Halloween Forecast/More Halloween Trivia/Daylight Saving Time Returns

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Same area of disturbed weather in central Atlantic--no development expected.

Most of the country will enjoy a dry Halloween--the exception the west from San Francisco northward and then east to Salt Lake City--there will be showers and snow (in the higher elevations). Highs in the northwest will be in the 50s...northern Maine the coolest spot with highs in the 40s.

Here in Houston, I broke a sweat today--it's the return of moisture. And the humidity will be with us until next Thursday. Lows will be in the 50s and highs will be in the low 80s--very little change. In fact, there will be very little change for much of the country over the next few days as we see a somewhat slowing changing pattern stick around.

Trick or treating looks good in Houston -- temperatures in the 60s and 70s and no rain expected. Be careful everyone.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Have I got a neat one for you! Let's do spooky or espeluznante, pronounces asz-pay-looz-NAHN-tay. It was very espeluznante on Halloween.

I tell you what...when I realized that Sarah was getting closer to growing beyond that age of early language learning maximum benefit, I was spooked. I enrolled her in a Spanish program at her summer camp--taught by Spanish teacher suprema, Adriana Gutierrez. There are many ways you can expose you child to another language--rent videos in that language, read books with both, listen to music in that language--there are lots of choices at the Dolo Publications web site. And of course, you can have them watch our award winning DVD, Volume 1 of Let's Learn Spanish with Frank and Paco, a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product for 2008. You can order it from www.frankandpaco.com, www.venturaes.com, www.dololanguages.com, www.carlexonline.com,www.thecuriousmindstore.com, www.amazon.com, www.bestbuy.com, and www.barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
The poll results are in, 5 people said they planned to early vote. You have one more day to early vote--Friday October 31st. The early polls close at 7 pm Friday evening. If you don't make it tomorrow, you'll have to go on Tuesday, November 4th. Thanks so much all poll participants.

Daylight saving time begins this Sunday at 2 am. You will set your clocks back (fall back) one hour before going to bed on Saturday night. That means an extra hour of sleep for people without kids. Since the time change was shifted to the first weekend in November, we have a later sunset on Halloween. So, it won't get dark for trick or treating until 6:50 pm.

We finally got our winterizer down today. In Houston, you want to put that down in October--usually the middle of the month and then in March you want to put down weed and feed. The winterizer is so important because it keeps weeds from emerging in the spring. And then, you won't be wasting all your time pulling weeds. Try it...I'm telling you this works!!! Get that winterizer on your yards now. Don't forget to water it in.

Here's some more Halloween trivia--In the Middle Ages, people believed that people who died the previous year without being reconciled to you might come and haunt you (as a ghost). They believed that you could appease them with special fried cakes known as treats. That way they wouldn't do any mischief to you--play a trick. Then, people started using that night as a night to seek reconciliation by wearing a mask and go to other people asking for treats and forgiveness. Over time (as we know), the focus became less on the asking forgiveness and more on the getting the treats. And that is where we got the tradition of trick or treat.

Have a safe and fun Halloween everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman