A montessori guide (her) and a design snob (him) make for two very busy and opinionated parents! This blog is about their daily lives raising their family, Re-arranging the furniture and tackling home-improvement projects.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
sunday!
it rains here every 3 hours. its been that way for a week. just had to get that out of the way.
so last sunday. yes, im talking about last sunday. we were going to go to see my uncle paul sing at his church righ there off 360 and green oaks. thats how i talk these days. im begining to sound a lot like my father in law. well akello had other plans, the partying at lonas the day before had wiped him out and his morning nap was for 2 hours plus, (usually it 30 min to an hour). i should have known. then i could have napped too rather than getting ready with my black polo shirt, jeans , and sundays best flipflops. thats all i brought as far as dress up. didnt even think about it, cuss i go to st. james in austin where you can where shorts to church. thats how i roll.
i was behind some guy today at the babysrus check out line buying a toilet for akello (his training starts tommorrow) and he had this t-shirt that read. "drinking beers and shooting bucks!, thats how i roll!" wow i thought to myself. the t-shirt had a picture of a 10 point buck and a bunch of beer cans.
i thought to myself, how funny that a phrase that originated in hip hop culture has made its way all the way to the redneck standing in front of me at a babys r us in mesquite texas, (which is horribly stocked by the way)
anyyyyyyway.
so in true gil garcia style we skip church but still meet paul & mona and pauls dad, (paul sr.) and mom (winbing) at "la isla mexicana" a greasy spoon offering the finest mariscos this side of pioneer parkway & 360.
mona and kello
they had ecxellent iced tea and good salsa. i had this weird hankering for fried shrimp cuss i was putting on this puppet show in the back of the car on the way over for akello using these little finger puppets that we picked up at ikea. they are all sea creatures. Mr. shrimp was looking really good that day and i had to have some. everyone else at the resturant had enchilladas but me.
paul is actually trying to make akello laugh here. Personally i find this pic quite scary.
Paul was going to buy us lunch but paul senior trumped him. i hadnt seen pauls parents in years. we figured it out, 17 years. they looked the same.
paul sr. and winbing
one of these days im going to look the same to someone.
man its been raining here like crazy. akello and i got caught in it the other day while on our morning walk. luckily we found a vacant house close by that was for sale and we took cover under their awning. akello slept thru the whole thing. there are some pretty neat looking homes around these parts most are built in the 50's and while i wouldnt call them midcentury modern, there is an infuence. these are some of my faves.
these are all anywhere from 80 to 125k. ive been looking at all the for sale info tubes.
PITT-PUP update. looks like sales are slow. they are now giving sneak peaks of the merchandise. i swear, im no dog breeder or nothing, but i think thems is mixed!
look at this. run out of wall space for the renoir? no sweat! there is plenty of wall on the opposite side!
on too akello or akellito as we sometimes call him.
akello is 1o months now and making new discoveries daily. he has figured out that thats him in the mirror. he has also started to take a real interest in shadows
he waves hi and bye a lot and likes to practice his wave.
everyday when theresa goes off to school, i hold akello and we go outside and theresa sings a song to akello and then we wave her off. he is totally happy to get to wave and starts waving inside as theresa starts loading up all her bags on her shoulders.
but he also knows that she should be back at 4:30. and if shes not, he wont take rain or traffic for an excuse and will start to wimper at the window, looking out, waiting for that certain engine to roll up the drive way. theesa was way late the other day and he got so sad that he cried himself to sleep in my arms. theresa came in and snapped this picture.
happier times (dryer too) were saturday when Lona invited us all to her house in arlington for some serious rest and relaxation. now remember, i had been up the night before kicking it with the neighbors, and sat rolls around and im feeling pretty beat after a long week with kello and a long drink with the neighbors. we rolled in round 2 and were immediatly treated to tia nita's famous sweet potato chips
(akello even had his own special batch made sans seasoning) akello ate them up!
they were delicious and it was tough not to get too full on them. i snacked on some strawberry margarita and relaxed poolside for most of the day while akello laughed at our attempt to divert his attention from the stereo with this mundane teething toy.
them strawbery margaritas were gooooood, so good that i almost forgot to do the laundry while i was there. lona had said we could, and thats all it tooK. The ribs and corn ears where nice and all, but nothing beats doing your laundry while you sip some ritas.
mona and kells
after i was all good and liquored up, i decided to bring akello into the pool! ha, (dont worry theresa was there too) as was paul and mona.
Paul helped akello put on the sunscreen. he wasnt to crazy about that but he was crazy about lonas pet chiwawa (bruiser). him and akello made fast freinds. i got to say, i am so happy that akello tolerates dog barking. its just a loud sound to him. when we go on walks im always like "crap theres a dog! please dont bark at us, were just passing throgh" they usually bark, but akello never cares. its always me thats all freaking out.
bruiser
practicing the wave with tia mona
akello had a good time in the pool and i was able to show theresa what we do in swim. my batts ran out, luckily lona took these pics. so after a long day, we headed home.
