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Captain’s Log, Supplemental: March 17th, 2021

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Greetings, Crew!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a great time at the annual St. Patrick's Beer Tasting party on Saturday! Instead of being together in one room, we tasted on Zoom from wherever the heck we were in the world (those Irish, Scottish and American pubs looked great). Thanks to Phill and Lynne, who trekked far and wide to pick up and deliver beer, each household had 14 fully obscured cans to taste. I especially enjoyed the suspense, as I have always been behind the bar in years past and knew the names of the beers. You can find a list of the top winners in the article below. They won Amazon gift cards for $20 and $10, respectively. The USS Nokomis BAD Beer Board went to Emma for her noxious submission. It was so vile that most of us declined to try it a second time (except the three people that liked it??). Think salt water and vinegar mixed with dry vermouth, and you're right on. It was really fun. Thanks to everyone that participated, and especially to Phill and Lynne for all the work!

We announced a notable calendar change, too. The anniversary picnic, which has taken place in June for as long as we can remember, will take place on July 20th this year. Why? Because it gives us a better chance at getting together in person to celebrate 37 years. If the optimistic projections are accurate, parks will be accepting reservations soon. We'll keep our eye on the situation and keep you up to date. It will be so great to see each other in person!

Speaking of being in person, we've been discussing how wonderful the Zoom format has been for the last year. It has allowed us to see and hear some friends that wouldn't normally be able to attend meetings due to their location. Accordingly, we'll be planning ways to continue using the online option when we're back in person.

That's it for now. I'm off to find a pot of gold! See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Beer over Zoom? Here’s the result

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After the last meeting we had our first (and hopefully final) Zoom-Remote Journey to Nowhere Beer Tasting.   Seven households provided 14 different brews, with quite the variety.  The gallery shows you what we had on hand.

The adventure began with collecting all the beer and figuring a way to conceal it from view.  Contact brand Shelf Liner worked well, in case you ever need to cover your can. (wait, that sounds wrong somehow).  Hand them all back out in a box of 14, and the contest was on.  There were 5 rounds with 2 or three beers, two semi-finals and a champion choice.

After about 45 minutes of tasting, the winners were

First Place New Glarus Spotted Cow Ale, provided by the Patzmans
Second Place Lupulin Javatized Coffee Stout, provided by Phill Goldman and Lynne Tauer
Bad Beer Board, for the drink with the lowest score Brew Dr Blood Orange and Ginger Kombucha, provided by Emma Frazee

Thanks to everyone who purchased and provided drinks for tasting.  I had a lot of fun figuring how to do something we've done more than a dozen times before while still being safe and healthy.  That's the first time healthy has been used in association with drinking 14 beers.   It was fun, and I hope we don't have to do the remote tasting again - it's more fun in person.

  • Phill

 

The entire tasting list:

1 Kona Big Wave Golden Ale, from Jim and Pam
2 New Glarus Spotted Cow Ale, from the Patzmans
3 Indeed Pistachio Cream Ale, from the Hills
4 Summit Extra Pale Ale, from Jack L
5 Central Waters Laid Back New England IPA, from Ben S
6 New Glarus Moon Man Pale Ale, from the Patzmans
7 Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi IPA, from Rich P
8 Heineken Alcohol Free, from the Hills
9 Indeed Mexican Honey Imperial Lager, from Phill and Lynne
10 Sam Adams Sam '76 Lager,  from Karen and Mark
11 Miller High Life, from Mary P
12 Brew Dr Blood Orange and Ginger Kombucha, from Emma Frazee
13 Lupulin Javatized Coffee Stout, from Phill and Lynne
14 New Belgium Voodoo Ranger IPA, from Mark and Karen

 

 

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="21" gal_title="Beer Gallery 2021"]

USS Nokomis 2021 Cookbook

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If you missed the meeting on Saturday, you missed hearing about the upcoming cookbook. Our plan is to offer the book at cost, because this is not a fundraiser. We may offer the book for sale to non-members if we have excess copies.

The book will feature the menus and recipes from all of the annual Valentine Dinners and Garden Parties, which have been pretty spectacular. It will also include all recipes submitted by members, and it's here where we need your help. Please send Mary your favorites! We are about halfway there, so we need quite a few more. Your help is greatly appreciated.

The Queen is an Author!

