beer Archives - Page 3 of 5

Beer Exchange Day 5 (and a Friendmas Party!)

December 10, 2023 No Comments

You know when you have one of those life experiences that makes you stop and think “We’re the grownups now”? I fully just had one of those last night. It was nothing serious, nothing life-changing. In fact, it was something I have done lots of times in the past. Together with friends of the blog, Megan and Hans, I went to a Friendmas party at our friends’, Scott and Dee’s, place.

I know. I really hyped this up and it’s just a fun holiday party.

But here’s the thing. I distinctly remember always going to a yearly holiday party that one of my dad’s coworkers put on when I was a kid. I remember a table of snacks, peanut butter marshmallow squares, adults wearing Christmas sweaters, and singing Christmas songs while his wife played the piano. And this party felt very much like that. (Minus the singing with the piano. I feel like very few people are actually that wholesome.)

But, you know. We talked about mortgages and our to-go easy meals for weekdays. We played a (modified) version of Name that Tune. There were cute outfits and holiday-themed sweaters everywhere. People brought their very well behaved dogs! Dee and Scott put together a super aesthetic selection of delicious snacks (peanut butter marshmallow squares not pictured but definitely included).

Oh! And I drank Beer 5!

YYCEats

Beer Exchange Day 4

December 8, 2023 No Comments

My beautiful friends! Today has been so much of a day. So good, but very energy consuming. We had a major work retreat at the Jubilee Auditorium today with a ton of great knowledge transfer, resource discussion, and QI exploration.

Also, I delivered an hour long presentation on effective communication to reduce cognitive load and supporting struggling learners to a type of audience I’ve never presented to before.

Also also, I found out that a poster presentation abstract I submitted to an international congress in April was accepted. (It’s times like these that I am so glad that I have the blog. It will one day be so nice to have a record of exactly which day all of this happened, so I don’t have to rely exclusively on my memory.)

But it’s also days like today where I am so glad that I have the Beer Exchange as a content avenue during Blogmas, so I don’t have to come up with something new to write about today with my very tired brain.

So without further ado, let’s get into it! Beer 4, here we come!

YYCEats

Beer Exchange Day 3

December 6, 2023 No Comments

You know what’s super fun about doing the Beer Exchange instead of an advent calendar?

The community! (You’ll notice this is going to be an on-going theme throughout Blogmas this year. Community, surrounding myself with people, is just what I’m looking for in this season of my life.) As I write this post, we’re all typing away in our group chat, discussing the beers by number and not name so there’s no spoilers. The conclusion from everyone who has experienced Beer 3 so far is that it is a whole lot of beer in one single tall can.

No, we didn’t get to have the kick-off party, but we’re still a team and that’s so cool. There are a couple things that we took away from our years in our homes that are, like, not the worst. (Look, I know that is the most tepid statement ever, but I said what I said.)

So why don’t we just move onto Beer 3 instead? You know what to do… follow me on through the cut.

YYCEats

Beer Exchange Day 2

December 4, 2023 No Comments

Everyone. My life has been so chaotic recently, I am so delighted for every bit of consistency I can scrape up. And writing on this blog every day? (For literally 4 days?) Having the beers for the beer exchange? It’s little, but it makes me feel so good.

And you know what else makes me feel good? Recording Mystery, Outsiders and Abs!

My and Kevin’s teen drama brains have been filled with Riverona and we had no energy for good Shadowhunters goofs. (That said, you should definitely donate to our Riverona IndieGoGo campaign to bring this Romeo and Juliet teen drama parody to the stage. Fans of MOA know Kevin and I are clever and can write a better show than Riverdale…) Anyway, we have brains back and we are ready to record our podcast, and you know what that means?

Beer 2, wrapped (games table in background)

It means Beer 2!

Sort of. Follow me through the cut to figure out what I mean by that…

YYCEats

Beer Exchange Day 1

December 2, 2023 No Comments

Heeeey friends! Guess what is back, back, backpack again in the year of our Lord 2023? (And, yes, there might be a backpack involved.) My dear friend Megan is not laid up with a broken ankle this year and that means it’s time for a Beer Exchange!!!

Yes! A Beer Exchange! One of those fun things that you hear people talking about but no one ever really pulls together – 12 people each choose a local beer to buy 12 tall boy cans of and then we all take one of each beer. Plus the beers are wrapped up, so we have no idea what we are drinking. It is fun and festive and more social than buying an advent calendar. I am psyched.

I love doing things with my friends.

And having content for my blog.

So you probably guessed what today’s post is all about – it’s about the first beer from the Beer Exchange! And, not just that, we had a kickoff party with a few of our participants so this post is also about that. Woooooo!!!

Yes, that means that I am starting this post in the afternoon and will finish it when I return home from the party, potentially a bit tipsy. Because I don’t know what the first beer is yet and I will be enjoying it at the party with my friends. But don’t worry… as always, I will make you have to work for the reveal of what the first beer is. So follow me through the cut to find out what we had for Beer Exchange Day 1…

YYCEats

Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Beer Eleven

December 22, 2022 No Comments

I learned how to adjust my desk chair at my office today! I’ve been in this office for a few weeks, but it still feels like “not mine” – this small little change has made such a difference towards making me feel like I have ownership over the space I work within. And just in time for the holiday break, lol. Classic Erin moment.

Today’s blog post is not about classic Erin moments. (Though… that might not be a terrible idea for the future?) Today’s post is about the second last beer of my Eighty-Eight beer advent calendar. How are we already here!?

I will take a moment to reflect on the experience before I move into the beer. I do think it was well worth the money ($88, naturally) and I appreciated the opportunity to try new beers at a place I am familiar with but have a “go to” beer. I think next year, if there is no beer exchange, I will buy another advent calendar. However, I think I would be more likely to buy one of the ones from a liquor store so I could be exposed to new breweries as well.

