bunny cookies

 i went to the Easter Sunday service at a church in downtown St. Paul. there was an Easter egg hunt after the service for the kids, so they wanted us adults to leave the sanctuary right away. it meant going to the fellowship hall, where i had some cheese, juice, and a bunny cookie. when i got home it was time for lunch, and another day of frying up some Spam and boiling some ramen noodles. now there is just one noodle packet that remains from the February purchase. i watched some Charlie Brown DVDs, i was a little behind on that. there was the 'Easter beagle', then the first Valentines special. i went to mall of America in the early evening for a blizzard treat at dairy queen. i also wanted to have pizza there, but i noticed some of the food outlets were closed. either closed all day due to the holiday or had closed early. since this was true of my preferred choices, i didn't eat there. i got a sandwich and some juice at a speedway gas station. then i went to a bar, but found out there was no open-mic, also likely due to the holiday. i did chat a little with a bar patron that had recognized me from performing, though. in the evening i called my dad, who said he'd received the event invite from my cousin. then after the call i did the dishes. 

thief movie

 in the evening i went to see a movie at the trylon, it was 'thief', starring James Caan. also in it was Willie Nelson, but in a small role. Jim Belushi had more screen time than Willie did. this was about a safe cracker that wanted to do one last job, and the setting was Chicago. i laughed at times as James proved to be witty, or just plain dour. a reminder of the setting was seeing a bag from the jewel grocery store, which is common in the Chicago metro area. i will likely get to another movie at this venue next month. the day was also about errand running. in the morning i went to the post office, but no orders to be picked up. i moved up going to Aldi for groceries, going there just after lunch was done. i did some cooking, frying up some spam and boiling some ramen noodles. before lunch i went to have some change counted at the credit union. there was a sign up that said pennies would no longer be accepted later in the month, but then a teller said that was no longer true and said it was being taken down. over four dollars in change went into my savings account. after i went to Aldi, i went to see the St. Paul Saints baseball game, my first of the season. the weather report didn't look good, but a full nine-inning game was played. i chose this day as i wanted the magnet schedule. the saints lost to Worcester, the Red Sox team, 5-3. there were some snow flurries during the game. there was plenty of the long ball, but i am used to this by now. with triple-a baseball, those players have to be good hitters just to make it this far. since i ate before i made it to the stadium, i didn't need as much when i was there. it was just as well, as there was a small crowd due to the chilly weather and not every concession stand was open. i got some hot chocolate, then later on some cheese curds. i chatted with an usher for a while during the game. i bought two souvenirs. there was the license plate magnet, and a Softee baseball. i did have a brief interlude at home, then i went to have a sandwich at a holiday gas station before heading to the movie. i didn't do much after the movie. 

clorets chewing gum

 in the evening i went to eat at mall of America, at A and W. i had a fish sandwich, and this rounded out my fish fry tour for the Lenten season. then i went to get some ice cream at a cookie place as i wanted some airline miles. and after that it was to the Japan store as i call it, 'Ebisu'. i bought two more Charlie Brown items there. one of them was Clorets chewing gum, the other was Snoopy popcorn that was produced by Frito-Lay. good thing i got the gum this time as there weren't many containers left compared to my most recent visit about six weeks ago. then it was on to Hy-Vee in Eagan, for a nine-item order that included a can of Spam. i still have some ramen noodle packets remaining and the Spam will help with using up the noodles. at work, i let a business line know that a check has been stuck in 'awaiting approval' for over a week. it was time to say something, but who knows when this shared box will respond? when two checks for our tax specialist were picked up by the courier, i looked at one of them and noticed it went to another office first. this led to me saying i had no idea there were other tax specialists, i found out his team has fifteen people on it. this means it is a larger team than the one i am on. in the morning, i saw the manager that likes karaoke when i was picking up the reject fax. i wasn't expecting to see anyone on the floor as usually it is deserted on a Friday. there was mention of how 'easter Monday' is a holiday in Ireland, and the bank has offices there. i also saw a senior leader before leaving the floor and we chatted a little before his dial-in meeting began. 

