Post Thanksgiving Meanderings

No, We aren't in Mexico anymore, Dorothy! You can see above the freak storm that hit Roseville and Northern California on the Friday after Thanksgiving and completely upended my golf plans for the weekend. The white is not snow, but hail that fell Friday afternoon. The hail clogged the downspouts and caused the torrent of rain water that you see outside my back door looking out to the pool (double click on that picture and you can see the size of the hail stones raining down). That storm quickly moved out and was followed by an area of high pressure that brought with it winds up to 40 MPH on Saturday. Two of the three players in my foursome called to cancel Saturday morning and I called the fourth and he was on the fence. We were traveling 45 miles to Rio Vista to play the Trilogy course there where winds were gusting up to 60 MPH. We both reluctantly agreed to fore go the golf.

By the way, my car was left out Friday afternoon after Darla and I returned from a trip to the theater and a screening of the Sandra Bullock film, The Blind Side. It is a tremendous film with humor and tragedy and a heartwarming ending. I highly recommend it for a wet afternoon. Sandra Bullock will likely at least be nominated for an Academy Award for her strong performance in the film. The rain was supposed to pass on by about 4 PM and it did, but hail followed and then even stronger rain and I had to brave the onslaught to run out and retrieve my car from the hailstorm.

The boys were home for Thanksgiving, if only briefly. They arrived home late Wednesday night and were headed back to Cal Poly by Saturday afternoon as David is working on a project that is due next week. Daniel hopes to graduate by a year from June and David will still have two years left on his 5 year degree in Architecture. David won't graduate until he is 24. He got a little sideways on his credits for Cal Poly coming out of Junior College and is on the 6 year plan for college. It took me 5 years, but there has been inflation since 1980. Daniel went straight into Cal Poly out of high school and has strong plans to graduate on time. His girlfriend, Becky, will graduate this Summer and is looking at graduate schools now.

We spent thanksgiving with Darla's sister, Alicia, and her fiance, Don's home in Folsom. The boys were with us and their cousins, Shae and Taylor came into town from Willits, arriving late and being the first to leave. Shae works for AT&T at a phone store and had to work Black Friday early. It was a nice visit. Don and Alicia will marry in January and they have a baby due in late May. We had a good time, eating, watching football and playing the card game 3-13.

I did receive my payment from United Airlines for my golf clubs and they made me whole. I had a couple of items that I didn't have receipts for, so they dropped those to $100 each, but I am able to replace the set and was very pleased with the speed and sensitivity that United exhibited in the claims process. They were very apologetic for our inconvenience and even gave us a $150 credit for future travel.

Unfortunately, I also lost my i-phone on the Saturday before we left for Mexico and it was never recovered. I had it in my golf cart and it was gone when I finished the round. We stopped for drinks at the turn and someone must have seen it and grabbed it. I shut it down immediately, but the phone was lost. The i-phone does not have insurance if it is lost or stolen unlike other cell phones, so I had to eat the loss. I was able to upgrade to a 16GB i-phone on the 3Gs network, but I was out the cost to replace the phone ($300). I will treat this one like the small computer it is and be more careful.

I saw a funny e-mail pass my desk the other day and saved it to add to my blog:

"Something Else to Worry About

Here's my concern...

• 3 years ago, Chinese calendar year of the cow . . .
Mad Cow disease.

• 2 years ago, Chinese calendar year of the bird . . .
Avian flu.

• This year, Chinese calendar year of the pig . . .
Swine flu.

Next year is the year of the cock.

Is anybody else worried?"

I was born in in 1957, the Year of the Cock. (I know, I'm proud.)

I talked to Jennifer on Thanksgiving. Her project at the City Center in Las Vegas is quickly winding down. Jennifer said the Circus Soleil is already practicing for their opening in mid December (it will be an Elvis themed show). She had thought that she would be working all weekend overtime, but her GC called her in Wednesday and told her that he is keeping her on until the end of the project and letting some others go. He was giving the jettisoned workers the option of working overtime for the weekend, so Jennifer was able to drive three hours to Redlands and join her Mom (and Diane's husband) for Thanksgiving at his parent's house. John had Samantha for the weekend and took her to his grandparent's house in California as well. The good news from Jennifer is that on her next project she will be promoted to a foreman position and will direct a crew. Where or when that is is still up in the air, but she should be at City Center until the end of the year. Good for her. She works hard and is good at what she does.

