This will be my last blog for a few weeks as Darla and I will be relaxing in Kauai, Hawaii at the Princeville Resort next week. I will enjoy the trip tremendously with sun and golf and sightseeing, but especially because when I get back I will begin my new job with Burns and Wilcox. Burns and Wilcox made me a very good offer last week and I accepted the position. It is SALARY and bonus and I can sleep again at night. The current office is on Howe Avenue in Sacramento, but we will be moving into a new 3500 square foot office space in Rancho Cordova in December. We will all get new desks and furniture and I will have my own window office in the second story space overlooking the main road. This move will be a good one for me. The Richter Robb job was a shot in the dark and although I was trying to fly without a net, BW was there to catch me when my wings failed. The Branch Manager, Bill Sousa, wanted to hire me back in May and it didn't work out. He's thrilled. I'm thrilled and it looks like one of those rare "win-win" situations. I give ALL of the glory to God, who has helped direct me to this place where I am. Sometimes it takes awhile to find your footing after you lose a job and, as usual, in my life God was faithful and the reverence and love that I feel for my Saviour is all the more because of my struggles. Praise God. My last day with Richter Robb will be on Thursday of this week, although this week is one of cleaning up and tearing down. I will go play golf with a good friend at his home Country Club in Oakdale on Wednesday and then return the computer and other office equipment to Nancy on Thursday.
This time next week, Darla and I will likely be just getting up and carrying a cup of coffee out to the beach for our daily walk. That's not to imply that I walk with her daily now (she has a more consistent walking partner), but it is a ritual for Darla and I on our beach vacations to get up and walk the beach in the early morning and talk and plan our day. It's something that we both look forward to and it starts our day off on a positive. It also forces us to get up and get on with our day, rather than sleeping away our vacation.
Dad and Shirley were supposed to be stopping by today on their way home to Canada from Las Vegas, but Dad called yesterday from Reno and said that they would drive straight on through as Shirley fell and hurt herself in Vegas. Apparently they were watching a bride and groom exit the Harley Davidson casino and get on a Harley and as they turned to leave, Shirley tripped and took a nasty fall on the sidewalk. She is sore and pulled some ligaments in her leg and just wants to get home. I'll miss them, but certainly understand after seeing Darla so sore after her fall down the stairs a few months ago at her Mom's house.
I talked to Jennifer last night and she is likely leaving for about ten days on a mission at her former boot camp stomping grounds of Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. She told me that nothing was official, that it was just scuttlebut, but I've come to realize that the grapevine in the military is pretty accurate, as she also heard the rumor about her trip to North Carolina to dismantle the communications tower. That trip DID happen. On that particular mission, they had to disconnect and dismantle a ninety-foot communications tower. Jennifer spent most of two days dangling about half way up the tower and helping to lower parts and panels as they were dropped from the top. She loves her job.
Yesterday's church service left the usual mark on my heart. The pastor said that Christians are often conflicted this time of year, as Halloween approaches. The holiday is all about the celebration of spirits and darkness, the whole All Hallow's Eve celebration. Rick said that it is okay for Christians to display a pumpkin, in fact pumpkins are very much like Christians. When Christ first enters our life, he has to scoop out all of the ugliness in our souls, much like we empty the seeds and goop from a pumpkin. Christ then carves us into the people that he wants us to be and then places a light inside of us to shine unto others, just as a jack-o-lantern is created. Hokey? Maybe, but accurate.
The pastor also shared a golf story, which is right up my alley (or fairway, as the case may be). A golfer was out shanking his way around the course. He had some good holes and some pretty bleak holes. He came upon a par three over water and he was unsure whether to hit the New Pro V-1 ball he had been playing or switch to a scuffed up old water ball. He looked to the heavens and prayed for guidance. Suddenly the clouds parted, the sun was momentarily dimmed and the Lord spoke: "Play the new ball!" A grin broke out on the golfer's face and he thanked the Lord for guidance and for the faith that he showed in the golfer. He addressed the ball and the Lord spoke again: "Take a practice swing!" The guy stepped away and took a mighty practice swing and then approached the ball again. The Lord spoke a final time: "Hit the old ball!" Do we really want the Lord to speak directly to us?
The weekend just passed was a good one. The boys both lost their homecoming football games, but all was forgotten at the Homecoming Dance on Saturday night. I did a fall cleaning and trimmed all of the trees in my backyard, reshaping the umbrella tree over the koi pond and reshaping all of the trees to stand alone rather than all grow together. I also pruned back all of the bushes and cleaned out the shed. I took everything out of the shed and hosed it down and then put everything back in a neater fashion. Dad did a wonderful job on the shed and it has been a Godsend with just a two-car garage. All of my tools, mowers, edgers and bikes are stored in the shed as well as paint and other odds and ends that accumulate over a lifetime. I had the boys busy raking up the mess that I left behind and cutting it all up to fit in the garbage can.
Yesterday I played golf, shooting a 41-42=83, or net 71 to tie for third place in my flight. Better than that, I won 11 skins in my foursome and took the overall bets. I played with Mark Konrad, our webmaster and he likes to bet. He usually pays for his enthusiasm, which he did again yesterday. I could have shot a really low score, but I couldn't make a four foot putt to save my life. I had only one birdie, but at least five putts of 3-8 feet for birdie that I missed. Some days, eh?
Well, that's it for two weeks. Think of me golfing and sunning and swimming in Hawaii next week. I'll think about all of you when I get back. Ciao.
Monday, October 27, 2003
Monday, October 20, 2003
It is late Monday and the shadows are growing longer as Autumn begins to take hold. We change the clocks on Saturday night to Fall back for daylight losing time. It's already getting dark around 6:45 pm. In fact it gets dark so early that I have to reset the timer on my backyard landscaping lights. The lights have already switched off by the time we go out to use the spa at eleven pm. The timer has the lights come on at dusk and stay on for five hours. The backyard is so shaded that the lights are coming on at 5:30 and going off at 10:30.
Darla had a speaking engagement last week at the Kiwanis Club. One of the parents of her clients is a member of Kiwanis and asked if Darla could come to a meeting and share what she does and the services that she provides disabled people. I know that I married Darla because of her humor and her vivaciousness and the plain fact that she is so much like my Mom. Darla enjoyed a nice meal and then was introduced to speak. As she was getting out of her chair, she got her foot stuck in her purse and almost lost her balance. As the applause droned on, she quickly was able to extract her foot and get on to her speech. Now does that sound like something Mom would have done? The only difference is that only Darla was aware of her faux paus. Mom would have shared her ordeal with the whole room and had a good laugh at herself.
Jennifer sent me a newspaper article that was done on her in the local Augusta paper. I passed it on to most of you, but it was nice to see Jennifer getting some accodaldes for the work that she is doing. I'm proud of her more than I can put into words. She is truly a soldier for the United States of America.
I played no golf this weekend, although I think the guys were missing each other so we had a get together at the local Joe's Crab Shack over at the water's edge in Old Sacramento. We had a great evening and there were about 24 of us in attendance, mostly board members and their spouses, but a few others. We had the waiter recognize two bogus birthdays (we only wanted to embarass the two guys) They had one dress up in a plastic chest armor and carry a sword and the other dress up with wings and a wand. I guess that would be a fairy, although that is a bit politically incorrect to say so in this state.
I was elected Vice President of the RGC golf club. I'm going from a paid volunteer position to an unpaid volunteer position. I received a yearly stipend of $300 as the handicap chairman and this was in recognition of all of the scores that I input after each tournament and the resolution of any handicapping problems that come up during the year. As VP, I get to do the dirty work of the President at no pay. The President receives free green fees at home tournaments, which is better than a stick in the eye and is worth more than $300, as we have 20 home dates, At $29 a pop, that works out to $780. I will be in charge of the newsletter, which I'm sure I'll enjoy and be in a learning mode as the VP steps up to President for the next election.
The boys' football games were played in El Dorado, CA, a small foothill town just west of Placerville off Highway 50. Daniel's team lost 24-22 on Thursday night and the Varsity worked themselves to the bone for ANOTHER tie, 21-21. We had a chance to go ahead in the game with five minutes left, but our coach elected to go for a touchdown from the four yard line on a fourth down play and we were stopped on the half yard line. We should have kicked the field goal and the fans were actually booing the decision to go for the touchdown. David had another great hit on a kickoff, when he slipped past the wedge and cut down the runner on the 14 yard line, basically knocking his feet out from under him with a vicious low tackle that had the stands oohing and aweing. Our record is now 1-3-2 and looks more like a good hole-by- hole miniature golf score.
Darla and I volunteered for some community service through our church this weekend. Our pastor is really pushing the concept of getting out into the community and making a difference. He wants us to wear Christian t-shirts and be seen doing good. Of course, the rest of the volunteers were mostly boy scouts and other churches, including LDS. We went to a public park at 8 am and put in a cedar fence around a newly planted and barked grove of trees. The fence was about 200 feet long and we spent about three hours cementing posts and notching and scewing in the stringers. The fence is two rail and about three feet high, more decorative than practical. It was a great day and Darla ended up sitting with a woman going through a divorce and talking to her as we worked. There were so many workers, we were tripping over each other. It felt good to give something back.
I have been contacted by Bill Souza at Burns and Wilcox and he is ready to hire me. I'll be meeting with him on Thursday to iron out the details. I have yet to hear back from Keenan and Associates, the school insurer, but perhaps God is pointing me to Burns and Wilcox. I'm definitley feeling led as this job combusts around me. Richter Robb had their open house for the new office in Lathrop on Friday. The problem is the office sits next door to a salvage yard and we could get a rather ripe smell wafting in the air as we sat out on the lawn and drank white wine and made small talk. There is a large "No Dumping" sign on the road leading to our office and it had a mattress, a small car engine and several boxes and other debris leaned up against it. Quite a professional site to behold on the way to our new office. I'll be happy to move on after our vacation in Kauai.
That's it for this week. Be good to each other. Ciao.
Darla had a speaking engagement last week at the Kiwanis Club. One of the parents of her clients is a member of Kiwanis and asked if Darla could come to a meeting and share what she does and the services that she provides disabled people. I know that I married Darla because of her humor and her vivaciousness and the plain fact that she is so much like my Mom. Darla enjoyed a nice meal and then was introduced to speak. As she was getting out of her chair, she got her foot stuck in her purse and almost lost her balance. As the applause droned on, she quickly was able to extract her foot and get on to her speech. Now does that sound like something Mom would have done? The only difference is that only Darla was aware of her faux paus. Mom would have shared her ordeal with the whole room and had a good laugh at herself.
Jennifer sent me a newspaper article that was done on her in the local Augusta paper. I passed it on to most of you, but it was nice to see Jennifer getting some accodaldes for the work that she is doing. I'm proud of her more than I can put into words. She is truly a soldier for the United States of America.
I played no golf this weekend, although I think the guys were missing each other so we had a get together at the local Joe's Crab Shack over at the water's edge in Old Sacramento. We had a great evening and there were about 24 of us in attendance, mostly board members and their spouses, but a few others. We had the waiter recognize two bogus birthdays (we only wanted to embarass the two guys) They had one dress up in a plastic chest armor and carry a sword and the other dress up with wings and a wand. I guess that would be a fairy, although that is a bit politically incorrect to say so in this state.
I was elected Vice President of the RGC golf club. I'm going from a paid volunteer position to an unpaid volunteer position. I received a yearly stipend of $300 as the handicap chairman and this was in recognition of all of the scores that I input after each tournament and the resolution of any handicapping problems that come up during the year. As VP, I get to do the dirty work of the President at no pay. The President receives free green fees at home tournaments, which is better than a stick in the eye and is worth more than $300, as we have 20 home dates, At $29 a pop, that works out to $780. I will be in charge of the newsletter, which I'm sure I'll enjoy and be in a learning mode as the VP steps up to President for the next election.
The boys' football games were played in El Dorado, CA, a small foothill town just west of Placerville off Highway 50. Daniel's team lost 24-22 on Thursday night and the Varsity worked themselves to the bone for ANOTHER tie, 21-21. We had a chance to go ahead in the game with five minutes left, but our coach elected to go for a touchdown from the four yard line on a fourth down play and we were stopped on the half yard line. We should have kicked the field goal and the fans were actually booing the decision to go for the touchdown. David had another great hit on a kickoff, when he slipped past the wedge and cut down the runner on the 14 yard line, basically knocking his feet out from under him with a vicious low tackle that had the stands oohing and aweing. Our record is now 1-3-2 and looks more like a good hole-by- hole miniature golf score.
Darla and I volunteered for some community service through our church this weekend. Our pastor is really pushing the concept of getting out into the community and making a difference. He wants us to wear Christian t-shirts and be seen doing good. Of course, the rest of the volunteers were mostly boy scouts and other churches, including LDS. We went to a public park at 8 am and put in a cedar fence around a newly planted and barked grove of trees. The fence was about 200 feet long and we spent about three hours cementing posts and notching and scewing in the stringers. The fence is two rail and about three feet high, more decorative than practical. It was a great day and Darla ended up sitting with a woman going through a divorce and talking to her as we worked. There were so many workers, we were tripping over each other. It felt good to give something back.
I have been contacted by Bill Souza at Burns and Wilcox and he is ready to hire me. I'll be meeting with him on Thursday to iron out the details. I have yet to hear back from Keenan and Associates, the school insurer, but perhaps God is pointing me to Burns and Wilcox. I'm definitley feeling led as this job combusts around me. Richter Robb had their open house for the new office in Lathrop on Friday. The problem is the office sits next door to a salvage yard and we could get a rather ripe smell wafting in the air as we sat out on the lawn and drank white wine and made small talk. There is a large "No Dumping" sign on the road leading to our office and it had a mattress, a small car engine and several boxes and other debris leaned up against it. Quite a professional site to behold on the way to our new office. I'll be happy to move on after our vacation in Kauai.
That's it for this week. Be good to each other. Ciao.
Monday, October 13, 2003
It is once again a Monday, although I sit in my office shuffling paper and handling phone calls and faxes while my family enjoys a day off. I think it's either the Canadian Thanksgiving or Columbus Day. Darla gets so many holidays, I think her union has taken to importing foreign holidays to round out the 100 days a year of time off the social workers get. The boys are off from school for the same holiday, although the elementary school across the street is in session and the bell rings and there is the sound of children uncaged about every fifty minutes or so.
The Rose Cup has passed into another year of the perpetual cup escaping the grasp of the Diamond Oaks team. We played well in the four ball competition on Friday, taking a 21 to 15 point lead over our pursuers. All of our team played well, with our lowest point total of the six matches coming in at 2.5 points. My partner and I tied for first in our flight and took 3.5 points. We shot a combined 67. We enjoyed the prime rib dinner on Friday night, but I had to bolt down my food and run over to David's football game at seven-thirty. Saturday, saw a beautiful day, but the Diamond Oaks golfers struggled on a tough Billy Casper designed course and we had not one of our twelve golfers take a first place in any of their flights. I shot an 85 to take second in my group, but struggled with a triple bogey on one of my finishing holes to lose the chance to win my flight. We took third overall with 44 points and the winners had 51 points, with six first place finishes out of 12 to take home 35 total points on Saturday and retain the cup.
We had a great time and celebrated life with dinner at a local Mexican Food joint where the beer flowed and we all told our sob stories. On the triple bogey hole I had a plugged ball that plugged into the ground, but partially popped out of it's hole. Half the ball was in the plug and half out. It was covered with mud and the consesus was that it was NOT a plugged ball and I had to play the ball as it lay. I hit a screamer across the green and finished with a seven on the par four. Oh well, such is golf.
The boys played their cross town rivals, Roseville, in football this weekend. Daniel's team was up against an undefeated and very talented group of Freshmen players, but they were up to the task and came from behind to win 28-27 in an exciting and fun football game. Daniel played well and was involved in several plays where his name was called. That's always exciting for a lineman, who do the dirty work with little fanfare.
David's game was much more frustrating as the coaching staff took a very conservative offense and play calling into the game and we ended up on the short end of a 21-9 score against a team that had injury problems and hadn't won a game all year. They relied on their ground game and scored on three running touchdowns. We scored the first touchdown on a long drive which mixed up passing and running, but then went conservative with short passes and runs that bogged down and had us punting all game long. We were behind 21-9 with over six minutes on the clock and facing a 4th and 3 from Roseville's 39 yard line and we punted only to watch Roseville grind out a twelve play series that used up the clock and left the fans venting their frustrations on the coaching staff. It was a poor way to lose a game and we can only hope that the offense opens up a little this week.
I will have to miss Daniel's game on Thursday as I have an open meeting with the golf club. This is election time and I am up for the post of Vice President this year. I've enjoyed being the handicap chairman over the last year and a half and will further enjoy duties as the VP if I'm elected, which will include the newsletter.
Darla visited her brother in Sonora this weekend while I was off golfing and then we hosted Darla's cousin and her family for lunch yesterday. They were in town for a wedding with the other side of the family and joined us at church and then came over for lunch. It was Daniel's 14th birthday yesterday and he received a tennis table from us, which sits in the garage at the moment. Darla and the boys will clear a space for the table to sit in the garage in it's folded position.
Church was an inspiration as usual this week. The pastor shared with us the acronym B.I.B.L.E., which is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Pretty right on. He also shared a story about a pastor who was concerned about the lack of biblical literacy in his church. (This will amuse those of you who know the Bible) He decided to sit in on the high school class and was shocked at the display of rowdiness and horseplay going on, especially by the boys in class. He strode to the front of the room and bellowed, "Boys, someone has knocked down the walls of Jericho!" The boys looked at him and squirmed in their seats. "Does anyone here know who is responsible for knocking down those walls?!" The boys all squirmed and wouldn't make eye contact with the pastor. "You, son. Do you know who knocked down the walls of Jericho?" The boy looked up and shook his head, "Sir, we didn't do it and don't know who did." The pastor turned to the teacher and said, "These boys are obviously missing something here in class and I'm going to get to the bottom of it." The teacher said, "Look, pastor, I've known these boys my whole life and if they say they didn't knock down the walls, then they're innocent." The pastor stormed out of the room and caught one of the Elders of the church in the hallway. "This church is falling down around us. I just sat in on the high school class. They were all goofing off and not paying attention to the lesson, so I went to the front of the class and asked the boys if they knew who knocked down the walls of Jericho. And all of them were so clueless that they swore it wasn't them and then the teacher joined in and defended the boys. What are we going to do?" The Elder grabbed the pastor and pulled him to the side. "Look, pastor, youre making a big deal out of this. We'll just take the money out of the general fund and get the wall repaired."
We teach the Bible in our church and modern churches have shied away from Biblical teaching just as the world is caving in around us. God bless Adventure Christian Church, a haven in a world of chaos. Ciao.
The Rose Cup has passed into another year of the perpetual cup escaping the grasp of the Diamond Oaks team. We played well in the four ball competition on Friday, taking a 21 to 15 point lead over our pursuers. All of our team played well, with our lowest point total of the six matches coming in at 2.5 points. My partner and I tied for first in our flight and took 3.5 points. We shot a combined 67. We enjoyed the prime rib dinner on Friday night, but I had to bolt down my food and run over to David's football game at seven-thirty. Saturday, saw a beautiful day, but the Diamond Oaks golfers struggled on a tough Billy Casper designed course and we had not one of our twelve golfers take a first place in any of their flights. I shot an 85 to take second in my group, but struggled with a triple bogey on one of my finishing holes to lose the chance to win my flight. We took third overall with 44 points and the winners had 51 points, with six first place finishes out of 12 to take home 35 total points on Saturday and retain the cup.
