Category Archives: pamily

The River at the Center of the World

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Pamela

Klamath River, February 2012

Did I mention I was sneaking off to California for an extra long weekend to hang out with my family?

It was brilliant. Every bit of it was great except for the long drive home. And even that wasn’t so bad because the weather was decent.

No time for more comprehensive update until this weekend.

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No Carb Left Behind

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Pamela

Earlier this month I wanted to do 12 Days of Christmas with the Rentz girls but I could only find 3 photos. I just picked up another giant bag of photos on this trip so next year, watch out. I love this one because of the lederhosen and also the delighted expression on both our faces. We always had a really cool swing set in the backyard when we were little.

This morning I tried on my test pants. You know the pants you use to test how far gone you are? If you can zip them, you’re still okay.

I could zip them. Whew.

I think what saved me is the 10 lbs. of Fisherman’s Friend I’ve eaten in the last 2 months for the never-ending cough. They keep me from coughing and I can’t say they kill my appetite but they don’t do it any favors. It also helped that no one ever got around to making cookies.

Christmas was all good. California was great. I’ve enjoyed my time off. I accomplished about a third of the things on my list which is pretty good.

I even did the thing that’s been on my xmas vacation list for about 5 years that I always put off. I cleaned out my pantry. I took everything out and scrubbed down all the shelves and tossed all the outdated stuff. It’s always funny to find something that says Best By 2005 and you can’t imagine it’s been there that long.

Here’s a question: why do baking mixes come in goofy quantities? The instructions for making will call for 2 1/2 cups of mix but the package will have 3 1/2 cups of mix? What do you do with the extra mix? Yeah, duh, you could buy another mix but I’m not falling into their trap. I’m going to combine all our leftover mixes and make date muffin-cornbread-12 grain pancake something.

Bob and his new friend Shyboy having a Christmas nap.

I also finally tried that recipe for Ocean Rolls that I’ve been sitting on since summer. As usual I biffed it up a bit. I guess I need my recipes a little more hand-holdy than that one. After it was too late I found a site where someone had posted feedback and said that it was too much flour. My dough was pretty dry.

Then I couldn’t understand the instructions for shaping them so I wung it. When I opened the oven door to check progress, they’d all come unrolled and it looked like Medusa’s nightstand if she takes her snakes off when she showers.

They tasted terrific so I will definitely try again.

Tonight I’m having my favorite New Year’s Eve — the one where I stay home and reheat leftovers then go to bed by 9pm. I woke up at 5 this morning so I might go to bed earlier.

Happy New Year.

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Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Pamela

I was going to crop this differently but check out my Mom’s boots! You can’t really tell from this photo but her vest has an awesome Indian design.

There’s a man in our neighborhood. Bob noticed him before I did. He walks up and down this steep hill, regularly, in every kind of weather. He wears a yellow jacket and hat when it rains so I think of him as the man with the yellow hat.

At one point I thought he might have a few screws loose because every time I drove home from the park-n-ride I’d see him walking. But then I realized that I drive home from the park-n-ride at the same time every day and that’s probably his workout time.

He’s doesn’t look lumpy but he doesn’t look super-fit either.

I haven’t seen him lately but maybe his schedule has changed.

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Burnt Orange

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Pamela

This is me and my sister at the Grand Canyon in 1972. Yes, we are in matching outfits. People would ask if we were twins. We are not.

That’s our burnt orange Chevy Malibu.

I’m making it sound like the two of us drove out there on our own. She might not look like much but my sister is hell out on the open highway.

I’m scanning and organizing old photos again. This never gets old. I love the old cars. I wish we had better pictures of the cars.

I always think old photos of other people look old but I think my pictures look more contemporary. Is this a common delusion? Is there some really boring explanation about how since I lived it, it’s still alive in my brain (kinda) so it doesn’t seem so remote and long ago?

Bob and I finally got new desktop computers and we were so busy we didn’t even take them out of the box for almost a week.

