20thStDad

Anyone else not put any stock in these record setting openings in $ figures? I'm not saying more people didn't see Dark Knight than saw Gone with the Wind at the theater, but I'm guessing a ticket was 25 cents or less back then. Even when I was a kid, most of the time we went to the $1 theater and new movies were $3.50, at night. Now it's $9.50 some places, ridiculous. Not hard to set new records with prices going up like that. I want to hear tickets sold numbers. Better yet, I want to hear it normalized over the total theater seating available. There are way more theaters around now than there were 20 years ago. Anyway, I am definitely looking forward to seeing this, but it's not at the top of the list of things I would do if we could actually leave our baby with a baby-sitter (chick will NOT take a bottle!! It's the real stuff only for her). I'll probably catch up with everyone else when it finally comes out for rental.

Same argument as the homeless in Midtown...it was already there, so what's the big surprise? Were people hoping that the wind would never blow a certain direction and maybe the landfill would just go away?

Seriously! I whine that it's too hot to live here, and we have a few months reprieve every year. It's wicked unbearable there all the time, I really don't understand why so much money is being wasted there. One day it will be one of the most spectacular abandoned cities ever. Maybe not while I'm alive, but someday.

I have been brewing for years now, either here or in Louisiana so same weather. We haven't had a problem with our ales. In fact that's all we make because we don't have any time of year with consistent 50 degree temps and I don't have a refrigerator I can set that high for lagering. We use a glass 6.5 gallon carboy, and after pitching we usually put it back in its box and stick it in a closet, in the coolest one available, downstairs usually. At most it gets to 77 in my place during the day, usually it's closer to 70. The guy I brew with keeps his place a bit warmer, but it never affected yeast performance. It could be all about the yeast that we use, we always use White Labs liquid yeasts. We have a few favorites, but have never had an ale get stuck fermenting. Typically the slightly higher temp makes it haul ass through the primary fermentation, which is a good thing. At its height you can hear air whizzing out of the top from the other room. When I read about fermentation it seems to some that it's a delicate procedure at times, with risks of contamination and stuck fermentation. We just haven't experienced that, maybe due to good sanitation habits. In fact, we took a 10 day road trip to the west coast, and we brewed in the redwood forest. We just stuck the fermenter in the back of the car, and it did its business while we drove all the way from northern California back to Houston. It got bumped around in the car and the temperatures were all up and down, as we went from 40s in CA through 80s in NM and TX. It did fine, in fact it was one of our best beers.

What building is to the right of OPP behind the DT hole?

I agree with the latest posters, your overall usage is more alarming than the jump. My stats: April: 716 May: 1149 June: 1480 Our highest month last year in the same house was 1242, this year was the first time the bill busted $200. But my wife is home all day with the baby, instead of both of us being at work and the program jacking it up to 77 during the day. That's right, 77 is hot. At night we still do it to 67 upstairs. I might have a boring house without much character or architectural interesting-ness, but right now I'm appreciating the energy efficiency of the newer construction. It hasn't been raining enough either. I think it rained 20 days in July last year, which lowered the amount of heat getting to the ground significantly. This year my yard is dry, and the sun has been burning like mad.

Or better yet, waste it on Hilary's campaign debt. That makes much more sense...

I don't know of any direct benefits of honey either, just random things I've read mostly with an Eastern medicine slant. But I just like it better than plain sugar in my tea. As for salt, there will probably come a day when I have to cut back on that. I love it though. Right now I just counter my massive salt intake by drinking an insane amount of water, which is something I just do anyway, I don't force it. I figure I'm washing the salt out as fast as I put it in. Then again, I'm not a doctor, so making up reasons why what I do is ok is just fun.

That's what I thought, because I've seen the building going on there, but with an address of 145 I would expect it to be south of 2nd St, and on the other side of the road. I just need to drive by and check it out. I think the HAR link posted at 145 is the same as your second link, and the Bridge 12 is where your map link is. Separate, different. And neither involving the demolition of the apartments, at least yet.

Cool! I was wondering what the cops were doing all over 288 and 45 just sitting on the shoulder.

So are these the ones right on the bayou on the east side? The marker on the map on the har listing shows further south and on the west side. If they are planning on tearing down those crappy apartments on the west side I am for it.

What's wrong with pine trees? I like a pine forest. If they went away where would I get all the pine cones to start my camp fire?

The artificial stuff is even worse than the real stuff, so you really can't win. I try to use more natural forms, unrefined, like honey in my tea and in cooking a lot. I haven't researched that it's better, but like most things I assume natural is better than processed.

