For Valentine's day, my wife ironed all my white shirts, which was wonderful of her. The day before, I had before told her to buy herself some nice yarn at the open market from me, and she happily complied. She spent much of the morning cleaning floors and bathrooms -- how's that for romantic? In the afternoon, after she left for the dentist, I walked down to Conad to get some fresh fruit.
Most of the day for me was spent at my desk, working on upcoming lessons. I figured out a way to generate a bunch of random Doctrinal Mastery scripture bingo cards for my Seminary class on Friday afternoon, using a mostly-automated combination of Excel and Word. I also generated a four-page Word doc with the text of all those scriptures, plus a couple of useful tables. In the evening I worked on my Friday evening Book of Mormon Institute class lesson.
Dee's visit to the dentist was much quicker and less painful than we had feared. He decided to just pull the tooth and do the implant later. She has to be careful what she eats for a few days, but she hasn't had to take any pain meds since the novocaine wore off. She even walked herself to/from the bus stop, which totals about 3-4 kilometers. I think she would have made a good pioneer woman.
Dee writes: Our mission nurse found this dentist, and I think he's quite good. He trained at the Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and La Sapienza University, both here in Rome. In addition, he did post-doc work at USD in San Diego and in Los Angeles. He has written 70 research papers and teaches dentistry and implant techniques at La Sapienza. He was very attentive and expert in my procedure, explaining everything to me as he did it. The difference is in the paperwork--there was almost none. They offhandedly told me what I could and couldn't eat/do. But I already knew the drill, so it didn't matter much.
Dee continues: On Tuesday, I walked into the Institute kitchen and found one of the young men cutting a hole in a metal Pringles can...with my only chef's knife! Not a pleasant surprise, but I used my sharpening stone and I think it's okay. Most of these young people live in apartments their whole lives, so they probably never had a garage with tools, and it's natural they use what's at hand.
Dee continues: The hygienist and dental assistant were both amazed at how white my teeth are. I use Sensodyne whitening toothpaste, but nothing else. It occurred to me that they mostly see patients who drink wine, coffee and smoke, which would stain their teeth considerably. Another benefit of living the gospel!
Dee continues: I like to ride the public transportation, and I hoped to have the opportunity to meet some Italians. In my young days, we called it contacting. Now they call it finding. People used to look at our nametags and ask us who we were. But now, people are much less open and curious. They're mostly looking at their phones or listening with headphones, so it's a lot harder to start a conversation :(
All day there was a bunch of traffic on various WhatsApp message groups for the Institute. Sometimes it's difficult to even keep up, but it sure works well for conversation threads in groups, both large and small. I made some tweaks to the translation of the Orson Scott Card article, based on feedback from a couple of the kids. There were a few typos, a few incorrect prepositions (it's always hard to know which one corresponds best to the English usage), and a few good suggestions on better phrasing. With those changes made, I posted the updated version on the GANS thread of WhatsApp.
It was really good to have some down time at home, something that has been a little lacking. I love lesson prep/study time, and I feel almost ready for my lessons coming up.