Look, when I said "maybe I'll be posting more often" it was... uh, you know. It was all relative. A month later is nothing when you remember that it's been two years empty.

The Christmas Season is upon us, well and truly. Almost all of my shopping is done. I only have one handmade gift left to finish, and thankfully plain weave is fast and easy. We will go get our Christmas tree today, and I will pull out the decorations. I pulled a muscle in my back earlier in the week, and it took me until today to feel normal again. (Aren't I too young for backaches?)

Work has been slow but steady. With the holidays coming around, people aren't doing much construction, so there's not much stuff coming in for asbestos testing. Radon, though, is a big hit in the cold weather. We get full totes of radon samples in daily with the mail. Thankfully the paperwork for that is all standard and really easy to log in.
Oh! I never talked much about my new job. So, let's say you move into a house. And it's an old house, and you worry that maybe some of the materials used to build it were hazardous. Lead in the paint, asbestos insulation (they put asbestos in damn near everything, even toothbrushes), maybe mold in the basement. You're worried. So you take a few samples of them, and you cruise the internet looking for a place to get this stuff tested.

Welcome to EMSL Analytical, Inc. We do that testing. Not sure if your sheetrock is asbestos or not? Want to identify the allergens in that dust? Do you need to know the tensile strength of that dog treat? How about doing a total nutritional analysis on that new food product you want to sell? We do it. We do it all. And we have labs across the country (and some in Canada). I work in login, where we process incoming samples and sort them to where they need to go, filter out and handle any problems, and get the paperwork and information in the system so the labs can do their thing. Mostly I handle asbestos and radon paperwork, which is one of our biggest labs, but I also dabble in micro and lead. Chemistry is a beast of its own and I'm glad I don't mess with it. Ugh.

It took me a little while, but I am SO ready for Christmas. I can't wait. I got Patrick the coolest presents and he is gonna love them. My family polyanna is gonna love their stuff, too. All my friends are being a little spoiled this year. I can spare some money, for once. It's a nice feeling. I can't wait to see what they all say when they get their presents!

Are you ready for the holidays?

The wren, oh, the wren
He's the king of all birds
On Saint Steven's Day he got caught in the furze
So it's up with the kettle
And down with the pan
Won't you give us a penny for the bury the wren?
~"The Wren! The Wren!" - traditional Christmas carol