Boxing Day 2011

You can see the absolute excitement of Christmas Day in the picture of me fast asleep on the couch. We had the boys over in the morning and opened gifts. Darla fixed a nice quiche for us and the boys ate and said their goodbyes as they were off to a day with their Dad at his cousin's house. The basketball games came on and I found my spot on the couch and slowly my eyes grew tired and soon I was off to dreamland. The boys were over the night before and we watched "The Help" on dvd, the second time for Darla and I. If you haven't seen it, do. We also made it out to the Christmas Eve service at church which was very nice.

The weather here has been the same for weeks on end. Freezing temperatures overnight and then crisp, clear days with temperatures into the sixties. The forecast is changing this week with some clouds rolling in and the freeze moving out and perhaps even some rain by the end of the week. This has been the driest December on record for Sacramento with only a trace of rain for the whole month. I am off to Morgan Creek Country Club at noon today for a round of golf with Neil, Boyd and Pamas. I set the round up late in the day because Matt in my office wanted to join us, but would be in the Bay Area. I accommodated him and then he texted me last night that he wouldn't be able to make it. Neil filled in, but my concern is getting in 18 holes as we tee off at 12:48 PM. The pro said to get there early and he'd try to get us on the course before our tee time. We'll see. With the frost this morning, they probably won't start teeing off until 9:30 or so.

Darla just joined the land of the living and she is fixing me some left over quiche. Life is good.

You can see in the pictures above the sky over Vegas on Christmas day. Someone had a skywriter put up Lyon Heart in the sky. Jennifer got a picture of it and was tickled. I also have a picture of my hats in the master bathroom. Darla told me I either had to downsize on the hats or find a place to store them. I put up a set of racks above the belts and the mirror and problem solved. I did throw out a few hats, including a couple of Darla's and she was less than pleased.

It is a short week this week with Monday off. Originally, Friday was a holiday on the original work schedule, but because it is the last day of the month and the year, they changed it to a work day and gave everyone a floating holiday to use between December 1st and January 6th. I am taking the 6th of January off when Samantha and Jennifer join us. I am in the middle of both employee reviews and the 2012 budget at work and it should be quiet enough to get a lot of that accomplished this week. The budget is due on Friday and the reviews sometime in January. The employees are working on their self reviews now.

We were supposed to go over to Don and Alicia's on Saturday for prime rib. They went out and bought a $100 prime rib and then Lucas got sick with the flu on Saturday and passed it to both Alicia and Don. Don went ahead and cooked up the meat on Saturday and must have a refrigerator full of meat now. Darla had bought a prime rib as well and ended up cooking it Saturday night and the boys pretty well devoured it. We had bought two pies from Nations for the meal at Don's house that we are slowly eating.

The Dallas Cowboys remain alive for their division championship, almost unbelievably as the New York Giants gagged on their game with the Redskins. They will play in New York on Sunday with the winner moving on to the playoffs. I don't know what to expect as the team has played brilliantly and horribly at different times this year. At least it will make for some interesting football this weekend.

I got out to Serrano Country Club on Thursday and played golf with Gary, my agent who is a member there. Last time I shot 84 in winds of 45 MPH. This trip saw another 84, but in ideal conditions, playing wise. We got stuck behind the LPGA, three groups of women that were on a social outing. It took us two and a half hours to play 6 holes and we ended up skipping ahead to number 12, playing the back nine in a little over an hour and then coming back to play the five holes we missed. It was a bit of a cut up 18 holes of golf, but we made it through.

Darla has left for a scheduled visit with the natural parents of a couple of her foster kids that she supervises as a social worker. She will pick the kids up from the foster parents and meet the natural parents at a McDonald's for their hour visit. I will head out to golf and meet up with her later this afternoon.

Jennifer got moved into her new apartment this weekend and it will be just her and Samantha for the time being. I'm happy for her and I think this is something that she and Samantha need at this point. She has depended on others so much in her life for shelter and has always been at the mercy of her relationship. She needs to develop a solid home for Samantha and let her personal life play out separate from her relationship with Sam. Jennifer and John are getting along better which is great for Samantha. They were able to have dinner with Sam on her birthday and then open presents together at John's house on Christmas morning. I am very happy for Samantha.

Well, that is it for this week. The New Year beckons next weekend and I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012. Ciao.

Just a week until Christmas?

