Here’s some pretty recent pictures of my little man.    He’s getting so big isn’t he?  10 months next week!  Have a great weekend everyone!

JD

Good morning everyone

We got good news last night that we finally have a closing date on the home we’ve been working on over the last few months.  What a stressful process!  It’s going to be a busy next few weeks as we head into Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if all goes well, we should be in our house by Christmas.  Very exciting stuff.  I can’t wait to see little Matt with much more room to move around in.  I will certainly miss my time in Manhattan, but I’ve always been a suburbs kinda girl, so I think the transition won’t be a big problem despite the commute to work every day.  The weekends will seem like a mini-vacation!  One thing is for sure, I have so much to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving!

In weather news, we’re watching two systems right now impacting the U.S.  A strong storm pushing into the west coast is bringing more heavy rain, damaging winds and heavy snow for Washington, Oregon and Idaho down into Northern California and Nevada.  Winds could surpass hurricane force in terms of gusts especially over the canyons and passes.  Once this storm pushes through, there’s another one waiting in the wings for this weekend.  Not fun.

The other storm getting its act together is across the Gulf of Mexico bringing extremely heavy rain to Texas, Louisiana as well as Oklahoma and Arkansas.  Some localized coastal regions could get over 8 inches of rain as we head through the day.

And if you’ve been watching Fox this morning, then you’ve seen my colleague Amy Kellogg reporting on the extreme flooding across the UK.  Believe it or not, part of the moisture our friends “across the pond” are dealing with is the remnants of what was tropical storm Ida – and then transitioned  into the nor’easter that caused historic damage to the Midatlantic region and northeast last weekend.  A lot of the systems we see across the east coast eventually do make their way up towards Europe – and this one is no exception.  Some of the pictures are just devastating with water rescues and reports of people missing.

(Photo coutesy of AP:  Engineers survey the scene after a bridge over the River Derwent collapsed suddenly after heavy rainfall and flooding in Workington, England)

There’s a bit of a break in the weather today, but there’s more wet weather in store for the region this weekend.

So that’s all for now.  I’ve got some cute Matthew pictures that will be on the way shortly!

JD

This was taken on the weekend when the USS New York was open to the public!  You can really see Matthew’s two little bottom teeth!

I’ll post a few more tomorrow.

jd

Good morning everyone!

Had a nice day off yesterday.  The weather was great here in NYC, so Matthew and I took advantage of it.  He’s still not feeling great, but his spirits seem to be better, so I’m hoping the medicine is working.  Time like these I really wish he could tell mommy what hurts the most! 

Back to the green screen today, and the Northwest continues to be in the crosshairs of another massive storm system that’s bringing impressive rain totals (up to 6 inches possible in the mountains) and up to 3 feet of snow in the higher elevations.  Winds could gust up to 80 mph along the coast.   Our friends in Alaska are also getting socked with another low over their region bringing wicked winds, rain and snow too.

Meantime, the storm that’s been hanging over the central U.S. is now on the move across the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes.  Eventually pushing into the Northeast tonight and tomorrow morning, but we should have a good-looking weekend in store.

I promised some Matthew pictures, so let me get on that, and try to get those up today or tomorrow!

Talk to you soon!

I think we’re due for a cute break too, so I’ll try to get a “shot of the day” shortly!

My question of the day is:  What are you having for lunch today?   I’m trying to decide what to have!

JD

Hey everyone

Margie sent these last week, and I forgot to post them..until now!

I’m off tomorrow to hang out with my little boy.  See you on Thursday!

JD

Here’s what Margie wrote:

I thought I’d send you a few pictures of the new hospital that I took on Saturday. I won’t bore everyone with a lot of the inside pictures but I did include one of the food court. With all the different stations, I shouldn’t have a problem finding something good to eat! I also included one of a mural on the main floor. All the artwork in the hospital is by local artists and this mural was the most impressive thing that I saw. The other picture is taken from a window at the end of the hall on the 6th floor. The views from up on that floor were spectacular.

