http://www.tommyangelo.com/blog/

enjoy!

i could write more but im too lazy. i play 50+ hours of poker every week and then try to find time to spend with mary and the kids.

 nothing too exciting has happened. there were a few outings with friends. saw a couple movies (the fall was good), stuff like that. going to vegas for a few days at the end of the month.

 if you want something exciting to read look at my tasting notes on cellar tracker

http://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?Table=Notes&iUserOverride=29814&Page=0

that’s what chris and i call being up all night every night while the rest of the world sleeps. im busy catching up on lost. im on season 4 now. i like it but not as much as i like 24, which im only on season 3 of now. love my stories. that’s what old ladies call tv shows.

 ive started playing 1-2 at commerce regularly again. the game is oftentimes good, sometimes meh. funny hands come up sometimes. i posted one here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=193720 

mary and i went to market (http://www.marketdelmar.com/) earlier this evening. second time we’d been there, this place is really good. but ive noticed a trend in good restaurants lately. the entrees are never as good as the starters. for instance tonight we had a fabulous soft shell crab tempura, coconut carrot soup, foie gras with blueberry pie tartlet thingy, and gnocchi carbonara. all but the gnocchi rocked hard. the gnocchi was good it was just too creamy and bacony and stuff compared to the other food which was much lighter and more nuanced. the main courses werent bad dont get me wrong they were just a little lackluster. pork curry three ways featured a lovely little samosa, some standard good but boring pork curry with peas, and something else that was boring i dont even remember. duck two ways was even more uninteresting. and it’s not just this place, seems like everywhere i like the entree, the biggest dish, far less than the starters which seem to have more thought put into them.

why do these wussys on lost put up with ben and the bad guys? they shouldve just killed all the other islanders in a massive bloodbath and moved in to their little neighborhood. lame ass show.

notes on paso robles trip with mary weekend of 4-5-08

we went wine tasting and places that stood out were:
denner–the current grenache is so amazing. much better than the RP 92 syrah blends.

grey wolf–quiet little place with very friendly pourers and interesting history. most importantly, the wines were big and bold and kicked ass.

hug–edgar the pourer there on a sunday morning was a class act and the pinot and rose were showing well. even better was his own 50 case project called E2 (dont know how to type ”E squared”). really glad i got the chance to grab a bottle of that… 

longoria–in los olivos. easily the highest quality thing going on in that area.

tolo–wow im glad the lady at grey wolf turned us on to this place. funny little tasting room serving an absolutely killing NV chard bottled in Feb 07 but blending vins 00, 01, and 02! viscous and not overly sweet, but complex instead, this wine blew us away. we were also taken aback by the 01 asini, a sang/zin 60/40 blend with 15.8% alcohol that spent over 6 years in barrel, WTF! complex and delicious wine.

disappointments were:

garretson–met mat who is clearly a very nice guy, we were there for a club member bbq. the food was simple and good, but the wines were not showing well. super salty/alcoholic they lacked nuance and made me decide i will cancel my membership. RP has lost his mind with these wines and they are just big scary monsters that are way too hot and sweet and awkward. the saving grace was a pleasant rose and some old grenache blanc he had going begging.

beckmen–completely underwhelmed with this place (off the beaten track in los olivos). ive enjoyed some of their whites in the past but the reds are all fake sweet and too hot.

epiphany–really enjoyed their sweet rousannes and marsannes in the past, i dont get at all what their doing with this current vintage. strange bad wine.

opolo–the height of mediocrity, the staff in the tasting place were very nice, but nothing could get me to like this bland unappealing juice. yawn.

we went to several others but they werent worth noting either way as great or bad.

wine in paso was significantly and consistently much better than that of los olivos, where we had stayed before
and stopped on the way up to have lunch and taste with friends.

we stayed at an amazing place:

http://www.ameliasloft.com/

this place rocked big time. very cozy and inexpensive as well. would like to stay there again.

we had a really mediocre meal friday night at justin winery’s deborah’s room. while the food was standard boring fare
the reds were pretty kicking (save the dessert wine trash) and i was surprised having hated an older isoceles i had last year
and bad things i heard about the recent quality. the current cab and isoceles they served with dinner was very good. so go for the wine and skip on the food.

better choices for food are:

artisan at 14th and park which serves a perfect cuban sandwich for lunch and

basil which is a thai place near the movie theater downtown that is definitely a notch above your
average local thai place. we were very impressed with the food there.

there is also a terrific candy store with a very big selection right next store to the thai place that is fun to shop in.

one of the coolest things we did while there was go to this place:

http://www.franklinhotsprings.com/
there is mud in the floor of the hot springs pool so naturally you take the mud out and rub it all over yourself and then
lay out in the sun and let it dry. it’s supposed to detoxify you. so mary and i did that and it was awesome.
i bought 2 cases of wine so maybe ill try and plan a big paso robles tasting dinner some place in LA soon…

 oh speaking of great places to eat in LA, some friends and i went to sona on la cienega in hollywood area and it
was pretty amazing, probably the best food ive had in LA ever. cant wait to try it again and order off the menu (we had the
9 course tasting).

http://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=4747

 thanks to everyone who attended! more later.

if im not out playing poker than im here like i am tonight. im watching three’s a crowd (three’s company spinoff) i downloaded off mininova.org and im eating some very nice split pea soup mary made months ago (froze the leftovers), a glass of milk and two slices of flax seed toast no butter (my idea of a diet meal).

i watch torrents on my ipod a lot while i play live hold em and ive been playing a lot of poker so ive been wathching a lot of movies. as much as i hate super violent bloody movies, no country for old men is amazing on many levels. i tried to wach LA confidential because id never seen it and it was terrible, i was really surprised, i wanted to like it but it just jumped around and none of the characters were meaningful. it was more like a  TV pilot than a movie. ive been watching the tv show northern exposure. it’s a little cheesy but it holds my interest. im also watching king of the hill all the way through and im pretty sure it’s the best show to have ever been on TV. i prefer it to the simpsons. ive also been watching seasons of south african and uk survivor. so yeah basically im a big ipod watching douchebag.

im typing this while eating ben and jerrys creme brulee ice cream which is delicious and i recommend it.

speaking of gabes, shawn pmed me the other day and said crazy gabe was playing 3-6 at commerce. so sick. as shawn says “i wish i was good enough to play the big boy games”.

been playing 40 at oceans a lot. was up like $5k last night basically because i made a set like every time i had a pair, but only won $275 before leaving. playing overs + flopping two pairs against lagatic jason = bye bye chips. been having fun playing there lately though because game is sick good and im running good. hopefully it will last awhile.

no new wine this week, drinking wine is not synching up with my schedule at all. fortunately im hosting a wine tasting potluck here next weekend with some friends so i can drink plenty then. the phillips hill 94 point gary vaynerchuk pinot will be here by then so we’ll give it a whirl.

yeah so other than that not much to report. i tried to watch raising arizona on my ipod, remembered liking it as a teenager, and it was just so tiresome and bad. seems like i turn off most movies halfway through nowadays. another thing people are bad at is playing survivor. current season showed lots of promise but people’s consistent stupidity and misjudging of others around them make it frustrating. the dominant players are just destroying the naive ones. yawn.

more negativity later.

i guess i should actually talk about poker since this is a poker named site. i won two 30+ bb pots in the last week playing 40 at oceans.

hand 1 i have red TT on the button in the greatest game ever. two limpers, lag preflop but passive fish otherwise raises, next guy complete lunatic lagball 3 bets, biggest lagball idiot ever caps it, i call 4 cold, bb calls, limper calls. it should tally up to 7 of us for 4 bets cause that’s what it was. the flop is 982 with two hearts. checked to initial pf raiser who bets, i decide his bet looks like an overpair, two callers and i call because i dont want to pay 4 bets to see the turn and i think im beat and i know NO one will fold for two cold as their eyes are already glazing over at the mound of chips in the center of the table. everyone calls and 7 of us see the turn.

the turn is a 7 making it two diamonds on board too now. checked to hugest lag fish ever on my right who bets, i raise, 3 players call two bets cold, original flop better says “this hand wont be good on the river” or something retarded and folds what im sure is the winner. last guy cold calls i think merely because everyone else did too and he didnt want to feel left out. turn better calls which makes me happy because a 3 bet wouldve caused vomiting for sure.

 the river is the lovely 5d completing a backdoor flush, idiot end straight and a miriad of two pair hands. checked to me and i decide checking will earn me the most here. guy on my right gets all excited like he’s certain his hand is good and announces “i have a deuce!!” i say “i can beat a deuce.” big blind says “pair of nines”, i say “i can beat that” and turn over my hand, one pair for a $2400+ pot. see poker is easy after all i just imagined that 200bb downswing i suffered since 2008 started.

last night i get 88 6 or 7 handed and raise doc jose who limps utg directly on my right, huge fish on my left calls, sb calls, bb calls, the doc respazzes, i think about capping but want to raise jose’s flop bet so i call, but now short bus on my left random caps. everyone calls, 5 for 4 bets, smiles all around.

 the flop is Q98 and it’s checked to me and i bet, guy on my left raises, blinds call, doc check-3 bets, i cap, they all call.

 the turn is a 7. i bet, fish raises, blinds fold, doc calls two cold. i decide that fish possibly has JT but i dont care because he can also easily have any two pair and cant have QQ or 99. so i 3 bet, he caps, jose gets dragged behind the truck for two more. i cap certain that i will suck out because im better player than ten each of these two guys put together.

lo and behold the river is an 8. i bet knowing it’s an error as soon as i do it (easiest c/r ever!). fish calls with his JT and jose folds (??!!??). i scream “I QUADED UP FUCK YOU ALL RETARDED BITCHES!!!” and muster enough strength to throw the whole table up and over, killing the two blinds.

 actually that part didnt happen, but i did quad up and win a $2600 pot and it made me glad inside.

poker sucks.

mary and i love going out to dinner with chris (death donkey) and his lovely wife courtney. last night we headed to pcg in solana beach. mary and i had been there before, but chris and courtney hadnt. our first choice was sake house in leucadia, but they were too busy. anyway we were seated right away and the pre-dinner drinks were good. mary had a raspberry mojito i drank half of and i had a glass of zin (i think it was random ridge) that featured a fruit on the flavor profile i cant put my finger on… was light bodied, but very good.

 appetizers featured a weird spring roll that had sweet applewood bacon covered in maple syrup that was as weird and kind of gross as it sounds but we ate it anyway. the rib sliders which were little pulled pork sandwiches basically were really good especially with the sauce they came with. there was something else unexciting. i had a thick and pretty delicious shrimp chowder we all shared. me and chris each ordered a special reserve pinot noir they were serving by the glass that was too cold and very closed. it had opened up a little by the end of the night, but by then i had had plenty to drink. i dont remember the name of it, but i would avoid it again if i had. been having bad luck with pinots lately, about 5+ bad ones in a row. although i do like them in general, the best wine i ever had was a sine qua non pn, you can find it in my cellar tracker ratings here im on there as mike l. unfortunately i dont know how you can search by just username on there…

 anyway the entrees: i had ribs which was basically a big rack of small ribs with some sauce on the side and some mashed potatoes. the ribs were okay although not super tender, they were very plain but great with the sauce that came with them. mary had some mahi that was really fishy tasting to me and she didnt love either. it had a lot of mushy vegetables and sauce and stuff on the plate, pretty underwhelming. the white chocolate bread pudding is really good. i had a rombauer cab sauvignon with my ribs that was big and bold.

 so all in all that was better than i remembered it being having been there a few times before. nowhere in the realm of arterra or market, which are still the best SD area restaurants we’ve been too, but defintely serviceable in a pinch.