engineering delays?

 there was a dial-in meeting in the afternoon at work about my job, sounds like the check shop will not be moving at the same time as the rest of the team. there was mention of having to get the engineering squared away. i am getting my wish though, a field trip to the new office downtown later this week. and i guess another meeting about it that same day. vacation replacement dropped in and went through more of the iron mountain boxes sent to us from fargo over three years ago, when the boxes were opened some of the records in it had been wet. and definitely past the save date, more than ten years old, dates on some were 1999, more than two decades old. i went to perform in the evening, not just bank stories but also the play i had just seen. show runner was surprised i hadn't seen the movie version. as i was about to leave the venue i saw somebody i knew, hadn't seen them in a while. i was told our mutual friend plans on moving back to the area early in the next calendar year. during my walks i found 1 dollar 36 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when the friends told the air force that the project will be delayed. it was followed by the one where leonard and penny get back together, they fight and then have sex. but they wanted to avoid telling their friends for a while. 

cars 2 movie

 this afternoon i watched a DVD movie, a recent purchase from amazon, it was 'cars 2'. i liked the premise, a g-rated spy film. i recently bought a scale-model car, louis larue, the mime in paris, and figured i should watch the movie as well. since i have seen many comedies before some gags didn't catch me off-guard. this was true when the tow-truck was in japan and was served wasabi, thinking it was ice cream. i later looked it up and found out it was horseradish mustard, but i knew full well it wouldn't be funny if it really was ice cream. for some reason it meant something to me when the tow-truck found out he wasn't respected by some people, i think because i am all too familiar with this in my own life. this was after being mistaken for a spy. i could tell that there were some life lessons in this movie, about the friendship between the racecar and the tow-truck. no surprise how race-car drivers were voicing some characters. brad paisley had some songs in this movie, surprised how i hadn't heard of this movie before when i once dated someone who likes that musician. i watched the movie after watching the college world series on ABC, tennessee beat texas a and m, 4-1, all runs scored by the long ball. in the morning i did laundry. i did send a text and found out cul-de-sac was busy, so i did not attend the saints baseball game. hopefully some other time this season there will be a comics outing at the game. after the movie i went on a long walk around the neighborhood, and during my walks i found 70 cents. in the evening i called my dad, who had a birthday in the past week. 

little shop of horrors, guthrie theater

 in the evening i went to the guthrie theater in minneapolis and saw the play 'little shop of horrors'. i had heard about not just one, but two, movie versions, although i haven't seen either. this was opening weekend and i chose this weekend as the tickets were cheaper. i enjoyed this story except for the opening scene, which had no dialogue in it. i was amazed at how much the plant grew during the course of the story. i ate at the bobby and steve's before i arrived at the venue as i wanted some godfather's pizza. there was only one available at the time, 3-meat. upper level was closed so i ate the pizza in my car. i did look at the souvenir shop but there wasn't anything of interest to me, and i already had some postcards from a previous visit to the guthrie. i didn't do much after i got back from the play, the news was on and there was plenty of coverage of the flooding in the state. i got plenty done in the morning and afternoon as well. i went on a long walk around the neighborhood, and on the way back i stopped at the post office, three orders were ready to be picked up. i knew i had to move up going to aldi because of the play, so i went for groceries shortly after i got back from the walk. then i had lunch, a sandwich at jersey mike's. then it was on to minneapolis to tour the hennepin museum. it is close to the art institute, although there was not much to tour at this museum. i did like reading what was on the wall on the main floor though, about the history of the building. it had been a mansion for a member of the family that founded the company now known as General Mills. now this means i have two of the three places crossed off my list that had doors open tours but knew i could get there outside of doors open. also notable about the day was what i heard on the new prague radio station when i was out and about, 'blue eyes crying in the rain', performed by willie nelson. then when i got out of the museum tour, it was raining and i got soaked even though it was a short walk to my car, about two blocks. during my walks i found 2 dollars 66 cents. 

