Cissa Fleming

Looking for a quote

A friend  sent me an email asking me to help her to find something very peculiar: she wanted a quote with a “powerful message of hope, love, inspiration, and prosperity.”

Wow! I confess the first quote that came to my mind was “Jesus Saves.” But I knew it was not exactly what she was looking for…

Internet knows everything, is that right? The first website that resulted from the google search said  ”What a powerful artist. … His message of hope and being the miracle we all want in our lives is … talents to impart a message of hope, love, inspiration, and joy to others. … ”

It was an article about Michael Jackson in a website from a Spiritual and Personal Development Community. Actually, very interesting website, I  bookmarked it!

Well, when we have a challenging  jigsaw-puzzle the first thing we do is to split all the pieces in smaller groups – based on the picture details, or colors, or shapes, or any other similarities.) Actually this method applies to every complex problem: divide and conquer is very used in computer science.  The idea is break down the complex problem into smaller, solvable little problems. 

Bellow are some of the quotes I found in my research:

• “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.”    –Roger Miller
• “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” — Helen Keller
• “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.”  – Woody Allen
• “Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth” –  Mark Twain  (!!!)
• “If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”  – Thomas Edison 
• “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama
• “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right” — Henry Ford
• “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” -- Elmer Letterman 
• “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”  – Antoine de Saint-Exupery 
• “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ” — Rajph Waldo Emerson 
• “Every wall is a door.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill
• “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill
• “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
• “Knowledge is love and light and vision.” – Helen Keller

For more quotes, see  Stephen’s Quotations Database

King Henry

This week we had the honor of have King Henry in our house. He came to spend Summer vacation, while his staff was traveling to Jamaica. 

In the picture, King Henry is sitting in his throne on the northwest corner of the bathtub, observing  the morning movement in the master bathroom. He is spending his days  taking naps in the sofa, eating, being diplomatic with our Princess, and sleeping in our bed.

As entertainment he is using all the curtains in the house: he grabs it, pulls it, rolls on it, twist it until form a mess of fabric where he finally lay down and take a deserved nap. 

He absolutely did not show any interest in get contact with our four plebeians downstairs. Our Princess enjoys his food, and vice-and-versa. 

We believe he is getting some extra pounds here….  well, his staff can take care of it when they come back!  

It makes me smile…

I believe that everybody should have a list of memories that make themselves smile. It can be a person, a situation, a picture, a thought, an incident, a pet, a drink, a place, a taste, a music, a smell, …. anything! 

Then, when you are feeling blue, give a look at your list. It is a fantastic therapy! 

Here are some items of my list, starting with what the pictures I used on this website menu are showing:  

• watch the skyline of Atlanta, 
• learn new things in books and collections, 
• have lunch with friends, 
• laugh with that  3 wonderful ladies, 
• play with our cats, 
• watch the weird DragonCon parade, 
• visit Rio de Janeiro.

And also:

• feel all the love I have for my husband,
• admire the beauty of  the flowers in the Spring and the leaves in the Fall,
• watch old Monty Python movies,
• remember Elton John, Billy Joel, Carol King, Phil Collins, Tom Jobim, Paul McCartney, Caetano Veloso, and other great concerts I had seen,
• remember our wedding party, and how people were there,
• concerts at Chastain Park,
• dinners with my girlfriends,
• eat chocolate cake in the car, parked in a driveway, in a rainy day,
• feel the sun,
• see dogs fetching/swimming/running in the park,
• “hunting” covered bridges/water falls/halloween decorations,
• Cirque du Soleil presentations;
• enjoy the applications on my iPhone,
• eat popcorn while watching the summer rain from the porch,
• take a nap in a hammock,
• sail,
• be hugged by my husband,
• watch the cats play with each other,
• eat brownie with hot chocolate melted over vanilla ice cream and decorated with nuts and a cherry on maraschino…

hummm…. good idea!  

Weekend Trips from Atlanta…

to Florida:

• Destin – beautiful beach, transparent green water and white-sugar sand (5.5 hours drive)
• Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg  (7 hours drive)

to East Georgia:

to North Carolina:

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: there any time of the year is beautiful, but the autumn leaf season (from middle of September to end of October) is absolutely gorgeous! You can just spend the day driving around, or spend few days staying at a cabin/lodge. One place we stayed once is the Snowbird Lodge: very comfortable, cozy, peaceful, with a huge library and a gourmet restaurant and incredible wine list. They also prepare a picnic basket/backpack for you, to be eaten in one of the beautiful trails around there. Check our pictures from there.  (around 3 hours drive.) In that area, visit also:
  • Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap, with 318 curves in 11 miles, is America’s number one motorcycle and sports car road.  If you have an opportunity to drive a convertible  there, it is an amazing experience! 
  •  Lost Sea, where there is a lake inside a cave. (I still think the  Gruta do Lago Azul in Bonito (MS, Brazil) is prettier, but this lake is interesting.)

to Tennessee:

• Lynchburg,  home  of  the Jack Daniel’s distillery. But whether you are interested in visiting the distillery or not, don’t miss lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House Restaurant, a charming former boarding house with excellent home made southern food. Make sure to make reservations (remember they are in central time zone), it is a small place and the service is boarding house style: each room has a table for around 15 people plus a host. The host talks about the history of the city, makes people feel as part of the place while enjoying delicious home made food. 

Bangladeshi restaurant in Atlanta – Vanessa’s suggestion

PANAHAR  is a nice Bangladeshi restaurant at Buford Hwy, corner of Briarwood Rd.

