color me purple.

It's the time of year when babies are abound - and this baby horse just happens to be bounding next door to work. We have several baby horses at the wildlife center next to the lab I work at, but this one just happens to be my favorite - with his momma. You simply can't resist wanting to snuggle his speckled body. Even his tail has a spot! I need to think up a name for him...

Speaking of work, Andy and I (we both work in the same lab) had to do a Gram stain on some bacterial cultures we had grown but we couldn't find a single lab in the building who had the staining kit, which meant we had to find all the base materials and mix the dyes ourselves (I got to play chemist for the day). To put the situation in a scientific equation I think we can all understand : Brandy + dye crystals + water = purple + red + orange laboratory/fingers/clothes/etc. It was an experience - both sinks in the lab are now a rather pretty shade of purple. I think this experience solidified why I shall probably never end up dying my own yarn. The lab bench is one thing, but the carpet in my apartment would be a whole other thing. I believe it also solidified why I'm going to school to  be a marine biologist and not a microbiologist. Dyes, shmyes. 

I'm one slipper down, one to go on the custom order. Pictures when I finish, of course.

Countdown to Disneyworld: 14 days.

Whew, I've been busy. A couple weeks ago I moved into my new apartment. I'm still not totally unpacked. It seems like everywhere I go I find something new I need to put away. But I'm really enjoying it. My roommate is out of town for the summer so I have the place all to myself. Work started two weeks ago, too. I'm really enjoying it. I love the place and the people there and I'm really liking what I'm doing. I'm working in a cotton pathology lab for the USDA. Right now my job consists mostly of getting DNA out of cotton leaves so we can run tests to see what genes are there (and if they are the ones we want), but I also work in germinating the cotton plants themselves. Everyone is so nice and flexible that I can work as much or as little as I want and as long as the work gets done it's alright. So I love my flexible hours. Summer school is starting tomorrow. I'm taking organic chemistry. Oh joy. Chemistry is not one of my strong points, but I'll live through it. A little hard work never killed anyone, I suppose. It'll be my first class on my new campus. I have pretty much no idea where I'm going, but that's what friends are for. Andy has volunteered to ride with me to campus early tomorrow and show me what building my class is in. So it's mostly been work around here, with a little play now and then. We went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on Thursday and I loved it, of course. The next big thing I'm looking forward to this summer is the double Harry Potter release. The etsy shop has taken a back seat during all of this, sadly. I'm still making good sales though and I'm finally making some headway on my custom orders. I'm enjoying the excitement of life, but I'm beginning to feel ready for things to calm down again so I can get back into etsy and crocheting. I'll keep you updated .... hopefully sooner rather than later.