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  • Home,  Sujata and Aaron

    Diwali

    Sujata and Aaron hosted their inaugural Diwali party this week at their beautiful home in south Austin. Diwali is a Dharmic religious festival that typically takes place in October or November and symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance”. The celebration includes home cleansing and decoration, fireworks, gifts, and partaking in a feast and mithai sweets. The kids made rangolis (pattern art made with colored sand) on the back porch, decorated little saaki lamps, and decorated themselves with temporary tattoos. Sujata gifted us a Masala Dabba spice box – she told me that her family tradition is for guests to return each…

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    Bathroom remodel – January 2012

    In my post about the kitchen sink upgrade, I mentioned the bathtub fail that happened in January.  I realized that I had not posted any photos of the work Joey did to fix the master bathroom and closet. The pipe leading out of the bathtub, and the seal around the drain had rusted through, and water was leaking under the tub and into the wall between the bathroom and the closet.  Obviously the plumbing needed to be repaired.  However, there were a couple of related projects that arose because of the leak.  The closet carpet was soaked, and despite several days of running a fan, it became evident that ripping…

  • Home,  Misty and Brian

    Kitchen Sink Upgrade as Plumbing Antics Continue

    Our house was built in 1968. Young if you are a person, but old if you are plumbing. The plumbing in our house has been attempting to get our attention for more than a year now. Back in February 2011 Joey repaired the drain basket on our kitchen sink, and then almost immediately had to put in a new seal around the faucet. Sometime in the summer of 2011, Joey fixed the faucets in the bathtub of the green bathroom. The real insanity came in January of 2012, when the kitchen sink backed up, and the bathtub in the master bathroom leaked. Here we are in October of 2012, and…

  • Home,  Thoughts

    Remembering Kepler

    Yesterday I was listening to This American Life.  I have not finished listening to the episode because one of the first things Ira Glass said was, “…it involves two scientists, one you have definitely heard of, Galileo, the other you may not know, you may just vaguely recall, he is one of the iconic figures of early astronomy, Johannes Kepler…” That was all I heard before I paused the show, and ran to find Joey and ask if he thought that a large population of people who were unaware of Kepler’s contributions to astronomy and physics actually exists.  Joey agreed with Ira, that many people might not know Kepler, and…

  • Home

    The Mad Tea Party

    A colleague of mine is battling cancer.  One of our former teammates decided to put together a book of fun pictures and get well wishes to cheer him up.  When I got the email soliciting funny photos I started thinking about what photo I should take.  What costumes did I have at home? What silly situations would be easy to set up and photograph? Joey has had the Mad Hatter hat for many years.  He usually wears it for the All Saints’ Mardi Gras celebration.  My aforementioned love of tea means that I have lots of teapots and tea cups.  I decided that a Mad Tea Party was the way…

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    Retiring a teapot

    You may have heard that I like tea.  Love it.  Drink multiple pots of tea most days.  I buy my loose tea at the Tea Embassy here in Austin.  I actually travel with a small travel teapot and a selection of tea, so that I am never forced to drink bad tea. At home I use a white, six-cup, Chatsford teapot.  It is wonderful.  I have had it for many years, approaching a decade, I think.  I keep it inside a tea cozy that I knit for it.  Because of the cozy, you cannot see the actual pot most of the time.  It is not the only teapot I have,…

  • Home

    The Murder of Peaches

    Last year I bought a box of “ugly but tasty” peaches at the end of their season. Joey used them to make Thomas Keller’s Peach Puree recipe from the Lifesavers chapter in Ad Hoc at Home.  He only had enough peaches to make five jars, which were gone very quickly!  This is an amazing substance that is absolutely more than the sum of its parts.  That being said, it can’t hurt to have fantastic and fresh Texas peaches. We determined that we absolutely had to buy more peaches once they were in season again.  We managed to follow through on that promise to ourselves on Saturday as we returned from…

  • Home

    Appendicitis

    Automated muscle pump on right leg. Automated muscle pump on left leg. Automated BP cuff on left arm that sounds like a Donkey Kong machine. Red diode pulse ox sensor clothespined to my left index finger. Nellcore pulse ox sensor taped to my right ring finger. Peripheral cannula (IV heplock) on the back of my right hand (the infusion pump is quite talkative – beeps and lights). Bair Paws hospital gown with integrated climate control. Nasal cannula supplementing my O2. Spent part of my day catheterized & on a ventilator after being filled with IV contrast, measured by a digital scale, and imaged by a laser guided talking magnet table.…

  • Home,  Thoughts

    New poster helps me meet my deadline

    Joey found this poster, and thought I might like to have it for my office. I really love it, and am bummed that I will be out of town, and so will not get to spend time in my office for a whole week! It was good encouragement today. I had a really big deadline for work this week, and I am taking off work tomorrow, so I had to fit everything in today! I managed it, in the end. Tomorrow morning early I am off to Chicago to meet up with Laura, and see her sing. While I was getting ready to take the photo of the poster, Elanor…

  • Debra and Rachel,  Home,  Kay

    Asher in a tree

    Today was my nephew’s third birthday party (his actual birthday was yesterday).  His birthday party was at the Northwest Recreation Center.  My older godson was very excited about attending the party because he remembered that the Northwest Recreation Center is the “park with the climbing tree”.  He actually climbed the tree several times.  I took a few nice pictures, all of which were vetted and approved by their subject. Joey has many more pictures of the party itself, which I am sure he will post in a day or two.

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    Austin Wildflowers

    I’ve paused here and there in the last few days to capture wildflowers and whatnot et cetera as the springtime rolled out. The equinox is behind us and the pollinators know it.

  • Home,  Knitting

    Opal sock yarn at Opal Divine’s

    Joey and I went to Opal Divine’s tonight for dinner.  I decided to try some new beers, so I got a flight of beer, including: Southern Star Blond Bombshell, Thirsty Planet Armadillo Wheat, Circle Brewing Envy Amber, and Southern Star Buried Hatchet Stout.  The two Southern Star beers were by far my favorites.  While we waited for our food, I worked on Mom’s socks, for which I am using yarn called Opal Hundertwasser by Zwerger Garn.  Coincidence?  I think not.

  • Home

    New color for LD and new collar for Elanor

    Today I went to see Anne.  She suggested that we dye my hair really dark and add purple and chartreuse feathers. It just so happens that the colors she suggested exactly match the pair of socks that I am making. I agreed to her idea, and you can see the results. In a previous post I had mentioned that I made a pair of knitted gloves for Anne as a barter. Her end of the bargain was to make a collar for Elanor. You can check out Elanor’s new look in the picture, and you can check out more of Anne’s art on her website.

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    Elanor watches TV

    Elanor loves to chase lights and anything shiny, like the dot from a laser pointer or the light reflected off a mirror. She also likes things that dart around on the television. She will actually watch TV if there are dogs barking or if there is something moving quickly across the screen that catches her eye. Selecting movies on Netflix is one of the things she really likes to watch – she doesn’t much care once we pick the movie, but the actual selection is a blast as far as Elanor is concerned. Happily I had my iPhone handy, and managed to record her antics.

  • Home,  Lee and Billy

    Liam and the dirty sheep

    Several years ago I bought a pair of Haflinger slippers with a sheep on them. The sheep is gray. It started out gray. But Lee and Billy thought that it started out white, and that I just took such bad care of my things that they turned gray from dirt. They didn’t tell me that for a long time, it came out years after the fact. Of course, I still have the sheep slippers. We now refer to the slippers as the “dirty, dirty sheep”. Last week Joey was taking care of Liam and I was working in my home office. Joey, Liam and Elanor came in to visit for…

  • Home,  Megan and Robert,  Sujata and Aaron

    Trip to Austin and visit with friends

    While I was in North Carolina I had a bit of a scratchy throat, and some allergy type symptoms.  Nothing too terrible.  Then I got on a plane and flew home.  While I am glad to be home, the airplane air, and the pressure that flying put on my ears pushed me over into really congested and uncomfortable! I landed back in Austin later than expected due to a delayed flight out of Raleigh-Durham airport this morning.  The flight delay was due to “crew rest”.  Sujata commented on that, “crew rest = hangover”.  In any case, the flight took off late enough that I missed my connection in Dallas, and…

  • Home

    Plumbing revisited

    Joey fixed the drain basket of our kitchen sink a few days ago, as I mentioned in a previous post. A couple of days after that the faucet started leaking a little around its base when we turned the water on. Sunday that small leak turned into a spray, if the faucet was in just the wrong position. Since I am in North Carolina this week, Joey decided to take the opportunity to fix the faucet. I love my husband! He worked really hard,and got it all fixed and put back together. When he turned the water on, the new seal he had put on the main faucet worked perfectly.…

  • Home,  Kay

    Walnut Creek Park

    Kay, Daniel, LisaDiane, Ela, and I went for a walk through Walnut Creek Metro Park this afternoon.  Ela was almost invisible as she led Daniel through the tall grass.

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    So I had an orange at lunch…

    … and I cut it open. Across the axis of the orange. And it looked like this: A little strange. So I cut open another just to check. Cut across the same axis as before. Same kind of orange from the same box at HEB. The second orange looked like all of the other oranges I’ve eaten this week. Here is a picture of the two oranges next to each other. And some video of the oranges 🙂 Unexpected appearance, and both oranges were tasty.

  • Home

    Breakfast delayed and plumbing repaired

    This morning Joey got up early and cleaned the kitchen.  He also prepped for making breakfast.  We had planned to have scrambled eggs with spinach and sausage yesterday morning, but the universe intervened. Tuesday night while Joey was doing the dishes, we noticed a puddle of water near the sink.  Upon investigation, Joey discovered that the seal between the sink and the drain basket had failed.  It was fairly late, so Joey had to wait until the next morning to get the supplies he needed to finish the repair.  The fix was pretty inexpensive, thanks to the fact that Joey is extremely handy at home repairs!  Also, Joey got to…

  • Home,  Lee and Billy

    Salt crystals

    Joey and Lee had vestry responsibilities at church, so Billy, Liam, and I hung out together for the evening.  Once Joey and Lee got to our house, we had steak, asparagus, salad, and salt potatoes (see recipe below) for dinner. If you have never had salt potatoes, don’t let the amount of salt freak you out.  The large amount of salt changes the boiling point of the water enough that the texture of the cooked potato is quite different than regular boiled potatoes.  The skin gets a nice salty crust, and the inside is creamy and smooth.  Although you can serve salt potatoes with a meal as we did, they…

  • Home

    Old huck, new huck, yellow huck, blue huck

    Elanor has several toys made of natural rubber from West Paw Designs.  She loves them; she fetches them and chews on them.  Joey and I are fond of them because, despite the fact that Elanor is quite a strong chewer, it takes her a long time to even put a dent in them.  One of her toys is a oddly shaped ball called a ‘huck’.  We sometimes play outside, and the huck was left outside at some point.  It got quite gross.  Sunday after church Joey decided to clean up the huck.  He washed it, but it still had some nasty black stuff on it.  He decided to boil it,…

  • Home,  Kat and Ross,  Misty and Brian

    Seder Plate

    Years ago Kathlyne and Ross invited Joey and me to celebrate the Passover Seder with them. I want to say it was the spring of 2000, but I could be wrong. Celebrating Passover became a tradition. Joey and I would go up to Fort Worth, or Kat and Ross would come down to Austin. We invited others to join us over the years. Sujata, Troy, Christinne, Kay, Lindsay, Don, Misty, Brian, Robert, Laura, Jason, and probably some other folks I am forgetting joined us one year or another. When Ross and Kat got married in January 2001, I found a beautiful crystal Seder plate. It was awesome. We used it…

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    KatyDog

    I posted about KatyDog just after her fifteenth birthday.  MadPriest posted a comment requesting pictures of the old lady.  That was right around the time that Etherlimits was taken off line, so I was not able to post the photos until now. Many of you already know that KatyDog passed away in the very early morning on 28 November 2010.  She lived a wonderful long life.  She was fairly active and quite happy right up until the day she died.  Joey and I were with her when she passed.  She added so much to our lives over the thirteen years she was with us.  I cannot imagine our family without…

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    Fawkes

    My personal computer is a mac.  I have had one since 2004.  Joey built me an iMac out of five dead iMacs.  Because my computer was revived from previous incarnations, I decided to name him Fawkes, after the phoenix from the Harry Potter universe. The original body was a bubble iMac G3.  Joey upgraded his computer, Mindy, to a new body in 2007, and Fawkes got upgraded to the 12-inch, G4 Powerbook body.  Only a few months later we realized that the USB 1 port was an untenable way to sync my iPhone, so we upgraded Fawkes body to a G4 mac mini, which had a USB 2 port. Fawkes…

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    Etherlimits is back!

    Joey moved Etherlimits to a new host site today.  Some of the pictures for the older posts have not migrated yet, but Joey is working on fixing that situation. He also updated it to the latest version of WordPress.  You may not see much difference in the site, but the tools for posting are updated and much slicker than they were.  Also, there is a WordPress app for the iPhone, which I could not use while we were on the old version of WordPress, but it should work now.  I need to download it and set it up, but hopefully I will be able to post from my iPhone some…

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    Katy’s Quinceanera

    Today is Katy’s fifteenth birthday.  Katy’s adoption papers say that she was born in October 1995.  We never knew the exact date, but when I adopted her, I decided we would mark her birthday on 12 October.  Mainly because 12 October was my Grandma Hope’s birthday, so it seemed like an auspicious date.  Grandma Hope would have been 95 years old today. We considered throwing a big party for Katy, but since her response to big parties is to run off to sleep in my office, we dropped that plan.  Two weeks ago we we bumped into Alexis, our friend who adopted Katy from the shelter, at Pho Saigon while…

  • Abroad,  Germany,  Home,  Netherlands

    Home again

    Joey and I made it back to Austin late on 22 September.  We had a fabulous trip to The Netherlands and Germany. You can check out some of the early pictures in Joey’s Collection on Flickr. He has not yet posted the second half of the trip.  Once everything is up, I will post my favorites here on Etherlimits. [Done :-)] Thank you to everyone who helped us out while we were out of the country!  Katy and Elanor appreciate all the people who looked after them, and send wags and kisses.

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Kay

    Play doh monsters

    Kay and Daniel came to visit us yesterday.  We felt very lucky to see them before our trip to Amsterdam!  Daniel played with the blue ball, and zoomed his race car around on the floor.  He really got a kick out of making it drive under the couch, and then moving the couch.  He actually moved it on his own several times – strong kiddo! At some point Kay pulled out the play doh that they had brought with them.  Joey, Kay, and Daniel all played with the play doh (I was finishing my breakfast so that I could go to work).  Joey made several sea creatures with his play…

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    Early Birthday Present

    [singlepic=2124,320,240,,left]Joey and I both got original iPhones back in the fall of 2007.  At some point mine died, and I replaced it with a 3G.  Joey’s contract came up on his original phone, and he got a 3GS about a year ago. With the most recent software update, my 3G phone began moving at a snails pace, and I was pretty frustrated with it.  Joey, thoughtful and insightful man that he is, got me a new iPhone 4 for my birthday.  I have been having a great time with my new toy, it performs so much better than the old one!  The photos of the Nicoise Salad were actually taken…

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Knitting,  Lee and Billy

    Delayed Shrug

    Last summer I made Lee a shrug for her birthday. I almost finished an entire sleeve before I realized that it would be big enough for two of her. I ripped the whole thing out – this is called “frogging” in the knitting world because you rip it, rip it.  I started again, but was disheartened by the set back, and took a LONG time to finish it.  Her birthday is in July.  I finally delivered it in November. The first time I saw her wear it I realized that the back was too broad.  This was my own fault.   I totally did not trust the pattern (in my defense,…

  • Debra and Rachel,  Friends and Family,  Home

    Dinner at Chuy’s

    Yesterday afternoon I suddenly realized that if Joey and I did not connect with the Serrins/Springfield clan that very evening, then we would not get a chance to see them before we leave town.  I called up Rachel and asked if we could meet them for dinner.  Thank goodness they were free!  We had a delicious meal at Chuy’s, and we had a great time visiting.  The kids really liked this stand-up of the Beatles, and I managed to get a picture of each of them. Rachel and my goddaughter taught me a song that Rachel wrote for the kids.  The lyrics are: There was a lamb, his name was…

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    Baggage

    [singlepic=2126,320,240,,left]I have a lot of baggage when it comes to packing (pun totally intended – I am an Etheredge after all).  Now normally I am totally willing to shoulder the blame for my crazy behavior, and I am willing to concede that my need for everything to be a certain way has added to the packing issues, but some of this is on my folks. My parents worked amazingly hard to provide Laura and me opportunities to travel in a way that would be fun and educational.  They encouraged us to be curious about new places and experiences.  They demanded that we sample all food that was put in front…

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Lee and Billy,  Lindsay and Don,  Misty and Brian

    Birthday Cake, aka – if you DO have a flame thrower…

    Billy and Lee offered to host an early birthday dinner for me, since I will spend my birthday in Europe. We decided to combine the dinner with our regular Twenties and Thirties Design Team evening. Misty, Brian, and their boys, Don, Lindsay, Eric, Daniel, Lee, Billy and Liam were all there. Misty made some fantastic appetizers: asparagus frittata, potato frittata and cheesy poofs (not their real name, but we have to go with the South Park reference). Billy and Lee cooked spare ribs. Lindsay and Don made a lovely spinach salad. We all took turns holding Liam. Don was the only person who got caught on film! He had a…

  • Home

    Niçoise Salad

    Joey found some beautiful Ahi tuna at the grocery store today. He looked around for a tasty and healthy recipe to use the tuna for. He decided to make Nicoise Salad. It had kalamata olives, shallots, Italian parsley, tomatoes, green beans, boiled egg whites, and tuna. Joey also made a shallot and mustard dressing which he used to marinate the tuna before grilling it. It was a fantastic meal! Thanks, Joey!

