Love for leaves, contempt for canines

Last Sunday night, I settled down to watch a movie, and Jimmy the cat came and sat on my lap. We humans find animals cute, but in the case of cats, they also like us and want to be with us. Isn't that the greatest thing?

Contrast that with my experience with a pet the next day. It was my day off, so I decided to run to Ensign Peak, which I haven't done in a long time. It's not my favorite trail, because there's no shade, but it's fine on cool days.

I passed a large group with two little white dogs on leashes. They were bichon frises or some other little kind of dog. The people stood off to the side for me to pass. But dogs and children don't stand to the side; they stand in the middle of the trail and look at you. As I passed the first dog, it was difficult to walk off the trail (uneven ground), and I might have startled it and it started barking at me. The owner said "Bad dog!" One of them said, "I swear she's nice." I passed the second dog with no incident, except that it also didn't get out of the way.

 As I made my way back from Ensign Peak, I passed the same group again. There was a teenage girl at the end of the group with one of the dogs on a leash. And as I ran past, the infernal little dog bit my calf! I stopped and said, "Hey, he bit me!" She asked if it drew blood. No blood, but I was pretty scratched up. She said, "I am so sorry," and she sounded sincere. I didn't want to be a jerk to a teenage girl, so I just said "Oh well" in an annoyed tone and muttered "I hate dogs" as I ran off.

 Sometimes I think mean things about people, so I'm glad that when I was actually in a situation, I was still nice, even though I could justifiably have been incensed.

Earlier this year, I made a list of fifty things I don't like, and the list included dogs. I will say it more forcefully this time. I hate dogs. I can tolerate individual dogs, and on rare occasions I like certain ones, but collectively I hate them. This is the first time I've been bit, but it's not my first annoying encounter. Sometimes people bring their dogs off leash on trails and the dogs jump on me. I often have to stop or slow down because the dogs are in my way or I don't want to startle them. And then there's the jerk people who don't clean up after their dogs. If you don't clean up after your dog, you are a terrible neighbor who shouldn't be allowed to own one. The woman who said "I swear she's nice" exemplifies the problem. Everyone thinks they are a good dog owner, or their dog is a good one, even when they're not.

You may wonder why I like cats more than dogs. There are many reasons, but among other things, cats don't jump on me when I'm running, they don't bark at me when I dare to walk on the same street as them, and on the rare occasions strange cats have followed me, they just wanted to be petted.

On Monday evening I attended the musical The Addams Family at Hale Center Theatre because my grandparents couldn't use their tickets. It's not my favorite musical, but this was the best production of it, and they cleaned it up. If you ever want to see it, that's the production to see. I also appreciated that they took inspiration from the TV show, with Thing in a box and a foghorn doorbell.

Traffic was unusually bad this week, which left me less time for running, so I went to the Woodbriar Trail, my default trail for limited time because it's a good workout in a short distance. It's the most challenging local trail, but it's also the most beautiful, especially in May and October.

The break room fridge at work has a sign saying that it will be cleaned out every Friday and all the containers will be thrown out. That was obviously not true (hadn't been cleaned in months), and I had quit using it because my lunch doesn't usually need to be refrigerated and I couldn't handle the smell. Since no one else was cleaning it, I decided to clean it out myself. I was surprised at how many things were in there. There were lots of disposable containers left in there who knows how long. But there were half a dozen reusable containers full of spoiled food. People bring their nice containers to work and just forget about them? And that's a common occurrence? Even more puzzling was the pot portion of a small Crock Pot. It was empty but unwashed. Someone evidently finished their food, but instead of washing the pot, they just put it back in the fridge and forgot about it. Really?? There was also a bag of trail mix that was "best by" 2015.

Permit me to tell you about my frivolous purchases of Friday evening. My favorite movie of all time is The Nightmare before Christmas, but I dislike much (most?) of the marketing. Usually they have Jack with a menacing/mischievous face. He is not menacing! That's not how I imagine Jack! I picture his friendly, happy smiles when he asks Sally to make his Sandy Claws suit or when he sees Christmastown. Even worse is when they have Jack and Oogie Boogie as friends. They are not friends! Oogie is the only villain in the movie, and Jack said, "Leave that no account Oogie Boogie out of it!" So I usually skip the Nightmare merchandise.

But I wanted to make it to the Vans store before they sold out of some decent merch.

The shoes glow in the dark!

Oh, and here was my hilariously awesome birthday present last week.

Then I had to work on general conference Saturday for the first time since 2007, but I was able to sneakily watch it on my phone when no one was around. 

Fall is the greatest season. I wish it had more daylight. But besides that, fall has everything I could ever want out of a season. Moderate temperatures, stunning vistas, fresh produce, lots of holiday traditions, seasonal foods...

***

Did someone say seasonal foods?

Since it was my birthday week this past week, I was able to eat whatever I wanted, so I didn't have as much seasonal stuff, but I still had some for pumpkinundation roundup.

Kroger Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream is pumpkin ice cream with pieces of pie crust, which tastes nice and buttery like real crust. It's great. 8/10.

Sometimes the Mom & Pop burger places have the most creative shake flavors. This Millie's Burgers Caramel Apple Shake is the only caramel apple shake I have ever heard of. I didn't really taste the caramel, and I think the apples were canned pie filling. But it was good. 7/10.

Last year I bought this Trader Joe's Pumpkin Body Butter, but I still have lots left. I think the only "pumpkin" is pumpkin seed oil; it's mostly coconut. So they're just marketing it for basic suckers like me. 6/10.

Pumpkin Spice Special K is kind of a boring cereal—Special K flakes with coated clusters. It's fine but not exciting. 7/10.

After I bought my shoes and backpack, I went to have the weirdest food I have ever had: Last Course Cinnamon Ants Ice Cream. Yes, real insects. The cinnamon ice cream was delightful. The ants, though, are entirely a gimmick. They tasted like the smell of a pet store. But I'm not convinced it was just ants. I'm pretty sure I had a small leaf, and there were crispy bits that didn't seem like ants. Maybe ant food? I had to overcome my natural aversion to eating bugs, because it's entirely cultural. Why are ants worse than birds? It was weird to feel ant legs in my mouth. Maybe this will make me less weirded out to eat wormy cherries next June. (I've already mostly quit caring about that.) 6/10.

I also had Last Course Charcoal Candy Corn Ice Cream. Charcoal ice cream is apparently a food fad, but I didn't find it very flavorful. I couldn't tell you what it tasted like. The candy corn was a little crispy because it was cold, but at least it provided flavor, unlike the charcoal. Taste aside, I love the way it looks. 7/10.

Innkeeper's Organic Pumpkin Spice Bread has a wonderful cinnamon flavor and a soft texture. Cheap cinnamon raisin bread has nothing on this bread. 8/10.

I'm going to be submitting a review for this Halo Top Pumpkin Pie Dairy-Free Frozen Dessert. The "cream" is made from coconut milk, and it has the texture of ice cream. But coconut is the dominant flavor. Unfortunately, the dessert has "pie crust pieces," which are just flour, sugar, salt, and corn starch. The pieces taste and feel like wet flour. Remember the review above where I appreciated the pie crust pieces? In this "ice cream," it would be better off without them. I will be writing an official review of this. 5/10.