Raible Designs

See you in Norway

My flight leaves Denver at 1:00 this afternoon and I arrive in Oslo at 9:45 tomorrow morning. Riding first class on the way to New Jersey should be quite a treat. There's no outlets on the flight (I called and asked Continental), so I won't be able to get much work done. I might as well sit back, watch a movie or two, and have a couple cocktails.

A friend of mine (hey Frenchie) told me the best strategy for overcoming jet lag is to stay up all day until the local time's evening - and go to bed at the same time as everyone else. So I arrive around midnight Denver time, and if I stay up until bed-time Oslo time, it'll be like staying up until noon tomorrow. Should be interesting for sure.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow, as well as blog about my experience getting over there. Stay tuned!

Am I forgetting anything?

I'm wondering if I'm forgetting anything for my trip tomorrow? I picked up a book on Norway and bought a World Travel Adapter Kit so my PowerBook will work. Is there anything I'm forgetting? I'm assuming Norway is a pretty modern country where I can buy anything I need - but you never know. The last time I went on a trip like this was to Russia - where there weren't a whole lot of options for re-purchasing forgotten goods.

Passport Expired

It figures. I'm supposed to leave on Friday for Norway and I waited until today to check the expiration date on my Passport. It expired in January of this year. That gives me 3 days to try to get it renewed before my flight takes off. This site makes it look like it ain't gonna happen, but I'm hopeful. There's a fair amount of walk-in places in Denver that do on-site photos.

Let me know if you have any tips or have been through this process yourself.

Update: Thanks to David Carter's suggestion, I found American Passport and should have a new passport on my doorstep Thursday morning.

Update 2: Passport has arrived!

Sunset from the Sailfish Marina

Happy Birthday Julie!

Happy Birthday Julie! Today we're loving life: Julie got to sleep 'til noon and now everyone is relaxing in the pool. Tonight the party starts at 7:00. Florida is beautiful this time of year.

Short Week

There's nothing like trying to get a bunch of hours in on a short week. I thought I would be able to get in a full week, by working 13-hour days. We leave on Thursday for West Palm Beach (Julie's birthday present) - so I'm trying to avoid the opportunity cost of missing 2 days this week. I managed to get in 13 yesterday by riding to work at 4:30 and starting the day early. Today, my luck hasn't been so good. It's 1:20 p.m. and I still haven't made it into the office. Julie had Jury Duty this morning and she's still downtown getting interviewed. Oh well, the kids and I had fun this morning: a stroller ride to the bagel store, riding the swings at Wash Park and a picnic in the park for lunch. Now they're both sleeping and as frustrated as I am that I'm not getting my hours in - I realize that this is probably as good as a day gets. I might as well have a beer during their naps!

A weekend of fun

After working long hours last week, it was nice to have a weekend of relaxing and playing with the kids. Julie to Vegas on Friday night and returned Saturday night - so I had the kids solo for 24 hours. Saturday morning, I took them to Tiny Town where fun was had by all. Today, we took Jack on his first bike ride. Below are some pics from the events.

The Sleep Factor

I get a fair amount of e-mail from folks asking me how I manage all my extra-curricular activities (i.e. AppFuse, Spring Live, etc.). They're usually looking for a better way to manage their own time, and hoping I have some tips. My answer is usually the same - "I don't sleep much". When I'm super productive , I get about 4 hours of sleep a night, and I can pull that off for around 3 days in a row before I have to crash for 8 hours or more.

It's a brutal way to get things done, but it works quite well. Last night, I took the sleep factor to a whole new level. I didn't sleep at all and I'm back in the office ready for a day of demos and cranking out code. I expect to start hallucinating sometime this afternoon.

Jack is crawling!

Jack's been scootching around for a couple of weeks now. Tonight he decided it was time to start using his knees - and lo and behold - he's now a crawler! Good stuff little man.

Jack in his scootching days

On related note, I showed Julie that today (05.05.05) only happens once in 7000 years - she responded with "yeah, well Jack will only crawl once ever."

Bike to Work Day is June 22nd

Bike to Work Day will be on Wednesday June 22, 2005 this year. Hat tip to Greg for the reminder. Today I'm going to ride my bike to work for the first time in a month. It's 65° F right now, which means it'll probably be 70 or so by the time I leave. Below is a pic I snapped on our anniversary - it'd be nice to have this as a ride to work.