Hey, folks. It's time again to bring your favorite beer or wine or soda or other beverage you think can win a prize, so you can try to win a prize. You can try to win the best beer prizes or the Bad Beer Board. Just remember that most of the time, those who covet one will, oddly enough, win the other.

Jack and I are hosting the event on March 18th after the March membership meeting. It will be in one of the large suites on the first floor of the DoubleTree Hotel in Bloomington (7800 Normandale Boulevard), right by the hot tub. You are invited to bring food to share and your swimsuit and towel. In past years, many have chosen to take a room at the hotel. As of this writing, there are rooms available for as little as $89, so get your reservation now. We'll start at 5pm and the beer tasting and potluck buffet will begin at 5:30pm. We'll play some games and hang out, and in the morning the remaining folks will go to breakfast.

Here is a reminder of the rules for the blind taste testing:

Rule #1: The decision of the judges is final. Don't whine.

Rule #2: You may bring any beverage of your choice - it doesn't need to be beer. Bring at least six bottles of beer, or the equivalent in ounces.

Rule #3: Eat before you taste. Eat while you taste. Eat after you taste. This will ensure your ability to make it through to the end and still be able to taste.

Rule #4: If necessary, cleanse your palate with the provided oyster crackers.

Rule #5: Don't push or crowd. Trampling your fellow tasters is not only impolite, it will disqualify you. See rule #1. There is enough for everyone and all night to finish.

Final rule: Have fun. Tip the judge. Well, you don't have to, but she'd like it.

And then there's the St Patrick's Day aspect of the evening. Wear green if you have it!

Any questions? Ask Mary.

MarsCon is March 3rd to 5th this year. We'll be having our 12th annual MarsCon Blood Drive (and 29th drive overall) with the American Red Cross. Please plan to sign up to donate blood and tell your friends and family. The online link at www.redcrossblood.org is not yet active, but it will be soon and I'll publish it in the February newsletter.

Let's save lives at the con!

The WDF, which are also Nokomis members, are going to be hosting a room at MarsCon this year.  Our room number is 1113 -- come join us, hang out, have fun.  We are bringing back everyone's favorite room, the MUSH Room, and no, it is not a fungus.  It stands for the Mobile Universal Space Hospital.  We are creating the Bog instead of the Swamp from the hit TV show M*A*S*H.

For those who are not familiar with us:  the WDF represents all the service men and women from all science fiction shows, including King Kong and Godzilla, who die saving the planet and the human race, but you never know who they are.

If you are interested in helping us out or being involved, let Dawn know (email: ).  We would love your help.  Otherwise, if you are attending the convention, come join us!

Remember: "we all die so you don't have to."

"General" Dawn Star

The 2017 Photo Calendar is still available for purchase. The price has now increased back to Walmart's regular price of $17.47

Your link for ordering at Walmart.com is:

https://photos3.walmart.com/project_edit/calendar/d63118378fa3b1f107648f6115a9066bo56948499

When you get to the Calendar page, click the "Done" button at the top. The calendar will then load into your Cart, and you can procced to purchase.

Shipping the Calendar to your home is 97-cents, and sales tax is 78-cents. Walmart does offer PayPal for your payment.

If you run into any issues while trying to order, please contact me and I will help you get your calendar.

Enjoy!

Wow, it's 2017! Welcome to a brand new year. It seems like just yesterday we were planning for the 50th anniversary, and now it's history. I congratulate all of you on the quality of the events we had for that important occasion. It was a great year.

I hope everyone has had a nice holiday season. In my house we got to see many friends and family, plus travel to Ely for our annual Ravioli Feed. We spent fun time at the cabin too, although it was so cold we had to hide inside. No winter sports this year!

In 2017 we have lots of fun in store, as always. In January we have the Feed My Starving Children evening, the January Dance and our meetings. In February, the Valentine Dinner returns, as well as the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair. March will bring MarsCon and our American Red Cross MarsCon Blood Drive. So much to look forward to! Please join us for these fun times!

Never forget that you can bring any additional events to our attention and we'll consider adding them to the calendar. We hardly ever say no, of course! We love to do fun things.

I hope everyone is well. Come to the January meeting and say hi and plan to join us for late lunch/early dinner. It will be fun to catch up in the new year.

See you around the galaxy!

Mary

UPDATE: JAN 7 2017...

OK...I was able to ORDER the 2017 calendar from Walmart.

Cost: $9.99; shipping (4-7 days) to my home for 97-cents; sales tax was 78-cents...Total was $11.75. PayPal payment is now available on the Walmart site for your purchase.

How to Order: (1) Go to this link to Preview the calendar. [NO CHANGES, Please!~!~!]:

https://photos3.walmart.com/project_edit/standard/a218aa82782c5cf38daa757ccbffeb5co56709771

(2) Next: Select the "Done" button at the top of the page.  1 Calendar will load into your Cart. Proceed to checkout.

Let me know if you run into any problems.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Folks...

There's been a delay in getting the 2017 USS Nokomis Photo Calendar up and running and ready for purchase.

The calender is done, but the Walmart website server is proving to be unstable, and at the moment it's not allowing checkout and purchase of the calendar.

I am working with Walmart to get the problem fixed, and I will have the Preview and Purchase links posted here just as soon as I can get them working.

Price is $10 per calender, with shipping to your home for only 97-cents.

Watch this space for more details and the purchase link soon...And Thanks for your patience.

First Officer Jane Dusek. / 5 JAN 2017

There's still time to sign up for the big dance. The cost remains $35, even after all these years! Your evening will include social hour, a lovely buffet dinner, dancing to our favorite DJ Rob, and a cash bar. We'll be at a new venue - the Dan Patch American Legion in Savage - and we'll begin our social hour at 6:00 p.m. Dinner will follow at about 7:00 with dancing from 8:00 to midnight.

This has been one of our most well-attended events for years. We hope this new location will be just as fun! For this event, family and friends are welcome. The more, the merrier!

Our theme this year is Renaissance. Break out your corsets and leggings, swords and feathers! If you don't have a costume that matches the theme, join those who will dress up in contemporary wear. Everybody's definition of "dress your best" is different, so anything goes!

Most importantly, you must turn in your payment by the January meeting and WE NEED TO KNOW YOU'RE COMING. You can mail your payment to me or bring it to the meeting in January. Plus, please let me know ASAP that you intend to come so we can get an accurate count.

Mary

Movie night was a lot of fun, thank you Lynn and Phill for letting us invade your home.  It was cozy and a lot of food was to be had.  I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.  Usually I do not post but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone and my blister is healing from chopping all those vegetables finally.  I am very impressed to see our new members just jumping right in and enjoying what we have done so far.  I hope that more new members attend our functions as time goes by.  Thank you Mary for making up the menu and coordinating and thank you Jack for all of his trips to the store.  You all are awesome.

Dawn "Star"