We went out to dinner last night at Taverne du Passage.  It was the first time I actually liked the Mussels - normally I just tolerate them in deference to the tastes of others. 

Jetlag kicked in hard yesterday afternoon, so I made it an early night and turned in when we got back to the Crown Plaza around 11.  It's not the most amazing hotel I have visited, but the pillows are soft and it is in a convenient location.

Last time I was in Brussels, my favorite beer spot was the LopLop Cafe.  I was bummed to walk past yesterday and find out it is closed.  I did take a few pictures as I was playing tourist in my spare afternoon.  They are posted in unedited form on our web site.

Never one to be thwarted on my quest for good beer, I've been looking forward to tonight's visit to the Bier Circus all week.  Assuming we stay awake through the IPR Policy discussion this afternoon, we may try to put a dent in the over 200 belgian beers they have.

I just upgraded to a Tablet PC, and I am trying to make the most of the handwriting features.  Years ago, I had a PalmPilot, and my printing turned to Scribble.  My handwriting has not recovered - really messing up the recognition.

Kitty brought Friday beers for the team.  She is also planning the Halloween party, and found the world's coolest cooking site! http://www.theyrecoming.com/extras/pumpkinfest03/

I may have to learn to bake.  YUM!

Pacific Northwest mountaineers always talk about our volcanos and the possibility of another eruption. Most of the time, Mt. Rainier is the focus.  Over the past few weeks, the most heavily instrumented volcano in the world - St. Helens - started to wake up.

It finally erupted today.  While a bit of steam and ash is not nearly as dramatic as the explosion in the 1980s, it is still really interesting to watch. 

So many of us in Redmond work late into the evening, and there's always just a bit too much to do. Most of the time, I really don't like sitting near the door - it is a bit of a distraction and forces me to keep my door closed more often than my social tendencies would prefer.

Don just left for the evening (early at 7:45 pm) and has made a habit of saying goodnight as he walks out to the parking garage. I know it's not a big deal, but it's nice to take a 2 second break and simply acknowledge how hard everyone is pushing to get the job done.

Maybe it's that bud vase built into his dashboard...

Jennifer has run a few triathlons this summer and really enjoyed them.  I even did one myself and would like to spend more time training for them next summer.  We both lurk on the Seattle Triathlete mailing list.  This morning, Jenn forwarded me a great little post:

So, we were out driving, when my wife pointed out a
cyclist to our almost-three-old son, "Look, there's a
biker."
Jacob's response?  "He must be all done swimming."

Alan just joined the blogsphere.  He always finds the best gadgets.  Take a look when you are building your Christmas list.

Felipe, Don and I have been writing a paper on the entire Web services architecture throughout the summer.  We finally got our first edition complete, and its been published to the Web services spoke on MSDN.   There is still some more work to do, but we are pleased with it as a first release.

I had a conference call this week with Drew.  He told me that it's already snowing at Whistler!  Of course, I had to take a look at the webcam to check it out.  It's time for me to get the skis into the shop for a wax.

We've always talked about Web services being totally transport-independent.  However, binding specifications beyond HTTP have been a bit tough to find.  The SOAP-over-UDP spec is the next step in changing that.