There are some really dark red splotches on the weather radar map.

Tom - one of them was just us - it was awesome. and I'm glad the trees stayed put

We just had a ton of lightning and thunder, but still no rain.

We didn't get a lot of rain, but the big heavy stuff is over Lake Okeechobee right now and we need that.

My parents flew from FL to NY today and we had big thunderstorms in Fort Lauderdale right before they took off and they had tornado warnings in Otter Lake. My sister has been without power much of the day because of downed tree limbs. I don't think there was ever a tornado warning when I grew up in Utica. Odd stuff this weather.

Lake Okeechobee

This lake always gives me pause because my grandmother used to sail on Lake Okoboji in Iowa, and they took the kids there on occasion. Try saying one after the other. Okeechobe Okoboji Okeechobe Okoboji Okeechobe Okoboji Okeechobe Okoboji . Hee!

The article that prompted the vegan kids argument: [link]

One bit is bothering me. (Well, several pieces are, beginning with how the disease could progress that far before anyone noticed -- did she not go to a doctor? Rickets is pretty easy to diagnose.) But this:

In 2001, British vegans Hazmik and Garabet Manuelyan, from Staines, were sentenced to three years’ community rehabilitation after they admitted starving daughter Arenai, 10 months, to death. She had been fed nothing but breast milk, raw fruit, vegetables and nuts.

There's something more going on there. Breast milk plus starting some fruits and vegetables is what plenty of ten-month-olds eat. Either they weren't feeding her enough, or there was some other problem going on, or something. It's not only the selection of foods that could have led to that baby's death.

t edit: also, their statement that Vitamin D is in dairy products is wrong. It's in liquid milk (and most soy milk, rice milk, etc.) because it's added. Once they figured out that lack of Vitamin D was what causes rickets, they figured that putting it into milk would be an easy way to make sure that most kids got it. There's no Vitamin D naturally in milk, and there's none in cheese and other dairy products.

I'm not even going to try it out loud since I can barely manage reading it. I knew I had lived in Florida a long time when I could spell it without checking.

Either they weren't feeding her enough, or there was some other problem going on, or something. It's not only the selection of foods that could have led to that baby's death.

Yeah, there was definitely something else going on there. (Like in that one L&O!!)

OK, now we're getting the storm.

OK, now we're getting the storm

it's the buffista weather tracking system feature.