Well, that's it for this week. I was able to make it to church today for the first time in about 6 weeks what with Detroit, golf and vacation. It was nice to be back in our portion of the church. It felt like HOME. You all be well. I hope Thanksgiving was great and that you are all hale and hearty. My tan is quickly fading, like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz. Ciao.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to Dad and Shirley Happy Annivercity!!

It was a blast in Mexico. Happy thanksgiving everyone. The Lyon clan (with a new recruit) had a relaxing, thoroughly enjoyable time in Mexico. The weather was perfect all week, highs in the low 90's and lows near 68 degrees overnight. It was bright blue sunshine during the day and a few clouds would generally roll in off the ocean about 3:30 in the afternoon. The only day it even looked like possible rain showers was the evening (Tuesday) when we went on our party boat from the harbor in Nuevo Vallarta past the hotels along the beach in Banderas Bay and over to the city of Puerto Vallarta. We were able to get some pictures along the way and enjoyed a windy, but nice cruise from there over to the city of Las Caletas on the tip of the peninsula. We ate under candlelight as the area only has lights at the dock and in the theater for the show after dinner. The food was good, the company even better and we had a lot of laughs. The show itself was very authentic in terms of the Mayan culture and included music and a lot of dance. We left Las Caletas at 10:30 and got back to Nuevo at 11:30.

The cruise itself was interesting as there was a group of 100 lesbian women on board and they came in all shapes and sizes. There was a group on the beach when we got off and they yelled that they were "recruiting". I laughed and one said, "Not YOU!"The most interesting couple had to weight 600 pounds as a couple and I got stuck behind them on the way to the taxi. It was impossible to pass as I walked from the ship up past the bar and the gift shops to the front of the Travel Adventure office. Everyone was waiting for me as they wanted to get one of the first cabs of the 150 people on the boat. They were chiding me and I let slip that I got behind Shamu and her sister. Everyone knew who I meant.

We also took a trip into the little beach town of Busceria this trip. It was a 15 minute cab ride and we picked the perfect day as it was Mexican Revolution Day and the whole town was out for a parade. The taxi had to let us out on the highway and we walked past the parade into town. Busceria is a typical Mexican town with the Catholic Church in the center of town next to the plaza. A Mexican band was playing and there were vendors all over selling food and drink, which we were all loathe to try. The girls shopped and Darla bought some Mexican pottery for nachos and dips and Cheryl did the same at the little flea market in town. We walked from there to a restaurant on the beach, Claudios at Mason Bay. They had $6 margaritas in a glass as big as your head. They also had $9 fajitas and each couple split a plate and we ordered chips and guacamole. It was a highlight of the trip as we sat next to the beach and talked and watched the people wander the beach.

Of course golf was a big part of the trip and Neil and I hooked up again with Martin`, our caddy from last year. He can read greens like a magician. Shirley wasn't at all happy about the caddy and expressed it to us on Monday night. She couldn't wrap her head around some stranger in the middle of our golf. Of course, Shirley absolutely loved Martin` and he was instrumental in her very good round on Wednesday. She hit several long putts and Martin` had the putts read perfectly. We saw the crocodile again, in fact we saw two this trip, although they stayed in the water where they belong. Martin` told us a story of how the management of the golf course tried to trap the crocodile last year as they were concerned that golfers would approach it. They used a chicken as bait and unfortunately hung the chicken outside of the cage the first night and the crocodile easily made off with the bait. The second night, the chicken was inside the cage and in the morning the cage was open and the chicken was gone. They gave up after that for fear that more crocs would come out of the river for the free meals.

I was able to get in four golf games while we were there, but it was hard to get a tee time. They have imploded three of the Mayan Village buildings to make way for the new Grand Villa, Grand Estates and Grand Bliss buildings. They are selling all three of the upgraded resorts and all of their buyers are staying at the Grand Mayan. We couldn't even get an ocean view room, which was maddening. The Grand Bliss and Grand Villas open in November so our next trip should be much quieter. I shot 81, 39, 77 and 83 while we were in Mexico and I was happy to see my new driver helping me more than hurting me. Dad played two games, Shirley one and Darryl and Neil got in three games. Martin' was able to get us three morning tee times and we took his number and will call him a month ahead of our next trip and he will arrange our golf.

We met every twilight at Dad and Shirley's condo for appetizers and drinks. It was a lot of fun and we all looked forward to our time to come together before dinner. Two of the nights we returned to the condo after dinner and played dice and laughed and enjoyed ourselves before heading to bed.

Dad and Shirley left for home on Saturday brown and relaxed after two weeks in the Mexican sun. That night, the three remaining couples went to Buenos Aires restaurant right outside the entrance to Paradise Village. It was a tremendous final night for us as we enjoyed a feast. Luckily each couple split a steak and shrimp dinner. We added a couple of "must return" restaurants to our itinerary this trip. Neil and Lilly took us to Toni's restaurant in PV and surprised us all by picking up the tab. I was able to buy his dinner the next night when we ate at the onsite Italian restaurant and Darla and I had our first taste of Chateaubriand and loved it. We also returned to Brasil restaurant on our first night and thoroughly enjoyed the Brazilian steak restaurant.

Darryl and Cheryl and Darla and I bought the meal plan and were able to share appetizers and dessert with everyone at each meal we ate onsite. It turned out that four of the eight with a meal plan was perfect as we couldn't possibly have eaten more appetizers or dessert.

On Dad and Shirley's last night, we had planned a nice dinner at the new Asian restaurant on the property called Gong. We got there at 8 for our reservation and as we looked at the menu, we were all a little surprised at the lack of variety. When I told the waitress that four of us were on the meal plan and she told us that Gong had a special menu for that week and wasn't honoring the meal plan, we got up and walked out. Who needs Asian food in Mexico?

We walked back to the Grand Mayan entrance and asked for a ride to the Havana Moon restaurant. The uniformed bellhop said that he could only take seven and that he would get a separate cart for the eighth. What? The driver pulled up and we talked him into taking all eight of us. The bellboy shrugged and we were off. We barely made it around the corner from the hotel entrance and bottomed out on a speed bump. Four of us had to jump off to let the chassis of the cart lift up from the bump. We all had a good laugh and promised diets when we got home. The dinner at Havana Moon was nice and I had asked the Maitre D' to make a special cake for Dad and Shirley's anniversary. When they brought it out, they had written on the plate in front of the cake "Happy Annivercity". You can see this if you double click the first picture above.

They were both taken with the uniqueness of the misspelled cake and it was a nice touch to a very nice evening. We did miss Randy and Cake on this trip and I was told there was some misunderstanding in my invitation and for that I'm sorry. Neil and Lilly were indoctrinated into the family and said that they would be happy to pinch hit for Randy any time he can't make a family vacation.

It took me a few nights to get around to the blog, but i will add more this weekend. Darryl, I'm waiting for your pictures. I hope all are well. Ciao.

The only thing I brought back from Detroit...is a COLD

Yep. There were a couple of Managers at the meeting with sniffles and I ended up next to one at one of our sessions and, sure enough, Friday night I felt the sore throat starting and have been basically miserable since. I flew back to Sacramento Saturday night and was suffering on the plane, especially with my sinuses and my ears. On both landings (Dallas and Sacramento), I cold not get my ears to pop and had severe pain in my eardrums. I know of little kids who have been screaming on landing and I think they had the same problem I had. It was so bad in Sacramento that I could barely hear Darla on the cell phone when I called her in the cell phone lot to let her know that I had landed.

We got home and I took a hot shower and went to bed. i hadn't slept well Friday night and it was 1:45 AM Eastern time and I was a zombie. Darla brought me some hot tea and honey and I drank about half of it before falling into a deep and restful sleep. I awoke at 7:00 AM and got up to gauge if I was well enough to play in the Past President's tournament. I had a runny nose and a sore throat and felt chills and decided that I needed to just rest and called Neil to let him know that I was WD in the tournament. Those who know me, know that I was truly sick if I missed golf. I relaxed on the couch today and drank hot tea and sucked on throat lozenges. Darla left at noon to meet her sister for lunch and for bridal gown shopping. She and Don will marry in January. I watched the end of the morning games and decided to go outside and clear the leaves off the lawn and then mow. Darla got home later and was mad at me, but it's tough to just sit, especially when there is work to do. I will try to get out to the driving range this week and try out my new FT iq before the trip to Nuevo Vallarta next week. It came in on Thursday. I have my FT-9 up for auction on EBay right now and it will close tomorrow. Someone will get a great deal on a Tour quality driver.

The meetings this trip were quite favorable to me and I got a lot of kudos from management for our results year to date. Young Anthony won two of the year end awards with Distinguished Underwriter of the year for booking over $650,000 in income for the year and he also won for New business underwriter of the year. Finally, our branch in Sacramento won the coveted Gold Award for Branch of the Year in Division 3. In spite of my growing cold, I was pleased to be up and down going to the stage to collect the awards for Sacramento. The meeting overall were very well done, from dinner at Cheli's (named for some Red Wing hockey player named Chelios) to the awards dinner and the meeting in between, it was a first class affair. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn and spent Thursday in Home Office with our companies and staff. They had me set up every 30 minutes with a different market and it was a great way to talk to our suppliers.

The company continues to have policy growth and, although the revenue is flat, we are poised for continued growth in years to come. My meeting with our CEO went well. I have some things to do to help grow the office, but management is very happy with the results. The ten month figures came out on Monday and my profit for the year has surpassed $500,000, which is fantastic.

I talked to Darryl briefly today and he wanted to know what to expect when he gets to Puerto Vallarta. Dad had told him that the airport is a zoo. It's true, there are 100's of time share people trying to entice you just outside of Customs, but if you walk through the second set of doors you will find cabbies lined up to take you to your hotel. I told him the fare to Nuevo Vallarta is $15, or was when we were there last and to make sure he agrees on a price before they leave the airport. Luckily, Darla and I will be picked up by the Grand Mayan when we fly in. Darryl and Cheryl could have been picked up as well, but they are spending an extra night with Dad and Shirley who are already in Nuevo Vallarta. The only drawback to our trip is that they are still doing construction on site and we are still at only nine holes of golf and the regular six restaurants is down to three. We will enjoy ourselves and I look forward to kicking this cold and getting down to some sun and fun in Mexico next week. Speaking of that, the blog is going on vacation. I may do a post before I leave, but only if I get to it. Darla and I will be packing and getting ready next weekend. We fly out at 6:15 AM on Sunday.

It is halftime of the Dallas Cowboy's Sunday Night Football game, so this will be short. Be advised however that I will be back with pictures and highlights from our trip to Mexico after next week. I look forward to seeing the troops tomorrow at work and sharing all of our good news. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Correction from Butt Cramp Boy!

I have the attention span of a small child with a sever case of ADD and missed the official title that Darryl holds at McClane. He is definitely number three at the facility, but is the Vice President. There is a President on site and a Regional VP, well, let him explain...

"I am the VP and I run the facility (my next move is President) – my President handles the administrative side of the business and I handle 90 percent of the operations and transportation. I have a Transportation Manager who runs the distribution side and an Operations Manager who runs the warehouse side. There is also a Regional Vice President imbedded in the facility who is number two in the company."

Honestly, who wants to be numer two? There are some negative connotations there. Actually, it sounds like he has two middle managers that pretty well run things for him. Pretty good gig if you can get it.

Halloween? No, golf and relaxation in Monterey, CA!!

We have pictures of the little monkey from Halloween in Las Vegas. Jennifer decided to have Samantha wear the Monkey costume again and this time actually go out and do some trick or treating. Jen said the first house they went to Sam tried to walk into the house and Jennifer had to call her back. She finally got the hang of it and absolutely loved seeing the people and meeting her neighbors. We miss her SO MUCH and wish that they lived closer. She is a doll.

Darla and I spent the weekend in Monterey. I decided to work Friday morning and fore go a third day of golf and spend some time with Darla on the drive down and at the hotel. We left about 12:30 from Roseville and after a stop to deliver jewelry in downtown Sacramento got on the road. We stopped in Galt, CA (of all places) and had a late lunch at the Squeeze Inn, a Sacramento institution and once profiled on Diners, Dives and Drive-ins on the food network. The restaurant was a tiny shack with room for about 12 people to eat inside. They did a booming walk-up business, but after their 15 minutes of fame on TV, someone in a wheelchair sued them for lack of access and they were forced to close their doors. They moved to Galt in a new sprawling industrial center and the name "Squeeze Inn" is no longer appropriate, but it stuck. They make fantastic hamburgers, their signature burger a cheddar burger where a large 10"x10" slice of thick cheddar is laid over the patty after it has been turned once and a lid placed over the whole thing (with mushrooms or grilled onions added). They serve the creation with the melted fried cheese hanging over and around the patty and sitting three inches over the entire bun on all sides. We enjoyed two of those with fries and a tremendous milk shake and Darla's blood sugar level was rapidly on the rise. She has been so good and it was a treat to gorge on some diner food.

We got down to Monterey about 5:00 PM and checked into the Portola Inn and Spa on the Monterey wharf. We had Priceline rooms at $89 a night at the $189 a night hotel. They upgraded our room to a King deluxe and we relaxed before meeting up with our friends in town. We had dinner with Rick and Jan and Neil and Lilly along with Jerry and his wife at a small Italian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. Rick and Jan also got the Priceline deal and were two doors down from us. Bob and Vicki were supposed to be at the same hotel, but Vicki decided to go to SoCal and see the Grand kids and Bob stayed with his elderly Mom in San Jose.

The day on Saturday dawned foggy and cold, but the blue sky was evident on the cusp of the fog and we drove over to Poppy hills knowing a good day was in store. The fog lifted after the third hole and we were bathed in 72 degree sunshine by the afternoon. I wore shorts under wind pants and had stripped the pants off by the 6th hole. I shot 43+42 for an 85. Bob shot 40+50=90 and wasn't a happy camper by the time we finished. His driver was causing him fits and mine was misbehaving all day as well. I had four straight double bogeys on the back side from hole number 11-14. I birdied 15 before finishing par-par-par for a 43 on the back. The low gross on the day was an 80 and I took third low net and won $33.

Darla met up with Daniel and Becky as they drove up from San Luis Obispo (about two hours by car) and met for lunch. Darla had got her shopping fix on at the shops near the hotel and in pacific Grove after a breakfast at Toasties in Pacific Grove, a favorite of ours. Darla and the kids went down to the beach at the bottom of Ocean Avenue in Carmel and took the pictures posted above. They had a nice visit and the kids were back on the road by 4 PM.

We were dropped back off at the hotel by Bob and we went "rogue" and opted out of the group activity that night which was dinner at a Chinese Food place. Darla and Jan both said they didn't drive to Monterey to eat Chinese, so we got together and had dinner at the FishWife in Pacific Grove. I'm glad we did as we enjoyed a special of prime rib and lobster tail for $24.95 that was outstanding. We had drinks at he bar before dinner and basically acted like adults out on the town. It was wonderful.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny with no remnants of any fog. It was warm early and warmed further as it settled out at 76 degrees on November 1st in Monterey. We absolutely could not have picked a better weekend. The boys and I headed to the golf course early and had breakfast at the Del Monte Lodge. I played just as consistently inconsistent and had two birdies on the day to go with two double bogeys, some pars and a bunch of bogeys for 42+43 = 85. My driver continues to befuddle me and I've already taken care of that headache. Bob also shot 85 and I heard two things out of Bob that I thought I'd never hear. One was, "Give me a nine" on Saturday and the other was "That was a 10" on Sunday. Amazing. I ended up taking 6th low net and won $24, which bought me a nice Pebble Beach bag tag at the Del Monte pro shop.

Darla and Jan went to breakfast in Carmel and when they were walking the shops afterward witnessed a car accident. The driver left the stop sign and didn't see an elderly couple crossing the street and plowed into them. The older gentleman flew through the air and hit his head on the median, while his wife was thrown to the pavement and had contusions. It is a small and often wonderful world and a women who was near Darla grabbed her hands and said, "Let's pray" and prayed for the health of the couple as the paramedics responded to the scene. God is good and his people are everywhere. It was encouraging to Darla who had seen the car hit the couple and was pretty shaken.

We got home about 6:30 last night and I was just too tired to work on the blog and left it for tonight. We had a great time on our short vacation and enjoyed the hotel, the food, the friends and being together away from home. We are both so busy, it was good to be together away from the distractions of home.

I mentioned that I did something about my driver and on my way home tonight monitored an auction on EBay and was able to get a replacement for my FT 1q 9 degree driver, brand new one for $152. I had watched two other auctions during the day and both of those clubs went for over $200, so i lucked out. I waited until the last minute and the price was still at $119.50. I put in my bid at a maximum of $155.01 and got it for $152. I will sell the FT-9 Tour model on EBay and recoup some of the $228 I paid for it. Golf is a work in progress. Always.

I am off to Detroit on Wednesday for the annual Managers meeting and will get back to this on Sunday. Dad and Shirley leave for Mexico on Saturday and we follow the next Sunday. I hope you are all well. Ciao.