Pumpkin Love

It will come as no surprise to those who know me well or have read this post from last year that I love pumpkins. I wasn't sure how much pumpkin love I was going to get this year. I figured I could carve a pumpkin on my own, but it's more fun with others too. So when my roommate asked me to help her carve one for her work pumpkin carving contest, I was happy to oblige.  We looked at various ideas online. One of our favorites was Ryan Gosling saying "Hey girl," but we ended up with a small pumpkin and that would have been really difficult to pull off, so we went with Tinker Bell instead and I think she turned out really cute! And isn't the pixie dust fun? 

You can see the flashlight we used to illuminate it in the picture, but don't let that distract you from the charm.

In addition to carving pumpkins, I love pumpkin baked goods. My two favorite recipes are this cake here and these cookies. I just tried the cookie recipe tonight and yeah, they're awesome, with or without the salt on top, btw. So thought I'd share so you can give it a try too! Yum!

Being Daphne

Last night I went to a Halloween dance with my friends. For the past few years, they've dressed up as a group for Halloween—they'll tell you all about the glory days of Ghostbusters, and last year they did Mario. This year was a little more low-key, going with Scooby Doo. Since there's a scarcity of women in my old ward, when I mentioned that I was thinking of crashing their stake dance, they asked me to join them. I had the clothes for either Velma or Daphne, but since my hair is long and red, I was glad they chose Daphne.

Just before the dance, I was going to go see if I could find a more purple ribbon or hairband, since the one I have is super light and pinkish. I started driving and realized both my headlights were burned out...turned around and drove back. I knew the one was, and had purchased a new bulb, but hadn't put it in yet, so I was stuck. I ditched the ribbon idea, called my friend but he didn't answer, so I started walking to the church, since it's just a couple blocks away. I had a flashlight so cars could see me. I had texted the other friend and so when I was about halfway, he called and they came and picked me up. During this whole ordeal the irony that Daphne was always the damsel in distress did not escape me. I just really got into character!

Fred, Zombie, Daphne, Scooby, Shaggy with Scooby Snacks

So with the help of Scooby and Shaggy I got to the dance. It was a lot of fun. Had I not been there, these poor boys would have been stuck dancing without a girl for a good chunk of the night, since merging with other groups didn't always work out. So it worked out pretty well for me. And it felt great to dance!

Flooding and Zombies

The waters rushed in, quickly flooding the area. We moved to higher ground, barely keeping above the water as it quickly rose. Then the zombies came.

That's kinda how I feel about work right now. There's a flood of work, I'm sort of keeping up...a ton of content to write, but so far people are still getting their sites done in time...barely. But now we have more people on the products team...and not yet on content. That was the zombies...they appeared this morning. We're still doing okay, but I'm sure looking forward to getting someone else in here!

On a happier note (sort of), we read a bunch of really crummy writing sometimes. While it can be a little painful, it also is hilarious sometimes. Here's a taste.

Bad blog title: Do You Have the Jowls of a Bulldog?
What we wanted to write: You ARE a bulldog, so stop feeling self-conscious, little buddy.

Bad blog title: In the Following Paragraphs We're Going to Be Taking a Look at the Dark Side of Fat Loss Programs
(Yes, there are a ton of really lousy LONG titles...)
Following comments: Give into your cravings. Join the fat side.
Give into your hate for healthy food.
I find your lack of exercise disturbing.

And the worst, excerpts from an article online:
Do you like apple accent colors and Native American appearance products? Are you because decorating your home with some of these items?
This is a actual baby and simple account that can accomplish a big aberration in a room.
Learning about this appearance of adornment is aloof as agitative as adornment your home with some of these accomplished pieces.

Yeah...so that one I found what appears to be the original article and they just substituted a bunch of words that made no sense...most of them starting with the letter A.

One more from today...don't have the exact quote, but it was something like, "When buying a silver bracelet, you want to be sure it doesn't fit too loosely, because that could cause embarrassment."

So there's a glimpse of the funny nonsense we see while writing.