Tuesday, February 10, 2009

After the Severe Storms/New Brilliant Exercise Program

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
As I write this blog this evening (about 9:40 pm), there have been 68 reports of severe weather including 3 tornadoes--2 in Oklahoma and 1 in Texas. Now the Tornado Watch has been extended southward to include the northern counties of southeast Texas...see figure at right. The greatest threat for severe weather remains north of Houston, but there is an impressive line of storms that reaches to the south of San Antonio. I think that will arrive in the Houston metro between 1 and 2 am. There will be some high winds. Some hail and tornadoes are possible.

In contrast, Wednesday will be much quieter for much of the country although there will be some thunderstorms in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and southward to New Orleans. Look for snow in the higher elevations of the Rockies and Intermountain Region. Coldest spot will be the northern plains with highs in the 20s. Almost everywhere else will be above freezing.

A delightful day on the way for Houston...rain will be over by daybreak. Temperatures will be in the 50s and highs will be in the 70s. On Thursday, partly cloudy with lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s. Another weak cold front arrives on Friday, bringing some showers.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do the verb to count or contar, pronounced COWN-tar. Sarah and I worked on a homework sheet which required the children contar for one minute.

Our 3rd volume of Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco will have numbers along with alphabet and colors. Until that is done, you can check out our award winning Volume 1 at www.frankandpaco.com/. There are terms for eating, drinking, home, family and play. You can also order from http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/, http://www.carlexonline.com,www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.bestbuy.com/, and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. If you are more interested in a full immersion type product, go to http://www.frankypaco.com/.

AND MORE
Okay...this proves that I do not see things and I'm not crazy. Remember my post about seeing a bobcat along Oyster Creek Trail a few years ago? Well, according to an article in the Chronicle, there have been bobcat sightings along Buffalo Bayou in Katy...ahh haaa! One eyewitness described it almost as I did...small head...walking slowly...turned to look and then continued on into the brush. Ahhhh haaaa!!!

Back to counting--Sarah's class had a fun and very interesting math sheet. You had to guess how many times you could do certain things in one minute. One minute doesn't sound so long...well trust me it is! One of the things we had to do was stand up and sit down as many times as possible in one minute. Well, let me tell you--I run for exercise, but I was downright pooped by all that standing up and sitting down--I did that 25 times and I just know I'll be sore tomorrow. Of course, we had to do the beats of the heart in 1 minute. Well, after all that standing up and sitting down, I just couldn't count that fast! Gee whiz! Oh and you can just forget this one--hopping on one foot. Ow! Ow! Ow! I had to alternate feet...hope that is allowed. I was doing great for the first 5 seconds, but then it was all uphill from there. Hey...maybe we have come up with a multi-million dollar exercise program--it's Cecilia's stand up/sit down workout. You'll hit your target heart rate in 30 seconds--guaranteed.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman