the times they are a-changin', pt. 2

man am i good!

"The last member of the Astros’ 2005 World Series team is on his way out of town as Wandy Rodriguez was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. In exchange for Rodriguez, the Astros acquired lefthanded pitchers Rudy Owens (Class AAA) and Colton Cain (high Class A) and Class AA outfielder Robbie Grossman, a Cy-Fair alum."

the overhaul continues!! astros in 2020!!!

the times they are a-changin'

i have been preaching for years, 2007 to be exact, that the astros needed to change course. and they have finally heard me. look at the deals from this year:

- July 4, 2012 Acquired INF Matt Dominguez and LHP Rob Rasmussen from Miami for 1B Carlos Lee. Assigned Rasmussen to Corpus Christi (Texas)

- July 20, 2012 Acquired RHP Francisco Cordero, OF Ben Francisco, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP Asher Wojciechowski, LHP David Rollins, C Carlos Perez and a player to be named for RHP Brandon Lyon, LHP J.A. Happ and RHP David Carpenter from Toronto

- July 22, 2012 Traded RHP Brett Myers to the Chicago White Sox for RHP Matthew Heidenreich and LHP Blair Walters 

- December 14, 2011 Acquired INF Jed Lowrie and RHP Kyle Weiland from Boston for RHP Mark Melancon. Designated INF Brian Bixler for assignment

wandy rodriguez is next. but look what they got for what you could call 'mediocre to poor talent'. these guys we traded had no business playing for the astros anymore. they were part of an attempt to keep from sliding off the mountain. but the quicker we slid off the mountain, the quicker we could begin to climb it again. whatever that means.

i have no idea if any of these new players will turn into anything. the players we received for lance berkman and roy oswalt haven't turned into much. jimmy paredes still has a shot. actually we traded mark melancon, who we received as part of the lance berkman deal, for jed lowrie, which i have now added to the list above. that was also a good deal after a busted deal. the roy oswalt deal netted us brett wallace who has done very little and j.a. happ, who was dealt as part of the blue jays deal. now it should be noted that the berkman and oswalt deals were still part of the ed wade era, an era that could not have ended soon enough.

the point is acceptance. it's time to break down the franchise in every way. bud norris should be dealt as well. trade jed lowrie and jose altuve for more prospects. if these prospects turn out, this team won't be ready to contend for another three to four years. so in that time, if someone pops up like lowrie or altuve that has value, they should go too. that's how you start over.

i have faith in this administration. the astros haven't had a competent front office since gerry hunsicker departed in 2004. it's been a few dark years. but hope is on the horizon. hope for a successful team in 2020!!! let's go astros in 2020!!! world series!!!

brief interruption

i'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows that i'm in new york and i was not at the movie theater in aurora last night. demitria was not there either. we're both fine. i've never been to this theater, but the area has a reputation for being unsafe so we stay away.

demitria is coming to see me in nyc today. we're going to craft restaurant tonight. it's the restaurant run by tom colicchio from top chef. it's going to be awesome. tomorrow, we're going to hit up some museums and go to a broadway show.

however, it is raining again. being in denver, i forgot that it does rain in other parts of the US. bummer.

heartbreaker

i saw my first new york celebrity!!! this guy!!! carson something!! i mean, wait... the queer eye guy!!! carson something!!!

the moment was incredible. we sat and drank coffee and our conversation was majestic. we discussed music, art and the like. we were old friends. it was kismet. i can't believe i ever existed anywhere else on earth. the gates of heaven. they are overrated when speaking with carson something. i mean, i try not to blush.

this is all true. except for the gates of heaven stuff. i went for a massive walk today. i took the subway to the village because i wanted to go to bleeker street records. but i got off too late and i ended up in chinatown. so i asked a guy, 'hey buddy, how i do i get to this place?' and he said, 'walk this way' for like twenty minutes. so i walked. and i walked. i walked through chinatown. i was so lost it was sad. i walked and walked until i found trendy coffee shops and the like. i wish i was not fat from surgery. otherwise, i would have been the most beautiful creature in town. but these folks, they dress like everyday is a catwalk. there are lights and cameras on every intersection.

i found other music. and it was awesome. all the bands i knew, the up and comers. and they were way over priced. i could get them for about five dollars less online. i'm sure new yorkers knew that. i mean, they are the smartest folks in america.

i kept walking. i walked through new york university. i walked all the way to bleecker street records. again, nothing amazing.

but i wanted something amazing. so i had to create it. i was at 6th and fourth. my hotel was at 6th and 40th. i knew what i had to do.

so i walked all the way to my hotel. that's right. i walked through the new york crowds in my flimsy shoes. i felt muscle pangs. i ignored them. i was hungry. i didn't care. i had to keep going. i had to walk the distance on 6th avenue. i had to prove i could do it. it wasn't about fitting in. it was about attrition. this channelview boy was going to walk all the way and soak up every instance and every breath and every foul stench and every sound and every billboard and every scaffold and every stop shop and every bit of new york on his way back to his hotel. he had to do it because he knew he was never coming back. he was going to feel every inch of the concrete and trip and fall and get laughed at and step in potholes and take the wrong way because this was it. he was not going to feel it again.

and i made it. i stripped out of my soaked, sweaty clothes and started again. i walked to a sushi restaurant and on the way saw carson what's his name. he was on the phone. i assume he was talking to the vice president. i had some sushi and then hung out at the hotel bar and talked to the cool asian bartender all of the night. she was a big arrested development fan. much respect.

demitria's coming tomorrow. new york will be restaurants and broadway shows. and it will be fun.

but i can't wait to be back to the mountains. the passes. the trees.

it's going to be a good weekend.

new york state of mind

my first day of training was interesting. if you recall my previous post, i had a hard time getting things going on my trip to new york. the next morning was no different, but this one was completely on me. i woke up, got directions to the pwc building and headed off. i found the building, no problem. i had to stand in line and get a security badge for the week. there were lots of other people there for training, so the line was long. i got my badge and headed up. i asked the receptionist where the training was. she had no idea what i was talking about. i thought this was a bad sign. so i opened up my computer and scanned the email about training and i noticed that i was supposed to be at a hotel across times square. i started laughing because nothing had changed from the previous night. i hailed a cab and told the guy where i was going. i looked up the email again and gave him the exact address. before i could finish he goes, "i know where it is." i appreciated that. this picture above is when training was over and i was heading back to the hotel. i stopped and snapped this shot of times square.

this is what i see when i look out my window. if you notice the green trees in the distance, that is bryant park. they show movies there outdoors during the summer.

this is the debt clock. i always imagined it in a more prominent place. i just happened to look down the street and see it. i'm not sure this is the same one that everyone shows on the news. i think there might be two of them because this one was very hid. update: there are not two of them. it's been moved. and the one i saw was the real debt clock. how cool is that? i wasn't even looking for it! it's like it called me!

radio city music hall. i don't know much about it, but i saw that bon iver would be playing there in the next week or two. now when i was out, i was involved in a classic new york scam. i was walking down 6th, which is called the avenue of the americas. this guy hands me a cd and starts talking. but i don't stop walking. he's talking, i'm walking. he wanted money for the cd for charity but i told him i would not be giving him any money and handed him back the cd. i escaped unscathed from the new york scam. now that got me thinking about scams. i came back to the hotel and searched common new york scams. that was one of them! except my houston smarts paid off. because it said that usually people stop walking and others surround them and ask them for money. also it said that the person will shake your hand and not let go. that didn't happen to me. the rest of the scams were interesting. one involved bumping into someone and blaming them for breaking their glasses. they tell you you owe them like 300 dollars and they settle on 50, so you feel bad and you think you're getting a deal, so you pay them 50 for glasses they dropped and broke on purpose that probably cost 10 bucks. nice.

nbc! seinfeld! cosby! friends! liz lemon! i was on the lookout for tina fey. i was thinking really hard of what i would say to her if i bumped into her that totally encapsulate my humor and make her think that i needed to be a writer on 30 rock. i did not run into her and that's a good think because i couldn't think of anything that was funny. that might have been the funny thing to say. look at her with sadness and say, 'i have nothing funny to say to you."

this is what my hotel room window looks like right now. the rain was intense about twenty minutes ago. it's still coming down and lightening. today we got out early and i was going to go for a long new york in central park. not going to happen.

new york, new york, pt. 2

yesterday was my travel day to new york. i had no idea that was exactly what it was going to be: an entire day of travel.

i woke up not really ready to go to new york. i wanted to enjoy my sunday morning. i had my coffee. i goofed out with demitria. i petted sofie. it was the typical awesome, relaxing great sunday morning. but i momentarily forgot how to tell time and if it wasn't for demitria, i would have been super late to my flight. i was nowhere near ready to go when we realized we should have left ten minutes ago. i grabbed my bag, grabbed my computer and we started to drive to the airport. but when i was driving, i was going through my mental list of things i was going to need in nyc. there was something missing from that list. my phone. we had to head back to the house because i forgot my phone. i knew that had sealed my fate. i was certain i was going to miss my flight.

but i didn't. i got to the airport and went to print my ticket but the system could not find me. it kept saying there was an error. i didn't have time for errors. the line to get to the service desk was a mile long. but i was allowed to jump to a shorter line to find out what was happening. apparently my reservation was deleted. i have no idea why or how. i was certain at this point i was going to miss my plane.

but i didn't. i went through security, got to the gate and found out my flight was running 45 minutes late. ha! i hadn't missed my flight. i was going to make it. i got something to eat and got on the plane. i was ready to head to new york. this was 1 o'clock mountain time. we didn't leave the denver airport until close to 3:30 mountain time.

why? storms in new york. so the decision was made to take another route, hitting up atlanta and coming up the east coast. fine. that sounds good. but we had to add fuel because the flight was now going to be an hour longer because of this new route. so we had to get people off the plane. they asked for volunteers. people got off. they also took off all the luggage. this didn't affect me because i didn't check a bag. but the people around me, they were mad. and i had no way of getting away from them. the woman next to me went through every scenario possible of how she and her cousin (on a separate flight) were going to get to germany. time and again i heard the same concerns, the same answers and the same desperation and aggravation. i put in my headphones. and she still would say things outloud and look around as if she was talking in on particular direction in the hopes that someone, somewhere would participate in this unhappiness.

but we did make it into the air. the flight was pretty smooth except getting out of denver, but that's par for the course. we landed safely in new york at about 9:30 eastern time. i didn't get off the plane until close to 11p.m.

why? because the storms and lightening had gotten so bad that they shut down the outbound planes and we had no gate to park at. so we sat. and sat. and i heard people complain. and moan. the only highlight was the older woman next to me, probably in her late sixties. she was nice and i spoke to her a few times during the flight. i asked her how far we were from the city and she said about an hour. by this time, i was starving because there was no real food on the plane and i had anticipated having an awesome new york meal, but that wasn't going to happen. she gave me some packaged breadsticks and a peanut butter brownie because i was so hungry. i thanked her about ten times. she was the highlight of my day.

so we finally got off the plane. i got into a cab and headed for the city. it was huge. there were buildings everywhere. we drove by times square and it was the brightest and grossest thing i had ever seen. the hotel was very close to times square so once i checked in i was going to head out and take some light night pictures. i went to check in. they couldn't find my reservation.

why? i was at the wrong hotel. i had given the cabbie the wrong information because i looked it up in a fit on the plane because i couldn't find the email that gave the hotel's address. so i went back out and grabbed another cab and headed to the right hotel.

it was 12:30a.m. eastern time when i got to the right hotel.

i arrived at the airport in denver at 11 a.m. mountain time. i went to bed shortly after 1a.m. eastern time.

it was, without a doubt, the craziest travel day i've ever experienced in my life.

more to come from nyc.

new york, new york

i'm heading to the big apple tomorrow. did you guys know they call new york the big apple? i did. that's how down i am with new york. me and new york are tight. one week there. training and then hanging with the wife in new york. we're to a top chef restaurant and we're going to see a play on broadway. probably do some sightseeing in central park and other touristy spots. i'll make sure to take lots of high quality shots and post them when i get back. my goals while in new york:

1. get on the today show; this might be hard because i'll be in training but i still want to list it because maybe the today show will down to our training and do a segment on awesome improvements in audit quality
2. yell at a new york cab driver and have them yell back at me
3. high five conan o brien or jimmy fallon
4. party at studio 54 with mick jagger, i might need a time machine for this one, so....
5. rent time machine
6. ride a horse through downtown new york
7. star in an off-off-off-off broadway play
8. eat a new york hot dog from a stand and yell at the guy and have him yell at me
9. wag my finger at wall street
10. tell the story of the night wolf to people in new york and yell at them and have them yell at me

that's it. i don't think it's too much to ask. i think i should be able to accomplish about 90% of my goals there.

anyway, catch you guys when i get back to the rocky mountains.

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.