Just another Bachelor Weekend

These seem to come up too often. I'm not a good bachelor as I forget to eat, I stay up too late, and all I want to do is play golf. It is 8:45 on Sunday night and Darla's flight gets in from Phoenix in about two hours.

I got out for a marketing round of golf on Friday with one of my agents in Folsom. he took me up to his country club in El Dorado Hills that looks out over Folsom Lake. We were supposed to tee off at 9:30, but he called me Thursday night and told me that he had a 1:00 PM appointment that he couldn't get out of and to meet him at the course at 6:30 AM. What he didn't tell me was that he was going to spring it on the starter that he had a threesome and wanted him to fit us in when they start at 7:00 AM. It's a country club and he greased someones palm and we got off as the second group. I shot 41+43 = 84 on the areas fastest greens. I had a ten foot birdie putt on number one that I shot past the hole ten feet and made the comebacker for par. My agent, Gary, also placed a $13,000 account with me this week, so it was a good week. And he paid for the golf.

Friday night I was in the pool until about 8 o'clock and then got some dinner and picked up a video to watch. Saturday I was back out to the golf course for a practice round for today's tournament. The tournament was a blind draw team event and what I needed to practice was getting lucky on the draw. I shot 43+41=84 and seem to be stuck on the 84 number. Last Summer it was 83. Boyd, who turned 70 this year, had a great round with seven birdies and shot a 33+36=69 to shoot lower than his age for the third time. He is an amazing golfer and when he gets it going is really fun to watch.

Today was the tournament and I played better, shooting 40+41=81, but got a lousy partner, a fifteen handicap that shot a 95. My net was 69 and our combined net was 67. No money there. Boyd shot 33+39=72 and his partner shot an 87 with a 22 index for 65. Boyd had a net 66 and their combined net was 58. They were in the lead when I left to come home and get in the pool.

I was out of the office Friday on marketing calls and got a call in the late morning that our IT crew was in the office to set up our VOIP soft phones. Our company is moving to Voice over Internet Protocol for our phone system. The technology has advanced so much in the last year and the call quality is almost as good as digital fiber optic cable. They were in the office over the weekend installing the soft phones and we will test the system tomorrow and Tuesday. I had the IT guys coming in this upcoming Friday on my calendar. They leave for SF on Tuesday.

Randy's birthday celebration in Vancouver is coming up in three weeks. I checked the flights and couldn't find anything less than $550. I told Dad that we might have to forego the trip as I am not taking on any new debt. At 53, my focus is paying off debt. He told me to check on Allegiant Airlines. It turns out they fly out of Oakland into Bellingham at a R/T price of $198. I was ready to bite on that, but Darla's flight on Thursday to KC was overbooked and they offered anyone willing to fly later a $300 voucher plus the cost of the leg from Sac to Kansas City. She took the bump with a girlfriend and ended with $490 in credit with Southwest. I went online Thursday and booked us R/T tickets to Seattle for $486. The only thing I had to pay was $73 in taxes and airport fees. Darla and I both see that as a "GOD" thing and will be happy to be part of the celebration. Now, Dad has to set up golf for us on Sunday at his country club (Shirley's country club). Darla still got into KC by 6:30 and her conference didn't start until Friday morning. She enjoyed the conference, although it is alot of people at the national conference. She was a little wary of Avon's purchase of Silpada, but the CEO of Avon wowed the ladies in his speech. He reminded them that Avon started 113 years ago before women even had the right to vote and was a company founded on an all women sales team. He assured them that the purchase was due to the company's desire to have Silpada as a flagship of Avon and to leave the operation exactly as it is with no changes to the structure or values of the company. He characterized their interest as an investment in upgrading the Avon name. I think he was preaching to the choir as the Silpada gals ate it up.

David is two weeks away from his departure for Rome, Italy and a semester abroad. He will take about ten days traveling in Germany, France, Switzerland and other spots in Europe before the school semester begins with a friend (female). Darla and I offered him a trip to Vegas to see Jennifer and Samantha, but he has limited time left and a lot to do. So he hasn't bitten yet.

Speaking of Jennifer, she found herself a "for now" job in Vegas. She is working at one of the upscale restaurants in The Venetian as a barrista. The restaurant is upstairs and she is working in the coffee house located in the casino. She worked for Starbucks while she was living with us and going to school and used her experience to get a job after her unemployment benefits ran out. She will be eligible for benefits in 90 days and that will help she and Samantha immeasurably. I'm looking forward to planning our next trip to Las Vegas and hope to sit down with Dad and Shirley and get something on the calendar while we are in Canada. Samantha is two and a half and Dad has never met her. We will fix that.