Just a week away from Christmas and only 3 days until Samantha hits the big 4 and just a year until I'm guessing she will start Kindergarten. Time is forever clicking away. The pictures above are from my staff Christmas Party on Friday afternoon. We had lunch at Rudy's Lobster house in Rancho Cordova and exchanged gifts and I bought gift card for each of the staff. We mixed it up a little this year and I bought $50 gift cards from various vendors and had the cards sitting out next to the gifts and whomever had the number would pick a gift and a gift card. The gifts could be stolen up to three times and the gift cards twice. It was pretty funny watching the group haggle over gifts and gift cards and at one point we had four of the kitchen staff lined up behind us watching the festivities. I ended up with a gift card to the Paragary Restaurant chain in downtown Sacramento and a portable speaker dock for my iPhone which will come in handy out by the pool this Summer. We were seated at the restaurant by 1:00 PM and out of there by 3:00 PM.

I have several more holiday lunches to work my way through this week, starting with a "lunch and learn" at the office tomorrow, where our Special Risk Department is putting on a presentation by web conferencing on cyber liability. Tuesday is a lunch in Woodland with one of my and Pete's biggest agents and Wednesday is lunch with Jeff and Linda along with Darla. I have had annual dinners with Jeff and Linda for years and Darla and I have visited their home and had dinner there as well. Thursday I hope to take the boys out to lunch. They have both been working with me for a week getting the insurance files scanned and ready to be shredded. They are working on the 2008 files now and we hope to have those completed this week. Daniel told me that he is willing to stay on past January 2nd if there is still work. He is essentially done at Cal Poly with just a credential test to pass to get his degree. David has just one semester left (or two quarters if you will) and he will be graduating.

David had his fourth surgery last week on his teeth to have posts installed and permanent replacements put in for his large rear molars. He had surgery over Thanksgiving to have bone material fused to his jaw and surgery last week to have the post implanted into his jaw. He will have the permanent tooth installed in the Spring. His mouth has been pretty sore and he has essentially been on a liquid diet since Tuesday. If he's up to it, I will take them both out to lunch on Thursday.

I look forward to celebrating Christmas with Samantha and Jennifer, a few weeks late, but in person as they will fly to Sacramento for three days starting on January 5th through the weekend. We had thought about flying out to Vegas again, but it is actually cheaper for us to fly them in and stay here. We also want Samantha to get to know Papa and Grandma's house. The plan is for them to spend a full week with us in Almanor this year in July.

The weather has been sensational here this December with highs in the 60's during the day and overnight lows below freezing. The problem with that is that we are encountering frost delays at the golf courses locally. I had an 8:36 tee time on Saturday at Cherry Island and true to form, there was a 90 minute frost delay. We finally got onto the course at 9:30 as several foursomes just bailed leaving us going off second. I struggled this week and shot a 44+44=88, actually picking up on three holes once I was over double bogey. Neil asked me why I didn't finish those holes and I told him that in my maturing age there are three things I do: One, I stop eating when I'm full. Two, I stop doing things I'm not enjoying (I won't sit through a bad movie or sporting event) and Three, I won't spend time with people I don't like socially (sometimes you have no choice when it is business or family). Boyd really struggled on the front nine with a 47, but true to his abilities came storming back on the back nine with a 37 for 84. Pamas shot 78 and Neil 94. I had a great time with the guys. This coming week is Christmas and although I have a tee time for Saturday, I hear that we are getting together with my in laws for Christmas at Don and Alicia's house on Saturday so that may be a dead end.

The Golf Club over at Diamond Oaks had their holiday sale last Thursday and I stopped by for some Rum and Eggnog, some meatballs and chicken wings and I also bought some new golf shoes, some ProV1 golf balls and a logo golf shirt. In the past they had you spin a wheel for your discount (20% off, 15%, free golf balls, a free round or golf, etc.) This year they gave us a free cart for spending $50, a free round for spending $100 and a free round with cart for spending over $150. My purchases worked out to $165 and I put away a certificate for a free round with cart to use next year. I was amazed to learn that I had $500 on the books at the clubhouse. I have done very well this year in winning my flight in the club championship ($110) as well as the hole in one ($50) and finishing in first place in three tournaments ($55 each) as well as in the money in many other tournaments, so the money just added up. I still have $335 on the books and really no need for new clubs or anything, so I'll have plenty of money for golf balls and range balls this coming year.

The Cowboys lost that game to the Giants last week and I figured it was over for them. The way that they lost was pretty emotionally crippling, but here one week later, the Giants lose to a 3-9 Redskin team and Dallas is back in sole possession of first place in their division. The game with the Giants looms on New Years Day,but if Dallas wins Saturday and the Giants lose, Dallas is the division champion. Even if Dallas loses Saturday, the game against the Giants will be the determining factor. What a wacky year in the NFL.

