14:13 – I should have known better. Barbara and I had dinner out last night and then headed to the supermarket. My total haul consisted of one small carrot. Searching the web turned up results that said the local Lowes had packages of eight 8.75 gram yeast packets for $0.59. They did have yeast packets for $0.59, but that was for one 8.75 gram packet, not eight. Similarly, although the web search said the local Lowes had unflavored gelatin in one-pound packages for a reasonable price, all I could find was one-ounce packages for something like $2.99 each. Both of those prices were outrageous. I’ll just order the gelatin and yeast by the pound or kilo on-line.

Barbara is working on biology kits today, while she watches the Wake Forest game. She’s labeling and packaging stuff that’s stable and can be packed ahead of time, like lima bean seeds, dextrose, agar, and so on. We needed to change from the 5162 labels to 5160 labels because the 5162’s are too tall to fit the wide-mouth pharma packer bottles we’re using for solids. The 5160’s come 30 per sheet. We decided that 30 kits wasn’t enough initial inventory, so we’re doing 60 of everything. That should strike a happy balance between finished goods inventory cost and cubic, freshness of the kits, and fast availability.

When the book comes out in April, we’ll probably end up with a flood of orders, followed by another flood in time for the autumn semester. We’re going to try to keep a 3-week inventory of finished kits on hand. That number will vary by time of year, of course. At peak times, we may be shipping 20 or more kits a week. At slower times, we may be shipping only a few a week. But three weeks gives me time to order components, make up and package chemicals, and so on.