New Orleans, Day 1

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

MISSISSIPPI!

I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans for a work conference and I took Bob with me.

We went a day early so we could have some adventures.

We arrived on a Saturday around dinner time. I don’t know how the lines are drawn. Our hotel was either adjacent to the French Quarter or part of it.

We managed to find an amazing dinner and then we wandered around. There is terrific music or art or something cool to look at in every corner. It was a bummer I was so tired from traveling because I pooped out early. But we still heard a lot of fun stuff.

While I enjoyed the French Quarter, it was like of like visiting Las Vegas. It’s easy to have enough. Bourbon Street is loud and smells like weed and sour beer. The food leans heavily to fried. You need to watch what you do in the heaviest tourist spots. But we had fun.

This was an epic salad with blackened red fish that was delicious.

More photos to come from the Sunday adventure.

Monday the conference started. I don’t remember ever being at conference with such a stuffed agenda. I went downstairs at 7:30 to eat and business started around 8, there was activity during the lunch meal and we didn’t stop the last session until 5:30pm.

There were breaks but they were long enough to get out of your meeting room, find something to drink and use the bathroom and then make your way to the next meeting room.

It was a great conference and I’m still sorting through my notes to figure out what’s useful for us.

If you’re wondering whether we talked about AI — we did. A lot.

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It’s May!

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Big tragedy — the trailcam died. It’s been sitting here until I had time to troubleshoot and I have now troubleshat and: it’s dead. I will buy a new one one of these days.

In an ongoing theme, there has been a lot going on. I took today off to see if I can get my act together. I always do this thing where I made a list of 15 chores and errands I will get done and then either

(1) I am overwhelmed and end up back in bed reading; or

(2) I only do 7, a perfectly reasonable number of things to get done, but still feel like a failure.

Today I am trying to pick 3 things and then relax and putter around the yard and walk around the neighborhood giving away lettuce.

Giving away lettuce?

I need to go out and get pictures. I have brand new raised beds and I thought I was planting a conservative amount but everything came up, healthy! The slugs haven’t found it yet. Beautiful pretty lettuce.

If you need to make a salad for 30 and you live near me. CALL! I will deliver.

Also: Bob and I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans. I went to a conference. Bob found all kinds of music and historical related things to do. I tacked on an extra day for us to have fun together and we did. Photos and details to come.

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Even the Giant Bag Must Come to An End

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Remember this giant bag of tea?

I finally finished it.

Well, it’s not completely done.

I keep a pint canning jar in the kitchen and use the tea from that and I just refilled the last amount. I did like this tea but not sure if I will buy again. I need to do some sourcing research.

It took about a year and a month to go through it which actually seems fast for such a giant bag. I don’t drink it every day. But almost every day. I have also been able to find the tea bags again and it’s easier to use those at the office.

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I Like My Food Fun

Posted on April 27, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

(I forgot to add to my I’m so busy post –NCAA Gymnastics. Finals were last weekend so that’s mostly off my list although there are a few semi-final meets I hope to still get to. With streaming there is access to almost everything including the smaller schools so it’s a lot but I love it.)

Seriously: watch this beam routine. Mute the sound. Because of the way the meet went, she was the last performer and got a standing ovation and a 9.9625 for this amazing, amazing routine:

I have loved Kinder chocolate since my first visit to Germany as a little girl and that hasn’t changed. I bought this bag of cookies because I thought it was funny that they were advertised as crunchy and fun.

They were.

Likewise these mini ice cream sandwiches described as “always irresistible.”

I love all the mini ice cream treats available now. I love something sweet after dinner but often just a bite or two is enough. These are perfect.

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Where Have I Been?

Posted on April 25, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Spring flowers in the front yard

Pardon me for being a broken record but everything remains busy. I seem perpetually frazzled and lurching from one chore to the next, just trying to keep up. When I finally have time, I don’t want to sit at the computer. Although I am writing — it’s not going great or super productive but it’s happening little by little.

I haven’t updated it in a while but I have been reading more than usual. Books read here. I just started a book called The Terror by Dan Simmons which is 784 pages long — I didn’t realize that when I started it. Looks like it’s a TV series, too. It’s an account of the 1845 Franklin Expedition searching for the Northwest Passage and the author has taken an already terrifying story and added a horror element. It’s excellent so far.

I have a tiny window for yard work today, I’ve already deleted a number of things from my list, and I’m still not out there.

Here are the garden beds. This was about a week ago. Things have progressed much since then. I already have greens for harvesting.

We helped out the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We stuffed eggs with candy and tickets. On the day we helped get things set up. There was a nice turnout with tons of kids and perfect weather. It was super fun.

Living dangerously and not proofreading!

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From the Notes Scattered Around My Desk

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

(1) This is the Klamath River from March 2025. They got a lot of rain before I arrived and more rain as I was arriving. I don’t know all the science of hydrology and when rivers hit max but this was about the time it was peaking. Fast and muddy and all the rocks underwater.

(2) No photo: The other night we came home just after dark and there was a tiny creature zooming across the street and then along the curb. What is that? And as we drove by I could see it was a tiny bunny! Obviously, I was thrilled. I went out several times to see if I could see another tiny bunny but generally the only bunny I see is the big brown one who occasionally comes out when I am in the yard.

