Monday Forecast/Extreme Ironing/Dia de los Muertos

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
There is a new area of disturbed weather that has potential to develop in the extreme southern Caribbean. Will keep you posted, especially if we get a Paloma.

40s and 50s will be the highs for the northwest and New England on Monday. There will be rain out west, over the Great Lakes states and in Florida.

In Houston, getting more and more muggy this week...like a sauna by Thursday with very high humidity and mild to warm temperatures. Look for some rain, maybe thunderstorms late Thursday into early Friday. Get those shorts back out...because you will be wearing them this week--including to the polls on Tuesday. No weather trouble in Houston for voting.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Since it's been all about the time change today, let's do time or tiempo, pronounced tee-M-poh. How did you use your extra tiempo--don't know about you but I got through that mountain of laundry.

This afternoon at the park, I met a couple from Ethiopia speaking their native language to their sons. The mother told me that she asked her son some questions to see if he could distinguish between the 2 languages. She was amazed to find out that he could quite easily--there was no confusing or mixing them. Well, that is because the brain of a child is perfectly wired to compartmentalize and organize language structure. Study after study shows this. In fact, they can learn many languages without confusion. The young brain identifies patterns and sorts accordingly. So, help those little ones learn language in a fun way---buy them 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
This information comes from an article provided by Adriana Gutierrez, Spanish teacher suprema. Today (November 2nd) is celebrated by Catholics in Mexico as Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. It is a time of celebrating the memory of those who have died. Altars are set up with special cutout paper tablecloths--ofrendas. They make a special bread called pan de muerto (bread of the dead)...it is often laid in strips that look like bones and they eat sugar candy shaped like skulls. They make the favorite foods of the deceased and place them on the altar. Many believe that the dead will come that night and visit. They decorate sticks with marigolds--believed to be the flower of the dead and visit cemeteries singing songs and celebrating the memories of their loved ones. It is a time of rejoicing.

In the Catholic Church, November 2nd is known as All Soul's Day, a day to remember and pray for the dead--especially loved ones.

Well, I was reading one of Sarah's school take home magazines and they had a snippet (with a picture!) of farmers riding down a river in the shells of huge hollowed out pumpkins. Good grief, Charlie Brown, this is what happened to the Great Pumpkin and all of his buddies.

And this got me to thinking about other weird "sports" like extreme ironing. You are not seeing things...this is real! Check out this clip from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olU947pcHeE

And there are organizations all over--here's one web site for you.
http://www.goextremeironing.com/

Now, you have a new hobby to take up.

Have a fun Monday! Don't get burned.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman