Raible Designs

Boys Weekend

Julie and Abbie left on a jet plane this morning to spend the weekend in South Carolina. Abbie's best friend, Annabelle, moved there in May of this year. Julie thought it'd be fun to get them together again, as well as attend a Doodlebops concert. So the girls are off, and it's me and the boy for the weekend. We plan on having a great time.

First off, the new Light Rail opens today and Jack loves trains. So we're going to hit the grand opening in about an hour, and then he's going to join me in "going to work". I don't know how long he'll last in the office, but I'm sure he'll have fun regardless. Tomorrow, there's a DU hockey game, as well as free passes on the Light Rail all day. Should be a fun weekend, especially with all of the good football on tap. Now it's time to head out for some pancakes and eggs, I'm not much of a cook when Mommy's out of town.

Hug your kids

I saw this story in the headlines last week. It's a tragic story that I never expected to hit close to home. Today it did. The little girl, Macie, was one of the four girls in Abbie's ballet class. Julie and Jack used to hang out with Macie's Mom and little brother while Abbie was in class. I can't imagine what the father is going through right now.

Hug your kids. There's no such thing as showing them too much love.

Denver Weather

Denver has two seasons, Summer and Winter. Sometimes summer seems to creep into the winter months. Checkout today's forecast:

Of course, it's supposed to snow on Friday.

Voting Sucks

This morning, I stopped by my local voting center to vote. When I got there, the line seemed awful long (maybe a 30 minute wait), so I left. My goal was to come back around 2:30 in the afternoon, when the line would (hopefully) be a lot shorter. Of course, I got caught up with work and didn't make it back until 5:00.

It figures, now I'm standing in an enormously long line (est. 2-3 hour wait). Oh well, it's a nice night - currently 68°F. I can't help but think that there's quite a few folks who won't vote because the lines are so long. I know I'm awful tempted to abandon ship. ;-)

Update: My total time standing in line turned out to be 2:45. Apparently, the long waits were due to overwhelmed computer systems. Here's a great quote:

The system became so bogged down by 1 p.m. that election officials were forced to shut down the computers and reboot them, Dillard said.

Sounds like they were running Windows, doesn't it? The one cool part of the night was Mayor Hickenlooper came by to thank all the everyone for their patience.

Happy Birthday Abbie!

Today marks the 4th birthday of Julie and I's daughter, Abigail Grace Raible. It's been a great day of reflecting on what Abbie did to our lives and how it's been so much better with kids involved. Granted, it's no picnic, but it's certainly worth it and we wouldn't change a thing. Abbie's birthday party consisted of a number of friends, a plethora of presents, and enough hard cider and beer to make everyone happy. I love my kids. In a perfect world, every day would be like today.

Chelan Hard Cider

My sister, Kalin, flew in last night for Abbie's birthday. With her, she brought a case of her hard cider from Chelan Cider Company. It's was pretty impressive watching her pull all of it out of her luggage. It should be a good weekend for sure.

Kalin's blog can be found at blog.chelancider.com.

It's getting cold around here

This week, I started riding my bike to work again. It figures that it just happens to be one of the coldest weeks in quite some time. This morning, when I was riding home, the thermometer read 27°F on the 7News sign. It's really not too bad once you start riding, but it is tough to get going in the morning. It's one of those things - if you dress for it, you're more than comfortable.

I've ridden my bike to work so much in the last year that I had to buy a new chain and rear cassette yesterday. My chain was so stretched that it was skipping, no matter what gear I was in. Of course, after spending a bunch of money getting everything fixed yesterday - I got a flat tire on my way to work this morning. It was the first flat I've gotten since I started working downtown a year and a half ago. I wasn't too far away though - it only took me a 1/2 hour to finish the commute on foot. I fixed the tire with slime this afternoon, so hopefully it'll be another year and a half before my next flat.

Abbie and Jack - October 2006

Abbie and Jack had their picture taken at school this week. The picture turned out so cute, I couldn't help but post it. It's hard to believe that Abbie was born 4 years ago and Jack is just over two. They sure grow up fast!

There's nothing like finishing up a training class

There's few feelings as great as finishing up a training class. The aches and pains that sneak into one's bones after talking and standing for 4 straight days is amazing. This week, I've been in Milwaukee, training a bunch of folks on Spring and particularly the new features in Spring 2.0. I had a full classroom this week, 18 students, and a number of them where PHP developers moving to Java. I had a tough time convincing them that web development with Java was easier, but hopefully they enjoyed the class anyway.

Now I'm sitting in the Milwaukee Airport, getting ready to fly back to Denver. Once I arrive in Denver, I have 2 hours before my flight leaves for Vegas. Hopefully I can catch a couple naps in flight and recoup before tonight's crazy night in Vegas begins.

As far as airport security, it was easy getting through in Denver, but they stripped me of my toothpaste and hair gel here in Milwaukee. Oh well, I shoulda known.

Headed to the Drunkest City in America

I'm sitting on a Frontier flight getting ready to take off for the Drunkest City in America. Should be an interesting trip for sure. Anyone know of any good pubs around the Hilton Milwaukee?