If It All Gets to be Too Much, One Thing at a Time

Where to even start? It has been a jumble of all kinds of things over the past two weeks. I will try and make some sense of it.

This blog is set up well for the point I am making in the title; there are going to be times in life that too many things are happening all at once. You cannot do everything all at once. When that happens you need to prioritize and have a plan of action to tackle things one at a time. Here is my list from last week.

Bahamas Vacation
Total rain out. My wife and I have been to the Bahamas 7 times and it has never rained like it was raining as we arrived. All forecasts agreed, no let up in the 8 days we were to be there. Arrived last Friday and it was Monsoon season or something! On Sunday I slipped and dropped like a stone on a concrete walkway. My upper arm looks like it was hit by a bus and I chipped my front tooth. Perfect.

We were able to get 5 days of our vacation transferred to a trip later in the year. Hopefully the weather will be better that week. We left Tuesday morning among flooded streets and an airport that was just able to get planes off. Huge disappointment with an added bonus of some needed dental work. I was able to get in to see my dentist and they fixed my tooth right up on Tuesday. One thing solved.

New Career Opportunity
I had mentioned I may have some exciting news and indeed I do!

I started a process of interviewing for a new job a few weeks ago. The role I was after fits my unique cloning experience so well I just knew this was the job I wanted. Bacterial pathway genetic engineering is something I really love and have some great experience performing. This job takes it to a whole new level of complexity. It's going to be a real challenge.

I was able to negotiate an accepted offer during the vacation week. I will start a few weeks from now. I am terrified and excited at the same time! Honestly it all came together so fast and so well I just feel a bit dizzy about it. I will be leaving my current company after 6 years. It's not easy or comfortable to do that. Sometimes worthwhile things are like that.

Market Observations
I never looked at one market quote nor read one market blog or article the week I was off. I never do. As such I know full well when I get back to the world I will not be able to jump right back in. I am a firm believer in "market feel" and when I am out of the groove for a while I do no try and run right back into the fray that is the markets. Trading does not reward being unprepared and it does not forgive cheaply those that forget it.

As such, I see that last week was the worst week of 2012. I am shocked because usually when I am gone markets fly higher as if to spite me. A well planned strategy with proper execution can bring profits in any market. I just don't happen to have one as things go right now. I know I cannot catch up, be prepared and feel confident to trade tomorrow. So I won't. I will get back in a groove and enter in when I am ready.

An aspect about markets and trading I found I loved long ago (and one it seems many overlook too often) is trading is one of the only forms of combat where you will dictate your own battlefield, choose the rules of your engagement, and decide the conditions of your involvement. In what other contest can you make similar claims?

After yard work all weekend I knew it was time for some fun. I rolled out the Big Steel Keg cooker to it's proper stand in the backyard now that Spring is here. It was steak and portabella mushroom slice night oveah heah:

Good stuff.

Have a good night.

Summer Saturday

I just felt lazy today. I probably could have/should have cut the grass but I did not feel like it. I could have washed the car or any number of things. I felt like relaxing and so I have been. Totally chill Saturday. Nice.

I did grab some steaks for an early dinner today. I had a huge ribeye and the wife and mom in law got filets. Pre-cook:

Just about ready to come off the grill:

I made some asparagus too, you know, to round out the meal.

I may add some stuff to this post later, or not.

Added:
A couple things to add.

Jake from EconomPic put me on this great song by Foster the People called "Pumped up Kicks" which is really good. Thanks!:


My friend ChessNwine celebrates his birthday today and I had no idea! Chess is the best chart maker I know and a good friend. It was mainly due to Chess that I started to trade again because it became fun again. Happy Birthday! Here is your Herbie Hancock tune:

Very smooth.

Have a good night.

What is this, the Food Network?

Perfect weather all weekend. Did some yard work today and watched the most boring Brickyard 400 of all time. Starting to get excited about football season.

Market Operations
On Friday I was debating whether I wanted to buy a position or 10 in some kind of 3X long etf, like TNA (hee hee). Everyone knows a debt ceiling deal was going to happen, I mean everyone. I Twitted this to sum it up:
The big bounce up tomorrow will go down in history as the most telegraphed equity spike in the history of man or animals.
I did not take the position on Friday, not because I was afraid of something going wrong, but because it's not the type of trade I want to start making too often. Not my trading type. Still, looks like an easy up day tomorrow. Will it hold? Who knows and after tomorrow it will probably take a couple days for things to settle out. Annoying really.

