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

Tropical Update/Prospect for Storms/La Cucaracha Visits the Wiggles

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Claudette made landfall early this morning. Meanwhile, Ana is now just an open tropical wave near the Dominican Republic. National Hurricane Center says that it has less than a 30% chance of redeveloping in the next 2 days. Will keep an eye on it. Bill has become the first hurricane of the season and could pass by Bermuda as a major hurricane on Friday.

In the central Pacific, Guillermo has weakened to a tropical storm and is not a threat to Hawaii.

In the US on Tuesday, look for some severe storms in the south central US. Ridge over eastern ridge will shift eastward with a trough moving in from the west over the next few days. In the meantime, it will be very hot and humid over the eastern US. Look for mild weather along the west coast of California and the north central plains. Highs will be in the 90s in the south and in the 100s in the southwest.

Houston will be hot and humid on Tuesday with scattered showers and thunderstorms mainly in the afternoon.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do cockroach or cucaracha, pronounced coo-cah-RAH-chah. I recently heard someone sing a song called La Cucaracha...find out about it in the AND MORE section.

The animal we have in our award winning Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, is a dog named Max. You can see him and the 45 kids in the video by ordering your own copy today...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
August 18th is the anniversary of the last major hurricane to hit Houston (Alicia back in 1983). Remember that Ike was not officially a "major" hurricane with the wind officially set at 110 mph at landfall (1 mph short of major status). Anyway, Alicia was much smaller in size than Ike, but it's path across downtown Houston caused plenty of damage--thousands of downtown windows were broken and thousands of trees were knocked down.

When we saw The Wiggles show 2 weeks ago, I was perplexed when a performer named Fernando was invited to come on stage and sing La Cucharacha. He and his family were sitting in the front seat. I finally figured out that this is Fernando Moguels, who had a part in The Woogles DVD Hoop-Dee-Do. La Cucharacha means cockroach and I ran into a very active one in the garage last night. I was dancing La Cucharacha and then some, trying to get away from it. Sarah asked me if it was dead and I said, no honey, it is anything but. To myself I said, the only good roach is a dead roach. Eeeekkkk....they creep me out.

On that skin crawling note, I'll say goodnight. Have a terrific Tuesday!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman