Trick or Treat bucket...list

As I have told you before, this year I made a bucket list of things I wanted to accomplish for each holiday. Another Halloween has come and gone, so here is the list of activities on my bucket list. I accomplished these between mid-September and October 31.

Trick or treat. I wanted to go trick-or-treating. But it's not really socially acceptable for a grown man to go trick-or-treating without children, and I don't really know any children who live close to me. But on Halloween I dressed up in my Vector costume and went to my grandparents' house, and they gave me candy. It wasn't seasonal candy, but I figured I could eat it since I obtained it through one of the most seasonal activities there is. Then I walked around in my Vector costume and went to my friend Shane's house. His mom answered the door and gave me candy--and then I went inside to watch a movie; we watched The Invisible Man.

Dress up. My first costume opportunity this year was my Haunted Half Marathon, where I wore my Vector costume. Some of you asked for pictures. I didn't care for any of them, but here you go.

I also dressed up as a vampire (my favorite costume) at a stake event and as Vector again on Halloween itself.

Give to trick-or-treaters. I gave to one group of kids, and we kind of recited the Vector/girls "pajamas" dialogue as I gave out the candy. But I only gave to that one group, because I had other things I had to be doing.

Rake leaves. I really hate doing chores. Recently I recognized (1) how dumb Facebook is and (2) how much time I waste on Facebook, so I decided I can't go on Facebook on any given day until I have read my scriptures, done a chore, and exercised. But I will gladly rake leaves for my chore, because it's so fun and autumny to be out in the crisp air.

Watch a scary movie. On September 30--the same day I bought a car--I went on a little shopping spree, buying lots of things I don't need but that are fun. One of my purchases was a six-DVD set of classic Universal monster movies. I had seen lots of parodies of those classic movies (Mad Monster Party?, The Munsters), but never the movies themselves. Throughout the course of the season, I watched The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Dracula, and The Invisible Man. Invisible Man was my favorite; Wolf Man was probably my least favorite. I still haven't watched Frankenstein or Bride of Frankenstein.

Go to corn maze. This one required more effort on my part, but barely. I went to Cross E Ranch, technically in Salt Lake City, but basically North Salt Lake. We made it out of the maze, so that's all that counts. I didn't find it extremely thrilling, but it was a fun atmosphere.

Bob for apples. I first bobbed for apples three years ago. At first I was a little weirded out by it--you know, germs and disease--but then I remembered that the year before I had taken a swimming class, and pool water is probably worse than apple bobbing water. I was disappointed when the stake event did bobbing in a pool of styrofoam. That doesn't count! But my friend Susan filled her sink with water so some of us could do it.

Eat donut from a string. I had a little get-together at my house a few weeks ago where we ate donuts from strings (only three of us participated) and watched Mad Monster Party? I used pumpkin donuts then, but then I did it again at the stake event. I decided I could have the non-seasonal donuts since I obtained them through seasonal means.

Hear owl hoot. Sadly, this is the only one I didn't get. Three years ago in October, I heard an owl hooting outside our house. Two years ago in October, I found myself on a trail later in the evening and heard owls hooting. This year, I tried to put myself in positions to hear owls. I went on some late runs/hikes, but I didn't hear them. On Halloween night, on my way back from trick-or-treating/watching Invisible Man, I walked through the local Springhill Geologic Park to try to hear owls. I didn't. But I did tell my Amazon Echo, "Alexa, make owl noises." And "she" did!

Even though I didn't hear the owls, I'm glad I had it on my bucket list, because I did things I wouldn't otherwise do. It was fun to walk through miniature woods on a dark autumn night. This is the same status as attending a St. Patrick's Day parade earlier this year. I didn't do it, but I really tried. And on St. Patrick's Day, as I walked through the parade route at the Gateway, I stopped and bought an orange turkey tie, which I have been wearing this week.

Play in leaves. After raking one night, I sat in the pile and threw leaves in the air. It wasn't much, but it counted. I had thought of playing in leaves with a cat, but then I got an indoor-only cat.

See a black cat. Early on in the season, I saw a black cat in my neighborhood. But there's also this black cat that hangs out around my work, with the tiniest speck of white. I don't know whether it's feral or someone's pet, but it's afraid of people. (I know because I can't resist approaching cats.)

Attend a Halloween party. I threw my own, and I also attended that stake one.

Carve a pumpkin. I carved two: one at a ward activity, and one with my family.

