Sunday, December 27, 2015

The end of another year

I look forward to this post all year, the one where I remember what I've doing during the past twelve months. 2015 has been a pretty good year.

January. It was a warm, dry January. It was kind of depressing, actually. I did research for my boss, Reid Neilson, and sometimes research was easier than at other times.
I began spending my Thursday evenings by helping tutor some Tongan high school kids in Salt Lake. One Thursday night after going to tutoring, I got a call from Reid Neilson--he wanted me to look over some press releases, because the next day it was announced that he had been appointed as a new Assistant Church Historian.

February. Another warm, dry month. I saw Woods Cross High's production of Mary Poppins on February 6, and the next day the wind blew our recycling all over the neighborhood, the same day I went to an awkward concert of the Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts at the Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum. On Valentine's Day, my family went to Promontory Point.

March. March wasn't a really eventful month. My laptop got knocked to the floor and the charger broke. I began working as a contingent (contract) employee, but I was doing the same things I was doing as an intern. But with better pay and benefits. Apparently it was so uneventful that I don't have any pictures to share, so instead I'll post this music video that came out in March.

April. I got a new laptop to replace my broken one. On Easter I made a picture with what I imagine  Isaiah was describing when he talked about "wizards that peep and mutter":
 I went to Thanksgiving Point for a tulip festival. I had some fun experiences with trail running: I discovered beautiful North Canyon on Arbor Day, and one night I got very lost.

May. It didn't snow like I was hoping, but we did have an impressive hailstorm.
I was given a calling as a stake family history director, so I had to begin going to the Bountiful Heights Family History Center on Saturdays. My family went down to Cedar City and Millard County for a cousin's baby shower and a cousin's farewell. On Memorial Day, I ran (mostly) to Ensign Peak and nearly stepped on a snake.

June. On June 1, I had an impromptu trail run up to Elephant Rock in Mueller Park, even though I wasn't dressed for it. Reid Neilson asked me to take his place on a women's history tour as part of the Mormon History Association convention in Provo, and that same weekend I went on a ward trip near Altamont, Utah. I got my broken laptop repaired, resulting in me having two. My June evenings were spent eradicating goathead plants and seeing sego lilies along trails.
At the end of the month, I ran North Salt Lake's 5k and discovered I've gotten much slower, even though I can run farther. And my nephews arrived from California for a few weeks.

July. Spent the Fourth of July with my nephews, and then we drove to California to take them home. It was a very fast trip, and we only had one full day in California. We went to Muir Beach.
This summer was the first time I formally celebrated Pioneer Day, because I learned more about the early celebrations of the day. One Friday night I drove up Parleys Canyon for a work party and got stranded up there because my car wouldn't start. I took it in to be fixed, but they couldn't figure out the problem, because it started just fine for them.

August. In the beginning of the month, my family went to a family reunion in Fillmore, and we got to see many of the artifacts of my pioneer ancestors. Most of the reunion was at a hotel built in the 1920s, when people were apparently shorter.
I also went on a short hike near the U with two other people and we got lost (but not really). I began transitioning to a new job, working on a women's discourses project with the Church History Department. I went to see the National Parks (band) in Kaysville.

September. I began working full time on the women's discourses project, and I began a pumpkinundation roundup on this blog. I was flattered when Reid Neilson gave me cookies for my birthday. I began my new calling as an assistant ward clerk, and my stake calling got busy as we had to coordinate stake FHEs. We made murals to support family history, not knowing they were too heavy, so they kept falling down.





October. I dressed up as Vector from Despicable Me for Halloween, and in that costume I won a North Salt Lake Halloween 3k, but that's because most of the people were children and their parents. My parents went to Hawaii, leaving me alone in the house for the days before Halloween and the beginning of November. I spent Halloween with my niece, and on Halloween night our cat brought us a rat. Not a mouse like she usually does, but a huge rat.

November. I went to Orem to see the Addams Family musical, and there was a certain Mark Melville there who had gotten my tickets in addition to his own. My family went to California to spend Thanksgiving with my brother's family. We went out to eat for Thanksgiving, but I had a stomach bug of some kind and could only eat a little bit. We took family pictures while we were there.




December. We got a late start to the Christmas season, since we had been in California for Thanksgiving weekend. We had lots of snow, to the point that I stayed an entire day home from work. I went to Christmas concerts by the Lower Lights and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We made gingerbread houses.
It was an enjoyable Christmas.

Although there aren't a lot words in this blog, it took a while to gather all the memories. I don't feel like writing anything else, except

 ~Happy New Year!~

Sunday, December 20, 2015

White snow and red cranberries

What a wintery week! This wasn't the first snow (it's been snowing since November, at least here on the hill), but this was the first problematic one.

I didn't even make it to work on Monday. I didn't think my little car would make it down (or up) our hill safely, and even if it did, it sounded like the commute was terrible. I had to use some of my vacation time for Monday, because I was only able to work an hour from home.

