Muddy trails

Sundance has had very little work for me to do so far, but it's just the calm before the storm. I've appreciated the free time at work before it gets hectic in a few weeks. It has given me time to work on my Pioneer Day research, though I'm entering the second half of the twentieth century, where fewer resources are online. I might have to go back and flesh out my nineteenth-century information.

Since I love eating pumpkin everything, I know I have to exert calories to justify it, so I go running during my breaks. Unfortunately, there has been too much snow on the ground. It last snowed almost two weeks ago, and we've had nothing but warm, sunny days since then, but the snow remains.

Nevertheless, I decided I didn't care that it was snowy, and I ended up going on some of the Park City trails anyway, because who knows when it will snow and they will be covered in ice for months. I found a small nature preserve that was some kind of wetlands.

 There's also a river next to a soccer field.

Looming over the main part of Park City is PC Hill, and I decided to run to the top of it. The trailhead is only a mile from my office, and it's only like half a mile to the top. Unfortunately, there are many unofficial trails, so it was hard to follow the real trail. Parts of it were also extremely muddy. I will let this one dry out before I go back, but I'm glad I went.

This is the P.

 Directly across the street from the office is a small hill with a weather station and some kind of reservoir (or something) on top. That one is short enough that I have already gone up it a few times, and it's mostly dry.

I even found another, longer trail that also goes to the top of this hill, but much of that trail is on a north-facing slope, so it's still too muddy.

Me: We need snow to help with our water supply, and we need the whiteness of the snow to reflect heat away. Snow is absolutely essential.
Also me: Won't you all melt already?!!

I also got the rest of my Thanksgiving decorations up. I don't understand the early Christmas people, because for one thing, won't you be sick of it by the time Christmas actually gets here, but also, I get a great deal of joy from Thanksgiving decorations and music. I used to think of Pilgrims as a seventeenth-century thing, but now that I'm a nineteenth-century historian, I think of them as a nineteenth-century thing. Late-nineteenth-century Americans loved Pilgrims, and many of our (sometimes erroneous) ideas about them (including their connection to Thanksgiving) come from the late 1800s.

I decorate with toys, because I absolutely love kitsch.

When we went to Plymouth last year, I saw the Plymouth Rock squishy thing, and I knew it would be the perfect accessory for my Little People Mayflower.

Since there was still snow in my yard on Saturday, I knew the local trails would still be muddy, so I did my default sidewalk run of eleven miles to and from the Bountiful Temple. It makes me feel good that that run is no longer even that difficult for me. I don't like doing hard things. I only do things that are a little hard until they are easy. But my calves were more sore (in a good way) than I thought they should be.

***
For real though, much of my motivation for running so much is so I can eat all the junk food I have in my drawers and so I can go out and buy more for pumpkinundation roundup.

I used this Trader Joe's Organic Pumpkin...

 ...to put in this Turkey and Pumpkin Black Bean Chili from Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook. (No, I'm not diabetic.) It also includes onions, peppers, cumin, chili powder, and garlic. This isn't the best chili I've ever had, but it's good enough for me to make it every year. 7/10.

This Maddy & Maize Apple Pie a la Mode Gourmet Popcorn nails the "à la mode" part. There's this white confection that feels cool and creamy. But I only get the faintest bit of apple, and it's not really pie-y. 7/10.

I took these Trader Joe's Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies to a work function, and everyone seemed to love them. But to me, they're not especially out of the ordinary. They're great, but I love all chocolate oatmeal cookies. 8/10.

At that work function there were mini apple tartlets, which were like apple pie filling in a phyllo crust. It was fine but somewhat weird. 7/10.

 They also had pumpkin bread, which is hard to mess up. 8/10.

 There's a Maverik across the street from work, and they had a discount on this Hershey's Candy Corn Bar. It's a white chocolate, candy corn–flavored bar with soft candy pieces. It's fine. 7/10.

This Smith's Bakery Bite Size Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie is a typical pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. Generally speaking, you've had one, you've had them all. 7/10.

 I was only going to buy the above Hershey's bar, but the Maverik cashier told me the clearance candy was two for a dollar, so I also got White Candy Corn M&Ms. These have been around for almost a decade, surprisingly. They're enjoyable but not spectacular. 7/10.

 For some reason I'm drawn to seasonal protein bars, such as this Quest Pumpkin Pie Protein Bar. It's not especially pumpkiny. It has a somewhat waxy coating with a dry interior. But at least there's very little sugar. 5/10.

Brownies! Brownies! Brownies! is a cute little brownie shop in Sugar House that I found via Google Maps. The brownies themselves aren't especially noteworthy, but what makes the shop unique is that they make brownie sandwiches with different fillings and toppings. (This is the first time I've been back since I had their Peeps and Cadbury Egg brownies back in the spring.) For November, they have pie flavors, so I got a Brownies! Brownies! Brownies! Pecan Pie Brownie. It has pecans on top, and I'm not sure what the filling was. I love pecan pie, and I love brownies, but I didn't think the combination was extraordinary. 8/10.

During this time of year, I like to get frozen turkey lunches. Doing so makes me realize how wasteful frozen lunches are; this is like the only time of year I eat them. A waste of money, a waste of time, and especially a waste of packaging. This Banquet Turkey Meal has turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, and peas. It's OK. 6/10.

Three years ago, I got this container of Apple Pie Tic Tac, and I still have it. Not because they're bad, but because I just don't go through that many. These are my favorite Tic Tacs ever, so I'm sad they only made them one year. It was this very pack that got me my gig over at The Impulsive Buy.

Overall, the Hungry-Man Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey is my favorite of all the frozen turkey meals. The turkey is closest to a Thanksgiving meal. The veggies are bland, though. The cranberry apple dessert isn't noteworthy, but I appreciate the effort. Unlike most frozen meals, this one is big enough to be a meal itself. (Of course, I exert enough calories that I need bigger meals.) 8/10.

My mom thought Cutler's Frosted Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie was too dry, but I thought it was better than most in its class. 8/10.

It's hard to keep all the meals straight, but I think Stouffer's Classics Roast Turkey had the best stuffing of all of them. 7/10.

It's been a few years since I've had Nielsen's Pumpkin Frozen Custard. I'm going on a little rant about Nielsen's. I think they are a ridiculous restaurant. Only recently did they start accepting credit cards. They're like literally forty years behind the times! And it's annoying that you have to look at a physical menu when you go in; they don't have the menu on a sign. And their menu is confusing. As for the custard itself, it's good, and it's nice that it has fewer calories than ice cream. 8/10. 

Marie Callender's Honey Roasted Turkey Breast might actually be the least authentic turkey of all of them, and I'm sad it doesn't have stuffing. 6/10.

I like most pumpkin soups, but I'm not a fan of Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bisque. There's something in it that doesn't appeal to me, whether it's the apple cider vinegar, tahini, or something else. 4/10.

From goblins to gobbling

It was a long week! When I think back on Monday, I'm like, "That was still this past week?!" It wasn't a bad week by any means. It was just a very full week.

I didn't work on Monday, and since it was cold and snowy, I opted to go swimming for my cardio. After that, I went to a few stores, including Seagull (formerly Seagull Book, formerly Seagull Book and Tape), where I was happy to see my book on display. You're lucky when they display the book with the cover out instead of just the spine. You're not so lucky when the discount sticker is covering your name.

I was supposed to be off on Tuesday, because This Is the Place ended last Saturday. But there were first-graders having a field trip class in the barbershop, so I had to go back, get a uniform again, and teach the class. I had a feeling that was going to happen. But I was a little stressed out, because there was a traffic light that was out, meaning I barely made it in time, and they gave me clothes with literally no pockets. (I didn't have time to get different ones because I was running late.) It was a bitter January day two days before Halloween.

Then on Wednesday, I drove to Park City to resume my position as an editor for the Sundance Film Festival! I didn't really care for the job last year, but I can make ten times the money I would make if I stayed at This Is the Place for the winter. But I'm feeling more optimistic about Sundance this year. Since I already did it, I know what to expect. Happiness is a state of mind. And last year I felt like I didn't fit in with Sundance people, but now I am Sundance people. We had an orientation meeting with many of the new hires, and I was the only one (of about a dozen) who was born and raised in Utah.

We have a new office building, and in most ways I like it better. It's roomier and has more windows. There is more parking, so I don't have to take the vanpool every day. (I will probably take it most days to save gas and to save the planet, but it's nice to know I have options.) It's closer to stores, restaurants, and other Sundance offices than last year's.

The best thing about last year's location was that it was directly next to a trailhead. I will miss that. But I have found some trailheads near the new office, though they look inferior. (I haven't been on them yet, because they're still snowy.)

The worst thing about the new office is the appalling lack of bathrooms. There is a single one-stall restroom on our floor. I think we might even share with other offices. I don't know who thought that was OK. Last year's office was smaller and had three restrooms, and even then sometimes they'd all be in use. We need to find the architect for the building and make sure no one ever hires them, if they think that's an acceptable office design. I have to go upstairs and walk through a different department to find one that isn't being used.

