Pumpkinification and dissection

Have you ever heard of the word "Pumpkinification"? Well, please do not bother to google it, because the only results you will find are Seneca's Apokolokyntosis divi Claudii. Well, other than this Roman drama, I think that "pumpkinification" should be used in everyday conversations. How? Be creative! :) We could turn it into a verb (I pumpkinify, they had pumpkinified...), a noun (pumpkinification), and adjective (pumpkinified?) ... an adverb (pumpkinifiably? )? The options are unlimited! Just think of all of the possibilities!

Now, how, you may ask, did I stumble upon a word of such potential? A friend of mine (and her family) visited us this past week, and she sort of introduced me to this wonderful word. We decided that first you pumpkinify something, and then perhaps have to degourdify it later... but we're still working out the details :) This good friend of mine is doing the same Biology Lab correspondence course, and, as the name indicates, we have a bunch of labs and experiments to carry out. Unfortunately, this includes dissections as well. Lots of them. The two of us decided to unite under a common banner of disgust for a week and finish them all off together. Just as we predicted, it was less repulsive and grotesque than had we attempted to do it alone. Surprisingly, we actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit :) And, of course, we took all sorts of silly pictures kissing the frog, playing with the crawfish, doing fishy-faces with the perch, eating the grasshopper, questioning the very point of earthworms, and prying open a very resistant clam. All the while, this cloud of invisible fumes of formaldehyde loomed over our heads, leaving us with a strange feeling in our head by the end of the day. Only time will tell the true brain er... alterations. I am sure that enjoying touching a frog's teeth is one of those side effects.

Of course, we did other experiments, and used our brothers as test specimens. Got to love science! When else can you have your brother LET you poke him thousands of times with a toothpick, I ask you?! (We used the other's brother, so that we would be less er... vengeful when poking. She didn't seem to notice, and my brother had these red marks all throughout his arm... We were testing for "touch," "pressure," and "PAIN." Mwahahaha. Enough said :D) So yes, I still have a bunch of labs to finish off, but we covered a good chunk of them. Thank you my friend! Cheerio everyone~