My dad called early in the morning and said that the snowblower hadn't been working, so I set out to shovel the driveway by hand. It was more than a foot deep (I didn't measure, but it had to have been), so I could only do a little bit at a time or it would be too heavy. This picture shows how much I got done in an hour. Or maybe it was two hours.
Shoveling was definitely my workout for the day. After three hours of shoveling, I was less than halfway done. Our neighbor across the street (whom I hadn't met, since I'm a terrible person) offered his snowblower, so I accepted. But I'd never used one before, so when he saw me struggling, he came over and did the rest of it. It was very kind and saved me hours of work.

However, by that point the driveway needed to be shoveled again, so I thought I'd bring out our own snowblower. I figured that it hadn't been working because the snow was too deep; but I later learned that my dad thought it wasn't working because he had one of the switches flipped the wrong way. I got it started, and I was able to get a lot done that way. I figured while I was going downhill with it I might as well do our neighbor's sidewalk. Then I had to turn around. And since I hadn't used it before, I didn't know that you could switch between one wheel functioning (to turn) and both wheels functioning. I only had one wheel going. And let me tell you, pushing a snowblower with one working wheel up a snowy hill is no easy task. When I would push on it, it would push me down the hill, rather than the snowblower up the hill. Somehow I eventually got it back up our driveway, and I was furious with the machine. I later felt a little silly when I learned how to turn both wheels on. I probably spent around seven hours (or more) in the driveway that day.
However, I was reflecting that it's not really something I minded doing at this time of year. I had Christmas tunes playing from my phone in my pocket, and I wasn't at work, and I had wassail in the slowcooker. It was kind of pleasant. Much better than shoveling in depressing January and February.

The next day I went to work late, and I had to brush all the snow off my car. (My niece had brushed off some of it the day before, but there was still a lot on it.) And once I got the snow mostly cleared off, the tree dumped more snow on the car--and on me.

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert on Saturday night. We applied for tickets both at my house and at my sister's, and my house didn't get any but my sister's did. I used the tickets with my niece, while my parents went to the standby line and also got in.
I was amazed with how great it was. I mean, I knew it would be good, but I didn't think it would be that good. Between 2011 and 2013, the guests were operatic, and the 2013 guest, Deborah Voigt, was especially awful. Last year's Sesame Street guests were charming, and Santino Fontana was fine. But Laura Osnes was surprisingly good and had a great voice. There were some opera guests, and while I honestly think people only like opera because they're trained to, these weren't as bad as some are, and it fit with the Handel theme of the show. They had an entire segment on the story of Handel's Messiah and how it was performed for charity. I found it very inspiring. I always listen to Messiah at Christmas and Easter, so sometimes I get a bit tired of it, but I was reminded how beautiful it is.

My one annoyance was that they sang "Over the River and through the Wood" and "Jingle Bells," which were originally written for Thanksgiving. There are already hundreds of Christmas songs, so why do they have to purloin more from the small canon of Thanksgiving music? I don't mind "Jingle Bells" as much, but with "Over the River" they replaced the word "Thanksgiving" with "Christmas"--thus consciously trampling all over my favorite holiday!

And I just want to say something about cranberries. Cranberries are nice and festive (in cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and in other settings at Christmas), but plain they aren't very good. Last week I made a recipe from my vegetarian cookbook, panfried squash with cranberry and orange sauce. In October I made a similar recipe and I wasn't a big fan, but it was OK. This time, the whole thing was disgusting. The cranberries gave it a sour, bitter taste. And for the previous recipe I used a pumpkin, which was fine, but this time I used a kabocha squash. I literally gagged on it. At one point I moved the squash out of the sauce, but there was a piece hiding out in the sauce, and when I ate it I gagged again. And to top it off, the brown rice I was using was stale. You can bet I'm not making it again. (This happened in time for last week's post, but it didn't fit with the theme.)

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Peace on Earth

Since it is Christmastime, I have been busy and don't have much time. Therefore, I will not be providing links or citing sources tonight. That way, I can have more real-life adventures to blog about here!

Anyway, the theme this week seemed to be love and compassion for all people, regardless of our differences.

Last Sunday, I watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and the message I took away was love and service. I don't really remember what they said, just what I felt--but that's the point of those meetings anyway. Then after it was over, I was asked to help a stranger move, and in the spirit of Christmas I did just that. I could have stayed home and put up Christmas decorations, but service seemed more Christmassy.

Then Donald Trump made his Islamophobic comments. I don't care about what he says, but what gets me is that people agree with him. People were cheering after his comments. People like that actually exist?!

Fortunately, the backlash against his comments was far stronger, and people were making lots of supportive comments for Muslims. Mark Zuckerberg did. Governor Herbert did. I don't agree 100% with Gary Herbert, but I often agree with him, and I have great respect for him because he's willing to say things unpopular with his party. His statement continued to cement my respect for him.

The Church also released statements about religious freedom made by Joseph Smith, about being willing to die for believers of other faiths and about welcoming all. At work I was able to read several more similar statements he made. There's a tendency to think of nineteenth-century folks as being heartless and mean, but my experiences dealing with primary sources have shown their true compassion, even though they did things differently than we do.

For my scripture study this year I've been reading the words of Latter-day prophets, so this part of the month it's been Gordon B. Hinckley. I planned out my scripture study nearly a year ago, but this week one of the talks just happened to be about interfaith charity work.

On Wednesday night, my family went to the Lower Lights Christmas concert at Kingsbury Hall. It was awesome. I'm amazed how many talented people are in our state. It was a beautiful Christmas evening.

At this time of year, we talk about "Peace on earth, good will towards men," wresting it from its biblical context to describe the feelings we should have now. This is a good thing; we could all use a more peace and good will, whether it's in December or June.

Unfortunately, we have those who would do exactly the opposite at this time of year. There's a small group of militant atheists who chafe at "Merry Christmas" or anything remotely similar. On the other hand, there's a small, but probably larger, group of militant Christians who chafe at completely innocuous things like "Happy Holidays" and plain red cups. Way to ruin the most wonderful time of the year, guys!

(Before this gets too heavy, I will share some holiday mirth. I had some eggnog in the fridge, so my mom went to drink some, but she hadn't seen the container--she just knew that I had some--so she poured some liquid from a container that said "Egg" on it. It wasn't until she drank it that she realized it was Egg Beaters--simply egg whites!)

Anyway, my hope for this Christmastime, and always, is to have the spirit of brotherly kindness. Not "You're stupid for believing in God" or "You're a jerk for not believing in God" or "I don't want to associate with a heathen like you."

But "I will love you and serve you in spite of our differences." "Let us work together to serve the common good and help those who need it." "Let's unite in the things we both hold dear."

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Bringing out the tapes

This week, I've been thinking about the way media consumption has changed.

When I'm on my own computer, I'll usually listen to the music files I have on my computer--usually in a shuffle playlist with everything I care to listen to, but sometimes my various holiday playlists as well. I'm not on my own computer as often anymore, because I don't have homework and I have better things to do than YouTube and silly websites. When I'm at work, I use Pandora and Spotify. (I make good use of Pandora's "I'm tired of this track" feature, and I switch to Spotify when I run out of skips. Spotify has a disproportionate amount of alcohol commercials. They clearly don't know this market. Sam Adams commercials are especially annoying.)

I still buy CDs. If I own a CD, I can listen to it as a CD, or I can simply listen to the digital files by ripping it to my computer and having Google Play upload it. I don't have to choose, because I can have both. I've listened to CDs more since I moved up here and have been commuting to work, since I listen in my car. (Surprisingly, one of my favorite albums that I've purchased from 2015 was Fall Out Boy's American Beauty/American Psycho.)

However, last month my CD player quit working, and I haven't gotten it to work since then. However, I won't really know whether it works or not until spring, because it doesn't like to work during cold weather. I find this a little unfortunate, because I've bought several Christmas CDs, yet I haven't listened to them as CDs, only as digital files.

It makes me wonder if I should buy any CDs at all anymore. This week, Google Play had three free Christmas albums--Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey, and Blake Shelton--so I had to get them to improve my Christmas playlist. (At the moment of this writing, they're still free, but I don't know how long that will be.) I also bought Walk the Moon's Talking Is Hard when they had it on sale for ninety-nine cents.

Anyway, in the absence of a working CD player, I looked through our family's leftover collection of tapes, since my car is old enough to have a tape deck. Most of it isn't stuff I'd care to listen to, but I was looking for some nostalgic Christmas music. I found one tape that I put in--it was mediocre at best, but I was surprised when it was playing along and suddenly my mom began singing "I Am a Child of God"! I remember those days when, if you wanted to record something, tapes were the way to go.

It's easy to be nostalgic and miss those things--but there's a reason that mixtapes and tape recorders are obsolete, because they really are cumbersome. I thought about making mixtapes for my car, but I have a tape deck adapter, so it would just be easier to make a playlist on my phone and use that.

This was terribly uninteresting. Sorry about that.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

A most unusual Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I don't know, however, that this was my favorite Thanksgiving.

My family decided to drive out to California to visit my nephews. (My brother and his wife just happen to live there too.) I generally like to spend holidays at home, but I guess traveling at Thanksgiving is better than traveling at Christmas.

I used a few of my vacation hours to leave work early on Wednesday, and we took off. Parts of I-80 were pretty snowy in eastern Nevada, but it cleared up in western Nevada. We spent the night in Winnemucca before continuing our drive on Thanksgiving morning. We had a motel room with very noisy pipes, so I woke up and had a hard time falling asleep again. It was not a good night's sleep.

On Thursday morning, we stopped at Del Taco in Reno. As I finished my breakfast burrito, I felt very full. I didn't think it was that big. Oh well, I thought, I just hope I get my appetite back for Thanksgiving dinner. 

(Speaking of breakfast burritos, whenever I think of them I remember that one time Jan Terri called them "breastfast burinos.")

My brother's family doesn't really do American traditions, so we decided to eat Thanksgiving dinner at a Hometown Buffet. I've never gone out to eat for Thanksgiving before, and it's not my ideal holiday, but it would have had its perks to gorge myself while visiting with my family. Unfortunately, it would not turn out that way.

As we got to the restaurant, I could tell that there was something different from just being too full. I hadn't eaten that much. I was chilly, and it wasn't that cold. And even though I hadn't slept well that night, I seemed excessively tired. I got traditional Thanksgiving foods on my plate, but only tiny bits. I couldn't even finish my roll, and I never waste food. I had to have pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies, but I could only eat a few bites of each. (They were small pieces, so I wasn't as wasteful as it sounds.) I was super tired, and I couldn't bear the thought of eating more, so I sat with my head on the table. I know that's not polite, but it was all I could do.

After we went home, I took a nap, and I felt better, but after watching Free Birds that night, I felt worse again. I went to bed with chills, so I was dressed quite warmly with lots of warm things on the bed.

At some point in the middle of the night, I was literally dreaming about Pilgrims when I woke up really warm and not feeling well. That time I could tell this wasn't going to be a go-back-to-bed-and-feel-better thing, because I was already in bed. I got up and went to the bathroom and tossed my cookies (or, rather, my Thanksgiving dinner). It was the first time I'd done so since 2004. I'd forgotten just how unpleasant an experience it is. I didn't remember that "it" ends up in your nose. However, once I was done, I was sweating--and felt much better. I felt fine the rest of the trip--maybe not 100 percent, but probably around 90 percent most of the time.

Although the Thanksgiving holiday wasn't great, it was a still fun weekend visiting my nephews--Preston, who is 11, and Franklin and Nathaniel, who will be 8 and 6 in January. Franklin is generally the shyest of the three, and Nathaniel is least shy, but among us it was almost the opposite. Nathaniel didn't bond a whole lot with us--it's not that he was shy, he just did more of his own thing. Franklin, however, loved talking with us. He loved to tickle me (I am very ticklish) and get "puppy rides" from me. The others did too, but not as much as Franklin. He loved calling me simply "Uncle," and he began calling his dad "Uncle's Brother." (It was only a year and a half ago that he learned his dad and I were in the same family, and it kind of blew his mind.) He's grown into a delightful kid.

We climbed up nearby Albany Hill, which is within very close walking distance from their apartment (their fourth dwelling since they moved to California in 2012). Surprisingly there's a significant Wikipedia article about the hill. Hopefully next time I'm there I'll be feeling better and can go on a trail run there.

 I've never seen so much graffiti as I saw in their neighborhood. Franklin spotted a "gangster tree" or "graffiti tree."

We asked Nathaniel if he would quit growing up, and he responded, "I can't, it's the life circle."

I love visiting them, but I actually am getting less sad to leave them. That's because I know they'll remember us, and they won't change as much from visit to visit as they used  to do. I just wish they would move to Utah.

***

This is the last week of Pumpkinundation Roundup. You'll have to let me know if you want me to do it again next year. Now, some people say, "Why can't you have pumpkin pie for Christmas?" They point out the lyric "Pennyslvania and some homemade pumpkin pie." Well, that song doesn't specifically reference Christmas. What about "when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie"? That song is even less Christmassy, and coffee doesn't have anything to do with Christmas either. What about "Later we'll have some pumpkin pie and we'll do some caroling"? You got me there, but one song hardly makes it so. Besides, when was the last time you "rocked" around a Christmas tree?

Basically I consider pumpkin pie and all other pumpkin things to be a fall thing, not a Christmas thing. That could change, but that's how it is now.

I didn't really have anything new this week, except that I made a smore with pumpkin spice marshmallows and candy corn Hershey's. It was better than the one I had with candy corn marshmallows. I also had pumpkin pie at Hometown Buffet, but I was in no mood to take pictures.

I'm going to do a recap of all the pumpkin and candy corn things I consumed between September and now, with ratings on a five-star scale. Arby's pumpkin cheesecake shake wins the distinction of the worst pumpkin thing I had. I can't pick a favorite, but I loved the Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar, Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts, and Taco Time Pumpkin Pie Smoothie. All candy corn items have three stars (except for Brach's Autumn Mix).

Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax Granola***
Planters Pumpkin Spice Almonds****
Calley's Favorites Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies****
Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini Wheats**
Pumpkin Spice Oreos***
Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts*****
Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar*****
Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax Granola Bars***
Sunbelt Bakery Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars***
Dreyer's Slow Churned Pumpkin Patch Ice Cream****
Kneaders spice cupcake***
Quaker Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal**
Chobani Pumpkin Harvest Crisp Greek Yogurt**
Eggo Pumpkin Spice Waffles****
Pumpkin Spice Peeps****
Pumpkin Puffins Cereal **
Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses**
Pumpkin Pie Blizzard*****
belVita Pumpkin Spice Breakfast biscuits***
Archer Farms Pumpkin Corn Tortilla Chips***
Kodiak Cakes Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Minute Muffin****
Homemade Argentinian pumpkin soup****
Homemade pumpkin waffles*****
Pizza Pie Cafe pumpkin dessert pizza****
Arctic Circle pumpkin pie shakes*****
Nielsen's Frozen Custard pumpkin concrete****
Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Seed barkThins  ***
Homemade pumpkin pizza dough***
Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Spice Chips***
Fiber One Pumpkin Bars***
Thomas Pumpkin Spice Bagels****
Kneaders pumpkin chocolate chip cake*****
Sara Lee Iced Pumpkin Cakes ***
Little Bites Pumpkin Muffins***
Taco Time pumpkin pie smoothies*****
Taco Time pumpkin empanadas****
Great Harvest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread****
Homemade panfried pumpkin with tomato sauce**
Homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies***
Hostess Pumpkin Spice Cup Cakes ****
Kneaders pumpkin spice steamer**
Entenmann's Pumpkin Donuts****
Kneaders pumpkin cheesecake***
pumpkin bread at a Halloween party***
Homemade Pumpkin Black-Bean Turkey Chili ****
Corner Bakery Pumpkin Whoopee Pie *****
Corner Bakery Gingerbread Pumpkin Bundt Cake****
Wilton Pumpkin Spice Candy Melts **
Various pumpkin pies**** (they're all basically the same)
gooey pumpkin butter cake*****
Stephen's Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa***
Arby's Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake*
Franz Baker Shoppe Pumpkin Filled Pie**
Atlantis Burger pumpkin eggnog shakes****
 QuestBar Pumpkin Pie Bar***
 homemade pumpkin chocolate chip bread (I didn't make it)***
Village Inn pumpkin pancakes ***
Arctic Circle Pumpkin Oreo shake*****
 "bite-size" pumpkin chocolate chip cookie****
pumpkin cake donut****
 Kneaders pumpkin bread**** 

Candy Corn Peeps ***
Lofthouse candy corn cookies***
Jet-Puffed Candy Corn Marshmallows***
Hershey's Candy Corn bars***
Hostess Candy Corn Cup Cakes***
Charms Candy Corn Pops***
 Candy Corn Taffy***
 Brach's Peanut Butter Cup Candy Corn***
 Starburst Candy Corn ***
Candy Corn M&Ms***
 Brach's Autumn Mix ****

I could continue doing a roundup, like gingerbread, peppermint, or eggnog, or in a couple of months red velvet. But for my own health, I don't think I should do that. 

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Meeting myself

Most of you know that I am not artistic at all. I never have been. This week I put my ugly art skills to work.

My ward had an activity where we decorated bears to donate to charity. My mom had donated some fabric to use, and some of it had flowers on it, which made it very easy to make a Care Bear-like toy. It was easy, and I figured I'd mess it up if I tried to do anything fancier.





The next day, my niece invited me to her mutual activity. (In my mind I like to call it "M.I.A." since I work with Mormon history.) The mutual activity was cupcake wars, where we had to create cupcakes based on a scriptural theme. Our theme was "Stripling Warriors." (When we presented, I pointed out that the scriptures don't actually say "stripling warriors" but "stripling soldiers." Look it up.) That may have been the most difficult theme. And since we had a hard theme and no artistic ability, we created the ugliest cupcakes imaginable. (And when I say they're ugly, I'm not fishing for compliments or trying to be humble. They really were ugly. And fortunately I have proof.)
Other groups did scenes, but we tried to do a lot of individual things connected with the story. So we put "2000" at the top (which let us win "most recognizable," which was the same as "also ran"). On the left we put flowers and a book, representing their mothers teaching them. We put some pretzel sticks in holes on the cupcakes to represent the buried weapons of their parents. And since they were injured but no one died, we did some bloody wounds, with a crossed-out gumdrop cemetery. I was terribly embarrassed with how ugly these were.




Saturday I went down to Orem to see the musical of The Addams Family. When I went to pick up my tickets, they seemed to have a hard time finding them. Then a stranger came up behind me and asked, "Are you Mark Melville?" I said yes and didn't know why he was shaking my hand. Then he introduced himself as Mark Melville! They had given him my tickets, and he was trying to figure out why he had extra tickets. I've Googled my name and found other Utahns with my name, but this was the first time I met one. I would have talked to him more if it had been a better situation, but we were in a crowded hallway.

