Deja Vu all over again

Strange how sometimes a week goes by and nothing really changes. Last week I wrote about having good weather on Saturday and then the rains coming in to wipe it all away. Well, hello rerun as we just had the same weekend again this past one. Jennifer didn't call, but weatherwise it was a redo. Saturday was not as warm as last weekend, but it was clear and some sun came out and made us all smile and think of Spring.

I played golf again on Saturday and actually had a pretty good round. I played golf with Dave Armijo, my old partner who left the club two years ago because of continuing back pain and his new status as a grandparent. He and his wife were traveling to the Bay Area every weekend to see the grandchild and golf became no more than an afterthought in that scenario. Dave and I caught up on old times and I forgot to concentrate on my game and shot 44 on the front side. I woke up on the back and went even par through seven holes before finishing bogey-bogey for a 44+38=82 score. Dave struggled and shot 90, but it was his first game of 2006. I will take next Monday off and will play with Boyd and Dave at Diamond Oaks. Dave and I teed off a half hour before the RGC tournament which runs last weekend and next. I'm going to Monterey next weekend with the family to celebrate my last year of youth as I turn 49 on Sunday.

Darla went to Marin on Friday to visit her friend, Joni, and I had poker Friday night and golf on Saturday. Mix in church on Sunday and it was a perfect weekend. Darla was home midday on Saturday and we relaxed and watched movies on Saturday and Sunday night (Pride and Predjudice and Walk the Line). I would have liked both Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix to have won Oscars for Walk the Line, but at least Reese won. She was excellent as June Carter and I highly recommend the movie.

The rain squall has slowed and it is one of those strange weather patterns, where the storm sits over the city, but the edges of the storm are visible with blue sky and sun showing through. It is but an optical illusion as the forecast is for rain all week long. I have to drive to Modesto tomorrow to interview a candidate for an assistant underwriter position and do a 90-day review on the assistant in the office now. The new position will be in Sacramento and that person will technically work for Modesto, but be housed locally. The ladies in the office there have a candidate who lives in Stockton, but is willing to move to Rancho Cordova for the job.

Work continues to flourish. I'll be in Scottsdale, Arizona in two weeks for an underwriting conference with one of our carriers. We will also have a Burns and Wilcox conference in Dallas, Texas in June. The conference is just for underwriters and not Managers and I'm still somewhere in between. Our Branch Manager conference will be in Detroit in October and I've let it be known that I will NOT return to that conference as anything but a Branch Manager. I will likely send three representative from our office to the conference in Dallas.

The pastor had a good story this weekend on how three preachers each handled their take of the weekly offering. The first preacher said that he takes the offering into the field behind his church and draws a three-foot diameter circle in the grass. He then throws the money in the air and whatever lands in the circle he keeps and whatever land outside the circle goes to God. The second preacher said that he does it similarly, but whatever lands in the circle is for God and he keeps whatever lands outside the circle. The third preacher said that he does it differently. He throws the money in the air and whatever God wants, he grabs and whatever lands back on earth the preacher keeps.

We will be off to Monterey next week and the blog will be late. I'll either do it on Tuesday or late Monday afternoon. I look forward to a weekend away with the family. We found a great deal on hotel rooms and will stay in a two-bedroom hotel for $109 a night in Monterey. Hopefully the weather will rain itself out and it will be nice by next weekend. Stay well, keep your eyes on heaven and your feet firmly on the ground. Ciao.