skwatra

Theobromine poisining

I've read of cases that its fatal. Has to be very large amounts, and is dependent on the size of the dog. My dog growing up got in to small amounts of chocolate, never got sick. He also ate indian food so that probably helped him build a tough stomach. Though he did die of cancer when he was 10...

Anyways, I've been taking my dog to a couple of places weekly getting a spot in the corner of the patio and no one has said anything other than compliments on occasion.

Any opinions on the Counter?

nothing amazing, but i do like all the different options you have. could be the one i built wasn't the best combo, i'll probably give it another shot.

I've only been in LA, i'm assuming the menu is the same here...

never seen their smoked trout in the menu in their austin or houston stores... will definitely try it if i see it.

i'm pretty excited about the clear lake location since i work down there. sometimes i make the effort to get up to the Spring one when I land at IAH if the timing is right, but its still out of the way. I also almost always have a big bottle of their sauce at home, and get requests to take bottles to germany for my friend there who intro'd it to a bunch of people that all ask for it.

they are usually good about asking if its your first time, you can get samples. definitely worth trying the 'extra moist' brisket, though it is fatty the meat is so tender you have to try it. i usually get the lean and the turkey, plus the creamed corn. i think their sausage and pulled pork is just par.

yes, its a chain:

Rudy's BBQ

There is one opening in Clear Lake in September. The Katy location hasn't hit the website yet...

I love their brisket and turkey, and the sauce is amazing.

Honestly I think United Airlines should buy the naming rights.

That would make it up for how UAL didn't put its HQ here.

But it doesn't make up for United's crappy customer service (relative to Continental's).

Downtown Streets shows some of the construction and the LRT utility work.

Lanes are closed on St Joseph parkway and a couple of other places too. I think those are unrelated.

I'm sure it has been mentioned, but I'll rattle of my list of issues with allowing these red-light cameras. Some are Constitutional, others are safety related, others are just based in what I feel is right and wrong.

First off I agree with you for the most part, this is just a revenue generator and questionable on affect to public safety. But i don't agree with all your points...

First, the cameras violate my right to due process.

Aren't these just treated as any other non-moving violation? You can appeal them.

Second, I do not get to confront my accuser.

The City is your accuser, and you can confront them.

Third, the cameras don't work. I know several people who were in the process of making legal traffic maneuvers but were ticketed anyway (legal right-on-red turns for example).

I've made several right turns on red and no had any problems. I only know two people that have gotten tickets and they were legitimate.

I also was creeping at 4am on my way to work, basically let go of my brake when i saw the cross street go yellow with no one within miles. the flash went off, but i didn't get a ticket. they check the speed for every incident before generating a citation.

Fourth, safety. More than once I've been startled by the flashes going off while driving. At 610 and Westheimer, the flashes have caused two accidents that I know people involved in them. Near my home, my father also ended up curbing his car because the flash not only scared him causing him to flinch, but made him unable to see momentarily causing him to curb the car which resulted in a blown out tired and scratched rim (plus possible mechanical damage).

there are a 1000 other distractions while driving i would say are worse, maybe your area has some ridiculous flashes but the ones i have seen are not startling at all.

Fifth, accidents are caused by people trying to beat the cameras. There have been studies showing more accidents at intersections with cameras, caused by "beaters" as well as the flashes. There have been conflicting studies showing the intersections are safer. I don't know who to trust frankly. The university or non-profit that does the study or the company with a vested interest in keeping the cameras up.

Interesting, you can beat them? that's good to know. Exactly how fast do you need to go?

I have the opposite concern, i see people slamming on the brakes when a light turns yellow. Because they are afraid of the red light cameras they are stopping when they shouldn't and causing accidents.

Sixth, they are wrong. They have been put up under the guise of public safety, but in the end, the ultimate goal is revenue. So the city uses tax payer dollars to pay for and install, maintain and operate technology who's sole purpose is to fleece the tax payer. It is somehow ok because it is supposedly only bad people who run red lights? No.

Agreed.

I read it as commercial for domestic flights. If Continental starts up their puddle jumper to IAH again that would be amazing, I know tons of NASA/Contractors would love to see that come back. Most of my coworkers have started flying Southwest for work because of Hobby's proximity and ease after Continental discontinued service from Ellington and SW improved service. From what I remember Continental said it was too expensive to fly out of Ellington when they tried to renew their contract.

Assuming the menu is the same (only been to the downtown location), the Philly Steak burger is amazing - though overwhelming with meat so may not be everyone's thing.

will have to checkout the Heights location soon.

The Q card should not charge again for any of the transfers you describe. Only doubling back on the same route will cause it to charge again.

As for drivers failing to adhere to the schedule, have her get the bus number and/or block number at the bottom of the windshield and file an online complaint with the appropriate details (route, time, direction).

She tried it twice, northbound train to southbound bus, as well as bus to bus, and she was charged double on her q card. I'll have her try again and confirm...

