So...whats for dinner?

Good thing I wasn't planning on bread tonight, lol

Upon leaving the store, I was it with the smell of fried chicken, so I stopped at KFC. I spent the last hour picking up everything in the yard that could blown around, ugh, time for a drink.

Minus, the power in my neighborhood is underground and we were only out for about 8 hours during Hurricane Ike, I hope this isn't worse! I have everything I need, I'm mostly concerned about the work related stress that will follow the storm and of course getting around town. I work in midtown off I-10, drive 25 minutes to rads in Katy, the another 25 home in NW Houston. The addicks resevoir and bayous in my path will be challenging.

Yikes, you gals in Harvey's path stay safe.

I'm good. Light rain so far, less fun is tornado warnings until 2am, I think I'm staying up a little late tonight. My husband is in Phoenix today but I've got our baby Biggie for company and we are safe and well prepared.

Tonight I'm making broccoli chicken divan (easy Campbell soup recipe) which is good at room temp too in case I lose power.

I did hear from Susan and she's super busy w/AirBnB, sewing, Olivia care days & other family visits. I expect she'll post some new pictures of Olivia next month.

Minus- praying for you all....Susan- hoping you are ok....we have been at the beach this week and before that, getting house ready for the hardwoods to be refinished while we were going to be away.  Have missed pages and pages on this thread and just sort of read the highlights.  Sending hugs to each of you!

Well, the heavier rain bands are cycling south of my house and I'm sleepy. I'm going to take advantage of the relatively mild weather and call it a night. Have a good evening everyone

Joycek, ChiSandy - All good here, even better when I get that first sip of coffee.

Minus - How are you

Thanks all. I'm fine. Intermittent rain - light winds but it obviously stormed last night. Thankfully no trees down in my neighborhood but I did have an 8 ft plumaria just lay right down. I dumped 3" out of my rain gauge at 10am. The ground is saturated so the forecast for 4" more today and 4" more tonight & then 3-4" more on Sunday, etc. will be a real problem. Luckily no punishing winds so far.

Careful, Minus & Ilona—though Harvey's been downgraded to a tropical storm and on the way to a “just" a depression, he isn't going anywhere any time soon. For the next few days, perhaps as long as a week, he will be The Thing That Wouldn't Leave—the weather equivalent of the party guest from Hell. Storm surge won't be the problem inland—just rain, rain and more rain; the ground is super-saturated (or, alternatively like S.E. FL, concrete in the developed areas), the ditches (if any) too shallow, and no basements—nor first floors—will be immune. Brace yourselves for having to move everything you can't afford to discard to higher levels, the smell of muck & mold, and possibly even having to relocate to a motel or trailer for weeks if not months.

Last night Bob worked late, so I spiralized all but the heel of the giant zucchini (the center parts were very wet), squeezed out as much water as I could, and mixed it with an equal amount of fettucine and then pesto. I ate the other half of the tomato I had with my Gruyere omelette aux herbes from brunch (which reminds me—time to eat the remainder of the one I sliced for today's avocado toast). We're going to Cirque du Soleil tonight (I hate it, but Bob wants to go and he gets so little time off), so I'm off to WF to replenish the larder before getting ready to head off to the United Center parking lot (unfortunately, Lionel Richie & Mariah Carey are playing inside the building, so parking and traffic will be a bee-yotch). Dinner will be whatever's open and has availability on Restaurant Row once we can get out of the parking lot after the show—probably Little Goat Diner or the restaurant portion of City Winery. (Not Bar Louie—I break out in hives when placed amid huge crowds of ex-frat boy “bros" and screens full of ESPN).

Sandy - yes I know we're in it for the long haul. And I know the heartbreak of flooded houses & mold since I've lived in Houston for 45 years, through 3 hurricanes and tons of tropical storms and had many friends who's homes flooded. However, I don't have a two story house. And even if I did, I wouldn't be able to carry furniture upstairs by myself. My street usually drains, but if the water looks like it will come in from the back yard, I'll load pictures & books & records from the bottom shelves up onto sofas & tables and consider myself lucky. Hopefully it won't come to that.

My experiment today was pressure cooking a whole chicken. It was perfectly cooked but the spices need some attention.

Went to Cirque du Soleil’s “Luzia” touring production. There were a few twists I didn’t expect, which made it just different enough from the other Cirque shows to hold my interest. The concession foods were limited to popcorn (a no-no this week), hot dogs, pretzels, candy and ice cream bars. So we had hot dogs & shared a pretzel. Afterwards, we realized that Cirque had let out before the adjacent Mariah Carey/Lionel Richie concert, so we had no traffic and made it to Restaurant Row. Went to Little Goat Diner. Bob had a “Sloppy Goat” sandwich and I had a scallion pancake topped with pork belly and Asian cabbage slaw. Walked 1/4 mi. ea. way to Do-Rite Donuts, to see what all the fuss was about (definitely burned some calories). Treated myself to half a chocolate glazed when I got home. Very filling, especially with a decaf espresso.

My neighborhood is still OK too. Streets are draining between storm bands that come like waves. I dumped 7-1/2" from my rain gauge at midnight for Saturday. This morning it was overflowing the 6" capacity at 10am. We've already another 2-1/2" in the last hour. Lots of frogs last night during a lull.

If ever I move to the Gulf Coast and S. TX, I'm investing in wetsuits, hip waders and at least one inflatable boat