I write to you today from the parking lot of La Calle Doce where im to meet a friend for lunch. I have figured out something while taking care of akello. There are a lot of “we’ll sees” and instead of saying, “lunch tomorrow at 12” its more like, “ill call you in the morning and tell you when when akello will be able to see you. He is not on a perfect sleep schedule for naps and that’s basically how his day is scheduled. Around his naps.
Tuesday was great. We went to the little gym.
These pics were from last weeks session where he really just stayed close to daddy and sat back and watched everything. That day at little gym the instructor asked us all how our child learns. Is he a watcher, a feeler outer, or a doer? Akello is a watcher/feeler outer. Knowing this helped on his first day of swim class last Friday. More on that later. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
There are about 10 to 20 kids at little gym and it’s a good time. This time he was much more active and comforatable in the environment. Im guessing the same will go for swim on Friday. Tuesday was also THeresas first day at her telecommuting gig working for PRAXIS. She scores essays from school tests online, or something like that. She works from 6 to 10 for about a two week stretch. This works out good as we can have dinner at 5 and then I can give him a bath and read him a story at 6 while Theresa gets started and then i bring him back to T at 7 for him to go to sleep while Theresa works on the laptop. (thank you amy).
lets talk about our place! as we like to refer to as our summer home.
this is the view from the the front.
ok on to the interior. we basically live in the living room. here it is.
My computer has been freezing a lot and giving me problems so im not able to blog as much as I liked to. It seems to freeze everytime I use the keyboard. Its done this off and on for years but recently its gotten a lot worse. I have now begun to start writing the blog in a word document so that I can save as I go. so far it…well I wont say it.
akello at J. gilligans
Wednesday was a fun time at J gilligans in Arlington for lunch with tia Anita and tia Mona. Oh, hes waking up. Got to go.
Ok im back and it's Saturday now. This is the first chance I have had to write since then. Its been a very tiring week and I have been passing out at 8 or 9 in the past few days.
So getting back to this past week. Wednesday was lunch at Jgilligans in Arlington and the burger was very good. Recommended.
After that we went to the Tramel Crow collection of asian American art to view the U-RAM CHOE exhibition. We parked in the dallas musueam of arts parking garage wich is underneath the DMA. I should have parked in a topside parking lot, cuss it kinda freaked akello out a little bit when he woke up from the drive. Anyway, the exhibition was great and i had been looking forward to it.. And what else was great was that it was free, and what else is great is that nobody was there. A big plus for me when im viewing art. Akello was getting fussy though towards the end and wanted out of the sling.
i thik the art piece entitled "Echo Navigo (Adult) Anmorome Istiophorus Platypterus" kinda freaked him out as evidenced in this video. if youare into this sort of art and are a fan of alan rath by chance, you will love this exhibit. Highly recommended.
I realized that I shouldn’t take akello on two outings if they are both sling based. Like, he was awake for the 30 min trip in the car to the resturant in Arlington then he was in the sling for lunch, only to get put in the car seat and napped back to dallas, only to get put back in the sling for the museam. Realizing this and his need for movement I found a patch of grass in front of the DMA for him to play around in for a little bit before we headed home. I knew it was going to be a tough ride home. Luckily we are but 10 minutes from downtown.
akello on the attack
So Thursday was lunch with a friend at Calle Doce. It was very good. There is a sign on the door that reads “now entering a transfat free zone” . I just found out that Michael Bloomberg banned transfats in NYC. Crazy. Theresa makes sure all of our groceries and stuff we eat is TF free but I don’t know much about em, xept that there bad for you.
akellos first day of swim
Friday was swim at Elmers School of Swim. Akello is enrolled in the water babies class and did great this week as opposed to last week, like I figured hed be. It’s a small class of 4 people (once again, im the only dad) the parents are in the water with the babies and so I get to get wet too. Akello is the cutest before he does a jump. His hair is all wet and long and he wimpers a little when the instructor seats him on the side of the pool. Then the instructor pulls him into the pool and akello knows its coming. He closes his eyes really tight and puckers up his lips, the instructor pulls him off the ledge and into the pool! He can stay under for one second. I wish I could take a picture. Maybe one of these days Theresa will come and watch and she can take some pics. This pic is of his second week
hes trhowing up his baby gang signs. it reads "e for elmers, reprezent!
Friday night, I went over to the neighbors house for a beer or two. It was so relaxing that I lost track of the time. Luckily Theresa texted me at 1:30 to make sure I knew what time it was. I was there for 4 hours! Good times meeting the new neighbors. Too bad were only here for the summer. sat and sun were a blst too! talk about that later!
sorry.but i ran out of time today. had to get this pic off to you though. been haven a lot of computer probs over here. wednesday was great. hopefully i can talk about tuesdday and wed on thursday
well today was the start of week two. a bit easier i must say. I am more confident and have learned a lot of logistical lessons from week one that should make this week a bit easier. So much goes on everyday here that im really going to try and blog everyday to keep up. theresa does the same with her work. she takes notes all day, and then comes home and puts them into a narrative form on the computer so that they are ready to turn in on monday morning. they have to do that each week and then people grade their notes to make sure that they are getting the lessons right. not something you want to be doing on sunday night.
