It is a Tuesday morning in Northern California. I've had my coffee, made small talk with the early arrivers here at work and I'm now adding to the blog. Darla and I took a night up in Reno Sunday night and for that reason the blog is a day late. We had hoped to have Jennifer join us, but the pressures of friends and family were a bit too much for her and she begged off the trip. Darla and I shrugged and decided to take a trip up to Reno ourselves.We drove up after church on Sunday and relaxed Sunday afternoon. The clouds had rolled in and Darla read and I watched the final round of the International golf tournament on television. We had dinner at Benihanas at the Golden Phoenix. We then played a little video poker at the Phoenix and I got creamed. Darla won a few pots and I itched to get out of there and back to my comfort zone at the Atlantis Casino. We just play nickle slots and with 20 coins as a maximum, we can't get hurt too bad. I fell down about $80 before finally hitting a $100 jackpot. I then hit another $50 and finally four Aces with a 2 for $200. Darla and I cash out whenever we hit a four-of-a-kind and by ten-thirty we had over $450 in vouchers in Darla's purse. We took a break and went to the room so Darla could change. We decided to leave $400 of the vouchers in the room and took $50 to play with. At one point Darla hit four dueces with a 4, but only saved the dueces and went from a 2000 coin payout to 400. Ouch. We played until about 12:30 and returned to the room with just over $50, so it was a really good trip. We had an early lunch in Reno and then drove back to Roseville and spent the afternoon relaxing at Alicia's pool. We didn't even look at the machines on the way out of Reno and enjoyed taking some money home with us this trip.
Part of the allure of Reno this weekend was the final day of Hot August Nights, the annual car show and cruise in Reno. This year was as good as any and I always especially enjoy seeing the 1957 Chevys. It is my birth year and still one of the all time cool cars. I like Dad's collection and he is once again winning car shows ( I just received a note from him and he took first place in a show in BC), but the '57 Chevy is my favorite. They had a candy apple red one at Atlantis that was a dream. Dad, you need to come up to Reno in early August next year and bring the '44.
As you can see, Jennifer has made good use of the jet ski on her trip home. In fact, she decided she wants her own vest and Darla and I are getting her a new Body Glove vest which should arrive today. We have added two fuel containers on a rack to the jet ski trailer and I have a set of trailer guides coming today and a lock for the hitch slip. We will take Jennifer out a final time on Thursday to the lake and she leaves for Atlanta on Friday morning. We will take her out to dinner after the lake and celebrate her birthday, which is August 28th, but she will be back in Kuwait by then. She will spend the weekend in Atlanta and flies back to Kuwait on Monday.
Jennifer has had a good trip home and it has been a good mix of friends and family. She took the trip to Santa Cruz and has been out with most of her friends and went to the lake and water skiing with Jason. She went out to the clubs with David, her old boyfriend from Folsom last week. They went with one of his frends, Jay, a fireman. On their way back to our house at two in the morning they came across a house fire and were the first ones on scene. Jay kicked in the front door of the home (which turned out to be vacant) and Jennifer ran to the neighboring homes to awaken the residents. She ended up as the "unknown woman" who alerted residents in the Sacramento Bee. Jennifer had kicked off her heels to run door to door and by the time she returned to their car, the fire department had arrived and had hoses all over the ground and she lost her shoes. She went by the scene the next morning, but her shoes were nowhere to be found. I don't understand the bar scene and what the draw is there. At 24, I had a one year old and had been married for four years. Anyhow, thank God that Jennifer and her friends were up and able to alert the fire department of the fire as well as the neighbors.
Work continues to improve and I'm beginning to see signs of real progress with Anthony and Pete in this office and the Modesto office in particular. I'm having a great month and received the order on my largest renewal on the 1st of August to the tune of $225,000. My month is made and it's only the ninth.
I did not play golf this past weekend and it is the first weekend without golf since we got back from Hawaii. I will play in a tournament in Reno (Sparks actually) on Sunday. I'll have to get out this week and hit some balls to refresh my game. Next weekend is the qualifier for Diamond Oaks' Rose Cup team and it is one of my annual goals to qualify for the team. I missed the chance last year as I was rehabbing a bad back.
Well, that is all of the happenings in our neck of the woods. My prayer is that God help lead Jennifer to the next stage in her professional life (and while I'm at it, He bring a strong Christian man in to her life and help her settle down. Hey, I'm out on a limb already, I'll reach for the stars). It will be interesting to watch God move in her life in the next several months as she prepares to conclude her service and get back to life in these here United States. Take care and keep God alive in your life. Ciao.
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