stuff and...um...other stuff

Remember yesterday when I said that my new phone isn't really all that much less heavy than the old one? Yeah, I totally lied. It's a LOT lighter. I had it in my pants pocket yesterday and kept thinking I had lost it. It's going to take some getting used to.

Last night we went to Friendly's (fun kid-friendly restaurant) to celebrate Bastian's birthday. It was fun. The kids, by which I mean Isaac and Ruthie, were all over the place, running around, wiggling, making noise. Meanwhile Baz sat calmly in his chair or sandykidd's lap like a little angel. heh. ;) ah well, he'll be terrorizing the place up soon enough.

Anyway, we had a nice meal and the waitress was awesome (I think we ended up tipping her like 30%) and they all came out and sang Happy Birthday to Baz, which totally stunned him, LOL, and then he enjoyed his post-dinner ice-cream sundae by basically sticking his entire face into it, of which I sure hope metafrantic is going to post the pictures very soon, hint hint, because that was awesome. LOL.

At the end of the evening I noticed one of the waitresses drawing/writing on another table with whipped cream. She wrote something like "Hi, I ♥ you" and a smiley face. Apparently this is something the waitstaff do to tease each other when they're bored (then they send a coworker over to clean it up). She said that when they're feeling mean, they do it with caramel sauce. yikes. LOL.

Overnight there was thunder, which woke me up, and I worried that Isaac would start crying, but I heard not a peep from him. Ruthie slept through it all. Then on the way to preschool this morning Isaac mentioned the thunder and I asked whether it had scared him, and he said no, "I just thought it was loud." Well, ain't that the truth. I'm glad that at least he didn't totally freak out, which he certainly used to do over thunder when he was littler!

OK, more later.

ugh, somebody stop me

A mom on the SomervilleMoms email list posted that she desperately needs to find a new home for a sweet 6-year-old kitty. Apparently an elderly family member just went into a nursing home and had to give up this cat, and she (the mom who posted this) can't keep her (the cat) because husband is horribly allergic. If they don't find a home soon, they'll take the kitty to Angell Memorial, and since older cats never get adopted, she'll either get euthanized, or live the rest of her life in a cage. :(

Someone please remind me why I shouldn't be getting a new kitty right now? :(

what immortal hand or eye...

This will undoubtedly seem totally out of left field, heh.

Here's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately: symmetry.

Almost every living creature on Earth exhibits symmetry in its physical makeup. (The major exceptions are things like sponges and coral, which are pretty weird out-there organisms in any case.) Furthermore, scientific evidence suggests that the degree to which an individual human being's facial features are symmetrical is directly correlated with the degree to which other humans find that human attractive. In an innate, instinctive sense, we are predisposed to perceive symmetry as beautiful.

Why is symmetry evolutionarily preferable? Is symmetry preferable? Is there an advantage that symmetry gives an animal, in the survival-of-the-fittest sense? If so, is that advantage specific to conditions on Earth, or would it conceivably exist on any other planet in the universe that's capable of sustaining life?

Could life forms -- intelligent or otherwise -- evolve on other planets that do not exhibit physiological/physical symmetry?

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DO NOT WANT

I've just talked myself into a case of strep throat. Wikipedia sure can be a double-edged sword sometimes.
(It really hurts to swallow, and I have no appetite, which never happens.)

Are you there, universe? It's me, Joan. NO STREP THROAT A WEEK BEFORE MY KID'S BIRTHDAY. I don't know how much clearer I can make that, universe. Kthxbai.