XLR8

Love the Cozy Corner in Westbury. With the smoking ban they've actually painted the interior, put in carpet and added a covered side porch so you can take your drink outside and have a smoke. Wednesday is shuffle board tournament night. Friday and Saturday night are the busy nights with karaoke which brings in a wonderful mixed crowd of straight & gay locals splashed with a few drag queens. Everyone has a great time. If you are in the area definitely stop in.

My favorite place to shop these days is Fry's.

I'm happy with Sprint. Had them for 8 years now. Have had about 6 different phones over the years and I would suggest that the sound problem experiences are the equipment not the service. Many times that can be solved with a firmware upgrade. I now have a HTC Mogul PDA running Win Mobile 6 with the unlimited data and I can use it to stream XM Radio via internet explorer (like you would on a desktop) without having to buy another XM Device. I connect it up to my car stereo and I use it a work with headphones so the network traffic police at my office don't blame me for slowing down our crappy network.

http://publicaffairs.uth.tmc.edu/media/new...ndbreaking.html

From UT - Houston's website

I don't think the Menninger Clinic is likely to be on this block. Aside from the Kroger at OST and Cambridge and the Marine facility, the rest of the block is owned by UT and MD Anderson. Menninger Clinic is a Baylor thing.

The Menninger Clinic aka Mental Health Epicenter will be built on 50 acres already purchased just East of The Power Center at S. Post Oak and S. Main (Hwy 90). Ground breaking currently planned for Fall 2008. There is additional land set aside for future expansion for research buildings. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive....id=2007_4458082 ... www.miraclesinmind.com

As a partial update to this issue, I got a reply card mailed to me a week ago asking me to read the meter. I went out to the meter and discovered that it's so old (probably the original 1960 unit) that the glass cover is loose and and completely fogged over. You have to move the glass plate around to try and see each dial. After this adventure I am going to contact them and pursue pushing the cost back on them since what's out there is really old. I will post the outcome.

Just a suggestion ... you might consider an older 1950/60s ranch style home in Meyerland or Westbury at 1/2 the price or less of what your looking at with a typical really large lot and then do updates and make some $$$ when you sell it. Still a very reasonable 20-30 min commute to the Med Center down city streets.

XLR8, were you getting a lot of misreads of your meter? That is the issue I am currently experiencing. Does your wireless meter allow you to store your readings to a home computer so you can track your energy usage and verify your bill? If so where did you order your wireless meter from? The PowerCost Monitor works great but I have been looking for something that will allow you to store your electricity usage on a home computer for easier trending, tracking and most importantly verfication of my bill...

Also you might want check out the link below to a forbs article because it looks like Centerpoint is already spending money to roll wireless meters out.

http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2007/1112/154.html

I have never seen any unusual amounts on my meter. The meter they installed is a ITron Centron C1SR R300 which is a base model with wireless reading capability. It can be expanded with add-on modules for peak metering. Usage so far seems in line for this time of year.

Now .....

Today I got another letter in the mail from Centerpoint for my gas meter stating the same story however this time the wireless gas meter will be $180!!! Again they never leave any notices that they came by and especially the last month someone has been home like everyday.

What I am hoping is to find out about someone putting together a class action lawsuit against Centerpoint to force them to reimburse people for paying for this upgrade to thier system. It's their equipment and they benefit by reduced operation costs.

Did I miss posts about the meter issue? I just got threatened by Centerpoint via a letter that they are going to cut of my electricity because they have been out to my house 2 months in a row and estimated my usage because they couldn't read the meter and supposedly left a note at my house. BS! My gate has been locked for 5 years and they have never have left anything at my house about an issue. I called them up and the solutions were ...

1. Leave my gate unlocked. Not.

2. Put a combo lock on my gate and they will unlock/lock. Not trusting them.

3. Pay for a wireless meter. Had to go with this option.

When I called centerpoint, they referred me to my provider (Spark) and after talking to them (Very nice local people BTW) we ordered a wireless meter for $65 which I have to pay for.

My issue is it's centerpoint's equipment and they will benefit by being more efficient just like COH wireless water meters.

Has anyone talked about any efforts to force Centerpoint to absorb this cost and get people like me reimbursed for thier equipment which only benefits them?

When do we get the next letter regarding our gas meters since that's in by backyard too?

My only amazement is the drivers that will do things like tailgaiting and then when they get to a toll plaza they move over into the cash lane. You will never see them again since they're now so far behind you since you had EZ Tag. Why did they act like they were in such a rush? Seriously.

