Raible Designs

A Story about My Mom

My Mom is one of the coolest people I've ever met. She was born in Billings, Montana on January 4, 1950. That makes her a Montana Native. She grew up in the city, but moved to The Cabin in her 20s. Life at the cabin wasn't easy. My parents were pretty darn poor the entire time we lived there. To help reduce the cost of living, we raised a lot of animals. We had chickens for eggs, goats for milk, rabbits to eat and every so often, we'd get a couple of pigs to raise for food.

The pigs presented an interesting problem: bears. Bears love pigs. I can remember a couple of times where bears would sneak in and run off with one of the pigs for dinner. Bears were dangerous and my parents didn't like them - both for fear they'd harm one of us, but more because they'd harm the animals and our food supply. Bears were also good eatin', so if there was one hanging around, my parents didn't hesitate to try and shoot it.

When I was 2 years old, I got a puppy for my birthday. We named him "Woofer". He grew into a big ol' Hound Dog and turned out to be great at treeing bears. He had a very deep bark that would apparently scare them into climbing trees, making them easy targets.

The story I'd like to tell about my Mom happened when I was a kid. I don't know how old I was - but I was young enough that I don't remember the story. My dad was out of town, and a bear had been hanging around. My Mom was not happy and set out one day with the rifle and Woofer. They ended up getting the bear up a tree and my Mom shot him down. Apparently, she was pretty mad at the bear for threatening her children and all. She hauled him back to the "skinning tree", which was next to our house. I can see her now, yelling at the bear, telling him he deserved it and what a cocksucker he was. Foaming at the mouth, she whipped out her hunting knife, grabbed him by the balls, and sliced them right off. Still swearing at him, she grabbed a hammer and nail, and angrily nailed his nuts to a tree. "Serves you right you motherfucker", she probably muttered to herself.

To this day, that nail is still here and a small tuft of hair hangs from it. I apologize for the swearing in this story, but my Mom has always cussed like a sailor.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my Mom for all she's taught me. One of the things I've always admired about her is how happy she is all the time. She's a true optimist and enjoys almost everything she does, from being a "Burn Boss" to running in marathons. She's an incredible lady and I'm very proud to call her my Mom. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Off to Florida

While I've been trouncing around the globe with my Dad, Julie and the kids have been splashing around Julie's mom's pool in Florida. Tonight I'll be joining them via a Frontier red eye. I'm not looking forward to the flight, but it'll be great to see everyone. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I'll be sipping on a cold Corona and sitting by the pool. I like the idea of going on vacation a lot better than attending the JavaOne festivities.

Cheers!

What a Trip - Amsterdam was a blast!

Last week's trip to Europe for ApacheCon EU was nothing short of spectacular. Amsterdam was an incredible city that amazed me with its awesome biking system (and usage!), incredible atmosphere and a nice sense of relaxation. I think the picture below sums up our trip nicely. The weather couldn't have been better - sunny and warm with a cool breeze.

ApacheCon was likely an excellent conference, but I'm proud to say I didn't attend a single session. I did manage to make it to Sun's party on Thursday night (thanks Dave!), but that was about it. At the party, the Wicket guys had a BOF, which my dad and I sat in on. Thanks to Martin, Eelco and others for the good conversation, even if we did have to shout.

After my talk on Friday, we scrambled for the airport. It was pretty hectic after my talk with our departure looming and the fact that I still needed to pack. To top it off, the power went out in the hotel shortly after my talk. After arriving at the airport, I realized I forgot my passport in the room - Doh! (you're right Neil). Luckily, I was able to sweet talk my way onto the plane anyway and we arrived in Stuttgart an hour later.

The weather wasn't nearly as nice in Germany, but we did have a great time. The folks we went to visit have same last name as my family. Roland Raible was driving his VW Bus through Montana in the early 80s, when he noticed the "Raible" name on our mailbox. Curious, he drove up our front road and made it all the way to the cabin. I remember him driving up the road - I was only 9 years old when it happened. He hopped out of his van and yelled to us "My last name is Raible!" We don't know if we're actually related, but Roland and my dad have stayed in touch ever since that initial meeting. My dad visited him for the first time last year, following one of his trips to Africa.

Roland, his wife Helga and their 2 children all live in Wangen, which is a countryish town in Southern Germany. It rained the two days we were there, but we did make it to "Fidelisback", a bakery that's been around for over 500 years. The beer was excellent, as was the food. On Saturday, we traveled to the Zeppelin Museum and some stone-age huts along Lake Constance. Both places were very cool and educational. We enjoyed the audio tour at the Zeppelin Museum just like we did at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

On Sunday, we left Stuttgart around 11 and arrived in Amsterdam at noon. Bruce hooked me up and left my passport in a locker. It was surprisingly easy to travel between The Netherlands and Germany with nothing but a driver's license. We arrived at my house in Denver at 11:00 on Sunday night.

If you ever get a chance to visit Amsterdam for Queen's Day - I highly recommend it. I know we'll be back.

For some photos of our trip, see my Europe 2007 Set on Flickr. Also, checkout Dave's Amsterdam vacation wrap-up for some good photos of Queen's Day.

Having fun in Amsterdam

My dad, Bruce and I arrived on Sunday morning in Amsterdam at the early hour of 8 a.m. I drugged myself with some Melatonin, so I didn't work as nearly as long as I would've liked. They did have an electrical plug (that required and worked with my MacBook adapter) so I was able to pull out the 15" and work for 5 hours. The flight was 9 hours and I managed to never step out of my seat (good ol' bladder of steel developed at The Cabin). Bruce said he slept 30 minutes at the end of the flight; my dad managed to get 7 hours.

