Cooler Weather/Latest on Marco/Boat Considered Scrap

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
What a neat little squall line we had this morning. We drove Sarah to school this am as we didn't want to get caught. Also, warned my neighbor who usually walks. She was very grateful. My husband teased me because although it was raining when we got back to the house, it wasn't Armageddon (yet).

Most areas picked up about 3/4 inch but Bush Airport had 1.1 and Conroe to Huntsville had even more! The cold front itself moves through overnight. Temps in the morning will be in the 50s....brrrrrr!! Look for 50s again on Thursday morning. The weather will be pleasant with low humidity and highs in the 80s through Friday. Humidity and morning lows increase over the weekend through Tuesday. Next weak cold front will move through on Tuesday with another round of rain likely.

Tropical Storm Marco (with some creative estimating from The National Hurricane Center) increased to 65 mph winds. It made landfall at 10 am this morning along the southern Mexico coast and is now weakening inland.

Elsewhere in the tropics...nice and quiet.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
I began teaching 1st grade catechism at my church this afternoon. I have never taught 1st graders before, only middle-schoolers. Well, 1st graders are much harder because their attention span is about 5 minutes max. So, you had better keep it moving. There is a lot more advance planning needed. Fortunately, my co-teacher Kim Castillo, loves arts and crafts and works at a scrapbooking store. Thank goodness!!! We had a really good time, and I had fun trying to be creative.

So, I thought we should do the word for children -- los niños, pronounced lohs nee-nyos. This is generic for a room full of kids, but if you had all girls, you would say las niñas, pronounced lahs nee-nyahs. By the way, ñ, (called n-yah) is a distinct letter of the Spanish alphabet. If you look in a Spanish dictionary, you will find a section (albeit small) of words which begin with ñ.

One research study investigated how bilingualism affects cognitive development.
French-Italian bilingual children (aged 7-11)...[and]...a control group of monolingual Italian children... [were given]...a series of cognitive tests...It is concluded that bilingualism in early childhood exerts a positive effect on the formation of cognitive processes in children.

This is from Fardeau, O. (1993). Franco-Italian bilingualism in early childhood and cognitive development...Il Forneri, 7(2), 83-99. from Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts database.

So, stimulate cognitive development in the little ones you love. Purchase our DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008. You can buy it at http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
At the party we attended the other night, I had a chance to visit with the area's new Meteorologist In Charge, Gene Hafele. He is not "new" to the National Weather Service as he worked at the local office for many years, serving as Bill Read's right hand man. As you know, Bill Read was promoted to Director of The National Hurricane Center. I commended Gene on his hard work before, during and after the storm. He was very modest, saying that his job eased up and that he really feels sorry for the emergency managers and responders who are still working extremely hard...with still much work yet to be done. A friend of mine told me today that while Gene was working so hard, Gene's church sent a group to clean up his debris strewn yard, including a large tree which had fallen into the pool. Now you know how much Gene is loved and appreciated.

If you look to the right, you will see a picture of my brother-in-law's boat. I had captioned it...don't worry it's okay. Well, come to find out, it is not. My brother-in-law was informed that it had been towed to a shipyard and supposedly in the process, it was wrecked and made unsalvageable. He was told this by the insurance adjustor. And although my brother-in-law has insurance to pay off the rest of the note, he did not know it would cost about $6000 to have the boat moved to a shipyard. I am putting a poll to the right--Do you think that $6000 is what it should cost to move a 40 ft boat to a shipyard?

This weekend, I am heading to the National Weather Association meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. My friend, Meresa Fincher, who is from Louisville, helped me learn how to say Louisville. It is NOT Leweyville, it is Louil-ville. Now you know! Thanks Meresa!!! I plan to keep blogging while I'm there, although I'll have to be briefer. Lots of meeting to attend and fun to have you know!

The John C. Freeman Weather Museum is selling tickets to it's Feb. 2, 2009 Weather Heroes gala to be held at the Houston Zoo. This is Groundhog Day. The museum wants to expand so it can handle a larger volume of children (and larger tour groups). The museum does so much for educating the young folks of our community. You can find out more by going to http://wxresearch.org/. Remember to give me credit if you buy tickets...I'm on the board.

Be safe and be back soon.
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman