a private life movie

 around midday i went to see a movie, 'a private life', in Edina, at the 50th and France theater. after i parked in the ramp next to the theater, i walked over to the holiday gas station, two blocks away, and picked up a sandwich and ate it before going into the movie. this was a French movie starring Jodie Foster. i know she is fluent in that language. as usual, i was able to follow along with the subtitles fairly well. it was a reminder of how it is loosely translated instead of literally translated. i saw this with the subtitles saying 'fine' when it was actually 'very good' or 'sorry' when it was 'excuse me'. i haven't seen that many movies starring Jodie, i know i saw 'silence of the lambs' but that was in the VHS era. it was a good story, and it was brilliant to have the talking heads song 'psycho killer' in this movie, for two reasons. Jodie was playing a psychiatrist, and some of the lyrics are French and of course Jodie trying to investigate the death of one of her patients, believing she was murdered. i do like me a good thriller, and it did follow what i am used to with thrillers. this includes someone searching for evidence, even though it was 'bending or breaking the law' to do so. one line i really liked was when her son answers the door and said 'you have the wrong floor, ma'am. my mother never apologizes'. sad but true for many, believe me i know. i didn't go home right away after the movie. i stopped in Eagan and picked up two more boxes of Chex cereal with Charlie Brown characters on the box. some stores are running low for that one, but not cub foods. i also got some cheese. then it was home. i was there hours before the super bowl began, and i researched what i did on previous super bowl Sundays for a Facebook posting. good game all around, liked seeing green day as the opening act. then lady gaga made an appearance in the halftime show. seahawks beat the patriots, 29-13. when following the flow of the game, no surprise really. Seattle's defense helped out a lot, with the turnover margin and points off turnovers. Seattle had a more experienced QB as well. the team with the best defense usually wins. four of the commercials were standouts. there was a Dunkin Donuts ad inspired by 'good will hunting'. there was lady gaga in a Pokémon ad. there was two PSAs with songs i was familiar with. one was Enya's 'only time'- about cancer screening- and the Phil Collins song 'against all odds' or 'take a look at me now' where toilets were singing it. 

an affair to remember movie

 in the evening i watched a movie on DVD, a recent purchase from amazon, 'an affair to remember'. i had seen it mentioned every so often, as a romance story with Cary Grant. it was even the inspiration for an episode of 'family ties' although i did not know at that time, i was too young. this was a 'double feature' and there is another disc in the case that i will want to watch soon. i liked the story for quite a while, it starts on a boat in Europe headed to America and Cary Grant's character is getting married soon. but then he meets someone on the boat. i liked it all the way up to when he's waiting to meet the lady at the empire state building, but the story wasn't much fun after that. i stayed active for much of the day. in the morning i went to the post office, one order was picked up. it was a book ordered after i had seen it on display at the historian convention in Chicago last month. then i went to a Walgreen and picked up some small items. by then it was time for lunch, and i went to Hardee's in the midway section of St. Paul. pleased that they had curly fries, had some with the mushroom and Swiss burger. i saw some Charlie Brown statues nearby, three in all. two of them i think i had seen before, but not the third. this was from the final series, snoopy on his doghouse. i got pictures of all three. i parked nearby and picked up some loose change on the sidewalk on the way there. one coin, a quarter, was frozen to the pavement so i used a key to free it. then i briefly went home and was gone again. this time it was to the Minneapolis art institute. i had heard a radio ad for the 'Great Gatsby' exhibit and i knew it was closing soon, next month. i had nothing booked for the day, so i said 'if not now, when?' i liked seeing much of the art on display, some of it by Wanda Gag, who i had heard of from visits to New Ulm. i bought some souvenirs at the end of my visit, including two stickers. one had snoopy on it, the other was Minnesota icons including Mary Tyler Moore. then there were five postcards. i saw a text message on my phone before entering the exhibit, offering discounted tickets to a speed dating event in the evening, but i didn't go. why? been there, done that. when i got home i had the evening meal, then went to get groceries at Aldi, then watched the movie. 

jack links steak bites

 in the morning i went to Walgreen for my weekly visit. since i had picked up some heart-healthy snacks near the security turnstiles, my order was slightly different. some of the refrigerated aisles are still locked up, and i don't feel like waiting for someone to unlock it. i found some jack links steak bites near the cashier, and the newspaper rack, so i got a pack of that snack. i think there is something similar to it in the vending machine at work. it tasted fine, listed as just a hundred calories. pack said it was made my Frito-Lay, which must explain why it was near the cookies i usually get. there were some visitors, i know this can happen even on a Friday when the building is nearly deserted. the order of check stock arrived, and the janitor was in before that but as usual wasn't there for long. matter of fact, i left to get the snacks near the turnstiles as on my way in they still getting set up. and i got the reject fax to scan from another floor. when i got back from doing both of those, the janitor was gone. there were more check copy samples to send. one file was from the boss, a 'zip file' where i noticed a senior leader was copied on it. this was six checks. i was asked to print some more from a 'test check file' as well, a different system than where i print 'live checks'. i printed seven from there, but noticed the signature said 'void-void' instead of an actual person's signature. and i was asked to send a copy from a file i get just once a week, guess it had some formatting changes as well. in the evening i went to get groceries at Hy-Vee in Eagan, first stop was their liquor store. i got a can of bell's so now there are five beers waiting. then it was on to the grocery part, a larger order than in recent weeks, twelve items. when i got home i watched a rerun of 'Boston blue'. i am aware that all-new episodes will return later this month. 

