Today the whole family made a fun filled adventure up to Home Depot here in Wylie. It was some amazing and wild fun. Okay, I may be getting a bit sarcastic, just a bit.

After the ladies all returned from a morning of pedicures and maincures they asked me if I wanted to go with them to Home Depot. The girls wanted to start the process of picking out paint colors for their repsective rooms. I eagerly said yes and bounced out the door with them. (Okay, so that too might be a “bit” of exageration.) Anyway, the four of us headed off to the land of lumber, lights and lawn mowers.

I’m happy to recount that while the girls did find the paint they liked, and the ceiling fans, and the light fixtures and the carpeting; we did leave emptied handed. While we did leave with no items in our bags, we did leave learning one thing about Kristie; she isn’t as shy as one might think.

While we were sitting enjoying what I suspect may be our future out door furniture, it was added to the mental lists, Kristie began saying hello to just about every person walking by. She was quite openly friendly. Courtney couldn’t dig herself deeper into her chair, not that she too isn’t one of the more friendly people on the planet.

It was actually all great fun and was followed up with a trip to Target and then to Best Buy; an afternoon filled of browsing and apparently a bit of shopping. Not sure what they all got, apparently it was top secret. Hmmmmm.....

Tags: Tracy, Courtney, Kristie

On Friday morning Tracy and I began our day in the usual way, great reluctance to actually get out of bed. Typically Tracy is the first one up during the week. She gets up, lets out the dogs and makes her first cup of "joe." On Friday though, she slowly retuned to our room with head hung low and tears nearly in her eyes speaking softly, "it's dead." I didn't understand what she was trying to tell me. "I think the coffee maker is broken," she said to me with sullen eyes. I then understood the situation, and if you know Tracy well at all you know how serious a situation this could be for her. Coffee is Tracy's life force in the morning; without it, she moves more slowly.

I immediately went into the kitchen and entered, "Husband Fix-It" mode, where I immediately repeat every step I'm sure my wife has taken, but I'm taking again just to say I did. I'm lifting the levers, pressing buttons, unplugging it and even turning it nearly upside down. Why? Well, because that's what a husband does in a critical situation like the one I found myself. I quickly came to the same conclusion Tracy came to, during the night our coffee maker passed. The heating lamp comes on, but nobody is home. Our fancy-smancy coffee maker, a wedding gift from friends had moved on to a better place; leaving me with a wife that wanted coffee and none was to be had. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Tracy, Shopping

If you see me taking pictures, you might notice a big white thingy (highly technical term) on top of my camera. You might think it is some jimmy rigged contraption to keep my flash from falling off. In fact it is designed to help improve flash photography by diffusing and shaping the light of a high powered flash, like my Canon 430EX.

I received it a few weeks as a birthday gift from Tracy and I love it! Now, that being said i am still figuring out how this "thingy" works and how to get the very best results. I'm getting better and have learned a few things so far, like setting the camera on 100% manual and slowing the shutter speed down to 1/30", which is incredibly slow and works incredibly well.

You can see a sample photo I took a few blog posts below, a photo of my dad. It's not perfect, but better than i could get without the Whale Tail. Gary Fong, inventor of the Whale Tail, has created a very cool accessory for any high powered flash. Being universal, it will work across the Canon, Nikon and other camera company's flashes. Considering the cost of a flash, the price of the Whale Tail is pretty reasonable. That's not to say cheap, but it is also something that a photography can use for years.

Tags: Photography, Tracy

For many years now Tracy's second child Anotonio Herrera, known as Tony, has been missing, taken by his father when he was still only a small child. Tracy has seen him a few times since, but only for short periods of time. Where Tony is today we don't know. Tracy is working on several web pages dedicated to Tony. When complete I will post that link on my website; until then I am posting photos to Flickr that I scanned for her website. Maybe, just maybe, if Tony scans the net he will run across these photos or Tracy's website.

Link to Photos

UPDATE 9/3/07: Tracy has completed her website dedicated to Tony. Take a look at it.

Tags: Tracy, Children

Tracy has created a couple of web galleries using .Mac and iLife '08. I have to admit, they are pretty amazing tools. The look of the galleries is simply fantastic.

They may not as be as functional as Flickr, nor have the same amount of inexpensive storage; but Apple graphical and design prowess are undeniable. When viewing photos you have several different views: Grid, Mosaic, Carousel and the ubiquitous slideshow. In "Grid" and "Mosaic" you can reize all the photos on the fly, with Grid being the default mode and Mosaic probably being the mode folks will enjoy the most for finding the photos they want to see. Then there are the two modes best for just watching photos, "Carousel" and "Slideshow."

