The title pretty much says it all.

  

Well, mostly Kate. Natalie was pretty tired. But there's more Natalie coming shortly.

 

Natalie, shortly after birth:

Any time I ask someone if they've seen the movie Dreamscape, all I get back is a blank stare.  So, for the uninitiated, it's a fantasy movie from 1984 starring Dennis Quaid.  The basic premise is that there exists people with psychic abilities who can, with the aid of some technology, enter into the dreams of other people and interact with them.  Alex Gardner (Quaid) is one of these and he is recruited by Doctor Paul Novotny to... well, here's where my memory's a little fuzzy.

I'll be honest, it's not a great movie, so I've no real incentive to go watch it again.  In any event, it turns out that another of the dream explorer psychic guys, Tommy Ray Glatman (yes, really), is acting as an assassin - entering people's dreams and killing them.  The movie proposes that if you die in your dreams, you die in real life.  Kind of an overused, empirically-disproven premise, but given the movie's plot it could hardly have gone anywhere interesting without it.

Meanwhile, the President is being plagued by bad dreams of his own.  He seeks the help (I think) of whatever organization they all work for and it's then that Tommy Ray is hired to kill the President.  There's a big snakeman (see right) which is really more dumb than scary, and Alex wins in the end.  No surprise there.

So why talk about it at all?  Ah, to share a childhood trauma.  See, one of the dreams the President has is of the consequences of a nuclear strike.  Specifically, it has him wandering through a post-apocalyptic house while hearing the scariest freaking voices and music ever.  He does eventually find the sources of the voices, now mutated by the effects of the blast.

I'd like to say that in retrospect it's kind of stupid and not all that scary, but to heck with that.  It's still damn scary!  It's not AS bad muted, but, well, just see for yourself:



Thanks to this scene I still - STILL - to this day hesitate sometimes when opening closet doors.

Wow.  I have to say, a couple weeks ago I was pretty sure that Obama would win the election.  Now, after Governor Palin's speech at the Convention, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he wins and she succeeds him as the first female President.

Got a call from some 800-number yesterday that left a message on our machine.  It's a remarkably offensive abuse of voter trust and I hope whichever candidate, special interest group, or the DNC themselves is held accountable for it.  The Gainesville Times ran an article about it yesterday evening:

Registered voters in at least three Northeast Georgia counties, including Hall, received automated phone calls falsely informing them that they had to vote in Tuesday's primary runoff election in order to vote in November, officials said.

Jackson and Banks county voting officials said they were flooded with calls from concerned voters who received the message. A Hall County board of elections official said the office got one call about the message.

Banks County Probate Judge Betty Thomas said the unidentified voice announces that they have received information from the registrar that they haven’t voted and that if they don’t vote Tuesday, then they would be ineligible to vote in the November general election.

And of course, that's wrong, she said.

Thomas said the Georgia Secretary of State's office was notified and was looking into the source of the calls, which came from an 800 number.

Thomas said there would be no way that information on whether a person voted in Tuesday’s primary runoff election would be available immediately, and that a person did not need to vote in the runoff to vote in the November presidential election.

"I don't know if what they are doing is illegal, but they're giving the wrong information," Thomas said. "It bothers me because of the mistrust it instills in the system. It makes people think someone knows who voted, and then makes them think they know how they voted."

The recording does not name any candidates or specific election, Thomas said.

The only race that the Banks, Jackson and Hall county ballots have in common is the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. senator between Vernon Jones and Jim Martin.

I've lifted the audio from my machine so that you can hear it here.

First, a primer:

There are two types of twins: fraternal and identical.  The differences are complete and absolute and have nothing to do with physical apperance.  Fraternal twins are created when more than one egg is present at fertilization - resulting in twins no more genetically similar than ordinary siblings.  Identical twins occur when an already fertilized egg splits into two distinct (you know, usually anyway) embryos.  These are (for all intents and purposes) genetically identical.  Of course you know all this but I thought I should get it out of the way first.

Having said that...

• Yes, they are identical.
• Yes, we're sure.  Really.  Really very sure.  I promise.
• No, it doesn't matter if they look the same.
• Yes, they are both girls - please see "genetically identical"
• Yes, we can tell them apart.  Well, usually, anyway.
• Really very sure.  Seriously, I saw the single placenta and everything.
  

Furthermore...

• Yes, they're twins.
• Yes, twins run in her family.
• It's really not as uncommon as you're making it out to be.
• Oh, really?  Your cousins?  Wow, small world.
  
• That's just really a rude question and fertility drugs cause fraternals not identicals.
• Yes, they're a double blessing.
• Yes, they're more work.
• Yes, I've thought about what college is going to cost.
• And the weddings, yes, them too.
  
• Yes, they are precious, thank you.
• They're about seven weeks old.
• Natalie and Kate.
• Thank you, we like the names too.
• 7 pounds, something, and 6 pounds, something.
• This one's Natalie, this one's Kate.
  
• Yes, I suppose they're smaller than other seven-week-olds you've seen.
• Yes, very tiny.
• Yes, they were early.
• Actually she's already lost the pregnancy weight.
• No, I don't want to hear about your labor.
• No, there's nothing "wrong" with them - they're just early.
• It's a monitor for Natalie's heartrate and breathing.
• She's fine - growing like a weed.
  
• No, you can't hold them.
• No, please don't touch them.
• No, even if they weren't immunodeficient I wouldn't let random strangers hold them.
• Please stop your kid from trying to touch them.
• Yes, indeed, very precious.
• No, this one's Natalie, this one's -- you know, what difference does it really make to you?
  
• They're dressed identically in pink outfits, in pink carseats - no, one's not a boy.
• Stop whispering "twins" and "two babies".  We hear you and they are not a sideshow attraction.
• We will not lower the shade or move the blanket so you can see better.
• Yes, I can tell you love babies.
  
• Seriously, I'm trying to eat here.  Keep walking.
• So... if you're just going to stand there and stare at them you really don't need me for that so I'm going to go back to eating
• Umm... are you done asking questions?  If so, keep it moving, we have a line to get through.

There, now all I have to do is format this into a FAQ sheet I can attach to their carseats and it'll save us all a lot of time.

Ok, Picasa's really getting on my nerves.  So unless I find another system that works I'm just going to host my own pictures.  It's just bare-bones right now (thumbnails - click to get the full image) but I'll add tags, etc. time permitting.

http://www.smilingkevin.com/babies.asp