You know you have a rockin' boss when

you present him with data showing that a major part of your plan doesn't work and he makes you laugh, tells you to try again because it probably didn't work for a different reason, and proceeds to tell you that your idea was a good one.

Happy birthday, bossman!

Science demo ideas?

Oh, and as long as I'm on here, does anyone have ideas for science demos that are appropriate for kindergarden kids? Bossman's recruited me to do science demos at his son's school with the other first year in the lab (who, fairly enough, is not enthused about this extra work).

My current ideas: lemon as a battery, color changing "clock", glow in the dark slime, "elephant toothpaste", and colored smoke (if we can do it outside/we can scrounge up the materials).

Bossman is insistent on doing thermite. Which is super cool (hell, I absolutely still love that demo), but I am convinced we have the potential for half of our audience crying. I am secretly hoping that the department won't let him check out the stuff.

Therefore, we'll probably be doing thermite, but that leaves room for one or two more demos. Bossman has grudgingly approved lemon as a battery.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

Apparently my PI is as ridiculous as I am.

At group meeting after scolding us for spending too much money on things we are forced to spend to much money on, Bossman grabbed some cheezits, passed some to me and:

"BotR! Cheezit toast!"

Leans over and bumps his Cheezit against the one I'm holding.

Later he spent a good 5 minutes coming up with celebrity couple-esque names (ex: Brangelina) for the different sets of people working on similar projects.

Then he scolded us for our low batting average (number of reactions that worked over the number we sent for sequencing).

What??!?