plush toys adopted

 i have said before how i have 'adopted' something that is free. in this case there was more items left out due to the cleanup at the office and i claimed two plush toys, a santa and a snowman. this was the only santa i saw, it has green gloves. the snowman has a green and white striped scarf. there were plenty of snowmen and i chose what appeared to be the cleanest and tallest one. i checked my bag of plush toys at home to confirm i didn't have one of either yet. and i didn't expect to find any in the bag when most of them are ones i have bought, such as charlie brown and snoopy. or a homer simpson doll given by a coworker after a day at Valleyfair. i saw four plush footballs in there as well. two of them i bought, iowa hawkeyes and chicago bears. one was from a former employer, and another was thrown to me when i was watching the holiday bowl parade in san diego. there is even three that i kept from my childhood. i recalled how i had way more than that but i kept the three that meant the most to me. there is a snail from the franklin turtle stories, tag is still on it to remind me it was bought at the wards liquidation sale. there are some plush elephants as well. after my former boss and mentor brought back an elephant tie from india i saw the symbolism for me, how elephants are strong and have thick skin, qualities that are needed to survive in this world. so these two are a nice add to the collection, along with the bank-themed superhero from earlier this year. also at work i did get a call in the morning from the repair provider for the inserter machine and was given the cost of the work to un-assemble and re-assemble the unit. when this was emailed to me i then forwarded it to the 'move team'. but then i was told by corporate real estate how the given 'move date' of a month from now is not concrete, and they were just gathering information. so who knows what will happen? it was a fairly low-volume day of check printing, although the midday i-pay file was larger than typical, nearly four hundred checks. the one near the end of the day was the more customary volume of just thirteen. i had a vanilla cone from the nearby dairy queen at the end of my lunch. in the evening i went to hy-vee for groceries, ten items bought. this included two boxes of baseball cupcakes from hostess, 'day game' and 'night game'. i liked finding these 'limited edition' cupcakes in previous years as well. later on i went on a walk and found 34 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when the friends started their project for the air force. it was followed by the one where sheldon gets amy a tiara, and i like this one a lot. not just her saying 'put it on me' but also saying to penny, when she was lured there under false pretenses, 'i am disappointed in you but we both know that isn't going to last'. she is good at being dour. 

inserter machine weight

 my boss asked me to find out the weight on the inserter machine. i called a number i had for our provider of repair services and we were given it in kilograms as it is a british-made unit. i was also informed that a local service team would have to be contacted about moving it to the new home in a month. we got the weight by email, and i forwarded it to the 'move team'. except nobody called at all, possible that i will just get a call the next day. i had first looked at the machine itself, but the metal plate on the inside of it, and the outside as well, did not give the weight or a phone number but it did give other information such as the voltage of the unit. first day back after the holiday, so the volume on some check files was higher, most notable with the fargo files. i sent out three tubs at the end of the day. i drank the can of elm creek with the evening meal so now four beers are waiting. i watched the baseball game on fox, giants-cardinals from birmingham, cardinals won 6-5. there were tributes to willie mays, who had just passed this week. later on i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 26 cents. the 'big bang theory' rerun was when leonard and penny had their second wedding. then i switched over to the game. 

long john silver, mall of america

 i had a day off due to the bank holiday and decided to have lunch at mall of america. going to long john silver had been on my list for a while, and this is the only minnesota location i am aware of. i got two pieces of fish, two hush puppies, cole slaw, and root beer. i liked what their cup said, where fish never complain, say mean things on social media or commit road rage. i first stopped at the wishing well and dumped two canadian pennies in it. after i ate i walked around the rest of the mall and bought two magnets at a sock shop. there was a display outside showing charlie brown characters but only one pair of that kind of sock in the shop. in the morning i went to a copy store and printed some event tickets, including for an upcoming st. paul saints baseball game. i registered with the fringe festival as a volunteer, the training session is just over a month from now. after getting back from the mall eventually i went on a long walk, hadn't done one of those in a while, and i was gone for over an hour. i made it back in time to watch 'jeopardy', learned the term 'ramen western', in reference to western movies from japan. i was pleased with the finds i made in little free libraries. one was 'saturdays in the good old days', there is a norman rockwell painting on the book cover and the art in the rest of the book is good. plenty of essays included by various writers as well. another was a biography of patrick henry, the orator and patriot. of course, i like having another history book. yet another was 'san francisco splash' from the 'ballpark mysteries' series, and we all know i like baseball. it may have been a children's book but i still liked reading it, as the mention of tourist sites such as alcatraz and fisherman's wharf were reminders of my visit there many years ago. i went online and found out there are something like two dozen books in the series, and one of them is about st. louis, called 'cardinals caper'. so i see myself ordering that one soon. during my walks i found 1 dollar 26 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when the extended families arrive for the second wedding of leonard and penny, it ends with leonard's dad and sheldon's mom spending the night together. it was followed by the one where sheldon and amy become exclusive after amy goes to a movie with stuart. 

