Best Meeting EVER

I just love where i work. Today's education department meeting took place in a SciZone (that's a classroom to you, monkey boy) that was still set up from this morning's program Ziplock Chemistry. As we waited for everyone to arrive my boss walked me through the reaction so that i could play with it as the meeting got underway. Bubbling, gassy, color changing, exothermic goodness ensued as we went through program reports. Nothing makes program reports fly by quite like scientific discovery. Just as the meeting was starting to wind down, in walked Erin with our CEO in tow. He was holding a plastic cup and asked for our opinion on what type of beetle was in it and he shook out this HUGE 3 inch bug. Most of us agreed that it was the body of some sort of rhinoceros beetle. As we passed it around, it started to move. Apparently it had just been cold, not dead. How did this big guy get to my department meeting? A balloon delivery guy was over on the other side of the harbor by the Fish Prison and he saw a woman trying to whack this big bug with a broom. He saved it and brought it to us. When our CEO saw it, his first reaction was "let's take it to the education department" and it didn't matter that we were in a meeting. Science waits for no man! And yes, i did say "balloon delivery guy." I couldn't make that story up. Turns out that our new friend, Carl, is an Eastern Hercules beetle. He is a tiny bit south of his normal range - probably looking for some warmer weather. You know, if I ever got lost I would want to be brought here because in the span of 45 minutes Carl went from corpse-like in a plastic cup to fawned over by the education department to shown to guests on the floor to a photo shoot to a lovely home with the proper dinner identified and laid out for him. I told my boss that not only was this the best meeting ever, from now on I am going to expect experiments, toys or surprises every week!