Happy Birthday, Juliana!

Oh Cash, that pic is hysterical.

I suck at recognizing birthdays! Hippo Birdies Juliana!!

My boss is obsessing about why our paper towel dispenser hasn't been changed but the one down the hall has

Maybe he's obsessing about stuff he has some control over as an alternative to obsessing on what he can't control?

ION,

Ability to listen to 2 things at once is largely inherited

Your ability to listen to a phone message in one ear while a friend is talking into your other ear—and comprehend what both are saying—is an important communication skill that’s heavily influenced by your genes, say researchers of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), one of the National Institutes of Health. The finding, published in the August 2007 issue of Human Genetics, may help researchers better understand a broad and complex group of disorders—called auditory processing disorders (APDs)—in which individuals with otherwise normal hearing ability have trouble making sense of the sounds around them.

“Our auditory system doesn’t end with our ears,” says James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIDCD. “It also includes the part of our brain that helps us interpret the sounds we hear. This is the first study to show that people vary widely in their ability to process what they hear, and these differences are due largely to heredity.”

I don't think I'm one of them "listen to two things at once" people....

Thank god! People think I am crazy at work because I literally cannot hear either conversation when someone is talking to me when I am on the phone. I am always shushing or asking the person on the phone to hold! Of course I also have to close my eyes when doing complicated quick change things like lacing corsets and shoes in the dark, because being able to see a little distracts me more than not seeing at all.

I don't think I'm one of them "listen to two things at once" people...

I'm great at multitasking, but not so great at listening to two things at once. I mean, I can kind of do it, but it makes me cranky? And usually it kicks in when I'd rather it wouldn't, like being able to listen to music in one ear and hear a coworker drone on and on and on in the other.

Of course, my friends and family have long since discovered that if they talk to me while I'm reading a book, I can't listen with any of my ears.

if they talk to me while I'm reading a book, I can't listen with any of my ears.

Ohhh so very much this.

See, I think I'm the opposite of this. I can be on the computer, reading school stuff, with the tv on, the kids nattering at me, and I can still hear what is happening in the other room. I wish I could zone that out more.

I've mentioned this before, but in grade school I got in trouble a few times when the teacher told us to put our books away and I didn't because I was reading and didn't hear him.

My (not biologically related) aunt is phenomenal at the listening to two things at once thing. I learned this at a restaurant one day when we were chatting and she suddenly piped up with why the financial advice that some guy was giving to his dining partner at another table was completely wrong. I was all, "Huh?" And then she revealed her superpowers of hearing to me. I was, and remain, in awe.

Yeah, I think I can hear two things at once, but if I'm reading I'll stop listening entirely. One organ at a time!