Back to work and tired today. It was actually a relaxing weekend up until last night. Unfortunately I got into it with the boys. Daniel has a tendency to let his mouth work before his head and he pulled a doozy last night. I was already irritated about the boys being on the computer all day and I told Daniel to wrap it up about ten-thirty. He told me he'd be done when he was done and all hell broke loose. I don't understand modern teachers pushing kids to use the internet and computers. The same project that took me an hour to finish by hand takes them twelve hours on the computer. I thought the computer was supposed to speed things up? There is no reward for trying to raise someone else's kids. I suppose being a step-parent is about as tough as being a step-kid. Enough said?

I talked to Jennifer last night and she is doing nothing short of GREAT. She has a new beau in the military, A PFC named Ryan who is 21 years of age. She is quite taken with him and will visit his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June before coming home for two weeks. She said he is young and looks even younger. I wonder if the young man shaves? He is in his second year of a six-year hitch and has a similar MOS to Jennifer, in communications. Jennifer is still committed to getting out of the Army when her stretch ends next November. She leaves for Kuwait on September 21st and will be there on a 14-month tour of duty.

We had Darla's folks over on Saturday night and had one of those "Murphy's Law" kind of nights. Darla had planned a dinner of barbecued chicken breasts and all the fixens. The corn on the cob that she bought and served was not fresh. It tasted fine to me, but as Darla said, "You didn't grow up on a farm." The chicken breasts that she gave me were DD Dolly Parton chicken breasts, absolutely huge. I barbecued them for 45 minutes on the grill baking the outsides to a golden brown and slathering them with barbecue sauce. When we served them, there was a quick line that formed at the microwave as the breasts were basically "sushi-style" chicken. Although they looked wonderful on the outside, the insides were raw. The only thing I can think is that I cooked them on a lower heat because there were so many (8 breasts) and I would have had a fireball if I tried to cook them on high. Earl, Darla's Dad, said, "Well, Ken, you can't impress me every time."

David and I made a run to the dump yesterday and took a full load of old lawnmower, barbecue, fertilizer spreader, baseball net and stand, old metal shelving unit that was rusted and shot, and a passel of wood, much of it scraps from when Dad and I built the shed in 2000. The side of the house is back to a neat and orderly side yard instead of a staging area for discarded items.

I played golf with Jerry Tuel on Friday in a claims tournament here in Sacramento. I hadn't seen Jerry in quite awhile. Tammi is now a licensed real estate agent and every weekend is taken up with open houses and trips with prospective buyers to homes in their price range. She is doing very well and was number two in sales last month in her 45-agent office. I'm happy for her, but sad for us as the friendship has taken a back seat to her job. We invited them to go to Monterey with us last weekend, but they were too busy, which has been a theme each time we've tried to get together. Their daughter, Natalie, will graduate from high school next month and attend Sonoma State in the fall. Their son, Matt, is moving out of the house at the same time and moving in to a house with some buddies. Tammi and Jerry will be "empty-nesters", something that I strive to be in the very near future.

Work is going well. In fact, our office made a profit for the company for the first time in about 11 months. We have worked hard to pare the staff and get the people in place to make this a profitable endeavor. Of course, change isn't easy and one of the three remaining underwriters gave her notice last week and will be gone after Friday. This is another hiccup on the road to profitability. This will gravely impact my workload as we will have two underwriters essentially doing the work of five. Bill, my boss, has vowed to have a replacement underwriter in place by July 1st. As Gail, the only other underwriter in the office, takes a three-week vacation in July, I would say that it is nothing short of imperative that a replacement be found by then. Or simply put a staight jacket on me and send me to the Funny Farm.

Well, that's it for another episode of "Life with the Lyons". Be well and do something nice for someone you love today, just for the smell of it.