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Toil with Foil!

A brief clarification about yesterday's post. If you did not discern it intuitively, I meant we were trying to have everying that is a major hassle for the Christmas holiday (shopping, wrapping, the tree etc.) finished by December 1st. In that way, we could have a lesiurely month of December to truely experience friends and family.

Today in my research this morning, I have been struggling with how to best use foil in covering and storing some tissue samples I need to place in the deep freeze. The samples need to be kept as fresh as possible so as to be used as food for Planaria in the future, and so I need to devise a way to cover the tray containing the samples to help provide another layer of insulation while at the same time allowing ready access to the samples. I have yet to discover a good method... the methods I try that are very protective, do not allow easy access, whereas the methods that I try allowing access do not seem to add any additonal protection to the samples. I will be continuing to work on this for the better part of the day until I discover a solution to my liking.

A sad note to report.... while in my back-back office today, I was moving books around as I rearranged my bookshelves... and I was smoking a bowlful of vividly strong and pleasant vanilla tinctured burley when I turned my head and the edge of the bowl of my pipe lightly grazed the edge of a bookshelf I was too close to. I was gripping the pipe loosely in my teeth as I was looking where to place the books in my hands, and the pipe fell out of my mouth onto the floor. I have done this occasionally over the years, and am careful to search for and douse any stray embers or ashes that are knocked loose from the bowl when this happens, so that was not a problem. However, either the bowl hit the floor just right, or perhaps there was a hidden defect in the briar used to make the bowl, but when the pipe hit the floor, the bowl split into two asymetrical halves. This saddened me greatly as it was a wonderful smoking pipe... it was one of several full-bent Petersons I have, but this one was an especially good smoking tool for some reason. So, it is a bit sad. I could not bear to discard the pipe yet, but probably should do so. Fortunately it is not especially old, nor is it one of the heirloom pipes I inherited from my father or grandfather, but it still was a nice pipe that I enjoyed.

It may be foolish and sentimental of me, but I may keep the pipe, and perhaps either glue it together to use an an ornament on the christmas tree or a piece of art I can hang on the wall in one of my offices or den, or I may try to put the beast back together another way so that I may continue to use it. Any suggestions?

PipeTobacco