Darla has her monthly Silpada party at the house tomorrow night (right in the middle of Monday Night Football). It's okay, because some bonehead in my fantasy sports league scheduled a fantasy draft for the NBA league at 6:30 tomorrow night, so I won't see much of the Niner-Steeler clash.

Well, I hope all of your Christmas shopping is done and you can spend some quiet time reflecting on the reason for the season. The greatest gift you can ever receive was handed to us by Jesus when he died for us on the cross and resurrected into Glory. All that you have to do is accept it and ask him to become the Lord of your life. At that point, people who never had a concept of hope, learn what Christians already know. This life is temporary and but a blip on the radar. Our Heavenly Home is eternal. Merry Christmas to all of you, Happy Holy Days and Saviour's Greetings. Ciao.

Lazy Sunday

I just woke up after a 90 minute nap on the couch. The lack of compelling football on television and the combination of a good breakfast and a warm blanket had me out like a light. The house is warm and comfortable and I slept pretty soundlessly (At least from my perspective. Darla would likely argue that).

I had two heating and air companies out this last week to take a look at our system. We have a newer Amana 90,000 BTU heater that was installed 5 years ago. The company that installed it was owned by the husband of one of Darla's coworkers and he gave us an awesome deal on the system. It turns out that he cut some corners in getting us as good a deal as he did. The system is over sized for the duct system that was in place and we needed two plenums installed with two returns. The system was installed with a single plenum and return and the heater would actually lift up the electrostatic filter that we have and it would BANG back down when the system turned off. The first company that came out gave me a quote of $4200 to have all of the duct work replaced and the plenum and return installed. I called one of my insurance retailers that specializes in contractors and he referred me to a heating and air contractor in Roseville. I met with the contractor on Tuesday morning. He inspected the system and told me that the duct work was fine, that he could install the new plenum and return and reroute a couple of the ducts to the end of the heater to give those more airflow for $1,085. He came back on Thursday and installed the return with another electrostatic filter and actually replaced part of the duct work that was leaking. The system works much better and is tremendously quieter. One of the issues was an almost lack of heat in David's room and that now has a good flow of heat to the room. The room is still colder than the rest of the house, but it appears to be an issue of wall insulation that I will have to have looked at. The room is much warmer, but there is some residual coolness to the walls.

We are getting prepared for Christmas. We have some of the shopping done. We are finished with Darla, David, Samantha (both Christmas and birthday gifts), Lucas, and myself. I bought a new Lenovo 15.6" laptop that I am working on right now. Darla is almost done with her Christmas cards. She does our personal cards as well as cards for her business.

I had to install the handicap software on the laptop and will meet with Gary this week for additional training on the handicap system. I went to the last board meeting of the year for the golf club last week which is the annual "In and Out" meeting where the new board members attend as well as the outgoing board members. This year will be our golden anniversary with 50 years as a club and we have designed a new logo for the club to celebrate 50 years.

I did set up a golf game for Saturday up in Auburn at Auburn Valley Country Club. Boyd, Pamas and Neil joined me and we drove up at 9 AM for our 10:10 AM tee time. There have been frost delays all week in Sacramento with overnight lows down into the upper 20's. Auburn is at a higher elevation, but there was a still a slight delay and we were able to tee off about 10:30. The course is great and has fast greens with not too many flat lies on the green. We all struggled with putting, but I was able to put together a 42+42=84. Boyd and Pamas both shot 85 and Neil shot 93. I was lucky enough to win $15 from my buddies. We had a great time and the sun came out and warmed us up as we played.

Today is a little more cloudy as a weather system passes to the south. It looks like we might even get some rain in the area by Thursday, but should clear up for the weekend and another golf game.

It will be a busy week for me at work. I have several agency luncheons early in the week and then our office Christmas luncheon on Friday. We will return to Rudy's Hideaway, the lobster house in Rancho Cordova. This will be our last year there as we will finally move to Roseville likely in March or April. The last I heard, the lease has still not been signed, but they are arguing over minor terms now and this should be completed soon. We will do a gift exchange and I will buy each of the employees a $50 gift card.

Dallas plays the New York Giants tonight in a game that will likely decide the NFC East. Dallas leads the division now by a game, but if they lose this game, their psyche will be shattered. Hopefully they show up for the game and take care of business tonight.

Jennifer has found a new home and will be moving next weekend. She and Michael have reached a parting of ways and Jennifer is renting a one bedroom apartment in Vegas. She and Samantha will share a room and it will just be the two of them. I am happy for her. She has been a roommate in all of her homes except the small apartment she rented in Roseville. She will no longer be at the mercy of the person on the lease, because that will be her. Things are going well for her in both her professional life as well as her personal life. She is happy again and she and Samantha are both doing well.

We got the rest of the bill for Dad's birthday Bahamas cruise paid for this week and we look forward to seeing the family in Florida and on the cruise in February. I have arranged for a hotel in SF on Thursday night and long term parking for our car while we are gone. I haven't set up the hotel in Ft Lauderdale yet, but I'm leaning toward a Rodeway Inn in Dania Beach that will pick us up from the airport, take us to the port on Saturday morning and then pick us back up the following Saturday and give us a day room to use before our flight Saturday afternoon back to SF. Their cost of $179 is close to what we'd pay for just a night's stay most other places. Our flight back to SF isn't until 5 PM on Saturday.

Well, that is it for this week. Darla is off at a foster agency Christmas Party and will be home soon. I hope you are all well and getting prepared for the holidays. The boys are on their way home from Cal Poly and both will be working for me over the holidays. We are having quite a few of our policy files scanned into our system in order to save from having to store them after we move. The new office does not have a file room as we have been paperless since 2009. I have files in the office from 2005 and we will scan all of the 2007 and 2008 files. David and Daniel will be working on that project for me and both will be in tomorrow for training. Have a great week. Ciao.

Some pictures from our Golf Club's Christmas Party that was Saturday night at Sierra View Country Club in Roseville. This is the second year that we have been back to Sierra View and the food, the room and the decorations were much better this year. They fixed a New York Steak that was cut in slices and was incredible. The bar also ran out of house Gin and was pouring Beefeaters for well prices, so the evening took a very fortuitous bounce in my direction once they ran out of the London's Edge gin they were pouring. It was good to get together with all of our golf friends and I walked away with a wall plaque for my Club Championship win. Two of the guys at our table won runner up awards in the Club Championship and I referred to those as "participation awards". They were not overly amused. I also won a nice Samsonite trunk organizer for my golf balls, shoes, towels, etc. Darla and I had a very nice evening and were able to dance and enjoy each other as well as our friends. I'm adding a picture of Neil and Lilly for Dad and Darryl. You can see how skinny Lilly is getting now that she is retired and a married woman. I think Neil is holding her to two meals a day now that they are on a fixed income. That way he can continue to play as much golf as he wants. Just kidding, Neil.

I was at the golf course until almost 5:30 tonight working with the current handicapper to learn the systems and how to post the scores quickly and efficiently after the tournament. I also have to learn and work with an Excel program that tracks our year long eclectic scores, which are the best score on each hole during specified tournament. I was able to shave two strokes off of my gross 64 today and dropped my net down to 49. I was leading the net category in my flight going into today, so I'm pleased. I also took home $20 in skin money. My score in the tournament of a net 73 and a posted score of 85 will not win anything, but I'll take some money home in the year long tournament. We also closed out the tournament schedule today and my hole in one held up as the only hole in one for the year long closest to the pin award which pays $50, so overall, I had a good day. I was one under par after 5 holes, but came apart in the end and it was a pretty pedestrian round, but I did birdie both par threes on the front side.

My weekend started with poker on Friday night and I am pleased to say that I cleaned my friends out of about $60 and heartily ate the tri tip sandwiches that were barbecued by Steve. Darla called me about ten o'clock and she had just got home from one of her Silpada parties. She had taken out her "easy-Up" shade before she left and had moved the Yamalube (jet ski oil) in the process. She ran over the $28 jug and spilled the oil in the garage. The spill was about the size of an open patio umbrella. She called me in a panic and asked what to do. I told her to get the cheapest cat litter she could find and spread it over the spill and let it absorb and then sweep it up, She had to make two trips to the store to buy $1.99 cat litter, but it did the trick. The mess was cleaned up by the time I got home at shortly after midnight, although the garage smelled like the inside bays of a corner gas station.

Jennifer ran in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Vegas today with her Mom. I tried to call and see how she did, but she didn't answer. The run was from the Manadalay Bay along the strip to Fremont Street and back. She was looking forward to the music as they have bands at each of the water stations along the way and Jennifer planned to take her time and enjoy the music. If her Mom wanted to run faster, she could go ahead. I've included a picture of her from her trip to Dallas over Thanksgiving. it's good to see her hair back to blond, but I won't hold my breath. She and Sam are flying into Sacramento the weekend of January 5th and we will celebrate a late Christmas with the two of them.

I think I left my eyeglasses at the golf club this afternoon. When I sat down to work on the blog, I couldn't find my glasses and think I might have set them down after spending two hours with the current handicapper. I'm sure I set them down to rub my face. He is a little anal about the whole process.

We have a heating and air company coming out to look at our system tomorrow. The system is fairly new, but David's room is an ice box and I think the duct work venting into his room has a leak in it. I didn't want to climb in the attic and mess about, so I'll pay someone else to do it. I've done some research and it is claimed that up to 70% of all heating and air systems are not properly sealed and the efficiency of the system is compromised by hot and cold air blowing into the attic. I'm hoping this is an easy fix and that they can get the system running at peak efficiency and warming David's room. I have my eye on that room as the new office for the house. It looks out over the front yard and is isolated from the living areas. The lack of heat wasn't a problem when David was in there, but if I end up spending time in there we need to get the room properly climate controlled.

Well, this is relatively short, but it is almost eight o'clock and I have some couch time to do with my bride. I hope you are all well and have got your Christmas cards ready to go in the mail. Be well. Ciao.

The Holidays are Here

It is amazing to me how fast the Fall has come and gone. It seems like we were just swimming and relaxing in the pool two weeks ago. Oh, wait, we were, but that was Nuevo Vallarta. Dad and Shirley are in Hawaii and I lost their e-mail that said when they would be back. I know they left the week that we were in Mexico. Darla has the tree up and the house decorated, but I won't put the lights on the house until next weekend. It has to be December for me before we start burning the Christmas lights on the house.

The boys were home for Thanksgiving and they ventured out Thursday night to get the Black Friday deals. What a marketing gimmick the retailers have come up with and how the American public follows in line like sheep. WalMart will bring in 25 42 inch tvs and sell them for $199 and 500 people will show up with pepper spray in hand to try to get one of the loss leaders. I've learned to do almost all of my shopping online and tomorrow is Cyber Monday, another gimmick, but one that they can't limit quantities on. I'm in the market for a new laptop as I'll be working this next year as the handicapper for our golf club and want to be able to use a laptop to store all of my handicapping tools and programs on. I was thinking of getting an HP laptop, but Daniel talked me out of it and has me looking at a Lenovo. He had all sorts of problems with his and now Darla's has a short in it where you have to have the lid open about eight inches for the screen to turn on. Both David and Daniel have Lenovo's and swear by them. We'll see.

We had a very nice holiday weekend with temperatures close to 70 degrees once the sun came out. Friday was gorgeous with a bright blue sky and warm temperatures. I woke up about *;00 AM and realized that I had forgot to put out the trash the night before and ran out to see if it had already come. It had. The day was so nice that I threw on some sweats and washed the 300 for our trip to Paradise and Darla's folks for our one day late thanksgiving celebration. Darla and i had fixed a small turkey on Thursday and watched NFL games all day. I think Darla was on overload by the time Baltimore had wrapped up their game against the Niners.

The drive up to Paradise was nice, but it got colder and more overcast the farther north we went. It had rained overnight in Paradise and everything was fresh and clean and the sun finally showed it's face about 2 PM. We ate a big helping of Thanksgiving fare and I promptly fell asleep on Earl and Francis' very comfortable recliner in the living room. The guys were playing cards and I said that I'd catch the next game, that I was just going to close my eyes for a minute and woke up 90 minutes later. I gave Earl a bad time as we hadn't been up to see them since Easter. I told him that and he said that we never come see him. I told him that I come up every time I get invited.

I did play golf on Saturday and unlike Friday it was foggy, wet and cold. i played with Boyd, Matt and Darren and I shot 41+44=85. Matt shot 81, Boyd had his regular 78 and Darren shot 94. It was good being out with the guys and I enjoyed getting a little exercise after all the heavy meals of the two prior days. I then went out and raked leaves off the side street side of our house. I have six trees on that side and they are all shedding their leaves at a frantic pace. I raked them into piles on the street and the city should be out Monday to pick them up. Darla and I went to church last night.

Today we just relaxed and I watched football as Darla put up the holiday decorations. I went out at halftime of the afternoon games and cleaned up around the pool and vacuumed up leaves from the interior side yard of the house next to the garage. I sprayed down the deck and realize that I will probably have to put another coat of the stain down on the patio next Spring.

The picture of Samantha is from Jennifer's FaceBook and a picture taken by John and shared with Jennifer. We Skyped with Jennifer and Samantha last Tuesday and we only saw flashes of Samantha on the screen as she somersaulted by. She was standing on her head on the couch in the back of the room and we were laughing at her and I think she decided to put on a show for us. The Skype experience isn't quite up to the energy level of a three year old. Samantha will turn 4 later in December. Jennifer flew out to Dallas and spent thanksgiving with her Mom while Samantha spent it with John and his family.

