for some reason i have to explicitly require yaml

config/init.rb

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ Gem.clear_paths
 Gem.path.unshift(Merb.root / "gems")
 $LOAD_PATH.unshift(Merb.root / "lib")
 
+require 'yaml'
 dependencies 'haml', 'merb_helpers', 'merb_has_flash', 'merb-mailer'
 require 'digest/sha1'
 require 'sass'
@@ -12,13 +13,19 @@ require 'memcache'
 require 'memcache_util'
 require 'gchart'
 
+use_orm :activerecord
+use_test :rspec
+use_template_engine :haml
+Merb::Config.use do |c|
+  c[:session_secret_key]  = 'ccf75249b0efbdb3edff96d0a1b16b19cf91f31e'
+  c[:session_store] = :activerecord
+  c[:sass] ||= {}
+  c[:sass][:style] = :compact
+end
+
 Merb::BootLoader.after_app_loads do
   config_path = File.join(Merb.root, 'config', 'memcache.yml')
-  if File.file?(config_path) and File.readable?(config_path)
-    memcache_connection_str = YAML.load(File.read(config_path))
-  else
-    memcache_connection_str = 'localhost:11211'
-  end
+  memcache_connection_str = YAML::load_file(config_path) rescue 'localhost:11211'
   CACHE = MemCache.new memcache_connection_str
   
   Merb::Mailer.config = { :sendmail_path => '/usr/sbin/sendmail' }
@@ -33,14 +40,3 @@ Merb::BootLoader.after_app_loads do
     raise "ReCaptcha configuration file not found!"
   end
 end
-
-use_orm :activerecord
-use_test :rspec
-use_template_engine :haml
-Merb::Config.use do |c|
-  c[:session_secret_key]  = 'ccf75249b0efbdb3edff96d0a1b16b19cf91f31e'
-  c[:session_store] = :activerecord
-  c[:sass] ||= {}
-  c[:sass][:style] = :compact
-end
-