For the love of Belgium

The beers we had while in Brussels and Brugge last week:

I had:

• Rochefort 10
  
• Triple moine
  
• Kölsch Früh
  
• Kappitel Watou Abt
  
• De graal triple
  
• La Morde Subite Framboise
  
• La Morde Subite Blanche
  
• Oude Geuze Boon
  
• 't Hofbrouwerijke Bosprotter
  
• Serafijn Tripel
  
• Winterkonnikske
  
• Kriek De Cam
  

He had:

• Delirium Tremens
  
• Straffe Hendrik Blonde
  
• Sint Bernardus Abt 12
  
• La Divine
  
• Kwak
  
• La Morde Subite Geuze
  
• La Morde Subite Faro
  
• Avec Les Bons Voeux (Brasserie Dupont)
  
• Barbar
  
• Tripel Karmeliet
  
• Bink
  
• Lam Gods
  

is it too late to start posting again?

Married!!!



* * * * * * *

In other news, I was busy planning a wedding and sort of didn't post for 5 months. I think that's a valid excuse. I'm now going to start posting again as if nothing happened, except that I got married. MARRIED!!

* * * * * * *

I'm on number 4 of K's questions:

4. You have been granted the ability to go back in time and re-live any two hours (but only two hours), knowing what you know now. What two hours do you go back and re-live?

Apropos of the above - and I am going to cheat here and use an event that happened since the question was asked - I would go back to last Saturday, about 2 hours after I'd gotten married. When everyone was seated at our long, beautiful tables, and the conversation buzzed around me, I looked out over the tables and witnessed one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen: All of our friends and family, their faces lit by candles and the setting sun, munching on heirloom tomato salad and chatting with each other over a sea of purple and orange flowers. It was so very much more wonderful and beautiful than I had imagined - and I have a very active imagination - so I can't really do it justice, even. And then my Sweetie and I went for a walk in the garden as the sun slipped behind the mountains. And sometime later (still within my 2 hours, I think) we danced to Fly Me to the Moon and also Baby Got Back, drank wine, and ate carrot cake and cheesecake, among many other things. I remember it all, but it didn't last long enough. I wish that I could go back and savor those hours one more time.

on tails, grey pants, cummerbunds...

I had a thought tonight, at dinner at a local pizza joint, about my life. About OUR life. Sitting in a pizza joint, across from the fancy carrier bag shop, talking smack ab out the people we work with, and what the optimal implementation of a particular feature might be... it was fun. Ideal, really. It's funny how you're never really happy with your life, except when it dawns on you that it's perfect.

Yeah, funny.

* * * * *

There's a thing about getting married - this is something I've discovered: It's not really about what you're wearing, even if you're the bride or groom. It's really about what every other goddamned person is wearing. Really. Only about everyone else, not about you. Doesn't matter if you're paying for it, I promise. All about everyone else. Hear a little bitter-bride echoing in the background? No mistake - it's annoying.

Here's my two issues:
1) I do not care almost at all what my mother wears, as long as it stays on her all night, and I'm not up for a lot of discussion about it.
2) I will pay large sums to have my bridal attendants in purple matte fabric dresses that are not shiny and don't suck, and I have *earned* the right to be annoyed by the fact that *nobody* -- save a custom dressmaker I know quite well, as she's making my very expensive custom wedding gown -- is apparently making anything in the neighborhood of tasteful and purple. I swore to my girls that they wouldn't be stuck in hideousness or cheap off-the-rack and I will stand by it, but I'm still annoyed. Fucking wedding industry.

* * * * * *

I had this 33-second discussion with my sweetie about what he plans to wear to the wedding tonight. I'm getting concerned because the boys should probably have their formalwear reserved at this point... at least according to theknot.com... Turns out, however, he has it all worked out. He's in tails and they're in standard tuxedo jackets. Sweetie has a cummerbund, because he just really likes them (and you can tuck your poker hand into them?), everyone else has something not as interesting... vests or something. :-)

I have this vision of us at the wedding: I'm the one in the enormous white dress (how'd you guess???), *however*!!: I have purple shoes! And he's the one with the black tails coat and grey trousers, and comfortable black shoes from that one time that we went shoe shopping. Maybe a top hat or a cane, or both...

answering that which is asked: software (3)

3. And so long as we're full of surprises, you wake up tomorrow to discover that you're all of a sudden a PRO at one piece of software -- practically a master. What is it? How come?

This one is hard. I have never been a programmer at heart, but I have always yearned to know the programmer's life, inside & out, so that I wouldn't have to look everything up when Important Software Questions are asked of me. And I realize that the ISQs are not even really the question that K has asked here -- she asked me which piece of software would I want to know inside and out. My answer, be it ever so geeky and opaque: Lucene.

