I’m sitting in this great trendy tapas bar in Brussels, surfing and drinking Sangria thinking about the past few weeks & months.

This has been a crazy few months. Mayhem up until the Catalyst conference in June – followed by a return for me to my regular bread & butter – identity consulting work with & around the Oracle Identity Stack and the Sun Identity Stack. My Information Card work has been pushed to the back burner, things are only getting done when I’m able to burn the candle at both ends.

Right around the time I left for a vacation in Mexico, the two ends of the candle became dangerously close together. Since then however, I’ve let off some steam in part by imbibing a ridiculous amount of alcohol in quite a few countries, and I have to say — I feel pretty good!

This week was the European Directory Experts Conference, and the wonderful folks at Netpro treated us unbelievably well. I have always loved the supportive and fun-loving group of MVPs and Microsoft folks who come every year to talk, listen, and challenge the attendees; it makes me want to dive deep into all of the great things that they know so much about, but I am already suffering from too many passions; something has to go by the wayside.

I’m not sure what the future holds – but I’m pretty happy with my present.

BTW, I took a pledge in Brussels, much to the amusement of my friends: I vowed to never repeat a Belgian beer while I’m here (after all, there are hundreds of choices, and so little time to sample them). Since you’ve all gone home and you probably think I couldn’t possibly have comported myself in a manner fitting of a strapping Canadian lass, here’s the proof:

Pam’s Belgian Beer List (in no particular order, those of you who were present for the actual drinking portion of the deal, plus I may add more if I get ambitious tonight — if I’ve forgotten any please feel free to speak up):

• Geuze
• Karmaliet Tripple
• Hoegaarden Grand Cru
• Leffe Brun
• Leffe Blonde
• WestMalle Double
• WestMalle Triple
• Orval
• Tongerlo
• Mazout
• Tango
• Magners (ok well this is cider)
• Kir Royale (also not beer)
• Belle-vue Kriek
• Lindeman’s Framboise
• Brugze Zot
• Rochefort 6%
• St. Louis Peches (worst of the lot)
• Grimbergen Double
• Grimbergen Blonde
• Affligem Triple
• Bon Secours Blonde
• Pauwel Kwak
• Maredsous Triple
• Barbar (one of my favorites)
• Delirium Tremens
• Gouden Carolus Classic
• Jupiler  (these last 3 are new additions since the original writing of this entry)
• Rodenbach
• Duvel