Space Shuttle Endeavour

Anca took these pictures from the parking lot in the building where I work.  We all went outside hoping to get a glance of the space shuttle and were really surprised when in went directly over us.  It was so close we could only see the bottom of the 747 until it made a turn towards the Astrodome.  

BRRRRR

Yesterday morning when I got up it was 70. Today it was in the low 20's. The good thing is we may get some snow later in the week. Another good thing is living in an apartment that doesn't get below 60 even when it gets this cold. My old pier and beam house was always cold. I seldom used the heater and one morning I woke up and the house was 40 degrees and the pipes in the attic frozen. Thankfully they didn't burst.

I tried unsuccessfully to trap the little gray kitten again last night. She will go in the trap but won't step on the plate that closes the door. I'll keep trying.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early Spring!

American Petroleum Institute in Houston

It's getting harder and harder everyday to live in Texas or any place in the south.
Last night, a segment about Houston was the number one story on the Rachel Maddow show. Even though I live here I hadn't heard about our latest embarassment until then. I've considered moving to Vermont because I really like most if not all of the elected officials but I hate cold weather. Austin seems to be the only place to live in Texas if I don't want to be around a bunch of stupid people.
Anyway, here is a video clip from the show:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Let It Snow

It snowed tonight!

Discovery Green Park

Here is a nice article from Treehugger on Houston's Discovery Green Park:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/downtown-houston-discovery-green.php

Ike Pictures on Flickr

Here are some pictures I took while out walking the dogs this afternoon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14145194@N04/

Houston Hide From the Wind

The city has a pretty neat tool on their website for predicting wind during a hurricane based on zip codes. When I looked at my zip it told me that the maximum sustained wind would be under 50 mph and that I am not in an evacuation zone. It also give the maximum sustained wind for 6 hurricanes going back to 1900.
http://www.houstonhidefromthewind.org/

Walk Score

Walk Score http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/ehas rated San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C., Long Beach California, Los Angeles and Portland Oregon as the top 10 most walkable cities in the U.S. There is also a place where you can look up how your neighborhood scores. Houston is number 26 on the list if you live in Montrose, River Oaks, or downtown. I live between River Oaks and Montrose and this wasn't a big surprise. If I didn't have to work I could easily live without a car. My area is becoming more and more urban everyday with lots of shops and restaurants in easy walking distance of my home.

Finger Foods

That's what my neighborhood newspaper is calling a new development on West Dallas and Waugh Drive. The 13 acre lot is going to house a 50,000 square foot Whole Foods Market, and a new six-story, 445-unit apartment complex by Finger Apartments. This will be the 6th Whole Foods for Houston and will be the biggest, with features the other stores don't have. Construction is expected to begin next year.

Houston

This is the time of year that I start thinking about moving to a cooler, drier city. I do this every year, all summer long.
Yesterday a report from Forbes listed Houston as one of the top 10 recession proof cities, which make me feel a little bit better about living here. Here is the complete list: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas-Ft.Worth, San Jose, Raleigh, Salt Lake City and Seattle. Forbes looked at unemployment, job-growth, and home prices. All four cities in Texas have lower home prices than the rest of the country and falling unemployment rates. Now if we could just do something about the heat and humidity...

Earth Day 1971

More about Earth Day later but here are a few pictures from Earth Day, 1971. These are from my Westchester High School yearbook. I was a senior and a member of the Ecology Club. Westchester was a great high school. It was only a few years old when I attended and the teachers were for the most part young and liberal. In my senior year I took a sociology course which was really more of a social issues class. That class, and the teacher, Barbara Gregory, changed the way I thought about the world. I am still influenced by what I learned in that class.

Obama

Here is a picture I found on Flickr showing LibraryLioness8 and fourdogmom in the Obama crowd on Monday night. We are in the far left corner.

Beer Can House

One of my favorite places in Houston, The Beer Can House, will open tomorrow to the public for the first time since its purchase and restoration by the Orange Show 7 years ago. The Beer Can House was built by John Milkovisch over a period of 20 years from over 50,000 beer cans that he emptied and flattened. I've never been in the house but have driven by many times and always take visitors there. It's located on Malone Street, a few blocks off of Memorial near Bayou Bend. Just roll down your windows and follow the sound of the garlands made of cut beer cans tops and tabs singing in the wind.

http://www.beercanhouse.org

Valentine's Day 1960

This picture is of me, age 6, in front of my home in Houston, taken on Valentine's Day in 1960. We were at school, Mark Twain Elementary, when it started snowing and we got to go home early. It was the first snow I had ever seen and I was pretty excited. Houston had 4.4 inches of snow that day which is very unusual. My sister made a snow angel and then later we made a snowman together. I've been in snow a few times since that, but this is one day I will always remember.

The house in the picture is on Drummond, right off of Stella Link. A lot of the other homes in the area have been torn down to make way for the McMansions that are so popular now. Fortunately, this one is still there and whenever my sister is in town we always go look at it together. A few years ago, when we were driving by, the owners came out and we told them we used to live there. They were the same people we had sold the house to in 1961 or 1962, when we moved to New Orleans, and they invited us in to have a look around. The house was the same, except for the hardwood floors that had been covered with carpet. We also saw our initials on some concrete in the backyard. It was a nice experience seeing everything again.

Houston's Farmer's Market

Every Tuesday from 3-7:30 pm there is a wonderful farmer's market set up in the parking lot south of Rice Stadium, University Blvd near Montclair with free parking in the lot at Entrance 9 or in the Greenbriar Lot, entrances 13A and 13B. For more info and directions see http://www.houstonfarmersmarket.org/

Some of the items for sale are: cucumbers, new potatoes, squashes, basil (8 kinds), mint (4 kinds), heirloom tomatoes, hothouse tomatoes, field tomatoes, chicken, beef, lamb, cheeses, milks, fresh prepared foods, peas, homemade breads & sweets, pastured eggs, local honey, handmade soaps, plants, herbs, and flowers. All locally produced, some organic!