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Things That Make Me Go Hmmm

  • Hmmm

Here’s some random goodies for a Thursday.

~I am having major laptop issues. It’s fine while in the docking station at work but at home – oy. The laptop isn’t recognizing the wireless network, it freezes at random moments, sometimes it reboots and sometimes it doesn’t. Luckily, the library trustees authorized me to order a new laptop a few weeks ago. Now if it would only arrive!

~Do you watch Big Love? I do and I love it. It’s eerie how much it mimics some real life situations out there in Utah and I have to admit to a sick sort of fascination with polygamy. It’s like a car wreck – I know I shouldn’t look but I can’t help myself. So, when I visited Margene last week and she offered to drive me past the old Warren Jeffs compound I jumped at the chance.

jeffs_compound1.jpg

jeffs_compound2.jpg

Of course, now he’s been convicted of the charges brought against him. Score one for the good guys.

~Weight Watchers continues but slowly. I actually lost a pound while on vacation but had a hard time getting back into the swing of things when I got home. Slow and steady, though. This weight didn’t come on in a month and it won’t come off that quickly, either.

~Yesterday I heard someone say they were “happy as a clam” and I got to thinking. What makes a clam happy anyway?

gbff_roving.jpg

~While at the Great Basin Fiber Fair we took a class in dyeing roving for striped socks. The class itself was lame and we got no real information on how to actually do anything. But we managed to muddle through together and wound up with some roving that doesn’t really look too bad.

~This one is especially for Norma: fry sauce is good.

fry_sauce.jpg

The end.

This Post Has 49 Comments

  1. Our roving really does look pretty good. Now if we had only been told the best way to spin it for socks. Mmmm, fry sauce…it was fun to have some while you were here, but I’m trying to stay away from it now. 😉

  2. Big Love? Haven’t heard of it, guess I need to crawl out from under my rock. I am aware of the Warren Jeff’s saga…how twisted is that?!

    Way to go on the WW loss!!

    Lovely fiber…and what I wouldn’t give for a big, fat dripping, crispy french fry…(oh man, I drooled on my keyboard)

  3. Nope on the Big Love, but I have heard of Warren Jeffs and am really glad that bastard is going to jail.
    There’s a good book on dyeing for striping yarn called “Yarns to Dye For”.
    In Belgium they serve fries with mayonnaise. Just saying.
    Way to go on the WW!

  4. Wow, there’s a lot of everything in this post! I have no idea what makes clams happy! I’m not even sure they’re capable of feeling happy!

  5. Fry sauce is good. We bought some at a burger place to bring back to the East Coast with us when we were last out in SLC.

    And speaking of polygamists, Rudi’s family had two houses (theirs and his grandmother’s) that his dad ultimately sold to a clan. I was creeped out by the idea, but I suppose you can’t really deny someone the sale just because of their weird marital habits.

  6. Heh – I was just watching episode 5 of Big Love the other day (I don’t have cable, but I’m watching the DVDs). Chloe was wearing a lovely cardigan with an embroidered yoke. Every time I saw her, I kept thinking “Tangled Yoke Cardigan!”. Then I wondered if Eunny watches Big Love. Hee Hee.

  7. Yup. Fry sauce is goooooood.

    I don’t have HBO, and therefore am Big Loveless. WAH! I saw most of the first season at my brother’s house last year, and I loved it. Maybe I can get the episodes on iTunes….

    As for the weight thing–you look fabulous, grrlfriend. You’re so beautiful. You’ll get where you want to be.

  8. Look at all that future spinning! We are stuck on Big Love too.. I had bought Jon Krakauer’s book, Under the Banner of Heaven at the SLC airport last year and was amazed at how much the HBO must have drawn upon such resources…I can empathize about the plateaus, but some of us just have to keep at it harder than others… I’m with you in spirit, both when scarfing up a fave food and when working hard to get to my ‘best weight’.

  9. Oooh, creepy. That rusty fence kind of says it all…

    And I think you made some lovely roving at the useless workshop. 😉 But ehat wheel will you spin it on? 😉 Decisions, decisions…

  10. You are the first blogger I’ve run across to even mention ‘Big Love’ and yes, I DO love watching it, a crazy fascination for sure.
    Mmmmm, pretty fibre.
    Fry sauce? is that some kind of ‘cheeze’ sauce?

  11. Hi Carole, I’m sorry you thought the class was lame. I did see people taking notes on the procedure. To mix the dyes for a 12 oz bottle, use 1/2 tsp dye powder (any acid dye) and 1/4 tsp citric acid or 1/4 cup vinegar. Shake well to mix. Wet your wool well and make sure it isn’t soaking wet, nice and moist is best. Lay out the plastic wrap and place your wool on it in the center lenthwise leaving about a foot on either end to seal it. Squirt on your dyes, just making sure that you have the wool just wet. The wool will still be showing a lot of white. Fold the wrap over the wool lengthwise and then roll up the wool like a jelly roll. Steam the wool until it’s too hot to touch. You will see the dyes have spread out and bit into the wool to dye it. If you let the wool cool first the dyes will go onto the wool even more. Rinse the wool or let it dry. To spin to keep the colors together, Navajo ply. Shoot for a total thickness to use either size 2 or 3 needles. I hope this helps.

