NewMND

Musicman: I would appreciate it if you would refrain from replying to my posts. Thanks.

What happened between you two? Seems like there's a story I'm missing. Is it scandalous?

I don't know what kind of retail downtown needs, but I want downtown to have a GameWorks/Dave & Buster's type place. I would love to be able to play skee ball and laser tag during my lunch break.

Actually I did think of a retail store I'd like downtown, a Best Buy. That way, on new movie Tuesday, I can browse the New Release section during lunch.

Is Texas Tower that building that smells really bad when you walk by it?

Billboards are ugly and they suck. They seem so 1970's. Anyways, as far as the video screens, they don't have to show ads. I've seen some that rotate between pretty pictures, like art hanging on a wall. They would rotate between pictures of famous paintings, flowers, butterflys, things of that nature. It looked better on a side of a building than an actual blank wall.

Okay, I just realized I don't hate all billboards. I'm so bi-polar. I hate those billboards lining the freeway. Ads on the side of buildings like in some cities, I don't mind so much. I prefer the ads to the blank wall. That's just me, I don't like blank walls. Maybe I have a blank wall phobia.

I love when I log into HAIF like any normal day, and suddenly there is a new downtown tower proposal, it rocks my face off. Anyways, for that location, I think the height is fine, considering it's basically behind Chase Tower. I'd prefer that side of downtown, the more eastern part, to have building more in that 500ft range. Now the west side, and especially the Gateway tract, that's where I want to see building built tall!

Did construction stop completely, or did it just slow down? Golly, I hope they didn't run out of money.

We seem to be moving to closer to a LA-style "24/7" rush hour.

When I'm overseas, I've started seeing commercials advertising Houston. They're by airlines, Singapore Airlines and Qatar.

Back in the day, the Kroger near my mom's house was easy in, easy out. Now even at 11pm, I have to sometimes park in BFE.

If you hang out at the Galleria long enough, you can hear so many different languages being spoken. Or plain old English, but with British and Scottish accents.

The Port of Houston has to keep expanding.

More and more luxury car dealerships opening up.

What is downtown's daytime population? Is it over 100,000?

Do they still plan on opening that Roger Clemens restaurant in Memorial Mall?

Fast-food seafood (LJS, Captain D's), yay or nay?

They could re-facade (<---is that the word I'm looking for?) the GRB, and add another level on top, removing the smokestacks. Then it would be less ugly.

Ha, at #482 on the F500 is a Houston based company called "BJ Services," lol.

Sorry, that was probably immature

Does anyone watch "American Dad?" They had a whole episode where they were trying to save Mr. Pibb, because they company was going to stop making it, and at the end Mr. Pibb the person leaves his retirement home and encourages them to try Pibb Xtra. I remember when I was a kid back in the 90's, Mr.Pibb had that funky shaped can. There were the Mr. Pibb vs Dr. Pepper debates of which was better. We always got Mr.Pibb, but I think that was because it was a Coke product, and Coke products were always on sale, like 5 12-packs for $10 dollars or whatever.

What is Mello Yello similiar to? Is it like Squirt or Sprite?

Houston may not need CO to stay, but it seems like Continental has been a good citizen. It seems like they are always helping out with charitable events and giving to charities, giving back to the community.

You know, as long as the HQ of what would be the world's largest airline is in downtown Houston, I don't really care what they call it. I could see United wanting at least a bone thrown their way if the HQ is in Houston, such as keeping the "United" name. If the HQ is in Houston, and the Continental managment takes over, and the name is Continetal, then it doesn't really seem like a merger, more like Continenal eating United. This is a stupid question, but if that did happen, and it's like United no longer exists, would that free them from the contract with Chicago, the one where they have to stay for 8 years or something like that? Would Continental have to pay the penalties for a company that no longer exists? I really don't know much about this stuff. Could the city of Houston pay Chicago the penalties to ensure the HQ was here?

Standard operating procedure I'm afraid. It's how the biz works now.

Hopefully they can show some patience, we're trying to get a stadium built near downtown, there are lots of hoops to jump through. I'm sure if they wanted the stadium built in the suburbs, the deal would already be done and construction started. This will be worth the wait.

Someone here on HAIF has told us that cannot be true.

Why can't it be true? I'd like to see a Two Park Place. Office space is nice if it means another surface parking lot bites the dust, but I'd rather see more residential with retail at the bottom near the park, that would be the bee's knees. Oh well

"Holla" on the Becks Prime, their hickory cheeseburgers are delish. Although the one on Westheimer near the Galleria is the only one worth going to because you can sit out on the deck under that giant oak tree.

Our alliance would shift from SkyTeam to the Star Alliance, which means more flights to Germany

That's fine by me, since I'll be living near Frankfurt after October.

I hope it's a nice and modern design, instead of them building it to look like a giant warehouse to match the surroundings.

Who owns the empty lot next to One Park Place? Could there be a Two Park Place in the future?

Woo-hoo, I'm a Musuem! Now that just screams "classy." Eat your heart out, strip malls!

The news said that if Continental and United merged, it would create the largest airline in the world. So the merged airline would have to be based in Houston, you know, for bragging rights, having the HQ for the world's largest airline. Then I think American should merge with some smaller airline to create the worlds second largest airline, then TX would have the HQ of the two largets airlines. All for bragging rights of course.

By the way, I've been offered a position in the Applied Physics program at Rice, so it looks like I'm going to be staying here in H-Town for the next 3 or 4 years (or 5 or 6...).

That's great, your pics, along with a few others, really are great, especially for those of us who like to keep up with progress in Houston while not living there.

I can't believe how crazy big that Outpatient center is