Laura and Jason
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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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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,…
- 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. …
- 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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Opera in Dallas, A Weekend in Denton – May 2009
Last Saturday LisaDiane and I loaded Ela into the car and made a road trip to Denton to visit Laura and Jason and to see Laura’s new opera in Dallas. Ela stayed with Laura and Jason, and was well behaved around the cats (although she did knock over that one flowerpot in the living room). We visited our favorite stops on the square – Beth Marie’s Ice Cream, Jupiter House Coffee, and Recycled Books – and added a new favorite stop: Laura’s new business, Massage on the Square. Laura and her partner Wendy have opened a very comfortable, beautifully appointed studio right next to Recycled Books. LisaDiane blogged about it…
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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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Trip to Fort Worth
Joey and I drove to Fort Worth on Friday night. The main purpose of the trip was to see Ross and Kat before they leave Texas and move to Baltimore, Maryland. Joey got us all packed for the trip, and arranged for Elanor to stay with Lee, Billy, and Cali. Troy came over to pick up Katy for the weekend. As he left our house, he was holding her bed, and the bag with her food, etc. He called Katy, she followed him into the driveway. Katy was confused about what car to get into, since the tailgate of our CR-V was open, she she stood behind the CR-V waiting…
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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.
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Unexpected Day in Fort Worth
Joey and I got up early on Thursday, 19 June 2008, to travel to Troy and Christinne’s wedding in Cozumel, Mexico. We boarded the plane in Austin at 5:45 am for the forty minute flight to DFW. From DFW we were catching a connecting flight to Cozumel at 10:25 am. If any sane person had to guess, they would say five hours is plenty of time to get from Austin to DFW, find the correct gate, and board the second plane. If they were on our flight, AA1038, they would have been wrong. As we approached DFW, the pilot announced that we would have to circle for a about twenty…
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Logan, Utah – July 2007
Last weekend LisaDiane and I went to visit Laura at the Utah Festival Opera in Logan Utah. I was delighted to discover that Jason was also visiting Laura that weekend (it is always a treat to spend some time with Jason – the other other of a Mercado daughter :-). LisaDiane and I spent our days shopping in town and hiking in the canyons while Jason got in a little fly-fishing in the cold waters of the Bear River. The three of us spent our evenings at dress rehearsals of “Porgy and Bess” and “Il Ttovatore” — the performances were terrific (I learned that the anvil chorus is from “Il…
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Grandpa’s Memorial Services – January 2006
Sunday January 8, 2006 and Monday January 9, 2006 Lisa Diane and I celebrated Grandpa Louis at two wonderful solemn memorial events. On December 30, 2005, Grandpa Louis Rodriguez passed away. Grandpa Louis was married to Esperanza for 63 years, raised six children – scientists, soldiers, businessmen, teachers, and musicians – and shared his smile and charming character with the world. He was a charter member of the Pan-American Golf Association, sang with the San Antonio Chordsmen for 20 years, and retired from Southwestern Drug Corporation in 1983. His family and friends gathered at the funeral home on Sunday night. Members of the Chordsmen sang, friends told stories about his…
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Dialogues of the Carmelites – January 2006
Great show. Real guillotine. Principle overcomes fear through fellowship and faith. Faced with death, nuns lose their heads. Laura was terrific. Our trip up to Fort Worth was the first part of a whirl through central Texas – we went to the opera on Friday, celebrated Dory’s 80th birthday in Houston on Saturday, and sang at Grandpa’s memorial services in San Antonio on Sunday and Monday. Not only did we see the opera and get to spend time with Laura, Jason, and Nathan, but I finaly got a chance to meet Mary and Gordon.
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LisaDiane’s 30th Birthday – September 2005
I decided turning 30 would be no problem if I got to have a big party! I even got a fancy party dress for the occasion. Lots of food, and a great cake made it even better. Things got really crazy when I opened my presents to discover that my idle comment about wearing a Wonder Woman costume at the party had been exploited. Mom and Dad sent the costume, and everyone else had fun convincing me to wear it. Thank goodness for pictures, which will preserve the memory forever! We topped it all off with a water balloon fight, and a piñata.
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Christmas Morning 2004 and New Years Day 2005
LisaDiane and I enjoyed our Christmas holiday with Troy, Kay, Mama, and Papa altogetheredge here in Austin. A week later LisaDiane and I held our annual New Years Day party. I’ve posted several photos from Christmas morning and a few photos of various people lounging after the New Years Day party. Enjoy 🙂
- Abroad, Chambersburg, College Park, Friends and Family, Laura and Jason, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ted and Becky
Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania – November 2004
Laura played Rosina in the Barber of Seville at the University of Maryland. The last show was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Joey, Grandma Margaret and I decided to travel north to see the opera and celebrate Thanksgiving with the Mercados. Jason Wright, Laura’s boyfriend, and Jason Kaminsky, Laura’s roommate and fellow Barber of Seville star, both joined us for Turkey Day. Of course, we all consumed huge amounts of delicious food, and had a wonderful time.
- Abroad, Chambersburg, College Park, Emily and Scott, Friends and Family, Laura and Jason, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ted and Becky, Woburn
A Wedding, Our Nation, and The Frog
Our good friend Scott Howard and Emily Lovejoy were married on Saturday the Twenty First of February at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Woburn, Massachusetts. Scott had just come to serve at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer when he and Emily met (she drove Scott to the pot-luck dinner held to welcome him to the church). Ever conscious of propriety, Scott attempted to conceal his attraction to Emily from Emily and the congregation for months (after-all, he is a priest and she was a member of the congregation). Of course, Emily, being the perfect match for Scott (and a member of his evaluation committee), attempted to conceal…
