Doctor and dentist, again
Monday morning Dee left about 9:30am to see Dr. Giorgini, who gave her a shot of some kind in her knee. It is the first of a series of three, which should help with the pain she has been having. Apparently these shots can be done every year for quite a while, which would be better than possibly having a knee replacement. So I got to spend the morning alone at home. Dee almost accidentally pointed out an error in how we were treating the Mouri property taxes, so I corrected that. I also did some lesson prep for the coming weekend, both during the morning and the afternoon. I also found time during the day to download and watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional from the night before. They posted it in Italian by Monday morning, which was impressive -- usually that takes several days. I particularly liked Sharon Eubank's talk; she is a friend of ours and has a gift for telling stories.
In the afternoon Dee went off to try the latest version of her tooth implant. Finally they got the color right! It is in place temporarily for her to see what she thinks. On the next (and final!) visit they will cement it into place. Technology is amazing. Dee and I recently read a fascinating book entitled Accidental Medical Discoveries, among which was the surprising fact that titanium can fuse with bone, which is how these implants are done.
Dee also made some chocolate chip cookie bars. She left them for me to check and take out of the oven, which I apparently did to perfection. They were very popular at FHE.
The Ganziani (mostly Anziano Mansell) taught the FHE lesson, using the church's "Light the World" (in Italian it's "Sii Una Luce") videos. I had downloaded the videos ahead of time and put them on the local network, but for some reason that didn't work so we had to stream them anyway. My wife came up with a nice idea that we hope to continue: she asked everyone to name a book that they really liked. It was fun to get to know everyone better this way. Rhenald named a Nigerian author that I would like to look up. We plan to have a "question of the week" at FHE going forward.
Afterwards, Aysha (on the right in the photo above) interviewed us. She has to give a talk in one of her classes on how Rome has changed in recent decades, and she had asked if we would be willing to be interviewed. She was really good at asking questions and probing our responses, and we all enjoyed it. Hopefully she got enough good material for her presentation. For being here just a few months, her Italian is surprisingly good, though we did the interview in English. She goes home in less than two weeks after completing her semester abroad, and we will really miss her.
Two appointments in one day again. First, the knee doctor. The shot was hyaluronic acid with a little cortisone and anesthetic. The future shots will have only the first ingredient. The knee brace and Tylenol have made a big difference, but I'm glad for this boost.
Then, in the afternoon I went to the dentist. This all adds up to hours of travel time. The walking around is healthy, but I need some time to do other things, haha. Anyway, the people at the dentist office were really excited at the special invitation to the Temple open house. I used a card that Wendy had custom made and sent to me, so the invitation looked really nice. I'm so lucky.
