EMME

If you can't sell it, donate it for painting over graffiti.

Organize a paint-out. Free paint for citizens who have been the victims of illegal tagging is available through the Environmental Service Center, 11500 South Post Oak. The center, part of the City of Houston Solid Waste Department, is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., and the second Saturday of each month, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Also, local paint companies may donate paint and brushes for graffiti cleanup projects. Call 713.551.7355.

FWIW, in a previous life I taught painting, drawing, design and color theory at the college level. Currently, I'm a studio painter and am restoring an old house.

Perhaps you can teach lockmat. Where are you restoring an old house?

I think Glassell is pretty pricey. Art League of Houston has some reasonable and actually Houston Community College has Some pretty good painting classes.

Sev, I will take one of each and like, right now! Also downtown in this era was The Normandie, elegant, cool and dark with gorgeous food and the best Eclairs in the world, before or since.

Ahhh, Maxim's. My father took me there for my birthday lunch from age 6 - 14. They had the best chocolate mousse. Camille Berman had quite a checkered reputation.

The list is titled "Best Old House Neighborhoods 2009: The South," however one of the neighborhoods listed is in Baltimore, MD. Since when did the South annex Maryland?

Maryland is considered the south by many. It is a point of much debate.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20...nchor_defam.php

Too bad. She was one of the only channel two news personalities that I liked. I wish her well in reclaiming her lost wages and in her future prospects. We'll miss her here, but she can do much better than the rag known as Channel two news.

I prefer the new site. The colors are not as jarring so you can focus more on the text and photos.

I got a damn ticket driving on I-10, the cop said he "paced" me going 70 (didn't get me with radar), and also said I was following too close. His words were "within 1 car length" which is such absolute horse s&^t. Anyway, I was going 65 and not 70, and there's no way I was that close to any car at that speed. On the ticket he wrote 70 in a 60, and in box #9 wrote in "follow too close" - I assume what he wrote in is also an official violation, so I have questions on my options.

1. Go to court. Is this pointless? Basically there is no proof on either side, I'm going to go and say I was going 65 and no way following that close, and if he shows up he'll say otherwise. I want to do this just out of principle.

2. Deferred disposition option. It doesn't fully explain, but to me this sounds like you pay a fine and if you don't get in trouble for a certain amount of time, nothing goes on your record. But there is confusing with the speeding part and the write-in "follow too close" part because it's pay-by-offense. It's all done by mail so I have to have it figured out before I send it and it's just not clear. I think it would be $207 ("for each non-accident speeding case within 15 miles of the speed limit") plus $202("for each non-accident traffic case").

I can't take a driver safety course because I did that a few months back for something I actually did wrong.

It'd be nice to pay and be done with it but since there are 2 infractions that's 400 freaking BS bucks. If I stand any chance of getting the following too close one thrown out it's worth it to show up in court, no?

It's crap like this that kills my faith in law enforcement. Good job, you wasted my time and money and your time, and for what? I was driving perfectly safely and at a reasonable pace, and in fact was getting passed by other people. Now I'm pissed off and more likely to take it out on other people and actually drive aggressively (which I wasn't), so it's a net loss for the COH.

Get a speeding ticket lawyer. They will go to court for you and get you deferred ajudication. It's worth the cost. Actually, I think the fee may even be less than the ticket itself, but I don't recall. I had a boss that never paid a ticket, always got deferred ajudication.

GORGEOUS!!! Love the little tile floors in the bathroom.

On that road, many people turn left at various intersections and you can get around them on the right when they're stopped. I think the road must widen at cross streets. I believe people realize that it's two lane and that the red car's intent is that (s)he'll be turning left ahead.

I don't think it is "meant" for them to get around on the right. If so, there would be appropriate striping.

First of all, thanks for the replies.

I have been doing a lot of homework on my own and searching on my own as well, but I thought a realtor might help us find some unlisted/early properties, and mainly with the negotiating part.

As for the realtor I'm working with...it's my second one. The first one kept pressuring me from the start to sign a contract with him which made me uncomfortable....and now the current one is not really listening to me and appear to have her own agenda. And I've tried to do research on realtors, like looking at their credentials (for ex: ABR, CBR, etc...) if that really matters.

But thanks again for your insights as I'm new at this and my first experience with dealing with realtors.

My realtor was imperative in my negotiating process. He thought of things I never would have thought of and he was able to keep me from buckling under the pressure from the other side. John Erickson and Brenda Erickson are with Suzanne Anderson Realtors. John has been my realtor on two house purchases and one house sale. I highly recommend them.