I live in Westbury and spend quite a bit of money at the Wal-Mart Neighboorhood Market on Hillcroft near Braeswood. I also shop a built from the ground up version near my office off Gessner/Kempwood. The Hillcroft store should be a model for future stores as it has a somewhat upscale (as far as Wal-Mart goes) in interior color choices and softer complementary lighting. You have to actually walk into the Hillcroft store and then go visit another one to understand. If they can continue to attempt to keep the parking lot and store clean I will continue to go there. Customer service-wise ... it's Wal-Mart.

When I want to do a Super Wal-Mart I will make a Saturday trip down the Ft Bend Tollway from Westbury to the one in Missouri City (Hwy 6 / FM 1092) which so far seems really clean, staff friendly and I've never experienced it being a zoo. I typically get some lunch while out there in the area too since there is a lot of restaurants around there on the edge of First Colony.

Great demographic market data that anyone can use if they are wanting to develop something in Houston in the next 5 years or so.

My house has never flooded and I'm along Willow Waterhole aka Willow Creek in WB4 East

Be sure to check out the Willow Waterhole Project which should help not only our area alot but Braes Bayou as well.

http://www.wwgc.org/

Umm, how about the guy filming in the drivers seat? Yikes. Plus the autofocus is on so it keeps focusing on the steering wheel right in front of the camera and not the outside view.

Houston is mostly a NSEW grid with the exception of downtown which is at a 45 degree angle. Simple to figure out.

We have the luxury of feeders along our freeways. Drive the freeways of most other cities and you will get frustrated when you see something you want to get to but just can't seem to figure out how to get there.

We are the progressive city. A good majority of what you want to go to is typically along the freeway feeders. Very efficient. A few other modern cities are starting to model our design.

Wow, my first exposure to the high quality education of HISD was in 1975 at Walnut Bend in 3rd grade.

I got rezoned to Jewel Askew the next year where (I don't know how) I was suddenly very popular with my classmates. This was followed by my shocking and miserable popularity downfall status to nobody when my family moved to Missouri (misery) City.

So much for my superstar lifestyle status I was living in 4th grade back in the 70's. I now hang out with the likes of 70's superstars like Leaf Garret.

Thus that is my sad current life.

Te he.

Aparently it is no longer the PERFECT place.

Aparently it is no longer the PERFECT place for an amusement park

I'm just glad Six Flags didn't get their fantasized $180 million they thought they could get for it. What I hear over on sixflagshouston.com is that they spent 20 just clearing the land. 70 - 20 = 50 mil. Some of the newer coasters are approaching that price. Doh!

I truly believe somebody visionary (with the $$$) will eventualy come along and actually build and operate a great theme park in this large and proven profitable market.

Problem is that these days most vehicles have parts and technology from all over the planet and most car companies are global owning companies. It's such a gray area. Ford owns Volvo, Jaguar, and basically Mazda to name a few. GM - Saab amongst many others.

Toyota (here in the U.S. since the 60's) pretty much builds all of it's vehicles in the U.S. providing American jobs so basically if you look a the definition of what is an American vehicle based on where it's assembled and perhaps designed these days (the new Tundra coming out is being built in San Antonio and was completely designed from the ground up in the US by Americans), Toyota is thus as much an American company even if it's corporate parent is Japan. Just like Jaguar is British but owned by Ford.

I have more an issue with American companies being totally clueless to the products Americans want to buy right now. For instance, Ford U.K. has an updated very sporty looking Focus that is available with a Diesel that gets great MPGs that rivals the hybrids. It looks great and gets good mileage. Coming to the U.S? Umm. Well. Uhh. They could have probably sold alot of them right now. Instead we get the crap they are rolling out right now like the 500 and Fusion. WTF?

Check out the U.K. Ford website and you will probably be like me, why isn't this sold here?

They will either figure it out or run the compan into the ground.

I'm so glad that others had the same mall experience I had with Sharpstown in the early 80's. It was the mall of malls to be at as a teen back then and it was very racially and culturally diversified just like our city, which made it very cool. Galleria was too upscale. I would agree with the Valley Girl type reference in that it was a very hip teen place to hang out back then. Oh for it to be 1982 and a teen again - except with all the income and knowledge I have now. I guess that's never possible.

Unfortunately I see bulldozers in it's future just like AstroWorld R.I.P.

Texans have gotta keep the myth going for as long as possible!

I polished my guns last night, fed the horses and got them ready for the ride to the Med Center in the morning from Westbury.

Ye-haw.

Isn't it great that AT&T is now a Texas Company. Though many people have negative feelings with the bells, I have even more negative feelings with Time Warner and hope that AT&T can be a serious competitor in the local cable monopoly.

I have many friends who have worked for SWB/SBC for a gazillion years and I would rather send my hard earned money to this Texas based company than Time Warner.

I am so looking forward to the day that they provide cable-like programming to my home. Even if the price is similar, I would rather spend my money with them and terminate my subscription with Time Warner.

I have been getting DSL from SBC for almost 5 years and I have been very happy with my service. I recall that it's only gone out twice. In fact we had both SBC and Time Warner for about a year because of my roommate and her Time Warner was always cutting out and thus she was always jumping on my computer.

Many great suggestions. If an apartment is what is needed now. There are lots around the med center with shuttle buses provided by the big apartment complexes. On the cheap the inner/outer loop route on Metro takes you from the front door of many of the hospitals on to the heights via Shepherd. Stuff along the light rail too.

I have worked at MD Anderson for 6 years and used to live at Shepherd / Richmond and could get to work on Metro in about 30 mins.

Now bought a house in Westbury 4 East and love it. When I drive in it's 30 mins from my front door to parking at Garage 10 in med center and then walking and sitting down in my office.

It's very quiet out here and all my neighbors are retired or have very young children. I have 1960 ranch with 2100 sqft home on a 17,000 sq ft lot (all back yard) that I am slowly updating. It's got mature trees that go completely over the house. Many of my coworkers are my neighbors.

You can find decent houses in Westbury starting around 120 and if motivated, modernize as time permits and you should easily get your investment back and then some when you sell.

There was a great show on the Science Channel the other week explaining how gasoline is mostly distributed by pipeline throughout the U.S. with most of the pipelines starting in Houston! Thus we make most of the gasoline for the country. Oil companies typically do not have their own pipelines.

Instead they put their gasoline into the nationwide pipeline system and they get credit for the amount they put in. That means all gasoline starts out the same throughout the U.S. The difference is that they put additives (like cleaning agents) in at the end point before they truck it to the gas station. That's the marketing piece you see at the pump.

In fact they put batches of diesel in the same pipeline and drain off the mixture of diesel and gasoline to be re-refined later on. It's all computer controlled and they know exactly where the differnent mixtures start and end.

This show helped clear up a lot of misunderstandings I had.

There's also the whole MTBE additive leaking in the water drama going on right now that's also causing gas to go up in price, but that's another story for another day.

The story I got when I bought the trees at the nursery near Surfside was they were originally brought over to Texas to try and clear up contaminated groundwater. I think they planted a lot of these at a Dow Chemical plant or some such contaminated place. They drink a lot of water. I don't know as I would go so far as calling the nursery "unscrupulous". The guy there was pretty up front about them. I think there is only one nursery that sells them.

They are calling it a Galveston Eucalyptus. The draw backs about them are that the bark and leaves they shed have no biological enemies therefore the leaves & bark need to be raked. Txdot was looking for plant and forget type trees so I think the Eucalyptus may be up in the air for future plantings.

Other drawbacks that the nursery guy said was the fire part and that the trees produce a small fruit in the summer which could clog possibly stick on birds beaks. He said you also don't want to plant one right next to the foundation of your house. He touched on the invasive aspect too and said that all the trees he sells are sterile.

They are really cool looking trees though and fast growing.

This is where I pause for a second and take a deep breath and wonder if it was a good idea to bring these trees to Texas. I can see headlines in a 100 years. Supposedly sterile highly flamible 200 foot tall bird killing trees that have taken over the Texas Gulf Coast replacing the tallows are now on fire threating the city.

I have read a lot of negative stuff about eucalyptus. But maybe it's related to a particular type.

It's like overnight they've been popping up all around. There's some near Texas City planted right off 146 along a bayou and I belive there are some planted along 59 @ Hazard above. I wonder what is the advantage of using these non-native trees around our area and is there any risk like the chinese tallows? I also wonder what they are a hybrid of and where you can get them?

Those super tall tower lights are very cool and very Houston like our feeders. I love being able to see my next freeway destination way over on the horizon by the trail of tower lights.

From my understanding and travel, you won't find them much anywhere else in the U.S.

Dallas is probably jealous we have them. Wait till they try to one up us with even taller ones in their city.