Well, short and succinct, but my mind is just that lately. I'm looking forward to having my wife back this week. I have a marketing golf outing planned on Thursday and then will go with the guys to Darkhorse Golf Club in Lake of the Pines on Saturday morning. I hope you are all well. Be nice to each other. Ciao.

Lake Almanor 2010, Happy 50th Anniversary Earl and Frances

Now that was how to have a vacation. The only thing missing was Jennifer and Samantha. It was a week of celebrating 50 years of marriage for Earl and Francs, Darla's parents, but also a week full of family. The week started with a huge dinner on Sunday night hosted by Earl and Frances. I was overwhelmed by the nearly 60 bodies that descended on Marie's Mexican Restaurant in Chester, California. Earl asked each family to stand up and tell how they were related to the clan, which really helped me put some order to the various groups. These were all relatives from Earl's family. He has two brothers and two sisters and each of those families were well represented with sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters and even a few great grandchildren thrown in for fun. Earl's older brother and sister have already been married for fifty years and his younger sister is well on her way to 50 as well. His other brother, JR, is a confirmed bachelor, although when he was making his announcement, he said, "My wife is out there somewhere, I just haven't found her yet." We had a ball and many group pictures were taken. The top picture is of Earl and his siblings with their spouses. The fourth picture is of his sister, Geneva, and their extended family. They mostly live in Idaho and were the largest group represented at the dinner. The ninth picture is of a potluck that we had on the Wednesday night when several of the families had already left to head home. We still had over thirty for the potluck .

I had arranged a golf outing for eight of us on Tuesday at Bailey Creek Golf Course and the golfers and wannabes showed up Tuesday morning for our 8:50 and 8:40 tee times. The course is a resort course with a bit wider fairways, but still plenty of trees and some water to make things interesting. My group teed off first and we played the white tees to make things easier on the recreational golfers. Earl's brothers played behind us and decided to play the blue tees. When they finally caught up to us they gave us a bad time for playing the whites. I actually found the whites to be tougher as the ball travels so far up in the 4000 foot elevation. I shot 42 on the front and switched to the blues on the back and shot a nice 39 for an 81. Don and Robert in my group shot 93 and the brother's claimed to stop counting on the backside and started drinking.

Stan is Earl's brother-in-law and a cutup. He complained that a farmer should have designed the course, because they had some nice sand boxes and no kids playing in them, some water holes and no one fishing in them and the guy that designed the ball washers made them too high as he damn near broke his leg when he fell off the thing. We kidded JR as he was wearing a knee brace after golf and we figured HE was the one that fell off the ball washer.

Don planned a horseshoe tournament complete with a trophy for the winner. They played it the same day we golfed and I wanted to relax at the lake. I ended up going late and actually made it into the quarterfinals before getting beat by David. H e lost to Don in the final and Don won his own trophy. Don had a phone call on Thursday night and his 18 year old dog was so sick he couldn't get up. His friend called him and told him the dog wouldn't take his pain medication and tried to bite him when he was trying to feed it to him. The dog actually went into convulsions and Don rushed home in the middle of the night, but the dog died while he was en route. Alicia stayed on with Lucas until Saturday.

Our cabin was a 1600 square foot haven on the lake with it's own beach and a spot for us to put the jet ski for the week. We set up two Easy-Ups and left them up for the whole week and hosted many families, who made the trek over from the RV site to our cabin to use the ski and the private beach. Darla particularly liked it because it had a large kitchen, a huge deck overlooking the lake and a nice gas BBQ. It was two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a nice living room. The boys had the kids over one night and they played cards and dice until midnight. You can see a picture of the gang huddled around our dining room table above.

I also took Robert and his son, Drew, golfing on Thursday and we played nine holes at the Almanor West Golf Course on the West side of the lake. That course is much narrower and has pine trees throughout the course. I had a good day with the driver and shot a 39. Robert had a 44 and Drew shot 53, with a nice par putt on the final hole. We stopped for hamburgers at The Depot on the way back to the lake.

The families all enjoyed using our jet ski and we had four of them buy us gas during the week. The ski got quite a workout and went through about 50 gallons of gas. There were times that the ski was in constant use during the day as the teenagers were taking it out in twos and threes and even the adults were getting in on the fun.

We saw about five bald eagles and numerous osprey and other birds during our stay. The bald eagles are majestic and fun to watch as they scan the lake for fish. We could see them swoop down and grab the fish in their claws and head up to a perch in the trees high above to eat their prey. David hiked over to try to get some pictures of the Bald Eagles and stumbled upon a cache of about ten fish that the buzzards and osprey had collected and piled up in a clearing.

Well, that's about it. Darla is working on a tuna fish salad for dinner and boiling up some eggs. I'm sure it will include onion and celery and probably some dill pickle as well. That woman can cook. I hope you are all well and I'll write more next week. Darla is off to national conference with Silpada so I'll be batching it next week. Ciao.

