Raible Designs

Daisy the Cat, R.I.P.

Most of you won't care about this, but I need to write it down so I know the day that Daisy died.

Today was one of the first days we had a to make a real sacrifice as parents. Daisy was a cat that Julie had when I first met her. When Julie got Daisy, she was so small she could fit in the palm of her hand. Daisy was weaned too early from her mother (who was killed by a snake), so she had a personality disorder. Basically, she was mean and hated other cats. Daisy hated all the guys that Julie had ever dated (in college), until she met me. Julie knew it was special when she saw Daisy didn't hate me. Daisy traveled with us from Florida to Colorado when Julie moved here. She lived with us in our one-bedroom apartment, moved with us to our first house, and was a great cat for Abbie's first year.

Even though Daisy was mean, she was also the nicest cat I'd ever met. She'd always cuddle up on my lap when I watched TV or when I was working on the computer. You just had to watch out when you walked - she was an ankle biter. For the last year, she's been a pretty good cat with Abbie - just sitting there when Abbie poked and prodded. However, in the last month, she's started to fight back and has bitten and scratched Abbie quite a few times. My take on it was "good - Abbie should learn not to mess with the cat." Besides, Abbie wasn't crying - so it couldn't hurt too bad. Julie had a different take on it - especially since the folks at day care asked where the scratches came from.

When I got home tonight, Julie was in bed with Abbie at 7:00. "7:00!?" I thought, "that's a bit early." Then Julie told me "today was a very bad day" and she proceeded to tell me that they took Daisy in to the pound. Damn - my favorite cat. Ever. Gone. They got a new one, but it won't be ready until tomorrow. I want Daisy back, she was the bomb.

I've been bitten

I woke up in the middle of the night last night with a pounding headache and a clogged noggin'. I felt like shit, plain and simple. I killed my 4:00 a.m. alarm and slept until 9:00. I IM'ed in sick to work and I've been on the couch all morning. I still have a headache, and have lost all motivation to do anything computer-related. It's actually a nice feeling - I feel free, even with the headache.

Hacked (Again)

This morning, a reader was kind enough to let me know that this website has been hacked.

The web pages at http://raibledesigns.com/tomcat/ with information about Apache, Tomcat and load balancing have been defaced.

I've contacted my sys admin and will hopefully get these files restored in the next few hours. I could do it myself, but I want to 1) see if this is a widespread problem (i.e. not just me) and 2) make sure all my defaced files are replaced. I got hacked a couple of months ago too, and I believe the same files were defaced. If it's another ISP issue, vs. someone logging in as me - it might be time to make the leap.

3° F

It was so cold this morning on the way to work, that when I sprayed the windshield with wiper fluid - it froze to the window and I couldn't see. Luckily, I was able to crank the defrost and only lost visibility for a few seconds. The car's thermometer read 3° F. My laptop's WeatherPop icon currently reads -1° F. Brrrrr...

My Best Christmas Present

My best Christmas present was finding out that Baby Raible #2 is on the way! The only bad part about Julie's 2nd pregnancy is we didn't have to try very hard. Last time it took 6 months, and a great 6 months that was...

We're off to the Cabin for Christmas

We're heading to Montana this afternoon. Thanks God United now flies directly to Missoula from Denver. It used to be a real fiasco - Denver to Salt Lake (1 hour), two hour layover and then another hour to Missoula. Now it's an easy 1 1/2 hour flight.

It's been a long time since I visited the cabin during the Winter (1996) and even longer since I spent Christmas there (more than 10 years ago). I can't fricken wait. We might have to hike in because my parent's Subaru won't be able to make it all the way (they left it at the airport for us). Julie is terrified. I talked to my parents last night and my Dad broke trail in his '65 Ford, so at least they made it all the way up the road. When we were kids, we had a '73 Toyota Landcruiser that would go through almost any amount of snow. We rarely had enough money to get our 3 mile road plowed out, so it was always a gamble on whether we could drive in or not. The road was usually drivable until about mid-December, and then the snow accumulated too much for the poor ol' Landcruiser.

Up until we could no longer drive, my Dad used to wind that thing up like you wouldn't believe. The Landcruiser, as we affectionately called it, would easily get up around 9000 RPM. All four tires would have chains on them and snow would be flying 10 feet high off all four tires. My sister would be sitting in the middle of the front seats, and I'd be sitting on my Mom's lap. The Landcruiser was a soft top, so it was pretty damn cold and the heater sucked, but that used to be the best carnival ride there was. We were all terrified we wouldn't make it and my Dad was determined to get home, even if it killed the Landcruiser. He wasn't gonna let some piddly little 2 feet of snow keep him from driving home.

