Yes, We Are Engineers

About an hour after the two holes that were to compose our great plan to fix the vacuum pumps were completed, I managed to squeeze myself in between two walls and get myself not only covered in oil (becoming a regular thing now) but my entire front covered in grime.

This has been my day and the kinds of conversations we've had.

Tech: It's kind of like a torture chamber.  There is no possible way to be comfortable in this tiny space.

Ed: Let me see your hands!
Me: <shows him my hands, palms up>  <I felt like a child getting inspected before receiving the ok to eat dinner>
Ed: Oh!  They're clean.
Me: Yep!  I washed them really well <thinking to myself> It's a good thing you didn't see the backs of my hands (which were not so clean)

Tech: We'll get this thing fixed up, so bob's your uncle.
Lab Partner: Bob's your uncle?
T: Yeah, it's a phrase.  Haven't you heard it before?
LP: No.
Me: Yes, I have.
T: She's heard of it.  It must be Japanese.
LP: What is that other reference to Uncle, you know with the wars?
Me and T: ??
LP: Oh yeah, Uncle Tom.
T: ??
Me: ??
LP: You know, Uncle Tom wants YOU to serve in the Army.
T: Oh, you mean Uncle SAM.  Haha, I was wondering what war you were talking about.
Me: I just assumed it was some reference to the Vietnam war.  Like GI Joe, except it's Uncle Tom.
LP: I think I was thinking about that book: Uncle Tom's Cabinet.
Me: Hahaha, Cabin, NOT Cabinet.
LP: Close enough.
T: No, I don't think Uncle Tom ever served as President.
Me: And now we know why you are in Aerospace Engineering.
T: You'd never make it as a historian...or a linguist.