Winter Week

It was a real winter week this week! And as I think about the highlights, a lot of them are food related. Sorry about that.

I was off work on Monday for Presidents' Day, and the conditions were such that I thought it was a good opportunity to go to Cave Peak again, just as I had done on Valentine's Day. It was a little less muddy this time, and it was overcast, which made it an overall more enjoyable run than two days earlier.

This is the turnoff to go up to Rudy's Flat, which was still too snowy and icy for my tastes

I wanted to do something presidenty for Presidents' Day, so I took my dad down to Draper so we could go to Brooker's Founding Flavors, a quirky local chain of ice cream shops themed around the American Revolution. The ice cream flavors are mostly named after eighteenth-century figures, and they have eighteenth-century-style hot chocolate. I had hot chocolate that was supposedly Jefferson's recipe, and I had a scoop of Abraham Lincoln birthday cake ice cream in it. (Of course, Lincoln is an exception to the overal eighteenth-century theme.)

On Mardi Gras last year, I felt like getting a king cake, but I didn't want an entire cake at home, so I took it to work. My supervisor got the baby in the cake, so she vowed to make one for 2026. And she did! She likes baking, and I was impressed that hers tasted like a professionally made cake.

Near our office is a cupcake shop called So Cupcake, and they announced recently they're shuttering at the end of the month. Since it's green season, I went and got a lime cupcake for the very last time. I don't go to bakeries/dessert spots as often as I have in the past, but so many good ones have closed that I feel like I should go to them more to keep them afloat.

Then Wednesday we actually had a snowstorm! We've had little snowstorms on the hill since the end of November, but this was the first substantial one. I remember the days after Thanksgiving being sad because we hadn't had snow yet, but then I looked forward to the cozy, snowy season still to come. And . . . it didn't come. I would listen to a spooky Christmas album and think how it was a spookily worrying Christmas season. And then January wasn't any better. So I'm glad we finally got snow, even if it wasn't snowy for the traditionally snowy holidays. So now I know that nature still knows how to snow. But does nature still know how to snow on Christmas?

I had to drive down the snowy roads for my appointment at The Park Barbershop. The first time I went to them in August, I followed my appointment by going to a boba place in North Salt Lake for the first time. Since it's green season, I went to the boba place again and got an avocado smoothie. 

I'm going to Taiwan this week, so I brought in my suitcase, and Reggie enjoyed playing in it. I will miss him while we're gone.

Because of snow, I swam with the swim team on Tuesday and Thursday, and Friday I went on a street run. Though I prefer trails and abhor ice, it was a nice evening for a run, as long as I was bundled up.

Friday I received my order of little green lights for my gold St. Patrick's Day tree. (I have some battery lights, but I don't like burning through the batteries, to say nothing of the hassle of turning them on.) 

And I also got a set of string lights where you can change the colors with a remote.

A few weeks ago, a friend invited a large group of people to go snowshoeing or cross-country skiing at Solitude Resort, an event called Nordic Nights. Only four of us ended up going, which made me feel better about the times I've invited people to things and no one has come. I took an old set of snowshoes that my sister bought decades ago (probably late '90s). As I put them on, I realized they were broken, so I strapped them on my boots as best I could—I didn't want to pay the money, or deal with the hassle, of renting snowshoes.

There was a one-kilometer snowshoe trail around Silver Lake, and there were little LED candles in the snow to light the way. While we were traversing the trail, one of my snowshoes came off, and I didn't feel like putting it back on if it was just going to come off again. So I had one snowshoe and one boot, and I got to learn the physics of snowshoes versus boots. 

I happened to see an old coworker from Sundance (2019 and 2020 festivals) there with her boyfriend. We chatted a bit, and she asked, "Do you still do the thing were you only eat holiday treats?" And then I think her boyfriend said something like, "Oh, this is the guy?" Well, it was something to indicate they had talked about me before. 😆 And then later, one of my friends asked me if I was going to have one of the complimentary s'mores. I said, "I only eat s'mores around the Fourth of July." An older woman walking by heard me and said, "I'm a s'more snob."

It was a fun evening, and it was nice to take advantage of winter. But I didn't think it was worth the price and the crowds if I could just go snowshoeing closer to home. (Well, in a normal year I could.)

It was also an eventful week in dreamland: putting a pet scorpion in a bag of orange and black caramel corn; sleeping next to a lion; feeding treats to a cat that disguised itself as a tortilla and was sitting in a bag of tortillas; going to the Olympics; getting a job at a barbershop / shoe store even though I had zero training, and a client with smallpox-like welts on his skin hugging me.

Serious and silly

I had a week where I feel like I can say something about every day!

