Start of Spring/3 Month Outlooks/Stingrays and Miniature Horses

WEATHER
As I write this post, there are winter storm watches and advisories over the southern Rockies and central US. Next storm system is advancing eastward and there will be some thunderstorms in the southwest and Texas today. Look for some severe weather and thunderstorms over the southern plains and southeast on Saturday. Highs will be in the 30s and 40s across the middle of the country behind a trough with nice, warm 60s, 70s and 80s for the southeast and the part of Texas ahead of the cold front. Out west, highs will be in the 60s and 70s.

Houston, you are starting the day with season, but look for clouds later. Highs will be in the 70s. Enjoy! Saturday, there will be thunderstorm and then much cooler (highs in the 50s for Sunday with sunshine returning). Next rain arrives mid-week.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do horse or caballo, pronounced cah-BUY-yo. Look to right to see a photo of a baby miniature caballo. And read the AND MORE section to learn where to see it.

If you are looking for something for your kids to do indoors, try our award winning DVDs, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco. They are on the shelf (in the education section) at Barnes & Noble stores or you can order them from 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
Saturday, March 20th, Spring begins at 12:32 central time (this from the U.S. Naval Observatory). It is the vernal equinox. This is the date in the Northern Hemisphere when the length of night and day are approximately the same (12 hours). The length of daylight will now more than the length of night and will continue to increase. So happy spring everyone!

The poll on spring break activities is closed. 20% said they plan to visit local points of interest. 40% said they would finish projects around the house and 80% said they would hang out with their kids. No one said they would go to the beach, go skiing, visit friends or visit family. More than one answer was allowed. Thanks to all who participated. I'll put up a new poll in my next post.

We have been keeping very busy this spring break. One of the highlights was visiting Kemah. There is a Stingray feeding aquarium right next to the Aquarium Restaurant. Sarah and her friend Hannah had a ball feeding fish to the stingrays. See photo at right. The barbs have been removed. So, it is very safe. There is a pen with smaller, younger stingrays who still have their barbs. But, they are too young to know what to do with them. I found all of this out from one of the employees.

Yesterday, Sarah, her memaw and I headed to Brenham. The Bluebell creamery tours were sold out, but we didn't care as we have already done the tour and Sarah doesn't enjoy those very much. We enjoyed visiting the gift shop and mulling about outside in the beautiful weather. To get to the creamery, take a right onto 577 from 290. It is right as you get to the edge of town (as you approach from Houston). The real excitement was heading a bit further north and taking a right onto 105 and heading east about 4 miles. On the right, is the St. Clare Monastery miniature horse farm. Sarah loved petting the newest addition. See photo at right. It was so beautiful and the weather was just perfect! Here is a link to their web site:
http://www.monasteryminiaturehorses.com/index.html
I did see one of the St. Clare nuns. What a peaceful, quiet life.

I posted the newly released 3 month temperature and precipitation outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center. Looks like the southern and northern plains can expect below normal temperatures for the next 3 months will the west and Alaska should have above normal temperatures. The Rockies and southeast are expected to have above normal precipitation. See figures at right.

Enjoy the rest of Spring Break everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman