bowl game then hockey

 went to a sports bar and watched Iowa in their bowl game from Tampa, Iowa Hawkeyes won. they did enough of the right things to beat Vanderbilt. of course, this meant i was ordering food and drink, i waited until halftime to order food as it was close to midday by then. i first ordered a beer, a grain belt, and a second one shortly after the food arrived. i did get dessert later on, and a Pepsi. a few dessert items on the menu were not available, but i was fine with having bread pudding as it reminded me of visiting New Orleans. i liked how it was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream as well. before the game i went to cub foods and bought some egg nog, a quart, as well as three boxes of Chex cereal. i also went to a nearby copy store and printed a receipt on an event ticket that i had just ordered. it was nice having a little time at home to rest up after the game. in the evening i went to a hockey game in the world junior tournament, team USA is in this one but lost to Sweden, 6-3. it was close at the end of the first period, 1-0, but team USA never led in this one. no penalties in that period, which is rare. good crowd on hand though, but i am aware that the games the Americans are playing are getting the best attendance. went to the ticket office as the preferred app wasn't working for me, so the ticket was sent to me through a text message. good thing i had the printed receipt to show as this made it easier to find my ticket. i was in the upper deck of the arena, and had a 'drink rail' seat, but i had a good view of the action. during the first intermission i found the three Charlie Brown statues on that level, walking around the entire concourse. during the second intermission, i got in line early and bought some pizza and bottled water. when one knows the lines can get long, it is a good idea to get in line early if one wants to be seated again before the action begins. i liked chatting with the couple next to me, mostly it was with the dude, who said he had played some hockey. i was given their extra towel near the end of the game, these were given out when fans entered the arena and fans were waving them after each goal. 

secure printing email

 i was sent a weird email about secure printing and forwarded it to my boss, who said respond and ask for more information. looks like check printing routing might be changing soon. not sure how, but the follow-up as i copied my boss on it was that vacation replacement would be shown how and i would be as well. i did get one answer from who sent it, which was how long we had to switch over. sounds like it would be as long as a month, definitely a least a week or two. going by the existing system on check printing for a day or two shouldn't be too big of a deal then. the boss sent me a performance evaluation, moved it up a little. i didn't mind that as the original meeting invite was in the afternoon, when i am usually trying to get caught up on creating overnight labels. i was asked to help with a UPS return on a label i didn't create. this was by instant message, the colleague who places the supply orders was asking. then the question was who had created it and i wasn't sure of that. i did say it was slated to be returned to our office as of last night so i didn't know how to stop that. and i haven't tried rerouting a package that is already in transit. i usually don't know it was returned until i physically have it anyway, and most of them are delivered so it tells me that we are usually given an address that is good. a ticket from October is back, except no one has contacted me yet about it. this was the one where the boss wanted it re-opened about the overflow pages on some check files, although it is not a big deal to me on living with the current solution when we don't have that many overflow pages to begin with. 

late but small file

 Fargo files were late but low volume so i was still able to get them all printed and sent out the door same day due to running check printers simultaneously. it wasn't easy to find ways to stay busy when it is the largest volume check files that i get each day. most important thing was staying ahead on the overnight volume, as that usually dictates how close to the normal leave time that i end up departing from work. went to perform in the evening as well. i did stories about penicillin, donut shops, rerouting an overnighted check, and a file with duplicated check numbers. others were about Christmas eve, Christmas day, a hockey game, and attending a movie. i parked in a ramp instead of on the street as i knew the snow ordinance was going into effect and i wanted to avoid tickets and such. 

taking off movie

 in the early evening i went to a movie at the Trylon cinema, it was 'taking off'. i liked how i recognized some of the actors in it. this included Bentley from 'the Jeffersons' and Mrs. Roper from 'threes company'. even a young Kathy Bates was in it. but credited as 'bobo bates'. it served as a reminder of what my dad once said when i was watching a movie with him and knew the actor by the voice before seeing a face. usually, the one thing that doesn't change is a person's voice. the voices of those two actors that i knew from sitcoms were still familiar to me. a big part of the storyline was the parents of runaway teenagers sampling youth culture, as a 'support group'. this led to a 'strip poker' scene. this was my 17th visit to this non-profit cinema for the calendar year. when i picked up my ticket i was told there is a patron who visits more often than i do, apparently one who is there every weekend. i had some popcorn and a can of 7-up, using up some quarters, five dollars in all. after being home for a little while after the movie, i ordered another ticket so i will be back at this cinema next month. it was the only thing on the docket for the day, and it was just as well due to the snowstorm. sounds like there was a winter storm warning in effect, 'travel not advised' is what i kept hearing on the radio, but getting around in town wasn't too big of a deal. on the open road, that probably would have been a different story, as i could see some blowing snow on the pavement. in the early afternoon i did venture out a little, needed gas so i went to a speedway gas station. then i dropped off some recycle near the capitol. i tried to watch the Sunday night football game when i got back from the movie, bears-49ers, but i fell asleep. the bears lost. i also did the dishes. 

world junior hockey

 the two main events of the day were attending a game in the world juniors hockey tournament, and the fan-zone related to it. in the morning i went to the post office, two orders picked up. and i sent off six Christmas cards to friends and family. then i went to the copy store and scanned a register tape for the Charlie Brown tin promotion. i also printed some event tickets. it was midday by then and i headed to Maplewood and had lunch at the golden corral. i changed my seat after noticing it was next to a walkway being used by plenty of patrons and i didn't enjoy that. i found a table that was farther away from this 'thoroughfare'. i had two plates of food there, three if you one slice of pizza, which was the only thing on the third plate. also had some meatloaf, rice, macaroni. best to master the possibilities when at a buffet. and i capped it with some soft-serve ice cream and some pudding. i left when i knew i would feel full if i ate any more. then it was on to rice park in downtown St. Paul where i attended the 'fan zone'. it was nice getting some free souvenirs there, including a beer cozy from Xcel Energy and a soft puck from Tria. the latter was after playing 'whack a mole'. i also got a look around at a related exhibit at the nearby convention center. i bought a small hockey stick there which had the flags of all ten competing nations on it. after a little over two hours, i headed home and then went to get groceries at Aldi. then it was on to the u. of Minnesota for the game. it was the Czech Republic (or Czechia) defeating Denmark, 7-2. Czechs never trailed in this one, up 2-1 at the end of the first period and 5-2 at the end of the second. i got a hot dog and a coke there. my seat was near the boards so i saw some close-ups of the action. there was a dude near me who was using a camera, later noticed a Czech flag patch on his coat. during one intermission i bought another souvenir, it was a three pack of stickers. some things i saw in person reminded me of what i had seen on TV of the Olympic games. there was a flag raising and national anthem playing for the Czechs. during the game there was an announcement of the score of the game being plated across town, team USA had defeated Switzerland. i haven't ruled out attending another game in this tournament, but it would have to include team USA as i would 'have a horse in that race'. i saw the attendance figures for the first eight games of the tournament. the Americans played in front of big crowds for both of their games, but the others, not so much. the arena wasn't even half-full for the game i attended, just over three thousand on hand. 

three gift cards used

 since dad had sent me another Hy-Vee gift card, i decided it was time to use some of those i already had. i used up three cards, but only a partial amount was on two of them that i had used back in June. in the end it paid for most of my order. i got a dollar out of my wallet to pay the balance as that was under a dollar. in the morning i went to Walgreen for my weekly visit. and i did a walk at the end of my lunchtime to see what else was open. plenty of places still closed for the holiday near my workplace. this included the caribou, and the chipotle. although it barely matters to me when i don't go to either all that much. the cookie place is closed until after New Year's Day. i spoke of it to vacation replacement, saying i hadn't been there as apparently, they only sell cookies there and no drinks. a fairly slow day at work, not too surprised about that. i did have to say in one email how it looks like UPS picked up early on Christmas eve, when a colleague wanted to know why there was no activity on their tracking number. in the evening i noticed the new show called 'Boston blue' wasn't on. i went online and found out it will be back in February. i didn't see any egg nog ay Hy-Vee but i did have some this season. i was mostly getting the little bottles from Anderson Erickson, about 12 ounces, instead of a quart carton as i wanted to save some calories. 

starbucks was open?

 i decided to take a walk and see if any place was open on Christmas day. looks like Starbucks was open, but the nearby caribou was not. i did not go in though, already had some coffee the previous day of course. i think Starbucks is open on thanksgiving as well. it was a low-key celebration, and that was fine with me. aside from taking a walk, i stayed in for most of the day and i gave the car the day off. i finished what was on my list, in terms of DVDs to watch. there was 'Charlie Brown Christmas' and on the same disc was a bonus episode, 'it's Christmastime again'. due to watching the 'making of' documentary i searched on YouTube and i did find the clip of how Linus ended up next to a Coca-Cola sign as that was the sponsor of this special. the other one i watched was the movie 'Christmas Vacation'. this was the last of the nine discs i watched all or part of during this holiday season. i had two turkey dinners, much like i did for thanksgiving. i had pumpkin pie as i found it as a half-pie this time. and i got pictures of what it all looked like, including the cans of beer next to the meals. i drank a can of icehouse, and a can of Coors, so now three beers are waiting. didn't watch much TV though when i was switching out a disc from the player i noticed on CBS how the local station had picked up the Vikings-Lions game, which was actually being broadcast on Netflix. i got a few items ordered online late in the evening.