Mine are the one on the far left and the sad-looking one in the middle. "Sad-looking" on more than one level.

Foods. In addition to these activities, I also had the following foods: candy corn, caramel apple, pumpkin cheesecake, various pumpkin spice items, apple cider, popcorn ball, Halloween candy, pumpkin pie, pumpkin seeds.

I've already begun my Thanksgiving bucket list. Though holidays affect every aspect of my life, I haven't always done activities specific to those holidays. It has been fun to change that this year by engaging in more traditions.

***

Random story of the week: So, at work, there are a bunch of senior missionaries whose cubicles are in the same row as mine. I'm glad I'm no longer next to the noisy one who yells at his computer all the time (see here and here). But on four separate occasions now, I have heard one lady mumble/whisper "Mark" as she walks by my cubicle. We don't know each other, and I don't have a nameplate, so I'm sure she's not talking to me. Once my coworker thought she was talking on the phone (he heard it too), but I don't think she is. This week, she said, "Mark, I hate you." I'm trying to figure out why this little old lady (literally) that I don't even know has a personal vendetta against me.

***

Pumpkinundation roundup continues through Thanksgiving, but caramel apple items end at Halloween.

 A few years ago, I got one of these Happy Apples Caramel Apples, and it tasted off. This one was fine, but the convenience store did have a lot for sale that expired a month ago. I was going to tell the cashier but I could tell she was flustered and stressed out already. These apples have caramel and peanuts on them, presumably so they can put them in plastic without the caramel sticking to it. Not as good as caramel apples you get anywhere else. 7/10.

 Pumpkin Puffins Cereal has less sugar than most cereals. It's also one of the better varieties of Puffins. But it's still mostly just OK. 6/10.

 The Steak 'N' Shake Pumpkin Spice Shake has great pumpkin flavor, but the texture is kind of icy and watery. 7/10.

 I ate this Original Gourmet Caramel Apple Lollipop when I was walking around on Halloween night. It's almost sickeningly sweet, even for a lollipop, and the flavor was too fake for something that calls itself "gourmet." 4/10.

 I always have Brach's Autumn Mix around Thanksgiving. Brach's is the best-tasting candy corn out there, though you can't eat too much of it. I have always liked the cocoa Indian corn. Fresh out of the bag, the pumpkins are really tasty. 8/10.

 This Creative Snacks Co. Pumpkin Pecan Granola was wonderful. I ate it as cereal. It was very chewy and more filling than I expected. It was a soft granola, rather than crunchy. 9/10.

 Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Pie Toaster Pastries are almost as good as their Pop-Tart cousins. But who cares about organic in toaster pastries? 9/10.

 Apple pie joins the roundup now as a Thanksgiving flavor. These Apple Pie Oreos are new this year. I wouldn't say they taste entirely like apple pie, but they're still really good, and the apple flavor isn't as fake as you might expect. 9/10.

 Baskin-Robbins Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream tastes just like pumpkin pie. 10/10.

 Pecan pie is also a Thanksgiving flavor, and these Pecan Pie M&Ms first came out two years ago. I don't know that they taste like pecan pie, but I think I like them better than plain chocolate M&Ms. 8/10.

 Eggnog, like Oreos and Cheesecake Factory, is one of those foods with a shockingly high calorie count. Hood Pumpkin Eggnog is very thick and a little off-putting to drink straight, but mixed with a little milk, it's just like drinking pumpkin pie. 9/10.

 This Ovation Creme de Pumpkin Spice Break-A-Parts puzzles me--why have a pumpkin-flavored item modeled after an orange? Why not model it after a pumpkin? I don't think it's super pumpkiny, but it's still good. 7/10.

At Costco I got a sample of a Pumpkin Strudel Muffin. I actually had these last year on our Thanksgiving road trip. It's pretty standard pumpkin bread fare, which isn't a bad thing. 7/10. 

Jimmy Kitty Live!

I have enjoyed being a cat owner again. This week we took Jimmy to the vet just for a basic post-adoption checkup and to get a rabies shot. We learned a few new things about him.

