ISS Sighting

From Pete Darragh

July 17th, 10:33 PM

15 second exposure from our backyard. See the Big Dipper on the left? The ISS path ends just above Polaris.

Thanks Dad for alerting me!

Our Forester Comes Home

After a few repairs at the dealership, we have our new vehicle. Very nice.

From Pete Darragh

Becoming part of the Subie Family

Stephanie and I have been making due with our Accord since the girls were born. We knew we would need a larger vehicle soon. Their stroller takes up the entire trunk! On a recent trip to Costco we forgot to take the stroller out and it was like a jigsaw puzzle fitting all the stuff in. Not fun. We wanted a vehicle that is a bit higher, has more cargo room, has leather seats, is dependable, looks cool, and fits into our price range. We found an 04 Forester XS at Auburn Volkswagon and went to go look at it yesterday. After a test drive and price negotiations we signed the papers! As part of the deal the dealership is going to replace the rear differential, so we didn't bring it home. Hopefully we will have it early next week. We're happy with our purchase and are excited to go on some drives before school starts up again!

99% Monozygotic

When Elise and Charlotte were born, we did not know if they were identical or fraternal twins. It was tough to tell at first because they differed in their size, and they just look like cute babies! We wanted to find out - for curiosity, and some practical reasons. We ordered a DNA test kit from a company and sent in cheek swabs from both of them. About 10 days later we got the news! 99% probability that they are monozygotic (identical) twins! Here are some facts about identical twins:

• They share the same nuclear DNA, but may differ in their mitochondrial DNA.
• Identical twins do not "run in the family". This makes sense for us because ours are the first twins!
• Fraternal twins are twice as common as identical twins.
• The odds of identical twins is about 3/1000.
• Their fingerprints are different because fingerprints are a function of phenotype, not genotype.
• Since they are a genetic match, they can give blood or organs to each other, should the need arise.
• My twin girls, Elise and Charlotte, are the most beautiful identical twins in the world.

Happy Independence Day!

From 2009_07_04

Leisure Time

Although Stephanie are kept quite busy by the girls (and we love it), I have found some time for some lazy summer activities in between feeding, diaper blow-outs, bottle washings, and general household chores. The time is in 20-60 minutes increments, and can be interrupted at any point. So far I have:

- Beat the new Ghost Busters video game for wii. Talk about a good implementation of the wii-mote and game play! It was really entertaining blasting ghosts with the proton beam and reliving the humor of Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray.

- Read The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. It won deservingly won the Newbury award last year. Nobody Owens is the main character who is the sole survivor of his family, all of whom are murdered in the first chapter. Nobody toddles into a graveyard and is adopted by the ghosts. The story is a great variation of Kipling's Jungle Books.

- Read Life as We Knew It. In this story an asteroid knocks the Moon into a closer orbit. Tides are disrupted, weather patterns screwed up, coastal areas are swept away by Tsunamies, and volcanos cause climatic upheaval. It is the story of a high school girl and her family's struggle for survival after all infrastructure is destroyed. A good but scary read. It makes me want to make sure we have supplies in case of an earthquake, especially with the girls.

- Maintained the flower bed I put in right before Elise and Charlotte were born. I buried a "soaker hose" to keep the plants irrigated and it has worked very well.

From New Flower Bed

- Tiger Woods Golf 10 for Wii with the motion-plus controller. This game is tough! The motion + controller makes it very sensitive to your swing motion. One fun aspect is that it has a disc-golf game built in. It is amazing how well the game reflects your real hand motions. It is very fun.

From Pete Darragh

There are several house projects I need to do before summer is over. I would like to re-read Love and Logic for the classroom (I need to refresh my classroom management skills), and I need to journal for Charlotte and Elise. I started a journal to give to them on their birth day, but haven't picked it back up. There is so much to write and I am overwhelmed by it for some reason. The weather is so gorgeous outside I wish I could take more advantage of it, but nothing is as great as the time I am privileged to have at home with my daughters.