Halloween is my favorite holiday. I hope you have a festive day, even in this COVID world. It could be worse. We could have a zombie or vampire invasion. No thank you!
With rare exceptions, I don’t watch scary movies. I’m still traumatized from watching Night of the Living Dead in college. I didn’t sleep for days.
However, it is the season for monster movies so let’s make some of our own. Follow the chart below and let me know your answer. I got Beware! The Flesh-eating Death Bots, which is a movie I would totally see.
I hope your Halloween has only treats, no tricks, and just the right amount of scare.
This will be the twelfth time I’m participating. Some years, I start with no idea what I’m going to write. This year, I have a few characters, a setting, and a brief outline (that will probably get tossed out the window.) I can’t wait to get started.
My county has a robust Nanowrimo group. Our awesome ML (municipal liaison) has created contests with amazing prizes. The first event is at midnight on November 1, and I will be typing the moment October ends.
As with most events, Nanowrimo is virtual this year. That won’t stop me from writing 50,000 words or more, but I will miss hanging out with fellow writers at the library write-ins. Luckily we have the technology to meet online.
I invite you to join in the adventure. Most of us have an idea for a novel lurking in the back of our minds. Why not bring it into the sunshine this November. Writing 50,000 words in one month can sound impossible, but it is only 1,667 words a day. Write 600 words before each meal, and you’ll have it in the bag. I plan to write 2,000 words before breakfast – just for fun.
What do you do when you have 1/2 cup of leftover pumpkin? Ask Google.
When I made pumpkin scones, which I talked about in a previous post, I ended up with about 1/2 cup of leftover pumpkin. I considered adding it to pancakes, but hubby didn’t like that idea. I guess he likes my apple pancakes better.
So I asked Google for ideas and found a ton of recipes. I chose Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they were amazing. Seriously, this is the best pumpkin dessert I’ve ever made.
I don’t make cookies because I always ruin them, but I’m good at making bars. Some cookie recipes work better for bars than others, but this one is the best. I ended up with rich, soft bars that held together beautifully and tasted like autumn. This will be a go-to recipe for me. I won’t wait until I have leftover pumpkin.
You can find the recipe at thekitchn.com. I used all-purpose rather than bread flour, and it turned out fine. If you make bars instead of cookies, bake a 9×13 pan for about 30 minutes. I started checking it for doneness after 25 minutes. This recipe would be perfect for any get-together and every day too.
My mind is reeling right now because I used a word in print that, until today, I had only said out loud. I use this word verbally all the time; it’s not an unusual word. But for some reason, I’ve never written it.
I was writing an email, and I went to type this word when I realized I didn’t know how to spell it. Now, I like to learn words, and I believe in accurate spelling, but I had no idea where to start.
I was pretty sure the word started with “c,” so I went to Google and typed in a similar word and looked at the synonyms. Nope, the word wasn’t there.
Luckily, Google will autofill, so I started typing the word, hoping that Google would fill in the blanks. It gave me a word I had never seen before that looked totally wrong. Surely that is not how that word is spelled?
I read the definition, and it turned out that this weird-looking word was the one I was looking for. I’m glad I can spell this common word now, but it still looks wrong. I have written over a million words (and that is just from counting my stories, not including letters, homework, and blog posts), and I still can’t believe I never wrote this word. I’m going to use it until it becomes normal to me.
If this were a podcast, I would have told you the word already because I would just say it. This was more difficult in a blog. The word I’ve never written before today is:
coax /kōks/verb: gently and persistently persuade (someone) to do something.”the trainees were coaxed into doing boring work
Today is National Black Cat Day. Alfred and Hela would like to remind you that every day is Black Cat Day. Hela (on the right) will gladly destroy Asgard if you forget.
It may seem like 2020 is never-ending, but we’ve made it through 300 days.
More important, I’ve run every day for 300 days. I have 66 days left before I earn four virtual badges on Smashrun, which is why I run/walk outside every day, no matter the weather.
Most people think of the movie 300 about the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. It was excellent, even if it wasn’t historically accurate. I hunted down less violent factoids to celebrate the number 300.
The best part about 300 is there are only a couple of months left in 2020. I’m sure we are looking forward to the new year.
Celebrating 300
The whole numbers from 1 to 24 add up to 300
The book “Twenty Glimpses: A Flash Fiction Collection” by Greek author George F Gouzounis contains 20 stories, each exactly 300 words (I totally want to do this)
Redwood trees often grow to 300 feet tall
Babies are born with 300 bones, while adults have 206 bones
There are two types of Halloween book lists, books that take place on Halloween and scary books that are fun to read around Halloween. I like the first list better than the second because I read very little horror.
The shortlist below are all books that are slightly spooky but perfect for all ages. I have read all these stories several times.
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie is a Hercule Poirot mystery, but I found it quite entertaining in a clash-of-the-generations way.
