In the past four days, I've left the apartment for a total of exactly one hour. After lunch yesterday, having hit the rather low point of eating the only thing I could find - Quaker Oats - out of the saucepan I made it in, I decided a trip to the store and a bit of fresh air would be good. The reason for my apparent seclusion is that Mala and I have been putting the finishing touches on the chemistry poetry book so we can send it off for publication soon. It is just amazing how long that can take. But now it's in good shape, and here is one more illustration. Please refrain from telling me if you see a mistake. The following is an excerpt from the poem (by Mala Radhakrishnan) that it illustrates. (Note: The poem never explicitly states which base she is, so I decided to make her lithium hydroxide, thus giving her a somewhat proportional head. Never mind that the indicator strip is nowhere near to scale...)

She looked in the mirror and stared at her face.
It just wasn’t easy being a base.
All that she wanted: a shoulder to cry on
And ways to remove her hydroxide ion.

...

Her molecular orbitals so unattractive,
Her hydroxide ion was not yet reactive.
All of her neighbors, they managed to hate her,
Except for her one friend, an indicator.

This friend would say, “It’s tough knowing you.
Wherever we go, you keep me so blue.

...