The BLOG is going on Vacation!!!

I think I will join the BLOG and take a week off in sunny Puerto Vallarta next week. It is a bit rainy there this time of year, but low 90's with plenty of sunshine as well. We are going with our friends, Bob and Debbie Hand. Bob and I will golf a couple of times and the ladies will shop. Bob and I plan to play early in the day before the expensive shops open for the day..we aren't completely out of our minds. Darla and I met Bob and Debbie for dinner last night on our way home from Almanor. We met in Lincoln at one of Darla's and my favorite restaurants, Buonarotti's. It is an Italian restaurante and serves excellent fare. I had a flat iron steak that melted in my mouth and Darla had scampi and pasta. It was a nice stop after two and a half hours on the road. We visited with Bob and Debbie and laid out some tentative plans for our trip. They fly in on Sunday and Darla and I arrive Saturday afternoon.

You can see I added a picture of my former assistant, Anthony, in the jalapeno bobbing contest last weekend. It amazes me what twenty-somethings will do for our entertainment at these parties.

It was a great, though jam packed weekend. Darla left friday afternoon for Almanor and I stayed behind to play golf on Saturday. Darla and I sort of had our wires crossed on the weekend plans and I had already set up a golf game for Saturday when she told me that she'd booked a cabin for the weekend at Almanor. We arm wrestled over that one and finally agreed that she would drive up Friday with her sister and I'd join them after golf on Saturday afternoon. Of course, that left me with a free Friday night. I decided to take $120 to Thunder Valley in Lincoln, have some dinner and see what kind of luck was in store for me. I play nickle slots (video poker) and I sat down when I arrived and got a royal spanking. I lost $80 in about 55 minutes. I limped away from the machine and went over to the Gordito Burrito in the food court and washed away my sorrows with a large iced tea and a small shredded beef burrito. I resurrected my self esteem and filled my gullet and headed back to the same machine. Luck had reversed it's course and in the span of about two and a half hours I turned 400 nickles into over 6000 ($300). In that span I hit two straight flushes (one dealt to me), three four-of-a kind aces, two with a 2-3 or 4 kicker for a 2000 coin win on a 5 coin bet. It was magic and I left the casino with $200 in winnings.

Saturday morning I played golf with Boyd, Bob Pando and Bob Hand. Boyd had just returned from his golfing trip to Scotland where he'd played five times in six days, including stints on Royal St. Andrews and Prestwick (the sight of Tiger's recent victory at the British Open). A reporter from the Sacramento Bee interviewed Boyd and another of the travelers on Thursday in the paper and when Boyd started to tell his stories, I stopped him and told him that I'd read all about it already. I shot pedestrian golf on Saturday with a 42+43=85 that included three double bogeys. My chipping needs work and I'll concentrate on that in practice for awhile until I can straighten it out. Boyd and I won the skin money Saturday.

I left for Almanor right after golf and arrived about 4 PM. I barely got settled in the cabin and was whisked off to visit some friends at another resort. We went over by boat and part of the allure of the visit for Darla and Alicia was to show their parents an RV park where they might set up their 5th wheel next Summer. Darla and I took the gang out to pizza on Saturday night in Westwood, one of the dinky little resort towns nearby. Westwood was a company town back in the thirties with a large sawmill. The homes were all built by the mill and are small two bedroom homes that all look alike. The mill burned down in the late forties and the town is like a time warp with the small homes all still standing and small businesses catering to the retirees and resort workers that live in the town. It is a town that is all but dead in the Winter months as the resorts all close down for the Winter and the economy dries up until Spring.

We went to church Sunday morning and then returned home for barbecue hamburgers. We got about two hours in the sun and then packed up for our trip back home and dinner with the Hands. It was a hectic weekend that will make my lounge chair by the pool in PV feel so much better next Sunday.

Gary and I have made it into the finals for our twilight golf league this Thursday night. We will take on a team that I really don't like for first place. The team is made up of two retired guys and one of them is a crotchedy old man who is older mentally than his birth certificate reads. I had a confrontation with him a couple of weeks ago when I arrived late for my tee time. I have a standing agreement with my partner that if I'm running late, I'll call him and he can let another group go ahead of us. I made my call as I didn't get out of work until 4 PM and we had the 4:40 tee time. I drove to the course and puttered around getting my bag together and finally walked in to pay about 4:40. Gary came running in and said, "Hurry up, we're on the tee." I said, "Give me a second Gary." He said, "Take your time I'll tell the other group to go." That meant to me that he'd have the foursome behind us tee off. But no, in Gary's mind, that meant he'd tell the twosome playing against us to tee off. I paid and went back out to my car to get a water I'd left in the console. Gary came flying out in his cart and said, "C'mon, everybody is waiting for US!" I jumped in the cart with him and here was Bob Tucker standing like an old goat with his arm crossed across his chest next to the tee. "About damn time, you idiot!", he said. I jumped out of the cart and walked over to him. "Did you say something to me?" He turned his head and walked away. I followed him. "Listen, pal, if you've got something to say to me, say it." He was beet red and mumbled something about me being a rude sob. I said (and God forgive me), "Listen, Grampa, I've got a job with twenty people depending on me for their jobs. I'm not a retired old bastard who has this golf league as his sole point of excitement for the week!" I let Gary have it big time. I told him to never set me up like that again. If I'm running late, I don't need to jump out of my car and run to the tee. So, it should be interesting to play the old goat this week. I just hope I can kick his scrawny butt.

I talked to Randy last night. He just celebrated his 46th birthday last week. We will all be together next March or April for a family reunion and a celbration of Dad's 70th birthday and my 50th. It will be great to see every one again and Jennifer will get to join us this time around.

Well, that's it for TWO weeks. I will be back refreshed and restored with pictures and stories about my vacation. Until then, stay grounded in the Lord and he will set your path before you. Ciao.

Jet skiing at Folsom Lake

August weather here in August

I had wanted to add some pictures from our trip to the lake this week and sent those to my work e-mail last night, but the firewall here at work is delaying the pictures from passing over. Hopefully they show up later today and I can add them. We have been enjoying Jennifer's visit home and have been to the lake twice with the jet ski including yesterday. Just Darla, Jennifer and I were able to go to the lake and it was a nice relaxing day. The boys were with their dad and Jenn's friend Sara had child care issues as her daughter was with her dad (Sara's ex), and she had to pick her up at 3 PM. Jennifer is becoming quite a daredevil on the ski as she is doing 360's and really running the ski hard. The boys always laugh at me as I usually get on the ski with a hat and sunglasses and take a leisurely run around the lake. I have been trying more daring runs with more fast turns and spins. I leave the hat and glasses on the beach now. I took a nasty fall yesterday as the wake was huge and the wind was up a little. The lake was busy and the waves by midafternoon were pretty choppy. I spun out and hit one of those waves and found myself flying off the ski. Unfortunately I hit my hip on the side of the ski on my trip into the water. I'm pretty sore today. The ski continued with the wave and when I came up out of the water, it was about thirty yards from me and drifting in the swells. It took me about five minutes to swim back to the ski and I was so tired when I got there that I just hung on the back of the ski until I could catch my breath and have enough strength to pull myself up out of the water. Darla and Jennifer saw the result of my wipeout with me in the water thirty yards from the ski, but neither of them saw the spill.

It was a pretty awesome weekend for me with poker on Friday night (I was hosting), golf saturday morning, a company barbecue Saturday afternoon and evening and church followed by jet skiing yesterday. I won $80 at poker, shot 43+39=82 on Saturday at Woodcreek Golf Course and thoroughly enjoyed the picnic and skiing. Church was great.

We had the Seniors' pastor, Wayne Bigelow, speak on marriage and family and relate that to our relationship with Jesus Christ as his bride. It was well done and he punctuated his remarks by introducing three couples from his senior's group that had all celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in the last couple of months. One couple are golfers and have played golf in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. Nice. Wayne also told the story of two medical students, one a doctor and the other a dentist who decided to join forces after graduation and open a joint practice. To save money they hired a shared receptionist. Over time, both Doctors began to develop romantic feelings for their receptionist and it became a heated battle for her affections. The dentist had a one week meeting at the American Dental Association that he had to attend and he was concerned that his rival would win her heart while he was gone. He racked his brain to think of how to keep his interests safe while he was gone and he finally hit on a plan. The day that he left for the week away, he put seven apples on the receptionist's desk. Think about it. Wayne then shared the story of the Indian who sat on the cliff watching the sunset. He couldn't figure it out until several hours later when it dawned on him.

Dad and Shirley will be on the road this week on their way to California and the car show in Pleasanton the weekend of August 25th-27th. They will stay with us on the 24th and then drive in to Pleasanton. Darla and I are off to Puerto Vallarta on the 26th for a week and Dad and Shirley will return to our house on Sunday night and stay until Wednesday. We will leave our SUV for them to drive and take a trip in to San Francisco and perhaps Monterey/Carmel depending on their whim. Unfortunately Jennifer will be in Vegas and San Diego while they are here and will not return until September 1st. Darla and I fly back on September 2nd.

Golf this weekend was fun, although I awoke at 6:15 AM on Saturday with a pounding in my ears from the diet of cards and Heineken from the night before. I took a couple of aspirin and was teeing off by 7:25. I played surprisingly well and parred the first three holes. I followed that up with a 6 on the par 3 fourth hole. I finished the front with a double-bogey on number nine after hitting my second shot in the water in front of the green protecting the short par five. I got into a groove on the backside and shot par golf with five pars, a bogey and a birdie through 16. I then went double-bogey/bogey to finish the round and shoot a 39. I shot six over par on the four par threes and ten over (82) in total. It could have been a great round instead of a good round. I played with Bob, a new friend from our life group at church. He played on his high school golf team and shot an 85. Mel also played with us and shot 86.

The barbecue was also great as most of the characters from work showed up. Kathy, one of the underwriting assistants opened her home and we had tri-tip, chicken, brauts, salads, chips, dip, desserts, etc. and had a ball. Dana, Kathy's husband, acted as the emcee and they had a jalapeno bobbing contest which the younger crowd was a part of and Heather, our personal lines underwriter, was able to pluck 17 jalapenos out of the tub of water with just her mouth in 30 seconds. It was hilarious and we got pictures for the office. They have a beautiful home in Rancho Murieta and a wonderful backyard with a pool and a "poop deck" off the back of the house with a hot tub and a great view of the rolling hills around them. The backyard has a nautical theme. The home itself is a tri-level custom with an upstairs master suite with a private office off the bathroom that looks out over the pool. They had karaoke and pool volleyball. It was a great afternoon.

I will take Wednesday afternoon off again and take Jennifer out on the ski. Darla will of course go as well and we hope to have Sara join us again. In the meantime I need to get to work. Stay well and, like the Indian, I hope your mortality has dawned on you and you are living in the light of our Saviour. Ciao

Jennifer returns from Korea

Yes, Jennifer returned home from 7 months in Korea. I don't know how her job calculates time away from home as her contract calls for overseas travel up to 75% of the time. In my calculations that would be 9 months out of the year overseas. She has a month off and then will start her job in the Concord office of Das Net. Jennifer and John, her boyfriend, both work for Das Net and they are having second thoughts about their career choice as they want to be together and there is no guarantee that they will be deployed to the same region. John's office is in New York and Jennifer's is in California. John, who lives in Las Vegas, has asked to be transferred to California, but that request has been denied. It remains to be seen how this all shakes out. They are both committed to sticking with Das Net until they can find other jobs or until they can work out the logistics of work and their relationship. We will get a chance to meet John later this month as he will come to California for two weeks.

Jennifer surprised her Mom at her bridal shower yesterday. She had told her that she was flying home on Monday and Diane bought it. Jennifer actually flew home on Friday, actually leaving Korea at 8:00PM Friday night, flying twelve hours and arriving in Sacramento at 7:30 PM Friday night. International travel can be bizarre. Jennifer coordinated with the hostess of the shower and arrived about twenty minutes after her Mom and surprised her. Jennifer called her on her computer through Skype, A VOIP (voice over internet protocal) Sunday morning from my house and acted like she was still in Korea getting packed to leave. Diane will marry for a third time and here's hoping this one sticks.

Darla and the boys went up to Lake Almanor this weekend and I stayed home to visit with Jennifer. We invited her up, but she was loathe to spend six hours in a car (to and from Almanor) on Saturday a day after spending twelve hours on the plane. I couldn't blame her. As it turned out the jet ski battery was drained again and they never got the ski into the water. I will stop and pick up a trickle charger from Kragen Auto Parts tonight and get the battery fully charged for our trip to Folsom Lake on Wednesday afternoon. David is taking a half day due to some computer changes at work and Jennifer and her friend, Sara, will join Darla and I at the lake for an afternoon of relaxing and jet skiing at the lake. Daniel starts school that day and will have to miss the outing.

Today is a bit overcast and breezy. The temperatures have remained in the upper eighties and low nineties since the heat spell. Today is supposed to top out at 90 degrees and Wednesday should be 95 degrees at the lake.

The hot weather took a huge toll on the course at Turkey Creek where I played the NCGA qualifier on Thursday. I was shocked on Tuesday when I saw how bad the course was. We'd just played there three weeks ago and it was in great shape. One of the course maintenance guys told me that they had sprayed a fungicide on several of the greens on the morning of the 116 degree day and it absolutely burned the greens up. They have about seven holes where the fairways are all but gone due to the sun baking the grass. The NCGA officials apologized for the conditions and said that if they had been informed earlier, they would have moved the tournament. Steve and I struggled to a best ball 68 which we thought was terrible, but they ended up taking four teams that shot 63, 64 and two at 67. We missed the boat by one stroke. The sad thing is we had shot a combined 62 three weeks ago albeit in wholly different conditions. The twosome that we played with had an even worse experience as they shot four under par for the first six holes and four over par for the last 12 holes to finish at 72. One of their players started the first hole by walking all over my line on the green and almost knocking my ball marker out of position. Both Steve and I jumped all over him for that. Three holes later, he played MY ball in the fairway and I coiuldn't find my drive and took an "X" on the hole. Steve parred the hole for a net birdie and I could have gone back and played my ball from where he hit it, but we were in with a net birdie already. This guy was obviously not used to tournament golf. I ended up with a 92 and Steve shot 91 in horrible conditions. Steve almost lost it when an NCGA official told him that he had to move his ball off of some newly laid sod and he went from inches off the green and a 15 foot putt for birdie to a 25 yard chip which he shanked. I told him to not take it out on the official lest we get DQ'd for his attitude. I went back to Diamond Oaks that night and shot a 39 in my twilight league to realize that all really was right in the world. It is too bad that my first experience in an NCGA qualifier was so poor, but I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to more in the future.

Work continues at a fairly frenetic pace. I hit a large renewal on August 1st to the tune of $215,000. My normal month is about $250,000-$300,000 in premium volume, so here it is the 7th and my month is made already. That's a good feeling.

Darla and I are hosting our life group at a dinner tonight at our house. We are barbecuing shish-ke-bobs and the group is bringing salads, drinks and dessert. We are trying to do a social event once a month and Bible study the rest of the month. This is our first time to host. Jennifer and the boys will join us for dinner. The group spent a lot of time praying for Jennifer while she was in the Army and it will be nice for them to meet her and hear some of her stories.

Jennifer talked to Jesse yesterday and he is doing better. He has plans to get well enough to attend a concert in Austin next month. Perhaps that is "pie in the sky", but it is a goal for him and he is working hard to rehab and get well. As soon as his neck is stable, he will undergo surgery to repair his broken shoulder. I talked to him briefly and he is such a positive kid. His outlook on life will help him to heal faster. Keep praying for him as there are costs associated with the surgery that need to be covered. There are doctors who will donate their services, but there are hospital costs that will have to be borne somehow.

I'll try to get some pictures from our trip to the lake on Wednesday to add to the blog next week. Jennifer was able to go to church with me on Sunday and it was a blessing to me. Pastor Rick came over and welcomed Jennifer home, which was nice. I hope all are doing well and leading a quiet Christian life. Ciao.