It is a New Year. We made it through another night of Dick Clark mumbling through his monologue and counting down the last seconds of the year like a downs syndrome sufferer. Don't get me wrong, I have great sympathy for what Dick Clark went through with his stroke and recovery, but his agents and handlers need to force him out of the limelight. I still remember Ronald Reagan for the strength and character of his Presidential years and the reason is that Nancy loved him enough to keep him out of the public eye when his Alzheimer's symptoms began to impede his memory and his actions. Dick Clark is a multi-millionaire and he should retire into a non-public life and let his memory not be tarnished in his later years. We had five couple over on New Year's Day and we played games (billiards, dice, cards, Wii), watched bowl games, ate appetizers and finally enjoyed a repast of prime rib that Darla cooked. She had bought an 18 pound prime rib and it was exactly the size of the pan that she cooked it in.
Saturday, Darla was hosting a wedding shower for her sister, Alicia, so I invited my soon to be brother-in-law, Don, to play some golf with Boyd, Bob and I on a road trip up to Valley Springs. I met Bob and Boyd at the Starbucks up the street at 7:40 AM and we drove to Elk Grove to pick Don up at a small golf course. Don lives in Folsom and it was out of our way. We got to the course early and did some chipping and putting. Don showed up and we piled him into the truck and went to La Contenta up in Valley Springs, about an hour drive from Elk Grove. Don played much better than I had expected on a tough course and shot 45+54 for 99. I shot 86, Boyd struggled to an 86 and Bob shot 87. Boyd and I had played the course before and it is really a tough track with alot of blind shots and very unique holes. Bob looks forward to another shot at it when he knows what's coming. The weather was great when we got there, sunny and nice, but the clouds and high fog moved in on the back nine and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. The back side is tougher than the front ( I shot 40+46) with some severe greens and a stimp meter on the green of almost 12. Don can really hit the ball a long way and both Bob and Boyd said that he could be very good if he played regularly. He has a nice touch on his short irons, but tends to occasionally spray the ball of the tee. When he hits a pure drive, he hits it about 280 yards and leaves me in the dust.
I drove home that afternoon and Darla's Dad, Earl, was there enjoying the leftover food from the shower, including the cake. David came over and snacked a bit, picked up his gear and was off to Cal Poly where school starts back up tomorrow. As a matter of fact you can see David in the pictures from New Year's Day playing dice with us. He came by for some prime rib late in the day and I had him playing pool with the guys and he sat in on the dice game.
I bought Darla a four-hour house cleaning as a Christmas present and she had the crew in on Tuesday to clean the house. They did a good job and it turned out that one of the crew had gone to school with Daniel and was in many of his classes. She left Daniel a note to call her to catch up on old times, but Daniel could barely remember her and he is pretty loyal to Becky. We teased him a bit about it. Darla and I may have them come in once a month to do the floors and bathrooms, kitchen, dusting, etc.
The Dallas Cowboys completed their season ending makeover with a 24-0 shellacking of the Philadelphia Eagles today. I enjoy the games, but admit that I fell asleep late in the fourth quarter. Dallas absolutely dominated the Eagles. They play them in Dallas again next weekend in the first round of the playoffs.
Darla and I are off to the Mayan Riviera on Wednesday morning and will be home next Sunday. The following weekend is Alicia and Don's wedding and we'll be in Napa. I will likely get to the blog with details of our Silpada trip early next week. We stay at the all-inclusive Adventura spa and Resort in Mexico and all meals, spa treatments, etc are paid for. We look forward to getting away, but don't like the Christmas extra weight we are carrying.
I hope everyone's new year is special and that you all make a commitment to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in 2010. Ciao.
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