Rutgers Day 2011 plus actual sewing!

The sign says it all...

Today was Rutgers Day! Yeah! I worked at Rutgers for 8 years in the chemistry dept so it was fun to go back.   I spent the morning on the Busch Campus with Christine at the "make your own virus structure out of toothpicks and marshmallows" table.  There were lots of kids making structures but when I took this picture, it was mainly adults...

Here I am with the virus I made:

I learned that not all toothpicks are created equal; the Stop and Shop brand ones were the sturdiest and best. Ha!
And of course I had some liquid nitrogen ice cream:


Chemistry never tasted so good! (heavy cream, sugar, vanilla instantly frozen by liquid nitrogen...yum!)

Then I headed over to the Cook Campus for Ag Field Day to see the animals! Here I am with a cow, and my scissors bag. 

A cow (not this one) slobbered on my jacket and pants, quite funny.

Long time followers of my blog may recall Rutgers Day 2010 and my mission to pet the spines of animals (to transfer the strength of their spines to mine, as per one of my pain books). This year I felt the neck of a cow; its hair (fur?) feels like velvet.




Also two cows mooed while I was there--so cool to hear them "speak". 

I also petted a pig. I couldn't feel its spine (layer of fat? muscle?) but the pig hair felt coarse. I took a picture of this pig tail as inspiration to make the curly pig tail for my pig finger puppet.  This leads to the question, why are pig tails curly???  I don't know.


I love the pig mamas and their piglets




I didn't go to the petting zoo like last year but it was there and I could have petted a piglet and a lamb.  Then I wandered around and watched the cockroach races (just as funny this year as last year) and stopped by the entomology table and picked up a flyer about stink bugs.

Overall it was a great day; not too hot, a little cold at times, and I didn't feel like I was getting a sunburn like last year.

OMG actual sewing occurred tonight! I sewed the exterior and lining (and pocket) of the bag for SPR weekend Chicago (though I didn't sew the exterior and lining together, yet). I'm trying to decide on piping: black piping:


or white piping:

I don't know that white or black really makes a difference since neither pops but I like the clean finish of piping.

And on that note, be well and good night!  (Momma is sleeping here...)