Last Sunday, I wrote letters to Celeste Maloy, John Curtis, and Mike Lee, and I put them in the mail on Monday. This is the bulk of the letters:

I am severely concerned about the current state of the United States of America under the Trump administration. Actually, “severely concerned” is an understatement. My grievances are too long to include fully, but they include the following: pardoning people who attacked law enforcement at the Capitol, killing any boats that are assumed to have drug traffickers, filling government positions with unqualified people, removing history from museums and markers, flip-flopping on the Epstein files, posting mean-spirited social media content on official government accounts, and threatening to invade Greenland. I am dismayed that I can no longer trust the content on official government websites, whether it’s about health, science, history, or elections. And I am certainly infuriated by the brutal ways ICE is fulfilling its job: murdering people such as Renee Good and Alex Pretti; detaining children, legal immigrants, and US citizens; and not adequately training employees.

In your heart, I think you know that Donald Trump is not a man of honorable moral character, that he is a man who cares only about himself. Therefore, I invite you to encourage your colleagues in the House to do what you can to remove him from office, and then keep the momentum going when the vote goes to the Senate. I know you worry about revenge and retribution from him. But if enough of you can band together, you can remove him and strip him of his powers. Think for a moment what it would be like if Trump no longer had control over the US and the Republican Party. You could instead rally around a leader who has a firm moral compass and does what is best for the country, not his or her own personal interest—someone who is a good role model for your children and grandchildren, someone who tries to unite us.

I did add some personal touches to the introduction and conclusion, and Maloy's was slightly different, since she's in the House. I told Curtis I voted for him in the primaries (he was the least terrible option, though of course I didn't tell him that), and I invited Lee to repent for joking about Melissa Hortman's murder. Between Mike, Trevor, John D., and Robert E., I have a hard time trusting people with the last name Lee.

I went into the office for my Utah Historical Society (UHS) job (I'm expected to go in once a week). In the afternoon, I met my BYU boss for lunch (he loves lunch) as I started working for him again. Since October, I have been working full-time hours for UHS, but I've still been a part-time employee. But this week I resumed splitting my time between UHS and BYU. I gotta say, I have a harder time focusing for my BYU work. I think that's because (1) the assignments are harder, (2) I'm using my own laptop, and (3) I work on it at the end of the workday.

On Tuesday I went to DI, which I don't go to very often. I enjoy looking at the old CDs to try to find things that are not available on streaming services. On this trip, I bought the CD Shall We Gather by Enoch Train, a local folk ensemble named for the ship that transported many of the handcart pioneers. I heard the CD on my mission when my companion borrowed it from our district leader. (That was the only companion who I think is actually a bad person.)

On Wednesday, UHS had a ceremony for our annual awards. This time, it was held at Hill Aerospace Museum, so we were surrounded by lots of old airplanes. Military history isn't really my thing, but it was still a cool venue to be at. I'm on the committee that decides the best books and articles. Our top two Utah history books (published in 2024) were This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah by Paul Reeve, Christopher Rich, and LaJean Purcell Carruth, and American Zion: A New History of Mormonism by Benjamin E. Park. I had a lengthy discussion with Christopher Rich after dinner, and I said hi to Ben Park, but he meets so many people. (I generally admire his scholarship, but last year he made a video about Pioneer Day that had some dead-wrong analyses—he obviously hadn't read my article!) And I also talked to the authors of our award-winning articles, as well as other scholars who were there. The awards ceremony also honors various community initiatives, but I'm not involved as much (or involved at all) with the others.

They dimmed the lights during the actual event, but all of us employees had to help set up

And I was glad we finally got a little bit of snow that evening! Still, it was a paltry amount for January. Sigh.

Thursday I swam with the recreational swim team again, which I've been doing pretty consistently this month. The swim coaches put up workouts for us, and I finished the whole workout on both Tuesday and Thursday this week! But they were easy workouts, posted by the easy coach.

Friday I ran up some of the new streets under development in North Salt Lake. 

Also, I was surprised this week to realize that when Catherine O'Hara was in Beetlejuice and Home Alone, she was younger than I am now!

Saturday, I rode my bike to the top of the Summerwood neighborhood in Bountiful, which is really hard to do, so it's satisfying to make it up. I went 6.8 miles total and climbed 1,100 feet. I shed a layer on the way up and put it on for the cold downhill. It's a challenging ride, but I find it less boring than a flat ride.

My boss also sent me a copy of one of the many books I've been working on for him in the last couple of years.

In my free time, I've been watching various Valentine's shows for a new spreadsheet I'm working on, and I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy on my Switch in anticipation of the movie coming out this spring. I don't know if I'll see the movie, but the game is probably the best video game I've ever played, even though it originally came out in 2007. And I've been catching up on my history books about the memory of the American revolution—I have a lull before we get more books to read for next year's Utah history awards.