Well, that is it. I have some boxes top put back up in the attic and Darla is fixing turkey tacos for dinner. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Remember as you face the hustle and bustle of the holidays, remember the words of C.S. Lewis: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Amen to that. Ciao.

Wet Leaves, Fires and cooler weather

We are definitely not in Mexico anymore as the weather in Northern California has turned wet and cold. Darla and I have been burning a fire in the fireplace the last few evenings and she has a big pot of chicken and asparagus soup on the range awaiting dinner. She just ran out to get us some hot french bread from the store to go with the meal. I just came in from muscling wet leaves out of the gutters, sidewalks, driveway, flowerbeds and lawn and putting them in piles on the street for pickup by the city. If we don't get a heavy wind between now and pickup, my plan may actually work. There were some high school kids across the street playing a game of tackle football and they were completely muddy and having a great time. Their parents won't be too thrilled when they get home and drag mud throughout the house, though.

I did get in a game of golf yesterday between rainstorms. It was actually fairly warm just after we teed off, but the winds blew in and the clouds with it and the sun left us and the temperature dropped pretty substantially on the back nine. I managed a 40+44=84 and got a $20 gift certificate to the grocery store for my troubles. Darla was quick to glom on to the gift card and took it with her to get supplies tonight. It was our Turkey Shoot tournament and I stayed late with Gary to post scores for the tournament. I have been asked by the incoming President of RGC to take over as Handicapper this year and I was working with Gary to see how the job has change din the nine years since I held the position. Not tremendously, actually, just a better use of technology and handicapping programs. I will take over in January and have asked Darla for a new laptop for Christmas. I have the desktop here at home which is getting dated and I can use the laptop for the Handicap Director position with the club. Gary has been great in showing me the ropes and I told him that I'd keep the position warm for him this year. He has been our handicapper for about seven years.

I had to run by the new office site this week to take a look at some possible temporary space that we may occupy before we move into the new redesigned space. Our current landlord has a trigger in our lease that allows them to increase our rent 100% if we decided to stay over. Our leasing agent had a meeting with them on Friday to see if they would waive the trigger and they can continue to see some revenue for the space past December 15th. I'm not willing to pay $18,000 a month for 5500 square feet. Our new lease is only $8,500 for 4000 square feet. Hopefully he made some headway as I really don't want to move twice. Obviously, if we have a fallback position and they realize that they are about to lose us, they will come to their senses. I would think it would be better to have three or four months at $9,000 than another vacancy in their 60% occupied building. This is a new owner that just bought the buildings in Rancho Cordova in June. I've included some pictures of the building as well as some pictures of my cute little granddaughter.

The boys will be home this week and we will celebrate Thanksgiving. They will be with their dad on Turkey Day as the Niners are on that night and we will go up to Darla's folks in Paradise on Friday. Daniel is a short timer as he will graduate in December, although he will walk in the ceremony in June. Hopefully, he finds a job quickly, maybe with Cal Trans or the Army Corps of Engineers. David has two more quarters left and will graduate in June, although he is two years older than Daniel. I think he just likes school.

We tried to Skype with Jennifer and Samantha on Friday, but Sam wasn't interested and frustrated her Mom too much. Jennifer is enjoying her job and will finally get to spend some time in Vegas working now that her company hired another tech in California. She was not happy being away from Sam so much during the week. Check out her Facebook page, they were making cupcakes this afternoon.

My Underwriting Manager, Pete, has been invited to Home Office (Headquarters) for some training and an opportunity to meet all of the Home Office managers and underwriters/departments. It will be a good trip for him and now he'll have some idea of what I do when I'm back there. He flies in December 4 and flies back on the 7th and he will be busy from 7AM until 10:00 PM every night. I look forward to hearing how he handles the jetlag. That trip follows his annual trip to Cabo San Lucas, where he leaves Thanksgiving Day and returns the following Thursday.

Well, Thanksgiving this week. I will return to the blog next week with pictures and tales of all of the overindulgence. Hope all of you have a blesses Thanksgiving as well. Just remember WHO give thanks to, eh? Ciao!

Back in the Country after a fun trip to Nuevo Vallarta

Back home after a fun trip to Mexico. Stan and Mary Frazer are friends that Darla made when she and Mary worked together at Alta. Funny thing is that I met both Stan and Mary when Jennifer was in middle school and she was friends with their daughter, Lindsay and they lived close to Diane. They still live in Folsom. They were great travel companions, open for everything and ready to travel, swim, drink or eat.

