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.