Had a pretty laid-back weekend, though lots of social goings-on.

On Saturday, Takaza and I joined Thomas, Janelle, and Donald for lunch at Bass Lake Draft House in our old stomping grounds of Holly Springs, then went over for the brewery tour at Carolina Brewing Company, which Thomas and Donald had never been to. Now, I know several of our friends have done this tour with us, so you’ll appreciate this – when we turned down the street, all we saw was a line of cars a good quarter-mile on either side of the brewery. I would estimate there were at least three hundred people there – this on a tour that in the past has had maybe 30-40 people. It would appear that the combined fact of the Super Bowl the following day, plus they had a stout available for pretty much that only, plus people have figured out that there’s this tour where you go in and get free beer, as much as you want, well…ka-blooie! We stuck around for part of the tour then bugged out when it became apparent that there was no way to hear what the guide was saying. Donald and Thomas bought a case of porter and a case of stout, and our mission was accomplished.

After that, it was off to Durham for a trip by Fowler’s Gourmet Market, where they were doing a syrah wine tasting. There were some real clunkers in there (the carbonated shiraz was just wrong!), but Thomas and I both picked up a bottle of an excellent Aussie shiraz that was a good deal at $8.99/bottle. We browsed over the other offerings that the store had, and Janelle marveled at the $4.99/lb cream cheese (“Is it that much better? Is it any different? Is it worth it?”) though in the end we left without answering those burning questions. The overall impression we got from the store was that it was extremely yuppified and expensive (“It’s like Whole Foods Market without the facial piercings”). This also allowed us to hear Janelle’s stunning rendition of Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” on the drive home. We retired to Donald and Janelle’s, where Takaza and Sherry joined us. Munchkin and XBox games were played, pizza was ordered, and we all lounged on the Couch of Doom before heading home…

Sunday, Dan and I cleaned up the place and I did some grocery shopping, then the usual suspects joined us for a fun Super Bowl party. Being that we are in North Carolina, Thomas was a big Panthers fan, though honestly I couldn’t care less (I’ll still take some of Tom Brady’s paycheck, though!). We made up some burritos, Thomas brought some hot wings, and five or six different kinds of beers were sampled. Despite the late night, we had a great time. Next time, though – about half as much ground beef for the burritos and about a third of the cheese that we grated. Ouch.