A mess before the rebirth.
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.