They don’t serve alcohol, but they will not charge us to bring our own – nice deal!  The restaurant is very small and need reservation for large groups. the reservation.

Las Vegas, Nevada

I don’t gamble;
I don’t drink;
I don’t’ smoke – neither like the smell of smoking;
I don’t enjoy strip-tease shows;
I don’t enjoy bacheloret parties;
I don’t like dry weather;
I am already married;
I don’t enjoy crowds.

Then…. why I went to Las Vegas?!

Because of the Cirque du Soleil shows!!!

Mystere and O (the one with water) I had seen before. Stephen had seen Zumanity and O already. Then we went to see Ka and Love (the one with the Beatles songs.)

Ka  is more theater than circus. It has a plot, and same actors all the time. But the stage has a  moveable platform that it is an amazing engineering project!  The performers take advantage of this huge solid moving metal piece and “fly” the way that Cirque du Soleil performers are famous to do. Fantastic!

Ah!  Another reason to visit Vegas: it is cool to “taste” Paris, New York, and Venice in one afternoon!

I am grateful to my mother-in-law…

… for my husband, that she brought to the world and raised with love and intelligence, giving him the support to be the great man that he is; 

… for the good times (and food!) we had together in the Mondays Family & Friends dinners at  her house;

… for Princess, that was originally her cat;

… for the Good HouseKeeping magazines that she subscribed;

… for all the trips and events that we shared together;

… for the fantastic woman, mother, and friend that she had always been. 

I miss her.  

More places to visit in Atlanta- Katia Young’s suggestions

Katia Young works for the Atlanta Convention & Visitor Bureau. She gave me more suggestions of places to visit in and around Atlanta:

• Marietta trolley tour and Theatre in the Mareitta Square
• Hindu Temple of Atlanta, in Riverdale (south of Atlanta)
• Medieval Times and Discover Mills outlet
• Atlanta Motor Speedway

• Environmental and Heritage Center, events center in Gwinnett
• until September-2009 the  Americam I Am exhibition at the Atlanta Civic Center 
• MLK Center 

• National Museum of Patriotism, in downtown
• National Archives Museum – Jimmy Carter
• Nash Farms- Civil War Battlefield

For the Gone with the Wind movie fans:

• Road to Tara Museum, in Jonesbore, GA. 
• Stately Oaks

Restaurant suggestions – by Katia Young

Katia works for the Atlanta Convention & Visitor’s Bureau. Here are some of the restaurants that she suggested me:

• Oakwood Café at the Atlanta State Farmers Market
• California Dreaming
• Sycamore Grill (Stone Mountain)
• Sundial, the revolving restaurant with 360-degree view of the Atlanta skyline. Beautiful!

For Southern Food:

• Mary Macs (Midtown) (I agree: I go there very often!)
• South City Kitchen (Midtown and Vinings)

Places that starts with “B”

 
Brazil. Buzios. Boston. Belize. Blueberry Farm. Bedford. Blue Ridge Mountains. 

It sounded weird, but when showing our pictures to some family and friends, we realized we just had been in places that the names start with “B”!

And what were the next two places we would like to visit? Brasilia and Barcelona. 

Now it is a game: everybody is giving us suggestions of another places in the world starting with “B”. This game generated two lists: places that we do not want to visit (as Baghdad, Beirut, Bosnia, ….), and places that we do want to visit:

Baalbek (Lebanon), Baden Baden (Germany), Bahamas, Bahia, Brasilia, Baikonur (Star City, Kazakhstan), Baille Crater (Moon!), Baja California, Balearic Islands (Majorca), Bali (South Pacific), Baltic Sea, Baltimore, Banff (Canada), Bangkok, Bar Harbor, Maine, Barbados, Barbuda, Barcelona, Barstow/Bakersfield (Mojave), Bay Area/Berkeley (Calif.), Bay of Biscay (Spain), Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia, Canada), Beagle Harbor (Galapagos), Beale Street (Memphis), Beale Street (Memphis), Belgium/Brussels, Bellagio (Italy), Bellagio (Las Vegas), Berlin, Bermuda, Bern (Switzerland), Bhutan, Bilbao (Spain… Guggenheim Museum), Biloxi (Gulf Cost), Biltmore House (North Carolina), Black Forest, Black Rock Desert (Nevada), Black Sea (Crimea), Blue Lagoon (Iceland), Blue Nile, Bodrum (Turquoise Coast, Turkey), Boise, Idaho (Hoyt and Teresa), Bonaire, Bonifacio (Corsica), Bora Bora (South Pacific), Bordeaux (France), Border Waters (Canada), Borobudur Temple (Indonesia)???, Bosporus, Bimini, Bohemia (Prague), Bush (Australia), Boulder, Colo., Bowling Green (Kentucky), Bracciano (Italy), Bradenton (Florida), Braselton (Ga.: Chateau Elan), Bratislava??, Brescia (Italy), Breckenridge (Colorado), Brest (France), Brie (France), Brigadoon, Brindisi (Italy), British Columbia, British Isles, British Virgin Islands, Brittany (France), Brunei, Bryce Canyon (Utah), Bucharest?, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Buffalo (Niagara Falls), Bulgaria, Burlington/Bennington/Brattleboro (Vermont), Burning Man, Byblos?  (Middle East), Byzantium (Istanbul), [Aurora] Borealis (Iceland or Alaska), [Cape] Bret[City of] Brotherly Love: Philadelphia, [Great] Barrier Reef 

Baghdad Bangladesh Beaumont, Texas Beijing (China) Beirut Belarus 

Any more places?

I can’t wait until start the “C” list!!