Independence Day 2010

Just back from an early July 5th golf game. We teed off at 6:44 AM this morning with the intention of getting back early and having the whole day to spend with family. Darla is working on something and said, "Go ahead and work on the blog and we'll meet on the pool in an hour." Okay by me.

We had a nice gathering at the house yesterday in celebration of the Fourth of July. Darla and I both warn our guests that we are pool people and if they join us, plan on spending time in the pool. Darla and I have been to so many pool parties where not one soul gets into the pool. It's roasting hot outside and the whole gang is gathered under a pop up awning sweating like pigs and smiling at each other. We have said that we will not have that kind of gathering and the folks that come to our house put on swim suits and relax together in the pool. We still work on settling all of the problems of the world with a cold drink in hand, but we do it from the comfort of the pool.

Speaking of which and I am stepping onto a soapbox, so steel yourselves....we will not truly have another Independence Day until Barrack Hussein Obama is out of office. His entire agenda is to get more and more souls signed up on the public dole and voting for him and his party. There is nothing independent about people being tied to public assistance, it is quite the contrary and you allow the government to control your destiny rather than have the freedom and the self esteem to make your own decisions in life. I have been absolutely broken watching this great country being taken over by the great unwashed and illegal aliens that flood into this country to be a part of the Obama campaign for an electorate of indentured servants. I have watched the great companies of this country move many of their headquarters overseas where they are embraced and welcomed as the government in the US become more and more bloated with borrowed money. This is a country with a broke social security, a broke Medicare program, a flawed IRS system, a hopelessly partisan system of government that now wants to take on a health care system and run that into the ground. God is watching all of this and shaking his head. They ask what the difference between Obama and the White House dog is. The White House dog has papers. I hold out hope that this country will again embrace the ideals of our forefathers, who broke away from a tyrannical government to be free, to prosper and to be independent. God help us free ourselves in 2012 before this country becomes completely morally and financially bankrupt.

Okay, I'm better now.

We sat in the pool yesterday until almost 4:30 and then I barbecued skewers of chicken, steak, onion, zucchini, mushrooms and bell pepper. Freida brought carne asada beans that were to die for and a lemonade cake with fresh fruit for dessert. Jan made cut stars fruit salad, marinated mozzarella and tomato skewers for appetizers, and cheesecake stuffed strawberries with white chocolate drizzled over them. Darla made the meat and veggie skewers, chips and salsa and a delicious potato salad. Finally, Debbie brought a German chocolate cake. It was a feast to behold and a repast to be remembered. We found our way back into the pool after an hour of eating and solving the international debt crisis. At nine, we went across the street to watch the Roseville Fireworks show being sent into the sky from the fairgrounds about a half mile from the house. In the past the fireworks have been a thirty minute show building to the finale. This year, with the budget crisis upon us, it was literally a seven minute show that built to nothing. The finale seemed more like a hiccup than a crescendo. We'd barely found our seats and it was over. We stayed and watched our next door neighbors light their safe and sane fireworks and it was a longer and more fulfilling show than the professional dud at the fairgrounds.

I did (of course) play golf over the weekend and shot a 40+42=82 (net 70) at the Firecracker tournament on Saturday at Diamond Oaks. I took third in my flight. Today, I played with Boyd, Mel and Pamas and shot a 43+38=81, so put up some decent numbers this weekend for a change. Matt Hulburt and I played last Tuesday out at Mather Golf course near the office and I shot an 81 there as well. Matt's game has been hot lately. He shot 34+39=73 on Tuesday and followed that up with a 37+36=71 on Saturday to take low gross for the tournament. He played with myself, Boyd and Bob and had two eagle chips that hit the flagstick and left him tap in birdies. He easily could have shot in the 60's. Oh, to be 26 and talented.

Darla and I talked to Jennifer this afternoon and it looks doubtful that they will be here for Almanor. They are considering it, but would have to drive up in Jennifer's two door Scion TC with both Samantha and their dog, Kippy. She was going to let us know tomorrow, but I think we'll offer her a trip up to Roseville in August for her birthday where they can fly in, spend some time on the jet ski at Folsom lake and just relax. This big 50th anniversary party in Almanor for Earl and Francis is alot to take on at one time. I will be gone next week, so the blog will be on vacation and my next post will likely be on July 17th.

Darla is still trying to talk me into going to Italy in November and if I do, I'll come home early from Almanor to save some vacation time for that week. I'll be making a decision on that this week. Well, the pool beckons as the temperature heads up to 100 degrees this afternoon. I hope you are all well and stayed safe and sane over the Fourth of July holiday. Ciao.