We had some issues early on in the trip. We flew out Sunday morning at 6:00 AM and ran into our neighbors from behind us who were on their way to Cozumel. Our flight was to Phoenix and we had a layover there. When I walked off the plane, I went to the Departures board and saw the flight to Puerto Vallarta was at Gate A-7. We went and had our travel docs checked and approved at the gate and then went to have breakfast. We finished and ran to the gate and were boarded after having our boarding passes checked. We were one of the last groups on the plane and we had another couple already in our seats. I called the flight attendant over and she checked both their tickets and ours and said the seats had been "double booked", but there were plenty of seats available and we just moved up three rows. As we were getting ready to push back from the gate, I looked out at Gate A-9 and saw our flight number and Puerto Vallarta as the destination on the neon sign on the Jetway. We were on the wrong plane!! The jet pushed back and we took off.

When we arrived, our luggage was not on the plane as we were on the wrong flight. We waited for the correct plane 90 minutes later and our bags (and my clubs) were not there either. We filled out lost luggage paperwork and took our carry ons to the resort. Darla and I had packed swimsuits and tank tops in the carry-on and were able to swim, but I had to miss golf on Monday. They called us Sunday night and wanted to know where to send our luggage. I told him Nuevo Vallarta and he said that we did not check in for our flights and they pulled the luggage off the plane. I told him we checked in on the earlier flight and to send it. He said they had no record of that and how did he know we were in Puerto Vallarta? I told him we checked in on a US Airways flight and perhaps the TSA might be interested in how lax their security was in Phoenix. He told me our luggage would be on the first flight in the morning and would be delivered to our resort.

We had to go without our toiletries and went out Sunday night and bought toothpaste and a toothbrush, deodorant and some sunscreen. Stan and Mary bought swimsuits and other clothes as well as toiletries and plan to bill it to US Airways. We spent the day at the pool and our luggage finally arrived at 4:00 PM. The bags and some of the clothes were wet and we found out that it had rained in Phoenix the night before. We called and told them to add that to our claim.

It got much better after that and we had a nice meal Monday night after getting to clean up and Darla having all of her hair products and makeup.

We bought the meal plan again this year and were able to get 6 dinners and 6 breakfasts for $300. It's a great deal as the dinners include an appetizer, main course and dessert. We ate well and had 4 dinners at the resort and 3 breakfasts. We did go offsite to PV for lunch one day on a bus tour of PV which included a tour of the city, the set of the Night of the Iguana (from 1963!!!), a tequila factory tour and a lunch at Las Cascedas. The first five pictures are all of this venue. The food was good and the views and the ambiance even better.

Darla and I did go to the member's update, which is an excuse to upgrade your time share. We tried to upgrade to the Grand Bliss when we were with Dad and Shirley, but did upgrade this year to the Grand Luxxe. I get free golf and Darla gets 2 for 1 massages and spa specials. The Grand Luxxe has a larger suite and a junior suite on the lockout that includes a small kitchenette and a living area. We have two weeks that can break out to a month if we use the lockout. We are very happy with the deal that we got and the resort is expanding to become the largest in Mexico and they will add two more golf courses, one designed by Greg Norman and the other with Tiger Wood's new course development company. The Greg Norman course is being graded now and is expected to open in 2012 and will be exclusive to Grand Luxxe owners. I can access any of the courses, but Mayan and Grand Mayan members will only have access to the current course.

They now have 18 holes open and it was worth the wait as the course is a nice combination of wide open fairways, sand, waste bunkers, water and the jungle surrounding it all. I played twice and shot 81 and 83. Stan is not a golfer and shot 122 and 124, but seemed to really enjoy himself.

Bob and Debbie were along with us, but unfortunately, Debbie was sick a big part of the trip and missed out on a lot of our stay.

We did make it up to Buscerias, the small Mexican village about twenty miles north of Nuevo Vallarta. We really like Claudios, Maison Bay, a restaurant on the beach that makes large margaritas and great Mexican food. We went there with Dad and Shirley . We found out that they have a special on Fridays that includes (for $20) all of the margaritas you can drink and all of the Mexican Food you can eat. We were there on a Thursday and our bill for 6 of us was $114, which was less than the special and we had a shrimp stuffed avocado appetizer that was to die for and the girls had coconut shrimp that they really enjoyed and the guys all had mixed fajitas. We will go back next trip as well. We were all a bit loopy after two margaritas and a double shot of blue agave tequila that was on the house.

