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.