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Hi everyone. Sorry we haven't put anything new on this blog for a long time. The good news is that we are alive and well in lovely California. And in case anyone was wondering, we still think our kids are cute and funny. Here are a few pictures from recent days:

Let the games begin. Asher and Bennett are now officially "playing" together. From the parental perspective, the arrangement has its ups and downs. For instance, they occasionally sit together and occupy themselves, affording us some well-deserved respite. Sometimes Bennett will decide that Asher should not be playing with a certain truck. He pulls it away. Asher pulls back, and emphasizes his resistance with a low roar. Bennett roars back, and the taunting escalates along with the pitch until we can concentrate on nothing but the load squeals coming from the corner of the room.

But it's still fun to see them standing together at the train table.


These are the penetrating eyes that will someday convince a slighted girlfriend or neglected wife of genuine sincerity.


Bennett refers to the laundry baskets as "nets," in a reference to Dr. Suess: I bet with my net I can get those pets yet.


There are few things in life as wonderful as a day game on a beautiful afternoon. We went with friends via BART to the old Oakland Coliseum, where admission was $2 and hot dogs were $1. The A's beat up on the Orioles, and everyone had a great time.


In case anyone is tracking the dimensions of Asher's thighs...


Our little half-naked bookworm.

Even scientists don't know very much

I read an interesting article in Scientific American today, and I thought I'd share the gist of it. Here's the short version:

• In the 30's or so, astronomers figured out that the universe is expanding, meaning that all the galaxies are moving apart from each other. The other options were staying still or moving closer together.
• In 1998, they figured out that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. This surprised everyone because regular laws of nature like gravity should mean that all the galaxies pull on each other. So that would mean that the expansion would slow down.
• These findings were from experiments; the people who make the models to explain what we see have since tried to figure out what is going on.
• One thing these models now say in order to get all the math to work out is that most of the universe is "dark," meaning it doesn't emit light or radiation that we can see.
  
• Since no one can see it, this stuff is hard to study, but everyone thinks it is there because something has to be acting on all these galaxies to keep pushing them apart.
• I made this little chart to show the estimates of what is out there, by the type of matter:
  

• Notice that only 5% is the normal stuff, like protons, electrons, you, me, hydrogen, carbon, planets, stars, etc.
• Another 23% reacts to gravity and can be tested by complicated experiments I don't really understand.
• The remaining 72% of what "scientists" think is out there is a mystery - we can't see it, it doesn't seem to obey natural laws, and yet we know it has energy because it is acting on things we can see.
• Moral of the story: We should only trust our eyes for about 5% of our perception of reality and truth, our brains/logic for another 23%, and the rest is up to us. It makes it hard for me to understand why people think science rules out God.

I'll stop now with the nerd-talk, but here's the article if you're interested:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=dark-forces-at-work

Asher loves baths these days. And I love his ducky towel that our sweet friend Joy made for Bennett in Boston.
On our last flight, Asher rolled off the seat and this is what I had to look at for the next week. Poor Asher.
My sweet sister and her kids made Bennett and Asher these cute tie-dyed shirts.
Asher is officially crawling now. Woo hoo! I'm happy for him to get himself around a little bit. He's too heavy to carry all the time.

Quick Poll

Is Empire Strikes Back appropriate for three-year-olds?

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  Yes-With Parental Supervision


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  Yes-Without Parental Supervision


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  No

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Little Singers

We were horsing around with Windows Audio Recorder the other day. Here are some songs by our future American Idol champions.
I am a Child of God
Trying to be Like Jesus

Oceanside

We were fortunate to get to make a quick weekend trip to Oceanside to visit with my Grandmother, who passed away a few days after we left. She had been sick and quickly reached a point where she was suffering a lot. In the spirit of Easter and Resurrection, this post is not about death, but about a really good time we had visiting her and our other family members.


We took official family pictures with my dad's side. Official uniform? White shirts and jeans.

I've decided it's impossible to get all members of our family to look at the camera at the same time.

Expired

While baking the other day, I looked down at the baking powder lid and noticed my initials written out from when I had roommates in college. It suddenly dawned on me that I had had it for a really long time. I checked the expiration date to find that I need to clean out my cupboards more often. I looked at the baking soda...same story. I bet my rolls are going to turn out a lot better next time.

Expiration Date (10/30/06)

January 2004