The Spook’s Apprenticeby Joseph Delaney is book one of a thirteen book middle grade series. I read them out loud to my hubby, and we think they are great for anyone who likes dark stories. (I was surprised at the path the story took, but if you like spooky stories, it’s a good one.)
I’d rather watch the Legend of Sleepy Hollowby Washington Irving than read it. Disney’s animated version narrated by Bing Crosby is the best Halloween movie ever.
If I had to pick just one book to read, I would read The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. It explores the history of the holiday and is quite suspenseful.
If you want to be freaked out by a Ray Bradbury book, you could always read Something Wicked This Way Comes. I’m skipping this one, but it could be the perfect Halloween read if you want to be too scared to sleep.
A funny thing happened, and I thought I would share it with you. Whether you find it funny or just odd is up to you.
I like to wear a beanie style hat when I sleep. For years, I had a light-blue fleece one that I loved. It was ultra-comfortable and big enough to cover my eyes if I needed more darkness.
I lost that hat in a hotel room in Moses Lake, Washington, in early 2018. While I had other beanies, mainly a neon yellow one that’s slightly too small, none of them made me as happy as that blue one.
While I was in Eagle, Alaska, in August 2019, I found a dark blue beanie that was as comfortable as my lost light blue one. I was elated! I wore that hat all the time. It was my new all-time favorite. And then last summer, I lost it.
I remembered wearing it to bed, so I was sure it had to be in my bedroom. I searched under and between the mattress several times and even shone a flashlight into the dark areas. No hat. This made no sense to me, and I was mad. I loved that hat from Alaska. It was special.
I went back to wearing the neon yellow beanie that I can’t seem to lose no matter what I do. However, I never forgot that blue hat. I wanted that blue hat back.
On to another story that I promise relates to the above tale of woe. I have a shelf in my family room with mass-market paperbacks along the back and a row of framed photos along the front. This portion of the bookshelf has no back, so there is a four-inch gap at the top where the half-wall that it rests against ends. Before I had cats, this wasn’t a problem. After I had cats, things had to change.
The cats like to sit on the bookshelf and push on the books through the back gap, causing them to hit the photos and knock the frames off the shelf. Luckily they fall on carpeting, so nothing breaks (the day the cats shattered the crystal frame that held my wedding photo is another story), but I was tired of putting the frames back on the shelf.
A digital photo frame could be a solution to my problem. I’d put it somewhere safe, and I could enjoy hundreds of photos instead of just the ten on the shelf (and the floor.)
I received a digital frame for my birthday (thanks Mom and Dad!!!) and removed all the photos from the shelf. The digital frame looks awesome, and my cats have to find a new hobby.
The shelf looked empty without something on the front half, so I decided to rearrange my books. I do this often but hadn’t worked on this shelf because I had liked the way it looked before.
I gathered my cleaning supplies and removed all the books from the shelf. Can you guess what I found behind the books? My sleep hat!!!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I’d been looking for that hat for months. I have no idea how it ended up in the family room when I was sure it was in the bedroom at the other end of the house. My only theory is I took it off for some reason and set it on the bookcase. The cats must have knocked it off into the gap, and I didn’t remember it ever being in that room. Happy birthday to me!!!!
So now, I have my sleep hat back, a wonderful digital frame that I love to watch, and a clean and organized bookshelf. They say you always find things in the last place you look, but in this case, I found it in the one place I never looked. Thanks, cats, for gaslighting me all this time. I still laugh every time I put my hat on. It’s a tale to fall to sleep to.
My head is about to explode. Chemistry is not my strong suit. However, October 23 is Mole Day, the day when we celebrate Avogadro’s number (6.02214076 × 1023), so I’m putting on my lab coat and safety glasses and exploring the world of atoms and molecules.
This gigantic number is named after Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) because he came up with the following gas law. “all gases, at the same temperature and pressure, have the same number of molecules per volume.” This law allows chemists to figure out the mass of different atoms. For example, a mole of Carbon-12 has a mass of 12 grams, and a mole of Oxygen 16- has a mass of 16 grams. If you had an unknown substance, you could weigh a mole of it and use its mass to figure out what it was. Simple.
No, my head still wants to explode. But that is the point of holidays like today. We may never use a mole in our daily life, but it is good to expand our knowledge of the universe, even if it makes our brain hurt.
I think part of the reason that I can’t wrap my mind around Avogadro’s number is that it’s so big, but it’s contained in such a small space. Twelve grams is like twelve paper clips. Hold twelve paperclips in your hand. If they were made out of Carbon-12, you would be holding 6.02214076 × 1023 atoms. Wow.
This probably has nothing to do with a mole, but all this talk about huge numbers contained in a small object reminds me of the Total Perspective Vortex from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It’s a funny quote and doesn’t make my head hurt. Happy Mole Day!
“The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses. To explain — since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation — every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake. The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.”