On Wednesday night, I finally submitted my application for grad school! Now I just need to follow up on my letters of recommendation.

Thursday, of course, was Halloween! We got to dress up at work, so I wore my Vector costume so I could go running during my breaks.

Ice under a bridge

What I don't like about Park City is that they encourage you not to drive, yet most neighborhoods don't have sidewalks, or at least don't have them on both sides of the road. It's very annoying.

Since it was Halloween, I decided to run through the cemetery that's right by the office.

I've been to a lot of old Mormon cemeteries. But Park City was a mining town, not a Mormon pioneer town, which meant there were more crosses than I'm used to.

 There was also a work Halloween party, which was OK.

Then I headed home for my own Halloween festivities! As I lit our jack-o-lanterns and watched them flicker, I couldn't help feeling nostalgic for trick-or-treating and thinking, "What a great holiday this is!"

Since it's no fun spending holidays alone, I invited some people to come over. We played the classic Telephone/Pictionary game with Halloween sentences and watched The Mummy from 1933. I like that movie: it's not just a person walking around in bandages, but the mummy pretends to be a modern person and has the ability to control people's minds. I think it's way creepier than it would have been with just a walking, wrapped-up corpse.

We had a half-dozen or so groups of trick-or-treaters. The first group had a random dog following them, and the dog came into our house! We're not dog people, so I found that a little annoying, but at least it was a nice dog. I told that story at work, and one of my coworkers said that when she was in college a kitten had followed some trick-or-treaters and went into her apartment, then settled down by the stove to sleep. They kept it for eight years. Her story is better than mine.

My Californian nephews are obsessed with plush toys called Squishmallows, which they call Fluffies. My nephews and I have little in common, so to connect with them, I get the holiday versions. So on Halloween night, I texted them a picture of my Halloween collection.

After I sent the text, my eleven-year-old nephew, Franklin, called me to commend me for my collection and to tell me about their adventures trick-or-treating. Then Nathaniel (nine) also talked to me about trick-or-treating. It was fun and nostalgic to hear their enthusiasm for this time-honored Halloween tradition (especially since they don't especially like holidays). It was a wonderful holiday. I got to bed late, but it was mostly worth it.

The drawback about getting to bed late was that I was super tired the next day. I have this problem where I will wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for two hours. I used to wake up at 3:00 and stay awake until 5:00; more recently I've been waking up at 5:00 and staying awake until 7:00, which is also the time I have to get up. Ugh! (I think some of this problem comes from eating too much sugar, so I've cut down on sugar, if you can believe that.) Sometimes I wake up on my own, but sometimes things wake me up. I was not happy with how I was awakened this time.

My ward has a texting service to send out ward announcements. There is also this girl with autism and other issues who is in another ward, but she comes to a lot of our ward functions. ("She doesn't even go here!") At 5 a.m. on November 1, she joined our ward text group, and then she sent a text saying "Hi my name is [name]." (I don't know whether the whole ward got it, or if I got it because I'm still an admin for the group from when I was executive secretary.) What are you doing sending texts at 5:00 in the morning?! I didn't want to be awake for two hours because of that.

But I'm glad it's now Thanksgiving season, my favorite holiday. Poor neglected Thanksgiving. I still have to take down most of the Halloween stuff and put up Thanksgiving, but I did put up my outdoor decor.

On Saturday, since there's still snow on the ground, I ran to the Bountiful Temple from my house, 10.8 miles round trip. Often my knee starts hurting on this run, but I successfully made it without any knee pain! It might be time for some new shoes.

I know how essential it is that we have lots of snow. But I still want it all to melt so I can get some more trails in before winter officially gets here.

***
Now that Halloween is over, caramel apple is no longer part of pumpkinundation roundup, but candy corn and pumpkin still are. Pecan pie, apple pie, and other Thanksgiving flavors have also joined the mix.

I went to Cutler's for the first time ever and had this Pumpkin Spice Doodle. I think it was just a snickerdoodle with a pumpkin spice frosting. It was fine. 7/10.

Even though it wasn't yet Thanksgiving season, I also had the Cutler's Turkey and Stuffing Sandwich. I've had many similar sandwiches over the years, and this one was fine. 7/10.

Oh, Crumbl. Their cookies are amazing, but their seasonal selection should be so much better! One of their cookies this week was literally a sugar cookie with a single candy corn on top. Lamezy! (That's a combination of "lame" and "lazy.") I did have their Crumbl Caramel Apple Cookie. It was a good cookie, but not especially caramely or appley. 7/10.

