I just love Thanksgiving. I love its laid-back atmosphere, its earthy colors, its romanticized images of Pilgrims. I just love relaxing at home on Thanksgiving after eating tons and tons of food. It's so peaceful.
So I don't love that we have a new tradition of going to visit my brother's family at Thanksgiving. This was our third year in a row. We went at Christmas in 2012 and 2013, and truth be told, I would rather visit at Thanksgiving than at Christmas. But it takes the fun out of Thanksgiving.
Now, please don't misunderstand. I love visiting my nephews. They're adorable and hilarious. Franklin, the eight-year-old, is shy and quiet, but he can be really silly around us, calling me "Grunkle Uncle Mark." I asked Nathaniel, the six-year-old, his favorite season. He said it was summer, because they get to come to our house and play video games for an hour a day.
It's just that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I don't get any traditional Thanksgiving feel when we go. My brother's family eschews American traditions. Preston, the twelve-year-old, told me he doesn't care about Thanksgiving. (He later said he liked it because they could go do Pokemon Go without people in the parking lot.) We have to go out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner. That's less work, but you don't get the ambience, and you don't get any leftovers. Thanksgiving at their house doesn't feel any different from any other day there.
(I got a few Thanksgiving greetings on Thanksgiving, and I didn't want to forget to reply, but I had other things on my mind, so I didn't send well-thought-out replies. So don't think I was just brushing you off, if that's you.)
The day before Thanksgiving, we drove all day until we got there. We stopped at my cousin Krishelle's house in Reno, and her five-year-old son loved having someone new to talk to, and he showed us all of their family pictures. I don't think he even knows who we are.
Sometimes, you just have to wear socks of pugs wearing turkey hats.
We drove up to a Hometown Buffet for dinner. I've been counting calories since July, and I've been waiting for Thanksgiving to deliberately go over my calorie budget. The only other day I've gone over was my birthday. (If I had run ten miles on Thanksgiving, as I did last week, I still wouldn't have exceeded my calories.)
After we had dinner, we went to a dog park across the bay from San Francisco. The sunset was phenomenal. Nathaniel had fun jumping on rocks. He wanted to race me. I smoked him, but he said he won because he touched a bench first, even though we hadn't agreed that was where we were racing to.
On Black Friday, we went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was the fourth movie I've seen in theaters this year. It was shown in a 1930s-style theater. Usually I like to spend the day after Thanksgiving by pulling out Christmas decorations while listening to Christmas music, but that didn't happen this year.
We had planned to come back Sunday, but the forecast wasn't looking good, so we left on Saturday. We had two days of driving and two days of visiting, but that's better than one day of visiting. I've found that California and Utah have better rest stops than Nevada--I don't think Nevada has a good rest stop. I was also astounded at this terrible Nevada plaque, with the run-on sentence "A squaw tried to save a child but was chased for days was caught and the child killed." Maybe that's how they speak in the year 6008, when this was dedicated.
Now it's Christmastime. It truly is a magical time, but I don't quite understand why. We have lights and decorations, but we have those at other times of the year. We have pleasant music, which we basically don't have other times of the year, but why don't we? (Believe me, I collect music for all holidays, and most of it's not very good. And the only two popular songs I know of that were written for Thanksgiving, "Jingle Bells"* and "Over the River and through the Woods," were both stolen by Christmas! Robbing the poor to give to the rich! *Some historians question the Thanksgiving origins of "Jingle Bells.") We have candies and baked goods at Christmas, but we have those at other holidays too. And am I too optimistic to think that it's not even the presents that make it so pleasant? And if it weren't for Christmas, everyone would hate December.
I'm sorry. This has turned more cynical than I meant it to be. Hooray for Christmas!
***
I don't really know what to do with pumpkinundation roundup at this point. Apparently I was in the minority for not counting pumpkin pie as a Christmas dessert. But I still don't know what to do about other pumpkin things. I could continue the roundup and include mint, gingerbread, sugar cookie, hot chocolate, and other things (as I'm doing this week) if there's interest. But sometimes I worry this section distracts from the main content of my blog.
Also, I've been accepted as a reviewer for the junk food blog The Impulsive Buy, so I will start having things appear there occasionally, although not nearly as much as I would put here on this blog.
