Doctor, tacos, dentist
Tuesday morning Dee left at 8:30am to take the subway to get an MRI, ordered by Dr. Giorgini before getting any knee treatments. She arrived there fine but it took about 3.5 hours to finish everything, far longer than we expected. I would end up doing most of the prep for Taco Tuesday on my own, with some vital last minute help from Dee and Sammy. My ability to slice tomatoes and lettuce apparently needs some work, so maybe I will have to practice more in coming weeks. Before she left, she had the Sorelle living below us try on some short thermal underwear that works well under a skirt. It is getting cold here, and Dee wants to order some for them like she did for our Roma 3 Sorelle. We try to take care of our local missionaries.
I was at home alone most of the morning. I sent a bunch of tech ideas and suggestions to the Millets after our success on Monday. We agreed that we need another tech support call there to help them out. By late morning we realized that Dee was not going to make it back from the doctor, so we agreed to have me go start things at the Institute with her joining me there when she could. We were supposed to pick up some turkey legs and thighs at the butcher to prepare for Friday's big Thanksgiving dinner. The plan is to prepare them ahead of time and then cook the whole turkey on Friday; it is small-ish by American standards because it is all we can fit in the oven at the Institute. I was in the car heading out when I talked with Dee on the phone, over a horrible connection with her inside the hospital still. We decided to pick up the turkey pieces on Wednesday morning instead because time was running short. After carrying out two very heavy shopping bags of stuff to the car, I realized that we had forgotten the lettuce and tomatoes for tacos, so I had to go around the block and find another parking spot, then run upstairs and get those items. By then it was running late, so punting on the turkey parts was the right decision.
The group for Taco Tuesday was large, with not enough room for everyone to sit and eat. We cooked only one new package (1kg) of beef instead the usual two, but then defrosted about a kg more that we had frozen leftover in prior weeks, freeing up space in the freezer for the big meal on Friday. After lunch, some of the kids played games for a while before heading over to the gospel choir practice at the Friendship Center.
At 3pm we had our student counsel meeting, which Joyce is now holding regularly -- awesome! It was rather long but productive. The Ganziani give their report on how missionary work is going, asking for help from the kids. We also discussed at some length how to get more people, including GANS, to sign up to serve during the temple open house. Thus far the temple committee has not done a good job publicizing and explaining the need, so they haven't had many sign up. Also, there aren't all that many members here (6 wards in the Rome area, compared to 15+ stakes in San Diego 25 years ago, for example). It is really the case that the Rome temple is larger than what the church would usually build in an area with our stats, but it is an intentional stretch due to the history and cultural importance of Rome. We also went over the activities for the rest of the year. Maria Jose made up a flyer for the big Thanksgiving dinner on Friday:
Dee had to leave the meeting early to go to the dentist to try yet again to match the color of her new implant. No luck, yet again! She ended up spending six hours out of the home and office doing doctor and dentist stuff. When the council meeting was over, Samuel was there for help with Pathway. He needs to do an assignment using PowerPoint, but didn't have any idea to use it. I showed him the basic idea, having him create new slides, enter text, and insert clip art. He got the biggest grin, as if this was an exciting new adventure! It felt great to help him.
In the evening there was a large group for the missionaries' English class, plus Ugo's online Institute class. Dee baked some sweet potatoes, which filled the entire place with an awesome smell. Everyone wanted to know what it was. Linda De Martino came by, and we gave her a taste of sweet potato with butter and salt. She only wanted a small piece because she had never tried it, but she really liked it. Dee had to make some pie crust dough for Sorella Balzotti's pumpkin pies for this weekend, using her wonderful food processor recipe. It is fascinating to watch the dough come together almost instantly at the end, and Linda really got into helping.
We stayed a bit late to finish all the dough, dropping it off for Sorelle Balzotti to get started on Wednesday, though we still owe her our stash of canned pumpkin that Dee got months ago at the base in Naples. Dee continues to feel better and better and seems to be over the nasty bug now.
