Ike: Friday Noon

It's starting to get cloudy here. Definitely not the bright blue sky from this morning. And the tree's are blowing a little. I know that probably only 10 people read my blog, but Mom has sent it to her sisters so I figure I will keep everyone updated to the activity (or lack of) as long as I can.
The water in places along the coast is already getting really high. Here is a picture from the Houston Chronicle of Surfside Beach.The water is waist high and Ike is still close to 200 miles away. This is not good. SciGuy gives a pretty ominous message about the impending storm surge in his 10am update:

If you live east of San Luis Pass and less than 20 feet above sea level, God help you at this point if you have not evacuated.

This map shows some of the areas I have mentioned. We live at the very top of the screen, there is a green arrow that barely shows in this small view (click for bigger). The yellow highlighed areas on the coast are (starting from the furthest south/west) Surfide Beach, Jamaica Beach, Bolivar Peninsula.

The way I understand things from watching the news and reading about this storm, Galveston and the rest of the SE Texas Coast is facing down the same sort of damage caused by Katrina's surge in Mississippi.

Ike: Friday Morning

Looks like the 10am model doesn't change the track much. We are all ready here. Just have to move the patio furniture in when Ryan gets home from work. The overnight models showed Ike at a Category 3 at landfall. Now it is back to showing a Category 2. Hope that is true.

The images from Galveston are frightening. The water is crashing and splashing over the seawall already. The west end of the Island is already flooding. We have three friends with beach houses, one out on the Bolivar Penisula, just east of Galveston Island, and the other two in Jamaica Beach on the Western side of the Island. No matter what this storm does now, it's not looking good for these beach houses. We are really thinking about these families.

The weather right now is awesome. Here is a picture from our back porch from 10am this morning. I will try to take and post more pictures from the same location as the day progresses.

Ike: Thursday Night

The storm track has shifted East/North with the projected eye hitting right into Galveston. The storm is also only projected to now be a Category 2. It looks like we will fare just fine.

Traffic was heavy on some roads today, mainly on I-10 West and I-45 North. My route home on BW 8 and SH 249 was "easy, breezy, (beautiful, Cover Girl)". The traffic near my house, on the 2 lane "farm road" that leads to the back end of The Woodlands was a nightmare. Luckily I knew an alternate route and was only delayed about 10 minutes.

One house on our street had boarded up windows today. I think this will prove to be excessive. Ryan has the garage cleaned up so that when we hang the bikes after Admiral's morning run, we can pull both cars in. I am sure we will get some rain and wind, no matter what. If the eye comes in at Galveston or anything East of there, we will for sure be safe and sound, much like with Rita. If it comes in to the West, we will likely get much more damage.

My office is closed tomorrow but all network connections will remain up until the end of day. I will work most of the day and Ryan has some lose ends to tie up. One neighborhood he builds in is "closed", its a gated community, so he only has one job that might have activity. I assume most of the day will just be watching the continuous (already started) news casts on the local channels.

We are still watching closely but I am not as nervous tonight as I was earlier today.

Ike: Thursday Morning

It's Thursday Morning. I came into work today. I was going south so I didn't think it would be bad. Well, they suspended all tolls on the toll roads, my main route to work, so they were PACKED. Took me a lot longer than normal to get to work.

The 10am models are still centered on Freeport which puts us in the dirty side. Mandatory evacuations are starting at noon in the coastal areas. I will be watching the traffic maps today to see if I need to leave work early. Don't want to get stuck in lots of evacuation traffic. Right now things look pretty good on the traffic front. The hightlighted path below is my normal route home. I'll be watching this closely!

Ike: Wednesday Night

It's Wednesday night and we are definitely watching Ike. My favorite sites are SciGuy's blog and Storm Pulse (image above). In the image, we are the small green dot, that's about the location of The Woodlands. This map has the storm hitting land as a category 4 and being a category 3 over most of Houston.

I made a trip to Walmart and got the essentials. Water, Gatorade, Chef-boy-ardee, canned soup, bacon and sausage (in the freezer for now), batteries and a couple of books. It was not a mad house but definitely crowded for 9pm on a Wednesday.

In 2005, we went through Rita, which ended up coming in so far to the East of Houston that we didn't see too much damage. I slept through the whole thing actually. Probably 3 trees fell on our street and there were signs of more downed trees in The Woodlands. I fear this will be much worse and it makes me nervous.

Ryan will be busy the next two days making sure his jobs sites are secure and all potential projectile building material is removed. I will have to make the decision on going to work tomorrow. I fear getting stuck in evacuation traffic if I go in, but I don't want to appear to be a slacker either! I'll have to watch the storm projections to guage the panic level of those on the coast.

Friday night, we will probably "hunker down" in our living room with the dog unless things start getting bad, when we will move to the hall or bathroom. It will be Admiral's first hurricane.

Keep the Texas Coast in your thoughts. Right now, it looks like Ike could be a big one.

Update 10pm

As soon as I posted the original post, the 10pm model updates were posted. Ike's projected path has shifted a great deal to the North/East. This puts it much closer to Houston. The Woodlands is again the green dot north of Houston.

The projected landfall intensity is now only a Category 3 but if it made landfall on this path, it looks like we would get those Category 3 winds as far north as The Woodlands.

I am no expert, will be looking forward to SciGuy's explanation in the morning.

Life and Times of Admiral

I was in the study the other day, and had the TV on. I opened the window for a little bit because I was freezing. I guess Admiral heard the TV because after about 10 minutes, I heard him on the side of the house. I looked over and saw his little nose sniffing the corner of the window, then he looked up and saw me. Then, he did this:
I couldn't resist the opportunity to take the picture.

Aussie Chicken

I tried another new recipe from the recipe exchange this week. Allison sent this recipe, Aussie Chicken, found on AllRecipes.com. I am always looking for new chicken recipes since Ryan tends to be "anti-chicken". This recipe sounded like a winner since the chicken was covered in bacon and cheese, two of our favorite foods!!! The result was fantastic... Ryan ate all of his and about 1/3 of mine! That is success in our house when it comes to chicken!

Aussie Chicken
Modified from AllRecipes.com
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
2 teaspoons seasoning salt
6 slices bacon, cut in half
1/2 cup prepared yellow mustard
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

Rub the chicken breasts with the seasoning salt and Worcestershire. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Saute Mushrooms in large skillet with butter. Remove from pan and set aside.
Place bacon in skillet. Cook over medium high heat until crisp. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine the mustard, honey, corn syrup, mayonnaise and dried onion flakes. Remove half of sauce, cover and refrigerate to serve later.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place the breasts in the skillet and saute for 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until browned.
Remove from skillet and place the breasts into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Apply the honey mustard sauce to each breast.
Then layer each breast with mushrooms and bacon.
Sprinkle top with shredded cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and chicken juices run clear. Garnish with parsley and serve with the reserved honey mustard sauce.