It is Monday morning (of course) and time to bring my three regular readers up on the doings in my life. Today is a typical fall morning in Sacramento, with a chill to the air, but a bright blue sky and temperatures that are bound to reach the low seventies.

The trees still cling stubbornly to the red and yellow remains of their leaves and we are just a strong storm from the end of leave raking in this area. The front of my house is choked in fallen leaves from the grove of trees that make up the park across the street. (And this is two days after the boys and I spent an afternoon clearing the leaves and mowing the yard). We live due East of the park and the prevailing winds blow all of the leaves across the street and into my yard. Most of my leave raking could be filed under community service as they are public leaves that I am tending to. I don't get much chance to wield my rake during the week. After ten years of working out of my house, this working in an office deal can really throw a wrench in my yard work chores.

Football. We are winding down the season and the boys actually managed a win this past week. The defense was solid and forced three turnovers on our side of the field. Fortunately, even an inept Adam was able to turn one of those into a score and we prevailed 7-0. We should have won 21-0, but Adam cannot manage to rally the team from the quarterback position. He was 4 of 9 for 38 yards and a touchdown and the team is now 4-5 (1-4 in league), with each starter having a 2-2 record with the first loss being a combined effort between the two of them. David played receiver and had the longest reception of the game, a pass caught over the middle for twenty-five yards. Adam continues to telegraph his passes and I sent the coach an e-mail this week with specifics. When it is a run play, Adam walks out of the huddle and immediately steps under center. When it is a pass play he walks to the line, takes two steps back and surveys the defense and then drops under center. It is so obvious that I call out "pass!" in the stands every time he does it. The fans laugh as I'm right every time. I've pointed it out to several of them and it is a matter of time before one of our opponents figures it out too. There was no change in his setup this week, so I'm sure the coach just blew it off. The coach did mention to Adam that he got a "strange" e-mail from Ken Lyon and did he know me. You can only lead a horse to water...

The great thing for Daniel is that the Varsity head coach was fired last week by the Athletic Director. He will finish out this season and then hang up his whistle. Daniel will be able to play on a team with a fresh new attitude and a chance to win. Our current coach is a big loser in Woodcreek tradition and the 4 wins this year is his best season by far out of the four that he's been here. We play the 11th ranked Placer Hillmen this week and they are a stout squad. Perhaps Adam will feel the pain of a real pass rush. Here's hoping.

Daniel's team has struggled through their last three games (all losses), but Dan has played both offense and defense and lead the team in tackles one week and had another quarterback sack this past week. He will surely be one of the big award winners this year as he has been solid all year. He should start as a Junior on Varsity next year.

Darla was involved in a big open house this weekend at one of my golf buddies' house. His wife was the hostess and Darla showed her jewelry and her Creative Memories scrapbook line. Alicia went along and sold her Southern Living line and Mary Kay. Darla also invited one of her friends that sells Italiam charms. They all did rather well with sales in the $200-$300 range.

As all of that was going on, I went to Allister Mackenzie golf course and played in a tournament with the Roseville Golf Club. I played in a group with Boyd Robertson (a 4 handicap), Mark Konrad (a 15 handicap) and Mel Pediernos (a 12 handicap). Mel is the new member and Cora's (in my office) husband. Boyd shot 75, Mark shot 82, Mel shot 84 and I managed a nice 40-39=79. My net was a 68 and, believe it or not, I didn't win a damn thing. One of the guys in my flight shot a 72 as a 12 handicap and another shot 76 as an 11. I got an "attaboy" for my hard work and $9 from Mark, who always insists on betting with me every time we play. He actually beat me head up, but wanted to play skins and got smoked.

Mel played in his first tournament and played pretty well. He had one hole where he missed a putt for par and then swiped the ball away from the hole where it sat two inches away. Normally, that would be a disqualification, but the group gave him a reprieve. He had a triple bogey on the fourth hole and was so disappointed. I told him to let it go, that all he needed was a birdie to turn his round back to positive. He did me one better by knocking his second shot into the hole for an eagle from 150 yards on the very next hole. He did the "eagle" dance in the fairway. Mel is a great guy and I'm glad he joined the group...and so is he.

My handicap should move down into single digits next month and I will have managed to meet one of my pre-season goals. My goals were to win my flight in the Club Championship (I didn't play because of my back problems), to qualify for the Rose Cup (ditto with my back), to qualify for the NCGA event ( I missed out, but won money in the event), and to lower my handicap to single digits.

Jennifer has just returned from "live fire" manuevers in Kuwait. They had live ammunition and were practicing firing out of their Humvees (Jennifer was a driver and had to brace her M16 over her left forearm and fire out the driver's side window as she drove). They were in the field for four days without real food or fresh water and ate MREs morning, noon and night. As Jennifer said, "that makes the food in the cafeteria bearable". She will be updating her blog this week so check it out.

I believe that Dad and Shirley are in Texas right now. I don't know their exact schedule, but it seems to me that they were heading in that direction. One of you Texas readers give me an update under the comments section. I'll try to call one night this week.

Well, that is the news up to the minute. Harvey, the regional VP, will be in this week to work on the 2005 budget with me and I'll try to press him on some expansion plans next year, including moving my assistant into a junior underwriter position. Take care. Ciao.