Back at it on a Monday. We just finished the month of October at work and actually made a profit for only the second time this year. Not bad for my first month as the acting Branch Manager. I had several calls from home office and a nice note from the Regional Vice President in San Francisco. I will take the office out to lunch at Spaghetti Factory on Wednesday to celebrate. I have set a goal of $95,000 in net income this month. Our goal last month was $85,000 and we hit $96,600 in October. November is a smaller renewal month so we will have to work that much harder. I've made the Underwriting Assistants into Renewal Underwriters and ordered each of them business cards. I've also told the Underwriters to plan to travel with their assistants more and develop a team atmosphere for the agents. So far things are clicking in the office and we have some of the Underwriters and Assistants flexing in and out and everyone so far seems to be drinking the Koolaid.

Football season is winding down and our Varsity team is going out with a whimper. After dominating an overmatched team last week, we played two good quarters against Woodland, actually tying the game with a second half kickoff return for a touchdown to tie the game 14-14. We went on to lose 34-14, as our offense was stuck in the mud and our defense couldn't stop their passing game. I had to work late on Friday night as we were changing out our phone system. The tech finally showed up at 5:45 after being scheduled to be here at 4:00 pm. He took two hours to get the equipment in and then couldn't get the phones programmed. I finally kicked him out of here at 8:00 pm and left for the game. I got to Woodland at halftime and some yahoo on a John Deere "carryall" told me that I couldn't get into the game, that they close the gates after halftime. I told him it was halftime and he shrugged his shoulders. I walked around to the "home" side of the stadium, bought a ticket at the open window, walked in and over to the vistor's side. I walked over to the visitor's gate and told "Farmer Bob" that he was a dumb &%$#@*& and then went and found Darla and Alicia. David played both strong safety and Z back (receiver). He caught two passes and played well. Our qb is still a doofus and had one play where he dropped back to pass and fell over the forty yard line stripe and lay on the ground like a wounded turtle while the defense played "smear the queer". It was a disgrace. Can the coach not see that we need an athlete at quarterback? Spoken like the stepdad of the deposed qb, eh?

I did not get to see Daniel's game this week thanks to the smelly little phone tech. This guy had a horrible case of bo, what Seinfeld called BBO (beyond b.o.). His clothes were dirty, he wore a filthy ball cap pulled to the side and he mumbled when he talked. He was going to record the greeting for us, but I took that responsibility as I didn't want the business to sound like Bob's House of Crack on the phone. This guy was a little pig, but he probably makes $80,000 a year as a computer technician for Nortel, the bankrupt Canadian phone giant.

I played golf this weekend. I have lured one of my employee's husbands into the Roseville Golf Club and he will play in his first tournament this coming weekend at Alister Mackenzie in Sacramento. Mel is an 11 handicap and a really nice guy. I shot 83 this weekend, Dave Armijo shot 85, Boyd shot 76 and Mel 90. It was a beautiful day in Roseville with temps in the low 70's and nothing more than a light breeze. This week is supposed to stay in the 70's all week and this morning is a bright blue sky. Looking out on the grove of trees that surround our office complex and seeing the greens, gold and orange, I'd like to be out playing golf right now.

Saturday night, Darla and I attended a house warming at the home of our Accounting person and my personal assistant, Dinda. Dinda lives in a brand new 3000 sq ft custom home that was planned as a party house. The bedrooms are relatively small and the living area is huge. She has three gazebos in her yard as well as a waterfall. She is Philipino and her husband is Lebanese and they featured a belly dancer for entertainment as well as two rows of hors de oevres and a full bar with servers. It was a great party and Darla heard and shared with me many very nice compliments on the way the office is being run. Darla took pictures and created a scrap book from the party that I will share with the staff this morning.

It is All Saints day today, which I guess was created to help rid us of the image of ghosts, gouls , goblins and devils from the night before. I sat and watched football as Darla answered the door and handed out candy to the neighborhood kids. We had maybe thirty to forty in total last night. The churches do a good job of offering Harvest Festivals for the kids. Our church had rides, games and a petting zoo for the kids and it offers a safe haven for the smaller children to go and have fun.

Jennifer has updated her blog and is a bit cranky with the Army right now. Take a look at her blog, I have a link at the bottom of this page. I talked to her last week and she will be leaving for Germany and training for her role as Armorer on November 29th. We have sent her several packages and I urge you all to do the same. Her address is:

Specialist Lyon, Jennifer
385th SC CO
Kuwait City, Kuwait
APO - AE 09889

I hope all are well. I will add to the blog next week. Be nice to each other. Ciao.