the calm before the storm...

Hype? Panic? Hurricane Sandy is heading our way. By the time it hits here in central New York state, it's hurricane status will be gone...but it supposedly will still be wild, bringing wind and rain. If the cold front collides with it, it could be even more interesting. Not that I have a degree in meteorology, like my sister's husband. The stores around here are selling out of water and bread. For us, when we lose power we have no water. At least we have a swimming pool to dip buckets of water from if we need it for flushing. I didn't stock up on gallons of drinking water, so we filled a few pitchers and a few igloo containers.

No, I am not panicking. Not totally. But we DO have quite a houseful of people here, and we do drink alot of water. I had bought like five flashlights for a dollar each a while ago at the grocery store...tonight I passed them out to the younger kids, just in case the power goes out. They are kind of excited, kind of apprehensive.

Baseball is on. I can tune it just fine, just like football. Sometimes something interesting happens, but mostly blah. It is just background noise to me. We do mute during commercials, as a rule.

After working at the Dome for seven hours this morning...we came home to happy children. Abigail was here with them. Evelyn carved pumpkins with them, AND cleaned up the whole mess. I took a nice long walk in the mist with Suri, then came in and made dinner for 13 of us...baked chicken breast...some of it in Buffalo sauce. A nice big tossed salad with tomatoes and green peppers and cucumbers, and garlic bread sticks made from leftover pizza dough. I also made a pan of cinnamon/sugar/butter breadsticks, which tasted carmel-y...oh yum. I was NOT going to have any...then the smell...one taste...a few more bits...then we wrapped the rest up for Sam and Aaron.

Emily was so kind to think of me on her road trip to Ikea. She brought home a t.v. stand with bins! We have been using our coffee table "temporarily" for like three years now, to hold the movies and the dvd player. It will be nice to have the coffee table back as a coffee table!