colleague moving soon

 a colleague picked up checks this afternoon and i found out she is moving soon, once the house sells. bummer. i said i have gotten too used to saying goodbye to people in corporate america. an email was sent to the fargo business line about how any checks are left to print on the special project, just over five thousand. i said another half-day on saturday should be enough to complete the backlog, possibly even less than that. this evening i watched the bob barker special on CBS, it was on instead of a 'young sheldon' rerun. there were clips from the movie 'happy gilmore' as barker was in this movie with adam sandler. i haven't seen that movie. i looked at the closing credits of this special and sandler was involved with the special, producing and directing credits if i am not mistaken. drew carey, who took over hosting 'price is right', was emcee of the special. later on i went on a walk and found 7 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when howard tries to throw out the first ball at an angels baseball game. it was followed by part one of the final episode.

friend visiting soon

a friend is visiting soon. my college roommate contacted me through facebook and spoke of visiting the twin cities the weekend after labor day. it is to see a twins and vikings game. but not on the same days. i checked the schedule and the twins are playing the mets while the vikings are playing the bucs. my schedule is open that weekend so i said it would be great to meet up somewhere, doesn't have to be at either game. something about the employer having a box at the twins game. at work the five boxes of envelopes were put out to be returned. the branch manager said the driver had to come back once space was cleared on his truck. near the end of the day the trainee showed up to drop off an envelope. i didn't enjoy the conversation as we were re-arguing subjects that i just don't care about. even said so, how i was too busy to care about some things because i don't have to do them right now. during my walks i found 53 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when sheldon tried to be an instructor but only howard signed up for the class. it was followed by the one where leonard's mom visits but it was only to research her next book. i am starting to think about the upcoming TV season but based on online searches it is hard to tell when some shows are returning. of course due to the writers, and then actors, strike. according to one article i found, an interview with john goodman on french TV, he thinks the upcoming season of 'the conners' will be the final one.

night deposit envelopes

 i picked up five boxes of envelopes from the branch just before midday. i did not recognize the kind, based on the code on the label, or who had ordered them. i opened the box with the packing list and looked at the envelopes inside- it was for night deposits. the branch manager said the branch does not use them. so they were moved to the fourth floor delivery table and i emailed my boss about it. it was revealed that it was a test order and these were never meant to be sent out by the envelope company. so i was sent some labels to get them returned and i will put them out to be picked up in the morning. there was a spike in volume on a morning file, larger than one of the fargo files, so none of the special project checks were done. we are down to just over eight thousand checks so the end is in sight, but it might mean doing another half-day on saturday to complete it. i am to follow up with my boss later in the week to see where we are on remaining volume. when sending up refund checks and invoices i got a pumpkin spice cupcake from the lady who places supply orders for me. late in the evening i went on a walk and found 27 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when sheldon was picked up from arizona at the end of his sabbatical to ride the rails. it was followed by the one where kripke provides evidence that a fermi lab employee trying to steal the nobel had plagiarized his thesis.

the moon and i

 last week i bought a CD from a fellow performer at the open-mic. i listened to it tonight before going to perform. it is called 'the moon and i'. it is a short 27 minutes, 11 tracks. some were instrumental interludes. there were three tracks i liked. it was 'valley of dreams', sun and sky say goodbye', and the title track. especially 'dreams', the twang in it and the drawn out lyric at the end of a stanza works for me. i said the instrumental tracks don't do anything for me, as i want to hear stories. when it was played tonight his co-performer announced that i liked it as i found him before the show to say what i liked. i did some more bank stories, and spoke of being at the state fair and the water park. at work there was no training to do, and no complaining about that from me. i did see the trainee in the morning who was picking up a printout and asked it be canceled. i asked how many pages, only said a lot. and i said the only way to cancel it once sent to a printer is at the printer itself. at first it didn't print, because there was no paper in it. i liked how i-pay in the afternoon was six checks, all set aside to be picked up. this made it easier to get caught up on overnight labels i needed to do. the colleague said she would pick them up the next day. during my walks i found 12 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were a season finale, when sheldon decides to ride the rails. and stuart's store burned. it was followed by the one where leonard threatened to quit and got another assignment at the university.

