Jennifer is 29!!

Oh my God, I'm OLD. Jennifer is 29 years old and I am decrepit and falling apart. Actually I feel pretty good and read an article today in that paragon of excellent journalism, Parade Magazine, that people aged 40-85 who golf have a "40% lower incidence of mortality" than those who don't. An interesting way of putting it. Does that mean that buses miss us on city streets and that we drive better, or just tend to live longer? The article also said that golfers who walk an average of 36 holes a week burn up to 2900 calories and could lose up to 40 pounds in a year. I must eat alot because I'm not losing any weight, either that or I don't get the benefit of the average golfer, because I hit the ball straighter and hit less times. That's the story I'm going with.

The visit from Jennifer, Samantha and Dina was great. Darla and I picked them up from the airport Thursday night and they stayed over with us Thursday night. Friday, we were up early and off to breakfast. Daniel and Becky joined us and we had a great time at the Pacific Street Cafe. We then came back home and took Samantha to the park across the street fro some time on the monkey bars, swings and slides. Actually, I don't recall seeing monkey bars. I think they went the way of the 25 cent hamburger. Sam has a growing set of teeth and she is proud to show them off as you can see in several of the pictures as well as in the video. She is a little ham and likely a carbon copy of Janelle's daughter, Abigail, at that age. She came home and reluctantly took a nap, giving Jennifer and Dina a chance to make a run to the store and also to buy an HDMI to mini HDMI cable for her new Flip camcorder we bought her for her birthday. We were able to hook the camcorder up to our 52 inch HDTV and watch the videos in HD. The Flip is a great little creation from Creative Technologies and the software to make movies and turn the frame shots into photos is incredible. I made a movie of their visit and added music to the background and e-mailed it to family.

Jennifer's Mom showed up in the afternoon and stole them all away to her house. She paid for their trip and they stayed over there Friday and Saturday, putting in some new ceiling fans and lighting in the house and moving one of the ceiling fans to the patio in the back yard. It was about 100 degrees yesterday and Jennifer was up in the attic pulling wiring and sweating. She said that she doesn't sweat as much in Vegas because of the desert dry heat. I remember playing golf in Phoenix during the Summer and never sweating. I had to hydrate constantly and never had to urinate. It is an odd climate. for sure. We saw the kids again today at Chevy's on the River in Sacramento for a late lunch before they were off to the airport for their 3:25 flight. It was a great visit and we enjoyed seeing them and spending time with Samantha.

Their is a huge fire going on in Auburn about twenty minutes east of Roseville and over 500 acres have burned with 30 homes destroyed and countless cars. The news is running constantly and the sight of burned cars and torched homes is sad. Darla is on the phone with one of her team members from Silpada and there is a chance that they will be evacuated tonight. The winds are dying down and the fire is about 40% contained. We saw the smoke on our way home from Sacramento this afternoon, but had no idea of the seriousness of the fire. It is burning near Winchester Country Club that I had a picture of in the blog a couple of weeks ago.

Work is going well, but I have some tough duty this week that will be very difficult for me. I can only ask for prayer as I make some tough decisions. Our numbers in Sacramento are excellent and we are number one in the region for business with one of our largest carriers. It is great to get some good press for a change. I really feel like we have made some serious changes in the office and a turn for the better. I have a great staff and dedicated workers that will see my office continue to grow. It is a blessing.

I did, by the way, play golf this weekend, but the course we played aerated their greens this week and it was an absolute joke. The greens were covered in sand and the ball would jump and bounce like a drunk falling down a flight of stairs. I shot 85 and, like most of the field, left cursing the course superintendent for aerating his greens in August. It was 100 degrees and they were pouring water on the greens to keep them from burning because of all the sand. Our TD knew about the aeration early in the week and decided to go ahead with the tournament which was a mistake. It was a waste of $55 and I wish I had opted to just go play Diamond or something. Too bad. Plus, we were in carts and I might have more of a chance of mortality now.

Something worth a smile for us Republicans suffering the foolishness of Washington:

Body Found In Salt River
Champaign County Sheriffs Department reports finding a man's body in the Salt Fork river just west of the Kelly's Tavern Historical Site Bridge. The man's name will not be released until his family has been notified. The victim apparently drowned after consuming an excessive amount of alcohol. He was wearing black fishnet stockings, a red garter belt with matching bra, and an Obama T-shirt.The deputy removed the Obama T-shirt to spare his family any unnecessary embarrassment.

That is it for another week, I have kept back extra pictures of Miss Samantha that I will sprinkle in to the blog over the next few weeks. I hope you are all well and selling yourselves out to Jesus Christ. Be well. Ciao.

Cool Summer Nights and Ten Years of Wedded Bliss!

That was the theme of the evening as the Burns crew met for a barbecue at the College Greens Swim Club in Sacramento. The weather was like Hawaii with clouds drifting over and a slight breeze that kept things cool. The high for the day on Saturday was 84 degrees and 86 degrees today. The pictures above are of 1. The gathering on Saturday and 2. Dinner out tonight for our anniversary at Scott's Seafood in Folsom. For those of you paying attention, we have been married for thirteen years, but ten have been stellar. I said that to the group on Saturday night and Darla said I was over-estimating. Ah, well.

We got home from our dinner out tonight at 8:30 and both decided that dinner out on a Sunday should only be here in Roseville. We left the house at 5:30 PM and three hours escaped from our lives before we knew it. We are both a bit protective of our Sunday nights and w have some nice restaurants in Roseville. I had bought a $50 gift certificate to this restaurant online for $25 and then used a two-for-one coupon for dinner (Just being true to my self), so the $60 bill cost me just $15 out of pocket tonight and that was just for the tip for the server. We enjoyed ourselves, but it was a haul on a Sunday night and neither of us are huge seafood lovers. Darla had some coconut shrimp on skewers and I had a pasta with scallops meal that was good. We both had clam chowder and shared a plate of shrimp and pork pot stickers and a lava cake for dessert. There was another couple there celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and it was also on August 23rd.

Jennifer and miss Samantha will be here this coming weekend. I'm taking Friday off and will spend the day with Jennifer, Sam and Dina swimming in the pool and relaxing. Friday is Jennifer's 29th birthday and I'm getting old. Next year, I'll have a daughter in her thirties. Wow, hard to believe. I have ordered Jennifer a new Flip pocket HD camcorder that will take two hours of film on it's built in hard drive. It has a built in USB plug in that swings out and attaches right to your computer for download. She can also buy video cables where she can watch the movies on her TV. I hope to be able to add some mpeg files to the blog so you can all see young Samantha as she grows up. She is a doll. I'm not letting anything out of the bag as I had Jennifer research the Flip to see if she would use it. It is almost as small as a cell phone and fits in your pocket. Pretty cool device. I had heard of them and saw one on "Army Wives" on cable and decided that I needed more ways to get my Samantha fix and will be pushing Jennifer to use the Flip and send me movies. I will add some pictures from their trip next Sunday.

I did get out and do some marketing this week and took our largest agency principals golfing at The Ridge Golf Club in Auburn. It is a great championship course in the foothills of Auburn and I have struggled on that track before, twice shooting in the 90s and my best was an 84. We had lunch before golf on a $45 lunch and golf deal and I enjoyed visiting with the owners. Walt, the managing partner asked me to come up with an incentive for them where we would take them golfing at Pebble Beach if they reach a certain incentive. I talked to my boss and we are looking at a couple of $20,000,000 construction projects in LA and he agreed that if we close the smaller of the two, I could promise a round at Spyglass, if they close the bigger of the two, Pebble Beach and if both, two days in Monterey at Pebble Beach and Spyglass. The income to BW would be about $100,000 and the trip would cost us $2,000-$3,000. I was thrilled and will begin pushing to close these two deals immediately. Financing has been the holdup so far. i shot 42 on the front and had to pour in a ten foot par putt on 18, but ended up with a back nine 41 for 83. Walt shot 90, Rob 82 and Anthony 110. We had a fun day and plan to get together soon at Walt's club in Lake of the Pines for another round.

I also played Saturday and struggled at Diamond Oaks to a 43+43=86 and a sick feeling in my stomach after the round. I hate to play bad golf, but I was out of sorts on Saturday. We play an away tournament at Timber Creek in Sun City Roseville on Saturday the 29th. It is an amazing course designed by Billy Casper that is a real test of golf. Why it is sitting in a senior community is beyond me as it is well over the head of the average golfer. On top of that homes dot the course and because it is a senior development someone is ALWAYS home. It was written up in the paper a few weeks ago as the local course where more homes are hit by errant golf shots than any other course. Good combination of pacemakers and flying golf balls. The ambulances in the development are know as "Sun City taxis". I'm sure Dad and Shirley have heard that description before.

I have some issues at work right now that are taking my full attention. I have a phone conference with home office human resources on Monday and everything should be resolved this week. It is stressful and I've really felt some pains in the yoke of my neck and shoulders over the last week. If it keeps up, I'll have to call on my Bowen therapist before my next scheduled session in September. I had my boss in the office this week and we were meeting with the new Transportation unit that I've set up. We also had the head of the Transportation underwriting unit from our main auto market in the same day, so I didn't get a whole lot of work done. I worked late Friday, had a poker game Friday night and early golf Saturday morning, so Darla and I slept in today and missed church. We don't do it often, but every now and then your body tells you to slow down. I listened today.

That's it for this week, I'll be back with photos of the cutest granddaughter that you'll ever meet. Have a good week and heed this warning: "Without Jesus, there will be HELL to pay". Ciao.

Hot August Nights

Not really, but I was looking for a Title for my latest epistle and this is what I came up with. The Summer is quickly slipping away and I see high school kids with backpacks and shorts trudging to school in the morning as I navigate my way to work in the early dawn light. My automatic headlights stay on now on the way to work as the days grow shorter. The good thing is that the temperatures have returned to normal (mid nineties) after a cool Summer. The bad thing is ditto as I have a golf game with two of my agents and my top underwriter on Tuesday at the Ridge golf club in Auburn. The temperature Tuesday is supposed to be 101 degrees. We are meeting them for lunch at the lodge and then play in the afternoon. My office will have a family Day on Saturday at a swim club in Sacramento. The club has high dives and horse shoes and sand volleyball. Darla and I are providing hamburgers and chicken breasts with buns and each family is bringing different items (salads, fruit, desserts, etc.) Several of the employees have begged off due to other plans, but we should have a good turnout. My newest underwriter is on the board of the swim club and got us access at no cost.

I had to order a part for the pool sweep tonight and I just love the internet. I was able to go online and order the part (a replacement bag) for $35 delivered to my office. I do most of my own shopping now on the internet. I'm looking at getting Jennifer a new Flip digital camcorder for her birthday and to encourage her to send us movies of young Samantha. I'll be able to order it and have it delivered to the office at no tax and no shipping. It is so convenient.

Darla has one of her newer recruits for Silpada with a husband who likes both golf and poker. She has been trying to hook us up and I talked to Chuck today (he called me) and I invited him to my poker game this weekend. he and his wife, Pam, want to go to Monterey with us this year. I just signed up for the trip October 30th-November 1st on Friday, I went online to search for a good priced hotel. I am a believer in Priceline as long as you use a hotel with 3 plus stars. I put in a 3.5 star hotel in Monterey and offered $89 a night. We got a lodge room at the Portola Spa and Hotel on Fisherman's wharf for my asking price. When I told Bob about it, it turns out Vicki had gone to the hotel website and also booked a comparable room for $189 a night. Wow.

