Free cigars

Tuesday was a full day. Wes and Alyssa seemed to sleep very well, but of course jet lag is still an issue. We left early for Institute and Taco Tuesday, because I needed to take the two of them to the Vatican Museums for a 1pm guided tour. After dropping stuff at the Institute and leaving Dee to make tacos, with the Ganziani coming in early to help, the three of us hopped onto the metro stop nearby and rode over the to Vatican. On the way, I had Wes buy 10 metro tickets at a store so they could use them and he would know how to get more. I took them inside the entrance to the museum, skipping the line, and left them waiting for their tour guide, in plenty of time. I then walked back to the metro and arrived back at the Institute by 1pm, in time to help finish preparing the food. It was very hot and humid outside, so I needed to bask in the AC first for a few minutes. 😰

At first there were not many people there, but then folks kept showing up, so we had a great group, including several we haven't seen for a while, with a lot of energy throughout the place.

During the afternoon, I installed the new 500GB SSD on the Pickerd's  laptop, transferred the image to it, and did a full backup of the "new" system. In the evening I gave it all to the Balzottis to deliver to the Pickerds when they get back in town Friday after a week of Zone Conferences.

Junior, one of our long time non-members, who attends church regularly and sometimes takes missionary lessons, smiled and gave me a box of cigars. I was rather flummoxed, explaining to him that we don't smoke. Apparently he somehow had no idea of that yet after all this time, but he just said, "well, you can give them to somebody who does smoke" and wouldn't take them back. I will try to give them back again later.

Linda Di Martino came by to say goodbye for a few months. Her school in Rome is finishing until November. We had a nice visit with her and with several other folks. it was a lovely afternoon.

Wes and Alyssa apparently got separated in the (very crowded) Vatican museum, both from each other and from their tour guide. They got to see the Sistine Chapel, but not St. Peter's basilica. They finally found each other back at the metro stop. Her phone still had roaming turned off, making it impossible to find each other at first. Also, her phone was SIM locked, so it wouldn't work with the Italian SIM cards we bought (thanks, AT&T!). Anyway, they did finally reconnect and then went to Trevi fountain on the way home. Dee took them out to dinner and then the three of them  took the metro home together so that they know how to get back to our apartment on their own if necessary.

In the evening, Scott Gordon, president of FairMormon, gave a online Zoom class about Masonry and Mormonism. As usual, he did a great job, fielding lots of comments and questions in a very clear way. Ugo was out of town with his family, so I got to host the meeting. Afterwards I had to hang around for a while to let the recording finish transcoding. Just as I was about to leave, two of the kids called from the subway to ask me to wait a while for them to show up so they could get the backpack that had inadvertently left earlier in the day. No problem -- we are here to serve. I got home after 9:30pm and still had a lot to do, including taking the Pickerd laptop over to the Balzottis and bringing back a phone to take to the Anziani in Agrigento, printing boarding passes for our flight to Palermo, setting up parking at the airport (online ahead of time is much cheaper). It was quite late when we finally got to bed.