We had a great time and celebrated life with dinner at a local Mexican Food joint where the beer flowed and we all told our sob stories. On the triple bogey hole I had a plugged ball that plugged into the ground, but partially popped out of it's hole. Half the ball was in the plug and half out. It was covered with mud and the consesus was that it was NOT a plugged ball and I had to play the ball as it lay. I hit a screamer across the green and finished with a seven on the par four. Oh well, such is golf.
The boys played their cross town rivals, Roseville, in football this weekend. Daniel's team was up against an undefeated and very talented group of Freshmen players, but they were up to the task and came from behind to win 28-27 in an exciting and fun football game. Daniel played well and was involved in several plays where his name was called. That's always exciting for a lineman, who do the dirty work with little fanfare.
David's game was much more frustrating as the coaching staff took a very conservative offense and play calling into the game and we ended up on the short end of a 21-9 score against a team that had injury problems and hadn't won a game all year. They relied on their ground game and scored on three running touchdowns. We scored the first touchdown on a long drive which mixed up passing and running, but then went conservative with short passes and runs that bogged down and had us punting all game long. We were behind 21-9 with over six minutes on the clock and facing a 4th and 3 from Roseville's 39 yard line and we punted only to watch Roseville grind out a twelve play series that used up the clock and left the fans venting their frustrations on the coaching staff. It was a poor way to lose a game and we can only hope that the offense opens up a little this week.
I will have to miss Daniel's game on Thursday as I have an open meeting with the golf club. This is election time and I am up for the post of Vice President this year. I've enjoyed being the handicap chairman over the last year and a half and will further enjoy duties as the VP if I'm elected, which will include the newsletter.
Darla visited her brother in Sonora this weekend while I was off golfing and then we hosted Darla's cousin and her family for lunch yesterday. They were in town for a wedding with the other side of the family and joined us at church and then came over for lunch. It was Daniel's 14th birthday yesterday and he received a tennis table from us, which sits in the garage at the moment. Darla and the boys will clear a space for the table to sit in the garage in it's folded position.
Church was an inspiration as usual this week. The pastor shared with us the acronym B.I.B.L.E., which is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Pretty right on. He also shared a story about a pastor who was concerned about the lack of biblical literacy in his church. (This will amuse those of you who know the Bible) He decided to sit in on the high school class and was shocked at the display of rowdiness and horseplay going on, especially by the boys in class. He strode to the front of the room and bellowed, "Boys, someone has knocked down the walls of Jericho!" The boys looked at him and squirmed in their seats. "Does anyone here know who is responsible for knocking down those walls?!" The boys all squirmed and wouldn't make eye contact with the pastor. "You, son. Do you know who knocked down the walls of Jericho?" The boy looked up and shook his head, "Sir, we didn't do it and don't know who did." The pastor turned to the teacher and said, "These boys are obviously missing something here in class and I'm going to get to the bottom of it." The teacher said, "Look, pastor, I've known these boys my whole life and if they say they didn't knock down the walls, then they're innocent." The pastor stormed out of the room and caught one of the Elders of the church in the hallway. "This church is falling down around us. I just sat in on the high school class. They were all goofing off and not paying attention to the lesson, so I went to the front of the class and asked the boys if they knew who knocked down the walls of Jericho. And all of them were so clueless that they swore it wasn't them and then the teacher joined in and defended the boys. What are we going to do?" The Elder grabbed the pastor and pulled him to the side. "Look, pastor, youre making a big deal out of this. We'll just take the money out of the general fund and get the wall repaired."
We teach the Bible in our church and modern churches have shied away from Biblical teaching just as the world is caving in around us. God bless Adventure Christian Church, a haven in a world of chaos. Ciao.
Monday, October 06, 2003
The remnants of the weekend just past are embedded in my memory and partially in the left side of my esophagus as the reality of the life of a working stiff awaits me here at my desk. I sweep that reality to the side of my desk as I take to a new entry in the blog.
First off, I heard from my soldier and she is off on a mission to Fort Bragg in North Carolina where she, another Specialist and three sergeants will work on a new antenna on a tower on the base. She is excited to be away from Fort Gordon and the humdrum of Army life. She really enjoys her MOS and looks forward to putting all of her training to actual use. I suppose working on a 100 foot tower beats mowing the lawn on base, eh? She still expects to get her orders early next year and ship out to Korea for a year. She had hoped for Germany, but that is a two-year commitment and she will finish two years next month and be half-way through her stint.
Darla and I went to the San Francisco 49ers game yesterday in San Francisco. One of my agents had tickets that he couldn't use and offered them to me. The weather was unbelievable and we both got a little sunburnt as we sat in the blazing sun and watched the Niners stumble their way through a victory against a vastly inferior Lion's team. It was the homecoming for Steve Marriucchi, who was unceremoniously fired by the penny-pinching owner of the 49ers, John York. York jettisoned Mooch and then hired perennial NFL loser, Dennis Erickson, a good college coach who has not figured out the NFL. He was one of only a handful of coaches willing to work for the tightwad York, who is unwilling to cede control of player personnel decisions to the GM and coaches. This team will never approach what they once were until the owner either sells or realizes that the NFL is not about dollars and cents, but wins and losses. The game was mildly interesting, only in that the Niner fans are restless and viciously booed Erickson, Garcia, Owens and anyone in gold and maroon all day long. Terrell Owens has been the cover boy for idiot ballplayers all year and lived up to expectations by once, during a timeout, taking his helmet off and laying down on the field as if he was taking a nap. The guy is an even more obnoxious version of Michael Irvin. We had preferred parking right next to the stadium at a school and enjoyed our tailgate picnic before entering the stadium. We left about midway through the fourth quarter in order to beat the traffic. Neither of the combatants were my team so it was not worth the hassle to wait for the game to end. We did see ALL of the scoring in the 24-17 Niner victory.
The boy's games were played at Natomas in Sacramento this week and Daniel's team won 29-12. David's team mounted a furious 4th quarter comeback to tie their game 30-30 after trailing 30-19 entering the fourth quarter. We actually had a chance to win the game, but our kicker missed a 31-yard field goal with four seconds left in the game. Both David and Daniel played solid games and David made it into the paper as his picture was included in a tackle of the opposing team's runner. Next week, we will be home against Roseville High, the local team and the team of our next door neighbor, who is one of David's friends. He plays offensive line and David said that he'll meet him at the ball carrier this week. David had a fumble recovery and six tackles in the game and was named Defensive Player of the Week for his team.
This is the week of the recall election in California. My vote is going to Arnold, although I believe Tom McClintock is the best choice for California. I just don't think he can win the election and I refuse to waste my vote. I learned that lesson with Ross Perot, when that moron Bill Clinton was re-elected. I had lunch on Friday with one of my inspection contacts and he brought along a died-in-the-wool liberal Democrat, who spent the lunch spouting his ideology. At one point he declared that Arnold was through due to the allegations of groping women. I looked him in the eye and said, "You're dead wrong. Those allegations just won him the election." He looked at me incredulously and said how could that be. I said, " He just secured the vote of the Clinton Democrats." He wasn't amused, but I was.
I interviewed with both Keenan and Associates and Burns and Wilcox last week. BW has offfered me the job and I'd start in mid-November. Keenan is impressed and I'll meet with the Vice President next week. This will be my third interview and I feel confident that I've passed the test so far. I'm anxious to get something concrete settled and need Keenan to make a decision, so that I can make one.
The Rose Cup golf tournament will be played on Friday and Saturday this week. We have a practice session at Sun City tomorrow and then play two-man best ball on Friday and the individual matches on Saturday to determine which club will hold the Rose Cup for 2003-2004. This is the fifth year of the tournament and my fourth time on the team. We won the cup two out of the three years that I've been on the team and we hope to bring it home again this year.
That's it for this week. Continue to walk in the ways of the Lord and he will clear all obstacles from your path.
First off, I heard from my soldier and she is off on a mission to Fort Bragg in North Carolina where she, another Specialist and three sergeants will work on a new antenna on a tower on the base. She is excited to be away from Fort Gordon and the humdrum of Army life. She really enjoys her MOS and looks forward to putting all of her training to actual use. I suppose working on a 100 foot tower beats mowing the lawn on base, eh? She still expects to get her orders early next year and ship out to Korea for a year. She had hoped for Germany, but that is a two-year commitment and she will finish two years next month and be half-way through her stint.
Darla and I went to the San Francisco 49ers game yesterday in San Francisco. One of my agents had tickets that he couldn't use and offered them to me. The weather was unbelievable and we both got a little sunburnt as we sat in the blazing sun and watched the Niners stumble their way through a victory against a vastly inferior Lion's team. It was the homecoming for Steve Marriucchi, who was unceremoniously fired by the penny-pinching owner of the 49ers, John York. York jettisoned Mooch and then hired perennial NFL loser, Dennis Erickson, a good college coach who has not figured out the NFL. He was one of only a handful of coaches willing to work for the tightwad York, who is unwilling to cede control of player personnel decisions to the GM and coaches. This team will never approach what they once were until the owner either sells or realizes that the NFL is not about dollars and cents, but wins and losses. The game was mildly interesting, only in that the Niner fans are restless and viciously booed Erickson, Garcia, Owens and anyone in gold and maroon all day long. Terrell Owens has been the cover boy for idiot ballplayers all year and lived up to expectations by once, during a timeout, taking his helmet off and laying down on the field as if he was taking a nap. The guy is an even more obnoxious version of Michael Irvin. We had preferred parking right next to the stadium at a school and enjoyed our tailgate picnic before entering the stadium. We left about midway through the fourth quarter in order to beat the traffic. Neither of the combatants were my team so it was not worth the hassle to wait for the game to end. We did see ALL of the scoring in the 24-17 Niner victory.
The boy's games were played at Natomas in Sacramento this week and Daniel's team won 29-12. David's team mounted a furious 4th quarter comeback to tie their game 30-30 after trailing 30-19 entering the fourth quarter. We actually had a chance to win the game, but our kicker missed a 31-yard field goal with four seconds left in the game. Both David and Daniel played solid games and David made it into the paper as his picture was included in a tackle of the opposing team's runner. Next week, we will be home against Roseville High, the local team and the team of our next door neighbor, who is one of David's friends. He plays offensive line and David said that he'll meet him at the ball carrier this week. David had a fumble recovery and six tackles in the game and was named Defensive Player of the Week for his team.
This is the week of the recall election in California. My vote is going to Arnold, although I believe Tom McClintock is the best choice for California. I just don't think he can win the election and I refuse to waste my vote. I learned that lesson with Ross Perot, when that moron Bill Clinton was re-elected. I had lunch on Friday with one of my inspection contacts and he brought along a died-in-the-wool liberal Democrat, who spent the lunch spouting his ideology. At one point he declared that Arnold was through due to the allegations of groping women. I looked him in the eye and said, "You're dead wrong. Those allegations just won him the election." He looked at me incredulously and said how could that be. I said, " He just secured the vote of the Clinton Democrats." He wasn't amused, but I was.
I interviewed with both Keenan and Associates and Burns and Wilcox last week. BW has offfered me the job and I'd start in mid-November. Keenan is impressed and I'll meet with the Vice President next week. This will be my third interview and I feel confident that I've passed the test so far. I'm anxious to get something concrete settled and need Keenan to make a decision, so that I can make one.
The Rose Cup golf tournament will be played on Friday and Saturday this week. We have a practice session at Sun City tomorrow and then play two-man best ball on Friday and the individual matches on Saturday to determine which club will hold the Rose Cup for 2003-2004. This is the fifth year of the tournament and my fourth time on the team. We won the cup two out of the three years that I've been on the team and we hope to bring it home again this year.
That's it for this week. Continue to walk in the ways of the Lord and he will clear all obstacles from your path.
