It's August tomorrow...really??

This will be a quick update as I fell asleep on the pool and woke up late. Darla is at a Silpada gig and due home at 8 PM. Thank you, Jennifer, for the pictures of you and Sam having fun at the pool this last week. Jen said that she is starting to swim without her floaties and is a real water bug. Good thing that, as it has been in the low hundreds in Vegas.

We have been lucky in that our weather has been incredible this year with only a few days over 100 degrees. We have been in the mid nineties for the last few weeks and the trend looks set again for this week. We do get the Delta breezes in the evening that cools us down. I open up the house, run the whole house fan for about fifteen minutes and it is pleasant. We have ceiling fans and stationary fans going in every room of the house and it keeps us comfortable. We turn the air conditioning on when the outside temperature gets over 100 degrees, so we've been saving money this Summer.

I did wake up on the pool at about 7 PM and jumped up to wash down the deck and replant a rose bush that was coming up as a volunteer from our neighbor's rose tree. I also put some shock in the pool and it will be good for the week ahead. I tried to get on the computer, but had to run a scan with one of our system mechanic tools. The software checks for malware and defragments the memory and cleans up the system. It runs better after a scan, but it takes time.

Darla and I were off to church early this morning and stopped afterward to pick up some pool acid and a few other odds and ends. We ran into Neil and Lily at Sam's Warehouse. I cleaned the tile today and find that if I use a toothbrush and some muriatic acid it really cleans up the tile and the flagstone backdrop that gets some calcium buildup on it. I was changing out the chlorine and asked Darla to throw me the chlorine float and she clonked me with it. She's got a good arm.

Daniel was working for me this last week, packing up insurance files for storage. He was supposed to meet his girlfriend, Becky, and her family at the office at 2:30 to go to the State Fair. They were then spending the night at a hotel and heading up to Redding and a church camp for the rest of the week. They FINALLY showed up at 5:45 at my office and off they went.

I called Darla to see if she wanted to meet for dinner at Chopsticks, a favorite Chinese food restaurant in Roseville. We met there and when ordering cashew nut chicken the Chinese waitress asked us if we wanted white meat instead of DOG. (I think the restaurant has changed hands.) We quizzed her about the options, certainly preferring white chicken meat to dog, but she was saying DARK. She said it was breast meat or thigh meat. The food has actually gone downhill a bit and we will likely strike that off our list.

We met with Peter and his wife and Anthony and his wife on Wednesday night at Benihana's. We all enjoy Benihana's and they had a special of chicken and shrimp for two for $32. Both Anthony and Peter make me a lot of money and it was great to get together wit them and their wives. We have our annual picnic on August 13 and the only attendees are Gail and her husband, Anthony and his family, Darla and I, Pete and his family and Dana and her new husband. I was fixing hamburgers and chicken sandwiches for the group, but given the small turnout, we have decided to fix barbecued tri tip. I don't know why we have such a small turnout, but c'est la vie. We will enjoy ourselves anyhow. The boys are coming out and we will play basketball and volleyball.

Saturday, Neil, Boyd and I made a road trip to San Jose to meet Bob and see his new house and play golf at the Villages in San Jose. It is a 2 and a half hour car trip and even with an hour to shake off the road rust, I was stiff and sore and shot a 91. Boyd, who could roll out of bed and shoot 75, shot a 77 on a course he had never seen. He is amazing and at 71 is a freak of nature. Neil matched my 91 and Bob shot 84. Bob and Vicki are renting and have an upstairs villa that looks out over a lake and they sit on their covered porch at night and watch the deers come down to get water. They are enjoying being back in San Jose, but I know Bob really misses the golf group. He was very appreciative of us making the trip down to see him and play golf.

Next weekend is the Rose Cup qualifier. I'm not playing well right now, even with the 790 and 80 that I had and quickly followed with a 88 and 91. I'll probably qualify this year because Neil found out that the event will be played the same weekend that our club is in Monterey. A lot of the guys aren't even trying out for the team this year, but I decided to follow through and if I qualify, I will play the Friday two ball event and have an alternate play the Saturday event. Neil asked me again, Darryl, if you plan to come out for the Monterey event. It is October 15 and 16 and we play Pacific Grove on Saturday and Poppy Hills on Sunday. It cost $75 for Pacific Grove and $105 for Poppy Hills and is due on August 12th. let me know. I told him you likely wouldn't fly out for it, but give me a definitive answer, bro.

