Happy Thanksgiving 2010

A nice four day weekend has passed and we are on to the annual rush to Christmas. All of the people who are so easily cowed into what everyone else does were up at 3 AM Friday crushing into stores for the so called sales. As always, there were injuries as a crush of shoppers knocked people down on their way to grabbing bargains at a Wal Mart at 4 AM in Honolulu. Darla and I were happily sleeping the night away and never saw the inside or outside of a store or mall this weekend. We spent Wednesday night in Paradise at Darla's parent's house and celebrated the repast of turkey and all of the fixings the next day. Alicia and Don and their son. Lucas arrived mid afternoon and we all worked our way back down the hill on Thanksgiving night.
Darla arrived home from Rome after missing her flight Monday morning. She and Carrie were flying Al Italia Airlines and when they arrived 70 minutes before their flight, they were not allowed to get boarding passes as the airline requires passengers to be checked in 90 minutes before the flight. It seems like a scam, but they ran into heavy traffic in Rome and were late getting to the airport. On top of that Al Italia would not let them use their tickets for the next flight because "they were bought from a travel agent and the airline didn't know what amount of money to credit toward the next flight." They were told to call their travel agent. Of course, it was 12:30 in the morning on the West Coast. Carrie ended up paying full fare for two tickets back to San Francisco and is disputing the transaction through her Visa card. The cost of the whole trip per person was $1800 and the cost for a trip to SF was $1100 on the day of the flight. The $1800 included round trip airfare, a hotel and daily breakfast. It sounds like a scam. There is no reason that they have to be checked in 90 minutes ahead of their flight. They are working with their travel agent for a partial refund and Carrie is working with Visa to see what can be done. Al Italia is notorious for doing this last minute and you have to wonder if they are double selling seats.
Jennifer, Samantha and Mike arrive in NorCal on December 2nd. Jennifer's mom is flying them in to celebrate Sam's birthday and Christmas. Diane leaves for Texas next week, where her husband has already moved and is working. We will steal an evening during their 6 day stay to celebrate Samantha's third birthday (her birthday is December 21st) and will celebrate Christmas with them when they fly back out on January 7th for a four day stay with us.
I was talking to one of the guys at the golf club last week about his hair. He was as gray as me and is now a dark brown. I asked him if he had it professionally done. I can't handle peroxide or any petroleum based (PPD) coloring agent on my hair. My scalp burns easily. He said , "No. It was a Henna product I ordered online." I checked the website and decided to try it. I bought a light brown henna shade and after two treatments, now have light brown hair on the top and orangeish red on the sides and back where the gray was. Darla is working with one of her friends who is a hair stylist to fix the color. I have a little bit of a Bozo complex right now. The good news is that it covered the gray really well. I should have known. The only time I'd heard of henna was in Lucille Ball's biography. She swore by it and had it applied twice a month.
Jennifer was without Samantha this weekend and went the longest without seeing her in about a year (5 days). She dropped Sam at John's mothers house on Wednesday night and will see her later this evening. Jen and Michael spent the holiday at some friend's house and called us up in Paradise to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving.
I had golf plans on Saturday and of the four holiday days, Saturday was the only rainy day. I ended up sleeping in and leaving the wet golf to others this weekend. I will go the longest I've gone in a while between golf games when I hopefully compete in the Eclectic Final tournament on Saturday the 5th. The Eclectic is a year long tournament where we keep our best scores on each hole at Diamond Oaks during non NCGA qualifiers and only in stroke play tournaments. I am at 64, which will give me a net 53 if I don't improve any in the final event. My score is 32+32 and I picked up one birdie in the President's event a few weeks ago.
I had Darren, one of my golf buddies, take my Scotty Cameron putter so that he could flame it for me. He had flamed his, Basically, you remove the color infill with acetone and then take a butane torch and flame the stainless steel metal a carmel color. It looks beautiful. He had to remove the two bottom 15 gram weights prior to flaming the putter or it would seal the removable weights into the putter head. What he discovered was a shock to me. He couldn't remove the weights as his Scotty Cameron tool didn't fit. I have a counterfeit Scotty Cameron putter made in China. I bought it from a golf retailer on e-bay and called them last Tuesday and they admitted being duped last year and offered to refund $100 of the $175 I paid for the putter (I've had it for over a year). I putt great with it, but will probably buy one of the new Scotty Cameron California series putters, which is a gold flamed putter. The putters new sell for $325. Live and learn. Maybe my whole set of clubs are counterfeit, I bought everything on e-bay. Maybe my 9.7 handicap is counterfeit too?
I took Darla's Explorer in on Friday for new tires. Bridgestone had a buy three get one free promotion and $750 later, we have new tires. I had to drive into San Francisco on Monday night to pick up Darla and Carrie and it was wet and rainy and the tires were due to be replaced. I felt a couple of slips along the way and decided it was time to bite the bullet. We got some new Bridgestone Uni-Trac AQ tires with a 65,000 mile warranty. We bought the Duelers she had on the truck in 2005 and she puts close to 18,000 miles a year on.
Darla and I were able to get in and clean out the utility room and it looks great. We have the washer and dryer in there as well as the cat's food, our recyclables and a collection of outdoor coats. There were other odds and ends that had collected in there over the years and it looks nice and neat right now. Of course, the kitchen was immaculate when Darla was gone and now has mail, papers, Silpada boxes and jewelry scattered on the kitchen table. We can really only do so much, after that the rest of it is just living.
I will be adding a little holiday movie we made to the blog as soon as Jib Jab gets it downloaded to my account. I hope you are all well, properly stuffed and sated after the Thanksgiving meal and ready for the push on to Christmas. I will have some fresh pictures of Jennifer and Samantha next week. Be well, Ciao. And, so, here is the video. Happy Holidays:

