For the last several years, Formlabs has presented Digital Factory, a conference for business leaders interested in the future of manufacturing. It was held in the Seaport District at the Raymond L. Flynn Black Falcon Cruise Terminal. Jeff Immelt (on the right below), former CEO and Chairman of General Electric, current Executive Chairman of AthenaHealth, and a member of Formlabs Board of Directors led the conference which included presentations by a veritable Who’s Who of executives in the field of advanced manufacturing. I attended for the entire day listening to various presentations and it was a nice departure from my daily routine at the office.

I arrived home just a few minutes late to get a picture of our house in golden light. Over the coming days I hope to get a nice “spring in bloom” photo of the house to use in our marketing materials when we list the house for sale later this year or early next.

About 80% of the area covered by water in the picture above is normally dry land. Extensive rains over the past several weeks have swollen all of our local rivers. The river is normally about three times the width of the small archway of the bridge.

In soccer action this morning my team beat Hopkinton by a margin of 6:1. My injured hamstring had sufficiently recovered to allow me to play at 90% intensity. Unfortunately I missed a shot I should have made which in the tradition of our team will cost me beer duty for a future game. The win moved us into first place in our leagues standings with roughly half the season completed. We have scored 21 goals in the last five games and given up only one.

For the first time ever, Nicolai competed in a rock climbing competition today placing first in the Adaptive Adult Male classification. He got a perfect score on each of his three climbs. He is pictured above on his second climb which looked to be the most challenging for him. Kyle and I were there to support him and we had a chance to talk a little more about the McGraw-Hill / Cengage merger of equals which was announced earlier this week. It certainly sounds like this integration, which will be led by Cengage’s current CEO, will bode well for Kyle. It makes me very proud that he would spend part of his weekend after an exhausting work week to show up for his brother.

Yesterday members of my team and I presented at the annual Formlabs Partners Forum. Resellers of our products from around the world came to downtown Boston to learn more about our new products and to meet with us. Our guys did a fantastic job and I was proud to share the stage with them. Later we gave tours to the normally off-limit areas of our engineering labs.

Spring has definitely arrived in New England. Our briefest and perhaps most intense season, everywhere you look flowers and trees are blooming. Frequent rain has made for an unusually lush landscape this year.

This evening I invited one of the program teams at Formlabs to an indoor electric go cart racing event to celebrate the one year anniversary since shipping our first industrial 3D printing system, the Form Cell. This team has consistently installed systems on schedule and provided exceptional customer service. I have done carting events in the past but never in an electric cart. Mirroring my experience with my own car, once you go electric you can never go back. Everyone enjoyed the celebration event immensely and I sat out the final race to capture my teammates in action.

Several weeks ago I ordered a newly announced 135mm f/1.8 lens for my Sony camera system. I had to wait around this morning for the signature required delivery. UPS now allows you to track the GPS location of your package and I met the driver at my door as he was getting ready to ring the doorbell. Conditions were not great for outdoor photography and the 135mm focal length is really something I like most for portraits but I was happy to photograph this swan to break in my new optic.

This bridge over the Sudbury River is constructed entirely of wood. As beautiful as it is to look at, especially when water levels are high, it is even more interesting to listen to. When cars cross it the entire structure shakes and the sound of tires rolling over the deck timbers elicits a rhythmically mesmerizing salute to times gone by. The tune changes constantly with the number, size, speed and direction of vehicles crossing this conduit between Lincoln and Sudbury.

While at a pledge dinner for our church several weeks ago, I entered my name in a drawing for two tickets to see the Red Sox play Tampa Bay. My name was drawn from the hat and this afternoon Jeanine and I took in the game. Regrettably, the Sox did not see fit to win for the benefit of our enjoyment, dropping the game 2 to 5. Still we thoroughly enjoyed attending and were very happy with our seats in the grandstand that sheltered us from the slight drizzle that began about half way through. Below Mookie Betts thinks about stealing home until the inning came to an end with him stranded on third.

The first Audi e-tron shipments have just started to arrive in the US. I test drove one today to confirm I want to keep my reservation and am leaning in that direction. My car is currently in production and should be delivered within a couple of months barring unforeseen delays. My order is for a Galaxy Blue version with turbine style wheels (as pictured below

Next week is Olin’s final for the spring semester. Maya has requested a care package to help her through the final days of her sophomore year. The package will be delivered by “carrier brother” in lieu of a carrier pigeon. My contribution will take the form of pictures I took of otters, Maya’s favorite animal. I hope these will bring her joy and help her to relax as she powers through the rest of the term.

Weeping willows are possibly my favorite tree, at the very least, a close second to the Japanese Lace Leaf Maple.  At this time of year, in my estimation, they are at their peak of beauty.  I would like to find an isolated tree with a more photogenic background and will update this photo if I am successful.

Frequent rain over the past few days have caused the Sudbury River to expand well beyond its banks.  This is most apparent from the air.  Normally, the river is rarely wider than 30 feet.  Now it has turned massive swatches of land into marshes.