Good morning, Houston. Hey, guess who's having a birthday today? Well, OK, it's technically not Houstonist — our second birthday was back on Nov. 20, but we figured that if the queen can have two birthdays, so can we. And so we're throwing ourselves a little birthday party tonight, and you're all invited. It starts at 6 p.m. at Monsoon Wok, Lamar at San Jacinto (yes, street parking is free downtown after 6). Six......

The thought may have crossed your mind once some balmy spring day in early March, pre-heat, as the flowers start to bloom but the mosquitoes haven't yet returned. Or perhaps you realized it some fall evening as you relaxed on a patio having drinks while people in the northern half of the country listened to their radiators clank like a death knell. "Houston's not so bad, in fact, despite the [_____], it's worth it." Okay,......

Good morning, Houston. In these days of near-$3 gas, there's one group of drivers who aren't so worried: hypermilers, who use certain techniques to squeeze every possible M out of their MPG. Hypermiling involves a few pretty simple changes in the way you drive, including coasting, accelerating slowly from stops and the skillful use of cruise control. Used correctly, hypermiling can increase your car's fuel efficiency by 30 percent or more — so why......

Good morning, Houston. Let's take a trip to the United Kingdom for a bit to learn how they celebrate Orangemen's Day. July 12 means "Orange marches" in this area to commemorate Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (remember your world history?). This day has sometimes been the cause of sectarian clashes between Protestants and Catholics, although most of the parades are very peaceful,......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Javitz who provides us with this colorful view from a restaurant in the Med Center. If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining over 315 of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here. For more great photography check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

We talked the other day about MetroRail's ongoing problem with electricity leaking into the ground and claims that the stray current could be undermining the foundations of highways that cross the rail line. And now there's something else: According to KHOU, the Texas Medical Center is testing the foundations of several hospitals to make sure they haven't been affected. Stephen Swinson, president of Thermal Energy Corp., said tests of the foundations of a dozen buildings,......

Sometimes, we think the only way to get Houstonians to part with their cars would be to pry the vehicles from their cold, dead hands. But no — it turns out it might be done with hundreds of dollars' worth of incentives! At least that's what the South Main Alliance has in mind with its One Less Car Houston challenge, in which the group is trying to get 15 South Main-area households to give their......

The shot from flickr user and houstonist photo contributor irees. If you didn't have a title, you might want to know what this is (It's an ambulance for about four seconds as it passes down the street). It looks like a futuristic transit system blasting down the main road to the Med Center (not down Richmond, we swear). We asked how this was all put together and got this answer: "I used my old......

What would a weekend in Houston be without some transit closures? This time around, we have a double shot: A road closure on the Katy Freeway and a MetroRail closure and bus detour in the Medical Center. First, the Katy: All eastbound lanes of the freeway between Silber and Washington will be closed from 9 p.m. today through 5 a.m. Monday. You can use east-west surface streets as a detour, or just stay home and......

Work on the Mosaic, the first new high-rise residential development around Hermann Park, will begin in the next two or three months. Mosaic will include two 28-story towers with 344 apartments, 444 condos, several stories of parking and 22,500 square feet of retail space at ground level — the first section, the apartment tower, is expected to be finished early next year. The Mosaic looks like a hip high-rise place to to live — its......

Metro finally figured out what caused a power outage that shut down the MetroRail line Wednesday: a rat(s). No, we're not kidding. A rat or rats had crawled beneath a pole connected to an underground cable box near the Rice University platform and begun chewing on the casing surrounding an electric cable. Power had been shut off for maintenance Tuesday. When the system powered up at 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, Feeley said, the exposed cable came......

Houstonist recently noticed a sign at the corner of Binz and La Branch advertising a future high-rise office/residential development. Though it piqued our curiosity, our innate lethargy made it impossible for us to circle the block and write down the number on the sign so we could call and find out what's up. That's why we like the hard-working folks at SkyscraperPage.com, who found out the proposal is for a 35-story office/condo tower. It's a......