sarahiki

This will probably offend 95% of people reading this thread, but I can't stand venetian blinds in a home. I think they make it look like a dentist's office. Vertical blinds are even worse.

I'm curious, since I've been looking at that part of town, too. Why do you say the closer you are to South Post Oak, the better? do you mean as opposed to the Fondren side of Westbury?

Soooo not hungry for lunch now.

I will bravely save my hurricane oreos until the next storm. maybe.

Been raining in the Museum District since I got up at 8:00 am. It is raining quite hard right now (10:00 a.m.). Wind is just starting to pick up. Overall it's been quite a pleasant & cozy day.

I don't worry about the storm, I worry about losing power and having to keep two small children happy for days when it's stinking hot and there's nothing to do but whine. My hurricane supplies included oreos.

I thought a cyclone was a Pacific storm. Of course, I didn't bother to read your link; maybe that would have explained it...

Don't get me started. What I hate are the bowl sinks. They're okay in a chi-chi hotel lobby or restaurant, but I think they are so pretentious and silly in a home.

It's hard to be elitist when you're part of the masses, isn't it? Tricky.

You are not willing to use these terms in an informed way, so there's no point in discussing it further.

I'm in total agreement that this bill is wrong in many, many ways. But I still won't accept that it represents a move any closer to a Socialist state. The only power we're giving the government is the power to waste our money. They are not providing any service to us at all. What we have is a state that is Capitalist in theory, and in propaganda, in always claiming the power of the free market. But when it suits the Powers, they intervene in all sorts of non-free-market ways. I think that makes it a dysfunctional, hypocritical capitalist state, but still capitalist in principle and propaganda, not socialist. I guess I'm arguing this point to death because I think it does socialism a disservice to associate this kind of irresponsible bailout with socialist economics. It would be better to either openly embrace certain socialist structures, or to truly function in a capitalist, free market way. In which case we would end public education and a whole host of other programs. (I have a strong libertarain streak, by the way, which is sort of a strange feature in a way-left liberal...).

Um, I don't get it... do those people really have an enormous dog? I think I am too literal-minded. Funny picture, though!

I don't see a bailout of a huge corportation, to save the hides of a bunch of rich bankers, as particularly liberal or Marxist. I see it as cronyism and desperation.

Try the natural ones. You can get them in a regular grocery store. Just peanuts.

Or somebody is trying to sell some people with perfectly good stainless appliances a totally new kitchen. You gotta have a new trend, or there's no reason to remodel.

Can you suggest any easy things to eliminate to reduce HFCS intake? I already eat pretty healthy... no soda, very little fast food. But I would like to rediscover my waist.

I hope you're kidding. That's pretty lame. I can remember in the northeast about 20 years ago when recycling became common... there was an initial resistance, then people started doing it. I think it's totally lazy and selfish that people here don't participate. We don't have recycling in my neighborhood, but I still collect the mountains of paper we accumulate and take it to a bin. I guess I'm lazy and selfish too for not taking the rest of it to a bin as well. In my defense, there is a paper collection bin on almost every corner, but I would have to go much further to get to a center that takes the rest of it. Houston is lame, lame lame when it comes to recycling.

Thank you for pointing that out. I am still baffled as to how some people still think of the Republicans as the fiscally responsible party. Our debt has weakened the dollar, which has, just to name one example, severely exacerbated the rising cost of oil.

I make a version of this... instead of sausage, diced chicken breast and some white wine in the sauce as it cooks...

Don't do it! don't drink the kool-aid! It's tough to go back to "free coffee at work" once you experience Starbucks. Don't go near the place if you have avoided it this long. One whiff and you're hooked....

Oh, duh. Merci.

What's a GOM?

that's a pretty cool site. It determined that my 3rd Ward neighborhood is very walkable. Certainly is, based on the numbers of people walking around (in the middle of the road, always) at all hours of day and night. I have to question the reliability of the scoring, though. It scored my neighborhood high because there's a "grocery store" a tenth of a mile away. Except that it's actually a horrid little convenience store that sells nothing but beer, soda and chips. And it smells bad. And it's scary. It was open during Rita, however, and I *walked* right on over to buy beer. While the rest of Houston was sitting in their car in traffic on a freeway. But that's off topic.

I really like that neighborhood. Lots of stuff to do, good access to all freeways via 288. It lacks certain amenities such as restaurants and a grocery store, but everything can be found a pretty short distance away (Montrose, or South Main, for example).

I hear you... I am part of this strange profession as well. My salary is so low it is embarrassing. But I love what I do. And I have a lot of time to spend with my kids. I really don't understand, though, why a college professor would make less than someone working at the help desk. Why are we so undervalued?