Be Still and Know...Then and Now

We spent about an hour walking around Chinatown. That was more than enough… Lots of things floating in jars, lots of dried things in baskets, lots of hanging things tied in bunches of string, lots of wonderful smelling food, lots of cheap souvenirs, watches, wallets, handbags, flip flops and jewelry. Origami folded money. My name in Chinese, and no I wasn’t going to pay $5.99 for it so I cheated and just took a picture of it instead. My Bad!   Lot’s of things in here that I am sure have some unique purpose! Then there were these. After a brief internet search I found this out about them. They are called The Beckoning Cat . Who knew! Well that was Chinatown in a nutshell, but in Chinatown they dried the nutshell’s and then grind it up and serve it as a medicinal tea which promotes long life and increased vitality! 再见 zài jiàn - good bye in Chinese! Robin

Our first full day in San Francisco just happen to coincide with not one, not two but THREE major events. Unbeknownst to us we arrived in San Francisco along with EVERY OHTER PERSON ON THE PLANET !!! We were just there for a simple vacation however everyone one else's was there to see Tiger Woods play in some PGA thing, the 49ers play the Falcons or the Blue Angels Air Show over San Francisco Bay.  As we waited for the Blue Angles to perform the hub’s and I walked around Fisherman’s Warf. We experienced a plethora of various street performers, balloon artists, spray paint artist, musicians, magicians', and several celebrity impersonators all graciously accepting donations to help support their unique lifestyles. Not pictured in this 4 minute-ish video, the man dressed in a business suit made entirely of the comics section of the newspaper, shoes and all, a rather tall young man dressed in a rhinestone encrusted robot suit, a rather untalented Michael Jackson impersona

Before I answer my Random Dozen hosted by 2nd Cup of Coffee questions this week I have to share gush a bit. Yesterday Linda over at 2nd Cup of Coffee picked up the wooden shoe and got the second leg of the “I Won…You Win!” Giveaway/Carnival rolling. I have to confess to a bit of trepidation. I was uncertain if this giveaway/carnival thing would take off. Visions of the proverbial blogtrain wreck played over and over in my bloggy imagination. Your responses just blew me away. That’s why I love all of y’all! If you have not checked out Linda’s post from yesterday go over and give it a look!   1. Tell me something about your favorite teacher. Trying not to get to depressing here, but I don’t have a lot of warm fuzzy memories about my childhood. School for me, well I know I received an education, but I don’t have that many memories that stand out to me as moments I want to remember. I do have a few memories of one of my art teachers. Her name was Mrs. Anderson, she was my high

  It’s Linda’s turn for the '”I Won…You Win!” Giveaway. Y’all go over and check out her post today. I am so excited to see who will win and where this will go next. You can click on the button above if you want to read my original post! Y’all I am so excited I don’t think I can stand it. Blessings Robin

Y’all there are so many vineyards and wineries in Napa that you could never visit them all nor should you for fear of a DUI. After one stop for a tasting we found ourselves in Rutherford. You will see Rutherford right in the middle of the map below! It was a quaint small town with a rather popular restaurant. There was a sign out front that read “No Corkage since 1994” Well inquiring minds had to know so upon leaving I asked the hostess what that meant. She informed me that they did not charge you to open a bottle of wine that you bring in yourself! Well my mind went to spinning, so I pay for the wine, but you are going to charge me to open it! If they do not charge for this service at this establishment then this tells me that there are other establishment in Napa Valley that will make you pay if you want to open a bottle of wine that you have brought in. No thank you I’ll wait until I get home and you can bring me a glass of water instead.   Here is a picture of my $14 d

It was leftover 15 bean soup tonight for supper. It was just as tasty as the first time. The rule at our house is that if mom cooks then it’s the DD who clear the table and loads the dishwasher. We had spent a pleasant dinner enjoying our soup chatting and laughing. I instruct the DD to first empty the dishwasher as it was full and then to load it with the dirty dishes. She is scraping the small amount of un-eaten soup into the disposal and she looks up at me and says “It looks like throw-up!” Why thank you sweetie, I am so glad you enjoyed the soup that reminds you of vomit! Blessings Robin

  Joining Lid for this weeks installment of Fall Into Flavor . I don't know about you but when the weather turns a bit chilly my thoughts turn to a big pot of soup on the stove. I don't necessarily have a recipe for you today, I rarely make the same pot of soup twice. I am a chop and dump kind of girl but then soups are very forgiving. The basics of making a really good 15 bean soup are very simple. All you need are a few basic ingredients and a really good sharp knife. You need to start the night before you want to make the soup by soaking the beans in water overnight!   You will need 2 medium onions, some celery, a few cloves of garlic, a small bag of carrots and a nice, big, fat, meaty, delicious ham bone. Were chopping….. Like they say on all the cooking shows, use the green leafy part of the celery it really does give the pot of soup a lot of flavor. More chopping…. Peel you carrots and your garlic… More chopping…. Chicken sto

For those of us who participated in last weeks Random Dozen hosted by Lid at 2nd Cup of Coffee, well a funny thing happen this morning during my bible sty time. Not funny cry till you wet yourself funny but funny in an under God’s magnifying glass kind of way. Question #12 was this… October is traditionally "open house" time in public schools. If you had a literal open house in your home (like a reception) what light snacks would you serve visitors and what would you show them (as in art projects, graded papers) that would uniquely represent you? Well as I have mentioned before I’m participating in a Disciple Bible Study this year. It is Disciple III. It mainly focuses on the Prophets and the Letters of Paul. This week we are in Ezekiel. Y’all Ezekiel is the prophet who had the most incredible prophetic visions. Some scientific types have tried to elude to the notion that Ezekiel had an alien encounter rather that an encounter with the Living God. If you have see

  On Saturday morning we hit the ground running and were off to Fisherman’s Warf. What we did not know was that there were a few other folks in town as well. The Blue Angles were scheduled to perform an air show over San Francisco Bay, the Atlanta Falcons were playing the 49ers and Tiger Woods was doing some PGA thing as well. Needless to say there were only a few billion people at Fisherman’s Warf on the day we were there. Y’all it’s confirmed and I am not ashamed to admit it. I’m a country girl at heart. Give me the peace and quiet of the corn growing and the gently babbling of the stream out back as the cows lull about and I am perfectly content! I will be completely honest and admit to feeling a bit hugely, extremely, major big time and freakishly overwhelmed at the massive throng of people that seemed to move continuously about. It was like being swept away by a wave of constantly moving humanity. I had moments when I would loose sight of my husband and then have to sto