Slideshow works exactly as you might expect, with play and pause. The look is fantastic. Then in Carousel you view the photos from left to right with the photos zooming into view; as if you were scanning through them on your desk. It's a view you have seen in photo programs, but not much on the web.

The entire album gives you a great deal of ability to customize your view, more so than Flickr or any other photo website. So check out Tracy's photos and enjoy the exceptional "Apple Experience."

Links to her web galleries are below:
Photography - Architecture
Photography - Nature
Photography - People

Tags: Photos, Tracy

Tracy has created a website just for Carlos Jr. It's dedicated to his first year, and his very first birthday. I might also mention that this is really Tracy's first website. Visit "About Being Born." The site has a video that I created recently in honor of his first birthday, plus many, many photos.

Let Tracy know what you think of her creation by dropping line. Click here to e-mail Tracy. I'm sure we will be seeing many more web pages in the near future!

Tags: Carlos Jr., Tracy

Today is the day. The day that my current house stops being "my" house and becomes someone else's house. Yes it is only a structure of wood and bricks, but it was the first house I ever bought. A house I bought on my own. I worked with the builder, made all the selections and signed all the paperwork. It was a great deal of fun, and not much stress. Of course back then I wasn't trying to sell a house to move into a house.

So, today at 10:00 this morning I will again be signing documents; only this time I will be saying good-bye to my home since January of 2003. It's hard to imagine how much has changed in my life since then. When I moved in, I was single and working for Fujitsu. By the time my first payment was due I was unemployed and looking for a new job, hoping I wouldn't lose the home I had just moved into. Here I am 4 1/2 years later, I'm married, have a step-daughter living with us, in my second job since buying the house; in short my life is radically different. Moving into a different house does seem to be the ulitmate end to all of the change I've experienced.

The change has been good to me though. I love my life. I will miss this house, but I've met the new couple moving in and I believe they will be good to her. It doesn't mean I won't shed a tear or two, and well, it's my house and I can cry if I want to. They will be more tears of joy and sweet memories, than anything else. Joy for the years I've spent here, single and married. Joy for the years yet to come, shared in a newer, larger home. A home that Tracy and I chose together. So tears I may shed, but a smile will still be on my face.

Tags: New House, Tracy

After much debate and discussion, Tracy and I have begun the process of looking for a new place to live. No, we aren't getting evicted and we aren't looking for something smaller; we are in fact looking for something some what bigger, like say 2500 square feet. Our current house, which we do love, is just squeezing us a little bit. Tracy enjoys to entertain, not always fancy, but guests over. This house makes it possible, but not always comfortable.

The process has only just begun, we haven't even chosen a realtor, much less listed the house. Mainly we have been looking around at what Wylie has to offer in the square footage we are interested in seeing. We started on the high end to see what we like, even that which we knew was out of our price range, and worked our way down to homes we could pretty easily afford. This way we got a good idea of what the market is currently offering, which in turn is giving me an idea of what my house might be worth. We have finally settled on a price range and an upper limit; I've even gotten pre-approval for a loan to insure that we can move forward if we desire to do so. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: New House, Tracy

The other day I posted that finally CoffeeTalk, Tracy's personal blog, had returned. Tracy has started making some entries, so you should check it out. In her latest entries she talks about the dinner party that Courtney had last weekend as well as her return to the world of blogging. I have no doubt that these are just the first of many entries to come.

Welcome back Tracy!



I've made it real easy to get there. Just look to the right and you will see CoffeeTalk in the main menu; or just click on the image above!

Tags: KellysWorld, Tracy

If you have been reading this site for a long time, you might remember that Tracy had her own blog for a while. When I made the move to my Mac I switched to a client side based web authoring program and lost the ability to easily control where her blog (or journal) appeared. Recently an add-on to RapidWeaver was released into Beta and this add-on gives me the ability to sync her Blogger Blog to my website. What does this mean? Well it means she can independatly update her blog using Blogger and then just tell me she has done so and i can quickly sync it over to my main site. Her Blog is now tied into KellysWorld keeping the same look and feel as the rest of the site.

You can check it out now by clicking on CoffeeTalk to the right of this entry in the main menu, or simply go to her page directly at http://www.kellysworld.net/coffeetalk.

