"Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy" -Benjamin Franklin

Dear Diary,

Well, needless to say my mood has been quite somber this past week. I still have many thoughts on the situation, but today's post is about a little break from it all. This weekend was the Microbrew Festival in TC. We had bought tickets back in May (when they were running a special). It was a two day event and the beer was flowing!

I had some money set aside (in case we go the modification), so we allowed ourselves $100 for the weekend. We had a BLAST at festival!

Friday was much more chill... all ages allowed... tables set up under the trees... a nice breeze... and the Old State Hospital grounds as the back drop. Monkey #2 was there both nights and good vibes all around.

We had lots of laughs, which were needed to remind us of why we are together and how much we love each other. Here are highlights and lessons learned (especially from day #2):

• All ages beer fest is really more a pain than what it's worth. (Walking through fences with no alcohol to get food or go to the bathroom a pain in the booty!)
  
• When you go to put a ticket in the bucket (day #2) and they ask how many or how full would you like the glass, smile and ask what they think would be appropriate. Usually your pint is much closer to full. (day #2, only supposed to be 5 oz pours or about half-ish of your pint glass)
• Magic Hat beer guys are the COOLEST! (We have been eyeing their flag since for the last year...we got brave and asked about it last night. The guy said, "Come back at the end of the night and I might be drunk enough and just give it to you." Well we went back later on... I wasn't going to get any more beer, but I told him that I would give him my one ticket for the flag... also reminded him of what he said earlier... said he could call it our early wedding present... and that Rockstar was from South Africa, so that had to count for something... Needless to say, but we walked away with the Magic Hat flag!)
• You will find at least one new band to fall in love with. In the winter we found two and this weekend we found four. Yowsa! Thanks for bringing in such sweet music to celebrate the beer!

Probably the biggest trick we learned was how to get a free ticket! If you volunteer (about a 3 hour shift), then you get in the opposite day for free. That saves you about $35 a ticket. So, we'll volunteer on Friday and get in Saturday... sound like a plan? Who's in? If we are to re-examine our spending and our budgeting, then this sounds like a PERFECT plan to me!!!

Until then... CHEERS!

P.S. We want to look into brewing our own beer. But that's not going to happen for a while.