Stormy Weekend

These are a couple of pictures from David's blog. He is wearing a cap in both of them. If you want to see more, check out his blog in the link on the right of the page. David's new camera takes some awesome pictures.

It has been about 2 inches of rain so far, but it didn't stop us from golfing on Saturday. If you want to see idiots, go out to a golf course when it's raining, there's always a few in evidence. The rain came in on Friday and we got a good soaking. I played poker with the guys Friday and told them that the tournament would be on in the morning. At the time, it was pelting down rain. The guys all said, "No way!!" The forecast was for a slight break in the storm pattern Saturday morning with the bulk of the storm coming in Saturday afternoon into today. The forecast was right on. We teed off at 10:45 in a slight drizzle, which lasted three holes and gave way to sunshine by the 4th hole. The winds were gusting up to 40 MPH and it was miserable on the course. We didn't see rain until we were off the course though.It rained hard overnight. I took my turkey certificate won at the tournament and did some shopping Saturday night, picking up a hen turkey and some other things and got drenched packing the car. I then ran to the local Mexican food Cantina and picked up a chicken burrito and some chips and salsa for dinner. I have the other half of the burrito for dinner tonight. I also bought a nice pot roast for dinner Tuesday night when Darla gets home. I'm ready for some comfort food after batching it for a week.

I awoke today, a little later than normal and the rain had stopped overnight. I was able to get out and clean up the pool, drain the pool, and clean up leaves from the downfall of the grove of trees in the park across the street. I did the backyard in the morning and went back out a little after 4 PM to work on the front and the sky turned really dark and hail started pelting me about half way through the task. At one point, I took shelter in the garage as it was really sheeting down. It stopped as quickly as it began, but turned to rain, so I finished up and headed inside to work on my blog and have some dinner while watching the Sunday night NFL game on television.

Darla gets home tomorrow night at ten o'clock after traveling all day. She leaves Rome at 9:50 AM, which is 12:50 AM our time, flies to Newark, NJ arriving at 1:30 PM. She then has a three hour layover in New Jersey before flying out of there at 4:30 and arriving in Sacramento at 10:07 PM. She will be dead tired as that is 7 AM Rome time. It will take her a few days to get caught up. She sent me an e-mail mid-week and asked me to add some money to her account as she was running low. Yeah, I'm just here working for the man, here to help my wife spend some Euros to help the European economy. It sounds like she's had a great time, but we haven't spoken since she left last week. It will be GREAT to have her home.

I have fixed up the guest bedroom and rearranged our bedroom and closet since she left. I'd hoped to get to the laundry room which is stacked with furniture and jewelry, etc. from the remodeling of this room, but I think Darla and I will tackle that together next weekend. I also fixed her driver's side seat, which had a panel break loose when the side clip had broken on the plastic covering over the controls facing the door. I simply used some gorilla tape and secured the panel to the seat frame from the bottom of the panel.

Poker was fun and it actually kept me out of the casino this trip. I usually make a run to the local Indian casino when Darla is gone to kill time and have some fun. I had so much good luck on Friday night, taking over $100 from my friends, that I decided not to press my luck. I ended up getting a video "Get Him to the Greek", a sophomoric comedy that was two hours of mindless fun.

Saturday, we started golf in the rain and the scores were really ballooning in the weather. The wind ruined a few rounds, including Pamas in my flight, a 4 handicap that shot 85. I also had a 5 handicap in the group that shot 80. I managed my game well and only had one double bogey on my way to a 42+40=82, net 72. My handicap dropped on Nov. 15 to 9.7 which nets me a 10 on Diamond. 9.8 is an 11. I took low net in my flight with a 72 and won $35 in a Raley's gift card and did go buy a turkey. I hope that Darla will fix us a turkey on Saturday as we will be at Darla's Mom and Dad's house for Thanksgiving (I want leftovers). I also snuck out on Wednesday for some "Sports Marketing" and took one of my agents out to Winchester CC for a round. It was 72 degrees and sunny on Wednesday, but the course was set up tough and we all struggled. Matt from my office played with one of his agents, Micah, who is a 9.4 handicap. Micah shot 98, Matt had 95, I shot 90 and Gary (my agent who is a 6) shot 85. We stunk up the joint, but had a great time together golfing and fixing the state of the insurance markets as we played.