mail code sticker

 i was looking at the tub that has inter-office envelopes in it and had to investigate what looked like what might have spilled out when mashing down the trash bin next to it. found out it was a mail code sticker that had fallen off an envelope. i checked the employee directory and this is somebody still with the company, in milwaukee, with fraud investigations. in many ways the inter-office envelopes are a lot like railroad freight cars, they can go just about anywhere in this great nation of ours. there was a dial-in meeting in the afternoon, just after my lunch had ended, except i was mostly just listening to what others had to say. it was about the check printing process; this explains why i was invited to it. i said sometimes i am asked to intercept a check, not send it out, but that is all we can do in the check shop in terms of changing a file once it is approved and ready to print. as i recall some of the technology people at the start of the call spoke of outsourcing, unsure if that had anything to do with the call in terms of any changes i might see anytime soon. i finished an online class in the morning, now all of them for the quarter are completed. i did the other three on monday after getting a reminder email over the weekend saying there was two weeks left until the due date. i also sent two boxes over to the post office as UPS wouldn't take postal service boxes. this happens at times, when something is left in the UPS box by the general public that was dumped in the wrong box. and i know if i don't move it, nobody else will. matter of fact, it was there in the atrium for a week just laying out. the employee who accepted them was socializing with a patron ahead of me in line, and when i could tell it was going to take longer than it should i decided not to buy stamps on display on the wall. the boxes got moved, that was the most important thing, and i didn't even have to do that. a colleague sent an i.m. reminding me of the upcoming bank holiday, i said i was already aware of it. i referred to a sign at the drive-up teller window saying so, i see it when i am walking to the service entrance in the morning. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 5 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when there was a line cutting at a movie theater. this is one i don't enjoy much but there is only one episode that i don't watch and this isn't it. leonard's mom being a part of this one didn't help either, who mostly ignores penny as she would much rather talk to amy and bernadette. this was followed by the one where leonard and penny go out together but say it isn't a date. sheldon deals with a blue jay, and it was why leonard accepted penny's offer. 

the door, teddy swims

 i had the car radio on when driving to an open-mic tonight and heard 'the door', a song by teddy swims. i like it because the overall sentiment from this song is 'i have had enough'. i had been hearing it fairly often on my drive to work lately as well. i was checking its chart performance and it looks like it just broke into the billboard hot 100. i like the video for it, showing the couple at a dinner table, also on a life-sized checkerboard. we also see the lady with chess pieces. this seems to explain the checkerboard more as a metaphor, as relationships can be a chess match. i am familiar with his big hit, 'lose control', but i like 'door' more. at work the boss arrived in the morning and asked me to look up a check. it must have been fraudulent as i was unable to find it in the database and the signature was a little off when taking a closer look at it. there was a thinner lineup than typical at the mic, i did not only bank stories but also my observations after recently seeing 'wizard of oz'. i finally saw a link for ordering tickets to an alumni outing at a twins baseball game this summer and i placed the order tonight. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 53 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when zac saw clare, raj's date, at a bar and said she was great, when she was on a date with raj. it was followed by the one where amy called sheldon 'cuddles', after being found drunk in a liquor store parking lot. then she is given the role of maid of honor by bernadette. this is one of my favorite episodes as i like how amy is dour. 

