Pumpkin Scones with Chai Glaze for Fall

Who's ready for fall? After a long - though admittedly mild, by southern standards - Memphis summer, I'm ready. And for about 48 hours, it felt like fall...and then it was back to highs in the 90's. So clearly, the solution is to make my own autumn, and that means homemade pumpkin scones.

On returning from ACFW

As you can see, there was fun to be had at ACFW. At that particular time, I was goofing off with my handbag, vaguely registering that Carla's camera was locked, loaded, and firing.

So now you know. I have issues.

At least my husband thinks I'm funny.

ACFW was a lot of fun. I loved getting to meet my publicist Jeane Wynn, and authors Carla Stewart, Mary Ellis, Kathi Lipp, Susan Meissner, Susan May Warren, Rachel Hauck, Julie Garmon, Lynette Sowell, Kellie Coates Gilbert, Brandt Dodson, Jerry Eicher, Cara Putnam, and many others.

I watched my agent win the coveted ACFW Agent of the Year award. That was fun.

A fun experience all the way around, but there are things I would do differently. Thing, singular, actually - I would fly in earlier. I'm an introvert, and dealing with 620 other conferees when I'm crazy exhausted from a long red-eye flight is difficult for me.

But it was great. And it was great having Danny with me. We also visited the Panera across the street - amazing! I didn't have time to hit the TJMaxx that was near by, but I sent it happy thoughts.

We also got to see Danny's aunt and grandmother from Ohio before we flew out, which was a really nice way to wrap up the trip.

...And yes, we did watch House immediately after arriving home (at 10pm), though we did save Castle for later. Loved House, loved Castle, felt like last night's Glee was not quite up to snuff. I'm actually looking forward to the Brittany Spears episode, which I would not have thought possible before, but the season premiere was sorely lacking in the area of character development and grand-scale musical productions.

Fringe is tonight! I'm starting to love autumn. And I'm not just saying that because I had a Pumpkin Spice Latte yesterday...

The Shifting

It's getting cooler. The sky turns dark before we have a chance to take an evening walk. The alarm goes off in the morning, and I'm sure it's a mistake. And I have to wear socks again.

Summer is leaving, and I'm not okay with it.

I'm a skirt and sandals girl. And while barefoot season can wreak havoc on my feet (my carpet gives me pool toe), I don't have to fuss with socks - if they're clean, if they match, if they're mine (I dive into Danny's stash a lot).

We didn't get Summer until June this year. Scratch that. Winter didn't end until June. There wasn't a whole lot of spring, just an end of a long, dreary winter. Not looking forward to that again.

But I'm trying to remind myself of the things I like about Fall. Things like cocoa, Pumpkin Spice lattes at Starbucks, comfy sweaters, rainy reading days, rainy writing days where I'm fine being indoors for once, being able to drive the pickup without missing the A/C, stew, the leaves changing eventually (above picture is last year's leaves), knitting wool, Thanksgiving movie season (and the start of Oscar releases)...

and not having hangnails on the bottom of my big toes.

Any others? What else is nice about the changing of the seasons?