I’m well aware that it’s January of 2010, four months after this post should have been put up. For some reason, I let even this drop off, at least the writing of it. I at least made lists over the past few months of what I wanted to write about it, so while I’m playing catch up on everything else in my life, I figured I might as well start with this category.

September was a month of new beginnings – football started, both professional and high school, which we attend a lot of because my brother plays. All the shows had their premieres and we got a break from summer TV. We had a lovely weekend for Steve’s birthday which we spent having dinner with friends on his actual birthday then heading back to Rioz, our favorite restaurant (all you can eat meat? Yes, please!). These events, among other things, made the month really fun and enjoyable.

Football

As I said, football started in September, both professional and high school.  My brother plays offensive lineman for his high school B-team so we try to go to as many games as we can.  Since they’re on Thursday nights at 6pm, we sometimes have a hard time making it to the away games but since his school is local to where we work, we typically go to all the home games.  The team was really good this year – I believe they only lost two games out of twelve or thirteen and it’s really fun just cheering the team on and watching my brother get into the game and improve his skills over the years (he’s the kid in the far right of the picture above, leaping onto the kid in the purple jersey – number 55).  Plus, Steve and I spend some time with my family and we get Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and watch the sun go down over the stadium and enjoy the cool autumn breeze.

College football is real big here in the South but I can’t get into it much.  I much prefer professional football, especially if the Eagles are playing.  But regardless, watching the game on TV or in person is one of the things I find most enjoyable about fall.

Fall TV

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year as far as entertainment goes because that’s when all the new shows premiere and all of my old favorites start back up again.  I actually read into what the new shows are about and decide which ones I’m going to give a shot and which ones I want to pass on.  I map out a calendar to make sure some of my favorites don’t overlap with new ones.  I was especially excited this season for some of my favorites to return this fall: Sons of Anarchy, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Dexter. And I was excited for some of the new shows to start: Community and Modern Family, as well as The Vampire Diaries, which for anyone who hasn’t been following along all the years, is the fulfillment of one of my dreams because it’s based on a series by probably my most favorite author from my childhood.

Weeds

After Steve and I finished watching Dexter on Netflix, we were a little lost and wondering what new show we needed to start watching.  I had heard quite a few good things about Weeds and thought we’d give it a shot and, well, I’m glad we did.  I LOVE this show – love, love, love it!  We’ve only watched up until the fourth season and are waiting until the fifth comes out on DVD, but I can say I’m mostly happy with how things are progressing.  The fourth season was probably a bit weaker than the others but it’s still much better than anything you’d find on normal TV.  It basically revolves around suburban soccer mom Nancy Botwin (played by Mary-Louise Parker, who is phenomenal in the role!) who is recently windowed and attempting to maintain her comfortable life with her two kids, Silas and Shane, by selling weed to all of the soccer moms and yuppies in her neighborhood.  The series follows the hysterical trials and tribulations as Nancy finds herself constantly trying to balance right and wrong.  Part of the appeal of this series is the supporting characters.  Kevin Nealon is absolutely genius as Nancy’s pot-smoking town councilmen friend and business partner and Elizabeth Perkins is superb as Nancy’s “friend” whom she loves to hate.  All in all, this is a great show and if you have a few hours over the weekend, you should definitely catch it (and it’s only half an hour so it’s easy to fly through).

Method Granite Cleaner

I had seen this cleaner at Target every time I went shopping for household cleaners and thought about trying it because it was the only thing I had seen that was specifically available for “granite” countertops (at least, at my Target and I hadn’t checked other stores).  I had been cleaning the countertops with Windex all-purpose cleaner and I always noticed there was a slight haze on them.  So, in an effort to try something else, I picked this up one day and well, I’m pretty glad I did.  This virtually eliminated the haze on the counters and it smells really fresh and clean and not at all chemical.  It’s now my go to cleaner for the countertops and is completely worth the extra bucks I spend on it (12 ounces is about $6).

Neutrogena Healthy Hands

I have been a long time user of this lotion but up until this fall, it was rather sporadic.  However, with fall weather comes drier air and since I wash my hands a lot in the morning (putting on makeup, etc.), I would go into work and find them to be really dry.  Since I always keep this at my desk, I would rub some on before getting to work and it was only after I was doing it on a daily basis that I realized how phenomenal this stuff really is.  The lotion is a rather heavy, Vaseline type lotion but it’s not greasy at all.  There is minimal scent to the lotion and once it goes on, it’s almost like your hands are waterproof for a good few hours, but not in a cumbersome way.  I also noticed that it contributed greatly to healthy nail growth and now, within a few weeks, my nails are almost ridiculously long and get in the way.  I love this lotion and always will and if you have any problems with dry hands, you should definitely give it a shot.

Evernote

Evernote!  Oh, Evernote, I don’t know how I ever lived without it.  I don’t exactly remember where I found it on the web but I started using this back in September as a catch all for everything from recipes to my to-do lists to ideas for blogs and the website.  It’s so easy to use – you can create various notebooks and within each notebook, you can create different notes.  It has a tagging system so you can easily find things.  You can also share notebooks, which helped greatly when I was planning my mom’s birthday party because I was able to send my notes to my dad.  I use this as a cookbook – I have a Loved Recipes notebook, where I keep ones that are our favorites, that I use over and over again and a To Try Recipes notebook, where I copy and paste recipes that I see around the web.  I use this as an article storage system where I drop various things from my Google Reader for later reference (I star them and then input them every few weeks).  The most wonderful thing about Evernote is the various ways you can access it – there’s a desktop application which is installed on my laptop – I use this for when I’m bulk entering articles and things I’ve saved from Google Reader (because it’s faster).  There’s a web interface and a Firefox clipper plugin, both of which I use at work when I’m editing my lists and ideas or when I’m browsing the web and come across something I want to save (the clipper lets you select exactly what you want to save and click an icon which automatically inserts it into Evernote) and, best of all, an iPhone app, which lets me access my lists when I’m in the store (I use it for shopping lists) or lets me access my recipes when I’m cooking, so I don’t have to lug my laptop into the kitchen.  Overall, this has helped me greatly organize my life and I use it so much that I’m probably going to have to upgrade to a paid account soon (it would be well worth it)!

So overall, September was a really good month!  I felt like we had a lot of new beginnings and I got started on a great track to organizing my life.  It was definitely a good month of new discoveries and good times.