summertime blues

we have been doing a lot of grilling lately. but it's been very meat intensive. so this time around we threw on some fish. i had the two salmon filets and demitria had the white bass. we bought a wood plank to put under the fish to keep it off the grill and give it a little hickory flavor. a couple times i thought it was going to catch on fire. i now smell of hickory. a giant piece of hickory. we didn't have to spray the hose on the wood plank but i had it ready.

if you want to do some real grilling, you need a serious grill kit. it's a must. that is my grill kit. i have used it like a dozen times this summer already. thanks mom!

that is the finished product. the plank is kind of burnt. the salmon are the two on the right and the bass is on the left. we dressed it up with some spinach too. demitria also made some awesome mushroom gravy.

again, the finished product.

we have apples this year! the pruning we did back in march has paid off big time. there are apples everywhere. these are some of the low hanging ones the squirrels haven't gotten to yet. we have no agreement with the squirrels. when we see them, we shoot them with the water hose. soak them.

we also have pepper plants out in the garden. strawberries are coming in good this year and so are the peppers. we already ate one.

the fix is in

wow. i'm not sure how this isn't a national story and by national story, i mean it should be dominating the national conversation on this fourth of july. i don't have cable, so i don't watch the nightly news or cnn or fox news or any of that crap. if you're watching it and they are not constantly talking about this story regarding the fixing of the LIBOR rates, then you should turn it off, disconnect your cable and stop paying attention to news outlets that only make noise and distract the public with stories about tom and katie and a news anchor being gay. who cares?

the fixing of the LIBOR rates is fraud perpetrated on a level that i can't even grasp. this is the fixing of an interest rate that is used with all variable interest rate contracts. this affects the price at which banks can borrow from each other. by pushing LIBOR down, they are artificially lowering their borrowing costs.

matt taibbi has been on it. if you have time, you should read each one of these articles:

LIBOR banking scandal deepens


Why is nobody freaking out about the LIBOR banking scandal?

A huge break in the LIBOR banking investigation

additionally, a couple of guys got a slap on the hand for scamming millions of dollars from basically every american city, county, state and district. how is that not a massive story? colluding to rig the public bids on municipal bonds?

the story says "by conspiring to lower the interest rates that towns earn on these investments, the banks systematically stole from schools, hospitals, libraries and nursing homes – from "virtually every state, district and territory in the United States," according to one settlement. now that's the kind of story it seems americans would be concerned about.

but it's not. being stolen from by banks, the government, businesses in general has become so common place and so complex, that the average american does not have the time or energy to devote to being outraged over it. they're just trying to save whatever money they do have on non-existence interest rates, which is another criminal matter that i'll get into at another time.

happy fourth.

the fitted shirt

i'm back!!! i'm back in denver!! i have to use exclamation points because i'm very excited to be back. i was gone for a week in salt lake and then this last week, i was in houston for a week as well. it was nice being back in houston because it felt good to be in a city where i knew every street, i knew every restaurant, i knew every little detail. some streets i even knew the cracks and bumps in the street. that's attention to detail. i actually went out to eat on tuesday and saw dave ward, the noble gentleman above. he was eating at the texas goode seafood company. i talked to him outside after he was finished with his meal and was waiting for his car. he was probably headed to do the news for that night. he was nice. we chatted about the weather like old friends. then i went to kays lounge which was apparently once owned by his mother. this was revealed when asking why they had a framed portrait of dave ward behind the counter, because obviously that was a bit odd without the other information. by being back in houston and chatting it up with dave ward, i realized i couldn't have that experience in denver. one because i never watch their news and two because i didn't grow up with any of their newcasters. i've been watching dave ward since i was like seven years old or something. houston was my home for what will probably be the majority of my life unless i stay in denver until i die or something. and by living there for so long, i was able to build this life with the city.

so although i won't be coming back to texas, it is nice to go back and realize that i had a great time there and loved the many adventures i had in that town. by the way, if any goes back and has to use a taxi, make sure you tell them exactly how you want them to go because otherwise you'll end up in crazy parts of town on gridlocked freeways needlessly.

in other news, last night we went and saw my work buddy who moved to london. he got married in croatia and was having a reception in denver for his family and friends. it was a good time. it was great seeing him again. i think we might hit up a rockies game with the same group tonight.

i have a ton of clothes to wash. i have to show sofie a ton of love because she misses me. and i need to get back in my denver routine. i'm looking to it.

salt lake city

i'm sure my faithful readers have picked up that i use song titles as my blog titles. well, this one is no different. yes, there is a song called salt lake city. and it's by the beach boys. seriously. the whole song is about their love of the salt lake city fans. it's quite strange, but it was done before pet sounds. anyway, i wanted everyone to know there is a song called salt lake city. it's real people.

now, i've been here a few days. there's not a lot to do, but i went walking on friday night and i took these pictures above. i couldn't load them exactly how i wanted so i they're a bit jumbled. but some of them look like a mall. that's because it is a mall. the church purchased a large chunk of land right by the temple downtown and turned it into a massive outdoor mall. the mall has a stream going through the middle of it with fish and fountains. i didn't see anyone fishing though. what if it rains you say? well, they have a retractable roof that can close in four minutes to keep people dry when it rains. now malls are malls. same stores, same crap being sold. but this thing was pretty cool. salt lake is a little different from denver because the mountains in denver are off in the distance. you'll notice in one of the pictures from the second story of the mall, you can see the mountains right there. they're not off in the distance. they're about forty minutes away. the whole city is surrounded by mountains.

the other structure is the temple square. it's a massive temple right downtown. i'm not sure it's the actual church, because it appeared that the church itself was across the street. but the temple area was very nice. the grass was very green and there were some statues in the gardens that were really nice. the church temple is a massive structure.

finally, the top two photos are interesting. the top photo is of a meteor that landed perfectly on that stand. now that's not true, but that's what the artist is intending to say. i like it. it's actually out in the open area in front of my hotel window. i actually walk in front of it each day i walk to the office. the office is literally a minute's walk from the hotel. the second photo was of some sushi i ordered. takashi is supposedly the best sushi restaurant in salt lake city. so i went and i ate alone. i felt like bill murray in 'lost in translation'. but the sushi was really good. the red on the white rice is habanero infused masago. it was actually really good. i didn't expect sushi to be that great in salt lake city, but this place was good.

other than that, i've been enjoying the spoils of travel: cable, a/c and room service. the big three. i've barely left the room and loved every minute of it.

weird scenes inside the goldmine

i had an extended stay at the denver airport recently. my dad was flying in from atlanta and i went to pick him up at around 8:30. there were really bad storms, lightning and high winds, so i figured he would be delayed a bit. i parked the car and went into the airport, had a drink and hung out and watched the basketball game. while i was hanging out,  i overheard this guy talking about planes being rerouted to colorado springs because of the storms. so i called demitria and asked her to look on the website to see where his place was and what time i could expect him to land. she reported to me that his place was in grand junction and he wasn't going to be landing in denver until close to midnight. it was around 9 at this point. so instead of braving the weather to go home and then come back, i got a book and hung around the airport. i remembered though about the paintings in the denver airport. there is a conspiracy theory around the DIA. it involves a meeting place for when the new world order takes over and there are paintings in the airport meant to display the coming scenes according to the theories. i had never scene except online.so i grabbed my phone and started all over the airport to find these paintings. and the paintings shown above are the ones referenced in the conspiracy theories. they seem wildly inappropriate for airport art. but the artist says he was trying to depict scenes showing the struggles we will have if we don't live in peace with ourselves and with nature. but you couple these paintings with the red-eyed demon horse outside the airport and you can see how people would get a little frightened. anyway, dad eventually arrived and we had a great time. i will post photos of his trip when i get back from salt lake city. in the meantime, i will be posting photos of salt lake city i took last night on my walk around town.

old friends

good times in colorado with mr. ewing. we hit up estes park, red rocks, hiked at eldorado springs and saw a live show at the bluebird. it was an action packed four days of hanging. we also hit several breweries in town and walked a lot. that's colorado life. come back some time mr. ewing. the ghost in the basement misses you.

oliver's army

great website with the top ten financial documentaries. i haven't seen them all, but the top spot is 'the ascent of money', a four-hour documentary. i highly suggest taking four hours and watching it. or watching it in pieces. or watching it while you cook. or clean. or bike around town with the computer taped to the front of your bike.

also on the avclub, they just ended a great series about REM. i've included the link to the first piece, which will give you links to each subsequent series after the article. i'm not really an REM fan. i think they're a good band with moments of greatness. but on the average, not in my top 30 probably. but the series is exceptional. the writer is obviously a fan and he moves through the different stages of the band, how it felt to be a fan at those moments, when they were great, when they were terrible and when they finally broke up. being a fan is totally irrational as he states. but i understand his obsession, even if i don't obsess over it myself. as a music fan, i highly recommend it as well.

that's two recommendations totaling about six hours of your life. and.....now......go.

wouldn't it be nice

these are the long awaited pictures from our trip to glenwood springs about a month ago. we had an awesome time, thanks to mom and jack. the first day we got there, we went to the pool, which is a hot springs pool in the middle of town. the next day, we went for a hike up to hanging lake, which was like a mile and a half basically straight up, where we found two waterfalls. the next day we took off from glenwood springs and went to rifle gap and harvey gulch state parks. it was a fantastic trip and a wonderful opportunity to continue to venture out into our new state. by the way, i have no idea why this is underlined. weird.

welcome to the working week

i usually don't use the blog as a venting station, but i think the events of last week called for it. here is how my week went:

1. i was called into jury duty and i was picked to be on the jury. the trial is still going and will go into early next week. i have not been able to work much while on jury duty and i have about five projects going on at the same time. however, i have used my legal pad to make 84 lists and draw dozens of award winning sketches.
2. while driving home, i ran over a massive screw. the screw lodged itself just perfect enough to not be able to patch the tire. i could only replace the tire. the screw was buried so deep and at such a strange angle, that when i got home and got out of the car, i could hear the air hissing out of tire.
3. i broke my favorite flip flops.
4. i broke my mp3 player at the gym.
5. demitria contracted my cold and was sick all week.

what else? oh yeah:
6. the volunteer organization i do work for had two events on friday that i could not attend because i had jury duty.

what else? oh yeah:
7. i lost a fork because security wouldn't let me take it into the building. a fork!! i'd like to say it was my favorite for dramatic purposes, but it was not.

this week promises for improvement as mr. e is coming to town. great times ahead. i need some new flip flops. and an mp3 player. i have four new tires, so that won't stop the party. the trial should end this week. i should have the house to myself starting tomorrow, so i can work out and read all day and night. things are hopefully looking up.

living in a material world

the worst pies in london

i found this article on grantland on espn.com. if you don't like sports, grantland is still cool to check out for articles like this one. the article goes into the downward spiral that is the marriage of tim burton and johnny depp. it analyzes the roles of those two men and how those roles have changed over the years much to the detriment of their artistic product.

dark shadows?
alice in wonderland?
charlie and the chocolate factory?

seeing a pattern here? remade, rehashed, half-baked movies. great article. check it out.

also did anyone hear about jamie dimon and jpmorgan chase losing $2B on a derivative bet? a supposed hedge against risk? well they played that one right huh?

facebook's ipo is coming soon and supposedly interest is waning. probably because no one can answer this question: how can facebook make money? especially when they're paying instagram a billion dollars for a stupid program that turns pictures brown! good luck!

also read a great article by my favorite wall street punisher matt taibbi detailing the exact way that the government, hand in hand with lobbyists, took the life and few teeth out of the dodd frank bill. very much worth your time because this is how government now works. they pass a bill to appease the public, but they don't fund it, they don't enact the laws/rules and they let it be picked apart by courts and lobbyists. and the public still thinks they have their cloak of protection. brilliant.

mr. big shot

i took my ethics test this morning. i passed. because i have mad ethics. i had to pass with 90% and i did better than that. crazy ethics.

i can now introduce myself as a CPA. in fact, this blog is now called that birdhouse, cpa. how about that?!? i love it.

so get used to me saying it. because i'm going to be saying it a lot. because, damn it, i earned it.

holiday

just back from glenwood springs. spent two nights there. i'm totally exhausted. but tons of great pictures to come.

when the roses bloom again

i have some older photos from easter i wanted to add. the bottom ones show the feast we prepared for easter: deer, potatoes, spinach and pistachio cake. it was awesome. demitria is the best cook. i picked up those flowers from the greek store a couple days before. we just finished the cake finally. it was an incredible cake.

the rock on the top is in our garden outside, our 'rock garden'. we just planted some pansies and added the stone to our garden. thanks mom!

good day sunshine

i am proud to say that i know this little guy. he's one of those kids that i enjoy when they come around because he has a great sense of humor and is a sweet kid. he's demitria's brother's wife's nephew. but you don't have to remember that. but you do remember thomas when you meet him. when the grandmother says they didn't think he'd come home, she's serious. thomas had the stroke and it was basically over. everyone was preparing to say goodbye to the little guy. but somehow, someway, in a turnaround that surprised everyone, they found the organs, he went into surgery and thomas was going to be okay. it was that fast. it was amazing. and if you want to call it a miracle, i don't think you'd wrong. i'm glad he's okay. can't wait to see him and tell him i'm proud of him.

hey jane

is anybody else super duper excited about the new spiritualized album? i mean, check out the cover! how awesome is that? the immediate reviews are positive. the video for 'hey jane' is pretty rough. but the song is amazing. this, coupled with the alabama shakes new album, makes for a good weekend purchase. i also subscribed to the economist yesterday. need to be informed. need good music. that's really it. oh yeah, a roof maybe too. and water. minor.

weird fishes

checking out the radiohead set at coachella. i totally dig sitting in my living room watching as opposed to being surrounded by thousands of people, being forced to buy $7 water and standing in line for an hour to go the bathroom. my bathroom is free right now. the water is free. and there is only one other person and a cat in the house. love it. the set is pretty sweet. i'm only three songs in, but weird fishes is so sweet.

i still dig the concerts though. we're seeing wilco at the red rocks and maybe the avett brothers and beach boys at red rocks too. destroyer and wye oak are coming to the bluebird this summer. so i'm still with the concerts. it's the festivals i don't think i can do anymore. i'll leave that to the young kids.

i guess i planted

deviled eggs are a specialty in the wright house. we made six eggs and between the both of us, the six eggs didn't make it until dinner. poor guys. but they were delicious. demitria is enjoying one of those eggs and some of her special iced tea. i don't know what makes it special, but i believe her.

demitria colored some eggs this year for that easter flavor around the house. if you can't read them, they say 'kevin', 'demi' and 'smooch'. 'smooch' was my favorite. we also had some stickers to throw on them too.

here is the 'kevin' egg up close. the brussel sprouts are looking good. remember a few blogs ago, i told the story of hacking up the apple tree out back? well this is it. i have never seen something respond so positively to being hacked up. the apple tree is in full bloom and there are white buds everywhere.

here is a pitcher of the special iced tea. it was refreshing. speaking of refreshing drinks, i had an arnold palmer at the krameria cafe earlier in the day. i highly suggest everyone try one this summer. we have a patch of rogue tulips growing out back by the neighbor's garage. we didn't plant them. but we'll take them. i had to jump in there with them. this is how our day started, out back doing some yard work. we sprayed the front and back yard with herbicide to get of the billions of weeds we had last year. we rode our bikes up to the nursery and bought some stuff there. that's when we stopped by the krameria cafe and had a quick lunch. hope everyone had a great easter.

sounds like hallelujah

happy easter! it's a gorgeous day here in denver, colorado. we've got clear skies in the morning and afternoon time. highs should be around 70 with lows in the upper 40s tonight. perfect weather for the perfect easter egg hunt. i think when we talk about weather, we all should adopt the 'weather man' voice and discuss weather in the appropriate vocal tones. but seriously, it's nice here.

last night i made a pretty big purchase. i bought two tickets to.....paradise! pack your bags we leave tonight! i'm kidding. i love eddie money though. i bought two tickets to red rocks to see wilco. that's right. wilco will be at red rocks in june and the wrights are going! i'm so excited and it's two months away basically. my excitement will probably subside before the show, otherwise, that would be an unhealthy level of excitement to carry around for two months. agree? yes.

what else is going on? i haven't posted much lately. i should be uploading some new pictures of our emerging garden soon. maybe get some new sofie shots. i love pictures of that cat. maybe i'll take some of our easter dinner tonight? that's a great idea. okay. plan for that.

also, baseball is back. i emailed my official picks to my dad, so if anyone thinks i didn't make it in time, i have him to back me up. here are my official picks for 2012:

nl central: reds
nl east: phillies
nl west: dodgers
nl wc: braves
al central: tigers
al east: rays
al west: rangers
al wc: angels

the world series will be the dodgers and the rangers. this time, the rangers will finally win. i know going with the dodgers is a stretch, but there is no team in the national league that is a dominant team. they're all kind of sub-awesome. but the dodgers have a new owner and that will generate some liveliness out of them as they catch fire in the playoffs. the rangers are a statistical long shot to get back to the world series for the third year in a row. i mean, that's not likely. but i like them better than the rest. the rays would be my second choice. oh well. don't let me down guys! and the astros will finish in last place with a record of -54-108. that's right. they won't win any games. only negatively win them. figure that one out!

the season of the witch

i think the end of winter has been kidnapped. the calendar still says march as of today, but the flowers, the leaves and burgeoning spring say, well, spring. last year, as you can revisit on this post, we had a nice garden of strawberries, herbs and plenty of tomatoes.

this year, we've started the process with bibb lettuce, brussel sprouts and swiss chard. lettuce grows very well in the rockies. i've seen it. a dude up the street has a very impressive garden come august with tons of lettuce, tomatoes and such. we're going back to our roots with tomatoes again this year. but i'm going to try and branch out and get some peppers growing as well. i failed last year in the pepper department. the one dude i had fried in the sun.

last weekend, i also cut back our apple tree. being apple tree ignorant as we were, we both thought the tree was an apple factory and would keep lavishing us with tons of apples each year. we subsequently learned that was an apple fantasy and work had to be done. you have to prune an apple tree. and prune we did. i bundled up about seven bundles of branches.

that's our plans for the garden this year. of course, the natives tell us it's going to snow again. or at least freeze. but i maintain that winter is gone. hijacked. kidnapped. bound and jagged. not to be heard from again until december. it's a shame. i feel like we didn't get to say goodbye. winter was here one day and the next it was 70 degrees. i had a very good winter. and it would have been nice to hang out one more time. but we'll meet again.

the ben bernank

End of the Road Documentary Trailer