Original Timmy Chan's

I thought this quote from yesterday's Houston Chronicle article was interesting. I had never thought of this before, but it makes sense: According to one of Dallas' own, there is apparently merit and reason for my long-time observation of Dallas' superficiality. It's because they're full of "marketing and advertising people." Or in other words, they're full of....

All I can say is "Thank you" to Mr. TJ Maxx, Mr. Burlington's and Mr. Marshall's. Thanks to them I don't pay more than $20 for a shirt or pants, or more than $100 for a suit. $20 worth of alterations later and my suit looks no different than a $1000 suit (other than the label inside). This is one Houstonian who finds it very strange that people consider the Galleria a "tourist destination". I saw an article in the Chronicle recently about where to buy $300 jeans! You've got to be kidding me! I haven't spent $300 TOTAL on jeans since I started buying my own clothes 15 years ago. In fact, I'm still wearing some of those same 15-year old jeans today. (Some people would pay $300 for that "worn" look, BTW).

I used to live in the neighborhood across the street from that Randalls...about 7 years ago. When I was there, there was a taqueria in the parking lot. Strange thing about the taqueria...it was run by an Asian guy. There used to be Charlie's all over the place. What was their slogan? "Over 2 dozen sold"? I know there used to be one on Telephone Rd near Lockwood. There was one down in Clear Lake (Bay Area Blvd or Clear Lake City Blvd?). I also think there was one at Westheimer and 610...which has now become the classy "Zone D' Erotica" I only ate at Charlie's once or twice...it didn't leave much of an impression on me, but I wasn't as smart as I am now. What's everyone else's opinion of Charlie's?

One of the places you're probably referring to is Etta's, which is on Scott St just a few blocks north of MacGregor. It's still there, still open. I believe Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters still play there every Sunday night as they have for decades. We used to go there when I was at UH in the 90's. It was a blast. I haven't been in 10 years...I keep saying we need to go back. It was always a good night of dancing and good music. I tihnk the Houston Blues scene was centered in both the 3rd Ward and 5th Ward. I know that Lightnin Hopkins lived on Dowling for decades. The El Dorado Ballroom at Elgin and Dowling was a happening spot. And wasn't Duke-Peacock Records in 3rd Ward? BTW, the only apartments I know of at Scott and MacGregor are at the southeast corner. They're still there, and they look like they've been there since the 50's (at least). In fact, it looks like they haven't been renovated since the 50's. Also...thanks for the picture of the Alamo Plaza. It's still there and still looks as good as its postcard.

First and foremost, HIRE A COMPETENT GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER! Don't go cheap on this, don't take the advice of a contractor, hire a licensed Professional Engineer specializing in Geotechnical Engineering. Make sure he/she has experience in foundations on fault lines. I am NOT a geotechnical engineer, but as I understand it, you CANNOT use a slab-on-grade foundation on a fault line. I believe you need some kind of pile foundation. The house would rest on piles driven deep into the ground, and the depth of the piles helps to somewhat alleviate the shifting of the surface soils. In addition to that, you need some kind of hydraulic system on top of each pile to level the house when the piles rise or fall. If I were you, I'd RUN LIKE HELL! It's going to be a headache. As for Title Insurance, I don't see how this would have any affect on someone insuring your title to the house. However, HOME INSURANCE is probably a totally different story. That may be a headache as well.

HCFCD is digging a big regional detention basin south of Morton Rd at Porter. I haven't seen it, but it's supposed to have some wet amenity/storm water quality features. There are also several single-family residential developments going up at that intersection.

If you can find one of the Alamo Motel on OST at Calhoun (across from the Whataburger), that would be excellent. The Alamo is still there today, and still looks good from the outside. As a UH alum, I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't be a good place for UH student housing. I know there's an old motel in Alpine (also on US 90/OST, by the way, just a few hundred miles down) that a lot of Sul Ross students live in. The Bienvenido, I think it's called. I think it still has motel rooms, but a number of people just rent them by the semester. UH did turn an old motel across the Gulf Freeway (next to Fingers?) into graduate student housing, so it can be done. The photos of the place look very nice. I love OST. In fact, I usually take OST to get to Gulfgate, rather than the South Loop. It's a much more interesting drive, and only takes a few minutes longer.

It wasn't painful, just annoying. I could hear okay through it, but it was a bit like listening to the ocean in a seashell through that ear. I'd never had it that bad before.

Don't forget the Super Target on Main at OST. We usually shop at the Krogers on OST at Cambridge, but you can find some deals on groceries at Super Target as well. It's amazing the variation in prices at those two stores. Somedays you can find an item in one store for half the price of the other. Target's Archer Farms brand actually makes some good food...some of their frozen foods are excellent and CHEAP. Their pizzas in particular, are the best frozen pizzas I've ever had, and half the price of the "premium" brands. As for the Meyer Park Wal-Mart, my wife and I went there Sunday to pick up a few things...but we found that most of the items we needed were cheaper at Super Target (the rest of the items were equally priced at both stores). I was surprised that the Target was cheaper than Wal-Mart. I usually am not too bothered by these things, but that Meyer Park Wal-Mart IS extremely crowded everytime I shop there. On Sunday I drove up and down 5 parking aisles before I found a single parking spot. Not a "decent" parking spot, but ANY parking spot. Then once inside the store...let's just say it's a freakin' zoo.

When I first read that, I thought you meant "Taco Belgrade", as in...oh, never mind.