My family often buys Costco muffins for early morning road trips, but muffins are basically cake, so I can never have them. But since these Costco pumpkin streusel muffins exist, I could have them this time. They were pretty good. 4/5.
I love pecan pie, so this Hometown Buffet pecan pie was no different. 5/5.
The Hometown Buffet pumpkin pie was a little spicier than most. 4.5/5.
And lastly, the Hometown Buffet apple pie was all right. 4/5.
My sister-in-law had these Trader Joe's Pumpkin Soup Crackers. The name is ambiguous: these are not soup crackers flavored like pumpkin, but crackers flavored like pumpkin soup. No, really. These are not sweet at all, and they tasted a lot like Chicken in a Biskit. These were a little strong for me, I don't know if it's the onion or what, but they would appeal to other people. 3/5.
I went to See's Candies and turned down the first few chocolates they offered me. They asked what I liked, so when I said I liked Christmas candies, they brought me a See's mint chocolate truffle. From this one chocolate, I kept tasting mint all day. 5/5.
We went to Trader Joe's, and these Trader Joe's Pumpkin O's have the texture of Apple Jacks. These were much better than Apple Jacks. I don't know that it's a pumpkin flavor, but it's a good flavor. 4/5.
These Trader Joe's Pumpkin Cranberry Crisps seem like dried pumpkin bread with dried cranberries. They're actually pretty good. I like the texture. 4/5.
And then these Trader Joe's Mini Gingerbread Men are the most gingery gingerbread I've ever had. I had a few on Friday, and then my sister-in-law sent them with me on Saturday for the ride home. But my family ate them all on the trip and I didn't get any. :( 4.5/5.
I went to See's to get their See's Mint Cream Lollypops. After the pumpkin spice ones were a major disappointment, these are the best See's lollypops I've ever had. You know those little melty mint candies that look like chocolate chips? These taste like those. 5/5.
I am perpetually plagued by guilt. I do lots of things over which I feel guilty. And I can remember lots of things that happened to me, but when I remember them, the mistakes I made in a given situation dominate my memory. Ninety-eight percent of the memory may be neutral or positive, but the negative two percent makes me feel guilty.
Now, since I'm a college grad working full time and living with my parents, I don't have a lot of expenses. So this week I spent a lot of money on various items--Thanksgiving candy, clothes, and Christmas music (and a tiny bit of Thanksgiving music. I can prepare Christmas music but not listen to it yet. My X-mas playlist is currently at 992 songs. Thanksgiving is at 82).
And I feel so guilty buying things. I donate to charity, but could I donate more instead of buying things? And do I have room for more things in my house? And is it wasteful to buy things when I already have things similar? For example, I bought some jeans this week. I have some jeans hanging in my closet that I don't wear often because I don't love how they look, but they're perfectly functional. Is it terrible of me to buy things just for the way they look? Is that vain?
(While we're talking about buying clothes, can we talk about how much I hate the way they package dress shirts? I wear dress shirts every day, but I hate buying them because of the packaging. There's the outer wrapper, and then there's a cardstock square they're folded around, and cardstock or plastic in the collar, and eight or so pins or clips keeping it all together. I either have to go through the hassle of undoing everything to try it on, and then feel guilty for the workers having to repackage it, or I buy it without trying it on and risk it not fitting well--which frequently happens. I can't imagine they make money off of it, because sometimes I won't bother with a shirt if it's packaged that way, and then there's the cost of all the abominable packaging, and the cost of paying workers to put all that stuff in it. Whoever decided that dress shirts should be packaged that way should be tortured. And what should be the torture? Being required all day to try on shirts after removing all the packaging, and then having to put all the packaging back in. Ugh.)
Ever since the time change I have been trying to maintain the same sleep schedule. Before, I was going to bed at about 11, so I've been trying to go to bed at 10. I have had two main motivations in this: (1) don't disrupt my sleep patterns, and (2) have time for a quick trail run after work. (This is less relevant now that it snowed. Sigh.)
I've been doing moderately well at adjusting to the new yet old sleep schedule. But I'm not perfect. It hasn't been an exact hour transition. So when I go to bed at 10:30 instead of 11, I feel guilty about it. Even though it's only affecting me and no one else.
