Out with October, In with November

So, as much as I'm not a fan of Halloween in general, we had a pretty nice, eventful weekend, and I thought I would give a little report on it, for those inquiring minds which want to know. First, I will state a seasonal pet peeve of mine, relating specifically to Halloween. It is this: It really bugs me when people pronounce Halloween like "HALL-oween" (as in Miss Scarlet with the candlestick in the "hall") as opposed to "HAL-oween" (as in the name of the mutinous navigational robot in 2001: A Space Odyssey) I am utterly unclear as to the origins of this mispronunciation, since the root of the name of the holiday refers to the ancient pagan celebration of "All Hallows' Eve". If anyone can offer me an explanation to this, besides the obvious reasoning of possible original mispronunciation in the media and such, please let me know.

On to the big fun, then. Mom, Dad, Amber, Melody, Jonny, Julia, Elise, Jeff and I headed up to Logan in three shifts with plans of running the "First Dam Run" 5K on Saturday morning. Secretly we wanted to run it just to get the shirts with a cleverly appropriate swear on them. Grandma and Grandpa are doing fairly well, and Grandma even had a nice list of chores for us to help out with. Friday was Halloween, and marked the first year in several that I didn't don my traditional Harry Potter costume, and as such, decided to go as, well, a runner, since I had just finished my run up to the Logan temple and back. When Melody and Jonny brought the little bee, we decided to let her take advantage of the glorious pile of fall leaves I had been accumulating.

I know she looks like she's leaning away from me, but she's actually posing.

Melody and Mom joined in the raking and bagging leaves fun.

Come on, baby! Cooperate for the picture! Still cute, though.

We had a total of two trick-or-treaters (although the doorbell is reportedly broken, which could have contributed to the relative lack of kids asking for free candy), who were dressed as a storm trooper and Snow White. Later in the evening we watched Grandma's latest netflix delivery, Penelope, which turns out to be quite appropriate for Halloween, and then slept in preparation for the 5K.

Leaving the pumpkin with designated babysitters, Elise and Jeff, Grandma, Mom, Amber, Melody, Jonny and I headed to the park to get ready for the race! As it turns out the weather was perfect, not cold or windy, but brisk and bracing, with only the slightest bit of rain in the early hours. (Incidentally, I think all such races should begin around 10 am, it's the perfect time for such an event.) I decided to try and keep up with Jonny, which determination lasted about ten seconds until his swift foot carried him far ahead. But the miles went by, and in the end, we all did really well. I even set a new personal record! 24:38, which gave a 7:57 mile. Woot!

The ladies:

The fellas:

And we had a lot of finalists! (I didn't place too high in my age group but I was mostly racing against myself and my former time, so I was totally satisfied.)

Thanks, Lili and Jeff, for holding down the fort and keeping the child entertained.

We had a nice lunch and spent some time together, and then it occurred to me that November is finally upon us. I haven't broken out the Christmas music just yet (although certain radio stations and stores certainly have, and, although I have purchased a couple of new exciting Christmas music CDs new this year...), but it's quite clear that winter is not too far off. We drove home, again in three shifts, and I slept quite soundly after a nice session of the LOST club.

Happy HAL-oween.