Info, links, news and calendar items from the virtual streets of Houston, Texas.
Great deals and things to do
– stories from an ordinary life
I want Heather Staible’s job. She gets to shop around Houston, write about it and get paid for it. Where do I sign up?
Recently she posted about the ultimate Girl’s Weekend, which is a Hotel Derek Shop ’til You Drop weekend package priced at $179. The package includes “a certificate for a 30-minute reflexology foot massage at Institute Clarins Salon & Day Spa at Saks Fifth Avenue.”
Though I’m not in the clubbing phase anymore, and with my current condition going out is something that just doesn’t appeal, I have a lot of friends who are always in search of something fun to do over the weekend (and sometimes on a week night… OH MY!).
To those of you looking for something to do, specifically in the music scene, I point you to HandStamp, a Houston Chronicle blog. Touted as “Your entry to the local music scene with Sara Cress and Joey Guerra,” a frequent post is the weekend picks, which highlights must-see’s, must-do’s and new entertainment venues (among other things). Definitely worth bookmarking or, as I have, adding to your RSS reader.
Houston’s got game, report says
– reported by the Houston Business Journal
Houston has landed a spot among the top sports cities in North America, according to a ranking of 388 cities by The Sporting News.
Houston comes in at No. 6 among the best North American sports cities behind Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami and Los Angeles-Anaheim. Rounding out the top 10 behind Houston were Baltimore-Washington at No. 7, Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 8, Atlanta at No. 9, and New York-New Jersey at No. 10.
I seem to recall, vaguely, that a survey done by the Greater Houston Partnership of the Greater Houston Convention & Visitor’s Bureau a few years ago found that that one thing Houston was best-known for was sports. This kind of news always surprises me in a city with the Texas Medical Center, NASA, the energy industry, several of the most important petrochemical plants in the country, and one of the busiest international ports in the US. Sports… it boggles me.
Found via blogHOUSTON.
Houston sales tax payment for July rises 6.9 percent
– reported by the Houston Business Journal
Houston’s sales tax payment reached $36.96 million in July, a 6.9 percent increase from $34.58 million the same month a year ago, according to Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.
[snip]
Houston’s sales tax allocations are up 6.1 percent so far this year compared to the same period a year ago. The city so far has collected $253.37 million in sales tax revenue this year, compared to $238.84 million by this time last year.
An increase in revenue is good news in a city where departmental budgets have been reduced every year for the past several years to account for reduced revenues. Let’s see how the increases play out in services to Houstonians.
Found via blogHOUSTON.
Houston’s Clear Thinkers has an interesting post about Houston’s churches, Lakewood and Houston’s other big churches, that’s based on a Church Report article about The 50 Most Influential Churches. For this non-practicing Catholic, the post is just this side of scary.
Hrere’s an excerpt:
Houston is well-represented on the list, with Lakewood Church ranking fifth (are there really four churches that are larger than one that holds its services in a renovated basketball arena?), Fellowship of The Woodlands at no. 17, Second Baptist Church at no. 33, and Windsor Village United Methodist at no. 43. The common thread through all of these mega-churches is that each of them is closely associated with a charismatic leader, and that is certainly true of the Houston contingent — Joel Osteen at Lakewood, Kerry Shook at Fellowship, Ed Young at Second Baptist, and Kirbyjon Caldwell at Windsor Village.
You have to check this out. In addition to the post itself, some of the comments are very good.
I’ve received the results of my MRI and it looks like my back issues are going to be long-term. I’m still wrapping my brain around it and am not ready to go into details.
Just giving notice that posting will continue to be sparse for a little while.
blogHOUSTON covers this really well, so all I’m going to do is point to them:
The Texas Education Agency has released school ratings information…
Of particular importance:
Locally, HISD maintained its Academically Acceptable rating…
[snip]
Pasadena ISD — Academically Acceptable
That covers my particular interests. Check out the post to view yours.
(…reprint from stories from a teaching life…)