My trip this morning to the new Giant Eagle Market District was absolutely the worst grocery shopping experience of my entire life. The store is not entirely culpable, but there are definitely areas for improvement. I can’t detail everything right now because I have about 13,000 hours of cleaning to do in the next two hours.
On the other hand, Dan and I had a good time at the Brewfest Friday night. We steered away from breweries with which we were familiar, and concentrated on beers we hadn’t tried. Dan mostly stuck with IPAs, his preferred flavor of beer; I tried a number of different styles.
Our number one choice was Ithaca Beer Company’s Flower Power (which in addition to being explosively, hoppily bitter and wonderful, is fun to say in a yinzer accent). A close second for me was Boulder Beer Company’s Hazed & Infused. We both liked Blue Moon Brewing Company’s seasonal offering, Full Moon, as well.
Another highlight was chatting with the Three Rivers Underground Brewers. I know one of these guys from college (and I’ve recently reconnected with his wife through Burgh Moms). Their beers were good, with the Slutty Redhead being the best. Also, if John teaches Dan to make good mead, he will be my husband’s new hero.
It easily would have been worth the price of admission, but as I won the tickets, the experience was even better. I will make a point of going to some rugby games next season so I’ll have more of a reason to attend this event again. We saw several Tweeps (that would be Twitter peeps, or people I know from Twitter), and if I weren’t afraid of leaving someone out, I would list them. Suffice to say, it was fun to chat with people IRL — as much fun as ‘twittering’ with them is.
Red Pen Mama 
Ha ha! Based on your clues I’m pretty sure I know one of the Three Rivers Underground Brewers from college, too. Oh, and he recruited me for a job, which was a bit of a nightmare and I got laid off within a year. But I don’t blame him…particularly if I can get some beer on my next ‘burgh trip.