Once More a Bachelor to Silpada

Of course, more pictures. The picture of Daniel and Samantha is great. It looks like she is saying, "Dude, let go of some of that shake, I'm hungry!" The picture of Earl is of a hat that Don got me because my car is a pimp car. I don't know why I should dress up like Chef Boyardee, but whatever. The picture of David and Taylor was taken fro Darla's brother, Steve, so he could see his daughter in her dress "whites". She is an MP in the Navy and stationed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Darla is off to Kansas City this weekend with seven of the women on her team. It is the annual conference and there are 400o Silpada reps invading Kansas City. I played poker last night and she called me about 9 PM forgetting that I was in a poker game. I'm surrounded by five men and she says, "Tell me you love me and want to kiss all over me." I said, "Did you spend any money today?" She said, "No, we were in conference all day." I said, "I love you and want to kiss all over you".

Darla was put up in a suite that overlooks downtown Kansas City and has two bedrooms. She was at a Sterling Club event Thursday night for S=tar Leaders and had dinner with the founders and 1000 of her closest friends. I have to pick her up tomorrow night and decided to get the blog out of the way tonight.

I have been playing a lot of golf recently, adding in some marketing golf with agents. I played Woodcreek on Tuesday and shot 81, I played Mather Golf Club on Thursday and shot 78. We played with two golfers from Jesuit High School, who will play on the Claremont Golf Team in Los Angeles this Fall. Both of them could hit the ball a mile and they played from the blue tees at 6900 yards and I played the white at 6500 yards. They were hitting it fifty yards past me, but I shot 37 on the front and they shot 37 and 36 respectively. They quit after nine and I shot 41 on the back while my agent shot 49. I played a practice round today at Diamond for our two man blind best ball tournament tomorrow and shot 42+42=84. Hopefully, I was saving up for the game tomorrow. Boyd shot 76, Neil 90 and Mel 94.

I got home with every good intention to clean the pool and relax on the pool, but fell asleep on the couch at 1:30 and woke up at 4:00PM. I did clean the pool, trimmed the bushes and ground cover and edged the front lawn. I have some spaghetti thawing in the kitchen for dinner tonight.

Work is going well and we exceeded budget last month and will come close this month. My assistant has left and moved to Thailand and Cora, Mel's wife, is now working as my assistant. I have my old assistant, Dinda's, daughter, Toni-Anne starting with us on Monday. Toni-Anne is Cora's niece. It is one happy family. They are all excellent workers, very diligent and hard working. I look forward to Toni-Anne joining the team. She will work for Pete, who is my number two underwriter in the office and a guy who is on the cusp of really getting his business humming. Toni-Anne is a graduate of UC Davis with a degree in Psychology and she has worked for a workers compensation and employee benefits company for the past four years. She will be able to handle Pete and help him get his business booming.

Well, dinner awaits and a movie afterward. I may take a night swim tonight. it was 97 degrees today and expected to surpass 100 tomorrow. I hope you are all well. Be good to each other. Ciao.

New BLING for Darla

After seeing Jason's parent's Explorer at the lake, I went on E-Bay and bought Darla a billet grille for her car for $30. I can't believe how cheap these grills are. This one is actually a replacement grill for the stock Ford grill. They are plastic with a chrome spray that is polished to a high gloss. You can't tell here (it was twilight by the time we got out of the pool and I installed it), but double click on the picture to see the grill in all it's glory. No more plastic grills for us. Now Darla has a little pimp in her ride, too.

More Almanor Memories

Lots more pictures where these came from as Darla took 230 pictures during our vacation (luckily we have the 2MB smartcard). Most of these pictures are of Samantha and we had most of a week without her, so there are a lot more pictures, but we had such a good time and it's my blog, so I'll relive those now. There will be plenty of other pictures of our week in Almanor to be shared in the weeks ahead. These pictures are off of the Canon Rebel Digital camera, where the pictures last week were from the Canon CoolPix camera that I bought for Darla at Christmas. I haven't spoken to Jennifer since I dropped she and Sam off with her Mom. I tried calling her from Almanor on Friday, but just got her voice mail. You can see the picture of Samantha in her swimsuit and sunglasses. The funny thing is that unlike most 18 month olds, she prefers to have the sunglasses on when she is outside.

Our jet ski performed extremely well while we were in Almanor and we had no issues. We do have a broken fuel switch and it was turned half off and Jennifer struggled with the ski our first day out. I had her bring it in and Daniel and I were able to turn it to fully on and we had no further problems all week. We take the ski in every Spring and have Yamaha summerize the ski and it seems to really help us. It started right up every time and it was a no brainer for us all week.

The rest of the week was fun and relaxing. We played cards and relaxed in the sun and while the temperatures in Sacramento were 107 degrees, it was a comfortable 92 degrees in Almanor with an overnight low of 52 degrees. You have to love the mountains. I was able to make it out and golf. I went to the Lake Almanor West resort which is a 9 hole course and it wasn't well maintained last time I played it. We were able to play for $20 last time and it was $35 this year. They must have a new greens keeper because the course is immaculate. The greens are tremendous and they have stopped the practice of having two flags on each hole and one being the front nine and one the back. They have a new set of tees and that differentiates the two nines. I played alone in front of the Men's group and played two balls (I asked them if it was okay as I was stuck behind a threesome of old men that were playing the women's tees). I shot 41+40=81 and was very happy with my game. The course is relatively short, but cut into the pine trees of Almanor and very tight. I drove into town afterward and enjoyed a barbecued hamburger at The Depot.

Time was short when Samantha was with us and I wanted to enjoy the days, so we didn't make it out to Paul Bunyon's while she was there (it is like a Tastee Freeze or Dairy Queen), but Darla and I did steel off Friday afternoon and enjoyed some ice cream together. Jennifer had bout a 1/2 gallon of ice cream and the boys ate that during the week.

Earl and Frances planned to treat us to pizza again to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary. Alicia's boyfriend Don decided to surprise them with dessert and when he went to pay for the dessert at the end of the night, they stuck him with the whole bill. Don made an announcement to the entire restaurant that it was Earl and Frances' 49th wedding anniversary and they had several people come by and wish them well. Earl was asked his advice on 49 years of marriage and he said simply, "Watch your tongue". Excellent advice for all of us.

We hope to be back in Almanor next year in August to celebrate Earl and Frances 50th wedding anniversary and plan to invite the brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, for a full week. We hope to have Jennifer and Samantha join us again next year.

Well, dinner awaits my barbecuing skills as chicken breasts are on the menu, so I have to run. I did play golf today in the 107 degree heat as Darla had a "retirement" party at the house, where she sells the pieces of jewelry being replaced in the new catalog at a 50% savings. I figured I could stay at the house and help women try on rings and necklaces or play golf. I shot 84 in the sweltering heat of the Cherry Island golf course. Boyd shot 78, Bob 80 and Matt 83. We more survived the day than conquered it as we teed off at 11:00 AM and finished at 3:00 PM. Darla is off to her annual meeting with Silpada in Kansas City next weekend and I'll be all alone with nothing to keep me occupied but golf, poker and the pool. Say a prayer for me. Be well. Ciao.

Lake Almanor 2009

I've enjoyed Almanor in the past, more so since we moved to the East side of the lake, but never so much as this year. I really had a chance to bond with Samantha. Jennifer was late getting in as her plane was about 90 minutes late getting off the ground in Vegas. Not fun when you have a one year old who was kept up from her afternoon nap so she would sleep on the plane. We had a nice visit Friday night and were up early to the sounds of Samantha in the family room at 7 AM. We packed the truck and loaded the jet ski and the boys came over and added their wake boards to the cargo. Jennifer, Samantha and I snuck off to the park across the street to take Sam to the swings and play area at the park. Samantha insisted on walking even though it is a long way across the grass. She held tight to my right index finger and we walked all the way to the "kiddie" jungle gym near the kindergarten room of the elementary school across the park. Sam and Jennifer rode the dual slides and laughed and had a great time. I have pictures on the Canon that is still up in Almanor with Darla and I'll add those to the blog this weekend. We walked from there over to the swings and Sam had a good ride and then got on the hobby horse and back to another set of twin slides where she "raced" her Mom to the bottom. It was great. When we walked back, she insisted on walking herself and holding on to my finger as we walked. She started calling me "Poppa" and she melted my heart.

Samantha is now saying Daddy, Mommy, Puppy, kitty, nummy (food), birdie, nana (grandma), papa and other words. She is so cute and smart. She likes to hand things out and then go and collect them. Jennifer cut some flowers outside the cabins and Samantha handed them out to all of the ladies and then went around collecting them and putting them back in the vase. You can see a flower in her hand in the picture with David.

She was really good during the trip overall, but she had some cranky moments and is teething again. I think she's up to nine teeth in now and two more just popped in over the weekend. Jennifer is good in keeping her teeth numb with some baby teething gel and she gives her Baby Tylenol. Sam enjoyed the boat ride and was amazed at the water and the birds flying with us, but got a little cold toward the end and Jen wrapped her in a towel and we headed back to the dock.

You can see by the pictures that we had quite a gang at Almanor this year, 14 in all. Jason, Jennifer's old boyfriend came up with us and was only going to stay for the day. He ended up staying over until Monday. We all really enjoyed him. He is the young man that had throat cancer and almost died in the hospital. He has a "trach" in his throat now to breathe and has a slight chance that his body will heal itself and he will be able to have it removed. He lost his job after the year long ordeal and now is on social security and is taking classes to become an x-ray technician,. He was a warehouse foreman and it was too hard on him. He seized once at work and the liability was too high for the company to let him continue. He has a great outlook on life and a good sense of humor. Jen was talking about her job and her pending promotion to tech specialist (I think that's it, but she'll correct me) and the raise that she'll get. Jason leaned over when Jennifer was talking and said to me, "Ken I'd like to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage". We all laughed and Jennifer was embarrassed.

The weather was windy on Sunday and we only spent about two hours at the water as the winds were really strong. It was a storm blowing out as it warmed up Monday in to the mid eighties and it supposed to be in the 90's the rest of the week. It was 103 degrees in Sacramento today. We relaxed in the cabin and visited Sunday afternoon watching the end of the golf tournament. Sam played with toys and cell phones and looked at pictures on our cell phones and was a hit with the group. She is well socialized because of day care and John's extended family in Vegas. She warmed up to everyone and loved all of the attention that she got. Sam and I took a walk each morning and afternoon down to the lawn and across to the rock beach and we looked at dogs and squirrels and birds and people swimming and fishing. There was another little girl about Sam's age there and the two sized each other up a couple of times, but didn't play together. We had limited time together and there was no time for outsiders. Sam did take the little girl a flower on one of her walks with Darla.

There was an interesting occurrence on our trip. Monday the sheriff's boat ended up towing in a jet boat that had stopped running on the water. He dropped the guy at the gas pumps at the dock, talked to him for a few minutes and left. The guy was working on his engine and must not have had his blower on because all of a sudden there was a loud "WHUMP" and smoke and a small flame came from the engine as he tried to turn it over. Apparently the spark had ignited the trapped fumes in the hull. He tried valiantly to put the fire out with a small Wal-Mart fire extinguisher. His family bailed out of the boat as it began drifting from the dock and several men yelled at the boat owner to jump. The fire was being fed by the gas in the engine and the concern was it would travel to the tank and explode. Finally, he went overboard and the boat became a fireball sending up a black flume of toxic smoke. We called 9-1-1 and the fire department arrived within minutes. Unfortunately, they were on the boat ramp at Big Cove and the boat was drifting over to the northeast side of the lake. The sheriff finally showed back up on his boat and he began making several passes in front of the burning boat to drift it onto the shore. He was successful and the fire department finally stretched 300 feet of hose down to the water and was dousing the flames. The West Almanor Fire pumper boat showed up about twenty minutes into the ordeal and helped put out the fire, but it was too little too late as the boat ended up a charred remnant of itself as it sat smoldering on the shore. The sheriff was yelling at the condo dwellers on the shore to get off the deck and close their windows as the smoke was highly toxic from the plastics and resins burning and it was floating into the condo. I'd say it was a bad day of boating for the owner of that boat.

Daniel was up with his girlfriend Becky (the redhead in the group photo). The two other girls are our nieces, Shae and Taylor, Darla's brother's girls who are about the same age as David and Daniel. Taylor's arrival was a surprise to most as she is on leave from the Navy, where she is an MP at Guantanamo Bay. Gantanamo Bay? Yes, it's still open, Obama is full of ...hot air? Daniel and Becky left today and her car broke down in the canyon. They had to hitchhike to town to use a phone and then Darla and Earl drove an hour to meet them and Earl was able to fix the broken air conditioning belt housing and get them back on the road. He had to take off the a/c belt as it was frayed from the housing breaking. Darla had called me to ask about our AAA. Our towing is only 5 miles, so I upgraded to the Plus membership today that allows 100 miles. (Again, too little, too late). Luckily, Earl was able to fix the car. They had planned to be back by 2:00 PM and got home at 6:00 PM instead. Quite an ordeal.

