Brad Wheeler.net

I woke up early Christmas morning to be sure to get pictures and video of Kaleb waking up and seeing what Santa brought him but, as you can probably guess, my camera wouldn't turn on. Nearly one year to the date after I got it (it was a Christmas present from last year) it no longer works. Of all the days for it to stop working... <sigh>

I was able to get some pictures from Christmas Eve at Gracie's parents', though. Those pictures can be found on Kaleb's site.

december 28, 2006

It's been a few weeks since my last post, and in that time I've come to the realization (after a conversion with Clinton) that this very well could be THE year that both the Mavericks AND the Cowboys win championships. Both teams are looking virtually unstoppable now - the Cowboys have won 4 in a row, including a win against the undefeated Colts, and the Mavericks are blowing everyone out so badly it's getting border-line boring.

How cool would THAT be?!

december 4, 2006

from guest writer Chris Perez

That's right baby! The 'Boys are back in town, and quickly becoming one of the top teams in the league. Especially after Sunday's victory over the previously unbeaten Colts. Down 14-7 going into the 4th Quarter, Tony Romo once again showed us why he's better than Dreadsoe.

In fact, ever since Romo has taken over, the Cowboys offense is looking more and more solid. Being able to deliver each week on the arm of everyone's new homeboy. I hear even Jessica Simpson wants a piece of him now.

I know I may be getting ahead of myself, but I'm dubbing Tony Romo the Tom Brady of the NFC! Just look how far the Cowboys have come since he's been in the lineup. Suddenly we have other receivers that aren't named Terry Glenn, and suddenly sacks are turning into first downs. And who was the last QB that replaced Drew Bledsoe, also in midseason? That’s right, Mr. Tom Brady! It was even reported that Jerry Jones, who initially opposed the quarterback switch, changed his tune in the owner's box on Sunday...

Not all is good though in Big D. Mike VanderWhack, "Most inaccurate, most accurate kicker of all time," is still sucking it up. Or maybe he's drinking it up? Just look at his official NFL pic...

I'm convinced he's so drunk that he thinks he is supposed to hit the field goal posts. Am I the only one yelling at the TV, "Don't hit the goal posts you S.O.B.! Go THROUGH the goal posts!" He hits the goal posts so many damn times, Bodog.com is probably thinking of making this an actual bet. I know I'd put my money on it if they did.

Well, enough trash talking, I'm really not as bitter as I sound. I'm happy the Cowboys are back and looking like real contenders. With McNabb now out for the season, and Eli Manning looking more and more clueless each game...

The Cowboys chances of winning the NFC East are looking Prime Time.

Go Cowboys!

Chris Perez can be contacted at chrisperez311@yahoo.com

november 22, 2006

Romo had another outstanding game ~ stackhouse dished out 9 assists against portland

Yesterday was a great day in Dallas sports and, for the moment at least, it looks like things are back on track for the Cowboys and Mavericks.

Tony Romo had another outstanding game (his best yet, actually) throwing for over 300 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions! While some thought his first good game was a fluke and he would go downhill after that, Romo's actually gotten better each game he's started. I am very excited about next week's game versus the Colts and I'm actually confident that the Cowboys will win over the undefeated Colts - and I am a huge Colts fan.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks seem to have gotten back on the right track. They've won their last two games (@ Phoenix, @Portland) and are now 2-4. Their wins haven't exactly been pretty, but they are wins nonetheless. I'd like to see the Mavs stop letting teams come back after building up large leads, but I'm glad to see them start fighting back in the fourth instead of the pathetic withering they were doing earlier this season.

If any of you have any other opinions, let's talk about them.

november 13, 2006

1 blow out + 1 freakish ending = 2 bad losses

The Mavs started it out by getting blown out by the Rockets on Saturday night by 31 points, then the Cowboys finished off the weekend by somehow losing to the Redskins 22-19 Sunday afternoon.

Obviously, the Mavericks loss means a lot less than the Cowboys' since it's only the 2nd game of the season, but for some reason I'm more concerned about them than the Cowboys. I know it's too early to panic but I just don't get a good feeling about this year's team. I know neither of them played a whole lot, but I sure miss Marquis Daniels and Darrell Armstrong. Hopefully these new Mavs can raise my hopes tonight versus Golden State and Don Nelson...

As illogical as it may sound, I'm still very hopeful about this Cowboys team now that we have Romo as the starting quarterback, despite losing to the woeful Redskins. Romo has looked GREAT and put his team in excellent position to win. Of course, the drop by TO, Vanderjact's missed kick, and countless penalties prevented that from happening, though. There are 8 games left this season, and I'm so excited about Romo that I predict we'll go 6-8 the remainder of the season to finish 10-6 and make the playoffs.

november 6, 2006

This is just the application I've been wishing for (and thinking about creating myself) for awhile now. Install Pad automates the installation of your favorite programs by installing multiple programs at once with a single click of a button. Install Pad will download the install file, and even attempt to retrieve the latest version, then install the program automatically.