We all hated the 1 1/2 mile walk to "the Bus Stop," but when the snow got to be too much, we had walk or ski it. This lasted most of the Winter. This was a real pain when we'd just returned from Missoula and we had to pack all the groceries in on backpacks. But there were times when this walk was truly majestic. When there was a full moon and enough snow to ski. It is truly one of the most beautiful sites - snow everywhere and beautiful fields and trees basked in the warm brilliant light of the moon. All you can hear is the swish-swish of your cross-country skis. It is then that all your worries subside and the world become a perfect place - even if only for the 30 minutes you're on the trail.

RE: About having babies

I was going to leave a comment on Chris's site about his About having babies post, but I'm afraid I'll probably ramble on about this, so I might as well put it here.

I am a proud father of Abbie Loo, now 13 months old. I should probably preface this post with the fact that I've always wanted kids since I was one myself. I always had a knack for entertaining them and being their friend. Even in high school and college if there was a kid (under 5) at a party, I ended up playing with them over any adults. So when I met Julie, it was definitely something we discussed in the first few weeks of dating (we knew we would get married w/in two weeks of meeting). We both knew we wanted them, so it was just a matter of time after we got married.

Let's get to Chris's questions and my answers:

Would my spare time be so drastically reduced that I would no longer be able to work on open source?

I think it depends. Before Abbie was born, the earliest I ever got up was 6 a.m. Now I get up at 4 a.m. and sometimes stay up until 6 a.m. When I do this, it's always to code and it's about 50/50 open source vs. paid stuff. So, you'll still be able to work on open source, but you will have to sacrifice sleeping hours. In the first month that Abbie was born, I worked from home and got the Wrox deal - so I really had no concept of night or day. That's what got me on the 4 a.m. kick - and now I've found it works awesome for productivity-addiction.

Julie does yell at me a lot to "get off the computer" and "take care of your daughter!" She definitely does most of the work, and I feel my computer time is justified because I'm improving my skills to bring home more bacon. I'm not allowed to ever say I'm the one who pays for everything though, so I've never explained my justification. I guess I feel like Abbie won't remember this part of her life, so I can get away with it, but I'd better quit working so much in the next couple of years - it's not healthy.

Would we be able to travel?

This depends on you and your wife. Are you willing and ready to travel with a small child? Julie and I take Abbie everywhere and I think she's better behaved because of it. During the first year, Julie took her on an airplane every month and now she's an angel on the plane. If you're willing to put up with a crabby kid every once in a while on a plane, of course you can travel. They're not like dogs. ;-)

Do we really need any more babies?

No, but we do need more smart babies. Wouldn't you rather have your genes around to shape tomorrow rather than someone else's? Kids are the most rewarding thing in the world - some folks are addicted to it, which probably takes the coolness out of it. Two is good, if you have older friends without kids - they're the ones helping the problem. I know LOTS of folks without kids.

But then again there's the whole area of taking care of children with disabilities.

You sound like a chick - do you fear getting in your car because you might get in a car accident? ;-) I think depends a lot on your family history. If you have a history of disabled kids, you might want to think twice. Adopting is an excellent option - I've thought about doing it simply because I feel sorry for kids w/o parents.

Kids rock, no matter what anyone says. I've never laughed or smiled so much in my entire life before Abbie. We certainly don't have the night (drunk) life like we used to, but we certainly feel better about ourselves and the world. The coolest part is how close it brings your family together (husband/wife, parents, siblings).

And then you have Julie's Aunt and Uncle's opinion - party like a rock start until your late 30s, and then have kids. I prefer to party with my kids and I'd like to retire at 50, shortly after they leave. ;-D

What's up with Inbox Buddy?

I think Inbox Buddy is great software. I'm even quoted as saying this on their products page. They have a good licensing system too - at least as far as piracy is concerned. You are required to get the product number from a menu in Outlook, send it to them, and they'll respond with a serial number. The problem is that you can't close Outlook or the product number will reset itself and the serial number will be invalid. I purchased Inbox Buddy about a year ago and it's been an awesome spam fighter. I've re-installed Windows a number of times, and every time I do - I have to get a new serial number. This has been pretty easy in the past. I've just hit up Scott on IM and he's responded with the serial number in mere seconds.

Here lies the problem with their support system. I've tried to contact them numerous times in the last week with no success. So I'm left with a flood of spam and my trusty friend is disabled. Maybe Scott is onto bigger and better things, but he should still support the software I paid for - or at least give me a permanent serial number. Maybe he'll listen to the blogosphere since e-mail/IM doesn't seem to work.

[House Project] Garage has walls!

Our new 2-car alley garage now has walls! They started pouring concrete less than 2 weeks ago and the walls are already up! They said it'd take about 30 days and it looks like they're going to be true to their word.

Picture of the Tree

Russ - you asked for it, so here's a picture of our tree. We went to the local Home Depot last Sunday to get it and promptly decorated it. I even climbed all over the roof and put up some lights - this is pretty big since I never do anything around the house. It took us a whole week to get the house clean enough for me to take a picture. Our Christmas Vacation begins next weekend when we fly off the cabin - yeee haaawww!