NOW you tell me...I could have used that maneuver a week and a half ago when I flew in from Jamaica! My left ear finally popped this past Sunday...over a week after I landed.

Add this...while the US is giving BILLIONS in tax subsidies to "poor little" oil companies, Texas is taking away subsidies that helped actual poor folks (including the elderly and disable) to reduce their electric bills. What a great world this is...

You could start an interesting drive with an area that may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but that would show off Houston's international side. Take US 59 down to Hillcroft then up to Harwin (to show the Indo-Pak shops and restaurants). Take Harwin out to Fondren and go south (past the Ethiopian, Korean and Central American restaurants outside of Sharpstown Mall) down to Bellaire Blvd. Take Bellaire Blvd west through the miles and miles of Chinatown, all the way out to BW-8. Then you take BW-8 north through the office towers of Westchase up to Memorial. From there you begin your trip down Memorial for the upscale side of Houston. Take Memorial from Beltway 8 all the way into downtown...that way you start out in a nice wooded suburban area and end up with the amazing scene of downtown Houston looming over Buffalo Bayou. Once you get into town, you've got to show off River Oaks, the Montrose, the Heights, the Museum District, Rice University, Rice Village and Third Ward. I'd recommend a drive through the Med Center and down MacGregor Blvd past Hermann Park. Take MacGregor across SH 288 through the beautiful mansions of Riverside Terrace. Head up Cullen Blvd through the University of Houston and across the Gulf Freeway into the Second Ward and East End. Lots of history over there. Make your way over to Harrisburg, a city older than Houston, and up to the Ship Channel to see the backbone of Houston. Take a drive down Refinery Row (SH 225) through Pasadena, out to the San Jacinto Monument (birthplace of Texas Independence), and then down Hwy 146 along Galveston Bay. Drive down Todville Road, past the bayside mansions and the bayside shacks. Head all the way down to Galveston and check out the Strand and the Seawall. Keep on driving till you run out of Seawall, then get off the Island via the San Luis Pass toll bridge. You're now on the Blue Water Highway, with unobstructed views of the Gulf all the way down to Surfside. Come over the "big bridge" on SH 332 from Surfside to SH 288. Drive up through the Brazos bottomlands, the home of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300", the original Anglo settlers of Texas. Pull off for a detour over to Brazos Bend State Park, full of swamps and gators. Coming back up SH 288, nearing Houston, you'll get the best view of Houston's downtown skyline, with the added bonuses of Reliant Stadium, the Astrodome and the Texas Medical Center skylines. Pull over at Fannin and 610, hop on the light rail and take it all the way to downtown for some drinks on Main Street and at Market Square. Finish by closing down the Lone Star Saloon with some of those recently liberated from the Huntsville Branch of TDC University. Maybe get into a fight and spend a day or two in the County lock-up. I don't know, at this point maybe you've gone too far. Maybe stop just before you take a step into the Lone Star Saloon...

That's very left coast of you... Oh, did get the memo? Yeah, we're going to need you to put new coversheets on the TPS reports before they go out, okay? That'd be great.

So driving costs twice as much as taking Park and Ride. Just curious, which one is faster? Do you have to compromise time to save $$$, or are you saving time and $$$ by taking the bus?

I think there's still a Grandy's on Edgebrook just east of the Gulf Freeway. If it's gone I won't shed a tear. That's just some bad stuff. Home-style cooking wasn't meant to be fast food.

18 miles each way to work in a '97 Saturn w/ 30 mpg fuel eff. (all highway driving to work at 75 mph) Therefore, I use 0.6 gallons of gas each way, or 1.2 gallons of gas per day. At $2.33/gallon, I spend $2.80/day in gas round-trip. Add in a $1.00 toll for the Westpark Toll Road (I take the toll road in the mornings, and the free Westpark lanes in the evenings) No parking fees. So: Gas = $2.80 Toll = $1.00 Total = $3.80/day I never realized it added up to that much every day...at 5 days/week, that's $19.00/week or almost $1,000.00/year! I'm glad I just quit smoking...the savings will pay for my gas (at today's prices at least)

I've heard that this expansion will be on the scale of the current Katy Freeway expansion. I'm glad I don't go that direction!

Kahn's is good, good stuff. The prices might look high for a sandwich, until you realize you can get two or three meals out of one sandwich!

If the question is "sex", the answer is "YES!"

Ooooh! I know, I know... ...but I'll let guessing continue. I do know you gave away half the answer in your message.

I'm very happy where I am now. It's not gonna happen anytime soon, but if the wife and I were ever to move, it would be somewhere out West...to the mountains in New Mexico or Arizona. Maybe Tucson, AZ or Silver City, NM. Or if we got crazy rich, maybe we could afford a 2 bdrm/1 bath house near the coast in California!

I was told about six months ago that the NASCAR track is DEAD. I've been told this by multiple people down in Brazoria County (developers and governmental folks). If I remember correctly, the group proposing the track couldn't get financing to build the facility.

I attribute that to $3.69 six-packs of Lone Star Tallboys... Seriously, though...I've wondered why we not only don't have brewpubs, but why don't we have more microbreweries here in Houston? I know in the mid-90's brewpubs popped up all over the place, but they all seem to have disappeared. Any recommendations for brewpubs inside the Loop, anyone?

I agree that my numbers might need to start moving northward... But you've got to admit that we've got things pretty damn good here in America. Even those making $30,000/year have it relatively "easy" compared to the rest of the world, or even compared to our grandparents' lives.