Don't miss Nzingha's funny post. Watch the video first. R and I watched it together. My comment to him was that while I don't normally use the word "a**hole".... He laughed his head off and agreed with me. Nzingha's smackdown is very satisfying.

Also, I'm adding the Creole Princess to my sidebar. My mom actually ran across her blog and kept emailing me about it. I suppose she found it when she was looking for recipes, and stayed for her very expressive posts about all kinds of things. Monnie is dealing with some very serious issues in her life, but she's facing them down, and having some fun too.

I could be very expressive right now about my job. I'm enjoying the daylights out of the actual functions. We're getting new lab equipment all the time. Getting it set up and figuring it out, writing procedures and so on, is actually lots of fun. Troubleshooting stuff in the plant is fun too - I've never done anything like that before and I'm on a very steep learning curve still, which I always enjoy. I like everyone in my group, very much. They like each other, which is nice, they take initiative and take care of stuff without my asking them to, and care about things being right, and just everything you could hope for. What's the problem? you ask. Well, I'm not certain about the long-term prospects, and I'll leave it at that. Actually, I'll go on to say I'm not certain about the short-term prospects. Gosh, I hope things work out because I'm happier in that job than I have been for quite some time.

On the other hand, a person who came in to install a piece of equipment asked me if I was happy in my job, and if I'd be interested in working for his employer ... in Houston, TX. I reckon I'll send a resume. Product development (lab equipment), setup and training and so forth. Why did he bring this up? Well, apparently I impressed him with my competence when I plumbed argon and oxygen to the analyzer; and when, during our conversation over lunch, he discovered that I understand the difference between precision and accuracy. One would like to think that these are very commonplace things, but apparently one would be wrong. And may I add here, that I consider it a boss's job to train people at every opportunity. My lab folks have a lot of experience time-wise but it's not as eclectic as mine. So I try very hard not to just do things myself because I know how, but to teach and train and give everyone the opportunity to practice and learn; GC maintenance, and calculations, and a little theoretical chemistry, and different approaches to documentation, all kinds of stuff. They're all interested in everything, which is wonderful. We all hope we can stay right where we are. Well, we'll cross our fingers.