memebag

History HD is messed up. They are showing the same content as History, but the 4x3 image is stretched to 16x9. I keep waiting for them to fix it, but no luck this week.

I had a dessert crepe. It was soggy. The crepe was the color of crepe batter, not cooked all the way. Maybe I went on a bad night? That looks yummy.

I've been wanting to try that. Not worth leaving the 'burbs for. I've had crepes in Montreal and Paris. Coco's crepes were crap, at least the only time I visited.

No, Tivo is stealing, too, if you don't watch the commercials. I'm not saying stealing is wrong, just that it's the pinnacle of frugality.

My fiance and I are searching for good crepes. Any good crepes will do, but my fantasy is to find a place that serves them with ice cream and other goodies wrapped up like a cone. I had that at a little shop in the Japantown mall in San Francisco and it has haunted me ever since. I'd settle for just a decent crepe, though. We tried Coco's on Gray, but those were gummy and undercooked. Surely there must be a good crepe place in Houston.

I get my yard cut for $20 a week. I get paid $52 an hour. I would have to cut the entire lawn in 23 minutes just to break even on the labor, and I'd have to buy and maintain a lawn mower and edger. I guess if I took a pay cut it might work...

That's the key to real frugality: Stealing! No amount of scrimping and saving can ever compare to just taking what you want without paying.

I dunno, seems a lot more practical than my first choice: Oh yeah, I just remembered what makes it more practical: a windshield wiper. That, plus a windshield.

I have very simple tastes. Since a Super 7 isn't really a practical daily driver, I'll take an Elise. Just over $46k:

In the early 90s, I started video taping the interior of local malls. I was run off many times. I was told that the mall stores didn't want their layouts copied. Some kind of trade secret thing, but that sounds like BS.

True to my word, I went to the new Original Marini's on Westheimer today. The empanadas are good -- not as good as the ones I remember from the original original, but better than any I've had since. The place is nice and seemed to draw a decent number of people. Hopefully this one will last longer than the 90s incarnation. The serve yerba mate if you're into exotic xanthine mixtures. The menu is almost identical to that 90s version, with one spectacular addition: chocolate empanadas. The menu says it's filled with "Warm Ghirrardelli chocolate", but it seems like it may be cut with something. Straight chocolate would have been more overpowering, I think. This was smooth, creamy and almost light. Whatever it is, it provided one of the greatest experiences of my life. I'll be back for more. Then only slightly odd part was a single raisin swimming in the warm chocolate. My lunch mate said that would have greatly disturbed him, but it takes a lot more than a raisin (gosh, I hope it was a raisin) to scare me off of a steaming pocket of warm, chocolatey goodness.

Technology advanced to "wireless electricity" over 100 years ago. See Nikola Tesla's Tesla Coil:

I can't. It goes into a loop. Perhaps if I ate their cookie it would let me continue. It will take a lot to convince me to send any money to SBC after all the crap they've pulled.

I do. It took a lot of whining to get my mom to take me there, but eventually it became a yearly ritual to go to the Tiddy Factory for that summer's pair. Then there was the yearly ritual of developing the summer Tiddy blisters, which eventually turned into Tiddy calluses. I remember years later they licensed them to chain shoe stores, but those were never as good as the ones we bought at the factory. If you've never heard of them, Tiddys were sandals made from 2 or 3 layers of foam rubber, held to your feet with loops of surgical tubing. Very simple, very comfortable.

It isn't cheaper if you want HD DVR. And their digital compression is much more aggressive.

Sweet! Back in the 90s Marini opened a place closer in on Westheimer. It was good, but not as good as the original. I'll have to try the new one at lunch tomorrow.

I realize this is a 2 year old post, but I have to wax nostalgic about these two places. These were the best empanadas I've ever had. The menu was huge. I think there were over 100 different kinds of empanadas. The original joint was tiny, with bull fighting posters on the walls and tables and chairs made from old barrels. I remember a few other locations later on, including one in Good Time Charlies at Sharpstown Mall. There was a location on Hillcroft that changed its name to Marines in the 90s when Marini opened up a new place on Westheimer. None of them are as good as the original, when grandma was making them in the back. This place was incredible. They had a huge White Mountain ice cream freezer in the store, just like the one we had when I was a kid, except much larger. The ice cream they made tasted exactly like home made ice cream, because it was. There was a location on Guadalupe in Austin during the mid 80s. It makes me sad to think of how great these places were. Another place I miss was Phil's (where 59 Diner on Shepherd is now). I remember going there in the late 70s or early 80s and it wasn't a retro 50s restaurant, it was like someone had preserved a 50s restaurant, including the waitresses. Best chicken fried steak I ever had.

Great idea! To align it with the Houston ethos, let's tear down something old so we can build it!

Starbucks should buy the Alabama strip center, show movies in the theater, put a Starbucks in the theater and turn every other store in the strip center into a Starbucks. I'd go there.

I wouldn't trade today's Houston for 1985's, but I have very fond memories of Houston in the late 70s and early 80s. One of my favorites is going to work with my dad at The Summit to watch Gordie Howe play with the Aeros. He worked up in the sound booth, up near the "Summit Suites", where the "rich people" sat. I remember taking the elevator down to the backstage area and walking over to Greenway Plaza to pick up some burgers from "Hamburgers by Gourmet". That was back when Greenway Plaza was a happening place to be at night. I also remember going downtown at night in the late 80s to skate. The place was totally deserted (except for other skaters). We'd spend hours skating down parking garages and right down the middle of all the streets. No cars, no people. It was like the world has ended and we were the only survivors.

Mom: "Guess where we're going after church? Me (at 5 years old): "Where?" Mom: "We're going to Sea-Arama!" Me: "Great. What's a 'Rama'?" Mom: "No, bubba, we're not going to see a Rama, we're going to Sea-Arama!" Me: "Um, OK. So ... what's a 'Rama', anyway?" My dad laughed all the way to Galveston. Ever after we got there, I kept looking for the Rama.

I find that hard to believe. Do you know where one could find statistics on that? On Comcast here, the low numbers are filled with wretched, analog local stuff. All of the HD is above 300. And I have no idea of the number used for different channels I watch. I just flip through my favorites when looking at the schedule to set up recordings, and then watch stuff from the DVR. I couldn't tell you what number History Channel is on, for instance.

They change the routes sometimes, too. One tour I took went to a building where they were working on the re-entry glider. I think that was right after it was de-funded or something and they hadn't cleaned the place out yet.

Here's a different reaction to a similar problem: Womand Fined for Hammer Fit at Comcast. I think Comcast has been running the Houston Time/Warner stuff long before the name changed.

Play with the settings on both the TV and the set top box. I have the HD DVR set top box and it lets you upconvert, pass through, etc., plus my TV can stretch and zoom 4x3 images. Are you seeing the stretch on analog channels, digital channels or HD channels?