What a Wonderful Weekend!
Started Friday night when Mark and I went to see the Blue Man Group. It was so interesting, the concepts, the presentation, the audience participation! The opening act was the impressive Mike Relm. That man knows how to put music and video together!
The Blue Man Group was amazing, and we were close enough to actually SEE their eyes and expressions (yeah, I paid a stupid amount for the tickets, but 6th row? It was worth it, and we don't do this sort of thing often). They did the "heads in the monitors" bit I get a laugh out of, and there was much playing of tubulum and paint drums and eating of marshmallows, and homage-paying to Floppie the Banjo Clown. \m/
OK, after a rather restless sleep as I've caught a cold/sinus infection again (Casey, is there any way to stop one's nose from leaking into one's CPAP mask?), early wake-up to get to the Rock, Gem and Mineral Show by 10. Make it by 10:12. Kids in scout uniforms get free asmission. Son worked on his Geology badge, but unfortunately there is no equivalent for Brownies. I need to work on changing that. Both children enjoyed the heck out of it! We sat through a presentation by "UV Bob" who was engaging as he spoke of luminescent minerals. The kids had never seen "glowing rocks" so both of them were floored when UV Bob turned off the regular lighting and switched on the black lights. Both of them and another young boy in the first row assisted UV Bob and each were presented with a "glowing rock" after the show. I'll have to see if I can pick up an inexpensive black light somewhere.
Elora picked out some cow figurines carved from rocks, I chose a Shiva Lingum. You may recall in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" the sivalinga which were taken from an Indian village. Mine isn't quite that large (and doesn't glow, damn!) but it's banded and about 1 1/4 inches or a little over 3 cm. Yes, my kids know that Shiva Linga translates to "God's Penis", so of course they got a chuckle out of seeing them for sale.
They both got 2 "mystery bags" for $1.25. We were surprised when they opened them as there was a nice selection of rocks both polished and raw in the bags. They were both mortified to have received a Cretaceous-era coprolite which they know to be fossilized dino poop. LOL! Elora got a large hunk of fool's gold which she likes.
Mark won a fossilized shell in the raffle, and he purchased some ammonites from Madagascar, a fossilized oyster, clam, seashell (rhynconella), and petrified wood. He also bought a coprolite.
I picked up some free stuff like geological maps of the area, distribution of PA coals, physiographic provinces of PA, and the coolest one (literally), the Glacial Deposits of PA.
This is a good lead-in to the school field trip we'll be taking later this month to the Montour Environmental Preserve to dig for Devonian marine fossils under the guidance of one of the dads who happens to be a geologist. Part of Conal's requirements for his Webelo Geology pin is speaking with a geologist. We purchased new leather/cloth gardening gloves for the trip, and we'll each take along a hammer and chisel. The Preserve also has fishing and geocaching available (among other things). It's been a while since we went geocaching.
The Blue Man Group was amazing, and we were close enough to actually SEE their eyes and expressions (yeah, I paid a stupid amount for the tickets, but 6th row? It was worth it, and we don't do this sort of thing often). They did the "heads in the monitors" bit I get a laugh out of, and there was much playing of tubulum and paint drums and eating of marshmallows, and homage-paying to Floppie the Banjo Clown. \m/
OK, after a rather restless sleep as I've caught a cold/sinus infection again (Casey, is there any way to stop one's nose from leaking into one's CPAP mask?), early wake-up to get to the Rock, Gem and Mineral Show by 10. Make it by 10:12. Kids in scout uniforms get free asmission. Son worked on his Geology badge, but unfortunately there is no equivalent for Brownies. I need to work on changing that. Both children enjoyed the heck out of it! We sat through a presentation by "UV Bob" who was engaging as he spoke of luminescent minerals. The kids had never seen "glowing rocks" so both of them were floored when UV Bob turned off the regular lighting and switched on the black lights. Both of them and another young boy in the first row assisted UV Bob and each were presented with a "glowing rock" after the show. I'll have to see if I can pick up an inexpensive black light somewhere.
Elora picked out some cow figurines carved from rocks, I chose a Shiva Lingum. You may recall in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" the sivalinga which were taken from an Indian village. Mine isn't quite that large (and doesn't glow, damn!) but it's banded and about 1 1/4 inches or a little over 3 cm. Yes, my kids know that Shiva Linga translates to "God's Penis", so of course they got a chuckle out of seeing them for sale.
They both got 2 "mystery bags" for $1.25. We were surprised when they opened them as there was a nice selection of rocks both polished and raw in the bags. They were both mortified to have received a Cretaceous-era coprolite which they know to be fossilized dino poop. LOL! Elora got a large hunk of fool's gold which she likes.
Mark won a fossilized shell in the raffle, and he purchased some ammonites from Madagascar, a fossilized oyster, clam, seashell (rhynconella), and petrified wood. He also bought a coprolite.
I picked up some free stuff like geological maps of the area, distribution of PA coals, physiographic provinces of PA, and the coolest one (literally), the Glacial Deposits of PA.
This is a good lead-in to the school field trip we'll be taking later this month to the Montour Environmental Preserve to dig for Devonian marine fossils under the guidance of one of the dads who happens to be a geologist. Part of Conal's requirements for his Webelo Geology pin is speaking with a geologist. We purchased new leather/cloth gardening gloves for the trip, and we'll each take along a hammer and chisel. The Preserve also has fishing and geocaching available (among other things). It's been a while since we went geocaching.