Week Five

Sunday
New York!

Monday
Work was really busy. I had to pull a ton of samples from storage, move them to smaller containers and then ship them. One sample request had nine samples that each weighed five pounds.
Beth invited me to a party of some ladies in her last ward. There is a medical school around here and one of the girls finished her third year and took a crazy hard exam, so we celebrated. The ladies there were really hilarious. So here's a couple conversation topics.
Two knew each other from BYU-ID (one is married and one is not) and they kept bringing up people from their old ward. They mentioned a guy who owns a pork bbq place in Portland (they joked it should be named Pork in Portland or Porkland). They decided the girl should date him, because this group is apparently into matchmaking. Later I mentioned I was 21, and one of the ladies said her son is my age and a recent RM. They all gasped and looked at me excitedly. That's just a super awkward position to be in. At least I had a response ready, I mentioned my mission call, which is in fact a great way to ward off boys (although I already do that on my own).
We talked about smart phones because one of the ladies got a new phone. Her son was the one who just got off a mission, and he needed a smart phone so she got the one he had before his mission. I thought that was a little strange but apparently she hadn't updated her phone since 2003. She was so mad her family made her update it because she was convinced it was much better than any other phone out there. The other ladies were trying to console her, telling her it was time for her to get a new one, it was hilarious.

Tuesday
I got my cheesecake stuff ready to go! I'm starting on that first thing tomorrow!
Institute was fun, nothing too exciting. There's a mission prep class starting next week, so that will be good.

Wednesday
I started my cheesecakes! The normal version was delicious but the two I made with a concentrate were nasty. Luckily I was not using a recipe I made up so nobody could blame me! I'll have to tweak them a lot to get them right.
I haven't thoroughly explained what the concentrates are used for so I'll explain now. We take a regular product like salad dressing or cheesecake and make up a control. The control is the typical version of that product. My job is to add in our super concentrated cheeses to replace some of the actual cheese in the product since it is expensive. The companies are able to fill in the difference with cheaper ingredients like water, or oil. The end result should hopefully taste exactly the same as the control so you can't tell there is a difference in anything: taste, color, texture etc.

Thursday
I started some testing of our enzyme modified products, the technical name is the Acid Degree Value test. Basically I spend time extracting the fat, then I take the fat and add some alcohol and do a titration. I never thought I would need to do one outside of chemistry class but here I am.

Friday
Today was a very slow day. I ended up doing the test from yesterday again. I had help from the chemist in our office yesterday so today I tried it on my own. I am not so good at it but I think I just need more practice. My data was at least reasonable, even though it wasn't what we got yesterday. I'll probably do it again next week and see if I can get it down.
Beth and I went to see Romeo and Juliet for free outside in a park. It was really fun. We brought chipotle and sat on a blanket. I only got one mosquito bite!

Saturday
I went to a Walk for Autism in the morning with Beth. It was really fun. There was a raffle so we got tickets and put them into the Kindle Fire drawing. There were booths advertising services. We happened to know the guy doing massages so we got some for free. It was so nice to get a professional massage! The DJ put on Boyfriend by Justin Bieber because a little girl requested it. There was a boy over by us who ran off screaming "NOOO!!!" the second it started. It was hilarious!!
After the walk we went and saw The Hunger Games in the discount theater. This was the second time I saw it and I thought it was great. I even cried when Rue died... again.