O Kidney Stone, O Kidney Stone, Go Away Mean Kidney Stone

Here we go again. This week goes down as a painful one as a kidney stone decided to grace my presence. Hopefully, it will go away on its own.

Happy Birthday to Krishan on Friday (whew, thankfully you got married in time to MONA!)

Happy Birthday to Chris on Saturday (have fun at the all boys birthday party at the Ray's Game. I cannot believe that you can get a learner's permit.)

All eyes in Florida have been on the hurricane and tropical storm combo. It looks like it is headed for LA. I went to help after Katrina 3 years ago, and while I certainly don't want the storm to come here, I hope that those people get a break and it goes somewhere else. That trip made a lifetime impression on me. I need to dig through the slideshow we did on the two trips. We had two trucks and an RV (the JW, the Big Banana, and the Roman Candle were the names of the vehicles for the walkie talkies). I seriously hope that this storm falls apart or at least weakens greatly. Hopefully, that Hanna storm won't do anything bad either. I read this quote on Dr. Jeff Masters' blog (thanks Mark McCune for sharing the link) and it seems pretty appropriate.

Time to leave New Orleans (from Dr. Jeff Masters' Blog)
I've been criticized by some for recommending people evacuate New Orleans, since that's not my job, and for saying "it's not natural" to live in a city that lies partially below sea level. I apologize for my remarks, they could have been phrased better. We had to build New Orleans where it is, and it is a great city that needs to be protected. The fact remains that New Orleans is highly vulnerable to storms like Gustav. Gustav is capable of bringing a storm surge to the city that will overwhelm the levees. Pre-Katrina wisdom suggested that the city needed 72 hours to evacuate. With the population about half of the pre-Katrina population, that lead time is about 60 hours. With Gustav likely to bring tropical storm force winds to the city by Monday afternoon, that means it's time to leave. I'm not an emergency manager, but I am a hurricane scientist. I understand the danger this storm poses better than most. The risk of staying in New Orleans is unacceptable. This is a huge and dangerous storm that has already killed a lot of people. The projected track and strength of Gustav is very close to that of Hurricane Betsy of 1965, the Category 3 hurricane that overwhelmed New Orleans' levees, and killed 76 people. It's time to get out of New Orleans.

Other than kidney stones and storms, it is finally football season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, I totally didn't realize that the Tennessee game is on MONDAY at 8. I assumed it was on SATURDAY at 8. DUH.... I have to say that it was SO nice to wake up and have college gameday on. WOO HOO! Mike's BYU team is playing Iowa so that should be interesting work conversation on Tuesday (almost everyone at the the Iowa office seems to be an Iowa or Iowa State fan but the Tampa group represents the ACC, SEC, Big (little) 10, and many others (even TEMPLE). :)

Family football roll call
South Carolina already won
Go Mississippi State
Go Georgia
Go Auburn
Go BYU
and of course, GO VOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!