BWSchultz

Sooooo, is the HEB going to have Beer and Wine, or what?

Beer? Of course. Wine? I believe that will be up for the general election in November. Enough signatures were acquired. Unless I'm wrong, that's what I think will be happening. If it passes in November, I think wine sales can start January 1st. Anyone, feel free to correct me.

If we put out the effort, we might have one on top of the huge non-traditional visitor draw we have now. I'm just not completely convinced we'd like our city as much if we did.

Excellent post dalparadise.

The Forbes list is fun but kind of irrelevant when I found out that SF didn't count the metro area while other cities did. SF proper is only 49 square miles. I'm not sure if there are other inaccuracies but an apples to apples comparison would probably put SF in the top 4 instead of #13.

Finally good to hear from people who love SCR. Frankly I am a little concerned about the landfill expansion but not much. I am glad we have a great organization fighting against it along with Morrison. My main concerns were smell from the landfill and water supply. I know for sure water supply to SCR is not from underground water, so thats ruled out. And I have never smelled a foul smell from the landfill so far. We also will be closing in coming 1-2 months and cannot wait to move into SCR!!

I really hope that Allied is not successful in getting an expansion approved for the height. I do not mind the accreage approval because it will be on the farther side from SCR anyway.

As has been mentioned on here by me and others there is an occasional smell in the area. I live in Brookglen and notice it about once every two weeks, usually in the morning. I don't know if it comes from the dump or from the chem plants.

The commercial construction going on is incredible right now. There need to be more infrastructure improvements ASAP, especially to SCR Parkway. I don't really know why all those buildings are empty up there. I know it all comes down to money and who's buying but I still think the state of 2234 and 518 east of 288 is ridiculous for this point in the development. Once a couple more of the big stores open, the entire area will change. Bass Shop, HEB, Macy's, Dillard's, Barnes and Noble. That's a ton of jobs in the SCR area which means there will certainly be a massive increase in smaller stores and restaurants, too. I really have no question that SCR will be a highly desirable area to live in 5 years from now and more.

If they can't get it open sooner than that, they might as well wait until Dec 1.

You make a good point. I couldn't imagine that place with all new workers for the Thanksgiving crush. Perhaps they'll open around the same time as the Bass Shop which is Oct 27, I think. That would be 3 months from now. Is it possible? I guess when you think about it, a grocery store, even one with these epic proportions, wouldn't take too long to set up once the structure is done. I can't wait! I work very close to the HEB in Clear Lake and I love almost everything about it.

I would agree with all that. The meat and seafood has been dramatically improved at Pearland Randall's. Their little map inside shows a starbucks going in at the front right at the store. Which makes me really chuckle because there is a Starbucks in the Target and an actual Starbucks store already on that side of 518. That will make THREE within the same parking lot. Incredible.

Also, Randall's is gearing up for the introduction of wine. The needed signatures have been gathered so it will go to the general vote in November and it should pass easily. I think that wine sales can begin on January 1. I bet Randall's will just drop a curtain and let us have at it. The wine will be in the back by the 3 acres they've current devoted to bottled water.

That said, I will most likely be switching to HEB when it opens. Anyone have a guess as when they'll be opening? Office pool? I'll guess February 1.

Might as well throw my hat in the ring. Still 250 days of speculation!!

First of all, if you've never read the Chron's Tubular reviews of Lost written by Therese Odell, you don't know what you're missing. Excellent takes on each episode. I believe she's planning on watching season 1 again over the summer and doing the same thing for each episode.

Lost Blog on Chron.com

So here are a few of my thoughts now that the episode has simmered in my mind for a while. I gotta say, the season finale is set to DO NOT DELETE until season 4 starts up again. I've watched the final 2 minutes several times and I still get shivers. No question that LOST is the best show on television. How can you not get shivers hearing Jack shout "We have to go back, Kate!!"

So please allow me to start theorizing:

Michael is in the coffin. Here are my top 6 reasons.

1) The full text of the obit is said to contain the line: La(n)tham is survived by one teenaged son. The teenaged son, well, that must be Walt.

2) Michael is from New York

3) Jack is obsessed with the Island and everything about it and Michael is an interesting piece of that

4) Kate would be indifferent/angry because Michael was a traitor

5) The funeral was in a black neighborhood

6) The actor (Harold Perrineau) refused to appear in the finale - maybe Jack was supposed to open the casket? Maybe this isn't supposed to be a Lost "season 6 reveal."

The reason I can't believe it's Locke or Ben (other popular choices) is that I think that they would have committed suicide a LONG time ago if they had been taken against their will from the Island and left alone to live in peace off the Island. Would they have waited 28 months? Doubt it. Heck, Locke was willing to kill himself ON the Island. Michael may have been driven mad by the secret keeping and changing his name and essentially, starting his life over. Look at what a wreck Jack became after the island. More on him in a moment.

Why is Kate at peace? She always wanted to go back to help people on the Island. It seems that she wants to forget whatever went down there. My guess is that she is living quietly under an assumed name OR the people who rescued her and Jack (yes, I believe ONLY Kate and Jack were rescued) have some very powerful ties and she has been absolved of all her crimes in exchange for silence.

Jack is obsessed with the Island because he left people behind. I bet that when he boarded the helicopter to leave with Kate, he promised he would come right back with some other means and take them all home. Little did he know that the people rescuing him were not on the up and up. I have heard many people believe that Penny Widmore and Charles Widmore were seeking the Island independently of one another and for very different reasons. One is sinister and one is good.

I don't think we will see a complete flip of Lost on its head now. We won't only see flashforwards. The title of the episode "Through the Looking Glass" implies a mirror, in my opinion, just like from the "Alice" stories. Seasons 4-6 will mirror seasons 1-3. We have seen 71 hours of Lost so far. There are probably 51 hours remaining (double episode season finales) so we're really more than half-way done with the story.

Right now, I have no clue how they will take the direction of the show. I think season 4 could contain these elements of storytelling:

1. Jack and Kate flashing back to the Island, perhaps BEFORE the rescue, i.e. September 22 - December 23, 2004. I could be wrong and usually am, but I don't think we'll see the continuation of Jack with the sat phone for a little while into season 4. But it could also be the season premier.

2. The other Losties will get traditional flashbacks and will detail their lives post rescue, from December 24, 2004 - April 5, 2007 on the island. Now, see, this is where I'm confusing myself. We've basically taken 3 seasons to show 90 days worth of linear timeline. Could they take 16-48 episodes to show 28 months or more worth of linear story?

3. The surviving Others joining forces with the Losties to fight a mysterious third party, which may include the rescue ship. They may hate each other but survival is still key.

I think Jack and Kate are really in 2007. I think that for the sixth and final season, Jack and Kate will return to the Island and lead a rescue. But he can't go back until some of the Island's VERY BIG mysteries are revealed and that can't happen until the end. Such as why the Island is shielded from the world, what is the smoke monster, why doesn't Richard age, how long have people been living on the Island, etc. My other question is whether or not we'll flash forward in time again, that is, the series finale of LOST will take place in or near real time, in spring 2010. That's what I personally believe. I think Jack's going to need considerably more time to figure out how to get back. But he will. Oh yes, he will. And when he does, it's going to be awesome.

Seeing as there are still 8 months before season 4, go out there and watch some of the old episodes, you'll appreciate everything this show has done even more. And convince some more people to watch. I've hooked 9 people on the show so far. Don't let them give you some story about how they can't catch up now, it's too late. Whatevs. Eight months, 71 episodes, that's about 50 hours on DVD. I watched season 1 on DVD over 4 days. It's summer, there's nothing else good on TV.

If I am not wrong, there is also one of the new coming subdivisions with Gated entrance on that side of SCR, very close to 521.

I think I have seen gates over there but I'm not sure which subdivision it is. Maybe I'll take a drive over that way tonight.

They built more lakes on the east side of SCR. More lakes = more cash.

I do know that the Arbor Lakes section has homes around 300k. I think average SCR is about 215-225.

There was a huge landfill about 8 miles from where I grew up in Wisconsin. They turned it into a ski hill.

Olympica Ski Resort

Only 35 feet taller than the proposed Blue Ridge expansion!

Also, I think Shadow Creek Parkway is supposed to get widened this summer.

BW, whats the feeling like at SCR over the looming landfill expansion? mass exodus, determination to fight, regret?

I put option money down on a house to be finished in august;i think ill go ahead and purchase the house but I cannot tsay that i'm not concerned;

I think there is some anger out there about people not knowing before putting down money. I have seen about 5 homes in my subdivision this year back out. Now, those may not have anything to do with the landfill. I know one person who backed out because of it and moved to the east end of SCR. The others could simply be because they couldn't sell their previous abode, a decent possibility unless they're coming from Florida or California. Two of my neighbors are from CA and I know for a fact they made some good money on cashing out at the peak there.

There is no cohesion from SCR residents to fight the landfill that I know of personally. And at this point, I'm not sure it would do any good. Would 1000 signatures stop it? 5000? 10000? 50000? I don't know. The weather forecasting issue COULD stop it but I still don't think it will.

The "common good" doesn't matter. Money does.

It appears that builders are in a hurry to close out before the news get spread. I saw an ad that Perry is offering 10K bonus and Steel appliances upgrade for all potential buyers in Eden Cove in SCR. That would ring a bell when you notice that Eden Cove is a subdisvision in SCR kissing almeda/Landill

10K? Let me know when they're offering 40k bonuses. Then you know they're trying to sell. On average priced houses, 200k-250k, a 10k bonus is TYPICAL. I got a 10k bonus 16 months ago in SCR. All the builders tweak their "deals" over time in order to make it look attractive and different. I've seen upgrades at 1/3 price (of course, that is with no bonus money so it's ALL out of pocket). I've seen free plasma TVs, free sprinklers, free granite upgrade. But typically, that comes out of the bonus money. My plan went up $7000 in base sales price over the course of one year. Once you factor that in and consider they're offering essentially the same options and discounts, and it's all really equal. However, perhaps they should ramp up the discounts since home sales have been slow throughout Houston and the rest of the country for the past year.

I think you HAVE to be the only person who didn't notice that. I have a DVR so at the commercial break I went back to look at that scene again. You can see a screencap pretty much anywhere on the web and yes, there is a shadowy resemblance to Locke. Throw some hair on Locke and I'd say it's about an 80% match. This of course calls the timeline of the island into question yet again. Locke more and more seems to be a Chosen One. By getting shot (and living presumably) he will be on his path towards greatness so that he becomes/became Jacob and the higher power of the Island.

Oh, and Richard not aging? That is obviously critical to the story. I do not believe it was Richard's Dad. I noticed that we didn't see any of the other Hostiles up close during the purge. I'm guessing that some of the current Others are original Hostiles but we don't know yet. Richard just became 1000 times more interesting. Unfortunately, I doubt any portion of last night's Ben story will be revisited until next season. Perhaps a/the Fountain of Youth exists on the Island? Richard seemed to show some distaste for Ben in last week's episode, perhaps trying to set the chains in motion for Locke to overthrow Ben.

The show last night crossed a little further over the line into supernatural, unbelievable than ever before. And I can't really figure out why. Only two episodes left. Looks like next week will revisit the Charlie and Desmond story (for the last time???) and the finale will be the showdown between the Losties and the Others, which Jack's story as backdrop. I would have to believe that his flashback will be part island, part off-island. The producers are promising a game-changing moment in the finale, calling it a "snake in a mailbox" shocker because that was the most shocking thing they could think of to describe it. I heard they finished filming 4 days ago so beware spoilers!!

Consider me absolutely geeked for tonight's episode. I've been more excited about this episode than even the season finale for a long time. We've known Ben for a season and a half and yet we hardly know anything about him. Tonight, we should at least a piece of what makes Ben tick.

There was that rumor in TV guide a few weeks ago about a number of upcoming deaths this season. So far we have one, Anthony Cooper. Yes, I believe he is dead.

