The new lab mascot

It all started when I emailed Val to tell her I was coming back to Santa Cruz. I asked if the lab guys wanted me to bring them anything (thinking along the lines of Australian chocolates or similar).

Val emailed back and said that they were all good, except that Ole had requested that I bring a live kangaroo. Ole is one of Marc's postdocs, and he made me feel very welcome last year by unceasingly teasing the daylights out of me. And back seat driving when we all went out for pizza one lunchtime, but that's another story.

Luckily Sean is more than a match for Ole in the wit department, and came up with the perfect solution. So at the lab meeting on Monday, I presented Ole with the following:

And then I came into the office on Tuesday to find our new lab mascot greeting me from on high:

He cut an imposing figure.

Only problem was, everyone who subsequently came into our office mistook him for a T-Rex.

While we're on the subject of novelty gifts, I went to another lab meeting yesterday where I was introduced to customised M&Ms. UCSC's colours are blue and gold, so we have blue and yellow M&Ms printed with the lab's name, the banana slug mascot, or a mountain lion. I have included an Australian iconic chocolate for comparison, although I doubt we'll get customised Caramellos becoming available any time soon.