And in 2014, we got to meet Apollo! I remember Cindy surprising me with the news that she was having a baby. We were in Boston for a conference, and on the first day she was oddly insistent that I come down to the hotel lobby and say hi to her before going to breakfast. So I went down, and when I stepped out of the elevator, there she was, visibly pregnant and looking so happy.

Cindy has a way of getting us to achieve culinary feats we didn’t think possible! Last year we recreated the pastry swans we remembered from DeNoel’s pastry shop in St. Augustine. It was a multi-day process and worth every minute!

Also in 2011, Cindy and Matt were in Brighton for dConstruct, and Cindy and I made use of the photobooth, where we were supposed to make happy, sad, angry and scared faces. This photo never fails make me laugh.

The following year, we got to go to the French Laundry with Cindy and Matt and my brother and sister-in-law. Cindy drove us all out to Napa, where we visited a winery before heading to the restaurant. It was an epic, glorious, unforgettable meal, and it included a huge truffle in a fancy box that we all got to admire before it was sprinkled all over our food. We’ve had a lot of amazing meals with Cindy and Matt, but I don’t think any of them could top the French Laundry.

When Jeremy officiated Wed 2.0 in 2010, he was more nervous than I’d ever seen him. He used CSS to make a little fold-up booklet of everything he was supposed to say during the ceremony. He only went off-script once: “If any of you know any reason why these two should not be wed - you’re too late!” And Cindy dropped the ring, which plinky-plonked across the floor and cracked everyone up even more.

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.

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.