Time To Make The Doughnuts

One of my favorite shows to watch on the Food Network is Good Eats. It's hosted by Alton Brown. It's sort of a Bill Nye the Science Guy meets a cooking show. The various recipes are presented, as well as the science and history behind the featured food. I have to admit, the first time I watched the show, I found Alton somewhat annoying. Yet I continued to watch and eventually grew to like the show and the host. It helps that he has some pretty good recipes.

A couple of weeks ago there was an episode about doughnuts. Who makes doughnuts at home? It's so much easier to go to Krispy Kreme, Duncan Doughnuts, or any number of other places. But the episode intrigued me. So I kept watching. As I watched, I remembered making doughnuts with my mom as a child. I remember they were very simple. Refrigerated biscuit dough from the store we poked holes in, fried in oil, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar or cinnamon. Since cooking seems to be a new hobby that I enjoy, I decided to make homemade doughnuts from the episode.

Here is the recipe from the show:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 ounces vegetable shortening, approximately 1/3 cup
2 packages instant yeast
1/3 cup warm water (95 to 105 degrees F)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying (1 to 1/2 gallons, depending on fryer)
Directions
Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch thick. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 degrees F. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

With nothing to do tonight, I decided to try my hand at doughnut making again. This is the third time I've made the doughnuts, and I'm still a ways from having them perfected. I did take some pictures of the process just for fun.

The doughnuts have been cut and are bench proofing.

The doughnuts have been fried and are being cooled on a wire rack.

I would normally make my own icing, but I had some canned frosting I needed to use.

Don't they look good enough to eat?

I also decided to add the Good Eats episode. Gotta love YouTube.

The ABC's Of Me

A
- Age: 31
- Annoyance: Floss breaking and getting stuck in my teeth.
- Animal: Weimaraner. It's a bird dog that I want.

B
- Beer: Smells bad, why would anyone want to put that in their mouth?
- Birthday/Birthplace: September 7/Montrose CO
- Body Part on opposite (same) sex?: Smile
- Been in Love: Yes, several times in fact.
- Believe in yourself: I try. Sometimes I'm mores successful than other times.
- Believe in God: Without a doubt
- Believe in Ghosts/Spirits: Depends
- Believe in Evolution: Yes

C
- Car: 1997 Chevy Blazer
- Candy: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
- Color: Blue and Orange. Go Broncos!
- Cried in school: In the first grade after I vomited on the school steps.
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
- Chinese/Mexican food: Chinese is good food, but I'm a Mexican. I love Mexican food.
- Cake or pie: Pie. Key lime pie to be specific.
- Country to visit: Mexico. I want to see the Mayan ruins.

D
- Day or Night: Night
- Dream vehicle: Nissan 350z. It's not super luxurious, but I think it's one I could actually own someday.
- Dance in the rain?: Nope. I don't dance at dances. Why would I dance in the rain?
- Do the splits?: Um...no.

E
- Eggs: Over medium.
- Eyes: Brown
- Everyone has: Their own special brand of crazy.

F
- First crush: Meggan Hustad. I was in first grade.
- Food: Tamales. So good. I think I may try to actually make them sometime.

G
- Greatest Fear: Spending my life alone and not living up to my potential.
- Goals: To go back and finish college.
- Get along with your parent(s): Yes.
- Good luck charm: I'm supposed to have a good luck charm? Why didn't anyone tell me? Where do you get a good luck charm?

H
- Hair Color: Black
- Height: 5 Feet, 10 inches
- Happy: When the Broncos win.
- Holiday: Christmas.
- How do you want to die?: Surrounded by loved ones
- Health freak?: Not really, although I am trying to be healthier
- Hate: Feeling like I'm stuck in life

I
- Ice Cream: Tin Roof Sundae. Vanilla ice cream = good. Caramel ribbon = good. Chocolate covered peanuts = good. All together = Tin Roof Sundae
- Instrument: Guitar. I blame Guitar Hero for wanting to learn how to play

J
- Jewelry: Nope
- Job: Phone Surveyor

K
- Kids: Are loud and sometimes smell.
- Kickboxing or karate: Kickboxing is more fun to watch, but both would be cool to learn
- Keep a journal?: I have a journal although I could be better at writing in it

L
- Longest Car Ride: Rexburg, Idaho to Baltimore, MD. 2200 miles in 3 days.
- Love: Happens when you least expect it
- Love at first sight: Never happened to me

M
- Milk flavor: Chocolate
- Movie: The Godfather
- Mooned anyone?: Never
- Marriage: Someday
- Motion sickness: Not usually. Unless I'm on a Ferris wheel.
- McDonald’s or BK: McDonald's is definitely the lesser of two evils

N
- Number of Siblings: 2
- Number of Piercings: 0

O
- One wish: Just one? Isn't customary to get 3?

