O Gumball Tree, O Gumball Tree!

So there hasn't been much exciting news on the gum ball front lately but I decided to take a few pictures to track its progress. It's getting pretty close to the top now but it's just one tall spire. Jake needs to squish it down again.

 The gumball tree.

 I told Jake we should chew a lot of green gum to cover it and then some red gum to decorate it like a Christmas tree since that's vaguely what it looks like now. He didn't think much of that idea. We could probably sell it if we did that.

Jake *Finally* Made It

So Jake finally managed to spit a piece of gum into the bucket in our spitting competition (or so he says). No one actually witnessed this event and I'm slightly skeptical but I'm inclined to believe him for now. If it's true, he did make it backwards (that is, with his back to bucket as he spit) so that's something but it's still practically months after I made it.

He presented this IM conversation as proof:

For some reason he didn't want his picture taken with the piece of gum in the bucket so here's an artist's rendition of the alleged event:

"Oh my god, I made it!"

Well, the deed has been done - I spit my gum into the bucket from a distance of about 4 feet.

The actual piece of gum - isn't it beautiful?

It actually happened yesterday just before 2:00pm. The gum ball hit the rim of the hole a little bit before falling through and as soon as I was sure of it, I reflexively yelled "Oh my god, I made it!". It was a proud moment in my life.

Just after it happened.

Even though I always knew deep down that I would win, I was surprised it happened so quick. Jake had been getting close on some of his last few tries so I was getting slightly worried but now that I won, all is as it should be. I have to say, I'm ridiculously pleased with my success.

Of course, like a good scientist, the next step is to be able to reliably reproduce the results. That may take some time.

 

Lots and lots of practice.

The chewed gum ball is now in a ball shape.

Jake took it upon himself to form the previous chewed gum pile into an actual chewed gum ball. He put a glove on to do it (or so he says).

Is that putty?

Today as I was leaving work, I walked over to Mark's desk to talk to him for a bit. As we were talking, he keep on playing with what looked a piece of putty or a malleable eraser. Then all the sudden he says, "this gum has a weird consistency".

What? Gum?

Yes, that piece of "putty" was actually a piece of chewed gum. And Mark had been rubbing it all over his hands.

When I told him that it was disgusting, he claimed it was far less disgusting than when I put a piece of gum that landed on my clean desk back into my mouth. Touché.

Anyway, it's safely in Jake's gum ball bucket now.

Aim for the hole!

So I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping the Gum Ball blog updated. I meant to last Friday and forgot, took a picture Monday and forgot to post it, and so now it's today.

Monday's Gum Ball is fair of face.

It's grown since then :) Though I still don't think it's growing as fast as we had imagined it would. We've been chewing a lot of 5 Solstice because that wrapper is the sky color in the mural.

Friday's Gum Ball is loving and giving.

This passed week also saw the commencement of the gum spitting contest between Jake and I. It started as an "I wonder..." type of situation last week and evolved into a full blown competition this week. The goal is simple: spit your gum into the bucket with the lid on from a distance of about 4 ft. We also have the stipulation that the other has to witness any made shot. Gum can be reshot if the first shot misses (yes, that means what you probably think it means).

Neither of us has made it yet but there have been a few close ones. So just a word to the wise, watch out for flying gum...

First Day With The Bucket.

Not too bad a haul considering the project.

Monica also noted how appropriate the bucket is since it sits on Jake's desk - it's a Blue Bunny bucket. It was a coincidence but it's funny how life just works out sometimes.

The bucket has landed.

I remembered the ice cream bucket today and Jake transferred our existing gum ball to it. Only minor difficulties, which were remedied with a banana peel, were encountered.

And so it begins.

So I forgot to bring in the ice cream bucket today but that isn't stopping the formation of the chewed gum ball.

The pink one (cinnamon 5) is Jake's and was the first addition The green one is mine (spearmint Extra). I apparently have no talent as a chewed gum stacker because mine started on top but eventually fell off. Jake seems to know what he's doing.

And it doesn't end there - Chris left Jake a present on his chair:

And then the other Chris decided to contribute as well:

I'll remember the bucket tomorrow.

So Jake wants to created a chewed gum ball...

I'm creating a gum wrapper mosaic at work which has required me (& my coworkers) to chew a lot of gum - sometimes even multiple pieces at once. Due to my damnable curiousity, I was easily persuaded by Jake to chew an entire 15-pack of gum in addition to the stick I was already chewing (for 16 total pieces). This was the end result:

I was going to toss it after I got sick of chewing it but Jake wanted to keep it as a "conversation piece". Our coworkers think it looks like a turd.

Jake is so pleased with this specimen that he now wants to create a chewed gum ball out of the rest of the pieces needed to make my gum wrapper mosaic. He wants to see what 70+ packs of chewed gum looks like. It's my duty to bring in an ice cream bucket in which to create the gum ball. I will just to see how far he takes this.

This blog will be dedicated to the chewed gum ball.