Happy Fall, y’all! Today is the Autumnal Equinox, also known as the first day of Fall. Day and night will be equal. There’s an old wive’s tale about balancing an egg on its wide end on the equinox. I can’t tell you how many eggs my dad let me crack trying it. My dad was cool that way. It was a great way to grow up. There is a hint of fall in the air. Forecast highs are in the 80s and 70s this week. I’m in favor of 60s and 70s year round, but that’s just me. Still, much better 90s!

Sadly, we didn’t have piles of leaves like folks up in the northest get. We mostly just ran the lawn mower over them and they got sucked up into the mower’s bag. Even now, with all the oak, ash, and sweet gum trees dotting our yard, they mostly turn brown and crunchy. No fun for racing toward then diving into a giant pile. Still, it looks like fun in the movies.

It’s Monday. There was a weekend. No soccer. Football was a 50/50 mostly sucked proposition. I won’t talk about my Cowboys but I will ask about how long is it until softball starts. OU beat Auburn. They’re back in the Top 10 for the first time in awhile. My Cardinals won’t be in the post-season. Again. Talented players so I place the blame squarely on the front office and the manager. But what do I know? I’m just a fan.

Reading–or in my case, listening. I’m 5 books ahead of my yearly reading challenge. I lowered expectations this year to a measly 120 books. I normally read/listen to 200 or more. The Ilona Andrews writing team* released a Graphic Audio full-cast version of the second book in their Hidden Legacy series. LOVE the full-cast audio books. I haven’t listened to the series since like 2022, so after listening the dramatized adaptations of book 1 and 2, I slid over into the regular version of book 3 and the subsequent books. I’m still waiting for that last three in theries. There were reasons they didn’t finish and while I could overlook the reasons, I suppose there were those who would be upset. Yeah, yeah, that should mysterious but not my reasons. Anyway, I’m on book 4, which is the start of the 2nd plot arc. Good stuff.

I got a free Crock Pot to try out. It has two insets so I can cook two different 2.5 qt. dishes at the same time, or I can use the 6 quart main “bowl” without them. Now all I need are recipes for main dishes and side dishes that can be cooked at the same temp at approximately the same time. If you have any recipes, drop them in the comments! Warning, I AM allergic to tomatoes so nothing that calls for fresh or canned toms. I can do ketchup and sauce because no skin, pulp, or seeds. I cannot do tom paste. Yes, I’m weird. I am aware of this. 🙄

I basically didn’t do anything this weekend. I pretended to work on the book and did, in fact, get a bit of organization accomplished. If you aren’t familiar with the Scriverner writing program, it has a corkboard function. Smart writers make notes and summaries in the notecard section while writing in the text section. Then in corkboard, you can look at all the notecards and can move them around just like they’re sticky notes on a…wait for it…CORKBOARD! I know to do this but I don’t also do this so now I’m going back and doing this so I can get the dang ducks (aka snippets) in a row and get back to telling a story in the correct time and plot line. What happens is I get distracted, write more on the snippets and forget that I’m supposed to be organizing. My brain has too many tabs open and there’s music coming from somewhere while a couple of tabs are spinning the blue circle of death. This is me sighing. 😔

On that note, I need more coffee. I need to get OFF the internet. And, I need to get back to work. So how was your weekend?

*For those who aren’t familiar, Ilona Andrews is the pen name of wife and husband writing team Ilona and Andrew Gordon so when I say they/them, its because they are a them. Anyway…