Why, I know you have been asking yourselves, has Xty been keeping her fabulous wisdom to herself? The answer lies in the truly mundane to some, but magic to me: I have managed to edit my theme, failed to make a child theme, and cleaned up my startup disc. Yes, it has been extremely exciting around here!
The black line that used to grace my header picture has irritated me for eons, as has both the font and colour of the site title and description. The font is still a challenge but the colour is now a lovely blue, and best of all, is at my whim, a whim of iron as my hubby once said. Not only that, but astute readers will be happy to see that the videos that had been displaying a little widely in the comments have been restrained, unable to interfere with the scintillating contents of the right-hand sidebar widgets. All these will be lost on an update, which is why I was meant to make a child theme. But it does me good to figure things out twice … especially when I am basically shooting in the dark, or shooting with an extremely narrow but accurate source of light. And I hope it is easier on your eyes.
I will spare you the startup disc … it was even more exciting, but you really had to be there to watch the Activity Monitor to experience first hand the heart-stopping deletion of things I only vaguely understood. But we never flat-lined, and it always restarted, and really does seem faster. [Note to self: do not leave stuff in download folder! Move it to the hard drive. Insert slap on side of head.]]
And there you have it. I have spent my computer time fixing up the shop and almost learning new things. But the lawn is raked and the wicker project was advanced before the rain. Oh, and the tomatillo hot sauce was made and canned!
[I hope you like the harvest gold colour of my Kenmore oven. I left it in the shot so you could see the oven that never dies. It was here when we bought the house 22 years ago. It shines because my delightful pal who helps clean the house seems to think paint might be dirt, and that numbers on knobs are for newbies. I loathe it but have come to respect it for its astonishing resilience.]
Have a Thor-oughly delightful Thursday.
Life is hilarious. Yesterday I spent 5 hours on the road for nothing but a nice lunch. Today I find exactly what I’ve been looking for just 20 minutes from my house. It’s a 2000 Subaru Outback, just 118,000 miles. And…“it’s the blue one!”
All hail the Mighty Thor on his auspicious day! (Woden didn’t do dick for me yesterday)
That does look sweet. Did you pull the trigger?
Nice car. Nice stove. Nice cookiecakes.
I have known a couple of Svens and Svendsens from back home, a heavily Swedish influenced area. Of course it is pronounced Swen in the old country. Truth be told our Newman name is an Ellis Island invocation of Nyman, which had evolved out of Svendsen a couple of hundred years back because there were just too many Svendsens at the time. There were no Svengalis to my knowledge.
Speaking of did you notice- a month or two ago, I shifted the Dude’s icon to the left, from a head-on view. Meant to match his political philosophy but then it also means he is addressing you with his blind eye, so don’t know what that might mean.
I just now was looking for something to add, couldn’t find it, but did hit upon this very interesting bit of arcana. I am a bit confused though as to whether we are a true karass or just a granfalloon. And if we are a karass, what is our wampeter? Or do we have two wampeters?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokononism
Okay, I’ll bite (and not just into those interesting looking cookies): how about we are currently a granfalloon searching for a wampeter that we have yet to recognize, after we realised we were part of a false karass that wasn’t simply meaningless, but actually harmful.
It bugs me when people either state the obvious or ask the obvious. Case in point- went for a haircut today and the girl (same one as the last 4 times) asked “what can we do for you today?”
Since that question annoyed me, I said to give me a pedicure, then a manicure, and when you’re done with that I need a haircut ( I almost said also give me a pube-icure, but I held back).
We did make some small talk and she said that now that garden season is about over, she won’t have to take hair home for her mother’s garden to keep the animals out.
Wondering if you’ve heard of that EO, and also how’s the popcorn lately?
Oh, and I had a baby! We are running on Child of Twenty Ten – it was a lot like rubbing a bunch of genie bottles, and I am still totally unable to properly explain the steps I took or what exactly has happened, but it looks like I kept my changes and have a theme I can edit without fear, sort of. And now I can mess up and just revert to the earlier version which is most comforting.
That is pretty disgusting and why would it work? I am always baffled when we phone PizzaPizza and they ask what I want. To place an order …
Yes! Going back soon to write the check and drive her home. He’s tracking down one better tire for me, and a couple other odds and ends. It’s a tiny little corner dealer right down on UW campus. He already put a bunch of work into the brakes, changed the timing belt, and the head gaskets look good. There are old Outbacks all over this town. It’s hipster chic at it’s finest.
Popcorn is kind of a mess. We lose another cob to the Mystery Hodag Critter about every other day or so. Plus we had a case of the tipsy’s recently. I stood most of them back up, but a bunch are only up because they are leaning against the house. Projections on ultimate yield are up in the air. I think it’s still too early to harvest, I take some peeks at the cob ends and they don’t look ready, but it has to be soon. We’ve never had to try to hurry up and harvest before, always just waiting leisurely for everything to get brown first.
Um, no, never heard of hair in the garden, but why not? You are talking to a guy who’s been going out after dark to “mark” my territory!
That car has such low miles for it’s age, I bet all it ever did was drive to Whole Foods and back, lol.
Gotta love those 70’s green and yellow appliances. At least they used to build them to last. And yes, numbers on the knobs are useless.
Gray haired hipster chic at it’s finest, I should say. The kids these days wouldn’t touch that car. My daughter says it looks lame. What does she know? She’s never had to try to move a whole dorm or apartment worth of crap without a wagon of some kind. She’ll find out.
i tried but there is too much to catch up on. allow me to comment on a few observations today first, and then i’ll see where the conversation is going.
1) i have way too much shit.
2) i think i saw a flurry.
did you grow those tomatillos Xty? i use them often.
Good morning.
No, I didn’t grow those tomatillos as I have given up trying to grow anything at all in the backyard, and anything edible in the front. Apparently we are surrounded by starving rodents, but ones who prefer blooms over vegetables. I got them at our local market, and they were huge and beautiful compared to ones I saw at a pretty good grocer. I wish I had taken a picture of the roasting pan before I massacred them. I went for roasting and had bought some terrifying thai chilies – a bunch because they were wrapped for quick sale at said grocer and I wasn’t sure what they were. Nasty moment prepping the peppers but other than that it was a piece of cake. Added a little maple syrup at the end and some rice vinegar.
And speaking of grey-haired hipster, I started cleaning up the pans I had gathered, and one of them just wasn’t as nice as the others. Less heft, somehow lesser. So I get them pretty hot but not for long enough, but enough that I get excited about what appears to be a wagner but they were bought by somebody (Griswold) in 1960, and began putting MADE IN USA on the bottom, as mine does. It also says 8 INCH SKILLET (pretty sure it is an 8 and the thing is 8 inches wide, not 5, but there is a 5 on the front of the handle. I almost found one like it on the web:
http://www.castironcollector.com/unmarked.php#
but mine has a T on the bottom of the handle, and a strange mark right where the handle joins the pan on the bottom that looks like a screw head almost. This is such a silly story, that I will pause to include pictures of this lovely pan:
The bottom of the handle showing the mysterious T and screw:
And the 5, that doesn’t match the 8:
So the pan I didn’t much like didn’t come properly clean on the inside as did the three nicer pans, the biggest still to give up its secrets but it sure cooked chicken well last night, and I couldn’t see any marks on the bottom. But hating to give up, I went at it and thought I saw a hint of an A, and after much digging and almost thinking it might be Canada because then there was an N. And a T, A, I, and a W. Which just goes to prove that you can sense the real McCoy, or Griswold or Canada Steel Works. That one is going to Vinnie’s.
Pretty exciting huh? And now we are about to go to the bank to put one of the last big pieces of the financial re-org in place. Can’t wait to get this done.
