The demise of one of my favorite things.

Today is a sad day. I was making an effort to clean up my home office. Trust me, if you were able to actually see my home office, you'd understand the Herculean effort such a goal involves. But I digress. I was leaning over, wiping something down, when I stood up and knocked over my Andy Sipowicz snow globe. This snow globe was made for me by my friend Eileen Keegan, who gave it to me when I finished graduate school in 1999 and took my first college level teaching position. It easily ranks in the top 20 of my favorite personal possessions. I sense an impending NYPD Blue DVD marathon to cope with my grief. You gotta love a man who is deeply flawed, but continues to struggle to become a better man. And now, a moment of silence for the snow globe.

Ok. In other news, referrals should arrive in the next 10 days or so, and rumor has it that a family with a log in date of 11/18/2005(the same as ours)has been told they will not make this batch. Not a big surprise. Last month I had resigned myself to an August referral and so I am not distressed by this rumor. I am much more upset about the snow globe incident. Also, Scott O. asked in a comment what the first character in the Chinese wall hanging pictured in an earlier post is...the characters are Peace,Love, Happiness.

And finally, if you live in the South of Boston area, and you want to get fat, go here. Yum.

In honor of my very nerdy husband.

What You Know About Math - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Do you have a male or female brain?

I got sucked into a Sex I.D. of the brain test on BBC, which I found on one of my favorite blogs, Grrl Travels. My brain is apparently a 25 (female) on a scale that looks like this:

Female-100 50 0 50 100-Male

The average score for women that take the test is 50 (female). So am I less of a woman than the average woman? And is that a good or bad thing?

If you are going to take the test, do so now. I'm about to tell you a little more about my scores.
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There are six parts to the test, some timed.

Part 1: Angles, "a spatial task". I score a 16 out of 20, where the average score for men is 15.1/20 and the average score for women is a 13.3/20. This puts me in this range: "You found this test neither hard nor easy. This suggests your brain has male and female traits when it comes to spatial ability".

Part 1: Spot the Difference, which "tests your ability to identify which objects changed position". I scored a 79%, where the average score for men is 39% and the average score for women is 46%. This puts me in this range: "Those with a female-brain type generally score in this range. Your ability to remember where objects are may serve as an advantage to you when you're trying to find your way around places. You're more capable of recalling landmarks to get from one place to another".

All I can say is that SchnauzerKing damn well better score lower than me on this, since I've seen lots of evidence that his spatial ability is lacking, e.g. our trash can that does not fit where it's supposed to.

Part 2: Hands. My left thumb is on top when I clasp my hands together. This is supposed to indicate right brain dominance, and "as a right brain dominant person, you may excel in visual, spatial and intuitive processes". Yeah. Whatever.

Part 3: Emotions and Systems, which looked at whether I prefer to empathize or systemise. I scored a 10 out of 20 for empathy (average score for men is 7.9/20, average score for women is 10.6/20), and a 9 out of 20 for systemizing (average score for men is 12.5/20, average score for women is 8/20). Apparently, I prefer to do neither. Either that or I have a dual personality.

Part 3: Eyes, which "tests your ability to judge people's emotions". I nailed this, scoring 10 out of 10. The average score for men is 6.6/10, the average score for women is 6.6/10.
So, to quote a friend of mine "Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining". I'll be on to you.

Part 4: Fingers, which measures the ratio your index finger to your ring finger. Both of my hands had a ratio of 1.01. The average for men is 0.982, and the average for women is 0.991.
However, I am not entirely convinced that either I, or the others that took this test, are accurate measurement takers.

Part 5: Faces, which looks at "how you rate the attractiveness of a series of faces". I chose males as my preference in sexual partners, and so the images were "digitally altered to create slight differences in masculinity". My choices suggest I prefer more masculine faces among men. This makes sense to me...never been into pretty boys. Give me Liam Neeson over Brad Pitt any day.


Part 6: 3D Shapes, which tested my "ability to mentally rotate 3D shapes". I scored a 12/12 on this, with an average score for men of 8.2/12 and an average score for women of 7.1/12. Less than 10% of women get a perfect score, so apparently I am a freak among women. The score out me in this range: "Are you an engineer or do you have a science background? People with these skills tend to score high in this range. Past studies have concluded that people in this range have a more male brain". Hmmm. I am an economist. But a medical doctor wanna-be and not just because of McDreamy and Burke.

Part 6: Words, which looks at "verbal fluency". I score 12 words that are associated with "grey" and 9 words that mean "happy". The average score for mean is 11.4 words total and the average score for women is 12.4 words total. The test does assume that the words you entered are correct. Hmmm. I do read a lot, and have a decent vocabulary, although I often resort to phrases such as "Oh, man" and "You F***er". Road rage is rampant in these parts. I am working on eliminating the latter phrase from my vocabulary in light of impendeding parenthood.

Part 6 Ultimatum, a task which looked at how you would divide money. I went for an equitable split. Apparently, that makes me less greedy than average, since mean demanded 51.6% of the pot, while women demanded 51% of the pot on average. Hey, I've never had a lot of money, why start now?

And yes honey, I believe in an equitable spilt of household and future child-rearing labor.