Hopefully, we'll have a very silent Crunch for awhile because she'll be doing the work of three people.

Good Luck!!

Oh Crunch, that must feel just awful for everybody there. I wish you the best. If it is meant for you to stay, I hope it is good, if not, I hope you find something much better.

Specifically ask your realtor to be a "Buyers Agent." That way they are working in your interests. The sellers agent is working for the sellers best interest.

That is really scary. Does anybody remember seeing any reports about the previous kidnapping. If so, does anybody know exactly when and where it occurred? We really do need more information when these things occur. I wonder if there is anyway to get these reports close to real time so that neighbors can be on the watch. HPD says, and I believe correctly, that they need us to partner with them for them to succeed in catching these guys. I think that would work better if we had a better direct communication system other than the media. The media is reporting for an entire region, be it city, or national. They can't be expected to give us in this immediate area all the details in a timely manner.

Pfister was unbelievably hard to get ahold of. It took months just to reach him. He said there was an llness/death in the family so all was forgiven. Came out (with son), spent at least an hour talking to us. Salt of the earth. Previous estimate had been $8,000. His was $1500 as he said it wasn't that bad. Set up a date for him to do the work and guess what? He never showed! At all. No call and then of course we couldn't reach him. Since HE didn't think the problem was too bad we let it go. Five years later, of course, we really need work done. Who did you find? Dawson evidently doesn't do pier and beam.

How was the surf that day?

Crime has increased in my area...just as Gerald Celente has predicted for all the large cities.

In particular, those subdivisions which have a 'civic club'(like mine) instead of a 'homeowner's association' will be first to fall. Gated communities & patrolled areas will fare much better.

Gangs will grow at an insane pace in the near future.

That sounds like fear mongering to me. I have been hearing about the increase of gangs for at least 35 years. They come, they go.

And I think, knowing what I know now, that landlords who rent apartments inside the loop, where you have to park 2 cars end to end (from fence or building back to the street, thus blocking the sidewalk) should be required to disclose that that is NOT 2 parking spaces.

Before we moved we frequently had to choose between my wife parking 1-2 blocks away in an unsafe neighborhood at night or hoping to not get a ticket.

It wouldn't have angered me if we either knew before we signed the lease, or if the cop hadn't waited for 3 years until he got assigned that block (or whatever) and started dishing out tickets like crazy.

We actually had to move because of the situation.

/rant

(however, I understand how it could annoy/frustrate someone else and don't blame you a bit)

There is a sidewalk in front of both my nextdoor neighbor's homes but not mine. Evidently the homeowner in the 40s didn't want to shell out the homeowner contribution to have it installed. So when I park I am not blocking any sidewalk. I may still be in violation for blocking right of way?

church owns it. that's not the name it is currently platted in.

HAR listing...

Subdivision:Brownstone Square Th</STRONG>

HCAD lists the neighborhood as NORTH NORHILL/ PT STUDS 2ND

It would have to be one hell of a hurricane to make it through the high we over us right now.

Hot gulf water feeds the tropical storms/hurricanes. The hotter the water, the bigger the system. Can the air heat effect that? Thinking yeah, but not knowing it.

Emme: Whoops! Did that before we put in the backyard deck and converted a dining-room window to a French door! Thankfully, our oldest dog always has to go before bedtime, so I can't miss the sprinkler anymore.

I swear I remember something about a high pressure ridge keeping Katrina from coming any further west in 2005 or is that just a weather legend?

I remember there was some weather system that kept Katrina from hitting us.

Where did they get the name Brownstone Square TH (assuming TH means townhomes) for subdivision?

1. Small rectangular pool.

2. Remove wall between living room and kitchen, add beam for support, add island.

It's a toss-up for me. I hate raging heat and high electric/water bills, but I don't have to pace the floor wondering if the sprinkler is going to flood our house. I like the soft summer rains I remember from ages ago; the kind all the kids would go out and splash around in. I'm tired of psycho killer clown monsoons.

Not necessarily so, grasshopper. I turned on my sprinkler last night 8ish, and at 8 this morning discovered I had forgotten to turn it off. OK, it didn't come anywhere near flooding my house, but there is about 6 inches of MY water in the ditch going several houses up both directions. And it was still there moments ago, so it had to have soaked the ground before rising.

Barkitecture Houston 2009

LOVE IT!!! I may even try my hand at dog house building. What a great idea!

In the end, it was good for Mam's. They got tons of free publicity and a fabulous new location with plenty of room for kids to run in safety, a nice breeze and I prefer shopping at Kroger, so it is better for me. Yesterday, I went to Mam's and then to Kroger. My mouth was red.