I received Randy's ProV1s as payoff of our World Series' bet and there was a handwritten note from Cake in the package that said: "I hope you sink all of these....in a lake!" I texted Randy and told him what her note said and he says she takes good dictation. All in fun and I've got another dozen Pro V1s. I hope all are well. Dad and Shirley are out to dinner tonight to celebrate their 10th anniversary. 10 years already, that's amazing. I have trouble remembering that Darla and I have been married for 14 years, too. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Ciao.

Wifeless in Sacramento

Some Pictures from Jennifer sent to me by text. These are cell phone pics from Jennifer's cell phone. She has been great lately at keeping me in pictures of Miss Samantha. She is a living doll, and, yes, I'm a little biased in my opinion. The top picture is of Samantha playing on a horse at Chuck E. Cheese.

Darla left this morning for Italy. We were up at 3:45 (or she was) and her friend, Carrie was over at 4:30. I drove the girls to the airport and dropped them off for their 6 AM flight to Chicago and a layover and then their flight to Rome. They should be arriving shortly in Italy. I was thrilled that Darla has an experienced international traveler in Carrie, a friend of Darla's from work. Carrie is used to catching trains and buses in foreign countries and speaks Spanish, which will help in Italy and a side trip that they are taking mid-week to Madrid. Darla is known as "wrong way Westra" and is lost without a GPS. I know that Carrie will get them on the train and to their hotel and over to David's apartment Monday night. I had never met Carrie, but gave her a hug when I dropped them off as I was so impressed with her organization and preparation for the trip. I can relax knowing that Darla is in good hands.

I have some work to do this week getting the guest bedroom set back up after Darla painted it while I was in Detroit. The bed is still pulled away from the wall and laden with pictures and boxes from the floor of the room. The kitchen is also a little cluttered with papers and mail from when i was gone. Darla is so busy with three jobs that sometimes the housework piles up. I have little to do while she is gone and can make it a priority to get some of this done. I also need to fix the seat in her SUV, where the side panel at the bottom of the seat has torn loose. It is plastic and covers the seat controls. i need to get on the Ford website and order a new one or head over to the Pick 'n Pull yard and take one out of an Explorer. We'll see.

I did come back this morning and went back to bed and slept until 8:30. I had a golf game at 9:52 at Diamond, the Past President's tournament. I played solid golf today and finished with a 42+40=82. Neil won the trophy as low net for the Past President's with a net 67. I had a net 71 and finished in a tie for second out of the 8 Past Presidents playing in the tournament. Neil has ballooned up to a 19 after working his handicap down to 15. He is obviously playing better with an 86 today.

I played yesterday in the last Diamond tournament of the year and the course was set up as hard as I have ever seen it. if their was a ridge on a green, the hole was cut there. I played out of my head on the front with two birdies in the first three holes and finishing with a 36 on the front. I struggled on the back with a double bogey and two triple bogeys for a 45 and a total of 81. Boyd pointed out that water always finds it's level. I wasn't amused. Somehow a round of 45+36=81 is easier to swallow. I finished 4th in my flight and would have taken the $105 first prize with a 42 on the back. Oh, well. Matt shot 38+37=75 and took second in his flight. Boyd struggled badly (for hi) and shot an 83. Bob didn't play in the Diamond Tournament, but came out today and shot a smooth 73 to take low gross in the tournament for the field of 100 golfers.

This will be a good week at work. We have to make up our premium this week as the holiday (Thanksgiving) is next week and the agent's start to lose focus. I have a couple of large accounts that hit this week and the office has a $3000,000 account that looks good for us. I took the staff out to lunch last Wednesday at the Elephant Bar to celebrate our "Budget Busting" in October. We need to hit the number in November as the staff wants to go to a restaurant and have our White Elephant gift exchange and they want $50 restaurant gift cards for the Holiday gift. I am given $50 per person, but have to use that for all of the festivities and we want to hit our budget number to have the lunch come out of that pot. If not, we will be getting $25 restaurant cards and the lunch will eat up the rest of the money.