 I was a bigger fan of the Crumbl Pumpkin Oreo Cookie. It was an Oreo cookie with pumpkin frosting. This one was creative and tasty. 8/10.

 I wasn't a big fan of Trader Joe's Butternut Squash Ravioli. I couldn't eat too much in one sitting. The squash filling was more sweet than savory, and I thought it clashed. 4/10.

 I had the ravioli with Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce, which has never been my favorite. It didn't work so well with the squash ravioli, but I know it's better on other pasta. 6/10.

There is a new version of Kneaders Pumpkin Cheesecake. It used to be a pumpkin cheesecake. Now it's a plain cheesecake with a piece of pumpkin cake on top. I like the old version better, especially since I'm not a big fan of plain cheesecake. 6/10.

I had to travel back in time to try these Pumpkin Spice M&M's. Back in 2013 and 2014, this was a Target-exclusive flavor. It's just chocolate with spices in it. My mom found this bag in a downstairs trash pile that somehow wasn't thrown away for five or six years. And lurking inside the bag was a single remaining M&M. It was so old that it tasted like cheap candy (like R. M. Palmer), but it wasn't really rancid. 6/10. (That's my rating for how I remember it in its prime, not for the mummified version. Now they have White Chocolate Pumpkin Pie M&M's, which are better, but I haven't had them this season.)

At the work Halloween party were these cupcakes. I'm pretty sure they're Caramel Apple Cupcakes (6/10) and Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes (6/10). I'm not a big fan of store-bought cupcakes. These were just vanilla cupcakes with flavored icing.

Now that apple pie is in season, I had a Larry's and Larry's Apple Pie Complete Cookie. It had dried apple bits and spices in the dense cookie, which has low sugar (for a cookie) and lots of protein and carbs. It's fine for what it is. 6/10.

In Park City, I had this Yodipity Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt. It had a nice pumpkin and spice flavor. Remember when froyo was all the rage in the early 2010s? I understand why it's diminished. 7/10.

I waited until November 1 to pull out my Trader Joe's Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips. They're not especially turkey-ey, but I still like them. I don't eat that many potato chips, so it's always nice to have a seasonal flavor that interests me. 7/10.

Yasso Pecan Pie Frozen Greek Yogurt Bars are excellent. 8/10.

Since I ran almost eleven miles (and it was fast Sunday), I was entitled to go to lunch and have a Pizza Pie Cafe Pumpkin Dessert Pizza. It's basically a sugar cookie with spices. It's not terribly pumpkiny, but I like it. 7/10.

 I also had their Pizza Pie Cafe Apple Dessert Pizza because it seemed close enough to apple pie. This one is a regular pizza crust with apple pie filling. It's fine. 6/10.

And after that, I could even justify having a Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, which has pumpkin ice cream, graham bits, whipped cream, and nutmeg. One of the best pumpkin items out there. 10/10.

I have not tried these Trader Joe's Turkey & Cranberry Recipe Dog Treats, so I cannot rate them. I only gave them to my sister's dog, Buddy. He ate them, just like he eats everything. I can't decide whether I want to try one myself. The pumpkin one last year was bad enough, but this one has turkey in it.

Late October

Holidays are always fun, but I've been taking them to another level by reading (and writing) academic books about them. So here's a brief overview of the history of Halloween as far as I understand it:

• Ancient Celts celebrated Samhain on the eve of November 1. It was a time when spirits were said to travel into the land of the living.
• As is the case with many of our holidays, the Roman Catholic Church moved the holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to November 1 and 2 to accommodate/reinterpret/replace/assimilate the Celtic festivities. It retained many of its supernatural elements and was said to be a night for witches and fairies. (Fairies were not the cutesy type we think of. They were mischievous, almost evil creatures, and people had to refer to them as "the good people" so they wouldn't offend them.)
• In the late nineteenth century, Irish immigrants brought Halloween to the United States. After the turn of the twentieth century, Halloween was an evening for fortune telling, pranks, and vandalism. 
• In the 1930s, trick-or-treating began as an alternative to vandalism, and it grew after World War II. It amazes me that so many of our Halloween traditions are comparatively young!

Once the July holidays are over, there's not another major holiday until Halloween. To accommodate the dearth of festivities, I officially start the Halloween season in mid-September. But at that point, I've already been looking for autumnal candy to review for months. (My first Halloween review went up in July this year!)

Because of that, and because a lot of Halloween products are on store shelves in August, I often associate Halloween things with late summer. And the time of year doesn't seem very spooky.

