I woke up today in Vancouver!!

Funny, I remember going to the Sacramento Kings game last night at Arco Arena, driving home with Darla, watching a movie on disc and going to bed in Sacramento. The rain, it's all about the rain. Having just completed the rainiest March in 35 years in Sacramento, it is April 3rd and we will get up to an inch of rain out of the latest storm to darken our skies and darken our moods. I know why Seattle has the highest percentage of suicides in the country, constant rain is depressing. I was not able to play golf this weekend. The course was open, but had running water through several fairways and golf carts were not allowed on the course. I never play with a golf cart, but that answer to my query on Saturday morning was enough to keep me in bed at 6:45 AM, as my playing partners had already alerted the course that they were not going to show for our 7:20 AM tee time. Usually by this time of the year, we have had several stretches of weather in the eighty degree range, but so far it has had trouble sustaining stretches above 60 degrees. I look out on a slowly lightening sky that is overcast and raining. The dreaded time change hit yesterday and it was dark, raining and downright cold when I left the house at 6:15 AM this morning.

Darla and I did attend the Sacramento Kings vs Los Angeles Clippers game last night and had a great time. Our friends, Gary and Liz, couldn't make the game and are season ticket holders. We paid them the $66 face value for their two tickets and preferred parking and thoroughly enjoyed the game, which Sacramento won 106-96. I went to the game last week with Gary and really enjoyed it. I could tell Darla would like to go to a game, so when I got an e-mail from Gary that the tickets for the Sunday night game were for sale, we jumped on it.

Darla and Daniel leave Saturday for a week in Mexico building houses. We sincerely hope that the weather rains itself out and they end up with a dry and warm week. They endured torrential rains last year that required shifts where water was kept from building up on the sides of the large tents that the group stay in. It was muddy and miserable and they loved it last year. This year, Darla is praying for some sun.

Jennifer called me last Wednesday and told me that she had a few days of comp time and that she and her friend, John, were taking off and flying to Bangkok, Thailand for a few days of fun in the sun. The weather has been in the 90's in Bangkok at the beaches with overnight lows in the upper 70's. I haven't talked to her since her return, but I'm sure they had a ball. She's been freezing in Korea and was ready for some sun. Thailand is about a two-hour plane ride from Seoul, Korea. Frankly, Jenn has been doing nothing but minting money since she started this job. She had several 17 hour days of work leading up to the end of her project at the air base. They have a new project that starts today, but the air base had some sort of military process going on that precluded them from working last Wednesday through Sunday, so the call of the sand and sun was heeded. I'm jealous as I sit here bailing out the flower pots in front of my home, lest the Spring flowers die from root rot.

With Darla gone this weekend, the plan is for poker Friday night with golf on Saturday and Sunday. A look at the extended forecast shows rain ending by Wednesday afternoon with the next round of wet weather due in on Saturday. Naturally.

I was in San Francisco last Thursday night as one of my Contractor markets had an open house, followed by dinner in the city. We started the trip by visiting Harvey's office in San Francisco. I sat through a meeting with his brokers and then Harvey called me in to his office. One of my employees had called Home Office and complained of a hostile work environment. Supposedly, I expected her to work a full week, attend all meetings and help out in the office with tasks that she felt were beneath her. The final straw was when I told her that she could not get off at 3:30 in order to seek a part time job to help her pay bills. The nerve. I will be meeting with this mental giant late this morning to see if I can lessen her burden. I think a seat in the unemployment line should allow her plenty of time to seek additional sources of income.

The office continues to show momentum and I'm beginning to lose patience with running the office, but not being the Branch Manager. I interviewed with Unigard, a west coast company owned by a large Swiss conglomerate, last week for a Commercial Account Manager position. I was very intrigued with the job, which is a field underwriting position handling accounts in the $20,000-$150,000 range and really impressed with the Branch Manager of the Roseville office. The position would pay me more money and release me from the management aspect of the job. I would in essence be an entreprenuer, handling a book of about $6,000,000 in business and traveling about 25% of the time. My next step with Unigard would be a trip to the Home Office in Bellevue, Washington to meet with the CEO and upper level management. It would be nice if Burns and Wilcox would step to the plate, but it has been 18 months of doing the job without the recognition, pay and benefits of being the Branch Manager. After a while the promises ring a bit hollow.

Well, that is all the news that is fit to print. Be well, stay smiling and touch a life with a random act of kindness this week. Ciao.