no twin labels

i had a question from a colleague based in the Marshall office, it was about the UPS overnight labels i print. i said i print just one per envelope. sounds like their office prints two per envelope and one of them goes inside. i said usually i am asked to send a check and nothing else. when i was shown how to do the overnighting no one said i needed to print each label twice. and it would be hard to justify doing so when i do a high volume of overnights. the previous day, i did forty. i got a closer look at the invite that my cousin sent me and it looks like no day off is needed for me to attend it. this makes the logistics easier for me. i still need to make reservations such as for the hotel, though. it was popcorn day, i like doing this event, on the skyway level. i made a point of saying this to one of the people handling the popcorn table. i am aware of how the higher headcount in this building is likely why there are more events for employees at the current location than the previous one. the boss was in the shop and saw the email about a special project for the Jacksonville file soon. i responded to it when i saw it and said we don't have enough envelopes and check stock to cover the volume; we would need to order it. this is a file where we get just twenty checks on most days, but there have been times where the volume will spike into the thousands. in the evening i drank the can of a mixed drink. it was called 'cold brooze', whiskey and coffee, and was produced in Texas. i went to the liquor store and got a can of blue moon so there still are four beers waiting.  

train delay, lawsuit threat

i know one thing i don't miss from no longer doing call center work is what i called 'the daily lawsuit threat'. i heard one of these in the morning. there was a delay on the train taking me to work, actually two. the second one was longer. we had to get off the train and wait for the next one. and once we had re-boarded there was a dude near me who said he'd be suing. for what? far as i know, there were no injuries or fatalities. this was the first time i had sent a text to vacation replacement once i was given the current number. it was the typical 'train is late' then 'i am back on' and these texts were about seven minutes apart. there still are riders that end up arguing with the fare enforcement team when unable to produce a paid fare. one of them spoke about a birthday in the family. i had a request from the Kansas City business line to add four more checks to the 'return to business line' envelope. at the outset it was only going to be two. after finding three of the four, i was told the fourth was already slated to be overnighted to the address on the check. then i found it. when vacation replacement arrived in the shop, i handed off the returned checks for our group, it was just five. near the end of the day, the boss was in the shop and sent two scanned checks to an I.T. rep and now the MICR line is fine. we found out there was some confusion about which one i was asking to have moved down, as there were two files but one of these, we don't see near as often and has a much lower volume as well when we do see it. 

team kudo board

an employee in another office, in Marshall, shared a plan to start a 'team kudo board'. it was in relation to being recognized by our colleagues. hard to say if i will participate, though. i do get these and sometimes my boss responds when i get them but i just want to get my work done. there was a response to a year-old email in the morning, saw it when i arrived for the day. then i was told to disregard it, okay. i did a quick dial-in meeting with the boss, who was working remotely. there was a question about the contact for the court file, i said it likely was someone in Arizona who has a cowboy hat on in his photo. a big shipment of envelopes arrived just minutes after a check was picked up. it was the full 27-box order instead of just the 14-box backorder. since it is the end of the month, i decided to order fewer boxes for April. all about ordering what i need, no more no less. an instant message from commercial customer service after i had left for the day, i responded on arrival. it was asking about payee names on checks. i said i had seen some long names and it should be fine to continue onto the second line. then i got the acknowledgement of my answer later in the day. i spoke to the manager that likes karaoke about alternate plans as i see the weather report for this week's St. Paul Saints baseball games. if a game is postponed, i would still like to see a game in the same series, if at all possible. near the end of the day, vacation replacement showed up to pick up some returned checks. i did hear the reason for being absent the previous day. something about how his cousin is getting divorced and wanting to advise him about it. getting an attorney is good advice. other things were related to finance, due to working in finance. seeing things like the other party cleaning out a joint account. in the evening i got an event invite through Facebook from a cousin. now i would like to figure out the logistics of attending.  

self-slap meme

at work there was an instant message asking me to disregard a check that been approved in the Cincinnati file. i said i could print it and just send it to the shred bin, and i did. i noticed there was a meme after this, and it was a yellow face slapping itself. it reminded me of a beer commercial from Amstel light, with a deadpan delivery. as a man in a lab coat at the brewery slapped himself. 'Sorry, we're from Amsterdam, we didn't know light beer was supposed to suck'. the commercial is still really funny to me and i like viewing it on YouTube. another payroll check was picked up. i decided to add myself to an email thread about sending returned checks to st. louis, but by the end of the day there was no response, even though i said 'please advise'. i also said the two main options were regular mail, or inter-office. i did a dial-in meeting mid-morning about work orders and it was mainly facility managers. i spoke of the unfinished work order i had created and was told i was the main contact for the department i am in. this is likely due to being the main employee in the check shop. it reminded me a little of an old sitcom. in the evening i went to perform. it did stories about the bank, attending a fish fry, seeing a play, seeing a movie, and two times i said i wasn't tech-savvy.