Pandora

Read this article in PC magazine. Tried out the website and it works great. Best part, so far, no audio ads.

Rockets Practice

The Houston Rockets had an open practice Thursday during lunch. It's not every day I get to watch my favorite NBA team up close and see a pretty spirited practice.

The highlight was definitely McGrady's pass off the backboard tomahawk dunk. Yao was featured in the offense and he looked good, but that was against Lonnie Baxter.

Games to get addicted on

I have become addicted to these 2 games the last couple of weeks. Be warned, they might take away your free time... and work time... and sleep time...

sudoku is a crossword puzzle with numbers. Easy to learn. Evil level is eeevvvil..

weboggle is boggle but you get to play against all the other people playing at the same time.

Home Sweet Home

We drove back to Houston today. It took a little bit longer than normal, but it wasn't bad at all. We did not run into any traffic jams and the flow of traffic was very smooth. Looks like Houston dodged most of the damage. Other than some tattered flags and blown off awnings, southwest Houston came out almost unscathed.

There is a gas shortage in the city and hopefully that'll get resolved in the next 3 days. I think everyone in the city is pretty relieved and pretty happy over how lucky Houston was the last 2 days.

We relocated to Austin

After all the talk about not leaving Houston and staying put for the storm, 3 things happened. A friend offered a place to stay in Austin, traffic out town got much better, and Rita started woobling to the west. Our safety margin was 30-50 miles. That was a bit too close for comfort. So we packed up and drove out to Austin last night. We are now safe and out of harms way.

The trip took 6 hours, about 3 hours longer than it normally would. But considering the circumstances, we were very lucky. I-10 reminded me of the road taken by a retreating army. There were cars parked on the shoulders every 100 yards or so. And with the 2 streams of red taillights (contra flow on I-10), it was a scene that I won't soon forget. Yet, despite the hardship and tough conditions, it was quite orderly and quiet. No one honked, no one yelled, there was just the orderly flow of traffic. Now I wonder how are they going to get all these people back into town.
I'm already looking at all the backroads to get us back to Houston (thank you google maps)

It's looking like Rita is weakening a bit and staying east, so that's good news for Houston.