It is Tuesday and it feels like Monday. Christmas has come and gone and some of the memories still ring loudly on the first day back to work. The highlight of this Christmas, for me, was going to Christmas Eve service with Jennifer, Alicia and Darla's parents joining our family. I told Jennifer after the service that the best present she could give me was going to church with me. The service was very well done with Christmas carols and drama interspersed. There was no sermon, per se, and there never is on Christmas, so I didn't even bring my Bible. The message was about the gift of everlasting life and it was told powerfully through the eyes of a mother who is spending her first Christmas without her married daughter, and a soldier in Iraq who is away from his family at Christmas.
We then returned home for a repast of Prime Rib and all of the other foods (salads, potatoes, rolls, etc.) Steve, Darla's brother, and his daughter, Taylor, joined us for dinner and then spent the night. Jennifer also stayed over and was there in the morning to open gifts and share in the family togetherness. It was a great Christmas. Darla decided that my Barbie tools are passe' and bought me a new roller cabinet and tool chest combo for the garage. My old one was worn out and the rollers were shot. The new one has drawers with ball bearings and I bought liners for each of the drawers. The boys bought me a new cordless drill that doubles as a screwdriver. I put in a couple of shelves in the garage above the roller cabinet to hold the WD40, and cleaners and waxes and tire treatments and car wash, etc. The things that gather in a garage and were stored on top of the old roller cabinet and were always a mess. Jennifer bought me some golf gear (hat, Nike jacket and golf towel) from The Lakes golf course in Osan, Korea. It is definitely unique and the jacket is first cabin. She did a great job in choosing gifts, which she always does and gave the boys some nice clothes and Darla a new padfolio and Cross pen for her work. I bought Darla a set of pearl earrings and a necklace. She had bought herself a slew of gifts (mostly sweats and jackets) and had told me not to buy her anything, but I don't listen. We bought David a new wakeboard case and a new neoprene vest that matches the jet ski. Daniel got the laptop as a combo birthday and Christmas gift. He also got some clothes. We bought Jennifer a new MP3 player that will hold up to 12,000 songs. She spent a big part of Christmas Eve downloading songs onto the computer and uploaded them after she opened the gift on Christmas day. I had her research the players before we bought one. She ended up with a 30 GB Creative Nomad Jukebox player and is having fun loading it for her trip back to Korea.
I'm planning to take Thursday off to spend with Jennifer. Darla and I are looking to buy a new tv. Our console in the living room is about 22 years old and we want a new widescreen DLP HDTV receiver. We are looking to go about 42" in diameter. Friends have told us to go larger, but our current tv is 27", so 42" will seem huge to us. I may play golf in the morning and have lunch with Jennifer and then go tv shopping.
We are in the rainy season. It rained so much over the weekend that I had to drain the pond in the back yard and again fix a clog in the downspout of the gutters, this time in the front yard. I waited for a lull in the weather and then bundled up and got on the ladder. Sure enough, the downspout was clogged with leaves and twigs and when I pulled them out the water all rushed to the downspout and caused a geyser that drenched me. I couldn't jump free of the water as I was up on a ladder. The joys of home ownership.
Well, that is it until next week. Jennifer will be off to Las Vegas for the New Year's Eve festivities. She is staying at Mandalay Bay and will ring in the New Year in style. Hey, to be 25 and have the world as your oyster. Not bad...I'd take that gig. Hope all are well. God Bless each of you and keep you safe into the New Year. Happy New Year all. Ciao.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Darla
Darla has decided that waiting for me to be promoted is like bad oral surgery: painful and unneccesary. She went on an interview yesterday with her company for a Supervisor position. It is a new unit in Roseville and is a very sought after position. She is up against five other service coordinators and two supervisors who are interested in a lateral move. She went out this weekend and bought a new suit for her interview and handled herself brilliantly during the interview yesterday. She will find out later this week if she is accepted for the position. She has mixed feelings about her chances, especially given the interest of the two supervisors. Often, these things are political, but I think the time is right for Darla to move into Supervision. Whether it is this job or another like it, she will soon be commanding a unit at her job place and we can commiserate on the inevitable calls from our employees feigning illness on a sunny day. I wish her well and good luck in the process. In many ways, she would be ideal for the position, given her training in Early Autism and her well rounded experience. I'll let you all know how it goes. Put Darla on your prayer list as she waits to hear the outcome. Ciao.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Snow in Detroit...a blizzard of work on my desk
I am back from the Home Office visit that I made last week. I thought I was prepared for the cold, but it is hard to prepare for 8 degrees and snow flurries. We had a bit of snow everyday and a full fledged snow storm on Thursday to see me off and back to Sacramento.
I flew in on Sunday night and the sight of the snow piled up on the sides of the runway caught me a bit unaware. I knew they'd had some snow, but I really wasn't prepared for the raw cold. I had played golf on Saturday in our last tournament of the year and it was sunny and 68 degrees on Saturday. It was 17 degrees with a wind chill factor of 12 degrees when I landed.
The golf was great, in fact I shot my best round of the year with a 37+40=77, which included a chip in for eagle on number 5. I won low gross in my flight with a 77 and took low gross in the Eclectic tournament which is the year long tournament that tracks our best scores on each hole throughout the year. We play by flight and I shot a 63, which gave me a net of 50 for the year. I'll have some money in the pro shop after the first of the year and may shop for a new hybrid club to replace my 4 iron. The hybrids are so easy to hit.
Of course, I bragged to anyone who would listen in Detroit that the weather was so nice back in Sacramento and how could they live in such a cold environment? The Thursday storm left the parking lot a slippery mess and coated most of the cars with a six inch blanket of snow. The one item that we don't see out here is heated seats and they all seem to have them in their cars. It is a welcome luxury to sit in a warm front seat when it is 8 degrees outside.
The week was great and I got some excellent training as well as a chance to bond with many of the upper level Managers. It is apparent that they all have my back and have lobbied for my promotion. I still have the boss to convince, but it is obvious that he is beginning to thaw. He wants to see the Sacramento office get off to a good start in 2006 and will be ready to pull the trigger if we do get started strong. Our budget is actually built with a heavier lean to the later months for our stronger premium months, so it is quite doable that we could meet and exceed our budget in the first quarter. We are making money now and that is just a start.
We are having a good month and our Christmas party at our house a week ago last Friday was a nice way to thank the staff for a great 2005. We had most of the staff here save for our Personal Lines Underwriter who is still mourning that she had her assistant promoted and now has to do her own assistant work. Our accounting person, Audra, had six crowns put on her teeth on that Friday and was at home in pain while we all celebrated here. She had told me that she would be there, but I had no plans to see her. I had one crown put on and was down for the count earlier this year.
The trip back from Detroit was an ordeal. Getting out of Detroit was delayed because of a crew change and then we had to wait on the tarmac while the plane was de-iced. That is an interesting process as a lift truck sprays a hot solution on the wings, tail section and engines before takeoff. The steam fogged up the window as we watched the lift trucks work both sides of the plane.
I arrived in Phoenix a half hour late, but with plenty of time to catch my 10:47 PM connection to Sacramento. I was in the very back of the plane and had to wait to deplane. When I got out, it was about 10:20 and I raced to the Departure board to find my gate. There, in color, was the word "Cancelled". I walked to the America West Courtesy Desk and saw over a hundred people in line to talk to the two harried clerks. I bypassed that office and went back down to ticketing to see if I could catch another flight. The Sacramento flight was cancelled beacause of weather at the originating sight of the inbound plane. The best they could do was seat me on a plane the next morning leaving for Sacramento at 8:10 AM. I had to wait and collect my luggage and then had to grab a hotel room and spend the night. nIt was about midnight (2 AM Detroit time) by the time I got checked into the hotel. I stayed at a Super 8 dive motel for $50 and at that price, it was still a ripoff.
I finally arrived home, tired, beat and sore at ten o'clock Friday morning. I ran by the house, showered and then went into the office. It was a long week.
Jennifer will be home on Thursday and we will spend Christmas Eve here with the boys. I'm anxious to hear some of Jennifer's stories from Korea. I've already heard that she spent a weekend in Seoul and met a group of Canadian guys. They had a good time together along with one of her friends from the unit. She sent on some pictures.
I spent part of this morning after church cleaning out gutters on the house. I have gutter guards up on the house, but they are optional as small pieces of leaves and branches find their way into the gutters and clog the downspouts. We have a Winter storm under way with rain and wind and three of the gutters were clogged, one so bad that the weight of the water pulled a portion of the gutter loose from the roof. I had to repair that all in a driving rainstorm. Nice, eh?
Well, that is the news for now. Have a great Christ-Mas day and remember that Christ is the reason for the season and that if you are unhappy with your worldly gifts, know that the best gift we will ever receive was the gift of everlasting life bought by Christ's death on the cross. Ciao.
I flew in on Sunday night and the sight of the snow piled up on the sides of the runway caught me a bit unaware. I knew they'd had some snow, but I really wasn't prepared for the raw cold. I had played golf on Saturday in our last tournament of the year and it was sunny and 68 degrees on Saturday. It was 17 degrees with a wind chill factor of 12 degrees when I landed.
The golf was great, in fact I shot my best round of the year with a 37+40=77, which included a chip in for eagle on number 5. I won low gross in my flight with a 77 and took low gross in the Eclectic tournament which is the year long tournament that tracks our best scores on each hole throughout the year. We play by flight and I shot a 63, which gave me a net of 50 for the year. I'll have some money in the pro shop after the first of the year and may shop for a new hybrid club to replace my 4 iron. The hybrids are so easy to hit.
Of course, I bragged to anyone who would listen in Detroit that the weather was so nice back in Sacramento and how could they live in such a cold environment? The Thursday storm left the parking lot a slippery mess and coated most of the cars with a six inch blanket of snow. The one item that we don't see out here is heated seats and they all seem to have them in their cars. It is a welcome luxury to sit in a warm front seat when it is 8 degrees outside.
The week was great and I got some excellent training as well as a chance to bond with many of the upper level Managers. It is apparent that they all have my back and have lobbied for my promotion. I still have the boss to convince, but it is obvious that he is beginning to thaw. He wants to see the Sacramento office get off to a good start in 2006 and will be ready to pull the trigger if we do get started strong. Our budget is actually built with a heavier lean to the later months for our stronger premium months, so it is quite doable that we could meet and exceed our budget in the first quarter. We are making money now and that is just a start.
We are having a good month and our Christmas party at our house a week ago last Friday was a nice way to thank the staff for a great 2005. We had most of the staff here save for our Personal Lines Underwriter who is still mourning that she had her assistant promoted and now has to do her own assistant work. Our accounting person, Audra, had six crowns put on her teeth on that Friday and was at home in pain while we all celebrated here. She had told me that she would be there, but I had no plans to see her. I had one crown put on and was down for the count earlier this year.
The trip back from Detroit was an ordeal. Getting out of Detroit was delayed because of a crew change and then we had to wait on the tarmac while the plane was de-iced. That is an interesting process as a lift truck sprays a hot solution on the wings, tail section and engines before takeoff. The steam fogged up the window as we watched the lift trucks work both sides of the plane.
I arrived in Phoenix a half hour late, but with plenty of time to catch my 10:47 PM connection to Sacramento. I was in the very back of the plane and had to wait to deplane. When I got out, it was about 10:20 and I raced to the Departure board to find my gate. There, in color, was the word "Cancelled". I walked to the America West Courtesy Desk and saw over a hundred people in line to talk to the two harried clerks. I bypassed that office and went back down to ticketing to see if I could catch another flight. The Sacramento flight was cancelled beacause of weather at the originating sight of the inbound plane. The best they could do was seat me on a plane the next morning leaving for Sacramento at 8:10 AM. I had to wait and collect my luggage and then had to grab a hotel room and spend the night. nIt was about midnight (2 AM Detroit time) by the time I got checked into the hotel. I stayed at a Super 8 dive motel for $50 and at that price, it was still a ripoff.
I finally arrived home, tired, beat and sore at ten o'clock Friday morning. I ran by the house, showered and then went into the office. It was a long week.
Jennifer will be home on Thursday and we will spend Christmas Eve here with the boys. I'm anxious to hear some of Jennifer's stories from Korea. I've already heard that she spent a weekend in Seoul and met a group of Canadian guys. They had a good time together along with one of her friends from the unit. She sent on some pictures.
I spent part of this morning after church cleaning out gutters on the house. I have gutter guards up on the house, but they are optional as small pieces of leaves and branches find their way into the gutters and clog the downspouts. We have a Winter storm under way with rain and wind and three of the gutters were clogged, one so bad that the weight of the water pulled a portion of the gutter loose from the roof. I had to repair that all in a driving rainstorm. Nice, eh?
Well, that is the news for now. Have a great Christ-Mas day and remember that Christ is the reason for the season and that if you are unhappy with your worldly gifts, know that the best gift we will ever receive was the gift of everlasting life bought by Christ's death on the cross. Ciao.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Cold Crisp start to the week
It is another Monday and it woke with frost on the lawns and rooftops and has morphed into a crisp, clear and sunny December day. So far the fog has only been sporadic this year and sunshine has been the norm, aside from the last week of on and off again rainstorms. The forecast is for more of the same cold, clear days ahead. We got caught up on our rainfall totals last week as it rained from Monday until Friday, clearing for the weekend.
My garage door opener was so old (circa 1987) that I couldn't buy replacement parts or new remotes. I'd ordered some parts that didn't work and finally decided to replace the old dog with a new one. Sears seemed to have the best deal with a unit that included two remotes and a keyless entry. The keyless entry is nice if we take a walk or Jennifer comes over or the boys get dropped off by a friend after school. I was a little cool to the idea of going to the mall to pick up the opener, but went online, picked out the opener, paid for it and picked it up at the Merchandise Pick-up. I never had to go into the store. It was almost as convenient as shopping online and having the item delivered to the house. The boys and I installed the new opener on Saturday morning.
I played no golf this weekend and I think it was my first golfless weekend in a couple of months. We had tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra's Christmas show on Saturday afternoon and then dinner that night with the Roseville Golf Club. The show was great, we got our tickets from Gary and Liz Krohn. Liz is a marketing specialist for one of the large malls in Sacramento and has connections. We had seats in the lower level to the right of the stage. It was nice. We met at the dinner location and left our car for the 3:00 PM show. We returned at 6:15 PM for the 6:30 PM party and had a drink while the board members set up. I got a gift of a session with Harry, my Bowen specialist along with a martini sampler. I'll probably regift the martini sampler in the white elephant gift exchange at our Christmas party on Friday night. We will christen our remodel project and the new carpeting with the Burns and Wilcox holiday party on Friday night. We'll have turkey and ham and all of the trimmings on Friday and will have our gift exchange after that.
Jennifer has arrived in Korea and had a surprise awaiting her. One of the guys from her team in Kuwait has also joined the Das Net group and met her at the airport. He is part of the New York based team and won't be working with her out of Georgia, but it was a nice surprise for Jen to see a familiar face in Korea. She is having a good time and sent me an e-mail to let me know that she was getting a new cell phone and buying some international minutes for the phone and would call soon. She will, of course, be home for Christmas and we look forward to seeing her.
Work here is going well and I leave next Sunday for a week in home office for some Branch Manager training. I assume this means that they are happy with the success of the Sacramento and Modesto offices. I will have to pack warm for the trip to Detroit, where there is snow on the ground and a heavy chill in the air. I don't own a wool suit, but I'm sure that I will wish that I did. I'm excited to go back and spend some time in the home office. I've been to Detroit twice for the manager's meeting, but have yet to visit the Home office site. I'm encouraged by the invitation and the continuing good numbers that we are putting up.
As I will be in Detroit, the blog will take a little holiday until I get back. Darla and I were in church yesterday and a gentleman behind us had chest pains during communion. Our church is so large that we have an emergency team of doctors and paramedics on staff that were able to monitor the man and get his vitals stable and he was ready to be transported to the hospital when the ambulance arrived. The pastor stopped the service and prayed for the man and the team working on him. Rick said that due to the size of our church that there is a medical emergency almost every weekend and the Emergency team is called into service. It is nice to be part of a church that plans for every eventuality. Well that's it this week. Be well and stay in lock step with the Lord. Ciao.
My garage door opener was so old (circa 1987) that I couldn't buy replacement parts or new remotes. I'd ordered some parts that didn't work and finally decided to replace the old dog with a new one. Sears seemed to have the best deal with a unit that included two remotes and a keyless entry. The keyless entry is nice if we take a walk or Jennifer comes over or the boys get dropped off by a friend after school. I was a little cool to the idea of going to the mall to pick up the opener, but went online, picked out the opener, paid for it and picked it up at the Merchandise Pick-up. I never had to go into the store. It was almost as convenient as shopping online and having the item delivered to the house. The boys and I installed the new opener on Saturday morning.
I played no golf this weekend and I think it was my first golfless weekend in a couple of months. We had tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra's Christmas show on Saturday afternoon and then dinner that night with the Roseville Golf Club. The show was great, we got our tickets from Gary and Liz Krohn. Liz is a marketing specialist for one of the large malls in Sacramento and has connections. We had seats in the lower level to the right of the stage. It was nice. We met at the dinner location and left our car for the 3:00 PM show. We returned at 6:15 PM for the 6:30 PM party and had a drink while the board members set up. I got a gift of a session with Harry, my Bowen specialist along with a martini sampler. I'll probably regift the martini sampler in the white elephant gift exchange at our Christmas party on Friday night. We will christen our remodel project and the new carpeting with the Burns and Wilcox holiday party on Friday night. We'll have turkey and ham and all of the trimmings on Friday and will have our gift exchange after that.
Jennifer has arrived in Korea and had a surprise awaiting her. One of the guys from her team in Kuwait has also joined the Das Net group and met her at the airport. He is part of the New York based team and won't be working with her out of Georgia, but it was a nice surprise for Jen to see a familiar face in Korea. She is having a good time and sent me an e-mail to let me know that she was getting a new cell phone and buying some international minutes for the phone and would call soon. She will, of course, be home for Christmas and we look forward to seeing her.
Work here is going well and I leave next Sunday for a week in home office for some Branch Manager training. I assume this means that they are happy with the success of the Sacramento and Modesto offices. I will have to pack warm for the trip to Detroit, where there is snow on the ground and a heavy chill in the air. I don't own a wool suit, but I'm sure that I will wish that I did. I'm excited to go back and spend some time in the home office. I've been to Detroit twice for the manager's meeting, but have yet to visit the Home office site. I'm encouraged by the invitation and the continuing good numbers that we are putting up.
As I will be in Detroit, the blog will take a little holiday until I get back. Darla and I were in church yesterday and a gentleman behind us had chest pains during communion. Our church is so large that we have an emergency team of doctors and paramedics on staff that were able to monitor the man and get his vitals stable and he was ready to be transported to the hospital when the ambulance arrived. The pastor stopped the service and prayed for the man and the team working on him. Rick said that due to the size of our church that there is a medical emergency almost every weekend and the Emergency team is called into service. It is nice to be part of a church that plans for every eventuality. Well that's it this week. Be well and stay in lock step with the Lord. Ciao.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Monday after the Holiday and...it's raining
That is just adding insult to injury. I anticipated the rain and hadn't washed my car so there is some good that comes from a murky, dark and cold Monday. The light from the sun has yet to do much in lighting up the sky as the dark rain clouds cover the horizon and a light rain is falling. I made it to work before the rains came and had just a mist on my windshield by the time I got off the freeway. The roads are slick and wet and the morning commute just got a little more treacherous.
We had a very nice Thanksgiving with a visit to Paradise and Darla's parents. We brought the boys and stayed over Thursday night and came home on Friday. Darla's brother, Steve, and sister, Alicia, joined the fray and even Darla's 86 year old grandfather, Andy, and his wife Liz, showed up and stayed over with all of us. The granite countertop and tile backsplash look great in Francis' kitchen. They used the same granite guy that we used and he did a fantastic job and even made a few custom touches for them. Now, Alicia is having her kitchen redone as well and using Vasile.
Darla and I slept in the fifth wheel on Thursday night and the rains came and beat on that tin roof all night long. It woke me up several times and, although we woke up at 7:30, we decided to sleep in and finally emerged at about 8:45 a.m. Unfortunately, Andy and Liz were up early and had a bad night sleeping and just wanted to get home. They'd been waiting for us to get up since about 7:30 a.m. and were on the road just as soon as I could move my car that was blocking him in. It was great seeing them, but they are getting a little old for overnight visits as they get quite confused in the middle of the night. Steve brought his dog, who growled every time Andy got up to use the rest room, which was often.
I played golf on Saturday with Mel, Bob Hand and Greg Wanee. The weather cleared over Friday night and it was crisp, clear and cold. It never got over 50 degrees and we teed off at 8:20 AM. I won $3 on a game of Wolf and we had lunch together afterward. I invited the group and their wives out to dinner, but Mel and Bob couldn't make it. Greg was in. I asked him if he needed to check with his wife and he said, "No. I'm in charge of dinner and we're going out with you." I thought that wouldn't fly in my house, but thought nothing of it. I told Greg that we'd meet at the restaurant at 7:00 PM. I worked outside when I got home raking leaves and doing some trimming. Darla was working on painting inside. She is redoing all of the interior doors and door jams in white. The original color was off white and it has turned that dingy yellow-white that looks so bad next to fresh paint..or new carpet. We finally got around to calling Greg and Carla about six as we were going to get showers and get ready to leave. Carla answered and said, "No. I'm just serving dinner. Greg got home about a half hour ago and just told me about the dinner invite. I had dinner already started." It seemed odd that they didn't call us, but I let it go. Greg called me last night and apologized. He went out Christmas shopping after golf and hadn't checked in with Carla. He said he thought Darla was going to call and set it up. Real man of the house there. At least I can see that communication is their strong suit. Darla and I ended up going out to dinner at Chevy's and our leftovers were dinner last night.
Darla and I went to see "Walk the Line" last week, the Johnny Cash movie. Excellent. Put it on your to do list.
I had planned to strip the cabinets in the kitchen this weekend and then sand and refinish them. It was a bandaid as we eventually want to have them professionally refinished and Darla wants them stained in a winter white color. We also want the hinges changed to interior hinges and then we want to install hardware. The cost for that job is almost $5000, so it is off the radar right now. When I went in to the hardware store to get the supplies, the helpful Ace hardware man suggested that I try "Howard Restore-A-Finish", a product that is applied right over the existing varnish and stain. It fills in the worn areas, the places where the oils of our hands have worn off the finish and the stain and the areas that have heat stress from the stovetop and the coffee pot. This stuff is amazing and gives the wood a clean, refinished look, all for $8.99. The kitchen looks great and the cabinets are shiny and new. Try it, if you have cabinets that are looking a little worn.
Jennifer will be over for dinner Tuesday night and the boys will say "Hi" and "Bye" to her as she jets off to Korea on Thursday. She has been home for three weeks this week and I gave her heck as she has not been over to see the boys since getting home. David was a little p.o.ed at her and Daniel is miffed as well. Sometimes the girl looks a little too inward and doesn't see what is going on around her. I've seen her the night I picked her up at the airport and the day we went to lunch and that's it. I know she's busy, but she has seen her friends and her Mom and Mom's new boyfriend and his family and hasn't made a point to see the boys or visit us. She promised to spend some time with us at Christmas. She knows I'm a little upset and Darla is unhappy with the fact that she didn't make the boys and me a priority on her return home. Don't upset the mother hen. Anyhow, I'll get some pictures tomorrow night and get them on the blog.
I did talk to Jennifer and she clarified her job. She will not get paid tax free. That perk is for American citizens who are working abroad on military civilian positions and are overseas for the entire year. As she will be going back and forth, her tax base will be the same as anyone working in the US. She still has a great job.
Well that's it for this installment. Stay well. We brought a neighbor friend to church yesterday. She is a divorcee and she was so thrilled with the service. Darla and Carol dropped me off and went to lunch together. What a blessing it is for us to see how God touches the lives of others through us. Stay well. Ciao.
We had a very nice Thanksgiving with a visit to Paradise and Darla's parents. We brought the boys and stayed over Thursday night and came home on Friday. Darla's brother, Steve, and sister, Alicia, joined the fray and even Darla's 86 year old grandfather, Andy, and his wife Liz, showed up and stayed over with all of us. The granite countertop and tile backsplash look great in Francis' kitchen. They used the same granite guy that we used and he did a fantastic job and even made a few custom touches for them. Now, Alicia is having her kitchen redone as well and using Vasile.
Darla and I slept in the fifth wheel on Thursday night and the rains came and beat on that tin roof all night long. It woke me up several times and, although we woke up at 7:30, we decided to sleep in and finally emerged at about 8:45 a.m. Unfortunately, Andy and Liz were up early and had a bad night sleeping and just wanted to get home. They'd been waiting for us to get up since about 7:30 a.m. and were on the road just as soon as I could move my car that was blocking him in. It was great seeing them, but they are getting a little old for overnight visits as they get quite confused in the middle of the night. Steve brought his dog, who growled every time Andy got up to use the rest room, which was often.
I played golf on Saturday with Mel, Bob Hand and Greg Wanee. The weather cleared over Friday night and it was crisp, clear and cold. It never got over 50 degrees and we teed off at 8:20 AM. I won $3 on a game of Wolf and we had lunch together afterward. I invited the group and their wives out to dinner, but Mel and Bob couldn't make it. Greg was in. I asked him if he needed to check with his wife and he said, "No. I'm in charge of dinner and we're going out with you." I thought that wouldn't fly in my house, but thought nothing of it. I told Greg that we'd meet at the restaurant at 7:00 PM. I worked outside when I got home raking leaves and doing some trimming. Darla was working on painting inside. She is redoing all of the interior doors and door jams in white. The original color was off white and it has turned that dingy yellow-white that looks so bad next to fresh paint..or new carpet. We finally got around to calling Greg and Carla about six as we were going to get showers and get ready to leave. Carla answered and said, "No. I'm just serving dinner. Greg got home about a half hour ago and just told me about the dinner invite. I had dinner already started." It seemed odd that they didn't call us, but I let it go. Greg called me last night and apologized. He went out Christmas shopping after golf and hadn't checked in with Carla. He said he thought Darla was going to call and set it up. Real man of the house there. At least I can see that communication is their strong suit. Darla and I ended up going out to dinner at Chevy's and our leftovers were dinner last night.
Darla and I went to see "Walk the Line" last week, the Johnny Cash movie. Excellent. Put it on your to do list.
I had planned to strip the cabinets in the kitchen this weekend and then sand and refinish them. It was a bandaid as we eventually want to have them professionally refinished and Darla wants them stained in a winter white color. We also want the hinges changed to interior hinges and then we want to install hardware. The cost for that job is almost $5000, so it is off the radar right now. When I went in to the hardware store to get the supplies, the helpful Ace hardware man suggested that I try "Howard Restore-A-Finish", a product that is applied right over the existing varnish and stain. It fills in the worn areas, the places where the oils of our hands have worn off the finish and the stain and the areas that have heat stress from the stovetop and the coffee pot. This stuff is amazing and gives the wood a clean, refinished look, all for $8.99. The kitchen looks great and the cabinets are shiny and new. Try it, if you have cabinets that are looking a little worn.
Jennifer will be over for dinner Tuesday night and the boys will say "Hi" and "Bye" to her as she jets off to Korea on Thursday. She has been home for three weeks this week and I gave her heck as she has not been over to see the boys since getting home. David was a little p.o.ed at her and Daniel is miffed as well. Sometimes the girl looks a little too inward and doesn't see what is going on around her. I've seen her the night I picked her up at the airport and the day we went to lunch and that's it. I know she's busy, but she has seen her friends and her Mom and Mom's new boyfriend and his family and hasn't made a point to see the boys or visit us. She promised to spend some time with us at Christmas. She knows I'm a little upset and Darla is unhappy with the fact that she didn't make the boys and me a priority on her return home. Don't upset the mother hen. Anyhow, I'll get some pictures tomorrow night and get them on the blog.
I did talk to Jennifer and she clarified her job. She will not get paid tax free. That perk is for American citizens who are working abroad on military civilian positions and are overseas for the entire year. As she will be going back and forth, her tax base will be the same as anyone working in the US. She still has a great job.
Well that's it for this installment. Stay well. We brought a neighbor friend to church yesterday. She is a divorcee and she was so thrilled with the service. Darla and Carol dropped me off and went to lunch together. What a blessing it is for us to see how God touches the lives of others through us. Stay well. Ciao.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Good Morning World
Our weather here in Northern California has been nothing short of spectacular for about the last two weeks. We have enjoyed cool nights in the mid 40's and daytime highs in the mid 70's. It doesn't get any better than this, eh? Today is one of those days with a high blue sky and crisp clear sunshine that early in the morning leaves a promise of good things to come. The grass is covered in dew and fallen leaves and the trees outside of my picture window are green and yellow and red, with one lone tree devoid of leaves, but strangely full of white buds as if it were Spring instead of late Autumn.
I was able to talk to Dad this weekend and they were coming home from a meal with Randy and his family. Randy left yesterday for a week in Banff, Canada and a ski holiday. Jenny flew in to Dallas and met the family and they all flew to Canada. Dad and Shirley left Euless yesterday for two days in San Antonio and some alone time on the River Walk. They will be back in Austin with Darryl and Cheryl for the Thanksgiving holiday.
We had a bit of a surprise in our neighborhood this last Friday. A CHP officer from Roseville was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Yolo County on Thursday and there was a manhunt on for his killers, two men in a light colored Toyota. When I got home Friday night there were news crews and police vehicles all over the cul-de-sac behind our house. It turns out that the neighborhood punk had shot and killed the officer. This kid is bad news and has caused all sorts of grief to neighbors in the neighborhood and was even caught vandalizing cars and stealing property. He is 20 years old and lived with his Mom and two brothers, both of whom are equal idiots. The story has now come out that this kid was the son of a disgraced officer in the Bay Area, who was fired after having a relationship with a victim's widow and then committing suicide when he was caught after a botched bank robbery in Fremont. The family is a piece of work with the Mom recently having been cited for driving under the influence and the son having a court date in December for violating the terms of his parole by using methamphetamines and being arrested under the influence of a controlled substance. The funeral for the officer is tomorrow at our church in Roseville. You can't pick your neighbors, but this group is serious white trash and live in the neighborhood simply because they sold their home in the Bay Area for a mint and left there in shame.
Jennifer did fly to New York on Thursday and was met by the Vice President of the company she was interviewing with. She met with the President and several of the officers for a day long interview on Friday and eventually accepted the position. The company is a military contractor and Jennifer will be a Tech Engineer Level One and will be installing network systems. Her salary is huge and she will make her money tax free while working on government installations overseas. The jobs that she is working on are all bid jobs with specific start and end dates and the teams that work on the jobs live at military installations and are on a per diem while working. The team is paid a bonus for completing the job on time, and an even bigger bonus for completing the job ahead of schedule. She will live in Georgia and will spend about 75% of her time overseas. She leaves for Korea on December 1st and will be home on December 22nd for Christmas. She will then fly to back to Korea on January 3rd to complete the work order and will be back in Sacramento by the first of March when she will make the move to Georgia. I'm proud of her although I had hoped that she would get to stay in Sacramento for awhile. This is a great chance for her to make some money and save up for a house. The company will also pay for her to go to school to get her degree which is nice, although she already has that money coming from her GI bill. She will be covered for Medical immediately and will be covered by a 401 K plan. It sounds like a great job for a young person and it will be using the skills that she has developed in the Army. This time she'll get paid very well to ply her trade, however. The company does NOT work in Kuwait or Iraq, Thank God. The website for her new firm is: www.dasnetcorp.com
I played golf this weekend in the Turkey shoot at Woodcreek golf course. It was a two man best ball. I had 14 strokes and shot a pedantic 41+44=85. Boyd shot even worse (for him) with a 40+41=81. Our best ball score was 68 which qualified us for absolutely nothing. I did win a bottle of wine for being the first person in our foursome to spot the stuffed turkey which was hiding in the branches of an oak tree on number 7. The weather was fantastic and the course is in pristine condition.
Yesterday, Darla, the boys and I made another dump run, this time with two trucks. We hauled all of the old baseboards, an old dresser, boxes, games, toys, and junk to the dump. The side yard was brimming with trash and we were able to haul it all away. As Darla said, she thinks we are actually done with our remodel. Next year we plan to have someone come in and install crown molding in the living room, family room and our master bedroom. We will also have the cabinets refaced and the master bathroom remodeled with a new shower and tile. It was the one room that we weren't able to afford right now. I will work on touching up the cabinets in the kitchen this weekend by putting a fresh coat of Honey Oak stain on the cabinets. It has a satin finish and should look good.
We will spend Thanksgiving up in Paradise at Darla's folks. We have the boys this year and will actually stay over at the old homestead and play games and watch football and eat turkey. It should be fun. Jennifer was invited, but will instead head to Palm Springs with her Mom.
Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all and take this time to thank God for all of the blessings that he has bestowed on your life. Ciao.
I was able to talk to Dad this weekend and they were coming home from a meal with Randy and his family. Randy left yesterday for a week in Banff, Canada and a ski holiday. Jenny flew in to Dallas and met the family and they all flew to Canada. Dad and Shirley left Euless yesterday for two days in San Antonio and some alone time on the River Walk. They will be back in Austin with Darryl and Cheryl for the Thanksgiving holiday.
We had a bit of a surprise in our neighborhood this last Friday. A CHP officer from Roseville was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Yolo County on Thursday and there was a manhunt on for his killers, two men in a light colored Toyota. When I got home Friday night there were news crews and police vehicles all over the cul-de-sac behind our house. It turns out that the neighborhood punk had shot and killed the officer. This kid is bad news and has caused all sorts of grief to neighbors in the neighborhood and was even caught vandalizing cars and stealing property. He is 20 years old and lived with his Mom and two brothers, both of whom are equal idiots. The story has now come out that this kid was the son of a disgraced officer in the Bay Area, who was fired after having a relationship with a victim's widow and then committing suicide when he was caught after a botched bank robbery in Fremont. The family is a piece of work with the Mom recently having been cited for driving under the influence and the son having a court date in December for violating the terms of his parole by using methamphetamines and being arrested under the influence of a controlled substance. The funeral for the officer is tomorrow at our church in Roseville. You can't pick your neighbors, but this group is serious white trash and live in the neighborhood simply because they sold their home in the Bay Area for a mint and left there in shame.
