Twins

Tosc's daughters are identical twins. I find this SO FASCINATING. Don't you? (rhetorical, you fuckers) I mean, they are basically the same person! Except, they're NOT! What the? How does it WORK?

Of course the girls look alike. But one is taller and weighs more. They have different running gaits. They have different VOICES. They definitely have different personalities.

I know that some of these things are the result of each girl's experience in utero, and their hospital stay after their birth, etc. But STILL. Isn't it COOL? A few weeks ago, Tosc and I watched this documentary on PBS on epigenetics. I was completely riveted. For those of you too LAZY slash IMPORTANT to watch an entire PBS documentary online (aka all of you), epigenetics is basically the study not of genes themselves, but how identical sets of genes turn themselves on or off in different ways.

One of the coolest visuals in the documentary showed the overlapping epigenomes of two sets of identical twins: one set was 5ish years old, the other set was 60ish. Of course, both sets of twins had identical GENES. And the 5-year-old twins had mostly identical epigenomes too (i.e. their genes were being expressed in mostly the same way). But the 60-year-old twins had WILDLY different epigenomes. I guess it's a total no-shitter that 5-year-old twins have had basically the SAME environmental experiences, whereas 60-year-old twins: not so much. By that point, it almost didn't MATTER that they had identical genes, they were being expressed so differently.

Still, Tosc and I were like, WHOA. I mean, obviously nature vs. nurture blah de blah, but his kids do EVERYTHING together, eat the same food, sleep in the same bed, attend the same class at school, and still they are so different. Even PHYSICALLY. I'd be willing to bet their epigenomes are ALREADY pretty divergent (based on my extensive scientific background, aka watching Bill Nye the Science Guy).

ANYWAY. Where in the sam hell am I going with this? I'm no scientist, OBVIOUSLY HOLY SHIT, but this is fucking cool and it blows my tiny mind. THE END.

Um. Pretty sure Tosc would NOT endorse the ass shot. Ah well. He best get used to my inadvisable internet presence and its resultant horrors.

Failure

Awesome video for those of us a little, erm, DISCOURAGED at the moment (WARNING: video contains people exercising! If this offends your delicate sensibilities you are excused!):



How about that move where he tries to get up holding the barbell in ONE HAND? Fucking awesome.

Keep on keepin on, health kickers. And foah the love of gawd, KEEP ME POSTED.

xo

Shake It Off: Lunch Photo!

I have to say this was not particularly impressive, as far as lunch effort goes. Leftover chicken leg, various cruciferous veggies, and boring-ass salad. Well, if by "salad" you mean..."lettuce with store-bought dressing approx 1 month past the expiration date". Not exactly Good Eats (this weekend I was inspired, inexplicably, to purchase a veritable TUB of greens from Costco, and now feel compelled to gnaw on some at every meal. Fucking Costco).

Star of the Week

Each week at Ava's daycare, they feature one of the kids as the "Star of the Week". The SOTW gets to hang a posterboard full of pictures and things about themself in the classroom all week. The class reads the SOTW's favorite book each day, and eats the SOTW's favorite snack, brought from home.

This week Ava is Star of the Week. Her teacher called to tell me on Friday. But, it wasn't my weekend with her, and today and tomorrow are not my days. She had to make her poster over the weekend, and bring it today, along with her favorite book and snack.

I texted Carlos on Friday, "Let me know if I can help, let me know if you need pictures".

Silence.

I know he made her a poster. He is good with that shit (it's probably covered in Red Sox crap, ARGG).

Still. Star of the Week, ya know?