'Cloning Week' /and/ Give Him the Chicken

Ben is working at the University of Idaho for the summer. They are working with 70 horses and attempting to clone a horse. He works for a guy named Dirk Vanderwall who was the 2005 theriogenologist of the year, so he is really knowledgeable and it should be a good learning experience. Also, Dr. Wight from Utah State comes up one week a month to do the actual DNA/genetic work. He was part of the team that cloned the first sheep. This week is one of their cloning weeks, and Ben works LONG hours. Yesterday he worked 15 hours and who knows how long today. They give the mares Hcg and then collect the eggs from them the next day. Then Dr. Wight takes the DNA from the eggs and does his thing. Then, they surgically implant the embryo into a surrogate mare. It's really fascinating. We will go get pictures of him at work sometime, but this week is kind of crazy. Plus they have a bunch of people from Korea who came to watch so it's even more crowded than usual. We're just hanging out by ourselves this week!

Ben and I have a little inside joke now from trying to change Cody's diapers. The other day I was fighting with him to change a stinky diaper. Ben said, "Give him the chicken." Thinking he was referring to some wrestling move or restraining hold I said, "Okay, how do I do it." Ben: "No, the plastic chicken..." Now whenever Cody acts up we tell him we're going to give him the chicken.