This is great news for people who format their computers regularly or for those who set up new systems for other people. I know it'll sure save me A LOT of time after my next format.

november 2, 2006

tony romo is bringing the excitement back to the cowboys

Turns out all those fans cheering for Romo (and booing Bledsoe) at the Cowboys' home games this year were right - Tony Romo does appear to be the answer at the quarterback position. After watching Bledsoe take sack after sack and throw countless interceptions over the past year and a half, watching Romo last night was like watching Peyton Manning.

I would never give up on the Cowboys, but my hopes weren't too high for them this year...until now. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to win our next two games (@Washington, @Arizona) and be 6-3 going into week 10 versus the Colts.

October 30, 2006

launchcast admute has been updated to log a history of songs played

LAUNCHcast AdMute 2.2 has been released, with the most notable new feature being the ability to keep a history of songs played. You can then view what's been played recently, what's played the most on your station, or even do a custom search of your music history. It can be kind of cool to go back and see which artists or songs you listen to the most. It's also helpful when you are downloading new music and can't remember the name of that one song you liked so much...

One feature I would love to add is the ability to automatically record songs into MP3 format based on rating, artist, or song name. I've got the logic down and can actually record in wav format, but I just can't figure out how to record high quality MP3's in real time. If anyone has any ideas on how to accomplish this, please let me know. In the meantime, enjoy version 2.2.

October 19, 2006

click to visit kalebwheeler.net

Kaleb's site has been updated with about 20 new pictures and one new video. It's been awhile since the last update...hopefully we'll start getting more pictures with the holiday season coming up.

Check it out at www.kalebwheeler.net

september 29, 2006

compare size dimensions to everyday items

For those of you who make many online purchases, sizeasy may come in handy. It allows you enter dimensions in either US or metric format and then compare a visualization of the item to everyday items, such as a deck of cards or a sheet of paper.

You can compare multiple items at the same time and even view the visualizations from different angles. Very cool.

september 20, 2006

find out which applications might be responsible for your pc's poor performance

All PC's owners know that, over time, Windows slows down as we install more software and fill up our hard drives with files. This study can help pinpoint exactly what it is that's causing your system to grow sluggish.

At the top of the list is Norton Anti-Virus, a program I've always suspected of being a resource hog. Another big culprit is having too many fonts installed. If you're sick of waiting for slow boot times and poor performance, check this out.

september 13, 2006

our house in lakeside village is now for sale

Due to Kaleb's love for being outside, Gracie and I have decided that it's time to get a house with a backyard. Therefore our beloved house in Lakeside Village is now up for sale. It really has been a great house and I doubt we'll find anything that has all the little things we love about it, but the move will be worth it to give Kaleb a backyard to play in.

We're considering moving to Royse City or Fate, just to save a few miles on my commute to work each day.

september 8, 2006

this shot is ridiculous.

I haven't been able to watch any of the FIBA World Championship games, but I did run across this highlight of Germany vs Angola today. Looks like Dirk is still in top notch form: he scored 47 points, pulled down 16 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists in the triple overtime victory.

The three shown above sent the game into the first overtime (notice the time on the clock). He also knocked down two free throws to tie the game and send it into the 3rd overtime. I hear he had a huge blocked shot at the end of the game as well.

I hope Maverick fans realize how lucky we are to have Dirk on our team. He is virtually unstoppable...and seemingly getting better and better..

Click here for a full game recap from Yahoo.

august 25, 2006

one of our many vegas highlights: meeting Penn & teller

Our trip to Las Vegas was great! We met Chris and Christy in the Vegas airport early Sunday morning and headed straight for Hoover Dam, which was awesome. After our Hoover Dam tour, we checked into the Mandalay Bay and headed straight for the "beach". The pool was cool, but I have to admit that I was a little disappointed and don't think it's worth the money...

Sunday evening Gracie and Christy went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Mysteire while CP and I did our did our own thing for a few hours. The next day Gracie and I checked out some of the other hotels in Vegas during the day and went to Penn & Teller's show that evening. As you can see from the picture above, we got to meet them after the show. It was a very fun experience and definitely one of the highlights from the trip.

Tuesday we checked into the Golden Nugget in downtown Vegas, which saved us a ton of money on our last night (Mandalay Bay: $245 per night vs Golden Nugget: $59 per night). Gracie and I hung out downtown for a few hours while CP and Christy went to the wedding they were in Vegas for. After a buffet at Main Street Station, we met up with Chris and Christy at Pure, the hot new nightclub in Caesars Palace. Tera Patrick was there so there was a ridiculous line to get in, but it was pretty cool.

We felt obligated to do at least a little gambling so after Pure we all went back downtown and did some casino hopping for a couple of hours. Everyone did pretty well (no one lost anything), but Chris did the best, winning about $200 at blackjack.

It was an incredibly fun trip and it was great seeing Chris and Christy again. I've posted my pictures here and CP and Christy have their pictures here.

august 19, 2006

the countdown is nearly over

Gracie and I have been counting down the days till August 13th, the day we leave for Las Vegas, for the past month. The countdown is nearly over and tomorrow morning we'll actually be there, along with Chris Perez and Christy, who will be flying in from Minnesota! We'll spend two nights at Mandalay Bay, one night at the Golden Nugget, and fly home Wednesday night.

