Tuesday, February 24, 2026

deviled eggs, 6-pack

 in the evening i went to the Hy-Vee in Eagan for groceries and i found a six-pack of deviled eggs and bought it. i am used to seeing them at potlucks. i will have two per day until they are gone. it was one of eight items in this order. and i made a visit to Walgreen in the morning, but it was a smaller order. there were two checks that i knew i needed to hold for pick-up but i had to contact customer service to find out who it was for. usually, the name is there. i will keep them in an envelope as the colleague spoke of wanting to pick them up next week. late in the day i emailed the mailroom boss as i needed more interoffice envelopes. i like knowing that i don't have to ask for them that much. i am sent plenty when i ask for them. there were questions about overnights from the Cincinnati file. with one of them i had to explain that there was just one UPS pick-up per day, and one check just missed this pick-up, and it was picked up the next day. when i first checked the tracking number it said it was on the way and then i checked a little later and it was delivered. odd how the others on the email thread claimed they couldn't find this information when entering the same tracking number that i had. another was by i.m. in the afternoon. once i found out the payee, i said i had the check and the overnight label so had what i needed. i said it would go to the box later on and would likely be picked up same day. there was a dial-in meeting about the ticket opened due to the check printer stopping and starting over on high-volume files. one thing suggested was to 'cut the file in half'. i have tried this before and when the volume is high again i can try it. there was also a request to intercept a check from a fraud file but i didn't get the request in time so it still went out regular mail. had to be honest about how i need it as early as possible. 

steelcore shovel

 i have a steel core shovel for the snow, thankful to have it even though i don't have to use it all that much. i used it this morning to dig out my car and then i was on my way to the park and ride to get to work. i liked how it didn't take all that long, under ten minutes. it helps that it has a scoop that is two feet wide, and it is a sturdy handle as well. i think all of my colleagues decided to work from home due to the weather. it was why i was asked to go to another floor and pick up the reject fax. then of course i take it back to the shop and scan and forward it to a shared box. i overnighted a check when i saw this request on it, even though it was from a file where i don't get that many kinds of requests. i was asked by i.m. if it was overnighted, and i said it was. then i gave out the tracking number. i said it is easier to send the tracking when it is available when i am emailed. also increases the odds that it will be pulled and overnighted. on another overnight, the manager that sings karaoke was notified about a check going to a fort in Maryland. looks like it was delivered in the morning, earlier in the day than expected. i knew it must have been a big deal when a senior leader was copied on the email thread. i drank the bottle of pilsner urquell with the evening meal so now there are three beers waiting. 

cashier check reporting

 i was asked by the Cincinnati business line for some cashier check reporting. i knew there were plenty of sub-files on this one, as it is the one where i am sent the overnight labels along with the checks. i found out there were ten sub-files with checks in the past year. one of them had over two hundred checks in it, and i sent that reporting first as spreadsheet, gleaned from the dashboard. i wanted to confirm that this was the kind of information that was being requested, and it was. when i found this out, i sent the other nine spreadsheets. some of them had very little activity. around midday i went to the puppy event in another part of the building. as usual i saw a friend from the comedy circuit, who is part of the animal rescue organization. there were five puppies, i am told all from the same litter. i did end up holding one of them but noticed its head kept moving around, seemed restless. then i was advised to put the dog in the playpen with the others. it was a 90-minute time allotment and i arrived during the final 30 minutes. i wanted to see that i was caught up on my normal duties before i went there. vacation replacement arrived near the end of the day to pick up a check. i was asked if i was printing anything. and at the time i wasn't. this was due to wanting to print a check, or it may have been to re-print it. not sure what for, possibly for the refund check file. 

special olympics signup

 recently i had been seeing ads about being a special Olympics volunteer and created a profile but haven't signed up for any shifts. then at my employer, there was an email about signing up through them. i let the team lead know my interest in it and it sounds like using volunteer hours is possible. i hadn't done anything like this just yet at my current employer as my normal duties are important to me. i had done some volunteering through former employers but i didn't enjoy enough of the outings. i haven't met that many people since starting at the bank, and hopefully i can meet some more due to an 'extracurricular' activity like this one. i was sent some FedEx envelopes, in person. it was six and i am told this should last for a while. at this rate, when it has been once a month, hopefully that continues to be true. the mailroom sent a refund check later than most of the others so i let vacation replacement know about it. 

