Salon Des Geeks

Lady Deathstrike asked how the brunch on Sunday was. I summed it up like this:

omg. Brunch at the Tuscagora Mill (http://www.tuskies.com/) Is not to be missed. Now they could have served broken glass and I would have been happy. Donna, Kiri, Trey, Natarajan, _and_ broken glass? Wow! Sign me up! But, it is totally worth a trip (2 stars). OK, admittedly it is a pricey brunch ($25?) But, um, it is a great value. All the breakfast standards done well. Plus: corn cakes; Salmon on rice; plates of awesome tomatoes; Asparagus with Bechamel; Amazing ciabatta; French toast made form amazing ciabatta; Melon, berries, strawberries; Lemon Fruit tarts; Bread pudding, probably containing amazing ciabatta; Roasted cajun potatoes. Excellent service.

Now, I don’t know what their other food is like. But I am guessing that the 5 course wine dinner for $85 –inclusive– is a terrific deal.

Sadly the food was so good that it interfered with the conversation which was, as usual, wide-ranging.

I decided to edit out my questionable driving and parking choices :)

At the reception I suggested setting up a web site where all the wedding guests could send their photos to be collected in one place. Of course, a certain person told me I should just write the software…

But this site appears to do the trick:

http://www.cellblock.com/

As far as I can tell, you sign up to create an e-mail address in the form “galleryname@cellblock.com”, then anyone can e-mail photos to that address and have them immediately show up on a web gallery (or you can set it up so that content must be approved before it shows up).

Haven’t tried it myself, just thought it might be useful.

I quoted the second line of this poem at brunch on Sunday:

Alexander Pope
On a certain Lady at Court

I KNOW a thing that ’s most uncommon;
(Envy, be silent and attend!)
I know a reasonable woman,
Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

Not warp’d by passion, awed by rumour;
Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly;
An equal mixture of good-humour
And sensible soft melancholy.

‘Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?’
Yes, she has one, I must aver:
When all the world conspires to praise her,
The woman’s deaf, and does not hear.

(Copied from http://www.bartleby.com/101/440.html)

As requested, the blessing for a marriage that was read so beautifully by the incomparable Meridith Carroll at the wedding ceremony on Saturday. Even if I were as eloquent as James Dillet Freeman, there are no words to express the sweetness of having you all with me for our celebration. I miss you all already!

For A Marriage

~ James Dillet Freeman ~

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.

May you always need one another – not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you.

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.
May you want one another, but not out of lack.
May you entice one another, but not compel one another.
May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.
May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces.
May you look for things to praise, often say, “I love you!” and take no notice of small faults.
If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.

May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another’s presence – no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.
May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

Hi all,
I’m particularly fond of this story because this was the first book I read on my own as a kid. (And yes, Xavier has already had it read to him.) Props to judges with good literary tastes!
Kim

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20925030/

So, I bought a bunch of romance books online today.
I know what you’re probably thinking, and let me assure you, they are NOT particularly trashy — instead, they’re erudite and well researched.
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