We finished a great month at work. We were up 15.2% in total premium and 18% in retained income in the office. Pete had his best month ever and we had all 8 underwriters hit five figures this month, the first time ever. I will be hosting a lunch later in the month to celebrate our success, but it is invigorating. It seems that momentum is a powerful ally in business. A lot of the hard work that we do in one month pans out in new business the following month. Everyone has their eye on the ball and are self motivated to get the job done. I am very pleased with how this year has been going. This should be our best year ever in Sacramento.

Well, I haven't seen the whites of Darla's eyes yet, but she should be here momentarily. I hope you are all having a great week. Darla and I will be in Vegas at the end of August and here it is August already. Fantastic. Oh by the way, check out John 5, verse 4 in your Bible. Interesting, eh? Ciao.

Memories Linger

A mix of pictures from Almanor and some from Randy's families' visit with Jennifer. I had some of Samantha with them, but couldn't find them. Thank you, Randy, for including Jennifer and Michael in your dinner out. There is no bigger sign of affection that you can do for me than love my family and I appreciate it. I know Jennifer had a blast seeing you and her cousins. Samantha had a great time at the Venetian pool after she warmed up to you guys. She's a doll, eh?

Darla is still fighting the heat in Kansas City. I just talked to her and besides giving me too much information about the bodily effects of her roommate, she said that the temperature at 11:00 PM was 110 degrees. It is stifling hot in and around that whole part of the country and I am happy that our temperatures are relatively mild. Dallas has been having record heat with a month of days over 100 degrees already. We, on the other hand, have had about four days over 100 degrees. This weekend is in the mid nineties, the pool is about 88 degrees, and life is good. Darla will tour the Silpada factory tomorrow and their flight home is at 4:30 local time and after a change of planes in Denver (that luggage robbing capital of the world), will arrive in Sacramento at 7:30. They went out to eat at a barbecue place in KC today that was recommended by Don, Alicia's husband and I guess they stood in line for a better part of an hour to get into this place. She said the food was incredible. They also went over and saw a Harley exhibit that I think was part of the convention and her friend, Missy, wanted to get pictures of the bikes. Anyhow, she is back home tomorrow night and that is why I'm working on the blog tonight.

I slept in this morning until 9 AM and then after cooking a nice breakfast, spent an hour and a half detailing the 300. I got horrible water spots on it at the lake. The sprinklers run off of ground water out of the lake and it is dirty and left big rings on my car after it sat baking in the sun. I'll park my car across the street from the cabin next year and keep it away from the sprinklers. I used some rubbing compound and worked up quite a lather in the garage buffing out the spots. I then put another coat of Maguire's wax over that as the rubbing compound takes off everything above the paint.

The boys kept my car home on Thursday and put in a replacement EGR valve. The valve was $49 at NAPA auto parts and the shop wanted $380 for the installation and part. I offered the boys $75 each to do the work and they had it knocked out in about 2 1/2 hours. I bought a Chrysler 300 shop manual and they went to town on the job. I had one problem in that the "idiot" light on the dash was still on and when I Googled how to turn it off they said that it should go out automatically. What they didn't say was that it takes about 15 miles of driving for the computer to realize that the repair has been made. The shops have a scanner that can reset the code so it's out when you get the car back. One good thing that I found out about in all of this and will save me $90 next time the light comes on. I can do a "key dance" turning the ignition quickly from ACC to ON and back again about three times and the repair code will pop up on my dashboard. I have a list of the codes in the Chilton manual and at least will know what part is having problems. I only have 50,000 miles on the Chrysler, so I don't expect a lot of idiot lights going on for awhile anyhow.