It'll be Gracie's first trip to Vegas so she is very excited. She and Chris have been collaborating on our itinerary, which includes a Cirque du Soleil show, a Penn & Teller show, and a trip to Hoover Dam.

Kaleb will be staying with his Nanna Sue and Pawpaw while Greg will be staying at our house to take care of things. Check back next Thursday or Friday for a trip recap and pictures.

august 12, 2006

a challenging way to pass the time...

Google hosted a Puzzle Championship earlier this year and I ran across the puzzles a few weeks ago and have been having some fun trying solve some of them. I haven't spent a whole lot of time on them, but they are pretty difficult. So far I've completed one (the Benign Crisscross on page 3) and started a couple others. The password to open the file is jag1511.

According to this Puzzle Championship Page, the winner of the contest got 22 out of 23 answers correct. There are also some other cool stats here, and the solutions here. Have fun!

august 7, 2006

Team
ABC

ESPN

TNT

NBATV

Total

Cleveland
5

10

9

9

33

LAL
5

10

9

9

33

Miami
5

10

9

9

33

Phoenix
5

10

9

9

33

Dallas
4

10

9

9

32

Chicago
4

8

9

9

30

Detroit
5

10

6

9

30

San Antonio
3

8

6

9

26

Denver
1

8

5

8

22

Sacramento
3

7

6

6

22

Houston
2

7

3

9

21

LAC
1

6

5

8

20

New Jersey
1

5

5

8

19

Washington
1

8

1

9

19

Indiana
2

4

2

8

16

Philadelphia
0

8

0

7

15

NO/OC
1

2

2

7

12

Boston
1

1

0

7

9

Minnesota
0

2

0

7

9

Memphis
0

1

1

6

8

Orlando
1

1

2

4

8

Seattle
0

3

2

3

8

Utah
0

1

1

5

7

Golden State
0

1

2

2

5

New York
0

0

0

5

5

Milwaukee
0

1

0

3

4

Atlanta
0

0

0

2

2

Charlotte
0

0

1

1

2

Portland
0

0

0

1

1

Toronto
0

0

0

0

0

source: www.truehoops.com

august 2, 2006

easily get rid of all the useless software new computers come with

I've actually been wishing for something like this for awhile now...I was thinking about creating my own software to clean all the useless software off of new PC's - now I don't have to. The PC De-Crapifier claims to "remove a specific list of unwanted software in an unattended fashion". Sounds great!

If you've got a new computer (or have recently formatted an old one) and would like to clean it up, give this a try and let me know how it works.

july 30, 2006

improve your computer's performance by disabling unnecessary Windows Services

I came across this nice "Guide to Useless Services" for Windows XP Service Pack 2. It lists 29 services that are supposedly not worth running and only take up system resources. While there appear to be some listings that I disagree with (mainly System Restore), it does seem to be a pretty good list overall. I went ahead and disabled many of the services listed here.

If you're having problems with your computer running slowly, or just like keeping your computer clean, this guide may be useful. If you disable something and stuff stops working on your computer, you can always turn it back on.

july 24, 2006

click to visit kalebwheeler.net

Kaleb's site has been updated with pictures from the 4th of July and our trip to the Wet Zone water park in Rowlet. There are also a couple of new videos of him swimming and playing basketball. If it's been awhile since you've visited his site there may be even more updates since the last time you've checked it out. He does a pretty good job for a 1 year old!

Check it out at www.kalebwheeler.net

july 19, 2006

Greg and I made a quick trip to St. Louis this weekend

Greg was fortunate enough to get a pair of free American Airlines tickets from the Mavericks Fan Appreciation day on the last game of the regular season. Clinton doesn't fly so he invited me! The tickets were only good to fly out of Love Field so our options were a little limited. We'd never been to St. Louis so we decided to head up there for a quick mini-vacation.

Even though we were only there for 1 night we still managed to see quite a bit of stuff. Of course, we took the obligatory tour or the Gateway Arch, checked out other areas of downtown, went to Forest Park and took a tour of the Anheuser-Busch headquarters/factory. We even managed to stop by a casino for a few hours of gambling. It was a pretty fun trip. pictures here

july 10, 2006

the new "big red car" (click above for more pictures)

It took 8 weeks to get here, but the MINI was worth the wait. Gracie and I picked it up last night and had a blast driving it home though Dallas traffic. It handles, looks, and sounds, as great as I'd hoped and I'm looking forward to showing it off to everyone. :)

Looks like someone else I "know" drives a MINI, too!

june 29, 2006

our yard "before and after"

After several weeks of hard work, our Front Yard Renovation is basically complete. The grass has been planted, the retaining walls have been built, the mulch has been laid, and the stairs have been rebuilt and repainted. Gracie and I are extremely happy with the results. Many thanks to my mom for helping with the grass and grass preparation, Saul and Cory for helping rebuild the stairs, and my dad for coming down to paint the stairs.

