Up here in Plumas County (Northern California) it definitely feels like fall. On Friday night the temperature dropped to 28 degrees and left my tomatoes screaming for mercy. The trees are starting to turn and my Virginia Creeper in back has turned red already. The neighbors are burning their woodstoves and now on Sunday at 5 a.m. ish it is a balmy 36 degrees out. My little tabby stuck one whisker outside this morning and decided getting back in Mom's lap was a much more attractive alternative than the morning romp. So Wanda I would agree with you about feeling the change of season.

Hi Jack --- Its an interesting idea, isnt it? Wybe Kuitert suggests it might have been a Chinese priest named Lanqi Daolong. In addition to what Wybe said in a lecture about Tenryuji, here are some excerpts from "Themes in the History of Japanese Garden Art" on the subject (from pp. 81-82): "Many writers on Japanese garden art ascribe the garden [Tenryuji] to Muso Kokushi. This attribution starts with a popular eighteenth-century garden book (Kitamura 1735) and is also found in an old tourist book on the celebrated gardens and sights of Kyoto (Akisato 1799). "Theories of Song landscape painting are skillfully applied in the waterfall arrangement of rocks at the pond shore. Generally speaking this rather sudden appearance of Song-influenced rock work cannot be ascribed to an indigenous Japanese like Muso. Muso himself could not have had such detailed knowledge; and he did not paint; and he never went to China. Besides, Song landscape painting was not yet being imported on a large scale "The appearance of Song-painting-inspired rock work in Tenryuji, then, is too sudden to be ascribed to an indigenous Japanese. Besides the waterfall arrangement, the concept of pond and hillock with winding pathways in between rows of rocks used as retainers is so typically Chinese in concept that one also hesitates on this point to attribute it to an early medieval Japanese. Another reason to attribute the design to a Chinese artist is the so-called carp stone halfway up the waterfall.. At the side of the upper step of the waterfall is a curved stone with a split tip, quite suggestively representing a fish jumping the rapids. It is generally accepted that this stone relates to the Chinese legend of a carp that, after successfully ascending the gorges of the Yellow River at Lung Men (Dragon Gate), will turn into a dragon The carp stone leads to another hypothetical attribution of the waterfall rock grouping to the Chinese Lanqi Daolong (Jpn. Rankei Doryu). This Zen priest came to Kyoto for three years to deal with questions on Zen matters at the court of ex-Emperor Go Saga, whose palace was located at the present site of the Tenryuji temple. Two other temples that Lanqi Daolong revived during short periods of residence have the same type of Dragon Gate waterfall.. Again, no documentary evidence exists that proves his engagement in constructing these Dragon Gate waterfalls" Lee

Hi Pal! I'm lousy at remembering birthdays, etc. What I did was buy a daily planner book where you can see the whole month at a glance and write down events. I had to do this and I keep it on my coffee table. I write birthdays in red ink. I forgot my new DIL's bday once and can I tell you how bad I felt? Other than her not supporting your relationship w/your partner, it sounds like you two are friends and you want to keep it that way. I know you're not seeking advice, but I think you need to pull her aside and tell her, "Sorry about my snarky email, but you know I'm lousy at remembering birthdays, but I did think of you." Maybe she'll apologize for her petty email too. I don't expect a party for my birthday, but I do expect to be remembered by those close to me, just as they are remembered. My family and friends are big on sending cards, and IMO, they are such a treat to get in the mail! Nobody is doing it because they're obligated either. Another thought, some of us and maybe your friend also, had birthday parties growing up, and a LOT of them. I had several surprise parties, the last being a teen. So as we grow older we still want the world to stop on that day. lol. And when it doesn't, well it's kind of depressing, even though we know that is how life is as we get older. Even if your friend said that in jest, she was still wrong to do it. She should know by now you are bad at remembering birthdays. To keep the harmony between you, I'd remind her. Oh, and next year don't buy her a Halmark card, buy her a Papyrus card. :) That will make her shut-up.

I've eaten horse, during the PBB scandal when all the cattle were poisoned and dropping over from PBBs in the cattle feed. LindaC, I bought Pocky at my local Meijer's and sent it to dishesdone, they had a chocolate and a strawberry version. Ashley says she's gotten it at WalMart right next to the college, it's a cookie shaped long and thin, not as big around as a pencil and dipped in chocolate or strawberry fudge. I have eaten crocodile AND alligator, and black pudding which Grandma used to call blood sausage. Nettle tea tastes icky and "green" but is supposed to be a diuretic and make your hair shiny, I can't figure out what the heck those two things have to do with each other, but I've tasted it because it's also supposed to be helpful for anemia. I didn't see that it helped. I had chicken tiki masala at a restaurant in Ann Arbor with Elery. It was basically a chicken dish with a curry kind of sauce over rice. Eh. I'm not a huge fan of curry. Paneer? Elery likes cheese. A lot. So we tried this, it kind of reminded me of the homemade yogurt cheese I make by putting yogurt in a strainer and letting it drain for several hours. Criollo chocolate is just a variety of cocoa bean. It's expensive and I found it to be very mild, I wasn't all that impressed with THAT either. I think I bought it at Fresh Market, and everything there is expensive so maybe that's just why it cost more. Tom Yum is just soup. I think it had coconut milk in it and it kind of reminded me of Chinese hot and sour. Annie