(It bugs me when people call us "Utahans." I've lived in Utah my whole life. We're Utahns, not Utahans. And Blogger's spellcheck keeps telling me "Utahn" is wrong but "Utahan" is right.)

I own (and have watched) the complete 1960s Addams Family series, and (nowadays) I fully acknowledge that by no means is it a great show, especially the first season. But it has an interesting premise, which lends itself to decent remakes. The musical is about a grown-up Wednesday falling in love with a normal boy. It was better than I expected--cheesy, but sometimes witty. I think they opted to go for the Addams family of the movies (which I don't watch), making the play inconsistent with the TV show. In the series, Fester is Morticia's uncle, not Gomez's brother, and Wednesday is younger than Pugsley (and they're elementary-school age). The original series had Thing as a mysterious creature, an arm that could come out of boxes (and other things) and travel from box to box throughout the house. The musical opted to go with the dismembered hand--which I think was a poor decision, because it was just a dumb fake hand, and Thing in a box seems to be perfect for a play--you just put someone under a table with a tablecloth.

While other people are listening to Christmas music now (won't you be tired of it by the time Christmas gets here?), I listen to Thanksgiving music. Admittedly my Thanksgiving playlist isn't that great. I'm now more interested in quality than in quantity, but that hasn't always been the case. Some of my better Thanksgiving songs are the music from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, including "Linus and Lucy with the Band." The Thanksgiving version of "Linus and Lucy" is the best of all versions, but only the first part of it is on the special. I acquired it on a CD entitled The Charlie Brown Suite and Other Favorites. This afternoon, our cat was standing in the doorway, trying to decide whether she wanted to go out, and I could hear the Thanksgiving version playing, but it was the second half, the part only available on that one album. I wondered if my phone had randomly started playing my Thanksgiving playlist, but it was our next-door neighbors, whom we barely know! I've been trying to figure out why they would have been playing it, since it's pretty obscure. I have heard it on Pandora, but that's because I have a Vince Guaraldi station.

This blog took me way longer to write than it should have.

***

Pumpkin season is winding down, so Pumpkinundation Roundup is getting sparser.
 Village Inn sells these pumpkin pancakes. They're OK. They do actually taste like pumpkin.

 This Arctic Circle Pumpkin Oreo shake is my second Arctic Circle pumpkin shake this year (the other being plain). I like pumpkin shakes, and I like Oreo shakes, so this was a great combination.

 I wanted to make candied yams, so I made them with pumpkin spice marshmallows (reviewed a few weeks ago), but you couldn't really tell a difference. (I know the picture looks like vomit.)

Then at a party I had a "bite-size" pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. This one tasted a bit more like a regular chocolate chip cookie than most pumpkin cookies; I don't know if it was the recipe or the cookie-to-chocolate ratio. (Also, do you like my new orange Chucks?)

Sunday, November 15, 2015

It snew a little.

Let's see...what happened this week? It wasn't very interesting.

It snowed. Or it snew. I once had a linguistics professor say that his six-year-old said it snew--and then I had a twenty-seven-year-old roommate who said the same thing (and immediately realized what he had said).

When I check the news, it is the weather that has the most impact on my life, impacting what I wear, how I drive, and what activities I do. But years, or even months or even weeks, from now, the weather means practically nothing.

What confused me is that we didn't have a lot of snow, and it wasn't that cold, yet there's still a lot of snow around. I went trail running for an hour and twenty-eight minutes and passed lots of snow. Fortunately I went where it wasn't too muddy.

I also went to the symphony and opera with a friend. The opera was a French opera, L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, and it was a rather silly show yet had serious opera singing. It was bizarre.

Opera singing is OK in operas, but outside of operas it's not good. I think it's very much an Emperor's New Clothes situation. No one likes it, but they know it's supposed to be fancy and sophisticated, so they don't want to seem plebeian by saying they don't like it. I hate it when the MoTab has operatic guests, because the only people who like them are the musical bigwigs who have been told to like it.

There were probably more eventful things this week, but I can't remember them at the moment. I'm blogging at someone else's house because our power is out.

***

Pumpkinundation Roundup isn't that big this week.

 I had a pumpkin cake donut from a grocery store at an event. It was a typical cake donut, which isn't a bad thing.

 This isn't a ghost, but my hand holding a sample piece of Kneaders pumpkin bread. It was pretty good.

 This Kneaders gingerbread turkey doesn't belong here, except that it's a vehicle for candy corn. I think this was Jelly Belly candy corn, because it was smooth and a little smaller. Gingerbread is normally a Christmas thing, but it's appropriate for Thanksgiving when it has a turkey shape. It tasted like a ginger snap. This is part of why I consider candy corn a Thanksgiving candy, because it shows up in a lot of crafty turkey desserts.