I made one complaint but didn't have all the info (bus number missing). Will make sure to get that next time.

also on the metro route builder, it doesn't even throw the option up there for a north bound to south bound transfer, even though in some cases its the best/fastest way to get somewhere. when i called earlier this year they said that it would charge double and you can only transfer in the same direction of travel.

If all you are printing is 5x7s, go to CVS. They have Kodak printers that use a matte finish. The colors come out much better and fingerprints don't show on the photos after you touch them. DON'T go to Walgreens. They use glossy paper. The colors and the picture are much darker (almost too dark) and if you touch the photo, you get fingerprint marks.

I've printed the same picture at both places to compare, and the difference was dramatic. I'll never go to Walgreens again.

Walgreens has an option for Glossy or Matte. But Glossy is the only option for in-store pickup, Matte has to be mailed.

Its funny, i had the exact opposite experience when printing photos. This was back in 2004 in midtown, when I printed at CVS and didn't like the colors and then printed the same pics at Walgreens and they turned out much better and brighter, to what I expected over the post processing i had done on the photos. Though at the time CVS printed in glossy, so maybe things have changed.

I was printing some photos just for frames and for those I preferred the glossy. I wasn't worried about glare or fingerprints and wanted pop.

I was at grabbing dinner few weeks ago and a Metro cop parked and after a few minutes went in to the convenient store across the street and made an arrest. After putting the suspect in the backseat another officer who had pulled up during the first arrest ran down the street yelling at people to get out of his way. It was rather amusing because he was going full speed and overweight, and the guy he was running for was just standing there not moving and confused on what was going on. Though I really don't know the situation, and maybe the guys was a risk of some sort, but he was just standing there after crossing the street. The officer arrested him and walked him back to his Metro Police car.

Anyways, i was really wondering what their jurisdiction was and why they were making arrests like that.

Metro's transfer rules are really frustrating me. My fiance used to work in the Medical Center, and we live off Montrose and West Gray. The 34 was a good option, as its a straight shot, but it doesn't run very often and not at all on the weekends which she worked. We found the train to be the most reliable and fastest, so she would drive to midtown on the weekends (when she had a car, we share one) and park and take the train rather than paying $12 for parking. The best option (weekday and weekend) would be if she could take the 3 downtown then take the train. This would be faster than the 34 given her timings. Problem is, coming home the train is Northbound, and the 3 is 'Southbound' so you can't transfer and have to pay double.

Now she works on Webster near LaBranch. There is no good option, the best is the 3 'north' to downtown, then the 60 south. Again she would have to pay double for each trip. Metro tells her to take the 3 and a commuter buz (zone 1 fare to go 6 blocks) or walk - which isn't bad except its so hot right now she's ending up drenched in sweat when she gets in (this is her first week). She will start biking to work when it cools off a bit.

I don't see how they don't allow a transfer when it is the most straight forward and sometimes only route, to go from a northbound route (that run's east-west) to a southbound route. I know they have to draw the line somewhere but there are so many cases where it is no logical they way they do it.

Another thing, some of the routes she has tried, the driver has stopped before what it shows on their schedule and just says "i'm going out of service" and kicks her off the bus adding to the blocks she has to walk. not sure what's going on there. I am going to call about that one, its happened twice this week.

end rant.

FYI there are 2-3 German Shepherds that come to the Webster dog park. Its mixed in size, but most people know each other and don't mind the bigger breeds as long as their friendly. Very puppy friendly, tons of young dogs there (mine is 11 months, been going there since he was 3 mo)

But would it be easy to find? The Geek Patrol might be scared to go there.

haha, i had to be a nerd and acknowledge this one.

Montrose1100- Amli has a couple of complexes just outside of midtown (Dallas near Montrose), Amli Towne square ($1400 2/2) and Amli CityVista ($1600 2/2). Amazing pools, new buildings, and cheaper than midtown proper. I used to live in what is now Metro Midtown, and it was fun for a while but it got old. I'm in a condo now near Montrose and like having the proximity of midtown (walk/bike/bus/cab there often) but forcing myself to go to other spots.

Though it looks like they don't allow German Shepherds...

Considering the amount of traffic we get at HAIF from people working at NASA, I wonder if this note was caused by anyone we know...

Haha that's great. Are you sure its JSC?

Someone wrote "Save the planet, its the only one with beer!" on a stall in my building here. Gotta love those rocket scientists.

I think its a matter of first impressions and stereotypes. Every person I know that has limited visits to Houston, especially those that didn't know locals, have a very bad impression and didn't like the city at all. It always takes some time and know where to go and what to do.

Weather: you come for a few days in July it'll be sweltering, in March it could be pouring, in December freezing and snowing. If you live here you know that most of the fall/winter/spring will be pretty nice, but it would be easy to see the worst of it any time of the year. And we are known as the hot and humid city, even though we have a very similar weather profile to Orlando which is a tourist destination and people just deal with the heat and don't complain.

