Another weekend in the books

Autumn has arrived and with it, a sore throat and runny nose. Darla had suffered with a similar malady just a week or so ago and now it has hit me. I never handle the change of seasons well and the problem is I'm warm when we go to bed and freezing in the morning. I had been leaving the fan on over the bed and the window cracked open, but closed the window and shut down the fan last week as I was waking up cold in the morning. I guess I didn't do that soon enough as I sat amid a growing stack of used kleenexes yesterday and watched football. The outside temperature was still in the mid and upper eighties, so I can't blame the weather. I am stuffed up with a runny nose (if that is even possile) and have a sore throat. I'm drinking alot of water and living on Nyquil right now.

Darla and I are off to the last golf trip of the season this coming weekend, when we will join 23 other golfers and their significant others for a trip up to Angel's Camp to play the Greenhorn Country Club on Saturday and then on to Valley Springs to play La Contenta on Sunday. I have never played Greenhorn and we will stay in a three bedroom condo at the resort with two other couples and two stragglers, Boyd Robertson and Greg Wanee, who will leave their wives behind. We will have a big barbecue on Saturday night, play cards and party. I told Darla that I'd take her out to dinner on Friday night in Angel's Camp. Angel's Camp is in Tuolumne County and is the site of the annual Frog Jumping Jubilee that Mark Twain wrote about so many years ago. Twain (Samuel Clemmons) grew up in this area and was a newspaperman for the local paper.

Darla and I had Daniel's football banquet (dinner dance) on Saturday night. This is the annual fundraiser for the football team with silent auctions, live auctions and a chance for the 40 something woment in the crowd to strut their middle-aged stuff and embarass their 16 year old football players or cheerleaders. It is always fun for Darla and I to watch these siliconed wonders with their low cut tops and low self esteem try to act twenty again. It is pathetic in reality and we always go home firm in our resolve to be ourselves, tight waistlines and all. I always manage to buy some bargain at this event. Last year, I got a $100 gift certificate to La Provence restaurant for $90 and this year I got a $100 gift card to Fat's (a local chain of six fine dining Chinese restaurants) for $85. When you are trying to feed the six footers in our house, you need all the help you can get.

Daniel continues to prowl the sidelines at his games being little used and much forgotten. He did get into his second game when they were in a blowout 46-6 and he played most of the second half. They squeaked by in this last game 42-36 and Dan did not see the field.

I played golf this weekend and shot a 43+40=83 at Diamond Oaks. I had the reservation for two weeks and had trouble getting anyone to come out and play this weekend. The club had an elite event on Saturday for the members who pay an extra $60 for the Diamond membership, so many of the guys were otherwise disposed. I finally got my old partner, Dave Armijo to join me and we played as a twosome. Dave shot about a 93 and I had a birdie on 17 to help me keep my handicap in tact. I look forward to the coming weekend and two days of golf in the foothills.

Darla and I have been struggling with the boys' lethargy at home. Both of their rooms are nightmares of clothes and junk strewn all over the room. I have an agreement with them that I won't bitch about the condition of their rooms during the week if they keep their door shut so I don't have to see it (or smell it) AND that they have the room clean, vacuumed and dusted by Sunday night when they leave. They have been pretty good with the first rule, but have completely lost interest in the second rule. They like to come back on Monday afternoon and cram everything back away in ten minutes and call it a week. Their bathroom is atrocious, rarely if ever cleaned, the mirrors are filthy and the tub and shower a nightmare. I had a small fit yesterday and told them to have their rooms clean by Sunday night and they both blew me off and didn't get it done. Daniel has some puppy dog crush on an older gal who has graduated from college and is leaving today or tomorrow for a year in Africa doing missionary work. They had dinner last night and he spent all day worrying over a going away gift and the card he was going to give her. He was so distracted and smitten that he got even dopier than usual and couldn't concentrate on anything. I was really mad last night and told Darla she needs to deal with this situation because I am at my wit's end. She doesn't understand how I can yearn for the day that they are both out on their own and soiling their own homes instead of mine. Neither of them do chores around the house anymore. Last week I was trimming trees and working on the outside of the house. Darla had fixed a roast and came out to say both boys were hungry and could I hurry up and come inside. Did either of the boys come out and offer to help me? God forbid that they do anything to help out around the house. I'm very frustrated with this and really crave the weeks that they are out of the house.

Well pray for me as I suffer through this family problem. It will really take Darla and I having a united front to deal with this. Daniel thinks that his football practice is everything and he should be able to come home and lay in his sty of a room and watch cartoons on television and demand dinner at a certain time and David is just as bad as he gets home from work or school and can't see outside of himself. Personal accountability has always been a missing element with these kids. I can't seem to get them to see how selfish they are and how you have to pitch in to be a part of a family. I happily do the lawn every week, but when I'm raking leaves or trimming plants it would be a pure joy to have one of them ask if they could help me. Usually they walk by and try not to make eye contact with me lest I corral them into helping. It's tremendously frustrating to me. Neither one of them has been bitten by the "work ethic" bug and it won't serve them well as they go on in life.

Jennifer and John got moved into an apartment in Walnut Creek this weekend. They picked up the trailer on Saturday while I was golfing and took it to Walnut Creek and loaded up their new apartment. I am not in favor of them living together, but that is my conservative bias. Jennifer is 26 and makes her own decisions and I understand that. I won't let them stay in my house together and the same rules will apply to the boys as they get older. Jen and John have about a 15 minute commute to work and their apartment includes a gym membership. She is happy and I'm happy for her. Living out of a suitcase gets old and even if the apartment sits empty for months on end, at least they'll have a place to call home when they get back. So far, there are no plans for her to return overseas any time soon.

Well, that's it. Sorry to go on a rant, but that is what the blog is for. Sometimes I just need to sort out my emotions on electronic paper. Take care. Ciao.

Back from a quick vacation in Lake Tahoe

Yes, we are back from a relaxing and restful vacation. The Mexico trip was fantastic, but sometimes the sheer gravity of such a big vacation can be overwhelming and you end up back in the United States tired and, in some ways, even more stressed than you were before you left. This vacation was long on relaxation and short on any structured activities.

As you can see from the first picture, we had some fun at the casinos. Darla and I enjoy gambling, but we are really pretty tame when it comes to spending money gambling. I've said before, that we play nickle machines and almost exclusively video poker. We had a decent run at the machines on Saturday night, but still gave up $80 to the billionaire owners of the casino. Darla and I enjoy the Lakeside Inn in Tahoe. It is a small casino away from the main strip of Harveys, Harrahs and the new Mont Bleu casino. The Lakeside Inn is favored by the locals and has the best $8.95 Prime Rib in Nevada (I had 3 of the Prime Rib specials in four days in Nevada). Sunday we stayed away from the casinos and just relaxed at the resort, reading books and relaxing at the pool in the 80 degree temperatures. Darla was nice enough to sit with me and watch the Dallas-Washington NFL game Sunday night. We started out at a small local pizza joint and then moved back to the big screen in the game room at the resort. Monday we returned to the Lakeside for dinner and some gambling. We lost our shirts gambling and were down about $200 by midnight when we decided to have breakfast and decide if we wanted to call it a night. We went back up to the casino from the downstairs restaurant and played some 5 cent Wheel of Fortune. Darla won over $100 and got us going again. I quickly lost $20 and went back to video poker. Within ten minutes I hit on four aces and a two for a $100 jackpot. The funny thing is, the combination was dealt to me! Not a bad payout for a 25 cent bet. Darla finally gave up on the Wheel and came over to join me about 1 AM. I was getting tired, but stayed on for a bit and had a Ten, Jack, King and Ace of clubs dealt to me. I held those and the Queen of clubs came up for a 4000 coint payout on a 25 cent bet. All told, we finished the night with $495 in our pockets and two smiles on our faces. It was my fourth Royal Flush and as nice as it was, one of the Progressive nickle machines paid out over $600 for a Royal Flush earlier that night, so my luck was good, but my timing not so much.

The resort was very nice and we had a studio in the building on the beach and located next to the main pool. Our building has the fitness center in it and the game room with the large screen television. The game room sits empty most of the week, but was jammed on Sunday afternoon for a free wine and cheese gathering. The blue haired brigade showed up in force for the freebies. It was an ongoing joke with Darla and I as the senior crowd was mostly invisible at the resort until something was free. We never saw these people unless there was a free barbecue at the beach or the wine and cheese event and then they were like ants on maple syrup. I mostly stayed out of the way at these free events for fear of breaking a hip (mine or theirs). They had free apples at the front desk and if you saw a senior outside of the freefests, it was usually walking with an apple from the office.

The resort was noisy this time. We awoke Saturday morning to a group of hispanic maids (Darla and I termed them "Lupe and Maria") arguing about something loudly in Spanish. They finally finished that argument and Lupe decided to vacuum the hallway rug outside our door, banging the vacuum against the door several times to make sure we knew it was 8:00 AM and the world was awaiting us. Finally, Lupe broke out into full throated singing, a Spanish serenade something about her "corazon". We finally decided to get up and join the world. Saturday night found Darla awake at two AM to some inebriated neighbors arguing in the hall about who had "paid for the room" and "get out of my face" and other boozy proclamations. I slept through the whole thing. Tuesday morning we both awoke to hammering on our roof as a roofing crew was there to do a tear off and rebuild. We both really like the facility and would like to stay there one week a year, but we will trade in as opposed to buying. The resort is about thirty years old and the maintenance costs are escalating. We did sit through a time share presentation, but took the $75 Visa gift card and weren't tempted to buy in, especially after the money spent in Mexico.

Jennifer's boyfriend, John, did get his transfer to California and arrived back in the state on Sunday morning. He had packed up his apartment in New York on Thursday and drove cross country in his Tacoma hauling a UHaul trailer with his possessions. It is now sitting on the side of our house as he is trying to get an apartment in the Bay Area, near his work in Concord. Jennifer is happy to have him back. I played a little joke on Jen. She'd called us in Tahoe and asked if it was okay for John to leave his trailer at the house. When we got back, there was the trailer on the side of the house. I called Jen and asker her why the trailer wasn't there, did they bring it to Concord with them? She started to freak out, but I let her off the hook. Very funny, Dad.

Well, work awaits like a dull ache in a bad tooth, so I'd better hitch up my britches and get on with my day. I hope your day is a Royal Flush. Ciao.

Strange Goings On in The River City

Darla and I had a strange experience this weekend as we attended the wedding of my ex, Diane, to her new husband Bob. We have a good relationship with Diane and I'm glad that we were able to attend and see Jennifer act as the Maid of Honor for her Mom, but it was still a bit strange to be a part of the wedding, knowing very few of her friends and, obviously, none of Bob's relatives or friends. Jennifer was beautiful and we sat with Sara (Jennifer's best friend) and E, her boyfriend, and Sara's daughter, Sierra. Sara only knew Jennifer and John so we were able to visit with them and enjoy the day. The wedding was held in the courtyard of one of Sacramento's nicest restaurants and it was a first class affair. The only real problem with the setting is that there are wild chickens that inhabit the grounds and they got a little loud during the ceremony and walked up on the wedding altar and there were quite a few people tittering as the two wedding participants were declaring their undying love for each other. If you couldn't see the chickens, you'd think they had RUDE friends.

Diane had reconciled with her sister, Elizabeth, who was part of her wedding party. I got to visit briefly with her and the girl has a screw loose. She shared with me that Diane is estranged from her brother Phillip and how she was hating being at the wedding, that Diane's friends are pompous and uppity. We later heard that she made a scene back at the house and drove off squealing her tires and leaving a vile message on Diane's phone. Jennifer had to settle her Mom down as she was pretty shook up over her sister's actions. I think it is safe to say that the reconciliation is history. It is sad to see how that family imploded after the death of their parents. Jennifer says good riddance to all of them as they are kooks.

Diane came over and asked me to dance during the reception. I think Jennifer enjoyed it as we danced with her. I had a nice dance with Darla afterward. It was a bit odd dancing with my ex, but Diane is a good person and I wish her well in her new marriage. Again, I appreciated the opportunity to see Jennifer in the wedding and to spend some time with Jennifer and John when they were both dressed up.

I had poker this weekend followed by the wedding, a 60th birthday party for one of my friends (I'm getting OLD), and then the club championship on Sunday followed by an afternoon of jet skiing at Folsom Lake. Poker was nice, but after winning $85 last month, it was sure to be a losing proposition and I gave about $25 to the cause after a night of cards. It was great to see the guys. I did miss Daniel's first football game of the season. His team got whacked 48-21 and Daniel did not see the field during the game. Dan is just not "in" to football this year and I think his coaches realize that. He is a large benchwarmer at 6'3" and 235 pounds.

The golf was great this weekend, although I got hit by a buzzsaw in the form of our current President, Joe Santone, who shot a 36+39=75 to my 42+41=83. It was match play and I lost 4+3 to Joe. I went out and bogeyed the first three holes to his three pars and was quickly three holes down and never caught up. He had me five down after 9 holes and I crawled back winning number ten, losing 11 and then winning 12 & 13 with birdies, but quickly lost another hole on 15 to fall four down and then splitting 16 with pars to close the match out 4&3. I can't be upset as I played a good match, but just got beat by someone who was on their game. As it turns out, Darla and I have a condo reserved in Tahoe for this upcoming weekend and had planned to stay there from Friday through Tuesday. If I'd won my match, I would have had a second match on Saturday with the finals on Sunday. This way we can head up to Tahoe on Friday after Daniel's game (we'll probably leave after halftime to get up there). This was an extra week that we had with the Puerto Vallarta timeshare and we would have lost it if we didn't use it now. I know we are just coming off the Mexico trip, but things are soon to intensify at work (I have six reviews to complete, I have the Manager's meeting in October in Detroit, I have the budget process to complete, I have an audit with our sister company USF in two weeks and we have the Insurance Day at the community center on October 10th.) I can use a few days away with my wife. We plan to sleep, eat good food, read some books and relax at the beach and the pool.

It is the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and I still remember my experience flying to Phoenix that day. I wrote about my experiences on one of the anniversaries and it is in the archives of this blog somewhere. In short, my plane was grounded in Las Vegas and I had to rent a U-Haul and drive back to Sacramento. To this day I have seen very little footage of the crash and the horror of the towers collapsing as I was on the road for twelve hours driving home. I did hear about it on the radio, but those images that were burned into the minds of so many have escaped me. One of the good things to come out of this tragedy was Jennifer joining the US Army and finding her calling in life with the Network Installations and fibre optics specialty that she developed over that time. She is in a much better place now than she was before the tragedy of 9/11.

Well, the denizens of Burns and Wilcox are slowly filtering in on a Monday morning. I just went through a policy with our new typist and the "good morning" gang continues to flock by my office, so I need to get back to the task of running the office. Jennifer starts work in Concord this week and John flies back to New York where he will wrap up his job there before joining Jenn in Concord later this month. I hope all are well. The blog will be late again next week as we will be in Tahoe. Take a look at God's How to manual this week. It is called the Bible. Ciao.

Hola..we are back from Mexico

Yes, we are back from a great vacation. I feel a little tired, but we spent a good week making memories and even doing some vacation planning for the future. The weather in Puerto Vallarta this time of year is rainy, but we saw little in the way of precipitation. Any of you that were paying attention know that Hurricane John was making a nuisance of himself in Alcapulco and did threaten the coast of PV, but turned out to sea and was never a factor in our weather. We saw some cloudiness, but the promised 70 mile an hour winds never materialized and we saw only some high clouds and some drizzle out of the hurricane warning. The locals took the warning to heart and boarded up windows and put tape across the windows in a big "X" pattern. I actually played golf that morning and the hurricane was supposed to hit around 2 PM. There were a total of 13 golfers on the course and it was eerily calm and quiet.

Darla and I decided to take a trip up to Nuevo Vallarta on Monday. Nuevo Vallarta is about thirty minutes from the downtown of Puerto Vallarta and is a resort area with expensive condos, timeshares and homes set on a strip of beach and cove area. We signed up for a tour of the Grand Mayan resort, which consists of two timeshare resorts, a hotel and two permanent condo towers for full time residents. The resort is first class and the Grand Mayan is the crown jewel of the resort. Darla and I bought two weeks at the Grand Mayan (We actually bought one week and they threw in the second week). I had no intention of buying another timeshare as we have every other year in Kauai and Puerto Vallarta, but several factors made our decision for us. The first is that the resort corporation owns 11 resorts, eight in Mexico and three in the US (Orlando, Las Vegas and Mauai, HI). Each of the resorts have a guaranteed week for us any time we want to travel as owners of the Grand Mayan. All of the resorts are five years old or newer and each has the exact same layout of the rooms. We bought a two-bedroom with separate bedrooms and a central living area. The patio area has a small pool at each unit. The piece de resistance for me is that each resort has it's own golf course and I also have ownership in the golf facilities and will pay $50 for golf at any of the resorts. The facility in Cabo has three golf courses designed by Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus and the public pays $280 to golf at each of the courses. Darla and I will likely sell the Puerto Vallarta time share and may well hang on to our Kauai property.

We ended up moving from the Sheraton facility to the Grand Mayan on Monday. The funny thing is that the salesman who sold us the timeshare gave us his Hummer H2 to make the move. Debbie and Bob, who traveled with us also bought a week at the Grand Mayan and I think the salesman hit a bonanza. Bob drove the Hummer through the streets of PV with all of the crazy Mexican drivers and we loaded up our belongings from the Sheraton and returned back to the Grand Mayan for the balance of the week. The resort itself has ten restaurants and 11 bars and you literally don't need to leave the resort. We bought a meal plan that provided 6 breakfasts and six dinners for $235. It sounds pricey, but the restaurants had lobster and steaks that went for $50, so it was a great deal. The dinners included appetizers, the main course and dessert. Breakfasts included the main course and drinks. The resort also has eight interconnecting pools, a lazy river ride that takes you around the perimeter of the Grand Mayan, a water slide, two wave pools, three swim up bars, boat taxis, a train and a mile long stretch of beach with white sand.

The golf was great and we cancelled our reservations at Marina Vallarta in order to play the course at the Grand Mayan. They paid for one round and Bob and I paid $50 each for the other two. It is resort golf with alot of water and sand and I hoped to break 90 the first day and gradually get better as I learned the course. As it turned out, I shot 40+39=79 on the first day and a pair of 83s the next two. On Friday I struggled with a 45 on the front, but came roaring back with a 38 on the back side for my 83. That was probably my favorite round as I was so out of sorts on the front side and made up my mind to play well on the backside and did.

The trip was not without its problems as we lost Darla's new Canon Rebel digital camera to a taxi driver. It was my fault as I had taken charge of the camera when we left the Vista Grill in PV for the ride back to Nuevo Vallarta. I set it down on the floor of the cab in the front seat and left it when we got back to the Grand Mayan. Darla realized it immediately and we should have been able to stop the taxi at the front gate of the resort, but the bellmen all speak "Spanglish" and we couldn't seem to communicate to them to have the cab stopped at the gate. By the time they reached the cabby, he claimed there was no camera in his cab. Yeah right. That camera was probably two months salary for that guy. The sad thing is the camera is $900 and he will probably pawn it for $50. Bastardo. Obviously, I won't be adding any pictures from the vacation any time soon. The hard part was losing our pictures.

Darla and I had a chance to meet Jennifer's boyfriend, John, and we are both very impressed with his manner and especially with how Jennifer is with him. She seems much more settled and focused with John. She has always enjoyed partying and being at the bars late. Now, she gets tired and calls it a night early. Nice to see. We took John and Jennifer to Folsom Lake yesterday, but the ski wouldn't start. Daniel wasn't able to install the spark plug wires that I bought and we are taking the ski into the shop today to have it looked at and tuned up. Hopefully they can have it ready this week and we can get John out on the water sometime this week.

I had 139 e-mails waiting for me when I got in this morning. I only had two voice mails as my voice mail was very specific that I was on vacation and would NOT be returning calls and to contact my assistant, Connie.

Writing this has been difficult as my staff each stops in my office to talk to me as they arrive. I will leave this for now and attend to them. I hope all are well and I'll write more soon. Ciao.