 When I was younger, I loved these little "pies." Of all the pumpkin things there are, you'd expect that this Franz Baker Shoppe Pumpkin Filled Pie would have pumpkin in it, right? Well, this was pumpkin flavored. There's no pumpkin in it. It doesn't taste like pumpkin. It doesn't look like pumpkin. It doesn't taste that good. What's the point?

 Atlantis Burger makes these pumpkin eggnog shakes. I think they just put pumpkin-flavored eggnog in it, not pumpkin and eggnog. It's mainly eggnog, meaning I feel a little guilty eating it in October or November.

This QuestBar Pumpkin Pie Bar tastes like a protein bar, not pumpkin pie. But it does have a pretty orange coating (which doesn't show up in the picture).

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Beggars, Peanuts, Candy Corn

Ah, my favorite month of the year. As exemplified by this week, you can get warm temperatures, or snow. There's something to please everyone.

On Wednesday I was walking over to lunch when a beggar asked for money for food. Perhaps I shouldn't share this, because it could seem like bragging and nullify any charity I did. But I invited him to come to lunch with me, and he accepted. I tried to strike up conversation, but it was a little awkward, since I'm an awkward, quiet person, and he wasn't a conversationalist, and I didn't feel like I could ask my regular questions because it could make him uncomfortable. I didn't think I could ask about education or occupation, and outside of those, what can you talk about? I asked about his family, but he doesn't even know where his siblings live because they don't talk to him. So I didn't think even that was a safe topic. We--or at least I--tend to think of the beggars as addicts. But watching him eat (and order a warm sandwich and hot coffee) reminded me that regardless of whatever addictions they may have (I know he was at least addicted to cigarettes), they still have basic human needs. In fact, I felt more compassion so that I gave him some extra money at the end. He said it was for a bus fare to his mom's house in Ogden. There's definitely something weird there, since it's counterproductive to use money to take a bus from Ogden just to ask for money for food in Salt Lake. But I kind of didn't care if he was going to use it inappropriately, since I knew he did have appropriate needs.

On Saturday my sister and niece and I went to see The Peanuts Movie. I suspect most of you know I'm a big Peanuts fan. I've read almost all of the strips (most of them are online--maybe all of them are now), and I own a lot of the TV specials, and I own lots of clothing and other fan items. (I've become less inclined to get them anymore, since they just paste a few stock pictures on the memorabilia and then draw on the pictures to make them "different" or seasonal.) Therefore, this movie had great potential to disappoint. I'm happy to say it did not.

First off was the animation. When they announced that it was going to be computer generated images, I thought that was a horrible idea. (I was expecting it to look more like this. Vomitrocious!) You guys have probably all seen the trailers, so you know it wasn't usual CGI. I found it quite charming and clever the way they blended the CGI with the 2D look. It's the most innovative animation I've seen since The Lego Movie. (OK, The Lego Movie wasn't that long ago. So Lego Movie and Peanuts Movie were the most innovative animation I've seen since Toy Story.)

And I think the story and the dialog were pretty true to the original. There were some things that bothered me--like how Meghan Trainor songs seem a little out of place. But then I remembered the 1980s Peanuts specials, which weren't very good and had weird songs. (The musician who replaced Vince Guaraldi in the mid-70s was named Ed Bogas. From then on, the Peanuts music was literally Bogus. The joke writes itself.) Honestly, this movie is truer to Peanuts than the 80s shows were, even though Schulz was alive then. This was a great movie.

Just so you know, there is something after the credits. Everyone else in the theater walked out and missed it. But it's not much--kind of along the lines of what they did after Frozen.

Also, some places have called this the first Peanuts movie. It's definitely the first of its kind, but it's not the first. There were four theatrical movies: A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969, the trippiest movie I've ever seen, but it's quite charming), Snoopy Come Home (which featured songs by the Sherman Brothers, who did the music for Mary Poppins), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977) and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980; these latter movies feel more like TV movies. I haven't seen Bon Voyage in its entirety, but I just bought it, so I will watch it soon).

Anyway, I don't intend this blog to be a movie review site (most of the time). The 45-degree weather was perfect running temperature, so yesterday (Saturday) I did the longest out-and-back run from my house that I've done, since my trail running days are numbered for the season. I went up to Tunnel Springs Park, then past the radio towers, then a portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail past that--but not quite as far as Ensign Peak. Then my knee started hurting. I don't know whether it was my old shoes or my lack of strength training. I'll have to do more leg exercises.

***

This week's Pumpkinundation Roundup is largely a candy corn roundup, since this is the week I buy lots of clearance candy to use for Thanksgiving, since I don't know how long it will stick around. I always go overboard, but I'm trying to improve. (Baby steps.) It's this time of year that ruins my dreams of becoming an underwear model. (Just kidding.)

