More October

Before it got cold last week, I picked the remainder of green tomatoes from our fledgling garden before they froze.

Then this week, I made them into a green tomato upside down cake.

I did enjoy this cake. I usually make it with plums, so the tomatoes weren't as good, but they also weren't bad. Also, I usually make it with butter, but I only had margarine, so that wasn't as good either.

It fills me with joy to use fruit from our own yard. Now we have a drawer full of apples from our own tree that we have to use.

This Halloween season, I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch. I was happy when my ward went to Cross E Ranch on Monday, because they have a pumpkin patch. I didn't get any pumpkins or wander in the patch, but I did walk through it, thereby fulfilling my goal. I also held a cat, went through a corn maze, saw kittens, and played in corn. I don't care about solving problems in a corn maze. It's all about the atmosphere.

Tuesday was my day off, so I did my requisite North Canyon run, which wasn't as pretty this time, but it's always lovely. Annoyingly, my Fitbit Ionic GPS wasn't working at all. My last model (Fitbit Surge) was less fancy, but it wasn't as glitchy.

On a whim that evening, I decided to go see the new Addams Family movie. I didn't like it at first, but it got better. I'm a fan of the original 1960s series, and I appreciated the tributes the movie made to it, such as the growling polar bear rug. (I think they should have had the pet lion running backwards, since that gag was repeated ad nauseam on the show.) There were some great gags and lines. I also like that the characters look like the original Charles Addams drawings. But I was hoping it would actually be a Halloween movie instead of just a spooky movie. 7/10.

On Wednesday morning, I heard Jimmy meowing. He was looking out the window at another cat (evidently named Bruce) sitting on our patio. Our last cat, Jenny, would get all poofy and start making hostile noises whenever she saw another cat, so it's weird to me that Jimmy is so calm when he sees other cats. When we adopted him two years ago, he was living in a room full of cats, and I wonder if he misses cat companionship. I thought about opening the door to see what would happen, but I didn't want to scare Bruce away.

That evening I took another trail run on the Wild Rose Trail. There are few things in life more satisfying than autumn evening trail runs.

On Thursday,  I got to portray Alice the Dragon at work. I put on a giant "dragon" costume, which has a head that moves and roars. It's really heavy and difficult. My watch thought I was biking because I was holding on to handles (to move the head) and my heart rate was up. It's kind of fun, but I don't think I'm very good at it. I'm just focused on not dying (it's heavy, awkward, and hard to see). I didn't expect to go to college just to wear a giant dragon costume, but here I am.

Last week I complained about the horrible "Halloween" music they play, and it only gets worse. They have these awful kids' songs that sound like they're from the eighties. One of them has annoying music and even more annoying high-pitched cackling. The lyrics go something like this:
Happy hour of six, there was a little witch.
Happy hour of seven, she goes into the kitchen.
Happy hour of eight, she puts out all the plates.
Happy hour of nine, she makes a batter fine.
Happy hour of ten, she puts some berries in.
Happy hour of eleven, she bakes it in the oven.
Cooks some carrots and some meat, twelve o'clock it's time to eat!

Those lyrics are asinine! "Happy hour of nine" is the only one that rhymes, and it's an awkward rhyme at that. And it's not even Halloweeny. Anyone can make a pot roast with a berry dessert. And combined with the annoying music and cackling, it's a horrendous song.

On Friday night, I was invited to go to Pumpkin Nights at the fairground. The website made it sound like you needed to prepurchase tickets online. But when we got there, the prepurchase line was long, while there was literally no wait to buy tickets on site. What's the point of that?

They had various (fake) jack-o-lanterns placed in elaborate themed scenes. There was a Hogwarts theme, a Dia de los Muertos theme, an underwater theme,

a pirate theme,

a spider theme,

a Chinese theme,

and an enchanted forest.

It was fun, but definitely not worth the $20 admission. It would be worth half that. It was like a county fair with some elaborate displays. 

***
The people I went with were disparaging the pumpkin food trend. But, as you know, I love it. I hope this food fad lasts forever. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it!

I was pleasantly surprised by the Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Spice Waffles. "Gluten Free" doesn't always bode well, but these were good enough for me to eat without any topping. I could see the bits of quinoa spread throughout. 7/10.

I had a Cross E Ranch Apple Cider Donut, which wasn't very appley, but it was still enjoyable. 8/10.

At the ranch, I also had a Millie's Sweets Shop Caramel Apple. I opted for the simplest, cheapest, and lowest-calorie option. Just what you'd expect. 8/10.

I can't remember whether this Parsons' Bakery Pumpkin Donut was a "pumpkin donut" or a "pumpkin spice donut"—but I have a suspicion that it was just the spices and no pumpkin. It wasn't orange, and I didn't taste any pumpkin. Boring! 6/10.

I used my Pumpkin Lovers' Cookbook to make Seared Pumpkin and Onion Grilled Cheese. It's easy. Just cut up pumpkin (that's the hardest part) and onion, cook them in a pan, then put them on a sandwich with cheese and grill it. Simple but tasty. 8/10.

I'm not a huge fan of most caramel corn; it's too crunchy. But I really appreciate Boom Chicka Pop, including Angie's Boom Chicka Pop Candy Corn Flavored Drizzled Kettle Corn. It's sweet but not excessively so, and it doesn't have that annoying crunch of caramel corn. The candy corn version is pretty sweet but not excessively so. (I really appreciate Boom Chicka Pop for having one of the few Fourth of July products this past summer.) 8/10.

I didn't like the Angie's Boom Chicka Pop Pumpkin Spice Drizzled Kettle Corn as much. Butter was the dominant flavor. I know it's weird to complain about butter-flavored popcorn, but I don't like that. It's still good though. (Neither fall flavor is as good as the patriotic one was.) 7/10.

Jimmy was also interested in Sunbelt Bakery Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars. (Isn't he adorable?) These bars aren't terribly pumpkiny, but they're good enough that I look forward to buying them every year. 7/10.

I like to get the Thomas' Pumpkin Spice English Muffins and put savory foods on them (this time more pumpkin grilled cheese), because I obviously get enough sugar. I first had them in 2013. I'm not big on English muffins, but these are my favorite. 8/10.

On one of the last warm days, I had a Bahama Buck's Caramel Apple Sno. It's just apple shaved ice with caramel on it. Simple, but it works. 8/10.

Franz Pumpkin Spice Bagels aren't as good as their Thomas' cousins (they taste overly floury), but they're fine. 6/10.

My lips have been dry this week, so I've been using this Pumpkin Pie ChapStick I got two years ago. I don't like using ChapStick; I don't like the way it feels. The flavor is a typical fake pumpkin spice flavor. (I can't believe that's a thing.) 6/10.

When I got this Normal Ice Cream Count Chocula Ah Ah! Composed Cone, the chocolate ice cream machine wasn't working, so I had to get it with Butterfinger ice cream. I didn't much care for the berry topping that was supposed to resemble blood (I assume). And trying to eat cereal and ice cream at the same time hurt my mouth. 6/10.

For years I have ranted about how good Caramel Apple Sugar Babies are. I still consider them the best Halloween candy. But I'm bumping them down a point because some of them are harder to chew than the others. 9/10.

This is the first time I've had Nature's Bakery Fig Bars. They have a surprising amount of added sugar in them. But I liked it. 7/10.

I've had Trader Joe's Pumpkin O's every year since 2016. They're a pleasant cereal, if not terribly pumpkiny. But I love the whimsy of Trader Joe's: "Round like pumpkins (rounder, actually) and fun like jack-o-lanterns (maybe more fun, since you can eat them), Trader Joe's Pumpkin O's are the cereal sibling to the original Joe's O's. The pumpkin wizards whipped these up with a stroke of their pumpkin-shaped wands, and because pumpkin-shaped wands are challenging and difficult to control, the wizards were only able to conjure up enough of these O's for pumpkin season. If pumpkin is your passion, and cereal is your cause for celebration, Pumpkin O's are for you. Hold on to this box, lest the pumpkin goblins grab them all." We need a Trader Joe's in Davis County! 7/10.

Last Course Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Ice Cream is better than cinnamon ants. The pumpkin is strong, as is the cinnamon. 9/10.

The Last Course Pumpkin Whoopie Pie has pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with frosting in the middle. It's hard to mess up pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but the frosting wasn't great. 7/10.

The "pumpkin" in Bear Naked Pumpkin Spice Granola is pumpkin seeds. I'm fine with that, but the granola is just OK. 6/10.

This Sweet Tooth Fairy Pumpkin Cake Bite is the first item I have had from that bakery. They were sold out of the other products I might have bought. It was tasty, but it seemed steep to spend more than a dollar on a product I could eat in one bite. 8/10.

This Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup is a tomato-based soup with pumpkin and squash. It was better than I expected. 7/10.

It was overkill to get this Baskin-Robbins Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream in a waffle cone, but I'm worrying about it more than is rational. The ice cream is good but not exceptional. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Greek Nonfat Yogurt is fine as far as Greek yogurt goes. 6/10.

We have had apple cake from an old Melville recipe for years, but we lost the recipe. But my mom found a similar recipe online. My mom made this using the apples we picked. 9/10.

The cake was for a family gathering, but two of my cousins are celiacs, so I got Baker Josef's Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Baking Mix. The texture is definitely different from wheat bread, but it's still tasty and enjoyable. 8/10.

I haven't been overly impressed with Jet-Puffed Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows, so I thought I'd try Great Value Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows instead. They're not very flavorful, mostly just marshmallow. 5/10.

Another fall week

I didn't have a terribly eventful week. It was significant that it was freezing on Wednesday and Thursday, and I even saw a few snowflakes falling. The weather is important on a daily basis, but when it comes to life in general, it's really not important. When I read historical records that talk about what the weather was on a particular day, I think, "I really don't care." When I read old blog posts, I find myself apologizing for making boring posts, but I have found that the apologies really aren't necessary. So I won't include one.

Anyway, on Tuesday evening I ran on a trail near Legacy Parkway; I hadn't been on the portions I went on that night. (I won't bore you with the details of why I chose to go there, because it's ridiculous.) It was fun to be in a new spot, but honestly I find straight, flat running routes to be harder than winding or steep routes—it's a mental thing. Since it's wetlands there, there are tons of mosquitoes. They leave me alone when I'm running, but I stopped to eat a Kind bar, and I got bit, even though I put on repellent.

On Friday afternoon I ran up Mueller Park. North Canyon is truly better, but I felt like I should give it a turn during the fall. I had to wait until the afternoon so it would be warm enough, but that meant the fall colors weren't as vibrant (it wasn't a golden hour).

Then I went home and made apple-grape bread, using the last of our own grapes and some of our own apples. It is fantastic to use our own produce! It makes me so happy to pick apples from our own tree on a fall evening! I picked a lot of them this week before they froze.

Then I went to a stake "fall carnival," but none of the activities were very fall-like. I didn't feel like doing anything, and then I realized it was because I had spent two hours running followed by two hours cooking. I was exhausted.

Saturday was the first day of "Little Haunts" at This Is the Place, where there are trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities at the park. The park has speakers that play faux pioneer music. For Little Haunts, they also mix in some "Halloween" songs. I deliberately put "Halloween" in scare quotes. Most of the songs have little to do with Halloween (such as pirate songs and Harry Belafonte), and some have literally nothing to do with the holiday (the yellow polka-dot bikini!??). Even the songs that are actually Halloween songs are quite annoying. My own Halloween playlist is way better, even though I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

In this age of streaming, it seems outdated to still purchase and own music, but I like owning music, and I especially enjoy collecting holiday music. So here are the current numbers of songs in my playlists, but I'm always adding to them:

New Year: 27 songs

Valentine's Day: 17 songs

St. Patrick's Day: 97 songs

Easter: 181 songs

Fourth of July: 123 songs

Pioneer Day: 131 songs

Halloween: 175 songs

Thanksgiving: 98 songs

Christmas: 1,373 songs

***

It was a good week for pumpkinundation roundup!

Crumbl is a surprisingly popular and successful cookie company, but they do a horrible job when it comes to scheduling holiday flavors! But that's a topic for another day. This week they had a Crumbl Pumpkin Roll Cookie. It was a cake-like pumpkin cookie with frosting and a cinnamon topping. It was good, but I was disappointed (especially since I waited twenty minutes for them to take this out of the oven). Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies work because the chocolate breaks up the monotony of the pumpkin cookie, but here there was nothing to break up the monotony. Also, the best thing about real pumpkin rolls is the cream cheese frosting. I don't think this was cream cheese frosting. It was a fine cookie, but it should have been so much better. 6/10.

It's a good thing I still have some leftover CVS Health Pumpkin Spice Cough Drops from last year, because I was at CVS this week and they didn't sell them. These are my favorite cough drops. 7/10.

 These Yasso Pumpkin Cheesecake Frozen Greek Yogurt Bars have frozen pumpkin Greek yogurt base with a graham swirl. I really like the flavor and the texture. It doesn't have that weird tang that regular Greek yogurt has. 7/10.

