Sunday, September 27, 2015

This week in pictures

Sometimes I post blogs without any pictures, but this is not one of those.
 
 I'm a stake family history director, and for an upcoming event, we are putting up murals in our church buildings. People will find a name to take to the temple, then put that name on a little sheep and then put it on our mural. We had a very successful name-finding activity in our stake on Monday this week. I helped put up this mural in a building in Centerville on Wednesday. It's not complete, because there's supposed to be a temple on it, but do you like our trees that look like the FamilySearch logo? Unfortunately, I learned that someone threw this away. Maybe it fell off and they threw it away. I hope it wasn't just a jerk who doesn't appreciate fine art.

 Last fall I took a "field trip" to Warm Springs Park to find the warm springs. Recently I saw that they were doing something at the park, so I wanted to make sure they hadn't done something foolish with the warm springs. Nope, they're still there, still smelling like Yellowstone National Park.

 I tell people that trail running is my hobby. Well, it's only my hobby when the trails aren't too steep (like Mueller Park, Wild Rose, and Bonneville Shoreline), because if they are, I end up hiking rather than running. But I think it might be the best possible hobby to have at this time of the year, because you get to go lovely places and be healthy at the same time! I went on a steep non-running one this week.

 I love that leaves fall for months! I don't usually take my phone running/hiking, but I did this time.

 I went on a new trail last night, one that is very narrow and overgrown, such that in places you could hardly tell it was there. I've been on another nearby trail before that takes you to the saddle between two foothills; this one took me directly to the peak of one of the hills.

 No cell phone picture can do justice to the beauty that comes from spotting the full moon peeking above the summit as you approach it!

Sometimes I feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere, but then there are things like this "No Horses" sign that remind me that I'm not. They're kind of comforting, actually. I also took a picture of a random golf club sticking up from the ground, but it's embarrassingly blurry.

 Looking east from the peak showed me more foothills; looking west showed me the Salt Lake Valley.

We started putting up our mural in our church building, and we cut out a picture of the temple, and a few people put up their sheep! We haven't put up the trees yet, and we worry about everything sticking like it's supposed to.

(I just looked over this post again, and the prose is terrible! Which is better--words or pictures?)

***

Time for Pumpkinundation Roundup!

 I bought an ordinary pumpkin pie from a grocery store for a ward activity. I don't have to explain pumpkin pie.

 We put pumpkin ice cream in a family dessert known as Fat Man's Misery, although I'm sure there are lots of desserts with that name. (When I was a kid, I thought it was Batman's Misery!) This unhealthy concoction has an Oreo crust, an ice cream layer, chocolate sauce, and whipped topping. Maybe it doesn't belong on this blog.

 I think Kneaders is overpriced, but since they have the greatest supply of desserts, I keep them in business. This cupcake is simply called a spice cupcake, but it's pumpkin spice. I don't quite get the cupcake fad. They may be convenient and cute, but the proportions are all wrong. There's way too much frosting, and often you have to eat the frosting and the cake separately to get them in your mouth! The cupcake was good, but it would have been better as a cake.

 I got Caramel Apple Jolly Rancher Lollipops. They're good but not great.

 Quaker Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal is disappointing. It's like maple and brown sugar, but less flavorful. There's no pumpkin, just spices, even though I think oatmeal would be something easy to put pumpkin in.

 Combine two food fads, and you end up with Chobani Pumpkin Harvest Crisp Greek Yogurt. It's pumpkin yogurt with glazed pumpkin seeds, pecans, and pie crust pieces. Something about it tasted off. I don't know if it was the Greek yogurt, since I don't eat much of that, or the glazed seeds or pecans. There was something bitter about it, but if you like Greek yogurt you'd probably like it better than I did.

Eggo Pumpkin Spice Waffles are pretty good. I like regular Eggos, although I rarely eat them, and these are better than regular ones. Plus they use real pumpkin, which automatically makes them better, even if it's only mentally.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Leaves are falling

I just love football season!

Not that I care anything about football, mind you. (This apathy means that I don't get to be excited when BYU wins, but I also don't have to be disappointed when they lose.) No, I love football season because of everything else that goes on.

