75 percent English. 100 percent American.

This week wasn't super eventful, but sometimes that's nice.

Cats in boxes will never quit being the best thing ever.

One of my favorite days of the fall is the day we make grape juice using our own grapes. We already made some with our green grapes, but the juice is best when it uses our purple Concords.

On Wednesday, I went on a tour of good old Woods Cross High School, where I spent three years of my life. There have been many renovations, and parts of it aren't even recognizable. They got rid of the courtyard. But as I recall, the courtyard was locked in the winter, so it's not like it got a ton of use anyway. Doug's (the calculus teacher) room looks the same, though. There were parts of the school that seemed familiar. Like this vintage drinking fountain.

On Wednesday, I also got an email from Ancestry.com. It turns out that as DNA science improves, so does their ethnicity estimate. I got mine tested two and a half years ago, but I just got a new estimate. It's vastly different from my previous estimate. It's also much closer to what I know about my family history.

I find this time around, I'm not that excited about it. I think part of it is because of what I already knew: I'm very English, and frankly that's not very exciting. But part of me also looks at that margin of error. It's huge! From 11 percent British to 75 percent? If the margin of error is that big, I can't know how accurate it is. It has me at 9 percent Swedish, but I don't know of any Swedish ancestors. 

(Last spring, a man at the pool asked me where I'm from because of my hairiness. I told him Western Europe, but apparently I should have said England. Even though I'm really from the United States of America.)

On Thursday, I visited the Utah State Fair. I don't know why, but there's something fun about gathering to eat overpriced junk food and see overgrown produce.

That's the strangest cauliflower I have ever seen.

You thought that since August was over, I was done talking about my 2013 geology class. But nope! On Friday, my day off, I returned to Little Cottonwood Canyon, my old mapping grounds. I did it partly for nostalgia, and partly because I hoped the leaves would be lovely at the high elevations. Sadly, the leaves hadn't changed much. But it was still a fun run up there.

They built this bridge while we were there five years ago.

Our professor led us up this non-trail, even though we weren't supposed to go up it.

This is a sill, where magma inserts itself between the bedding planes of a sedimentary rock. I believe the sedimentary here is the Cambrian-age Ophir Shale.

I think this is a fault, though I don't remember it from my class. I remember hearing about a fault, but I don't know if this was the place. The dark stuff on the right is not part of the Tintic Quartzite on the left, but the change in rock runs perpendicular to the depositional layers of the quartzite. Hence I think it's a fault.

This I know is the Cambrian-age Ophir Shale (the outcroppings).

I remember our professor showing us some trilobite tracks in the Ophir Shale. I don't know if that's what's going on here.

This was our old campsite. So empty now, as it's closed to camping for the season.

I ran up to the ridge between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons.

I love fall. But I find myself increasingly sad about early sunsets.

***

Pumpkinundation roundup has returned! I have been surprised with how popular this feature has been. In case you're a newer blog reader, every fall (since 2015) I document the various pumpkin, caramel apple, candy corn, and other fall flavors that dominate the food world this time of year.

Yesterday I spent $60 at Trader Joe's just on pumpkin stuff, and I avoided cakes, cookies, and ice cream. So I'll have plenty to show you in the coming months.

I technically had this Capitol Reef National Park Historic Gifford Store Pumpkin Butter before my official start of pumpkin season, but I couldn't resist when my mom's ministering sister brought her some homemade bread. I don't remember too much about it, but I remember the pumpkin butter being kind of bland. 6/10.

I had this EOS Natural Pumpkin Spice Lip Care leftover from last year. It has an artificial yet strangely comforting pumpkin spice flavor. 7/10.

I always like getting a caramel apple at the state fair, and this time I got a rocky road caramel apple. It was massive, and I felt sick afterwards. I liked it, but it wouldn't be my first choice again. 7/10.

I also got pumpkin fudge at the fair, and I didn't love it quite as much as I have in other years. Maybe because I already had too much sugar from the apple? Still really good, though. 8/10.

Sunbelt Bakery Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars are good granola bars, but they're not very pumpkiny, even though they use real pumpkin. 7/10.

Kellogg's Pumpkin Spice Frosted Flakes are new this year. I found them a little disappointing and artificial. 6/10.

My folks bought me this Franz Innkeeper's Pumpkin Spice Bread. The package says it's delicious toasted, but it's so soft and sweet as is that I don't see the point. It is wonderful. 8/10.

I brought this Kind Caramel Almond Pumpkin Spice bar on a short run. There is a little flavor of pumpkin spice, but it's mostly just nuts. 7/10.

Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are the best pumpkin cereal out there, and they're certainly better than regular Cheerios. Dare I give them 10/10? I can't find anything to complain about.

I bought every non-coffee, non-dessert pumpkin thing I could find at Trader Joe's, including Trader Joe's Pumpkin Recipe Dog Treats. My sister brings her dog, Buddy, over enough that it's not a waste. I gave Buddy one of these today, and he was happy to eat it. But he also eats from the cat's litter box, so he's no gourmet. The ingredients are flour, pumpkin, molasses, cinnamon, and some other things, which is basically cookies, right? So I tried one. It was pretty hard. Also, it was bland at best. I couldn't finish it. 2/10.

The little yorkie on the box looks like Buddy.