Good morning everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.  A lot of folks are cleaning up after that Nor’easter (formally tropical storm Ida) left its mark from North Carolina up into New Jersey.  Some of the pictures are pretty amazing, and this storm will certainly be remembered for years to come.

Meanwhile, for the rest of the country, a  storm moving across the central U.S. will bring rain over the southern plains, through the Mississippi Valley and into the southeast.   Where it’s cold enough for snow, we’ll see a few inches pile up over parts of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.   This system is forecast to stall, and bring more wet and wintry weather to the same areas.  Winter weather and flood advisories are posted along the storm’s path.  Meanwhile, another strong system will impact the Pacific Northwest with very heavy rain through tomorrow night as well as very strong winds for Washington and Oregon coastline. 

If you’re watching the Space Shuttle launch, weather shouldn’t be an issue with mostly sunny skies and 76 degrees.  Winds will be out of the NNW.

(Photo from AP:  The space shuttle Atlantis sits on the launch pad under cloudy skies Monday morning Nov. 16, 2009 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Six astronauts are scheduled to lift off this afternoon on an 11-day mission to the international space station)

And, in weather-related news, this story got my attention this morning…what’s up with everyone trying to pull a fast one on mother nature?  I just don’t think any of this cloud seeding is going to work in the long term.

In funny-related news, I was in such a rush out of the  apartment this morning, I didn’t realize until I got into work that I had a huge ring around my mouth of dried toothpaste.  How embarrassing!   I should’ve taken a picture.  HA

JD

Don writes:

Picture with heron gives an idea of amount of island that is normally there. The other taken a few minutes ago (yesterday) and rain not expected till tomorrow night

Good morning everyone!

Happy Friday…and to our friends along the coast, we’re hoping everyone is ok after this nasty nor-easter (formally Tropical Storm Ida) eventually moves outta here!   Some areas have picked up close to a foot of rain – especially along the border of coastal North Carolina and Virgina.  Strong winds gusting up to 50 mph will continue with a risk of power outages all along the Delmarva and into New Jersey.  Winds will move up the coast into Long Island and coastal New England tomorrow.  Coastal flooding, beach erosion and high waves will continue to impact the region over the next 24 hours especially during high tide. 

Meanwhile, I thought I would post Tony’s comment from this morning since his description is first hand!

Sorry, JD, I didn’t take any pictures. It was more of an experience than any dramatic pictures. Basically the trees were leaned to the sides blown by a perpetual wind for almost three days. The rain did not stop. Our car doors and front doors were blasted open when we cracked them even a little bit. You couldn’t use an umbrella because it would just break. We have some trees and tree limbs down around town though I didn’t see any of the trees. My friend works at Fort Monroe and waded to his car. When he opened the door, the water flooded into his car. Most of the flooding is on the south side in VA Beach, Norfolk, and surrounding towns and communities. Almost all the schools and military bases are closed today, though ironically there’s no reason for the kiddies not to go to school today because the storm has finally moved on. By the way, there were probably two dozen times when the gusts were so bad that the house creaked and shuddered, causing us to look at each other just a bit apprehensively. Quite frankly, I’m surprised one of our trees wasn’t knocked down. We clearly got hit by some very powerful gusts. Some water came in on the side of the house by the siding and windows, but not really much other damage. Roads are generally clear and we never lost power. I actually went to a meeting last night but we lost power at the building, and I just packed up, went home, and curled up with the family and a couple of books. Whew! That’s over.

Tony

Well written Tony!  You should write books on weather events ! LOL! 

jd

(Photo courtesy of AP: A couple of Oak Orchard, Del. , residents move through the flooded streets on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009. Remnants of Tropical Storm Ida pounded the East Coast on Friday, flooding coastal areas in New Jersey after slamming the Carolinas and Virginia.)

In other weather news,   we have a pair of storms will affect the northwest and Rockies heading into the weekend. Rain wind and snow will spread into much of the west with some of the higher elevations seeing a foot of snow or more.

If you have any pictures (hint hint Don and Tony!) of the weather in your area, you can email them to me at janicedean70@yahoo.com, and I’ll get them on the blog!

JD