Click here for pictures of the full project.

june 26, 2006

This was the greatest year in dallas mavericks history

60 wins, finally beating San Antonio, and the team's first appearance in the NBA Finals...it truly was a great year for the Mavs. Losses hurt more when the stakes are higher, so it's easy for us to get depressed about what could have been. While I'm of course disappointed, I am also very excited about this team's future. We are an extremely young and talented team with a great coach and the best owner in all of sports.

Conspiracy theories

I know there are plenty of conspiracy theories out there ranging from "The league didn't want Cuban to win" to "They're trying to turn Wade into the next Jordan with all these phantom calls..." I don't believe any of it. The Mavs lost this series because we stopped doing what we do best. There were way to many jump shots taken in the last few games. Some credit should be given to the Heat's intimidating shot blocking, but the bottom line is that we started settling for 3 pointers and pull up jump shots. Meanwhile the Heat continued to fearlessly drive to the basket, picking up fouls along the way.

And Stackhouse wasn't suspended because the league wanted to stick it to Cuban, he was suspended because he fouled Shaq hard. Had that been Antoine Walker or Udonis Haslem a suspension wouldn't have even been considered. The NBA is a superstar league and the same thing would have happened had a Heat player fouled Dirk like that. It's funny how everyone wants to make everything about Cuban: During Spurs series the theories surfaced about how the refs were intimidated by Cuban and were therefore giving the Mavs all the calls, while in the Heat series the refs were supposedly sick of Cuban and were trying to prevent his team from winning. Give me a break...believe it or not, not everything that happens in the NBA revolves around the Mavericks owner!

Next year

I am so excited about next year's season. If really hope we keep this team's core together - the only players I wouldn't mind losing are Stackhouse and to a lesser degree Van Horn. I fear we may lose Marquis (who became a father last night, by the way) but I hope not. I think Marquis is going to become a very good player in this league...somewhere along the lines of Rip Hamilton.

I like our chances to get back to the Finals next year - this time to win it. The Spurs were the oldest team in the NBA this year and I think their time may have passed. The Suns are scary but I think it's about time for Nash to start breaking down...it already started towards the end of the playoffs. The Rockets have a chance to be good next year if McGrady is healthy and they scare me a little. But I still think that we'll be the best team in the West again next year - my prediction: 58 wins and an NBA Title!

june 21, 2006

I may have been wrong about our "last loss of the year", but I still have confidence in these guys

There's no denying it: last night's game was U-G-L-Y. Seven points in the entire 4th quarter? Dirk and Josh combining for 3-22 shooting? Are you serious?! Despite last night's debacle, I'm not worried about the series. Sure, we're not going to sweep or win it in 5 like I predicted, but we'll still come out on top - as the NBA Champions.

Last year the Spurs dominated the Pistons in San Antonio in games 1 & 2 only to see the Pistons come roaring back in Games 3 & 4 to tie the series. Funny how history repeats itself - and if I remember correctly San Antonio won that series in 7.

Sunday's Game 5 will be huge. I'll be at the Beat The Heat watching party at the AAC along with 19,000+ other Mavs fans to watch us take control of this series again.

june 16, 2006

I would have never thought that Dirk would miss that Free Throw...

After all he's done for us this season I feel more sorry for Dirk than I do bad over the loss itself. For many casual fans this is the first time they've seen what Dirk can do and I hate to see him miss a shot like that. Especially after all the times he's come through for us in the clutch.

I'm not concerned about the series, though. I predicted that we'd win in 5 and I'm loving the fact that last night will be our last loss of the year. A big group of us are going to the Beat The Heat Watching party at the AAC Sunday night...it'll be awesome to see them close out the series amongst 12,000 plus other Mavs fans.

june 14, 2006

Finally. Finally. Finally. After 26 years, the Mavs are in the NBA Finals!

Gracie, Greg, Cory, and I went to Love Field Airport to greet the team as they arrived home from Phoenix Friday night/Saturday morning at around 2 am. There were thousands of other ecstatic fans there with us...it was awesome. I didn't have my camera, but there's a pretty good video here that does a good job of representing the atmosphere.

Before the season even started I predicted the Mavs would make it to the Western Conference Finals...I'm glad I was wrong. Things couldn't be looking any better for the Mavs than they do now. The Mavericks have dominated the Heat over the past couple of years and I have no doubt that domination will continue through this last series. My prediction: Mavs in 5.

Let's Go Mavs!!

june 5, 2006

I'm getting a little tired of my Civic Hybrid so I figured it's time to get a new car. After doing some shopping I decided on the MINI Cooper. It gets good gas mileage, looks great, and handles even better. On top of all that, my monthly payments should actually be going down by about $70 a month!

My MINI was custom built to my specification so it actually won't be in until sometime in July. It'll be a long wait, but worth it to get exactly what I want. In the meantime, I'll be looking to sell my car. If anyone is interested in a 2003 Civic Hybrid with about 60,000 miles, let me know.

may 2, 2006

What an incredible year this has been in the NBA Playoffs. This has to be the most entertaining first round of match ups I can remember seeing. Just last weekend we had several last second game winning/tying shots, including Dirk's amazing 3 pointer against the Grizzlies, and Kobe's incredible shots against the Suns. Wow!

