août

There are still a lot of plums in our fridge, and I continued to bake with them this week. I made a plum pie, but I messed up the crust. It still tasted good, though.

The recipe had me macerate the plums in sugar, then drain the liquid and make it into syrup.

And then I also made plum upside-down cake, which I adore. 

And I also made tomato sauce from our garden tomatoes and mint leaves. 

I'm in charge of service projects in my ward. When they gave me the calling last year, they told me we would oversee two projects a year (in addition to our ongoing task of delivering birthday cards and gum). But earlier this year, they had us alternate every other month to do service as one of our Monday evening activities. And honestly, it is a lot more fulfilling that way. We alternate with the temple and family history committee, and I personally would rather do service activities than family history activities, so I'm glad they have us get more involved.

This month, for our activity we assembled about two hundred hygiene kits for homeless/needy youth in Davis County, which we also did last year. When I organized it last year, part of the reason (besides the back-to-school theme) was to help queer people, since I know they often get kicked out of their homes. Of course, this activity benefits all youth, and I'm happy to do so. But I was glad to do this activity the same day that the new [pick your word: disappointing, indefensible, disheartening] trans policies came out.

I went to the church early to set up, and I am perpetually amazed at the poor design of our old church building. When you go into the gym, you can't turn the lights on. There are some light switches, but they only turn on a few lights that leave the room very dim. To actually get the lights on in the gym, you have to go onto the stage, into a classroom, and into a cupboard. Which is bad enough on weeknights, but it's worse if you want to turn the lights on in the gym on Sunday and there's a class going on. You literally have to interrupt a class to turn the lights on in another room. I often think that whoever designed the building should never be allowed to build again, but then I remember they're probably dead. And it's a good thing they're dead! 

The cupboard

And the light switches

Recently, my mom set up a bird feeder. I was surprised to look out the window this week and see a deer lapping up birdseed with its tongue! These deer live in our neighborhood, so they are very common and annoying. But sometimes I have to think about how amazing it is that these megafauna are common enough to be pests!

Yesterday I introduced a friend to North Canyon, and he seemed properly impressed. 

Unfortunately, on the way down, I twisted my ankle, so we had to walk the last two miles down instead of running. I hope it heals fast so I don't miss the fall running season. And as we were coming down, we ran into my BYU boss and his wife and eight-year-old son. The eight-year-old was very happy to show us a stump stabber wasp.

I don't really have much else to say, so here are this week's dreams.

an old high school has a toilet halfway up the wall

a hovering, furry insect with black and white stripes and more than twenty tentacles

Grandma grabs Nathan by the legs and drags him on the carpet

Mark watches "The Music Man" in the kitchen while cooking

Mark sees his favorite singer at a conference, and he is surprised because he thinks the conference is too conservative for her

Sue covers up pictures of her family members with cardboard

Mark leads people on a walk to a nearby culdesac

A woman named Kaitlyn Maitland stays at Mark's house, even though he only knew her from ninth-grade Spanish class twenty years ago (No, I don't actually know anyone with this name)

Mark looks in the Christmas room at a used video game store

Mark goes to the home of a shark breeder and holds a container of shark spawn

an oak tree grows large, white blossoms on places where it is distressed, which can be harvested and planted

Mark hangs out in the unoccupied house of his late grandparents

Mark wears a wetsuit while a family watches their dad clip their dogs' nails and a daughter sings "Running with the Wolves"

Mark runs up the sidewalk in a bicycle helmet because yellowjackets won't leave him alone

a Latter-day Saint Sunday School teacher discusses a word that refers to gay people in a lesson

Mark almost gets adopted into a recovering hoarding family, but he won't shake the mom's hand

Mark watches the "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" movie, which has sad clouds becoming happy clouds

Hugh brings firecracker tortilla chips to his party

Mrs. Riley comes into Mrs. Gregg's classroom, presumably to ask her to turn her music down

Mark has a swimsuit painted on his body

Mark and his family browse the music in a Utah-themed store

Mark runs on a sidewalk near a church where a 5k was once held