It's been a while since I've posted any drawings about my dreams, so here are some I've had in the last month or so. As a reminder: I used to make AI dream images, but I've switched to drawing them myself in order to foster creativity. They are not meant to be good drawings. And I just think dreams are funny.

At the White House, David and Susanne hit Trump on the head with spoons, and Mark tries to figure out how to stab him

Reggie sits in a giant geode

Mark rolls down the street on a pair of lint rollers

On social media, people make fun of a company's new apatosaurus jingle

At This Is the Place, a hippopotamus follows Mark around

Oh, and what the heck, it's Valentine season, so I'll share some of the Valentine's treats I've had this week, in the style of pumpkinundation roundup.

The Arctic Circle Chocolate Covered Raspberry Shake is just a raspberry shake with little chocolate raspberry cups. It's OK, I wish it had more chocolate in it. 6/10.

The Cold Stone Berry Velvety has red velvet cake batter ice cream with strawberries and cream cheese frosting. I ate it, and I didn't distract myself with my phone, yet I still don't remember much about it. I think the cream cheese was a little potent, and the strawberries were a weird addition. 6/10.

The Shake Shack True Love Shake has strawberry, custard, chocolate whipped cream, and a crackable chocolate shell on the inside of the cup. I would love to see more creative things like this! 8/10.

The Kneaders Chocolate Raspberry Petite Cake is also called a Black Forest cake (according to them), and it's a chocolate cake with a raspberry filling. In previous years, they've just had a chocolate cake with a cherry on top, so this is more interesting. 7/10.

Juney June

On Monday, the State of Utah was off for Juneteenth, so it was nice to have the day off. The state holiday is the third Monday of June, but the federal holiday is June 19. When I worked for the Church History Department, they observed the state day, so I assumed BYU did as well. But this week I learned they have the federal day off. It doesn't matter that much, since I'm not actually a BYU employee.

Since I've been busy so many Saturdays, it was nice to have a free Monday. I went up North Canyon, which of course is my preferred spot when I have the day off. It's such a well-shaded trail. After I got to Rudy's Flat, I decided to go down via the new trail, which I learned that day is called the Mahogany Ridge Trail, because there are mahogany trees there. I have gone all the way up it but not down, which is a different experience. That trail is not very shady at all, and the summer is only going to get hotter, so I knew that if I didn't go down it then, I would have to wait until the fall. It was lovely, though it was annoying not to have more shade. I stepped off the trail to let some cyclists pass, and one of them said to me, "You're way out here! Good for you!" I was probably four miles away from the trailhead at that point. The entire run was a little over nine miles.

Namesake mahogany trees

I just love sego lilies!

Snake tracks

For my BYU job this week, I've been looking at transcripts of old articles and updating their footnotes to align with modern citation conventions. That can be frustrating, especially when the authors were sloppy with their citations, and I have to track down information. But Reggie often likes to sit on my lap while I work, which is a morale boost—but it makes me less efficient, especially when he puts his paws on my hand and I have to type one-handed.

I was also frustrated doing some Utah Historical Quarterly work this week, because there was one author who introduced a number of mistakes into an article we edited, and he did it without Track Changes. And he used the word "pollution" when he evidently meant to say "population."

On Thursday evening, PBS Utah hosted a special Juneteenth event, and since the forecast was in the 100s, I thought it was a good night to do something indoors. And I haven't done much for Juneteenth. They had mini sweet potato pies. Of course I'm into holiday-themed desserts, but I don't know what's culturally appropriate for a white guy like me to have on Juneteenth, so I'm glad they provided them. And there were some people there that I know, so I got to talk with them.

Then they had a panel of five Black people talking about Juneteenth and various issues. One is a physician (who hosted the Juneteenth 5k I did last year), and he is worried that if the CDC no longer recommends vaccines, then insurance companies will no longer cover them. (I am so sad for children who will be contracting measles and anyone who legitimately can't be vaccinated, but it is very difficult for me to feel bad for antivax parents.) And there was a woman there who said she knew her great-great-grandmother, who had been enslaved. The first entry in the great-great-grandmother's family Bible was from 1872, when it was illegal for her to read and write. It blows my mind that there are people alive today who knew people who were enslaved! 

On Saturday, my ward/stake participated in My Hometown day of service. It was going to be my only free Saturday of the month (due to conferences and No Kings Day), but I volunteered to help out with this as well. My group was assigned to put together a vinyl fence, something I know nothing about. So I was only minimally helpful. Oh well, it's OK if I'm not good at things. Thankfully, it was cool enough that I was still able to go on an evening North Canyon run. I actually prefer evening lighting better, but the timing is less convenient in the evening for a longer run. 

