March 2007 Archives

31 March 2007

Patrice Pike. Icehouse.

Callie just casually informed me a few minutes ago over drinks at Leon's Lounge that Patrice Pike is playing the Icehouse tomorrow.

As if the Icehouse draws that sort of talent every day.

Or, ever.

Wow.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/31/07 23:50 | Music | Technorati | Comments (1)

We don't need this nonsense in two months

Storms Leave Mess In Texas, Oklahoma (AP)

Storms sweeping through Texas and Oklahoma have spawned tornadoes, dumped several inches of rain and left thousands without electricity.

The National Weather Service said flash flooding from Friday's storms was the most significant problem.

More than 3 inches of rain fell in Oklahoma. The state's highway patrol sent its dive team to an accident site where a car plunged into the Illinois River.

This bad weather needs to move out by the time of the float trip.

Cars plunging into a flooded Illinois River = Not A Good Thing.

Kev plunging into a not-flooded Illinois River after an Elam Nerf Football Toss = Much Better Thing.

Go dill pickles!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/31/07 19:59 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

29 March 2007

13 years

Today is the 13-year anniversary of that horrible day for Cowboys fans.

Blar.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/29/07 06:16 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (2)

24 March 2007

Good Indian, Bad Indian, and Cafe No-Longer-Torturously Slow

A few quick Houston food notes from the week:

I hit the lunch buffet at India's on Richmond in the Galleria area this week (what was I THINKING?!). It was nasty, terribly watered down, tough Indian food (CLARIFICATION: I'm not sure it was even completely recognizable as Indian food). And the service was terrible. I'm probably one of the few people in Houston who's ever left a buffet hungry. But I just couldn't stomach that food. AVOID.

On the other hand, I had Indian food for dinner tonight at Shiva in the Village. That was some outstanding, spicy, rich Indian food, with very good service, and the price was pretty reasonable. I'm looking forward to trying more of their dishes.

Since my experience at Cafe Torturously Slow a few weeks ago, I've given the location on Kirby a few more tries -- and the staff has been very quick and very friendly. And my salads have been top notch. So good for them.

And finally, the downtown Pappas BBQ still makes a fine burger. Damn fine. And a sickeningly rich cheesecake. MMMmmm!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/24/07 21:59 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)

23 March 2007

What a nice weekend for camping

It looks like we're going to enjoy an absolutely gorgeous weekend in the Houston-area.

I think a quick overnight backpacking trip may be in order. I still need to test that hammock, after all!

We'll see if I actually get up and out of town at the crack of dawn.

UPDATE (03-24-2007): Backpacking aborted for various reasons, although I did enjoy a nice drive in the country today. But what is up with the rain? When I looked at the weather forecasts last night, there was a 0% chance of rain. Nice job, weather b@st@rds!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/23/07 22:18 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (1)

21 March 2007

Fun Time

Rich Connelly notes in the Houston Press that license renewals are about to become FUN in Texas:

The federal Real ID act requires everyone renewing a license after May 11, 2008, to present a passport or birth certificate and a valid Social Security card. (After doing it once, you can then go back to online renewals.)

That's 16 million Texans who will have to be processed over a five-year period.

"It's going to be a little slice of heaven," Mange says.

For the first year alone, DPS is budgeting $160 million for increased personnel, extended office hours and possibly new locations to handle the crush.

States can opt out of the Real ID program -- there are bills before the legislature calling for Texas to do so -- but then those states are considered "non-compliant" by the feds. And that means you wouldn't be able to use your driver's license to board a plane or get in any federal building.

Some dozen states have already opted out. The hope among some folks is that if enough states do so, the feds will have to adjust their plans.

If that doesn't happen, though, you can look forward to waiting with millions of your fellow Texans as a state bureaucracy tries to handle a flood of new transactions in an untested process.

I feel safer, don't you?

Especially since a library card and social security card can be used as forms of identification to get on plane.

Yep. Definitely safer.

Asininity.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/21/07 22:46 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (0)

18 March 2007

Mmmmm!

I paired the steaks above with some steamed broccoli and a LOVELY 2002 Huntington Merlot tonight.

Mmmmmm! With leftovers for tomorrow. Well, leftover steaks anyway. The wine was so nice it may disappear by the end of the evening. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/18/07 19:12 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

17 March 2007

Blar

Yeah, yeah, I haven't been inspired to post much here or at the Houston blog (or at the new international blog that's about to launch) of late.

I think I have the blog blahs.

Actually, I think I actually have a worse case of the "wanting to be traveling somewhere interesting" blahs.

I keep hitting the travel sites in hopes of scoring some bargain fares, but haven't had much luck of late. I got a pretty nice one for NY/EWR in late April, and am about to pull the trigger on a Greece fare (but not till September -- too far away to cure my blahs!), but no immediate gratification for the travel bug.

I wish I had scored Hoffman's $469 Dublin trip a few months ago, but I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention.

Anyway, here are some sites that I've been hitting more than a little of late, for anybody afflicted with the same bug right now:

FareCompare-HOU (you can set/change the default departure city)

ITA's Trip Planner

FlyerTalk Forums

FareCast

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/17/07 12:32 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)

10 March 2007

More sudden acceleration

KTRK-13 reports on yet another case of sudden acceleration in the Houston area:

Skyeye HD was over a Hobby Lobby in Humble after a minivan drove straight through the glass windows.

