Well, it seems many of us are as reliable as a groundhog - which is to say, not really reliable at all!! 1. F - Late-night rains and early morning rains may simply be the last precipitation of a passing weather front. However, since fronts pass at night as often as they do in the day, morning rain is no predictor of a dry afternoon. However, this lore can describe non-frontal weather. Given sufficient surface heating, a late-day rainstorm may continue to develop into the night, produce early precipitation, then dissipate by late morning. This, though, is the exception rather than the rule. Only 40% of rain is produced by convective events - 60% is the result of a frontal passage. 2. T - There have been medical studies done which indicate some people experience this effect. The most likely reason is that with a fall in atmospheric pressure, blood vessels dilate slightly in reaction. This has the effect of aggravating already-irritated nerves near corns, cavities, or arthritic joints. Studies are inconclusive, however, with some researchers attributing this effect to selective memory. 3. T - This rule may be true under a few special circumstances, otherwise it is false. OK, so I'll take either as a correct answer. By standing with one's back to the ground-level wind and observing the movement of the clouds, it is possible to determine whether the weather will improve or deteriorate. For the Northern Hemisphere, it works like this: If the upper-level clouds are moving from the right, a low-pressure area has passed and the weather will improve; if from the left, a low pressure area is arriving and the weather will deteriorate. (Reverse for the Southern Hemisphere.) This is known as the "crossed-winds" rule. Clouds traveling parallel to but against the wind may indicate a thunderstorm approaching. Outflow winds typically blow opposite to the updraft zone, and clouds carried in the upper level wind will appear to be moving against the surface wind. However, if such a storm is in the offing, it is not necessary to observe the cloud motions to know rain is a good possibility. The nature of airflows directly at a frontal boundary can also create conditions in which lower winds contradict the motions of upper clouds, and the passage of a frontal boundary is often marked by precipitation. Most often, however, this situation occurs in the lee of a low pressure area, to the north of the frontal zones and convergence region, and does not indicate a change in weather, but rather, that the weather, fair or showery, will remain so for a period of hours at least. 4. T - Fog is formed when the air cools enough that the vapor pressure encourages condensation over evaporation. In order for the air to be cool on a summer night, the sky must be clear, so excess heat can be radiated into space. Cloudy skies act like a blanket, absorbing and reradiating the heat, keeping it in. So if it is cool enough (and clear enough) for fog to form, it will probably be clear the next day. Winter fog is the result of two entirely different circumstances. Above the ocean or a large lake, air is typically more humid than above land. When the humid air moves over cold land, it will form fog and precipitation. (To the east of the North American Great Lakes, this is a common phenomenon, and is known as the "lake effect.")[16] In northerly climates, ice fog may form when the temperature drops substantially below freezing. It is almost exclusively an urban phenomenon, when the air is so cold that any vapor pressure results in condensation, and additional vapor emitted by automobiles, household furnaces, and industrial plants simply accumulates as fog. 5. F - "Blows its horn" refers to thunderstorms. While March thunderstorms indicate that the weather is unusually warm for that time of year (thunderstorms can occur only with a sufficiently large temperature difference between ground and sky and sufficient amounts of moisture to produce charge differential within a cloud),[25] it is no indicator of the long-term weather trend. It is still unwise to plant your annuals before the long May weekend. 6. T - this is a solar halo. 7. T - quoted by Matthew in the Bible and Shakespeare, in his poem Venus and Adonis, as well Norse lore. Weather systems typically move from west to east, and red clouds result when the sun shines on their undersides at either sunrise or sunset. At these two times of day, the sun's light is passing at a very low angle through a great thickness of atmosphere commonly known as The Belt of Venus. The result of which is the scattering out of most of the shorter wavelengths - the greens, blues, and violets - of the visible spectrum, and so sunlight is heavy at the red end of the spectrum. If the morning skies are red, it is because clear skies to the east permit the sun to light the undersides of moisture-bearing clouds coming in from the west. Conversely, in order to see red clouds in the evening, sunlight must have a clear path from the west in order to illuminate moisture-bearing clouds moving off to the east. So there you go - more weather info that you ever wanted to have. If you are typical gardeners, you just want to know when you can plant your peas and onions! So for Annette: For Bobbie, Linda and Cyn: Thanks for playing. See you all next week. Nancy.