I played golf both Thursday and Saturday this week. I played at Wild Hawk in Elk Grove Thursday and it is a bit of a cow pasture golf experience. Neil, our TD, has signed a contract to play there next year for $65 a player. It is too much. It cost me $31 and I shot 39+40=79. The course is 6200 yards, but has two holes less than 295 yards (par fours). I also played in the Rose Cup qualifier. It is my goal every year to play in the Rose Cup and I haven't been on the team for three years. I missed again this year with a 43+39=82 at Diamond oaks on Saturday. I had three holes where I was a combined 7 over par. I came to number 8 at 2 over and went double bogey, triple bogey on 8 and 9 for a 43. I then went bogey-par-double bogey on the back nine with three lip outs. I was proud to pull my game together and finish with five straight pars on the back for the 39. It wasn't pretty, but there were times in my golf life when I would have shot a 44 on the back for an 87. Nice to see at age 53, that I've finally matured as a golfer.

I have two things to share. One is the 2009 Stella awards. For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That' s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy. Without further adieu, the 2009 Stella award winners are:

*SEVENTH PLACE* Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son. Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE * Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps. Scratch some more...
* FIFTH PLACE * Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson,the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut.. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more...... Double hand scratching after this one...
*FOURTH PLACE* Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun. Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE * Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions? Only two more so ease up on the scratching....
*SECOND PLACE* Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor,knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms.. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure. Ok. Here we go!!
* FIRST PLACE * This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set.. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
Are we, as a society, getting more stupid.... Or are more members of Congress serving on juries these days?

Okay, and here my political bent shows up: WHO AM I?

I was born in one country, raised in another. My father was born in another country. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with numerous women. I became very close to my mother, as my father showed no interest in me. My mother died at an early age from cancer. Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a legitimate, reliable birth certificate. I grew up practicing one faith but converted to Christianity, as it was widely accepted in my country, but I practiced non-traditional beliefs & didn't follow Christianity, except in the public eye under scrutiny. I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult, disguising myself as someone who really cared about them.. That was before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career. I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child. I became active in local politics in my 30's then with help behind the scenes, I literally burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office in my 40s.. They said I had a golden tongue and could talk anyone into anything.. That reinforced my conceit. I had a virtually non-existent resume, little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker and citizens were drawn to me as though I were a magnet and they were small roofing tacks. I drew incredibly large crowds during my public appearances. This bolstered my ego. At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy. I was very critical of my country in the last war and seized every opportunity to bash my country. But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy. I pretended to have a really good plan on how we could do better and every poor person would be fed & housed for free. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess. It was the free market, banks & corporations. I decided to start making citizens hate them and if they were envious of others who did well, the plan was clinched tight. I called mine "A People's Campaign" and that sounded good to all people. I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics & was able to gain widespread popular support. I knew that, if I merely offered the people 'hope' , together we could change our country and the world. So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant to include "persecuted minorities" like the Jews. My true views were not widely known and I needed to keep them unknown, until after I became my nation's leader. I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. I'm glad they didn't. Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And the world learned the truth.

*Who am I? * I am ADOLF HITLER, WHO WERE YOU THINKING OF?

That's it, I retire the soapbox for another week. Ciao.

Booted out of the house for Silpada...Again

So, instead of golfing, I decided to re stain the fence surrounding the back yard. We had the fence put in three years ago when we had the pool installed and I stained the fence with a Behr Redwood stain with water repellent then and I still had about 2/3 rds of a five gallon can left. The wood had been sun scorched and much of the stain had faded or worn off. It isn't a task that you plan to do, it just sort of happens. Darla had another retirement party today from 1-3 PM at the house (this is where she offers her "retired" jewelry at 50% off and previews the new jewelry in the catalogue). She encouraged me to go play golf, but I played yesterday and money is a little tight right now because of the brakes we had done by the boys, so I stayed home and re-stained the fence. Darla gets a little goofy when her parties are on and was irritated that David and I were at the house. I went out to work on the fence when she left for the store at 11:30. When she got home, I innocently asked if she could put some sunscreen on my back and she about took my head off. She really wanted me gone. I was thinking of the tongue lashing I'd get if I worked all afternoon and sunburned my back. It was a no win situation and she came out and brought me some cold drinks when there was a lull in the party and was apologetic. Stressed a little bit?

The golf club had a tournament at Ancil Hoffman this week, but this was the weekend we had planned to be in Las Vegas. Jennifer worked it out with John to trade this weekend for her birthday weekend, so we didn't have to spend $400 to go babysit. Jennifer will be out in Sacramento for her 29th birthday as her Mom is flying she and Dina (her roommate) out to help her install some ceiling fans. Of course, young Samantha will be in tow. At any rate, I missed the tournament and set up golf with Matt and Darren at Diamond. I shot 80, Matt shot 74 and Darren shot 85. I won the skins as I kept picking up the carry over skins. We had a good weekend.

Darla and I went to a couple's shower at Anthony and Erin's house in Roseville. Matt was there and Pete and Vicki showed up as well. They were expecting more people from the office, but they didn't show in the time that we were there. Anthony has a nice home in Roseville, two stories with a pool and the kids were all out swimming.

Darla and I walked for the first time since her injury last night and walked over to the video store to pick up a movie to watch last night. She complained about some soreness in her foot afterward and she hasn't technically been cleared to walk yet, but it was nice to stretch our legs.

Work is going great. We had a great July made even better by a mid year contingency check from one of our companies that came in mid July. It pushed us over budget for the year, which is awesome. We are up about 45% with this company and on track to write about $4,000,000 with them this year with a 7% loss ratio. Anthony writes a small artisan program with them and books about $30,000 in new business every month. Anthony has turned into a true superstar within the company and is third in the company in new business production through mid-year. He was my assistant just three short years ago and it is one of my best decisions to promote him. Pete had a great month in July and is tracking for the same this month. He has had four months this year over his personal best from his past three years, so things are truly looking up.

Darla's job is solid in spite of the failing economy and furloughs that abound with state workers. They are having to cut services in some instances, but so far the agency is doing good.

David and Daniel continue to work odd jobs this Summer. Dan is off on a week long vacation with his girlfriend, Becky, and her family. David was working tearing down an old metal shed in his Dad's backyard. He had a screw that was frozen and was putting pressure on the screwdriver and slipped and the sheet metal tore into his hand above the middle finger of his right hand (his driving finger Darla calls it). He had to rush to emergency and it took five stitches to close the wound. Luckily he wasn't in Canada or they would have given him a Band Aid and an Excedrin and told him that stitches are only done on Tuesdays. Shirley had an incident with a cut thumb and the medical tech at the Emergency told her they weren't doing stitches that day. And Obama and Hillary (Frick and Frack) want socialized medicine in the US. God be with us.

You can see in the pictures included with my post the cut back palm garden in the raised bed above the pool. I did that last weekend and the fence today. It took me four hours to stain all of the fence and I didn't end up with a sunburned back. Darla's party went well although she didn't have a lot of guests, but those that did come were buyers.

Finally, you see the picture of Winchester CC at the top of the blog (double click the picture to see this picture as it is intended). The Country Club was a dream of one of the area's largest home builders. He spent 20 years and countless millions building the course, which at it's height commanded $100,000 for a membership with a monthly fee of $600. It was one of the most exclusive country clubs in California. Unfortunately, the housing market killed the development. Homes were built there and the CC&Rs did not allow a home smaller than 5000 square feet to be built. The clubhouse (bathed in lights above) is 35,000 square feet and a jewel of design and engineering. I took a group of my agents there on Wednesday for $75 per player with a cart at noon. The course is 6,500 yards from the blue tees with a slope of 134. I shot 84 and thoroughly enjoyed myself. People always asked me why I haven't joined a private club. This is the best example I can find(plus I'm cheap). Can you imagine the angst these members feel as the course goes through bankruptcy? What will happen to their $100,000, plus they have to put up with guys like me, who drive up, plunk down $75 and play their dream course. I'm really not prepared to marry a golf course at this point in my life. There are far too many great courses left to play.

