As many of you know, my secondary duty at the newspaper where I work is to keep track of severe weather for the breaking-news blog on the paper's Web site.

So, late afternoon, the line of storms comes through, and I stick around to live-blog it. Severe warnings, but not much to it otherwise. Then the storms are done, and Waco gets removed from the tornado watch, and I figure I'll get to go home soon. But there's this one little flyspeck on radar, in Falls County to our south...

Suffice to say, it didn't stay a flyspeck.

Three tornado touchdowns later (no injuries and not much damage reported, thank goodness), I'm finally home, eating a much-delayed dinner...

A moment of silence, please — or, perhaps, a moment of slurping — for Irvine Robbins, as in "Baskin-" — the co-founder, with his brother-in-law, of the ice-cream franchise of "31 Flavors" fame.

So what's your favorite flavor?

Headline on the front page of cnn.com (it probably won't be there by the time you read this):

"Smallish town handles
whopping polygamy case"

(Between when I first saw it and when I went back to verify the headline, the hyphen was removed from "Small-ish"...)

The town in question is San Angelo, Texas. Which I realize is small by NYC standards, but bigger than Eldorado (the site of the YFZ compound; the legal proceedings were moved from there because that courtroom was way too small). Hence the "ish," I suppose.

I grew up in Marfa, so it always amuses me somewhat to see somewhere like San Angelo (or Waco, where I live now) referred to as "small," or even "smallish" — and a co-worker points out that Marfa's big compared to where he grew up. (Barefoot, uphill, both ways...)

Storms seem to be done, at least for the moment. I've seen ke5egi's post; how are the rest of you folks?

Called my mom and sister in Arkansas; they're OK, though they spent a good portion of last night in an interior closet. They have power at their place, but downtown Cabot where my sister works is without electricity, and there was damage to some of the school buildings — between that and the power outages school's been canceled for today.

Also talked to msminlr's husband, and all's fine with them, though they had a lightning strike very close by.

You come through the storm OK?

So, OK, here I am...

First item of note: The Joe Weather blog on wacotrib.com is no more. Few people were reading it when weather wasn't particularly eventful, and when weather is eventful it's better for several reasons to put the news on the Trib's breaking news blog. So when weather's going on, that's where you'll find me. I've set up an LJ feed for it: waco_now.

Second item of note: I was at AggieCon over the weekend. I had a moderate amount of fun, but the con in general... did not go particularly well. It's probably best to leave it at that.

Third item of note: I spent Monday night with a metric crapload of wires stuck to me (EEG goop is real fun to get out of your hair, let me tell you). Result: I may have sleep apnea... but not conclusively enough that an insurer will spring for the CPAP. Instead, I have been instructed to lose weight.

Oh, and txanne: You may want to check out the Trib front page tomorrow morning...

I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring.

I do. Don't you? Course you do!

...when seven of the last 13 posts on my friends list are about the same thing. Or rather: the same person.

And just think: We know about his death half a world away and are able to spread the word so quickly and thoroughly in large part because someone thought that it might be nifty to have satellites in geosynchronous orbit...

Kansas beats Texas to win the Big 12 tournament.

... because they ran out in this one. Quite early in the day, actually.

The line went all the way back to locker #39. I was in it about 40 minutes [ETA: the line, not the locker]. That's the first time I've ever been at a polling place that had a line.

Ah, democracy...

The overcast is having a bigger chomp.

Rats.

Wheels stop at 8:08:08 AM CST.

Breathing again.

I just got a phone call from a woman who said she was calling everybody to warn them, because she had just heard from her sister and done the research online and wanted to make sure everybody knew...

...that Obama is a Muslim.

Guess I've just had confirmation that the Texas primary matters, huh?

"... And in another closely watched race, a historic result out of New York -- with one vote cast, CNN is projecting that Uno has won Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show, the first beagle ever to win the event in the show's 132-year history. So, a stunning upset in New York. Terry?"

"Wolf, this has to be a serious blow to Remy, considered the front-runner going into tonight's contest. Remy's handlers were counting on the previous best-in-show wins to project an aura of inevitability around the standard poodle. But Uno's campaign, stressing his position as an 'honest dog' -- the dog next door, if you will -- touched a strong populist chord..."

Seriously, congrats to Uno. And I wouldn't be too surprised if one of the networks actually handled it this way -- or will in the wee hours -- complete with graphic showing the blinking checkmark next to Uno's name and picture...

Exhale time. The shuttle's on its way...

The weather's cooperating, the ECO sensors are cooperating... launch is set for 1:45 CST. Nine minutes and counting...

Nashville Predator hockey fans were advised to stay in the arena after Tuesday night's game, seeing as how tornado sirens were going off.

The Predators had just beaten the Carolina Hurricanes...

...somewhere around this minute, I was calling my boss to tell her what had happened to Columbia...

I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into the space provided, so there will be a second column, date uncertain but possibly timed to the shuttle launch next week, on just why I think spaceflight is worth the cost. In any event, here's a reminiscence.

And a toast: To those who paid the price, and will...

I was going to write an entry in the Trib blog about how the temperatures in the 40s this evening make it perfect weather for celebrating a certain holiday. Unfortunately, in looking for the more obvious link to link to, I found that Don Martin's widow had asked Mark Evanier not to mention it again, and to delete all previous mentions. Ah, well...