We're told a driver was trying to park in a handicapped spot and hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

Mistaking the gas for the brake is usually what happens in sudden acceleration cases.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/07 14:16 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)

Danger Train collision!

We don't get to have as much fun with Danger Train collisions these days, since the numbers have gone down some and the media rarely reports the collisions that still occur, but here's a rare report nonetheless from KHOU-11:

A woman and her infant were taken to the hospital after her SUV collided with a Metro light rail train. A Metro spokesman said the woman ran a red light causing the accident.

The collision occurred at the intersection of Main and Bell just before 4 p.m. Thursday. The unidentified woman and her infant were taken by ambulance to St. Luke’s Hospital with minor injuries.

Metro said the woman will be cited for running a red light.

Nothing quite says "world class" like running your "transit backbone" trolley system down busy streets to play bumper cars with bad Houston drivers.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/07 14:04 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (0)

08 March 2007

Gotta love Houston drivers

KTRK-13 reports another case of sudden acceleration syndrome:

"It was like the building coming down," said witness Yilmaz Dokuyucu.

Around 2:30pm, the hundreds of people inside the River Oaks Tower on Kirby at Richmond felt a jolt.

"You heard a loud bang and then you felt the chairs and everything moving," said Diana Mercado, who works in the building.

From her 12th floor office, Mercado looked down and saw the car. Victor Shapiro, 72, was behind the wheel of the Audi turning left on Kirby when he was clipped by a BMW. Police believe he was at fault and may have plowed into the building going as fast as 50 miles per hour. Shapiro says he tried to slow down.

"I was conscious to the fact that from the time of impact, I was braking," he said. "I just know it."

No. You were not braking. That was the ACCELERATOR (!), as KHOU-11 reports:

A car crashed into the front of the River Oaks Tower in the 3700 block of Kirby Thursday afternoon.

Vick Shapiro, 73, apparently mistook the gas pedal for the brake on his Audi.

"I was amazed that such a chain of events could take place outside of Hollywood," Shapiro told 11 News.

Yeah, well, hitting the gas as hard as you can (instead of the brake) can cause all sorts of pandemonium.

Outside of Hollywood.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/07 20:20 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)

05 March 2007

A little Monday corporate-speak

Actually seen in a real corporate email today:

This is perhaps the most critical phase of all, as the first two phases merely provide the opportunity to effect a successful integration. More specifically, the integration phase is where we execute against the acquisition plan itself, delivering the revenue synergies that were envisaged, and wringing out costs to the extent necessary, by leveraging our own operating model and infrastructure. Great companies integrate businesses with highly disciplined, repeatable efficiency, and we will strive to develop this core competency at [name redacted] as well.

It's been a long time since I've seen that much corporate-speak in a single paragraph.

Feel free to toss any fun examples you've seen lately in the comments!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/05/07 13:00 | Other | Technorati | Comments (5)

03 March 2007

OSU gets clever with athletics department funding

Life insurance policies to fund Oklahoma State athletics (Jeff Latzke, AP)

Using an idea from billionaire donor Boone Pickens, Oklahoma State will purchase $10 million life insurance policies for 25 of its supporters in a unique fundraising program for the athletic department.

Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said he believes the "Gift of a Lifetime" program is the largest such use of life insurance ever by a college athletic department. The Stillwater university will pay the insurance premiums for the selected donors, with the athletics department be listed as the beneficiary.

[snip]

Reece expressed gratitude to the 55 individuals who agreed to take physicals and go through the process to try to qualify for the insurance plans. He said most of the 25 in the initial pool are donors and season-ticket holders. All are between the ages of 65 and 85.

Given the age of the average UH Cougar supporter, maybe this is something that Dave Maggard needs to consider.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/03/07 22:28 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)

Sudden acceleration strikes Florida DMV office!

Surveillance Video Of DMV Crash Released (WTVJ-6 News)

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- Local Department of Motor Vehicles offices are usually boring places, but customers at a Deerfield Beach DMV got more than they bargained for on Feb. 14.

The Florida Division of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday released surveillance video that shows an 80-year-old woman crashing her Mercury into the DMV office.

Eleven people suffered minor injuries.

Police said the woman, Theresa Smith, inadvertently stepped on the gas while pulling out of a parking space.

That video is wild.

I'm guessing the DMV didn't renew the 80-year-old's license after this Sudden Acceleration incident!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/03/07 15:26 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

01 March 2007

Nicely done

Woman talking on cell phone drives car into pond (Kevin Moran, Houston Chronicle)

A sheriff's deputy and two bystanders rescued a northwest Harris County woman from her sunken car today after she drove into a pond while talking on her cellular telephone, the Harris County Sheriff's Department.

Yu Hee Kim's 2001 Lexus sports car was was in about nine feet of water at a Twin Lakes subdivision pond when rescuers found her, cut her seat belt and dragged her unconscious about 50 feet to shore, said sheriff's Lt. John Martin.

She is is a pretty typical Houston driver -- horrible.

UPDATE: KTRK-13 calls it a lake!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/01/07 21:28 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (3)

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