some things that are going on

baking
I made doughnuts the other day, both raised and cake kind. I watched Alton Brown making them on Good Eats the other day (the raised kind) and thought to myself, "That looks like fun -- and tasty to boot!" So I decided to make some. When I mentioned this to my dad, he told me that our former bishop's wife (not our bishop's former wife) makes good doughnuts, so I asked her if she had any pointers. She gave me her cake doughnut recipe, and I made a batch of those too. I had some trouble getting the oil to the right temperature at first, but with a little help from Mom, they turned out just fine. The only trouble was that, by the time they were finished cooking, Dad had started his fast for the next day, and Mom and I were almost late for watching the Relief Society broadcast. So they're now sitting here -- at least two dozen of them, still. In the meantime, Dad and Mom have both become sick, and I'm afraid I'm coming down with it too. :(

running
The other day I had a fabulous run. It was rather late, so it was already dark, but I had missed my best opportunity earlier in the day, thinking it was going to rain. It didn't at the time, and while I waited for it to, it actually snowed for some time. But that had cleared up and melted away by the time of the RS broadcast, so afterward I went out for my run. I've recently learned that it's a great help to me when I run in places I'm unfamiliar with. So that day I took a path I never have before, and it was simply amazing. On the other day, today's run (which also followed a new path) was awful. I didn't make it for my whole time, but I was so out of breath and so horribly sick to my stomach that I simply couldn't make it any further. I'm hoping that had something to do with my feeling sick.

work
My brother and sister-in-law are going on vacation this week, taking a cruise to the Bahamas. They've hired me to "nanny" their five kids while they're gone. I'm looking forward to the extra money and the nannying experience. I just hope I don't get them sick! (B isn't worried about it, so I'm still planning to do.)

church
I got a new assistant for my FHE calling, which is nice. It's a load off my shoulders, and it was especially convenient today, when I was able to call her up and ask her to take over the whole she-bang since I'm not feeling well. (She was already in charge of the lesson anyway, so it wasn't that huge a deal.) I do feel a little bad for her, though, since this is now the third calling she has!

books & reading
Mom and I have been reading James's "The Turn of the Screw," which is great preparation for Halloween season. We both are finding James's syntax rather challengning, though. Today I told Mom that I might have to start pulling sentences from James as examples of poor syntax in my composition classes, and have the students re-arrange the clauses into more understandable sentences. (Though I'm not sure yet whether I would want to tell my students that these examples are from an established author.)

I also picked up a book from the library on the life of Augustine, which I'm excited for. I've decided that I have to do some real, serious reading this week, and I figure that will help me with my planned quick-through of Augustine's major writings that I borrowed from one of the professors at BYU-Idaho. I also got about four Georgette Heyer books, in hopes that these would help Mom and me through our illness.

quote

As he pretended to ignore me, I pretended to ignore him. (21 points)

The last quote was from the Leslie Howard version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my favorite moments in that movie. The quote before that was from an episode of Futurama -- Man 1 was the Professor, Man 2 was Fry, and [name] was Bender. I just think that show's is hilarious!!