Knitting with the Sorelle

Monday was a full day. About 9:30am, Dee went by herself on the subway to the Institute to meet with a couple of Sorelle from the other side of town to teach them knitting. This is the pair where we installed a shower curtain a couple of weeks ago. They apparently loved it!

Having Dee go there on her own allowed me to run up to the mall to get some things at Auchan (think Target). Our list of items needed from there had grown long enough that it was nice to get done, though not urgent. The mall was almost deserted at that hour, maybe due to the rain, which made it quick to get in and out. I found most of the things on our (Google Keep) list and then came home for a while. During that time I got to do some tech support via Teamviewer with the Spragues, who were very grateful.

About noon I left for Institute. The day was chilly with light rain. When I arrived, I ran down to try to make a copy of the key to the door of the Institute. We each have keys to the several other doors and mechanisms, but only one key for the door on the second floor. Until now it hasn't been an issue, but with my wife going about town on public transit on her own, having one key apiece is seeming like a good idea. It will be expensive (probably over 10 euro) for a copy, but Ugo has a budget for that kind of thing. Unfortunately, none of the three places I went to had a blank for this kind of key. On Tuesday we'll try the hardware store near our apartment instead.

My wife called the dentist to ask what to expect after her oral surgery Wednesday to pull her tooth and start the implant. They told her that she should be fine going home on the bus, but I may drive her over anyway, just in case. She has a followup appointment Friday morning, so she scheduled a teeth cleaning for me at that time.

In the afternoon, Dee made a bunch of chocolate chip cookies, using her new cookie sheets that Ugo paid for. It's nice for her to have four sheets instead of two, and these new ones are larger, fitting 12 cookies instead of 9. The cookies came out crispy around the edges, which brought several requests for the recipe. She also made some rice pudding. Sheyla from Peru and Margie from Honduras were especially thrilled with it, reminding them of home. Both desserts were immensely popular at family home evening! 

 

I worked a bit on my Friday Institute lesson, but also spent a bunch of time translating one of my favorite Orson Scott Card articles into Italian for my family home evening lesson. I did a two-column version, with English on the left and Italian on the right, with paragraphs aligned so you can easily see both. Dee taught me a good way to do this is to use Google Translate as a starting point, one or two paragraphs at a time. GT does a pretty good job, but it always requires some fine tuning. Then Dee also looked it over and gave some good suggestions. 

Along the way, the black toner cartridge for our nice color laser printer finally ran out, after a few weeks of warnings. We had another one on hand, which works great. Ugo has now ordered a replacement from amazon.it, about 30 dollars. I also did some stuff for my in-laws, requiring a call to the US and some emails.

A bunch of kids came in for FHE, including a couple of girls here with BYU study abroad. The library was completely full for my lesson, including a couple of our non-member girls. After some debate, we agreed to read the story in Italian and have the English-only speakers follow along from printed copies I had made. The article is entitled "It's a matter of how, not where, we serve." It tells an entertaining and touching story, while making a powerful point. You can read the English version here. After reading the story to them, I asked for comments, and several kids had great things to say. Then we closed with prayer and headed for the food. Everything got eaten quickly and happily. We'll definitely have rice pudding again.

Of course, yours truly did the dishes.

j

After that the kids stayed to play some card games, and we got to come home about 30 minutes earlier than usual. Margie, from Honduras, meanwhile started practicing her violin.

We learned that our son, Wes, has been accepted to grad school in math at UC Irvine, with funding! UCI is his third choice and the first response, so he's waiting to hear from the other schools he applied to. However, he's assured of having a spot somewhere next fall. Awesome! We are delighted for him.

Once home, I spoke with Mens Wearhouse and followed up with an email to the manager, explaining what had happened, with several photos of the ruined pants, plus me wearing an identical, non-ripped pair to show that they aren't skin tight. I requested that they  make me a replacement pair, which we'll get here via an upcoming visitor. We'll see how they respond. I also asked for advice on what to do with the other pants to not ruin them (e.g., reinforce the seams?)

It was definitely a rather unusual day, with some wonderful things happening. Life is never boring  here!