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    Elanor earns her keep

    Joey has been working on recovering some files from an old iMac for a client. He also has several other machines in the house that he is working on for other clients. All the usual places for setting up a computer were occupied, so he put the iMac in the living room on the stone bench next to the fireplace. The mouse and keyboard were on the floor. Elanor sticks pretty close to either Joey or me during the day, so naturally she followed Joey into the living room.  She was just chilling out on the floor next to Joey until she noticed the red light that flashed on the…

  • Home

    Random image on 11-Aug-2010

    As I have mentioned before, Etherlimits has a random image widget that pulls up photos from the archive.  Occationally it brings up things that are really funny, and I share them.  This photo is from our Anniversary in 2007. I have no memory of what I am applauding with my lighter…  I am glad to say that I remember the party, and I remember the events at the end of the party, so my lack of memory seems to be related to time passing, or age, rather than too much alcohol! It is possible that I am proving that I am able to light a lighter. I know that sounds…

  • Home

    Long absence

    I haven’t been posting this spring and summer because Joey keeps threatening to upgrade Etherlimits, and I didn’t want to contribute to the amount of work he has to do.  However, he assures me that I can go ahead and post until he is actually ready to do the work, so Etherlimits is back for awhile…

  • Home

    Snow in Austin

    My favorite weather man, Jim Spencer, informed us last night that there would be a big system moving through central Texas, and that we had a 90% chance of precipitation, and that it might be snow or sleet. I was up early this morning, and it was cold and dry when I left the house.  By the time I got done at the gym it was raining.  I did a few errands, and while I was driving it started sleeting. After I got home, and cleaned up, it began “snowing”.  It definitely was not sleet, but it also was not snow flake shaped.  Joey said it was raining snow cone…

  • Elanor,  Friends and Family,  Home,  Sujata and Aaron

    Looking after Boston and Lola

    Aaron and Sujata had to go to San Antonio for several days, and they asked us to look after their two dogs Boston and Lola (she was a show girl). Boston is a basset/springer spaniel mix, about four years old.  Lola is a basset/rottweiler mix, about eight months old.  They are both very cute!  I love it when they sit or stand facing you, their paws look like they are in ballet first position. Lola, Elanor and Boston have been having a great time wrestling and playing in the backyard. Four dogs all at once is a bit of chaos, and feeding time is quite a circus, but we happy…

  • Friends and Family,  George and Nancy,  Home,  Jacob,  Kay,  Laura and Jason,  Lee and Billy,  Ted and Becky,  Troy

    Survived the Holiday Season

    We did not take many pictures this year.  No, not even Joey!  Lee took this one of us together with the dogs on the night we put up our Christmas tree. We went to the Mercado Christmas celebration with Grandma Margaret on 24 December.  We had a lovely Christmas Day meal with the Lupa/Carlson clan, Joan Jones, and the Reads.  It was pot luck, so we didn’t have to do too much cooking, but we wound up with all the leftovers.  Yum!  Joey did make plum pudding, and it was a hit. George and Nancy joined us late in the evening on Christmas Day.  We went to breakfast with the…

  • Home

    Still down for the count

    I have strep throat.  It is annoying and painful.  I can still talk, but my voice is coming and going… getting worse as the week goes on. I had a dry cough on Friday evening, which turned into a scratchy throat late Friday night.  I drank some hot tea, used the neti pot, and took vitamin C.  All of which I have been doing for the last several weeks anyway. Saturday I felt like death.  Joey and I had agreed to look after Misty and Bryan’s kids all day Saturday.  They came over early in the morning.  They were fantastic, and entertained themselves, which was great because I was really…

  • Elanor,  Home

    Elanor trees a racoon

    Elanor loves to stare up at the sky.  Sometimes she chases and barks at things she sees as she looks up.  Today she managed to spot a baby racoon. Not only that, she cornered it up the utility pole.  She was insanely proud of herself. When we convinced her to come inside, she pranced around the house showing off. The next time I let her out in the yard, she ran back over to sit and stare up at the racoon, who was still on the pole! Actually, she managed to keep it up there all day.  It was still on the pole when we closed up the house tonight. 