The Playoffs are usually predictable with virtually no upsets. So far this year has been a different story - and I'm loving it! Go Mavs!

may 2, 2006

A new update to LAUNCHcast AdMute is available (version 2.1). In response to a user request I discovered a little trick that seems to actually reduce the number of commercials and eliminate the monthly usage limits! I've been testing version 2.1 out for a few weeks now and have yet to get a message about hitting my monthly song limits - and I can still skip songs! When I use version 2.0, however, I'm told that I've hit my limit and can no longer skip. Check out the new version and try it out for yourself. LAUNCHcast just keeps getting better and better!

april 26, 2006

Saul and I are driving down to San Antonio tomorrow to watch the Mavericks vs the Spurs Friday night. Saul is a big Spurs fan so I got him tickets to tomorrow's game for Christmas. Hopefully it'll be a good game in a preview of what to expect in the second round of the playoffs.

A note on my last post: While it hasn't been confirmed whether or not the article on Dirk's music venture is an April fools joke or not, many believe it is not real. If so, that's a disappointment. I was really hoping it wasn't all a joke...

april 6, 2006

I had a great birthday this year. I had the day off of work so I spent the day at home with Gracie and Kaleb. My mom came over in the afternoon and detailed my car. Cory and Saul came out a little later and we had a wonderful home cooked meal. I got lots of presents from my mom including a very nice heater for our basement room and several tools. To cap the night off Clinton, Greg, Chris Mosley, and I all went to the Maverick game (which they won, of course). Sorry to everyone whose phone calls I missed...it was impossible to hear the phone at the game. :)

I'm considering modifying the design of this site (again). Since most of our pictures are now being hosted on Kaleb's site, there's not much of a reason for me to have a photos section here, too. My news updates have become sporadic and I'm not too sure how much people really care about reading about my daily events. So instead I think I'm going to go to the blog style with semi-daily shorter updates on whatever comes to mind. I'm going to try to have those changes in place by the first of March.

february 17, 2006

Kaleb was baptized last Saturday (February 4th) at the same church I was baptized at just a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it wasn't by the same priest, by Father Bill did come to the reception. It was great to see him along with everyone else who came out. The Godparents were Janey Mosley and Chris Perez. CP wasn't able to make it down from Minnesota so Andrew Grooves (aka Druice) stepped in for him during the ceremony. Thanks to everyone who helped make Kaleb's day so special. Pictures will be posted on his site soon.

The SuperBowl didn't go exactly as I'd hoped for, but I wasn't really that into it this year anyway. I really don't care too much about either team, but I was pulling for the Seahawks - partly because they remind me a little of the Mavericks (a good regular season team that has never made it to the Championship before). So I was a little disappointed to see them lose, but it wasn't too upsetting.

A couple of side notes...

...A few weeks ago Clinton was officially promoted to a Programmer and we're now sharing an office. It's been really fun so far.

...Gracie and I have begun passively looking at new houses. We pretty sure we want to move within the next few years into a bigger place, and it's fun to consider the possibilities.

...The Mavericks have won 11 games in a row! I'm getting more and more excited for the playoffs to start. I really like our chances to win it all this year.

february 7, 2006

We had originally planned to travel to Arkansas for Christmas but at the last minute my mom and Saul decided to stay home for the holidays. So Gracie, Kaleb and I spent Christmas Eve with Gracie's family and we spent Christmas Day with mine. I got an awesome digital camera from my mom so look for more pictures to be posted now that I have a camera again.

We still wanted to see our family in Arkansas so the day after Christmas Gracie, Kaleb, my mom, Cory, and I drove up for a quick round of visits with my dad and Papa Wheeler, Aunt Cindy, Grandma, Papa Zinn and June, and Aunt Teresa and family. We were only there for two days so our visits were all pretty short, but it was still nice to see everyone. Of course, everyone loved Kaleb. It was a fun little trip and I'm glad we decided to go. Everyone should thank Gracie because she's the one who convinced us all to go.

I've posted pictures of Christmas and our trip. If anyone has any others they would like to contribute, email them to me and I'll add them. Thanks to everyone for all the gifts and hospitality. It was a great Christmas.
One quick side note, I've added DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink to the Downloads page. These small programs are great for copying DVD's.

December 29, 2005

Not "Luke, I am your father." Believe it or not, that famous line was never spoken in Star Wars. I found that and many other interesting misquotes on this page of misquotations. It was crazy to find out that Check it out and you'll learn that other famous phrases such as "Beam me up, Scotty", "Elementary, my dear Watson", and even "Me Tarzan, you Jane" are all actually misquotations. I just thought that was interesting...
As far as news goes, everything has been going well. Kaleb started crawling and pulling himself up. He's still as cute as ever. In addition to the videos on his website, I also posted a few longer videos on Google Video.

I've been to two Maverick games so far this year. Saul and I went to the home opener versus the Spurs and Greg, Kaleb and I went to the game versus Detroit. Both games were awesome. The Mavs are looking pretty good so far and I'm feeling good about my earlier prediction.

