfield related to a shooting at a catholic school and church in Minneapolis, two fatalities. three if you count the shooter, who turned the gun on themselves. the first song during this vigil, shown on fox-9 plus instead of the 7pm news hour, was 'our god our help in ages past'. we all know i like the hymns better than scriptures at church services, because i am a more active participant in hymns. i liked this hymn, i think because it was sung by the church choir in the movie 'cold turkey', which was filmed in my native state of Iowa. when i heard it in the movie, the line i liked the most was 'our shelter from the stormy blast'. when i looked it up online, i saw how the hymn has been around for a while, apparently going back to 1708. and the inspiration is much older than that, apparently being from psalm 90. proverbs, as well as psalms, have the most meaning to me in the bible. it makes sense that psalms would, when those are most like poems and songs or music. at work, we did see a technician about the check printer, in the afternoon. we were able to get printing again, a temporary fix. some strong glue was used on the plastic part that broke off in the output tray that was causing it to jam. we were told to let it dry for a while, more than an hour. when i got back from a team huddle on another floor, we started it up. one thing, though. those two parts, which work in tandem, were often staying up after about five checks saying it was full when it wasn't. we found out it meant having to push it down for it to keep printing. i was able to get hundreds of checks printed this way, but we still have a way to go to get caught up. i was told to send checks to the Marshall office, and about a hundred checks were sent there, mostly the PDF files. this included four that were marked as overnights. the final file sent there was the midday i-pay. 

chair massage

 a little after midday, i did my first chair massage at the workplace since i moved to this office less than a year ago. it was about fifteen minutes and i liked seeing cans of LaCroix sparkling water so i got one. if i am not mistaken, this was the same place that had the puppies not too long ago. i went there shortly after the check printer started jamming and i couldn't get it running again. i wasn't about to skip this massage when i knew nobody was coming right away about the printer. i opened a ticket about it after i got back, and i ate lunch before i went. no surprise, nobody came by the end of the day. i sent out as much as i could, but there was plenty that i couldn't print. this included a little over a thousand Fargo checks as it was a high-volume day. it jammed on a three-check file, kept trying to print the same check. first one notified was vacation replacement, and then eventually the team lead and the boss knew. this is why i wasn't thrilled that our alternate printer was picked up nearly two years ago, although we've lucked out that it was the first time breaking down since then. 

minimal carryover

i started off the day at work with some carryover, not just about a thousand Fargo checks but also ACH statements. i was pleased that the carryover was minimal by the end of the day, just six Canadian checks. when i have to change the stock for Canadian checks, i usually don't print those first. when i knew the next day is likely going to be a high volume one, i preferred being caught up again. it meant sending out three regular mail tubs to the mailroom. i did see vacation replacement for a few minutes shortly after i had returned from lunch. we swapped a few stories, as usual. no surprise how some were about my day off. in the evening i went to perform at an open mic. one performer was an elderly man who sang two show tunes and did not want to climb the stairs to go onstage. one of them was from 'paint your wagon'. it was a small list of performers for the night and i went on after this man and there was just one performer after me. i did stories about a former boss, a Walgreen cashier, attending the state fair, a bank story, and a venue closing. the road construction near the venue is still a mess.