This Bonfire Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin from Maverik tastes like a giant pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. It's 600 calories, but I'd say it's worth it. 8/10.

Peanuts and candy corn have been a thing for at least a decade, so it's nice to see them combined in a Twisted Sugar Harvest Peanut Butter Cookie. It was the first time I'd been to this cookie shop. The cookie has a nice peanut butter flavor, and the frosting almost had a bouncy texture. 8/10.

Philadelphia Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Spread is a fine, nice cream cheese. 7/10.

Happy Apples aren't great, but I had higher hopes for this Happy Apples Apple Pie Caramel Apple. It's a caramel apple with graham pieces and white chocolate. It did not remind me of apple pie, and it was overly sweet. Lots of decadent apples are just as sweet, but they taste better than this one. I found myself wishing I were eating a plain apple instead. 6/10.

I used my Pumpkin Lover's Cookbook to make a Fall Vegetable Omelet, which is a regular omelet, but the filling consists of pumpkin, peppers, and onions. (I omitted the carrots because I didn't have any.) Cutting the vegetables was the hardest part, and it was very enjoyable. 8/10.

These Pumpkin Spice Bantam Bagels are cinnamon bagel bites filled with pumpkin spice cream cheese. The bagel part just seemed like regular bread, while the cheese was a bit tangier than I would have liked. They're OK. 6/10.

I got this EOS Natural Pumpkin Spice Lip Care two years ago, and I still have tons of it because I don't use many lip care products. It tastes like the spice of pumpkin cereals such as Frosted Mini Wheats and Life. 7/10.

Love for leaves, contempt for canines

Last Sunday night, I settled down to watch a movie, and Jimmy the cat came and sat on my lap. We humans find animals cute, but in the case of cats, they also like us and want to be with us. Isn't that the greatest thing?

Contrast that with my experience with a pet the next day. It was my day off, so I decided to run to Ensign Peak, which I haven't done in a long time. It's not my favorite trail, because there's no shade, but it's fine on cool days.

I passed a large group with two little white dogs on leashes. They were bichon frises or some other little kind of dog. The people stood off to the side for me to pass. But dogs and children don't stand to the side; they stand in the middle of the trail and look at you. As I passed the first dog, it was difficult to walk off the trail (uneven ground), and I might have startled it and it started barking at me. The owner said "Bad dog!" One of them said, "I swear she's nice." I passed the second dog with no incident, except that it also didn't get out of the way.

 As I made my way back from Ensign Peak, I passed the same group again. There was a teenage girl at the end of the group with one of the dogs on a leash. And as I ran past, the infernal little dog bit my calf! I stopped and said, "Hey, he bit me!" She asked if it drew blood. No blood, but I was pretty scratched up. She said, "I am so sorry," and she sounded sincere. I didn't want to be a jerk to a teenage girl, so I just said "Oh well" in an annoyed tone and muttered "I hate dogs" as I ran off.

 Sometimes I think mean things about people, so I'm glad that when I was actually in a situation, I was still nice, even though I could justifiably have been incensed.

Earlier this year, I made a list of fifty things I don't like, and the list included dogs. I will say it more forcefully this time. I hate dogs. I can tolerate individual dogs, and on rare occasions I like certain ones, but collectively I hate them. This is the first time I've been bit, but it's not my first annoying encounter. Sometimes people bring their dogs off leash on trails and the dogs jump on me. I often have to stop or slow down because the dogs are in my way or I don't want to startle them. And then there's the jerk people who don't clean up after their dogs. If you don't clean up after your dog, you are a terrible neighbor who shouldn't be allowed to own one. The woman who said "I swear she's nice" exemplifies the problem. Everyone thinks they are a good dog owner, or their dog is a good one, even when they're not.

You may wonder why I like cats more than dogs. There are many reasons, but among other things, cats don't jump on me when I'm running, they don't bark at me when I dare to walk on the same street as them, and on the rare occasions strange cats have followed me, they just wanted to be petted.

On Monday evening I attended the musical The Addams Family at Hale Center Theatre because my grandparents couldn't use their tickets. It's not my favorite musical, but this was the best production of it, and they cleaned it up. If you ever want to see it, that's the production to see. I also appreciated that they took inspiration from the TV show, with Thing in a box and a foghorn doorbell.

Traffic was unusually bad this week, which left me less time for running, so I went to the Woodbriar Trail, my default trail for limited time because it's a good workout in a short distance. It's the most challenging local trail, but it's also the most beautiful, especially in May and October.

