I was very, very happy to see that Dennis was losing some of his punch as he was about to make landfall. Boy, did I pray hard! Frank and Rick...so glad to hear you guys did better than I was thinking. Not that 120mph is something to sneeze at, but it was a lot better than 145mph, that's for darned sure! Hope everyone else in the affected areas are doing okay. I'm sure there is damage, power outages and so forth..but from preliminary reports, not much injury to people.
Jamie..I was ROFLOL about your 2-year old...my kids hear thunder and roll their sleeping bags out in our closet!

Some comments on the reporters yesterday: yes, I saw the FNC anchor interrupt Max Mayfield for something incredibly stupid..and I almost fell off the chair. I also think that if Anderson Cooper had been any closer to the beach, he would have had a stroke. John Zirella (sp) screaming in the background "GET BACK! GET BACK! GET BACK!" as the sign came flying down had me giggling like a schoolgirl! How many times did they repeat: "that sheet metal could kill someone" ? Like 7500, I think. Then we had Rick Sanchez in "Hurricane 1" driving around like like we were being invaded by aliens. "OH LOOK! THE ROOF IS GOING TO FLY OFF! NOW I SEE SPARKS! ALLLLRIIGGGHHTTTT...I THINK THIS IS GETTING A LITTLE DANGEROUS...WE BETTER GET OUTTA HERE!" only to drive around the corner to where the SPARKS were coming from...sheesh!
If only I had seen Gerry Rivers (aka Geraldo) fall on his kiester...that would have been the icing on the cake. So far, this is how many careers he's had:
*Talk Show host, investigative reporter, target for the Taliban (how did they keep MISSING him???), reporter for the War on Iraq, War on Terror, Michael Jackson enthusiast, the first guy to confirm that the Atlanta courthouse shooter had been caught, Natalee Holloway investigator, and now, apparantly, a meteorologist who fell on his kiester. What more could he do...never mind.
As for TD#5/Emily will not interrupt my plans to go to Chicago. I leave Wednesday night and arrive back Monday, probably just in time to get back here and repeat "left, right, left".
My only hope is that we can all remember we're here for a common cause and that the amount of bickering and animosity I saw over the weekend will be less, because all that does is take away from what this forum is about. I will be using my IGNORE feature when needed. I haven't posted since Saturday because I couldn't take it anymore.
I think the NHC and the mets here should be commended for the excellent work they did with Dennis. As far as TD#5/Emily's track is concerned, I'm not going outside the projected cone for right now. It does appear that it may make a trek across Haiti...which might just rip it to shreds, but other than that, I'm not forecasting any landfall points in the United States.
I am really SICK of hurricanes. This is like deja vu from last year...just as a hurricane was coming towards us, they'd say: "Don't look now...but here comes Frances, Jeanne, Ivan..." ugh.
I'll be driving most of the day tomorrow; dropping off Thing 1 in Tifton so he can spend time with Gramma. Thing 2 begins football practice tonight. Also, we have 3 new additions to our family: 2 goldfish and 1 algae eater. So now I have Things 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Not including hubby.