Here is my prediction for most likely to die this season in order of likelihood. Also, I am spoiler free for the most part. I know one bit about next week's episode but that's it and that piece isn't about the fate of Charlie. So allow me to give you some top 5 lists.

Most likely to die this season:

1) Charlie - I'm not overly concerned if he dies or doesn't.

2) Mikhail (for real this time)

3) Bernard (yes, he is still alive now)

4) James Ford (his story has run its course - this of course would be a devastating loss

5) Claire

Most untouchable characters:

1) Desmond (I believe he, not Jack, is the central character of LOST)

2) Locke

3) Ben

4) Jack

5) Juliet

Most likely to get a first flashback next season

1) Danielle

2) Alex

3) Tom

4) Richard

5) Alvar Hanso

I see three possibilities for the "Flight 815 was found. There were no survivors." shocker.

1) Naomi (the parachutist) is lying

2) There is a real-world cover up by Dharma/Widmore/Oceanic Airlines/someone else such that those in the real world really do believe the wreckage was found with no survivors

3) Earlier, the tides dragged the fuselage out to sea. It's possible that this wreckage was somehow found in the ocean (outside of the seemingly invisible island's perimeter) and everyone just assumed that the plane crashed into the ocean where there could be no survivors.

I would say #2 is most likely. I'm still a little mystified about who Naomi is. The popular theory is that Penny sent her. For the record, there were 19 days between the hatch implosion/magnetic outburst in the season 2 finale (November 27, 2004) and the arrival of Naomi (December 16/17, 2004). That's enough time for a woman with serious resources to put together a covert mission to the Island. My theory is they took a large ship out into the ocean near the latitude/longitude of the anomaly. The island is invisible (probably some complicated physics answer) so they send Naomi out via personal helicopter/prop plane with the daring task of ejecting over the precise center of the anomaly so as to land on Island.

As for Mikail, I don't believe he sustained life-ending injuries via the sonic fence. My guess is his eardrums popped, hence the ear bleeding. He seemed to have trouble hearing in this episode. Perhaps he was reading lips? And lying about what Naomi said? He didn't seem to hear/notice Charlie running behind him as he was leaving with the sat phone.

I've been living in SCR since May 2006. I did not know about the landfill before buying nor did any of the builders tell me about it. I would not have bought in SCR had I known.

That said, I do notice a foul odor periodically, usually at night, depending on the winds, I imagine. However, I do NOT think the smell is because of the landfill. It smells much more chemical, probably from one of the chemical plants along 521. It does not smell like sewage or garbage, which I would hope I could identify. My neighbors all agree with me on this.

One family in my neighborhood built a home but backed out of the contract when heard about the landfill. The house was on a lake and would probably have a stunning view of the landfill if it were increased. He moved to the east end of SCR near Kirby. By doing so, from his next-door-neighbor-to-be, he apparently took a $40k hit by moving. OUCH!!

I'm happy to hear the media outlets are opposing it. That could be a big deal. But from what I've heard through the grapevine, it will be approved, sadly. I do fear being able to sell my house in the future because we do not intend to stay there forever and ever, more like 3-6 years.

Home sales in SCR have dropped off a cliff since we moved in last May. However, new home sales throughout the country have been slow for the last year, too. My subdivision has been better lately, with 6 sales in the last 2 months. Not great, but better.

Why hasn't SCR had a flyer in every single door of a SCR residence? They should be getting much more involved than they have. But nope. Oddly silent.

I hope some type of bus service starts up. We're contemplating moving down to Pearland within the next 1-2. I work in the Med Center, and would love to use public transportation if possible.

I'm wondering though . . . If the bus stops three times, and has to get off 288 each time, the whole trip from Pearland to the Med Center would take more time than a drive commute. Unless the buses themselves remove so much traffic from 288 that the overall traffic load is reduced.

Yep, without an HOV lane for the buses AND three stops, unfortunately, the bus will probably take longer to arrive at one's destination by 10-15 minutes. For every one person that takes the bus, 2 more are moving into SCR and areas further south that will use 288. This project, while a nice thought, will do very little to relieve 288 traffic unless further infrastructure modifications are made.

