a semiperfect age

Today (August 22, ignore the date of this post) I turn 30. That's a big number, maybe not as big as others, but big none the less. To celebrate I am going to...I am not sure yet. However, there will be a grilled steak involved and a mojito. I went to every grocery store in town yesterday (all three of them) looking for mint to satisfy my mojito craving. There was none to be had. So I finally decided to go to a nursery and see if they had any live mint plants. Eureka! there I found it. It was peppermint, not spearmint, but it'll have to do. If there is one thing that living in the boonies teaches you, it is to become a creative problem solver.

We were going to have a party tonight, but there were pre-existing functions yesterday and tomorrow, so I felt that to have one today would be too many social commitments in one weekend, so we're having a party next Friday instead. There in lies another small town grocery store caused dilemma... I really wanted to make tiramisu for next Friday. However, Alpine had only one tub of mascarpone cheese which was a month expired, so I did not get it. However, I am not giving up hope yet. There is a pretty good grocery store in Terlingua (of all places) that has some odd-ball foods. I am going to check there. I might just have my tiramisu yet.

In honor of August 22nd and the big 3-0 I threw together a little bit of info on both. Pay no attention to the fact that this blog entry looks suspiciously like the wikipedia entries for both :)

Some important August 22nds in history:

1822 - Virginia Poe, Edgar Allen's wife, was born
1848 - New Mexico is annexed to the USA
1862 - Claude Debussy was born
1901 - Cadillac Motor Company was founded. Personally, I think Cadillacs are in the top three ugliest cars ever made.
1902 - Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to ride in a car. I do not know if it was a Cadillac, but it was probably a GSA vehicle.
1911 - Theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered. It was stolen from the Louvre, and Pablo Picasso was questioned, but found innocent.
1917 - John Lee Hooker was born
1920 - Ray Bradbury was born
1934 - Norman Schwarzkopf was born
1963 - Tori Amos was born
1989 - The first ring of Neptune was discovered.
2004 -A version of "The Scream" and "Madonna", two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway. Apparently this is a big day for art theives!

Some significances and uses of the number 30 include:

In Math and Science;

• The atomic number of zinc is 30
  
• 30 is the sum of the first four square numbers (1+4+9+16), which makes it a square pyramidal number
  
• A polygon with thirty sides is called a tricontagon.
  
• Adding up some of its divisors (5+10+15) gives 30, therefore 30 is a semiperfect number. 28 on the other hand is a perfect number because adding all it's divisors together (except itself) gives you 28 (1+2+4+7+14=28). I guess we're perfect when we are 28, but only semiperfect at 30.
  

In art/music and all things cultural;

• The below painting is entitled Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock.
  
• 30 is the address of this funky lookin' building in London, 30 St Mary Axe, affectionately called "the Gherkin" I reckon it's so named because it bears a resemblance to a cucumber/pickle. It resembles something else too, but this is a family site.



• 30 is the number of tracks on The Beatles' White Album, that's alot of tracks. By the way, uploading an image of this album is kinda like the drawing of the polar bear eating ice cream in a blizzard while sitting on an iceberg.
• In the year 2030 The song "Happy Birthday to You" will enter the public domain.

In history and religion;

• According to the Bible, Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Ironically, the number pops up again when Judas committed suicide in the year 30 AD

• One of the rallying-cries of the 1960s student/youth protest movement was the slogan, 'Don't trust anyone over 30'.
  
• 30 is the number of uprights that formed the main circle of stone pillars at Stonehenge.

Other stuff;

• April, June, September and November have thirty days
  
• The code for international direct dial phone calls to Greece is 30
  
• In years of marriage, 30 is the pearl anniversary
  
• Interstate 30 runs from Texas to Arkansas
  

So there ya go. Hope you all learned something new. I kinda like the funky english cucumber building. I've never seen it before. I guess when you grow up in Chicago, you have enough of your own hometown big buildings to concern yourself with that you don't need to look elsewhere.

And finally before I go, here's your Sara pictures. Enjoy.