between two worlds movie

 this afternoon i went to see the french movie 'between two worlds' at the lagoon in uptown minneapolis. i had heard about it through the french alliance as i am on their email list. right away i liked it as i had done plenty of cleaning jobs before, especially when i was in school. so the machines they were operating looked familiar to me. and i know there had been books about work, such as 'working' by studs terkel. and i reminded myself how some of them were investigative reporting or 'muck raking' such as 'the jungle' by upton sinclair or 'nickel and dimed' by barbara ehrenreich. the latter is the one that seemed to be most like this movie. i had seen 'dimed' as a play when i was in chicago for a writers convention. one scene where there was a celebration for one of the cleaning ladies getting a good job in another industry reminded me of leaving behind test scoring and starting with the bank. i liked how there were some scenes depicting the book signing, and the varied reactions to it from those she had worked with. even the scene where they live it up in first class on the ferry they clean worked for me. i had some ice cream at the nearby mcdonald's after the movie. i had lunch at IKEA near mall of america before the movie. i kept getting emails about their 80th anniversary sale so i decided it was a good place to go eat. then i drove over to the movie and arrived just before it began. and i did laundry in the morning. during my walks i found 72 cents. 

mushroom risotto rice

 sometimes there is food left on the counter in the breakroom at work. it is often expired or will be soon. i often claim it, especially if it is boxes of cereal. this week it was ben's original rice, mushroom risotto. it tasted fine. i opened the packet and dumped it in a pan and heated it up on the stove top once water was added. i did this in the evening, it was an eventful day. i did some more overtime at work. much like the previous saturday it worked well on doing four hours, again filling a tub an hour. i ran over seven thousand checks through the machine. in fact just eighteen fewer than the previous saturday. i bought two items from the vending machine and ate them during that time, some planters peanuts and some oatmeal raisin cookies, along with a granola bar i brought in my lunch bag. then i had a sandwich and tea from the nearby walgreen once i was done for the day. i drove home and checked email, then i was on the road again. i made it to the water park in eagan. this annual visit had been postponed several times. i looked at the page i put notes on and originally i wanted to do it back in june. well this weekend was the last chance as they are closing for the season soon. i was there for a little over an hour, went on the lazy river on an inner tube first. then i went on most of the water slides after that. when they called a safety break at 5pm i knew my time there had to be ending soon. so i went on one more slide. then i had some pizza and a chocolate eclair ice cream bar and i left. it was likely a thinner crowd than the previous week as i saw more open parking spaces. i am sure the state fair had something to do with it. then i went home and got groceries at aldi. after this was done i turned on the Fox baseball game of the week. i watched about half of it, twins were playing the rangers. but i was tired and laid down and fell asleep. later on i found out the twins lost. during my walks i found 93 cents.

string puppet

 when i was taking a walk i noticed some things on a table. it was a page that said 'string puppet', how to make one i guess. next to it was a blue tote bag full of thin wooden sticks for stirring paint. must have been some arts and crafts for kids, a thing i recall doing when i was young. even though i very much enjoyed the day off, it was nice to get back into the work routine. some things of course are more fun than others to deal with at work. that is why one has to be careful on getting the names right. there are two ladies with the same name and i like working with one way more than the other. one of them had a request for a tracking number on a check to be overnighted, and i asked for the payee. good thing i was told about it as it wasn't marked as overnight and otherwise would have went regular mail. it was in the second i-pay. then there was the one who said he was expecting a check, and i said i send you an I.M. if there is one. she does her research and gives me a check number from tuesday, three days prior. i said it went into a file where i don't check for special handling, and it likely went regular mail. otherwise there wasn't too much out of the ordinary. i am still sending out four full mail tubs a day to get the volume of checks knocked down. the dude who picks them up noticed this when i saw him in the morning. and he spoke of dealing with traffic when at the energy park facility since it is near the state fairgrounds. i said it means avoiding it until labor day, which of course is the last day of the fair. during my walks i found 51 cents. i bought just five items at hy-vee in eagan tonight. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when leonard and penny got engaged after penny was fired from a movie. howard and bernadette hire a nurse to take care of howard's mom. it was followed by the one where sheldon and amy talk to HR, then do a sensory deprivation tank. sheldon loves it and amy hates it.