Long weekend!

Friday morning, I went to Mom Mom's funeral. After that, I went home, packed my things and put $40 cash in my wallet in preparation for the following night.

As planned, I crashed at my grandmother's home, which is where my Uncle and a few other family members live. We spent our night playing games, for the most part. There was also a whole lot of laughter, as is always the case when my Uncle and I are together. When he went to bed, I had trouble sleeping. Honestly, I've had a total of around 9 hours of broken sleep since Thursday night. I'm fucking exhausted, especially given how active my weekend was on top of that lack of sleep. Still, I did get to eat a gigantic mound of seasoned steamed shrimp and my grandmom's home made potato salad, as well as a fresh garden salad with home made ranch dressing. I can't really be unhappy, between that and..well, read on and you'll see!

While I was over there, another friend of mine invited me to go out on two occasions, but I politely declined because I already had plans with my Uncle. It was worth it, for the most part, although there was a bit of a dull spot, which was most of Saturday. My Uncle and I went out about a half an hour's drive so that he could get his finger prints redone for a public commision license. That took around 3 hours in total and then when we arrived back at my grandmom's house, he had to head out and pay his respects to the daughter of his boss, who died recently. I understood and everything was cool. Regardless, that was all made up for by our trip to Mahaffey's Pub in Canton.

It was better than either of us had expected. First of all, this place has a very good mixture of modern music and one hell of a family oriented atmosphere. The bar tender, cooks and even the regulars all welcomed us and every other newbie with open arms. Not only that, but they loved us for our sense of humor, our serious appreciation for good beer and our love for extreme hot sauce. I tried 6 different beers, while my Uncle tried 4 different beers, all of which were absolutely amazing. To be honest, I don't think I even want to drink beer at home anymore; Mahaffey's beer selection is just that good. The owner also takes very good care of his taps and airways, which is a serious benefit when we're talking about high quality beer.

Next up, we have the prices and selection. There are well over 100 different beers at this place, of which around 20 are on tap every week or so. They vary in potency from as low as 3% to a shigh as 18%, but the real star of the show is the variety of flavors from around the world. Everything from the fresh, crisp flavor of bananas to the deep flavors of pure ale and mead; Mahaffey's has it all. And at what cost? Serious beer enthusiasts know that you can't put a high enough price on a great drink, but Mahaffey's owner is one such enthusiast who makes it easy on the wallet. Happy hour is every day, including Sunday from 5pm to 7pm and you get 30 oz of beer spread out in 3 cups. Not only that, but you can pick a seperate flavor for each cup! And to top the deal off, as if it weren't already fucking amazing as it is, it's only $4! Four US Dollars. That's right, folks. You read that right! 30 ounces of pure paradise for less than the cost of a cheap dinner.

So, we've covered the star of the show, but what about the food? Good beer goes best with good food and let me make this clear right now: There's no shortage of top notch food at this place. We had an order of 10 very meaty hot wings with extremely hot sauce (even more so than "Predator", for those of you who know of it!). Before that, though, we tried something very unique: Garlic and rosemary fries. Yep, ROSEMARY on FRENCH FRIES. Can you believe it?! We sure as fuck didn't, but we were pleasantly surprised. By the time we finished eating, we were buzzin' nicely, filled to the rim and our mouths were on fire from the sauce, which we apparently ate far more of without pussing out compared to anyone else who's tried it before. I suppose we really are at the top of the chain when it comes to hot sauce.

We had such a good time that we had almost a sort high on life, aside from our beer buzz. Instead of going home, I actually went to hang out with him for another night. That part turned out to be a bit of a let down, admittingly, but we had fun for what time we did spend hanging out. We were supposed to stay up all night and game, but he wound up falling asleep around 10:30pm, which left me up all night by myself, seeing as I can't fall asleep right at my grandmother's house because my back hurts and my allergies go nuts. She has 3 cats, so that pretty much sums that whole thing up.

I woke up, got ready and left around 10AM. When I came home, the package of my latest batch of games to review was here, which should be fairly exciting, given that there aren't any terrible things in this batch. Aside from the lack of sleep, the only really annoying thing that happened was my own fault; I left my cell phone in my Uncle's car. He's dropping it off here tonight, though and when he does, I'm lending him "Tales of Vesperia", since I forgot to get it out and let him take it when I was over there.

So that was my weekend. I had a great time, I avoided my immediate family for a few days and there was nothing to worry about for the entire weekend. Weekends like that rarely come along, so I basked in it while I could. For now, though, I'm going to go take care of a few things and then start picking away at the latest batch of games. Until next time, Steve out! Take care!

-S