Rain in Forecast/Cool Sugar Land Pools/Facebook Connection/Crazy Gardening

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Atlantic basin is quiet. Tropical Storm Carlos in the eastern Pacific weakened today...but the National Hurricane Center is still forecasting it to become a hurricane. There is another area of disturbed weather a few hundred miles east of Carlos and that has a chance to develop. Will monitor both.

Monday's highs will be in the 90s and 100s across the southern states (hottest Texas and desert southwest). West coast of California will only reach 70s. Elsewhere highs will be in the 70s and 80s. Look for severe storms in the northern Plains and parts of the southeast and Tennessee Valley.

Houston made the upper 90s today. 100 is possible on Monday. Upper trough backing in from the northeast will cause some scattered showers and thunderstorms end of the week and over the weekend.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do trip or viaje, pronounced vee-AH-hey. Are you about to go on a viaje? Find out one father's method of coping in the AND MORE section.

If you are going on a trip with the kids, have I got the perfect DVD to have them watch--they'll be entertained and educated by our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1 from www.frankandpaco.com/. You can also order from http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/, http://www.carlexonline.com,%20www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.bestbuy.com/, and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. For our English as a Second Language (ESL) version, go to http://www.frankypaco.com/.

AND MORE
For those of you getting ready to hit the road with your kids, this one comes to you from my cross state travel of the last week. As we were getting ready to leave Amarillo, I ran into a man in the elevator with a cart filled with luggage. He offered that he was about to make an 18 hour road trip. I asked him where he was heading. And he said Columbus, Ohio. Then he added he has 4 kids. I asked him "Are you going to do that all in one stretch?!" and he looked at me with this resigned and numb look--"Why not?" I wonder how that went. Ha! Someone else told me it is probably something like this--what is the best way to take off a bandaid...slowly or just rip it off--I think that is how this man was feeling.

Okay...I know you'll think I'm crazy. But I just started some green pepper plants and some spinach plants. It's too hot for both, but I put them in some planters in a spot on the back porch that has morning sun. I'll let you know if I get any results. The green peppers are supposed to be started indoors in the spring and then transpanted in about 8 weeks...then given 73 days to produce fruit. So, we shall see how this all goes. Spinach is a spring or fall crop in Houston. But, maybe I'll get results if they grow in the shade. I am watering both every day. I just want to grow something and I couldn't find okra seeds. My corn crop is all burned up--I'm about to rework that bed. I love this gardening stuff...if only it weren't so hot.

Lots of swimming lately. Many of my friends are not taking their kids out because the water does not give relief--it is bath water warm--sometimes almost feeling like a lukewarm jacuzzi. But, a lot of the kiddie pools are in shade and their water is nice and cool. And for those of you who like the Magnolia Pool in Sugar Land--they must have changed out the water, because it was pleasantly cool today. Also, The Lakes pool has a fun covered kiddie pool with stone frogs spitting out streams of water...it is quite refreshing. Check it out!

Don't forget to look for me on Facebook. I am trying to get to it as much as possible. I'm still learning. Also, the puppet Frank the Horse is on there too. And, he wants to be your friend.

Well, have a great week everyone!

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman