Victory is mine!

TTR Germany

After god only knows how many times of playing Ticket to Ride, I finally managed to pull off a win last night. And WHAT a win.

We were playing the Marklin edition (Germany), and I kept 3 of my first 4 destination cards (2 long routes, 1 short). At first glance it didn’t seem like they had any relation to one another, but with a bit of creative thinking (and collecting a ton of train cards before I started claiming routes) I managed to string together a fairly impressive route on the right side of the board. I got two of the 7-car routes, and while everyone kept questioning what I was trying to do when I only had a single 2 car train on the board, I stuck to the plan. I did a second destination card pull with 4 train cars left in front of me (everyone else had quite a few, so I was confident I’d be able to do something with at least one of them), and that was really the margin of victory.

In the end, I completed three long destination cards (worth 16, 18 and 22 points), as well as one of the shorter ones (for 8). If I hadn’t made the final pull for destination cards on my second last turn the game would have been a lot closer, but I had 132, the two next closest were 105 and 104, and then 73 and 69 to round out the scores. This was without passengers (which further inflate the scores in this version), and perhaps the main reason I was able to do this successfully was because I wasn’t playing with people who make it their sole goal to f with my plans.

you know who you people are..

Kölsch, etc.

kranz.jpg

One beer style I’ve been obsessing over lately is not super well-known- certainly not among non-beer geeks- is kölsch.  If you’ve never had the opportunity to try one (and, chances are, you haven’t- technically- more on that later), you really should try and find some!  It’s a light (in colour, ABV and hoppiness) hybrid beer that is perfect for hot, sunny days!

So, what is kölsch and how does it differ from other light beers?  Certainly we have no shortage of those.  Primarily, kölsch is an ale, not a lager.  Most light beers (Bud-like beers, pilseners, etc.) are lagers.  What’s the difference, you ask?  Well let me tell you…
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Humulus lupulus

So, as a craft brewer, I feel really lucky to live in Calgary.  Did you know that Canada is the second largest barley producer in the world, behind Russia?  Did you further know that half of Canada’s production of barley comes from my home province of Alberta?  That’s great news for those of us who buy malted barley in bulk.  For a mere $25, I can buy enough 2-row malted barley to make 30 gallons of beer (two kegs!  320 bottles!).
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Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2011

So, for the first time ever I decided to go down and check out the Comic Expo over the weekend, and it was overwhelmingly geek-tastic.

The crowd on Saturday was incredible, and it was in large part due to the fact that William Shatner was on site to do a couple of autograph sessions as well as a photo op. Needless to say, you always knew where he was going to be because the crowd would shift from one side of the room to the other, stampeding over anyone unlucky enough to get in their way. ;)
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