Today, Tracy and I hosted Easter Sunday brunch. Carlos Sr., Desiree, Carlos Jr and Landen came over along with another young family that Carlos knows from the military. Gay and Paul also joined us. Tracy out did herself making several quiches that were devoured completely. Typically we have leftovers after big holiday meals, but not today. Apparently real men do eat quiche and a lot of it.

After brunch Tracy handed out the Easter Baskets to all the kids, grandkids and her loving husband (little, old me). Unfortunately, I almost forgot about the Easter tradition of giving baskets; but as much as it pains me to say so, Wal-Mart came to my rescue. I quickly built a basket for Tracy this morning before our guests arrived. The wrapping was a bit scary, but did the job. The Easter baskets aren’t filled with expensive items, typically just candy and a few fun items. It’s truly more about the giving, that what we are giving. It puts a smile on the faces of the children and grandchildren; and make the adults smile too. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Holiday, Grandkids, Photos

On Thursday Carlos and the family surprised Tracy and me by coming home two days early. We were expecting them late Friday or Saturday and apparently they got home Wednesday night. Carlos is home on leave after having back surgery a few weeks ago. He’s doing well, for a man that just recently had back surgery.

This was also the first time that I got to see and hold my newest grandson, Landen Herrera. What a beautiful boy. It was a special night indeed as my newest child and my newest grandson were together for the very first time.

I didn’t take a lot of photos Thursday night, but they are here for three weeks and I will add photos to the album over that time.

Photo Album - Herreras Visit April 2009
4/12/09 - Updated with More Photos

Tags: Herreras, Grandkids, Tracy, Photos

This morning I recieved a tweet from an “internet friend” of mine by the name of Don McAllister. If you don’t know Don and you use a Macintosh you owe it to yourself to check out screencastsonline. He does weekly “screencasts” or videos taking of software in action, and basically lets you take software packages for a ride without even installing the software on your own Mac. Pretty cool!

Anyway, Don has a personal blog as well called My Own Reality. His brother recently purchased his first Mac, a MacBook. Apparently Don’s brother told him that with his switch to Macintosh his days of installing “cracked or dodgy” software was over. Don muses about this and his own feelings and why Mac users seem to feel this way almost universally. I have to admit, I feel the same way, I just don’t do it. Why, most software is priced reasonably, a lot of cool software is free and a great majority of the software is very good.

Check out Don’s blog and don’t forget about his ScreenCastsOnline website.

He’s a good guy, even if he does live across the pond.

Tags: Mac OS

I’ve used computers since I was 11 years old, for those keeping score that means since 1981. My first computer was a TI-99 4/A. A computer that barely had the power of my daughter’s graphing calculator, but it was a personal computer, it didn’t cost but $150 if memory serves. Now, in 1981 computers didn’t have hard drive, my precious TI-99 4/A used cassette tapes. Don’t re-read that last sentence, I did write “cassette tapes.” All personal computers used cassette tapes back then, including the Apple. Big floppies were starting to come to attention, but only just.

In those early days, computers didn’t do very much, the most advanced applications were text based games and checkbook applications, maybe a cookbook. Kids like me were mostly playing computer games (not much has changed) and some of us were even trying our hands at programming. What everyone was learning, no matter what computer was being used, our data was precious and easily lost. If your data is on a cassette, how long before your little brother or sister tried to listen to the cassette or wrap the Christmas Tree with the pretty ribbon in the cassette. What did people do about this alarming situation, beat their little brother or sister over the head and said - DON’T! Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Mac OS, Software

Tracy’s dad and his wife Peggy drove down to Dallas from Michigan last week to spend a long weekend with Tracy in celebration of her birthday. We all had a wonderful time, especially Tracy. She has been long separated from her dad only reconnecting a few years ago, shortly before our wedding. Dick and Peggy’s visit was extremely important to Tracy and a great opportunity for our daughters to get to know yet another set of grandparents. Below you will find a link to my gallery with photos from their visit. The next step is for us to make the long drive up to Michigan and spend some time with them in their hometown near Lake Erie.

Dick, I promised I would get the photos posted quickly this time. True to my word... Here’s the link!

Tags: Birthdays

After a very long process, A VERY LONG PROCESS, Tracy and I have the pleasure to announce that we have a new daughter. At a little before 9:00 am this morning, the State of Texas declared that Kristie Marie was legally our daughter; if not already in spirit. While Kristie is not my first daughter, she is the first child in my life to share my family name.

Tracy and I started talking about adoption even before we married, and officially started the process back in November of 2007 when we attended an informational meeting on adoption in Plano. The following January we started attending classes that were required to become certified as potential adoptive parents. In the meantime we were also working towards meeting Kristie. That wouldn’t happen until Tracy’s birthday last year, March 21st. Our first visit with Kristie was basically the State of Texas’ birthday present to Tracy. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Adoption, Kristie

Tonight Tracy, Kristie and I attended the Wylie Highschool theater production of Laughing Stock. First, let me say we all laughed very hard. It’s a very funny play, and the kids did a wonderful job with the presentation. Per usual I took many photos, over 400 of them. Now I did take a bunch of photos of Courtney, who had a part in this production; but don’t feel bad if you don’t see many of her here. In every picture you will see a little of Courtney because she, along with many others, were responsible for building the set. From what I saw of the set, that was no small undertaking. Bravo kids, Bravo!

Photo Gallery of Laughing Stock

Tags: School, Theater

Weather hit Dallas hard last night, bringing the entire metroplex to a halt. Weather was so bad that many residents didn’t bother to even try and get on the roads. Those that did found travel to be extremely treacherous. Highways were rivers of ice, even after the roads were treated. Most drove carefully, but even the safest of drivers ran into problems. The photo attached could be one of the safe drivers, or one of the reckless; but never-the-less they found their SUV on top of the barrier. How that happened, is just beyond me. It is only one of many weird accidents due to the ice.

Tags: Weather

With a new President we get a new Whitehouse.gov. The last major change was brought by George W. Bush a few months after he took office in 2001. It seems that President Obama is one to not let tasks sit idle. The new Whitehouse.gov was up and running just minutes before he took the oath of office. I’ve run through it quickly and I have to say the design is better than the last version. It offers the same history, but looks to have more RSS feeds and seems to be more media rich than the previous website. I’ve always enjoyed reading through the President’s website. There is lots of history and information about our government. You can’t help but learn a little while you read it.

Check it out, after all it’s the People’s website.

Tags: Politics

Like most Americans watching our the Presidential inauguration every four years is always a challenge since it happens at noon on what is typically a work day. So, what’s a boy to do? Well, find places on the net to watch it or listen to it.

Obviously every TV and radio news service will be covering the event; and many of those with web counterparts will make video and audio streams available too. Below I will provide some links to likely or confirmed sites. Streams could be difficult to get stable, so you may have to “shop” around. Don’t forget international sites; while an American event, it has world wide implications.

Here is a great article from CNet about watching coverage on-line. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Politics, Obama, Video