I did pull a bonehead move when I took Darla's car to work Thursday. I was about five miles from home and turned from one main road to another and heard a clanking sound like I hit something on the road. I couldn't figure out what it was and looked back and saw debris on the road. I didn't see it when I turned. When I got to work I looked for my leftover pizza that I brought with me for lunch and it was gone. It then dawned on me that I had put it on the top f the truck when I retrieved my gym bag from my car. The sound I heard was the plate sliding off the roof and hitting the ground. When I drove home that night I could see the pizza and Saran wrap smashed by countless tires and the plate was ground into white powder. I'll say this for the city of Roseville, they had it completely cleaned up by the time I went to work on Friday. I was amazed that it stayed on the roof for so long, but the Explorer has luggage racks that blocked the plate from moving. It also likely blocked the view of the plate from other drivers as the Explorer rides high.

The boys took their Mom's car into the Transmission shop on Friday and when I got home Friday night I asked David where the truck was. He said, "still at the shop." They'd brought it in at ten and the guy said he couldn't find anything wrong with it. "So you just left it there?" He said, "Yeah, well the guy has to fix it." I tried to call the shop, but they were already closed. Darla will be without a car on Monday and I'll be talking to the owner Monday morning. David told him that it was revving high and slipping gears, which isn't true. Our problem is that the gear shift is really hard to shift from Reverse to Drive as the definition of the Neutral position is almost non-existent. They need to tighten the gear selector and have the transmission seat better in each position.

I swam for awhile this afternoon and even had a nap on the pool (all that hard work detailing the car, you know). I left the house at 3:50 and went to the golf course and played a round of golf. All of the guys were busy and I wanted a practice round. I got a cart, round of golf and a burger dinner for $26.10. The special starts at 5:00 PM, but I get an hour early twilight time and 10% off the $29 fee. I played the back nine first as their was a group of beginners teeing off on 1. I shot 40+39=79 to continue my solid play coming off of vacation. I finished my round in three hours and ten minutes. Hopefully I didn't blow my wad today as a 79 would give me a net 65 in the tournament tomorrow. We tee off at 10:30.

Work is going well and Peter is having his best month ever. I'm ahead of last year and we are already close to $200,000 in income and it is just the 23rd. We have a week left to book premiums and things are great. The move is getting closer. They are negotiating on lease space in Roseville (2 locations) and Folsom (1 location) as well as a potential purchase of a building in Gold River, not far from our current digs. It dawned on me when I got back from vacation that I had to completely pack up the file room in preparation for the move as we are paperless now and the new site will not have a file room. I ordered 500 boxes from our records storage group and set up to have David and Daniel come in starting Monday to load up the boxes and do an inventory of what files and boxes are going to storage. David told me Thursday that he has been called back to work for the rest of the Summer at Hallston Engineering, so I have Daniel coming in and he will work with Renee's son, Michael, who will be a sophomore at UCLA in the Fall.

Well, that is the news that is fit to print for this week. I will be back with another epistle next weekend. I hope you are all well and enjoying the Summer. I watched the Canadian Open from Vancouver today and it was 68 degrees and Sunny in Vancouver. as the announcer said, it was Chamber of Commerce weather. I'm sure if I talk to Dad he will say it was 90 degrees. It seems Surrey runs 20 degrees warmer than Vancouver proper.

Almanor 2011

We are back from Vacation and a more relaxed and sated outlook permeates my being right now. I didn't realize how uptight I have been with work issues, etc., but after a week away in the cool mountain air, I feel completely rejuvenated. A good example of just how relaxed I am came in a game of golf today at Woodcreek. Before I left on vacation, I'd lost my swing and I was struggling to break 90. Today, I was one under after six holes and ended up shooting a 39+41=80 and it was effortless. I took the money from my friends and came home and spent an afternoon relaxing on the pool with Darla. It all starts up again tomorrow, but this blog entry is all about Almanor and our visit with Jennifer and Samantha.

The days leading up to Almanor were stressful. Darla's car was having transmission issues, my car had the "idiot" light go on and the night before we left, a torsion spring on the garage door snapped. We had to prop the door up with my tree lopper to load the cars and attach the jet ski to the truck. I have a company coming out tomorrow to install new springs on the left and right. I still have the receipt for the last torsion springs we had installed in July of 2001. I guess they are good for about ten years.

