Greetings from (northern) Tampa Bay, where we have once again farted in the general direction of Mother Nature and escaped Charley by the skin of our teeth. Right now there's a slight breeze and an occasional sprinkle outside, which of course means our electrical co-op will face a major blackout in T-minus..... But thanks to an unexpected last-minute turn down south, the worst of His Category Fourness will be nowhere near us. We're only expected to get Tropical Storm strength winds and rains in our area. Other friends might not be so lucky, however. We're quite relieved we decided to stay put and not head further inland this morning!

So you might be sitting there saying to yourself, "That's great -- but what-up with the frog*?" Well funny you should ask. We don't have any storm surges to report. No downed power lines or boats floating by our front window. Not even a single plague of locusts. However, we have HUNDREDS of little baby frogs* hopping about on our sidewalks, drives, and streets right now. Our neighborhood is one giant lily pad. I've never seen anything like it. They're tiny little suckers, too -- smaller than a penny. This should get interesting once they find their singing voices!

*If that's actually a toad, and not a frog, please don't send me 100 e-mails explaining my lack of amphibian knowledge. I don't do science.

UPDATE: Check here for more hurricane-related blogging (FlaBlog, Side Salad and Sticks of Fire).