Three Hundred Fortieth Entry

It's been a while since I've updated.

No new news on the job front. I had a couple of interviews, but they were a no-go. There are so few jobs available. In fact, there are fewer now than there were when I was first laid off. But there are still a few, and I'll keep applying.

I had a presentation in my French class two weeks ago. I was so nervous and was working on it up to the last minute. There was a snafu with the powerpoint file type, but we got it to work in class. The presentation was to plan a trip to a french speaking country, and visit five cities. We had to research places to stay, eat and visit as well as a little bit about the culture. I picked France (as did half the class) and my cities were Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Avignon and Bordeaux. I did a decent job. The best comment I got was about my great pronunciation. They had to say something nice...

My confirmation class is interesting. I like learning about the bible and the catholic religion. I'm finding that I am a bigger believer in God than I thought I was. Now that I am older, I can appreciate the structure and order involved in a catholic mass. What we do in class is read through the readings for the following Sundays mass and discuss the message. It is basically a bible study disguised as a confirmation class. I don't mind. I've attended lots of bible studies and know what it's all about. The folks in the class are all younger than me save for a 60-something guy who looks like he's napping half the class. The priest in charge of the class is about 70 or 75, but is very laid back. He's a good person to be leading the class. He does pick on people to answer questions like "how does this passage make you feel" or something, but an honest answer is never followed by more questions. Plus, there are goodies half way through the class....mmmmm, cookies...

I am enjoying my class so much, that I am going to challenge myself to attend church everyday in December. Starting tomorrow, of course. St. Leanders has a mass at 7am and 12:15pm weekdays. Two chances to go. Yay Jesus!

Congrats to Dayni and Danny!!! Can't wait for Sunday!!!!

I recently took a cake class with Amy. I enjoyed it a lot. It was super fun and delicious! I took photos of all my cakes, and will post them at some point. I was the only guy in the class, so the teacher always made it a point to comment favorably on my work as if she were saying "cake decorating is so easy, even a guy can do it!" She may have even said that at one point in the class. I'm going to make a nice little Christmas cake, complete with basket weaving and roses! I've got to start planning.

Thanksgiving was uneventful and less emotional than last year. I was a baking machine. I made three pecan pies, one pumpkin pie and dozens of Alsacienne cookies that are traditional Christmas cookies in the Alsace region of France, which is where Strasbourg the "capital of Europe" is. I even made Stove Top stuffing and scalloped potatoes from several boxes. I still have some cookie dough left over in the fridge. Maybe I'll make some for Festivist. They were super delicious.

This past Saturday, I spent the day in San Jose with Amy, her sister Katie and her nieces. We had a lot of fun. First (8am), we had blueberry pancakes with sausage and hashbrowns. Then we went swimming in auntie Katie's swimming pool for two hours. The kids could have stayed in the pool all day, but we had big plans for the rest of the day. Then we had a lunch of chicken strips and pasta. After lunch, we lounged around. Some of us napped, some of us took the kids to the park and some of us did some laundry. Can you guess which one I did? I napped! After napping, we all headed over to Christmas in the Park in downtown San Jose. They had one of those carnivals going and the girls went on almost every ride! It was fun watching them on the rides all excited and stuff. The girls were really tired by the end of the day(8pm).

I guess that's it. I'm off to bed. Good night.