Rain, rain go away

Tuesday was fairly warm, but the rain continues unabated. It isn't real heavy, but it's fairly constant. It is much needed here, but some sun would be nice. 

In the morning I went out to try to get a new key for the Institute door. My wife had already had it re-cut, but it still wasn't turning in the lock. The guy at the hardware store was very apologetic and quite puzzled why it wasn't working; he gave it one more try with the key he already made, but promised to try a new blank if this one didn't work. When we got to the Institute, no luck 😭, so we'll go back to the hardware store again. 

I also bought a new color cartridge for our Canon MX495 all-in-one printer, which we love. The ones we bought soon after arriving just ran out, and the local computer store sells generic ones which seem to work ok. I also walked down to Conad (in the rain) and bought some food for home, mostly fresh produce.

Dee decided finally that she does want an external monitor here. She had been holding out because she didn't want to get used to having one and then find it difficult to work on the road with only a single laptop screen. With her FH class, however, she uses a second screen at the Institute while she prepares and is finding it hard to do her lesson prep, with lots of cut-and-past to PowerPoint on a single screen. So we ordered her a 27" HP monitor which had a very good price on amazon.it and it should be here in a few days. She's really looking forward to it!

We got to the Institute a bit early to fix food for Taco Tuesday: more Spanish rice and two more kilos of taco meat, and we needed almost all the extra time. There was a pretty big group this time, not quite as large as last week, but enough to go through about 6 pounds of beef and two full pans of Spanish rice.

 

By the time we are done feeding everyone, we have been on our feet for a few hours and we're exhausted. Dee actually fell asleep on one of the wooden chairs in the kitchen for a while. In the afternoon I finished translating the 25 Taboo game cards for Seminary. Here's a sample:

I also finished my translation of the song Star Bright, which I think came out pretty well. So I still have a bunch of prep to do for Friday, but at least a few things are out of the way.

We also found out that the Italian government apparently managed to lose some of the docs we submitted to get our permesso di soggiorno (permission to stay papers), which explains why we haven't been called to go get it yet. Our office in Milano emailed us some forms to sign, scan, and email back. We'll see how long that takes now. 

Choir had eight singers this week, with three non-members in the group. One of them is Christian from San Francisco, who is teaching English here and whom we met at the baptism a couple of weeks ago. It was his first time at the Institute, and he seemed to enjoy himself. Afterwards the choir (and others) enjoyed Dee's second carrot cake. Soon thereafter the English classes started, after which we came home, a bit early which is good because Wednesday will be a four-apartment inspection trip, which will cover a fair amount of ground and take several hours. The Balzottis are coming along so that he can see the apartments, so it will be a fun day!

Dee writes:
Christian stayed after class to visit awhile because he didn't have his umbrella and and was waiting out a break in the rain before walking home. We enjoyed sharing things we've each noticed about the language and living here. He's a really great guy, and I hope he is touched by the larger message we have here.