Darla is Back from Convention..Thank God, the Laundry Needs to be Done

Darla got home about 11:00 last night and after she gathered her luggage, it was almost midnight by the time we got back home. I slept in a little bit this morning and got in to the office a little after 8 AM. She had stayed a little later in order to tour Silpada's factory where the jewelry is made and she ended up spending about three hours in the airport in Kansas City waiting for her flight to Denver. It was a long day for her.

Her trip went well, but her recruit, who joined her on Thursday was a bit pretentious. Most of the conventioneers were at the Westin Hotel. Darla had got bumped to the Raddison, which was away from the Westin, but closer to the Convention Center. Darla is a camper and is happy with any accommodations. The Raddison was older, but clean and acceptable. Her recruit showed up late Thursday night and took one look at the Raddison and was appalled. They had dinner at the Westin and the girl excused herself from the table, went to the Westin front desk and booked a room. She came back to the table and told Darla what she had done. Darla was sick. She had reservations at the Raddison for $131 a night with her roommate paying half the fare. They went back to the Raddison and tried to check out, but the front desk told them they needed a 24 hour notice (makes sense to me). The gal told the front desk that their hotel was a dump. Darla was mortified. Finally, she talked to the desk clerk herself and explained that her roomate had made reservations at the Westin and left Darla up the creek. They were nice enough to cancel the reservation and let her off the hook. They had to up and move at 11:00 PM and come to find out that the Westin had the convention rate of $131 as well, but it was overbooked on that rate and the girls had to pay $259 a night. Darla was spitting mad by then. She actually had several power problems and the hotel never changed their sheets and didn't get them a new light bulb for the lamp by the bed. When they checked out Darla raised a beef and they comped them one night. It still ended up costing her about $80 more than the other room would have cost. She has vowed not to travel with her recruit again.

The event was a good time for Darla. She was one of the companies' top individual sales consultant. The top sales consultants sold between $85,000-$100,000 in sales and were recognized in front of the group of 4500 women. There are over 20,000 Silpada Sales reps across the country and Darla did over $72,000 in sales in her first year and this is her third job.

I got along fine without my wife, but I decided I like being married and don't like having to change the cat litter and fix all of my own meals which I ate alone. Marriage is good (and that was not a message for Jennifer and John). I played three games of golf. I thoroughly enjoyed Harding Park in San Francisco, although it was cold and I wore shorts like a doofus. It never got over 64 degrees and there was a constant ground fog that was wet and cold. Our team shot 62 which was good for third place and they paid the top two teams. I also played on Saturday at Diamond and shot 41+40=81 which was highlighted by a chip in for eagle on number 11. I'm still getting used to my new Taylor Made R7 driver. Sunday was the three club and I played alternately good and bad. I shot 42 on the front side and 43 on the back for 85, net 74. I played with a driver, eight iron and putter. The turnout for this tournament was below par for the second straight year and we will have to decide if it stays on the calendar for 2008. We may replace it with another medal tournament as many of the guys don't like to play in a tournament where you can't post a score.

I found out that the Burns and Wilcox Managers meeting is the same weekend as the club's annual Monterey trip. Major Bummer. At least we had the Graeagle trip on August 11-12. Well, interest was limited and that trip got cancelled. I don't believe in getting mad and set up a weekend golf and wine outing up to SaddleCreek Golf resort in Copperopolis. The guys will golf and the ladies will shop and have lunch and then we will all meet for dinner. Four couple are staying up at the Shenandoah Inn in Plymouth, CA Saturday night and we will do some wine tasting on Sunday. SaddleCreek is rated 9th in California for Public Access golf courses and included in that list is Pebble Beach, Spanish Bay, Spyglass Hill and Torrey Pines. Good company, eh? I have never played it and look forward to giving it a whirl. So far I have six confirmed and have two tee times at Saddle Creek.

I got home from golf yesterday afternoon and took a swim. I was laying on the raft, half asleep and felt a bug crawling on my stomach. I picked it up between my first two fingers and my thumb and the yellowjacket stung me on my middle finger. I haven't been stung in awhile. That hurt like a son of a gun for about five minutes.

The office continues to do really well and we are actually over budget for this month. We made close to $200,000 for the first six months and are on target for about a half million in net income for 2007. As the manager, I'm thrilled.

Well, this was late, but I wanted to get it out. Jennifer is at the doctor today for an ultrasound and I'll talk to her tonight to see how it went. I hope all are well. Ciao.

Back from Vacation and raring to go!

We had a great time at Lake Almanor and the weather was just great. It never got over 90 degrees and we even had one day midweek with a light drizzle and some overcast. The rain kept us from too much sun exposure and made sure that we brushed up on our card playing and we were able to read inside. Darla and I went into Chester and bought some more books at a thrift store (brand new paperbacks for 25 cents..my inner cheapskate was immensely happy) and made it over to the local sporting goods store and stopped at the library to get caught up on our internet mail and some of my fantasy game updates. We also went into town that night and I bought everyone dinner at a local Mexican food joint. Earl always hosts a pizza night as this vacation coincides with their anniversary (48 years and going strong!). I felt that Darla and I could buy dinner for the group as well to make up for the use of gas in Earl's boat.

It was a tremendous week and my first full week at Almanor. Now that we are away from the resort that was 80 years old and had the sinks falling off the walls and the dirt and dust that was omnipresent, I will be a fixture every year. The new resort is about 25 years old and has things like telephones, televisions, interior heat and a living room. I'm in for the long haul. I was also able to get out and golf with Bob Lombard, our friends from Reno. We play at Bailey Creek, a championship course that is one of the nicest golf courses in the area. I shot 83, with a 40 on the front side and feel really solid about my game. I have a new Oddysey White Hot putter and a new Taylor Made R7 460 Draw driver and really see a single digit handicap in my immediate future.

David and Daniel both made it up to Almanor, although David only stayed until Tuesday and Daniel left at noon on Friday. David had a special project he was working on at the Engineering firm he works for and had to have it completed by last Friday. Daniel was supposed to go on a river rafting trip with his Dad, but that got cancelled. They ended up going to Santa Cruz over the weekend and got back last night. The jet ski had absolutely no problems and started right up and did great on the water. David got in a bunch of wake skating (the newest craze). It is like wake boarding, but wake skating does not have fixed boots on the board and is more like riding a really short surfboard while being pulled behind a boat. The board has a rough surface and you ride it barefooted. I have a picture of him catching some air above.

I read five novels over my vacation, two from John Lescroart (Hunt Club and Nothing But The Truth), one from Sandra Brown (Witness), one from Stuart Woods (Reckless Abandon) and one by Harlen Coben (No Second Chance), all great novels and great novelists. I highly recommend them. I spend alot of my vacation reading and relaxing, often reading until my eyes feel a bit heavy and then giving in to a nap. Not a bad way to spend a warm Summer day.

Two of the cabins at the resort (they are all individually owned) are in bankruptcy and Earl is looking into maybe buying one as an investment. The cabins are each about 850 -1000 square feet and are two bedrooms and one or two bathrooms with a living room. The rent is $1000 a week and includes maid service and general landscaping. There is an on site management service that checks people in and out and handles repairs and maintenance. There are some payments in arrears on both of the cabins and he is looking into it and doing some due diligence. They had looked at moving up to Lake Almanor when he retired, but decided on Paradise instead.

I came back to 169 e-mails and 10 voice mails even though I was specific in my messages about being on vacation. I poured through those this morning and worked my way back above water. We switched over to a new operating system while I was gone (Citrix) and I need to learn the nuances of this system. The big advantage is that I can access my desktop from home and can run management reports offsite. My assistant handled things flawlessly and my numbers look really good this month. In fact our office won a quarterly sales contest and each full time employee will receive a $300 bonus. The troops are pretty jazzed as we just missed winning it in the first quarter and they are all ready for more. From my standpoint, we are getting positive kudos from home office as the branch is up 25% this year and our net retained income is up almost 22%. Nice.

I had my say regarding the upcoming birth of a grandchild and want everyone to know that I am warming to this idea and starting to get excited. I'm not upset about being a grandfather..I'm just upset about having to start sleeping with a grandmother. Jennifer and I talked this weekend and things are going great. She sees the doctor next week and will hopefully have a due date at that time. She thinks it will be in February, but we'll see. She is doing well, has had her bout of morning sickness, but is getting better. She is eating well and trying to stay in the best shape possible. She said she doesn't look pregnant yet, just a little FAT.

I did play in a tournament yesterday and shot 40+41=81 and took second low net. I'm wearing a new green golf shirt with a Timber Creek logo on the sleeve today. My golf keeps me in new equipment and in a new wardrobe. Darla heads off to a national convention with Silpada Jewelry this week (she flies out on Wednesday). I will play golf Wednesday at Harding Park in SF, Thursday in my twilight league, Saturday at Diamond Oaks and Sunday at Diamond Oaks in our three club event. I will use a driver, eight iron and putter. Darla will be back from Kansas City on Sunday night.

I have to get to work, so will leave this until next time. Be well and follow the Lord in all that you do. Ciao.

Jennifer and John, sitting in a tree..

Everyone knows that I'm a conservative SOB, and, hey, when the shoe fits...I wish the news that I had was that Jennifer and John are getting married, but...in truth, Jennifer is pregnant. It is a planned pregnancy and both Jennifer and John are thrilled. (And here I was worried about tattoos!) My concerns are health insurance and the future of both Jennifer and the baby. Both Jennifer and I and John and I had long conversations yesterday and where I stand is not a gray area. I'd like to see the commitment to marriage from both of them and a good home established for my Grandchild. John said all the right things to me, that they definitely see themselves in a married, committed relationship in the near future and that the pregnancy has turned up the timetable on their relationship. I sincerely hope that there is a marriage before a birth, but I can't live their lives for them or force my morals on to them. I can and I have given them my advice and my counsel and always my love. They have some big decisions to make and my prayer is that the Lord can guide them and hold them in His loving arms as they move forward in their lives. Pray for them as they make some tough decisions. And, hey, pray for me as well. I need the peace that comes from understanding.

That nursery rhyme goes: "First comes Love, then comes a Baby, then"...wait a minute. Ciao.

The Heat has finally ebbed..God, it was HOT!

No pictures this week, but I'll make up for that next entry when we return from our vacation to Lake Almanor. The blog and this blog writer will be on vacation next week. We leave Saturday for Almanor and will be gone until the following Saturday. The resort that we have visited for years (Lake Almanor Resort) has closed down and we are staying at a relatively new resort with boat docks, a ramp and new two bedroom cabins. I look forward to the week of rest. I will, of course, take my clubs up with me and I hope to get in two games of golf while I'm there.

This weekend was poker, golf and pool time. Friday night we played poker at Tom's house in Carmichael. Tom is 56 years old and pretty set in his ways. He and Steve Matthews have never seen eye to eye. Steve is an aggressive bettor and a serious card player. Most of us are pretty laid back and if a card accidentally gets dealt up instead of down, we give the receiver of the card the option to keep it or burn it. Steve believes that it is a mis-deal and we should start over. He's right, but none of us are professional card players, so we let it go. Steve and Tom are often at odds and like a couple of bulls, butt heads quite often. Tom had a brutal night of cards, getting cleaned out. At midnight, we always call the game and have one last round of dealing. As midnight hit at Tom's, he said, "that's it, let's wrap it up!" We started to deal the last round of cards and the first guy dealt his round and then the next person began to deal. Tom said, "Wait! We're done, right? Let's wrap it up . You guys need to leave." We all looked at him and shrugged him off and kept playing. Tom stood up and said, "Look, I'm the host and this game is over after this hand." He looked right at Steve and said, "Do you have a problem with that?" Steve stood up, folded his cards and started to clean up his quarters and get his things together. The rest of us played out the hand in silence and cleaned up ready to leave. I was walking out the door and set my cooler down on a table at his front door and walked back in to thank Tom for hosting. One of the other guys brushed by me and knocked my Tupperware box of about $100 in quarters loose from my hands. As I reached to stop it from falling on Tom's new hardwood floor, I bumped my 20 quart cooler off the table and it hit the floor with a loud BANG and spilled the empties, three bottles of beer, a plastic bottle of water, one coke and about three quarts of water and ice onto Tom's floor. I felt horrible and went about picking up the cooler, beers, empties and ice, while Tom ran for a towel and some paper towels. We mopped up the mess along with several clumps of dog hair that had gathered along the front of the house under the front picture window. Unbeknownst to me, Steve and his cousin, John, were on the front lawn rolling in laughter and hysterics. When I finally got the mess mopped up and said my "I'm sorrys and Goodbyes", John and Steve had already retreated to the truck and were waiting for me there. They were my ride home. They were in hysterics in the car, both crying in laughter. We had a good laugh over Tom's bad mood and my accident on his new hardwood floor.

Saturday, I played golf. You'll remember that I tweaked my back last Sunday at Folsom lake on the jet ski. I got a Bowen treatment on Monday, but my hips are out of alignment and I'm still pretty tender. We had a 9:09 tee time and I got to the course about 8:40 ready to stretch and warm up. As I'm walking from the car I hear the starter announce the "Lyon Four" on deck. I walked in to the pro shop and Robert said, "Hey, Ken, I had two cancellations in front of you so we moved you up. I hope that's okay." I didn't even get to swing a club. We got up on the first tee and set our bets and I hit second. As I took the club back I had a back spasm that caused me to take a step back and away from the ball. Unfortunately, I'm not Tiger Woods and couldn't stop my swing. I hit the ball dead left about twenty yards to the left of the first tee. There are no mulligans in golf and I headed into the trees and figured this would be a brutal day of golf. I was stiff and sore, but slowly worked the kinks out and after an opening double bogey, shot 39 on the front and 42 on the back for an 81.

I was sore after the round, but had to help one of the ladies in our life group move. We met at her house at 2 PM and had to move her from Rocklin to Fair Oaks. The truck didn't arrive until almost three and I had dinner plans with friends at 6:30 PM. One of the guys pulled up at 2:30 and hit a sewer grate as he did a U turn in front of the house and popped his tire. We helped him put his spare on, loaded his truck and got the UHaul loaded. We were at her new place by 4:15 and got the items unloaded and several other items in the truck to go to storage. At that point I had to go home to get ready for dinner. I slipped into the pool in the 100 degree heat and felt myself simmer. Dinner was nice and we enjoyed the company.

Yesterday was a relaxing day in the pool. I got the lawn mowed and some plants trimmed and then spent the day relaxing on the pool with a cold drink and a good book. The weather had cooled down to the upper nineties ( I think we just hit 100 degrees yesterday). It was HOT this week and, in fact, hotter than forecast. I played in my twilight league on Thursday night and it was 111 degrees. We all took carts and, like cattle, played from tree to tree trying to stay in the shade. Bob and I actually won our match for a change, but it was brutally HOT! The pool temperature peaked at 92 degrees on that day and has since settled back at 88 degrees. Several friends told me I was nuts not to put in solar heating, but so far, the pool is plenty warm and we were swimming in April this year and will likely swim into October.

I went Friday to see Boyd in the hospital. He never had got out after being admitted on June 26th with his colon swelling. They kept him in because of pain and because he was running a high fever. He was in good spirits when I saw him on Friday and got out on Saturday. In all, he was in 14 days and hadn't eaten any solid foods in two weeks. In spite of that, with all of the tubes and saline and protein being pumped in to him, he had gained 11 pounds of water weight. Thank God, he is doing better and is back home now.

I talked to Jennifer this morning. She is going into work today and will be leaving her job. The weather there is in the mid 110's and she has been pulling PVC and wires in attics for three weeks. Her body cannot take the heat and she is ready to look elsewhere for work. She has other news that I will report later in the week.

Well, work awaits. The gang has all arrived and I need to get on to my day. I will have more to say in a few days. Be well. Ciao.

Here Comes the Sun!

The maiden voyage of the jet ski was Sunday. We met Rob and Cheryl McHone at Folsom Lake and I also had Anthony from my work and his wife, Erin, join us. Anthony is a total techie and he was able to search and destroy the virus on my computer within about an hour. Rob and Cheryl brought their daughter, Jackie and a friend, Sydney. It was packed at the lake and the water was rough, too rough for any wakeboarding or skiing, but perfect for the jet ski. I have a little hitch in my gitalong today as I took one of the waves pretty hard and felt a twinge in my back. I'm hoping this is minor as I am upright and walking like a normal homo sapien, I just have some twinges of pain if I bend down or have to reach for anything. I'm supposed to play in a golf tournament on July 4th so I'm hoping that my back holds up this week. I have a precautionary appointment with Jane Saro, my Bowen Practitioner, at 4PM today.

We had a really good time at the beach and except for a hard start to the jet ski (Anthony figured out that our choke needs to be manually held up when we are starting the ski as it has a tendency to spring back down if we don't hold it). The ski was cranking over but not starting. David finally jumped up on the ski to start it and Anthony held up the choke and it fired right up. We had no problems with it once we put it on the water. Rob and Cheryl had trouble finding us on the beach, though as they traversed the rather large confines of Folsom lake looking for us. We always set up camp in a cove just around the corner from the main beach at Folsom. It is away from the heavy boat traffic and large enough that we can do turns and jumps in the middle of the cove without worrying about traffic. They finally found us after about forty minutes of cell phone directions. Daniel had a ball with both Jackie and Sydney and the three of them ended up going to the Folsom Rodeo last night. Sydney was fairly enamored with David (she just graduated high school this Spring), but David thought she was a nice girl (kiss of death there). Her father is the President of an influential Architecture firm in Sacramento and David likely should try to meet him as that is his interest in life...architecture.

