It's Official - Philippe is Darth Vader

Yes, I know - he looks like a little Teddy Bear in this photo, but apparently it was a Darth Vader outfit. As the end of program nears, we had our Go Live Team Building event at a local comedy club - truly amazing the similarities and differences between humor in french and english.

Regardless, at the end of the comedy routine, the comedien did a skit where various audience members played different Star War characters - Philippe "won" the Darth Vader role, and none of us have been the same since. I'm thinking if anyone has a spare Darth Vader mask from Halloween, interoffice mail it to me, and I'll make sure the comedy club gets it for their collection.

Lucia's Wedding: The Shower

The big day(s) is getting closer.

With the Italian wedding just weeks away, they threw a wedding shower for Lucia at Gaby's - and we really don't want to know any of the details. Regardless, my information network has it that Jerry Falwell would not have approved with what they asked Lucia to do to that candle.

We then met up at Rio's, which is now a regular hangout for Theresa, after Patty and I took her there a couple of weeks ago (sorry Jim). Fun time was had by all. And yes, I have already stopped eating, in order to survive the Italian wedding meal in 10 days time.

Luxembourg

Yep, I finally returned to Luxembourg.

For those of you who don't know, I spent my junior year in college at Luxembourg, where Miami still has a small program of 100 students; so I finally got back up there (even though it's less than 3 hours away) this past weekend. Andrea, Tim, Patty, and Joe (who also went to Miami's Luxembourg program a little bit after I did) drove up Saturday night.

Luxembourg: Old School

Always interesting to visit a place that you have not seen in 20 years. In the background is the house that I went to school in. It does look a bit small, and I still wonder how they fit classrooms for 100 students, as well as administrative offices - but size can be misleading. It had converted a garage for a large lecture room, and the full basement held a lot of students.

The neighborhood doesn't seem as active as it once did, but that could just be because there are not 100 students crammed into a small building anymore.

Luxembourg: New School

A few years after I left Luxembourg, Miami decided to move the school to Differdange, which is outside of Luxembourg. The place is a lot nicer. For one thing, it's not a house, it's a castle - literally. Apparently there is enough space on the grounds to have professors live there, and the formal banquet hall is rented out for weddings.

Unfortunately, when we ran by, it was Sunday, and no one was home - and the code that Joe had when he was in school no longer worked. That's probably a good thing, because we didn't have our Miami School IDs anymore, and it would a long story to explain why we were trespassing.

Luxembourg: Best in Fall

I probably have this exact same picture of Luxembourg in my old photos, the only difference is that this time, I didn't have to wait 9 months to develop the roll of film, and that there were no blogs at the time to post it to.

Luxembourg: The Catacombs

Luxembourg is famous for being the "Gibraltar of the North", which is due to its extensive fortifications. Basically, it had more reinforced bunkers and fortresses than the entire Maginot line. Although they signed a treaty in the 19th century to make Luxembourg neutral and dismantle the catacombs, they figured out they really couldn't without basically blowing up the entire city. They basically settled on just blocking the critical junction points in a lot of areas, so some of the catacombs still survive.

The funniest part is that after spending nine months in Luxembourg, I never saw them until this weekend. Joe says he didn't either, and he thinks it was because it was too expensive at the time (2 euros). Amazing that I lived on a student budget like that.

Andrea and Joe run marathon

Congratulations to Andrea and Joe for running and finishing the Amsterdam marathon this past weekend. This was the first marathon for Andrea and something like the fifth one for Joe. They had pretty much been training for it since the day they arrived in Strasbourg, so we were all glad that they did so well.

Unfortunately I had to work early on Monday, but Tim and Patrick were able to go up and watch them.

Jeff and Judy Berty Visit

First, we had a wonderful visit with Jeff and Judy Berty. For those of who don't know how we came to meet them, Patrick first worked with Judy at CIC (pre-Lilly) - and they have been good friends ever since.

After a short couple of days in Strasbourg with them, they were off to Italy thanks to RyanAir, and then they came back at the end of the week for several more days. Of course, we did the wine route and the typical stuff around Strasbourg, but perhaps the most memorable was tracking down Jeff's ancestors.

I'm sure I'll get this wrong, but Jeff's great-great-great grandmother left for the US from a small French town just north of Strasbourg. We drove up there on Sunday, and searched around the local cemetary, where we think we found his relatives. We were also on a search for a 'Red Mill', which had been essentially the family business about 150 years ago. Turns out the Red Mill was torn down about 20 years ago, but we did come across the new owner of the property, who could tell us exactly where it stood.

This picture of Jeff and Judy is not too far from where the Red Mill once stood, and it is a memorial (again, I'm going to throw in too many greats) to Jeff's great great great great aunt and uncle. Pretty crazy.

The story is not finished - still need to chat with the local record keeper of the area, and there is even a book out on all the important mills of the area that we need to track down, which apparently has the Red Mill featured.

Bottom line: most rewarding use of french that I've experienced in the past year.

Joe wins Solution Achievement Award

This was such a disturbing picture I had to post it - but congratulations to Joe for winning a Lilly Solution Acheivement award for his help in implementing GBIP in Indy Bulk (translation: if we don't get one for Fegersheim, we're going to be really pissed. Just working with Faubert, I mean have you met him, I should get two achievement awards for just coming in every day, and I haven't even started on that Level III design . . . but I digress).

The award finally arrived in the mail - I think he gets a raincheck on the breakfast with the CIO. I also had a picture with him shaking Weber's hand, but I thought too many people would misunderstand Jim's hand on Joe's but.

Regardless - congratulations to Joe and everyone on the Indy Bulk implementation team.