Bill a Major Hurricane/Ana Remnants/Buying Store Brands

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Bill is now a major hurricane (with 125 mph winds as I write this). The biggest concern is for Bermuda which is within the National Hurricane Center's cone of uncertainty. The remnants of Ana are now over Florida and will continue westward into the Gulf. Chances are very low that it will redevelop. But I will keep a close eye on it. In the Pacific, Guillermo is way north of Hawaii.

Trough is over the north central part of the country allowing ridging west and east. By the end of the weekend, everything shifts east and then the trough is over the east and the ridge builds back over the central part of the country. That will cool things down in the east.

Highs in the south and southwest are in the 90s and 100s. In the north central part of the country, highs will be in the 60s and 70s and on the west coast. Look for some severe weather central to midwest.

Houston will be hot and humid with more cooling thunderstorms. Look for this pattern to continue through Saturday.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do shop or comprar, pronounced cohm-PRAR. When you shop, do you buy generic or storebrand items? See discussion in the AND MORE section.

Got the final draft of Volume 2. I am checking it one more time (going over it with a fine tooth comb). In the meantime, you can order our award winning 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,www.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
Do you buy generic items? I have been testing out various generic or storebrand items--trying to save those grocery dollars. I have been pleasantly surprised at how good everything is. There is one big exception--the generic noodles from HEB...yuck!!! The generic veges at HEB are very good--you can get the no salt added ones...1/10 the sodium of regular canned veges. HEB has some fantastic tears for eyes which are about a 1/2 the cost of the more expensive eye drops. HEB's store brand cereals are all excellent. I have tried several varieties...from cheerios equivalent to cinnamon toast crunch equivalent. Also their Lubriderm equivalent is very good. Target has some excellent store brand products. Their pancake mix is very good. They also have Viactiv calcium chew equivalents that are about 2/3 the cost. Walgreen's has a generic undereye cream (like the Aveeno cream) which is about 60% of the cost.

By buying this way, I have been able to cut my grocery bills by 25% on average. That is really adding up.

Here's to more money in our wallets.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman