oh my questions were:

where is a good tire mounting shop in houston (pref near downtown) or should i use a shop recommended by tirerack

if i want to drop ship them to a shop, do i have to contact the shop first or can i after i order

I've used ProAm on the Richmond strip near the Galleria without a problem when I dropshipped my tires from TireRack. However, if you read the reviews, others have had both positive and negative experiences. YMMV. For what it's worth, I checked again about a month ago and they use a Hunter machine for mounting and balancing. Good luck!