Random Thoughts…

Last Tuesday a 20-year-old woman who is from the same Kenyan district as Barack Obama's father gave birth to twins and she named them Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. She said that naming her two sons after the American presidential candidates would help her "remember the historic U.S. elections for a long time, both the winner and the loser."

I found this interesting, and I hope this woman's twins get along better than their namesakes! It's too bad that both of the candidates have such unusual names! I also can't help but wonder if the name Barack is going to rise in popularity because of Pres. Obama? I guess only time will tell if this name becomes trendy, especially among African-Americans.

General David Petraeus, director of the CIA, resigned on Friday after it came to light that he's been having an affair. Another high profile person disgraced because of sexual misconduct! I don't know why people continue to do this, and I'm not sure why they don't learn from the mistakes of their forebears. Do they think that they won't get caught?! I don't know… maybe they just get comfortable sneaking around, but you'd think that they would know that there's a good chance that if they're playing with fire they're going to get burned!

But what I don't understand is why Petraeus had to resign over his affair when Bill Clinton did the same thing. Why didn't he have to resign? (And in my humble opinion what Clinton did was even worse since he was serving as president of the United States and was impeached!!  I don't get it and it definitely seems like a double standard if you ask me. Why won't people learn from the bad examples of those who have gone before them?! Just say no when it comes to affairs!

I don't really enjoy watching cartoons or most animated movies, but I have to admit that I do love the cartoon Phineas and Ferb. It's such a clever cartoon and one that appeals to kids and adults at the same time. Any P & F fans out there?

When my grandparents visited in October my grandpa bought an orchid for my mom and me when he went grocery shopping with my mom. At that time it had four blossoms on it, plus a bunch of buds. Now all of the buds have opened up and there are seven blossoms. A month later all of the original blossoms still look very fresh and are still going strong. They haven't even started to wilt!

The first two pictures are what the orchid looked like when Grandpa first brought it home from the grocery store. The rest of the pictures are what the orchid looked like this morning. (The blossoms are such a dark fuchsia/purple; the pictures really don't do the color justice.)

Do you remember learning about heritable traits in biology; things like hair and eye color, "hitchhiker's thumb," attached/detached earlobes, widow's peak, blood types, etc. Another heritable trait is if you're able to roll your tongue. Some people can, some people can't. I think most of my biological sisters can, but I can't. I know it's silly, but I've always been jealous of people who can. I just think it's weird to not be able to do something that others can do so easily. Some people can even do what's called "clover tongue" where they're able to make multiple rolls.