Best. Weekend. Ever.

OK, so this may go down in history as the best weekend ever. What constitutes the best weekend ever you ask? Free. Stuff.

Seriously, I had a weekend full of give-a-ways and it was unparalleled.

1. While Mother's Day shopping at Badding Brother's Farm Market (Look it up. If you live anywhere near Transit Rd., do your produce/plant/pumpkin/Christmas tree shopping there. It is amazing.) I received a free bag of popcorn. Now when I say popcorn I don't mean, like, popcorn, I mean popcorn. If you have never popped fresh popcorn, shucked (shucked?) dried corn off a cob, and popped it yourself on the stove, you haven't lived. It is the only way to eat popcorn. The point: FREE POPCORN. Absolutely fantastic.

2. Saturday night *may* have been the most epic night of my life. The family traveled to Pittsburgh for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Penguins vs. Canadiens. If a game at (as the previously mentioned) historic Mellon Arena is a White-Out, it is basically a bonanza for paraphernalia lovers such as ourselves. Free t-shirt, free 'rally towel' for everyone who walks in the building. Turns out, I'm awful at waving a towel over my head in a manner that makes it make sense (or keeps it from hitting other spectators), but the point is, anything that says 'Let's Go Pens' and didn't cost me a dime (I know I paid for the ticket) is spectacular.

3. Lastly, after the game, we returned to our hotel for some dinner and some celebratory beverages. Naturally, it ended up being me and S at the hotel bar with about 4 other people. We capped off our evening with a bottle of beer (as opposed to a draft) so we could take it up to our rooms to finish it. Not only did our fantastic bartender give us those beers for free but she then handed us bottles of water AND bags of potato chips because, you know, they would help in the morning and such. Come on friends: Best. Bartender. Ever.

OK, so in this case, maybe just awesome people and awesome circumstances equal great weekends. On the other hand, free stuff doesn't hurt....

The Blood Line Continues to Never Disappoint

So the little brother won Beer Fest '10. We all know how Mom felt about that. This past Sunday the 4 of us attended a Penguins game in Pittsburgh. The Igloo is being torn down this year and it was our little family's final hoorah. Our farewell to a historic place. A place we hold very dear to our hearts.

Naturally, in what is apparently true Fahn fashion, this involved a few beers.

With a Mom to drive me back to Buffalo and a little brother to drive S back to State College, the 21 year olds took advantage and toasted the Pens. This led to a few encounters that may have proven Mom right about how it's difficult to be proud of the beer funneling, keg standing, and flip cupping.

First 2 rounds were on me. (First paycheck put to good use!) Round number 3 was on S. As we were getting ready to get round 4 (our last one, we aren't that bad) S looked to me and said, "I think I'm going to ask Mom for money to contribute to our drinking fund!" And thus she promptly turned to Mom and literally said, "Hey Mom, want to contribute to our drinking fund? We need a twenty!"

Rolling her eyes, Mom went into her wallet, handed us $25, and asked us to get her a water. At the close of the period we got up to go to the restroom and then get our beers. Mom decided to come with us. Naturally, the guy at the beer stand looked at us and as he began to pour said, "2 Bud Lights?" Naturally, Mom rolled her eyes and responded, "Yep, of course they want 2 Bud Lights but they also need a water this time. As you could probably guess, the water is not for them."

As we walked back to our seats she looked at us and said, "So you guys pretty much make friends with whoever is serving the beer everywhere you go don't you?" After a moment of pondering the only real answer we could come up with was, "Yep."

So, maybe she has a point, but: shouldn't she also be proud that we're like really, really good at making friends? It's not like everyone gets remembered by the beer stand guy. We were special.

Or maybe we were just frequent fliers....

UPDATE: Mom came home today with a bottle of Jameson so we can take victory shots (there was nowhere to take them after the game) this weekend when the the kids come home for Easter. At least we know we totally get it from somewhere.