Merb devel - Mar 2008 - Models are not initialised correctly with ''rake test'' in Merb 0.9.1

I''m using Sequel as my ORM and Test::Unit as my testing framework  and
have the following model:

class Item < Sequel::Model
  validates do
    presence_of( :name, :uuid, :vendor_id, :vendor_reference, :amount,
:currency_code )
    uniqueness_of( :uuid )
  end

  def initialize( *args )
    super( *args )
    self.uuid = UUID.random_create.to_s
  end
end

As you can see I overwrite initialize to set up the UUID when the
model is instantiated. In my tests I have the following method which
sets up an Item:

def generate_valid_new_item
    item = Item.new do |i|
      i.name = random_item_name
      i.description = random_description
      i.vendor_id = random_vendor_id
      i.vendor_reference = random_vendor_reference
      i.amount = random_amount
      i.currency_code = random_currency_code
      i.image_url = random_homepage_url
    end
    assert( item.valid?, item.errors.full_messages )
    item
  end

The problem is that when it gets to that assert on the 3rd last line
it fails because item.uuid (which should exist) is nil. I put a
breakpoint in the initialize method and it is never called(!?). I have
no clue how the object is being initialised if new is called but
initialize is not?

The strange thing is that this only happens when I run my unit tests.
If I run ''merb -i'' (even with -e test) I can initialise an
Item
correctly:

farrel at nicodemus ~/Projects/boxen $ merb -i -e test
 ~ loading gem ''merb_sequel'' from config/init.rb:30 ...
 ~ loading gem ''merb_test_unit'' from config/init.rb:41 ...
 ~ The merb_test_unit gem was not found.  You may need to install it.
 ~ Loaded TEST Environment...
 ~ Connecting to the ''boxen_test'' database on
''localhost'' using ''postgres'' ...
 ~ Compiling routes...
 ~ loading gem ''password'' from config/init.rb:58 ...
 ~ loading gem ''validation_extensions'' from config/init.rb:59
...
 ~ loading gem ''uuidtools'' from config/init.rb:60 ...
 ~ Using ''share-nothing'' cookie sessions (4kb limit per
client)
irb(main):001:0> item = Item.new
=> #<Item
@values={:uuid=>"ef62fa2e-594a-4305-b1bf-8a9b7aec8790"}>

The UUID is definitely present there. Anyone else have some ideas?

Farrel