Cleanliness: a visitors impression is based on driving on the freeways, seeing billboards and strip malls everywhere. This may not have anything to do with how clean the actual city is, but it gives it a 'dirty' feel. Walking around downtown or the galleria, i wouldn't say the city is dirty especially compared to NYC or Chicago. But I would have to say San Diego, SF, and Orlando feel much cleaner than Houston.

Next year I say we shoot for #1, who cares. We know what we have.

I was looking at houses on Lovett Street off Montrose. Good thing what i was loooking at wasn't built by Lovett Homes.

i walked over there last week just to check it out. we had a good experience, just wandered the store and bought a couple of drinks to sit outside with. it was crowded but nothing nuts, pretty easy to get around and the express checkout was efficient. didn't run into any crazy customers or anything. the bar was full and plenty of people were sitting outside. they really need to expand the bike rack...

overall i think its a good addition to the neighborhood and looking forward to shopping there on occasion.

Just picked some stuff up from there yesterday in LA near Manhattan Beach. Location was by a bunch of box stores, relied on car traffic only. Its a smaller store then I'm used to, but got my truffles and other little unique stuff I like to bring home for the fam. I would love to have one in Houston.

I agree you can't do all your shopping there, but I usually don't do that anyways (mix between HEB/Kroger and occasionally Target). I go to Whole Foods randomly to get specialty items when I'm in the mood. I can't afford to shop their regularly for all my groceries, and there is no way I would ever by toilet paper there. I don't even want to know how much organic TP costs...

I would love to have a Trader Joe's and probably would hit it up once every few weeks. The selection is quite different from Specs, and much cheaper than Whole Foods.

Before I saw this thread I did a random search for "Trader Joe's Houston" to see if anything was up and found this:

Trader Joe's cease and desist to HEB Joe V's store concept

Not sure what happened there, never heard of Joe Vs...

after 8 months of riding the 34 to the Med Center for work, it was late 15 minutes a few weeks ago, then the next day it was a few minutes early (new driver). other then that, no issues or safety concerns. my gf is actually more scared to stand at the Rail stops, she often gets hassled there by sketchy people, never on the bus (~6am). though she prefers the rail for timing and speed of course, and its her only option on the weekends.

Some people seem to love Pence, but something about the way he plays he just looks awkward. He throws like a 7 year old whose dad never taught him the right way. He runs weird too.

Yeah, he is really awkward looking. But some how he runs the bases and covers outfield. And his throws get in, i remember him having plenty of outfield assists early on when I was paying more attention. But i agree it looks goofy.

I haven't been out this year, but will at some point. I wanted to go to bring your dog day (did that with the aeros and my pup loved it though he was scared when they came crashing in to the boards) but that was last weekend and i missed it due to the MS150.

But yeah, i assumed this was a lost season. but you never know in baseball. Central is not that strong but are chances are slim...

I'm guessing you just mean Texas leadership, the ones who failed to bring it here? This thread has been interesting to me. As someone who did not grow up in Houston, no, I don't have an appreciation for how big of a role Houston played in the space program. To most outsiders, I bet NASA is more Florida, and Houston is just where mission control is (and that only based on 1 line from a movie they saw 15 years ago). As I read this thread, yes, clearly the shuttle should have come here. But if you asked me before I read the thread, I could care less. Most people probably have even less of an idea of Houston's importance to the space program, so they care even less than me.

Not sure where you're getting this from. NASA is completely associated to Houston to people around the world. When traveling through Europe (and Japan and India to a lesser extent) I found if I mention Texas i got the cowboy response. I started saying only 'Houston' and NASA was the number one response. When I had a German friend who was interning in dallas for the summer and her sister came to visit for a week, i asked her if she was planning to come see me and she said "of course, i can't come all the way to the States and not see Houston, we have a problem"

It may be one line in a movie but its a pretty popular world known one.

For people in the States i feel they associate Houston with three things: oil, the Med Center, and NASA.

You ask people where the shuttle launches and they say Florida, but don't know where in many cases. How many people do you know that have been to Disney World but never to Cape Canaveral? Yes, Florida gets a lot of press for the spectacular launches, and they deserve it (as well as the shuttle). But IMO Houston is more associated with the Space Program in general, especially given ISS, the only foreseeable future, is complete based from here.

Actually I think we've already got JSC and Space Center Houston and Rocket Park. Makes sense they would think we have "enough" and would put the shuttles elsewhere. I've heard that the NY and CA choices were based primarily on population size of the metro area.

I think because we have JSC, Space Center Houston and Rocket Park - we should have gotten the shuttle. And our Rocket Park is a joke compared to KSC's. KSC is a very impressive facility but once the shuttle retires and there's a lull in manned space flight, I'm wondering if the popularity of visiting there will go down. Will as many people make the trek out to the Cape from Orlando when all the buzz of shuttle launches is gone?

At least we have our Saturn V...