(Can we also talk about how much I hate daylight savings time? I hate it almost as much as I hate packaged shirts. Whenever I hear people talking about its benefits, they usually only talk about its effect on outdoor recreation. Um, I love evening outdoor recreation as much as anyone, but if I want to have daylight for it, it should be up to me to adjust my schedule and priorities. Not force the entire nation, including young children, to lose sleep to accommodate it. Idiocy.)
My ward on Monday did a Family Feud activity, and I was one of the participants. My team ("family") selected me as one of the people for the fast-money round. They asked me to name an animal in the scriptures, so I said the first thing that came to my mind: cureloms. Most of the people didn't even know what I was talking about, and those who did laughed. I should have picked a more common animal. But I don't feel guilty about this one anymore, because the points didn't mean anything anyway at that point.
Yesterday I ran to the Bountiful Temple from my house and back. It was a new record for me, 10.25 miles. It would have been closer to 11, but I walked the last half mile or so by my house because my knee started hurting. Although I regret that I didn't make it the entire way, I'm feeling satisfied. Earlier this year, I don't think I could have done it, and I was slower then. I'm still slow, but not as slow. I guess running up canyons all summer and fall improved my condition.
*** Pumpkinundation roundup is another thing that made me feel a little guilty, because I was conserving calories for all this junk food instead of for healthy food. Oh well.
By the way, my last post, asking if pumpkin pie is a Christmas dessert, had forty-five page views, but only four people voted. You know, if you're going to stalk my blog anonymously, you can still vote anonymously.
One of the fanciest items I've had were these See's Seasonal Pie Truffles, which come in four flavors: apple, cranberry orange, pecan, and pumpkin. I'm happy these exist, as pecan, apple, and pumpkin are the three main Thanksgiving pie flavors. (Mincemeat is the last kind of pie I have for Thanksgiving, but it's the redheaded stepchild of Thanksgiving pies. I consider cranberry orange as more of a Christmas flavor, but I ate it as part of the box.) This was expensive. This box cost more than twenty dollars, yet I didn't find it any better than what you'd find at the drugstore at Valentine's Day. The pecan was the best, and it had a pecan on it. The pumpkin was pretty good too. The cranberry orange was all right. The apple was disappointing--I don't know what, but there was something off-putting about it. I guess a fake flavor. Pecan and pumpkin: 4/5, cranberry orange: 3.5/5, apple: 2.5/5.
I count this Kneaders gingerbread turkey as a candy corn item because of its candy corn. This is one item that confirms to me that candy corn is for Thanksgiving in addition to Halloween. Gingerbread is a Christmas thing, but it's fun in a Thanksgiving shape. The combination of gingerbread, chocolate, and candy corn works surprisingly well. 5/5.
These See's Pumpkin Spice Lollypops are the worst See's pops I've had. I like the texture of their suckers, but the flavors are hit and miss. Sometimes these pumpkin ones taste like caramel. Sometimes they taste like plastic. But they never taste like pumpkin, and they never taste like spice. 2/5.
I've had better than this Kneaders pecan pie. Pecan pie is my favorite Thanksgiving food, and while this one was good, it wasn't as good as Costco's or others. 4.5/5.
Stephen's Pumpkin Spice Gourmet Hot Cocoa has some cocoa in it, but it doesn't taste like it. It's tasty and comforting, but I like real hot chocolate better. 3.5/5.
I think Pecan Pie Larabars are the best kind there is, better than apple and pumpkin. 4/5.
My mom made some pumpkiny dessert. I don't know what it's called. Sorry to be so vague. 4/5.
For the first time in my life, I went to Starbucks this week. I had their Starbucks Holiday Turkey & Stuffing Panini, which has turkey, stuffing, and cranberries on it. This is the third restaurant I know of with sandwiches like this (Port of Subs and Corner Bakery are the others). Stuffing works surprisingly well on sandwiches. 5/5.
One of the most ubiquitous pumpkin items is the pumpkin spice latte, and I think Starbucks is partly responsible for the popularity of pumpkin spice. But the thing is, I don't drink coffee. How can I patronize one of the major pumpkin labels and still maintain the health code? By having a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Creme, which is basically hot flavored milk. I think they put the same stuff in it as they put in the PSL. If so, I don't get the fuss. I mean, I can't know what the PSL tastes like, but based on this flavor, I can't imagine it's worth people obsessing over the day it returns. It was good, but not great. 4/5.
I also had Starbucks pumpkin bread, which is pretty standard pumpkin bread. I give them an extra half point for utilizing pumpkin seeds (pepitas) on top. 4.5/5.
Caramel apples are a Halloween thing, but I could still have this Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory pumpkin spice caramel apple. It tasted nutmeggy and maybe clovey. It was kind of weird on a caramel apple. 4/5.
Arctic Circle does variations on their pumpkin pie shake, so this is an Arctic Circle Pumpkin Caramel Shake. It was sweeter and less spicy than the regular version. although it didn't have crust pieces in it. 5/5.
This mini Sonic Pecan Pie Flavor Funnel has 700 calories, and there are still three sizes larger! In addition to the pecan pie shake, it has pecans on top and a little funnel of chocolate. The chocolate doesn't do anything for it and makes it a little bitter. I also didn't care for the pecans. On a pie, they're chewy and sweet, but here they were crunchy and bitter. Pecans aren't bad by themselves, but they didn't work with a very sweet shake. It was good, but disappointing, considering that pecan pie is my favorite. Could have been better without the pecans and chocolate--especially the chocolate, because you kind of need pecans in pecan pie. 4/5.
This Market Classics Chipotle Pumpkin Soup Mix came from World Market. You add pumpkin puree (it's also made with pumpkin flakes) and cream (we used half and half). It has the distinct flavor of dried soup mix, and it has a kick to it, but it was actually pretty good. 4/5.
These Pumpkin Spice Oreos are an interesting item. Most Oreos seem kind of juvenile--tasty, but juvenile. These, on the other hand, had a rustic vibe to them, both with the flavor and the burnt orange color of the creme. Definitely better than plain Golden Oreos. 5/5.
These Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Pie Toaster Pastries are new this year, seemingly to compete with Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts. At first I didn't like these as much as the Pop-Tarts, but then I realized they're not worse than Pop-Tarts, just different. I like them. I would give them 4/5, but I gave Pop-Tarts 5/5, so that's what I should give these.
At a ward activity where I brought candied yams, I had a piece of apple pie. It's hard to go wrong with it. 5/5.
My mom made these pumpkin crumble bars or something like that. These tried too hard to be fancy, and they weren't as good as the other thing she made. They use ginger snaps for the crust and cream cheese. 3.5/5.
You guys already know that I only eat seasonally themed desserts. Occasionally, people will be surprised when I tell them I don't consider pumpkin pie a Christmas dessert, only a Halloween and Thanksgiving dessert. So what do you think? There is a poll on the sidebar. (It doesn't show up in mobile view; if you want to see it on your phone, you have to click web view.)
I have put a lot of thought--maybe too much thought--into this. So here are arguments for and against pumpkin pie for Christmas.
Pumpkin pie as only a fall dessert
Pumpkin is a symbol of harvest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Not a symbol of Christmas.
If I consider something to be a dessert for a holiday, I consider its variations also suitable for the holiday. Since red velvet cake is a Valentine's Day dessert, any red velvet item is suitable for the holiday. The vast majority of pumpkin pie themed items (such as Pop-Tarts) are marketed for the autumn, not for Christmas, and they often go on clearance as soon as Halloween is over (which is still too early). (There are a few pumpkin items marketed for Christmas; Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bars are decorated with snowflakes on the wrapper.)
The Oxford English Dictionary's entry for pumpkin pie mentions only Thanksgiving, not Christmas. (It also doesn't mention Halloween, even though I consider it suitable for Halloween.)
Christmas already has tons of sweets, what with gingerbread, peppermint, eggnog, sugar cookies, hot chocolate, etc. It doesn't need more.
Pumpkin pie as also a Christmas dessert
Just because pumpkin pie is undeniably a Thanksgiving dessert doesn't mean it's only for Thanksgiving. I mean, I already count it for Halloween. I consider candy corn suitable for both Halloween and Thanksgiving, even though it's more Halloweeny.
The spices of pumpkin pie are also the spices of Christmas. (However, you can get them other ways at Christmas, such as gingerbread, wassail, and eggnog, and spices do not equal Christmas. Carrot cake isn't a Christmas dessert.)
Pumpkin pie has been present at many Christmas parties (but so have decidedly non-Christmas desserts).
Pumpkin pie is mentioned in a few Christmas songs: "Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie," "later we'll have some pumpkin pie, and we'll do some caroling," "when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie." (However, "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree" is the only explicitly Christmas song; "Home for the Holidays" doesn't specify what holidays, and "Sleigh Ride" is only a winter song. Coffee certainly isn't a Christmas thing, even though it's in the same line.)
Many people tell me I should count pumpkin pie as a Christmas dessert. (However, they almost always refer to the above songs, so this shouldn't really be its own argument.)
There is considerable overlap between Thanksgiving and Christmas on the culinary side, with cranberries, cider, turkey, etc. (I've found, though, that when people say "Thanksgiving and Christmas go together," they use it as an excuse to have Christmas trees at Thanksgiving, and never Pilgrims at Christmas.)
Counting it as a Christmas dessert would enable me to have it after Thanksgiving. (Currently I won't even eat it the day after Thanksgiving.)
Like everyone else, when I pulled up Google's election results on Tuesday evening, my jaw literally dropped. They told us Hillary would win! I thought, This can't be happening.
As I said last week, Trump was the worst possible candidate. I've said he would go down in history as the worst president of the US. Worse than James Buchanan. Worse than Warren G. Harding. He only got this far because he was famous. The only celebrity I can think of who would be a worse president would be Kanye West. (*shuddering at the thought*)
With this viewpoint, I was disappointed as I watched the results come in. And once California, Oregon, and Washington all came in blue and Hillary was still behind, I lost all hope. I was shocked. I was really looking forward to our first woman president. But nope.
Yet when I woke up the next day, I was filled with a surprising amount of optimism. Optimism that all his horrendous, outlandish comments were just that, just comments. (I mean, don't we all make hyperbolic statements we don't really mean, like when I say people should be dipped in boiling oil?) Optimism that even if he does try to enact horrible discriminatory laws, our governmental system of checks and balances will prevent them from happening. (I do worry a bit now that our president, and the House, and the Senate, are all Republicans. We need balance.) Optimism that now that he is actually the president-elect, he will tone it down and be diplomatic. Optimism that switching from a Democrat to a Republican will provide a fresh perspective for the country. (We've switched parties for president over the past decade, and I think it's a good idea, because no party has all the answers. Too bad it had to happen this way this time.) Optimistic that third-party candidates will be taken more seriously from now on. Optimistic that love and support will result among We the People. (I know that it should be "Us the People" because it's the object of a preposition, but that's not what the Preamble says.)
I've been disappointed with people who have been protesting. You might not like it, but it's not an injustice. He was duly elected. There are pluses and minuses of the electoral college, but that's how we have it set up. The same process that elected Trump is the same process that elected Obama. And when people are out yelling "**** Donald Trump!," doesn't that seem like the very thing we dislike about Trump?! Just as I lost respect for Trump supporters, I lose respect for Trump protesters. (Let me clarify: I don't lose all respect, just some respect.)
Of course, they will tell me my opinion doesn't matter in this regard, because I'm a white privileged male.
I voted for McMullin (which I explained last week), but if Utah's votes for Hillary and McMullin were combined, they beat Trump. Does that mean McMullin secured Trump's win? Well, I doubt that all the McMullin supporters would have voted for Clinton, so I don't think so. I would have preferred Clinton to Trump.
I am disappointed that so many Mormons turned to the dark side by voting for Trump. I was walking downtown on Wednesday when Brian Mullahy from Channel 2 stopped me. I told him he had a familiar face, and he said, "Well, thanks for watching, at least some of the time." But I don't remember the last time I watched Channel 2. (Maybe it was August? Regardless, it is very rare.) He said, "We're doing a story on LDS people who voted for Trump. Is that you?" When I said I didn't vote for him, that was all they had to say to me. I've always dreamed of getting interviewed randomly for the news, and the one time it happens, I don't get interviewed because of who I voted for. But I'm still glad I didn't vote for him.
