Moritz Life

Well it's time for an update of what is going on in my life this summer.

As most of you should know I am living in Edmonton, AB for three months as I complete my marketing internship with the Cargo & James Tea. I am living with the Jones' family, my family away from home. They are wonderful people to live with.

Not too much is new and exciting since I last posted, other than I am still working a lot, around 50 hours a week, as well as the weather is heating up (it was around 32 celsius today, that's about 90 farenheit) I am getting more opportunities to do sampling of my store's drink. My goal for the summer is to give out 10,000 samples of either tea slushes, iced tea, chai lattes, or coffee. So far, I've given out 2,100 samples, mostly tea slushes and iced teas. The last two days I've given out around 600 of those samples. Slowly but surely I am working towards that goal of 10,000 samples.

I am having a lot of fun working though, I have worked 9 days straight now (as I came in to work on my day off for a couple of hours to do some more sampling), but it doesn't seem that bad. The only thing that isn't great is that I won't have much of a summer "vacation" as I left for Edmonton two days after I finished school, and I am going back to school two days after I arrive back in California.

Summer arrived with scorching heat. That's why I'm hiding out in my house where it is nice and cool.

Here's an update on my garden. My tomatoes are blooming, the beans are doing very well, carrots are peaking through and getting stronger everyday, green peppers are showing signs of flowers, parsley has done very well, lettuce is slow but getting there and the vines I thought were cucumbers have small bowling balls on them.... I'm thinking watermelons? I'll just have to wait and see. And I can't forget the figs I picked last night. Check out Lloyd's post on Figs and you'll see what I mean. I'm having lots of fun with my garden and flowers but I can't keep up with the weeds. In fact, I like some of them so they're staying. Some look like black-eyed susans or sunflowers and they brighten up the yard. The birds like to sit in them, some are getting close to 9' tall! I still have stuff growing that I don't know what it is, but it's fun. The best part is we have lots of hummingbirds at this house. They go through 1 cup of nectar every 3-4 days. It's great!

Hockey is not real popular in California, but in our household it is. Especially this year.

We have been following hockey closely this past season, having subscribed to NHL Center Ice on our Satellite Dish, allowing us to watch every game. And, now with our favorite team contending for the big prize the excitement keeps growing.

We look forward to another nail-biter tonight!

Go Oilers!

OK, we're a week late (life has been busy around here!), but last week Friday (June 9th) Andrew graduated from Hanford High School. The ceremony itself took place at 8pm at the high school stadium, followed by an informal gathering at our place following for family and friends. Overnight Andrew attended the local "Sober Grad" party and won tons of prizes.

It's hard to believe that all three boys are now finished high school and off to college.

What's next? An empty-nest.

CLICK HERE for grad photos

Well, it has only been 3 weeks of working for my internships, and I've already hit the required 150 hours to get credit for my internship through my University. If you are doing the math in your head, you are coming up with 50 hours per week. It's not as bad as it seems though. I am having a lot of fun doing this stuff. I get to a) drink a lot of tea b) learn a lot about tea, marketing, and managing and c) give people free stuff.

The other really nice thing I am finding with a full time job is that it is much more separated from my personal "life". With school I am supposed to be 100% focused on that all the time, whether it is going to classes or reading or doing homework. I guess it doesn't help that I live at school, which doesn't allow much separation. So 50 hours a week seems like a lot less than what I do for school.

So, moral of the story is that if you are in Edmonton this summer, come stop by the Whyte Avenue Cargo and James some time. I figured out that the best time to stop by to guarantee seeing me is somewhere between 12 and 3 Monday through Saturday.

Well a week ago on Memorial Day I spent about 3 hours outside preparing beds and planting both seeds and bedding plants. I planted 4 tomato and 6 green bell pepper plants. I planted green beans, leaf lettuce and carrots with seed. I think I may lose one of the pepper plants - it was just too hot the day after I planted them and it's in a pretty sunny spot. The others look okay and the lettuce was peeking through yesterday. Our grape vine is doing very well with several bunches on it. Lloyd said he wants to try to sun dry some of them to make raisins, while I look forward just to eating them! There is a couple of kinds of squash or melon plants growing too and they have some flowers on them. I won't know what they are until they form fruit, but I'll let you know once they have. Unless I can find something out on the internet that might show a picture of the leaves so I can figure it out. It's been a fun adventure in this back yard - most of the weeds I know, but some of the vegetation here is different, so I'm not sure about everything. I really enjoy getting out there and working in the garden. I haven't done it in years. It's just that there's way too much here for me to handle. Maybe we'll take some of the beds out next year. I guess in this region, most of my stuff should be planted between September and February too - so I'm a little late. We'll see how things do.