Here's my new friend Mike and I at the ABAQUS user's conference banquet. We hung out quite a bit also and took pictures of Harvard's campus on one of the days. Mike lives in Houston and does simulation work to assist the design of crazy earth moving machinery. He's part of a photography club and showed me the coolness of using yellow and green filters on his camera, even when taking black & white pictures.

Here's Hytinen and Alex, leading the charge on Boston's historical Freedom Trail. It's a red strip that runs about 3 miles through the city's most historical sites. The things I remember most are stopping for beer, and getting dollar gelato. a dollar! can you believe that? Oh yeah, and old ironsides.

The Charles Hotel in Harvard Square was pretty pimp. The conference was held there, and the hotel bar seemed to be the only bar open in Cambridge after 1AM. (you could tell because college kids would flow in at 1:15 and attack the bar) My room had a remote control in the bathroom... it took me a while to figure out there was actually an LCD TV embedded into the mirror. Pimp!

Oh yeah... I did attend the 2006 ABAQUS user's conference for structural simulation. Here's a picture of one of the Cirque de Simulation (ugh) performers jumping up and down. The food at the conference was great, and they provided 3 free drinks each of the 4 nights. I learned quite a bit about what people in different industries use their software for, from diapers, to pepsi bottles, to soccer balls, and footwear. I met a lively bunch from the UK and ended up exploring Cambridge and Boston with them as well.

After a large meal, (I think Glenn had even stated that chowder had been "a bad choice") here we are, riding the USA's oldest mass transit system... the MBTA. Even though it's kind of run down and old, It's only $1.25 to get just about anywhere and is easy to take to & from the airport.

The boys, wreaking havok on the machinery at the Sam Adams brewery tour. After we finished the tour and drank our 3 half-pints, Hutch singlehandedly lead a takeover of another tour's tasting for more beer. It was a really cool tour, but I've been spoiled by Guiness!

Memorial day came to Boston, and we had a great time exploring the city and the bar scene in the haymarket area. Apparently... we still do drink this much and this picture shows it. Alex's hand is the size of Kansas, and Tony is just plain scary... I don't know what's going on with hytinen, and I'm going to explode without spilling my beer hopefully! we had a great time, and hit a good number of the pubs out there. It was awesome to see everyone one more time before 4th of july camping, especially with everyone flying from everywhere... (san fran, DC, detroit, mineapolis, and north carolina) wow! anyhow.. go USA!