I took my car in to Firestone the morning that we left to see if the check engine light was for anything serious. The EGR valve is going bad and needs to be replaced. The EGR valve affects the idle on the car and is not anything that will cripple a car, so we picked it up and figured to worry about that when we get home. I had to bring the 300 because I was driving back on Tuesday night to pick up Jennifer and Samantha and bring them up to the lake.

After all of the headaches and hassles of getting ready to go, it was heaven to be on the road and driving the winding Feather River canyon up to Lake Almanor. We arrived about 4:30 and the first thing I noticed as we drove around the lake up to the north shore, was how high the water was. The lake is at capacity with a lot of snow still clinging to Mount Lassen. The one downfall to the fuller lake was that our beautiful sand beach by the cabin was under water. Darla and I spent Sunday and Monday clearing brush from the side of the shoreline down by our cabin so that we could set up the "Easy-Up" shade awning and put down some blankets and have room for all of us to relax lakeside. We pulled the jet ski over to the shore and tied it up on Sunday.

We hit a cooler week up in Almanor, which was a great change, but again the cooler weather meant wind and wind meant high waves in the afternoon. The jet ski got really rocked on Sunday and I told the boys that we needed to anchor it off shore and let it ride the waves rather than get pummeled. David and Daniel set the anchor on Monday, but it tore loose and the ski drifted back to shore, where I tied it up and watched it get hammered again while the boys were off hiking at Mount Lassen. We talked to Earl and he told us how to set the anchor so it wouldn't come loose. The boys had the anchor with about ten feet of line and it pulled out. We set it Tuesday with about 75 feet of line and it held for the rest of the week. We left a buoy at the surface of the water with a hook for the ski and would tie a rope to the back end to keep it from drifting on the line. It was windy Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon, but the weather pattern changed on Thursday and we had calm conditions the rest of the week.

All told, there were 23 of us up at the lake during the week. Don and Alicia came up, but stayed at the Best Western in Chester and Darla's Uncle Junior stayed at the Bidwell Inn bnb in Chester. The rest camped in either fifth wheels, motor homes or in tents. We stayed at the cabin again this year and I am officially "all in" on Almanor after several years of tent camping (UGH), tenement cabins that had appliances falling off the wall and cramped, dirty quarters. This cabin is expensive ($1300 for a week), but is perfect in that it is at the far reaches of the resort and away from the tent camping and RVs. We have a huge deck that accommodate about twenty for dinner and a tremendous view of the lake. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom with AC and heat and can sleep six adults. There are osprey, eagles and even vulchers that make a show in the sky near dusk and we even had a deer parade through our site this year.

Tuesday, I packed up after dinner and headed back to Sacramento to pick up Sam and Jennifer from the airport at 11:30 PM. They were right on time and Sam had the biggest grin on her face as she rode down the escalator to the baggage claim with her Mom. We spent the night here Tuesday night and were up at 6 AM for the drive to Almanor. We arrived at about 9:45, but the water was already fairly rough and the wind was coming up. We ate a quick breakfast and Jennifer was soon on the jet ski. Sam, Darla and I stayed on the shore and Sam and I worked on a sand castle. Mom came by and asked Sam if she wanted to take a spin on the ski. She was thumbs up and sported her new Coast Guard approved ski vest and Jennifer slowly drove her out to the lake. They stayed out about fifteen minutes doing lazy circles on the water and you could hear Sam's laughter floating back to shore. Jennifer and Sam spotted a couple of bald eagles and followed them for awhile. Sam also took a run with Daniel on the ski and then wanted to go back to "your house, Papa." I told her that we were staying at the cabin and she ran up to the cabin with me and changed out of her wet swimsuit. She brought me a book and wanted to read stories, so we did that for awhile and she eventually went down for a nap. Jennifer and I went out that afternoon and got some DVDs for Sam and also the new True Grit for all of us. It was a great first day for Sam and Jennifer as we went out to dinner with Darla's parents and Don and Alicia for pizza at Tantardino's, which is a family tradition and Earl buys pizza to celebrate their wedding anniversary (now at 51 years strong).

