Samantha and Jennifer make it a Merry Christmas!

I want you to notice the third photograph from the bottom and see how well Darla and I did in matching a scarf and gloves to Jennifer's new hair color. Jennifer has run out of places on her body to tattoo and has now got a tattoo on her hair. Just kidding, Jenn. It is a new hair color called peacock (for obvious reasons). Her friend Sara came over with Jennifer on December 26th and they were both sporting the new hair color, although Sara has the color weaved into her hair and it is underneath her natural black and is more of a highlight. Jennifer's is on the top of her hair and shows more dramatically. We had a great time with Samantha and Jennifer. They stayed the night on Friday night and Samantha was having so much fun with the boys that she stayed up until 10 PM plying "peek-a-boo" with her uncles. Buddy, who is in his last week with us, happened to go outside to pee and got hit by a skunk in our back yard and Darla had to spend the next hour washing him in the shower and then brushing and blow drying his hair. Jennifer was the first one to smell the skunk and when we opened the door and then Buddy came rushing in dragging his face across his blanket trying to get the foul odor out of his mouth and out of his eye. Buddy has gotten progressively worse and is now using the front room as his own urinal and we have to put him down. I'll try to get him in either this week or next. The smell of skunk stayed in the house until yesterday when it finally began to abate. The laundry room still has the smell and I can smell it in the bathroom where Darla bathed him. This is just another of the reasons that I don't want to feed the skunks.

Samantha had a great time opening her gifts and playing with her bank and helicopter with her uncles, who were quick to help her get them out of the boxes and ready to play with. Samantha has matured a bit since we saw her last and you can see how smart she is with the phone that we gave her. She opened it and put it right to her ear (I guess she's seen her Mom do it hundreds of times over the last year). She is still a bit fussy when she doesn't get her way. If she doesn't want to be held, she'll let you know right away and if she is tired or has the sniffles, she will likewise let you know that she doesn't want to be put down. She is toddling about, walking a bit like Foster Brooks for those who remember who he is. She walks and totters and falls on her bum and is right back up and going in a second flat. She is in to everything and we found out how un-child proofed our house was as we walked behind her picking up knick knacks and picture frames. She made a beeline to Buddy's water when she first got here and had a good wash before we could pick it up and move it. She was enthralled with the cats and stopped whatever she was doing when one of them walked in sight and she'd smile and try to pet them. She was an absolute delight and had her moments of crankiness (she does NOT like to have her diaper changed), but was so much fun and it was great to see Jennifer with her. She is a good Mom, but her cell phone is a bit of a distraction. Sam is a happy baby and is doing really well with all of the changes in her young life.

I had a chance to sit down with Jen when Sam took a nap and talk about all of the changes in her life. I told her that I was concerned that some of the decisions she has made didn't seem to put Samantha first, but she assured me that her number one priority is motherhood and being the best Mother she can for Samantha. She and John grew apart (or more correctly Jennifer grew apart from John) and she decided it was best for her and for Sam to be apart from John. They share custody and John is having a hard time with the implosion that has occurred to his hopes and dreams for his family and it has been a tough transition for him. Jennifer is moving into a house with a woman she works with and they have another younger roommate who moved in just before Jennifer. Her main roommate, Dina, is buying the house from a bank and Jennifer and Samantha are lucky enough to be able to move in and each have a room. Dina is an interesting character, she is a journeyman electrician doing high voltage work and drives a Harley motorcycle. Her other roommate, Brittney, works at the Hard Rock Cafe (I think) or some other casino. Jennifer enjoys her job and her life and is trying to make the best of her situation with John. Samantha will start swim lessons in the new year and Jennifer is allowing John to take her every Saturday morning for the lessons.

I did not play golf this week, but will play both Friday and Saturday of this coming week. I checked my handicap card online and have played 87 rounds of golf this year, so one weekend off won't kill me. I did manage to watch the Win and In game between Dallas and Philly today and was actually glad to see Dallas lose. They have gaping holes in their personnel that are not getting better and their coaching is horrendous. Jerry Jones has a $1 Billion stadium to pay for and won't stand pat while Dallas continues to struggle. He will be an active participant in the free agent market and will shore up his secondary and his offensive line and perhaps even spend some money on a fullback to block for his two stellar running backs. It was an embarrassment of epic proportions (44-6) and will likely be the catalyst to finally wedge Wade Phillips out the door and perhaps be a nice landing zone for Brian Billick or even Bill Cowher.

I added a nice Scotty Cameron putter to my arsenal last week by winning an EBay auction for a 2007 Scotty Cameron Newport Stainless Steel 34" putter. It is the best of the blade putters that Scotty manufactures for Titleist and the one that Tiger still uses on tour. I have my 2005 Odyssey White Hot XG up for auction on EBay as I write this and it ends on Friday. My next major golf purchase will be new irons in 2009. I'm looking for a new set of Callaway or Pings that are going for a steal on EBay. I have a set of 2005 Wilson Fat shafts that have helped me drop from a 16 down to an 8, but I need the miracle of equipment to keep me in the low single digits.

The boys left with their Dad late last night for a road trip to Montana and a cousin's wedding on January 1st. Becky, Daniel's girlfriend, joined them on the trip. They return home Saturday and are back on the road to Cal Poly Sunday as classes start up again on January 5th.

Jennifer and Samantha flew back home today and we had dinner with them along with Diane and Bob, her new husband, his son Brady and Sara last night in Folsom. We went to a trendy Chicago style pizzeria in Old Town and there was an hour wait. We met them there at 6:00 PM and luckily they were there at 5:30 to put our name on the list. Samantha was a bit cranky and Sara got her stroller out of the car and Samantha was thrilled to relax in her stroller and actually sit in it during dinner. We had a nice visit and it was tough to say goodbye. Jennifer has it much tougher in Vegas as a single Mom, but it is her choice. John has all of his family in the Vegas area.

Well, this is a tad short, but I have more pictures to add, so it will grow over time. Darla and I are gearing up for our trip to the Bahamas and the Atlantis casino. We leave on January 9th and get back on the 16th. We will be hitting the tanning parlor over the next two weeks, so we don't burn on our first day on the beach. We look forward to getting away. Happy New Year to everyone. Ciao.

Samantha's Birthday!!!

Unfortunately, we couldn't roust Jennifer today. She's been hard to get ahold of since she left John. It is hit or miss with her. We left her a message to see how Samantha's big day went, but never received a return call. Samantha was going to have a big birthday celebration with John and his family today and Jennifer was going to have a quiet celebration with her tonight. Jennifer sent these pictures to us this week. You can see Samantha trying on Jennifer's work hard hat and wearing a Harley Davidson hat and one with a Harley Kids vest. Jennifer's roommate Dee has a Harley and likes buying Samantha presents. I'm hoping the clothing is as close as Sam gets to a real Harley any time soon. he is growing up fast and Darla and I are really looking forward to their visit this week. I've been in contact with her best friend, Sara, and she will be here on Friday as well to welcome Jennifer home and to see Samantha. Darla is fixing a big Prime Rib dinner that night and we will open presents with Jennifer and Samantha. The boys were out today picking out presents for Samantha. She is pretty darn adorable and you can count on a rash of pictures of Samantha in the next few blogs.

We had our Christmas party at work on Friday. We have had a big party the last few years, once at our house and four times at my assistant, Dinda's house. Dinda's mom (and her sister Cora's, who is my personal lines assistant underwriter) is very ill and she flew home with her to Manila on Monday and my personal lines underwriter, Kathy, lost her dad to cancer earlier this month. We decided as an office, that it wasn't a year to have a big party and decided to have a small celebration in the office. We do a yearly "white elephant" gift exchange and this year I got a massage chair topper for my office. The massager has heat and also back, lumbar and thigh massagers and it is fantastic. It also has a cigarette lighter adapter for use in the car and would be a great thing to have on a long trip. I bought a big chopped salad and a beach banquet (taco bar with lettuce, rice, beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, chips, sliced steak and sliced chicken). I bought it at Rubios and fed the whole office for right at $100.

