happy birthday to me

Yesterday was my 30th birthday.


I am not much into birthdays but I was planning on having this big blowout party for my 30th, complete with belly dancers and all, well maybe not belly dancers but you get the idea. Well as it is, little AK has put those plans on hold.

I thought I could have a party on the 28th , by then he will be 6 weeks old. Ummm what was I thinking? Well I think I might wait till im 40 to have a party because as it is right now, I don’t really feel like celebrating anything but Akello. My wife had asked me what I wanted for my birthday a while back and I forwarded this living document that I keep on file. A wish list if you will complete with all the links you need to satiate my thirst for shiny chrome gadgets and objects d’art.

I happily sent that towards her but as you may remember cancelled that in return for the funds to replace our ghetto mailbox.

Well I feel like the mailbox can wait another month seeing as how we had to buy another airport express to extend the wireless internet signal to the nursery so that T can surf on the laptop without leaving the room.

But my in-laws asked me the other day what I really wanted for my birthday. My ears perked up and my mind began to scan the umpteen things I had written on the sheet for Theresa. But nothing came to mind, and I really all of the sudden felt like I really didn’t want much of anything. I just felt weird asking for anything when I had just been given a healthy baby boy. What more could you really ask for?
So I just turned to look outside and replied, “Oh, I don’t know…not much of anything I guess.” Then i saw my two green adirondack chairs sitting on the patio. Oh you know if you could just track down six of those chairs. that would be enough. you dont even have to buy them..just FIND THEM! Pearl and Ted were up to the challenge and will be hunting in Killeen at the PX this week. On that note, Amy found one at a goodwill that i will be visiting tomorrow. wish me luck.



This has been one of the happiest birthdays I have ever had. I already feel like a king every time Theresa lies down next to me to go to bed every night. Now I feel like an Emperor when I walk into the room and see both my babies sleeping.

My birthday started with cards and such and my inbox had a great card that my mom made on the computer, all microsoft paint style. My mom (who is a teacher) is all technical now and stuff seeing as how her principal at her school said, "Hey! Garcia! your doing computers now. but you still have to teach spanish too. That is all." Reminds me of a certain job i had at a certain ad agency that will reamain nameless

I had some alone time with akello while Theresa went to her doctor’s appointment and then to buy some groceries.

Here is a tip for anyone having kids soon… We have a grocery list of everything that we buy listed in order of appearance at the Technicenter HEB and we print it out before we go shopping and split it into two and then we separate, and meet back at the cash register. That’s not the tip. Heres the tip. Michelle A. had offered to help us out by going to buy us groceries. Ok great! I went to go print out the list, ran inventory against and cross out things that we didn’t need and handed it over to her. But what I didn’t realize is that we had just written down stuff like this: Bread, eggs, and milk.

She had no idea what kind or size of anything to get. So I would suggest having your list all ready to go with “creamer/small Horizon Organic” so that you can simply pass it off to anyone willing to help.

Ok, getting back.

So after T got back we went to go see Carrie Contey PhD a Parenting coach that our friend Kristen had recommended. Kristen was talking this woman up so much that she even gifted us two hours of time for a consultation so that we could talk about anything going on with akello.

Well… I don’t know how much those two hours cost but they were worth it and then some. Upon stepping into Carrie's home which doubles as her teaching space, We were immediately put at ease by Carries welcoming smile and calm and peaceful environment.


Theresa and I both learned so much that has been so helpful to us already. I’m talking deep baby psychology stuff here. I must say too that we went into this thinking, “well we don’t have any real problems or anything, just a question or two… lets just go talk to her and maybe we will start remembering stuff.”


I was captivated by everything that Carrie was teaching us. It all made so much sense and I was impressed with her sincere and personable manner. She was literally coaching us with him there and the results were immediate. Amazing.


We all hear about people that are best in class but it's another thing to experience the services of someone of that caliber. It’s like having Sade sing at your wedding or something.

We will be going back to her workshops, that for sure.

If you have a child or are expecting one, give this woman a call. I wish we knew about her before we had akello.

So after that session we went home on a parent high.

Theresa had suggested that we maybe try taking akello into a restaurant for my birthday dinner, but I was like, no thanks. Id much rather be stress free and at home eating some takeout. She suggested Chili’s; because its close to our house, they have the whole “to go” thing going on and I had said that I liked it, even though we never eat there.

I remember that when I first moved to Austin I was going out with some friends and I had suggested Chili’s for dinner. I got a nothing but blank stares. “Who invited this guy”?

It seemed that everyone I met was so anti-chain. Like everybody. I thought, how do these places stay in business? Nobody seems to want to eat there. What’s funny is that I worked for Chili’s for years. I was a waiter at the Chili’s in Midland and then went on to work at one in Lewisville when I was attending school at UNT in Denton. What’s funny is that Denton is so small that you can’t work at the Denton chilis unless you either A. started as a busboy or dish hand, or B. were born in Denton. Seriously, they told me that. Denton is such a small town that there are like 5 restaurants and thousands of students vying for the wait staff positions. Even with my charm and experience, I barely broke into The Black eyed Pea in my last year there. I was then quickly ostracized because they thought I was gay. That’s another story. Ok getting back…

So I have always liked chilis, even after working there, and I thought. Yes, I have not eaten there in years, and its so fitting, 30 years old, time to eat at chilis. Ha-ha, just kidding. But seriously,



So I picked us up some grub and we ate while sitting in the office watching TV a great movie that I recommend called Steven tobolowsky's birthday. Go see it, I think it’s coming OR WAS at SXSW or something. I dunno . im so out of it.


I was too full to eat desert and waited until today to have some.



Right now im smoking my cigar, the first time I have gotten a chance to smoke one since akello was born. I’m listening to Kings of Convenience and sipping on some Bacardi 8.

Heres a tip. If you want to celebrate by buying say, some top shelf liquor but you don’t have a lot of money, buy some Rum! The shits so cheap as it is, that if you decide to go first class, you are only out 20 bucks! Hilarious but true. Anyway, ive got some juicy Montessori tidbits for tomorrow. A showdown if you will. Oh I can’t wait.

Oh, so with the whole baby announcement thing and all. i gave up on Kinkos a long time ago, or should i say,,,,they gave up on me. thats kinkslows for ya! i have moved on to Burks Reprographics. While they are going slow, at least they are nice to deal with and listen to me. I will see my 3rd proof hopefully by thursday EOD. Im really waiting for them to match my printer at home even though i know that wont happen. if they can just get me close i will be happy. Here is the original photo that i was working with.


and here is is photoshopped.


i corrected the dry skin and removed the backround.that background was a bitch! because of his hair and all, took forevor. Whats cool is that in the announcement all you have to do is cut-off the part that is not the picture and the picture makes a 4X6. i will keep the announcement layout a surprise until everyone has gotten one, then i will post it for the people that read this that i dont know.