 (This is irrelevant, but you have no idea how happy I am that some of the Cuties have Thanksgiving stickers! It also proves that I do sometimes eat healthy things.)

 After an institute activity there was homemade pumpkin chocolate chip bread. (Since I ate this I refrained from eating cookies.) It was good.

 I find it a little puzzling that Candy Corn M&Ms are more common than plain white chocolate ones. They're good if you like white chocolate. They're better than the Hershey's candy corn bars. (A funny side note about M&Ms. In 2013 and 2014, Target's exclusive M&M flavor was pumpkin spice, which sold out really early in 2013. This year, they switched to pumpkin spice latté. Not being a coffee drinker, I didn't get those. But when I went to Target on Friday--five days after Halloween--most of the fall M&Ms were gone; there were a few Crispy ones (which I had to get since it's been years) and a few candy corn ones. But there were literally shelves and shelves of the PSL M&Ms! I don't know whether it's because they were gross, or because there are lots of non-coffee drinkers around here.)

 Brach's Autumn Mix is a Thanksgiving standard. They come with plain candy corn, and I think Brach's candy corn is the best brand. They come with Indian corn, which has chocolate tips. I like them, but I'm sad they no longer have white tips. And then the pumpkins are good too. But these are only good when they're fresh. Also, you can't eat too many or you get way sick of them.

 Before a temple night this week, someone shared this dessert. I can't remember what it was called--gooey pumpkin butter cake? Whatever it was, it was amazing.

 This Stephen's Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa is fairly tasty, and you get a big whiff of spices when you open it. But it doesn't really taste like cocoa or pumpkin. It has an orange color that's both festive and a little disconcerting.

 I went to try the new Arby's Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake. This is an interesting item, since it's not a shake flavored like pumpkin, but a shake flavored like something flavored like pumpkin. For the first few sips, I could just taste the pumpkin, and it was pretty good. Then the "cheesecake" kicked in. It was awful. I'm not a big fan of cheesecake, but if this actually tasted like cheesecake, it would have been fine. It was more like plain cream cheese. Except that I don't remember cream cheese being so bitter, but then again I never had it in a shake like this. I hope that next year they see the error of their ways and do something different with the pumpkin. For now I'll stick with the minty shakes they do for Christmas and St. Patrick's Day.

 Since I quite enjoyed their pumpkin spice Cup Cakes, I had to try the Hostess Candy Corn Cup Cakes. They have the colored sprinkles, but that's the only connection I noticed to candy corn. It just tasted like plain cake. But then again, what flavor is candy corn?

 I actually got these Charms Candy Corn Pops for my cousin who's on a mission, since at Thanksgiving two years ago we had some and he wanted to go buy some. But I did take one out of the bag for the purpose of this roundup. These taste almost exactly like butterscotch. Which is good if you like butterscotch.

 Every year I get Candy Corn Taffy (which I think is made by Sweet's here in Salt Lake), even though they're not overly flavorful and can be sickeningly sweet.

 I refrained from getting caramel candy corn and instead got Brach's Peanut Butter Cup Candy Corn, which I haven't had before. The white tips are plain, the tan middle is supposed to be peanut butter, and the brown ends are chocolate. But I think it's a different chocolate than the Indian corn. They taste very artificial. I mean, they are artificial, but they don't have to taste that way!

 I do like Starburst Candy Corn. The reds are cherry, the pinks are strawberry, the oranges are orange, and the yellows are yellow. I mean lemon. It's Starburst flavor in a candy corn texture, although I think they're not as smooth as regular candy corn. I don't care much for the cherry (I don't know if it's the flavoring or the coloring), but I like the strawberry ones.


I used the pie pumpkin I roasted last week to make Pumpkin Black-Bean Turkey Chili. It had peppers, onions, garlic, cumin, chili powder, turkey (I used ground turkey), pumpkin, tomatoes, and chicken broth. I liked it, but it wasn't as flavorful as I had hoped, even though I accidentally spilled spices in it.
After seeing The Peanuts Movie, we went to Corner Bakery, where I got this Pumpkin Whoopee Pie. It was very good, but there was slightly too much filling.

My sister let me sample her Gingerbread Pumpkin Bundt Cake, something that's suitable for Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it just tasted like ordinary spice cake to me. Which is good, but not unique.


I got these Wilton Pumpkin Spice Candy Melts to put in little Thanksgiving molds I have. (My niece did most of the candy making.) Now, these candy melts are meant to be decorative more than they're meant to taste good; but you'd think that if they bother to change the flavor, they'd bother to make them taste better. They still taste pretty plasticky, but with spices. I mean, I'll still eat them, but they're by no means great candy.

And then I bought some Walmart pumpkin pies for an event, and they were typical pumpkin pies. Which means they were good.