Wednesday, September 9, 2026

paper found on train

 i didn't have to buy the paper as i found a copy of the Minneapolis edition, all four sections, on the light rail that i take to work. i still made it over to Walgreen though, and picked up some tea, cookies, and cheese. at work, the manager of a business line said the Poland team was still going to be working on Monday, the Labor Day holiday. this business line gives us a list of what checks to overnight. i said it shouldn't affect the file much, we print the checks whenever we get them. i let my boss know about the inquiry as i don't get a question like that too often. i found out what i had said was accurate, good enough. at first i was thinking i had another check for the tax specialist as it said 'ad hoc' but it wasn't. sometimes the Marshall business line has a file marked as 'ad hoc' too. it helps to pay attention to what the check looks like before it gets moved on to anyone. there are still two checks to be picked up. i completed another online class at work in the morning. there was three due at the end of the month, and i do one per day early in the month it is due and they don't take long. in the evening i went to Hy-Vee in Eagan, 12 items were in my order. 

oktoberfest ad, liquor store

 in the evening i went to the liquor store near me and got a can of natural light from the discount cart. it was the first time there in a while. i drank the can of Coors light with the evening meal, and there still are three beers waiting. i saw an ad or a sweepstakes with an Oktoberfest theme next to the cases of Schell's beer on display. i will be getting to Oktoberfest in New Ulm soon enough. i had been doing plenty of weeknight events lately and this meant i was less likely to have the customary beer with a meal at home once a week. i like drinking Gatorade or sparkling water with meals at home and still wanted to see that those were used up. and i figured that beer has a fairly long shelf life as long as it is refrigerated. at work, the tax specialist said hold all checks until Tuesday, so after the holiday. i would expect to see plenty of out of office replies when sending emails, more likely on Fridays especially right before a holiday weekend. 

look at both printers

 the tech from HP arrived to look at the check printer in the morning. we got it squared away on the communication issues. the previous day i was called on the laptop phone but i couldn't hear it as i was in the other room. i said call me on my personal cell phone, and a time was set up for the later day as the tech had already left the vicinity. as expected, the printer works just fine now after the maintenance kit was swapped out. i asked that both printers be looked at. a plastic part on the other one in the lower tray was hanging a little low and was making a snapping sound whenever i put the tray back in after filling it with check stock. it just needed to be moved up a little, and now no issues there. i am told the kit on the main one is at about thirty percent so it might need to be swapped out soon enough. but i think we can delay that a little by being able to switch between these two printers each day. vacation replacement wanted me to ask the Marshall business line in the afternoon if there were any UPS labels to print for the first file. there was, but not the second. i think the delay was due to the main contact being absent and there was a fill-in handling it. there was an ad-hoc check for our tax specialist in the afternoon, first time in a while. 

branch employee, phoenix area

 i heard from a branch employee in the phoenix area. i had overnighted a check there, per the request on the check itself. the spelling of the recipient's name was a little off, i went by what i was given by the business line. this did make it harder to find him in the employee directory. then we found out this colleague mostly works from home. i had to re-add the branch employee to the thread when we were trying to figure it out and let them know it had already been delivered to the branch. there were refund checks to pick up, for vacation replacement. i also got the supply order in for the month. i like having it in the last day of the month in case there are any delays due to needing approval from a senior leader. but i had a hard time getting it done that day, so it had to be done the first of the month. 

Monday, August 31, 2026

special project completed

 this was the sixth and final day of the special project. we were sending out two thousand checks per day, and this day's file was a little under that amount. as usual, i like it when special projects are done as it tends to be a lower volume of checks to print and send out. three mail tubs were sent out, and the backlog of Fargo checks went down, just a thousand. any carryover is run through first the next day. i did hear from the manager that likes karaoke, who attended the same baseball game as i did over the weekend. she had a fun time, but i did not see her there. we ended up having two checks for payroll to pick up, payee on those two were the same, state of Delaware. 

guthrie theater open house

 the lid-lifter for the day was the open house at the Guthrie theater. i shared a photo booth picture from the event on Facebook. i was mindful of how much time i should spend there as i had another event to attend just down the road. it was the Minnesota Twins baseball game. the twins beat the white sox, 5-1. it was the third Twins game for me this season, and likely the last as the season's ending is about a month away. i go see the St. Paul Saints more often as well. i saw that i arrived early enough to pick up the Charlie Brown jersey i had ordered, it was a special themed ticket. it looks like his black and yellow shirt. the Twins pitcher, Zebby Matthews, i had likely seen pitch for the Saints. it was a good outing, had a perfect game into the sixth inning. the crowd cheered when he went to the mound when the ninth began. then the crowd booed when the manager pulled him. i had no problem with it, though. up by 5, two on, one out. winning the game is more important than a complete game. the relief pitcher did fine. only one run scored and that made no difference at all. odd that the attendance was not announced or even put on the big video board. it was also odd that a dude sat next to me in the eighth. that is a really late arrival for a game. the dude said i looked like someone famous, i wrote the name down on my scorecard. songs from the day included Lady Gaga's 'just dance' at the Twins game. a different Gaga song was played as my 'walking up' song when i was performing in the evening. another was 'choosing Texas' by Ella Langley. a big deal to hear it on a radio station that normally doesn't play country music. then later on in the evening i called my dad. 

bob uecker documentary

 in the late afternoon i drove over to Hudson, Wisconsin, and saw the documentary movie about baseball personality Bob Uecker. some of the clips from his performing career were familiar, including the movie 'major league', the sitcom 'Mr. belvedere', and the miller lite beer commercials. i was most familiar with 'the front row', but that wasn't the only one in it. this did lead to the term 'Uecker seat' being coined. another one had john goodman in it, who later on was the dad on 'Roseanne'. i made it just in time for the movie as i made a stop along the way to find a catholic church that had been converted into a Muslim Mosque. i got a few pictures and then i left, this was on the east side of St. Paul. it had likely been a while since i had driven that far to see a movie. i did that all the time growing up in central Iowa though, to see movies in Des Moines. besides interviews with Uecker himself, it was nice to see Bob Costas, as well as Joe Torre, and Bud Selig in it. after the movie i stayed in town and ate at a culver's, first time at one. the food tasted fine, but i am not used to having to specify what i wanted on the burger. or in the ice cream treat. lunch was at Jersey Mike's. songs from the day were from the car radio on the way to the movie. there was 'I'm the only one' by Melissa Etheridge, and 'bang' by AJR, i know it as the 'here we go' song.