Original Timmy Chan's

Well, it was at Easthaven Babtist that I learned that AC/DC stands for "After Christ, Devil Comes"!!! Who knew that AC/DC and the Dead were "DEVIL WORSHIPPERS"?!? Sorry I can't give you much more input than that. I did drive through the area a few years back, and wasn't terribly surprised to see that Easthaven still looks just like it did in the late 70's and early 80's. It's similar to a lot of south Houston (and South Houston, which is just across the freeway). A mix of small old wood frame homes, light industrial and vacant lots. It's my kind of place.

To me, a fair trade would be for the City to grant the variance ONLY on the condition that the homeowner be ineligible for both federally subsidized flood insurance and any future FEMA disaster funds. I know it's a tough, no-win situation. If the City grants the variance, then in the event of a disaster, we all get to pay for his insurance claim, despite his refusal to raise his home (with the City's approval.) If the City denies the variance, the homeowner has an unrepairable home, which is not good for either homeowner or City. Best solution in my mind is buyouts of the homes at greatest risk of flooding, and start with those in the 10-year floodplain. Just takes $$$...but much, much less $$$ than trying to significantly reduce the floodplain elevations of White Oak Bayou, Greens Bayou, etc.

Can we get them to kill their evening news as well?

NYC in the 1980's. My basis for stating this as fact is my first-hand research: "Ghostbusters II"

The mapped 500-year floodplain is modeled from a theoretical 24-hour rainfall of 21.6 inches of rain. That's TS Allison type rainfall...very uncommon. While the 500-year floodplain is a risk to consider, being in Zone X (outside the 500-year floodplain) doesn't necessarily reflect your true flooding risk. What's not reflected on the floodplain maps is your risk of sheetflow flooding due to lack of positive street grades. Once the street inlets are overwhelmed (whether due to lack of capacity or debris clogs) the water is conveyed through the streets. Unless there's good relief through the streets, the water can also be conveyed through your home. Requirements to consider extreme event sheet flow through streets weren't required in the design of Harris County subdivisions until the early 80's. More often than not, if your subdivision was constructed before that time, there are certain locations in the subdivision that tend to pond or flood in a very heavy rain. There are a ton of subdivisions in Houston built before the 80's. Many are outside the floodplain, and therefore reasonably safe from riverine flooding (as shown on floodplain maps), but at risk of flooding on a local, block-by-block scale. If you're in an area like this, I'd highly recommend flood insurance. If you're out of the floodplain, you get the cheapest rates...somewhere in the range of $250/year.

The official floodplain can change with time, as better data becomes available, or in some cases as the effects of certain improvements are made. Harris County's floodplain maps were completely revised in June 2007 as part of a county-wide restudy (TSARP.) It's possible that the house was in the 100-year floodplain prior to 2007, but was determined to be in the 500-year floodplain after the remapping. If you're looking at buying a home, I believe a floodplain delineation is required, or can be acquired, to show that you're out of the 100-year. I believe insurance in the 500-year floodplain is much cheaper than in the 100-year. You can also get a slab survey and elevation certificate from a surveyor to show that your slab elevation is (or is not) above the 100-year floodplain. That can also reduce the cost of flood insurance.

Big family (laundry/dishes/showers)? Big yard(irrigation)? Pool? Could also be a leak or a bad meter. Assuming your neighbors have similar house/yard sizes, are your water usages similar?

Watering makes a HUGE difference. I forget the statistics, but they're probably pretty easy to find online...something like 50-60% of domestic water usage is for irrigation/watering. Typically you're not watering in the wintertime, so it stands to reason that you'll use more water in the summer. I'm not in a MUD, but my water usage doubled in June. I'm typically in the 3k-4k gallon range, but with all the watering I did in June (two or three times a week), we used 7k. During a more typical summer where we actually get some rain I usually use around 5k gallons. Just to give you some perspective, for public water systems, the TCEQ estimates a typical home to use 315 gallons per day (for 2.3 or 2.7 residents/household?). That's around 10k gallons per month.

Best Pie in Houston is Frito. It tastes just as good at home or afield.

I don't care...use it anyways. Print it out and throw it through their windows!!!

I know you're looking for the East End line. I was able to find some plans for the Southeast Line...not sure how up to date these are, since they're dated April 2008. I have to assume there have been some changes over the last 1+ years, but maybe not. I found this through the "Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement" link on the Southeast Line page. I couldn't find anything similar for the East End line. http://metrosolutions.org/posted/1068/SE_Corridor_SFEIS_Volumn_II_April_2008.200832.pdf

How dare you ask for information that your tax dollars were spent to prepare?!? I don't see how engineering plans prepared for a public agency can be considered "proprietary", especially if the project is approved and under construction. I'd recommend FOIA...but be prepared to spend some $$$ on reproduction. Ask for 11x17's instead of 24x36 to save some costs. I recall that several years ago there were preliminary engineering plans for the SE line available online through METRO's website.

Yeah but with my luck, they'd have trouble scanning me...like the barcode on a sack of carrots.

When they ask me at the Border Patrol checkpoints, I just say, "Yes I'm an American citizen." It seems to work for them, why not the local police? I have my birth certificate and US passport at home. If the jack-booted thugs aren't pulling me out of my home to arrest me, then I can still rely on my "Made in Pasadena" tattoo. I never leave home without it.

