It has been several years since I went to one of these technology conferences, but it was high time I did it again. And I'm glad I did. My brain is still reeling from all the information I crammed into over the 4-day technology feast. There were so many sessions to choose from, I had to bounce around between them at times. I thought the organizers did a fantastic job with everything, and despite being in the middle of a golf course, and way WAY outside of Washington DC, it was a fantastic setting for the event. I like how they have integrated Flex and Air into the topics too. There was a great selection of various learning tracks, and a nice mix of UI approach (be it flex/air, or javascript/html etc). Favorite topics included: , iPhone + Coldfusion, Coldbox, Flex basics, Automation, Advanced Subversion techniques, and of course Hitler as a Flex developer.

9 members of my immediate family visited me here in Spain in early June 2009, it was like a reunion! It had been years since we had all been under one roof at the same time. We rented a house near Girona. We had such a wonderful time and everything came off without a hitch! Click here for photos. We visited many of the sites in Barcelona twice, also checked out some of the nicer beaches on the Costa Brava. We visited Figueres and France (well, just Carcassonne). I was glad for all of them to have a chance to come over and see me here, and the "european way" of living life. I think everyone involved had a great time!

We cycled 96km last weekend. A little saddle-sore, but otherwise painless. What a fantastic and beautiful ride! We took a 2 hour train to Ripoll saturday morning and cycled 7 hours to Thomas & Julieanne's rural hideaway paradise in Amer to stay the night, then another 2.5 hours to Girona on sunday.

The "Via Verde" is a trail that has taken the place of an old railway line. It's cool because every little town you go through has what used to be a train station, usually converted into a restaurant or cafe. It actually goes all the way to the Costa Brava, but we had to get back home, so we hopped on a train at Girona. We had done Girona to the coast a couple of years ago already.

I recently discovered an amazing filmmaker who has actually been around for quite awhile -- Bela Tarr. Why had I never heard of this guy before? I love it when that happens. The first thing I saw was The Man From London. I was so into it, I went ahead and watched his 7.5-hour-long Satantango. Here is a clip. I was looking around for his DVDs on Amazon, and was pleased to discover a collection of his films were just released in April as a set - The Bela Tarr Collection.