April 18, 2018

On Sunday the bishop invited us over for a gathering with the saints at his house. It was a way to enable the saints to fellowship with the newer people in the ward. I spoke with a guy from the Elders Quorum, the primary president, and a former nursery worker. I didn't see many opportunities to meet people, so I played with Sydnie. Sydnie attends nursery. I like being a primary worker. It gives me an excuse to play with children. The Mitchells had a toy, which had two square rods attached. The two wooden rods were attached to a wood board. The toy came with many shapes that the shapes, which had a square hole, enabled children to practice hand eye coordination and logic. Children love to practice and experience life over and over, so I had a stack of these shapes, and I just gave her another shape after she placed one on the toy, doing this over and over until she got over it. Sydnie did the activity for several minutes.

20 April 2018

The past few evenings Jessica and I have been busy. Jessica had a Relief Society meeting on Tuesday, and she had Cub Scouts on Wednesday. We celebrated our monthly anniversary on Thursday.

Sunday 22 April 2018

On Monday evening we folded laundry because we were still catching up from me, doing nearly ten loads the previous Saturday. Our closet is too small to fit everything, so we bought a dresser yesterday at Ikea. Every weekend I seem to do something to set our house in order. We read D&C 119 & 120. 

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High."

We did not understand how to dedicate our incomings and outgoings to the name of the Lord.

On Tuesday & Wednesday, waiting for Jessica to complete her activities, I transcribed two StoryWorth audio recordings from my grandpa.

On Thursday, we went to Marco's Cafe in Multnomah Village. I forgot the name of my dish because it was a fancy Italian word; probably for wide noodles. They had an option for a half or a full size. I asked for the full size with the astonishing price of nineteen dollars. I set my expectations high, since the price was so high. I could make a feast with twenty dollars. My minimum expectation is that I will be full. I didn't care so much for the taste. I chose the dish because I love to explore unknown and exotic dishes. When I received the dish, I knew that it would not be filling. My face sunk in disappointment instantly. About a minute later, the waitress came to ask about the quality of the food. I didn't say anything because restaurants only have one opportunity to serve their food. This is their standard size for their full size. I said to Jessica that the dish was a quarter of the size that it should be. The flavor was a little bland. It had a little citrusy flavor on the first bite. The experience was a bad start to the date. I was grateful that we have a tradition to go out for ice cream. If the waitress was truly attempting to remedy the situation, she should have. I was not silent about my disappointment. I couldn't ask for seconds or thirds. They would have charged me sixty dollars. One odd ingredient in the dish was green peas. Peas don't match pasta well. I don't belief that I should be an exception. If a restaurant is going to serve quality food that satisfies a customer, I should not have to make a special request for them to fulfill their business. I learned in accounting that revenue represents the successful transaction of satisfying service. If customers are not satisfied, they will not return. Jessica and I will certainly not return to Marco's Cafe because we were not satisfied. I tweeted "I am grateful that @nectarfroyo let Jessica and I keep our monthly anniversary tradition bright after an unsatisfactory dinner at @MarcosCafePDX."

We traditionally get ice cream on the nineteenth of each month because we were married on that day of March 2016. There is no ice cream place in Multnomah Village. We went to Nectar Frozen Yogurt. Many of their flavors are ice cream flavors. That puzzled me when we first went there with Jasmine & Lucas. On the nineteenth, I put Dutch chocolate on the bottom of the cup with Pecan Praline. I put a lot of nuts in those flavors of frozen yogurt; then, l put a waffle bowl on top, where I put Eurotart frozen yogurt in with my favorite strawberries and frosting covered animal crackers.  The rich chocolate tasted refreshingly not creamy, since it was not ice cream. The frozen yogurt saved the evening from my disappointing dinner.

When we were walking back to the apartment to watch a film, a guy asked me to film him. I held his camera where he asked me, not knowing exactly what he will do. He ran, jumping up on a concrete structure. After hopping to the other side of it, he jumped about ten feet, attaching himself onto a square pillar about five feet wide. He then jumped back to the concrete structure, hopping to the other side again. Finishing his stunt, he did some sort of flip. I don't think that he did a front or backflip. He did it in three attempts, twisting his ankle on his first attempt, but he rubbed out the pain. After filming him, I was asked if he was disturbing my walk with Jessica. I said that he wasn't because we were already home. When he realized that I lived where he trained, he asked if I wanted to train with him. He could train me.  He told me about local gyms, which were actually pretty far. I think that he said Gresham has the closest one. I did not straight forward say that I shouldn't, not knowing how to express myself.