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Lee and Billy,  Ted and Becky

    Ginger Dogs

    Recently Joey and I have been going to a great bakery that is just on the other side of I-35 from our house.  The bakery is called Pablito’s.  It is a family owned business.  They have awesome empanadas, pan dulce, and all kinds of other baked goods as well.  Joey really likes eating baked goods for breakfast, and their prices are so good that it is reasonable to go there frequently. My favorite item at Pablito’s is a ginger/molasses cookie in the shape of a pig.  The ginger pig is soft, and not very sweet – more like bread than a cookie.  About a week ago, it dawned on me…

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Lee and Billy,  Sujata and Aaron

    Changes at the House on Hornsby Street

    Several people have given Joey and me grief over the years about our lack of furniture.  Joey is not fond of stop gap measures, even when the “gap” is five years (amount of time we have owned our house) or eleven years (amount of time we have been married), so we still have the same furniture today we inherited when my folks moved to Pennsylvania! We know what kind of furniture we would like to purchase, but somehow it is never the top priority. Sujata and Aaron have decided that Joey is morally opposed to coffee tables.  I do not think he hates them, but he does not have a…

  • Home,  Lee and Billy

    Mighty Cones!

    Right after we got back from El Paso, Lee had a birthday. Billy and I went down to Hill Country Weavers to get her a present. Since I was on vacation, I slept late, and had not eaten breakfast or lunch when Billy came to pick me up to go shopping. We had fun in the yarn store, well, I did, and Billy worked on not killing me for taking so long. By the time we were done we had worked up an appetite! Next to Hill Country Weavers is a vacant lot, and over the past couple of years, the lot has begun to fill with food vendors. Billy…

  • Home

    Elanor sits for Cesar Milan

    I love to watch cop dramas on TV.  I tend to like shows with a monster-of-the-week format rather than serialized interpersonal relationship driven shows.  Many of you are familiar with my long running love of Law and Order. I have recently begun watching Bones in re-runs on TNT.  Usually I watch during my lunch break, or right after I finish with my work day. Elanor frequently sits next to me while I watch.  She has shown interest in the TV in the past, chasing small objects that bounce across the screen, or looking up when there are dogs barking. Today she saw Cesar Milan for the first time. My dad…

  • Home

    Ramona Mercado, Age 4

    Many years ago, I estimate about 25 years, my Grandma Margaret made me a doll.  Actually she has made me several over the years, but the one I am talking about is a very large doll, about the size of a four year old.  When I got the doll, I was reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary.  I named my doll after the character in the book.  Ramona went everywhere with me for quite a long time, and she lived in my room for even longer. When I went off to college Ramona stayed with my mom and dad.  She moved from San Antonio, to Houston, to Austin,…

  • Exercise,  Home,  Thoughts

    Successful cleanse and new resolutions

    Some people make resolutions in January.  I have waited until June.  Either I am very behind on the resolution making for 2009, or very early for 2010 – take your pick. I did a cleanse under the supervision of my acupuncturist at the end of May.  It was not one of the starve yourself and drink a mixture of honey, lemon juice and water cleanses – I literally could not stomach that!  This cleanse requires you to eat fruit, raw or very lightly cooked vegetables, vegetable broth, fruit and vegetable juices.  You are actually supposed to drink as much of the liquid as you can hold, so you feel oddly…

  • Home

    Long Silence

    I have not posted during the past couple of weeks, but I am alive and well!  It took me quite some time to get my feet back under me when I got home from Singapore.  First was the exhaustion of the trip itself, and then I got hit with a stomach bug of some sort. And for the record, no, it was NOT the swine flu!  My co-worker, Albert, actually raises pigs, and he expressed to me his frustration that everyone keeps calling it swine flu, and that people think it is linked to eating pork!  Thank goodness that is not true, or Billy and I would be doomed to…

  • Home

    The First Carousel of Slides

    Last fall I had some free time and it looked like I was going to have access to a slide scanner. I mentioned this to Papa and sent me a few carousels of slides from his collection. And then access to the scanner went on hold. So I’ve had this closet full of slides for a few months and no real plan for dealing with them. I mention this b/c last week I had access to another scanner, picked a carousel at random and got to work digitizing slides. The scanner produced good results. I posted them to Facebook and Flickr earlier tonight. They are restricted to Friends and Family.…

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Kay

    My Nephew

    Kay and Daniel came over to visit for a while today. We went to Tacodeli and spent some time hanging out in the deep grass in the back yard. That boy is super-cute.