The break room fridge at work has a sign saying that it will be cleaned out every Friday and all the containers will be thrown out. That was obviously not true (hadn't been cleaned in months), and I had quit using it because my lunch doesn't usually need to be refrigerated and I couldn't handle the smell. Since no one else was cleaning it, I decided to clean it out myself. I was surprised at how many things were in there. There were lots of disposable containers left in there who knows how long. But there were half a dozen reusable containers full of spoiled food. People bring their nice containers to work and just forget about them? And that's a common occurrence? Even more puzzling was the pot portion of a small Crock Pot. It was empty but unwashed. Someone evidently finished their food, but instead of washing the pot, they just put it back in the fridge and forgot about it. Really?? There was also a bag of trail mix that was "best by" 2015.

Permit me to tell you about my frivolous purchases of Friday evening. My favorite movie of all time is The Nightmare before Christmas, but I dislike much (most?) of the marketing. Usually they have Jack with a menacing/mischievous face. He is not menacing! That's not how I imagine Jack! I picture his friendly, happy smiles when he asks Sally to make his Sandy Claws suit or when he sees Christmastown. Even worse is when they have Jack and Oogie Boogie as friends. They are not friends! Oogie is the only villain in the movie, and Jack said, "Leave that no account Oogie Boogie out of it!" So I usually skip the Nightmare merchandise.

But I wanted to make it to the Vans store before they sold out of some decent merch.

The shoes glow in the dark!

Oh, and here was my hilariously awesome birthday present last week.

Then I had to work on general conference Saturday for the first time since 2007, but I was able to sneakily watch it on my phone when no one was around. 

Fall is the greatest season. I wish it had more daylight. But besides that, fall has everything I could ever want out of a season. Moderate temperatures, stunning vistas, fresh produce, lots of holiday traditions, seasonal foods...

***

Did someone say seasonal foods?

Since it was my birthday week this past week, I was able to eat whatever I wanted, so I didn't have as much seasonal stuff, but I still had some for pumpkinundation roundup.

Kroger Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream is pumpkin ice cream with pieces of pie crust, which tastes nice and buttery like real crust. It's great. 8/10.

Sometimes the Mom & Pop burger places have the most creative shake flavors. This Millie's Burgers Caramel Apple Shake is the only caramel apple shake I have ever heard of. I didn't really taste the caramel, and I think the apples were canned pie filling. But it was good. 7/10.

Last year I bought this Trader Joe's Pumpkin Body Butter, but I still have lots left. I think the only "pumpkin" is pumpkin seed oil; it's mostly coconut. So they're just marketing it for basic suckers like me. 6/10.

Pumpkin Spice Special K is kind of a boring cereal—Special K flakes with coated clusters. It's fine but not exciting. 7/10.

After I bought my shoes and backpack, I went to have the weirdest food I have ever had: Last Course Cinnamon Ants Ice Cream. Yes, real insects. The cinnamon ice cream was delightful. The ants, though, are entirely a gimmick. They tasted like the smell of a pet store. But I'm not convinced it was just ants. I'm pretty sure I had a small leaf, and there were crispy bits that didn't seem like ants. Maybe ant food? I had to overcome my natural aversion to eating bugs, because it's entirely cultural. Why are ants worse than birds? It was weird to feel ant legs in my mouth. Maybe this will make me less weirded out to eat wormy cherries next June. (I've already mostly quit caring about that.) 6/10.

I also had Last Course Charcoal Candy Corn Ice Cream. Charcoal ice cream is apparently a food fad, but I didn't find it very flavorful. I couldn't tell you what it tasted like. The candy corn was a little crispy because it was cold, but at least it provided flavor, unlike the charcoal. Taste aside, I love the way it looks. 7/10.

Innkeeper's Organic Pumpkin Spice Bread has a wonderful cinnamon flavor and a soft texture. Cheap cinnamon raisin bread has nothing on this bread. 8/10.

I'm going to be submitting a review for this Halo Top Pumpkin Pie Dairy-Free Frozen Dessert. The "cream" is made from coconut milk, and it has the texture of ice cream. But coconut is the dominant flavor. Unfortunately, the dessert has "pie crust pieces," which are just flour, sugar, salt, and corn starch. The pieces taste and feel like wet flour. Remember the review above where I appreciated the pie crust pieces? In this "ice cream," it would be better off without them. I will be writing an official review of this. 5/10.