This week it really cooled down. I had to remove my thin blanket and replace it with my quilt. I may trade again, but there's something comforting about lying in a warm bed on a cold day.

Due to the rain and other things, I was only able to go trail running one day this week. Among the foothills I was able to see the beginnings of the changing leaves, which I love. I love that the colored leaves are gradual, unlike springtime blossoms which are much more short lived. I also passed a woman who wasn't cleaning up after her dog. I overcame my passive aggressiveness and said to her, "Please clean up after your dogs." Although perhaps it was still passive aggressive, because I did it as I was running past her in the opposite direction so she couldn't really respond. North Salt Lake recently sent out a newsletter reminding people to clean up after their dogs. If I were in charge of the letters, I would be much less diplomatic and say, "If you don't clean up after your dog, you're an irresponsible jerk who doesn't deserve to own pets!"

I also went to tutor some Tongan youths in Rose Park on Thursday. I helped an eighth-grader label countries in Europe; he decided that Greece looked like Italy, so we were amused when he kept calling it "Little Italy."

***

Fall also means that it's time for the first installment of Pumpkinundation Roundup! (Get it? An inundation of pumpkin things?) There's a bit of an inconsistency with the term "pumpkin spice"--sometimes it means pumpkin and spices; sometimes it just means spices (cinnamon, clove, and/or nutmeg and sometimes ginger or allspice).

 This Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax Granola doesn't really count, because it's sold year round. Its only spice is cinnamon, and the only pumpkin is pumpkin seeds. I once really liked this cereal, but then I grew tired of it, and I've never grown untired of it.

 I also had these Planters Pumpkin Spice Almonds. They do use real pumpkin, but you can't really taste it. They're pretty good, but they're basically like most cinnamon almonds.

 The vending machines at work sell these Calley's Favorites Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. They're pretty generic pumpkin cookies, but that's not a bad thing.

 Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini Wheats aren't that impressive. There's no pumpkin in them; it's just spices and annatto color. I don't think they're as good as plain Frosted Mini Wheats. They kind of remind me of candles--not in a bad way, necessarily, that's just what they remind me of.

 Most specially flavored Oreos have Double Stuf creme, but I think the Pumpkin Spice Oreos just have regular proportions. I'm not sure what's in them, as the ingredients list "artificial and natural flavor," which is about as vague as you can possibly get. They're pretty good, but I think they're good because they're Oreos, not because they're pumpkin spice.

 Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts are surprisingly good. They're like the cinnamon and brown sugar ones, but better. And they use real pumpkin! Probably not much of it, but they still use real pumpkin.

 As strange as this may sound, this Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar may be my favorite pumpkin thing from this week. (When I bought it last week, the cashier said, "How could you fall prey to this? It's not even October!") I noted that the packaging, with its icicles and snowflakes, seems a little out of place for this time of year (it's more appropriate for their gingerbread ones). However, after eating it, it makes sense; they are very spicy and taste like Thanksgiving or Christmas, not early fall. They do use real pumpkin (it's a Clif Bar, after all), along with apples and raisins.

 These Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax Granola Bars are sold year round. They're very dry and crunchy, but as long as you know that, they're good. They're like the Nature Valley granola bars in the green wrappers, but better. The pumpkin in these is pumpkin seeds, not pumpkin flesh.

 These Sunbelt Bakery Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars are pretty good but they're not terribly pumpkiny, even though they use pumpkin. They're good as granola bars, though.

 Another flavor that is popular this time of year is caramel apple. I don't know if these Quaker Chewy Caramel Apple Granola Bars are made for Halloween, but that's what I use them for. They're good as granola bars, but not extremely unique.

 I only got the dregs of this Dreyer's Slow Churned Pumpkin Patch Ice Cream because it's being used in another dessert. It uses both pumpkin and spices, and it has less fat than regular ice cream. It's pretty good, although it's hard to go wrong with ice cream. It may be the spiciest ice cream I've ever had, but it's not overwhelming.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Phone picture gallery!

To clear room on my phone, I decided to upload all of my phone's pictures so I could delete them. And since I decided to upload them, I thought I'd share them with you! I've tried to avoid posting things I've already blogged about. These are random things I encounter in life. I got my phone on November 16, 2013, so these pictures occur since then.

