I'm doing my Costco run on Wednesday, is there anything else we need? Just want to double-check. I'm presuming there will be grill equipment on site? If not, then my alternate food to bring is -- cooked rotisserie chicken & rolls. Let me know. Jette

Well, after a rather harrowing night, the last half of today turned out to be amazingly beautiful. Perfect weather to be outdoors, and for all the clean up. That said, I'm sure most people were not exactly having 'fun' today though. It seems like the absolute worst of this storm and its damage occurred from about Cape May, NJ, south along the coast to Va Beach, and inland to the big cities west of those points. The Damage seems to be less severe the farther north you go from NC/VA. For us here in the DC area, well, I have to say I was 'surprised' at this storm. The damage left behind was just about as bad as Isabel in 2003, maybe slightly less. From about 30 miles west of DC, to the coast the damage is what is being called 'major'. The most common are trees being blown on homes and going through them and crushing cars. The sheer number of trees down around just the DC Metro is staggering. Probably in the thousands. Lots of roads / streets were blocked and many still are. No real structural damage to most buildings from winds alone, other than a couple buildings having roofs partially peeled back / loss of shingles / some siding / gutters ripped off. Some minor to moderate flooding from storm surge along tidal waters which capped out at about 3-4 feet. The far worst of the flooding came from the massive rains. Ranging from 3-4 inches 30 miles west of DC, to 5-8" right in the city, to 10-12" 30 miles east and much more the farther south/ east you go from here. Lots of river and creek flooding causing road overwashes. My rain gauge maxes out at 5", and was full by 1:30 am. I'm guessing we got 1-2" more than that here. Reports of 4-8" in the immediate metro area were commonplace. Over all, it was probably 'worse than expected' in our area. The absolute worst of it came in the period from midnight to about 5am, when we were having sustained winds of 40-50+ and gusts 55-75mph. The worst part was pretty much like a 6 hour long severe thunderstorm. It would come in waves. Backing off to 40MPH or so for a few minutes, then big huge gusts around 55+, then every 7-10 minutes or so we would get a period of several minutes where the sustained winds were like a gust that just would not stop, and then an even higher gust on top of that, topping out around 70+. The wind reports all around our region were pretty consistent, with the highest gusts just west topping out around 55in places 30 miles west, to 65-70 inside the beltway, and 75-80 30 miles east and south along the Chesapeake Bay. about 40 miles west of D.C., almost no damage to speak of. Just some heavy rains at times, and gusty winds of 35+, but nothing very bad. It was a very sharp cutoff line between damage and almost nothing. The thing that made this storm worse, was its size, and slow movement. Had this been a quick event, we probably would not have seen nearly the damage. But, because this event was very protracted and lasted for 20 hours, most certainly lead to more damage. Isabel in 2003 was in and out fairly quickly. She was here less than 6 hours at her worst. The other difference, with respect to storm surge anyway was that it was less here because the storm passed to our east this time, in stead of to our west. This was a east, northeast, north, and northwest wind event here, which helped to push water more OUT , than in on top of the storm surge itself. Partners mother in Smithfield VA had a pretty bad night, as I suspect most did in SE Virginia and Eastern NC where the damage reports are much worse. No power since 6AM Saturday morning. They lost two large trees in their yard, but fortunately both missed the house. Their neighorhood is literally littered with trees down, and quite a few homes damaged by them. The pictures coming out of Va Beach, and the NC beaches are by far and away the most incredible. Even along the MD/ Delaware beaches there is quite a bit of damage. Tornadoes caused damage in both Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, DE. As for my yard, well, just 1 large tree limb from someone elses tree is in it, and most things that were not either VERY HEAVY and/ or tied down , did blow over. It looked like a war zone, but fortunately nothing was really damaged except for a clay pot with my rosemary bush in it. The palms, well, 2 got knocked over, but the big 8 foot pigmy date came through it like a champ. I tied it down with rope and rebar and it went no where. Ill post some photos in a bit. I hope everyone made it through OK with no significant losses / damage!

I have had my Motorola Droid for close to two years now. The free turn-by-turn navigation app. that terriks mentioned has never let me down. The Google map app has been a lifesaver when looking for restaurants, coffee, gas stations, banks, & places of interest while out of my immediate area. I use the Google Sky Map frequently to identify stars, planets & constellations. Google Translate and Google Goggles - a visual search engine as well as Google Earth are all free apps on the Droid. If you are a football fan the NFL mobile app is free too. A friend of mine just got the Motorola Droid Razr and it is slick, my Droid is like a dinosaur compared to the new one! I have Verizon, no dropped calls & the voice quality is like any wireless device. My lap top is a MacBook Pro so I don't have a problem with Apple products, (actually I could never go back to a PC), for me the best choice in a smartphone was the Android Operating System. When my current device bites the dust, I will replace it with another Android.

Cori Ann - hope you have fun this weekend! Here's a link to the group's catalog of the cemetery roses. I used this list to help me interpret the rose names on my sometimes blurry photos of the tags where I had to reach into a dense shrub and snap a photo. This catalog can help you figure out ahead of time some of the roses you would like to see. Sometimes the map coordinates are a little tricky but once you find one rose like Hubner Plot for example, it will be easier to find other roses since you'll have a sense of the relative distance from one rose to another. Historic Rose Garden 2016 Catalog The catalog can be accessed by going to the website and clicking on Catalog at the top right of the menu bar. The rose I had hoped to see wasn't ready to bloom yet. It's called Copperoplis Bar which was offered last year but I couldn't make it to the sale. My husband and I had some great times exploring gold country including the town of Copperopolis. I thought this rose would be perfect to commemorate that fun period. I plan to wait a month or so to return and take a photo of CB. Hopefully I can take one of the cemetery tours where they dress up in period costume! Ann