Where Severe Weather Will Be/She Met Henry Kissinger/Healthy Banana Bread

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Some severe weather moving through west Texas this evening. Look for severe weather in north Texas on Monday as a cold front marches across the state. Also look for storms in Oklahoma and Kansas. Country is much warmer than it was in early January. Highs will be in the 30s in the northeast and around the Great Lakes. The only exception will be extreme northern New England (Maine) which will be much colder. There will be rain and snow over much of the western U.S. and western Great Lakes states. The snow will be confined to the higher elevations. Nice and warm across the southern Plains and southeast with higher humidity.

Houston will be mostly cloudy and mild on Monday...lows in the 60s and highs in the 70s. There will be a few showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Still, most of the action should be over north Texas. Weak front moves by early Wednesday. Looks like we will only get a glancing blow with a few showers early Wednesday.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do retirement or jubilación, pronounced joo-bee-lah-SEE-own. Lyn Ead is jubilant about her jubilación.

It's always fun to learn new things...I know Lyn is a lady who likes to learn. And children love to learn when it is fun. Well, here's a fun way for them to learn Spanish, through our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Check it out at www.frankandpaco.com/. 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
The Pancakes and Pajamas event, benefitting the Fort Bend Rainbow Room, was a big hit with the kids. It was fun to see them running around in their PJs (even at noon!). Frank and Paco (the puppets) had fun visiting with them and even got to be in a parade. We are looking forward to attending next year! Thanks so much to Eleanor Traylor and Kelly Stevenson for inviting us.

Remember my salad recipe of last post? Well I made it for a retirement party for a dear friend, Lyn Ead. Lyn is an amazing lady, who practices martial arts and knows so much about world history. She is even a part of history. She has a photo of herself with Henry Kissinger! Wow! I think the ramen noodle salad was well received. It was so nice to be with Lyn on this special day. It was also fantastic to see so many "old" friends from FOX 26. It was a blast working with all of them. I know they will miss you Lyn.

Speaking of recipes, I made a special banana bread for my Megan today. She has been trying to eat healthier and asked me if I could make a whole wheat, no sugar banana bread. Well I followed the directions on the package but had to make some substitutions. Instead of 1/2 cup brown sugar, I put 15 packets of Splenda. Instead of a stick of butter, I put my best guesstimate of a 1/2 cup of Smart Balance butter. Instead of a 1/2 cup of honey, I put the same amount of sugar free syrup. Then I did something a little naughty. Just to give it a boost, I put in a few semi-sweet chocolate chunk chips. Well, it was pretty good, I must say. I think it is the very best when heated. I sure didn't feel guilty eating that banana bread.

Quick update on ICarly and Sam, our goldfish. They have survived more than a month now and they are doing very well...still little piglets. ICarly the gold one, is definitely the dominant fish. Whenever I feed them, she kind of nips at Sam until she feels she is getting as much food as she wants. Don't worry, Sam gets enough. ICarly had a very nasty fungus on her back left tail. But I have been diligently adding the fungus fighting liquid and everything is almost completely back to normal. Hope you didn't read this before you ate. Ewwwwww!

Have a great week!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman