Even though the precipitation's whapped Dallas and is moving east, They keep saying more will form and move in overnight and tomorrow, meaning look for it to get Really Bad.

Therefore Don has shrugged himself into his down-filled jacket, pulled on his gloves, and headed off to the store while the heading is good.

"So?  What do you want me to get?" he inquired, looking at me expectantly.

Drat.  I hate questions like that.  Hmmmm....what do we need to buy in the event we get iced in for an unspecified length of time?  How the heck should *I* know?  Figured we'll call out for pizza tonight, and I've enough for dinner the next two nights.  Milk.  Sprite.  Cat food.  Toilet paper.  You know....the usual stuff.

Truth is, we don't get homebound by bad weather often enough to learn to think like that.  I don't go to the store on a daily basis, but it's unusual for me to let more'n two days go by without stopping in.  In any case, there's always the unconscious recognition if I forget something it doesn't really matter, as I can either run down to get it or have Don stop on his way home or something.  Trying to think of what we might need because we might not be able to get out has always been difficult for me.

Was there 'ere such a city mouse as I? 

Thanks, Jeanne, for sending this.

A
neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within three hours
he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke . . . totally. He said the
trick was
having
a stroke recognized, diagnosed and then getting the patient medically
cared for within three hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING
A STROKE:


Now
doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple
questions:



S
*Ask the individual to SMILE
.
T
*Ask the person to TALK,
to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE. (Coherently) (i.e. . . It is sunny out
today)


R
*Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS
.


NOTE:
Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their
tongue . if the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other,
that is also an indication of a stroke
.



If
he or she has trouble with any one of these tasks, call 911 immediately
and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.



A
cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to ten people,
you can bet at least one
life
will be saved.

The temperature's slightly below freezing; here's the first blast:

The streets are clear, from what I can tell, but from what I'm reading on local news sites, that situation is subject to change.  The annual Stock Show parade was canceled this morning, which just shows.

Good day to read and bake.  ;^)

Living here in north central Texas is always interesting this time of year as polar air drops down on us from the north, while warm, moist air lingers from earlier in the day.

We don't get a lot of snow around here....we have a nasty tendency to get ice storms, which is what's forecast for tonight, tomorrow, and possibly right into Sunday. 

Perhaps as much as a 1/2" of ice.  Lemme tell you, a 1/2" layer of ice is a miserable nuisance....electric lines snap under its weight, it takes forever to melt (especially as it's supposed to remain chilly till Thursday or so), and so on.  I'll allow it does look pretty.  If we do indeed get an ice storm I'll take a photo of bare tree branches encased in ice.  But that's about all it's good for.  Used to drive me nuts when the children were little, for it'd cause school to be canceled, but one can scarcely tell the children to go outside and play in the ice, for crying out loud.

Not to mention it'll play wiley-beguiled with Jessica's restaurant's profitability for the month, if the weekend's wiped out. 

Did I mention today's the opening day of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo?  That'd be a real pity, to have an ice storm wreck the opening weekend.  Lots of people come to show and sell their animals, and it's their vacation for the year, as I understand it.  Wouldn't it be a shame to come all this way only to wind up stuck, unable to go anywhere because of the ice coating the streets?

Still, it hasn't happened yet.  I can't count how many times we were to have been slammed with winter storms only to have 'em either fizzle out entirely before getting here, or splitting apart and going north and south of us.

Since Dmitry's anxiously anticipating having all three of the Waybourn teens over to stay on Sunday night (it's a holiday on Monday), it'd be a pity to have to postpone, seeing how difficult it is to find a free weekend for them.

Maybe it'll fizzle?  Maybe?

Okay, maybe they didn't blow the other subs out of the water (probably a good thing), but in last fall's Commander Submarine Force Atlantic 2006 Battle Efficiency Competition the USS Dallas picked up a couple of awards:  Navigation Red and Green "N" and Communications Green "C". 

Atlantic Fleet awarded for efficiency

Addendum:  He just called!  I congratulated him on the Dallas's achievement, and it turns out their stop in Cyprus was a reward for doing so well in the competition. 

He's still in Sardinia, scheduled to leave tomorrow for....tah dah!....home! 

Unless their deployment is extended, which isn't likely but not impossible either. 

This morning on my way home from taking Dmitry to school I drove past Uncle Julio's Mexican restaurant on Camp Bowie, where there were flares set out to close the right-hand lane, police cars with lights flashing, a big wrecker, a white car with a smushed-looking rear end, and a crater in the north wall of the restaurant.:

Oh, and TV news' camera crews.

How the heck does anyone manage to smash into a building with the rear of their car? 

EDIT:  According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it occurred while the car was being chased by the police:

The incident began around 7 a.m. at an apartment complex in the 3000
block of Las Vegas Trail, where a resident had started his 1999
Chevrolet Monte Carlo to warm it up, Sullivan said.

When he went back inside for a moment, the woman got behind the wheel and drove off, Sullivan said.

The man immediately reported the theft and patrol officers spotted the
car traveling east on West Camp Bowie Boulevard. The driver ignored
police commands to stop.

Witnesses said the woman paused outside the restaurant, but apparently
put the car in reverse, causing it to smash backwards into the building.

Yeah, reverse and smash it into the building behind you.  That's a good plan.

Of course, I daresay the police had a pointed comment or two for the car's owner, who started his car then went back into his apartment.  Uh, you know....duh?

Then just now, having taken Dmitry over to Dad's to do some work, I was returning home via Crestline Rd. whereupon I noticed a motorcycle coming toward me, straight down the middle of the street.  Finally it noticed me and moved back into its proper lane.

The driver was on the cell phone.  That's a first!  A motorcycle being driven by someone talking on a cell phone?  

Gives me the willies just to think about it. 

Did y'all know there's a cool comet zipping through the skies?  Me neither.  It's Comet McNaught, and here are some images of it:

I love this one, taken in Norway a couple of days ago:

Here's the info on it.

He's back in Sardinia, where he first joined the Dallas.  ;^)

What goes around, comes around, apparently. 

I know I've written about this before but doggone it....!  

North Korea has been brought to my attention yet again, this time via an online article at Canada's National Post:  The weirdest country on earth

In a graphic travelogue, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Guy
Delisle, a Quebec artist who now works in Paris, has given us a deadpan
account of how a hideous tyranny looks to foreigners. He went there to
work for two months on a French children's animation co-produced with
North Korea. Like many visitors, he felt as if he had landed on another
planet.

He has the peculiar innocence typical of graphic artists.
He was pleased when the driver meeting him at the airport handed him
flowers but soon learned they were to be left at Kim Il-sung's tomb,
the first tourist site he was required to visit. He and other lonely
foreigners spent melancholy evenings discussing what there was to do
after you had toured the Museum of Imperialist Occupation. Delisle was
reduced to making paper airplanes and flying them from the 15th floor
of the nearly empty 50-storey hotel built for visitors. He met no
Koreans except Comrade Guide and Comrade Translator, both of whom were
with him whenever he went out but were terrified into silence. He
noticed the absence of disabled people on the streets, which his guide
explained by saying no North Koreans are disabled; they are all born
healthy, strong and intelligent. The same guide also explained that all
the people cleaning the streets were volunteers.

[grimly]  Of course what's frightening to contemplate is what happens to those who are not born "healthy, strong and intelligent."  Nothing good, that's for sure.

When was the last time we all prayed for North Korea?

Well, that's too long.  Those poor people. 

His actual birthday is Tuesday, so he was totally unprepared for the surprise party given for him yesterday evening.  His father took him and Lucas off to run errands, and while they were gone Laura quickly assembled the party as guests arrived.  Finally all was in readiness and she called Bill to give him the all-clear.  He was careful to approach the house from the south (we were all parked on the street to the north), and when Zhenya came in through the garage door, we all yelled "SURPRISE!"

I love the photo above for the head on the left peeking around the corner of the breakfast area.  ;^)

Zhenya swore he was surprised, though I admit I was a little disappointed he didn't jump two feet in the air.  Hard to really believe someone's surprised if they don't either jump two feet in the air or faint dead away.  He didn't even drop the stuff he was holding.  However, he insists he didn't suspect a thing, so I'll believe him.

Here he's checking out some of the refreshments as he's listening to Dan; of course that's Dmitry and Joe sitting in the back: 

After munching hot dogs and slurping Taco Soup (recipe in the Cookbook links to the left), it was finally time for cake and gifts.

After opening the presents on the table, the big gift was rolled out:

A really slick, 10-speed mountain bike!  As can be seen, Lucas immediately began a campaign to be the first to ride on it.  Being a cute two year old with a devoted big brother, he succeeded:

It was a terrific party, honoring a terrific young man.  We love you, Zhenya!