Bobo's update

Who is Bobo? Why he's my monkey-headed Grow-A-Pet! A cherished Christmas gift from the office holiday party secret santa blowout celebration, he is a sign of new life in the new year. His perrenial rye grass hairdo is an inspiration during the dark winter days. When, in the coming days, I'm chipping ice off my windshield in the dark, I'll think of Bobo and smile. "Grow me, trim me, love me." I think we can all benefit from those words of wisdom.

While I'm on the subject of the office, I have recently been promoted from a Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist I to a QA Specialist II. With this comes some cool new opportunities, including a chance to play dress up. Since I work for a company that makes sterile injectable drugs, there is a whole team of folks who do their jobs every day in sterile uniforms. While their skin (and mine... and yours...) is a writhing ecosystem of bacteria, yeast, molds, and fungi, the outside of the suits they put on are totally devoid of life. This is no small task because you have to put on that clean sterile suit yourself, and not get it "dirty". I've done it a couple of times now, but it's still very new and awkward. It's nice to get recognition for my work, and nicer still to get some cool new opportunities. While this is a short term assignment for me for the next two months, my brother John has been doing this kind of "gowning" for years working for Intel. What's strange is that the clean room requirements for your computer chip are in many ways more strict than the ones used to make drugs that get injected into very sick people.