First we have an ad from the newspaper around Christmas 2013, a cruise that included cursing.

I liked the ice formations on the Harold B. Lee Library in December 2013.

This is at the University of California-Berkeley. I was amused at the wheelchair access for Wheeler Hall.

In Provo, our ward would put announcements on our doors. I found a seven-legged spider on a temple trip flyer.

 In summer of 2014, we left a plastic spoon in a pan of refried beans on the stove. Oops.

This is from The Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History. It's a picture of Joseph F. Smith (I don't remember the others), but I love the kid in the front.

In August 2014, I got a picture of some big hailstones at our house. (That's a nickel, in case you can't tell.)

Last fall I got some candy corn taffy, but one of them apparently melted and glued the others together.

This was on a shuttle at Six Flags in California on the day after Thanksgiving. (Count the prepositions!) I assume the person meant "4 EVER" but got their numbers mixed up. What does "seven ever" even mean?

This is in the stairwell of the parking garage at the conference center. The gum marks make a perfect smiley face!

We went out of town for Thanksgiving last year, and when we got back, my car was covered with crabapples.

At Christmastime, I found Jenny, our cat, sleeping in an odd position on my bed. (I know it was Christmastime because of my Rudolph blanket.)

I'm not a gamer, but once in a while I turn on the old Super Nintendo. At the beginning of the year, I was excited to finally beat Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels, which even my brother never did.

In the spring we got snow (but not in the winter!), and an interesting ice formation occurred on this garden hook, then slid down.

In April I went home teaching, and they left the front door open, and a bird flew inside!

Every year starting at Halloween, there's a trio of flavors that end up in everything: candy corn, caramel apple, and pumpkin spice. Last year I decided save wrappers to document the various foodstuffs I had with those flavors. First up there are candy corn and pumpkin spice M&Ms. I had candy apple ones too, but the wrapper got thrown away. I doubt they make plain pumpkin spice M&Ms now because they're doing latte ones instead. (Maybe they're still doing both, I don't know.)

At Christmastime we found holiday-flavored Jelly Bellys--which is perfect for me, because it used to be that when I went running, I would imagine what seasonal flavors of Jelly Bellys I could invent (to keep my mind off running). All of these flavors (egg nog, candy cane, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and hot chocolate) are ones that I've imagined, although I put the pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce ones at Thanksgiving rather than Christmas.

I had pumpkin Pop-Tarts, granola bars, cereal bars, "chocolate" chips that weren't chocolate, English muffins, and Hershey's Kisses. (Other things were not pictured.)

Then there was candy corn, S'mores candy corn, candy corn taffy (featured above), and candy corn Hershey's.

And caramel apple pretzels, caramel apple Oreos, and caramel apple Sugar Babies (which are better than regular Sugar Babies!).
(Here's where I see if anyone is paying attention. Because the season of "pumpkinundation" is upon us, I'm considering documenting on a special section of my blog the various pumpkin spice (and caramel apple and candy corn) things I get. But I will only do it if people would find it interesting or amusing, not if they find it boring or annoying. Any feedback, whether you think it would be interesting or annoying?)

Last June I snapped a few pictures of sego lilies, and I liked this one so much I used it as my phone's wallpaper, but only then did I realize that a little green grasshopper was photobombing the flower! (Just above the sego lily.)

Sometimes there are crickets in our house.

Last month we had a family reunion in Fillmore at an old hotel built in the 1920s. People were that much shorter back then?

Sorry this one's crooked, but it's a hassle at this point to fix it. This is from the Church Almanac from the 1970s. I love the girl second from the right. (Also love Dallin H. Oaks on the other page.)

Our cat doesn't kill birds, but our windows do.

At the family reunion, we saw pioneer jewelry made out of hair. Yes, hair.

This was just this week! I ran up to Elephant Rock in Mueller Park on Labor Day. There weren't many leaves that had changed yet, but just the last day or two they've suddenly changed. Trail running is the best way to spend holidays. This time, my finger photobombed the plants.



Jenny, the foot-loving cat, is a teenager now.