Jennifer did fly to New York on Thursday and was met by the Vice President of the company she was interviewing with. She met with the President and several of the officers for a day long interview on Friday and eventually accepted the position. The company is a military contractor and Jennifer will be a Tech Engineer Level One and will be installing network systems. Her salary is huge and she will make her money tax free while working on government installations overseas. The jobs that she is working on are all bid jobs with specific start and end dates and the teams that work on the jobs live at military installations and are on a per diem while working. The team is paid a bonus for completing the job on time, and an even bigger bonus for completing the job ahead of schedule. She will live in Georgia and will spend about 75% of her time overseas. She leaves for Korea on December 1st and will be home on December 22nd for Christmas. She will then fly to back to Korea on January 3rd to complete the work order and will be back in Sacramento by the first of March when she will make the move to Georgia. I'm proud of her although I had hoped that she would get to stay in Sacramento for awhile. This is a great chance for her to make some money and save up for a house. The company will also pay for her to go to school to get her degree which is nice, although she already has that money coming from her GI bill. She will be covered for Medical immediately and will be covered by a 401 K plan. It sounds like a great job for a young person and it will be using the skills that she has developed in the Army. This time she'll get paid very well to ply her trade, however. The company does NOT work in Kuwait or Iraq, Thank God. The website for her new firm is: www.dasnetcorp.com
I played golf this weekend in the Turkey shoot at Woodcreek golf course. It was a two man best ball. I had 14 strokes and shot a pedantic 41+44=85. Boyd shot even worse (for him) with a 40+41=81. Our best ball score was 68 which qualified us for absolutely nothing. I did win a bottle of wine for being the first person in our foursome to spot the stuffed turkey which was hiding in the branches of an oak tree on number 7. The weather was fantastic and the course is in pristine condition.
Yesterday, Darla, the boys and I made another dump run, this time with two trucks. We hauled all of the old baseboards, an old dresser, boxes, games, toys, and junk to the dump. The side yard was brimming with trash and we were able to haul it all away. As Darla said, she thinks we are actually done with our remodel. Next year we plan to have someone come in and install crown molding in the living room, family room and our master bedroom. We will also have the cabinets refaced and the master bathroom remodeled with a new shower and tile. It was the one room that we weren't able to afford right now. I will work on touching up the cabinets in the kitchen this weekend by putting a fresh coat of Honey Oak stain on the cabinets. It has a satin finish and should look good.
We will spend Thanksgiving up in Paradise at Darla's folks. We have the boys this year and will actually stay over at the old homestead and play games and watch football and eat turkey. It should be fun. Jennifer was invited, but will instead head to Palm Springs with her Mom.
Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all and take this time to thank God for all of the blessings that he has bestowed on your life. Ciao.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Monday and I'm dragging
Have you ever had one of those weekends where you get Back to work on Monday and you're sitting at your desk sipping a cup of coffee and contemplating the day ahead and you realize that it is the first time that you've been able to sit down and relax since you left work on Friday? I had one of those weekends.
The carpet installers arrived at 9 AM on Saturday as I was in the midst of pulling the last of the old baseboards out of the house. I'd worked Friday night taking down beds and packing up books and odds and ends and finally got around to pulling the baseboards about ten. I got the baseboards pulled in the study, the family room, the living room and Daniel's room and still had the master bedroom, master bath and David's room to go. I got up at seven, showered and went to work. I still had to take our bed apart and take down the stereo and television, vcr, DVD and TiVo. I did the beds and TV, etc and was finishing up David's room on the baseboards when the guys showed up. They were to be there between 9 and 11 and showed up at ten to nine. Darla showed them the work site and I frantically pulled baseboards in our room. I left one wall of David's room with the baseboard still installed as his desk and box spring and mattress were against the wall. I asked the guys if they could pull that baseboard after they moved the furniture (We paid $240 to have them move furniture). I then left for golf. Darla gave me a hug and asked why it was that I could skate during a major home improvement project. She said it with a smile, but I'm sure there was a meaning in there.
The opening for this job came on Tuesday and we jumped on it. Our carpet was delivered from the factory to the installer and they had a job fall out for Saturday just that day. I was already scheduled to play in the Tournament of Champions tournament on Saturday and we decided to go ahead. Really, there wasn't much that either of us could do while they installed the carpet, so golf was a good idea for me. Darla had to stay home and babysit the workers. They finished up about four o'clock and were good workers. They did punch a hole in our wall in the family room when the carpet stretcher slipped, but they patched it and all was forgiven. The carpet looks great and the baseboards are very modern looking compared to the narrow brown baseboards that were there before and looked so incredibly 1980's. I got to work on the baseboards as soon as I got home on Saturday and we worked until almost 11:00 that night. The mitre saw that I borrowed from Brian, our tile guy was a Godsend. Darla painted the baseboards and I installed them as soon as they were dry. Our garage was and is full of things from the boys room and the study. I still have the stereo to put back up as well as the computer in the study. The boys were with their Dad this weekend and he was irritated that Daniel spent part of Friday (Veteran's Day) at our house taking out all of the things from his closet and packing up odds and ends from his room. David came over Friday night and stripped his bed and packed up all of the loose impediments from his room before he went to Daniel's last football game.
I got all of the rooms completed with new baseboards, all except the study. I had thought I had all of the baseboards that I needed plus some leftover, but miscalculated the amount of baseboards needed for the four closets in the house. We had bought a contractors pack of baseboards, but can buy the 12 foot boards separately as well. I have about 60 feet of boards to install in the study.
My hands are swollen today, my knees are sore and even the back of my legs, behind the knee, are swollen from the knee pads that I wore most of the day yesterday. My knees were really sore after Friday and Saturday night and Darla gave me her volleyball kneepads to wear. I put them on over my sweats and they rubbed the back of my legs raw as I spent most of Sunday on my knees installing the baseboards and then caulking the whole works as well. I am really impressed with the final project. Darla picked a beautiful berber carpet for the house with a sculpted look and that combined with the already installed tile and baseboards gives the home a modern and clean look. Everything looks and smells new.
Golf was a blast this weekend. I was wildly inconsistent, shooting four birdies, three double-bogeys, a triple-bogey, five bogeys and five pars for a 42+40=82. The four birdies helped me win $29 from my playing partners in skins and bets and take second place in my flight with a net 69. I was hitting the ball great off the tee and hit some excellent approach shots, but then my game would implode on certain holes, where I'd fluff chips or shank approach shots. It was a roller coaster ride, but fun all the same.
Jennifer did make her triumphant return to Sacramento on Wednesday night. She arrived bright eyed and ready for her future. She is thrilled to be home and has several interviews set up this week and two job offers in the bank. Both as cable installers. She is holding her options open for now. I invited her to lunch today as I haven't seen her since I picked her up from the airport. She was sick on Friday with food poisoning and I was so busy over the weekend that I didn't see her at all. Jennifer was able to spend her first Veteran's Day as a vet back home, but was suffering from a sore stomach.
Daniel has finished his season of football. It was a tough season for him and for us, as he rode the bench all year behind two 260 pound linemen. He looks forward to his Senior season and a chance to start on the line. He is now looking for a job as he wants to save up some money for a car. He is sixteen, but won't get his license to drive until February.
I'll try to get some pictures up on the site sometime this week of the new carpet. Darla's parents, Earl and Frances, are having granite installed in their house this week. They have wanted to do it since they moved in and when Frances saw ours, she talked Earl in to getting it done now. It looks like they will also have the Blue Pearl installed in their home and are talking to our installer about coming up and doing the work in Paradise. I hope all are well and walking in the footsteps of the Lord. Ciao.
The carpet installers arrived at 9 AM on Saturday as I was in the midst of pulling the last of the old baseboards out of the house. I'd worked Friday night taking down beds and packing up books and odds and ends and finally got around to pulling the baseboards about ten. I got the baseboards pulled in the study, the family room, the living room and Daniel's room and still had the master bedroom, master bath and David's room to go. I got up at seven, showered and went to work. I still had to take our bed apart and take down the stereo and television, vcr, DVD and TiVo. I did the beds and TV, etc and was finishing up David's room on the baseboards when the guys showed up. They were to be there between 9 and 11 and showed up at ten to nine. Darla showed them the work site and I frantically pulled baseboards in our room. I left one wall of David's room with the baseboard still installed as his desk and box spring and mattress were against the wall. I asked the guys if they could pull that baseboard after they moved the furniture (We paid $240 to have them move furniture). I then left for golf. Darla gave me a hug and asked why it was that I could skate during a major home improvement project. She said it with a smile, but I'm sure there was a meaning in there.
The opening for this job came on Tuesday and we jumped on it. Our carpet was delivered from the factory to the installer and they had a job fall out for Saturday just that day. I was already scheduled to play in the Tournament of Champions tournament on Saturday and we decided to go ahead. Really, there wasn't much that either of us could do while they installed the carpet, so golf was a good idea for me. Darla had to stay home and babysit the workers. They finished up about four o'clock and were good workers. They did punch a hole in our wall in the family room when the carpet stretcher slipped, but they patched it and all was forgiven. The carpet looks great and the baseboards are very modern looking compared to the narrow brown baseboards that were there before and looked so incredibly 1980's. I got to work on the baseboards as soon as I got home on Saturday and we worked until almost 11:00 that night. The mitre saw that I borrowed from Brian, our tile guy was a Godsend. Darla painted the baseboards and I installed them as soon as they were dry. Our garage was and is full of things from the boys room and the study. I still have the stereo to put back up as well as the computer in the study. The boys were with their Dad this weekend and he was irritated that Daniel spent part of Friday (Veteran's Day) at our house taking out all of the things from his closet and packing up odds and ends from his room. David came over Friday night and stripped his bed and packed up all of the loose impediments from his room before he went to Daniel's last football game.
I got all of the rooms completed with new baseboards, all except the study. I had thought I had all of the baseboards that I needed plus some leftover, but miscalculated the amount of baseboards needed for the four closets in the house. We had bought a contractors pack of baseboards, but can buy the 12 foot boards separately as well. I have about 60 feet of boards to install in the study.
My hands are swollen today, my knees are sore and even the back of my legs, behind the knee, are swollen from the knee pads that I wore most of the day yesterday. My knees were really sore after Friday and Saturday night and Darla gave me her volleyball kneepads to wear. I put them on over my sweats and they rubbed the back of my legs raw as I spent most of Sunday on my knees installing the baseboards and then caulking the whole works as well. I am really impressed with the final project. Darla picked a beautiful berber carpet for the house with a sculpted look and that combined with the already installed tile and baseboards gives the home a modern and clean look. Everything looks and smells new.
Golf was a blast this weekend. I was wildly inconsistent, shooting four birdies, three double-bogeys, a triple-bogey, five bogeys and five pars for a 42+40=82. The four birdies helped me win $29 from my playing partners in skins and bets and take second place in my flight with a net 69. I was hitting the ball great off the tee and hit some excellent approach shots, but then my game would implode on certain holes, where I'd fluff chips or shank approach shots. It was a roller coaster ride, but fun all the same.
Jennifer did make her triumphant return to Sacramento on Wednesday night. She arrived bright eyed and ready for her future. She is thrilled to be home and has several interviews set up this week and two job offers in the bank. Both as cable installers. She is holding her options open for now. I invited her to lunch today as I haven't seen her since I picked her up from the airport. She was sick on Friday with food poisoning and I was so busy over the weekend that I didn't see her at all. Jennifer was able to spend her first Veteran's Day as a vet back home, but was suffering from a sore stomach.
Daniel has finished his season of football. It was a tough season for him and for us, as he rode the bench all year behind two 260 pound linemen. He looks forward to his Senior season and a chance to start on the line. He is now looking for a job as he wants to save up some money for a car. He is sixteen, but won't get his license to drive until February.
I'll try to get some pictures up on the site sometime this week of the new carpet. Darla's parents, Earl and Frances, are having granite installed in their house this week. They have wanted to do it since they moved in and when Frances saw ours, she talked Earl in to getting it done now. It looks like they will also have the Blue Pearl installed in their home and are talking to our installer about coming up and doing the work in Paradise. I hope all are well and walking in the footsteps of the Lord. Ciao.
Monday, November 07, 2005
OOPS. I did it again!
It has been over a year since I have felt even the slightest back problem. The Bowen Therapy was a HUGE success and I couldn't be happier. I get to play golf pain free. Well, that was until Saturday. We played the Allister Mackenzie course out at Haggin Oaks, Sacramento's oldest golf course and still one of the best. I took a swing from the fairway on number two and felt a twinge in my back and it was all over after that. I was able to play through the pain and even managed a 43+42=85, which wasn't bad considering that I was in pretty bad shape and couldn't take a full swing. I even managed to win some skin money at the end of the round by parring the number 12 handicap hole which was a net birdie in my flight. This particular injury seems to respond to heat and I feel pretty good after a stint in the hot tub or a hot shower or even after working which heats the muscle and relaxes it.
I woke up Sunday morning sore and stiff and even missed church which is heresy in our house. I limped around and had breakfast, but worked with the boys installing a light fixture from the kitchen in the laundry room and my back relaxed and I was even able to get up in the attic and help secure the light to the ceiling while the boys worked below me. I moved the light from the laundry room into the shed and it looks great, but we still have the same problem with a bad ballast. I may take a look at Home Depot and see what it costs to change out the ballast. I will hopefully be able to see Harry today and have him treat my back. I'm done with chiropractors, especially when the problem involves musculature and not bones.
The boys were able to help me install the new light fixture in the kichen. We had to anchor the fixture with wood and anchor bolts, so David had to climb up in the attic and attach the bolts to some 5/8 inch siding that we had left over from the shed job in 2000. The siding was strong enough yet thin enough to do the job. The new fixture looks really nice and fits the kitchen. The old fixture was a neon shop light in comparison. I don't know if Dad remembers me commenting on the light before we bought the house. I thought it was a cheap looking fixture in relation to the rest of the house. He had come out to visit us after Mom died and we were in the process of buying a house. He came with me when I met with the home inspector we hired to check out the house. Anyhow, the new fixture has a wood base with crown molding and matches the quality of the cabinets. As I mentioned, the old fixture was moved into the laundry room and looks like it fits in there. It provides more light than the old two light fixture and is better for Darla.
We took Daniel out (finally) for his birthday dinner. We ate at La Provence, an upscale French Restaurant in Roseville. I'd bought the restaurant certificate at the football banquet silent auction for $55. It included a $50 gift certificate and a bottle of French wine. Our dinner was $103 and the boys ate to their hearts content, both of them ordering a hanger steak and French fries that was listed on the menu as "Onglet sauce @ chalotes: Grilled marinated Hanger Steak, pommes frites & shallot red Côtesdu Rhine reduction." They had no idea what they were ordering, but Daniel substituted the pommes fries for garlic fries, so he scored. I also ordered the hanger steak and ate it for the second time. The portion of steak is huge and it is cooked in a wine sauce and shallots that is to die for. Darla had prawns and pasta and we all enjoyed the meal together.
Darla then took Daniel out yesterday and he finally got his birthday present, an Acer laptop computer that has enough speed and memory to handle the CAD program that is also on David's laptop which is a Dell Pentium 4 computer. Daniel has been shopping for the computer for a month and finally made his selection this weekend.
David continues to enjoy his job and drove past a building in Natomas that has a trellis that he designed installed on it. He is beginning to see some of his handiwork around town and it is pretty impressive to know that he has the talent and ability to design things from concept to reality. He spent last Monday at the pier in San Francisco eyeballing where one of his loading docks will be installed. He was there with the chief engineer of his firm and they were scoping out the jobsite for design purposes.
We have decided to host the office Christmas party this year. Dinda, who hosted the last three parties is no longer working with us, so it was probably taboo to ask her to host again. I'm not sure if I hope we get the carpet in before the party or after. Party season is upon us as we have three events to attend over the first two weekends of December with our office party, the Golf Club party and Darla's office party. We will also attend the matinee performance of the Trans Siberian Orchestra on December 3rd before heading to the RGC Christmas party that night.
We had a record month in October and brought in over $170,000 in income into the office. That improved our bottom line by over $60,000 YTD and we are getting kudos. I took the staff to lunch at the Elephant Bar last Wednesday to celebrate and we enjoyed a good "gnoshup" on the company dime.
Jennifer is due home this week. I've only talked to her briefly, but we'll get caught up this week. I'll fill you all in next week.
As I mentioned we missed church yesterday and compensated by having Darla read the first three chapters of Exodus after dinner last night. Not that we felt compelled to make up for missing church, but we missed the sermon and the Bible teaching that is so prevalent in our church. Exodus is the story of Moses and how he grew up in Pharaohs family and went on to lead the Exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt. In fact, it reminded me a lot of a Disney movie. Be well, consider your place in the world and why you are here. Be nice to someone today. It'll freak them out. Ciao.
I woke up Sunday morning sore and stiff and even missed church which is heresy in our house. I limped around and had breakfast, but worked with the boys installing a light fixture from the kitchen in the laundry room and my back relaxed and I was even able to get up in the attic and help secure the light to the ceiling while the boys worked below me. I moved the light from the laundry room into the shed and it looks great, but we still have the same problem with a bad ballast. I may take a look at Home Depot and see what it costs to change out the ballast. I will hopefully be able to see Harry today and have him treat my back. I'm done with chiropractors, especially when the problem involves musculature and not bones.
The boys were able to help me install the new light fixture in the kichen. We had to anchor the fixture with wood and anchor bolts, so David had to climb up in the attic and attach the bolts to some 5/8 inch siding that we had left over from the shed job in 2000. The siding was strong enough yet thin enough to do the job. The new fixture looks really nice and fits the kitchen. The old fixture was a neon shop light in comparison. I don't know if Dad remembers me commenting on the light before we bought the house. I thought it was a cheap looking fixture in relation to the rest of the house. He had come out to visit us after Mom died and we were in the process of buying a house. He came with me when I met with the home inspector we hired to check out the house. Anyhow, the new fixture has a wood base with crown molding and matches the quality of the cabinets. As I mentioned, the old fixture was moved into the laundry room and looks like it fits in there. It provides more light than the old two light fixture and is better for Darla.
We took Daniel out (finally) for his birthday dinner. We ate at La Provence, an upscale French Restaurant in Roseville. I'd bought the restaurant certificate at the football banquet silent auction for $55. It included a $50 gift certificate and a bottle of French wine. Our dinner was $103 and the boys ate to their hearts content, both of them ordering a hanger steak and French fries that was listed on the menu as "Onglet sauce @ chalotes: Grilled marinated Hanger Steak, pommes frites & shallot red Côtesdu Rhine reduction." They had no idea what they were ordering, but Daniel substituted the pommes fries for garlic fries, so he scored. I also ordered the hanger steak and ate it for the second time. The portion of steak is huge and it is cooked in a wine sauce and shallots that is to die for. Darla had prawns and pasta and we all enjoyed the meal together.
Darla then took Daniel out yesterday and he finally got his birthday present, an Acer laptop computer that has enough speed and memory to handle the CAD program that is also on David's laptop which is a Dell Pentium 4 computer. Daniel has been shopping for the computer for a month and finally made his selection this weekend.
David continues to enjoy his job and drove past a building in Natomas that has a trellis that he designed installed on it. He is beginning to see some of his handiwork around town and it is pretty impressive to know that he has the talent and ability to design things from concept to reality. He spent last Monday at the pier in San Francisco eyeballing where one of his loading docks will be installed. He was there with the chief engineer of his firm and they were scoping out the jobsite for design purposes.
We have decided to host the office Christmas party this year. Dinda, who hosted the last three parties is no longer working with us, so it was probably taboo to ask her to host again. I'm not sure if I hope we get the carpet in before the party or after. Party season is upon us as we have three events to attend over the first two weekends of December with our office party, the Golf Club party and Darla's office party. We will also attend the matinee performance of the Trans Siberian Orchestra on December 3rd before heading to the RGC Christmas party that night.
We had a record month in October and brought in over $170,000 in income into the office. That improved our bottom line by over $60,000 YTD and we are getting kudos. I took the staff to lunch at the Elephant Bar last Wednesday to celebrate and we enjoyed a good "gnoshup" on the company dime.
Jennifer is due home this week. I've only talked to her briefly, but we'll get caught up this week. I'll fill you all in next week.
As I mentioned we missed church yesterday and compensated by having Darla read the first three chapters of Exodus after dinner last night. Not that we felt compelled to make up for missing church, but we missed the sermon and the Bible teaching that is so prevalent in our church. Exodus is the story of Moses and how he grew up in Pharaohs family and went on to lead the Exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt. In fact, it reminded me a lot of a Disney movie. Be well, consider your place in the world and why you are here. Be nice to someone today. It'll freak them out. Ciao.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Sunday night and the livin' is easy
It is indeed Sunday night. After a Friday off and the fact that tomorrow is close for the month, I can imagine the level of stress and just plain business that will surround my desk and my being tomorrow. Throw in the added dimension of a potluck and Halloween and the blog would have fallen victim to over activity. I know my limitations and Darla just left to work out at the gym and I have some downtime, so it all adds up to a blog entry.
Darla and I did sneak out of town on Thursday afternoon. The Atlantis casino in Reno had a cheap room rate of $29 for a luxury tower room and they comped us $50 for dinner, so it was a no brainer to pack up and head to the "Biggest Little City in the World". We got up to Reno about seven o'clock and got checked in before heading down to dinner. The question was where we would eat as the Atlantis has seven restaurants. We both brought just jeans so the Seafood and Steakhouse was out as it has waiters in tuxes and they serve the salad tableside out of a crystal bowl. We opted for the Prime Rib dinner at the Purple Parrot, the casino's coffee shop and dinner house. We actually had a chicken appetizer and shared a Prime Rib, with both of us eating salad and bread. We left stuffed and spent the balance of the night playing nickle slots. We were down quite a bit early on, but I got hot and started hitting four-of-a-kinds and then we stopped about midnight to get some dessert in the coffee shop. We shared a brownie decadence, some carmel and ice cream with chocolate sauce over the thinnest brownie you'll ever see. In fact, it looked like the brownie didn't rise when they baked it. We left to play a bit more (about another hour) and Darla finally warmed up and brought us back to almost even with several four-of-a-kinds.
The next morning we both slept in until nine a.m., which in some ways was more decadent than the brownie the night before. We packed up and headed out of town by ten-thirty. We stopped off at a diner on Virginia Street called Joes that is every bit as nice as the 5 and Diner in Phoenix. Darla had a mushroom burger and I opted for a tuna fish sandwich that was made with pickles and eggs and was as good as I've had in years. The diner had pictures of all of the cars fdrom the Hot August Nights car show and none of them were as nice as Dad's '46. It was a fun getaway and we were home in time for Daniel's football game.
Daniel's team played themselves out of the playoffs with a shoddy 33-22 loss to Woodland. Woodland is now 6-2 overall and 3-1 in league. We are 4-4 and 2-2 in league, about where we stood last year at this time. Woodcreek (our team) has never finished better than 5-5 which David's team managed last year. The coach wants the players to stay focused and concentrate on winning their last two games to finish 6-4 and 4-2 in league.
Darla and I bought some stain for the kitchen cabinets. I will sand them and touch them up and we will live with them for now. Our plan will be to completely refinish them within the next year or so. Darla wants to have them stripped and redone in a winter white look with hardware on the doors and interior hinges. I can live with them as they are for now. We also bought a new light fixture for the kitchen ceiling that I will have the boys help me install next weekend. We will move the kitchen fixture into the laundry room and replace the three foot neon fixture in there. It has a bad ballast and turns comletely on only when it really wants to. Otherwise it simply buzzes and leaves you in a gloom of light.
I spent yesterday doing the baseboards under the cabinets in the kitchen. My next chore will be the baseboards in the bedrooms and the living and family room once the carpet is in. The carpet is on order and we are waiting to hear when they will come out to install. We are having them do the study and the living and family room one day and then the other three bedrooms on the next day. The boys and I will tear out the basebords before they install the carpet and then install the new baseboards once the new carpet is in. The old baseboards are dark brown and the one inch variety. The new baseboards are 3 1/2 inches by 5/8 inch white with a molding on the top edge. I borrowed a mitre saw from our tile man to do the job and it has been a breeze.
Darla and I got the jet ski moved over to Alicia's house today. We have kept the ski here and Darla has parked the Explorer outside all Summer. The plan has always been that Alicia will store it for us in her garage as she has a two car garage and only one car. Now, Darla can park her car in the garage and it won't get so dirty so fast. The Mustang has stayed in the garage during the entire Summer because I'm a bit of a fanatic about my car. We will leave the ski there during the Winter and bring it back to our house late in the Spring. I still have five gallons of gas that I siphoned out of the tank that I've told David to use for his car. The tank that we have it in is used to refill the jet ski, so has a flexible hose and ballcock to make it easy to load. For David, that's about $15 worth of gas. It would only cost about $13.25 to replace it, but I paid $2.99 a gallon at the lake in Summer for that gas.
I talked to Jennifer on Monday when she was running between planes. She had arrived in Atlanta from Paris and was leaving the Customs area and running to catch her plane to Augusta. She will be in Augusta until about mid-week and then will be home in Sacramento. She will start job hunting and following up on some job offers that she has had right away.
For anyone who didn't get the e-mail from Dad, his 46 Mercury has been featured on a hot rod website. The article is in depth and I probably learned more about his car from this article than I had from Dad. The website is:www.hotrodsandclassics.net
You'll find Dad's car as the Featured Ride. Check it out, it's a decent read.
Darla is home and fixing some chicken soup for dinner. It is homemade and I look forward to that and some fresh french bread that she picked up at the bakery this afternoon.
Darla and Alicia had a garage sale on Saturday and I asked Darla if we made any money. She said that it was really Alicia's sale so that she could clear out the garage and make room for our ski. She sold some rugs for $1 and bought a leather recliner for $150. So, how much money did I make on the sale (-149.00)? Oy vey.
Well, I'd best get on to our evening. I'll fill you in on Jennifer's triumphant return next week. Stay well. Ciao. Ken-bediah.
Darla and I did sneak out of town on Thursday afternoon. The Atlantis casino in Reno had a cheap room rate of $29 for a luxury tower room and they comped us $50 for dinner, so it was a no brainer to pack up and head to the "Biggest Little City in the World". We got up to Reno about seven o'clock and got checked in before heading down to dinner. The question was where we would eat as the Atlantis has seven restaurants. We both brought just jeans so the Seafood and Steakhouse was out as it has waiters in tuxes and they serve the salad tableside out of a crystal bowl. We opted for the Prime Rib dinner at the Purple Parrot, the casino's coffee shop and dinner house. We actually had a chicken appetizer and shared a Prime Rib, with both of us eating salad and bread. We left stuffed and spent the balance of the night playing nickle slots. We were down quite a bit early on, but I got hot and started hitting four-of-a-kinds and then we stopped about midnight to get some dessert in the coffee shop. We shared a brownie decadence, some carmel and ice cream with chocolate sauce over the thinnest brownie you'll ever see. In fact, it looked like the brownie didn't rise when they baked it. We left to play a bit more (about another hour) and Darla finally warmed up and brought us back to almost even with several four-of-a-kinds.
The next morning we both slept in until nine a.m., which in some ways was more decadent than the brownie the night before. We packed up and headed out of town by ten-thirty. We stopped off at a diner on Virginia Street called Joes that is every bit as nice as the 5 and Diner in Phoenix. Darla had a mushroom burger and I opted for a tuna fish sandwich that was made with pickles and eggs and was as good as I've had in years. The diner had pictures of all of the cars fdrom the Hot August Nights car show and none of them were as nice as Dad's '46. It was a fun getaway and we were home in time for Daniel's football game.
Daniel's team played themselves out of the playoffs with a shoddy 33-22 loss to Woodland. Woodland is now 6-2 overall and 3-1 in league. We are 4-4 and 2-2 in league, about where we stood last year at this time. Woodcreek (our team) has never finished better than 5-5 which David's team managed last year. The coach wants the players to stay focused and concentrate on winning their last two games to finish 6-4 and 4-2 in league.
Darla and I bought some stain for the kitchen cabinets. I will sand them and touch them up and we will live with them for now. Our plan will be to completely refinish them within the next year or so. Darla wants to have them stripped and redone in a winter white look with hardware on the doors and interior hinges. I can live with them as they are for now. We also bought a new light fixture for the kitchen ceiling that I will have the boys help me install next weekend. We will move the kitchen fixture into the laundry room and replace the three foot neon fixture in there. It has a bad ballast and turns comletely on only when it really wants to. Otherwise it simply buzzes and leaves you in a gloom of light.
I spent yesterday doing the baseboards under the cabinets in the kitchen. My next chore will be the baseboards in the bedrooms and the living and family room once the carpet is in. The carpet is on order and we are waiting to hear when they will come out to install. We are having them do the study and the living and family room one day and then the other three bedrooms on the next day. The boys and I will tear out the basebords before they install the carpet and then install the new baseboards once the new carpet is in. The old baseboards are dark brown and the one inch variety. The new baseboards are 3 1/2 inches by 5/8 inch white with a molding on the top edge. I borrowed a mitre saw from our tile man to do the job and it has been a breeze.
Darla and I got the jet ski moved over to Alicia's house today. We have kept the ski here and Darla has parked the Explorer outside all Summer. The plan has always been that Alicia will store it for us in her garage as she has a two car garage and only one car. Now, Darla can park her car in the garage and it won't get so dirty so fast. The Mustang has stayed in the garage during the entire Summer because I'm a bit of a fanatic about my car. We will leave the ski there during the Winter and bring it back to our house late in the Spring. I still have five gallons of gas that I siphoned out of the tank that I've told David to use for his car. The tank that we have it in is used to refill the jet ski, so has a flexible hose and ballcock to make it easy to load. For David, that's about $15 worth of gas. It would only cost about $13.25 to replace it, but I paid $2.99 a gallon at the lake in Summer for that gas.
I talked to Jennifer on Monday when she was running between planes. She had arrived in Atlanta from Paris and was leaving the Customs area and running to catch her plane to Augusta. She will be in Augusta until about mid-week and then will be home in Sacramento. She will start job hunting and following up on some job offers that she has had right away.
For anyone who didn't get the e-mail from Dad, his 46 Mercury has been featured on a hot rod website. The article is in depth and I probably learned more about his car from this article than I had from Dad. The website is:www.hotrodsandclassics.net
You'll find Dad's car as the Featured Ride. Check it out, it's a decent read.
Darla is home and fixing some chicken soup for dinner. It is homemade and I look forward to that and some fresh french bread that she picked up at the bakery this afternoon.
Darla and Alicia had a garage sale on Saturday and I asked Darla if we made any money. She said that it was really Alicia's sale so that she could clear out the garage and make room for our ski. She sold some rugs for $1 and bought a leather recliner for $150. So, how much money did I make on the sale (-149.00)? Oy vey.
Well, I'd best get on to our evening. I'll fill you in on Jennifer's triumphant return next week. Stay well. Ciao. Ken-bediah.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Specialist Lyon is US bound
Jennifer is in the air somewhere as I write this. She is on her way back to US soil after turning in her gear and bidding a final farewell to Kuwait City. She will spend about a week to ten days in Georgia processing out of the military and will return to Sacramento as an Army veteran. I know that she is excited and Dad is proud and happy to see her return. Give her a call to welcome her home after Wednesday on her cell phone (916) 475-8148.
I forgot to mention yesterday Darla's experience last week on her early morning walk. She and Missy were on their regular walk when Missy grabbed Darla and said, "Look across the street!" There was a man (about 5'1" 200 pounds) naked as a jay and standing in his driveway. They hurried away without giving him any attention. Both Darla and Missy called the police and reported the incident to find out that the guy is not only mentally disabled, but a client of Darla's firm. Now that is the naked truth.
Welcome home, Jennifer!!!
I forgot to mention yesterday Darla's experience last week on her early morning walk. She and Missy were on their regular walk when Missy grabbed Darla and said, "Look across the street!" There was a man (about 5'1" 200 pounds) naked as a jay and standing in his driveway. They hurried away without giving him any attention. Both Darla and Missy called the police and reported the incident to find out that the guy is not only mentally disabled, but a client of Darla's firm. Now that is the naked truth.
Welcome home, Jennifer!!!
Monday, October 24, 2005
Settling In for a long Winter
It is another nice Autumn morning. The sun is just beginning to brighten the sky to the Eastern horizon and the office is quiet as it is just myself and my Accounting person, who sits in the far end of the office. I can hear her poking around at the copy machine and she dropped off some papers for me to sign, but other than that it is a peaceful morning at shortly after 7 AM in the West.
It was a nice weekend, although the Friday night football game was in the boonies of South Sacramento. We won the game 51-36, but it was a bigger blowout than that as we had a 51-16 lead and lost focus in the fourth quarter with our backups in the game. It has been a difficult year with Daniel playing just on the special teams and in a mop up role in blowouts. The team has a chance to make the playoffs, but they really aren't good enough to make any noise in the playoffs as the number one team in their division is also number 5 in the state. After last year with David at qb and starting free safety and Daniel starting on the offensive line and defensive line, it has taken a lot of adjustment. I've deduced that high school football is entertaining, but overall is a poor substitute for real football. Daniel has handled himself well this year and is a 6'3" 235 lb cheerleader for the senior players.
Our remodel is all but finished. We got the quote for the carpet and Darla will set up installation of that today and we'll know when we have to uproot our lives and move furniture. One of the big challenges is the pool table in the living room. Darla will arrange to have a company take down the table and then reinstall it after the carpet is installed. I am finished with the baseboards in the part of the house that has had new flooring installed and will tear out the old baseboards in the bedrooms, living room and family room prior to the new carpet going in. I will then install the new baseboards after the carpet is in. We've also decided to hold off on any work on the kitchen cabinets. I will sand and touch up the existing cabinets and we will live with them for now. I also want to install a new light fixture in the kitchen and one in the laundry room where the fixture has a bad socket.
I went to an insurance seminar last Wednesday. Our office hosted a booth and all of the underwriters attended the seminar. Our luncheon speaker was Ed Hochuli, who is a defense attorney, but is likely more famous as an NFL referee. Ed told some great stories. One of them involved YA Tittle, who was asked to be the honorary captain of the Super Bowl a few years back. Ed was handling the coin toss and the NFL uses special commemorative coins that all wind up in the Hall of Fame. While they were practicing the coin flip, YA told Ed that he had promised his grandson the coin from the coin toss. Ed explained that that was impossible, that the NFL had an official who would collect the coin right after the toss and take it to Canton, Ohio. YA insisted that he HAD to give the coin to his grandson. Ed showed the special coin to the television camera and then pocketed it and pulled out a half dollar that he keeps for most of the coin tosses during the year. He tossed the 50 cent piece, gave that coin to YA Tittle, and returned the commemorative coin to the NFL official.
Ed also told a story about perception and reality. There was a blind man who always walked New York city with his guide dog. One morning as he was walking, his dog took him across the street against the light. Cars were swerving amd honking and the blind man came close to being hit several times. Finally, the dog got him across the street and safely back onto the sidewalk. The blind man reached into his pocket to get a dog treat and as he was handing it to the dog, a passerby stopped him. "Your dog crossed against the light and almost got you killed. I hardly think you should reward him for that behavior." The blind man said, "You don't understand, I'm giving him the treat so I can determine exactly where his mouth is, so I can turn around and kick him in the ass!"
We had a little excitement at our office while we were gone to convention. I called in to talk to my assistant, Connie, and she told me that I'd missed all of the excitement. The fire department and two paramedics had been called to our office. Our receptionist, Renee, who is losing weight, was in the break room talking to Natasha, Pete's assistant. Renee talks with her hands, gesturing and emphasizing her points. Natasha opened her mouth to say something just as Renee was gesturing. Renee's ring flew off her hand and flew right into Natasha's mouth and lodged in her windpipe. She was gagging and couldn't catch her breath. Finally, she swallowed the ring and the crisis was over. It was a bizarre set of circumstances and we have yet to see the ring reappear, though the re-emergence is imminent.
I did play golf this weekend. I got to the course early and warmed up. I hit the ball well on the driving range and then started play. I was nothing short of pathetic on the front nine, losing my ball out of bounds on consecutive holes on my way to a 47 front side. I pulled my head together and improved my game on the back nine to record a one over 37 for an 84, net 72. I won two skins and had the closest to the pin at 3'9" on the back nine. I'm just glad that it wasn't a 37 on the front and 47 on the back. I also won the 50-50 drawing that we do at each tournament to help fund the Christmas party and took home $55 for a $5 ticket. Not bad.
Jennifer flies home this week and should touch down on American soil by Friday. She called and talked to Darla last week and is excited to get home. Her friend Jason has lymphoma and is beginning treatment with radiation this week. They did a biopsy and it could have been much worse. The prognosis is good, but the lump had grown so large that it attached to some of his other organs, so it is still too early to call it a victory, but so far so good. Please keep Jason and his family in your prayers.
David continues to do well at school and with his job. They recently gave him a 25% raise and continue to ask him to do more complex assignments. He loves it. His car was hit the other night as some moron sideswiped him. I noticed that his side mirror was lying on the road next to his car when I was leaving for church. Darla and I drive separately as she helps at the high school. The only thing I noticed was the mirror had come loose from the mirror housing and I thought it happened when he shut his door. Darla came out and found a Ford emblem laying near the car. On closer examination, someone had brushed the car and scratched the paint, tearing off the Ford logo on the front right side of the car. There is very little body damage. David thinks it might have been the paper carrier as we didn't get a Sunday paper that morning. It is irritating that someone didn't leave a name and number. The loss is less than our deductible and with what I already pay to insure David, I'm not sure I'd let him turn in the loss. His insurance is for his liability in the event of an accident.
Well, I need to get at it. I'm having a great month at work, which is good timing coming off the bizarre meeting in Detroit. I should personally write close to a 1/4 million this month with income to the branch of over $40,000. The office as a whole should have a record month and I can only keep working hard and hope to open some eyes (well one pair in particular) at home office. Be an Obediah for those around you this week. Obediah comes from the two words "Obed" and "Ya", which means servant of God. Ciao.
It was a nice weekend, although the Friday night football game was in the boonies of South Sacramento. We won the game 51-36, but it was a bigger blowout than that as we had a 51-16 lead and lost focus in the fourth quarter with our backups in the game. It has been a difficult year with Daniel playing just on the special teams and in a mop up role in blowouts. The team has a chance to make the playoffs, but they really aren't good enough to make any noise in the playoffs as the number one team in their division is also number 5 in the state. After last year with David at qb and starting free safety and Daniel starting on the offensive line and defensive line, it has taken a lot of adjustment. I've deduced that high school football is entertaining, but overall is a poor substitute for real football. Daniel has handled himself well this year and is a 6'3" 235 lb cheerleader for the senior players.
Our remodel is all but finished. We got the quote for the carpet and Darla will set up installation of that today and we'll know when we have to uproot our lives and move furniture. One of the big challenges is the pool table in the living room. Darla will arrange to have a company take down the table and then reinstall it after the carpet is installed. I am finished with the baseboards in the part of the house that has had new flooring installed and will tear out the old baseboards in the bedrooms, living room and family room prior to the new carpet going in. I will then install the new baseboards after the carpet is in. We've also decided to hold off on any work on the kitchen cabinets. I will sand and touch up the existing cabinets and we will live with them for now. I also want to install a new light fixture in the kitchen and one in the laundry room where the fixture has a bad socket.
I went to an insurance seminar last Wednesday. Our office hosted a booth and all of the underwriters attended the seminar. Our luncheon speaker was Ed Hochuli, who is a defense attorney, but is likely more famous as an NFL referee. Ed told some great stories. One of them involved YA Tittle, who was asked to be the honorary captain of the Super Bowl a few years back. Ed was handling the coin toss and the NFL uses special commemorative coins that all wind up in the Hall of Fame. While they were practicing the coin flip, YA told Ed that he had promised his grandson the coin from the coin toss. Ed explained that that was impossible, that the NFL had an official who would collect the coin right after the toss and take it to Canton, Ohio. YA insisted that he HAD to give the coin to his grandson. Ed showed the special coin to the television camera and then pocketed it and pulled out a half dollar that he keeps for most of the coin tosses during the year. He tossed the 50 cent piece, gave that coin to YA Tittle, and returned the commemorative coin to the NFL official.
Ed also told a story about perception and reality. There was a blind man who always walked New York city with his guide dog. One morning as he was walking, his dog took him across the street against the light. Cars were swerving amd honking and the blind man came close to being hit several times. Finally, the dog got him across the street and safely back onto the sidewalk. The blind man reached into his pocket to get a dog treat and as he was handing it to the dog, a passerby stopped him. "Your dog crossed against the light and almost got you killed. I hardly think you should reward him for that behavior." The blind man said, "You don't understand, I'm giving him the treat so I can determine exactly where his mouth is, so I can turn around and kick him in the ass!"
We had a little excitement at our office while we were gone to convention. I called in to talk to my assistant, Connie, and she told me that I'd missed all of the excitement. The fire department and two paramedics had been called to our office. Our receptionist, Renee, who is losing weight, was in the break room talking to Natasha, Pete's assistant. Renee talks with her hands, gesturing and emphasizing her points. Natasha opened her mouth to say something just as Renee was gesturing. Renee's ring flew off her hand and flew right into Natasha's mouth and lodged in her windpipe. She was gagging and couldn't catch her breath. Finally, she swallowed the ring and the crisis was over. It was a bizarre set of circumstances and we have yet to see the ring reappear, though the re-emergence is imminent.
I did play golf this weekend. I got to the course early and warmed up. I hit the ball well on the driving range and then started play. I was nothing short of pathetic on the front nine, losing my ball out of bounds on consecutive holes on my way to a 47 front side. I pulled my head together and improved my game on the back nine to record a one over 37 for an 84, net 72. I won two skins and had the closest to the pin at 3'9" on the back nine. I'm just glad that it wasn't a 37 on the front and 47 on the back. I also won the 50-50 drawing that we do at each tournament to help fund the Christmas party and took home $55 for a $5 ticket. Not bad.
Jennifer flies home this week and should touch down on American soil by Friday. She called and talked to Darla last week and is excited to get home. Her friend Jason has lymphoma and is beginning treatment with radiation this week. They did a biopsy and it could have been much worse. The prognosis is good, but the lump had grown so large that it attached to some of his other organs, so it is still too early to call it a victory, but so far so good. Please keep Jason and his family in your prayers.
David continues to do well at school and with his job. They recently gave him a 25% raise and continue to ask him to do more complex assignments. He loves it. His car was hit the other night as some moron sideswiped him. I noticed that his side mirror was lying on the road next to his car when I was leaving for church. Darla and I drive separately as she helps at the high school. The only thing I noticed was the mirror had come loose from the mirror housing and I thought it happened when he shut his door. Darla came out and found a Ford emblem laying near the car. On closer examination, someone had brushed the car and scratched the paint, tearing off the Ford logo on the front right side of the car. There is very little body damage. David thinks it might have been the paper carrier as we didn't get a Sunday paper that morning. It is irritating that someone didn't leave a name and number. The loss is less than our deductible and with what I already pay to insure David, I'm not sure I'd let him turn in the loss. His insurance is for his liability in the event of an accident.
Well, I need to get at it. I'm having a great month at work, which is good timing coming off the bizarre meeting in Detroit. I should personally write close to a 1/4 million this month with income to the branch of over $40,000. The office as a whole should have a record month and I can only keep working hard and hope to open some eyes (well one pair in particular) at home office. Be an Obediah for those around you this week. Obediah comes from the two words "Obed" and "Ya", which means servant of God. Ciao.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Home Renovation Pictures
Here are the pictures. They mysteriously appeared on my computer at 10:30 this morning. Who knew?
It's Monday and the living isn't easy
I had taken some digital photos of the kitchen remodel and the tile floors to add to the blog today, but for some reason, there was no mail with Pictures attached in my in box this morning. I wonder who I sent them to last night? Very interesting. I'll look into the situation and see if I can rectify it by tomorrow. If I have to, I'll burn a disc and bring that in tomorrow.
I spent the weekend doing baseboards and finishing up the kitchen. Brian, my actual tile guy (not like the fool that called himself your tile man who wasn't licensed and never called us back), lent me a Porter Cable mitre saw and I was able to get all of the baseboards in where we had tile installed. I am waiting on the bedrooms, living room and family room until we have new carpet installed. Once that is in, I'll do the baseboards in those rooms. I had to install a new hood and fan in the kitchen above the cooktop. Brian had tiled up to the old one and we had bought a new black hood to match the new gas cooktop. That job was a minor hurdle in my life as the space was so small and the duct work so tight and hard to work with. I lost some spiritual growth as we attempted to lift the hood into place, wire the electrical and bolt it into place. I was dripping with sweat by the time we finally got the unit into place. Darla was a doll putting up with a sputtering husband who more than once blurted out that I'm not a blue collar guy and I didn't go to college to end up installing appliances! She encouraged me and batted me in the rear and we got the job done. There is a reason that I don't do my own repairs in the house and on the cars. I'd rather pay someone to do the job right than cause myself a ton of grief to end up with a half assed attempt at finishing the job. The hood, fan and light work great.
Brian, our tile guy, did not finish off the carpeting and said that he doesn't do that. I have several rooms where the carpet is jagged cut and needs to be stretched and tacked down. Rather than pay someone to come out and pull our old worn careting into place, we have decided to have new carpeting installed. It is a big job as we have a pool table, family room furniture and four bedrooms of furniture and whatnot to move. I think we will have the living toom and family room done and then have them come back to do the bedrooms. Either that or I'll pay them extra to move the furniture.
Brian broke the toilet in the bathroom off of the remote bedroom and had to replace the unit. He got it installed and was finishing the backsplash when Darla came out yelling that there was a leak. He had installed the toilet using the old gasket and water was pouring out of the unit. I thought I was the only one that made those kinds of mistakes. Brian said that he had to do both plumbing and tile work in his business. I told him to stick with his day job. He said that was why he didn't take on the carpet stretching as well.
The house is beginning to take on a finished look and once the capreting is in, we will have a completed project. Darla has picked up the piles that had gathered during the process and we used the time to cull some of the unnecessary clutter from our lives. I have a large pile of clothes and clutter on the side of the house that will be taken to the dump this weekend. We thought we had rid ourselves of all of the junk when we filled a trailer that Brian hauled away, but there is more with old throw rugs, the toilet, some clutter from several of the rooms that had piled up. I'm going to have the boys go through their rooms and add to the pile before we take the dump run this coming weekend.
Daniel turned 16 last week and is about four months from getting his license. I got mine on my 16th birthday, but kids today seem so casual about the whole process. David got his license when he turned 16 1/2 and Daniel will just beat that. Jennifer was almost seventeen before she got her license. The costs are enormous to the parents as our car insurance bill has gone from $100 a month for Darla and I with two cars to $375 a month for adding David and his car to the policy. Luckily, Daniel will be covered under his father's policy as a principal driver. We will add him to our policy for liability, but exclude him as a driver on both Mustangs. I'm still not looking forward to seeing that bill. We are buying Daniel a new laptop computer for his birthday.
Jennifer continues to count down her days in the military and will clear out of Kuwait on October 28th and fly to Fort Gordon in Augusta Georgia for her debriefing and final clearing. She hopes to be home around November 10th. Check out her blog at the bottom of this page. She has had several job offers, but most involve overseas travel and she has been there, done that. She is looking for something at home where she can work and go to school.
I said about enough on work in my last epistle. I am keeping my head up and my feet on the ground. There are other possibilities for me that I may pursue. I know that this office will be a huge success and it would be hard to leave with the potential for a huge income here, but I have to feel appreciated at the same time. I'm in a bit of a bind, but meanwhile the bills are getting paid and my staff is great to work with.
Dad and Shirley won another "best of the best" in a car show in Abbottsford this weekend. Their '46 is a show stopper and they have entered 7 car shows and won 5 times. I know that Dad will not do the car shows much beyond the next couple of years and his two cars could fetch a nice return for them if they keep winning prizes. Dad had the fun of transforming the cars into what they are now, but there is always someone with money willing to buy a prize magnet. They said that they will travel to a few car shows next year and one of them is in Pleasanton in the Bay Area. We look forward to that. I'm trying to talk Dad into entering his car in the Hot August Nights show in Reno next year as well.
Well, that is enough for now. I will get those pictures added to the blog as soon as I can. Take care and keep your mind and your thoughts on Jesus and he will lead your path to glory. Ciao.
I spent the weekend doing baseboards and finishing up the kitchen. Brian, my actual tile guy (not like the fool that called himself your tile man who wasn't licensed and never called us back), lent me a Porter Cable mitre saw and I was able to get all of the baseboards in where we had tile installed. I am waiting on the bedrooms, living room and family room until we have new carpet installed. Once that is in, I'll do the baseboards in those rooms. I had to install a new hood and fan in the kitchen above the cooktop. Brian had tiled up to the old one and we had bought a new black hood to match the new gas cooktop. That job was a minor hurdle in my life as the space was so small and the duct work so tight and hard to work with. I lost some spiritual growth as we attempted to lift the hood into place, wire the electrical and bolt it into place. I was dripping with sweat by the time we finally got the unit into place. Darla was a doll putting up with a sputtering husband who more than once blurted out that I'm not a blue collar guy and I didn't go to college to end up installing appliances! She encouraged me and batted me in the rear and we got the job done. There is a reason that I don't do my own repairs in the house and on the cars. I'd rather pay someone to do the job right than cause myself a ton of grief to end up with a half assed attempt at finishing the job. The hood, fan and light work great.
Brian, our tile guy, did not finish off the carpeting and said that he doesn't do that. I have several rooms where the carpet is jagged cut and needs to be stretched and tacked down. Rather than pay someone to come out and pull our old worn careting into place, we have decided to have new carpeting installed. It is a big job as we have a pool table, family room furniture and four bedrooms of furniture and whatnot to move. I think we will have the living toom and family room done and then have them come back to do the bedrooms. Either that or I'll pay them extra to move the furniture.
Brian broke the toilet in the bathroom off of the remote bedroom and had to replace the unit. He got it installed and was finishing the backsplash when Darla came out yelling that there was a leak. He had installed the toilet using the old gasket and water was pouring out of the unit. I thought I was the only one that made those kinds of mistakes. Brian said that he had to do both plumbing and tile work in his business. I told him to stick with his day job. He said that was why he didn't take on the carpet stretching as well.
The house is beginning to take on a finished look and once the capreting is in, we will have a completed project. Darla has picked up the piles that had gathered during the process and we used the time to cull some of the unnecessary clutter from our lives. I have a large pile of clothes and clutter on the side of the house that will be taken to the dump this weekend. We thought we had rid ourselves of all of the junk when we filled a trailer that Brian hauled away, but there is more with old throw rugs, the toilet, some clutter from several of the rooms that had piled up. I'm going to have the boys go through their rooms and add to the pile before we take the dump run this coming weekend.
Daniel turned 16 last week and is about four months from getting his license. I got mine on my 16th birthday, but kids today seem so casual about the whole process. David got his license when he turned 16 1/2 and Daniel will just beat that. Jennifer was almost seventeen before she got her license. The costs are enormous to the parents as our car insurance bill has gone from $100 a month for Darla and I with two cars to $375 a month for adding David and his car to the policy. Luckily, Daniel will be covered under his father's policy as a principal driver. We will add him to our policy for liability, but exclude him as a driver on both Mustangs. I'm still not looking forward to seeing that bill. We are buying Daniel a new laptop computer for his birthday.
Jennifer continues to count down her days in the military and will clear out of Kuwait on October 28th and fly to Fort Gordon in Augusta Georgia for her debriefing and final clearing. She hopes to be home around November 10th. Check out her blog at the bottom of this page. She has had several job offers, but most involve overseas travel and she has been there, done that. She is looking for something at home where she can work and go to school.
I said about enough on work in my last epistle. I am keeping my head up and my feet on the ground. There are other possibilities for me that I may pursue. I know that this office will be a huge success and it would be hard to leave with the potential for a huge income here, but I have to feel appreciated at the same time. I'm in a bit of a bind, but meanwhile the bills are getting paid and my staff is great to work with.
Dad and Shirley won another "best of the best" in a car show in Abbottsford this weekend. Their '46 is a show stopper and they have entered 7 car shows and won 5 times. I know that Dad will not do the car shows much beyond the next couple of years and his two cars could fetch a nice return for them if they keep winning prizes. Dad had the fun of transforming the cars into what they are now, but there is always someone with money willing to buy a prize magnet. They said that they will travel to a few car shows next year and one of them is in Pleasanton in the Bay Area. We look forward to that. I'm trying to talk Dad into entering his car in the Hot August Nights show in Reno next year as well.
Well, that is enough for now. I will get those pictures added to the blog as soon as I can. Take care and keep your mind and your thoughts on Jesus and he will lead your path to glory. Ciao.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Back from the Motor City
This will be short and sweet as the work on my desk is unbelievable. I flew into Detroit on Saturday morning, getting up at 4:15 AM to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Phoenix. This is the same scheduled flight that I was on way back on September 11, 2001 when the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York. I've taken that flight four or five times since the event and it always brings it back for me, the feeling of helplessness and disbelief that a small insignificant nation would attack the great United States of America. I stopped for an hour and a half in Phoenix and was able to eat some breakfast and begin to wake up after sleeping on the plane from Sac to Phoenix. I feel sorry for my seatmates as I always get an aisle seat for more legroom and then fall fast asleep effectively imprisoning the middle and window seat passengers.
The flight from Phoenix to Detroit was three and a half hours of sheer boredom and I arrived to find the limo driver holding a handmade piece of cardboard with "Burns and Wilcox" written on it at the baggage claim area. We met up with the Fresno Branch Manager and made the half hour drive out to Farmington Hills. We meet and stay at the Westin Hotel and it is a nice facility. That said, I arrived at five-thirty tired and ready for a shower and the hotel did NOT have my room clean. They told me that they'd call housekeeping and they'd have the room ready in five minutes. I told them to "take ten, I want clean linens".
I met one on one with Alan Kauffman, the CEO and owner of our subchapter "S" corporation on Sunday afternoon. Burns and Wilcox is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kauffman Group, so this was the big cheese. He asked me how I thought we were doing in Sacramento. I told him that we were finally in the black and would make a small profit in 2005 of $100,000 after losing money the previous 5 years and losing $200,000 in 2004. I thought that the right people were in place going forward and that Sacramento was on the verge of breaking out as a branch. Alan proceeded to tell me that our branch was the worst performing branch in the company and that our ROI of .88% was so bad that if we were a grocery store, he'd close us down. He was unhappy with my personal production and wanted me to take a more active role in production and let the office "run itself". I was floored and saw the turnaround of the branch as a huge success and a personal accomplishment. I left the meeting deflated and discouraged. That was Sunday afternoon.
Monday night at the awards banquet, Alan was giving out awards and said that, "there is a big success story within the company and that this young man has a great future with our organization and that he has turned a losing branch into a branch on the verge of a breakout....The Gold Branch of the Year for Division III goes to Ken Lyon and Sacramento!" I sat stunned at my table and walked up with some seriously conflicted emotions. To say that I'm enormously confused is an understatement. I left the meeting Sunday figuring that it was time to find another job and spent Monday night fielding congratulations from my colleagues.
I've asked Harvey, the regional VP to come out to Sacramento next week and address the staff. I don't know how to address the conflicting images given to me at the meeting. Are we doing well and on the verge of something big or are we the "worst performing office in the company?" Are they happy with the success of the office, but unhappy with my performance? Did I fall asleep and wake up in the Bizarro world? Clarity would be a welcome respite for my troubled mind right now.
On a brighter note, the remodel of our house (Phase I) is finished. The tile is in and looks great. The backsplash is particularly nice, where Brian and Darla designed a nice effect above the cooktop with tumbled marble. The countertop is in and looks excellent. I will get pictures put on the site on Monday. I got home Wednesday about 1:00 PM after getting up at 5:00AM that morning for a 6:00 AM pickup at the hotel. That was 2:00 AM California time for anyone paying attention. I got home and Brian was working on the backsplash. Darla took off to have lunch with Daniel on his birthday and I took a long shower and a short nap after. I awoke and went with Darla to Home Depot to pick out some new baseboards for the house and to also look at carpeting. We decided after the new tile floors, to replace the existing carpet in the house. We have carpet in the living room, family room and all four bedrooms. I got home about 4:00 PM and started working on the baseboards. I wanted to do the laundry room so we could put the washer and dryer back in there and I could park the Mustang in the garage. I also did the front entry so we could put the armoire back up and get the coats and clothes out of the master bath tub. Finally, I did the kitchen and inside the refrigerator nook so that we could get the refrigerator out of the family room and back into the kitchen. I honestly don't do well with clutter. Brian was amazed that I could fly home from the east coast and get right into work. Well, it needed to be done.
The results of the remodel are amazing and I look forward to the new carpeting later this month that will finish the project. Now, we'll just have the master bathroom, the roof and the windows on the back side of the house, including two sliders to replace. Darla also wants a new refrigerator, dishwasher and eventually a new oven and microwave. Aside from those minor items, we are good to go here at the Lyon homestead.
Well, as mentioned, my work awaits and apparently I am being solely measured on my own production. My production naturally has taken a toll to running this branch and getting our Modesto Service office up to speed. I have my marching orders, the problem is it's hard to lead a team through dense fog. I'll manage...or maybe that was a poor choice of words. God Bless and I'll update this after the weekend. Ciao.
The flight from Phoenix to Detroit was three and a half hours of sheer boredom and I arrived to find the limo driver holding a handmade piece of cardboard with "Burns and Wilcox" written on it at the baggage claim area. We met up with the Fresno Branch Manager and made the half hour drive out to Farmington Hills. We meet and stay at the Westin Hotel and it is a nice facility. That said, I arrived at five-thirty tired and ready for a shower and the hotel did NOT have my room clean. They told me that they'd call housekeeping and they'd have the room ready in five minutes. I told them to "take ten, I want clean linens".
I met one on one with Alan Kauffman, the CEO and owner of our subchapter "S" corporation on Sunday afternoon. Burns and Wilcox is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kauffman Group, so this was the big cheese. He asked me how I thought we were doing in Sacramento. I told him that we were finally in the black and would make a small profit in 2005 of $100,000 after losing money the previous 5 years and losing $200,000 in 2004. I thought that the right people were in place going forward and that Sacramento was on the verge of breaking out as a branch. Alan proceeded to tell me that our branch was the worst performing branch in the company and that our ROI of .88% was so bad that if we were a grocery store, he'd close us down. He was unhappy with my personal production and wanted me to take a more active role in production and let the office "run itself". I was floored and saw the turnaround of the branch as a huge success and a personal accomplishment. I left the meeting deflated and discouraged. That was Sunday afternoon.
Monday night at the awards banquet, Alan was giving out awards and said that, "there is a big success story within the company and that this young man has a great future with our organization and that he has turned a losing branch into a branch on the verge of a breakout....The Gold Branch of the Year for Division III goes to Ken Lyon and Sacramento!" I sat stunned at my table and walked up with some seriously conflicted emotions. To say that I'm enormously confused is an understatement. I left the meeting Sunday figuring that it was time to find another job and spent Monday night fielding congratulations from my colleagues.
I've asked Harvey, the regional VP to come out to Sacramento next week and address the staff. I don't know how to address the conflicting images given to me at the meeting. Are we doing well and on the verge of something big or are we the "worst performing office in the company?" Are they happy with the success of the office, but unhappy with my performance? Did I fall asleep and wake up in the Bizarro world? Clarity would be a welcome respite for my troubled mind right now.
On a brighter note, the remodel of our house (Phase I) is finished. The tile is in and looks great. The backsplash is particularly nice, where Brian and Darla designed a nice effect above the cooktop with tumbled marble. The countertop is in and looks excellent. I will get pictures put on the site on Monday. I got home Wednesday about 1:00 PM after getting up at 5:00AM that morning for a 6:00 AM pickup at the hotel. That was 2:00 AM California time for anyone paying attention. I got home and Brian was working on the backsplash. Darla took off to have lunch with Daniel on his birthday and I took a long shower and a short nap after. I awoke and went with Darla to Home Depot to pick out some new baseboards for the house and to also look at carpeting. We decided after the new tile floors, to replace the existing carpet in the house. We have carpet in the living room, family room and all four bedrooms. I got home about 4:00 PM and started working on the baseboards. I wanted to do the laundry room so we could put the washer and dryer back in there and I could park the Mustang in the garage. I also did the front entry so we could put the armoire back up and get the coats and clothes out of the master bath tub. Finally, I did the kitchen and inside the refrigerator nook so that we could get the refrigerator out of the family room and back into the kitchen. I honestly don't do well with clutter. Brian was amazed that I could fly home from the east coast and get right into work. Well, it needed to be done.
The results of the remodel are amazing and I look forward to the new carpeting later this month that will finish the project. Now, we'll just have the master bathroom, the roof and the windows on the back side of the house, including two sliders to replace. Darla also wants a new refrigerator, dishwasher and eventually a new oven and microwave. Aside from those minor items, we are good to go here at the Lyon homestead.
Well, as mentioned, my work awaits and apparently I am being solely measured on my own production. My production naturally has taken a toll to running this branch and getting our Modesto Service office up to speed. I have my marching orders, the problem is it's hard to lead a team through dense fog. I'll manage...or maybe that was a poor choice of words. God Bless and I'll update this after the weekend. Ciao.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Back from Carmel..What a weekend!
Darla and I snuck out of work early on Thursday afternoon and made the three hour drive to Carmel. The weather was absolutely perfect, with highs in the low seventies and great sleeping weather at night. We got into Carmel about 6:15 PM and got checked into our hotel. We unpacked and ventured out about 7:00 PM for some dinner. We walked down to the Wells Fargo ATM in the middle of town and got some funds for the weekend and did a bit of window shopping in the warm night air as the sun slowly set over the ocean. We walked over to one of our favorite restaurants, The Forge in the Forest on fifth street. It was packed and there was a wait for outside tables. They did however have a table in their "dog friendly" patio and there was a nice German Sheppard and a Collie in residence. We chose to eat sans canines and opted for a table next to the fire inside near the bar. Our waiter was one of those fussy looking quasi-gay fellows with a bright pinkish orange shirt (NOT that there's anything wrong with that). He seemed somewhat harried as he rushed about, but seemed genuinely unhappy that Darla and I chose to split a steak sandwich and I ordered a salad and Darla a crock of French onion soup. Darla's soup arrived and we shared that, although Darla was not thrilled with my technique of folding back the cheese to get at the soup. We waited an interminable amount of time for dinner and my salad never did show up. Finally, Mr Finicky (our waiter) arrived with a plate of steak tacos. I balked as he was setting them down and told him that we had ordered a steak sandwich. "No." he said. I insisted and he left to check his tag and came back to the table with the plate. "Uh, you were right, I ordered the wrong entree." (No shit, Sherlock). We accepted the steak tacos and shared that dinner. Darla mentioned that as Christians we needed to set an example of understanding and grace. When it took the waiter another twenty minutes to bring us the bill when we finished eating she was ready to "dine and dash" which seemed to me counter to the Christian grace posture she had avowed earlier. I left a ten percent tip as the waiter didn't even offer to discount the meal for his mistake. Whatever.
Our friends arrived later in the evening both couples taking wrong turns and getting lost en route to the hotel. One couple missed the 156 turnoff at Hollister and went in to Gilroy and the other drove through Pleasanton and San Jose to get to Carmel. I never drive to Carmel via the Bay Area. I always take I-5 to Santa Nella and cut through Hollister and San Juan Batista. The traffic is lighter and it is a nicer drive throught the San Juan reservoir. They finally made it and we made plans to have breakfast together the next morning.
We played Poppy Hills on Friday, teeing off at 12:20PM. We ate breakfast at our favorite breakfast restaurant. The Swiss Cafe on seventh street. We decided to have dinner at the Pasta House in Carmel that night and made reservations for twelve. Golf was tough, but I shot 93 on Friday and 91 on Saturday. I took second low net on Saturday with a net of 78 and won $29. Boyd had to leave early and gave me his winnings, which turned out to be $54, as he took low gross with a 79 and closest to the pin on number two. I had the shortest drive of my golfing life on number 18 Saturday as I hit a 235 yard drive that pushed left under some trees and came to rest (I thought) on the cart path. The hole is a 410 yard uphill par four. As Boyd got up to hit, I said, "I think my ball is moving." Indeed it began to roll back down the cart path and by the time the 4th player hit, the ball was rolling down the cart path past the tee box. It rolled another 100 yards off of the course. So I hit a 235 yard drive that rolled back 335 yards and I took a 6 on the hole, instead of a par. C'est la Vie. I have shot 80 before and won nothing, so second place for a 91 was not so bad. I bought a sleeve of balls, a golf vest, hat, glove and a towel for my $81. Thanks, Boyd.
We did head home Saturday night after golf, caravaning with our friends and having dinner at the Cedar House near the Casa De Fruta. We had a lot of laughs and truly enjoyed some good conversation and some quality time with our friends. The weather was ideal and although the golf could have been better, they were tough championship courses and I actually shot a 41+50 on Saturday, so I at least had one good nine hole stretch of golf.
Finally, we will get started on our kitchen this week. The tile guy will be in on Wednesday and will start the floor project and the granite installer is supposed to start this week. We have yet to hear from him, but the contract says that he will have it installed by 10/7/05, which is Friday. I will talk to him today. We are ready to have the work done as half of the kitchen is sitting in the living room. We have to take down the armoire this week and tear out the tile in the entry for that installation next week.
I leave for the Manager's meeting this weekend in Detroit and will be gone until the following Wednesday. I hope and plan to talk to the powers that be about promoting me and hiring another underwriter. The Sacramento office is beginning to take off and we need to stop being treated like a red headed stepchild. I will let you know how that goes. The blog will be late next week as I will be in Detroit. I have been asked to present my sales meeting profile in a best practices session on Sunday. Management likes the interactive tone of my meetings which are short and deal with where we are at that moment with regard to renewals, new business, quotes, etc. versus our budget. We have our meetings once a week and everyone in the office knows where we sit versus our budgeted numbers at any given time.
Jennifer called last week. She is still in countdown mode and will leave Kuwait sometime near October 28th. She will be in Georgia processing out of the Army until about November 10th, but will be home for the holidays. One of her best friends, Jason, who was a boyfriend has contracted lymphoid cancer and is being treated for it. Jason is only 25 and it is a call to prayer. Please pray that Jason receive the best medical care available and that the Lord will heal him. His parents lost his brother to a suicide last year and they need Jason to survive. Please PRAY hard.
Our pastor, Rick, will be taking a three month sabbatical beginning in late December. He has spent eleven years building a church family in Roseville/Rocklin and he needs to get away and recharge his batteries. We give thanks to God for his leadership of our church body and wish him well on his break and look forward to him coming back to the lectern in April.
Well that's it for this week. Be well and focused in your walk with the Lord. Ciao.
Our friends arrived later in the evening both couples taking wrong turns and getting lost en route to the hotel. One couple missed the 156 turnoff at Hollister and went in to Gilroy and the other drove through Pleasanton and San Jose to get to Carmel. I never drive to Carmel via the Bay Area. I always take I-5 to Santa Nella and cut through Hollister and San Juan Batista. The traffic is lighter and it is a nicer drive throught the San Juan reservoir. They finally made it and we made plans to have breakfast together the next morning.
We played Poppy Hills on Friday, teeing off at 12:20PM. We ate breakfast at our favorite breakfast restaurant. The Swiss Cafe on seventh street. We decided to have dinner at the Pasta House in Carmel that night and made reservations for twelve. Golf was tough, but I shot 93 on Friday and 91 on Saturday. I took second low net on Saturday with a net of 78 and won $29. Boyd had to leave early and gave me his winnings, which turned out to be $54, as he took low gross with a 79 and closest to the pin on number two. I had the shortest drive of my golfing life on number 18 Saturday as I hit a 235 yard drive that pushed left under some trees and came to rest (I thought) on the cart path. The hole is a 410 yard uphill par four. As Boyd got up to hit, I said, "I think my ball is moving." Indeed it began to roll back down the cart path and by the time the 4th player hit, the ball was rolling down the cart path past the tee box. It rolled another 100 yards off of the course. So I hit a 235 yard drive that rolled back 335 yards and I took a 6 on the hole, instead of a par. C'est la Vie. I have shot 80 before and won nothing, so second place for a 91 was not so bad. I bought a sleeve of balls, a golf vest, hat, glove and a towel for my $81. Thanks, Boyd.
We did head home Saturday night after golf, caravaning with our friends and having dinner at the Cedar House near the Casa De Fruta. We had a lot of laughs and truly enjoyed some good conversation and some quality time with our friends. The weather was ideal and although the golf could have been better, they were tough championship courses and I actually shot a 41+50 on Saturday, so I at least had one good nine hole stretch of golf.
Finally, we will get started on our kitchen this week. The tile guy will be in on Wednesday and will start the floor project and the granite installer is supposed to start this week. We have yet to hear from him, but the contract says that he will have it installed by 10/7/05, which is Friday. I will talk to him today. We are ready to have the work done as half of the kitchen is sitting in the living room. We have to take down the armoire this week and tear out the tile in the entry for that installation next week.
I leave for the Manager's meeting this weekend in Detroit and will be gone until the following Wednesday. I hope and plan to talk to the powers that be about promoting me and hiring another underwriter. The Sacramento office is beginning to take off and we need to stop being treated like a red headed stepchild. I will let you know how that goes. The blog will be late next week as I will be in Detroit. I have been asked to present my sales meeting profile in a best practices session on Sunday. Management likes the interactive tone of my meetings which are short and deal with where we are at that moment with regard to renewals, new business, quotes, etc. versus our budget. We have our meetings once a week and everyone in the office knows where we sit versus our budgeted numbers at any given time.
Jennifer called last week. She is still in countdown mode and will leave Kuwait sometime near October 28th. She will be in Georgia processing out of the Army until about November 10th, but will be home for the holidays. One of her best friends, Jason, who was a boyfriend has contracted lymphoid cancer and is being treated for it. Jason is only 25 and it is a call to prayer. Please pray that Jason receive the best medical care available and that the Lord will heal him. His parents lost his brother to a suicide last year and they need Jason to survive. Please PRAY hard.
Our pastor, Rick, will be taking a three month sabbatical beginning in late December. He has spent eleven years building a church family in Roseville/Rocklin and he needs to get away and recharge his batteries. We give thanks to God for his leadership of our church body and wish him well on his break and look forward to him coming back to the lectern in April.
Well that's it for this week. Be well and focused in your walk with the Lord. Ciao.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Kitchen Renovation Under Way
The blog is having some serious problems this morning. I spent forty minutes composing an entry only to have it gone when I tried to publish it. Hey, it's just part of my life I'll never get back, what the heck?
As the title implies, we are finally underway on our kitchen renovation. The boy's helped me tear out the kitchen countertops and backsplash this weekend. We had white tile and took hammers, sledges and crowbars to remove the tile. I had no idea what I was doing and began by slamming the tile in the middle of the counter only to have Darla stop me and explain that we needed to remove the bullnose from the edges and then peel back the tile in sections. We masked off the kitchen and Darla removed all of the drawers and things from her walls and counters that are now piled in the living room awaiting our granite installer to get moving on the installation. Our installer, Vasil, who's best friend is in the hospital in Lake Tahoe after losing both legs in a boating accident last weekend, needs to get going on the job now. His focus has not been on getting his work done as he is suffering along with his friend. We were able to get the tile removed and the backsplash within about an hour and a half and the tile peeled off in sections once I figured out how to do the work. The boys were a great help although we ended up knocking a couple of holes in the wallboard where the backsplash was removed. I am leaving the holes there until our tile setter can look at the job. He may be using an underlayment and I don't want to fix something that I don't need to. Hopefully, Darla can get on Vasil and have him come out to do the final measurement, get the slab fabricated delivered and installed. I'd say she is motivated with her house torn apart.
This weekend was a busy weekend dominated by work related activities. Saturday night Darla and I attended a surprise 50th birthday party for my biggest agent, Jeff Barnett. Jeff worked with me in my first insurance job back in 1980 when I was a package underwriter and he was a casualty underwriter. I ran into Jeff again two years ago. He wrote about $50,000 in premium with Burns and Wilcox mostly in personal lines. We now write about $900,000 with Jeff's agency. His wife Linda, paid for dinner and drinks for 35 at one of Folsom's nicest restaurants. I didn't know many of the people at the party as it was mostly family and friends, but Darla and I sat with Jeff's assistant Shalini and her husband over dinner. I've know Shalini for two years, but Darla was able to determine within 5 minutes that Shalini has an autistic child and she uses Darla's agency for services and support. Leave it to a social worker.
Sunday I spent with one of my agent's in San Francisco at Monster Park watching the Dallas Cowboy's come from behind win over the San Francisco 49ers 34-31. It was like a home game for Dallas as about a third of the crowd were dressed in silver and blue and cheering for Dallas. In fact, on the last drive of the game as SF was trying to tie or win, the players could not hear the signals being called by the quarterback and he eventually threw an interception that essentially ended the game. I dressed for SF weather in jeans and a sweatshirt and the day was beautiful with highs in the low eighties. I was able to leave the sweatshirt in the car and wore a short sleeved shirt, but roasted in the direct sun all afternoon. It was a great game if you like offense. I missed church and I truly do miss it when I'm not there. There is a void.
Darla and I will be in Carmel this weekend. We leave Thursday afternoon and will play Poppy Hills on Friday and Laguna Seca on Saturday. We are staying at a little inn in Carmel close to the shopping and restaurants. This year, Cora and Mel are joining us as well as some friends of Darla, Debbie and Bob. I look forward to getting away to relax this weekend. Our fourth will be Boyd Robertson, who is a 4 handicap and who won the club championship again this year for the fourth time. We will return home on Saturday night and be in church on Sunday.
Check out Jen's blog at the link below. She is finally in countdown mode with 33 days left of her active service. It will be fun to see her plan her life going forward.
Well, this may seem short, but the website is having some real problems this morning and I've had to rewrite this three times, finally saving to draft every five minutes so as not to lose what I wrote. It may seem short, but it seems three times as long to me. Keep your footsteps in the footprints of our Saviour Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Ciao.
As the title implies, we are finally underway on our kitchen renovation. The boy's helped me tear out the kitchen countertops and backsplash this weekend. We had white tile and took hammers, sledges and crowbars to remove the tile. I had no idea what I was doing and began by slamming the tile in the middle of the counter only to have Darla stop me and explain that we needed to remove the bullnose from the edges and then peel back the tile in sections. We masked off the kitchen and Darla removed all of the drawers and things from her walls and counters that are now piled in the living room awaiting our granite installer to get moving on the installation. Our installer, Vasil, who's best friend is in the hospital in Lake Tahoe after losing both legs in a boating accident last weekend, needs to get going on the job now. His focus has not been on getting his work done as he is suffering along with his friend. We were able to get the tile removed and the backsplash within about an hour and a half and the tile peeled off in sections once I figured out how to do the work. The boys were a great help although we ended up knocking a couple of holes in the wallboard where the backsplash was removed. I am leaving the holes there until our tile setter can look at the job. He may be using an underlayment and I don't want to fix something that I don't need to. Hopefully, Darla can get on Vasil and have him come out to do the final measurement, get the slab fabricated delivered and installed. I'd say she is motivated with her house torn apart.
This weekend was a busy weekend dominated by work related activities. Saturday night Darla and I attended a surprise 50th birthday party for my biggest agent, Jeff Barnett. Jeff worked with me in my first insurance job back in 1980 when I was a package underwriter and he was a casualty underwriter. I ran into Jeff again two years ago. He wrote about $50,000 in premium with Burns and Wilcox mostly in personal lines. We now write about $900,000 with Jeff's agency. His wife Linda, paid for dinner and drinks for 35 at one of Folsom's nicest restaurants. I didn't know many of the people at the party as it was mostly family and friends, but Darla and I sat with Jeff's assistant Shalini and her husband over dinner. I've know Shalini for two years, but Darla was able to determine within 5 minutes that Shalini has an autistic child and she uses Darla's agency for services and support. Leave it to a social worker.
Sunday I spent with one of my agent's in San Francisco at Monster Park watching the Dallas Cowboy's come from behind win over the San Francisco 49ers 34-31. It was like a home game for Dallas as about a third of the crowd were dressed in silver and blue and cheering for Dallas. In fact, on the last drive of the game as SF was trying to tie or win, the players could not hear the signals being called by the quarterback and he eventually threw an interception that essentially ended the game. I dressed for SF weather in jeans and a sweatshirt and the day was beautiful with highs in the low eighties. I was able to leave the sweatshirt in the car and wore a short sleeved shirt, but roasted in the direct sun all afternoon. It was a great game if you like offense. I missed church and I truly do miss it when I'm not there. There is a void.
Darla and I will be in Carmel this weekend. We leave Thursday afternoon and will play Poppy Hills on Friday and Laguna Seca on Saturday. We are staying at a little inn in Carmel close to the shopping and restaurants. This year, Cora and Mel are joining us as well as some friends of Darla, Debbie and Bob. I look forward to getting away to relax this weekend. Our fourth will be Boyd Robertson, who is a 4 handicap and who won the club championship again this year for the fourth time. We will return home on Saturday night and be in church on Sunday.
Check out Jen's blog at the link below. She is finally in countdown mode with 33 days left of her active service. It will be fun to see her plan her life going forward.
Well, this may seem short, but the website is having some real problems this morning and I've had to rewrite this three times, finally saving to draft every five minutes so as not to lose what I wrote. It may seem short, but it seems three times as long to me. Keep your footsteps in the footprints of our Saviour Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Ciao.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Summer is Fading
Although the temperatures this week will top out in the nineties for Northern California, Autumn will make it's annual appearance on Thursday at about 2 PM come what may. The jet ski has been stuck in the garage for the last couple of weekends as we have had some unseasonably cool weather of late, with temperatures in the seventies. Beautiful golf weather, but hardly the kind of day that makes you yearn for the lake and the spray of the lake water on your face. Hopefully, we will have a bit of Indian Summer in the coming weeks and we can get the ski out for some more fun in the sun, before I disconnect the battery and winterize the ski.
We had a fairly marvelous weekend after a busy week. I played in a charity golf tournament on Tuesday and had a ball. One of the morning newstalk deejays was in my foursome and we managed two eagles and eight birdies for an 11 under par total, but alas, the winners were at 19 under and third place was 15 under. We got a great big attaboy. I was smoking my drives and hit two big drivers off the deck to get onto the par fives that we eagled. They had a silent auction and a live auction over dinner that night and it was fun to watch the movers and shakers bid $1000 for Neil Diamond tickets or $4000 for an ad package on the radio. I was a little out of my element, but I enjoyed the day. I got a nice windshirt that is worth about $125. The foursome was $3,500 and included signage on one of the tees. It's nice to know the right people.
I also went to the Giants game on Wednesday, an afternoon affair at SBC Park in San Francisco. We ate garlic fries and drank Anchor Steam beer and had a ball. The Giants lost, but that is another story. Friday, I took Gail and Pete to San Francisco to meet and greet people at the annual NAPSLO (National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Organizations) meeting and we met several of the VPs from Burns and Wilcox as well as a number of company people. It was good exposure and we got some excellent feedback from some of the officers on how Sacramento is doing. I expect to be promoted at the Manager's meeting in October. We'll see. I'm going to push that envelope like a dog pushing his bowl at feeding time. We also were able to get over and see the new San Francisco office of Burns and Wilcox. They just moved to Pine Street from Montgomery.
I did play golf on Saturday in the Consolation (loser's) Bracket of the Club Championship. I managed to shoot 42+38=80 and took "first loser" with the low gross score in my flight. You can file that under too little, too late.
Darla and I are finally moving to the end of negotiations and the start of production on our remodel job. We are both mentally exhausted and can't imagine ever building our own house. It seems a pre-requisite for contractor's to be terrible businessmen. We finally got call backs and will put in a granite slab in the kitchen countertop area and tile throughout the house. We will not be doing the master bathroom right now, but will do all of the other work. The final bid on the slab was $200 more than what it would have cost to do granite tile with the requisite grout. I look forward to getting that process started next week.
We were in church yesterday and heard a sermon on building hedges around our families. The world has become a Sodom and Gomorrah world with pornography, homosexuality, drug abuse and loose morals the norm. It is hard to raise kids in this environment. The pastor said that we must make it a priority to go to church every week (I'll miss next week as I'm going to the Niner-Dallas game in SF). He talked about modeling and if you are a part time Christian that your children will likely will also be. He gave an example of a young boy who when asked why he was a Christian, responded: "It runs in our family." Perhaps not the most inciteful answer, but true. He also told the story of a boy who didn't want to go to church. His Mom was trying to get him out of bed and he asked her to give him two good reasons that he should go. "First, you're 42 years old and you shouldn't even still be living at home. And, second, you're the pastor of the church! Now, get up!!"
David will not play basketball for William Jessup this year, but they want him to play for them next year. They need him at point guard and want David to work on his ball handling skills. Daniel's football team got an old fashioned thumping on Friday night as they fell behind 21-0 in the first three minutes and went on to get routed 49-7. It was a painful sight to behold and the boys likely feel like the Niners feel after getting belted 42-3 by Philadelphia.
Well, I was out so much last week that the work is waiting in droves and I best get at it. Have a great week. I haven't heard from Jennifer since she left here for Kuwait. Darla and I are sending her a care package this week and we hope to hear from her soon. I give thanks for our soldiers daily and I'm so glad that we have a Republican in the White House. At least Terrorists know that we give a damn and will respond to their bullying tactics, and like Saddam, hunt them down like the animals that they are. God Bless. Ciao.
We had a fairly marvelous weekend after a busy week. I played in a charity golf tournament on Tuesday and had a ball. One of the morning newstalk deejays was in my foursome and we managed two eagles and eight birdies for an 11 under par total, but alas, the winners were at 19 under and third place was 15 under. We got a great big attaboy. I was smoking my drives and hit two big drivers off the deck to get onto the par fives that we eagled. They had a silent auction and a live auction over dinner that night and it was fun to watch the movers and shakers bid $1000 for Neil Diamond tickets or $4000 for an ad package on the radio. I was a little out of my element, but I enjoyed the day. I got a nice windshirt that is worth about $125. The foursome was $3,500 and included signage on one of the tees. It's nice to know the right people.
I also went to the Giants game on Wednesday, an afternoon affair at SBC Park in San Francisco. We ate garlic fries and drank Anchor Steam beer and had a ball. The Giants lost, but that is another story. Friday, I took Gail and Pete to San Francisco to meet and greet people at the annual NAPSLO (National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Organizations) meeting and we met several of the VPs from Burns and Wilcox as well as a number of company people. It was good exposure and we got some excellent feedback from some of the officers on how Sacramento is doing. I expect to be promoted at the Manager's meeting in October. We'll see. I'm going to push that envelope like a dog pushing his bowl at feeding time. We also were able to get over and see the new San Francisco office of Burns and Wilcox. They just moved to Pine Street from Montgomery.
I did play golf on Saturday in the Consolation (loser's) Bracket of the Club Championship. I managed to shoot 42+38=80 and took "first loser" with the low gross score in my flight. You can file that under too little, too late.
Darla and I are finally moving to the end of negotiations and the start of production on our remodel job. We are both mentally exhausted and can't imagine ever building our own house. It seems a pre-requisite for contractor's to be terrible businessmen. We finally got call backs and will put in a granite slab in the kitchen countertop area and tile throughout the house. We will not be doing the master bathroom right now, but will do all of the other work. The final bid on the slab was $200 more than what it would have cost to do granite tile with the requisite grout. I look forward to getting that process started next week.
We were in church yesterday and heard a sermon on building hedges around our families. The world has become a Sodom and Gomorrah world with pornography, homosexuality, drug abuse and loose morals the norm. It is hard to raise kids in this environment. The pastor said that we must make it a priority to go to church every week (I'll miss next week as I'm going to the Niner-Dallas game in SF). He talked about modeling and if you are a part time Christian that your children will likely will also be. He gave an example of a young boy who when asked why he was a Christian, responded: "It runs in our family." Perhaps not the most inciteful answer, but true. He also told the story of a boy who didn't want to go to church. His Mom was trying to get him out of bed and he asked her to give him two good reasons that he should go. "First, you're 42 years old and you shouldn't even still be living at home. And, second, you're the pastor of the church! Now, get up!!"
David will not play basketball for William Jessup this year, but they want him to play for them next year. They need him at point guard and want David to work on his ball handling skills. Daniel's football team got an old fashioned thumping on Friday night as they fell behind 21-0 in the first three minutes and went on to get routed 49-7. It was a painful sight to behold and the boys likely feel like the Niners feel after getting belted 42-3 by Philadelphia.
Well, I was out so much last week that the work is waiting in droves and I best get at it. Have a great week. I haven't heard from Jennifer since she left here for Kuwait. Darla and I are sending her a care package this week and we hope to hear from her soon. I give thanks for our soldiers daily and I'm so glad that we have a Republican in the White House. At least Terrorists know that we give a damn and will respond to their bullying tactics, and like Saddam, hunt them down like the animals that they are. God Bless. Ciao.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Busy week ahead
It will be a busy week, but most of the activities will involve sports and marketing. First off, this is the week of the NAPSLO (National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices)conference in San Francisco. ALL of the Surplus Lines Companies and wholesalers will be in attendance and all of the brass from Burns and Wilcox will be in town to attend. We will entertain our chief Underwriting Vice President, David Price, an Englishman by birth and a former member of the Lloyds Syndicate in London, today along with Wayne Bates, Vice president and head of our internal market, Special Risk Division (SRD). Wayne is also an Englishman by birth. They will be in the office about 10 AM for some one on one time with me and an office meeting. Tomorrow I will play in a charity golf tournament with one of my agency's, Albano Dale, and Mel Padeirnos, Cora's husband. Cora is an assistant in my office and Mel belongs to the golf club. The agency paid $3,500 to be a minor sponsor of the tournament and I was lucky enough to be invited. Wednesday, I will go to the San Francisco Giant's game against the San Diego Padres and see the return of Barry Bonds in person. We have been invited by Dan Carroll, an agent with one of our local agencies and a friend who I worked with back at Deans and Homer in the 90's. His agency has season tickets at Pac Bell park behind the Giants dugout on the third base side. Great seats, about five rows up from the field. Thursday, I will likely be in San Francisco for some of the peripheral parties and soirees surrounding NAPSLO. I was not invited to the convention which cost $2,500, but they would like me to go to a few of the company functions that are put on by our carriers. I will take Pete Morrison, my newest underwriter, with me. I've also been invited to attend the third San Francisco Niner game. I would normally be genuinely disinterested in a Niner game, but they happen to be playing Dallas and I can't say no to an agent. Right? I look forward to that game.
The weather here in Sacramento has turned cool and we just about froze at Daniel's football game on Friday night. Luckily I had on jeans, but had to take Darla's sweatshirt and sat chattering in the unseasonably cool night air. We have dropped from 100 degrees to highs in the low eighties and upper seventies with overnight lows in the fifties. It is about sixty five degrees as I write this and a high blue sky. It will be chamber of commerce weather for the home office personnel when they arrive.
Daniel is starting on the special teams this year and is a backup on the OL. He did NOT get a rep in the game this week, although made a nice stop on a punt return where the returner broke the wedge and Daniel knocked him sideways as he tried to juke around him. The team won the game 29-14 and again start the season 1-0. We have a new coach and a new grind it out style of offense. It is a ball control, four running back, one receiver offense and it worked well. We had two runners rush for over 100 yards and five interceptions by the defense to seal the victory. It is still not division games, but it was a win over a Division I school and a nice start to the season. I hope Daniel gets a few plays in the upcoming games. He's used to going both ways fulltime and now he's cooling his heels on the sideline watching the Seniors play. Tough transition.
The Club Championship was this weekend and I knew I had pulled a tough first round opponent with Larry Walker. Larry is a decent golfer and I can play with him, but he is one of the most deliberate and slow golfers in our club. First of all, he is 6'7" tall and gets down on the ground to line up putts from both sides of the line. Then he takes at least five to six practice swings before finally pulling the trigger. He drives me nuts. Our match went right down to the final hole, where he hit a dead skull drive left into the trees that somehow managed to land in the tenth fairway. From there he hit a perfect seven wood to about six feet to seal the victory. That ball by all rights should have fallen straight down into the trees, but it didn't. I walked off feeling like,e I let one slip away. So my annual golf goals came up with a goose egg. I did not get into single digits on my index, I missed the Rose Cup team and I did not win my flight in the Club Championship. Oh, well, I'm learning to deal with disappointment. I shot 84 to Larry's 83, but more importantly lost the match 1 down. Next on my golf agenda is our trip to Monterey on September 29th - October 2nd.
I haven't shared much about David's basketball situation. He was approached by the coach of William Jessup University in the neighboring town of Rocklin about playing for him on a partial scholarship. William Jessup is a Christian college that was located in San Jose and moved to Rocklin last year. The coach at William Jessup had heard about David through one of our youth leaders and asked him to come and play with his players to do a chemistry test. David has played with them two or three times and has met with the coach. IF he decides to join the team, he will get about an 85% scholarship and be able to get his Undergraduate studies done at William Jessup. The Jessup family attends our church, Adventure Christian, and Bryce Jessup spoke at our church this past Sunday. He is the chancellor at William Jessup and his granddaughter is pushing David to go to William Jessup. We'll see. David has really second guessed his decision to put his ball playing days behind him and is intrigued with the offer.
We finally got the quote on our tile job at home and will start the job in the next couple of weeks. Darla is still looking at granite slabs for the kitchen counters and we have another quote coming. She wants to get away from tile on the counters completely. She's tired of fighting with the grout problems. The price was comparable to what Florian, the unlicensed Romanian liar, wanted to charge us. The total is maybe $700 higher, but that's peanuts. I did find out that although Brian, the tile contractor, is licensed, he did not carry liability insurance. I told him that he was nuts and had put his business and, indeed, his house in jeopardy. I set him up with my number one agent and they got him an annual quote of $1,600. Hopefully he jumps all over that.
Well, that is the news to the minute. The staff is beginning to straggle in and I have to get to work. Ciao.
The weather here in Sacramento has turned cool and we just about froze at Daniel's football game on Friday night. Luckily I had on jeans, but had to take Darla's sweatshirt and sat chattering in the unseasonably cool night air. We have dropped from 100 degrees to highs in the low eighties and upper seventies with overnight lows in the fifties. It is about sixty five degrees as I write this and a high blue sky. It will be chamber of commerce weather for the home office personnel when they arrive.
Daniel is starting on the special teams this year and is a backup on the OL. He did NOT get a rep in the game this week, although made a nice stop on a punt return where the returner broke the wedge and Daniel knocked him sideways as he tried to juke around him. The team won the game 29-14 and again start the season 1-0. We have a new coach and a new grind it out style of offense. It is a ball control, four running back, one receiver offense and it worked well. We had two runners rush for over 100 yards and five interceptions by the defense to seal the victory. It is still not division games, but it was a win over a Division I school and a nice start to the season. I hope Daniel gets a few plays in the upcoming games. He's used to going both ways fulltime and now he's cooling his heels on the sideline watching the Seniors play. Tough transition.
The Club Championship was this weekend and I knew I had pulled a tough first round opponent with Larry Walker. Larry is a decent golfer and I can play with him, but he is one of the most deliberate and slow golfers in our club. First of all, he is 6'7" tall and gets down on the ground to line up putts from both sides of the line. Then he takes at least five to six practice swings before finally pulling the trigger. He drives me nuts. Our match went right down to the final hole, where he hit a dead skull drive left into the trees that somehow managed to land in the tenth fairway. From there he hit a perfect seven wood to about six feet to seal the victory. That ball by all rights should have fallen straight down into the trees, but it didn't. I walked off feeling like,e I let one slip away. So my annual golf goals came up with a goose egg. I did not get into single digits on my index, I missed the Rose Cup team and I did not win my flight in the Club Championship. Oh, well, I'm learning to deal with disappointment. I shot 84 to Larry's 83, but more importantly lost the match 1 down. Next on my golf agenda is our trip to Monterey on September 29th - October 2nd.
I haven't shared much about David's basketball situation. He was approached by the coach of William Jessup University in the neighboring town of Rocklin about playing for him on a partial scholarship. William Jessup is a Christian college that was located in San Jose and moved to Rocklin last year. The coach at William Jessup had heard about David through one of our youth leaders and asked him to come and play with his players to do a chemistry test. David has played with them two or three times and has met with the coach. IF he decides to join the team, he will get about an 85% scholarship and be able to get his Undergraduate studies done at William Jessup. The Jessup family attends our church, Adventure Christian, and Bryce Jessup spoke at our church this past Sunday. He is the chancellor at William Jessup and his granddaughter is pushing David to go to William Jessup. We'll see. David has really second guessed his decision to put his ball playing days behind him and is intrigued with the offer.
We finally got the quote on our tile job at home and will start the job in the next couple of weeks. Darla is still looking at granite slabs for the kitchen counters and we have another quote coming. She wants to get away from tile on the counters completely. She's tired of fighting with the grout problems. The price was comparable to what Florian, the unlicensed Romanian liar, wanted to charge us. The total is maybe $700 higher, but that's peanuts. I did find out that although Brian, the tile contractor, is licensed, he did not carry liability insurance. I told him that he was nuts and had put his business and, indeed, his house in jeopardy. I set him up with my number one agent and they got him an annual quote of $1,600. Hopefully he jumps all over that.
Well, that is the news to the minute. The staff is beginning to straggle in and I have to get to work. Ciao.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Tuesday, bloody Tuesday!
I got here at 6:45 this morning and quickly realized that I have no muffins for breakfast, the coffee was not made (which is really a Monday thing), and I left my glasses at home and have to use the Ben Franklin readers that I keep for my Alzheimer days. Nice start to a short week...But, I had a nice binder waiting for me and a phone message from Bill McCord, the Underwriting Vice-President congratulating me and the staff on a great month. We hit $1,000,000 in written premium and had net income over $150,000 so all is not dismal. I have my health, a good job, a great family and I don't live anywhere near the hurricane where suffering is ripe and where despair is very real.
It was a nice Holiday weekend, spent golfing, boating and at the beach. I played in the Labor Day tournament on Saturday and again suffered through a horrific round of golf shooting 49+42=91. I felt like a complete hacker and it is a concern with the club championship starting on Sunday. The thing about golf is that it comes and goes and the club championship is a match play affair, so anything can happen. I can't say that I'm imbued with confidence, but I have as much chance of winning my flight as anyone. My driving has been excellent lately, I've been hitting the ball long and straight, so I just need to button up my iron play and work on my putting. I'll let you know how I did next week.
Jennifer has been updating her blog at a regular clip since returning to Kuwait and I suggest you check it out. There is a link at the bottom of this page for doing just that. She continues to have to commute daily back to Camp Doha to work at the armory and it is an hour bus ride each way. Sounds brutal. Glad to see that Jennifer is starting to send out resumes and plan for her return in November.
Darla, Alicia and I went up and spent the night in Paradise on Saturday night with Darla's parents. They have their new home completely furnished and have some new furniture and window coverings as well as all new sculptured carpet throughout the house. It is very nice and we enjoyed our stay. We took the boat out on Sunday to Lake Oroville and toured the lake. We considered bringing the jet ski, but opted not to with gas prices approaching $3.00 here in NorCal. We will take the boys out on Saturday and enjoy Folsom Lake. Oroville is nice, but not a great lake for jet skiing as there isn't any beach area along the lake. The sides of the lake are pretty steep. We are pretty spoiled with Folsom as the lake has plenty on inlets and beach area to relax. Darla and I went to the lake yesterday and drove out into the back side of the lake and went off road and found a nice quiet inlet where we set up our blanket and umbrella and took our books to read. I read about a chapter and set the book aside to rest my eyes for a few nminutes and woke up about an hour later. It was great day right up to the point when two SUVs pulled up and disgorged a carload of screaming kids to invade our day. We quickly broke camp and headed back to the homestead before our neighbors were even set up. I worked on the yard, cutting back the crepe myrtle in the front of the house that had started to infringe on the roof and was clogging the gutter guards with discarded petals. Darla didn't want me to cut back the blooms, but the tree was out of control and I needed to do so for my own peace of mind.
I had turned on the back sprinklers on Saturday after golf to water the back lawn and the grass seed that I'd sewn in some of the bare spots and we left for Paradise with the sprinklers still running. It dawned on me within about fifteen minutes, but we couldn't get hold of the boys who were with their Dad. Darla left several messages and finally got hold of Daniel after about an hour. David and he drove over to the house and had to siphon out some of the water from the back yard as it was flooded.
We are still playing with the home improvement project and hope to get a quote from Brian on the tile work today or tomorrow. We have had two quotes on the granite countertops, one was high and the other was the granite transformations group and Darla is not sold on the quality or look of the granite composite that goes on over the existing tile. We are having Brian quote us the job with Granite tile and a marble backsplash. This project is taking forever to just get off the ground. We had dinner on Sunday night at a friend's house who had a handyman install floor tile in their home. The job is definitely second rate and he made a lot of mistakes and took twice as long to finish the job as he estimated. The handyman of course was not licensed and it solidifies our decision to stick with a licensed contractor.
We were able to go to church with Darla's parents up in Paradise and they belong to a nice church. The people seem really friendly and the pastor gave an inspired message about questions that a disaster like Katrina brings up. The pastor is very laid back and is more of a teacher than a preacher. Earl is still getting used to his style, but I was impressed with the depth of his preparation for the message and his insightful sermon. Alicia slept in and missed church.
Daniel has his first football game this Friday as a member of the varsity. He is starting on the special teams and is a backup offensive lineman. Again it surprised us that at 6'2" and 235 pounds that he'd be a backup, but they have a new coach and he is starting almost all Seniors. I expect Daniel will be starting before long because he is so hard to handle at his size. The guy in front of him is 6'0" and 285 pounds, a handful, but also a load that will quickly tire out.
Well, have a great week and continue to draw closer to our Lord. There will be many people who turn to our Savior through the tragedy in the Gulf states, but unfortunately the devil is working hard as well and there will be some souls lost. Pray for understanding, relief and for the power of our Lord to overcome in that part of our country so ravaged by pain and sadness. Ciao.
It was a nice Holiday weekend, spent golfing, boating and at the beach. I played in the Labor Day tournament on Saturday and again suffered through a horrific round of golf shooting 49+42=91. I felt like a complete hacker and it is a concern with the club championship starting on Sunday. The thing about golf is that it comes and goes and the club championship is a match play affair, so anything can happen. I can't say that I'm imbued with confidence, but I have as much chance of winning my flight as anyone. My driving has been excellent lately, I've been hitting the ball long and straight, so I just need to button up my iron play and work on my putting. I'll let you know how I did next week.
Jennifer has been updating her blog at a regular clip since returning to Kuwait and I suggest you check it out. There is a link at the bottom of this page for doing just that. She continues to have to commute daily back to Camp Doha to work at the armory and it is an hour bus ride each way. Sounds brutal. Glad to see that Jennifer is starting to send out resumes and plan for her return in November.
Darla, Alicia and I went up and spent the night in Paradise on Saturday night with Darla's parents. They have their new home completely furnished and have some new furniture and window coverings as well as all new sculptured carpet throughout the house. It is very nice and we enjoyed our stay. We took the boat out on Sunday to Lake Oroville and toured the lake. We considered bringing the jet ski, but opted not to with gas prices approaching $3.00 here in NorCal. We will take the boys out on Saturday and enjoy Folsom Lake. Oroville is nice, but not a great lake for jet skiing as there isn't any beach area along the lake. The sides of the lake are pretty steep. We are pretty spoiled with Folsom as the lake has plenty on inlets and beach area to relax. Darla and I went to the lake yesterday and drove out into the back side of the lake and went off road and found a nice quiet inlet where we set up our blanket and umbrella and took our books to read. I read about a chapter and set the book aside to rest my eyes for a few nminutes and woke up about an hour later. It was great day right up to the point when two SUVs pulled up and disgorged a carload of screaming kids to invade our day. We quickly broke camp and headed back to the homestead before our neighbors were even set up. I worked on the yard, cutting back the crepe myrtle in the front of the house that had started to infringe on the roof and was clogging the gutter guards with discarded petals. Darla didn't want me to cut back the blooms, but the tree was out of control and I needed to do so for my own peace of mind.
I had turned on the back sprinklers on Saturday after golf to water the back lawn and the grass seed that I'd sewn in some of the bare spots and we left for Paradise with the sprinklers still running. It dawned on me within about fifteen minutes, but we couldn't get hold of the boys who were with their Dad. Darla left several messages and finally got hold of Daniel after about an hour. David and he drove over to the house and had to siphon out some of the water from the back yard as it was flooded.
We are still playing with the home improvement project and hope to get a quote from Brian on the tile work today or tomorrow. We have had two quotes on the granite countertops, one was high and the other was the granite transformations group and Darla is not sold on the quality or look of the granite composite that goes on over the existing tile. We are having Brian quote us the job with Granite tile and a marble backsplash. This project is taking forever to just get off the ground. We had dinner on Sunday night at a friend's house who had a handyman install floor tile in their home. The job is definitely second rate and he made a lot of mistakes and took twice as long to finish the job as he estimated. The handyman of course was not licensed and it solidifies our decision to stick with a licensed contractor.
We were able to go to church with Darla's parents up in Paradise and they belong to a nice church. The people seem really friendly and the pastor gave an inspired message about questions that a disaster like Katrina brings up. The pastor is very laid back and is more of a teacher than a preacher. Earl is still getting used to his style, but I was impressed with the depth of his preparation for the message and his insightful sermon. Alicia slept in and missed church.
Daniel has his first football game this Friday as a member of the varsity. He is starting on the special teams and is a backup offensive lineman. Again it surprised us that at 6'2" and 235 pounds that he'd be a backup, but they have a new coach and he is starting almost all Seniors. I expect Daniel will be starting before long because he is so hard to handle at his size. The guy in front of him is 6'0" and 285 pounds, a handful, but also a load that will quickly tire out.
Well, have a great week and continue to draw closer to our Lord. There will be many people who turn to our Savior through the tragedy in the Gulf states, but unfortunately the devil is working hard as well and there will be some souls lost. Pray for understanding, relief and for the power of our Lord to overcome in that part of our country so ravaged by pain and sadness. Ciao.
