9-volt battery

 this morning i bought a 9-volt battery from the corner store, along with a roll of toilet paper. the smoke alarm was keeping me up overnight as the battery was weak. when i got back from this shopping trip i turned on the TV as the gold medal game in the Olympic hockey tournament was happening, the men's division. the American team beat Canada 2-1 in overtime. team USA scored the first goal in the first period, Canada tied it in the second, and no goals in the third. the winning goal was early in overtime. it was annoying when the announcers said 'Canada was taking over the game' when they never led. this was said after the tying goal. with a low scoring game, one must give credit to the goalies for stopping shots. this was the final day of the winter Olympic games from Italy. once again, much like two years ago, i didn't watch all that much. if it was on at the bar on a night when i was performing, then i might watch some of it there. this was the only day when i watched it at home. since i was up early to watch the game, i was tired and i fell asleep for about two hours just before midday. then i had the urge to go out and about. i went to Eagan and had lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. then i printed two pages at the copy store and went to the Barnes and Noble. i found the special magazine i was looking for, the 'year in review' by time magazine. i got another stamp on my loyalty account there. i watched a 'best of' show that NBC had in the afternoon, much of it profiled American athletes. then it was time to attend a meetup event, my first for this month. it was officially held at a 'spirits place', as that is where i got my nametag from the event coordinator. but i prefer beer and went to the nearby micro-brewery. while there i got a box of girl scout cookies. i like peanut butter, and there are two kinds in this category, i got the one in the orange box. i had pizza at home for the evening meal. i didn't do much in the evening, besides the dishes. 

ramen and spam

 in the evening i did one thing that i don't do that often, cook on the stove top. because i like using my microwave oven a lot. i recently bought ramen noodles and spam and needed to see how well it works. i used two pans as i fried the spam, it meant flipping the patties a lot. i did this while the ramen noodles were boiling. i hadn't tried ramen since before college, when i went to visit my big brother. i think the word i am looking for is 'bland' as to why i didn't have them again for a while. when i was googling ramen in the 'Japan store' before buying it i found out a good meat to go with it is pork shoulder, which is spam. this did give it plenty of flavor. one notable thing was the smoke alarm going off, but i waved the smoke away when this happened. i was nearly finished by then. there are three more ramen packets to use. it might have been a little much to boil two packets as i had to slow down when the plate was nearly empty as i was feeling full. there was plenty to do for the day. just before midday i went to the post office and i picked up an e-bay order, it was the 'America 250' flag that i had ordered. this was larger than the 'desk flag' that i had expected but i didn't mind. i had lunch at home as i had an egg roll and potato chips left. over. it would normally have been eaten on Friday but i went to a fish fry that night. then it was on to Eden Prairie for the annual meeting of the credit union that i am a member of. the keynote speaker had lost a leg due to cancer as a youngster but has traveled the world as an athlete, including the Paralympics. i liked what was said about getting ready for the surgery, refusing the wheelchair, wanting to walk there by himself. after the evening meal i went to Aldi for groceries. then i watched a DVD, it was 'breakfast at tiffany's'. i hear that it is part of a 'flashback cinema' series and good thing i checked what discs i already have. i hadn't seen it in a while. first time was in college, after the song of the same name was popular. i liked the neighbor the most, who took care of her. when i first saw it i said 'that's the old man from A-team', George Peppard. holly, played by Audrey Hepburn, wasn't as likeable as she was a 'hot-mess' and living a lie. trying to be a socialite, wanting to forget that she grew up unsophisticated in the south. a reminder of it was when her estranged husband shows up. 

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. 

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.