Thursday, Jennifer and I were up early at 8 AM and took out the jet ski. It is cold in the morning, but the lake is about 77 degrees at the shore and it is actually warmer in the water than outside and the water steams in the mornings. It is a great time to be out on the ski as you have the lake to yourself and the sun is gleaming off the water and there is no wind. It was a fun time for Jennifer and I. We headed back to the cabin and had a hot breakfast of pancakes and bacon which Darla was working on when we got there.

Jennifer's friend, Jason, came up with his boat on Thursday night. He and the boys are pretty tight and keep up with each other on Facebook and he decided to come up for Thursday and Friday night. Jason has a new Sea Ray ski boat with an outstanding sound system on it that he installed himself. The output on his stereo is 1200 watts. The boat is clean, new and fun to ride on. Jason was able to pull Daniel up and let him wake board. Earls' boat is older and has less power and it just doesn't have the output anymore to pull Daniel up out of the water. Dan looked like he was having a blast when they came back into shore and he let go of the rope and just floated into the shore.

Samantha took several boat rides with David in Earl's boat and Jason on his boat with Jennifer hanging on tight to her and the boat going a far cry less than full speed. Sam was really good and enjoyed both the boat rides and her time on the jet ski. Jennifer really enjoyed taking Sam out on the ski and showing her parts of the lake, the ducks and butterflies that were along for the ride.

Samantha is growing up and is a lot of fun. She still has an independent streak and a strong will and she is so much like Jennifer at that age. Both are only children and they want things their way. Jennifer is working hard to keep her grounded and enforce time outs and other discipline. She probably needs to spank her occasionally, especially when she exerts her will and won't listen to reason. Jennifer walks a fine line as a single Mom and does a great job with Samantha. I'm proud of her.

Darla and I took one night with Sam when we took the 300 and went looking for deer near sunset. We drove for about an hour and saw three deer, two babies on the side of the road and a young buck off scavenging in the trees. We were a little disappointed after Darla's tales of herds of deer that she saw as a child. We got back to camp after dark and a deer came out of the trees on the camp road and darted across the road. We got back to the cabin and Jennifer said that they had spotted a deer outside the cabin and followed it taking pictures as they went. It turns out that we went on a deer hunt and the deer came to our house looking for us.

We broke camp on Saturday and drove back to Roseville. We used 50 gallons of gas in the ski (at $4 a gallon) during the trip. We stopped at a small cafe on the way back at an RV camp along the river and it was excellent. Good hamburgers and even chicken nuggets for Samantha . We had time to swim for a short time in our pool before we had to pack up and take the kids to the airport for their flight home. We had a great time. I know Jennifer had a great time and Samantha was all smiles playing with David and Daniel in the cabin and getting a ton of attention for the whole week. Darla and I got to know her cousin Brenda's family much better and spent a good part of the week with them. Darla and I went out for lunch with Mark and Brenda on Tuesday and got a chance to talk. We hope to invite them to Mexico with us in a few years.

We have already booked our trip for next year and paid the deposit on the cabin. Well that was our trip in a nutshell. We had a wonderful family week. Jennifer is already on board for joining us next year as well, perhaps for the whole week. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Independence Day 2011

I love living in this country where you have the right to do most anything that you want to do. I choose not to buy Safe and Sane fireworks and watch $100 worth of my money burn up on my driveway while a bucket of water and hose sit at the ready. I've never understood the mindset of watching lame and uninteresting sparks and whistles erupt while the only lasting impression is the burn marks you leave on the ground. I'd rather hook up an old toaster to an extension cord and pour colored water into it and watch the show. To each his own I guess. The one good that comes of the insanity is the money that the non-profits make from the sale of fireworks to the uninformed masses. A good fireworks stand at a key location will make about $10,000 for a charity or little league. In California, firework stand permits are limited to charitable causes.

