Fri, 30 Jun 2006
One More- RnJ's Crab
30 Jun 15:48 | /food_and_drink | 2 comment(s)
Balut - For Marc
Marc, this link, is for you. No it's not cuy. It's Balut.
30 Jun 13:12 | /food_and_drink | 5 comment(s)
Wed, 28 Jun 2006
International Dreams
On my bus ride to downtown every morning, I pass a restaurant sign that draws my attention. The first few times I saw it I thought, that's too good to be true. You see, it advertises an international food selection that while isn't healthy-sounding, does induce ye olde droole glandes to start pumping out spittle.
28 Jun 13:13 | /food_and_drink | 2 comment(s)
Mon, 26 Jun 2006
Rave: The Sundress
Even though it's cold and foggy in my 'hood, downtown has been nice and warm- as has the rest of the Bay Area. The sunshine has brought out one of my favorite things: The Sundress. Ladies, thanks for wearing them.Sincerely,
Thu, 22 Jun 2006
Bordeaux and Cali Cab Dinner
I have some generous friends. Extremely generous. For reals. Most of you know that though.
and the final menu was:The wine tasting was divided into two flights. We had even more items with the food, but here's what the breakdown was for the tasting:
Osetra Caviar with 6 traditional sides.
The Tasting.
Palate Refresher of Grapefruit-mint Sorbet.
Sausage and Roasted Pepper Raviolis with fresh tomato sauce
Herb de Provance Lamb T-bone in mint cilantro sauce and Scalloped Potatoes
Prime Rib Eye Beef Kabob Skewers with summer squash, crimin mushrooms and sweet Mayan onions and sides of hummus and crispy pita chips
Foie Gras, pan seared with 4 sauces; currant, cherry, blackberry honey, agave nectar
Pineapple-Rosemary Upside Down Cake
Per Paul's Notes, you'll see that the bonus wine (the Shafer above) was a group fave.
Blind Group A
1999 Louis Martini Monte Rosso Vnyd (non blind)
1999 Van Der Heyden, Napa Valley Hill
1999 Cooper Garrod Lone Oak Vnyd, Santa Cruz Mtns. (the under $20 dead ringer)
1996 Cos D'Estournel, St. Estephe
1996 Chateau Palmer, Margaux
1999 Joseph Phelps Backus, Oakville, Napa
------------------------------------------
Blind Group B
1996 Cos D'Estournel, St. Estephe (yep we had two bottles)
1996 Chateau Langoa Barton, St. Julien
1999 Abreu, Napa
1996 Chateau Angelus, St. Emilion
1999 BV Georges De Latour, Napa
1999 Lewis Reserve, Napa
1999 Shafer, Hillside Select, Stags Leap Dist, Napa (Bonus wine!)
All in all a great night and with some great food. More notes on the wines. Pics are in the pics area. Full text copy of the wines.
Voting by flight, we voted for a #1 and #2 wine
Flight A:
99 Phelps Backus (10 first place votes!)
96 Palmer (4 votes)
99 Van Der Hayden (3 votes)
Flight B
99 Shafer HSS (6 votes)
99 Lewis Reserve (5 votes)
96 Cos Estournel (3 votes, it had 0 in Flight A)
22 Jun 12:24 | /food_and_drink | 3 comment(s)
Wed, 21 Jun 2006
Apples
The next person I hear say "apples to apples" is going to get kicked in the babyhole. So far today though no one's said "soup to nuts". 21 Jun 17:20 | /rants_and_raves | 3 comment(s)
I'm not upset
I got an email from Micah this morning.
Subject: Hey, friend, I see you are very upset! That's weird Micah- how'd you know? Was it the fact that I'm still steaming over the Us v Italy game? Or perhaps that I'm not happy that Miami beat Dallas? I didn't like the after-the-fact suspension on Stackhouse and was mad about that. . . but not upset, Micah. Well a bit. Maybe I'm upset by a comment from Angie questioning my movies? Nah, we give each other shit all the time.. . So what is it Micah? Micah's email:
You have feelings of guilt and embarrassment. It.s really horrible!Listen to me, forget about your problem I know you deserve it! Trust me - it will be a great surprise for your girl!
Thanks for the pick-me-up Micah! You're right, I do deserve it. Whatever it is. Now, what happens when I click the link in Micah's mail . . . 21 Jun 12:07 | /humor | 1 comment(s)
Tue, 20 Jun 2006
Quick DVD Roundup 6/19
Yet Another QDR. The last one seemed to work well, so I thought I'd repeat the format instead of breaking each movie out into it's own review.
Mondovino - ***
Man, this was a poorly made documentary, even shitty at parts. It even dragged on for 40 days, like the rain on Noah's speedboat. . . But after the 3DMT™ I was still thinking about it. In a nutshell, it's a movie about wine - but from an industry standpoint. It's a documentary, and it's about 4000 hours long, but it's pretty good. The first half is the better than the second, but they (barely) manage to keep it interesting, and me interested. There's a lot of stuff that'd be easy to use as fodder for arguments so I'd like some of you to see it and then shoot me an email afterwards to tell me what you thought. You'll never look at Mondavi the same way.
Taking Lives - *
I hope I'm not giving anything away in this but Angelina does get naked for a minute in this. Oh, and there's a decent story about a serial killer. This movie stars two odd-ear'ed actors: Ethan "I ruined Uma's Life" Hawke and Kiefer "I filmed my scenes in 6 hours" Sutherland. I have a problem with the movie though- there are major plot holes in this, one of them being Ethan putting his thingy in Angelina's plot hole. I'll give it one star because I got to see a character I hate get stabbed, and another for nudity. Let's face it, we need more nudity- you think I'm wrong? The news pastes Zawqari's corpse on TV and CSI reruns have bodies or parts everywhere- we need some balance people! C'mon.
Back to the movie though- it's really not that great, but guys like Angelina (I don't too much, she violates my tattoo rule) and girls will like the boys of the flick- Ethan, Kiefer, and Olivier Martinez. Oh, and Tchéky Karyo too! I really wanted to like this and was disappointed- I rented it because the director is the same guy who did The Salton Sea, plus it had Tchéky Karyo and Jean-Hugues Anglade!! You remember JHA? The king in Queen Margot? Or perhaps Eric from Killing Zoe? How did this flick go so wrong? The opening scene was so damn good. Oh well.
EDIT: screw it, I'm taking away a star, only one for you TL
Spanglish - **
I was going to give this two stars, but it's a better flick than Taking Lives. . .
EDIT: I bumped it down because I updated the TL review
Paz Vega mmmmm. She's so damn good in this. Let's get one thing out of the way first-- her character (and her character's sister, played by Cecilia Suárez) are impossibly hot. It's crazy and I found it distracting. But then again, maybe it's me and my uhhh predilections. Basically this is a just-slightly-better-than-cable RomCom that's meant to show off a lot of great relationships. Tea Leoni's really good, but you want to put her in a fleece vest and slap her silly- which shows how good she is. Cloris Leachman's good too. Oh, but Paz. . . I'd type "le sigh" here, but Angie says I can't say that anymore. . . (I did say RomCom though, ewww) Biker Boyz ** This movie has a ton of stars and no plot holes so it ties Taking Lives. It's kinda like a western-meets-oedipus-meets-superbikes, but it's surprisingly entertaining. Actually, now that I think about it, if the characters in this flick had ridden to Montreal to interfere with the case that Angelina was working on in TL, it'd be the bestest movie evar!! Ocean's Twelve - 0 Shit Sandwich Cold Mountain * Cold Mountain if it were on IRC:
Nicole joins channel #south jude_law1: a/s/l? nicole: i don't type that, I'm a lady jude_law1:proper? omg ur hot nicole:orly? jude_law1:yarly nicole:msg me for private chat! -:-NetSplit: irc.south.net split from hub.north.net.us Jude_law1 has left the channel nicole:omg where u go? Jude_law1 has joined #south nicole:omg I thought you left jude_law1: hehe sorry, I'm getting ready to go fight war nicole: I hate teh WoW jude_law1: nah, it's the real war, ok I luv you but I'm going now Jude_law1 has left the channel badguy: it's ok, he's gone, but I'm hot too. a/s/l? dcc me yur pics! jejeje! nicole: omgwtf nicole msg jude_law1 hey where are u? nicole msg jude_law1 when u come bak? away : jude_law1 - is away : (fighting teh yankees) nicole: hrm badguy: you wanna priv chat? nicole has left the channel nicole has joined channel #south nicole: !seen jude_law1 dixiebot: jude_law1 was last seen in channel #south 1460 days ago badguy: he's still not back, wanna cyber? nicole: le sigh jude_law1 has joined channel #south badguy: aww shit jude_law1: wtf shit? badguy: I wan yur lady jude_law1: bak off, you go play WoW liek teh Koreans omg lolz badguy:fu nicole:omg I miss u! jude_law1: omg me too I priv msg you but I was gone. wanna cyber? badguy: f u jude_law1:fu2! jude_law1 stares at badguy badguy: stop mofo! badguy slaps jude_law1 with a frozen trout jude_law1: omgwtfbbq badguy was kicked off #south by jude_law1 (stfu) jude_law1 was kicked off #south by dixiebot (kickban no chanops) jude_law1 has joined channel #south nicole: omg ur back! jude_law1 hearts nicole nicole hearts jude_law1 SignOff jude_law1 #south (Remote host closed the connection) nicole: omgwtf?!
20 Jun 00:43 | /movies | 7 comment(s)
Mon, 19 Jun 2006
US v Italy
Thanks to Edgar for the espresso and lunch and the HD soccer game watching on Saturday. That's about the only nice thing I have to say about the game. I'm thinking about boycotting the entire nation of Uruguay but that would be a bit extreme.
Players win games,Uggh. Oh, another thing. France is overrated too. That wasn't a "great pass" from Wiltord to Henry, he (Wiltord) shanked his shot. I'm rooting for Korea more and more these days. . . Oh and while I'm at it-- will other people NOW start agreeing with me that Landon Donovan is overrated? Sheesh 19 Jun 13:39 | /futbol | 1 comment(s)
Coaches lose games,
and Refs ruin games...
Eric Wynalda (probably paraphrasing/quoting someone else)
Wed, 14 Jun 2006
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to all the June Bday people! I usually get all your dates mixed up since they all, or almost all of them fall in a 10-day range. So, Happy Birthday: Jeff, Angie2, Bart, Dad, and Cory. I think I'm forgetting someone too, that's the worst- oh wait, Kevin. But he was at the start of the month, and I didn't miss his day. Here are some birthday monkeys for you: 14 Jun 13:33 | /general | 0 comment(s)
Tue, 13 Jun 2006
A&A 80's redux?
What's the deal with the new Angels & Airwaves album? I'm not trying to knock it or anything- it's not bad, but it sounds like something that I would've listened to in junior high (while worrying who I'd take to the Fiesta Cotillion or various dances- eek!).
I would've listened to the album once, then started saving up for new Boss chorus and delay pedals (I already had them actually). I get that vibe when listening to The Killers last album too.
Enough for today, I'm starting to miss my super-mullet.
13 Jun 14:49 | /rants_and_raves | 0 comment(s)
Mon, 12 Jun 2006
More Random Musings
On Saturday we played some No-limit Hold'em at Angie's. I wasn't going to blog about this, but she started it first. Basically she backed down to an all-in raise from Marc. I was dumbfounded. I still am. The best part was the look on her face when Marc (aka "Clutch" from GI Joe) flipped up his cards to reveal something like ace-high. Wheeee!
I can add this comment- Limerick Lane's Syrah (Collins) kicks serious ass. A might nice wine. The Christopher Creek Zin was good too, but I'm a big fan of that LL. We *easily* polished off a magnum.
Speaking of Angie- I'm a bit jealous (see 3rd paragraph). No, I don't want to live in the Castro, I'm just jealous of people buying places out here. First her, now
Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Ebay, PayPal and Politics
Here's a good read about EBay and Paypal backing an online gambling ban and backing internet regulation. I should read the book the columnist mentions The PayPal Wars. It sounds interesting. I forgot about PayPal's initial libertarian leanings, how quickly I forgot too. It reminds me of that e-gold and e-dinar article Wired had long ago. 08 Jun 13:15 | /tech | 0 comment(s)
Tue, 06 Jun 2006
SF Taco Van on Spear
Bah.
After some random walks around the area I was really excited to find a taco truck near my office.
At CollabNet, Tuesday was Taco Tuesday and we'd head to the taco truck to load up. [note: there are reports, disturbing reports, coming in that the quality of the SSF van has been slipping. I'll have an assistant do some research and I'll post an update.] There was nothing close to a good van (or any kind of van) when we were up in Mill Valley so now that I'm downtown I'm excited again. Or I was excited.
For you see, the van at the corner of Folsom and Spear sucks ass, as the kids say. Their painted menu advertises stuff they don't have and the stuff they do have sucks in both quality, quantity and price.
The van/truck says it's from Los Compadres in SSF or near there. They also have a typical menu, or ingredient list (the requisite "available meats" list). I was surprised and happy to see cabeza and lengua on there because that (usually) means the van's ready for serious cusomters. The painted menu even said that they served sopes, so I was even more excited and ready for my order. Then I realized how long the line was taking. Then it was my turn and the guy brusquely told me that they didn't serve sopes and pointed to his laminated menu and said what they had on there was what they had. So I started to order tacos and fortunately realized that there were two tacos to and order - which explained, in a way, why the tacos were $3 each. But then after the longest f******* wait EVAR I finally got back to the office and opened up my tinfoiled package. Good lord was I disappointed. Barely any carnitas on the f******* things. Uggh. I can't keep writing about this, I'm too mad.
06 Jun 17:24 | /food_and_drink | 3 comment(s)
Thu, 01 Jun 2006
Just Wondering
Is it wrong that I experience schadenfreude when the muni express bus gets full before the last two stops before heading downtown? Does it have something to do with the fact that it's the Fillmore @ California stop? On Monday I rode my bike around a lot. It was really nice out. When I was taking a break on a hill in the Presidio, this woman (walking her bike) came up and asked if I had a toolkit- I said sure, and asked if I could help. She said her chain was broken. I took a look at her bike and realized two things- 1. her bike costs more than my car (but not a Panerai watch, let's get that clear) and 2. her chain wasn't broken, nothing was- her chain had come off the front chainrings. I just showed her how to fix it and she was on her way. Later on the way home, I took another break (yeah, I'm out of shape and can't go up hills) and another person had the same problem- but this was a tourist on a rental bike and she was heading towards the GG Bridge. I helped her too. Both people were as nice, but I thought it was odd that the one with the fancy bike didn't know how to "fix" it. On a random note, I was feeling homesick for TX the other day, so I made King Ranch Chicken. While I was eating it, I kept saying "I'm the KING!! I'm the KING!!". Rotel is the secret ingredient in life, man. . . Julieta Venegas has a new album out. I saw a video the other day for Me Voy on Pepsi Musica on channel 66 when I was falling asleep at 3am the other night. . . I
