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Maybe I should get a yeast icon...

Been doing my first big experiment today. Okay, it's K's, really, but I got here at 8:30, and have spent much of the day pipetting madly. One more round to go and we're done ;-)

K clearly expects me to start tearing out my hair and run screaming for the door, but I'm having a lot of fun. There's this whole part of my mind that really loves order and efficiency and the quiet and unobtrusive sort of artistry that goes with doing every day sort of things right... and this plays quite nicely into those instincts. Now, after I've been through this whole process ten more times it might get pretty tedious... but this kind of thing mixed with computational work might suit me pretty well.

Bonus, I did a lot of work on my neck last night, and a lot of heat and ice this morning (of course going back and forth between the cold room and the grow room is kind of like full body contrast heating) and I haven't had a headache for most of the day.

And I am not in class at either school tonight. Eerie. I should... I dunno. Go dancing or something. People do that Friday night, right?

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My garden seems to be really appreciating the weather. It makes me very happy, this garden in fourteen pots. (Mostly large pots. Bigger pots mean less watering...) I brought in a cast iron and thing iron bar support for my tomatoes, and they seem quiet content to be trained up it. (Matt's Wild Cherry is indeed wild, and Principe Borghese is being typically gleeful and indeterminant. I hope to have an arch of little red fruits...) The tomatillos are trying to take over the world. Apparently they need half again the water of anything else to do this. I have little tomatillos and tomatoes, and maybe eggplants (the eggplant has flowered, but I'm not sure if any are bearing fruit yet). I'm also pretty impressed by the green globe basil -- I've grown globe basil in the winter before, because the plants are nicely compact, but I don't think I'd appreciated the spiciness of the plant. Kind of a mix of sweet basil and one of the thai basils. And very productive.

On the west side of the barge is the heliotrope and the tangergine sage. I'm usually not big into ornamentals... but heliotrope has the most amazing smell (thank you, canyonwren for introducing me to it) and while tangerine sage is technically an herb I'm mostly growing it for its scarlet flowers.

Yesterday evening I looked up to find the steel beam arches under the aurora bridge lit up by sunset. Today I watched sailboats and the beaver (who was once again snacking on invasive plants). Earlier this week we ended up down at gasworks park at night, looking out at the fairytale splendour of the city lights clustered around the lake and reflecting across its surface. In the evening Mount Rainier rises next to and above downtown, grand and yet almost absurdly bold and fresh and pink in the light.

I have no idea where I'll be next year, but gods I love this place.