ard godfrey house

 i found more activities to do, one of them was touring the ard godfrey house in minneapolis in the afternoon. i had passed by it many times before and put it on my list after hearing it was part of doors open in may. i just needed to find a day where not much was planned. a small house, tour didn't take long, but thankful i finally made it. always good to do a museum or historic site tour every so often to feed my need for history. saw a piano and violin in a room near the front door. i went there after having lunch at mall of america, at a and w. there are two locations at this mall but they do not look identical. i think it was the first time i had been to the one on the south end of the mall next to a long john silver. in the evening i went to a meetup event, but this one was not at a micro-brewery. it was still at a drinking establishment though, a re-purposed building on the river near downtown st. paul, a former grain elevator. i liked reading the displays on the walls there about it and the importance of the facility on the river. saw a lady i spoke with last september there, we spoke a little more this time as i learned she is originally from france. during my walks i found 1 dollar 53 cents. throughout the day i watched some sports on TV. first was women's basketball, indiana beat chicago. then i had lunch at the mall. when i got back from the house tour it was spring football, birmingham beat san antonio in the league championship. i laid down for a little while during the game and when it was done i had some pizza and then went to the meetup event. 

dabbler depot party

 in the afternoon i went to the dabbler depot, a liquor store that was having a 2-year anniversary party. i bought two cans of beer from their walk-in cooler, then sent them to my car as i was taking them home and now there are five beers waiting. when i got back i got a glass with their name on it as well as can-can wonderland, an entertainment venue i have been to before. there was fourteen canopies set up in the parking lot, good thing i was prepared for the weather as it was raining. i had a sample from most of these places, mostly beer but also some whiskey, wine, and seltzer. some say they plan on being at the state fair. i sent a text to my beer-loving friend, the retired postal worker from meetup events, who had heard of this establishment. a food truck was there as well, i ordered the fried rice with four slices of spam on top of the boat of rice. i ate the rice and spam in my car and then i went home. i got some things done in the morning, stopped at the post office. all three e-bay orders were picked up and i placed two more, along with one at amazon. i sent recycle to the capitol as well. then i went home and watched a DVD, a recent purchase from target, 'wizard of oz'. had seen it many times before, but for the first time in years so i had a different perspective this time while watching it. some of the observations and social commentary i saw in it are still quite relevant. it was back in college i learned how the book it is based on was a satire of 1890s populist politics, so this made sense to me. in the evening i went to aldi for groceries and then had some pizza after i got back and watched a baseball game on fox. red sox beat the yankees, 8-4. during my walks i found 51 cents. 

rolodex cards

 i am still finding some things in the recent cleanup at work. there was some rolodex cards, still wrapped in plastic, and i kept the cover card which will go into a souvenir binder. haven't seen anyone use a rolodex in a while so a little surprising to see these unearthed. another thing found, also in the payroll section where it said 'help yourself', was some pump bottles that had hand sanitizer in them. there was four and i decided to dump the contents into the two bottles i have in the check shop. then the empty bottles were put into the recycle bin, found in the breakroom. it was another fairly low-volume day on check printing, which is what was expected for the end of the week. later in the day there was an i.m. from the payroll boss who was asking about my recent conversations with two of her reports. i said i really was unable to do paystubs when requested as i had given the remaining envelopes to another colleague a month ago, when requested, and nobody had asked me to do them for well over six months. for this reason, the current machine that arrived in january is not currently set up to handle them. the colleague that asked for the envelopes was being picky about how i was processing these forms so i wasn't complaining at all about how i hadn't seen them in months. i had plenty of other work to keep me occupied anyway. will this mean i am doing them again? i don't know. i will wait to hear more as this manager spoke of wanting to have meetings with all of the stake holders. in the evening i went to hy-vee in eagan and twelve items were bought, including some star wars-themed oreo cookies. loved the cardboard cutout display they had for it, hard to miss as well as it was so big. later on i went on a walk and found 76 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when the friends had two rooms, based on who was mad at who. and it was annoying how much raj bragged about dating two women at the same time. it was followed by the one where sheldon's mom visits, and it ends with sheldon getting sick and then she takes care of him. 

