Beginning of October

I didn't have a super eventful week—which is nice.

Last week, for the remainder of my birthday, I had Mexican chocolate cake, served with black licorice ice cream and mint ice cream. And then I finished proofing the next issue of Wayfare.

It's still apple season, so I was picking some this week, and I dropped a perfect one on the ground. I ate it before it bruised, and I was surprised that it didn't have any worms in it. 

And this week I also had one of my favorite fall snacks, cut apples with grated cheddar, put in the microwave just long enough to soften the cheese.

And today, I made topping while my mom cut apples for apple crisp.

Four evenings this week, I was able to get on the trails. Two of those nights, I had to use my headlamp so I could run after dark. 

The maples are more muted this year

At least the rabbitbrush looks cool

The oaks are starting to change, but they're never as cool

This trail develops small sinkholes

The big spiders come out at night

Last November, I blogged about finding a mysterious phone number for someone named Musky written inside my closet. This week, I was using a stick to clear cobwebs from a downstairs window, and a piece of masking tape with the name "Becky Johnson" fell from the window frame. I don't know a Becky Johnson, so it was probably put there before we moved in back in 1991.

I had a friend from Florida send me tickets for the Saturday morning session of general conference, so I went. I wore the new rainbow tie I got for my birthday. Of course, there were protesters outside the center, one of them saying Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were burning in hell, as though it were the nineteenth century. And someone was carrying a Phil Lyman sign. That seems like a weird time and place to campaign, but if it makes Phil Lyman look bad, go for it! 

Back when I was in college, my parents used my bedroom as an annex to store family history materials. Last night I decided to reclaim the drawer so I could put sweaters in it, and I was able to get rid of some of the pedigree sheets that are obsolete because of FamilySearch (thank goodness!). And speaking of obsolete, I found two floppy disks, I think with names to take to the temple!

And I thought I had some entertaining AI dream images this week.

Mark goes to a fancy house where they even put Thanksgiving decorations in the basement

Mark sees the Fillmore hieroglyphics, which are behind bars

Mark rescues his Peanuts Fourth of July pillowcase from his rude cousins-in-laws' house (There is so much to unpack in this image 😂)

Women dressed as Easter bunnies look at sewing books from the 1970s at Walmart

Mark tells people about the funny dream he had about women dressed like the Easter Bunny at Walmart

Mark makes cookie dough with spinach and other vegetables, but he doesn't have time to bake it

Mark almost gives cookies to an older couple, but then he remembers the wife is vegan and doesn't eat sugar

Mark sees some books from BYU sent to the LDS distribution center, and he thinks he knows where they're supposed to go

The LDS distribution center has an outdoor swimming pool for employees to use on their break

Mark talks about symbolism of common objects in a small Sunday School class (I like the hot dog)

Mark swims in a river, and there are plush Powerpuff Girl dolls in the water

Mark sees and hears a rattlesnake in the park, and a gay man picks it up with his bare hands

Mark does laundry in a house with two washers and two dryers, and he realizes he already left some laundry in them

Mark takes a picture of his partly eaten pumpkin pie Pop-Tart

There is a small Trader Joe's store in South Jordan, Utah

***

Because I had trips to Trader Joe's, Walmart, and Target this week, I have some good entries for pumpkinundation roundup.

I decided to try a plain old pumpkin as a vegetable. I have roasted pumpkin before to put in pie or other things, but this was my first time eating it plain. It was . . . not great. It was just bland. I was surprised the texture was similar to spaghetti squash. (The Pumpkin book I've been reading talks about how pumpkins grew so easily that they were associated with poor people and livestock, but then New England began romanticizing the rural symbolism of pumpkins, so they started embracing pumpkin pie in the nineteenth century.) 5/10. 

I didn't roast the stem, I just put it in the picture

In our pantry we had Spice Islands Pumpkin Pie Spice, which consists of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, mace, and cloves. It's not great on pumpkin, but it smells good. 7/10.

And Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spice has cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom. It also smells good. 7/10.

And therein lies one of my pet peeves, when food companies label something "pumpkin spice," even though there's not agreement about exactly what spices are in it. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves seem to be standard, as is ginger sometimes, which is the same as gingerbread spice. And zucchini bread spice. And carrot cake spice.

Which leads me to Little Debbie Pumpkin Spice Donuts. There is no pumpkin in them, just food coloring. But they are tasty donuts! 7/10.

I got this bag of Fall Dum-Dums. I wanted to try these, and I will have no need to buy them again, since Dum-Dums are the favorite candy of no one over the age of nine. The Apple Cider Dum-Dum is OK; it vaguely tastes like apple cider. (They also include this flavor in the Christmas bags.) 6/10.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Ravioli tastes better than I expect, since parmesan cheese is in the ingredients, and I hate parmesan. The texture is a little weird, but better than other gluten-free pasta I've had. 7/10.

I do prefer the Trader Joe's Honey Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli, which is sweeter. I put some marinara sauce on them, which diluted some of the flavor, but the texture needed some sauce. 8/10.

The Caramel Apple Dum-Dum doesn't really taste like caramel apple, even though that seems like a flavor that should be easy. 5/10.

The Kneaders Pumpkin Cream Cheese French Toast is just their standard French toast with a dollop of pumpkin cream cheese. The French toast is really yummy, but the pumpkin cream cheese is just OK, and this is kind of a boring dish. 6/10.

They had samples of Kneaders Pumpkin Bread, which is basic pumpkin bread, but there's nothing wrong with that. 7/10.

I've gotten more selective about the things I buy at Trader Joe's, and since I keep buying Trader Joe's Spicy Pumpkin Samosas, they must be worth my time. It's nice to get a savory break from all the sweet pumpkin things. 8/10.

Speaking of sweet—I didn't expect Pumpkin Pie Dum-Dums to actually taste like pumpkin pie. But I hoped they would taste like something. 4/10.

The remaining flavors are sour apple, cinnamon roll, and hot chocolate, but I don't intend to rate them on here

I enjoyed the JJ Donuts Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cinnamon Roll. 7/10.

And I don't buy as many cereals as I used to. But I enjoy eating Pumpkin Spice Special K, even though it barely earns its "pumpkin spice" label. 7/10.

Dr. Squatch Drunk'n Pumpkin Men's Natural Soap has pumpkin seed powder in it, apparently. It doesn't smell like pumpkin or spices, but it still has a pleasant scent. It's more masculine than the other scented soaps I use. 7/10.

I'm glad that Thomas' Pumpkin Spice Bagels keep coming back after more than a decade. They have little pockets of pumpkin filling. I don't usually love bagels, but these are great. I usually like eating them with cheese, since I certainly don't need anything else sweet. 9/10.