(3) I was visiting my dad at the retirement home on a lovely day. I took him outside so we could enjoy the sunshine and one of his friends came by on his motorized scooter. He told us that management announced there was a speed limit for scooters and it was set at 8 mph. ME: Isn’t kind of fast? HIM: Yes, it’s fast. I went and asked them about that and they said it was 8 mph.

8 mph isn’t fast for a car but for a guy in the hallway of a retirement home where almost everyone uses some kind of cane or walker, it seems kinda fast. We’ll see how it works out.

(4) Hurtle is a word.

The first time I saw hurtle written out, I thought it was a mistake. The word is hurdle. I looked it up so I could feel smug and correct and I was not. They are both words with meaning that could be confused. Hurtle means “move with great speed or to throw with great force.” Hurdle is like the sport. Hurdling is running and jumping over an obstacle.

(5) If you need a show recommendation and you haven’t started The Pitt on HBO yet — get to it. It’s great.

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Skunk Butt!

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I don’t know what I did with my video clips. I either have duplicates of everything or I can’t find what I’m looking for. I had to grab this back from my phone.

We knew there was something going on in the garage in Orleans but I don’t know that we were expecting this guy.

I also caught 2 different cats which weren’t a surprise and a fox which also wasn’t a total surprise. I will post that clip later.

All the pet food has been thoroughly secured but that doesn’t keep them from checking.

I have clips and photos and notes tucked away everywhere for posting but it seems like extra brain juice and patience for posting is hard to come by right now. There is a lot going on and when I do have time and energy, I’m putting it elsewhere.

Hopefully more updates next weekend.

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Bunny March

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

This is my sea of daffodils when I look out into the backyard. Love this time of year — this view always makes me happy.

March has been hectic and I can’t seem to get back on top of things. I had my taxes 90% done for about 3 weeks. I finally sat down and finished those.

I have lots of clips — hopefully I will get around to posting them.

This is a red flowering currant that is a native plant that is supposed to be good for pollinators and hummingbirds. Last year it did not have a single flower and I was disappointed and figured I planted it in the wrong spot or something.

No — it is doing amazing and so pretty.

Here’s the bunny. Last week I went to do a lap around the yard to see how things looked and he hopped out of the daffodils and hung out in the yard with me.

The next time I went to work in the yard he was out in the garden nibbling on the clover that I planted as a cover-crop. I didn’t want to bother him. hehe.

I don’t understand how cover crops work. No matter what I do, it seems like I don’t get much cover. I already turned a lot of the clover under and planted something else but he was eating this little bit.

I know it is ridiculous to encourage the bunny to find food in my garden but I’m going to leave that little corner of clover for him. I’m also going to scope it out and make sure there aren’t any baby bunnies out there before the lawn mower takes a lap.

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Are You The Lady of the House

Posted on March 13, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I had to grab the camera card out of my “real” camera and it already had photos on it. These are from last year. There are daffodils out there now but just a few.

A couple of weekends ago someone came to the door to sell us something.

As an aside: wasn’t that one great thing about the pandemic is no door-to-door salespeople?

When I opened the door they asked if I was the lady of the house.

In the moment I didn’t think much of it but since then it makes me laugh every time I think of it.

What does that even mean? Am I the homeowner? Do I made the decisions? Maybe she thought I was the butler and needed to go find the lady?

Any minute the never ending parade of exterminator companies should be starting. OOF. There is no reward for being polite. Last year I had a guy and no matter what I said, he had a reply. At one point I think he assured me that their service would only kill the pests I wanted to kill. AMAZING!

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Raised Beds and Pretty Dirt

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

This is a project that has lived in my head as an idea for many years and I would do a little bit here and a little bit there to prep but never took it seriously until last year I bought the raised beds.

Here is the dirt delivery. It’s a lot but not quite as scary as what I imagined.

I had only set up two raised beds and sort-of decided to sell the other two. But the minimum dirt order was so big, I started assembling the other two.

As I described when I got them they come in 12 pieces, each specially shrink wrapped in a kind of taped/plastic film and plus 60 (?) fasteners? It takes a couple of hours to put one together.

There is a lot going on right now. My weekdays are wall-to-wall and exhausting. My weekend days are differently wall-to-wall and busy. I was picking away at getting that last bed put together.

We enlisted help to get the dirt moved from the front to the back. If I did it by myself I wouldn’t be done until the end of the summer. Bob texted me on Friday morning that they were on their way.

I put my work clothes on and ran out to get that last one finished and ready.

Remember last year when I raked leaves and filled the beds? We transferred some of those leaves to the new beds and then spread the dirt on.

Look how pretty they look! Plus there was leftover dirt. I put a healthy layer on my berry patch (not pictured) and planted a couple of new berries I bought.

The rest is under a tarp for when I have time to deal with it later. I also planted a number of strawberry plants that I bought last year and just arrived.

Today I have a little time and hope to get a few more seeds in the ground. I love being outside in the dirt but it’s hard to balance with all the other things I have going on.

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