But, let's face it. Are our lives affected that much by who's in the White House? I mean, from Obama, I had insurance until I was 26 and then had to navigate the nightmare of the Healthcare Marketplace. But regardless of who is president, I will still be doing the things I did this week, making Thanksgiving pillowcases and running 8.5 miles in North Canyon.
This was the twelfth time I've been up North Canyon in 2016. Eight of those times have been since September. November is the ugliest I've seen it, but it's still amazing.
I think the year 2000 was the last time I've seen one of these in the wild.
Almost all the wildflowers are gone. Richardson's geraniums (the leaves turning red) have lost their white flowers, and they're one of the last remaining green things.
*** Pumpkinundation roundup continues this week. I tried not to buy as much this week and instead consumed things I already had.
I tried these Brach's Pumpkin Peanut Caramel Clusters last week but forgot to include them. They're chocolate and peanuts with pumpkin-flavored caramel and pumpkin chips (like chocolate chips). I don't even know what pumpkin-flavored caramel is, and pumpkin chips are fairly rare themselves. What a weird candy! It's not a very pumpkiny candy, but it's tasty regardless. 4/5.
I had a Kneaders pumpkin spice steamer. I was more impressed with it this year than I was last year, probably because I had low expectations this year. It's spicy but not necessarily pumpkiny. 3.5/5.
This Candy-Ville Harvest Pecan Pie Pop was only slightly better than the pumpkin one from last week. At least this one had a real pecan on it. But it still has that weird melty candy flavor. 2/5.
I've had Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts every year since 2013 because they're so good. They're like the cinnamon and brown sugar ones but better. They're made with real pumpkin. I think I prefer them toasted, which isn't always the case. 5/5.
This Franz Pumpkin Spice Bread is better than the Franz pumpkin bagels and English muffins, which only tasted like clove. This one is sweet and pumpkiny. I like making sandwiches with it. 4/5.
The Thomas Pumpkin Spice English Muffins are better than the Franz brand. They are soft, and they have little bursts of pumpkin in them. Unfortunately, they're a little too bland to eat plain, and when you put something on them, you can't taste the pumpkin. 3.5/5.
I spent a lot of money and a lot of calories (1000+) on this Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake. I loved their pumpkin cheesecake, and pecan pie is my favorite Thanksgiving food, so this should have been better. The pecan layer wasn't as good as a typical pecan pie, and it distracted from the fantastic pumpkin cheesecake layer. 4/5.
Apple Pie Larabars are available year round, but now it's apple pie season. I like these better than the pumpkin pie ones. They're sweet, but they have no sugar added. I still prefer Clif Bars, though. 3.5/5.
I used a slow cooker cookbook to make this pumpkin black-bean turkey chili. I've had better chilis, and the pumpkin doesn't shine through the other ingredients, but it was still good. 4/5.
Brach's Autumn Mix, which includes candy corn, cocoa Indian corn, and mellowcreme pumpkins, tastes like Thanksgiving, because I always buy it on clearance after Halloween. I think Brach's has the best candy corn, although not the cutest. I'm disappointed that Brach's doesn't put the white tip on their Indian corn like other brands do, but that's a minor complaint. Candy corn is good in small doses. 4/5.
(In case you're wondering, the title of my post is the Old English term for Halloween, or All Hallows' Mass Even, the oldest form of the word I could find.)
I don't know about you, but I feel like Halloween was more than a week ago. It seems like it's been a long week. Not because of anything bad or boring, it just seemed long. It wasn't a very eventful Halloween. I just watched some Halloween movies and occasionally gave candy to trick-or-treaters. I think we had about nineteen, which is better than it's been in years past. Probably because there was no stupid trunk or treat.
I was also happy to see a new (unofficial) Jan Terri video. I have enough new friends that this merits an explanation. In 2012, I had this fascination with Jan Terri, a YouTube singer whose songs and music videos are so terrible, they're unintentionally hilarious. It's a long story, but I ended up with an autographed picture, and some friends and I even had a Jan Terri party. Her "best" video is "Get Down Goblin," a Halloween song, and in 2012 (about six months after I got CDs from her), she released a second Halloween song, "The Count," which was a ripoff of "Get Down Goblin." But someone made a video for "The Count," and it's a shame it has so few views, because they really put in a lot of effort. Most significantly, they made a Jan Terri puppet that looks just like her!