Lucene is the first (and the best) open source search engine written entirely in java, and is the basis of the system for which I am the product manager. Because it's open source, it has been purposed and re-purposed a thousand times; used to solve problem small (I need search for my dinky T-shirt sales website) and large (I need to provide search over the largest and most popular on-demand CRM system in existence). Lucene has all of the things I know from working in the search biz - everything from customizable search scoring algorithms to multi-lingual plugins to semantic systems integrations (think WordNet... on steroids). But I know only the teeniest, tiniest bit of these things, and have never been forced to develop in the system first hand. If there was one piece of software that I'd love to just wake up one morning knowing, it would be Lucene... Lovely, open source, feature-y Lucene.

boobcash miracle

A question for those equiped with boobs: Do you ever find miraculous cash stashed in your boobs?

I had a large and amazing photoshoot with my a cappella girlz this evening (for which I missed work, but it was all on Very Important Business, etc. etc., Wherein I was part of a photoshoot about women who get together to do various activities outside of their regular work. We had a dedicated hair and makeup staff (who I will attempt to poach for my wedding) and everything.

I'm officially grown-up: my picture will appear in a Time Life Magazine publication (Real Simple :: August 2007 -- order yours today, people!!!!)

But about the boobcash - because I know you're dying to know: I came home that evening and found, as I was stripping for bed, that I had $27 in my bra. This happens to me, from time to time, usually when there was drinking involved. A friend has to leave early and gives me some money to contribute to the bill. I forget to contribute the money when the time comes - it being in my boobs and all. And then I'm taking my clothes off at the end of the evening (heh) and 2 $20s flutter to the floor (or thud, if they are sweat-soaked) as I remove the hardware. Usually I can remember who gave me the boobcash, but sometimes not. Those times are the most fun. Miraculous boobcash: no memory, just mammary...

answering that which is asked: cake strippers (2)

2. Strippers make everyone uncomfortable, especially when they're all jumping out of a cake at you. Instead, you get to have ANYONE in the world jump out of your cake. Who is it?

Pick my own cake popper... interesting. This is going to sound wacky, but I would really enjoy having Mario Batali pop out of a cake for me. I think it would the most entertaining thing I've ever seen. Plus, I really think that Mario Batali would find the whole thing entertaining, and that he would be awesome to have at a party at which there was cake-popping going on. Hopefully he'd stay for dinner.

answering that which is asked: flooring (1)

1. You come home to discover there's a third story on your flat that you didn't know about. What do you do with it/how do you use it?

A whole floor, you say? My apartment goes to a whole new level, as it were? I instantly thought of 3 things:

1) Storage
It's not novel, of course, but OMG do I need more closet space in this apartment. And somewhere to put Christmas decorations & snowboarding gear in the off season. And all the books I have. And extra sheets and bath towels and blankets for when guests come to visit. And the vacuum cleaner. And... You get the idea. My sweetie complains that I require too much closet space for clothes and shoes, even for a girl, but he agrees that storage in our place is ridiculously limited. So I'd put a storage room up on that top floor, with spaces for large storage bins, hanging bars for clothes that need to be stored, shoe racks, the whole nine yards.

2) Workout room
Air conditioned, mounted TV screen, with that thick neoprene flooring. Enough room for yoga or pilates, and an elliptical trainer. This extra level on the building comes with a large discretionary budget, right?

3) Study
I have always wanted to have a study, like you see in Victorian houses, where the walls are lined with built-in bookshelves made of dark wood, and there are velvet drapes, a working fireplace, and large leather chairs for reading. I've got the books and could make the velvet drapes - I just need the space and a good carpenter!

answering that which is asked

K at She Walks obliged my response request by giving me a bunch of questions to answer on my blog, and I am waaaaaaay behind on answering. These are the questions she authored for me:

1. You come home to discover there's a third story on your flat that you didn't know about. What do you do with it/how do you use it?

2. Strippers make everyone uncomfortable, especially when they're all jumping out of a cake at you. Instead, you get to have ANYONE in the world jump out of your cake. Who is it?

3. And so long as we're full of surprises, you wake up tomorrow to discover that you're all of a sudden a PRO at one piece of software -- practically a master. What is it? How come?

4. You have been granted the ability to go back in time and re-live any two hours (but only two hours), knowing what you know now. What two hours do you go back and re-live?

5. They need to never, ever play ____ on the radio EVER again. (Fill in the blank.)

My responses will follow...