We'll be travelling with Gracie's family to Mountain Home, Arkansas this Thanksgiving to visit her family up there. It'll be the second Thansgiving in a row I haven't got to spend with my mom and she's not too happy about it, but we're spending Christmas with her family in Arkansas this year so it all evens out. I'll sure miss her cooking, though.

November 21, 2005

It's my favorite time of year...the weather nice (it's been sunny and about 75 nearly every day this week), the holidays are around the corner, and the NBA season is underway. The Mavs kept me up till 2:30 am last night with their double overtime comeback victory over the Suns, but boy was it worth it. What a game. My prediction for the Mavericks this year is 56 wins and an appearance in the Western Conference Finals.
Gracie and Kaleb are both doing great (aside from a little cold Gracie got this week). Gracie's been staying at home for the past couple of months and she really seems to be enjoying it. Kaleb is getting closer and closer to crawling. He's also getting very big! He was weighed last week at his 6 month check in and he's now over 20 lbs. He's in the 95th percentile in height and the 90th percentile in weight. He's cuter than ever. Don't forget to visit www.kalebwheeler.net for news, pictures, and videos.

November 2, 2005

My Dad came down last weekend to help us paint the oustide of our house. It took about 8 hours a day for 3 consecutive days, but it looks awesome. I can't thank him enough for his help.
My mom and Saul left for a Caribbean cruise last Sunday. They left out of Galveston so you can imagine that Hurricane Rita stirred things up a little bit. Luckily the storm didn't hit Galveston too hard so their truck was okay. Their trip did get extended a few days though and they're expected back this Wednesday. We've been staying at their place and watching Cory while they've been gone. It's been a lot of fun hanging out with him.
Clinton, Cory, and I took advantage of the strong winds caused by Hurricane Rita and took the jet skis and a giant 8 foot tube out on the lake Sunday afternoon. The waves were incredible and it was some of the most fun I've ever had on the lake.

september 25, 2005

Gracie, Kaleb, Stephanie, Drew, CP, Clinton, and I just got back from a fun vacation at Schlitterbahn this weekend. Chris was able to find us a great fully equipped 2 story, 2 bedroom town home for just $210 a night at the park. Schlitterbahn is an awesome water park and we had a ton of fun. We were even able to let Kaleb play a little in the wave pool. He seemed a little concerned, but never cried and actually seemed to enjoy himself. Stephanie took some pictures so hopefully I'll be able to post them sometime soon.

Speaking of Kaleb, he started rolling over last weekend. He gets really proud of himself when he does so and it's great to watch. We're going to try to get some more pictures and video up on his site soon. Lacy (the photographer from our wedding) came out last weekend and took a couple of rolls of film of him. I'm sure they'll turn out great so look for them on kalebwheeler.net as well.

september 12, 2005

Gracie heard about Google Earth on the news the other day and told me about it. I decided to give it a try and I have to admit, I am amazed! I highly recommend you check it out...but be warned - it can be addicting!

I also recently discovered Google's free photo editing software, Picassa, a few weeks ago and I was very impressed with that as well. I can see how it would be extremely useful for those of you who don't have Photoshop or who need help organizing the massive amount of photographs on your computer.

I've added these links, along with a few new photo album tools, on my downloads page. Feel free to check them out if you get time.

july 26, 2005

As you can see, I've significantly redesigned my site. Some of the changes include:

- I've upgraded my hosting plan so the site should now load quicker and photos and other downloads should complete faster.
- I've reactivated my mail@bradwheeler.net email address.
- The Archive page now only shows news headlines by default - click the headline to expand or hide the full entry.
- The Photos page now includes two options for viewing galleries. You can view a one page Flash Gallery, or a multi-page HTML Gallery. When viewing the HTML Gallery try clicking the play button at the top view a slideshow of the gallery. You can also view high resolution photos by clicking on the current photo being displayed.

- I've added a few more useful programs to the download page.
- In the short future I'm going to try to add some additional biographical information and a forum.
- This site works best using Internet Explorer on Windows machines and Safari on Macintosh machines. If you have any problems using the site, let me know.

June 22, 2005

Yesterday was our one-year anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since June 12th, but it’s been a great one. So much has happened in the past year and we both have so much to be thankful for: our beautiful baby, our wonderful house, a great job, our health, our amazing friends and family, and of course, our incredible marriage. I couldn’t ask for a better wife, or a better life.

To celebrate our anniversary we let Gracie’s parents watch Kaleb while we spent the night at a local hotel. The room was very nice and included a nice sized jacuzzi tub. We planned to go out and play putt-putt and drive go-carts, but ended up falling asleep! We did end up playing putt-putt in the morning (Gracie beat me by one stroke), followed by a nice lunch. It was a great anniversary.

I’m sure all of you want to hear the good stuff: how’s Kaleb?! Kaleb is doing great. He’s already about 12 lbs and he’s really starting to have some amazing facial expressions. He has the cutest smile you’ve ever seen. Sorry, no new pictures to post. I’ll try to get some of him smiling and post them soon.

A few side notes

- I’m going to try to upgrade my website hosting plan soon so next time you come back to the site there may be some significant changes. Hopefully they’ll be for the better
- Clinton registered totallyamazing.net and we’re having a little fun playing around with it. There’s not a lot there yet, but there is a forum you can check out and add to if you’d like. Hopefully it can turn into something pretty cool in the future.
- June12th.com is expiring in September. I don’t think we’ll renew it so if you want to see our wedding pictures you should do so soon.

June 13, 2005

Kaleb's one month old today. I've posted a few updated pictures of him. Everything's gone pretty well so far. Gracie really enjoys being a stay at home mom and she does a great job of taking care of Kaleb. I try to help out as much as I can by changing diapers, taking him for a walk to put him to sleep, and occasionally giving him a bottle. Our parents have been a great help, too, babysitting here and there when Gracie and I want to go out. Kaleb has been a great baby - he doesn't cry too much his diapers aren't even that stinky!

Chris Perez came down from Minnesota last week to see Kaleb. He brought his girlfriend Christy with him too - she is a very nice girl and they seem to get along very well. We watched the midnight showing of Stars Wars on Wednesday night with all of our friends (and then went to work the next morning after only getting 2 hours sleep!). We also had a big party Friday night where we watched the Mavericks, played Apples to Apples, Taboo, DDR, and of course Poker. The next day we took the jet skis out on the lake and rode for a few hours. It was a lot of fun.

With the Mavericks loss this past weekend their season is officially over. While I'm disappointed I'm also very excited about next year's possibilities. Sure, I'd have loved to see the Mavericks advance to the Western Conference Finals (where they would have surely given the Spurs a better series that the Suns have). But they still had a great year when considering all the changes this team has gone through this year - losing Steve Nash (which I still believe was the right move to make), changing half our roster, and switching head coaches with just 18 games left in the season. I can't wait to see how this team will perform after a full year under Avery Johnson.

MAY 27 , 2005

Gracie, Kaleb, and I finally made it back home this morning. They wanted to keep Kaleb an extra day since he was so big. When we got home we were thrilled to see that Kelly had ordered a huge stork for our front yard and my mom had came by and finished adding the border to Kaleb's room. Both look amazing. Gracie's mom is planning on staying with us for a few days to help take care of things around the house. Everyone has been such a big help. Thanks to all those who visited us in the hospital, sent us flowers, and called to just say congratulations. We appreciate all of you.

April 30, 2005

Gracie’s water never quite burst, but it did begin to leak Tuesday night (4/26). When we went in for her regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment the next day the doctor said we needed to induce labor immediately (the risk for infection grows significantly once the bag of water has been ruptured). They started her inducement at around 5:00 pm and she delivered Kaleb at 11:45. He weighed 8 lbs 7.6 oz and was 21 inches long.

Gracie did a wonderful job during delivery – she didn’t even receive an epidural until she was 9 cm dilated and wasn’t even mean one time (well, maybe one time)! She probably could have performed the entire delivery without an epidural, but the inducement drug greatly magnified the intensity of the contractions. Her original plan was to go without an epidural, but in the end she was happy to have one when it came time to push.

Kaleb is very cute, of course! He has Gracie’s good looks and my big feet. He likes to sleep and has barely cried at all. There were lots of pictures taken by several cameras. I’ve posted the ones from my camera taken at the hospital. I’ll try to post others soon.

April 28, 2005

Gracie is now 3 days past due of her due date of April 23rd. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon and if she hasn't started labor by then we'll schedule a time for her to be induced. She really wants to go 100% natural so hopefully that won't be necessary. Of course, I'll keep everyone updated on her status...

The Mavericks have been dissapointing in their first 2 playoff games and are now down 0-2 versus Houston. While I'm very concerned, I still remember their first round playoff series versus Utah a few years ago when they were down 0-2 and rallied back to win 3 games in a row and won the series. Let's hope they can pull off another miracle like that again...

A couple of side notes:
- there's a new version of Kazaa Lite out called Kazaa Lite Revolution and I've posted it on my downloads page.
- I've been having some problems with my mail@bradwheeler.net email so I've switched to gmail (google's new email service). You can now contact me at wheelerMail@gmail.com

April 26, 2005

It's almost time. Gracie’s due date (April 23rd) is only 11 days away! She’s already been having contractions and I’m pretty sure she’ll deliver early. Thanks to the help of our friends and family, we’re prepared for it…

My mom was a huge help when she stayed up all night working on painting the nursery earlier this month. We decided to go with yellow walls, a light blue ceiling, and white furniture. It turned out beautifully. Pictures have been posted (html | flash).

Last weekend Stephanie, April, and my mom threw Gracie a very successful baby shower. Everyone really seemed to have a great time. We would both like to thank everyone for their many gifts…we truly appreciate all of you. I wish I could post pictures of the shower but the only pictures taken were with a mini-Polaroid camera that aren’t of high enough quality for the internet.

I’m sure there will be plenty of pictures to post within the next week or so, though. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the status of Kaleb and Gracie…

April 12, 2005

Officially Complete. We finally got our carpet installed in our new rooms last Friday and it looks great. I’ve posted a few additional photos of the completed project (html | flash).

Speaking of photos, I also significantly redesigned the Photos page. You can now either view the pictures online using a flash viewer or download all the photos to your computer in a zipped folder.

Gracie and I started taking child-birth classes last week. We go every Tuesday night from 7 – 9 for the next 5 weeks. Hopefully she won’t have Kaleb too early and we’ll be able to attend all the classes. :)

march 15, 2005

What a start to 2005. It's been a long time since my last posting and A LOT has happened since then. Sorry it's taken so long, but with so much going on, sometimes it's hard to find the time to post updates on this website. Now that I've given my excuse, let me get straight to what's been happening...

In early January Gracie and I found out that we're having a BOY! After hearing the sonogram results we were both very surprised since we were certain it was going to be a girl. It took us a while to get used to the idea, but now we're both thrilled to be having a son. I think we're pretty certain the name is going to be Kaleb James Wheeler. Gracie is due April 23rd.

In late January my Papa came down and along with him and Saul's help, we were able to add an additional room and a half to our house - in just 6 days! We converted our formerly unfinished basement into a 17' x 13' den/room and a 6' x 9' office. The rooms turned out great...it's amazing considering how fast everything came together. My dad came down last weekend to paint the rooms. He did an amazing job too (even after I changed my mind halfway through about wanting to stain it...sorry dad!). Now I'm working on building a desk to go into the office. The only other thing left is getting carpet installed, which, unfortunately can take up to a couple of weeks. Pictures are up (html | flash).

Next weekend Gracie and I are going to Arkansas to visit my other Papa for the weekend. We'll only be there for a couple of days but it'll be nice to see him again. The following weekend Greg, Clinton, and I are planning on going to Shreveport to celebrate our birthdays. We'll be staying overnight at Boomtown.

On a much sadder note, Father Bill, our loved and respected priest, resigned from the Our Lady of The Lake Catholic Church this past weekend. I've always admired Father Bill for his bravery in what he had to say - I can see how his views might not sit well with some of the more traditional parishioners of the church. Nevertheless, he always stood firmly by what he believed. I don't know the whole story behind Father Bill's resignation, but I have a feeling that his non-traditional views have more to do with it than the juicy stories in the papers and on the news. Father Bill has promised to send a letter explaining his side of the story to the church members. I'm looking forward to hearing it.

February 10, 2005

This was Gracie and I’s first Christmas as a married couple and I must admit that it was a great one. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family then went to the noon Christmas Mass with Gracie’s family and spent the rest of the afternoon with them. Saul, Cory, Jason, and I all went to the Cowboys vs. Redskins game the day after Christmas and witnessed a great comeback for yet another Dallas victory over the Redskins. We wrapped up the Christmas holidays last night with a joint-family get together at our house with a Chinese auction gift exchange. Everyone seemed to have a great time and to particularly enjoy Gracie’s excellent cooking.

Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks for making this holiday season so great. I’ve posted pictures of all the events mentioned above (html | flash).

December 29, 2004

Gracie and I just got back from a very busy 5-day trip to Sacramento where we spent the Thanksgiving holiday. I met her grandparents, aunt Sherry, uncle Dick, and cousin Rochelle all for the first time. We also got to see her aunt Aida and uncle Don and cousin Dustin again. We even spent an evening with Gracie’s college friends David, Tina and her new boyfriend Johnny. It was a great trip and I’m glad I finally got to meet many of Gracie’s great family members. Pictures have been posted (html | flash).

November 29, 2004

I'm sure most of you have seen highlights of last night's brawl at the end of the Pacers-Pistons NBA game. If you haven't seen the highlights on ESPN or want to see more, here are some videos of the fights I found today...

Streaming Video this one is the longest of the videos I found at nearly 5 minutes. It's streaming video though so it may skip or take a while to load

Highlights 1 about a minute and a half worth of highlights from the fight

Highlights 2 another minute and a half video that includes some different angles

I highly recommend that you Right Click -> Save Target As... to save the files to your hardrive for viewing.

November 29, 2004

Team	ABC	ESPN	TNT	NBATV	Total
Cleveland	5	10	9	9	33
LAL	5	10	9	9	33
Miami	5	10	9	9	33
Phoenix	5	10	9	9	33
Dallas	4	10	9	9	32
Chicago	4	8	9	9	30
Detroit	5	10	6	9	30
San Antonio	3	8	6	9	26
Denver	1	8	5	8	22
Sacramento	3	7	6	6	22
Houston	2	7	3	9	21
LAC	1	6	5	8	20
New Jersey	1	5	5	8	19
Washington	1	8	1	9	19
Indiana	2	4	2	8	16
Philadelphia	0	8	0	7	15
NO/OC	1	2	2	7	12
Boston	1	1	0	7	9
Minnesota	0	2	0	7	9
Memphis	0	1	1	6	8
Orlando	1	1	2	4	8
Seattle	0	3	2	3	8
Utah	0	1	1	5	7
Golden State	0	1	2	2	5
New York	0	0	0	5	5
Milwaukee	0	1	0	3	4
Atlanta	0	0	0	2	2
Charlotte	0	0	1	1	2
Portland	0	0	0	1	1
Toronto	0	0	0	0	0