In 2008, we took Cindy and Matt to the weirdest, most stressful tea shop in Brighton, the Tea Cosy, where everything is decorated with pictures of the Royal Family, you’re not allowed to use your mobile phone, and you’re not supposed to speak at a volume louder than the clink of a teaspoon against a cup. And Cindy tried (and failed) to sneakily give me bunny ears at Barcamp Brighton. Also in 2008, Jeremy and Matt dueled with balloon sword’s at Norm’s wedding, and two years later Cindy and I duelled as Iron Cindy and Boba Jess.

In 2007, Jeremy posed for a slightly unsettling picture wearing Cindy’s stunning Amidala headdress. He also went to Web Directions North in Canada, and when he came back, he told me that Cindy and a guy named Matt Harris had been bonding over cough medicine. And the rest is history…

We hung out at SxSW in 2006 (as sultry cowgirls). I remember this SxSW so clearly, not just because it was my first, but because I recall standing in the hallway of the convention center feeling totally lost and overwhelmed, and Cindy took me under wing and made sure I was okay. It was classic Cindy - selfless, warm and funny, always caring for others. I’m forever grateful to her for looking out for me that year.

My wife Cathryn and I saw Cindy and Matt earlier this year, and have some fun photos to share. We poked around downtown and had a nice meal at Burgatory. Our visit was a lot of hanging out and good food.

Swans and birthday: Cindy and I grew up going to the same French pastry shop (DeNoels’) in St. Augustine, Florida, where they made they best cream-filled swans. We’ve often laughed about how we probably saw each other in there as kids but never realized it. In 2005 we finally went to the shop together for the first time - and ordered swans, of course. And when Jeremy and I visited Cindy and Matt in Pittsburgh in 2017, we spent a good two days following a recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook to recreate the swans.

Almost all my other photos from this trip were of Apollo and Mathison with artfully-placed tiny stormtroopers scattered throughout the woods!