Outside of listening to Astros games on the radio, I don't listen to much besides public radio. Commercial radio is just extremely difficult to listen to, between the horrible music and the long commercial breaks. I do enjoy listening to Mark Levin's show on KTRH when I can catch it. That's one angry man...he's extremely entertaining. Music: "Blues in Hi-Fi" on KTRU (Wednesday nights) "Listening Back with Myron Anderson" on KTSU (Friday mornings) "The Mason Jar" with Bobby Mason on KTSU (Friday afternoons) Gospel Sundays on KTSU (Sunday) "Spare Change" on KPFT (Saturday afternoons) "Blues on the Move" on KPFT (Sunday mornings) "Blues Brunch" on KPFT (Sunday afternoons) Non-music: NPR's "Morning Edition" and "Weekend Edition" on KUHF "Fresh Air Weekend" on KUHF (Sundays) "This American Life" on KUHF (Sundays)

I got $0.99 gas in Wimberley last weekend. It was the Beef and Green Chili burrito.

You call it toxic waste, I think it just made us stronger...like Spiderman. I don't know about toxic waste about Beamer/Sabo/Blackhawk. Only Superfund site I know of was Brio, closer to Friendswood than Sagemont/Kirkmont/Beverly Hills. Anyhow, the South Belt was congested the day it opened. I was living in Pearland at the time that the Tollway opened, and the South Belt was bumper to bumper from Telephone Road to the SW Fwy from day one. I definitely think it was poor planning. And poor management that 13 years later, there still has not been a widening project there. That being said, I thought I saw a quote from El Franco Lee earlier this year saying that a widening project would be kicking off this year. Was I dreaming or just high?

If you're interested in Cruz-Diez, one of his pieces was just installed earlier this year at UH. Intersection of Calhoun and University.

An email I got today said they're investigating the possibility that a retaining wall separating the river from this building's foundation failed. That actually makes some sense...the ground would literally have to give way for a building like this to simply fall over.

I can't wait for a brand new Flagship Hotel...so I can urinate on it.

No, not serious about bahia grass...I brought it up because of a recent trip to my grandpa's place up towards Collie Station, where they're in a slightly worse drought than we are here in Houston. For reference, he's had the property for nearly 50 years, and his stock ponds are as low as he's ever seen them. That being said, he's still got *some* green bahia grass out in his pasture...obviously it's a tough drought-resistant grass. Probably a result of having those tough stems you talk about. I know that a lot of desert plants stay drought tolerant due to their high wax content that prevents them from losing too much water to evapotranspiration. I do have a friend down in Corpus that's been growing a couple of patches of buffalo grass in his yard. Says it's hardy as hell, but pretty tough to get it to spread in an existing turfgrass yard. Says you have to just about eradicate any other turfgrass in the patches you want to grow it. Says it does great where you can pull up St. Augustine, but it isn't outcompeting the bermuda grass. Says you have to completely kill the bermuda to get the buffalo to be able to grow. He also said that it does require maintenance...the buffalo grass needs to be mowed TWICE a year!!! I like that idea. Corpus is in an EXTREME drought...much worse than we are in Houston, and worse than what they've got up at my grandpa's. We think we've got it bad because we haven't had significan rain since April...they haven't had significant rain in Corpus since OCTOBER!

Anyone else as shocked by their own reactions as I was? I was choked up when I heard. I guess I had soured on White MJ, and had forgotten just how amazing Black MJ was. Truly the King of Pop. MJ was a troubled man for much of his life. I hope Michael has found peace.

I occasionally try to catch Channel 26's sports, because Mark Berman is always two steps ahead of his competition with regards to breaking local sports news...and because they seem to be the only local station that covers UH (and Rice) athletics. Side note on Mia Gradney...I saw one of her reports while flipping through channels a few months back, something on fashion or swimsuits or something. What made me stop was seeing her standing next to the models. You wouldn't know it from seeing her behind the desk, but she must be at least 6' tall! If she's not 6' tall then the models she was standing with must have been full-blooded Cajun women!

To answer your question first...call traffic attorney David Sprecher 713-639-2600. Now, a question for you...was this an Officer Garcia by any chance? I got the same two tickets last year, plus an illegal lane change, in a single incident. When I met the attorney in court, I was told that HPD has "ordered" their traffic cops to issue more than one citation for everyone. Don't know if it's true...here's my story: I got ticketed for speeding (70 in a 60)...by a cop who was at least 10 cars behind me. Not 10 car lengths, but 10 cars between us (plus the distance between the cars). He had to be at least 200-400 feet back. I was fully aware of the cop and had the car on cruise at 65...so I knew he was wrong about the speed. I got ticketed for following less than one car length...the only place I did that was when traffic was stopped where I entered the freeway. I don't follow less than one car length. And I was curious how the cop judged my distance from at least 200 feet directly behind me (same lane). I got ticketed for illegal lane change for not signaling...Absolutely impossible. I am obsessive about signaling, it's an automatic response. I use my turn signal to pull into my driveway at home, and I use my turn signal to pull into my parking spot at work. It's just subconscious. Anyways...I hired Sprecher (can't remember the price; approx. $200-$300 total, but much less than the tickets) and to make a long story short, I had all 3 charges dismissed. Took all day in court, but it was worthwhile. Me and another guy were the last two cases left in the court, both with the same cop, both the exact same charges. After talking to each other, our stories matched, almost to a tee...just going opposite directions on the same freeway. Turns out the cop admitted to Sprecher that he hadn't clocked either of us, just "estimated" the speed from a distance. If he admitted to lying about that, how can you trust him on the other charges?!? Anyways...I don't understand the how or why, but everyone with an attorney got off...worst case seemed to be deferred adjudication. Sprecher doesn't like to settle for that, but others seemed willing to accept it. He wouldn't accept deferred adjudication for me, and kept fighting all day until the charges were dropped. It's a big scam, if you ask me, but it works. I hate that the end result appeared to have no relevance to my actual guilt or innocence.