Christmas Lectures

Michael Faraday started a tradition of trying to bring science to the masses with his annual Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution.  In 1980, the Chemistry department at the University of Utah decided to continue this fine tradition.  Two of the professors from the department dress up in period costumes from the 1860s and lecture on some entertaining properties, such as color in chemistry, the chemistry of a burning candle, and (the best part) some explosions.

Thanks to my wife, who got tickets weeks ago, we went as a family last night to watch this.  I think the only one who wasn’t completely entertained was Elenna, who just couldn’t sit still for the whole 75 minutes.  Hopefully, this is something my children will remember as something cool their parents did.

It also made me wish I had paid more attention in Chemistry back when I took it–in that very same room.

Sock yarn sighting

It took me a while, but this is what I wanted to accomplish when I first started spinning.  Next thing I want to accomplish: three-ply sock yarn.  But I’m going to finish the second sock first.

Details: BFL (blue-faced leicester) wool which I bought in the “Nova Scotia” colormash from Spunky Eclectic.  I spun this stuff up on my wheel.  The yarn is two-ply and seems to be about 20 wpi, which is a little on the lean side, but I’m happy with it.

It’s the softest sock I have ever knit.

The Eagle has landed

The Teenaged Man Boy (Alaric) has taken that last step.  It was a big step, which had several parts.  After driving out to the Davis County Courthouse and spending Some Time loading these into two trucks, Alaric borrowed a power washer and tested out cleaning some of these voting signs.

Alaric immediately started washing--mostly so he could play with the powerwasher first.

He got a bunch of the scouts from his troop (plus Nick) to help out.

Look at all the industrious people cleaning signs.

There was also quite a bit of repair work going on.

And, in the end, a shiny field of cleaned and repaired voter signs.  Election Day is coming up!

There are around 120 signs.

My job was mostly in moving signs in and out of the trucks.  I learned to wear work gloves, since those signs are real finger-pinchers.  Youch!

In any case, after helping drive them all back out the the courthouse Friday morning, Alaric should now be completely done with the requirements to get his Eagle.  I’m relieved and proud.

More spinning and a dash of knitting

So, staying up later than I should and grabbing as much spare time during the day as I dared, I finally finished spinning up the singles from that first ball of silver Corriedale top.  I hurried to ply it into a two-ply yarn, because “Don’t Postpone Joy” has become a bit of a mantra in my life lately.  Yes, there are some kinks (ha!) to work out in my plying technique, and it might also help if I’d had a better kate system than a couple of empty toilet paper rolls in a cardboard box, but it’s my first yarn, first true yarn.

So, here’s what you might end up with if you keep up on spinning that first top:

I’ve also started spinning with the merino and the spindle that the Tsarina sent to me.  I realized today that something must have clicked because I’m suddenly spinning far finer singles than I was just a few days ago.  I do wonder if it might also have something to do with the difference between merino and corriedale fiber.  In any case, here’s my current project.  Notice the double-thick singles visible at the right-hand side; those are from a few days ago.

I really like how the blended fiber brings out the base color even though the accent colors aren't more than a small percentage of the total yarn.

I’ve also got some small girls in this house who are interested.  I probably need to order a number of spindles and some fiber for them to learn with.  Elenna is already playing with some fiber here:

Yes, that's a banana sticker on her head.

He was that close to me

Here’s a small story.

I went a little out of my way to go to lunch today. It’s fun to ride my motorcycle around a bit, The Pie makes the best pizza in Utah, and it’s also fun to ride past the place I lived when I was going to the university. Nostalgia and all that. I had a pepperoni zappi, thanks for asking. It was good. I ate the whole thing.

As I was riding back to the office, I decided to ride back through the Avenues district, which is where I used to live. Pleasant tree-lined avenues with some absolutely fantastic houses and yards. And a traffic jam of some sort as I approached B Street on Third Avenue. I sort of scooted by on the shoulder, just because it looked like someone was playing silly buggers up on B Street.

Yeah, well, the someone was a cop, so I figured it was going to be a while. I noticed another bike parked on the side of the road and the Harley Dude standing on the corner, so I parked my bike next to his and wandered over.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“President is coming,” he says.

“President… ?” I ask.

“President Bush.”

Wow, I gotta keep up on the news.

Turns out, Dubya was headed up to some fundraiser in the Upper Avenues. So I stood there on the corner with Harley Dude and some other guy who came by “to flip him off”. He grinned when he told me this, said it “was his duty.” Then he wondered out loud if he would be arrested for doing so. I said, “Well, it *is* Utah…”

The streets in the Avenues are not very wide, so when the motorcade did finally go by, I figure I was standing about 15 feet from where the President was in his limo. Oh, and that’s a freakin’ huge posse. That’s the way he rolls.

Duty Guy did flip him off as he passed–and then wandered off, clearly pleased with himself. After a few minutes, Traffic Cop pulled the barricades out of the way and we all left.

That’s my story for the day.

Motorcycle madness

I got out my motorcycle about three weeks ago. The battery needed to be charged, so I did that. And the cable had stretched enough on the clutch that even with the handle fully squeezed, I still wasn’t completely disengaged. So I started playing with the clutch cable–and at some point forgot that I need to have the kickstand up for the motorcycle to start. So I have been laboring under the impression for the past few weeks that my ignition interlock was faulty.

Yesterday at church, Rex Checketts reminded me about the kickstand. Last night I tested it out, and yes, that was the problem. I’m still going to take it in tomorrow to the shop, but it will be a lot easier than I had thought. It annoys me that I’ve wasted several perfectly good riding days (and the gasoline) driving the truck into the office. But I took a much more proactive approach to cleaning this up than I had previously, so I guess I’m getting better at that sort of thing.

My GZ250