Connecting One Generation to Another

Recently, for kicks, my lovely aunt typed in my grandfather's name into Google. Actually she typed every single one of our names, but this one amazed me. I mean I was simply struck.

She typed in his name intending to find my brother somewhere but because my brother shares the exact name with my grandfather, my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather this came up: She clicked on one of Google's links and then realized it was a digitized article from the 'Pomeroy Tribune'. She looked at the date and realized it contained simple information about my great great grandfather in 1891. I was staring at the computer screen seeing a couple sentences about my great grandfather and a baseball game he pitched in as an adult.

The fact that someone digitized that telegraph from so long ago amazed me. Having something that linked me to my grandfather whom I never knew, and will never know, stunned me. I had an overwhelming feeling---- the kind that comes when cross paths with a certain person who suddenly makes the world feel small. The kind that comes and makes you just stand there and stare in unbelief.

I cant believe there is something actually out there that connects me to my great-great-grandfather over 118 years ago. It connects the 19th century to the 21st.

Food... For Thought?

The other day my mother and I were throwing together a quick lunch for the family and were going to serve canned green beans a quick and easy side dish. We dont make a diet on canned veggies or fruits, because well, they hold little to no nutritional value. But when we're in a hurry, they are a good "filler".

I went to the shelf and picked three random cans. I came up stairs, opened them, poured them in a pan and found this!

The color differences in all three can amazed me. The one that grosses me out the most is the one to the far right. The bright, pretty green one. The can read "Veggi-Green". In the ingredients list it said "Green beans, water, salt and zinc chloride for stabilization of color". Does that say "eeww" to anyone else? I found the 'No Salt Added' coloring interesting. That means that the salt preserves it, so sitting in a can for a while with no salt makes it fade. Then the other ones were just normal (beans, water, salt).

I found the variances in color interestesting.... maybe disturbing.

Johnny's Birthday Painted Blue

We saw The Blue Man Group for Johnny's birthday. It was, I can honestly say, one of the coolest, craziest and most fun performances I've EVER seen.

Thinking outside of the box could be the biggest understatement of all time. They think of things I never would. Their specialty is music and loud, loud, loud percussion. They wind so much humor in it (thankfully very clean) that it makes for an amazing time. You are either laughing hysterically, screaming (when told to), clapping, jumping, waving hands--- it was just a BLAST. I guess their shows have different "names" around the country and world because this one was titled "Tubes". A lot of their props were tubes and it was fascinating! And what's the coolest thing, I think, is that they are completely expressionless during the show. They show no emotion and dont talk nor smile nor laugh. They just look at each other and make motions and are able to communicate with each other perfectly. I was surprised at how much the audience knew exactly what they were "saying" with their motions.

Moral of the story: See a Blue Man Group if you have a chance--

You certainly wont regret it!!

Because they prohibit photos during the show, here are some pictures I stole from Google of last night's performance:

And here are photos we took after the show:

Us and two of the Blue Men!