No power means no postings...

I don't have a wireless dodad, so no postings while the power was out. Still intermittent at our house, I'm at the office and we're under a tornado warning...

Mom and Dad are good, some minor water intake, on my way over now to check out. Tornado warnings are done for now, so looks safe to hit the streets........

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More weather shots from Thursday

Looks like schools off again tomorrow, IRS closed, bridges open off and on. Nasty out there!

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Afternoon Looks Bleak...

Mom and I hit the beach shortly after high tide to see how things look. Not too good, as winds increase and rain becomes stronger.
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Today's Surf Report

8:00 this morning, breezy, big waves, more to come mid day - maybe...

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Checked in with Mom this am, all is well. Watch for more updates. High tide around noon.

No school after only two days in...

The bad thing about planning for hurricanes is that you get used to having"Bonus Days" that you can use for long weekends or extended vacations. It's a real bummer when they decide to use the days for the actual purpose they were designed for!

No school Wednesday or Thursday, related to Fay.

The following pics are from Diane's in Melbourne Beach - 16-23" of rain on Wednesday! The first pic is of her boat, The Kayanne, which is docked on the Banana River near her house.

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The second is of the usually small retention pond behind the house, which is normally about 25' further from the back of the house.

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Back to school

Cathryn grones as I force a "First Day of School" pic one more time. She heads back 4" taller than when school let out, so many may be surprised.

American Idol ~~~ One and DONE!

Arrived at the site at about 5:00 am courtesy of Margie and began the wait for entry at 8:00. Major storms headed into the area so they began letting the lines move in at about 6:00 am - too late for those of us in the middle or end of the line. Irony is (yes, hindsight is 20/20...) if you'd just shown up at 9:00 you would have not stood in line, not gotten wet, and not had to wait as long...

Despite rain, lightning, crowds and so much more, we made it into the Arena in one piece.

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With everyone being soaked and then freezing in the Arena, it was still all okay and spirits were good all around.

For the first three hours you do a lot of "studio staged" activities and taping for the actual show. Good production supervision and lots of singing and yelling, cheering, etc.

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Ryan Seacrest did show up and do some audience participation activities, along with our Jaguar cheerleaders and the Mayor, John Peyton.

We were about half way through the audition group - about #6,000 - and 101 people had been put through with "Golden Tickets" when Cristin auditioned...

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It is an unbelievably orchestrated and staged and the more attention you can command the better opportunity you have to get noticed - for good or for bad. There were definately some folks here in Jax who got through for something other than their vocal talents.

Once you get to the front, you stand in a line with three others, step forward when it's your turn, sing for up to :30, step back in line, and then when your group is finished they bring the whole line forward, thank you for auditioning, clip your American Idol bracelet off, and then usher you out a door that delivers you to the front sideewalk outside of the arena. No re-entry, no waiting, no nothing.

If you make it to the next round you are ushered through another door, given a new bracelet, and don't know what happens after that.

We ended up on the sidewalk...

And they clipped MY bracelet off as we I exited as well. Nothing to show for the experience or scrapbook other than my ticket, which no one collected.

Okay, so we've had the "Idol Experience" .

Another one to put in the memory book!

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Pics of the whole mess are at

www. americanidol.com/photos/?set=743

American Idol In Jax!

Just because we don't have anything ELSE to do, Cristin is auditioning for American Idol...



Scoped out the site on Sunday afternoon, no one in line, no line-up allowed until 6:00 a.m. Monday. Went back to sack out at Mag's house to be a little closer to the arena. Had a great evening and early to bed...


Arrived at Veteran's Arena at 5:45 am on Monday, to find a crowd of about 10,000 already in line. So we joined 'em and waited it out.



Yes, I really DO want to go through with this...



People are EVERYWHERE!

Line was long, people were bizarre!

People as far as the eye could see - some not so attractive, too many trying to show off their "talents" in advance...






Concessions were limited - what do you mean No Coffee, No Ice?!!!




Finally, a view of the actual registration site!

Yes, we made it to -- and through - registrations!

Now we have all the official stuff, just need to come back on Wednesday (at 5 am) and actually get to audition.

Of the 15,000 plus who show, a couple of hundred will actually be selected to audition in "Round 2" in September.

Of those, a narrowed field will be sent to "Round 3" also here in Jax, and that's when you audition for Randy, Paula and Simon. Clever editing makes it look like all of these thousands have been along for the whole ride, and that the three judges have been part of the whole process.

Not true...

In fact, the whole thing - as most of us would have figured out by now - is a cleverly orchestrated media phenomenon that builds dreams and hopes among some of the most unlikely auditioners.

While Cristin wants to "go through the experience" -- and since it's here locally we might as well --it's pretty clear that there is a lot of defined criteria, staging, and hollywood manipulation that goes into the whole audition process. Unbelievably, we met people who have auditioned 4 times, travelled all over the country to do this, cashed in retirement plans and college funds, fundraised for a year to pay for their trip, etc.

For us, it's an opportunity to put into the scrapbook and a fun experience before digging into "Senior Year"

Watch for more updates after Wednesday!