The National Weather Service guy being interviewed on NPR just said "potentially catastrophic." I take that kind of phrasing much more seriousy from them than from the Weather Channel. Yeesh.

When you realize only three catagory 5 hurricanes have hit in the history of hurricane record keeping, yeah, that's some scary stuff. I hope anyone on the gulf-coast is beating feet out of their right now or hunkered down somewhere relatively safe.

But, you know, there's nothing to global warming.

My non-Buffista NOLA friends are 50% evacuated, 50% staying there. I'm pretty worried for them, and everybody.

Casper and her daddy are putting home-made play-doh in the garlic press, with great glee. We are expecting more little girls in 3 hours.

I can't believe two years ago today she looked like this: [link]

And now she looks like this: [link]

How did this happen!?!

I am also not happy about this bad hurricane.

Happy Birthday to the very cute Casper who's grown so very much!

This could be worse than Camille.

At this point, the only thing that would keep it from being bigger than Camille would be an eyewall replacement cycle that cuts the intensity. Even then, it's not going to lose that much intensity.

There's no upper level wind shear. The water temperature is almost 90F. We may see 200mph straight winds out of this storm -- only Gilbert ever had those in the Atlantic.

I would be very worried about NOLA people staying there. I'm also worried about urban poor the area has so many of. They say they're opening the Superdome to them, which is good, because that may be the safest place to be come tomorrow.

This is the kind of monster storm that spawns thousands of meteorology PhD dissertations.

How did this happen!?!

I don't know. Annabel is shooting up in size at an alarming rate. I keep checking to see if Susan has been soaking her in Miracle-Gro.

Happy Casper Day!

Anxious eye on the hurricane. Pronouns gone. More coffee might help.

Happy Birthday, Casper!

And now she looks like this: [link]

She looks longer and lankier than most 2-year-olds -- is she? I don't have enough regular exposure to such little ones to really know. I just figured since you and Mr. flea are long lanky people, Casper is destined to be the same, even as a toddler.

And -- Happy Birthday, Casper!

I don't know. Annabel is shooting up in size at an alarming rate. I keep checking to see if Susan has been soaking her in Miracle-Gro.

You need to switch her Annabel from decaf to espresso -- that should slow her growth spurts quite effectively....

Happy birthday to Casper! Good job, flea.