so speaking of sunday, last night i went to bed at 11. way to late for this schedule. we are up at 6 over here. i have started to use the timer feauture on the coffee pot. one less thing to worry about in the morning. tHERESA has to leave at 7 in order to get to school by 8. its only 20 minutes away but she has to beat the traffic. we went to target the other day to buy theresa a jacket. her classroom is freezing. while we were there we saw this store signage and did a double take!
those could be akellos sisters we both cried out.
so anyway, sunday. after brunch i took the family home and i headed over to the local laundrymatt to do our laundry. it sucked to have to do laundry on fathers day, but i decided to make a party of it and took my ipod, a lawn chair,my laptop, my to go coffee from cafe brazil, and was going to get a cigar and just kick it outside on the curb. yes that would be kinda ghetto, but when in rome. then i realized, hello! they dont sell cigars anywhere. the only place you can get a good one is at the liquor store 4 miles away at white rock lake. blast! i just didnt feel like doing all that, so i went to the matt. i roll in and ijust beat the rush. the laundry matt was pretty cool. it was tricked out with some fake eames tandem shell seating in alternating colors of robins egg blue, yellow and red. and the place was black and white. it looked very cool. they also had these fiberglass clothing stations in the same blue as the seating. oh! and they had two tv's going. no wi-fi though. not that i was expecting it. there was a soccer game on the tv that was just starting. MEXICO vs COsta rica.
My clothes are loaded and going and all of the sudden, everyone decides to show up, as if to watch the game and do laundry at the same time.people had brought food and all. didnt see any beer though. at least they hid it well.
and then i came home and made dinner and had one of my beers. i dont drink them lightly, only drink them when i really need one, like on a monday or something, cuss its such a pain to go get them and were on a limited budget as well.
today akello and i went uptown to talk to Charlie Uniform Tango about doing some side work while im up here, in case they need any extra night or weekend help with editing . they had a really cool space on mckinney and oakmont. i walk in and i notice that they had a pebble tec floor. i almost started small talk witht eh receptionist about it, just to get it out of my system! you see, where i used to work, we had a floor like that and we got soooooooooo sick of people asking about it. SICK OF IT!
then i remembered that i DID want to job here, so i kept my mouth shut. After talking with them i mosied on down to McKINNEY AND kNOX to go visit the DWR showroom and to let akello move around on the rugs and play on the furniture.
then it was a bus ride back to the car and then back home. akello loves the bus. he pretty much likes anywhere where there are people. he even likes Dallas people.
OHHHHHH!!!!
BUT its true, i havent found one yet, but when i do find the "keep dallas pretentious" t-shirts, im buying one, and a onesy for akello!
on the way home akello fell asleep without a fuss. thats always brings a huge smile to my face when i can put him in the car seat, load up a toy or two in front of him, run to the drivers seat and take off. a couple of giggles and coos is all i hear for about two minutes and then i look back at him, and he is out! nothing is better!
sometimes when akello is all fussy gus i have to do something that totally freaks him out to get him out of it. something that boggles his mind that he's never seen before. like floss my teeth, put on shaving cream, beat box, or if you really need to set your phasers on stun, blow bubbles with chewing gum. these usually work for about 3 times so im always on the lookout for a new one.
oh, thats all for now. tommorrow is tuesday and we will be going to little gym!
Happy Fathers day to all you daddys out there. My first fathers day got started a little early with Tia Anita taking her nephew (me) and her godson (akello) and our driver (theresa) out to lunch at Snuffers on saturday. It was not only a nice treat but it was also so great to be out enjoying lunch with the family on a saturday. How ironic that i happened to see Betsy sitting at the table next to us. Betsy used to hold my position at Design Within Reach before she quit because she couldnt stand to work weekends anymore. I took her place and now here she was in Dallas sitting at the table next to us enjoying lunch on the patio in the middle of a saturday. Anita also gave me a care package for ffathers day and some cookies! the care package had stuff like a gatorade, a "parents" magazine. some togo coffee cups. i love those. anyway, little things that i really enjoy and could use. beats a necktie or any fathers day gift from the "foley's fathers day gift kiosk"
Snuffers is no joke. the best cheese fries i have ever had. the burger was ok and all. but those loaded cheese fries. Highly recommended. Luckily akello had a big breakfast and wasnt all grabby grabby at the table like he usualy is.
he was grabby grabmonster this morning though when we went to breakfast at Cafe Brazil. the food was ok. I had the migas. they were interesting. Light, not greasy. in fact they were so light, i had key lime pie for dessert. THeresa had pancakes. those were ok too. but the coffee.
the coffee was very good. thats what they are known for. great coffee that you have to serve yourself wich is both good and bad. they have about 10 varietals at once. i tried two and they were bothe amazing. its worth the trip just for the coffee. its kinda like a kerbey lane cafe. 24hours a day, decent prices, except for the cofee. 2.50 a cup! it is bottomelss though. and worth it! recommended.
its 10:00 i have to go to bed. ill write more later.