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Did you love Grudge on Discovery? Did you ever expect her to write a book? It's true, she has, and Star Trek Discovery: The Book of Grudge: Book's Cat from Star Trek Discovery comes out in November. According to trekmovie.com, it's “packed with offbeat observations, thoughts and universal facts.” It  will also include a combination of illustration and photography from Star Trek: Discovery season 3.

Well, why not? After all, she has her own social media sites and lots of hype. If you're interested, check it out (and even preorder) on Amazon.com.

 

Changing emails? You can handle it!

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Is your email address changing?  Please keep your address up to date in the Nokomis' web page too.  You can handle it yourself.  Log in to the site, click on the My USSNOKOMIS button on the main page, then Manage My Subscriptions.  You can change your email address there, and it takes effect immediately.  Now you don't have to wonder if your email is right, you can check it right there too!

Captain’s Log, Supplemental: March 10, 2021

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Greetings, Crew!

I hope you're all doing well as you breathe in a little spring air. That dose of temperatures in the 60 was just what we needed after that chilly spell. I know, I know, it's not over, but a girl can hope! I keep thinking of all the MarsCon events that were difficult due to slogging through the snow to load our trucks, but of course we don't have to load a truck this year!

The lack of a physical convention isn't slowing us down, though. You'll see the great results of our Saturday blood drive in an article below. Plus, the virtual convention - MarsCon 2021: Forces of Darkness - starts at 3pm on Friday. They are promising "a weekend of virtual panel discussions, demos, gaming, cosplay, art, science, specialty vendors, watch parties, music and camaraderie", which sounds like a lot of fun. Click HERE for a link to the Facebook event, which gives all of the details. You can subscribe to the YouTube channels and bookmark your pages to find all of your favorites. Don't forget to get the t-shirt!

Also, don't forget TC Trek Trivia, which takes place tonight (Wednesday). The theme this month is "Wait, it's been how long?" and that's pretty intriguing. Drop me an email and I'll send you the link to join us.

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

March General Membership Meeting Zoom Link

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Please join us for the upcoming membership meeting on Saturday. It's a good idea to join a few minutes early to check your tech.

This month our meeting is followed by the annual St Patrick's Beer Tasting party, so grab your green and join in. If you didn't already register for the beer tasting part and submit your beer, you are still welcome to join us for lunch and to observe as we taste and make funny faces. The beer tasting is targeted to start between 1:30 and 2:00.

Topic: USS Nokomis March Membership Meeting

Time: Mar 13, 2021 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3141085993?pwd=S21TampnV01XUjNrc2QyK2kvSzMyQT09

Meeting ID: 314 108 5993
Passcode: 12345

Dial by phone: 312 626 6799
Meeting ID: 314 108 5993
Passcode: 12345

 

Another Successful Blood Drive!!

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Thanks so much for everyone that participated in making our 16th annual MarsCon blood drive a success! We collected 24 pints of blood on our goal of 20, which is outstanding. Several members donated, greeted donors, took temperatures, recruited people to come, or stopped by to give moral support. We brought our total number of donors recruited to over 1,600, and the pints collected in our many blood drives to 1,342, which is enough to touch over 4,000 lives. That's really incredible, and few organizations can say the same. Congratulations on making a difference!

Real World Application of Trek

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Maybe we've all done it? I know that I've used the principles learned from Star Trek (staring at age 3) in my real life. Yah, it's no coincidence that there's a book called "All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek." Here's an article from StarTrek.com that caught my eye. It's called "Loss and "The Loss:" How Deanna Troi Counseled Me Through COVID-19." This writer talks about how Trek has helped him with the (temporary) loss of taste and smell, and it hits home.

How many times have I been sitting in a conference room, wanting to jump over the table with my bat'leth, and it helped me to think "What would Captain Kirk do?" Actually that's a really bad example, because Captain Kirk would just grab a phaser, but perhaps Captain Picard could have served as a role model where diplomacy was required. I know, however, that there have been a lot of really good examples in my life, so this piqued my interest. If you'd like to read about this Trek fan's experience, click HERE

Mary

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

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After the numerous questions and lamentations about the lack of Girl Scout Cookie availability this year, a solution has presented itself!

Many of our members use MarsCon as their source every year, as the girls sell cookies at a table. One of our friends from MarsCon has provided a link that you can use to order online. If you're interested in buying from Anna, drop me an email and I'll send you her link. If anyone else has a Girl Scout, please let me know and I'll share that link, too. I, for one, will buy from any Scout that asks me!