Now I have it out of the box but for reasons I won’t bore you with, I’m not quite done with my old computer. So it’s still set up. Which means that I am using my new computer in a situation that is so unergonomical it is almost comical. Which is why my posting continues to be wonky. I have notes and photos for posts stuck everywhere.

Meanwhile, I have another major milestone post for tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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Old Married People

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Pamela

Fifteen years ago I shacked up with this guy and I think it’s working out.

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More Puzzles

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Pamela

Bob didn’t come to California with me due to another family obligation.

He mentioned on the phone that I’d gotten a box he thought was books. I’d ordered something else that was shaped nothing like a book but you never know how stuff is going to be shipped so I didn’t think too much about it.

When I got home there was a huge book-like box and opened it with great curiosity and this is what I found inside.

A ginormous stack of puzzle books.

I definitely didn’t buy these on purpose so I tried to come up with a logical explanation.

This is the same publisher that published my story so my first conclusion was that they were clearing out the warehouse and decided to send their authors puzzle books.

I know. There is nothing logical about that. I was tired yesterday when I got home.

This morning I realized that I just sent Asimov’s money to renew my subscription so now I’m thinking I have a stupid problem to unravel.

I got another puzzle book in the mail today!

Luckily, I come from a family of puzzle-fiends. (No, I’m not kidding.) Too bad these didn’t show up before I went to California.

Posted in doing it wrong, pamily | Tagged | 1 Comment

Vacation Had to Get Away

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Pamela

I’m home.

I had a fabulous trip. Everything about it was perfect except for the last 25 miles of the drive home. There were two car accidents plus tons of road work and it took over an hour. Even the exit to my house was all orange cones for re-paving.

But before that there was awesome company, perfect weather, great swimming, tons of good food, delicious adult beverages, my favorite hike and probably lots I’m forgetting. I wished I had one more day but I was glad I was leaving while I was still having a great time.

I was so busy having fun I didn’t even finish one book.

Now I’m here. I harvested 5 tomatoes. I got green beans, cucumbers and squash from Mom. I’ve got the closest thing to suntan I’ve had in years. (The glare is off.)

And I’ve got a long weekend to enjoy before vacation is really over.

I have tons of email to go through. I probably owe you.

Also I have about 400 photos from this trip plus I’m way behind on Timbers photos. (I’m sure you’ve been concerned.)

Possibly more catch up later or I’ll sit on my butt tomorrow and enjoy goofing off. I’ll see how I feel when I wake up.

Posted in Orleans, pamily | 1 Comment

Hitting the Road

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Pamela

When we were in Grants Pass last month we went to this giant kitchen store. The kind of place you could wander around in for hours (if you’re a kitchen store type of person like me and a huge part of my extended family) and find tons of things you want. The kind of place you can’t leave unless you buy something.

I bought this strawberry corer because we didn’t have hours that day so I didn’t have enough time to do more damage.

It took these photos because of the instructions which if you can’t read say: Insert teeth of corer at stem and twist out.

Just in case you weren’t sure how it worked.

I am hitting the road tomorrow for California. The plan is to hang out with family, drink adult beverages, eat yummy food and do some swimming in the river.

I will offline until next week. Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone.

Posted in doing it wrong, Orleans, pamily | 1 Comment

Rogue River, Oregon

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Pamela

Here’s our cute boat driver joking with my family about how I’m sitting in the dunk seat and don’t even know it.

Osprey nest with baby osprey ready to fly away. Also there might have been a story about this bridge but I don’t remember.

Hellsgate Canyon.

Rogue River, Oregon.

Tower of power. That’s the water that comes over the side of the boat when it does a 360 or when it stops suddenly. I loved wringing out my clothes after the excursion to make sure I didn’t take home too much Rogue River.

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Happy Birthday Soph!

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Pamela

Sophie is 19 today. This photo was when she visited my apartment in Lake Oswego shortly after I moved to Oregon.

Today she’s all grown up and traveling somewhere like Hungary or Turkey or Thailand and won’t even see this. Love you, Soph!

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