Dad’s Weekly Report

Dear Family,

Well April is almost over. The month has really flown by. This week Brent came for a visit. His purpose in coming was to buy a car. He bought a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta. It really is a nice car. It has every option you can think of, including leather heated seats, and a 6 disk CD player that is in the trunk. It was good to have Brent home. I had fun with him yesterday as we changed the oil on our cars. Of course we had to go buy some tools.

I finished the table for our new TV. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

The front hinges open with a place to store DVD’s It has a shelf under the top for the cable box and DVD player. I adjusted the tray since this picture so that it tips out further so that you can see the titles of the DVD. I think that it turned out pretty nice.

I have two more weeks that I can go to work. I am spending my time looking for a job and studying for my CQE exam. I take that exam on 6 June. I got some more study materials from some folks in Beaverton and I have been going over them. I have also taken an online class and studied a big handbook on the test. I have learned a lot of things. If I continue studying hopefully I will be pass the test. There will be 160 multiple choice questions in five hours. I have been going though a lot of example questions and some of them are kind of vague. I think that I can answer most of the ones that require math because then you get a specific number. But with the vague ones there will be two or three answers that could be right depending on your opinion. Oh well keep studying.

So far no success on the job hunting; I have applied online to quite a few jobs but no responses. I have been writing and re-writing my resume and hopefully it is getting good enough that people will want to call me. Emily designed me a very professional looking business card. Thank you Emily.

Spring has come, we have had a few warm days and a lot of the flowers are blooming. It is a little late this year. I think it has been too cold. Sandy has been working in the yard and filled up our big yard recycle bin a couple of times with weeks and trimmings. The plum tree has bloomed and the blossoms are falling. The apple tree is getting ready to bloom. Spring is such a pretty time around here. The giant pumpkin seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago in the garden haven’t come up. They were either bad seeds or I planted them too early.

Friday Brent and Sandy drove up to Bremerton to see some Navy things. They walked all around a destroyer and went to a museum. I was invited to help with a sealing session at the temple that night. That sure was enjoyable. Then afterward I went to a chapel session/meeting as part of our stake conference this weekend.

The big news this week is that Allen has finished all the requirements for his Master’s degree. We will drive to Pullman on May 8 to celebrate with him.

Well that is all the news. Please take care.

Love,

John

Dear Family,

On Monday of this past week I was informed that I will lose my job. I have 4 more weeks on the job then 5 weeks where I will be paid. I will be officially out of work on 12 June. I should get 6 months severance pay, but I think one of the months is the month before 12 June. Then I will be eligible for unemployment and that can last up to 6 months. So I have started looking for work more seriously. Monday of this week I will go to a class on resumes and Tuesday and Wednesday I will take a class on finding a job. I have signed up on www.linkedin.com to network. The job that I would like to get is called Supplier Quality Engineer.

I enjoyed watching the Blazers this week. They beat the Spurs in San Antonio, then they beat the Lakers at home, then last night they beat the Clippers in Los Angeles. They have two more games in the regular season. Tomorrow they play the Thunder and then Wednesday they play the Nuggets.  Both are home games and so they should win them both. That will give them 54 wins this season. And they are in the playoffs. They youngest team in the league.

I am making good progress on the TV table. I only have to finish varnishing the tray and then install it with a hinge and it will be complete.

I finished the last part on the Suffolk Latch that I am building in the blacksmith shop. The last piece is soaking in vinegar now. I soak the parts in vinegar because that takes the scale off. Then I can wire brush them clean and paint them. Here is a picture of the main part of the latch.

I will offer it for use on the Perkins cabin and if they don’t want it I will donate it to the fort for use in a cabin they are building.

Today is Easter. We had a nice program in church, lots of music. The choir sang two numbers. One we did well and the other we didn’t because we didn’t know it very well. Russ and Nicole Thomas invited us over to dinner after church. We just got back from their house. They have four small children and it was nice to talk to and play with them

Well that is all the news. I hope that you are all well. Please call when you can.

Love,

John