Permit me to spend a few moments complaining about things that drive me crazy. Last week, I updated to Microsoft Word 2016. I was hoping that the new version would have fixed the single most annoying thing. But nope, it' still stupid.
And what is this stupid thing? Well, if you go a few seconds without moving your mouse, the scroll bar on the right fades out. That means if you want the visual representation of how long the document is, or where you are on it, you have to move your mouse. It's terrible. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea. And what's worst about it is that there are absolutely no benefits of it. If you shrink the window so that the scroll bar is covering the words, when it fades out, it still covers the words. In the below image, the blue is a different window. The blank space is where the scroll bar is--it's faded out, but it's still covering the words. Dumb dumb dumb.
I want to punch whoever did this in the face. Not really, because I'm a pacifist. But they need to fix it, and they need a lecture on not doing pointless things that are more work and just make it worse. Ugh.
Another thing that bugs me is unintelligent people on Facebook. One of the things that is a sure sign you are unintelligent is if you find a moderately amusing meme or video and then tag fifty people in it. I'm not talking about two or three of your closest friends for whom it is relevant, but when you do half your friends list and it doesn't have anything to do with them. It's not that doing that is unintelligent per se, but all the stupid people seem to do it. I can say this because I don't think any of my Facebook friends do that. Just their dumb friends do.
I sent in my ballot this week. And in an unexpected twist, I cast my ballot for Evan McMullin. Now, before you tell me, "No! A vote for McMullin is a vote for Hillary!"--well, I was going to vote for Hillary anyway. I have two hopes for this election. The first is for Trump not to win. I just don't understand how the GOP picked him. There were lots of Republicans who wanted to be president, and not all of them were good, but all of them were better than Trump. They picked the worst possible candidate--a bully ("Lyin' Ted Cruz," "Crooked Hillary"), a bigot (banning Muslims), and a pervert (the lewd audio and his subsequent non-apology). I legitimately lose respect for people when they support Trump, especially when they supported him before he was the nominee.
The second hope I have is for Utah not to vote Republican--not just because of Trump, but in general. I hate the whole idea of "I'm a Republican, so I have to vote for the Republican nominee," or "I'm a Democrat, so I have to vote for the Democrat nominee." No. One party does not have all the answers. I want Utah to see beyond that.
I was going to vote for Hillary for these reasons. People call her crooked and dishonest, but outside of the email scandal, they rarely provide evidence--and when they do provide evidence, it's from conservative click-bait sites that are less reliable than Fox News. A few months ago, I took some political quizzes, and I sided most with Hillary.
I actually voted for a third party in 2012 (when my vote didn't matter), but this time around, I thought Hillary was the most likely to defeat Trump. But then the polls showed McMullin beating Hillary in Utah. And then I thought I would take the quiz again, because I recognize that my opinions might change a little from day to day. So I took it again, and McMullin was my top pick! He hadn't been part of the quiz when I took it previously. (I don't have an image, sorry.) I was shocked. Most McMullin supporters seem to be conservative, and while I don't consider myself a liberal, I think I'm more liberal than most of my friends. So I gladly voted for McMullin. But then after I submitted my ballot, I learned Hillary was beating McMullin in other polls. So maybe I made the wrong choice. But I think she'll win the election, which will be just fine with me.
I voted for Governor Gary Herbert, because I've been impressed with him for the most part. I think he does what he thinks is right, regardless of what the party thinks. I haven't agreed with everything he's done (most notably, buying into the anti-Planned Parenthood fake video), but for the most part I've liked him.
I was shocked that Super Dell Schanze was on the ballot for governor. How ridiculous! What an insane person! ...And then I remembered a certain presidential nominee on the other side of the ballot.
Since November is my favorite month, and it has been dry, I had to go to my favorite place, North Canyon. I've never been there in November before. Remember that deer carcass two weeks ago? This was all that was left yesterday.
These plants--I think they're dogwood--are bright red in April. Then they get leaves and are actually less pretty. Then in November they're kind of purple.
I see random things sometimes. A baby boot is one of them.