** for Annette, Bobbie, and Nancy for getting Finland (I think...) Another ** for Bobbie who also knew Liechtenstein, so she gets a toatl of **** TM, for picking up on my clue meant to lead everyone to principality and this making me feel clever that it was a decent clue, AND for being honest, *! I do like the process of discovering new facts when researching questions. I had no idea that there were only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. Actually, I never heard that term before. Now, how to work it into a casual conversation some day...haha. ;) When ranked by number of medals per capita, Finland leads the summer games with 17,982 inhabitants per medal and Liechtenstein leads the winter games with 3989 inhabitants per medal. Have a marvelous day and thanks for playing. I have ten new hosta to plant and here we are heading for 90 degrees F. Ugh. Maybe I'll just plop them in a bucket of water until it cools down a little! Cynthia

**** for Annette, Nancy, Bobbi, Ginny, and TM! Yes, the Movie is and Judy Garland sings the tune. Here are the original lyrics that Judy apparently thought were too mean to sing to little Margaret O'Brien-must say I agree: Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last, Next year we may all be living in the past Have yourself a merry little Christmas, pop that champagne cork, Next year we will all be living in New York. No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore, Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us no more. But at least we all will be together, if the Fates allow, From now on we'll have to muddle through somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now. Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday/Sunday full of joy and laughter. Thanks for being such wonderful companions throughout the year! Cynthia Here is a link that might be useful: Have yourself a Merry...

Well, don't stop painting to chat with me!! ha I wouldn't want to stand in the way of your creativity. :) I have been painting some more shelves, a toilet paper holder,and a bench, but those were just black and white so nothing to show. I got some futon pieces painted into pumpkins and put them outside to clear coat, forgot about them and it rained on them some. They have some spots where the clear coat turned white so have to try to fix those. I've been working on this dairy sign for my kitchen. Bought it for $8 at the TS and it was a horrid green color and looked like it had been left out in the cow field for a year it was that dirty. ha Trying to clean it up and paint it to match my kitchen. It's fairly big so taking a little time. And I hope to get started on a Christmas box I'm giving for a gift this year tomorrow. Gingerbread I think. Sal just commented on my witch and I remembered that I wanted to get the Frankie and Scarecrow cut out to go with her, but I don't think I'm gonna have any time this year. DH just cut out some 4x4 pieces for me to make some pumpkins for my front stoop. I've just got to paint those orange and find some sticks and part of my grape vine for the stems. I haven't been here too much lately and I've got a lot going on this week and next. We've got a family picture Sat and I've got to go find DH and me some shirts to match the outfits I've got the kids. DD's b-day sleepover is Fri-Sat so got to go buy a bunch of food for six 13 yr old girls (you know how much these teenagers can eat!!) and get it ready for Friday and decorate for that. We are remodeling our main bathroom so I've got the tile guy coming Monday and he and DH are gonna start tearing that out. The next weekend I have my B & SiL coming to stay for a week and as soon as they leave it will be Halloween so I need to go ahead and get the kids costumes. I just got the house decorated for Halloween tonight. I didn't put out the tiny stuff that I usually do so it didn't take as long. I'm not used to all this mayhem so I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. ha Anyway, that's my life right now. Oh and we've been having a saga with my 2nd graders teacher. He had an accident at school because she wouldn't let him go to the bathroom and then she made him stand in the corner for the rest of the day and didn't let him call home. I want to move him to another class, but DH and the principal are trying to work something out to keep him in there. Urg!! So anyway, I look forward to seeing your fun stuff. I know it will be fun because you always do cute things. I don't blame you for doing the cute stuff for GD. I like the cute stuff myself. ha So you just keep on a painting til you get it all out of your system again for a while. ha It kinda goes in spurts doesn't it?? Thanksgiving and Christmas are sneaking in so you know there will be plenty more painting opportunities there. ;) ~Anj