Anthony and Erin enjoyed the outing and really enjoyed the ski. Anthony, Rob and I took a tour of the lake on Rob's new 17' BayLiner and we otherwise relaxed. Rob is pretty intense and got into a conversation with Anthony and Alicia on the pros and cons of socialized medicine. I would have joined in, but I felt a need to shut my eyes for a few minutes and contemplate nothing on a nice 95 degree day in Sacramento. The temperatures are heading up into the Vegas stratosphere this week with 103 forecast for July 4th and 104 and 105 to round out the week. The heat is on in Sacramento. It will be interesting to see how warm the pool gets. We are at 86 degrees now which is comfortable.

Jennifer's friend, Sara Webber, stopped by the house on Sunday as we were getting ready to leave for the beach. Her daughter, Sierra, had a birthday party across the street in the park and Sara came by to say hi. It was great seeing her.

I played golf in Ione this weekend at a tournament at Castle Oaks Golf Club. Boyd was supposed to play with me, but he had a reaction to some bacteria in his system that made it's way to his colon and the colon became inflamed and he had some internal bleeding. Kaiser actually had him in ICU as they pumped antibiotics into his system and treated the swelling. He went into the hospital on Saturday night and didn't get out until Thursday. We are supposed to play in a tournament on Wednesday together and I'll call him today to see how he is doing.

The Castle Oaks tournament was interesting. I took third place with an 83, but the interesting part was how I scored. I started the tournament double bogey, triple bogey and finished the front nine with 42, including a birdie on the 535 yard number one handicap hole. On the back nine, after working so hard to pull my game together, I started bogey-triple bogey and again pulled my game together for a 41 on the back and 12 over 83, net 71. There were some high scores in the tournament with one of our five handicappers shooting a 93. He wasn't much fun to be around after the game. I won $20 in skins and $35 in the tournament and ended up with a nice Antigua logo shirt with Castle Oaks Golf Club on the left sleeve. I was proud of the 83 when I clearly didn't have my A game. I had two double bogeys, two triple bogeys and two birdies during my round. I was all over the map.

Darla worked her hiney off over the last month and qualified for the trip to Lahaina in January. (Hiney for Lahaina?) We will fly into Maui for five days of fun and sun, all paid for by Silpada Designs Jewelry. Darla is a rising star in the company and all food, flight and lodging is paid for by the company. She will get a tax statement with the cost of the trip on it as compensation, but it will still be a fun getaway for us. I will likely play one day of golf while we are there. I'm proud of her. Life sort of stood still for us during that month and she was busy with several parties every week, but it paid off and we are Hawaii bound!! You go, girl!

We have the storage of the jet ski down to a science already as David and Daniel unhooked the ski after I backed it into the side driveway. By the time I parked the Explorer, they already had the ski into the side yard and were setting it into the blocks. I cover it with a tarp to keep the sun off of the ski cover. I'm sure we will have the ski out less this Summer as the boys are busy and with the pool right there, motivation to load up the ski, drop $100 on gas and head to the lake is less pressing when I can just grab a raft, a cold drink and a good book and relax.

Anthony and Erin stayed over for dinner last night and we had barbecued steak and chicken on the patio next to the pool. Anthony and I swam after the ski was put away and he set the computer up for another scan as he was working on the virus. Anthony is such a computer geek that he took a half day of vacation on Friday and stood in line to get one of the new I-Phones. He has it and it is pretty cool. I have a cell phone that I use for phone calls. Novel idea, eh?

DirecTV is coming out this morning to install a new 5 LNB dish and a new HD Tivo recorder. I will now have full HD channels on local TV as well as the HD package that I have (TNT, ESPN, HD movies, HD sports, Discovery and special events). I'm looking forward to watching my local channels in high def.

One of the ladies in the office brought in some Sloughhouse corn this morning and I got six ears of corn for our barbecue on Wednesday. We are having Alicia and Bob and Debbie Hand over for swimming and relaxing. It should be a nice day and if I play golf in the 8 am shotgun tournament, I will be fried and ready for the pool when I get home. Remember, 103 degrees on Wednesday. Well, that is the news to the moment. Stay cool this July 4th. Ciao