P
- Place you’d like to live: Fort Collins, CO
- Perfect Pizza: Pepperoni, ham, and extra cheese on hand tossed crust.
- Pepsi/Coke: Pepsi

Q
- Quail: Is a small bird
- Questionnaires: Give me something to do with my down time

R
- Reason to cry: I don't know. I hate crying
- Roll your tongue in a circle: Yes

S
- Song: Currently listening to: Typical by Tickle Me Pink
- Shoe size: 10
- Salad Dressing: I don't like salad dressing on salads, but they do make good marinades.
- Skipped school: Not until my senior year of high school. My mom caught me.
- Smoking: No
- Sing well?: I'm tone deaf, so no
- In the shower? Nope
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries

T
- Time for bed: Usually not before midnight.
- Thunderstorms: Are cool
- Touch your tongue to your nose: Nope

U
- Unpredictable: Colorado weather. It was 70 degrees yesterday, and today it snowed.

V
- Vegetable you hate: Mushrooms
- Vegetable you love: Carrots
- Vacation spot: Disney World

W
- Weakness: Kryptonite
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: None. I'm unique
- Who makes you laugh the most: Probably Sandy or Lori
- Wanted to be a model?: Never
- Where do we go when we die: To spirit paradise or spirit prison
- Worst weather: Hurricane like winds and hail.

X
- X-rays: Once, when I thought I broke my ankle.

Y
- Year it is now: 2009
- Yellow: Is the color of snow you should never eat

Z
- Zoo animal: Lions

LAST PERSON WHO…
1. Slept in a bed beside you? It's been a long time. I don't' remember.
2. Last person to see you cry? Andrea
3. Went to the movies with you? Andrea
4. You went to the mall with? Andrea
5. You shared a meal with? Tabi and Kerrie
6. You talked to on the phone? Clemente. He called me at work to provide some information about his business.

My Bad Days Aren't Nearly This Bad

On my way to work this morning I was listening to the radio. In between songs, the DJ related this news story about some poor guy in Michigan who seems to have had one of the worst days ever.

Just remember, your day is NEVER as bad as this guy's. In Michigan, man lost his dog. Drives car out onto frozen lake to look for dog. Locks keys in car, while it's running. Heat from the exhaust pipe melts ice. Car falls into lake. Dog never found. It's a Perfect Storm of SUCK.

A Perfect Storm of SUCK! This man is a living breathing country song. You can read the full story here.

Official Slacking Blogger Update

Okay, it's official. I have been a total slacker the past couple of months in updating this blog. There have been plenty of things happening in my life that I could have written about, but I haven't. I've been lazy. I've been spending all of my free time watching SportsCenter or the Food Network. I guess spending time doing those things makes for less motivation in updating my blog. Since I have some free time right now though, I've decided to give everyone out there a treat by putting up a new post. I think some people have gotten tired of the picture of my feet and the scale from the last post.

This is my car. A 1997 Chevy Blazer LS. When I bought it, I loved it. I actually bought it thinking that in the near future it would be used as a family car. Well seven and a half years later, I'm still the only one driving it. On the bright side, it hasn't been trashed because of rowdy kids. I've managed to trash the car all by myself. I'm kind of surprised it's stayed in one piece for so long. I've had to get new tires twice, get the brakes replaced twice, replace the U-joints and the drive shaft, replace the windshield, fix the rear hatch release lever, replace the drivers side mirror, and weld the drivers side door latch back on so it would stay closed. And there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

This is what it looks like now. A little bit dirtier and definitely more worn down. About a year and a half ago I was getting new tires for the second time. At the time I was told the ball joints needed to be replaced as well. I didn't have the money to replace them so, in typical Mo fashion, I put it off. About a 2 months ago, my car started making this loud clunking noise as I was driving down the road. I did some research on my own and determined it was the ball joints that needed to be replaced. I took the car to the shop and told them I needed the ball joints replaced. The worker asked all of the typical questions about my car. Make, model, year, and what I wanted done. Then he asked if it was the upper or lower ball joints that needed to be replaced. I was speechless. Upper or lower ball joints? My car has two sets of ball joints? It turns out my car does have two sets of ball joints because it's a 4 wheel drive. I told the worker that I didn't know which set needed to be replaced. He said that wasn't a problem and they would evaluate which ones they were. To make a long story short, it took the better part of 2 days and $400 to get the ball joints replaced. As I was driving home, I remember thinking at least I won't have to hear that awful clunking noise anymore. Just as I had that thought, the noise started up again. Argh! I spent my travel home for Christmas budget on my car, and it still made the clunking noise.

Last week as I was driving home from work, my car started to overheat. The temperature gauge was north of 260 degrees and the check gauges light was on. I figured the thermostat had gone bad, so I stopped to get a new one. I had to stop three times on my way home from work so it wouldn't overheat completely. In order to replace the thermostat, I had to wait for the engine to cool down, so I decided I would replace it before work the next day. The next morning I changed out the thermostat and figured that would be the end of it. I decided to let the car run for a while to get the coolant circulating and to see if the car would still overheat. I came back about 10 minutes later to look at the temperature gauge. Lo and behold, it was north 260 degrees again. Not cool. (No pun intended, but still funny.) The thermostat wasn't the problem. It was the radiator or something else to do with the coolant system. Argh! This was going to cost more money.

I took my car to a local radiator shop to see if they could figure out what the problem was. After a quick check, it was determined that the radiator was cracked. The mechanic decided to add some more coolant in order to find exactly where the crack was. He began pouring the coolant into the radiator to fill it up. He kept pouring and pouring and pouring. It turns out the water pump was literally falling off of the car and the coolant was being poured on to the concrete. The mechanic said they could fix it, but that they would have to order a new water pump. While he was speaking, the only thing I could think was how much it was going to cost. After doing some figuring, he gave me an estimate of about $200. I agreed and he began work on the car.

The next morning he called and said the work was done. I could come get my car. Not excited to pay the money, I took my time in getting to the shop. After paying for the work, I drove away. As I was driving, I noticed my heater worked. It hasn't worked in a couple of years. That means I can stay warm in the winter time when I drive. I was so excited about the heater working that I had already driven a couple of miles down the road, when I realized I hadn't heard any clunking noise either. I would have never thought replacing the water pump would get rid of these problems. Now that my car is in good running condition again, I even enjoy driving it again. I'm not happy that I had to spend $600 in the past month to get things fixed, but at least I am experiencing farfegnuten (the joy of driving).

At least until my radiator cracks some more.

I Got On The Scale And What Did I See?

I've been working on my weight loss for quite a few months now. The other day I got on the bathroom scale and was pleasantly surprised to see my weight. It wasn't something that I was expecting, yet I became very excited about it. The scale said that I was not longer over weight. Yes, that's exactly what it said. In a loud booming voice the scale bellowed "Congratulations! You Are No Longer An Unhealthy Mass Of Flab."

Okay, that maybe a bit of an exaggeration. There is no talking scale in my bathroom. Although if there was a talking scale, I doubt it would be so articulate. I did get on the scale though and was surprised that I've met and surpassed my target weight. I was so excited that I immediately took this picture and texted a couple of friends about my happy accomplishment.

I know the picture is somewhat grainy, but just in case you're wondering, the scale says 177.5. As in 177.5 pounds. That's 7.5 pounds below my target weight of 185 pounds. This is close the my weight when I came home from my mission! That was 10 years ago!

I know that I'm a big dork for being so excited about this and then posting it on my blog. But hey, if you can't share it with the whole world wide web, then who can you share it with? I'm feeling really good about myself and in addition to a crazy, yet wonderful, weekend, this was just icing on the cake. Except I don't really eat cake anymore. I mean I do eat some sweets, but...well you know what I mean.

Just For The Record

Last night, as I was looking through some books on my shelf, I came across my missionary journal. I didn't have much to do, so I opened it up and began reading. I haven't opened my journal up since my mission. In fact I have never even read any of the entries. I had written down my feelings and experiences (so I thought) and haven't really thought about them since.