I hope you are well, happy and healthy. Be good and keep Jesus as the head of your household. Ciao.

August Already?

So what happened to the Summer? Time has rushed by this Summer and the Sunday ads are all about Back to School. Classes will begin later this month, NFL camps are under way and the first preseason football game is next weekend. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun.

Work continues to get better with each passing month. Our office was up 23% in earned income this month and up about 22% in policy count. I am also up in staff as I added an underwriting trainee, we added two with the purchase we made and have added another part time typist who starts Monday. Our service standards in typing have been eroding the last few months and I've been begging for a new typist and the position was finally approved last week. I wasted no time in hiring someone and actually am bringing in an ex employee of one of our retailers who was caught in the downturn. She is over qualified for the position, but will be good bench strength as we continue to grow the office. She felt the same way and is hiring on with an eye to moving up within the organization when an opportunity presents itself. She is a Type A personality and hopefully she doesn't bowl over the other typists, who tend to be an introspective lot.

Darla got home from Kansas City last Sunday with many tales from her trip. She enjoyed herself and enjoyed herding her seven recruits around at the conference. I picked up Darla and one of her team members and her teammate kept going on about how EVERYONE knows Darla, she can't walk around without someone stopping her. There are 7,000 women at the conference, so I'm guessing it was a bit of an exaggeration.

The weather here has cooled into the upper 80's and it is fantastic. It is still warm during the days, but with cool nights and mornings. I took advantage of the cooler weather and took a couple of agents out golfing this past week to Woodcreek and up to the Country Club in Auburn, California. I've begun struggling with poor front nines. I shot 43+39 both days for 82. I played Saturday and had the same problem, but followed it up with a 43 on the back for an 86. I'm turning into a hacker. I have another marketing golf game on Wednesday, when I will take the two men who met with my CEO off hours out to golf at Winchester Country Club. It is the most exclusive and best country club in Northern California, but the developer went into bankruptcy and the course is now open provisionally to the public for $75 after noon. It is a tough track in beautiful Meadow Vista, California in the gold country foothills. I'm looking forward to it.

Jennifer will be out with Samantha and her roommate, Dina, over Jennifer's birthday weekend. I've invited them out on the Jet Ski at Folsom lake, but they are being brought in by Jennifer's Mom ostensibly to put in some lighting in her home, so we'll see. I'm still carrying a little matchbox car that was in the base of Samantha's car seat after Alamanor that I'll return to her when they get here. I also plan to buy Jennifer a camcorder so she can send me movies of Samantha when we can't see her.

The boys are home and doing odd jobs for money. I had them change out the brakes, rotors and pads, last week and paid them for parts and $75 each for the job. It saved me about $175 on what the brake shop would have charged and they made a few bucks. They are also fixing up their father's rental home so he can get it rented. Finally, they have fixed up one of his old pickups so they could drive it to the dealer and get the $4,500 that Obama is giving to every American to trade in their clunker and buy a new car from the bankrupt car companies. Unfortunately, most Americans are doing what Steve did and are buying Toyotas or Nissans. I don't know what he is paying them this Summer, but they are slave labor for him.

I did some work on the pool this weekend, cleaning the tile and reapplying some of the waterproof sealer on the river rock surrounding the pool. I also trimmed back the Sego palms and installed a drip watering system to the plants surrounding the palms. I'm hand watering the palms (once a week) and I installed some fertilizer stakes to help green them up. They were getting a little yellow on the leaves from over watering.

Well, news is at a premium around here and I could bore you with our trip to the bookstore and dinner last night, but I'll save you from that. Darla is on the phone right now working her Silpada business calling potential party hosts, so all is normal here in Northern California. I hope you are all well. Ciao.