I don't know whether it was in the packet we got from the Humane Society, which I didn't look at, or if there was info in his microchip. I don't know how that works. Anyway, I thought he had been in the shelter since April, but it turns out he'd actually been there since February--and he'd even been in the shelter before that, probably the previous April. I was really surprised that he'd been turned in to the Humane Society twice. He's such a sweet, easygoing cat that I don't understand that people would give him up more than once. I understand if you move or whatever and can't keep him, but I would think it would have been easy to find a home for him. And how sad that it happened twice! It made me wonder--does he think going back to the Humane Society is just part of life? Does he feel traumatized from it? Would he rather live in a house with us, or would he rather live in that room in the Humane Society with all his cat friends? But maybe he doesn't have the capacity to think about all those things. After all, he thinks he can catch and eat laser lights.

We also learned that he has no claws at all, front or back. The Humane Society really seemed to emphasize that he was only missing his front claws, but he's missing them all. I am a little disappointed about this. Not only is it sad for him, but it also means he can't go outside--which means he won't catch mice, and it means I'll have to empty his litter box all year long. His only defense is his teeth, and that's another thing we learned--he's missing one of his canine teeth. After we learned that, I noticed his missing tooth when he yawned.

We have had him for eight nights, and five of those nights he slept on my bed. For the most part he leaves me alone until he sees that I'm awake. Then he will sit on me and knead me, and he will rub his head against my neck. I'm very ticklish, so I can't say I enjoy that 100 percent, but it is cute. I got him a little Halloween house--I didn't expect him to use it, but I'm a sucker for anything holiday. But he has liked it!

He doesn't really like the balls my mom got him.

He's seven or eight years old, which is considered "senior," but he's still half the age we're used to for a cat.

***

I've been trying to get in the Halloween mood this week. I was thinking about holidays, and while of course I love holidays in general, I prefer the holidays where the celebrations are connected with the seasons in which they occur. I love how Halloween is very much an autumn festival. Pumpkins and apples are in season, so you carve pumpkins and bob for apples. Some people get into the scary stuff, but I prefer the autumnal stuff. (I still enjoy some of the spooky stuff, but mostly silly spooky stuff.)

My favorite movie of all time is The Nightmare before Christmas. I got it for my birthday when I was six years old, and as most kids do, I watched it over and over. It has become a tradition now, and I'm pretty sure I can recite the dialog of the entire movie.

Anyway, I also have the music of the movie in my Halloween playlist, which I listen to often at this time of year. I have the original soundtrack. I have the 2005 version, which put the music of the end credits into one track instead of two, featured original Danny Elfman demos, and included rock covers of some of the songs. And I have Nightmare Revisited, a hit-and-miss cover album of the entire soundtrack. (The instrumentals are quite nice, but the cover of "Jack's Obsession" is horrendous.)

When I learned that the Utah Symphony was playing the soundtrack live while showing the movie on a large screen, I knew I had to see it. But I didn't get tickets in time, so they only had single tickets--hence I went and saw it all by myself. At work that day, I had a bad headache, which rarely happens to me, and I had to use some of my sick hours because I did lots of napping at my desk. But I was mostly recovered by the time of the concert. 

They took out all the music, but they kept the dialog, sound effects, and even the singing. For a lot of the songs, the tempo didn't quite match up with the singing. It was a bit unsettling. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but I have the music memorized, so I noticed. At times, however, they totally nailed it, and sometimes I forgot it was a live score.

I was worried that I'd finally gotten to the point where I didn't notice any new details, but I did: the news anchor has a spilled cup of coffee on her desk.

I also had a few things on my bucket list that I did this week, including bobbing for apples and going to a corn maze. (I went to a party where the apple bobbing was in a pool full of styrofoam. That's not bobbing for apples! It wasn't even fun!)

Another thing on my bucket list has been to hear an owl hoot. Two years ago, I was on a trail in the dark and heard one, so I've returned to the trail to hear one again. Sadly, I haven't heard one this year, but it is fun and romantic to be on a trail on a dark October evening.

Halloween is my third-favorite holiday. But I have a feeling that I like my least-favorite holiday even more than the average person likes their favorite.

***

Ooh boy, we're down to our last month of pumpkinundation roundup!

 Bahama Buck's Candy Corn Shaved Ice has a slightly buttery, very sweet taste. It kind of does actually taste like candy corn, even though candy corn isn't really a flavor. 7/10.

 I was surprised by my Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Sea Salt Caramel Apple. The caramel was not firm like I expected; it was slippery. I didn't feel like I would hurt my teeth, but my teeth just kept sliding and it was hard to take a bite. But sometimes the simple things are the best. 8/10.

 The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Pumpkin Spice Truffle isn't very pumpkiny, but it's good chocolate. 7/10.