It turns out that I wasn't very articulate or expressive as a 19 year old kid. Big surprise there. I used the words 'awesome' and 'cool' a lot. When describing teaching experiences I often wrote something to the effect of, 'the spirit was so strong'. What does that mean? As I was reading my journal entries I found that I was a little irritated with myself because I hadn't been more descriptive. I thought I was doing a good thing by keeping a journal. Keeping a journal is good, but I think it's better when you actually put your thoughts and feelings down instead of vague words and phrases. I do feel confident that I have some good thoughts and ideas written down, I just haven't discovered them yet. I wish I had written down more of the things I had learned and not only the day to day experiences. I look back now and I want to know what things were taught in my district meetings which caused me to write down the phrase 'the spirit was so strong'.

This experience helped me to understand the importance of keeping a journal, or diary, or blog, or some form of life record. As a child, it seemed to me, I would often see my mom writing in her journal. Her journal wasn't anything fancy, just a spiral bound notebook she would write in. For family home evening, she would attempt to teach us the importance of keeping our own journals. I remember a few times, the activity after the lesson was to make our own journal with notebook and construction paper, and then to write in it. I'm sad to say that those journals usually had just one or two entries before the were forgotten.

Even more sad to me is that I haven't done very well at keeping a journal since I came home from my mission. The past 10 years of my life are recorded only in my mind. It isn't very good that my mind is the only place where those memories are kept. Memories need to be written down. I'm not saying that I'm old, but I already forget things that have happened last week, let alone the past 10 years. I've decided to make a better effort at keeping a journal. Not only for me look back, reflect and learn, but hopefully someday my posterity will be able to learn as well through my thoughts and experiences.

Long Time, No Writing

I know, I know. I haven't written or updated my blog recently. It's not from a lack of ideas or thoughts to write down and share with world. It's complete and total laziness on my part. I kept thinking to myself, 'Self, put up a new post tomorrow'. Which of course never happened. So I figured I'd just make a big long post about the things that I have been up to in the past 3 weeks.

Run for the Wolves 5k
This is as good of a place to start off as any. I decided to run this 5k race because I wasn't very happy with the time that I got for the Homecoming 5k. Although my time for the Homecoming 5k was an improvement on my previous race time, it still wasn't under 30 minutes. I was sure that I could run 5k at a faster pace. So I signed up for Run for the Wolves 5k.

A couple of my friends said that they would sign up for the race too, and we could run it together. As the race got closer though, I found I was the only one that had actually signed up for the race. I talked to my friends and all of them had some reason or excuse not to run the race with me. I on the other hand was committed. I'd like to say I was committed because I'm a dedicated running person, but mostly it's because I had already paid the sign up fee and there were no refunds. So I went to the race by myself.

This race was much smaller than the other two races I ran in. There were only about 300 people compared to the 600 in my first race and the nearly 1,700 people in the homecoming race. I arrived at the starting location and this race had a completely different feel to it. There were people and dogs dressed up in costumes. I saw a small dog dressed like a hot dog and a guy wearing faerie wings. This race seemed more relaxed and laid back than the others.

As the race got started I was feeling pretty good. I began the race at the front to the pack and I was feeling pretty good about being ahead of everyone. That feeling didn't last very long though, as people passed me on regular basis. Still I kept my pace and kept moving along. I would like to say that this was the easiest race of the three that I have ran. I would be lying if I said that. In fact running in this race was down right hard. I kept thinking to myself that I was going to have to stop running and walk. I began picking points ahead of me and thought to myself when I reached that point I would walk. I would reach that particular point and realize that I could go a little further. So I would pick another point ahead of me and tell myself the same thing. I kept doing that until I finally got to the point where I was going to walk. I had made up my mind and I needed a rest. That is when I looked up and saw the finish line. I couldn't start walking so close to the end, so I kept running. I finished with a time of 27:36. What a pleasant surprise. I finally ran a race in fewer in 30 minutes. In fact, that is 3 minutes faster than my previous race time. Now the trick is to keep on running, so when I run a race again next year I can do even better.

Meetings with Elder Bednar
David A Bednar is an Apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of which I am a member. Apostles routinely travel the world visiting the members of the church in different areas. Because I live in a place that is so close to Utah, where the church is based, it's rare for an Apostle to come to visit. In fact I think it has been something like 22 years since the last Apostle came to visit this area. It was announced a few weeks ago that Elder Bednar would be coming to this area to have meetings with the members of the church in Northern Colorado. Part of those meetings was a special meeting with the young single adult members of the church.

The experience was unlike any other church meeting that I have ever been to. To start off, we arrived at the church building a few hours early in order to have good seats. My friends and I knew there were going to be a lot of people there, so we made sure to arrive early in order to get seats right up front. When Elder Bednar came in, we all stood to show respect for a servant of the Lord. He began the meeting and explained to us that our meeting would be a bit different than other meetings. He said our meeting was going to be a question/answer meeting. Can you believe it? We got to ask our questions to an Apostle of Jesus Christ. What an experience.

He made sure that we understood what kind of questions we should ask. He said that although all questions are good, some questions are better than others. He then gave two example of questions. He said that although questions like "Where is the Sword of Laban?" are interesting, they really have nothing to do with our eternal salvation. He said a better question would be something like, "What have you learned about prayer since you have been praying with prophets for the past 4 years?". Then he let us ask our questions. Some really good questions were asked, and a lot of questions hadn't even crossed my mind until they were asked. Elder Bednar took his time and made sure to answer the questions fully and to the best of his ability. I learned so much and I am grateful for the experience that I had to be there.

Cooking
When I watch TV, my entertainment usually comes from one of two channels. I watch a lot of ESPN and a lot of the Food Network. There are some pretty entertaining shows on the Food Network like Good Eats, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Iron Chef America, and Ace of Cakes. Not only are these shows entertaining, but they get me excited to try making the food myself.

A couple of friends and I decided that we would get together on Tuesday nights and have home cooked meals as a nice break from the single persons diet of ramen noodles, mac-n-cheese, pizza, and other various fast food meals. I have to say it's been a good experience. We usually meet at the store ahead of time to purchase the food items for our next meal and then we head to my house to prepare everything. I have been very pleased with the way our meals have turned out. We started off with simple things like chicken enchiladas, waffles, and pot roast and worked our way up to chicken cordon bleu and chicken fried steak. I know these meals aren't super hard to make, but they have been tasty. Next week, I'm hoping to do stuffed pork chops.

I really don't know why I enjoy cooking so much, other than it feels like I'm creating something and I hope other people will enjoy the food. I never thought that I would enjoy cooking so much considering that when I was younger and I had the responsibility to be in charge of dinner, I would usually just order pizza. Cooking for myself tastes so much better.

Trip to Utah
A few months ago, my friend Elisa made the decision to move to Utah. After putting it off for a while, she made the effort to start the process to move. She applied for and got a job working for the University of Utah and found a place to live. She set her date to make the move and started preparing the arrangements to move out there. While she was making her preparations, the person that was her first choice to drive the moving truck out to Salt Lake fell through. So I got the honor to drive the truck. Probably because of my box truck driving experience from my days as a Sears delivery guy and a Fed Ex driver.

Turns out that driving a moving truck across a couple of states isn't nearly as much fun as being a delivery driver. As a delivery driver you stop every couple of minutes to make your deliveries. Driving in the moving truck, we were stuck in the cab of the truck for a good seven to eight hours. Not fun at all. To make matters worse, those delivery trucks don't even go the speed limit on the freeway. I blame the car that we were towing behind us. It felt like we were going so slow and like all of the other cars on the freeway were passing us. I'm glad that Elisa was in the truck with me though. Good company can make a long trip a lot more bearable.

When we got to her new apartment I was not impressed. It looked pretty run down on the outside. The building was built in like the 1920's and it was all gray brick. The steps were crooked and there wasn't much of a yard. But we went inside and it was a nice place. The interior of the building had been remodeled with new drywall, flooring, and cabinets. I'm glad that she ended up in a nice place.

After unloading Elisa's things my brother came to pick me up so I could stay with he and his wife in Orem. It was nice to see them. We spent the first night playing video games and just hanging out. It was a pretty good time.

On Sunday I met up with my friend Michelle in Salt Lake and I went to the singles ward with her. I'm realized that I don't really like going to church in Utah. There are too many people and I feel like I'm lost in the shuffle every time I go. I definitely prefer attending church here in Fort Collins.

