Life Science or Physical Science? Which is your fav and why?

So here is my very FIRST blog give-away. The winner of this sign will be randomly chosen from all of the comments I get to this post by November 15 at midnight. It would make a delightful holiday gift for that special geek in your life or just a cool sign for yourself! To make this even MORE FUN, I will also give away a periodic table necklace to the person that sends the most people to my blog. Please let me know the first name of who "sent you" in your reply and GOOD LUCK! (Remember, to qualify, please just tell me which is your favorite and why...physical or life science...guess which is mine???)

Phew. I just finished a lab with my students which involved copper wire and silver nitrate. NORMALLY, I have zero tolerance for "tom-foolery" in lab, however...this was clever and harmless goofiness. The lab involves placing copper wire in a solution of silver nitrate and observing the single replacement reaction as it unfolds. A precipitate (the silver) attaches itself to the wire and it looks quite a bit like a pipe cleaner in it's earliest stages. One of my students called me from across the room, with an edge of concern in his voice. I said, "what the..." as I approached and saw the neon glow coming from one of their test tubes (with H20). What are the odds that a high school junior would have an actual neon colored pipe cleaner in his backpack? I LOVE TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS...

and two for my non-geeky shop, found at [email protected]...

It's a Monday on a cool, cloudy, wintery day in Southern California. And I know this is pathetic, but cold in sunny LA means it is below 80. I think it is 68 outside and cloudy.We seriously have apple cider cooking in a crockpot, sweaters out and on, and we are strongly considering a fire in the fireplace tonight. It so rarely clouds over here that we are jumping into fall with both feet.

I've been busy designing NUMEROUS entries into the NASA/ETSY collaboration project and took a break yesterday to put together a couple of new things. For some reason I got a sewing bug and decided to break out the sewing machine this past summer. What's the easiest project for non-sewers? You guessed it...pillows. Here are two new designs for my geeky shop...