Springing Forward into Spring

The post title says much about the weekend and today. We did spring forward last night and today was 74 degrees and sunny, a day to work outside (or golf) and I did the former. We were exhausted and missed church with the earlier time and we are still catching up from our trip to Canada. We were well rested on the trip and I took a nap about everyday, but it was nonstop outings and conversation and it took something out of us. You can see in the pictures that we spent my birthday at Benihana's and by my posture in the picture that I'm still feeling the effects of the trundle bed (Just kidding, Dad!). I also included a picture of the photo frame and picture that Jennifer and Sam sent me for my birthday. I think the picture predates Samantha as my hair is a bit darker in the photo. Darla and I were trying to figure when it was taken and our guess is when Jennifer returned home from the Army. I also included some more pictures from our trip to Canada and Cam, Kathy and their boys.

Darla set us up Friday for a "couple massage" at Massage Heights in Rocklin. I have had massages and wondered if the "couple massage" basically just guarantees you a happy ending. What it is generally is a room with two massage beds in the room and you each get a massage from a different massage therapist. There isn't really any interaction between the couple as you are face down in a massage yoke for most of the 55 minute massage. I think the design may be for a woman who doesn't want a massage without her husband being present. It was enjoyable and relaxing and we had a little time to go home and get cleaned up before going to Benihana's. Dinner was great as always and we both had Hibachi Shrimp and Chicken and even brought some leftovers home for Saturday.

I played golf with Matt, Darren and Bob Hand on Saturday as the second weekend of a 54 hole championship was being played out by the club. My last two partners, Bob Pando and Steve Matthews were playing together and leading the tournament as of Saturday night. We teed off at 7:30 AM just in front of the tournament which began at 8 AM. I struggled and did something twice in the round that I haven't done in 20 years. I lifted my head on a fairway shot and completely topped the ball. The first time I did it was on number two and I exerted so much backspin by hitting the top of the ball that it went straight up in the air hit the ground and spun backwards about 15 yards. I was stunned. The damn thing is I did it again on number 18 and moved the ball about twenty yards. I shot 44+44=88 in windy, cold but dry conditions. Matt shot 77 (even with a triple bogey on the back nine) , Darren shot 95 and Bob 101. It is amazing how fast I can lose my game having simply missed one weekend of golf while in Canada. I will hit balls Tuesday night, I have a game Thursday with one of my vendors in Folsom and then will play in a tournament on Saturday hosted by our home course Diamond Oaks and sponsored by Adams Golf. Matt and Boyd will play with me. Bob Pando is taking the weekend off as he is actually or did actually play golf on his 30th wedding anniversary today. They had six o'clock reservations at Il Fornaio in Roseville after the round, so Bob is not a complete idiot. Darryl had called me while I was golfing and even guessed that was what I was doing when I didn't answer my cell phone.

Work continues to go well and we are ahead of pace over 2009 and that was our best year ever. Bonuses are paid this week, so everyone should be in a good mood. I even shared some of my good fortune with not only my assistant, but the typing unit as well. Those ladies have worked hard to stay ahead of our new business production which is up almost 40% over two years ago. We fell a little behind after the Cambridge acquisition, but have caught up with the help of an additional hire in the typing unit.

I did work in the yard today and I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn. I repaired a broken sprinkler pipe, mowed and edged the lawn, added some mulch and bark to the trees on the north side of the house and put down some additional grass seed to basically overseed a couple of areas that are thin. After that, I cleaned and strained the pool, cleaned out the filters on the pool sweep and the baskets on the filter inlet and finally came in to work on the blog. It has been a non stop day. Darla and I went out earlier and picked up some medication from Kaiser and I went to the Home Depot while she waited for that to be processed. We then went together over to the "Almost Perfect Used book store" in Roseville and picked up six new novels to read from novelists Steve Martini, John Grisham, John Lescroart, Stuart Woods and Perri O'Shaunessy. Dad and Shirley apparently save every book they've ever read as they have something like six bookcases in the house. We recycle our books and I was happy to see that we had $22 on the books (so to speak) at the bookstore and only had to pay $7 for the books. They cost $4 or $5 used and we get 25% of the cover price back when we sell the books back to them. The bookstore is close to Darla's work and she will occasionally drop off a couple of bags of books and they put the credit on our account and then we forget about it. it was a nice surprise today.

Darla is off to the gym for a workout and dinner is my responsibility tonight, so I'd best fire up the barbecue and get to it, eh? I hope you are all well and living in the Lord's Word daily. Ciao.