 There are different textures of gummy candies. There are the translucent fruit snacks and gummy bears, which I like, and then there's the opaque, extra chewy kind used in peach rings and Trolli products--which I don't like as much. These Parley's Street Gummy Candy Corn do taste like candy corn, but they have that texture I don't like, and they have a weird aftertaste. 6/10.

 This Imagine Pumpkin Creamy Soup has a pleasant autumn scent. It's OK. I threw some pepitas (pumpkin seeds with no shells) in it. 6/10.

 Tillamook Pumpkin Cookie Butter Ice Cream is what I ate while watching the Halloween-themed episode of The Brady Bunch and The Mummy (1932). (I used the same bowl I had used for pumpkin soup.) It has little bits of cookie pieces in it. It's good, but the speculoos in it tastes more like Christmas. 8/10.

 Caramel apple season is almost over, so I tried to get a lot of them--especially since I don't feel as bad eating them because I'm eating fruit. This is a Kneaders Butterfinger Caramel Apple. It's just what it sounds like. 8/10.

 Then the Kneaders Nut Caramel Apple (I don't know what it's really called) is similarly good. 8/10.

 My first Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie fell apart. I don't remember a whole lot about it. I think the chips had a cream cheese flavor, and the cookie base was a fairly typical pumpkin cookie. I've wanted to try these for years and finally did. 7/10.

Cross E Ranch had this apple cider donut, which I think is an East Coast thing. I'd never had one before. It's not the sugar bomb you get from a grocery store donut. 7/10.

Also at Cross E Ranch they had a caramel apple maker, but I don't remember her name. I got a pumpkin spice caramel apple, with pumpkin spice white chocolate and spices. The white chocolate was a little weird, but I think almost all caramel apples deserve 8/10.

I went to a dinner where someone brought this pumpkin chocolate chip cake. Wonderful. 8/10.

Crazy cat lady and basic white girl

Ever since our cat Jenny died this summer, I've felt like there's been a hole in my heart that could only be filled by a cat.

It might not be super masculine to admit this, but I love cats. I love the way cats walk into a room and start purring. I love how they stretch out their front paws and blink as they do so, and they stretch out their back legs behind them. I love the way they knead. I love how they rub their head and neck on everything. They're just adorable.

After Jenny died, I began thinking about what I wanted to do. Since I've wanted to do 30 major things while I was 29, I thought I could wait until my birthday and then get a cat as one of my bucket list items.

I also thought that if I waited to get a cat until the fall, I could get a kitten, and then it would still be a little kitten for when my nephews come visit at Christmastime. (Jenny was not good with children, so they didn't really get to play with her.)

As I thought more about it, though, I thought a kitten wasn't a good idea. Kittens certainly are the most adorable things on the planet. But the problem is that my dad will only let us have a cat if it is declawed. Jenny was declawed as a kitten. I was practically a kitten when she was a kitten. But I can't bring myself to get a cat declawed. I don't care that other people do, but I can't be the one that gets it done to them. (Just like I don't care if people hunt but I can't do it myself.) So I decided the best option was to adopt a cat that was already declawed.

Yesterday we drove down to the Humane Society to pick out a new cat. There were only three they knew of that were declawed. The first cat didn't like humans, so they didn't even let us look at it.

The second one was a black and white two-year-old female named Sky. They said she was super sweet, but she was scared and shy and wouldn't really let us pet her. In that room, the cats were all in individual cages, though they would let some of them out at a time.

Then they took us to see one named Oliver, who was eight years old. The employee told us she thought he was the one with a short tail. In that room, all the cats were living together communally outside of cages. We petted the bobtail cat, but he wasn't super friendly. At that time, we overlooked this cat sitting placidly on a chair.

Will the real Oliver still stand up?

We went back in the cage room to look at Sky again. Our biggest concern with that cat was she had long hair. We've only ever had domestic shorthairs. We were amused by some of the other cats in that room; there was one cat relaxing in a plastic bag.

There was a big grey cat that kept trying to get out of its cage, but there were three signs on the cage saying not to let it out! You could only let it out if you were going to adopt it and there were no other cats out. Some of the other cats would hiss whenever they walked by.