As you can see above, it snowed in Las Vegas last Wednesday. Jennifer sad the snow started about 1 PM and it was still snowing at 7:30 that night when I called her. Jennifer said the snow was so unusual for the desert residents that it closed Interstate 15 and the airport in Vegas, stranding some guests. I can't think of a better place to get snowed in than Las Vegas. Of course, the snow was all but gone by the next morning as the temperatures returned to normal and left Vegas for probably another thirty years.

We are in the midst of a "pineapple express" tropical storm that promises to leave us with about four inches of rain by the weekend. Jennifer and Samantha fly in on Christmas Day and will be here until Sunday so I hope the weather doesn't cause problem with their travel plans.

I was disgusted by the play of the Dallas Cowboys last night, but things fell into place for Dallas today and they are in the playoffs with a win over Philadelphia next Sunday. They need to get their sh*t together by next week or they will be watching the NFL playoffs from home. On a brighter note, I watched our local Sacramento High School, Grant, beat Long Beach Poly in Saturday night to win the first California High School Championship in 62 years. They stopped crowning a state champion years ago because of the politics. This year, De La Salle from Concord screamed when Grant was chosen to play the nations number 4 ranked school in Long Beach Poly. As it turns out, De La Salle was chosen in the Division 2 championship and got beat by a SoCal team.

I played my last game of golf for 2008 on Saturday. We got a nice break between storms, but it was frosty, foggy and downright cold. My new driver continues to be a great addition to my game, but i struggled in the wet conditions and bulky clothes and shot 42+43=85. Hopefully, my index can jump up about a stoke for January as we have an NCGA qualifier to play January 24th-25th. I will team up with my poker buddy, Steve. We made it to the qualifier in the 4 ball last Summer and laid an egg in the qualifier with a 68. This qualifier is the 2 man best ball qualifier and the qualifiers go directly to Spyglass. I'm ready for a break next weekend and won't play golf again until next year (January 2nd). This coming weekend is all about Samantha..oh, and Jennifer, of course.

I am so confident in my new FT i driver that I put my FT 3 on auction on EBay. I bought it for

$77 and sold it for $91, so I think I did okay. I was talking to Jason in the Diamond Oaks pro shop the other day and he asked how I liked the FT-i. He knew that I'd upgraded from the FT 3. I told him I loved it and he said, "Ken, you have to try the FTi-Q. The ball explodes off the face, goes just as straight as the FTi, but is about 15 yards longer." I'm sure I will, but I just want to enjoy my club for now. I guess technology keeps improving. Pretty soon, par will have to change on the older course, because a 475 yard par 5 is all but defenseless to the average golfer now.

Well, that is it for now. I will write next week after my gorgeous granddaughter has visited us. I hope you all are well. Merry Christ-mas and do whatever you can to keep Christ in the middle of your celebration. God bless. Ciao.

Rain comes to the valley

Luckily, the rain came today and left yesterday free for golf, but we'll get to that. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love my wife dearly. She is the ying to my yang and my true north in any storm. BUT, she likes to save everything. She saves newspapers and bottles, cans, plastic bottles, yada yada yada. I decided on Monday that the pile of things in front of my car was putting me in peril when I pulled into the garage and I decided to clean up. I parted out the papers, cans, bottles, etc. into separate piles and threw away alot of old shoes, rags, paper bags, etc., basic clutter that infiltrates a garage. When I dug sown to the bottom of the pile, I was rewarded with a brand new pair of winter golf shoes that I had bought at the Holiday sale at Diamond Oaks last year. I thought I'd lost those shoes the night of the sale as I was never able to find them after bringing them home and setting them by the pile of "things" that live in the garage. Apparently several garbage bags of cans ended up on top of them. The receipt was still in the box and I now have a new pair of wet weather Etonic golf shoes to use this Winter. God smiled on my efforts Monday night. I made a trip to the newspaper recycling bin with my Mustang literally crammed full of newspapers.

Darla, in addition to being "green girl", also looks out for God's creatures. We've had a feral cat hanging around our house lately and Darla has taken to feeding it. She mentioned it to one of her friends at work and she volunteers at an animal shelter. She said that the shelter would spay the cat and make sure it had all of it's shots free of charge if we would trap it and give it to her. She brought over a trap and the poor animal was caged and handed over to the shelter worker. We don't need another cat with two in residence, but Darla's rational is that the cats are inside and we need a "mouser" for around the house. Apparently mice aren't the part of God's creatures worth caring about. The cat came back and wouldn't go near Darla's little set up in the rear yard of food as I'm sure it sees all food in a surrounded area as a trap. Darla decided to set food out by the front door to lure the cat back into her good graces.

Now, in the midst of all of this excitement, I had put up the Christmas lights and was trying to set the timers to have the lights come on automatically, so Tuesday night I checked the front before bed and the lights were off automatically. Strangely, though, there was what looked like a squirrel eating the cat food in the bowl on the front porch. When I called Darla, she turned on the front porch light to get a better look and a creature from the black night stared back at us. It was a skunk making a meal out of the food!. I'm okay with cans, bottles, newspapers and even feral cats, but I draw the line at skunks.

We talked briefly with Dad and Shirley tonight and they arrived tired and sated after their trip to Europe and the Mediterranean. They had no water problems on the boat or mice in their stateroom, but did have to suffer through the wet docking of the ship and crates of repair materials on the upper deck awaiting the end of their cruise. They do have some of the most interesting vacations.

I did manage to make it out golfing on Saturday before the storm swept in and brought us this cycle of rain in the valley and snow in the Sierras. Saturday was clear and cold. I finally put my newest new driver into play. It is a Callaway Fusion FT-i draw bias driver with a Speeder shaft. This is the square series driver and I was able to buy a brand new one on E-Bay for $159 from a head professional in Connecticut who was clearing out his inventory for the winter. I have never hit a straighter club in my life, in fact I'm now hitting a slight draw which I have never done in my life. My nickname back when I started playing was Chiquita (and it's not because I'm well endowed). I struggled with the putter and left many birdie putts short. I managed only one birdie, but was in the fairway all day as I shot 42+41=83. With my poor display of putting, it should have been a 77 or 78. I look forward to continue to improve with this new putter and have a goal in 2009 of getting down to a 6 handicap.

Darla and I went out Friday night and did a foul swoop of Christmas shopping, buying something for each of the kids and doing a grand birthday and Christmas shopping for Samantha at Babies-R-Us. It is a fun store to shop for your grandchild and we left with a winter coat, pjs, pants, tops and socks. It was a blast. It is, by the way, Miss Samantha's first birthday on Sunday and she will be with us over Christmas for a few days. I look forward to seeing her and Jenn.

Dallas stayed alive tonight by beating the New York Giants 20-8 in a game of defensive excellence. It was great to see Dallas take on the team everyone says is the best and dominate them all game long.

Well, Darla awaits on the couch. I have an auditor from Home Office in this week to work on our Imaging transition and audit how it is going. He'll be here on Monday and Tuesday and in my Modesto office on Wednesday. That's it. Ciao.

Darla has Diabetes

It was a tough day for Darla. It was confirmed by testing today that she has Diabetes. Her father suffers from it and now it has come home to roost. On top of that news, she had a traffic accident when some lady failed to stop in the fog and rear ended the car behind Darla, which was pushed into her right rear quarter panel. She had some existing damage there that will now be repaired along with the light, bumper and quarter panel. She has a bunch of new medication and has to test herself daily and will be taking classes the next two days at Kaiser on what to eat and not eat. I get the feeling that my diet will change along with hers and we will get back into at least walking together nightly as she needs to increase her exercise. That's it for now. Ciao.

