Do you like to drink beer? Do you hate to exercise? If so, Brian O'Neill's Pub in Rice Village has a fitness plan fo you. O'Neill's is touting what it calls Houston's "first an only pub-sponsored running club" with weekly gatherings that begin tonight. The event is pitched as a 5k fun run/walk around Rice Village, sponsored by the Houston Racing Triathlon Club. The runs will take place every Tuesday night at Brian O'Neill's, follow......

Fresh off the heels of winning a second consecutive MLS Cup championship, the Houston Dynamo are preparing to fill out their cheerleading squad this month. With preliminary auditions set to take place on February 16 from 9am-6pm, the Dynamo Girls are looking for a few good women. Houstonist caught up with Team Director Marilu Harman to find out just what it takes to be a Dynamo Girl, whether the squad members spend any time with......

Houston Dynamo Hosts Bike Challenge Tomorrow Ever want to sit behind a sweaty, hot, soccer player while he pumps away at a stationary bike? Ok, well maybe that's just our dream. (At least the female persuasion of Houstonist.) Ok, so if that doesn't do it for you, how about some free Dynamo Playoff tickets? A little more your taste? Well tomorrow's our chance for both, and yours if you act quickly. Sign-ups for the 1st......

Two Be Wed Open House Does the mere thought of planning a wedding make you want to slit your wrists with your Save The Date cards? You're not alone. Brides around the world (well, at least in Houston and Phoenix) rejoice, as the newest fad in wedding planning lands in the Bayou City. Two Be Wed [2303 Dunlavy], with locations in Phoenix, AZ, and now Houston (between Westheimer & Gray), attempts to be a one......

Trammell Crow, Co. has announced that their project at the former HISD Headquarters at 3830 Richmond Ave. will start immediately, just short of a year after the demolition. The project, called "Greenway Commons," includes a 164,000 square foot Costco to be topped with an LA Fitness health club. Three years ago, HISD accepted Trammel Crow's bid of about $38 million for the site, which included the administration building, annex, and Will Rogers Elementary. We were......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Last week METRO riders felt a bit unrequited as they Missed Connections with fellow commuters. That beats us. We missed connected once on METRO and got to stand on the shoulder of Hempstead for an hour. Houston Fire Department saves the day without using their hoses. Victor deserves a raise. Grace is confused about Will. And, this woman is pissed. Steam Room Exhibitionist - m4m - 40 Dude... There is a time and a......

So, did you hear about Andre Agassi being in town over the weekend and raising about $300,000 for Simms Elementary school in La Marque? It was part of an Oprah Winfrey-sponsored reality show, The Big Give, in which participants compete to find the most creative ways to taken given amounts of money and multiply them so they can be given away to help others — in Houston, Agassi was competing against Tony Hawk, who held......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Good morning, Houston. Has it been a crazy week for you? It kind of has for us — but really, we got nothing compared with what happened in the custody hearing for Anna Nicole Smith's body and daughter in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., yesterday. By all accounts, it was a circus (what else would you expect?), and Judge Larry Seidlin did his best to keep it all under control. Seidlin said Smith's body will remain......

If you haven't already made lunch plans, why not go ahead and have that triple cheeseburger, large order of fries and milkshake? And why not wash it down with a giant dessert? A celebration is in order, you see: Houston has slipped to No. 6 in the Men's Fitness annual ranking of America's fattest cities. Looks like Mayor White's Jazzercise really paid off. In this year's MF rankings, Las Vegas takes the coveted title of......

Does anyone else suffer from crippling shyness at the gym? We read these painful exercise-inspired posts all the time on Craigslist's Missed Connections and thought we'd wonder aloud how common this problem is. People seem to have a really hard time finding love on the elliptical. For instance, the woman below doesn't even seem to care who she attracts; she just wants a gym boyfriend. 24hour fitness greenbriar and holcolmbe So many cute boys......

It’s the inevitable curse of the holidays. You will gain weight. You will more than likely eat your weight in turkey and yams, and it will land squarely on your thighs (or hips, or stomach). If you’re like us, you’ll just look at your mom’s apple pie and your pants will get tight. If you want to make it out of the Thanksgiving holiday not looking like a Butterball, you should check out fitsugar.com. It’s......

As we expected, many people on Craigslist this week were planning for Halloween. Super-fine lady at Hobby Lobby this afternoon I was at Hobby Lobby around 4:45 in Meyerland looking for Halloween costume materials when I saw you. You were one of the hottest women I have ever seen! I love those tight-fitting jeans and the tan top on that nice thin body. I don't know if you saw me (white guy in black......

Love it or hate it, we'll bet you know where the Taj Mahal is. No, not that one — we're talking about the former HISD administration building, which will be history within a few days, to be replaced by ... a Costco. No kidding. HISD had its headquarters in the building at 3830 Richmond Ave. from 1969 until the district moved to new quarters off 610 and 290 earlier this year. The big, white......

MC with the Female of the Species I kind of don't get it. I'm a tall, fit, intelligent, financially and emotionally stable male. I've been told that I'm funny and entertaining. While I'm not stunningly handsome, I am in no way deformed or terribly ugly. Occasionally, I even get that second glance in passing. So why can't I find any women that are interested. Maybe it's because I'm the type of guy that would......

Remember how Houston was ranked the nation's fifth-fattest city by Men's Fitness magazine this year? If that's been getting you down all year, you'll love this: According to a new list, Houston is the third-slimmest city in the country. The news shocked us so much that we nearly dropped the box of Ho Hos we were snacking on. The new report ranks cities by their average residents' body mass indexes. The title of slimmest city......

Surrendering only one set through his first two matches, the soon-to-be retired Andre Agassi will now face his biggest challenge in 20-year-old phenom Rafael Nadal. Saturday's Center Court matchup will be just the 2nd between the two, with Nadal drawing first blood. Surprisingly, it's been a difficult start for the capri pants soaking Spaniard. Nadal, in a match that lasted nearly 4 hours, narrowly squeaked by American Robert Kendrick in 5 sets. While some may......

It's summer and Houstonians are flaming the fires of love. Just check out this week's Craigslist Missed Connections: 24 Hr Fitness on Westheimer & Chimney Rock Ummm, where to start? I've never done this before! I see you like everyday at the gym after work around 5:30 and you're SO cute! We're on the treadmill at the same time everytime but never beside each other...kinda sucks! I'd like to say hi but there's never......

Houston is the fifth fattest city, according to Men’s Fitness Magazine. But America’s largest beverage distributors are stepping up and ceasing almost all soda sales to public schools, so Houstonist hopes our city might drop in the fattest city rankings. (We realize that moving over to the fittest city side will take more than cutting out sodas.) The companies, which include Coca-Cola Co. and Pepsi Co., are only going to be selling water, unsweetened juices......

Studies suggest there may be a link between living in the suburbs and being overweight. Maybe. Sort of. Or, you know, maybe not. So if you're looking for a reason for Houstonians' weight problem ... uh ... well, don't look here. The questionable link between urban sprawl and bodily sprawl is the result of at least three studies that came to contradictory conclusions. In 2003, Reid Ewing looked at 448 counties in 83 metro areas......

Anyone smell bacon? No, we're not talking about the police this time: According to Citizens Against Government Waste, Texas ranks fourth in the nation in terms of congressional pork with $403 million in earmarks for 262 projects last year. It's the fourth-highest total amount, but Texas ranks 47th in the country in terms of pork per capita, receiving an average of $17.65 per person. (For the record, Houstonist hasn't seen our share yet, but we'll......

After dropping to No. 5 on the “Fattest City” list in January, we thought that Houston had escaped all of the nagging around the world. Not so. Now Canada is taking a swipe at us: In the metro Houston region, more than 65% of the population is overweight [...] By comparison, a Statistics Canada survey released two years ago shows 48% of Canadians are overweight and 14.9% of us are classified obese. Canada's "Fat City"......

The Marq*E Entertainment Center has a new landlord: basketball legend Magic Johnson, whose L.A.-based Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds reportedly paid more than $50 million for the seven-year-old shopping center. Canyon-Johnson doesn't plan many changes for the center, but it does want to put in a police storefront there in response to recent violence. The major tenants — including an Edwards theater, Cafe Adobe, Drink Houston and Jillian's — won't leave, though Jillian's will become a Dave......

Men's Fitness maagzine, which ranked Houston No. 5 on its list of America's fattest cities, will visit Houston this weekend as part of a 10-stop tour of the country's fittest and fattest cities. MF fitness experts will be on hand from 6 a.m. to noon Saturday at City Hall to offer diet and exercise tips and subject us to entice us with activities like a jumping jack contest. There'll also be chances to win gyn......

An update on a rather confusing, semi pointless weight-loss contest sponsored by Good Morning America and AOL.com: The Houstonians are still heavier than the New Yorkers. Throughout the month, a team in Houston — which was named the fattest American city by Men's Health magazine in 2005 — and a team of "GMA" audience members have been competing to lose the most weight. On Jan. 2, the team in Houston weighed in at 2,231......

Seriously, how did we miss the news that Houston and New York City are competing in the America Takes it Off weight-loss contest? This is huge! (No pun intended.) ATIO is a joint venture of AOL, Good Morning America and eDiets, and it's being billed as the largest online fitness program ever — though we don't know how much of a distinction that really is. Details are sort of hard to come by, but New......

Houston has another statistic to be proud of. According to Men’s Fitness magazine, we have dropped to number five on their annual “Fattest Cities” list this year. Last year, we moved back into the top spot after being dethroned by Detroit for a year. Houstonist thinks it’s time to celebrate by chow-ing down on the best, greasiest cheeseburger in town. While we find this annual ranking amusing, we question the data. How does the......