Josh Brown wrote a wonderful missive on the debt ceiling and the stupid politics involved in it. You really should read the piece as I can assure you most of the smart players were reading it all day long:
Traitors
Snippet:

To Stanley Druckenmiller and the rest of the Oldtimers' Game brain trust, let me say this: Your ideas about missing a Treasury coupon "just to see what would happen" are so dangerous that I fear someone's been tampering with your meds. How is it possible that otherwise intelligent people could reasonably believe that the world's reserve debt instrument should be used for a political gambit? Mr. Druckenmiller (and friends), we agree on the need to get our house cleaned up, just not on your plan of swinging a wrecking ball at it to get the maids' attention. Congrats on your retirement, please don't feel the need to ever offer public comment again.

Stop on over.

What is this, the Food Network?
It was a cook intensive weekend!

Last night I posted the pictures of the pork butts I rubbed and set on The Big Steel Keg to cook overnight. I went with apple wood for smoke and put the meat on the smoker at 10:30pm. Temperature had stabilized at 230-260 degrees. I kept an eye on it until 12:30am then went to bed. Checked on it at 7am this morning and the Keg was rock solid still at 250 degrees! Awesome result with the lump charcoal.

Anyways, let's see the pictures!

Here they are about ready to foil; cook time 12 hours:

Internal temp at 195 degrees, into a foil wrap and stuffed in a cooler to finish:

Pulling pork, look at this thing fall apart:

Big tray of meat:

Butt on buns, that does sound exciting:

This cook came out great and it was my first overnight cook.

For dinner I wanted to have something fast so I just made english muffin mini pizzas. If you have kids they LOVE this item and it's super easy to make:

Nice!

I know plenty of financial bloggers do cooking, we should have an inaugural Blogger BBQ Cookoff and set up a voting poll to see who wins. Any takers?

Have a good night.

Wired on Saturday Night

Well wireless actually. New modem purchased and I had a new router I had never installed for various reasons. 3 hours of frustration with the crappy directions and trying to do this on a Macintosh computer (longer story) and I was back online this morning. Should be good to go now.

Debt Ceiling
The joke that is the debt ceiling drama continues on. What bothers me about the whole thing is we are side stepping any serious discussion of finance and spending. The focus now is "raise the ceiling or the world ends" or things like that. Another missed opportunity for any kind of change.

Saturday Entertainment
I am going to try and smoke some pork butt tonight. I messed this up the first time I tried it. I am going to put the small butts on the smoker around 10pm and smoke them all night. If I set up the Big Steel Keg correct, it should run all night around 250 degrees. We shall see in the morning if it went ok. These take about 12-14 hours to really be done right.

Random Reads
Broaden your mind with these links.

-Today in 2003 (via Little Bits of History) the last of the old model VW bugs were made. Hated those things, but 65 years in production is a good run.

-I ordered the novel "The Lost City of Z" which is about Percy Fawcett's tragic search for a golden city in the Brazil rainforest.

-The most legendary engine of all time? Maybe the 1969 all aluminum ZL-1 Corvette engine. This was one of the sickest things ever made in the United States.

Visual Cues
They sell these now?:

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

Who would have guessed?:

see more Historic LOL

Film Clips
Stream these movies!

One of the best episodes of the TV series Highlander was the double feature of Something Wicked/Deliverance. Duncan Macloud was overwhelmed by a dark spirit after he took his head and turned into a total badass. I actually liked him this way! In the following clip at the 25:00 mark he tries to get help from an old friend but he is now totally lost:


The film "Gaataca" was a wonderful film that sounded a cautious note about the future of genetic prejudice. The final scene with Ethan Hawke getting set to leave on a space trip is a must see:


Rock Blogging
Some music to roll on the weekend.

Reader C-T was looking for "Personal Jesus" from Depeche Mode because she is in love with singer Dave Gahan. I love this live version:


Watchtower likes Johnny Cash's last tune, "Hurt":


Jim Croce from reader Gawains with "You Don't Mess Around with Jim":


I heard a new version of "Mr. Bojangles" on the radio the other day. I wanted to freaking puke. Instead of a sad song, full of soul and feeling it was changed into some techno pop nightmare for club use. Disgusting and if I were Emperor I would dismiss that version with EXTREME prejudice. Anyways, here is an old version by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band:


Two songs to go.

I know I have had this on a few times, but I was in the mood for the "Crossroads Duel": so here it is:

Love it.

Close the show with a favorite one of mine, Black Sabbath and "Warning":


Added: Rubbed Butts:

Big Steel Keg after dark, I hope I don't get bit by the fisher cat:

Have a good night.

Chasing Plump Skirts

The heat has finally let off around here. About 80 degrees, dry and a nice breeze. Good stuff.

Market Operations
Usually I do homework on Sunday night for stock ideas but I am skipping today. Why? Because I am up to my ears in long positions that's why! No real room to deploy more cash. Add in the debt ceiling drama and who knows how the early part of the week will go. My positions are:
-SOXL (maybe a tad overweight)
-GFIG
-CSU
-ASYS
I am not of the opinion that some monster sell off is at hand should a debt deal be reached or not. I think this is noise, but you cannot pretend that our CONgress and Wall Street are not hyper-reactive people so stay sharp this week.

Chasing Plump Skirts

Now that I have your attention!

Today I made stuffed skirt steaks. This is a favorite of the wife's so I can score points if I make it. It is somewhat involved to do, but not too hard. The end result is tough to beat.

You will need:
-skirt steaks
-tomato
-baby spinach
-Some kind of shredded cheese
-mushrooms (regular or portabella)
-twine

So the first step is to pound your meat. It's ok, it's for a purpose. To minimize the mess you can lay saran wrap over the skirt steaks as you use a mallet to pound the steaks as flat as you can:

After you have the steak flat, cut it into strips for individual stuffing. Layer on the baby spincah first, then the other stuff finishing with the shredded cheese:

Roll up the package and tie off with twine. You can usually get away with just going around once, but I will add a tie length wise to keep the goods from spilling out on the grill.

Get your grill going but do not go thermo nuclear, you don't want a super high heat as these take a bit to cook fully through. I use the Big Steel Keg and lump charcoal and get the temp up to about 400 degrees:

This should take about 20 minutes total, but keep moving the stuffed steaks around so they cook on all sides. I threw on some asparagus as well. Here it is near the end:

Dinner plate for me:

I brushed the rolls with some Stubbs Beef Marinade during the cook for an added punch, but you do not have to. These come great and the baby spinach actually crisps up during cooking so you get a nice crunchy texture along with the gooey goodness of the cheese and meat. What did you all have for dinner tonight?

Have a good night.

Cooking Stuff and Forgetting Pictures

Weather just cannot be beat so far, perfect.

Cooking Stuff and Forgetting Pictures
I made up about 50 MOINKS and 30 chicken drumsticks for the cookout I attended. Here is the stuff before cooking:

Of course things got a bit hectic and I forgot to take any pictures of anything else! This sucks because the finished MOINKS that I glazed with raspberry Polaner jelly (heated in microwave 1 minute, add a bit of water then mix) were amazing! I am sorry.

Not to leave you with no food pictures, I made steaks today so we can settle for that pictorial.

I had a nice T-Bone and the wife and mother in law got tenderloins. I even threw in some fresh asparagus and mashed potatoes:


On the grill:


Dinner time!:


As of late the birdfeeder has been getting cleaned out quick, and I wondered if we were getting invaded by an army of squirrels. This evening I caught the culprit, a huge deer!!!!!:


I did not want to startle the big fellow so I had to shoot pictures through the widow and screen. So cool!!! Made the whole weekend.

Added:
Skip to the 38:30 mark for a classic line!!!:

BADASS!

Have a good night.

Smoked Meat Sunday

I feel like I worked all weekend? I need some time off or something....

Smoked Meat Sunday
You saw the pastrami prep last post, here are the rubbed up ribs and pastrami getting about set to go on the Big Steel Keg:


I used some apple wood for smoke and got the Keg to hold 250 degrees for about 4 hours. Here are the items almost done:


I sauced the ribs over direct heat (took out the diffuser) and on one slab I used Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and on the other I used KC Masterpiece:


The pastrami was perfect on the salt content, the last one I made was too salty I think. The taste was very good, but I think this particular brisket came from a really fat cow because all the fat lines running across the meat took away from the texture I think. Still, it was very good. Here it is all sliced up:

Nice.

I was way too optimistic with the dinner plate and I only ate about half of this:

We had corn on the cob as well but no picture for that. It was fun to get outside and cook. I also cut the front and back lawns, it never ends.

I am tired! I still need to do market homework and see what's up for next week so I will update this post later on.

Added:
Thanks to the some what down market, I have over 50 stocks to review!!! Ouch.

Showtime has had "Lord of the Rings" films on all day. Who can not be moved almost to tears by the beautiful Adagio D Minor piece Gandalf Falls:

Same tune with the movie, so rough:
Film Clip

Have a good night.

There Will Be Food Tomorrow

Got the hallway all ready for the wife to paint tomorrow; fixed a couple loose cupboards; glue set a small table that was getting very unstable (it is where we have the cat food so the dog does not eat it, he will eat it all if he can get to it); and a few other home chores. Nice.

There Will Be Food Tomorrow
Nice weather finally! I threw out that I was going to be cooking and amongst the many items I can cook baby back ribs and pastrami were the lead contenders. Kid Dynamite is a pastrami addict (his words) so I figured why not take another shot at one? I made one last year almost exactly at this time of year!

Via Wikipedia:

Pastrami (Romanian: pastramă, Yiddish: פּאַסטראָמע pastróme), is a popular delicatessen meat usually made from beef and, traditionally in Romania, also from pork and mutton. Like corned beef, pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration. For pastrami, the raw meat is brined, partly dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed.

So pastrami is not just a beef brisket, it must be corned or brined and then smoked.

Anyways, here is the food for tomorrow's cook:

I could not get over to the butcher shop, but I was glad the baby backs at the grocery store were meaty and looked good.

To make pastrami, you will have to desalt the corned beef otherwise the final product will be so salty you cannot eat much of it. That's not good. While on the smoker the meat will shrink around 30% so everything gets concentrated. I soaked the brisket in water for 7 hours changing the water every hour. Here is a look at how much salt pours out:

The water was clear but gets colored as the brining solution runs out.

Here is the brisket after soaking:


I made a pastrami rub of the following:
.25 cup kosher salt
.25 cup paprika
3 tblsp coriander seeds (will add tomorrow before putting on smoker)
2 tblsp ground coriander
3 tblsp light brown sugar
2 tblsp ground black peppercorns
2 tblsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tblsp ground white peppercorns
1 tblsp minced garlic

Here is the brisket all rubbed up and ready to refrigerate overnight:

Yeah it was premium beer time, Budweiser! (BUD)

I like to apply rib rub to the baby backs right before I put them on the smoker, just my preference. Seems to give a better outside "bark" but maybe that's juts me. The Big Steel Keg will be in action tomorrow! More pictures ans results tomorrow.

Have a good night.

Flanking Maneuver

Very nice weekend here, Spring had arrived.

Bass Pro Shops Haul
Stopped in at Bass Pro Shops Saturday and it was like being in a toy store for fishermen! So much stuff, I was getting a bit dizzy.

Luckily they had a complete Yamamoto lure section, so I stocked up on the best lure ever invented, the Senko! Here is the haul:

Got a nice Shimano reel for $29.95 as well! Maybe next weekend I will head out to catch some fish.

Flanking Maneuver
Had some nice flank steak in Antigua so I thought I would give it a go on The Big Steel Keg.

I bought a package of flank steak and I tried out a new marinade, Allegro, which looked good at the store:


I cut the steak into strips and then hammered the crap out of them with a mallet. This thins them out nice. Yes, I was beating the meat:


The Mom in Law does not like marinaded steaks, so I grabbed a few small tenderloins as well. Asparagus tops rounded out the pre-cook line up:


Everything was pretty good. Here are the flank steak strips almost done:

I forgot to grab a picture of the dinner plate.

I like the marinade but it was just a touch too salty. Never know until you try.

Market Operations
Homework night as I try to find some ideas for stock positions. Will update later if I like anything.

Added:
I like OCLR, ZLCS, SOFO, and LF here.

Have a good night.

Back Home Again

While it is always fun to go on vacation it is even better to come back home in the end. I actually was missing the Pug dog a little and the Cat a lot. Got in last night at 2am so I am a bit off still.

Antigua Vacation
In short, it maybe was the best vacation the wife and I ever had. While I work on getting some pictures loaded (we used a new camera and need to get another piece to load the pictures to my ancient computer) here are a few highlights of the great parts:
-Met two really great people that we had way too much fun with with
-My wife catching the biggest Barracuda I have ever seen
-EconomicDisconnect doing Karaoke, a little Creedence, and making a fool of himself
-Adding to that I even did club dancing in a further effort to make myself look stupid
-Unreal setting
-Great room
-Plenty more good stuff.

Before you punch your ticket for a trip you may want to wait for my recapping the ridiculous travel issues we had getting to Antigua and getting out. I will leave it at if you want to go here you need to be extra patient as the small airport and dumb entry system will strain your nerves for hours to get in and out. Really the only negative of the trip. More later.

Home Cooking
The food at the resort was really amazing and high quality. Still, it is not like food cooked on the Big Steel Keg, and besides who eat when the booze is all inclusive????

That said, I needed a real meal today and seeing as I was on 3 hours sleep I figured why not roll the Keg out to it's place outside and get the cooking season started? I know, I have issues.

The meat counter staffer at the grocery store was setting out a bunch of new filet mignons, and I picked out two huge ones. A little sea salt, pepper, and a coating of EVOO and they were about set to go. I rounded the meal out with some onions and sliced portabella mushrooms. The before:

When you are cooking filets you cannot blow them off the grill with a super high sear, they need a little more even heating, especially ones this size. The Keg was at 500 degrees when the steaks went on. 5 minutes each side and then I dialed back the vents a little to get to 450 degrees. 10 minutes on each side gets them close to rare and at that point you add your other items and start glazing with A-1 sauce for a really wonderful outside crust. Here it all is almost done:

I have a grill topper to keep the onions from falling apart but it's in the basement and I did not feel like getting it.

About 10 minutes glazing while you flip every 2 minutes and the filets are at 130 internal in the middle and just right. Here was my welcome back home plate:

NICE!

I forgot to get a cutaway picture, but it was done just right for me.

Other Stuff
Back to work tomorrow, hopefully I will get some sleep tonight. I will be doing some screens for stocks but I need to get a feel back before opening positions. Looking over the sites I frequent seems like a boring week so I don't think I missed too much.

Good to be back.

Added
Silver Crashing and Drama
Right now (8:30pm EST) silver is down on the futures about 9% and was off 11% a while ago. Who knows what happens by morning but now would be a good time to look around and see how people view such a thing. Everyone likes to be 100% long, but 200% short at just the right time (?? I know). Everyone knows silver is a bubble right now, but if it opens in the real market unchanged it was just an anomoly? I don't know and I am not ready to really get into this stuff yet but I think it important to take a good look at this one section of the market between now and Tuesday.

Have a good night.

Steak Tips and Harvick Wins Again

My pulled/tore muscle is getting old! It only hurts when I breathe or move, so no real problem. In any case, I wanted some real food tonight, so it was Big Steel Keg time! I just taped up my side tight to minimize the pain. A few beers will also help.

Steak Tips
I went with some steak tips for today's dinner. One set I marinaded for a few hours in Stubb's Beef marinade. This stuff adds some serious kick, so be careful is you use it! Here are the ingredients all ready:

The darker steak tips are the marinaded ones. I also cut up some peppers and onions and also had some whole mushrooms. I oven baked some small potatoes as well. I went all out.

Using skewers can make handling a bunch of small things easier on the grill. Here are the assembled sticks:


Letting the Steel Keg heat up:


I cooked them around 600 degrees for 10 minutes total. Almost done:


Dinner is served!:

It was really good.

Kevin Harvick Wins at Martinsville
I almost hurt myself even more watching #29 Kevin Harvick run down the leaders at the end of the race at Martinsville:

And he did not even wait until the last lap, he took the final lead with 3 laps to go! Sorry Dale Earnhardt Jr fans, Kevin was going for the kill! This is fun stuff.

If you win at Martinsville, you get a monster Grandfather Clock along with the trophy! This is so cool:


Homework
I need to run some screens tonight and see what I may do next week market wise. I am 100% in cash after the great past couple of weeks of trading. I will update later if I see anything good.

Added:
Final review in NCT, SA, CEF, KBX. Have to work some charts.

Have a good night.