Fire

I can't figure out why, but my contract with Reliant ran out in February and my rates have stayed the same. I'm still averaging in the $0.14/kw-h range depending on usage. I don't want to mess anything up by doing anything. The new plans offered are at 17 cents or higher, which makes no sense when the bill keeps coming in at 14. Here are the rates I get, not on a contract: 1st 500 kw-h: 0.135979 500-999 kw-h: 0.160183 above 1000: 0.141838 It has been the exact same since last year. I can't figure it out, and I don't want to.

I like that. It is basing the map on the actual entities that are present instead of the road, which technically is just the lines between them. I'm not saying it's easier, but I like it. U.S. cities have block numbers and wards too, but no one knows them except the tax assessor's office. I live on lot 42 block 82 Houston Heights, or something like that. I guess if our signage was centered around that instead of streets it might be just as easy, but it's all street based.

Are you the one who put the 1 comment on the article saying the same thing? haha...how hard is it to not mix up your stock photos?

I don't think it looks much different than the other side of 288, shopping center hell. I think it was sarahiki who asked, since when is a mall a town centre? Well, this isn't even a real mall. I can't even walk everywhere in air conditioning. It is too hot to live here, I am hibernating until December, if my company is cool with paying me for that.

Ah, memories of elementary school field trips...thanks for the great (nostalgic for me) pics! Notice how sad the "downtown" area is. It's the pic with a few buildings and the river showing on the right. So weak. Every time people come here to visit for the first time they are blown away. They see the med center and ask if it's downtown, then they see greenway plaza and ask if it's downtown, then they see the intersection of BW8 and Westheimer and comment that it has bigger buildings than downtown BR. Anyway, that's not the only way to judge a city. BR has a great college town feel to go with the government presence.

When I first moved to Houston (2001), I got hit up for gas in the parking lot of the Randall's on Westheimer @ Shepherd by a dude. Fun part it he was driving around the parking lot finding people to beg from. Needed to get to Dallas or something. Then I saw him doing the same thing a month later and called him on it, and he sped off, wasting more precious gas.

I buy a few apples every week, and for the past month or so Kroger has been having more New Zealand apples and far less domestic ones. What's up with that? I'm usually not too weird about that type of thing, but can I get some damn american apples? I am probably the only one noticing this.

On the surface, nothing. But I would fear that some insane redneck would take serious offense and arm up his militia in some violent form of protest. Or worse yet, some other insane redneck will try to take him out. Then again that might happen regardless of the muslim thing, igorant redneckery knows no bound and has too many (actual) weapons. I think his tearing through the primaries was as much anti-Hilary as it was pro-Obama. I really think the dems missed a great chance to throw a really great candidate in there and just run away with this election. Yeah, the media and public poke holes in every candidate, but these two have been extra easy so far. EDIT: damn homonyms lead to typos

On that, I would think that the same ones I've seen at the same corner for YEARS now have to be of the professional vagrant variety. First, they appear clean shaven. I'm not saying that someone without a home couldn't find a razor now and again, but always a clean shave? Come on. I am not giving that dude any money.

Looks like December 2006? http://www.houstonheights.org/newsletter/2006-12/index.htm

I think it's safe to infer that a homeless person has no job and no family or friends who care much about them. I can say this based on the numerous instances of someone I know coming up on hard times and either a friend or family taking them in to help out. Hell, we even had a 50 something year old alumni who was "homeless" come live at the fraternity house (as we were working to get it up to fire code) while he found work and got himself out of the hole he was in. And he lived in Georgia before he came back to LA. So yeah, people with the initiative and willingness to get themselves out of their situation can most certainly do so. The "career homeless" I don't believe fall into this category at all. It takes a lot of work to become homeless, including exhausting all resources available to you in the friend/family department. Do you know any different? Talk about arrogance, you are the only one with the arrogant tone here. If you'd pay attention I never said they weren't worth anything, and I never said I can't stand their presence - so I assume you are talking to someone else on that. I am one in favor of helping them here. I never said they were worth any less than a yuppie, but in their current state you're damn right they are contributing less. So what? They still deserve help. Are you saying that only the homeless who used to be a fireman hero deserves the help? Your notion of the worth of a human shouldn't exclude them, based on your previous arguments it would appear you think that way. I still don't feel sorry for them in general, but if I heard a few of their individual stories I bet I would. I'm not out on a crusade trying to save them, you can fault me for that if you want. But I'll vote for whatever comes up to help them out, if it involves them working themselves back on their feet. Unless you are giving half of your income away to them or harboring one or more in your place right now you don't have much room to talk either.