After church I went back to my brother's house for dinner. My sister and her family came as well. We enjoyed a meal of beans, potatoes, red chili, and home made tortillas. It's a meal that we often had growing up and I rarely, if ever, eat anymore. The food was so good and we had an enjoyable time spending time with each other. I miss having family around to hang out with. Hopefully someday, we'll all live closer to each other.

Eating Sugar Again
On the way out to Utah, we stopped at a Little America travel station in Wyoming. For those of you that don't know, Little America has 50 cent ice cream cones. It's a tradition of Elisa's family to stop there on road trips to use the restroom and get ice cream before hitting the road again. So we stopped and Elisa talked me into getting some ice cream. I hadn't eaten any refined sugar in 8 months as part of my diet and weight loss plan, so I was a little anxious about eating sugar again. I was worried that it might make me sick or even worse that I might not like sugar anymore. Turns out I still like sugar. I put the ice cream cone in my mouth and it was super sweet. Almost too sweet. Yet it was so good. Now I know Little America ice cream isn't gourmet ice cream. I mean come on, they sell it for 50 cents a cone. But it is worth the 50 cents.

Since then I have fallen off the wagon a little bit. I had some candy while I was staying with my brother and I may have had a few cookies here and there. But I'm determined to keep my sugar intake limited. I've lost nearly 40 pounds and I'm in no hurry to put it back on. I'm not saying that eating sweets will make me fat, but I want to make sure that I monitor the things I eat and the amount I indulge in.

Getting In Contact With Old Ricks College Friends
A couple of months ago I received a random email from Facebook. The subject said "Is this Mo?" and the message said "From Ricks College?" It was from a girl name Melodee I went to school with my freshman year of college. Talk about out of the blue. I haven't talked to or spoken to her in over 10 years. My friend Jacob and I had gotten pretty close to Melodee and her roommates while we were at Ricks. We even made road trips to see our friends in Utah the summer after my freshman year. But as happens so often, Jacob and I left on missions and the girls moved on with their lives and we lost contact with each other.

Thanks to the Internet invention of Facebook though, she was able to find my profile and send me a message. It was cool to write back and fill each other in on what's been going on in our lives. At first I was a little shy to share what I've been up to, since I don't feel like I've accomplished much since my mission. So I didn't write back immediately. Melodee stayed persistent and sent me another email about what she has been up too and I made sure to write back. She also put me back in contact again with some of her roommates and filled me in on what they are doing. It's been pretty cool to hear from these people that I haven't talked to in such a long time. In fact they have a special place in my heart because they helped me to see the importance of gaining a testimony about the gospel and serving a mission. I am so glad we have gotten back in touch with each other and I hope we can continue our friendships.

Other Random Things That Have Happened Or That I've Thought About
I love sports. I love playing watching them, whether it's on TV or in person, it doesn't matter. I even watch Sportscenter to see the highlights of the games I just watched. I dedicate a decent amount of time to reading about sports on the Internet too. But I just can't seem to like basketball. I would go so far as to say that I hate basketball. I recognize the athletic ability that is required to play, but it is a sport that I have no interest in. Recently though, I have thought about starting to play basketball. A group of guys from my ward get together Monday nights after FHE to play a few games. I have been giving some serious consideration to going and playing with them. Not because I want to feel included or because I have a new found love for basketball, but because I need something to do for exercise. I haven't gone running since I ran the Run for the Wolves race and I'm starting to feel a bit lazy. I know that I could get a good sweat going if I were to start playing on Monday nights. I guess my dilemma in making my decision is do I hate basketball more than I want to exercise? I guess I'll just have to play a game to find out.

On a completely different subject, I miss my friend Elisa. She is one of my closest and best friends. Now that she has moved to Utah I feel a little bit lonely. I have a lot of friends and I enjoy hanging out with them, but I still miss her. We had stake conference at church last week and I felt a little lost because I would always talk to her after the meeting. I don't like it.

Here is something random. I'm not ready for Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I'm a things-need-to-be-done-in-order kind of guy. I hate that there are Christmas decorations and music playing before Thanksgiving. I even saw some Christmas stuff up before Halloween. Pretty soon there will be Christmas stuff on sale right after the Fourth of July. It's not that I don't like the Christmas, I love it. It's just that I would like to enjoy Thanksgiving first before I focus on Christmas. That's just my feeling on the subject.