  12. Utah sounds interesting. Of course I can’t talk..I grew up in Wisconsin. Jeffery Dahmer and Ed Gein.

    The roving looks good! I’m excited to see it spun up. There’s a way to ply it with only one ply. It’s the Navajo 3 ply. (I just learned about this a couple days ago).

    http://www.yarnwench.com/php/Navajo3PlyTutorial.php

    It’s actually a really cool technique. I’m hoping to try it once I get a spinning wheel. 😀

  13. I have not seen Big Love, but I am quite interested in doing so. I’ll have to check it out. I must know what this fry sauce is? Sounds like it could be good.

  14. Want to say thank you for posting the pickled shrimp recipie. Made it this past Sunday for tailgating at the Denver Broncos game. It was a hit! Too bad the game wasn’t.

  15. I love Big Love–boy does it ever capture life in Utah. I haven’t seen exactly what Warren Jeffs sentence is going to be; hopefully, it will be the maximum allowed by law.

    Good luck with WW!

  16. i like random posts like this. i don’t watch big love — don’t get the channel — but i’m all about metaphorical car wrecks. i’d probably find it fascinating. (like watching “wife swap” — joe loves that show and i get sucked in but most of the time it just makes me squirmy)

    the roving looks good though — pretty colors.

    good luck on ww. i’m working on a plan right now. i haven’t posted about it yet but i will soon.

  17. So… fry sauce is sauce for fries?

    I watched the first season. Two of his three wives annoyed me, so I didn’t return for season two.

  18. Ok. Someone enlighten me? Fry sauce? Looks for all the world like nacho cheese to me…
    (and I’ll admit I LOVE nachos – not so big on fries…)
    (((hugs)))

  19. my husband and i are obsessed with Big Love! that is a really cool picture.

    i’m on WW too – feel free to email me for support – we all could use it!

  20. Ohhh, fry sauce. I grew up in Utah (Tooele to be exact.) I miss the fry sauce.

    The roving is lovely.

    Great job on the WW. Good for you!

  21. No TV, and I gather Big Love is a show? Our TV broke years and years ago and we never bothered to get a new one. DD organized Anime Night at the library so she can watch videos once a month on their big screen. I catch a football game now and then at the pizza parlor. Can’t bear now, though, to be a in a house where a TV is on because the noise is unnerving.

    Clams like cool, clean water (usually salty), plankton, good tidal action, and neither silt nor those awful pecking birds, let alone strange bipedals with sticks and buckets!

    As for the weight loss, you never want to lose more than a pound a week because any more than that can stress your liver. Slow and steady, lots of water and daily exercise, and you’re on the path. Good luck!

  22. I think what makes clams happy is a pretty low bar. They don’t need much. Unlike my cat, who wants to be held and pet all day.

  23. I’m a huge fan of Big Love and am so sad the season has already ended. I think my fascination stems from being a former Mormon and living in Utah. (double whammy)

    Fry sauce … yummy. Why is it you can only get that in Utah & Idaho? it’s okay though, I know how to make my own.

    Good luck with the weight loss. Losing a pound while on vacation is WONDERFUL!

  24. I wondered what made clams happy, too, until I learned that the whole saying was originally “happy as a clam at high tide”. So nothing can eat them.

  25. I am also intrigued by the base of society..the taboo, the secret lives. I think we all are, and this I know, that a few months without my faith, I’d probably be doing some things that a woman ought not do!!!! I’m so glad you had a nice time with Margene. I’m really hoping to meet her in the spring if I get to Utah again.

  26. fry sauce? hmmm…. I got hooked on using mayo after spending time in northern Europe.. but I’m open to try new things.
    and good for you continuing with weight watchers. It isn’t whether you are perfect every single day, but what you choose over and over in the long run that matters.
    ((hugs))

  27. I don’t watch Big Love (no HBO), but I share the sick fascination with disturbing phenomena like the world that Warren Jeffs created. It’s just so far outside of my own experience it’s hard to comprehend.

    New laptop — fun!

  28. For all you who might be wondering–fry sauce is a Utah condiment made from ketchup and mayonnaise. Or barbecue sauce and mayonnaise (even better). It’s pretty yummy. During the Olympics the fry sauce pin was a hot collectible (along with green jello). I think fry sauce originated at local fast food establishment Arctic Circle (also in Newport, Oregon–?) but it’s available everywhere (in Utah) now. Except McDonald’s, though they did test market it for awhile.

    Hmmm, Carole—did you clarify for Judy your concerns about the dyeing class? Awkward, much?

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