Tags: KellysWorld, Tracy

I'm a lucky man. Yes, there is just quite no other way to say it. Yes, being a bachelor has it's advantages, but by my score keeping a wife and family has far more advantages. Tracy is asks from time to time if I miss my days as a confirmed bachelor, and I tell her every time that I don't. I'm not sure she believes me each and every time; never-the-less it is true. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Wedding, Children, Tracy

This father's day was one big trip for me, not in the we are going to Seattle kind of trip, but more like the "acid" variety. I'm not even married yet and I am not just a step-dad, but a grandfather and my dad and mom are both grandparents and great grandparents. When you think about it just a little ways, you come to the unmistakable conclusion that my future as a great grandparent myself is all but certain in well less than three decades. My friends will all be learning to be grandparents while I am learning how to be a great grandparent.... it boggles the mind. Stars help me, if little Carlos tries to drag me into great grandparent mode in 20 years or less. I really can't imagine being a great grandparent at 55. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Photos, Holidays, Tracy, Carlos Jr., Dad

Dad came down for father's day this year along with Nancy. We hadn't seen them in a while and we had a great weekend. Too much of it was taken up with buying the new cars, but Dad got to take part in that process and I think he enjoyed himself. He really liked the BMW 5 Series. His kind of car. Although I'm with him... IT'S PRICY. We didn't do anything in Dallas too special, but we did have a great father's day celebration and he had an opportunity to meet Carlos and Javier, plus his soon to be great grand-son. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Dad, Theater, Cigars, Tracy, Mom, Courtney

After experiencing a fair amount of car trouble between the two of us, mine with a 2001 Olds Alero and Tracy with a 2000 BMW 328i, we decided it was time for a headache free change. Both of us have had too many problems to count and we were looking at over $5000 to get her BMW operating properly and mine had major repairs pending as well as every bit of maintenance you can think of doing. With over 74,000 miles on my Alero, he was getting a little long in the tooth. Tracy's had more than 65,000 miles on it. For us the only question became, do we spend a great deal of money on repairs, or look to replacing them. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Cars, Tracy, Mobile Phones

I thought I had all the photos in the media room. I have about 100 or so on my desk and a few hundred more in a box under it. Well, apparently there are more... much more. Tracy was in one of our closets and noticed another box. She pulled it out only to discover that it is filled with photos. I'm not sure how many, but I am guessing upwards of 1000. I haven't even begun to sort through those yet. I have looked at every photo in the first bunch and have an idea of which I will scan, but with this whole new box the big job just go that much bigger.
I also learned that mom has several boxes of Fox family photos with her that I will get to sort through when Tracy and I get up there sometime next year. From what she says, she has many more photos than I thought she did; some going back to my great grandparents. While I love the idea of more photos... that's just a lot of scanning.

Tags: Photos, Tracy

That depends on, of course, who you speak to. DFW had its first run in with winter yesterday. A cold front from the North ran into a bit of precipitation from the South and by night fall the roads were icing over. In some parts of DFW, especially in the Fort Worth area the sleet started falling with the rising of the sun, which created a bit of panic across the entire metroplex.

I can't think of anything that illustrates that better than the mere fact the DART parking lot (the light rail system) in Garland was busier than usual with folks apparently wanting to try and beat the crazy traffic that comes with warnings of icy roads.

While the weather really didn't get bad in Dallas until late, a lot of companies and schools closed early and you can't fault them for being cautious with people's lives and vehicles. In fact my company closed down at lunch to make sure everyone could get home before the weather could get bad. We were also told that if schools were closed or running late, that we would also run late and open between 10 and noon. Tracy's firm decided to stay open, but then their operation is 24 hour in nature and international to boot. They did let people out though with plenty of time to get home before dark, when of course the roads typically get really bad.

Tracy and I met up at Mockingbird station around 4:30 and headed home. By the time we got to Garland station the sleet was beginning to fall. Luckily the weather really never got bad our our way, but the rest of Dallas apparently didn't fair so well. While Wylie and many of the other schools on this side of town were opening late, many more districts across DFW were closed for the whole day.

So today is starting off slow for us. Tracy and I are waiting to take Courtney to her bus stop then we too will head out to battle the roads and weather. It's cold outside to be sure, about 21 degrees, but we have no idea how bad the roads will be between here and Garland station. The good news is that we only have a 10 mile drive. Last year when we had similar conditions and I was driving to work, it took me nearly 2 hours to drive the 22 miles to my office and there was barely a patch of ice.

So while we won't be staying home sitting by the fire singing Christmas songs, we did get a bit of a break from the regular fast paced routine of daily life. It's nice actually, but of course when we get to our offices the paperwork will be waiting just the same. Oh, and I am taking off tomorrow, so I have that much more work to do. Come to think of it I won't miss the fast past, I will be knee deep in it; I still have half of my work from yesterday to do! Oh, the weather may not be frightful, but it sure is annoying!

Tags: Weather, Tracy, Dart