It's been a while since I've included my AI dream images (my dreams have been less interesting, and I've gotten a little bored of the concept), so here are some from the last month-ish. 

a retired pilot with dementia thinks the grocery store is an airport

a senior woman steals a shopping cart, then a garbage can falls on her

angry Japanese people throw rocks at a tidal wave

Mark fits into an elevator that has a washer and dryer in it

the sandwich shop applies condiments with makeup brushes

a flock of pelicans spells out messages in the sky

a secret tunnel that goes under the house, and the opening is next to a cockatiel cage outside

three suitcases slide down the icy sidewalk

Easter Week

I was able to go trail running six days in a row this week. Monday through Thursday, I was on the Wild Rose Trail every day, and I was able to see the leaves on the trees grow over the course of a few days. And the season of arrowleaf balsamroot has begun—I saw my first specimens on Monday, and there were quite a few more by Thursday.

Monday

And here's the same plant on Thursday

These were from Thursday, and I don't recall seeing them in bloom on Monday

Still lots of glacier lilies

On Saturday evening, I went on a six-mile run that I don't do too often, but I have done it before. It has a rather steep portion east of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from Tunnel Springs Park, and sometimes I will do the steep portion when I have less time so it's a good workout in a short amount of time. But for some reason, it was harder this time, and I had to stop a lot. I did one mile in twenty-three minutes, which is exceedingly slow! But oh well, there are a variety of valid reasons why it was harder for me. I don't have to be at full capacity all the time. 

The lighting at this time of day made the Depression-era terraces especially visible

Yesterday, the City of North Salt Lake hosted a community event to purge myrtle spurge from Springhill Geologic Park. Since I use that trail all the time, and I have an intense disdain for invasive plants, I went and participated, which seemed like a fun thing to do on the day before Easter and the Saturday before Earth Day. It was a good turnout, especially since there was a youth mountain biking club there, and they have to get hours maintaining trails. I personally pulled up four bags of spurge, and collectively we volunteers filled up the back up a pickup. But there is so much spurge there that we barely made a dent.

It was fun to be among the igneous rocks, since most rocks around here are sedimentary. All those flowery bright green plants are spurge, which is native to the Mediterranean and takes over the foothills here.

And there were plenty Eastery activities this week—I colored eggs with my family. 

These are all the eggs I did. I was first introduced to using regular crayons on eggs in 2010, and I really like doing so.

This is super silly, but I bought some eggnog that came in Easter packaging, mostly because I thought it was funny. I mean, eggs are more associated with Easter than Christmas. And there was a 1965 Easter episode of McHale's Navy that revolved around eggnog—but McHale's Navy was a terrible show that I rate 3/10. 

We had Easter dinner with my mom's family. I recently had a dream about chocolate carrot cookies, so I thought it would be fun to make a chocolate carrot cake. My mom found a recipe on Pinterest and sent it to me, so I made and decorated this cake. It was amazing! Carrot cake is my favorite dessert, but I might like this chocolate version even more. The frosting is chocolate cream cheese.

I'm in the choir in my ward, and today we sang the three newly added Easter songs. There were seven women and two men in the choir today, so I was the only tenor. For years, I have loved the song "Were You There?," and I was delighted that they added it. I asked the choir if we could sing it, and during practice, they asked me to sing it so they could hear it. Then they asked me if I would sing a solo for the first verse. So I did! And it went well. It was the first time I've sung a solo. But I didn't sing the "ohh-O-o-ohh . . . tremble" by myself; the choir joined for that part. I think I got the rest of the choir to love the song too. Here's one of my favorite versions of this lovely song.

As I've been on a faith journey over the last three years, in many ways I'm more comfortable with the Jesus aspect of Easter now than I used to be. The messaging I always picked up was "You need to know this is true, and if you don't, then you need to pray harder / study better / do more." But now I think, Of course it's preposterous. Of course it's hard to believe. That's the whole point of faith, and Christians have been practicing faith for nearly two thousand years.

And I have enjoyed my Easter playlist more this year because I made an abridged version in which I took out the terrible songs. Last year I added three albums for Lent/Easter/Pentecost by the Soil and the Seed Project, which have enjoyable Christian songs in a variety of genres. And of course, the newly released soundtrack for It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown has helped too.

Anyway, people have told me they like my AI dream images, so here's this week's to close. 

Mark tries to sell CDs for charity from a cart at Walmart, and Christian organizations try to sell Christmas cards

a motivational speaker sells Addams Family vinyl records

a hot tub next to the podium of a church

the street is flooded because a family drained their swimming pool

Mark walks next to a girl on a snowy sidewalk, and a dog follows them, so Mark wants to throw snow at it

Mark hopes to buy a New Year shirt at Walmart

Mark keeps a sewing machine on the lower bunk bed

Mark rides a slow train to a gift shop that sells sweaters with bison and saguaro

Mark worries he dislocated the jaw of a baby bear that has latched on to him with his mouth

during work hours, Mark sits on a boulder in a stream