Italian keyboards

Saturday was a day spent mostly at home -- very nice. In the morning we configured Dee's computer workplace, with the new monitor and borrowing my plastic monitor stand. She is really liking her new computer setup.

We also ordered a replacement keyboard for her laptop from eBay.it, this one with an Italian layout. In Italian, you use a lot of accented vowels, which are difficult to type on an US keyboard. Some programs (e.g., Word) do a fairly nice job of allowing you to enter them, but for most applications it's a challenge. Phone apps/keyboards generally do a better job than laptops, btw. Here is an image of a typical Italian keyboard layout:

You'll see that the basic letters are all in the same place, but punctuation and accented letters are all different, as well as having another shift key, Alt Gr (the Alt key for "Greek" symbols). These days we are doing enough Italian writing that this issue bugs us quite a bit. Often we open an application such as Word, type in the accented letters, and then painfully copy/paste one at a time as needed. So my wife decided to dive in and switch to the Italian keyboard layout, which she can keep even after she gets home, as we plan on keeping in touch with folks here. It will be an interesting experiment. If it works for her, I may follow suit.

I walked down to the Chinese store about noon to get some cleaning supplies for home and the Institute. The weather is very spring-like: sunny and not cold. For the first time in quite a while I did not wear a sweater outside, and I used my light jacket. Meanwhile, Dee spent a good while cleaning the floors and bathrooms. We definitely have a division of labor here. She does the laundry and cleans the rooms, while I take the trash out and do most of the dishes. I believe that I have the better deal, but she seems to like it this way. I also started working on a lesson for Ugo's Institute class Tuesday night -- I'll get to teach four big lessons this coming week.

About 4pm we went to Ikea in the mall to buy some kitchen utensils for the young missionary apartments we inspect. We also went to Auchan there for some household items and food and also to a bookstore. The trip took almost three hours, but now we shouldn't have to shop until Tuesday or Wednesday. Along the way we filled up the car, having driven a fair amount this week. Dee writes: Doug thinks that's a long time to shop, but we went to THREE STORES and the time also included travel, so we actually did a lot in a short time. Speaking of actually, here's an interesting word fact: the word attuale in Italian doesn't mean actual. It means now. It's easy to use that word wrong.

After that one excursion, the rest of the evening was spent at home, catching up on some paperwork and things. Dee talked to her Dad and the pharmacy in California. I called my mother and my sister, as is my Saturday custom. My mom is doing great. Thursday marked ten years since my dad passed away. It's amazing that it has been that long. We miss him but are glad that he "got out of here", as my mom likes to say, since his health was not good at the end. He was a wonderful man. I have worn his 1950 class ring from Caltech (our common alma mater) most days since he passed, but I decided not to bring it on our mission and risk losing it here. It's a little thing that reminded me how blessed we were as a family to have him, and I look forward to wearing it again when we return.