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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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Our Anniversary – July 2007
On July 4th LisaDiane and I had some friends over for a party to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. We played games, grilled burgers and hot dogs, made ice cream and mojitos, danced, and socialized well into the night. We had a terrific time – it was a pleasure to spend time with everyone who came, and food hit the spot. I have finally finished eating the chocolate torte that Billy and Lee brought to the party – gotta remember to return that cake-taker.
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Krista and her Amazing Space – November 2006
Twas the night before Thanksgiving and we visited a friend of Ted and Becky named Krista. Krista is a creator. She is living in a renovation in progress – a retired trade school in south central Pennsylvania. She is transforming the space from sturdy-single-pane-school-house to fanciful-curvy-found-industrial-restoration. The space is sparkling textures, warm wood floors, pastel paint, futurist appliances, fiber-optic bath fixtures, and comfortable antique farm machines. Click. Look. Enjoy.
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All Saints’ Twenties and Thirties at Hamilton Pool, Austin, TX – August 2006
The All Saints’ Twenties and Thirties group had a fruit-filled time at Hamilton Pool today. We carpooled out to the reserve and spent the day talking, swimming, eating, and lounging 🙂 It was nice. Coy, Henry, and I made a few attempts to swim to the bottom (no success). Henry was smart enough to ask one of the park officials how deep the pool was – 40 feet. No wonder. Lee brought some things that looked like lemon bars but were made of yellow cake, cream cheese, and a sifted cup of heaven. Must ask her for the recipe. So here are a few pics from the trip.
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Ted’s Haircut, Chambersburg, PA – May 2006
Work dictated that I travel to Hagerstown, Maryland, and I decided to use the opportunity to visit Mom and Dad in Chambersburg. They were good enough to pick me up at the airport and have me stay with them for a few days. Dad mentioned that he had been thinking of shaving his head and mustache. I told him if he wanted help, I would wield the clippers. Mom had her doubts, and Laura declared, “He has been threatening to shave his head forever, and he is never going to do it!” …that was all it took. We went to CVS to get the proper head shaving supplies: gel shaving…
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Visiting North Carolina – April 2006
I finally took up LisaDiane’s offer to visit North Carolina. She has been working in RTP for a little over a year and she invited me to join her for a few days, see the cities, and meet her co-workers. We went to the Spring Daze Earth Day festival in Cary, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, and the Magic Wings Butterfly House at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. We had dinner with friends at Maggiano’s and a tasty Mediterranean lunch at Neomonde. Here are some photo’s I took along the way.
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Lata’s Sushi Party – April 2006
On the last evening of our week off, LisaDiane and I joined Aaron and Sujata to celebrate Lata’s birthday with a sushi party. Aaron cooked about 5 pounds of rice and we took turns rolling our favorite rolls and sharing them at the table. Aaron and Sujata had done a terrific job of shopping for ingredients – they selected a very nice sake, toro, ebi, and a fabulous squid salad which we enjoyed while we worked.
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Spring Bluebonnets
Kay, Troy, LisaDiane, and I took these pictures in a field of Bluebonnets near Rachel and Debra’s house in Pflugerville on April 16, 2005. Then I took them home, moved them onto the computer and promptly misplaced them. Ten months went by and then, a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out some files on Continuity’s storage array and found an archive with some image data in it and *voila* the bluebonnet pictures resurfaced. So here they are… some pictures we took last year.
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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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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.
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Thanksgiving in El Paso – November 2005
LisaDiane and I spent Thanksgiving week with my parents in El Paso. She and I had just recovered from a couple of weeks of flu, so we took it easy – LisaDiane spent a lot of time knitting, we took a drive through the upper valley, we had lunch at Little Diner in Canutillo, and we saw a couple of movies (’Good Night and Good Luck’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’). Toward the end of the week we were feeling a little more adventurous, so we went hiking up above the theater in McKelligon canyon and then drove to Chico’s Tacos for some lunch.
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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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Wisconsin Dells – August 2005
Joey works for a company based in northern Illinois. They have a retreat for all the managers and their families each year. This year Joey and I were invited. We gathered in a town called Wisconsin Dells a few minutes north of Madison, WI. It was a Las Vegas for kids. Just like the strip in Las Vegas, all along the main street in The Dells (as the locals call it), there are hotels all advertising why their hotel is better than the next. Instead of casinos, amusement and water parks bring in the crowds. Our hotel, The Great Wolf Lodge, was an indoor waterpark and hotel. An indoor water…
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Papa’s visit to Austin – July 2005
This year Troy, Kay, and Mama gave Papa a trip to Austin for his birthday. We did a little scheduling and managed to find a weekend Papa could be away from work and Troy, Kay, and I would all be free – of course it was 2 months after his birthday, but we found one never-the-less. We took Papa swimming at Barton Springs Pool, toured the new Cabela’s store in Buda, had pizza at Mangia, and took pictures of deer in my neighborhood.
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Gear Up for San Francisco – July 2005
Mom had a Gear Up (the grant program that she works for) conference in San Francisco. While she was planning the trip, I was lamenting that I had not been to San Francisco in more than a year. She suggested that I join her and be her activity coordinator for sight seeing in The City. I agreed immediately. We really had a great time seeing the sights, shopping, and visiting. We had a wonderful time, just us girls. Thanks Mom!
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Asher – June 2005
Asher came into our lives on 17 January 2004. We have worked hard to spend as much time as possible with him. We love every minute! His Momma and Ima are pretty good company too!
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Acolyte Festival at All Saints – February 2005
The Austin Convocation Acolyte Festival, which took place at All Saints’ Episcopal Church Saturday, February 26 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m, was a tremendous success! Over 100 registrants attended the workshops, during the festival Eucharist Bishop Daniels offered a perfect homily for the occasion, and thirteen parishes from across the Diocese were represented in the Acolyte Olympics.
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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.
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Nanny’s Memorial – November 2004
Our paternal grandmother, Nanny to us, died on November 15, 2004. She had been living near our our Uncle in Kansas and had made arrangements to be buried alongside her husband in Pampa, Texas. Kay, Troy, and I made the drive from Austin to Pampa and attended Nanny’s Memorial service in Pampa on November 22. Our parents drove from El Paso, and we spent most of our visit at Aunt Suzie’s house visiting with our cousins, aunts, and parents. I was so happy to meet for the first time some of our cousins from Massachusetts. Nanny’s obituary is archived at Charmichael-Whatley.com. A photo of the obituary from The Pampa News…
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Mustang Island State Park – November 2004
We decided to take a trip to the beach. Trusting that the weather in Texas is always warm, we set out for Port Aransas the second weekend of November. Our weather theory proved incorrect, and we had rain, wind and forty degree temperatures! We also had a great time relaxing together, playing games, walking on the beach and kicking back and taking it easy for a few days.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina – November 2004
Early in November 2004, I had to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina for work. The first week I was there, I was working. I stayed in the Marriott across a lovely park from my office. I did not manage to see much outside the office. Luckily, Joey and I had arranged for him to fly down at the end of the week, and we spent 8 days exploring the city. Joey set out for Buenos Aires from Austin after being in London for several weeks. The weather in London, hard work, and rapid time zone and climate changes meant he arrived exhausted and a bit under the weather, but recovered…
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Santigao, Chile – October 2004
I spent one week in Santiago for work. The training class went well thanks to lots of hard work on the part of my fellow trainers, Mauricio and Ricardo. The highlight of my week was that last day. Ricardo and his wife, Gipsy, gave me the grand tour of Santiago. We had a wonderful day together. I hope to spend more time with my new friends, Ricardo and Gipsy, and I must return to the beautiful country of Chile!
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Halloween at Troy’s – 31 October 2004
Troy gave us all a fun opportunity to get dressed up for a Halloween Party at his home. Joey was given the job of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, owing to his great dragon costume. He was too much for one little-one who was overcome with the dragon at the door!
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Here be dragons – Halloween 2004
As many of you know, Joey has a great love of dragons. He has asked me to make him a dragon costume several times over the years. I had never managed to, and sometime around Labor Day I casually mentioned this to my mom… She became a woman possessed. Within an hour of the original phone call she had e-mailed me a picture of the material she was planning to use. Throughout the dragon’s creation she kept saying, “I’ll just do this little bit, and then I will send it to you”, but she continued to work and created nearly the whole thing with design and spacial relations assistance from…
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London – October 2004
Mark, Rick, Dave, and I spent most of October working in London. I saw as much of the city as I could during the little free time I had (a couple of Sundays and a couple of evenings). I went for a sight-seeing walk along the Thames from Big Ben to Tower Bridge, saw the London Eye (hard to miss), walked across the Millenium Bridge from Saint Paul’s to the Tate Modern and the Globe Theater, went to services at Westminster Abby, and enjoyed watching the street performers at Covent Garden.
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Tradeshow in Las Vegas – September 2004
For those of you who asked about my trip to the Recharger World Expo in Las Vegas last week, here are a few photos. The trade show was held in the Sands Expo center, which is part of the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. I’ve posted some pictures of the Venetian, the trade show, and the company party at Studio 54.
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Kay’s Birthday – August 2004
Kay’s birthday was a piñata smashing success. Troy hosted a backyard birthday party in his new backyard, and Kay made a custom piñata (she bought two piñatas, removed the paper, attached the framework of one to the other, and covered the new piñata with new paper – thus yielding an effigy of the friendly worm character from Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth”) which we helped her destroy. A bunch of Kay and Aaron’s friends joined us for the celebration.
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São Paulo, Brazil – July 2004
Sujata and I travelled to Brazil to train the employees in our São Paulo office. Our training class was fantastic; the room was great, the view was beautiful, and the trainees were charming, lovely, and smart. We did not have too much time for site seeing, but we did manage to eat at a churrascaria (yummy) and go shopping a couple of times. Our shopping trips were very different from each other: the first was to Xtra Hipermercado, the Brazilian equivilant of Target, and the second was to Embu das Artes, an outdoor market located about forty minutes from the part of São Paulo in which we were staying. We…
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Daughters of the King – Baby Shower – July 2004
The St. Catherine’s Chapter of the Daughters of the King is lucky enough to have two new mothers in our midst. We were all so pleased to have an excuse to pamper these wonderful ladies!
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Frisbees on Joey’s Birthday – July 2004
We spent the evening throwing frisbees in Troy’s backyard on Joey’s birthday
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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.
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W.H. Taft High School Class of 1994 Reunion, San Antonio, Texas – June 2004
Even though I graduated from “that other school” my friends from Taft High School encouraged me to join them at the 10 year reunion. Luke and Joey opted to stay in Austin, so Aleisha and I went to the reunion together. We went to a picnic on Saturday, the dinner and dance on Saturday evening, and on Sunday we had breakfast at April’s charming home. We caught up with lots of old acquaintances, and spent time with our longtime friends. We had a lovely time!
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Cambridge, England – June 2004
After our sojourn in London, we set down to work in Cambridge, but you would never know that from the photos!
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London, England – June 2004
Work required that I go to Cambridge, England for two weeks. I had never been to England before, so I decided to go early. My co-workers: Sujata, Jeannie, Katie, and Quinn had the same idea. We spent three days in London prior to beginning work in Cambridge. We took in the sights, ate lots of fish and chips, and a pint to wash it down. We had a fantastic time just being tourists!
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Mother’s Day in El Paso – May 2004
Troy, Kay, and I drove to El Paso on May 5th with the intention of spending the Mother’s Day weekend remodeling Mama’s kitchen. (Roadtrip!) Papa had already removed some of the cabinets and taped, floated, and painted the new walls. We spent the next few days cutting tile, sweating new joints into the plumbing, running new lights and outlets, and replacing all of the cabinets and countertops. Ross and Kat were in El Paso while we were and we spent some time with them. I hope we can do more family projects like this. It was fun to all work on the project together.
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Passover – April 2004
For several years Kat, Ross, LisaDiane, and I have celebrated passover together. Kat is a marvelous cook and she has always treated us to a lovely dinner at passover. This year Kat was working in El Paso and could not join us – so we had to make do on our own. We invited a larger group than usual, and everyone contributed to the evening. Kay (who joined us for passover for the first time last year) brought her friend Aaron. Troy, Christine, and Sujata all attended – and helped us cook. We had roast lamb, roast beef, charoset, broiled asparagus, palak paneer, boiled eggs, matzah balls, carrots, and potatoes.…
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House Shopping – April 2004
Troy and I have been doing a little house shopping. Amazing how much you can do on the Internet before you begin to drive around. Here are a few photos of what we have seen so far.
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Kat’s 7th Birthday Party – February 2004
Kat celebrated her seventh birthday on February 29, 2004. LisaDiane and I drove to Ross and Kat’s house in Fort Worth to attend the party. It was good to see them – we don’t manage the trip often enough. The party was the right kind of low key – friends and family – and everyone took a swing at the Piñata.
- 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…
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The McNay – January 2004
Kay and I drove down to San Antonio to see the Nightmare Before Christmas exhibition at the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum. The exhibition had original models and artwork from the stop-motion animated film “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. The museum is housed in a 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival smansion set on a manicured twenty-three acre lot. The collections include works by Cézanne, Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, O’Keeffe, Cassatt, and Hopper. Kay and I spent the day touring the various collections on display.
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San Francisco – November 2003
LisaDiane and I popped out to San Francisco for the weekend. We spent Saturday morning at the Cable Car Museum and then we walked over to Japantown for sushi and shopping. On Sunday we drove down the valley to visit Kyle in Mountain View, shop at Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park, and take a tour of the San Jose Museum of Art.
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Bamburg – September 2003
After our visit in Copenhagen we road the train back to Germany to visit Kerstin in Bamburg. Kerstin, who is attending university in Bamburg, took a couple of days off from school to show us the city, lead our tour of the monastery and cathedral, and introduce us to her new beau Michael. Kerstin is a wonderful host – I hope she and Michael can come join us in Austin soon. At the end of our stay in Bamburg, LisaDiane and I made an anxious train trip back to Frankfurt to fly home. Two train delays – one a complete shutdown – meant we had to think on our feet…
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Botanisk Have – September 2003
The University of Copenhagen Botanical Gardens are AMAZING! Over a dozen large greenhouses are surrounded by acres of outdoor annuals, perennials, ponds, rock gardens, and lush trees. Our day in this garden was a redolent treat. After the garden we met Ellen and Søren at the Canal Kafeen where they treated us to a “traditional” Danish lunch – herring, cheese, and beer 🙂 The curried herring and smoked herring were particularly good. Refreshed, we walked past the Caritas Well on Gammeltorv and took a tour of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory (souvenirs!).
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Nordjylland – September 2003
Ellen’s mother’s parents, Gert and Karen, invited us to visit their Summer House in Nordjylland (the northern tip of Denmark). Ellen drove us from Copenhagen to the Summer House. Along the way we went on a walking tour in Vejle, visited the Skagen Museum, played in two oceans, and visited Ellen’s parents in Aalborg. You can make your own Jelling Stone! (For more info on what the Jelling Stone is, look in the album for the Midgard Fountain that we saw in the pedestrian area in Vejle.) Click here to download the Jelling Stone kit as a PDF file. I found the PDF at http://www.runsten.info/
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Rosenborg Slot – September 2003
We spent one morning at Rosenborg Slot, the castle in the center of Copenhagen which houses the Royal Danish Collections and the Crown Jewels. The castle is surrounded by the Rosenborg Castle Gardens (commonly referred to as the King’s Gardens), which are the country’s oldest royal gardens (established in the early 1600s). We toured the castle and had a nice lunch at the little cafe on the castle grounds.
