Mark My Words: November 2026

Welp, another Halloween has come and gone!

H/t Garfield

On Tuesday, my family carved pumpkins. My mom had planted some pumpkin plants this spring, and two of them grew. One of the pumpkins weighed over thirty pounds! It was enormous. My mom wanted me to carve it, because I care more about that kind of thing. I opted to make it look like the first known picture of a carved pumpkin, just like I did two years ago.

Mom, me, Dad

We saved the other pumpkin for my cousin or my niece to carve, but they didn't come over. So we'll just have it for the Thanksgiving season.

On Wednesday, I ran the Wild Rose Trail, and I was pleased to see they had added additional signs in the last few weeks. Earlier in October, I was annoyed to see they had added many new signs but not at the most confusing part. But now there's a sign there! I'm vindicated, because I've had cyclists argue with me when I told them the Chukar Loop is a foot-only path. (The signs were very unclear before.)

Also, there are some significantly worn shortcuts on the trail, and they have blocked them off. Honestly, when people take these shortcuts, they're missing my very favorite portion of the trail.

Thursday was my one costume opportunity this year, because work had a Halloween potluck where costumes were encouraged. In 2018, I dressed as a vampire for This Is the Place's Little Haunts event, and a toddler saw me and said, "He's a vampirate!" The mom said, "Close." And then the parents remarked to each other that that was a good idea. So that has been in the back of my mind for eight years. So a few weeks ago, I went to Spirit Halloween and bought a pirate costume. I picked a costume that had vampire colors, and I'm glad I did. It turned out nicely! I wore it to the work event, and many people complimented my costume, though I'm not sure how many knew what it was without asking me.

I didn't keep the eyepatch on for very long, because it's hard to see with one eye. And the fangs aren't very comfortable, and they're impossible to eat with, so I didn't keep them in very long either.

That evening I wanted to watch a new Halloween movie, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. It came out in September, but it wasn't in theaters very long, and it was often shown at weird times. It was very well animated with lots of clever gags, but I just didn't find it that entertaining. It has 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which I find surprising. I only gave it 7/10.

Then Friday was my real adventure of the week. Since I was at the Western History Association conference on Saturday, October 24, I had to work less on Friday. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to use my extra hours to drive down to Moab to complete the Utah Independent Bookstore Crawl. My parents came with me, and it was fun to drive past all the fall colors for four hours while playing my Halloween playlist, which is twenty-six hours long, so there was no fear of it running out.

We went to Back of Beyond Books, which was a sizable bookstore. They had a Get Smart book from 1966, which I thought was cool, but I figured just because it's cool doesn't mean I want to own it.

And in the back of the store was a rack of vintage postcards, my new collection. (They're a good thing to collect because they don't take up much space, and they already exist, so it's not rampant consumerism.) There were so many Easter cards, they took up almost an entire side of the rack.

I did not buy this one, for obvious reasons

I took my map to the front, and the cashier stamped it! When the competition started, they said to pick your last store carefully, because that's where you would collect your prize. I didn't know what the prize would be, but I thought Back of Beyond Books was a store I would like. Well, the prize was a twenty-five-dollar gift card. That was more generous than I expected, and I'm glad I didn't get the gift card at one of the romance-novel stores! I told the cashier I would come back in a bit.

After we checked in to the hotel, I went back to the bookstore. (Driving was hard because it was dark and rainy.) I went through all their postcards and selected sixteen that I liked the most. And the sale rack caught my eye with a picture of Snoopy dressed as the Yellow Kid, so I bought a book on the history of comic strips. (I come across old comic strips all the time when I'm digging through old newspapers for work, and I thought it would be fun to have some information on them.) With these purchases, I used up all of the gift card and then spent a little.

Since I work with publications, I wanted a "volume" card. 1911.

1912

I love ones with old cars. 1908?

When I Googled "Curtis Sparkling Apple Juice," this postcard came up. It cracks me up.

I love the chicks being pulled by ducks. 1914.

This one is delightfully weird

I liked the religious imagery with a bunny. Previously I only had purely secular Easter cards. On the back of this card is a handwritten message that says, "Are you single yet? Ha! Ha! I am as mean as ever, as you doubtless have found out."

I liked the wintry scene on an Easter card; was it recycled from Christmas?

I like the pastoral scene

1912. They had an identical one with a silver cross instead, and again I like the way it mixes religion with a chick.

I like that the winged child is labeled "Little New Year."

1911. I like the purple.

This Thanksgiving one caught my eye, even though it's less interesting than some of the Thanksgiving cards I already have.

1913. I'm disappointed it has writing on the picture, but I love the whimsy of a chick waiting at the station for an egg train.

Not many have ducks or baskets.

Of course, it felt a little silly to drive all the way to Moab just for a bookstore. So the next day, Halloween, we went to Utahraptor State Park, because it's on my bucket list to eventually go to all the state parks. They had a small visitors' center with some interesting exhibits, including a Cretaceous mammal skull and the area's twentieth-century history. And my dad and I walked around the historic site that was once a CCC camp and later a Japanese American incarceration camp.

I would have liked to see some dinosaur tracks around Moab, but the roads were muddy from the rain.

Then on the way home, we stopped at Green River and bought a watermelon, and we stopped in Price for lunch.

I love the vintage sign!

After Price, we stopped at the Fork rest area, the nicest rest area I have ever been to: It was clean, it was big, it had historical markers, and it was decorated for Halloween!

There's a train in the back area!

Then in the evening, I lit jack-o'-lanterns before I went to a game night I had been invited to, which was not intended to be Halloween themed. And when I got home, my parents were watching decidedly non-Halloween K-dramas. They said they only had two groups of trick-or-treaters.

So, all in all, Halloween itself wasn't terribly Halloweeny. But it was still a fun day!

Reggie had to check out the candy bowl

***

Halloween is over, but pumpkinundation roundup goes through Thanksgiving!

A friend had made Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles. It was fine for a cookie from a mix. 7/10.

In Price, I had a Sherald's Frosty Freeze Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake. The cheesecake was those little pieces you get in shakes, and the pumpkin flavor wasn't terribly strong. 7/10.

In Moab, I had a Milt's Pumpkin Shake. It was less thick than usual Utah shakes, but it had actual piecrust pieces in it! 8/10.

At my sister's house, I had a piece of Crumbl Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie. I think it was fine? 7/10.

I had Too Good Pumpkin Cinnamon Coffee Creamer in Pero, because I'm still mostly a good Mormon boy. It did have a nice flavor to make the Pero more enjoyable. 7/10.

My work party had Bakery Fresh Candy Corn Flavored Frosted Sugar Cookies. They didn't taste like much of anything, and the frosting texture was a little weird. 5/10.

Watch for a review on The Impulsive Buy of Lay's Roasted Holiday Turkey Potato Chips. They have a nice savory flavor, though I'm not sure I would peg it as turkey. I will gladly eat them. 8/10.