More costumes from the yodel fest a couple of weeks ago.

JULY 17, 2010 SATURDAY

We didn’t have any pressing appointments today so we took our time getting up and going. Tomorrow after Church our branch is going to have a linger longer or, in other words a grill party/pot luck lunch. We weren’t present when it was planned last Sunday and, when we asked later what we could bring, everyone sang out “brownies.” So, this morning Diana made brownies. We decided to use up some of the corn syrup we bought a long time ago and needed some coconut and almonds to make a coconut chew. We also wanted to take a frog-eye salad and needed a couple of things for it, too. I timed my morning walk for when the store opened and bought the items that we needed and then walked back home. While I was gone, Diana made the brownies. When I got back, I cooked the pasta pearls and made the sauce for it and put it in the fridge to finish tomorrow. I got the fruit ready so I can finish it quickly first thing in the morning. I gave Diana our full shop recipe for coconut chew and she did her numbers magic and reduced it down to what we could do on our stove. First, we roasted the almonds and got all the ingredients ready. In went the main ingredients and when it was cooked to the right temperature, in went the rest. Diana, always wanting to try something new, added a small bag of Hawaiian trail mix to a part of it. Since we’re both fasting as we do every Saturday night and Sunday, we didn’t taste it, but it looks delicious.

We tried to call Bishop Schwendener and Pres. Bolt to let them know the results of our meeting last night. Neither one answered their phone, but later on Bishop Schwendener returned the call. We gave him the update on how we felt the meeting went. He asked some good questions and we feel he completely understands our opinion. We told him we’d tried to call Pres. Bolt and told him it was important for us that he be informed so we can find out if we can go home on our scheduled release date. We need to tell Pres. Condi if we need to have our plane tickets changed or not. He said he would contact Pres. Bolt and let us know tomorrow what he has decided to do. We told him we thought everything was resolved and there shouldn’t be a reason for us to extend.

We did some more phone contacting today. We tried to call Charlotte Kunz to straighten out the misunderstanding she has about our being “disappointed.” She wasn’t home, or didn’t answer, so we left a message explaining what we meant. We hope she will get over it. We called Irma Egli who said her eye operations went about as good as could have been expected. We made an appointment to go visit her next Friday at 2:30. Next we called Claudia Clavedetscher and made an appointment with her for next Thursday at 6:30. We sent a text message to Priska Staehelin inviting her, Michael and the kids to come to church tomorrow and join the potluck as well. Diana called Kofi and invited him to Church and specifically asked him to bring his two boys and wife with him.

We looked at all the things we were going to take to the Church tomorrow and wondered how it was going to happen. We had a sheet cake pan of iced brownies, a sheet pan of coconut chew, a huge bowl of frog-eye salad, 15 wursts and cervelats to grill, a couple hundred plastic plates, and a couple hundred plastic bowls. Before we left Schwamendingen we bought the plastic stuff and, rather than leave it here in the apartment when we leave, we thought we would donate them to the ward. We had a large cardboard box so we loaded up the coconut chew and brownies in it, put the plastic stuff and the stuff to grill in my backpack and I took it to the Church tonight. The frog-eye I’ll take with me in the morning.

It’s been a rather nice day weather wise, overcast and periodically raining throughout the day. It has cooled off considerably. Tomorrow is predicted to be another rainy day. How that will affect the potluck lunch is yet to be seen.

Roxsan skyped us to see if we had any ideas to resolve a water problem at the home Monica is going to move into on Schorr Drive in West Jordan. We told her what we knew from memory about the sprinkler/water system and hope they can figure out the rest. We also talked a little about maybe renting the basement of our home to the son of Linda Barton, a member in our home ward. We need a little more background information before we say yea or nay.