We had our annual 4th of July swim party, this year named "Finally Summer" on July 2nd. We played golf that day at Diamond in our Firecracker tournament. Bob Pando and his wife came into town from San Jose and played. We both stunk up the joint in the 100 degree heat shooting a pair of 91s and deciding to drink rather than think. I came close to heat exhaustion when I get really light headed on number 11 and had to put a wet towel over my head to drop my core temperature. it wasn't that hot, but the course is poring water on the greens in this heat wave to save them and the humidity on the course is insane.

The gang all showed up about 5:30 and we worked on appetizers and drinks from the shallow end of the pool, that still has some of the dropped salsa, bean dip and chip fragments lying on the bottom. I will get out there today and clean up the leavings. I barbecued shish-ke-bobs of steak, chicken, bell pepper, onion, and zucchini and we ate salads of potato, fruit, spring, Chinese chicken and pistachio. The ladies made ice cream pie, chocolate dipped strawberries, and eclairs. Someone brought a nice bottle of wine that went untouched as we had beer, wine coolers, hard lemonade and Lilly's margaritas. It was HOT and the pool was the place to be until about 7:30 when I started the barbecue. We had a great visit with the 11 people who showed up to the gathering. It was really great to see and spend time with Bob and Vicki and we have to get out to San Jose to see them.

Sunday, Darla wanted to go to the lake with Alicia and Don. We considered bringing the jet ski, but had not picked up Yamalube, the oil propellant that mixes with the gasoline in a two stroke engine. Folsom lake was packed and all of the entrances were closed to vehicles by about 11 AM. Don has a slip at Brown's Ravine and we were able to use his guest pass to park at the marina and take his boat out. The boys said that they will take the jet ski out for a trial run this week. Neither of them were able to find jobs ad it is situation normal around here as far as them and work. Darla has encouraged them to go work with habitat for Humanity or ANYTHING to make their Summer less of a lounge act and more of something they can put on their resumes. Darla even talked to both of them about joining the military as officers if they can't find work right out of college. Both could join the Army Corps of Engineers as officers.

I digress. We set up on the beach area of an island at Folsom Lake and relaxed, eating sandwiches and watching Lucas play in the water. Don took the boys out wake boarding and even wake boarded himself a couple of times with David driving the boat. Don's best friend, Rob, showed up later in the afternoon with his two sons and daughter and three of their friends. They all wake boarded and we finally left about 5:30. Don drove us back to the marina and was going back to pick up Rob and his crew afterward. They will be back out at the lake today, but we will stay home and relax. The boys may make the trip out and join him at the marina.

Today is a day to simply relax and reflect on our weekend and even to perhaps nap a bit on the pool. It is headed to 103 degress today and the pool makes the day seem a lot more tolerable. The temperature of the pool is up to 87 degrees.

We just finished a surprisingly good June at work. The month started with the loss of a $435,000 account and it looked pretty bleak at that point. Thanks to the diligence of my staff, e were able to more than make up for the loss of that account, and although our premium writings were down about $200,000, we were up almost $15,000 in income and profit for the month. I was very proud of the troops. We won't get a lunch out of the results, but I can't say enough about the hard work shown by my staff.

We are now seriously looking at office space in Roseville. We are in the negotiation phase of leasing our new space and we are having buildout proposals done at two locations in Roseville and one in Folsom. We will play each of the landlords off of each other and see what kind of deal we can come up with. it is exciting although I have about six staff members that will increase their commutes by 30 minutes with a move to Roseville. My commute will go from thirty minutes to about eight minutes. so, with the bad comes some good. I stayed away from Roseville when we first started our search because of the commute problem for some of the staff, but the best buildings available are in Roseville and many of our retailers have relocated here as well. I have about three of my renting staff that have said they will relocated to Roseville if we move. Oh well.

Next week we will be in Almanor and the blog will be on vacation. The fun thing about that is that when we return, we will have stories and pictures of Jennifer and Samantha from our trip. john is trying to wreck the vacation, because he thinks he can, but Jennifer has the right in the court papers to a vacation and she will be here. John needs a hobby or a girlfriend or something to get him off Jennifer's back. I know he is a good Dad one on one with Samantha, but is toxic to Jennifer. We don't have contact with him because he is so toxic and unhealthy. Hopefully, some day he will find some happiness in his life and we can reconnect with him.