As most of you know, the real estate market has slowed down a little and the money isn't coming in as quickly as it use to. It's all part of the cycle and was to be expected. Since the slow down I have been on about a dozen listing presentations and every single one went the same with the client saying "I have the best house, the most upgrades, the best views.........so we need to get top dollar for our home!" Or my personal favorite " We just bought this house two years ago and put ten's of thousands of dollars upgrading this home and now we want to recoup all the money we spent AND make a profit so we can buy our next home!" I am sorry but when you bought the house two years ago, the market was at one of it's highest, most inflated points in history. The market finally started to correct itself, all the people that got band aid loans with adjustable rates are now getting burned because those rates are now adjusting and raising their monthly payments way above what they can afford, tons of homes are being foreclosed on, the banks are having to sell them for less than is owed and the value of the houses are coming down. They can't seem to get that through their heads. I have turned down every single listing because people aren't being realistic. They need to be the best house and with the most competitive price. Oh and then the best part is they want me to do ALL my normal marketing and advertising, and want me to do it for 4% commission!!! Are you out of your freakin mind?! I put over $200 into marketing and advertising in the first week alone (depending on the price of the home it could be much higher). So needless to say, I am looking for other streams of income. I will be keeping my license for my referral and past clients so that I can continue working with them, but I am not going to advertise for new clients, I am going to be on a referral only basis. That's what I was getting at before my little rant started, sorry about that. Anyway, I have been in the restaurant industry all my life (before real estate), and that is what I am good at. I have applied at quite a few restaurants in the past couple of months, OK, 16 in all. Unfortunately for me, it seems like I have been out of the game for too long and apparently there is a lot of people out there looking for jobs as restaurant managers right now. I guess that is good for me because I am the type of person that likes to be my own boss. So, after racking my brain for a loooooooong time, I think I have finally figured it out. I am going to start a personal chef business. I am doing a ton of research right now and am going to start putting a business plan together soon. I am going to use this blog as a record of the progress that I am making.
One of the reasons for this idea has been because we have been cooking a lot more at home lately. I believe my passion for cooking and for the industry has been rediscovered since we started trying new recipes and styles at home. I have been very lucky to be the "stay at home dad" and I realize that not everyone has that luxury. After taking a closer look at my neighbors and the lives that they live, this business just makes perfect sense. Most of them have both parents working to support the kids and pay the bills, married couples and single people that have careers that keep them at work for most of the day, and most of them would kill to have a little extra time in the day to relax and not have to worry about dinner. Hell, until a couple of months ago, Kim and I would still have that conversation, "What do you want for dinner? I don't know, what do you want?" And I was at home!!! Granted, I am pretty lazy, but you get my point. There is such a great market out there for this kind of business, and it is more affordable than you would think. So that is what is going on in the business front.
We have made some really AWESOME meals in the past week or so. First we had Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin medallions with a port cherry reduction sauce and asparagus-wild mushroom risotto with Parmesan. Let me tell ya, the pork and the port cherry sauce was soooooo tasty. The risotto on the other hand was another story. It sounds good, but the recipe that we have calls for PRE-COOKED Arborio rice. I guess this is the quick version of risotto. A true risotto is when you do not pre cook the rice. It was very bland and starchy, thick and pasty. Next time we make it we will have to have Brian, our personal stirrer come help us. We watched Emril Live last night and he made a risotto and said that you have to put the raw rice in the pot to cook and stir constantly for 20 minutes. Of course his turned out looking great, so maybe we will have to try it his way next time. Speaking of Brian, we made a meal on Sunday that we had when he was out here last month, Spinach and meat stuffed shells with homemade garlic cheesy bread. YUM. We also made a Shrimp and Scallop Paella. After the risotto disaster, I was kind of leery about this recipe, but it turned out really good. It made a huge portion, so I took some over to my neighbors house for them to try, and they said they really liked it too. Now tonight, we had Penne a La Vodka Casserole. Holy moly cannoly. Now when Kim brought out this recipe out last week, I have to admit, I wasn't feelin it (and trust me, she won't let me forget it, LOL). The ingredients seemed good, but I couldn't see it in my mind or taste it. It has 1lb of sweet Italian sausage, 1lb spicy Italian sausage, onions, garlic, other herbs and spices, 1/2 cup of vodka, crushed tomato's, heavy cream, ricotta, parmigiano-Reggiano, and then topped with mozzarella cheese. You cook all the non dairy ingredients on the stove for a total of 50 minutes. While that is cooking, you get your penne al dente, add half the ricotta and parmigiano-regiano to the penne, toss to coat the noodles evenly, add the other pan with all the other goodies in it, mix that together, then add the 2nd half of ricotta and parmigiano-reggiano, mix that up real good, put it in a baking dish, put the mozzarella cheese on top of it and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes and BAM!!!! (BTW, it is an Emril recipe) We made the garlic cheesy bread and this time used french bread instead of the crusty semolina bread. The semolina bread is really good, but the crust is quite thick and hard to get through sometimes, and we found that the french bread is a little easier to eat. Since that recipe made a huge portion also, I took some over to the neighbors again. I told them that they were going to be my guinea pigs for the new recipes, and they have NOOOOOOOO problem with that. I haven't gotten any feedback on the dish yet, but we didn't sit down for dinner until almost 7.
Poker....... I played at Casino Arizona last Friday in the 11:15am tourney. 129 people played. I played pretty well. No pressure, just sat down and played my game. From the start to the first break was a roller coaster ride for my chip count. My first of five tables that day played for about a level and a half before breaking, had a couple of "grizzly ole vets of the game" playing at the table and boy was that entertaining. One guy got hit by the deck, but no one else got anything to play against him so he was getting frustrated. Another guy came late and played really loose-aggressive and took a decent sized pot off of him with 5/6 off suit. The old man didn't like that too much. The the loose-aggressive guy raised preflop 4x, and another guy min raised him, the first guy went all in and the min raiser went into the tank for probably 3 minutes. He had almost 55% of his chips in the pot already. He finally called with KK and the loose-aggressive guy had A9d. Man the table gave this guy hell about taking so long with his decision. I just sat back and laughed at everyone. The KK held up and we continued. I played two hands at the first table. The first was AQo on the button. I raised 5x since there were two limpers before me. The small blind called and the two limpers called. Flop came KKJ two clubs. Checked around to me and I bet about just under half the pot to see if I could flush out the King and everyone calls. I figure at least one of these limpers had a K. The turn was a rag. Now the small blind bets out about 3/4 of the pot. One limper calls, the other limper and I fold. The river is another rag that doesn't complete the flush and the small blind bets again just about a pot sized bet. The limpers asks "what did you do, flop a boat? No you have a busted flush draw don't you?" He folded and the small blind turns over his flopped boat!!! On my next button, I had A9d and raise 4x since their was one limper already in the pot. Everyone calls and the flop was A94 with one diamond. Checks to me and I bet just under half the pot again. Calls all the way around. Turn is the 10d. Checks to me and I bet about the size of the pot and get the limper to call. River was a rag and I bet the pot again and he folds showing me the K2d. DOH!!! If that diamond would have hit I would have felted him. I muck my cards and two hands later the table broke. Moved to my next table. First hand under the gun +1 I have AKd, raise 3x and everyone folds. I show my cards to start my table image. Next hand I am under the gun and have pocket 10's. Raise 3x and everyone folds. I show that hand also. A few hands go by and I didn't play unless I had to, and the guy in the 10 seat makes a comment that I haven't played anything for a while so you must play ABC poker. Good, I want them to think that I only play strong starting hands. The next hand after his comment, it gets folded to me and I raise 3x again and again everyone folds. I show my 93o and look at him and say "No, I play XYZ poker." The table got a kick out of that comment and the guy laughed and gave me a high five. This really worked to my advantage because a couple of hands later I was in a pot with him and bet after the turn with a flush draw and an open ended straight draw and he had no clue what I had. He showed me top pair and top kicker and mucked. Then I got into another hand with the guy in the one seat where he raised 4x or 5x and I re raised him most of his stack. It folded back to him and he reluctantly went all in with his AQo. I called with my pocket Jacks and they held up. The guy in the ten seat then said, "you had a set earlier didn't you?!" Like he figured me out. That was very satisfying. I had made a couple of plays, got re raised and had to fold a couple of times to knock my stack back down a little bit. Then the last hand before the break I had JJ again and the blinds were 150-300. One limper before me so I raised to 1500. Folded to the big blind and he thinks about it for about a minute and finally calls. The original limper folded and we were heads up. The flop came A-K-10 rainbow, we both checked. Turn was a rag, check - check, and the river was a rag, check - check again. He turned over KQ for a pair of Kings to take the pot. I asked him if I would have bet at the pot would he have folded. He said yes, but I have a feeling he would have gone all the way to show down if I kept betting at him. After break and until the next break I went card dead and table change happy. Went to my third table just after I went through the blinds at the second table, and had one hand before I went into the blinds again. No cards, no table image nothin. Went through two rounds of blinds then that table broke. Now on to table number four. This time I had 2 hands before I was the big blind. YAY!!! Again, no cards, no table image, nothin. Two my left was a retired special forces marine and to his left was......... I'll call him Mr. TILT. Mr TILT was already steaming when I walked up to the table to sit down. He called a raise with 8-10 off (he did have position and they were heads up) and got even madder than he already was when the flop of 9-J-Q came. His opponent min bet and he just called. The turn was a 10 and his opponent bet pot and he re raised all in and the opponent called with AK for Broadway. Then he had AA and got a guy all in pre flop with AQ, and the AQ guy pushed all his chips in the middle and splashed the pot obviously upset with the situation. The flop came two queens and I thought Mr. TILT was going to explode!!! Calling the guy a donkey and that he splashed the pot because he was stupid and didn't know how to play the game......just went off on the guy. I get in the big blind and I am down to about 4 big bets total. Mr. TILT limped and the small blind limped. I looked down at A8o and go all in. Mr. TILT splashes the pot with the call and the small blind folded. He turns over KJo. He doesn't hit and I take the pot. "I can't believe that I can't win a race even when I am behind." ???? Ooooookaaaaaaaaaay?! The retired marine leaned over to him and needed some change for his big blind. Mr. TILT looks at him and says, "I don't take orders from anyone!!! Why don't you ask me nicely instead of ordering me to give you what you need?!" This is how I found out that he is a retired special forces Marine. He says back to Mr. TILT " BOY you better watch your mouth. You're cocky ass mouth is going to get you in trouble if you don't watch it. You have no clue who you shooting your mouth off to. You may just run into a retired special forces Marine that wants to sit down and have a good time playing poker and suddenly decide to take care of some foul mouth idiot sitting next to him!" Let me tell you Mr. TILT started to back peddle faster than anyone I have ever seen before. A few minutes later I got moved to my fifth and last table just before the second break. I was down to 2 1/2 big bets once we start again after break and I had 4 hands to find one I liked and go with it. Folded the first hand and shipped it with AQ on the second hand and ran into AK. Out in 32 or 33rd. Not bad, not great, just okay. I am happy with the way I played. I just wish I didn't get moved so much. Oh well, what can you do.
I did work out a deal this past weekend to get some backing for poker. I am basically selling a portion of myself in any tourney that I play in. My backer will buy me into the tourney and then get a percentage of my profits. It's not a huge deal money wise. It's not like I can go to the WSOP and play, but it is for a few tourney's around here that I would normally play in anyway. Now this doesn't mean that it can't grow into some bigger buy-in tourney's in the future, but it is a good start. I'll keep everyone updated on how that goes.
I played some online over the past couple of days. Sunday went pretty deep in a $100 freeroll, nothing too exciting during the tourney until the hand I got knocked out on. I limped with 6-8 with two other players and flop came 8Q8. BINGO right? I bet pot both call. Turn is a J, I bet pot, next guy raises, next guy goes all in for about a min re raise. Well hell I have about double his re raise amount, so I go all in also and the guy calls. I put one of them on QJ for two pair and one of them on 9-10 for the straight draw. Well at least I got one of them right. The short stack had the 9-10, but the big stack had QQ for a flopped boat. Oh well. Haven't played since then, too busy doing other research and stuff. Might play tomorrow night, we will see.
Well it is now 12:33 in the morning and I have been writing for a long time. Didn't I say that I was going to do this more often and have shorter posts? I did. Well maybe next time.
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