November may be the least pretty month I've seen there, but I still love it. North Canyon is the prettiest trail around, and it's just enough of a challenge to feel accomplished. But I didn't completely make it yesterday--I ran the whole way up, but I walked a lot of the way down.
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Pumpkinundation roundup is changing, now that Halloween is over. I don't consider caramel apples a Thanksgiving thing, so they're out now. But I'm adding pecan pie and apple pie to the mix, because those have become increasingly common this year. Pumpkin is staying, as is candy corn. After Halloween, I tend to go overboard getting leftover candy corn. I went overboard again, but most of it wasn't candy corn. I have a lot of things that I bought that I haven't been able to try yet.
I'm glad they still had this Dairy Queen Apple Pie Blizzard, because DQ seems to have moved on to Christmas. Because of the nutmeg, at first it tasted like a pumpkin or eggnog Blizzard. But there are pieces of apple and "crust" in it that genuinely make it taste like apple pie à la mode. But the crust bits were a bit crunchier than I would have liked for a pie. 4.5/5.
So Apple Pie Tic Tacs are a thing now. I pretend Tic Tacs are mints, but they really don't make my mouth feel clean. These taste like apple at first, and then some sweeter flavors kick in. These are definitely the best fruity Tic Tacs I've had--and maybe the best Tic Tacs period. But they're still just Tic Tacs. 3.5/5.
These Thick & Fluffy Pumpkin Spice Eggos were part of my Halloween breakfast. I thought they'd be more like a regular waffle, but they still have that styrofoam texture of regular Eggos. But I like the texture. They also did a good job with the pumpkin flavor. Lots of pumpkin items just pretend to have the flavor, but this is the real deal. 4/5.
These Franz pumpkin spice English muffins are less clovey than their bagel counterparts, but clove is still the dominant flavor. 3/5.
I hadn't had a Kneaders pumpkin chip cookie this year until this week. It's hard to go wrong with this kind of cookie. This one has more of a spicy flavor than most, which is neither a good nor a bad thing. 4/5.
Subway doesn't get a lot of my money because they don't do many seasonally themed things. That's why I'm delighted they have three Thanksgiving-themed items now. They have an autumn carved turkey sandwich with a cranberry mustard (a tasty sandwich--5/5), and pumpkin spice cookies (which I had last month), and Subway apple pie cookies. It has a strong apple flavor--definitely dried apples, but apples nevertheless. The one I had was baked to perfection, as far as softness goes. 4/5.
We still had some fresh apples from our neighbor's tree, which hangs over into our yard, so I had to make a homemade apple pie. 5/5.
My mom brought home Great Harvest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. It's basically a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie in bread form. 5/5.
I also had a sample of the chocolateless Kneaders pumpkin bread. It's tasty and pumpkiny. 4.5/5.
This Candy-Ville Harvest Pumpkin Pie Pop is an unusual item. Thankfully, it's not a hard candy, because that would take forever to eat. You know those melting candies you buy at the craft store to put in candy molds? Those are made for their prettiness, not for taste. This pop is a crust with that kind of candy in it. It didn't taste pumpkiny to me. And then I found the stick totally pointless. I think it would be easier to eat with your hands. 2/5.
Believe it or not, these Pumpkin Pie Toaster Strudels are the first Toaster Strudels I've had in my entire life. I can see that I've been missing out. I loved them. But I didn't find the pumpkin filling that noticeable, and I don't know what other varieties taste like. It was the crust and the icing that were the star of the show. But they're a big enough star to merit 5/5.
I've had some astounding pumpkin pie almonds, so these Brach's Double Crunch Pumpkin Pie Almonds were disappointing. There's a candy coating (like an M&M or Skittle) on top of a white chocolate-like confection on top of an almond. These were supposed to taste like fall, but to me they tasted like Easter. I'm not sure why. These should have been so much better. 3/5.
The Archer Farms candy corn trail mix isn't as good as its pumpkin spice counterpart. It's peanuts, raisins, candy-covered pretzel balls, and candy corn. Candy corn goes surprisingly well with nuts, but I thought the other things were a little much. 3.5/5.
And then, not technically belonging on here, I made some mincemeat pies, also using fresh apples. But I used canned beef. Most recipes call for suet rather than regular meat. I don't even know what suet is. But I like this recipe.
