Indianapolis

Did you know that Indianapolis has more monuments than any city in the country except for Washington DC? (I know, some people are aware that DC isn't really in the country :)

After the sessions at 350Flex I went for walks in the city and took pictures of some of the monuments and parks.

	This is a shot of one of the many horse drawn carriages
	This fountain is in the park near the War Memorial.
	The War Memorial is a building dedicated to the men and women who served in the world wars.
	A shot of the State Capitol Building
	This is the monument in the heart of town. This monument also appears on the Indiana State Flag.

360Flex in Indianapolis

This year I was able to participate in the 360Flex conference held in Indianapolis. For the uninitiated, Flex is a programming language developed by Adobe to make fancy internet applications. The conference was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the heart of the city. The hotel is also a working train station, and has 13 Pullman cars that have been restored and refurbished and are used as rooms and suites. I was in the Jean Harlowe room, in car 26. There are fiberglass ghost people around the hotel picturing people who would have been in the train station at the turn of the century.

The main sessions of the meetings were held in the Grand Hall of the Union Station. It is an awesome space, with stained glass windows at each end and intricately detailed walls.

Because it is a working train station, there were times in the evenings and mornings when my room would start to vibrate as a train arrived or left. It was a bit disconcerting at first, but added to the ambiance.

I'll post some of the technical Flex stuff at my other blog, AllThingsRIA.blogspot.com Oh, and I actually won a prize - I got an advance copy of the new Flex 3 Professional - only the 2nd time in my life for winning a door prize!

Spring in Billerica

Spring took a long time getting here this year, but once it finally came the flowers and trees started to bloom. I've never seen lilacs like we had this year, and the flowering trees and bushes were spectacular. My daffodils and tulips are in their 4th year, and have spread and multiplied - I'll probably have to separate them in the next year or so.

Our house faces to the south-east, so we get lots of warm sunshine and reflection off the siding, which means that the iris plants at the front of the house are first to bloom. The ones along the fence should bloom within the next week or so.

My Thesis is Finished!

I received final approval on my thesis and got it published and submitted, so now all that's left is graduation on June 4. Here's a shot of the Harvard Red binding. Anyone who wants to read it - just let me know!

The Rains in North Carolina

We flew to Charlotte, NC, to spend the weekend with Chris and Holly and family. Emma's baptism was the main reason for going, but we got to take walks, play at the park and see soccer games too. The azaleas were at their peak and really beautiful this year. It was nice to leave cold New England and travel to a warmer place for a bit and lots of fun to see kids playing soccer and to get to know Eliza and Thomas.

Captain Carrot the Canary

We picked up our canary over the weekend. He's a "red factor" canary, which means that he's more orange than yellow and that we have to feed him red and orange foods to keep his color up. He started singing Sunday, and he sings longer and more interesting tunes as the days go on. He's a bit camera shy, and stops singing when I get too close with the camera, so this video is from across the room. It's not much to look at, but he was warbling some pretty tunes on it.