Disaster at the lab

We thought we had everything planned and had alotted enough time. Even when I brought up my rule: "things take longer than you think they will." And so it goes, we're going to be about 45 minutes late for our sort appointment. Then the sort tech will LOVE us when we say we want to do 4 sorts instead of 1 sort. I think I'll be able to hear the yelling from across the campus.

So, what went wrong? First of all, the cardnial rule was not followed - have EVERYTHING labelled, aliquoted, and stored properly. Here's what happens when you're rushing because you didn't have the aliquots done the day before:

student "Did you see me add the antibodies?"
me "No, just the first step reagent. I was too busy adding the diluted reagent to the tubes. I thought you did, but can't be sure. What's the total volume that it should be?"
student "200ul. 50ul of reagent, and 150ul of HBSS"
me "That's not a 1:3 dilution. That's a 1:4 dilution. Measure the volume and see what it says"
student "Shit! And the volume is 150ul"
me "A 1:4 dilution isn't going to hurt anything - just make a note of it in your write-up. And be sure to add the reagent."

Mind you, this all could have been done on Friday. Combined with having to review the protocol, we burned about a half hour of time.

Lab lessons don't always come easy....