Rain Ending/How to Help Haiti/Don't Eat the Butter!

WEATHER
Some rain and thunderstorms in the southeast on Saturday as today's upper level disturbance over Texas and Gulf low pressure move northeastward. Highs over the Great Lake and northeast will be in the 20s and 30s. In contrast, Florida highs will be in the 70s. Elsewhere, highs will be in the 40s, 50s and 60s. There will also be showers in the northwest, west coast, and Texas.

Houston, the weather will improve on Saturday and there could be sunshine breaking through the clouds during the afternoon. There will be some morning showers. Highs will be in the 50s. Sunday will be dry and mild with highs close to 70s. Next showers will be Wednesday. Lows will be in the 40s and highs will be in the 60s most of the week.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do aid or ayuda, pronounced ah-YOU-dah. Find out how to give ayuda to Haiti in the AND MORE section.

Well, I shipped our most recent distributor order yesterday. You can get your copy right from the source: order my DVD series, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco. And, you'll feel good about purchasing it, knowing that it has won awards from Dr. Toy and homeschool.com as a best educational product. You can find Volumes 1 or 2 at http://www.frankandpaco.com
, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.bn.com, http://www.bestbuy.com, or http://www.ebay.com/. Our ESL (English as a Second Language) version can be found at http://www.frankypaco.com.

AND MORE
Relief for Haiti
The following information was sent to me by my parish, St. Laurence. I thought it might be helpful for all those wanting to help the people in Haiti. The first item applies to all people in the Houston/Galveston archdiocese.
Cardinal DiNardo has requested a special second collection at all Masses this weekend. Please be generous. To see the letter from the Cardinal, click HERE.

Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, is accepting donations by phone at (800) 736-3467; online at www.crs.org; or by mail to CRS, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090.

The Salesians are accepting donations by phone at (914) 633-8344; online at www.salesianmissions.org; or by mail to Salesian Disaster Relief, Salesian Missions, P.O. Box 30, New Rochelle, NY 10802-0030.

The Archdiocese of Miami, which has a large Haitian population, has set up a place to donate online at www.newmiamiarch.org.

Caritas International is is accepting donations for Haiti at www.caritas.org.

Food for the Poor is also accepting donations at www.foodforthepoor.org.

Catholic Medical Mission Board is accepting monetary donations by mail to CMMB, 10 West 17th St., New York, New York 10011; by phone at (800) 678-5659; or online at http://support.cmmb.org/Haiti. Medicines and medical supplies may be donated by calling CMMB's Kathy Tebbett at (212) 242 7757.

Jesuit Refugee Service is accepting donations at www.jrsusa.org; click on "Donate Now" box on right of page.

Thank you for the outpouring of financial aid and prayers in the wake of this tragedy. We will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

Cecilia Survives Preschool Talk
This morning I spoke to more than 100 preschoolers at St. Laurence's Weekday Children's Program. This is the school Sarah attended for 4 years before kindergarten. As I looked around, I saw so many of Sarah's wonderful teachers: Ms.Stacey, Ms.Nisha, Ms. June, Ms. Emma, Ms. Addy. They are all so giving and passionate about what they do. Sarah blossomed with their tender loving care. And we have been so blessed with all of the wonderful teachers Sarah has had in elementary. I am so grateful!!! The kids made the beautiful poster at right. They enjoyed puppets Frank and Paco teaching them weather terms in English and Spanish.

A cool weather blog
My friend, Dave Gorham, works for a private forecasting firm called ImpactWeather (located here in Houston). He has a wonderful weather blog and I am adding it to my list of favorites.
www.yourweatherblog.com
I love the international weather stories--stuff you won't find almost anywhere else.

The Other Side of the Global Warming Story
Our organization has been invited to attend this month's Houston Forum (http://www.thehoustonforum.org/) meeting on January 27, 2010.

The details on the event are:

The Great Climate-Change Controversy: Where's the Science? Two of the nation's leading meteorologists discuss the furious debate over climate change (aka global warming). The speakers will be Gerald North of Texas A&M and Richard Lindzen of MIT.

The meeting will be a noon luncheon held at the Petroleum Club, 800 Bell St . Reservations must be made in advance and can be done online at: www.thehoustonforum.org. The cost is $35.

Also, the next meeting of the Houston Chapter of the AMS is Thursday, January 21.
The meeting sounds very exciting:
Speaker: Tim Marshall
Topic: "Yikes! It's Hurricane Ike - Storm Chasing and Ride Out on Galveston Island"
Dinner Time: 6:00 pm
Location: La Brisa Mexican Grill (map)
Address: 501 Wesley Drive, League City, TX 77573
Phone: 281-554-4000
Chapter Meeting Time: 7:00 pm
Details are available at http://www.amshouston.net/.

Don't Eat the Butter
This story comes to you courtesy of my nephew Taylor who reminded me...about 20 years ago when I was living in Connecticut, I had befriended a young lady recently moved here from China. I had her and her family over for dinner and they reciprocated. They prepared a lovely and elaborate meal. When I sat down to eat, they put a stick of butter in front of me and said "there you go". I told them thank you but there was nothing to eat it with. They said don't all Americans eat butter with their meal? I said no and explained that if there were rolls, I might use some of the butter. So the daughter said "Oh I'll just give it to my Dad. He eats everything". Of course, I told her definitely not to let him do that as it would make him very sick. Too funny!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman