Out of the Mouths of Freshman

So my new roommate (not room roommate, but saying housemate makes me feel like I'm on the Real World Provo, or something) is a freshman out of the inland empire in California. She's very sweet and incredibly timid, and it's been an adventure remembering just how much you don't know when you're a freshman. Today she decided to make snickerdoodles (green ones!) for a Troll 2 party our house was throwing, and here were some of the highlights of the conversation:

Her: "So, what time should I start making them?"
Me: "Well, how long do they take to make?"
Her: "The recipe says bake for 11 minutes... so if the party starts at 8, I should probably mix them up at 7:45"
Me: "Don't snickerdoodles have to refrigerate for awhile? Also, you're probably going to have to bake more than one batch."
Her: "No. The recipe just says bake."
Me: "Check out right here where it says 'refrigerate 1 hour.'"

Her: "Do we have any cream of tartar?"
Me: "Probably not"
Her: "What am I supposed to do then? Do you want me to go buy it or something?"
Me: pretended that was a rhetorical question and kept vacuuming.
Her: "What about flour, sugar, and vanilla? Oh, and eggs, butter, and crisco? Where are those?"
Mental Me: "At the store, with the cream of tartar."
Verbal Me: "There might be some in the communal baking cabinet. Just make sure to replace whatever you use the last or almost last of."

Her, while staring at the finished dough: "So when do I add the food coloring? Now? or after I bake them?"

Oh the joys of leaving home for the first time!

Getting Quasi Published!

During my last semester at BYU, I worked as a research assistant for a professor who was writing a book about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Germany during the Second World War. I did a little editing and a lot of poring through German microfilms and internet databases trying to track down the fate of soldiers who were listed as MIA. I also got the opportunity to go and help with a few interviews where we met with survivors of the war or their descendents. We listened to their stories, got as much detail as possible so we could compare it to other accounts and verify as much as possible, and took pictures of their old photos and surviving keepsakes. Anyway, the book is finally done and published and will be hitting the shelves on September 21st! I'm pretty stoked! At one point there was talk of crediting all of the research assistants who worked on this project (for we were many), but whether or not that actually happened, I still feel pretty special. Anyone who's interested in more info, or wants to order a copy can visit the publisher's website.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

My mom offered this book to me as a quick, easy, and entertaining read over the long weekend, and it was super fun! It's set in the Channel Islands between England and France in 1946, and the whole thing is written in letters between the various characters. It was engaging, human, and a something I'd recommend to anyone interested in an excellent read!