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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…
- Abroad, El Paso, Fort Davis, Glacier National Park, Logan, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, Zion National Park
Summer 2012 Vacation Highlights
Joey has finished posting all of the photos from our vacation this summer. We drove about 5000 miles, through eight states, and visited four National Parks. Check out the map below for details of our drive: Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip. Below you can find the links to all of the photos, which, if you know Joey, you know there are lots of pictures! Here are some of Joey’s Flickr Albums from the trip:
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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Smile when it hurts
Several weeks ago Billy and I began attending Body Pump classes at Gold’s Gym. A couple of our teachers mentioned that they enjoyed having me in class because I smiled all the time. One of the teachers even noted that I seemed to smile more during the harder parts of the workout. After hearing these observations, I began thinking about why I smiled during Body Pump classes. The most obvious reason is that I enjoy the class, which has upbeat pop music and movements matched to the beat of the songs. There is a large group of people participating, and an instructor shouting instructions and motivation throughout. All of the…
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The Physics of a Yarn Stash
So a few days ago, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) posted about the troubles that knitters might encounter when packing for a trip (pretty much it boils down to not enough yarn, or incorrect tools for working with the yarn you have). There are two obvious solutions: carry huge volumes of knitting related items with you at all times or purchase new knitting items while traveling. I engage in both of these behaviors. The latter often leads to the increase in the volume of the yarn stash. One of the comments on Stephanie’s blog was extremely amusing to me, and I just had to re-post it. It seemed to…
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Waterlogged afternoon
Sujata and Aaron invited us over to meet Elias Aaron Camp, the newest member of their family on Sunday. We took BBQ and went over for the afternoon. We played with Satchel and held Elias. We took a dip in the totally awesome salt water swimming pool. As we were getting out of the pool, the weather went from lovely to quite threatening, with loud thundering. The party moved inside, where we ate dinner, talked, and watched Thomas the Train. By the time we left, the sky had opened up and was pouring rain. Joey got us home safely and pretty quickly given the weather. I am really looking forward…
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Exercise: 02 Feb – 16 Jul 2012 Recap
I have been on Weight Watchers since February 2012. I have lost almost 25 pounds, which I am pretty excited about. I want to lose roughly 25 more pounds. My exercise regimen has been less consistent than I would have liked. I was working out about 3 times per week during February and March. I started hiking about 3 times per week with Laura and Elanor in March, and that has pretty much continued since, with the exception of times when I was out of town. Two weeks before we left for our trip to Yellowstone, I added Body Pump and yoga to the hiking. I did 11 workouts during…
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The Place of Etherlimits
Ever since my impromptu post the other night, I have been considering how I want Etherlimits to fit into my constellation of social media. I have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I have been working at consistently reading the information that flows to me from these outlets. Although I do post to each of them on occasion, especially while I am traveling, I have never felt that I am very good at distilling my thoughts down to 140 characters. I am not sure I have anything to say that would be that interesting to others… so why do I hang onto Etherlimits? If I don’t have…
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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…
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Lazy Saturday Morning
Today I am off to Munich, Germany for work with two of my colleagues. Next week we will be showing off the new database for the first time to end-users who have not been involved in the design of the system. I really hope they like it! Since I had to be in Wilmington for SME Week, it was cheaper and less crazy to simply stay over in Wilmington on Friday night and travel with Aaron and Albert from Wilmington to Munich, rather than try to go back to Austin for 24 hours. I am very pleased with my decision to schedule my travel this way. It meant I got…
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SME Week
My project at work has really picked up. We are working on figuring out what topics people will need to be trained on related to the new database that is being built. My team spent the week in Wilmington, NC, meeting with Subject Matter Experts. We had back to back meetings all week (organized beautifully by my team member, Jessica). We began calling it “SME Week”. We made a lot of progress, but all the work this week highlighted how much more there is to do between now and our go-live date, which will be toward the end of the year. I did manage to have some fun while I…
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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…
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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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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.
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10 Year Anniversary
2011 is the tenth year that I have been with my company. I started working as a temp for my current company in January 2001. I was hired on as a full time employee on 09 April 2001. So my official anniversary is in a couple more weeks, but my team celebrated a little early. My friend Amy made a slide show with pictures of me, and quotes from my colleagues about me. My manager had flowers delivered, 10 irises, one for each year. The iris color is almost the same as my company’s logo color. My team sent a box of cupcakes – they even knew to order yellow…
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Elanor and Cali guard Joey’s office
Cali came to stay with us this week, since Lee and Billy were out of town. She and Elanor actually shared the green dog bed for a bit, while they guarded the door to Joey’s office.
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St. Patrick’s Day in Wilmington
Julie invited me to join her and her husband at their favorite Irish Pub, Harp, for St. Patrick’s Day. It did not take much convincing, and shortly after work, we were standing outside the pub watching people play the bagpipes. As we approached the pub, I noticed that Dr. Who had also traveled to Wilmington for St. Patrick’s Day, as the TARDIS was parked outside the pub. I got a kick out of hearing people walking by asking, “What is a Police Public Call Box?” I never spotted The Doctor, but I am sure he was there somewhere. We drank green beer, and ate bangers and mash. We hung out…
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Wilmington Walk
Whenever I am in Wilmington, NC, and the weather is nice, I like to walk down the boardwalk that runs along the Cape Fear River. It was quite warm this time, and the first spring flowers had started to bloom. The night blooming jasmine in one garden I passed was just opening up, and it smelled fantastic. I was inspired to take out my camera and snap a few pictures of things I saw on my walk.
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Arriving in North Carolina
I traveled to North Carolina from Baltimore today. I landed in Research Triangle Park, or RTP to those of us who frequent the area, which is between Raleigh and Durham, NC, at around noon. I met up with some colleagues from the RTP office and we went to Neomonde Baking Company Cafe for lunch. Neomonde’s is a favorite stop of mine. I really love middle eastern food, and these folks know how to do it right. After a yummy lunch, I spent a few hours working in the RTP office, and then drove down to Wilmington. My friend and colleague, Amy, had told me that, of the nights I will…
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Shopping with Mom and Laura
My dad had surgery on his back yesterday. My sister, Laura, and I came up to Maryland to be with my mom and dad for a few days. The surgery went very well, and Dad is resting and recovering. After visiting with Dad today, Mom, Laura and I went over to the mall and went shopping. Laura tried on some fancy gowns. She found a beautiful gown that looked amazing on her. Hopefully some wonderful patron will read this post and donate the money necessary to make the purchase. We left the gown on the rack, but I did get a picture. We shopped for a purse for mom, and…
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Mardi Gras at All Saints’
Six years ago our priest, Father Mike, began a tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras at All Saints’ on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Previously we had celebrated the day as Shrove Tuesday, and held a pancake supper to raise money for the Episcopal Youth Community (EYC) mission trip. Father Mike is from Louisiana, and he explained to all of us, that there was a better way to celebrate! We have a parade. Families create floats, kids decorate their bicycles, people dress up with crazy hats, and everyone wears lots of beads. After the parade we go into the parish hall and have our pancake supper. Three years ago Father Mike…
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Socks finished! On to the next pair…
I finished the socks I have been working on for the past week. I am wearing them right now. They are wonderful and cozy, and they match the feathers in my hair. What could be better? Elanor and Joey helped me take the pictures. I have started the gauge swatch for my mom’s socks. She picked out some self-striping sock yarn while we were in Germany, and now I will turn it into a groovy pair of socks. Self-striping yarn is always fun to knit with. I feel so accomplished, even though I know it isn’t my skill that makes the stripes happen. This particular yarn is especially cool because…
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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.
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Knitting progress and a trip to Gauge
I made great progress on my sock. I have finished the first one. I will cast on the second one tomorrow. Rachel and I hung out this afternoon and evening. We had a great time. We spent a couple of hours at Gauge picking out yarn for some projects that Rachel wants to do. We found tons of awesome yarn, but we finally managed to narrow it down. Then we spent quite a while trying to wind the yarn wound into cakes, but it was not very cooperative! Rachel managed to figure out its secret, and then we got it into shape! After the yarn store we went over to…
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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…
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Liam at the Grocery Store
I got Liam a onesie with a picture of a dump truck, and the words “Tipper Lorry” on it at the Brooklyn Flea back in July. It was way to big for him at that time, and he has finally gotten big enough to wear it. Billy sent me this photo while I was traveling yesterday.
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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…
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Travel knitting
I had some time on my trip to North Carolina to do some knitting. I had made great progress on Liam’s hat over the last week, and on the plane I got the body of the hat finished. I am a little worried that it will be too small for Liam. He has an 18 inch head. My head is only three inches bigger than that, and I have 35 years on him! I will try it on him when I get home. I will keep it in any case. If it doesn’t fit Liam, I am sure it will fit someone with a less giant head. I also got…
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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.…
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Organizing the stash
Yesterday I spent time organizing my stash of yarn. I pulled everything out of the closet. I re-wound a bunch of yarn that had been partially used, or squished out of shape. Then I took pictures of all the yarn individually, and added it all to my stash list on Ravelry. Not a small project, but I am so happy to have it done!
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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…
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Chuy’s and a Pub Quiz
Joey and I had a big social afternoon and evening. We started off joining Rachel, Debra, Asher, and Chiara at Chuy’s for a dinner and a lovely visit. Asher was wearing the shirt I brought him from Japan, and Chiara was wearing a hat that I made for her. I felt very special! Joey, however, was the favored guest because he gave Chiara a new copy of They Might Be Giants Here Come the ABCs. Years ago we took a copy of the original DVD so that we had a copy for the kids to watch at our house. The original had since gotten lost, and Joey made a copy…
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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…
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Finishitupitis
As you most likely know, I love to knit. Like many knitters, I occasionally, all right, possibly more than occasionally, come down with starter-itis. This is a disease that leads the knitter to get extremely excited about starting projects. Then the knitter has all kinds of unfinished finished objects (UFOs – to steal a cute name from the Yarn Harlot) lying around. A few weeks ago, one of my favorite writers, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot, posted on her blog about a related disease that could actually counter starter-itis – finishitupitis. She describes the symptoms in her post. Basically (because I know, despite the fact that you totally should,…
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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,…
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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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No, you cannot log into your own blog
Back in at the end of 2010 Joey did a bunch of work to get Etherlimits transferred to the latest version of WordPress. The day he finished, I posted to share that news with the world. I was so excited! The update was done just in time for the new year, and I was thinking how awesome it was that I could start the new year with a blank page, so to speak. Etherlimits had other ideas. I could not log in. I could visit the public side of Etherlimits, but when I went to the log in screen and entered my user name and password the screen would just…
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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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Burke and Michele sitting in a tree…
I just got an e-mail from Burke, and I must tell the universe… After ten years together, Burke and Michele got married on Sunday, 10 October 2010! The opening line of his e-mail was, “Since 10/10/10 is 42 [in binary], it seemed like a good day to elope. So we did! I *KNOW*! I was surprised, too!” Congrats and best wishes to the newlyweds!
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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…
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SoCRA
I dashed off to Dallas on Friday for the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SoCRA) Annual Conference, where I gave a presentation on Audit Readiness. The conference was really great, with many good speakers and interesting topics. I got to stay at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, and had a room on the thirty-first floor! An added benefit of the trip to Dallas was getting to hang out with Laura and Jason the day after their return from Amsterdam. I drove up to Denton to see them. Naturally I asked to go to Sweetwater for ceviche, and Beth Marie’s for ice cream. Reading that sentence, it dawns on me that beer,…
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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.
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
- Abroad, Brooklyn, Friends and Family, Laura and Jason, Lisa and Tim, Manhattan, Massachusetts, New York, Tanglewood, Ted and Becky
More pictures from NY Trip – July 2010
Joey posted his pictures from our trip to New York and Tanglewood to Flickr. Lisa added more pictures to her NYC Staycation 2010 photo set on Flickr. Lisa’s pictures include some great photos of Laura singing at Tanglewood. Here is Joey’s album:
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Tanglewood – Summer 2010
My sister, Laura, spent the summer at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, MA. She was one of the handful of vocal fellows who were invited to participate in the festival. During our time visiting Brooklyn, NY, Joey and I traveled with Lisa to Lenox, which is in the Berkshires. Lisa commented that the trip to Tanglewood made our experience of New York City in the summer very authentic – extreme heat and humidity, several days of riding the subway and pounding the pavement, and then an escape to the much cooler country! Tanglewood is an amazing place. It has all kinds of musical artists: instrumentalists, singers, composers, and conductors. …
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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…
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Brooklyn, New York – July 2010
Joey and I went to visit our cousins, Lisa and Tim, in Brooklyn, NY. We also got to spend time with our dear friends, Burke and Michele. We ate our way through New York, and walked across the rest of it (to make up for all the calories we ate). Lisa actually took the week off work to show us around. We fell in love with the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn. Tim and I took a Saturday morning jog in Prospect Park, which is just a few blocks from Tim and Lisa’s place. We had a totally fantastic time! Here are a few of the places we went: We…
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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…
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Five states in nine hours
I previously posted about a crazy drive around Texas, during which we were in three cities in fourteen hours. Well, this past weekend I completely topped that when I went to see my mom and dad! I started in Raleigh, North Carolina at around six in the morning. I flew to Baltimore, Maryland, where my mom and dad picked me up. We drove through Maryland and Virginia on the way Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where my mom works. I got to see Mom’s building, office, and classrooms. We walked around Shepherdstown, and had lunch in a nice tea shop. I browsed through the shops on the main street…
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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…
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Off again…
Well, I was sad about not traveling much in 2009. Turns out I got really used to having a regular schedule, and not having to worry about leaving town to plan haircuts and knitting dates, etc. I am back in the classroom, which I love, and back on the road, which is harder than I remembered! I had back to back trips to North Carolina in January, and now I am heading back to Raleigh. I will go to Wilmington the first week of March, and possibly stay through 19 March! Hopefully this means lots of airline and hotel points, and some solid knitting time! I must sign off so…
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The Jabberwocky
On the last leg of our crazy back and forth to Port Arthur on Saturday, I was driving, and by the end I was really tired. Joey was a champ at keeping me awake. He began reading excerpts from Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass. This was prompted by the Cheshire Cat moon that was in the sky that night. You know, a crescent moon, that looks like the Cheshire Cat’s crazy grin with no head or body. Eventually we got to The Jabberwocky. Joey has this poem memorized, and as he read it, I began repeating it back to him – working to get it all memorized. …
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3 cities in 14 hours
Joey’s maternal grandfather, RD Cline, passed away last week. We all called him Granddaddy. One of my favorite memories of him occurred the first time I first met him. We were introduced, and within five minutes, he had opened up his wallet, which was full of pictures of his children and grandchildren, and pulled out a picture that he had of Joey and Joey’s former girlfriend. He handed the picture to Joey and said, “I like LisaDiane. This picture is no good anymore. I need a new one with LisaDiane.” We actually got a picture taken right away and sent it to Granddaddy. That was the first of many portraits…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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40th Wedding Anniversary
My mom and dad celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary today. I am so proud of them! They were married at Los Angeles Heights United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas on 13 September 1969. The spent the day together at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to celebrate.
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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…
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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…
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Dogs – 07 August 2009
Here are some recent cute pictures of the girls. As you can see, Elanor is way more interested in the camera than Katy!
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For Char Lee
My co-worker and friend, Jamie, has a pet ferret named Char Lee Charcoal. He has been quite ill recently, and passed away Saturday. I know many of you have four-footed, furry “children”, and can sympathize with the pain of losing a beloved pet. Please keep Jamie and Char Lee in your prayers. Do not stand at my grave and weep;I am not there. I do not sleep.I am a thousand winds that blow.I am the diamond glints on snow.I am the sunlight on ripened grain.I am the gentle autumn rain.When you awaken in the morning's hushI am the swift uplifting rushOf quiet birds in circled flight.I am the soft stars…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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Queen of Waterfalls
It is against the company policy for me to say the name of my company, or give any information that could give away where I work. I will not tell you the actual name of the relational database that I train people at my company to use, however, I will tell you that its name is a long acronym, that is quite silly. I am fairly certain that someone came up with the word, and reverse engineered it into an acronym! For this post (and any future posts on the subject) let us refer to the system as WATERFALL. I have also changed the names of the people, and groups…
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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…
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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…
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Textile District
Our hotel is right across a major street from the major textile selling area of town. The main street in this area is Arab Street, although “Textile District” is used almost interchangeably. Purvi and I had gone to the restaurants in this area several times, but we had not made it early enough to go to the shops. Today we got back from work early and walked all along the various stores filled with all kinds of fabric and other textiles. All the fabric was so beautiful, I just wanted to take it all home! We enjoyed the atmosphere of the street – there were tons of people out walking…
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Merlion Park
The Merlion symbol was designed as a logo for the Singapore tourism board in 1964. The Merlion has a fish tail and the torso of a lion. According to an article written by Cornelius-Takahama, Vernon [replaced by a new article at the same document number; original article at WebArchive] in the Singapore Infopedia section of the Singapore National Library website: The lion head alludes to the legend of Singapore’s founding by Sang Nila Utama, a Palembang Prince who, on his arrival on the island, saw what he thought to be a lion and thereafter renamed Temasek, Singapura or “Lion City”. The fish-tail represents Singapore’s links to the ancient sea-bound island…
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Orchard Road
Orchard Road is a major shopping area in Singapore. It has several large malls all right next to each other, plus stores along the street itself. All the stores are high-end, fancy stores like Louis Vuitton and Burberry, and lots of boutiques. Purvi and I decided to go down and see what all the fuss is about. Saturday night the stores all stay open until 23:00, so we ate dinner and then went up and down the street window shopping. We stopped at a stall that sold fresh juice. I had a slush with mango and dragon fruit – delicious! We also found a sweet shop. Not at all like…
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Singapore Botanic Gardens
Saturday I went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It is very large, and admission is free. The garden is filled with trees, fountains and flowers, benches and picnic areas. There were families relaxing on the lawns, kids playing, people out for a jog. The garden also has an open air theater where the symphony performs. My first stop was the rain forest walk. I immediately saw a lizard sunning himself. He had a very small patch of sun, just big enough for his body. He did not want to move, but he was annoyed by my approach. It was clearly a struggle – in the end he did run and…
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I think Emily would approve of President Obama’s manners
And now I am going to pause from all the Singapore related news to note that President Obama has lovely manners… During the election last fall we were asked over and over again to consider whether we would like to have a beer with the candidates. Well, here is a different twist… are the President’s manners up to your standards? Would you be embarrassed to have him dine at your table? or meet your friends? Thanks to my mother and grandmother, and a love of my Emily Post Etiquette book (thanks Kat and Ross for giving me the new 17th edition), I place a high premium on manners. It seems…
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Little India
Tonight Karen, Purvi, and I went out to dinner at a restaurant called Muthu’s Curry in Little India. Little India is the area of Singapore where many people who are originally from India live. Purvi said that it really sounds and looks quite a bit like India. One of the famous stores in Little India is Mustafa. It is a huge shopping complex that is open 24 hours. They have some of everything. There is so much stuff, and so many people crammed into a very small space! The pictures below do not nearly capture the scale of the place. One thing that was very impressive was the jewelry. There…
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Working in Singapore
I am here in Singapore to observe a training class, and sign off the two Singapore trainers to be mentors to Purvi, who is new to teaching this particular class, and any future trainers. The AsiaPac training team is made up of a great group of ladies. Karen is the training manager. The training coordinator is named Sally. She is super organized, and keeps everything moving efficiently. The trainers in this office are Katrina and Esther, and they have been a pleasure to work with. Purvi is the trainer from Mumbai, India. She has traveled here to teach the training class, and she is doing a great job. The class…
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Ambrosia
Wednesday night Purvi and I walked down the street that is across from our hotel looking for a place to get some dinner. This street has many restaurants, so it is really just a matter of choosing what you want. All the places have callers outside to tempt you into their restaurant. One caller was particularly persuasive, and we walked over to look at the menu. It was Mediterranean food of all sorts. It looked good, so we told the girl we would like a table. We started to walk into the restaurant immediately behind her, but she told us to follow her, that there was a different dining room. …
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Walk around Singapore
I went shopping and took a walk on Sunday. I took the bus to the People’s Park Centre. I really like taking public transportation in a new city. It helps you get the feel of the place and the people – not just the tourist stuff! People’s Park Centre was my destination because they have a craft store called Golden Dragon Store that sells yarn and knitting supplies. The shopping center also has lots of food stands, so I got some supper – I asked the man behind the counter what he recommended that included pork. The man gave me a plate filled with what looked like smoked pork (it…
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Trip to Singapore
I arrived in Singapore a few hours ago. I just finished unpacking and getting cleaned up. There was no way I was going to bed without a shower after 32 hours of travel! I seem to have arrived with everything I need, and despite the length of the trip, it was mostly uneventful. Singapore Airlines is wonderful. The flight attendants are very kind, and everyone was super helpful and smiled each time they spoke with me. I had a really long lay over in LAX, which is possibly the strangest airport known to man! Please note that there are no pictures of LAX – that is not an oversight! The…
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Massage on the Square
You may or may not know that in addition to being an amazing opera singer, my sister Laura is a registered massage therapist (RMT) in Texas. From the time she was a little kid she would volunteer to give people a neck rub, and everyone always said she did a great job. She took her natural talent to the next level when she attended massage therapy school between her undergrad and graduate degrees. She has been working as a massage therapist for about five years (I could be wrong here). She does all kinds of massage from hot rock to deep tissue. She is always looking to improve her technique…
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New links and side menus
Joey rearranged the right menu on this blog recently. The random image widget is still right at the top. The formatting of both the archives and the categories have been changed. Only the main categories are visible, but if you click on the plus, the list will expand. The archives are now run by a drop down – much more compact. All of this was really to make room for my ever expanding blogroll. I have added links to several of my friends’ blogs, and I also linked to a few of the blogs I follow. Now you can see what I spend my computer time reading. I think Laura…
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Workout Summary 05-11 April 2009
I started out strong this week. I did great working out while I was in North Carolina, but I fell off the wagon once I got home. We had such a busy weekend that I just never made it back to the gym! total minutes: 150 total calories: 1505 I will be traveling again at the end of this week, so I don’t know if I will do much better… We shall see!
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Camping at Willis Creek
Rachel, Debra, Joey, and I have been saying we would like to go camping together for YEARS! We finally managed it on Easter weekend. We decided to try out some federal camp grounds run by the Army Corp of Engineers. We wound up with a reservation at Willis Creek Park, which is on Granger Lake, near Taylor, Texas. The website indicated that the usual camping activities were available at the park: swimming, hiking, etc. As Rachel describes, this was only partially true. We actually had a great time despite the lack of formal activity. I got some much needed rest. We got to play with our godchildren, and visit with…
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Random Image Widget – Cousins
The Etherlimits main page has a random image widget at the top right corner. Each time you visit the page, you see a different picture. Today the random image was a picture of me and my female cousins in Market Square in San Antonio. This picture was taken right after my grandfather’s funeral on 09 January 2006. I totally love this picture, and since it is extremely unlikely that anyone else will see it on the random image generator, I thought I would share. The five granddaughters of Esperanza and Louis Rodriguez, from left to right: Madelynne, LisaDiane, Laura, Lydia, and Katie
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Workout Summary 29 March – 04 April
I got back on the wagon after my week in Florida! Total minutes = 360Total calories = 2378 Sunday – hiking, Monday – eliptical, Tuesday – Body Pump, Thursday – eliptical and Body Pump, Saturday – eliptical, Body Pump, and Yoga. I am feeling good about this week. I am in Wilmington, but I did go straight to the gym after checking into the hotel! I am hoping I can keep up the momentum.
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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…
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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…
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Aaron and Sujata’s New House
Aaron and Sujata just bought a new house. It is in Onion Creek, on the golf course. Actually, the golf course wraps around their house. Joey had gone over and looked at the house while Aaron and Sujata were still shopping, and he helped them move on Saturday, but I had not seen it yet. We were invited over for dinner, and to tour the house this past Sunday. The house has very high ceilings and so many windows! All the houses on their street are quite close together, but the windows are arranged to ensure privacy. The living room and kitchen/dining areas wrap around and open out onto a great…
