CARDRUNNERS

Man its been a while since I blogged.  After I got back from my Santa Barbara wine tasting trip I got broadsided by the bus that is tax season.  The light at the end of the tunnel is slowing approaching. 

It's Kristen's birthday tomorrow so I'd like to be the first to wish her a Happy Birthday.  12 of us are taking a limo to the Dodger Exhibition game at the collesium and bringing alot a beer pong table and a keg.  Should be alot of fun.

CPA Exam Update:

I've passed 3 sections and I'm taking audit on Thurs Apr 3rd...The day I get that last passing score I will be heavily heavily drinking.  The CPA exam is like a year long stretch of finals week.  It's miserable and I'm glad I never have to think about it again.

Santa Barbara Wine Tasting:

What a great freaking trip.  We stayed at a great hotel (The Petersen Inn) in Solvang that was really nice and had great food (all inclusive).  As I say that I'm thinking about Michael Scott and The Office.  We went to several wineries including:

Sanford: This place was recommended because of the Pinot Noir.  Kristen and I enjoyed the wine but it was not our favorite.  The scenery here was awesome and we both enjoyed the wine tour.  The staff was also not as friendly and approachable as other places.  (Purchases: 1 Bottle)

Babcock: This winery is owned by a former Seal Beach, CA resident and was the main reason we stopped by.  The tasting area was pretty small and compact which I didn't like because I like to be able to roam around and enjoy the wine and views.  6 "tasting" glasses later and some fun and interesting conversations later we hit the road to our final destination. (Purchases: 4 Bottles)

Foley: Foley was by far our favorite of the day.  We decided it was time to open the cheese and crackers and sit out on the lawn and relax.  Their wines had a lot of distinct flavors and and I think thats why we got so many bottles.  This was also where we met Mike Weir and Adam Scott's swing coach (They are pro Golfers).  He and his wife drove down from Pebble Beach for the day to do some wine tasting and relaxing.  We sat and hung out with them for a couple hours and then headed off to dinner. (Purchases: 6 Bottles)

Foxen: We started our Sunday off at Foxen.  This vineyard and tasting room was definitely a favorite of the trip.  Essentially the owners took an old blacksmith barn and turned it into a tasting room.  Very rustic and a pleasure change from the typical large commercial tasting rooms.  They were also nice enough to make a generous donation to Kristen and my cork collection. (Purchases: 4 Bottles)

Zaca Mesa: By far the nicest people of the trip.  We spent close to 2 hours here tasting around 10 wines.  The staff were very knowledgeable about the wines.  Zaca specializes in Rhone varietals and had some others wines that would go great with a BBQ. (Purchases: 4 Bottles)

Curtis: This winery is stil owned by the Firestone family.  Recently the Firestone family sold their Firestone Vineyard to Foley.  While we enjoyed Curtis, we found it strange that you were not allowed to go outside and drink the wine (something to do with new restrictions).  It was at this point that Kristen started to get a little tipsy as she had already had close to a bottle of wine. (Purchases: 6 Bottles)

Ok as I write this I'm realizing the blog is quite long.  The last 2 wineries were Firestone (1 Bottle) and Scott Cellars (3 Bottles).  All in all Kristen and I bought 29 bottles of wine this trip.  Needless to say our wine refridgerator is now completely stocked!  Scott cellars was really cool as it was owned by a guy just started out and he was by far the most enthusiastic out of everyone we met.  For those aspiring wineooooo's when you see Cuvee on a bottle that means "blend".  I'm putting some pictures up from our trip.  Next blog I'll talk about going to Dodger Spring training and Kristen's Bday Celebration. 

Poker side note: I've turned the 20 dollars UB gave me into 210 bucks.  Pretty happy with the way I've played there.  Also have been doing fairly well in the SNGs on FTP.  I feel like whenever I'm late in a SNG and I have AQ i run it into AK.  GJ to Spuddy and Kriz on their SNG challenge.  Both of them have been playing very well and I'm impressed with both of their abilities to stick within their guidlines and bankrolls.

Me being a "Barrell Fucker"

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Kristen and I at Foley

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Kristen and I at Foxen

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Oh man, bottles in the club is absolutely crushing me. I should probably just not be allowed to drink. Our house ended today so last night we all went out to celebrate the last night with bottles in the club obviously. We went to Blush at the Wynn, it was a good time. Of course things got a little crazy like they always do with bottles in the club. I have no self-control, I have no idea what is wrong with me! LOL...but seriously. Anyways now I'm staying at Planet Hollywood for a couple days and will leave to go to Seattle on Sunday. I cannot wait to get back there. Vegas is too much trouble for me right now. I'm just losing money and acting insane!

I'm gonna try to play online a little bit right now and tomorrow during the day. Hopefully have a pretty low-key night tonight. I played online yesterday and my head just wasn't in the game at all. It was disappointing. Hopefully tonight and tomorrow will be a little different!

On a different note. Eventhough I've been getting way too hammered, Vegas has been a blast. Here are some pictures of the memorable nights in Vegas...

Power hour with Paul(kwicky), Ben(Wolfe) and Zach(Bag). That night was hilarious!

This was at Tao, this might have been my quietest night in Vegas....seriously!

The Infamous "party bus" night....

Bowling at south point! Paul teaching me how to bowl like the pros and Linecrushers all gutter balls for the first 4 frames!!!! Couldn't stop laughing about it.

Stinger! What a lady's man.....The double kiss from princess donk and me...what more could a guy ask for?

Daut is lucky as well...

Mandalay Bay....blows but this picture is awesome and the club we were at was awesome. Everything went downhill when we left the club and decided to go play drunk 1/2. The wouldn't even let J(the one in the middle) sit down at the poker table and I maybe played 2 hands before I got kicked out of the poker room for being drunk. Then Line, BlueFlare and Dawn all got arrested and are now banned from all MGM casinos! bottles in the club...

This is Mr. Bottles the club himself otherwise known as Linecrusher or Pat. I blame him for all the crazy bottle nights!

Ceasar's bottles....

Taite and I thuggin it out like the true gangsters that we are...

The close talker...this is some random guy from England that literally talked to people so close that it looked like they were going to make out the whole time! So hilarious!

Seth and LIne at bottles in the club at Jet. Another insane night that ended with soccer outside of the castle and someone turning off the neighbor's electricity at a5:30am!

Dinner at some italian place in the Rio. We had $250 worth of $10off poker vouchers...it was sweet!

Last night after dinner bottles in the club at Blush in the Wynn...good times

Work it Dawn...getting jiggy with it!

What a badass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that is all the bottles in the club nights....

EDIT:  So lame the pictures weren't working.  After putting all the pictures up someone removed all the files in my folder off the CR server.  I don't get it.  They should work now

First I wanted to say that I finished today +23k today after a decent place in a tourney (I "deserved" more but lost 2 flips back to back, like OMG can't I just keep running good forever one time).  That just tops off the last 12 days of my life which have been quite rememberable, and yet quite not rememberable at the same time.  Good thing I took pictures!

As I review some of these pictures, I realize we look far too drunk in most of them for me to put them up, so they have been censored for your protection.


Us Chilling outside Mesa before we get a table. (Me, Shana, Nick)




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That's Clay (MezmerizePLZ) and his sister Mo




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half of Alex (Sillynice), Tommy (tcblade), and Bob (bigbobmalou sp?)



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A bunch of us chillin' (Echo, Bob, Shana's back there, Alex, Me, Nick)



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Someone plz photoshop the Corono into the sand next to us.



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Told you there are some huge fish at PCA



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Us in front of the Bacardi store getting ready for another night



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Us getting ready for the nightclub. liquid meat, owner of liquidpoker.net I believe, aka Joy, is the guy on the far left



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Poppin Bottles all night long



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This is what the nightclub looks like when your drunk



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So needless to say PCA was alot of fun.  I got a bunch more pics I will put up another day.  Im off to make some full ring videos.