Raible Designs

Monday July 07, 2008

Raible Road Trip #12 Vacation Report I'm happy to report that the kids and I made it home safely last night after a heckuva Road Trip. We were gone for a total of 8 days and we drove for 4 of those. Here's some stats from Snow White:

• 43 Hours
• 2248.3 Miles
• 150.9 Gallons of Gas
• 14.9 AVG MPG
• 52 AVG MPH

Of course, these stats include day-to-day driving while in Montana.

Driving to Montana
We left early on Saturday morning, waking up at 4:30 and were on the road around 5. This was brutal considering I went to bed 4 hours earlier the night before. My Dad and I took turns driving and tried to listen to an audiobook (Spook Country) along the way. However, whenever one person wasn't driving, they fell asleep so the whole idea somewhat failed.

We arrived in Yellowstone around 5PM and checked into our campground. The ranger told me there were 5 grizzlies in the campsite and that we should pack up our food and put small pets in cars for the night. Of course, I couldn't wait to tell this to Abbie, who is always scared that bears will attack us when camping. I finally calmed her fears by telling her I wrestled a bear once when I was a kid and won pretty easily. After setting up camp, Abbie took a swim in the "freezing cold" Yellowstone Lake and we ate dinner and climbed into our tent shortly after.

On Sunday, we woke up and made it out of our campsite by 7:30. We drove to Old Faithful, enjoyed an eruption and proceeded to have a nice breakfast at The Old Faithful Inn. After checking out some more geysers, we made it out of the park around 11. We stopped briefly in Bozeman to see an old friend, hit Clearwater Junction and Lucky's (for huckleberry milkshakes) around 6, and made it to The Cabin just before dark.

At The Cabin
The few days we spent at The Cabin and in the Swan Valley were a lot of fun. I got to drive the family Excavator with both kids on my lap. Jack was operating the bucket while Abbie was operating the swivel of the cab. I took my mountain bike, so I got to ride some old trails I used to ride all the time as a kid. Not only were there beautiful views on the trails, but I also got to experience quite a wreck that sent me head-first into some rocks and bushes. It was the first time I've wrecked in a while where I thought to myself "that was fast and hard enough to break some bones". Luckily, all I received were a number of scratches and bruises.

On Thursday, we took my sister to the train station in Whitefish. We left early enough for my dad and I to get in some golfing at Meadow Lake Golf Course and the kids to hit Big Sky Waterslides. Apparently, they didn't have a height requirement because they were able to go on all the slides.

On the 4th, we finished Abbie's Princess float in the early morning, took a quick sauna and headed down to the Swan Valley Parade. We'd been talking about the parade and Abbie's float for several weeks, so I was kinda nervous that I might mess it up. Not only did everything go great, but there were several hundred folks that clapped when we drove by and commented on what a beautiful princess Abbie was.

After the parade and drinking some good ol' Busch Light from the "Beer Garden", we headed to Holland Lake for a swim and canoeing. We drove back home in time to play a game of horseshoes and get the fireworks setup for the evening. We had a good fireworks show (with yours truly in charge) and enjoyed lots of laughs with old friends.

The Drive Home
As usual, the drive home was the longest portion of the trip. The first day, we left the cabin around 11 and pulled into Billings around 5. The kids (and dog) did pretty good as we only needed to stop once. The shorter first day turned out to be a good idea since the kids like hotels so much. Yesterday, we left Billings around 9:30 and cruised along mightily until we hit the Colorado border. There, traffic came to a standstill and we suffered through stop-and-go the rest of the way home. After 9 hours, we pulled into my driveway, exhausted.

I don't believe we'll be driving next year. The Road Trip to The Cabin is something that should only be done every couple years. Snow White continues to be an awesome car. We towed a sawmill (on a trailer) to The Cabin and didn't even feel the load. With DVD screens in the back of both front-seats, it was an excellent road-trip vehicle for the kids. Also, it's smooth suspension made for an enjoyable experience for everyone (we drove Julie's Honda Odyssey one year and Abbie kept getting sick from the DVD screen bouncing). The more I drive it (esp. skiing, camping and on road trips), the happier I am with the purchase.

For more photos from the trip, please see Raible Road Trip #12 on Flickr. Posted in General at Jul 07 2008, 06:32:43 PM MDT 1 Comment

Wednesday June 04, 2008

2008: The Year of Beer In a few weeks, I'm heading to the American Craft Beer Festival in Boston. In July, I'll be attending the Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland (followed by a night at McMenamins Kennedy School). A friend and I just booked flights for Oktoberfest in Munich. A couple weeks after Oktoberfest, I'll be attending the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Homer would be proud. Posted in General at Jun 04 2008, 02:58:37 PM MDT 12 Comments

Sunday April 13, 2008

The 2007/8 Ski Season comes to an end Yesterday, I woke up early and drove to Winter Park/Mary Jane for an 8" Powder Day. I arrived in the Challenger Lift parking lot at 7:30, took a nap until just after 8, then hopped on one of the first chairs up Mary Jane. Knee-deep powder at the top of Mary Jane Trail, fresh tracks the rest of the way down. Next run was Derailed into Short Haul. Then I hit the chutes off Challenger and called friends to see when they were showing up. It was 9:30 and everyone was still on their way. One friend recommended I head over to Vasquez Cirque and Eagle Wind lift. 3 runs of knee-deep, fresh-track face shots and I was spent. I skied to the bottom of Mary Jane for some lunch and a beer.

As I was entering the bar, everyone showed up and I changed my plans to join them on their first run. 2 more hours of powder on Eagle Wind and it was (finally) time for lunch at 1:30. After lunch, Outhouse, a tree run near Challenger Lift and Bluebell to Corona Way back to Snow White. It was 4:00 and quite possibly the longest ski day of my life.

I was sad to hear that today marks the last day of skiing at Winter Park and Mary Jane. Thankfully, I got to end my ski season on an epic powder day. What a great year: 21 days, including Steamboat, Tahoe and Whistler. Next year, I'm shooting for 30.

Bring on Mountain Bike Season. I plan on riding a few races in the Winter Park Mountain Bike Racing Series as well as the Fat Tire Classic. Posted in General at Apr 13 2008, 11:32:39 AM MDT 4 Comments

Monday March 24, 2008

Audi A6 Quattro A few weeks ago, a friend recommended I join Hertz #1 Club Gold. His reason was simple - you can walk out of the airport, read your name on a board, jump in the car and go. No talking to anyone, just get your rental car and you're on your way. It sounded like a good idea, so I signed up.

Last week, I went online to reserve a car for this week's trip to Mountain View. I chose the cheapest car, and was subsequently prompted to choose an Audi A6 from their "Prestige Collection" for less money. I went for it.

This morning I hopped in the car at SFO and was immediately impressed. It's probably one of the nicest cars I've ever driven. It's not as fast as the Cayenne Turbo I drove for a week in Florida a couple years ago, but it's certainly a slick car. You can even talk to it to get it to change radio stations and such.

It's too bad I only have the car for one more day. I'm heading to TSSJS tomorrow night in Vegas. I wish there was a way to cancel my flight and drive instead. Posted in General at Mar 24 2008, 11:43:23 PM MDT 7 Comments

Monday March 17, 2008

Proposal accepted for OSCON 2008 From an e-mail I received earlier this afternoon:

We are pleased to accept the following proposal for OSCON 2008.

* Web Frameworks of the Future: Flex, GWT, Grails and Rails

It has been scheduled for 16:30 on 23 Jul 2008.

My Abstract:

What if the choices in web framework was reduced to 4? If RIA are the way of the future, it's possible that these 4 frameworks are the best choices for this development paradigm. This session will explore these frameworks, as well as entertain many other's opinions on the future of web development.

RESTful backends are easy to create with both Rails and Grails. Ajax frontends are simple to create and maintain with GWT. Flex gives you flash and a pretty UI. If you're an HTML developer, Rails allows you to quickly develop MVC applications. If you're a Java Developer, GWT + Grails might be a match made in heaven. This session is designed to help you learn more about each framework and decide which combination is best for your project.

I'm really looking forward to learning about GWT and Flex in the coming months. If you have any experience (or opinions) about the abstract above, I'd love to hear it. The louder the better.

For those who haven't been, OSCON is one of those truly special conferences. Possible reasons:

• It's only an hour from my parent's house
• It's a beautiful time of year in Portland
• It's always the same weekend as the Oregon Brewers Festival
• It's a kickass conference with the greatest diversity of Open Source Committers

I'm going for all 4 reasons and even made a reservation to stay at The Kennedy School. Should be a fun show. Posted in Open Source at Mar 17 2008, 07:21:10 PM MDT 8 Comments

Saturday March 15, 2008

Lake Chelan Today I woke up in beautiful Lake Chelan, Washington. It's a 50-mile long lake that's nicknamed "Microsoft's Playground" because all the Microsoftees vacation here. Here's the view from our condo this morning:

My Mom, Dad and I are all in town to celebrate my sister's birthday (on St. Patty's Day).

Today's agenda: Wine Tasting.

Wednesday March 05, 2008

Spectacular Weekend at Whistler This past weekend, some friends and I headed up to Whistler Blackcomb for a weekend of great skiing. We have a college buddy who's getting his PhD in Vancouver, so that's what motivated the trip. I've never skied in a place where the mountains were so huge. I've skied Jackson Hole and Mammoth, but apparently Whistler has a lot more elevation gain. This was proven when we skied the "Peak to Creek" run on the last day. We didn't do the 6.5 mile run because one guy was on a snowboard.

It snowed 8" on our first day and a few more on our last day. There was plenty of powder and lots of really steep runs. I highly recommend it - especially if you want to spend some money. It's not a cheap place to visit and it'll likely get more expensive since it's hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The good news is I got a 50% discount on lift tickets with my Winter Park pass. Whistler Blackcomb is owned by Intrawest - the same folks that own Winter Park and Steamboat.

For more pictures, see Whistler 2008 on Flickr. This weekend's destination? Vail for day #19. Posted in General at Mar 05 2008, 10:19:38 PM MST 3 Comments

Tuesday February 19, 2008

Awesome Weekend in Tahoe This weekend in Tahoe was absolutely incredible. I've never skied in a place so beautiful. Not only were the views spectacular, but the weather was terrific. On Sunday, we skied in t-shirts while the thermometer read 58°F. While I love the powder and Colorado snow, there's nothing like Spring Skiing. If you ever get a chance to visit Lake Tahoe, I highly recommend you jump at the opportunity.

For more pictures, see Lake Tahoe 2008 on Flickr. Posted in General at Feb 19 2008, 11:31:51 AM MST 5 Comments

Thursday February 14, 2008

What are the best runs at Heavenly? As mentioned previously, this weekend some college buddies and I will be heading to Lake Tahoe for a weekend of skiing, gambling and boozing (in no particular order). One guy has a free suite at Harrah's Lake Tahoe. I heard there's a gondola directly from the casino to the slopes of Heavenly. Is that true?

Let's assume it is true and I'll be skiing Heavenly all weekend. For those that've skied there - what are the best runs? I'm looking for bump runs, chutes, steep stuff and cruisers with a view. Thanks in advance for any advice. Posted in General at Feb 14 2008, 11:43:38 AM MST 3 Comments

Saturday January 26, 2008

Traveling to Tahoe, Whistler, Oregon and Vegas Last fall, I got pretty burned out from traveling so much. Not only did I fly out to Mountain View monthly for LinkedIn, I also attended JavaZone, Colorado Software Summit and ApacheCon US (fun was had by all). In addition, I spent a week in New York teaching a class for GE.

Photo from Webshots

I'm really looking forward both ski trips. I've never been to Tahoe or Whistler before. Posted in General at Jan 26 2008, 09:12:46 AM MST 7 Comments