Anyone have any rendering of what the final project will look like? Even though no other names have been thrown out, they must have a concept.

Spectrum renderings

Not very good information and it's been there for a lonnnng time. Slow and secretive up at the Spectrum project. I guess there will a movie theater and a Borders but I have no clue what else.

And a new Lowe's, Fingers, Macy's, and Dillard's to just name the big ones and nothing to say of the other 200+ stores going in between beltway8 and Southfork.

288 is nearly a clean slate right now as was said. There is time to make 288 work right for Houston for 50 years. But that time is running short.

MUD 34? That's basically Autumn Lakes, right? So they're going to be officially Pearland then? What about MUD 26, the majority of SCR?

CR 59/hwy 288/CR566. A new retail center is planned on 40 acres and will be called Southfork Crossing. Planned stores are Lowes, Office Max, Fingers and a few others. Developer is Trophy Investments( throphyinvestments.com).

G

So this will be just south of the Pearland Town Center (PTC) development with Macy's and Dillards? And other details for the stores there? If a store is at Southfork, it probably won't be in the PTC or the SCR TC.

Microsoft has been promising Vista for a loooong time. It will take some hardware adjustments for millions of people. Reviews I've read are 50/50 on it. It doesn't affect me much since I probably won't use it until 2011 when it is installed on my office machine.

It depends on what version of Vista you get. THe ultimate includes the glass effect which requires alot of vid memory. My test box is a 3.0 ghz with 1gb of ram and 128 ram intel video and it is able to run everything ok.

Yeah, I think they are saying 128 vram/1gb ram are minimum requirements for the full deal.

So you really should be looking for this, or just stick with XP for older systems.

That, and add some RAM to your machine, too. Vista could take nearly a 1GB to run ONLY itself, nothing else. But I'm no expert in Windows memory management.

I'm certainly not a Windows guy but I follow enough tech news to say be careful in upgrading to Vista. Unless you're getting a new machine with it, you could find your computer working very slowly. What I've read about Vista is that it will be a memory hog even compared to XP. Prettiness comes with a price.

I just read on the City of Webster webpage that I-45 Gulf Freeway construction is intended to start in February or March. I couldn't find any information on TXDOT but I'm not surprised.

I had read a while back that the plan was to expand 45 to 5 main lanes from B8 to 518 and then four main lanes from 518 to Galveston. The website above says 39 months to complete the project. I believe the NASA Bypass project is supposed to be complete one year from now.

Does anyone have any more information on this project?

Along these lines, they (whoever they are) changed the 45 southbound exit to Bay Area Blvd. Originally, you'd exit to the feeder, then the far right feeder lane would split and take you to Baybrook Mall. After that exit, the feeder would widen slightly and one additional lane was added. Then the right TWO LANES would exit onto the Bay Area ramp and circle around to head east. Yesterday, they decided to take the far right lane away and paint lines over it. WHY???? Just about a year ago they added the second lane to the ramp. Now they are making it single file to exit onto the double turn lane. It's just wasted road. My only guess is that there was an accident with the double lane because someone couldn't stay in their own lane. But I don't know.

In preparation for sprawling shopping centers. . .just screams Lowes and Walmart!

Yeah, that area is being cleared for Macy's, Dillards, Barnes and Noble, Ann Taylor Loft, and many other smaller stores. Think Sugar Land Town Center. Lowe's, Walmart, Target, Home Depot are already on the other side of 288.

Hobby Lobby and Academy? Ugh

I know this side of Pearland is in need of a sporting goods store badly, but I'd rather have it been a Sports Authority.

And there could have been many many better tenants than Hobby Lobby.

But this one clearly was going to take a back seat to the developments on the southwest side of 288/518 and 288/8 so I'm okay with it.

Spot on. This development seems nice but as mentioned, Pearland TC and the Spectrum will be more attractive. This area most needs a bookstore. I believe Pearland TC is getting the Barnes and Noble. I've read that Spectrum will get a "large national chain bookstore." Sounds like Borders to me.

Anyone been to an HEB+ before? I hear they sell everything under the sun. I imagine a Target with a greater percentage of Grocery and some Central Market influence.