Prepping For The Exterminator

    I dreaded having to get ready for the exterminator arriving at my home tomorrow. It meant spending some time after work getting things moved around, away from baseboards. I was using a tape measure to see it was far enough. I got most of it done before departing for the comedy club. They are still having the contest, now the first semifinal. There were 8 performers tonight, and 3 of them advanced. I knew 2 of the 3, one of them was the Yemen native. I knew most of the judges as well.
  After the show I continued with the prepping. I got imaginative on where to move objects. My refrigerator is usually close to empty, but now it's full! Plenty of space available for food, or food and drink containers, inside. It means I should take pictures to prove it. All of this meant checking email later than typical and not watching TV tonight, as I knew I would get more done this way. In many ways it is helpful as I did some sweeping in areas I hadn't cleaned in a while. Now the tough thing will be putting everything back where I want it. I would expect this to be done piecemeal, as I am used to a fairly leisurely time most of the week. This is especially true on nights when I go to the comedy club. As expected, I decided to move a few more items to the office. This includes the die cast model cars, the Ford Mustangs.

Reparking The Car

   At the comedy club tonight I wanted to find a free parking spot. So I got out of a pay-lot and after driving around a little while I ended up re-parking the car in the lot I was originally in. But I had to try. There is some construction in the area and the Twins are home tonight, so this explains the limited parking spaces. A fellow comic returned to the club tonight, we were pleased to see each other. He was wearing a White Sox hat. Just before the show began he said he quit his job, as his soul was dying due to it. I know his job kept him busy for a while, explaining his being absent for a while. A few comics did try gay marriage jokes as the Minnesota legislature just passed the law, and the governor said he would sign it.
   I am still doing research on World's Fair postcards, tonight it was Chicago. I will admit how it can be tedious. When using Chicago as the key word I got 971 listings under 'Buy it now' and under $10. Using 1933, it is 692, and using 1934, it is 122. Of course this doesn't add up. Hard to say if it's worth it to see what the remaining ones are, 157 to be exact. I gleaned plenty of ideas from the ones I have already seen. This included seeing some of CBS Radio broadcasting from the fair. It has been helpful to see the aerial views as it gives me a good perspective of where it was held, on the lakefront in what is now known as the 'Museum Campus' close to Soldier Field.    

Shea Stadium- World's Fair

    I did a Mother's Day event with my date this afternoon. We had pizza from Papa John's, followed by cake and ice cream- Well's Blue Bunny ice cream. As an Iowa kid I am quite familiar with this brand of ice cream.
   In the evening I did get the typical errand running done like groceries. Then I decided to look at postcards to order on E-bay. By accident I apparently found out how many postcards are available on the entire site- just over two million! Not too surprising to me. To some it is likely a big deal how the total of postcards I own is nearing a thousand. Last fall I counted how many I had before getting them into photo albums, it was about 700.
  With World's Fair postcards, there are plenty to look at. Even when narrowing the search down to a particular city, there can be a thousand. So I do go further- like 'Buy it now' only and under a certain price like $10. At times this still doesn't narrow it down much. But I would have to say, based on the research, that I likely won't get many of Expo 67, the Montreal World's Fair. I have five vintage postcards so far of World's Fairs, one of them is Montreal. There may not be many that interest me of St. Louis either. This leaves mostly Chicago and New York, which is plenty.
   After looking around some, I did order one World's Fair postcard tonight- of New York's Shea Stadium. I had to check first to see if I had one already, since I did visit New York City in 2005. I did have a decent number of the city, like Madison Square Garden and Central Park, but not Shea. There was one of Yankee Stadium, an image of inside, though the description just speaks of the team and not the stadium. Two of the five I already own are from New York's two fairs- both from General Electric buildings. The one from the 1964 fair has an image of the unisphere in one corner, and on the back it says this object was presented by U.S. Steel. The Shea postcard has this image in the corner as well. The one I already have I noticed has a perforation on one end, suggesting it was part of a series- at one point inside a pack or booklet.
    Besides the Shea postcard, I did order a Maytag postcard as well. It was a cool one with images of various products they made apparently in the 1940s, with the factory as a backdrop. I am still researching postcards from Chicago's two World's Fairs, though I seem to be finding more from 1933 (as opposed to the earlier one in 1893). One of the five I own is from Chicago's fair- the Wonder Bread/Hostess building, actually stamped 1934 as this fair did run for two years instead of one. Some from Chicago are not too surprising, as I am finding postcards of meat companies. At that time there were plenty of stockyards in Chicago, and of course they need to have food available at a fair. I am also finding replicas of buildings like Washington's Mount Vernon and Lincoln's log cabin. This of course is in addition to Fort Dearborn.   

Mud Movie- Reese Witherspoon

    I went to see the movie 'Mud' with my date at the Eagan theater this afternoon. Really enjoyed it. While Matthew McConaughey was the lead in it, Reese Witherspoon was in it as well. She played somebody with a checkered past, same as Mac did. Their characters had been an item, off and on. I know she had played a bad girl before, in a movie called 'Freeway'. It was early in her career, and I think it is still not well-known. It was a knockoff of the 'Little Red Riding Hood' story- She was 'Red' and Kiefer Sutherland played the 'Big Bad Wolf', aptly named Bob Wolverton. I had grown up in small-town Iowa and much of the scenery was familiar in it, but of course it took place in and was filmed in Arkansas. What left me a lasting impression was how Matt's character liked eating 'Beanie Weenie' right out of the can. Well it has to be filling, with all of the protein. Much of the story, with him playing a fugitive, reminded me of movies like 'Sling Blade', 'Winter's Bone', and 'A Perfect World'- since he befriends a kid despite being wanted by the law.
   This morning I decided to do more researching on World's Fair souvenirs, especially postcards. I had wondered if other sports arenas were depicted besides Chicago's Soldier Field. Found out New York's Shea Stadium is depicted as well, when it was a new stadium for the 1964 fair. It happened to be close to where the fair took place. Still finding plenty of other postcards, mostly American corporations like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. I got my laundry done this morning as well, after doing the research. It snowed on the way to doing laundry but didn't last long.

A Haunted House Movie

     In the evening I rented the movie 'A Haunted House' from Redbox. Thankful I had a discount for the first day, just enter the code when renting. It wasn't that great of a movie. I know this as my litmus test is how long before I check my watch while watching it, and it wasn't long. It was too silly to me. When I think of a haunted house or ghost movie I guess I don't think of it being a comedy at all. It was nice to see Cedric the Entertainer in it, but he had a small role in it. Many of the jokes were about other ghost movies or scary movies. I watched it as it was one of the movies being promoted at the comedy club, earlier this year. I got a poster from it. So now this leaves two others to see that were promoted there.
   Before renting the movie I went to Taco Bell and had the 'Loco Taco Box', I like ordering this and have done so ever since there was a free Doritos loco taco due to a stolen base in the World Series. After the movie I did more research on World's Fair souvenirs. As expected, there were plenty of postcards available. But I'm still wanting to be picky before ordering more. Many of those found were from three fairs: Chicago 1933, and New York in 1939 and 1964. This was due to some corporations having their own buildings- usually industrial companies. It was a reminder of the History Channel series 'The men who built America' being accurate about the robber barons that still dominate the American economy in some form or another. Besides General Electric, there was the Big Three auto makers and Firestone tires. Also found some railroads, Westinghouse Electric, Travelers Insurance, Havoline Oil, and U.S. Steel. Even found the German Black Forest from the 1933 Chicago fair.
   At this point it's hard to say what to order next. Besides postcards, there are stamps and coins, and guidebooks. I may want to get a guidebook first as this may give me a better idea as to what to search for. When researching the Fort Dearborn replica from the Chicago fair I did find a photo about another souvenir besides the postcards I've already seen. It was a Lincoln log set! There was one available on E-bay, but it was over two hundred dollars so I'm not interested. The American fairs mean the most to me, and after this Montreal as I have been to that city. I haven't been to a World's Fair- just county and state fairs- so studying the history will have to do.
   Canada has had just two fairs, the other was Vancouver in 1986. Haven't been to this city yet. There usually are remnants of these fairs long after they are over. I did see La Ronde in my Montreal visit in 2002, an amusement park. I was more familiar with what was left after the 1976 Olympic Games than 'Expo 67'. I knew their baseball team was named after the Expo. Foreign language, and foreign country, may be why I knew less about Montreal's fair/expo legacy.  