Saturday, February 21, 2026

pineapple tidbits, sloppy joes

 it was another day off as this was a bank holiday. for the evening meal it was 'odds and ends'. i ate the second and final frozen meal i had recently found at a bus stop, it was a sloppy joe and corn meal. i also opened up a can of pineapple tidbits. it was one of five items i had claimed out of a box next to a dumpster. all of it was perfectly good, unexpired and unopened food containers. it was two cans of chicken, two cans of pineapple, and a jar of peanut butter i had claimed. this was the final one i was using. a good fallback plan for me on a day off is to head to Mall of America. i had lunch there at the A and W. i had a burger there but got an idea to eat a fish sandwich on a later visit as 'fish fry season' is starting soon. there was an electronic ad about it when i was ordering. then i had a scoop of ice cream at great American cookies as i wanted some airline miles. the other two stops were at a toy store where i found two Charlie Brown items, a charm and a yo-yo. then i got a 5-pack of ramen noodles at the 'Japan store', Ebisu, as snoopy is on the package. there were two museum logos on it as well, one of them is of the snoopy museum in Tokyo. after leaving the mall i got some drain opener at a Walgreen. then i watched 'jeopardy' when i got home, and the final jeopardy clue was about John Knox, the religious reformer. i went to perform in the evening, and did stories about the bank, the day off, seeing a movie, and going to a donut shop. i was pleased that the wild guitar player decided to play a Lewis Capaldi song as i had requested it last week. there was another performer who talked to me after my set, was wearing an outfit that said 'supreme' referring to the shoe brand and spoke of performing in Las Vegas soon. i was annoyed when another performer asked for an opinion about their set and then later pranked me. it is a reminder of why i often leave shortly after the show is over as things like this can happen during the after-show part. 

wild river movie

 in the afternoon i watched a movie on DVD, it was 'wild river'. it was a recent purchase, part of a 'double feature'. it was about the TVA during the great depression, so of course this was of interest to me as a history major. i recall one history book saying the Tennessee valley authority 'made running rivers walk'. the movie did start with footage of this river flooding. it was about a government agent who must evacuate a small town to make way for a dam, but one resident refused to leave. then the agent falls in love with the granddaughter. i did not recognize any of the actors in it but i liked the story. notable was the old lady telling her story of why she refused to leave, and this was a scene where we see the cemetery on this island. for lunch i went to the mall in Roseville and ate at Tio's tacos. it was a way that i mark the anniversary of me moving to the twin cities for work many years ago, as it was on a Valentine's Day weekend. i had four small tacos and some fries and a bottle of Jarritos soda. then i went to have a blizzard treat at dairy queen. and i bought a small pack of baseball cards from a vending machine. i was pleased that one of them was of Yadier Molina. after i finished watching the movie, i had the urge to get moving again. i went to get some discounted Valentine's candy at Hy-Vee in Eagan. one was a big bag of Hershey's kisses, and another was gummies. both had Charlie Brown characters on the package. in the evening i liked watching two 'Simpsons' episodes. there were some postings on Facebook about this being episode number 800. one i understood was inspired by this year's america-250 celebration as it was about ben franklin and the setting was Philadelphia. this led to some jokes about the 'rocky' movie franchise as well. the other was about Milhouse's dad and crackers, notable as REM frontman Michael Stipe guest stars and the song 'i am superman' is played. 

blue moon movie

 in the late afternoon i went to see the movie 'blue moon' in Columbia heights, first time at this venue, called 'the heights'. this was one of just two screenings scheduled for this Oscar-nominated movie that was on my list. i had seen some other movies with Ethan Hawke, as well as Margaret Qualley. Ethan's character sure does talk a lot in it. this explains why his role was nominated, but no best picture nomination. it depends on who he was talking to. when talking to most people, seemed funny when reminiscing about his career. but with his ex-partner, seemed sad and bitter. but this fits with what i would expect when it is about 'Rodgers and Hart' becoming 'Rodgers and Hammerstein'. it was about the party at a bar after the premiere of 'Oklahoma!', a play i had seen performed by a local community theater. would it surprise me if the movie wasn't entirely factual? no. because one line in it was 'it would become so popular that high schools would perform it'. this is what happened, but was it really said right after the premiere? another one that meant something to me, as a performer, was the line how 'the crowd laughed at the wrong thing'. as a performer i know it is a good idea to know who your crowd is and try to perform something they will like. being edgy and satirical can work, but sometimes nostalgic, light-hearted, and feel-good works. it was time to have the evening meal by the time the movie was done, and i went to the nearby taco bell. one table over from me, there were two teenage boys who had showed up after i did and were arguing. it was added motivation to finish eating and leave in a timely fashion. in the morning i went to the post office, but there were no orders to pick up. for lunch i went to Jersey Mike's. my visit to Aldi for groceries was moved up to the afternoon due to when i attended the movie. i liked finding an Aldi truck on this visit, it will go next to other toy cars i have bought.