I still wasn't sure about Sky, though, so we went back to look at Oliver. And we learned that the one we thought was Oliver actually had claws. There was another similar cat, with a full-sized tail, that didn't seem to have claws. So we confirmed with the employees that the one sitting calmly on a chair was actually Oliver. He was much more welcoming of us petting him. At one point, two other cats got in a mild fight, and one of them backed underneath Oliver's chair and began hissing and growling at the other cat. Oliver was perfectly serene with the fighting going on literally beneath him. (I think one of those cats was the one that kept randomly attacking my mom's hands unprovoked.) I decided that was the one I wanted.

We learned that Oliver had been turned in when his previous owners had a baby. He had been in the shelter since April! We also learned that he had really just been called "Kitty"; Oliver was what the shelter called him.

So I adopted him. But his name is now Jimmy. Once I was making a vet appointment for Jenny, and they thought I said Jimmy, so I thought Jimmy would be a good name for a boy cat. I still have to get used to calling him that, though.

I feel happy that we were able to finally give him a home after he had been there so long. I don't know why he wasn't adopted before, because he's such an easygoing cat. Maybe because he's eight years old no one wanted him?

He's still a little skittish and getting used to us. But he spent all night on my bed, sometimes headbutting me. He really likes chasing laser lights. I haven't really seen him eating, so I hope he remembers where his food is. He is our third cat and our first boy cat; the others were Dinah (2001-2002) and Jenny (2002-2017).

I'm excited to get to know him better in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. 

***

Time for pumpkinundation roundup, aka Basic White Girl Hour.

 Someone made this pumpkin pie for an FHE activity, but I suspect they bought the crust. It was runnier than most pumpkin pies, but still good. 8/10.

 I got this Bahama Buck's Caramel Apple Shaved Ice on a warmer day this week. It's an apple shaved ice with caramel and some other things on it. I liked it and found it refreshing, but I think that was the apple part more than the caramel part. 7/10.

 When they asked if I wanted my Kneaders cinnamon caramel apple cut, of course I said no! That takes the fun out of it. I like the cinnamon flavor because some of the other flavors get overwhelming with too much stuff on them. 8/10.

 These Nonni's Pumpkin Spice Thin Addictives are from Big Lots. That should tell you something. They're like croutons with the sweetness level of fortune cookies. I wasn't impressed. 3/10.

 This is the third or fourth year I've had these Sunbelt Bakery Pumpkin Spice Chewy Granola Bars. They're not as pumpkiny as some things, but I really like them. 7/10.

 Little Debbie Pumpkin Spice Rolls are disappointing. They have "natural & artificial flavor." That means real spices but not real pumpkin. Really!? Pumpkin rolls, made with real pumpkin, are one of the most basic pumpkin desserts out there! 5/10.

 I had a Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice drink, which is basically warm apple juice with caramel and whipped cream on top. I think it's real juice, but it had that artificial apple flavor you expect in candy, and it was sickeningly sweet. 4/10.

 The Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin was better, though they could have done without the cream cheese--not because it was bad, but because it didn't add anything. 7/10.

 I had a Pumpkin Pie Larabar on a short run this week. I've had better Larabars. 6/10.

 Thomas Pumpkin Spice Bagels are the best store-bought bagels I've found. They have little pockets of what seems to be pumpkin pie filling. 7/10.

 I had Smith's Pumpkin Spice Cake Donuts. Is there such a thing as a bad donut? 8/10.

 I thought this Alouette Pumpkin Spice Soft Spreadable Cheese would be disgusting, but it wasn't. It's like cream cheese, though it has a strange cheesy aftertaste. 7/10.

 Not everything from Big Lots is bad, though. I liked these Mother's Farms Pumpkin Seed Tortilla Chips better than the Trader Joe's pumpkin tortilla chips. They're tortilla chips with a hint of sweetness. 7/10.

 I ran to Ensign Peak and then to its base, then ran back home, 10 miles roundtrip. On Ensign Peak I ate my Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar. It actually hasn't been long since I had one, since I had some leftover from last fall. These are better than you might expect. They have a definite pumpkin and spice flavor. 7/10. I'd probably give it a higher rating if I hadn't been eating it with a somewhat dry mouth.

 This week I should draft my official review for these Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Cobbler Cookies. Is there even such a thing as pumpkin cobbler? These cookies have a sticky pumpkin filling. They're pretty good. 7/10.

I first had these Jet-Puffed Pumpkin Spice Mallows on a groundwater field trip four years ago. They taste like ginger and not much else. 6/10. I'm really disappointed I haven't seen the caramel apple marshmallows this year, because I thought those were the best of the fall-flavored marshmallows.