Weather for the Week/Meeting the Wiggles/Felicia and Hawaii

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Some excitement in the tropical Atlantic with an area of disturbed weather off the west coast of Africa which has a 30 to 50% chance for development (according to the National Hurricane Center). It is moving westward about 10 to 15 mph...at least 7 days from any land impacts.

Felicia is now a tropical storm...forecast by the National Hurricane Center to potentially move through the Hawaii Islands..particularly Mauii and surrounding islands as a tropical depression on Tuesday. More to come on that.

Ridge has flattened and the jet stream is way north...that means highs in the 90s as far north as Boston and Medford, Oregon and 100s in the desert southwest. Milder 70s and 80s along the west coast and northern states. Look for some severe storms from the plains to the northeast.

Houston had some beneficial thunderstorms over the weekend. Look for some isolated storms each day of this week...still hot and sticky though.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
A special thank you to dear friend and fluent Spanish speaker Tom Ryan. He caught a typo in Friday's spanish word of the day. I guess I shouldn't be writing these blogs so late in the day. Thanks Tom! Never ever want to teach a word incorrectly. The word for treatment is tratamiento, pronounced trah-tah-mee-EHN-toe.

Today, let's do concert or concierto, pronounced cown-see-AIR-toe. The Wiggles gave a fabulous live concierto today at Hobby Center.

And speaking of performances, we just reviewed the our upcoming 2nd volume of the Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, My Day, My Body, My Feelings. Just a few more finishing touches and a technical review and it will be released! Will let you know soon! Plan on purchasing that one for all your holiday gifts for kids.

In the meantime, you can purchase our winning Volume 1 DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco from the shelves of many Barnes & Noble stores throught the US. If not there, you can also order your copy 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
Today was a super exciting day!!! We not only went to see The Wiggles Go Bananas! Live in Concert show but we also met the Wiggles in person. Because Sarah has a syndrome and I knew that The Wiggles were originally educators and have a special place in their hearts for special needs children, I asked if Sarah could meet them. And the answer was certainly. We had to be there by noon and at about 12:20, Sarah, Gordy and I and other special children and their families were ushered to a private room where the Wiggles visited with us and allowed us to take pictures like the one you see at right. Sarah was sure to ask about Greg and how he is feeling. And she told Captain Feathersword, "Hi there Captain Feathersword" and he said, "Ahoy there matey". The coolest part is that later we saw Anthony and he said "Nice meeting you Sarah". he remembered her name after meeting all those families. I found that quite touching and impressive.

Speaking of touching, I ran into Linda Rosas, a friend of my Aunt Elizabeth Gearhart, who has worked closely with the ill at Comfort House in McAllen. Elizabeth was very involved in the care of Victor Alvarez, a youngster with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Well, Linda's granddaughter Courtney Rosas also has SMA. Linda is devoted to making Courtney's quality of life as good as it can possibly be. Courtney is now 6 thanks to the tender loving care provided by her and her daughter, Courtney's mother. Linda quit her job once they received the diagnosis and has taken shifts with her daughter for the care of Courtney. They never get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time and have run through all of their savings. They are having a fundraiser on October 4th at Clear Lake Lanes Bowling Alley. It will be a 50s theme. To get more information, contact Linda at courtneysgrandma41303@hotmail.com. And be sure to check out their web site www.our-sma-angels.com/CourtneyBrooke. By the way, August is national Spinal Muscular Atrophy awareness month.

A couple of the dancers, Karl and Mario, took the photos with the Wiggles before the show. Karl met Anthony at a gymnastics center where he worked and Anthony invited him to come on the show. He has been with the group since last Spring. Mario is a dancer who has been with the group for 3 years. I noticed Mario had a bandage on his arm and I asked him if he had hurt a muscle and he said yes. I asked about the Wiggles themselves getting injuries since they are as old as me (and some of them are older!). He said that they get massages and have had troubles on and off. For example, Murray has had trouble with a nagging injury in his leg.

Well anyway, the reason Anthony was visiting the gym is because he is all into working out in gymnastics now. We have a DVD from one of the older shows and there is mostly dancing. But now they have some gymnasts and do a lot of gymnastics in the show...including Anthony, Captain Feathersword and Jeff. All of them including Murray have become super thin. But the most changed is Anthony...he was sooooooooo skinny. Looks like he is having a great time getting in shape! He seemed to really enjoy himself.

Yesterday, we met up with the twins at the pool. Alexander and Michael are now up to 9 and 11 pounds respectively. They are 3 and half months old. Alexander slept most of the time. But Michael was smiling and wiggling. I got to cuddle him for a long time. Both are doing very well. And so are proud parents Ned and Danielle and big brother Teddy.

Well gotta run! Have a wonderful week everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman