With Goblins We Just Got Done

(Sometimes my blog titles are obscure references, and here is this week's reference.)

Halloween is over, and I'm sad to put the spooky things away for another ten and a half months. And there are so many spooky shows and movies I wanted to watch, but I also don't want to watch movies when the weather is so perfect. 

Anyway, here's this week's update.

I wanted to post this last week but forgot. Last Sunday, there was a fly on my backup camera.

On Monday, my ward had a pie night, so the night before, I made an apple pie using the apples from our tree. I used the recipe from my mom's Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from the 1970s, and it is a wonderful recipe.

Then Monday evening, my mom and I watched the season finale of Halloween Baking Championship, and the winner is a Utahn! When I went to Albuquerque a few weeks ago, I heard some people talking about knowing about Utah because of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. I'm glad to have some other representation.

Tuesday, there was a Halloween social at work, so I wore my favorite Halloween sweater.

And in the evening, I carved pumpkins with my parents and my niece. Mine is the one on the left.

On Halloween itself, after work, I decided to cut a cucumber that my mom picked from the garden a few weeks ago. This cucumber had a hole in the end, and I didn't think much about it.

But the hole extended halfway up the cucumber, and I was surprised to find it contained a potato bug (aka roly-poly, sow bug, pill bug, wood louse)! (Potato bug is the term I use as a native Utahn.)

In fact, I ended up finding six of them. And they were all alive, even though they had been inside for a while!

In the evening, I put on my old standby vampire costume and went to my friend Sean's house for his Halloween party. I didn't know most of the people there.

Then Saturday, I was able to go on my first really long run of 2025. I went up North Canyon, down Mueller Park, and across the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, for a total of fourteen miles. I'm glad I'm in good enough shape to do this, though of course it was tiring, but I wasn't totally wiped out. But I don't get how/why people do fifty- or hundred-mile runs. I just think it would quit being fun.

It wasn't a cold day, so I was surprised to see frost in various places on the trail. I was surprised how muddy some parts of the trail were. There were also more bikers and runners than I usually see, even on some of the farther portions of the trail.

The last time November 1 was a Saturday was back in 2014, and I remember running the Wild Rose Trail that day, so that run would only have been less than four miles (I don't remember if I ran anywhere else that day). I've come a long way since then! Back then, I didn't even have a fitness tracker, and I still wore old shoes that were not dedicated to trails, shoes that were relatively inexpensive.

After my long run, I still had enough energy to take down all the Halloween decorations. But as of this writing, I still have to put up the Thanksgiving decor (though I put up the outside decorations).

***

This week's pumpkinundation roundup marks the transition from Halloween into Thanksgiving. So from now on, there will be Thanksgiving-themed foods here. (I often include homemade items, but I'm not going to this week, because I just don't think it's that interesting to mention other people's homemade goodies, and there were a lot this week.) Also, these aren't in order because of Blogger's terrible photo-adding system.

I actually got the Big Bite Breads Caramel Apple Roll last week and forgot to put it on here. It had cooked apple pieces with a caramel topping. I remember liking it, but it wasn't anything spectacular. 7/10.

The Arby's Gobbler has deep-fried turkey, stuffing, and some kind of cranberry topping. Oh, and I think there's cheese as well. I love turkey and stuffing sandwiches, but this one's not as good as most. The stuffing is more subtle, as is the cranberry. But it was still a decent sandwich. 7/10.

I'm going to write a formal review of the Arby's Apple Pie Shake. Arby's isn't known for having great shakes, but this is the best Arby's shake I've ever had! It really does taste like apple pie. 8/10.

Pecan pie is my favorite kind of pie, so I'm disappointed that Softsoap Pecan Pie Scent doesn't really smell anything like pecan pie. 4/10.

But Softsoap Apple Pie Scent is a little better; it smells like apples and spices. But still a little artificial. 6/10.

This week there were Thirst Apple Cider Beignet Bites. I didn't really taste apple cider, but they were good beignets. 7/10.

They came with Thirst Pumpkin Cream Cheese, which was overly tangy for my taste. I preferred the beignets on their own. 5/10.

I have always loved those trashy little "pies" that come in boxes, so I was happy to try a JJ's Bakery Pumpkin Spice Pie. There is a nominal amount of pumpkin in it. I remember loving it, but mostly because I love this genre of pie; I don't remember it being overly pumpkiny. (I ate it while I was working, and I've found I pay less attention to the food if I'm doing something else, so I try not to multitask if it's a new food. But I forgot that time.) 8/10.

For the work Halloween party, there were various pumpkin items that I was eager to try so I didn't have to commit to buying them myself. Two-Bite Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes were forgettable, as I literally don't remember much about the one I had. 6/10.

Gen Bake Pumpkin Spice Old Fashioned Donut Holes are just what you would expect from donuts. How can you not like them? 8/10.

Last month, I saw Litehouse Pumpkin Spice Caramel at the store but didn't buy it, because I didn't want to commit to that much caramel. Then I regretted it, but when I went back, they no longer had it. So I was happy to try it at the party. It's just caramel with spices. 7/10.

And I bought Dick's Caramel Apple Cookies, which were soft and chewy, just how I like cookies. But I didn't think the flavor was that special. 7/10.