After our bedtime snack, and after Carmen plotted what she would do tomorrow (paint, on 5.5"x4.25" paper, with an easel), she clapped her hands and said, "Okay, everybody, it’s time to go to bed!"

And off they went.

Magnificent, Matt said. 

Christmas in September:  eating from a pint of Talenti Old World* Eggnog Gelato.  Think frozen eggnog, but flufflier and with less fat.  Yowzers.  It’s been sitting in the freezer for a few weeks, waiting for company and friends to share.  I threw that idea out the window this evening, though, after I found David had just given himself a haircut. 

After I used the clippers to even out the cut, Carmen laughed and said to David, "You look like a MAN!" 

A man?  But he’s my big little boy!  That’s when I found the ice cream.

*Don’t let that fancy-schmancy "old world" business fool you.  This stuff is made in Dallas.

(David cut his hair.  Lots of it.)

Click, beep, whir, the power is back on at the house.  Matt’s getting the house civilized again, and we’ll be leaving Camp Almaguer Saturday night.

Still no power at the house; water quality is questionable; gas is not easily available.  People are cranky and hungry and tired.Waiting it out at my parents’ house, where they have electricity, water, and people to talk with C&D while I stare at the wall (or this monitor).  Made a quick decision to leave, and while I packed it, left the laptop at home.  Restless; I had things to do, even though I know I’m too tired to have done any of it.Matt is back at home, to tidy up, investigate the leaky places (more leaky places!), and go back to work. 

The landlines are up, and we’ve just run two extension cords to our house from the construction site across the street to power the fridge and the laptop.  Most people in my immediate neighborhood seem to have power, but we and our neighbors on this side of the street don’t.  More later.

Our friend Ike is coming to visit.  It’s been a beautiful morning, with an unseasonably cool breeze from the north.  Traffic is light, and the sounds of the city are subdued, like a late Sunday morning.  Someone down the street is hammering plywood over their windows.  The center of the hurricane is poised to pass over Galveston; the further east the storm passes, the more we will be spared the worst of the wind and rain.

The plants and toys are secured outside; the house is tidied.  Forecasts predict we’ll get winds up to about 75mph at the house (those numbers below are in knots).

I’m more worried, I think, about flooding. 

We think about flooding just about every time it rains, though, so that’s nothing very new.

If we lose power/internet/landline/voice cell, we might still be able to send and receive texts.   

Our energy utility can be reached at 713-207-2222, 800-332-7143, or the CenterPoint Storm Center.  It looks like they might post a list of where power is out and when it might come back on. If they’re really nice, they’ll even post a map.  If for some reason we will be without power for an extended period of time, we’ll go off and visit the familia.

The NOAA radar for Houston (left picture) and satellite image (right picture) are found at the NOAA site for our zip code. 

A summary of how much rain has fallen is at the Harris County Office of Emergency Management.

The water from our neighborhood eventually drains into the Harris Gully, which has been directed underground.  You can see where it meets the Brays Bayou at floodalert.org.  It’s big (you
can drive a car through it), and if it’s full we’re in trouble.

We like Eric Berger’s hurricane summaries at the Chronicle the best.