Back to the blog after an extended holiday season filled with fun and celebration. The new year lays in front of us like a blank canvas. I'd get my paints and brushes and begin to work on a masterpiece, but life intervenes and my creative impulse wanes.

I came home on Wednesday night to a gathering puddle of water on my garage floor and a leaking hot water heater. The house is thirteen years old and the hot water heater was original equipment. The bottom of the tank finally rusted out and water was dripping. We put some rags around the base of the unit on the pedestal that houses the hot water heater and got on the phone with contractors to find someone who would do the job without breaking my meager bank. I tried several contractors before settling on Home Depot. Many small businesses in communities bemoan the Home Depot monopoly, but I saved $100 on the job and I'm glad they are there to keep costs manageable. Frankly, they have forced several small businesses out of existence, but the contractor who installed my H2O heater is getting plenty of work, and as a subcontractor, doesn't have the overhead of running his own business. He had to install a 2-gallon expansion tank on the wall next to the water heater as we have water meters in Roseville now that will go operational in 2006.

Jennifer is still in Georgia awaiting the military to publish her orders. She was called into a meeting (along with the other 14 soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan) on Monday and told that their orders were being drawn up and that they would be leaving on Wednesday. They took the rest of Monday off to prepare for their departure. Jennifer called family and friends to say goodbye and arranged to have her car put in storage, etc. On Tuesday, they were again called into a meeting and told that the excercise of Monday was a "preparedness" drill and that their orders would be coming at a later date. People have asked me if Jennifer plans to make the Army a career and I tell them that she has already decided to opt out of the military after her four year stint. Stunts like what occured on Monday help to solidify her decision. It seems that respect is a one way street in our nation's military.

David's basketball team has entered their regular season and are now playing league games. They are 1-1 in league after blowing out Placer on Tuesday 77-44 and then losing to the league powerhouse, Granite Bay, last night 63-48. I opened the Sacramento Bee newspaper yesterday morning over my toast and Lucky Charms here at the office and saw a 1/4 page picture of David leaning over with his hands on his knees and his coach imparting advice on how to guard his man and not draw a foul. What the picture doesn't show is the other end of the court, where David's man is shooting free throws after David fouled him. It is a good picture of David the athlete and I tried to scan it to e-mail, but the scanned picture came out too dark. We have several copies of the paper courtesy of friends and teammates and I'll send a copy to Dad and Shirley. The article was about how difficult it will be for area champions to repeat.

I have a golf tournament this weekend, our first of the year. It is a Captain and Crew scramble event. The tournament is a good mixer and allows new members to get to know the group. I had hoped to have my new Wilson Deep Red irons, but alas, the factory was closed over the holidays and the clubs are scheduled to be shipped out today and arrive next week. My first tournament with the new clubs will be a medal event. Oh well.

I'm sorry that this blog entry is late this week. With all that has been happening, I frankly forgot to blog. Can you believe it?

Work is going extremely well. I just finished my first 60 days on the job and received a glowing review. The production is beginning to take off and the relationships that I'm developing with my agents is priceless. Hope all is well with all of you. God Bless.