I have some pictures of Samantha and Jennifer that I will save for next week. Jen's job is going well and she is enjoying having weekends off. I will check in with all of you next week. we got home at 11:00 PM last night and we were both pretty tired today. Be well. Ciao.

The Blog will leave for a well deserved Vacation next week

Back from Detroit and the Manager's Meetings and it always reminds me of why I live in California. Not that the weather was terrible, just cold, frosty and some rain. It was 80 degrees today with a bright blue sky in Northern California. You can't beat it. The pictures above are of 1. Sammy from Jennifer 2. A picture of Anthony and I with the Michigan office Underwriting manager and a good friend of Matt from my office. (We sent him the picture on Anthony's iphone to let him know we were thinking of him) 3 & 4. Pictures of Darla with the boys from her trip to SLO this week. (She was there Thursday-Saturday). 5. The large and expanding pile of sh*t heaped upon Americans from Barrack Hussein Obama (or a picture from the coast of San Luis Obispo)

The meetings this year were really good and the energy of the meetings was helped by the 12 KELP trainees that joined us, including Andy from my office. All of the management trainees are in their twenties and all have great innovative ideas and aren't afraid to express them. One of the young guys from Los Angeles was discussing the use of social media in insurance and said that when he thinks of insurance, he thinks of a bunch of gray haired guys in suits and ties. Harvey and I looked at each other and rather loudly objected to the obviously dead on description. Anthony from my office really enjoyed himself and was very engaged with the other Branch Managers in discussing marketing and agency penetration and agency profiling. He took a lot of notes and is coming home with a renewed energy about his book of business and he is starting a new marketing campaign for year end with his agents.

It was a long five days and I flew into Detroit in a middle seat next to a "church lady" from Modesto. She was a "chatty kathy" from the minute I sat down until I pretended to fall asleep. She made a comment during the security briefing that her friend has said that she wishes she had an on and off button like cell phones. Really? Really? I turned to my other seat mate for some respite, but he was a twenty year old white guy with shoulder length dreadlocks and he smelled of dirty hair. It was brutal.

The first day is always the worst and no exceptions this year as I went to bed at 11:00 PM (8:00 PM my time) and tossed and turned until about 1:00 AM. I wasn't altogether rested or thrilled when the alarm went off at 7 AM. I handled five forty five minute sessions on use of our Centers of Excellence in Home office with our SR VP in charge of brokerage and our Chief Underwriting Officer. I was asked to take part in the sessions and bring a Branch perspective to the use of these brokerage facilities. I talked about how our office has grown from $6.6 Million in premium (and a loss of $580,000) in 2004 to $17.5 million in premium (and a profit expected to be close to $1,000,000 this year). Part of our success has come from our reliance on co-brokering of accounts with our VP of Brokerage operations in SF and our use of the Centers of Excellence. We don't have the markets in house to write professional liability, excess liability and environmental coverages and it was a natural for us to turn to these centers to write our business. We are in the top three of premium writings with all of the centers. It was an interesting chance to contribute to the education that goes on at the meetings and also a nice chance to share the story of Sacramento with all of the branches. They have seen me up collecting awards at the meeting, but this put some specifics to the reality.

We did win the Bronze Award for Division 2 this year and I was again shut out in the Branch manager of the Year awards. Each of the Branch Managers of the year winners this year are all not producers and only handle Branch Management. They are able to mentor some of their younger producers more effectively and do more hand holding because they don't have any production responsibilities. I can't ignore the quote requests and phone calls at my desk, but will keep growing the branch and making money and see if that is enough.

Anthony did win two awards, the Director's Award for production over $550,000 in income and New Business Award for being in the top 10 of underwriters in the company in new business production. It was nice to have him there and have him be able to go up and collect his award from Alan himself.

Saturday was longer than it had to be as we started at 8 AM and went non-stop until 3:00 PM. We bussed over to the airport and took a flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City and then changed planes for our trip to Sacramento. We were able to grab a hamburger while we were running between planes. I got home at 10:15 spent and exhausted. Darla and I slept in until 8:30 this morning and I did yard work and skimmed leaves from the pool. I didn't get the car washed, but will run it by the car wash tomorrow.

Well, the Dallas game is on, I need to barbecue some chicken and we want to try and Skype with Jennifer and Sammy tonight to see her Halloween costume. Jennifer leaves for a week in Temecula training for her new job on Tuesday. She started last week and has already been climbing towers and took a bucket truck up to replace a module on a cell tower Friday. She is loving it.

As mentioned, we fly out for vacation next Sunday for a week in Nuevo Vallarta, so will be a week off on the blog and then return with vacation pictures. I hope you are all well. Ciao.