deflated popcorn balloons

 at work the building management company had their popcorn event. i would pass by the venue in the skyway and for a while i would notice that the larger-than-life popcorn box had deflated balloons on top, white and yellow, meant to 'simulate' popcorn. i noticed when i went to this event that the balloons were replaced with re-inflated ones. as usual, i didn't stay long, had too much to do. it was long enough to eat the popcorn, so just a few minutes. i let our tax specialist know there was two checks for courier pick-up for the next morning. one was from the ad-hoc file, the other was going to be sent inter-office by vacation replacement. i noticed the latter would have been barely enough to by a snack out of the vending machine in my neighborhood. matter of fact, in the evening i did just that, getting some potato chips. the Fargo check file was held up as i was waiting for a 'green light' on sending out checks after the business line wanted to see samples. there was some kind of formatting change. i did get one green light so i sent out the smaller file, the other i decided could wait until the next morning. it meant just over a thousand checks were left over. then late in the day i did hear 'i am happy' about the samples, as the first wanted to get a second approval. the colleague who places the supply orders for me was asking questions through our instant message system. it was about picking up a check from the i-pay file late in the day. i said i am thankful i don't get that many visitors at that time of day as i am busy on finishing up getting the regular mail checks into tubs and to the mailroom. i know i am not going to be 'chatty' at that time of day for that reason. i said it is still a matter of if the check in question would even be approved to print. then i was told 'not needed but thank you for answering my questions'. huh? the team lead asked for a check from an early PDF file to be pulled, then it was picked up upon arrival in the check shop that same morning. the boss was in the shop and talked with the team lead for a while. i drank a can of bell's IPA with the evening meal and got a can of icehouse from the nearby liquor store so there still are four beers waiting. 

donuts, super bowl party

 there was a super bowl party in the morning on another floor. i saw that i was caught up on my normal duties before i went there. i wasn't there for long, i ate a donut and was there for just a few minutes. the karaoke-loving manager was there as well and left about the same time as me, also having work to do. some had football jerseys on, but less than half. i said i don't have that many, but i do have plenty of baseball jerseys. the boss asked me to send an empty Fargo envelope by inter-office mail to an office on the other side of the metro area, an odd request to say the least. the manager from the Kansas City business line asked me about checks i had overnighted to Las Vegas late last week. i said that checks going to the same address are lumped together, to help save with the costs of overnighting. it was eleven checks in all, with various payee names on them. this was why there was the question, as the expected list when sending the tracking numbers was short. in the evening i did a little more than just watch 'big bang theory' reruns, and the news, as i found 'the Muppet show' when i was changing channels. Sabrina Carpenter was the main guest star, at least i have heard of her. the show was all right, but i noticed at times when the puppeteers weren't hiding their sticks that are used to control the puppets. 

printer stops, starts over

 a curious thing happened at work and i reported it when i noticed it. a check printer was printing a big Fargo file and for some reason it stopped before finishing and then started over. i knew to expect just under three thousand checks for this file, and when it said 'feed printer' after printing that many i knew something was wrong. i check the dashboard and this gives me the first and last check number in the file, this helps with when i investigate. found out there was over three hundred checks that i needed to re-print. thankful i caught it when i did as this held down how many 'duplicated' checks were printed. it was decidedly less than when this same thing happened more than two weeks ago. fewer to send to the shred bin then. there was a dial-in meeting that started mid-morning, and it was an all-colleague town hall meeting. some of the issues presented to the executive were typical, such as asking about layoffs as well as 'return to office'. i am used to working in the office every day of the week, same as branch employees, so working from home, the latter issue, does not apply to me. the month's envelope order arrived, just as the boss was asking about the printer. a check was picked up by the payroll manager for one of his reports. i don't care too much who picks up a check. i went to another floor to drop off checks, mailroom sent those to me, and they were ones i can't handle. one of them was a refund check. the newer colleague took ownership of them, i knew the team lead would be out of the office for the day. 

cat people movie

 in the evening i went to see the movie 'cat people' at the Trylon. i was interested in this one as i knew john heard is in it. i liked how it took place at the zoo in New Orleans, a city i have visited but i didn't make it to their zoo. since the movie was from 1982 i did notice some things that make it look dated now. there was an image of a now-defunct eastern airlines plane at the airport, along with a public payphone as well as a rotary dial phone in someone's home. and there were cigarette ads on billboards. it was a good story. i know i had seen a movie about a werewolf before, this would be the closest comparison. this would be the third Paul Schrader-directed movie i have seen there, the others being 'blue collar' and 'hardcore'. after getting home from the movie i ordered a ticket for another movie at this venue, a month away. at work i was asked to pull a check from the PDF file, and i did. then later on i was asked to send it out, but it was late in the day by then so it would have to go out the next day. not sure why there was a 'flip-flop' on this request. i was asked about fed-ex envelopes, i said i don't have that many but could use some more. so far i have used four, an average of one a month. one was used today, thankfully it is still 'few and far between' as we mostly use UPS for overnighting checks. i let the branch manager from my former worksite know that a check was on the way, likely for notary fees. and i sent a scan of returned checks to an office in suburban St. Louis, after seeing an email earlier about not seeing any for a while when i just send them regular mail.