oreo cookie blizzard

 in the early afternoon the team lead spoke of going to the nearby dairy queen and asked if i wanted anything. i got a look at the menu and decided to get something that wasn't on the summer lineup, an oreo cookie blizzard. she brought it down to the check shop for me, and i said 'very nice' when it arrived. i think of it as the unofficial service anniversary gift as i marked four years of service with the bank at the start of this month. not much out of the ordinary from the workday, though i did find some cords that weren't being used and sent them to a box on the main floor. i am seeing plenty of phones in these boxes as well. looks like my niece did a courthouse wedding in des moines this week, according to her facebook posting. i said congrats, and asked if there was a wedding gift registry anywhere. i drank the can of orange flavored bud light with the evening meal so now there are three beers waiting. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 62 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when the friends did 'never did i ever' when it was raining at the cabin. while raj made it weird with howard and bernadette expecting by bringing a big teddy bear. it was followed by the one where brent spiner was a guest star at the party held by wil wheaton. 

this isn't facilites

 the check shop door is next to the facilties door. i had a visitor ring the doorbell and ask me about 'union cards' if i am not mistaken. i said this isn't facilities and don't know those employees that well. the lady decided to prop open their door. same lady that recently was the second to ask me to do payroll forms but i said i didn't have the envelopes for it. also notable about the workday was what arrived. there was the check stock shipment, along with the toner cartridge for the check printer. since i have a spare cartridge again i said the ticket can be closed now, and a few minutes later an email was sent saying it was closed. it was nice getting out early enough where i could watch a decent amount of a 'young sheldon' rerun on 45, it was about sheldon and missy being in the same study. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 4 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when amy drives sheldon to his storage locker after playing 'taps' for his laptop. it was followed by the one where raj has a date with deaf emily and howard is the sign language translator. 

small brushes and pipe cleaners

 at work my vacation replacement dropped in and decided to do some more cleanup in the check shop to get ready for the move. in one box there was two small brushes and a pipe cleaner found, those were put on the table next to the envelope stuffer. most of what was in the box was tossed into the trash though. plenty of empty boxes were broken down as well, that once held copy paper. it was a high-volume day for check printing, tried to get it all into four mail tubs but needed a fifth for the red bags and inter-office envelopes. even though there was plenty of overnight labels to do, and i didn't get started until after lunch, i went straight through and got them caught up in an hour. this meant i still had them done before i had to run the afternoon files through the machine. looks like the check stock order finally got approved by a senior leader so hopefully the shipment arrives soon. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 39 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when sheldon and howard entered into a contract for science work. it was followed by the one where leonard and amy attended a wedding together, because amy said sheldon 'behaved like a child' at an earlier wedding. 

google translate

 i had another greeting card to look at before it was filed away. it was in french, bought at a walgreen, so i wanted to translate it first. and i used google to translate it. not too surprised i was able to find something helpful online. it was too big to fit in the photo album with postcards so i put it in a strong box with other valued items. at work it was a higher volume day than expected, i ended up filling three tubs to the brim. i liked how i made it through doing the overnight labels in a timely fashion, it helped that there was just twenty, and none of them were in the second i-pay file near the end of the day. there was another request to do paystubs but i had to turn them down, as i don't have any payroll envelopes left. in the evening i went to perform and i did some rants about online forums from history sites, along with my customary bank stories. i was getting annoyed with a few people before and after performing though. one of them loves to talk about his online arguing, the other often shows up but doesn't perform. later on i went on a walk and found 31 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when adam west, as tv's batman, was at sheldon's birthday party. i liked the scene where penny went to give a pep-talk to sheldon, not waiting for leonard, and amy, to argue it out as to who was best for it. this was followed by the one where penny said 'what's up buttercup' when sheldon tried to force her to get rid of a chair she had found. 