  • Home,  Texas

    The Ruby Jane Show at Central Market

    Friday night Lee and I went to see the Ruby Jane Show at Central Market. They were spectacular. We were treated to some blue-ribbon bluegrass and high-spirited fiddle work as Ruby Jane Smith led her band through a set of original songs and standards. The cafe was standing room only as about 400 people crowded in to enjoy the music, but somehow I managed to take a picture when only a few people were between our table and the stage. Ruby Jane’s fiddle work was wicked splendid, her exchanges with the crowd and her band were warm and charming, and her smile was electric. If you’ve not had a chance…

  • Home

    Shoe Shopping!

    … but not for me.  I realize that is a shocker! Joey does not like to buy things for himself.  It usually takes some convincing and then you have to wait.  After he has processed the idea of spending money on himself for long enough, he will either go buy the thing, or ask me to join him to shop for whatever it is. Joey’s shoes have been in a sad state for several months.  He has his favorite pairs that are all extremely worn out – on their last leg, if you will.  Also, we had been talking for years about getting him a pair of boots. This past…

  • Elanor,  Home

    Hiking with Elanor on Wells Branch

    We take Elanor to the park very often.  She runs back and forth sniffing everything.  She swims, or jumps around in the water.  She plays with other dogs we meet along the way.  She chases lizards and craw-fish. We usually hike in Walnut Creek Park. The park has three creeks: Walnut Creek, Tar Branch, and Wells Branch. Tar Branch and Wells Branch both empty into Walnut Creek, and then Walnut Creek flows out of the park, and eventually to the Colorado River. We usually play in Tar Branch and Walnut Creek upstream of the point where Wells Branch joins Walnut Creek. On this particular trip we went down to Wells…

  • Friends and Family,  Home

    Weekend outings

    Joey and I had a great weekend.  It was an amazing mix of relaxation and seeing friends. Upon expressing my amazement at how relaxed I felt,  Joey told me that ‘normal people’ (by this I assume he means people not raised in the Mercado house) have weekends like the one we had all the time.  I am skeptical. Here is the run down: Friday evening and Satruday – I was at Camp Allen for the ECW Spiritual Growth retreat.Saturday night – Dinner with Megan and Robert at Taj PalaceSunday – Sunday School in the morning, nap, reading my book, and lunch.Sunday afternoon – Hike with Megan and Robert, and Megan’s…

  • Home

    Household Projects

    Joey has been tearing through the household projects lately… He finished all the wiring for the ethernet in the house, and rearranged the access points – there are many small businesses that have less complicated networks that we have!  Cable modem, wireless router, several access points to ensure that the wireless network covers the entire house and back porch, several switches, and ethernet jacks in six rooms. Next he tackled the phone jacks.  When we moved in there was ONE phone jack in the entire house.  Now there are working phone jacks in my office, the guest room, our bedroom, and the kitchen.  Not that there are phones plugged into…

  • Cali,  Elanor,  Home

    Valentine Dogs

    Elanor and Cali asked me to post this picture. They wanted to share their kisses with everyone. Happy Valentine’s Day from LisaDiane, Joey, Katy, Elanor, and Cali!

  • Debra and Rachel,  Elanor,  Friends and Family,  Home

    Day with Asher

    Today Asher came over to my house to play for a few hours.  Rachel and Debra were able to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which they said was very good, if very long. Asher and I played with his encyclopedia.  We read about Alcohol, Alexander the Great, and many other “A” words. We put together the Latin America puzzle, in alphabetical order, of course!  We spent much of our time looking at my atlas, which, according to Asher, “will tell us where we are”. We looked up Andora in the index.  He noticed that not only did the index give a page number, it also gave numbers…

  • Elanor,  Home

    “Helping”

    Elanor thought she would help Joey wash all the blankets and sheets from our guest rooms, but I don’t know how helpful she was… …cute she has covered!