The weather has been beautiful and we've been enjoying the sunshine and good beer. Queen's Day was crazy and quite a sight to see. The amount of boats in the canals and people in the streets was amazing. The only downside so far is neither my dad nor I brought our camera cords. If you're at ApacheCon EU and reading this, we could use a USB or Sony camera connector. I'll try to post some pics if I can borrow a cord.

The Flight to Amsterdam

Tomorrow morning, my dad, Bruce and I will be getting on a Continental flight headed for Amsterdam. We stop in Houston for a couple hours, then it's a 10-hour flight from there. Bruce found a diagram of our plane and it appears to have power outlets. Inspired by this news, I went out and bought an adapter for my MacBook Pro.

Now the question is - where there be enough room for my 17" laptop?

The last flight I was on (to Boston a few weeks ago), there was no room for a laptop. When the guy leaned back in front of me, I ended up with barely enough room to scratch my nose. A 15" laptop wouldn't have solved that problem. Has anyone out there flown internationally in a Boeing 767? We're in economy, so it might be tight, but I would like to get some work done on the flight. I'm willing to take both my MacBooks, but it would suck if I couldn't use either one. On the other hand, it'd be nice if I knew my 17" would work fine and I only had to take one. Thanks for any advice.

Update: The adventure/drama has already begun! My dad forgot his passport in Oregon and we've been on the phone with Fedex and UPS trying to get it here before our flight takes off at 11:20. Fedex was $384 for a "it should get there" delivery. UPS gave us a "guaranteed delivery" for $75 and told us it would get here by 9. Once they gave us the tracking number, they switched it to 10. Those bastards! Oh well, at least I'm on the flight - who knows about my dad.

Saturday @ 7 AM: UPS Tracking shows his passport is in Ontario, Canada (an arrival scan, no departure shown). WTF - the two hour flight from Portland to Denver wasn't short enough?!

Saturday @ 9 AM: Julie has the passport in her hands and is driving out to the airport to give it to my dad. He came with me an hour ago to check in and explain his situation. Looks like he's going to make it!

Chelan Cider to be carried by Hale's Ales

My sister (Kalin) posted some good news last week.

I met with Mike Hale yesterday of Hale's Ales and he is interested in carrying our cider!!

If you haven?t been to Hale's Ales in Seattle, please check them out on the web @ www.halesales.com

If you happen to live in Seattle and like hard cider, you may be able to pick up a bottle of Kalin's "hooch" at Hales in the near future. Congrats sis!

Happy Anniversary Julie!

Julie and I got married seven years ago today. For our wedding, we invited all our friends fly down to West Palm Beach and party it up for a week. Most folks flew down on Wednesday, some showed up Thursday, and all enjoyed the festivities on Saturday. If you happened to be at the wedding, you might want to reminisce with some old pictures. If nothing else, looking at the pictures will show you how much digital picture quality has improved in 7 years.

To celebrate, we went out to a fancy dinner downtown last night. After dinner, we barely slipped into Comedy Works for John Heffron. The show was sold out, but some folks didn't show up so we ended up getting front row seats! We hadn't even heard of John Heffron, but it turned out to be a really funny show.

Thanks Julie for such a fun married life!

New Swing Set

Below is what Julie built while I watched Caddy Shack last night (I know, I'm a slacker). Abbie and Jack couldn't be happier right now.

Update on Sunday: Checkout the finished product - it has a climbing wall, slide and fort too boot!

Pizza!

From Stephen O'Grady:

YouTube - MLB - A Fan throwing a pizza at another Fan
this was the game i was at, sorry i missed this; the best part comes when Remy and Orsillo start cracking up

We need to plugin in less, not more

From David Van Couvering's Blog:

I just returned from a week in Mexico, a wonderful time with my family where we lived very simply - food, rest, physical fun. No TV, no movies, no cell phones, no computers. Bright sunshine, beautiful beaches, very friendly people wherever we went.

Then I came home to San Francisco and straight to the Web 2.0 Expo. The contrast has been a bit disorienting. I don't think it's a surprise that my one year old son learned to say "Hi" in Mexico - people actually greeted him there and interacted with him. Here in the conference, on the BART train, on the street, we are all in our own world. We are on our laptops, our phones, our iPods.

The keynote talks at the Expo underscored again and again an undeniable trend: there is an ever growing explosion of the use of consumer devices and connecting to the Internet. The vast scales of data and connections we are looking at are almost impossible to imagine. The whole world is "getting connected." And those of us at the Expo are generally very excited, and see lots of opportunities to make money and and to build things that lots and lots of people will use.

But I feel a sadness when I find myself in this environment. I feel like I am losing something. I watch myself "plug in," and I feel like I am actually losing connection. I crave the open sky, the deep stillness and power of the ocean, of the smiles of people who said "Hi" to my son.

David makes some excellent points in this post. I often find that I get tied up in the virtual world of blogs and technology and forget that the real world is the one that really matters. If my computer died tomorrow and I gave it all up to help Julie remodel houses, I don't think I would lose a whole lot. In fact, I think I would be more in touch with reality and would likely strengthen friendships, rather than confuse people when I talk to them about what I do.

A commentor on David's blog says:

I am glad you discovered, or rediscovered, the beauty of simple things. It happens to many people almost every year, after vacations.

This is why I try to take at least 2 months of vacation each year. I've been doing it for around 5 years and I don't plan on changing that anytime soon. Sure, I have lots of opportunities to work my ass off, make a bunch of money and store it away for later. But that's no way to live - I want to enjoy life now and every day going forward. Sure, I'm saving money for my retirement, but I don't see the point in working like mad in hopes it'll payoff someday. Some folks say "do it while your kids are young." I think that's bullshit - there's no excuse for being a bad parent at any time in their lives.