I Speak With the Tongue of a Thousand White-Hot Lies!

There is rain coming down in sheets outside as a storm comes in from the south--so sheeting rain, but only half the sky is dark and scary. The other half is nice and sunny. I give it ten minutes, though.

ETA: oh ... and there goes our recycling bin, floating down the street ...

EATA: the bin fetched up next to the truck that's parked in the vacant lot across the street. The sky is now completely gray, but the rain has slowed. However, whilst the sun still shone, the rain went freaking nutso--thunder, wind, and then something hit the side of the house with a hollow thump. All of which startled the sleeping Zweeble, but didn't wake him completely.

Currently, the boyo is asleep on a blanket on the floor, as we were doing Floor Time. Floor Time is a combination of Tummy Time (I want a kid with strong neck muscles and a round head) and Let's Watch the Ceiling Fan, with a dash of You Gonna Grab These Linka-Doo Things or What? And all of that's a job of work, so he conked as soon as we were done. And then the storm got started, and the whatever-it-was thumped against the house, and I'm eyeing the windows and wondering if the playpen--which is between him and the front windows--is enough of a barricade should I need it to be.

Then again, the only rooms in the house without windows are the bathrooms, and he's not napping in there, man. :)

Parenthood: because Laura needed something new to fuel her paranoia. I was so bored with all my old reasons. :)

Of course, it's *good* that Ernesto isn't a big storm.

Currently it's raining lightly, no wind. We alternate between raining steadily but not hard with a good, but not scary, wind and this. The streets do not appear to be flooded as yet. No power outages, and the TV is working just fine. I've had worse weather than this *without* a tropical storm.

I took down the hanging plants last night (or, well, Scott did it for me), since the bougainvillea's been getting eaten and I didn't want them to be wind-whipped on top of that. I could probably put them back up, since it isn't that windy, but I think I'll be cautious and put them back tomorrow, just in case we get a really good gust.

Erin's first plane of the day was canceled due to equipment problems, so she's on another flight and coming in about an hour and a half later than planned. So I have a bit more time to finish cleaning the kitchen and the car, and then to fold up the last of the laundry before I leave to get her.

So, yes, that's what's going on here. Hooray for letdowns!

Okay, go over to gnadige's journal real quick. She's got the NOAA hurricane map posted, and it updates and stuff, so it's showing the 11am forecasted Cone of Uncertainty.** Go. I'll wait.

They've been saying the track was being pushed to the west pretty consistently, but at the 8am forecast, the center track was going right over us. In fact, the little black dot was pretty much *on* our area. And now look at it--waay over to the right. And this is all before it leaves Cuba.

So I have hopes that Erin's trip will only be delayed, if that.

Anyway. In other, non-hurricane news, we spent yesterday cleaning our insanely messy house, and now only bits of the kitchen remain to be cleaned. And the laundry needs to be done, and dusting and vacuuming need to happen. But these are not enormous chores. Scott got our network back up last night, and got the battery backup to work the way it's supposed to. We watched Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which didn't go at all the way I thought it would, but was really one of Bogart's best performances, I thought. Next on the queue is the original Wicker Man, because I heard it was a cult horror kind of flick, and that the director is annoyed that they remade it without talking to him (or something like that).

And that has been my ever-so-exciting life down here in the Cone of Uncertainty.

**of course, if you're reading this after about 2pm, it's probably newly updated again. Sorry.

Five things I am SO over:

1. Hurricanes (although I still love Buzz Bernard)

2. The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center webpage

3. Stupid people

4. Humidity

5. My house not cleaning itself

And I'm gonna be mean and tag gnadige, jkason, and dealio. Bitch away, people! Even if I didn't tag you.