Cold weather has settled in

Darla was good enough to act as photographer as usual at our annual Christmas party for the golf club. I was the emcee this year and introduced the new board and talked a bit about our accomplishments throughout the year. I also introduced all of the Past Presidents in attendance and talked about two of my board members that are stepping down this year and thanked them for their service to the club. I then awarded the Wade Cable award an annual award named after one of the early club members who went above and beyond the call of duty in helping to make the Roseville Golf Club such a great club. The recipient this year (chosen by me) is a guy who has been President twice, Vice-president, and tournament director. He has helped us scope out new venues for away tournaments and is always there to help the club. He has been a member for almost 35 years and he was shocked when his name was called. He was brought to tears by a raucous standing ovation and was overwhelmed. it was fun to surprise him. He received a brass plaque and $200 from the club for his service. I then was able to install the new President, Rick, by placing a Presidential jacket on him and handing over the gavel and briefcase. It was a fun year and we got a lot accomplished in the club, instituting a slow play rule that has sped up play and finally being awarded the Premiere designation for our annual junior golf tournament. It is now a points event which will ensure a full field of the best junior golfers in Northern California.

Rick had me stay up at the front of the room and presented me with a half gavel plaque with my year of Presidency inscribed which I will proudly hang in my office. The board also took up a collection and presented me with a $100 gift certificate to Ruth Cris steakhouse and a $50 gift card to Wide World of Golf and Tennis. It was all very overwhelming.

The party went off without a hitch and much alcohol was consumed over the 4 1/2 hours. New friendships were forged and old friendships renewed and we had a ball.

The board got together at Timbercreek Golf Course on Friday for our annual board of officers golf outing and I shot 41+42=83 on a cold, foggy and wet December day. I was able to invite Boyd and my friend, Mel, and also played with Bob from the board. I went out on Saturday and bought a Northern Face brand ear shield to wear under my golf hat. My ears get so cold when we are golfing that my entire body gets cold and stiff. I felt like if I can keep my ears warm, I'll be warmer.

I tested that theory today in our final event of 2008, the Eclectic final, and it wasn't entirely accurate. My ears stayed warm, but my throat was cold (I started out a bit hoarse from the event the night before) and I'll need to gargle tonight. I shot 41+41=82 with birdies on both the front side and the back. I look forward to the return of the warmer weather as it was about 44 degrees when we teed off and warmed up to about 52 degrees. The sun actually broke out on the back side and teased me with it's warmth before quickly diving behind some low clouds and making it feel even colder. I built a fire when I got home and snuggled under a blanket on the couch while watching Dallas do their annual December fold in the NFL. Tony Romo is a great quarterback, but he can't handle cold weather.

My assistant, Dinda, will have her last day with the company on Wednesday and we will struggle to adjust to life without her. I will share an assistant with Gail in my office and hope to see a turn in the market next year so that I can hire some more help. We are down about 14% in premium this year and up about 5% in policy count. Last year at this time I had 17 employees in Sacramento and five in Modesto. We now have 12 in Sacramento and 4 in Modesto, so in point of fact, we are working on more policies with less staff, ergo everyone is having to work harder. Tough times, but we have jobs and the office will make about $250,000 in profit this year down about $30K from last year.

The pictures above -in order- are 1. me with my VP and the new President of RGC, Rick. 2. Me with Joe, the Wade Cable winner. 3. Me with Rick again. 4. Me with my former President, Neil, who I succeeded in 2008. 5. And me with my real boss.

Jennifer and Samantha will be home for Christmas. She flies in Christmas morning and will stay until the 28th. I hope to be able to sit down with Jennifer and see what direction she is taking in her life and why. I look forward to seeing Samantha. If you want to see new pictures of her, check out her blog on the link. John took her on the Santa run in Old Town Vegas (Fremont Street) and they ended up making the news.

Well, until next time, be well and keep Christ in Christmas and Holy in your holidays. Ciao.