BBQ time on Friday & Saturday

So my awesome sister has loaned us her propane grill AND is going to work the grill on Friday & Saturday from 6 to 8 (give or take) as needed.  So if you want to join the festivities, please do.  We will have numerous items we're providing in the red meat camp but if you want something else, please bring it and it will get cooked!

Thursday Night Beer Tasting

I realized upon reviewing previous posts that I haven't included anything about our traditional Thursday night beer tasting.  Well, let's correct that problem now.

• WHEN: Thursday, October 27th
• TIME: Starting at 6:30 pm
• WHAT TO BRING: Noshes to go with beer. Cheeses, crackers, bread, meats, crudite, dips, fruit... all are welcome and encouraged!  
• WHAT YOU DON'T BRING:  Beer!  I have plenty to go around for the tasting; of course, if there are more mainstream offerings you want to bring for AFTER the beer tasting, that's always welcome.
• WHAT IT WILL INVOLVE: *Tasting* beer.  This is a not a guzzling event nor do I encourage you to get blotto during the tasting.  This is about savoring the vast variety of suds that are available in this halcyon day of craft beer. I will have a huge number of varieties, including some homebrew, ESB from Canada, IPAs, Stouts, Pale Ales, Belgians, Sours and some wild and wooly offerings from my May and July road trips to California and Colorado respectively.  

Of course, the party will continue in, around, and after the tasting.  See you then!

Sunday Brunch Updates

SO.... after much ruminating on the matter, we are changing vendors for our Sunday brunch! While we love Greenhaus, they are pretty slow for accommodating so many orders at once.

Therefore, we are going with Fresh food truck, who will show up a bit earlier than noon and be there until a bit after 1. They promise that green chile will be an option for all items and they have no deep fryer so orders won't take as long.  

BTW, their food is fabulous! They are also meat, vegetarian and even vegan friendly!  Plus they strive to locally source their ingredients so the money goes back into the community. Add to that that one of the owners is a CIA trained chef and it adds up to awesome!  

Just bring $10 and you'll get the sandwich of your choice + a soup, salad or other side.

For further info about Fresh, here's their Facebook page link:

https://www.facebook.com/freshlascruces/

Pub Quiz Creation Continues (UPDATE: 10/12/16)

So the pub quiz is coming along nicely.  We have audio visual aids courtesy of Chris "Laser" Short, who will be bringing a projector and screen for us to run the game.  I also have the game in slide show format, with contributions added from Vic, Trishy, Bev, Byron/Jen, Mary, and myself.

We are still awaiting contributions from Jennifer Slartibartfast, Chanda/Mike, Jen/Scott, Rich, Joe, and CC.

So a bit about format.  This is NOT a jeopardy style game.  We want everyone to be able to participate on every question so this is "pub quiz" format. That means that we will ask the questions in order- doing all three questions in each category at the same time.  Each team will write down their three answers on dry erase, after which they will reveal their answers and then we'll reveal the correct responses.  Then we move on to the next category. This means everyone has the potential of getting all of the questions right and everyone participates on every question!

Trishy will act as score keeper so she'll probably accept bribes.  That's just how she rolls.

Saturday Pub Quiz (UPDATED: 9/28/16)

Wow!  What a great response so far! We have eight people/couples who are going to create one category for the Pub Quiz:

• Kurt (80s movie posters)
• CC (80s current events)
• Trishy (80s Rebus)
• Jen 'Slarti' Robinson (80s Aliens & Food)
• Joe (Rob Elrick- Police Officer, fill-in-the-blank)
• Rich (80s name-that-tune)
• Byron & Jen (An as yet to be named 80s media question yet)
• Vic & Larissa (Not sure yet)
• Mary (80s video games)
• Bev (80s Olympics)

Wow! That's quite a few.  30 questions is probably enough but we could use a couple more (3 rounds of of 4 categories each)! Two more participants/categories should be sufficient to make this work.  Comment here, on Facebook, Twitter, the Event page, or anywhere else you know that I regularly check if you are interested in participating.

Thanks!

Pub Quiz Planning

The pub quiz is happening again this year.... but with a twist.

We'll have multiple hosts this year, each of whom will write their own category. Wanna be part of this?

The only rules? 

• Write three questions
• Keep them 80s themed
• Make them pretty simple
• Host your own category  

If you want to write your own category, just let me know!  The pub quiz will start about 9:30 pm on Saturday night. And if you want to just play, that's great too!

11 Wanders: A Nukestock Live-Action Adventure Game!

So it's no wonder to anyone who regularly games with me that one of  my favorite board games is Antoine Bauza's remarkable 7 Wonders, a Euro style game of remarkable complexity that is also fast and easy to play.  I've been thinking for awhile about how to turn this game into a live-active game and the time is NOW to introduce it. What better place for it than Nukestock?

So BEHOLD! The game...

Wine Tasting for Friday

For those of you who know me, wine is a bit of a passion of mine so we've been doing a wine tasting on the Friday of Nukestock for the last few years.  However, on some years, it's ended up being more of a wine guzzling and the nuances of tasting fly out the window the more we drink. Natch.

This year, we'll take a very different approach, one to avoid getting completely clattered and two to share with you a new technique I learned recently in an International Wine class I've been taking through the HRTM program at NMSU. Trust me: if you really want to appreciate a wine, this technique is remarkable and actually got the designer of it knighted by the Belgian government!

We'll start a 7:00 pm, proceeded by pot luck dishes. As we will be sampling wines, both red and white, sweet and dry, I ask people to post replies to this blog entry, letting us know what you might bring to share.  No need to bring wines for the tasting; I'll provide all of the bottles for this event. A personal request would be for some people to bring some low carb appetizers. Many of us are avoiding carbs for health reasons (blood sugar, diabetic, etc) so the more of these types of treats, the better.

Okay, that's all for now!

Sunday Brunch is finalized!

Back by Popular Demand!

The GreenhausNM food truck made Nukestock its home for about 90 minutes last year for our Sunday brunch and happily they will do so again this year.

Sunday, October 30th

Just before Noon until 1:30 pm (ish)

This is a first in line kind of deal so the earlier you get here, the faster your food will be ready.

And yes, they do have green chile.

Nukestock 2016 - A Tapestry of Lights + Class of 1986

Hey everyone! It's about time to start pondering Nukestock this year and it occurs to me that in doing so, we are pondering the 30th year we've been doing this craziness, going all the way back to the apartment that Tim Meyer, Robert Dallas, and I shared back in 1987 on Haggerty in the NMSU college ghetto.

Well, things have changed much since then but we still keep getting together every October for our "family gathering" to feast, drink, play games, and generally enjoy each other's company. And since this has always been a collaborative event - where we all come together to make it happen - I've decided this year to create a blog that we can all post to.  We can share events, happenings, ideas, photos, or what have you for this and and future year.

By means of introduction, my goal here is to give you a sketch of what I'm planning for the party but this is by no means a complete list and will change as others and myself add more material. If you intend to come to the party, it would be nice for you to reply to this and/or other posts as they appear here, letting us know if you're coming and what you might want to contribute.

So to that end, here's what I know so far:

DATES: Thursday, October 27th to Sunday, October 30th

Thursday: 
   Starts at 6:30 pm. Doing my usual craft beer tasting from souvenirs I gathered this summer. Competitive portion begins promptly at 7:00 pm for those wanting to win prizes for their beer expertise.

Friday:
  Gonna be weird for me this year since I have class scheduled from 1:30 to 5:00 pm and again from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. I will see if I can abjure the night class but if not, I'm committed so you'll all have to entertain yourselves until I show up. I'm quite certain you can manage without me for a few hours.

Saturday:
  The brewpub meet up at noon was a great success this last year so I'm planning on that again, along with a scavenger hunt/geocaching adventure for those interested.  Since I can't commit to Friday evening until late, I will plan on the wine tasting this evening around 6:00 pm.  More on that later.

I am also going to invite various people from the "Class of 1986" to attend as an alternative class reunion; doesn't matter what school you went to.

Finally, a pub quiz or some such trivia game would be wonderful again this year. It was such a pleasure to NOT write it last year so I could participate.

Sunday:
   The food truck worked out beautifully last year so we'll get that set up again this year for noon. Then we'll do clean up and after party.

I'm going to let Victor, Chris and other contributors to discuss other themes but this will be a DIY party again this year so I'm asking folks to contribute to make it awesome!