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Roskilde – September 2003
Roskilde, generally recognized as Denmark’s first capital (ask someone from Jelling and you may get a different story), is home to the Vikingskibsmuseet (Viking Ship Museum). We took the train from Copenhagen to Roskilde and enjoyed a vikingtastic day this city by the fjord. The museum was hosting a special exhibit titled “The Vikings in Ireland” which included artifacts from dig sites in Dublin on loan from the Irish government. As we left the museum we were treated to the beginning of the Roskilde Universitet Årsfest – the annual commemoration party and semester kick off at RU. The “You can’t use your hands” wrestling on a floating platform was tremendous…
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København – September 2003
On our second day touring Copenhagen we decided to walk from Ellen and Søren’s’s apartment to the Danish Royal Residence of Amalienborg and then on to wherever we might go. That made for a little bit of a walk. Fortunately we got a chance to use some of Copenhagen’s ‘City Bikes’. The city of Copenhagen operates a generous scheme, called Bycykler (City Bikes), by which anyone can borrow a bicycle for free. Motivated in part by a desire to limit motor-vehicle traffic in the city center, private businesses and the city council sponsor approximately 2000 bikes for the Bycykler program. The bikes can be found at hundreds of bike racks…
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A quick stop in Sweden – September 2003
Ellen and Soren drove us to Lund – where Søren was working for TetraPak and Ellen was attending university. LisaDiane and I spent our day exploring the monuments, the university, the cathedral, the bookstore, the fabric store, and a very pleasant Thai restaurant – nice call Ellen. The picture is of the main building on the campus of Lund University.
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Hamburg – August 2003
In the middle of our stay in Copenhagen we all took an overnight trip back to Germany. Søren drove us all down to the ferry terminal and we sailed to Hamburg to visit Mauren’s family. Mauren and Stephan took time out of their busy schedules to be our tour guides in Hamburg. Their young son Felix led our expedition. Felix is quite a charmer. We visited the Hamburger-Kunsthalle, explored the waterfront, and saw the ruin of the Church of St. Nikolai.
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Copenhagen – August 2003
We took the night train from German to Denmark, arriving the next morning at Københavns Hovedbanegård (Copenhagen Central Train Station). Ellen met us and led us back to her lovely apartment. Ellen and Søren were wonderful hosts – I hope we can return the hospitality in the future. Ellen and Søren’s apartment faces the Søerne. The view out their windows is spectacular, as you can see in the picture. LisaDiane and I spent a few days exploring the city. We visited the Round Tower, shopped along Kobmagergade, and explored Nyhavn.
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Rothenburg ob der Tauber – August 2003
Kerstin met us at the train station in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and stayed to tour with us the couple of days that we were there. After traveling for 22 hours we were ready to take it easy for a bit – so we took a stroll through the city, spent some time catching up with Kerstin, and had a relaxing dinner. After dinner we took the “Night Watchman’s Tour” of the city and went back to our inn, the “Altfränkische Weinstube” and had a couple of beers with the Rothenburg English Conversation Club. The three of us spent most of the next day exploring the city. We visited St.…
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Denmark and Germany – September 2003
LisaDiane and I celebrated my graduation with a trip through Denmark and Germany in August and September of 2003. We visited Ellen and Søren in København (Copenhagen), Kerstin in Bamburg, Maren, Stephan, and Felix in Hamburg, Karen and Gert in Nordjylland, and Nina, Ejnar, and Anna in Aalborg. We played the part of backpacking, camera toting, Rick Steves guided, train riding tourists the whole way. I can’t wait to go back. (Note: The trip began on August 26, so I’m placing this post on that date.)
