The Red Thread - A Present Day Treatment

I borrowed this from a fellow blogster. The blend of the proverb and the beautiful potography brought a modern vision to an ancient saying.

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An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance. The red thread may stretch and tangle, but it will never break.

Chinese proverb

Blue Man Group - Another Distraction from "The Waiting Room"

Be & I attended the Blue Man Group concert, a pretty wild show, last night in Orlando - here is the review from The Orlando Sentinel .......

When Blue Man Group visited Orlando for a 2003 show at Hard Rock Live, the silent, befuddled-looking, tube-pounding act had already made the transition from street-friendly novelty to pop-culture icon.
Now touring arenas, Blue Man Group is a franchise, more than a fad. The good news, judging from Thursday's 90-minute performance at the Amway Arena, is that the product isn't suffering from any quality control issues.
If anything, the "How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.0" elevates the Blue Man shtick by taking it into bigger venues, something that doesn't always happen with rock bands. Compared with the 2003 Hard Rock show, there was better lighting, a better sound mix and a broader range of material to showcase the personalities of the wordless stars.
"How to Be a Megastar" is really a how-to in rock-concert cliches, allowing fans to respond to commands to do the "head bob," "fist pump" and other more complex routines. Each cliche was a platform for comedy routines, some better than others.
The notion of taking a "closer look" at fans was an excuse for the Blue Men to explore the throat of one audience member with a tiny video camera. That bit is a repeat from the previous tour and it's still pretty gross.
Another gag, involving a glass case to edit long guitar solos, wasn't really worth the elaborate set-up.
And a nod to a music video cliche of an office worker trapped in a maze of cubicles and hallways fell somewhere in a no man's land between parody and drama.
Yet most of the material worked and the Blue Men were consistently more expressive and visually funny in the arena than on the group's 2003 visit. Thanks to the presence of three giant video screens, subtle eye rolls and facial expressions did a lot to expose the trio's personality.
The best routine involved a stage-length pitch-and-catch routine with bite-sized paint balls and marshmallows. One of the Blue Men caught them in his mouth, then expelled the paint to decorate a fan's t-shirt and the marshmallows to adorn a souvenir cap.
More fun with food would have been cool, but the focus on music had its high points, too. Especially impressive was a hard-rocking version of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" that showcased the group's tentacled tubed musical contraptions.
How cool was it? Well, people were doing the "head bob" without even being told.

I Lift Up My Eyes

I found this post in my 'drafts' folder while doing some blog cleaning. This post was to have been put on the blog in November, then I saved it as a draft because I thought it was kind of cheesy ...... so, find yourself some crackers & a glass of wine ..... here goes .....

So, what is it about the mountains that keeps beckoning me? (Cue the audio byte from "The Sound of Music") Be and I have climbed some mountains in some beautiful places - Half Dome in Yosemite (in the first picture, that's Half Dome in the distance - pic was taken the day after our hike to the top - 12 hours), day hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains and even a volcano on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. As flatlanders from Central Florida, you would think we would take up scuba, surfing or water skiing. Are we acknowledging the Source of our help? Could it be that the mountains bring us closer to the heavens? Psalm 121 ....I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
..... cut to November, 2006 ......
Don has just had foot surgery and Be is pushing him around Downtown Disney in a wheelchair at The Festival of the Masters, the annual art show @ Lake Buena Vista. Breaththaking artwork plus everything that could possibly be out of my price range is available here including pieces that would make better boat anchors than art (sorry to art afficianados and self expression types - hey, I'm just exercising my self expression). After a crazy little pantomime involving the wheelchair with the girl dressed in the bird costume from Cirque du Soleil's "La Nouba" (what do you say to such a creature when they don't talk back?), I looked up to the booth in front of me to see the most beautiful photos to cross my path that day. The photographer had captured the essence of the mountains of his region of China and as I viewed his work (similar to the last 2 pics), I felt the connection to my future daughter, Joanna, and could almost visualize her face. It was only for a brief moment and even though she may not have even been born at the time, I felt her presence. Next time we take a hike, perhaps we will climb to a mountaintop in China ...... maybe just before we meet her face to face.

http://www.yosemitevacation.com/hike.halfdome.htm

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/africa/tenerife.html

http://www.wdwinfo.com/downtown/FestivalMasters/festival_masters.htm

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life ......

....... and so we did .... even though the occasion was another blasted birthday. It was Don's and after 24 hours of training on a new computer system for his job the past few days, he was ready for some laughs. We had tickets for Monty Python's "Spamalot" so the timing was just right. We drove across from Orlando to the Tampa Bay Arts Center for brunch at Maestro's, a restaurant adjacent to the theater. After brunch and a stroll along the Hillsborough River, we took our seats and the maddness began. The show, ripped off from the movie "Monty Python & the Holy Grail", Spamalot tells the tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as they embark on their quest for the Holy Grail. Flying cows, killer bunnies, taunting Frenchmen and show-stopping musical numbers were all there in this full blown vaudeville production. Segments from the movie were verbatum and audience expressed their approval as they remembered sketches like "Bring Out Your Dead", "The Nights Who Say Nee", "Princess Lucky" & "Brave Sir Robin".

..... And as we left the theater, we were treated to a complimentary Spam on white bread sample (from the Spammobile parked out front) while a street musician played "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life" on his saxophone.

We've put the movie in our queue on Netflix and so now we continue ...... skipping merrily through the Adoption Waiting Room.

Missed By 2 Days........

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 22, 2006. Our log-in date is March 24, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 13, 2005.

Perhaps we'll be out of the Review Room by the 1st Anniversary of our log-in date. As the Director of the CCAA puts it on the site's front page ....... "As the light of springtime emerges gradually, it is a fresh start for all living things." All righty, then ..... we continue to wait for the fresh start ........