DP – one thing a day must leave the house, trash or charity. And paper neutral or negative … the voice of my eldest sibling hangs in the air …
Crap. Long post on your cast iron pan, lost. Let me summarize:
Wagner bought Griswold in the late 50’s, and the Griswold name disappeared after a few years.
Yours is considered a number 5 pan. The screw and the T on the bottom of the handle don’t really mean anything important.
The sizing scheme (#5) dates back to the days of iron stoves and the holes in the top. No relation to actual measurements.
Sizes on the bottom (8 Inch skillet) came in later (60’s??) to help clear up the confusion.
Made In USA was stipulated by US law starting in 1960, to protect against cheap imports.
Yours looks like an Unmarked Wagner #5 to me. A very nice every day user pan. Happy!
Here is the best site. Just plain fun to look through every link in it.
http://www.castironcollector.com/
another fine example of libertarian free market principles at work. the hypocrisy of the wing-nuts just blows my mind.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/09/12/15495/koch-foundation-proposal-college-teach-our-curriculum-get-millions
which skillet is going to St. Vinnies Xty?
nice car EO. it looks like new. a friend has one about that age. an awesome off road vehicle – IMO much better than what are called SUV’s – Sports Utility Vehicles. i would like to see an unbiased comparison done. there probably is one somewhere.
busy with fall cleaning, and also getting as mobile as possible. that means lightening the load. time to face the facts. the economy here (Janesville WI) has no hope of getting better anytime soon. there has been nothing but talk and no action, locally, state, nationally for decades. we are poster child post industrial USA. anyway, for the first time the wife and i are considering moving out of state. how are things where you live folks? (rhetorical)
i am enjoying the plunge in temperatures for now. it is easier to do the heavy work, and also i have been going a little nutso baking cookies, bread, pizza, etc.
well, ramble off. ketch yawl later. 🙂
Why today? Don’t know, but this has been a companion of mine for 51 years, and like an old friend dropping by, it just showed up.
And at a State university. I wonder how old they think the earth is?
Final cast iron frying pan rescue count:
1058H
Canadian Steel Works
said #5
and Taiwan
3 out of ain’t bad
A horse with a name!
and stewball is a much better name than glueball. here’s some back story to the song…
http://www.independentsentinel.com/old-stewball-really-was-a-racehorse/
here’s a nice follow up to the Koch
brotherssuckers piece above.http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2014/09/slaves-england/
one thing i have noticed though… the Teabag and Ayn Rand public relations blitzkrieg on the internet has really died off. and do you guys remember all the monikers at that former place that were character names in Atlas Shrugged, the “B” movie. well last time i checked only the sexual deviant remains. but i promised to lay off, so that’s enough Schadenfreude for now. 🙂
Subarus are killer snow beasts for sure. There are videos out there of them pulling various things out of the mud or snow. I’ll see what I can find. Personal experience is the best selling point though. Once you drive one in snow, or have one keep you out of the ditch, you never want to go back.
Xty, the 1058 is most certainly a marked Wagner #8, if you can get enough crud off the bottom to see it. Probably the single most versatile pan made. Hunt up a glass lid for it like I was saying and you can braise a chuck roast in there, with room for some potatoes and carrots too, just like a smallish dutch oven.
Racehorse songs. Based on a real race in 1878, (4 miles!)between the California bred Molly and Kentucky’s Tenbooks. Tenbrooks gets a come from behind win, but Molly didn’t die, as hinted in the song. The “coffin” comment was I think a little trash talk from the Kentucky boys. You can google it for more.
Not a race horse, but a horse that raced.
Here’s one of my favs. Just search “subaru pulls” on youtube and there’s a shitload of them.
Banking very satisfactorily conducted. Now off to visit mum. With Jeeves and Wooster riding shotgun.
I like this one. It’s the same generation Outback as mine, and it has Wisconsin plates! Looks like somewhere downtown.
EO- jack it up ‘n’ put big meats on ‘er.