Monday afternoon things

* Experiment has been broken down, data collected, everything cleaned and put away ready for the run NEXT semester. It feels good to have this done; I was worried about making time.

It took most of the day excepting times for internet breaks (while stuff was soaking or when I just needed to be off my feet for a couple minutes - the floor in there is HARD).

If I have time and feel like it early next week I might play around with analyzing a little of the data. I'm thinking a chi-square contingency table will work for the germination data and maybe some kind of analysis of variance for the growth data.

* Three of the stats exams are in. I graded the first one but the other two came while I was working on the experiment so they will be done tomorrow.

* The brownies were well-received. Funny, I have noticed when I use the Ghirardelli baking chocolate in these as opposed to the brand I had used (German? I think?), the brownies turn out more cakelike than fudgelike. (Unless it's the effect of doing a double batch in a 9 x 13 pan). Maybe Ghirardelli chocolate is a little different in its chemistry? Less fat, or maybe more alkaline? I know there are differences when you use "natural" vs. "Dutched" cocoa in recipes calling for cocoa.

They weren't BAD, I just prefer fudgelike brownies.

* While working on the research stuff, I had a few random thoughts:

 - Maybe it's better to embroider the "stripes" on the mints for Minty's cutie mark. For one thing, these are REALLY small, and for another, I KNOW I have the right color of floss for the green and pinkish-red stripes. Maybe use white felt circles and then embroider on them.

- I came up with a name for my Pinto pony, unless I change my mind when I finally look at it. Boy horse, named Pfred. Because Pferd is German for "Horse," and if you rearrange two of those letters, you get Pfred. And also because I like puns and visual gags. (The P, of course, is silent*)

(Yes, I think there was a character in Doonesbury named Phred, but my Pfred will be a different kind of Pfred). 


(*Dad joke of all dad jokes: "Why can't you hear a pterodactyl in the bathroom? Because the P is silent")

And yes, his delivery is a bit delayed. The package originated in Richmond, Virginia, and then went to Illinois (Hodgkins, which the Internets tells me is home to a big UPS sorting facility) and then it got "unavoidably delayed" (It snowed in Illinois so I wonder if that was it). He's SUPPOSED to arrive tomorrow (was supposed to arrive today). I'm trying to be patient.