Show Notes - Week of March 22, 2021

Greetings from 53.5° north latitude, a part of the world straddling alternate dimensions of eternal spring and eternal winter. Hey, it’s nice! Hey, it’s snowing! Where did that wind come from? 

Beyond suffering through the vagaries of weather, the week was pretty quiet. I have decided to run a game of Tomb of Annihilation for the group of friends I am currently playing Curse of Strahd with. I am contemplating creating a blog with a series of prep session notes for Tomb. If I do, I will post a link here. 

On top of the prep work for Tomb, I finished one book, hit the century mark for rides in my cross-Canada virtual trip, and tried two new beers from my favorite brewery. Let’s dive in.

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Reading Pile:
Book #8 for 2021 is a re-read of the fifth Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. This was something my younger daughter and I started reading on January 1 and I am pretty impressed that we ploughed through 764 pages in eighty-five days. 

If you have read the series, you will know this is the longest of the seven books and it is definitely the darkest book so far in the series. The lamentable Harry Potter does not have much true hope for the first 7644 pages but I felt pretty good for him at then end. 

It is hard to do much of a review of the fifth book in any series without going into significant detail that would spoil the other books in the series. Suffice it to say that this was an emotional rollercoaster. It is also the last Harry Potter book that I have read (or listened to) multiple times. Later this year we will dig into the next book in the series, and I will do so with relatively fresh eyes having not read it for about fifteen years. \

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Cycling Update:
I made really good distance this week on my bike, including a ride with my summer bike on Saturday that ended up being a fairly snowy affair after about half way through the ride. No segments or legs were completed this week, but I should be able to finish off the Edson - Edmonton portion next week. 

I was comparing cycling notes with my friend Bryan earlier this week and I realized that I was at 100 rides since I started tracking my cross-Canada virtual trip. As you can see in the image, as of earlier this week I had tracked 100 rides for 1535 km. My average ride is over 15 km and I am averaging 8.83 km per day overall. At about 11,000 km if I cover a virtual route to every provincial or territorial capital, I am about 15% done. At the current pace, my entire trip should take me almost exactly two full years.

New Beers:
There were two new beers this week, both from Alley Kat. First up, coming is as check-in #741 was a tribute to Alley Kat founder, Neil Herbst. Neil’s Smoked Porter had nice malts and a rich color. There was a bit of smoke without the smoke being overpowering. Slightly more foam would have improved it, IMO. All in all nicely done and a great tribute to the Alley Kat founder and legend. (3.5 / 5)

Second up was the Sabro Dragon, another solid beer in their Dragon Double IPA series. The hop combination had a slightly metallic note, but the aroma and foam were good. The copper color was beautiful. This probably had more obvious hops taste than any recent Dragon. (3.25 / 5)

I thought it was appropriate that I also earned the Untappd “One Billionth Check-in” badge drinking a beer from my favorite brewery.

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New Words:
The new words below are all from my reading of “The Splendid and the Vile”, the book that I finished and wrote about last week. 

punt
[po͝ont]
NOUN\

  1. the basic monetary unit of the Republic of Ireland (until replaced by the euro), equal to 100 Irish pence.


bodkin
[ˈbädkən]
NOUN

  1. a blunt, thick needle with a large eye used especially for drawing tape or cord through a hem.


towpath
[ˈtōˌpaTH]
NOUN

  1. a path beside a river or canal, originally used as a pathway for horses towing barges.


minatory
[ˈminəˌtôrē, ˈmīnəˌtôrē]
ADJECTIVE
formal

  1. expressing or conveying a threat.


scarify
[ˈskerəˌfī]
VERB

  1. cut and remove debris from (a lawn) with a scarifier.
  2. make shallow incisions in (the skin), especially as a medical procedure or traditional cosmetic practice.
    “she scarified the snakebite with a paring knife”
  3. criticize severely and hurtfully.


lodgment
[ˈläjmənt]
NOUN\

  1. literary
    a place in which a person or thing is located, deposited, or lodged.
    “they found a lodgment for the hook in the crumbling parapet”
  2. the depositing of money in a particular bank, account, etc.
  3. military
    a temporary defensive work made on a captured part of an enemy’s fortifications to secure a position and provide protection.


cuspidor
[ˈkəspəˌdôr]
NOUN
US

  1. a spittoon.