career builder, inactive

 it was time to go to job sites and make them inactive. this was not just career builder, but also indeed. looks like monster already was inactive. in the past week i was contacted by email, voicemail, and text, all from the same recruiter. usually i just get an email, and not too often. i responded to the text and said i was not interested in contract work. And it meant also unsubscribing from career builder emails telling me about available jobs. another good reason to do this was that i have been with the bank for just over four years now. i gave my car the day off, had nowhere to go. i did stop at aldi and bought four items, including a pot pie, as i didn't feel like eating out again this weekend. i had already done that twice on saturday. i stayed in and did some more cleanup in my home. this included shredding some junk mail, filled a bag and a half, plastic grocery store bags that is. i found slots in my photo albums for recent postcard purchases as well, decided to take out a few in the name of stressing quality. in the evening i watched the segment on '60 minutes' about pink, the musician. this is somebody i have seen in concert. later on i changed the channel to fox for a spring football game, san antonio beat st. louis 25-15. during my walks i found 51 cents. 

ezra movie, robert deniro

 in the afternoon i went to see the movie 'ezra', robert deniro plays the comic's dad. also recognized whoopi goldberg, as the comic's manager, and vera farmiga, as the comic's nebraska friend. i went to see it as i knew it was about a stand-up comic, and his autistic son. i do like movies about stand-up comedy, and i do like road movies. but therein lies where the movie fell short, in my opinion. there was not a lot of standup comedy depicted in it, essentially just two scenes. and while in the middle of watching it i said to myself that this is a rip-off of 'rain man', another movie about a cross-country journey with an autistic person. it became cross-country as the comic was trying to get to california to appear on the jimmy kimmel show. i saw it in edina, at southdale mall. i was running a little late and ended up having lunch at the theater, a hot dog. i decided to move back going for a sandwich at jersey mike's as the line was too long when i went there for lunch. it worked just fine going there for a sandwich in the evening before the next event as there was no line that time. i accomplished plenty in the morning, getting to aldi for groceries fairly early. then it was on to the post office, where one order was picked up, a postcard. and i got a can of beer from a nearby liquor store, from a micro-brewery i haven't been to yet. looks like there is an anniversary party in a week at this liquor store, i picked up a promo card. i got this can from the walk-in cooler i had discovered a week earlier, and now there are four beers waiting. i then went to the copy store, printed an event ticket, a play at the guthrie, it will be in two weeks. then i went to cheapo, where i bought two discs. there was the soundtrack to the movie 'big easy', and a john wayne disc about his love of america. i got some postcards as well, usually some cool ones there. one was of hitchock with a bird, one of a ronald reagan movie, 'bedtime for bonzo', one of the movie 'blues brothers'. had to think of brawler when i got the third one. after the movie i wasn't home for long, wanted to get to the st. paul saints baseball game. saints lost to syracuse, 8-3. it was food truck night, i had some fries and a slushie from the 'dine 11' truck, a former ambulance. and there was fireworks. when i heard 'summer nights' from 'grease' at the end of the show i said i sang that in chorus class in junior high. during my walks i found 78 cents. 

the loft at 50 party

 after work i went to the loft for their 50th anniversary party. there was champagne in the auditorium and i had two small glasses of it. i figured that was enough since i still wanted to drive myself home. there was plenty of finger foods in the waiting area near it. i liked seeing the deviled eggs there and had some. when i was leaving i had two fresh artisan chocolates and took four of them home for later on. i am thankful i got food before i went there as what was offered was what i expected to see. i went to the nearby bobby and steve's and got a little godfather's pizza and some tea in a bottle. i got the pizza for free as the cashier noticed it was one hour past the 'sell by' time. i wasn't complaining about that. there were some souvenirs from this event, i got a 'chap book' and some temporary tattoos, which were of the loft's older logos. i still have a magnet with one of those logos on it, the red one showing an open book. at work i was staying ahead of things pretty well and finished up earlier than typical. at the end of my lunch i got another dairy queen blizzard, peach cobbler. i can have the sixth one in the lineup some other time. most notable about the day was asking about a business line where there has been a spike in volume. i overnight all of their checks to kentucky, there are many days when there aren't any at all. but on the previous day it was eighty and today it was ninety-two, and the envelope was pretty much full. i am noticing the same payee for all of the checks, cook county treasury, which of course is chicago. i am told there will likely be one more day of high volume. in the morning i dumped envelopes from business lines we no longer have into the recycle bin, and it means some more shelf space is freed up. the final thing i did before leaving for the day was getting registered for the bus pass that will get me to work after the move downtown. it didn't take long, but i needed the notes from the meeting to know where i could get it done online. it was in the same section where one does other elections such as 401-k contributions. after the event i went to hy-vee in eagan for groceries, a small order, just six items. later on i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 1 cent. 