Bane Of The Carriage

   After watching the prime time episode of  'Big Bang Theory' tonight I decided to read more from the papers. I finished another Friday edition so now I've read through the end of April. I liked reading the funny columnist in the Minneapolis paper as usual, as this time he wrote about potholes on the road. He decided to use a different pronunciation of the word, saying 'Poh-tho-lay', claiming it is French for 'Bane of the carriage'. There was something about email alerts when potholes are reported. There was also a joke about E-bay, thinking he was bidding on something on that site. But it was to have the sidewalk shoveled.
   On the front page was a photo of the dedication of Bush 43's Presidential library, attended by all of the living presidents, current or former. The political cartoon was also about it, as it had his VP, Dick Cheney, urging somebody to talk- in contrast to a typical library where they ask you not to. Plenty of writeups in the sports page about the NFL draft, and the NHL regular season was wrapping up while the NBA was already having playoff games. The movie 'Mud', starring Matthew McConaughey, had just premiered. Still would like to see it, I respond well to good writing and the movie critic rated it well. Advice columnist Carolyn Hax printed a letter titled 'Daughter, 27, wants out of marriage'. It was from her parents, and she said she answers with misgivings as it's not your problem to solve. In the business section a billionaire investor bought a nearly 8 percent stake in retailer JC Penney. There was an article about 'New signs of life arise in Las Vegas'. Haven't been there yet. In politics, the state legislature voted on the 'Practice Freeway' on 35E in St. Paul, I've driven on this before- speed limit is 45 mph.
   I did watch two episodes of 'Big Bang Theory' tonight. The syndicated rerun was one I had seen before, where Leonard was going to have his first-ever birthday party and Howard has an allergic reaction to peanuts on purpose so he has to go to the ER to stall for time. The prime time episode was about the group spending time apart for a while, separated by gender. Raj had another date, but she bailed again even though Raj still likes her. Amy Farrah Fowler wanted to be more intimate with Sheldon, and said this near the end of the show as she felt like the relationship was treated like a joke by the others. In many ways this episode was a letdown from last week, when I liked seeing Bob Newhart guest star. I should have expected it since few episodes had been more highly anticipated by me than last week's. I was a little preoccupied as well, rearranging postcards in some of my albums. Even though the postcards weren't going anywhere.
   After reading the paper I decided to go out to the McDonald's and have a shamrock shake as the sign from the road said they have them. I'm surprised they do since it's no longer March, I'm used to them being a seasonal thing around St. Patrick's Day. I did check to see what was available at Redbox but didn't rent anything just yet.   

Quarter Candy Vending Machine

   I had lunch with a colleague at a deli on the lower level of our building. It was the first time we had lunched since she had returned to the office recently as an underwriter. I spoke about various subjects including my family and my car. It was nice to get caught up on things. I spoke with a senior leader just before then and said who I was having lunch with, then she passed by and he said 'speaking of the devil'. I hadn't been to this deli much before as it's easier to go into the skyway, more options available as there is a decent-sized food court. But I know well enough to be accommodating, and I am open to new experiences as it helps me grow.
At the comedy club tonight I saw a quarter candy vending machine. I do see these from time to time, at various establishments like the grocery store i go to. They can have candy in them, but at times they have toys or stickers instead. It had Hot Tamales and Reese's Pieces, I opted for the latter. I said to the bartender how I noticed they've been pulled from the Mall of America, unsure why. I would expect these to be profitable in most places as they're fairly low maintenance.
   A friend did do some new jokes, one was about his brother's new sunglasses and another was about his family calling while he's with his lady friend. There was something about the gestures she made while he was on the phone if I'm not mistaken. I spoke with the show closer before the show and she said she was moving from Nashville to Chicago and will be featuring at this same club this week. I liked her joke about those who are pushy about their religious beliefs. She doesn't like these kinds of people and neither do I. Write what you know is what I said, something I had been told before. It's a good idea to do relatable jokes of course.