  • Home

    Troubled waters

    I am really feeling out of sorts.  I was sick at the end of last week, and that put me off my game.  I had not really recovered from the combination of the holidays, house guests, and surprise travel anyway.  I did manage to do my laundry, which is something, but I still feel like my house is a disaster area.  I know many of you think I am crazy, and I realize that the standard that I hold for ‘clean’ is really different than most people.  But that does not diminish the feeling that my house is an unorganized pit with a ton of dog fur on everything. I…

  • Home,  Thoughts

    Inauguration Day

    I feel like I should say something thoughtful and deep to commemorate this day.  I cannot think of anything particularly meaningful.  Joey and I did watch the inauguration live on TV this morning.  I enjoyed President Obama’s speech, especially, “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.” I am hopeful about the future.  I realize that change is slow, and the expectations placed on President Obama are high, but the beauty of hope is that it can survive the most dire situations.  Hope can exist when all else is lost, and, while we are in difficult times, all is not lost. I hope President Obama can…

  • Debra and Rachel,  Elanor,  Exercise,  Friends and Family,  Home,  Laura and Jason,  Ted and Becky

    9th day of Christmas

    Laura and I started the morning with a trip to the gym.  We took a Body Pump class.  Laura did great, and even got a compliment on her performance from the lady standing behind her.  The class was at the Hester’s Crossing gym, and I decided I don’t like the group exercise room as much as I like the one at Tech Ridge.  It is much harder to see the teacher, and I am uncoordinated enough to really need to see the teacher!  It was a good class, and we got a great workout. After our workout, Laura and I dropped by to see Rachel, Asher, and Chiara.  Asher was…

  • Debra and Rachel,  Elanor,  Friends and Family,  Home,  Kay,  Laura and Jason,  Lee and Billy,  Lindsay and Don,  Misty and Brian,  Ted and Becky,  Troy

    New Year’s Day

    Yesterday Joey and I hosted our tenth annual New Year’s Day party.  A great group of people showed up!  We ate hoppin’ john, bean soup, and sausage balls (aka meat cookies).  Dad, Asher, Laura and Joey decorated the garage and side walk with chalk.  The Etheredge siblings were all present, and our nephew Daniel was charming, as usual.  Chiara played with Elanor.  Lee and Billy brought their friend Melissa, who talked physics with Dad, and then discussed opera with Laura and Alissa!  We finished the evening with a round of Apples to Apples.  In short, it was a wonderful day, a perfect start to 2009.

  • Elanor,  Home,  Kay,  Lee and Billy,  Ted and Becky,  Troy

    Etheredge Christmas – the third day

    On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me… family, a bell mishap, and a shopping trip. Troy, Kay, Andrew, and Daniel all came over to our house for breakfast on Saturday, 27 December.  Andrew and Dad cooked eggs and sausage.  Joey made sticky buns and hot sauce (not to be eaten together, those are just the things he prepared).  Everyone sat down and we really enjoyed the meal.  Next we opened our presents. I got a perfume, and framed picture of Joey and me from Joey.  Troy gave us a copy of his wedding video, and a gift card to Alamo Drafthouse.  Kay, Andrew and Daniel…

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Lee and Billy,  Troy

    Christmas Eve, and the first day

    Many of you know that I absolutely insist on Christmas being celebrated during the actual twelve days, and Christmas Eve.  Joey and I usually set up our tree on Christmas Eve or the eve of Christmas Eve.  This year we set it up on Tuesday, 23 December, 2008.  Lee and Billy joined us.  Lee helped me hang the lights.  Joey made hot chocolate.  We got the tree up and decorated in record time. On Christmas Eve Joey and I slept late, and then got up and did some chores around the house.  Joey put up the lights on the exterior of the house.  Then we drove down to San Antonio…

  • Elanor,  Home,  Katy

    Backyard Project

    And in the fourth winter Joey said, “let there be grass”, and there was grass, and it was good.  Ok, well, there is not grass yet, mainly mud… let me back up. When we moved into the house four years ago, the backyard was all weeds.  We never minded much.  KatyDog was thrilled to have a backyard at all.  She didn’t complain about the lack of grass.  Also, since she mainly likes to find a sunny spot and lie down, she did not really put to much stress on the vegetation that was there when we moved in.  The horrific drought, on the other hand, really did a number on…

  • Home

    Hair – December 2005

    Love your locks? Trouble with your tresses? Can’t make up your mind? We can fleece your mop or coif your do – or just laser it away. These ads were posted at a north Austin restaurant.

  • Friends and Family,  Home

    Our New House – July 2004

    LisaDiane and I have spent the last few weeks unpacking boxes and settling into our new house. Many little household adventures have come and gone (there was a laundry sink saga – eight Lowe’s receipts in one day) and we are beginning to feel settled. We are hosting a baby shower at our house this weekend, so we will make one more push to get the last of the pictures hung before Friday. Click on these pictures to see some more photos of the house.