Well, there will be more this weekend as I'll add many more pictures from our trip. I want to thank Jennifer for taking a day off of work and coming to join the family vacation. You made our trip this year by sharing Samantha with all of us. I love you, Jen. Everyone be good and hug their loved ones this week. I'm back to Almanor tomorrow night. Ciao.

Indepence Day was a Party

We had a houseful on July 4th as we had a cookout, swim party and get together with friends from the Golf club. For Darryl and Cheryl and Dad and Shirley, the last picture is of Neil and Lilly who will join us in Nuevo Vallarta in November. We decided to have the party late in the week and I think Darla made phone calls on Thursday night. We called four couples and got a positive response from everyone. Amazing, either our friends have no life or they enjoy our company. I'm hoping the latter applies. We got together about four pm and enjoyed a few hours of pool time with beverages and good conversation and a lot of laughs. I cooked hamburgers and chicken breasts for sandwiches and everyone brought something to share. We had margaritas, beer and soda, bean dip, chips and salsa, some roll up finger sandwiches, pasta salad, potato salad, sloughouse white corn on the cob, fruit salad, cut watermelon as well as two kinds of dessert for later in the evening. Darla had an impromptu jewelry show and we all poured outside at 9:15 PM to watch the fireworks from the park across the street. It was a great time with great friends and we enjoyed ourselves completely.

I did, of course, manage to get in two games of golf this week. I will go into shock next week as we head up to Lake Alamanor and I take a two week sabbatical from golf. I played Friday morning with Boyd, Bob, Phamas, Neil, Rick, Matt, and Mel. Boyd had arranged the tee times at Woodcreek and we put eight balls in a hat and shook out four to determine the teams. Boyd, Phamas, Matt and Rick managed a cool 16 under par between them and my team managed a paltry two under par. Bob shot 78 and I shot 80, but Mel and Neil both shot 100 and killed our chances. Boyd and Matt shot 76, Phamas shot 79 and Rick shot 88. It was fun, but we lost $5 a man. I'd set up a second round at Woodcreek for Saturday and played with Bob Hand, Darren and Gary. I again shot an 80 with three birdies and a 25 foot eagle putt on number 16 that curled out of the hole. My game is pretty strong right now and I am shooting consistently in the low eighties and high 70's.

The weather was nice after the brutality of last week and we enjoyed mid nineties over the weekend and bit cooler day today at 90 degrees. It is supposed to stay in the mid eighties this weekend before jumping back into the nineties next weekend.

We leave for Almanor on Saturday and pick Jennifer and Samantha up from the airport Friday night. Jen and Sam will be with us until Monday night and I will drive back and deliver Jennifer to her Mom. They will spend Tuesday together before Jennifer flies home Tuesday night at 5:00 PM. Jennifer has been working hard latelylately and needs a vacation. We want to spend time with her and Samantha and our family vacation to lake Almanor is a good excuse. We are flying them to California and looking forward to a few days at the lake as an extended family. I ordered a life vest for Samantha from Overtons this weekend that will arrive on Wednesday. She will be able to go on the boat with us and be water safe as we hang out on the water and on the dock. Both boys will be with us as neither has a job this Summer and they are both looking forward to seeing Samantha and spending time with her. I'll have plenty of pictures, but the blog will be late next week. I hope to work on it Tuesday night as I will be at work on Tuesday and Wednesday. I have my assistant leaving after three years with BW and want to see him off. I'm also hoping to have our new employee hired that week and beginning to train.

We've made some wholesale changes at work and shuffled up the underwriting teams. Mel's wife, Cora, will be working with me and all of the other assistants will be juggled from one underwriter to the other. The office is doing well now and I'm trying to find the right mix to take us to the next level. Hopefully, change is not just change, but a significant improvement and a catalyst for higher earnings. We'll see.

Darla and I were both exhausted this morning and slept in missing church. Our pastor is still on vacation and we had a guest speaker, a Christian attorney that Darla and I both know. I'm sure it would have been a good sermon, but we needed our rest after a busy couple of days. Well, that's it for now. i hope to have some pictures of Miss Samantha and Jennifer next week. I hope you are all well and enjoying your independence. It's a great country that we live in. Ciao.