I was looking forward to today all week because we had plans to go to Lolev (the Zelienople location) for the release of their matcha lager, Iroh II. But first, I had to be Queen Miz all morning because I was FASTING until my 10:40am appointment at Quest to get bloodwork done. Nothing major! But Nourish (the nutrition app) offers FREE PANELS every couple of mths and my dietician put in an order for me to get them done again. Of course, I have my check-in call with her on Monday and only just remembered that I hadn’t made the Quest appt so by the time I scheduled something for today, the earliest available was 10:40am. I get up pretty early even on weekends and normally eat around 9:00am but you literally would have thought I was on a forced hunger strike for a week, the way I was lashing out at Henry.

“Great, I’m going home to eat now!” I said to the Quest phlebotomist before she had even fully withdrew her fingers from the cotton ball / tape contraption she had put in the crook of my arm. I was HUNGGGGGY, you guys.

Later that day, we got to Lolev around 1:00pm and I was so stoked for this matcha drink of the goddesses that I ordered A FULL POUR. I’m a half-pour princess, for those who don’t know. But I knew this was all I was getting and I wanted it in the cool glass that it was meant to be served in.

It was just as divine as I remembered from my inaugural stop at Lolev a year ago. This brewery, man. It is just god tier in my book.

Henry got this New Zealand pilsner and it was light and refreshing. Before that, he got Luminis, a double IPA which was almost as good as their 5-star Zeus. Every time I think I’m over IPAs, Lolev is like, “Here – drink this. Haha, you thought.”

Not pictured: the droves of green-clad 3/17 revelers milling all about Zelienople. I always forget that people start celebrating the Saturday before because, contrary to popular belief surrounding my ultra Irish name, I am NOT Irish and actually, St. Patrick’s Day is right up there with Flag Day in terms of “holidays IDGAF about.”

We actually briefly considered walking down the street to another place called ShuBrew to get one more beer and a late lunch, but that place was poppin’ off with Leprechaun LARPers. We walked in, walked out, and drove to the neighboring town of Harmony for baked goods and caffeine.

Not pictured, part 2: the German pretzel bakery where we got a double chocolate cookie (mine, and it was SO MOIST that it was POSITIVELY GLISTENING like it had been smeared with SUGARED OINTMENT from the heavens above), a Snickerdoodle (Henry is a hardcore s’doodlehead), an Irish scone, and a load of sourdough. Then we walked up the street to ANOTHER bakery called Lagerhaus and I felt bad because it was 15 minutes before they were closing but the ladies behind the counter were so sweet. (Same with the lady at the pretzel bakery – we got there at the very end of their day, and she was apologetic that they barely had anything left but we were happy with the pickins slim as they were!)

I like to take action shots of Henry returning from the bathroom in order to send to Chooch.

And this one was sent to Alyson STAT! This frown of the day was way too good to not share with her, and I knew she would be the only one to appreciate it. She texted back that she was saving it for future phone wallpaper and then asked what had made Henry so CROSS. I read that part of the text to him and he goes, “Has she never hung out with you?!?!”

Wow. Just, wow. I have been so amiable all day!

I really liked this place. It was cozy and made me feel like I was on vacation. BTW, I got a cherry vanilla matcha and Henry got a honey bun iced latte. Both were very well-crafted (I am PICKY with matcha because I love it so much), and we got a mini banana cream pie and carrot cake square to go. They gave us the carrot cake square on the house because the barista accidentally made my matcha with whole milk at first and caught it right before giving it to me, and we truly didn’t mind waiting for a few one but they were like, “Take this for free!”

Honestly, I was the who felt bad because we had gone in there 15 minutes before closing and the remaking of the matcha put us there at exactly closing time. I hate doing that to businesses!

But again, they could not have been nicer and if they felt put out by our late arrival, they definitely did not let on.

On the way back to the car, we were lured over to the WEAVERS HOUSE by this adorbs lamb whose name I learned is CHUGGER because he’s bottle-fed. I learned this because I got sucked into the WEAVERS HOUSE and an older woman sitting behind a loom immediately struck up a conversation with me and I had no idea what was going on but she reminded me of Barb Riley if Barb Riley was into textile craftmanship.

(Can I just take a moment to state for the record that I miss Barb Riley so goddamn much that she still appears in my dreams every now and then and SO MUCH reminds me of her. In fact, I had dinner last Monday night with Margie and Sue at Amel’s and I realized that the last time I was there was with Barb. And on the way out, Sue pointed to the dessert case and said, “Makes me think of our girl” and I was like </3 in real time. 2024 was such a shitty year. I can’t even keep track of the amount of times I see something, hear something, remember something, and think, “I HAVE TO TELL BARB—-oh.” I think I need to visit her grave tomorrow.)

(Chugger agrees.)

Anyway, when I finally emerged from the Weavers House, Henry—who had stayed outside the whole time lamb-loving—asked drily, “So, when’s your weaving class?”

Wow.

I mean, I did take the flyer home with me, so you never know.

Then we came home and Henry immediately went to the store because OMG it was after 4PM and he hadn’t gone to the store yet and he has to go to the store every day because it’s literally his favorite thing, pushing the cart mindlessly down each aisle, letting the soft rock waft down from the ceiling speakers and restore his will to live.

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