But then by the time late October gets here, it really does have a bit of a spooky feel, and I can get why the Celts made it time for Samhain. (In truth, however, ancient Ireland probably feels pretty different from modern-day Utah at this time of year.

At this time of year, with the impending snow and darkness, I value trails more than at any other time. (The exception might be February/March/April, when there's been a hiatus.) Over just the course of a week, a lot of the trees lost their leaves. It is sad.

Good old default Wild Rose. Actually, this might be the Chukar Loop portion.

After work on Thursday, I ran on the trails behind This Is the Place. It's fun to see the park from above. Even though the location is convenient, I rarely go on those trails. There are a seemingly infinite number of trails, but I think few are meant to be trails, and they tend to be pretty steep. There's just been so much traffic that it's worn paths. I went up one steep trail that I'm pretty sure wasn't an official trail. It was OK.

Saturday was my last day of work at This Is the Place because it's slowing down for the season. It was the last day of Little Haunts, so I wore my old Fred Flintstone costume, which was especially fitting when we brought out Alice the dragon/dinosaur. There was an end-of-year party, and then I ran up the nearby trails again. This time, I ended up going up the trail where we had to bring handcarts down on that strange June day earlier this year. I felt like everything had come full circle: the end of the season, remembering everything that happened this year, the green of June replaced by the reds and browns of October.

 

This is where most of the handcarts parked when we had to rescue them four months ago.

Today I taught an elders quorum lesson using Peter M. Johnson's talk "Power to Overcome the Adversary."  During conference, I was thinking that I should quit wasting time by looking at Twitter feeds (I don't have my own account, but I look at others), but then that talk specifically called out Twitter as a distraction. So I feel like the last three weeks have been a bit more productive without frequently refreshing a Twitter feed. In my lesson, I encouraged people to share how they can feel discouraged. For example, in a YSA context, I'm like a loaf of moldy bread—I've hit my expiration date, and it's time to toss me out. (It was said with a smile, so don't worry about me.) But then I didn't have enough time to talk in depth about some of the solutions. Oh well.

Then tonight my family carved pumpkins. I carved two, one I got from work and a green one my family bought.

I've seen a lot of cartoons that use green jack-o'-lanterns. Is that a thing? Carving the green pumpkin was really difficult. It didn't have a stem, which meant I couldn't pull the lid off. I had to carve the face without emptying the inside. Eventually I got the lid off, but I can't get it back in. It was surprisingly challenging. But I liked the green and orange flesh, and it smelled like a cucumber.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my next two days off before I start at Sundance again. It's not my favorite job. But happiness is a state of mind, so I'm trying to remain optimistic.

***
In news relevant to pumpkinundation roundup, I was shocked to learn this week that Last Course is closed forever! In truth though, their ice cream flavors were unique, but they weren't especially great. I loved the pumpkin snickerdoodle and key lime pie, but the turkey cranberry, candied yam, malted milk eggs, and cotton candy Pop Rocks were subpar.

Pumpkin Pie Larabars are fruits and nuts smashed together with some pumpkin and spices. They're fine. 6/10.

Some of my favorite finds are pumpkin versions of products I have never heard of, like this Bobo's Pumpkin Spice Oat Bar. I liked the spices of this, but the bar was like a soft brick of oats. Kind of weird. 6/10. 

Pumpkin Pie Kit Kats came out two years ago, and I got them then, but I didn't have them again until now. I like them, even though they taste artificial. My family has discovered where I put them, so I doubt they'll last until Halloween. 7/10.

A friend made these apple cider donuts, which we had with both ginger and cinnamon seasoning. They were great! But I don't like the idea of making donuts myself because I don't know what to do with the oil afterwards. 8/10.

I was glad the friend had Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spiced Ginger Brew, because I had seen it but didn't want to buy it. I haven't had soda since 2015, and I can't decide whether this is soda, though I only had a few sips. It mostly tasted like ginger. I didn't taste the pumpkin, but it did remind me of something I might have at Thanksgiving or Christmas. 7/10.

I put milk to the fill line of this Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Kodiak Cakes Muffin, and then I added some more milk, but it still seemed a little dry. It's still good though; I was worried they had quit making these. 7/10.

Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts have been a favorite of mine since 2013. They're like the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon variety, only better, with actual pumpkin! 9/10.

Some friends shared this Riveridge Pumpkin Spice Apple Cider. Apple cider is great, and the pumpkin spice only enhanced it. 8/10.

I was invited to this gathering because they had pumpkin custard (made in a Dutch oven) and thought of me. I liked it. 8/10.

Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Pie Toaster Pastries are different from Pop-Tarts, but they're equally enjoyable. 9/10.