The last couple of days have been nothing short of beautiful weather-wise.  I came on this trip packed with clothes that would survive an Arctic expedition, and now it looks like it was over-kill.  9 pairs of wool socks than may never have to be washed.  And, my long-johns may also have seen the last wear for the season.  Anyway, I was grateful for the break in the cold.  And, I am so grateful for this apartment that I have.  As I went to Walmart to get a few kitchen things and some grown-up food, I couldn't help but notice the many cars and trucks that were parked in the parking lot - many in which people undoubtedly spent the past night. It's hard to imagine unless you witness it.

Thursday afternoon and Friday I spent some time interviewing.  I interviewed for a Service Manager position in a computer store (this was merely intended to be a practice run, and the manager of the store I talked with seemed to have mental problems...)  I also interviewed for a NOC (network operating center) position with the local phone company.  That went pretty well and I think I'll get invited back for that one.  Friday morning I interviewed with a recruiter from Halliburton for a couple of well-site roles - MWD (measurement while drilling) engineer and directional drilling engineer.  Each of these positions spends their time at the well head and while they require extended time away from home, they also pay quite well.  My dear brother-in-law Ed lined this one up for me.  I came away very encouraged and so I'll report more on that job as information becomes available.  In the mean time, I'll just get ready for my intense van-driving training.

Today, Saturday, was a great day.  Beautiful outside.  No wool socks needed.  Last Sunday they announced a service project over at the Lutheran church, so I got up and met over at their church at 8am.  I figured I would get to know some ward members there.  Since I didn't know many in the ward yet, I wore my BYU hoodie so I could be recognized.  Well, turnout was me and about 15 Lutherans.  They were all really nice to me, except the pastor was not all that friendly.  I think he was eyeing me apprehensively the whole time.  Nobody mentioned anything about the BYU sweatshirt.

Anyway, they had a big platform in the back of the church where they were going to set up a pavilion, and we were going to set stakes for the roof.  Well, there was too much water from runoff to set the stakes, so we split up the group and part of them cut a channel for the water with shovels, and the rest of us went and filled sand bags and then stacked them.  The water out in the parking lot was more than ankle-deep.  It worked pretty well - here's some shots of the parking lot and the work we did:

I made some nice friends and had a good time.

This evening I went and walked around a Scandinavian Heritage Association visitors center.  It was very interesting.  Unfortunately it's too early in the year for the beautiful fountains to be running, and it was rather late at night so the pictures don't quite do it justice, but I have included a few here:

Here's a shot of the visitors center.  Now you know where the Swedes get those funny hats:

They have a tribute to Hans Christian Andersen:

That's not really him, it's just a statue.

And, you'd think that the Father of modern-day skiing would have some better equipment:

I'm going to come back and look through this really beautiful church museum   It appears like very authentic architecture, but I don't know much about Scandinavian architecture.  It also smells really good, because it made of all cedar wood.  When I was there it was already closed, so I'm going to come back.  But here's the outside of it:

This was interesting - it's the great-great-granddaddy of the horse we have at home:

No, I didn't Photo-shop this.  It is a horse that's at least 50 feet high.  Just like ours at home, except it's a lot harder to play with.  I think it's the original Trojan horse that the Greeks used to enter Troy.

Gotta get to bed.