This was Halloween.

Ah, the last week of October.

I was able to get in what will likely be the last evening trail runs of the year, but not as much as I would have liked. Wednesday was particularly satisfying. I ran continuously up steep hills (knowing that it was getting dark and I had to turn around soon) among the colorful leaves. It was twilight, and I kept hearing an owl hoot. It was a little gloriously spooky. But a little dangerous, because it was cloudy and dark so I couldn't really see all the hazards of the trail.

There were a few frustrating things. I got a new laptop back in April, and after only a month or two it quit closing properly. If I simply closed it, it would remain open between a centimeter and an inch. Only by pressing down on the hinges would it close properly. Just recently I decided I'd had enough of that and contacted Toshiba to get it fixed. So they sent me a box in which to ship it to them.

They decided to send it FedEx. And they required a signature. Unfortunately, FedEx working hours are my working hours, so I wasn't home to get it. And they wouldn't leave it without a signature, and they wouldn't let me leave a signature on the door.

The little slip they provided said, "Guess what! You can go online and schedule a pickup!" (Well, it didn't literally say that.) I thought this was the best option. So I go online to try to do that. Turns out I have to make an account, which is annoying. So I make the account. And then I have to provide a credit card number, even though I'm not buying anything. And once the account is created, I still have to do more steps to schedule a pickup, including verifying information they creepily found about me (which I did not provide and which included erroneous information about my dad's address). And once I got through all that, it said, "Well, your package isn't eligible to schedule a pickup." (Well, it didn't literally say that. The options were just grayed out.) I was very annoyed. So I had to spend my Friday night driving out to West Valley to pick up an empty box, because that was the only way I could get it at that point.

Halloween was satisfying. My parents went to Hawaii with my grandparents and didn't take me, so my niece had to spend Halloween with me, since her mom worked. We carved pumpkins.

I did the ugly one on the left; that's the pumpkin I won at a race. Allie designed the one on the right but I carved it because she was trick-or-treating. I did the little one, put I didn't put a candle in it because I later roasted it to use the flesh.

I was really startled with the amount of trick-or-treaters. We usually get around ten. This year we had 32, 33 counting my niece. I wasn't prepared for so many, and I gave out way more than I expected. In addition to candy, my mom had bought some tiny Play-Doh cans. The kids loved those! Then they were all gone, so I tried to figure out what else I could give out in case I ran out of candy. I went to my Halloween box and found some spider rings and a glow-in-the-dark bat that I don't use, so I gave those out. I had to put something in the freezer and saw Otter Pops--and I thought that was a good thing to give out, especially since it was a warm Halloween.

Right before I went to bed, I looked outside and found a rat on the ground. Our cat, Jenny, likes to bring us dead rodents, but this was the biggest one I've ever seen (the rest have been probably large mice, maybe small rats). We had been out there not long before, so it was a fresh kill. When Jenny came in, it looked like she was limping slightly, so I hope she's OK. I've been trying to keep my eye on her.

 Today I took a shovel and took it to the garbage. There were flies on it, but it still looked quite fresh--its eyes glaring at me, its teeth poking out of its gaping mouth, its whiskers reflecting the light, its six-inch tail stuck in a permanent curve.

The other black thing on the brown bag is an older dead mouse.

Last week I found three in a row.

Halloween is over for another year, but now it's my favorite month.

***

My Pumpkinundation Roundup has included flavors of caramel apple, pumpkin, and candy corn. I consider pumpkin spice to be suitable for both Halloween and Thanksgiving but more appropriate for Thanksgiving. I consider candy corn to be appropriate for both holidays but more appropriate for Halloween. And I consider caramel apple to be suitable only for Halloween. So this is the last time you'll see caramel apple on this.

 I went to a Harry Potter-themed Halloween party, and they had this thing which looked like pumpkin bread, but I'm not sure if it was, because all I could taste was cinnamon.

 I bought these Entenmann's Pumpkin Donuts. They were pretty good, and they used real pumpkin (but caramel coloring). I used them for the classic Halloween game with my niece.

 Hershey's Candy Corn bars come in both small and large sizes. They're basically white chocolate with little yellow and orange sprinkles. I'm actually surprised they exist. They're good but not great. I gave out an entire bag to trick-or-treaters, but I had another bag, so there are still leftovers.

 At work they had a pie-eating social, so I snagged a piece of pumpkin pie before heading back to work.

 I went to Kneaders and had pumpkin cheesecake. It tastes just like what it is, pumpkin (and spices) and cheesecake. I'm not a huge cheesecake fan, so it was just OK. I think cheesecake is better in small doses.

 I bought one of these cheap Happy Apples caramel apples. The caramel and nuts were fine, but there was something off about the apple. I didn't want to get listeria, so I ate the caramel and threw the apple away.

 I had to get these Caramel Apple Sugar Babies to give to trick-or-treaters because I couldn't bear the thought of going another year without them. (I did successfully give the rest to the trick-or-treaters.) I'm not a big fan of Sugar Babies, but the caramel apple variety are one of the best Halloween candies ever invented. I know in the past they've also sold them in theater boxes, but I didn't see those this year. They are extremely satisfying; you can feel satisfied after only a few, but you can also keep eating them because they're so good.

 I think these Jet-Puffed Candy Corn Marshmallows are new this year. They make lots of holiday marshmallows, but a lot of them (ghosts, stars, bunnies) are just vanilla flavored. These didn't say vanilla, so I assumed they'd be candy corn-flavored. If they are, you can't taste it. They just taste like regular marshmallows. And they only have two colors (yellow and orange, no white)--so they don't taste like candy corn and don't entirely look like it either.

I roasted some of them on a little firepit we have and put them on a s'more with some candy corn Hershey's. But they're too small to trap much heat or provide a good ratio in a s'more. I also don't think s'mores were meant to have white chocolate.

 The Jet-Puffed Pumpkin Spice Mallows actually taste like something. Too bad it's not pumpkin. All I can taste is ginger, whereas usually you taste cinnamon or nutmeg. They're OK. I often use them in hot chocolate this time of year, but it hasn't been cold enough for that yet.

These Pecan Pie M&Ms don't technically belong here, but they're interesting enough for me to include. They were a Walmart exclusive this year (but I think the Candy Corn M&Ms started out as a Walmart exclusive and now they're everywhere). I consider pecan pie to be only for Thanksgiving, not Halloween, yet I suspect they'll end up in the clearance bins along with the Halloween candy this week. Pecan pie is one of my favorite Thanksgiving things--I like it better than pumpkin and apple--so I had to try these. They definitely have a unique flavor, but I'm not sure it's pecan pie, since half of the thrill of pecan pie is the texture--the chewy pecans in the sticky goodness over the crust. Whether these taste like pecan pie or not, they're still quite good--probably better than plain M&Ms.

And since caramel apple season is over, I'm going to list all the caramel apple things I had and give them a rating on a five-star scale.
Caramel Apple Jolly Rancher Lollipops***
Caramel Apple Peeps***
caramel apple salt water taffys***
Kneaders Oreo caramel apple*****
Stephen's Caramel Apple Cider*
Caramel Apple Caramel Cob***
Kneaders cinnamon caramel apple*****
Happy Apples caramel apple: disqualified
Caramel Apple Sugar Babies*****