Gnuman in Washington: Tuesday & Wednesday - May 15 & 16, 2007

Like most Pacific Northwesterners (she lives 80 miles north of Seattle), Maryanne can't start her day without some major caffeination. So we stop for a treat at Starbuck's on our way to work. Her "usual" is an iced single grande caramel mocha. I figure, "When in Rome"..... This must be the only place in the US where you can get a coffee the same size as you are! Definitely yummy though!
Maryanne is a microbiologist and she works in a lab that does dental, food, water and dairy testing. Part of her job is to make microbiological media for use in their testing. She's a bit overeducated for all this business, but she likes not having tons of responsibility at her job so that she can focus on stuff she likes better (knitting, hanging out with her husband, reading). Needless to say, she had her work cut out for her this week as she had to prepare her co-workers for her absence when she gets her knee fixed. Here I am helping her to fill test tubes with media. Later we put caps on all those tubes and then put them in the autoclave to sterilize them. Don't worry - I didn't get any yuckies on myself!

Here I'm watching some broth Maryanne is making that will later be dispensed into more tubes. She's doing the dishes and jamming to the Scissor Sisters (which always reminds her of her husband since he digs the song too) and I'm making sure it doesn't boil over. Whew, this science stuff is harder than it looks! It's kind of hard to sit still after all that Starbuck's!

Lunchtime! Maryanne usually packs her lunch, but she was out of town over the weekend and doesn't have any groceries, so she picked something up on the way to work. We're going to check the website to see what Gnorm is up to.

Hey, check it out! Maryanne's co-worker Amano brought his buddy to work for a visit when he found out I'd be in town. He's from Atlanta and his street name is "Juicy G". I've never met a real live gangsta gnome before, so this was a cool surprise. He's got a pretty good gig guarding Amano's apartment in exchange for tasty snacks and delicious cold brews every now and then. I promised to look him up next time I'm in B-town.

Here's me outside Maryanne's lab. It's been a long day, but we've had fun. Her co-workers are cool and I've learned a lot.

There probably won't be many more opportunities for Maryanne to take pics for me and post them before the end of my visit. She's planning on sending me on to my next stop on Saturday and she'll be laid up from later on today until then. But you can be sure I had a good visit and will be watching cartoons and eating bon bons for the next couple days. Man, Washington rocks so far. Can't wait to come back!