nicollet island pavilion

 after work i went to an alumni event at the nicollet island pavilion in minneapolis. i checked the driving directions and found out it was less than a mile from the st. anthony main movie theater. i might have been to this venue before, but not sure. i recall a sister city event i attended many years ago. the university president spoke after we had some food and drink. i am thankful that i got a cold sandwich at hy-vee before i got there as some of the food offerings, such as the shrimp, didn't appeal to me. and pretty much all of it was finger food as expected. i did like the pineapple chunks and the cheese chunks though. i read the nametag of a university employee, from the pharmacy department, and it sounded familiar from a camp i attended at the u. of northern iowa decades ago. i don't recall a lot from that camp for athletic training though, but i do still have the shirt from it, in the closet next to my cub scout and church camp shirts. i did do some more purging in the check shop at work, envelopes for business lines that were discontinued were thrown into a recycle bin. and UPS boxes were placed in a different bin, outside the building near the ATM line. a colleague asked about a returned check but was working from home. i said if it needs to be overnighted to a different address, then get me the address and check when back in the office early next week. this was a quick dial-in meeting. looks like the trees that were put out in the breakroom are being claimed, down to one and it was five. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 37 cents. another highlight of the day was when i went to get gas, and a sandwich, at hy-vee i saw some food trailers in the parking lot and got a raspberry ice cream cone. i had one there before. 

plastic patriotic banner

 more cleaning out of the check shop was done. i found a box on the top shelf and it had more holiday decorations in it. besides some for easter, and for the minnesota twins baseball team, there was a plastic patriotic banner. it says 'spirit of america' in all caps on it. most of what was in the box was thrown in the recycle bin or the trash, but i kept this banner along with a page with a bad easter joke on it. and a small plastic minnesota twins pennant. i cut it off from the chain of pennants it was on. vacation replacement dropped in and was helping with the cleanup and emptied the binders from the bookcase. i still have to find out if it is fine for me to claim the bookcase, would likely need to rent a truck to get it home. and of course, dust it off. called for service for the first time in months, after getting back from lunch. it kept throwing the same error message about a blocked wetter sensor after one check was run through. thankful that remote help worked, the sensors were re-calibrated, just had to log in as 'supervisor' to get it done. i still had enough time to get all of the checks out by the end of the day, as we were called back about an hour later. the recycle bin for cardboard boxes was filled again, mostly with UPS boxes we weren't using. we still have more than a month until the move downtown, but we've made plenty of progress on the cleanup. with some old records we still might need guidance about what to do with them. the 'big bang theory' rerun was likely my favorite episode, where howard's mom is in the hospital and bernadette said 'me?' when told that the mom wanted to see her first. i drank the can of german beer with the evening meal and now there are three beers waiting. during my walks i found 11 cents. 

empty sealing fluid bottles

 a cleanup of the check shop was done in the morning, scheduled as a meeting. i got started a little early as i had some time after printing the morning files. it meant sending all of the empty sealing fluid bottles to the recycle dumpster, twenty-seven in all. most were in carboard boxes, and i broke down the boxes first and by the end of the day the bin for cardboard boxes was full. i also sent two boxes full of my own printouts to the recycle bin, first time i had done this since i started four years ago. there is one box left. we still have more than a month until the move downtown, so there is time to go through all of what we have. vacation replacement decided to go through two boxes left over from covid, which had customer service and new vendor forms in them. along with a bookcase that has binders in it that we hadn't even touched in years. during this short meeting the envelope order arrived, so i met the courier with carts at the service entry near the ATM line and dumpsters. the boss kept a screw from a broken cart so i had to find another one to use the cart as only half of them were there to keep the handle on it. it was a high-volume day of check printing, over seven thousand. when vacation replacement saw just over two thousand fargo checks were printed but not yet run through the machine he decided to run them through, it meant we sent out five mail tubs at the end of the day. also high volume on overnight labels, fifty-five. twenty-two of them were from one file, mortgages. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 35 cents. the 'big bang theory' rerun was when the friends played a weird game of chess, while raj was naked hiding behind the counter. 

