First post of the year!

I did, in fact, have pork today. For "lunch" (actually, it was an "early afternoon" dinner), I enjoyed maple-glazed ham, macaroni and cheese, hopping johns, a salad, and miscellaneous foods, as well as some champagne, with S's family. For supper (a rather late one), we roasted this huge chunk of pork loin we bought that was pre-marinaded. The 3.84lb tastiness took about 2 hours to cook in the oven, but the result was absolute deliciousness: nice and lean, sweet and juicy. *smack lips*

S's uncle and aunt gave me a small gift. It is a small clay pig. The insert in the box reads:

In Germany, when someone is lucky, it is customary to say "Ich habe Schwein gehabt" which means "I have had pig." This tradition dates back to hard times, when if you had a pig to feed your family you were considered fortunate.

I do feel particularly fortunate nowadays, especially for the last year. I finished my undergraduate degree with high honors, was accepted into a pretty respectable graduate school; I learned a lot intellectually and academically, through various courses and workshops I attended; I was able to take my beloved to Taiwan and spend some time with family; my family moved to our new home, which is quite charming; I made new friends and kept in contact with my old ones; and finally, and most importantly, I have now a fiancée that loves me dearly.

I have no new year's resolution. I've long understood that for most people, such resolutions are but a pipe dream that is unlikely to be kept. Furthermore, I think I do enough introspective thinking and self-correction in my everyday life that I do not need to arbitrarily resolve for an abrupt change on a particular day in the Gregorian calendar. My only wishes for the coming future are to enjoy life like I have been doing, and to make the most of my time doing so.

Yesterday, I discovered that I am a better bridge player than Mastermind player: bridge to me is like second instinct, I can play it even after imbibing alcohol; mastermind, on the other hand, requires logical revisions at every step, and alcohol can successfully dampen my memory and judgment for the game. I am tempted to go to the next BeerBowl just to see what my QuizBowl skills are like under the influence...

S sent me some cookie recipes today. I will be putting them up on the (as yet non-existent) "recipes" section on this website. We are thinking of digitizing her mother's box of family recipes for easy search and retrieval.

Learned a new word today: vim. Apparently it not only stands as the name of my text editor of choice (Vi IMproved), but also means "Power; force; energy; spirit; activity; vigor." It comes from the latin vis.

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Backtracking a little bit, I now tell the story of the courtship.

The prelude: It was understood, between S and I, that I purchased a ring late in October. Of course, she was unaware of the cut of the stone or the design of the ring. All she knew was that I had, in my possession, a sapphire ring. It was also understood that, barring serious issues, the propositions will come before the end of last calendar year.

The setup: it was mid-December. There are less than 2 weeks left in the year. I have, still, in my possession, a ring. I was to pay my beloved a visit from December 21st through 24th (at least that was the consensus until the 18th).

On the 18th, it was revealed that I can, in fact, make it to S's by the 20th. Such fact was communicated to her, and it was then made known to me that she will be substituting for a wait (i.e. act as a waiter for dinner) at her old co-ed fraternity house. I started scheming.

On the 19th, I reconfirmed my arrival on the 20th, and told her that we'll go out for dinner on the 23rd, by which I setup for plan C, which, in the worst case, I will propose during dinner at a fancy restaurant. This also set S up to think that I will propose on the 23rd.

On the 20th, I arrived, and brought some flowers, at the same time disarming and remaining suspicions while setting up for some nice dramatic irony.

(We are now at the coed frat house on the evening of the 20th, the meal is served, and S is the waiter)

S: Hi! I am your waiter tonight. The menu for dinner is <insert food names>. Can I get orders for hot drinks?

<insert V and L reprimanding W for trying to choose coffee... apparently it would not have been wise to do so>

<insert W looking around, realizing that there are only a handful of people at dinner, all of whom he knew dearly as friends>

<W gestures for tea, while others also made their choices>

<S goes in to prepare the many orders of hot chocolate; W gets up when she is out of sight, signals V and L to keep quiet, and signal they immediately understood and started giggling quietly. W leaves room.>

<W returns with small black box>

S: < returning with the hot chocolates> What kind of tea would you like?

W: Earl Grey... no, make that Lady Grey.

S: < returning with the Lady Grey tea, setting it in front of W> here ya go.

W: hum, do you know what the blue tag on the Twining's Lady Grey teabag reminds me of <getting up>

<V knowingly gets out of her seat and ran to fetch camera>

W: <gets down on one knee> <insert S's full name here>, would you marry me? <opens the box>

S: <stunned> That works.

< W puts ring on S's finger, V makes it down just in time to capture it on film >

That was my plan A. In the case that there were too many people at dinner that made it inappropriate, plan B was to do it sometime before Friday. It was not easy trying to create an element of surprise.