Astros seal $22 million deal with Clemens

Now let’s just hope he earns it.

On the former grounds of extravagant living,
You can find me surrounded by tall buildings.
There remains sixty-three shades of green,
Even though theres nineteen years in between.

[Answer] Brian Poirier hit it right on the money. This is the fountains on the grounds of the old Shamrock Hotel. If you don’t know about the Shamrock, read up, its an interesting part of Houston’s history.

Austin has its own bat bridge and in case you weren’t aware so does Houston. There is a colony of Mexican Free Tail bats inhabiting the bridge at Waugh Drive between Memorial Drive and Allen Parkway. I’ve seen the bats in Austin as they leave there perch on a nightly basis to hunt for food. It does look neat to watch as the bats take off in a growing mob on their trek for survival. However, there is also a certain danger associated with these creatures due to the diseases they can carry, like rabies. The Buffalo Bayou Partnership has canoe tours that spotlight the bats under the Waugh bridge. They also have a PDF about the bats with a small F.A.Q. For information on rabies, check out this article.

Thanks Katya for suggesting this story!

**Photo courtesy of batworld.org (http://www.batworld.org/wild_sanctuary/wild_sanctuary.html)

We all know Cactus Music and Video closed down at the end of March. We’ve all mourned her. We’ve all searched for a substitute. And alas, we still miss her.

But wait! What’s that? Yes! Unconfirmed rumors have surfaced about some incredibly great guy who has purchased the rights to Cactus Music and is planning on reopening the shop. I don’t know who, what, when or where, but oh lets hope this is true.

Props to my friend Becca for leaking the info. Blame her if this gets your hopes up for no good reason.

Wow – I can’t believe it’s all over…. Ken Lay has been found guilty on all counts and Jeff Skilling on 19 out of 28 charges against him. (Link to Chronicle story here) Sentencing will begin on September 11th – which I’m sure will bring all sorts of fun new antics and courtroom adventures.

Both Lay and Skilling could face decades in prison – and at the respective ages of 64 and 52 that is a long long time in the slammer. Hope they look good in orange.

Having known people whose lives were so devastated by Enron scumminess, I know this must bring some tiny modicum of relief. Are they going to get their retirement savings, stock options or careers back?? Well no, but damn it feels good to know that these guys are getting their comeupance.

Upon whose doorway do I grace?

Answer in the comments section if you want to save face.

Jason Poland, a recent creative writing graduate at the University of Houston, just made a completely awesome career decision: LEGOS!!!

Legoland sent out a call for a new master builder, which spurred thousands of former Lego geeks to dig out their blocks and start practicing for what may be one of the coolest jobs ever. After working his way up through national semifinal competition (beating other Lego builders with a cool pirate castaway model in Dallas), Jason dominated in the LegoLand final 23 build-off by entering an extremely original fire breathing snowman.

No stranger to cool artsiness, Jason also had a cartoon strip in the Daily Cougar called Robbie and Bobby. Anyone else want to take a trip to play with Legos in Carlsbad, CA with me? Way to go Jason!!

I typically don’t consider Wednesday night a going out type of night. But when someone who up until last year was the #1 DJ in the world (currently #2) according to DJ Mag is coming to Houston, I’m going to make an exception.

If you’ve listened to any form of dance music, you’ve undoubtedly heard about DJ Tiësto. He has helped spread the trance genre worldwide with his tracks, remixes, and DJ sets. There is no denying his place as one of the greatest in trance history. Some love him (“TIËSTOOOO!!!!!”), others despise him (“trance is cheesy!”), and others just assume every trance song is made by him (“Oh, you listen to trance? Tiësto?”). You can probably guess what group I’m in.
(more…)

…but it’s the start of a very, very SUNNY month.

Now that final exams are over with, I’m glad to be back to Metblogging. I miss this place, but I’ve been out and about, reading and commenting, of course. I haven’t disappeared just yet, just took a temporary leave of absence.

However, there are so many things going on this month!

Proms, high school graduations, college acceptance letters for those high school seniors, and of course, the usual anticipation of summer.

I’m going to definitely highlight the summer part, mainly because it’s my favorite season for a break from school and work in general (plus there are vacations!) but it’s also my least favorite season because it’s so hot! And since June is coming up, our meteorologists predict that the hurricane season is going to start early this year. Oh, and some Houstonians are already storing away gas in 10-gallon tanks, water, and what do you know–guns. I’m not going to dwell on the guns part too much. It’s a scary thought. There are just too many things that can go wrong during a mass hysteria.

Anyway, July and August are roughly the driest months in Houston. And as Houstonians, not only do we prepare for a hurricane season, but we have to take care of the largest organ in our body: the SKIN!
(more…)

An author over at the Denver Metroblog organized a city wide capture the flag game and pulled it off well. Over 200 people showed up and played a few games together through the streets of Downtown Denver.

That sounds like a blast! Do you think we could pull it off here in Houston? Where would we do something like that? Would you be interested in organizing, promoting and/or participating?