cookies for mortgages

 i visit the branch twice a day at work to check for deliveries. close to midday i noticed a table was moved out from the wall, the one next to the coin counter, and the branch manager said somebody was there to talk to customers about their mortgages. there was cookies offered, but i did not take any, figuring there were only for customers. vacation replacement helped with reporting stats in the morning, after a colleague requested it. and they dropped in near the end of the day, asked about going through boxes of old records. i said i was waiting for the boss to show up in order to be correct about what to toss and what to keep. the boss was working from home for the day. i claimed two more items with the bank's logo on it, up to seventeen now. this was a note pad marking being a sponsor of a local sports team, and some file folders. the latter was given by the fixed assets boss, the former was in a box in the common area. i hadn't seen anything to claim in over a week, guess there was a break in people cleaning out their workstations. there was a request to have some checks returned to the business line, in cincinnati, as they were postdated, albeit just three days ahead. it was a lower volume day than typical, the fargo files totaled under a thousand checks but i didn't mind. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 25 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when stuart moved out, and leonard went to see a therapist, while penny saw the same one after leonard did. it was followed by the one where amy had a smoking monkey in her home and threw up after kissing sheldon. she had been out with friends, drinking and dancing. 

show tunes drag brunch

 at midday i was at crave in downtown minneapolis, attended the broadway show tunes drag brunch show. i still average one show a year, this is the seventh. even if i hadn't seen the play the song was from, i still had seen the movie, as i recognized ones from 'chicago' and 'cabaret'. an early one was from 'book of mormon', haven't seen it but have heard of it. the emcee danced as well, to one from 'hamilton', which i had seen in des moines many years ago. there was a request to come forward if there was anything to celebrate, but one only had ten seconds to do so. i did, as i marked four years of working at the bank this weekend. i got a free shot because of it, same as the others. i was asked if i have been promoted, i said no but i like what i do. before the show i did watch some more episodes of 'the charlie brown and snoopy show' on DVD, three more so i have seen all but three out of the 18 now. after the show i went home and laid down for a little while, i had some pizza for the evening meal, and went to perform at an open-mic. i was the show closer and did some bank stories along with a swipe at a groupon ad. after the mic i watched part of a UFL football game, memphis beat houston, but i noticed it was a sparse crowd, and it has been fairly low attendance for this league in its first season after the merger, outside of st. louis at least. during my walks i found 1 dollar 59 cents. 

thirst aid kit

 i went to train days at union depot in st. paul. i got a good look at the toy train display and the one billboard i liked seeing was for hamm's beer, saying 'thirst aid kit'. i bought one item while there, it was a magnet with plenty of railroad logos on it. i went down to the tracks but there weren't many life-sized trains this year. i did like walking inside a soo line caboose though and sitting on the upper level of it. i had to push myself a little to get to this event in the afternoon as i was tired, but thankful i went. i did plenty of errand running before i went. there was dropping off another donation at goodwill in eagan, many of those things in the box were found at work and i wanted to increase the odds that those items would actually get used and not thrown in the trash. i also went to a nearby copy store and printed a meetup event booking. then it was to the capitol to drop off recycling, and to the post office to check my box. no surprise how there was nothing in it, but in the morning i did place two e-bay orders for the first time in weeks. i also went to a liquor store near the post office and got a can of german beer, so now there are four beers waiting. i found out there was another walk-in cooler for single cans of beer there, after i had paid for my order. i had lunch at home, a pot pie. and after train days i watched some of the UFL football game on fox, st. louis beat san antonio 13-12. i joined the game at halftime, with st. louis up 10-0. i had some pizza for the evening meal, then went to aldi for groceries. i watched another game on fox when i got back, this time baseball, st. louis lost to philadelphia 6-1. later on i went on a walk and found 1 dollar 24 cents.