First - you spoke and I listened! The flying bitches are gone. I do however - reserve the right to bring them back for SPECIAL OCCASIONS ONLY, at which point, they will be on for about 1 day. Frankly though, it was beginning to annoy me as well.

Second - did you know that Tomato Season is almost upon us? We're gearing up for it here! The kids have come home with all sorts of information about "What to do in case of a Tomato!"

Tomato you say? Yes - exactly. I say Tornado - Ethan says Tomato. We found this out when they conducted the first weekly test of the tornado siren of the year. He came flying back into the house. "A TOMATO!! THERE'S A TOMATO COMING!" See? He knows what to do. Of course the first thing to do in case of a tomato is to warn everyone. The second thing we do is run outside and look up. This accomplishes two things. WE find out that a tomato is in fact upon us, and NATURE accomplishes its task of weeding out the idiots. Which apparently is about 98% of the neighborhood.
I swear people. I've lived in this town for 12 years. Every year it's the same thing. A tornado is in the area. Everyone runs out and congregates in the middle of the street. And it's crazy, their mood is buoyant! They're excited! "Hey! My house is going to be blown away! Let's stay here and watch! We can video it and send it in to America's Funniest Videos! Who's got the beer?" ~~gee~~

Myself - I have a different reaction... mostly. I do join the lemmings in running outside, but my objective in doing this is finding out exactly which way the clouds are moving. My husband runs outside to the highest point of the house with a camera. He's lived here longer.

Two years ago, we experienced the MOTHER OF ALL HAIL STORMS! The (tomato) sirens went off, and out we went. The sky was awfully green. I noticed a sticky note on our mailbox and pointed it out to my hubby. "Hey! Look - someone left us a note. Go get it before it gets blown away" He trotted on down the sidewalk, made it to the mailbox when it hit. A huge freaking hailstone. That mother was SOFTBALL SIZED. He never missed a step. He just turned right around and trotted on back up the sidewalk. "Screw your note!" He said. Soon it began to sound like a group of mad roofers had descended on us, as the hail began to pummel our houses. Huge - I mean HUGE stones. Don't believe me? Click here. By the time this storm had passed, the total damage estimate was $100 MILLION (yes - MILLION) dollars. I've read other estimates that put the damage closer to $300 million. We had several tornados touch down, I saw one of them a mere 2 miles from my house... (remember - I live in the plains of Texas, I really can see an object 2 miles away - and it looks close. Especially Tomatoes)

My kids especially love Tomato Season. Why? Because when tomatoes come to visit, I throw them in the closet with this stuff:

Big cushion to sit on
Two big pillows over their heads
One huge thick quilt over the pillows (and them)
and I cram the worlds largest freaking bowl of candy in between them to make them stay put.

Hey it works. We're prepared... Are you?