Well, this is short, but it is late. I helped out with the $400 skin pool, collecting the money and doing the payouts today and didn't get home until after 6:00 PM. I then watched the tape of the Dallas Cowboys dismantling of the New York Giants. I was thrilled as their coach, Tom Coughlin, bugs me. He has a look on his face always as if he just swallowed a turd and is constantly whining and complaining on the sideline. It was nice to see Dallas, the doormats in 2010 put one on the division leaders in their own house. We also have a radio personality that is a big Giant fan and has been riding the Dallas situation all year (rightfully so). He called them the joke of the league and said he's sell his season tickets if they lost to Dallas this week. I look forward to the drive home from work tomorrow night listening to him explain this butt whipping. Fun stuff. Be well and pray for traveling mercies for my bride while she is in Italy. Ciao.

Back From Detroit and Getting Caught up

It is always a bit of a trial when I fly East to Detroit. That first day when the alarm goes off at 6:00 AM and it is 3:00 AM California time, I groan and bury my head under the pillow. I finally got caught up after Wednesday and then flew home Saturday at 7:30 PM though Denver and arriving back in Sacramento at 11:00 PM (2:00 AM Detroit time). It was a rainy Sunday and we got some help from the end of daylight savings time. I slept in this morning and was asleep again on the couch by noon in front of the TV.
The meetings were good for the company and good for me personally. Our branch won the Bronze award for Branch of the Year for Division 2. My office had been Division 3 up until this year when we surpassed $15,000,000 in premium and got into the tougher Division 2 ranks which include offices with premium up to $20,000,000. We won the Gold award for Division 3 last year and when the Division 3 awards were presented and I was left out, I felt bad. Due to the compression of premium in our industry and company, the Divisions were realigned and I'm pleased to have made the leap to Division 2, which encompasses 14 offices and still take an award. Anthony in my office won the Directors Award for premium production being in the top 30 producers in the company.
It was an interesting week. Our bus suffered a flat tire on the way to the office on Thursday morning and we got stuck on the side of the road for an hour while the bus company brought us a replacement bus. Fun at 34 degrees in Detroit. I ate too much, drank too much and put on four pounds in five days and look forward to getting back on the Lifecycle at the gym tomorrow at lunch. My meeting with the CEO went well. He had nice things to say about the turnaround in Sacramento and the fact that an office he was afraid at one time would be closed is now a leader in percentage increase in profitability year to year. Many of my meetings in the past have been fast, he talks and I listen meetings, but this one was a 45 minute dialogue on what changes have been made in the office and where I see the office going in the next five years. I told him that the third year that I met with him when I had brought the office from losing to $480,000 to profitability at about an $80,000 profit, I met with him expecting to be praised and he handed me my head, saying that if I was a grocery store he'd close me down with the kind of margins I had. He laughed and said, he has high expectations for all of his offices and he knew I could do better. This was my seventh Branch Manager's meeting and I think I am firmly in the club now.
I got to the hotel Tuesday night after my flight in and realized that I had left my ties at home. Luckily it was only 8:30 and I was able to catch a ride with the bellman over to Macy's in the mall next door and bought three new ties for the meeting. They had hand painted ties in the gift shop of The Henry (formerly the Ritz Carlton) for $85 each. I passed on those.
Darla took the opportunity when I was gone to paint this guest bedroom/office and the guest bathroom next door. The smell of fresh paint is in the air and I had to reconfigure the internet in order to get on the computer after she took everything apart Friday. She painted this room an eggplant color with one wall a chocolate color. She painted the bathroom purple with a chocolate accent wall as well. Now, of course, we have to change the blinds and window coverings. I'm actually looking forward to redecorating the boy's rooms. I will likely move the office into the front bedroom and make Daniel's another guest room. Both of those rooms have been "doors closed" kids rooms for so long, it will be nice to have those rooms become part of the house again.
Our golf tournament got canceled today because of the rain and pushed back to next Sunday. I will play both Saturday and Sunday in tournaments as the final Diamond tournament is on Saturday.
Darla will leave for an 8 day trip to Italy next Sunday. She will meet up with David and see the sights of Rome and make a trip over to Venice as well. I was invited, but will wait until the 23 and 21 year old are off the payroll before taking any expensive trips. David still has a year and a half left and Daniel 2 quarters until he graduates.Hopefully the job market will improve by the time they get ready to look for work. Now that the Republicans have control of the House and are pushing for more int he next campaign, business is no longer a curse word in the White House. Obama got slammed HARD with the unprecedented losses in this last election and it is a clear mandate that Americans have had enough of Hope and Change. Toward the end, Obama was trying change and hope and that wasn't working either. Hopefully, we can undo the Health Care mess before it cripples businesses and working families. One lesson is never elect someone with no experience, it is ALWAYS a disaster. Hopefully, Republicans learn from that and turn Sarah Palin out to pasture before 2012. IF she runs against Obama, he WILL win another term. Anyone else with true experience and the Presidency should be returned to the party that supports small business and will get America back working again.
That is it for this week. Darla will be off to Europe next week and I will have time to write more, David also plans to update his blog and I'll put some pictures from that on this site as well. Be well, happy and healthy. Ciao.