All that to say… onto the beer!

Day Eleven Clue

The Day Eleven clue read “Don’t forget the water wings”. Well, I had a pretty good idea of what this one might be – could it be the classic “Wave Pool”?

YYCEats

Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Ten

December 20, 2022 No Comments

Today is a very special night. This blogmas post is being written in real time. Like, I’m still drinking the Day 10 beer as I write it. It is incredibly cold out in Calgary – like this insane frigid air from Siberia, aka the coldest air on earth, has swept in. I was lucky enough to work from home today and, despite a dream of going to barre at 5:15 tonight, I am officially hibernating.

Tonight is a night for soup, Hallmark movies, and the Day 10 Beer.

Day Ten Clue

The Day Ten clue read “Just in case you’re all alone.” And boy, oh boy, was I able to guess which beer it was!!

YYCEats

Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Nine

December 18, 2022 No Comments

Happy Day 18, everyone! I cannot believe how fast this month has gone by. This happens pretty much every month, I think, but I’m always surprised when it’s almost the 25th. (This is when I get paid. It’s not a Christmas reference. But also it is.)

Anyway, I must admit that I am a little bit burnt out. Nothing to do with blogmas, only to do with having too many fun things to get up to. If you read yesterday’s post, you can probably read between the lines that I left my house at 7:30 am on Friday and only returned home to sleep between then and 10 pm on Saturday.

Today was a very similar vibe – I left home at about 8:30 for Pilates at Junction 9, then headed directly over to my mom’s house for the annual holiday baking tradition. I followed that up with picking up some sushi from Kinjo Express, where they are always so lovely, then finally tried to grab some veggies for Christmas. (I was not super successful. I’m not paying $9 for snap peas and $6 for a cauliflower, thank you. I will follow the flyers and find a better price.)

But look at how cute our little baking helper was! (She was helping by tearing apart a Toblerone box.)

Anyway, when I got home for the next two hours, I just read in the bath and then laid on my bed, scrolling on my phone. Which I literally never do. Like I said, burn out.

I finally rallied, though. I did slightly more meal prep than I expected to actually achieve at – vegan banana muffins for breakfasts and lentil quesadillas for lunches. And I washed my sheets. And now I’m writing a blog post. The world is my oyster, my friends. And speaking of oysters…

Day Nine Clue

Actually, I’m not speaking of oysters at all. I’m just too tired for good transitions. So instead, please read the Day Nine clue which states “You deserve to sleep in”. This time I was pretty sure it was not Hammer Pants…

YYCEats

Eighty-Eight Beer Advent Calendar – Day Eight

December 16, 2022 No Comments

It is Day 16 of Blogmas (in the home stretch no matter how many days I’m doing), and I have so many fun unexpected holiday plans this weekend. Tonight I’ll be heading out to Market Collective with my mom to hopefully finish my gift shopping and definitely buy some delicious hummus. Afterwards, Megan and I are going to hit up Cold Garden to get festive with some Kegnog (yes, it is exactly what it sounds like). And then I think Claire and I are going to try to see the Lunchbox Theatre holiday show tomorrow!

But before I can do any of that? It’s time to talk about Beer Eight…

Day Eight Clue

The Day Eight clue read “The gift we always wanted but never got”. Is this one Hammer Pants!?

YYCEats

Home Alone Taproom Pop-Up at Eighty-Eight (and Day 7 of the Advent Calendar)

December 14, 2022 No Comments

What’s up, y’all! It’s T-minus 11 days until Christmas, Hanukkah is starting at nightfall on Sunday, Kwanzaa in 12 days, and numerous other celebrations are popping up all over the place. Time is just racing now and, here in the holiday of Blogmas, we’re already at another beer on the beer advent calendar.

I don’t have a particularly interesting story about what I did while drinking this beer (and it’s one that I’m familiar with, so no fun beer facts to discover)… so instead I’m going to talk about something super cool that is happening at the Eighty-Eight taproom during these upcoming busy 11 days.

Home Alone Taproom Pop-Up at Eighty-Eight Brewing

Yesss, that’s right! Kevin McAllister, the Wet Bandits, and all your favourite Home Alone easter eggs have settled in at Eighty-Eight and it is truly epic. The amount of work they must have put in to transform this space (which is always pretty stunning) is truly incredible. Like… look up there! They re-created the flight board!

Every inch of the space is covered in wrapping paper, presents, and other Home Alone related Easter Eggs. I mean, there are cardboard figure cutouts up against the second floor windows, so that when you are outside it looks like there is a party on, in classic Kevin McAllister fashion. And if that’s not enough, there is a full-on Home Alone Easter Egg scavenger hunt to keep you busy!

Home Alone Taproom Pop-Up Menu

Oh yeah, they’ve also made some little changes to the menu. The Wet Bandits – not just movie villains, but also a super intense beer. It’s a Triple IPA, with a 10.1% ABV and an 88 IBU. Yes, I am scared of it, thank you. For those like me who can’t commit to a full 10% beer, they are also offering Marv and Harry pre-set flights.

And they’ve really committed to the bit by giving their menu a little visual makeover too. Look! The cheese pizza is renamed. We love commitment to a theme. (As a quick note, I hit up Eighty-Eight with Claire and Megan the other day to enjoy some brews and pizza. The cheese pizza is amazing.)

Omg, I still have a whole beer to reveal here! I promise, I’ll keep it quick.

Day Seven Clue

Day Seven’s clue read “Relax, put down the work, it’s holiday time”. Hmmm..

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »