Random Thoughts on Genetics

I woke up today thinking about inherited characteristics and incomplete dominance. I have no idea why, so don’t ask.

At any rate, it occurred to me that our children could very well have brown eyes. I’ve always thought of my future offspring as looking very much like Alan and I because we do look very similar in terms of coloring. While our future children will almost definitely have blond hair, at least as a child, his or eyes will not necessarily have the same color eyes because we both have eye colors that are caused by incomplete dominance.

My mother’s eyes are blue-gray and my dad’s eyes are green-gray. I ended up with a combination. Alan’s eyes are similar, but have more green in them. His dad had brown eyes and his mom’s eyes are (I believe) hazel. Zach’s eyes are brown. Since my eyes are a mixture of colors and Alan’s are the product of blue and brown, it’s entirely possible that our children will end up with brown eyes.

Completely random, I know.

Anyway, Alan and I are working on building a new cat tower. We pulled apart the old one and ripped the carpet off the legs. Then we screwed the legs together to make one thick beam and wrapped it in sisal rope. Next we’re going to cut a half-pipe out of a cardboard concrete form and cover it with soft blanket material to create a place for Karma to nap. I’m also making bread out of some leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving. If the bread and rolls come out well, I’m going to make more and freeze them for later use so that I won’t always have to go through the hassle of making bread when I want fresh bread. I have plenty of leftovers to work with.

And somewhere in between building and baking, I will be writing furiously, the 50K finish line in sight. My current count is 46,969. I’m so close I can taste it! If I make it to 50K by the end of today, that means I can be near 60K by the 30th, which gives me time to wrap up the story in a satisfactory way. I promise I will post it when I’m done. And next weekend we’re going to Denver to the art museum. It can be a celebration and a welcome break. The weekend after that we’re going on some marriage retreat at some resort or other. The Army is paying for everything, so that’s kind of awesome.

Off I go to my projects now.

~Liz