Summer Survey: Mark

Mark at Dog Beach in Del Mar with the hounds.

1.     The best use for peanut butter: Chocolate is peanut butter's soul mate, but I have enjoyed an Asian dipping sauce made with ginger and peanut butter. Recently, Karen and I made a peanut butter chipotle sauce for ribs that was very good, as well. The worst use of peanut butter is for birth control. As a missionary, my companion and I lived with an elderly LDS woman named Sister Gwen Hall. She was a temple worker in the Oakland California Temple and looked after the missionaries in her ward for years. She tells the story of how her grandmother told her that eating peanut butter would prevent pregnancy. Three children later she concluded that it was a wive's tale. 

2.     A great gift you would like to receive but no one has ever given you: Something red, Italian, fast, and very loud . . . perferably with 12 cylinders.

3.     Fiction or non-fiction (and favorite title): How embarassing. I only read church, political, and technical books, not the classics.

4.     A food everyone loves to eat but you think is overrated: Storebought cookies. Oreos comes to mind. I really hope Karen doesn't read this entry. She loves Oreos. (As a defense, I eat them only as an ice cream topping or mix-in.)

5.     Ideal temperature for sleeping: 68 degrees with the windows open and a comforter on the bed. The sheets should be cool and crisp and the pillows made of down, not foam.

6.     One thing you love about camping: The sights, the sounds, and the smells of a camp fire.   

7.     One reason you do not camp more often: The absence of a hot shower and a comfortable bed.

8.     Favorite thing about nighttime: The feeling of peace and relaxation you experience right before you fall asleep. The darkness and quiet that silences the outside world for awhile.

9.     Ideal music for a summer evening: Anything loud and with a beat.

10.  Your thoughts on s’mores: Generally a little overrated. I know that they are a summertime tradition, but that are just OK and they have been just OK for decades. I would rather have another burnt hot dog. Now those are great and I would be smart to not save room for the s'mores. 

11.  Would you ever live in the South? Yes . . . Savannah, Georgia sounds nice. The thought of the old South is very appealing. Women with a Southern accent always sounds so genteel even if they are trying to be disagreeable. On the other hand, women with a New York accent always sound like they are angry at something or someone.

12.  If you stole an art piece, which one would it be? One that was very expensive, so the jail sentence would be worth it. I like my freedom so I would probably buy a print.