Raible Designs

[Construction] Basement wall falls off

Our builder and I were in our front yard swapping lies this afternoon - when all of a sudden, the existing basement wall fell off! It didn't look like it was holding the house up at all, so I kinda just shrugged my shoulders and said "oh well." We're planning on moving out this weekend anyway. Bob (the builder) took a quick look and determined the wall (and former wall under it) was not holding the house up, so we both chalked it up to no big deal.

However, after a closer look - he determined it was an important wall and I should get out of the house. So now I'm at DU's Library. I don't think our house will cave in because the wall just fell off. Who knows though - it's kinda freaky walking around in a house that has a chance of collapsing. The 2nd picture below is kinda funny - he was going to prop the house up, but decided it wasn't gonna work. Hopefully, I can go home in a couple of hours and all will be patched up - so I can continue working there for the next couple of days.

Basement wall falls off

Propping it up ;-)

The Riding Season begins....

It's been so nice (75-80s) in Denver this week that I've dusted off my mountain bike and started hittin' the trails. Below are a couple picks from Sunday (South Platte) and yesterday (Red Rocks). It's great to be back in the saddle again...

South Platte Trail

Red Rocks Trail

Carpal Tunnel

When I finished hacking away on Roller this past Saturday, my fingers hurt from typing so much. Who knows why, I didn't add that much code. Must've been all the keystrokes to run Ant, start Tomcat, and test stuff. Yeah, we need more tests - but those won't help tweak CSS. Yesterday, all I did was review Hibernate in Action, so no coding, but a fair amount of typing. By the time I went on a bike ride yesterday afternoon - my left hand's left-most fingers were curled up naturally and my forearm was aching. Carpal Tunnel has set in quite nicely in my left forearm. I can still type, as evidenced by this post - but it definitely hurts and it seems like I could do some serious damage if I keep it up.

Herein lies the problem. I took this week off from my regular gig to concentrate on the Spring book. So I need to be typing like a madman all week - but my body is not cooperating. Rather, it's trying to tell me something - "you're not cut out for this this much coding/typing." So what should I do? I've had these same symptoms before - and when I did, I got a massage and took a couple of days off. That's a bit difficult this week with my livelihood depending on a pain-free left arm/wrist/fingers. I've booked a 10:00 massage - let's hope that gets me through the week. I definitely need a longer-term solution though. It'd be nice to write this book w/o typing, just talking.

Related: Carpal Tunnel in March 2006.

[Construction] Swimming Pool almost done

This last week, Bob the Builder has been digging our new foundation like a madman with his little Bobcat. It's been quite humorous at times - this little machine struggling to crawl the mounds of dirt in our backyard. One time, I saw him take 8 or 9 runs to get to the top and dump the dirt. We have no more lawn (front or back) and there's large mountains of earth everywhere. Here are a couple of shots - we've been telling the neighbors we're "putting in a swimming pool." ;-)

Bob and the Bobcat

The Swimming Pool

2006 Dodge Charger, Dukes and VW Buses

Heard on the radio this morning: Dodge is bringing back the Dodge Charger in 2006. Remember the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard? That's a Charger and here are pictures of the 2006 (or at least the concept car). "The Dukes" was one of my favorite TV shows growing up.

Since I grew up without electricity (hence, no TV), people often ask me if I've seen certain shows. I had friends, I watched TV at their houses. Also, my grandparents (who lived 10 miles down the road) had a TV. Night Rider and Dukes of Hazzard were shows that I went out of my way to see. However, there are shows like Gilligan's Island that I've never seen.

I won't be buying a new Charger, but I do plan on restoring an old VW Bus in the near future. I restored a couple of bugs in high school and college and I really enjoyed it. Right now, I'm looking for a late '50s or early '60s 23-window bus. I plan on dropping in a Porsche 911 or 914 engine, wrapping it with some Porsche wheels, and generally enjoying the whole process. It'll probably take me 2-3 years to complete the project - but I definitely need a new hobby. Being on the computer so much just isn't healthy. Besides, kids can participate in a car restoration. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures like this in a few years.

[Construction] Garage Demolition

Today, the builder started tearing down the garage and pouring the foundation for the master bath. It's pretty cool that all this is happening during my week off!

The Garage demolition begins...	There goes the roof!
Master Bath Foundation begins...	Styrofoam Moldings for the foundation

It's gonna be a good week

It's gonna be a good week. Yesterday, I gave a demo at my client and they loved it. Shortly after that, my sister (Kalin) flew in to town. She's here until Thursday and I'm taking today, tomorrow and Thursday off. Vacations during the week are very nice. We're babysitting Abbie today, so it should be a good day - especially with a stop at Chipotle for lunch.

In other news, construction on our house started yesterday. Here's a photo of part of the new foundation (for the master bath) getting dug. There's already been one casualty - our sewer line. Luckily, Bob the Builder was able to run to Home Depot and fix it for our house full of guests. We also talked to our new (temporary) landlord on Sunday. We got pretty lucky - our neighbors bought a new house and we're going to finish out their lease. So we're going to live next door to our house while it's being built. Pretty cool, huh?

In even bigger news, Julie submitted her resignation at Qwest last week and today is her last day. She got tired of Abbie getting sick at daycare and more so, she was bored out of her mind. Things will be a bit tight - COBRA is just over $1000/month and it's our only option since she's pregnant. Doh! At least we'll only need it until September/October (crosses fingers for a healthy baby).

Pictures from Tucson

Last weekend, we headed to Tucson, Arizona to visit with family. Here are some good pics from the trip - and one of Abbie with her new kitty.

Cool Trainyard	El Charro
Saguaro National Park	Abbie giving Zoe a kiss

New Phone?

I just got an interesting SMS message from AT&T:

AT&T Wireless: Sony 
Ericsson and AT&T
Wireless have sent 
you a new T226
phone to replace
your current T68 -
no strings attached.
Questions? Call
800-500-3821.

Wierd eh? Is there something wrong with the T68i? I'll admit that the T226 looks a bit nicer, but when I get a new phone - I'd like to go all out. In other words, I'll be talking to Russ to get his recommendation.

Time for new business cards

The last time I got Raible Designs' business cards was when I first started the company - way back in 1998. I still have a couple boxes left, but with all the networking opportunities in my future - it's about time I got some new ones. So I'm looking for recommendations of good business card designers/printers. Maybe I should host a contest and give away an iPod to the winner? ;-)

As a sidenote, what do you think about putting the cert icons (i.e. MSCE and SCJP) on business cards? I think it was cool when I first got certified, but now it seems pointless. It just takes up space and would probably take away from a nicely designed card.