Fabulous Fall

I am loving Fall so far.  I know I lamented in a post a little while ago that I was mourning the end of summer - but I'm past that period now.  It helps that we've been filling our Fall with fun activities and I've still been in this relaxed, day at a time pace of life.

It's funny - I always say Fall is my favorite season (and my apologies to my allergy suffering friends who cannot stand this season) but the last several years found Fall not being terribly kind to me.  To the point that last year I was ready to say "screw this, I don't have a favorite season."  It just seemed we'd get hit with less than pleasant things in the Fall - deaths in the family, Nate losing his job, the dark days we went through last year, etc.  And it's early yet - in fact true "Autumn" doesn't start until this Saturday - but so far, it's looking promising.

I'm glad Mother Nature turned off the furnace at long last.  It's been amazing sleeping weather - I love burrowing under blankets when there is a chill in the air.

Nate and I did another Living Social event this past Friday - a beer/boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka.  The weather could not have been better.  It wasn't too cold, but just enough that a light jacket felt nice.  It was absolutely beautiful out there.  The sun gently set over us as we cruised the lake for two hours.  We enjoyed delicious appetizer and four small pours from a new brewery in town - Excelsior Brewing Company.  We ended up sitting with some older folks - who were absolutely delightful.  We have actually found that to be the unique thing at these Living Social events - we're forced to step out of our comfort zone and chat with people we don't know.  We've had some great conversations with some of these folks.  No, we haven't necessarily become lifelong friends and will likely never see each other again, but still.  Friday was no exception, one of the older folks sitting with us was in town from Seattle visiting his brother and sister-in-law and man did this gentleman have stories!  He talked a great deal about boating in South America and it sounded so beautiful!  I could have listened to him for hours.

After the boat ride, the taproom was open at Excelsior so we stopped there as well.  Nate wrote about this a bit more in his latest Pants Monkey Brewing post over here, so I won't say much more other than I am falling in love with all these taprooms opening up in the Twin Cities.  I think my favorite is still Indeed Brewing in Northeast, but I've enjoyed all of the ones we've gotten to so far.

Sunday morning it was warmer and we decided to have brunch out at a patio.  So we headed down to Eli's in Northeast.  I had turkducken eggs benedict.  You heard me right.  It was FABULOUS.  I couldn't eat the whole thing though, it was also crazy rich.

So that was just this past weekend alone, but I have to say, I haven't had a bad weekend so to speak since before Itasca!  Not that any weekend is ever horrible, but yeah.  And looking ahead there is more greatness to come - less than a month to Oktoberfest!  And there are other fun dates on the calendar involving beer and friends and good times.

Maybe I'm going to jinx everything by saying this Fall rocks.  So I will just say that for TODAY, I love Fall.

What We Watch 2012

I decided to update our list of what we watch since some of our shows are starting back up this week!

Copied from last year:

Sunday - Breaking Bad (AMC, season finale up soon), Hung (HBO) - cancelled, Dexter (Showtime)

Monday - How I Met Your Mother (CBS), Two Broke Girls (CBS), House (Fox) series ended, Bored to Death (HBO) cancelled, The Walking Dead (AMC) I think it's on Monday anyway.

Tuesday - Glee (Fox) moving to Thursday, Parenthood (NBC), New Girl (Fox)

Wednesday - Up All Night (NBC) moved to Thursday, Psych (USA), Happy Endings (ABC)

Thursday - Community (NBC) moved to Friday, The Big Bang Theory (CBS), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)

Friday - Chuck (NBC) series ended

So it looks like we're down a few shows - but we are still making our way through the Sopranos and Monk, and also Modern Family and Parks and Recreation, which are both going to have new episodes soon but we'll just be wayyyy behind.  We'll be also watching Shameless and Portlandia when they are back in January.  At any rate, I don't think we'll be bored!  We cram so much into our weekends sometimes it's nice to kick back during the week with mindless TV!  I haven't done any research on new shows coming out yet to say if we'll be adding to our list or not though!

And as always I'll post the question of, what do you watch?

Summer love affair

So.  I guess summer is more or less over.  How did that happen so quickly?  Yes, the weather is still warm and yes there will still be time for outdoor activities and what not - but you can feel the change in the air already.  The days are already a tad shorter.  Kids are back in school this week, which has changed morning traffic patterns.  There are even leaves already on the ground.  Apples are in season.  Halloween stuff is starting to make an appearance in stores.  Fall is definitely on our doorstep.

And now you're all probably scratching your heads going, why is Beth waxing all nostalgic here, I thought she loved Fall?  I do still absolutely love Fall, it is still my most favorite season.  But we had a really terrific summer that makes it almost feel a little melancholy to move on.

It's funny, I am not the summer girl.  But somehow, even with the extreme heat, I embraced the summer this year and somehow we sort of fell in love.  I set out with low expectations - and maybe that is why things went so well.  When I look at all the things we were able to do, I'm amazed.

Golfing....patio nights with beer....grilling a ton of food....beach days....picnics....Surly Brewery tour....celebrating some birthdays with people who mean a lot to us....dinners with outdoor seating....chasing rainbows....visiting Itasca....brewing beer....singing at weddings....Leinenkugel brewery tour and River tubing....seeing friends from out of town we don't get to see very often....jewelry parties....the State Fair....

I loved every single minute.  I would be even so bold to say it was one of the best summers we have had in several years.  So, even though I'm more than ready for Autumn and to move on, I can't help but be a little sad to say goodbye to Summer 2012.  But, you can't stop the passing of time, so instead I will just say "thank you summer 2012.  Thanks for being awesome."  And on we go.