We decide to watch the Emoji movie after. It was not as bad as people made it out to be. I liked the simplicity of the story. I enjoyed the humor and the movie better than most movies that I watched recently.

On Friday evening we checked out Xfinity because "I found out that we can have free texting and calling with @Xfinity, since we pay for internet services through them." After the visit we decided that "The free unlimited phone & text service with @Xfinity is not a good deal for me because I need an iPhone to retain my phone number & pay a minimum a $12 for data monthly. It would take years until I actually save money after purchasing iPhones."

This weekend we bought a lot of food. The total probably weighed over 120 pounds; buying fifty pounds of wheat, twenty-five pounds of rice, and twenty-five pounds of oats. We practically ran out of everything. We are finally going to make bread again.

On Saturday morning, I planned my nursery lesson. I wanted to teach the children that they are children of God. God misses them dearly, and looks forward to them returning to live in his presence. I prayed that they know that their Heavenly Father loves them. The children's participation was weak mainly because I was a weak teacher. I read from Psalms 82:6, saying "All of you are children of [God]" This knowledge is important in order for the children to know their divine nature, capacity, destiny, origination, and ancestry.

Brother Kuhn play the children ukulele during snack-time and entertained them with juggling after.

I have had some cycling adventures this week. "Before turning on to the hilly Terwilliger Blvd, I found myself at a stoplight with two other cyclists, who were decked out in odd spandex. At green I took a wide turn to go to our lane, placing myself last. It was not long, going up the hill, before the second place person broke away from the pack, passing the leader. I decided to chase after him. I used a technique of riding without hands to have more torque in my effort. Since this was my first race in Portland, I didn't want to be too cocky and pass him, so I sat on him. I was only able to stay with him for a minute before I could not keep up. It didn't help to get off the seat. I still pushed though keeping within fifty yards of him. Cycling has been more enjoyable in Portland compared to Tualatin."

"I learned in X-country to not look back when someone is following you in a race because it shows weakness. Cycling up toward Terwilliger again, a girl was following me. The fast ride home let me catch up with @jraynium, waiting at a bus stop. I coached him on my BYUI X-country team." @jraynium is Josh Ray. He transferred to PSU to study computer science. He helped me prepare for my internship with Intel at Hillsboro because his father worked at the same location that I interned at. He followed up on my experience. I said that we loved living at Orenco Station, being close to Winco. Cortland Village Apartments had walk-in closet, which Jessica always brings up.

After church Brother Kuhn and I were asked if we were willing to teach Valiant 8. I think that this is unique because Jessica works with the same age of boys in Cub Scouts.

23 April 2018

Last night we had dinner at the Ledesma's. Mercedes cooked the carne Colombian style. We have good times, laughing.

I finally finished a bottle of Teriyaki sauce, which I wanted to review. It took about a month to finish, and I bought it because I knew that it would. One thing that made it last longer is that it required oil to be add to the stir fry; therefore, if you want a good tasting Teriyaki sauce that will last a long time, the Kikkoman: Teriyaki Marinade & Sauce might be for you. I would like to expound on the nature of this sauce. The ingredients are not natural. The ingredients are the following: SOY SAUCE (WATER, WHEAT, SOYBEANS, SALT), WINE, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, VINEGAR, SALT, SPICES, ONION POWDER, SUCCINIC ACID, GARLIC POWDER, SODIUM BENZOATE: LESS THAN 1/10 OF 1% AS A PRESERVATIVE. I don't know how I overlooked the wine, but the high fructose corn syrup is the main ingredient that we had an issue with. When cooking with it, the flavors very inconsistent without oil. When I poured it in my wok, it smelt like word chemicals. I will not buy it again.

I have not spoken about my work lately. There is an architecture firm that works in the save open office room as us. I asked them about a detail that I thought that might make a cold joint, and an architect that cycles to work like me said that they debated it for a while. Do you remember Morrison Hershfield, the exterior cladding consultants? I interviewed with them, and they didn’t continue talking to me. I got an email from them because Columbia Stone’s scope is the construction of exterior cladding of the Multnomah County Central Courthouse. They gave me a quality control check list for a few items. I think that is coincidental. I have been given the task of do a quantity take off of the entire shell of the building. It has been taking me weeks.