Those of you who guessed #1 get a gold star!!!  I'd forgotten some of my responses to "spider posts"...and my daughter had been reading over my shoulder and suggested that lie.  I have held taratulas withought freaking, but I much prefer my pets to be warm blooded.

Research with agricultural species doesn't often make it into journals like Science, so thanks to OS and OES for giving me a chance to gloat!  I was part of the international group working on the bovine genome - I developed cell lines from the cow (L1 Dominette) that was used for the study.

The Oregon State University pig barns used to have an apartment for student workers to live on-site.  When I went to OSU for MS, my stipend was  pretty small, so they offered me a room at the barn for $50/month.  Other than smelling a little strange (which I didn't notice because you really do lose your sense of smell) it was a good gig.  The barn was about a mile away from campus in acres of meadow.  The local paper did a weekend spread on student at the animal facilities, and I got my photo on the front page!!!!

Thanks for playing!