Events

Cassie and I took a walk by Montrose Harbor on Sunday afternoon at just the right time: And yesterday, at my downtown office, I also got the timing right: Winter begins tomorrow, but we can still enjoy the last few days of autumn.

Welcome to stop #66 on the Brews and Choos project—and the final stop on the Union Pacific North Line! Brewery: Cultivate by Forbidden Root, 4710 N. Ravenswood Ave.Train line: Union Pacific North, RavenswoodTime from Chicago: 19 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: across the street Until July 2020, Band of Bohemia occupied the space directly across from the Ravenswood Metra station that Forbidden Root has taken over. Band of Bohemia became the world's first Michelin-starred brewpub in 2018, so...

A group of pub-goers in Yorkshire got trapped with an Oasis cover band after freak snowfall made the area impassible: Dozens of people, mostly strangers, spent the weekend snowed in together at the remote pub after heavy snowfall blocked the exits. The Tan Hill Inn, which calls itself the U.K.'s highest pub, was hosting the band Noasis when snowfall made leaving the area dangerous for staff, musicians and pub-goers. So they stayed — and stayed and stayed — all weekend, waiting for the danger to pass....

Welcome to stop #65 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Public Craft Brewing, 716 58th St., Kenosha, Wis.Train line: Union Pacific North, KenoshaTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)Distance from station: 800 m As our music director sometimes says with a pained look on his face, "there were a lot of good things in there." So with Public Craft Brewing, which seemed entirely the opposite in many ways from Rustic Road just around the corner. The high ceilings and well-lit seating area felt a...

I give you the Cut Stone pizza-oven fire truck: If I hadn't had a big Caesar salad, and (I admit) some mozz sticks, I would totally have grabbed one of their pizzas. They will return to Kenosha's streets in the spring.

Welcome to stop #64 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Rustic Road Brewing, 5706 6th Ave., Kenosha, Wis.Train line: Union Pacific North, KenoshaTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)Distance from station: 900 m Kenosha, Wis., is the end of the line for the Metra Union Pacific North Line. It takes a while to get up there, longer than to any other Metra station. (The South Shore Line isn't a Metra railroad.) Plus, the weekday train schedules make a day trip nigh impossible Monday to Friday....

...on Wednesday. And to remind us of this, yesterday didn't get above freezing at my house. It finally went above freezing at 3:04am, according to my thermometer. And at Chicago's official weather station at O'Hare, yesterday was the coldest day since February 21st. Today won't get too much warmer. Still, in about 90 minutes, I'm taking the Brews & Choos Project out of Illinois for the first time. Kenosha, Wis., has two breweries within a couple of blocks of each other and the Union Pacific North Line's...

Fed up with manufacturers releasing Internet-connected products for the home with inadequate security that puts everyone in the world at risk, the UK has finally cracked down: Default passwords for internet-connected devices will be banned, and firms which do not comply will face huge fines. The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill lays out three new rules: easy-to-guess default passwords preloaded on devices are banned. All products now need unique passwords that cannot be reset...

The stew turned out fine, except I used just a touch too much chipotle powder: I also made a lot. Including what I ate, I made about 4½ liters, including the one jar (front row, second from right) of just stew broth: So, two notes to self: Upping the herbs and spices worked fine, except for the chipotle powder. Keep that under a teaspoon next time. Use less liquid. Remember that mushrooms are mostly water. Still, it tasted great, and I get to have it six. More. Times.

Having a day off with no real responsibilities gives me the space to take care of some niggling projects I've put off for a while. First, I finished updating a document for the Apollo Chorus that lists every sit and stand cue and every score marking for our Messiah performances. That took about 8 hours altogether. I also updated my main NuGet packages to .NET 6. As a nice bonus, because of a quirk in how .NET assemblies get versioned, today's release is version 4.2.8000. (I kept the previous release...