10:17 – Along with doing laundry, it’s another lab day for me today, while Barbara labels and fills containers and makes up subassemblies for the biology kits. She’s working upstairs today, filling containers with non-hazardous materials. Tomorrow, we’ll work downstairs, filling containers with hazardous materials. Well, actually, they’re not hazardous, except to our work surfaces and floors. I’m making up several stains today, most of which would indelibly stain counters, tables, and hardwood floors. We’ll fill those containers in the basement.
12:55 – I was doing fine until I made up the last of the stains for the biology kit, Hucker’s crystal violet. When I inverted the container to mix the solution, the cap leaked. So my hands now have pretty (and indelible) purple stains. I wasn’t wearing gloves because this stain is hazardous only in the sense that it, well, stains things. Oh, well. All working chemists get used to having stains on their hands.