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.

Off to Detroit for the Manager's Meeting this Week

The pictures above are of Yocha Dehe Golf Course in Brooks, CA, a Troon facility and one of the best kept courses in Northern California. I was invited to play by one of my agents, Caleb, who is a member of the Summerhays family. His father is a golf coach at one of the local high schools, his sister, Hannah, is an Assistant Golf Professional at Yocha DeHe and he has an Uncle, Bruce, who was on the PGA and Senior PGA tours and two cousins, Daniel and Boyd, who currently play professional golf, Daniel on the PGA and Boyd on the Nationwide tour. So, there I was at 8:30 on Thursday morning playing in a group with Hannah, Caleb, and Chris, another Assistant pro at the course. The only good thing is that my round was comped. The first tee sits high up on the mountain above the practice facility and the sight that you see when you tee off is the first picture above. I pulled my drive dead left into the number 9 fairway. I was able to blast a 6 iron to the front of the green and made par to match Hannah. Hannah's drove from the same tees that I did (we played at 6700 yards) and was routinely right next to me or slightly behind. She can hit the ball for a 24 year old. Caleb and Chris were bombing their drives to about 300 yards. I ended up shooting 43+43=86 against matching 77s for Hannah and Caleb and a 78 for Chris. We were the first group off the tee and felt like we had the course to ourselves.

We finished in 3 hours and 20 minutes and I invited everyone to lunch. There were four of us and the total bill for four sandwiches, drinks and sides at the golf course grill was $15.88. Hannah and Chris have their food comped by the course and Caleb and I got a 25% discount. I left a $10 tip and got out of there. Caleb paid me back for that "expensive" lunch with a $90,000 account that I'm working on for his office right now. This was the fourth time I've played Yocha Dehe and I swear it gets more immaculate every time I play it. The greens were smooth and fast and the fairways pro tour conditions. There wasn't a bad lie anywhere in the fairway and the course, being a resort course, is fairly wide and user friendly.

I leave for Detroit on Tuesday morning and five days of intense meetings. This year I will help to lead one of the breakout sessions on our Centers of Excellence. We have six in house centers of expertise where underwriters can send in their accounts for quotation. The VP, Marla, that is putting on the session called and asked me to join her, because my office is in the top three of three of those centers and she wants me to talk to the other managers about how I have grown my premium writings through the use of the Centers of Excellence. I worked up five examples of accounts that have been written through the COEs and will help Marla lead the 45 minute breakout sessions on Wednesday afternoon. There will be five groups that will sit in on our session that afternoon. It should be fun.

My office has grown from a branch writing $8,000,000 in premium and losing $600,000 a year in 2004 to one that will write $18,000,000 this year and be close to a $1,000,000 profit. It is a good story and certainly one that lends itself to job security. Anthony from my office will be there at the Manager's meeting this year as one of the top producers and Andy is there with the KELP Management Trainees for a two week session (KELP stands for Kaufman Emerging Leaders Program). Anthony will be speaking to the KELPs on Tuesday about his success as an underwriter with the company, how he started out as an Assistant and is now in the top 25 of producers in the entire company. Anthony will also be involved in the Manager's portion of the meetings and Andy will be at the Awards dinner on Friday night at the Henry in Deerborn.

The office continues to do well and after missing our budget lunch last month are back on target to exceed our numbers again. We are already over a$1,250,000 in written premium and $200,000 in income. The team continues to work hard and make it happen. Fun stuff.

I did not make it out golfing this weekend. All of my buddies had other engagements. I had planned to go out and play Saturday afternoon, but I had problems with my iPhone. I tried to upload the newest operating system and the entire phone shut down. When I called Apple, they told me I had to buy a $30 service ticket. I ended up taking it over to AT&T and they put the old OS back on the phone. The tech there said that the new operating system is designed for the iPhone 4 and the older models aren't fast enough to run the current OS. What a scam by Apple to get you to buy their new phone. My phone runs just fine on the old OS and I'll leave well enough alone. I will look to get the iPhone 4 when my contract is up next year. I ended up fooling with the upload for two hours Saturday morning and then had a bunch of yard work I wanted to get done. I trimmed all of the bushes in the backyard back and trimmed the ground cover. I also transplanted some African Daisies from one side of the pool to the back flowerbeds.

Jennifer didn't grace me with any pictures of Samantha, but if you haven't seen it, check out Jennifer's Facebook and Sam's reading of the "monkeys jumping on the bed". Very cute and well done by Miss Samantha. She gets done and before her Mom turns off the video, you can hear her say, "I want to do that again!"

Darla has made plans for the Mexico gang to get together for dinner tomorrow night at Chevy's. Debbie was out of town this weekend and I don't get home until Saturday night, so Monday it is. We will be in Puerto Vallarta in two weeks. I'm definitely looking forward to it and to seeing the redesigned back nine of the golf course at The Grand Mayan.

Well, that is short and sweet, but all the news that I have to tell. Our I Day at the Convention Center went well on Tuesday, but it is getting a little stale for me with the same groups and booths every year. It is what it is as my friend Neil would say. I hope you are all well and I will bring tales of Detroit next week. Have a good week. Ciao.

Life is Good when you spend time in Pacific Grove

We had a great time and a great weekend in Pacific Grove. Darryl arrived Friday afternoon and flew into the brand new terminal at Sacramento's Airport. The terminal is designed similar to Phoenix', in that they use both sides of the terminal building for entry and exit which makes the whole process easier and reduces the backlog at the passenger pick-up by half. We drove home and picked up Darla and were on our way to the Monterey Peninsula. Darryl was hungry so we stopped at the new Black Bear Diner in Sacramento and I had to think of Samantha. We'll have to bring her there when they visit. From there we were on the road for three hours and Darla sat in the back of the 300 and made Silpada calls while Darryl and I got caught up on work and home and family.

We arrived in Pacific Grove about 4:30 and checked into our hotel. The HoJo's is a converted condominium complex and has garages and about 2/3 of the suites are two bedrooms. Actually, to call it a suite was a stretch. It was two bedrooms with a bathroom, sink and microwave refrigerator, a small table and chairs and a small balcony overlooking the parking lot. The weather was amazing and we drove over to the market and picked up some Stella Artois beer and some peanuts and came back to the hotel and had drinks on the balcony before dinner.

Dinner was a gang of 33 meeting at the Fish Hopper in Cannery Row at 7:30 PM. We drove over about 7:10 and on the way there was a huge flash in the night sky followed by two more and then the lights went out. It turns out that three transformers blew in the Cannery Row grid and it was pitch black as we drove in eerie silence to the restaurant. We wanted to at least meet up with friends and then find an open restaurant. We used the flashlight option on Darryl's cellphone to navigate the streets from where we parked on the street to the restaurant. We hooked up with Neil and Lilly and decided to meet at Fisherman's Wharf where the Seafood Grotto could get us in at 9:00 PM. Dinner was excellent, but the owner was nice enough to give us a free seafood appetizer sampler after we had already ordered. Darryl and I ordered the Seafood sampler with shrimp, calamari, scallops and oysters. It was way too much food, but after snacking on the appetizer platter (we were starved by then), we could hardly put a dent into our dinners. The second problem was that the meal laid on our stomach like a lead weight when we tried to go to bed that night. I think all of us were suffering from being overstuffed. Darla got up about 2 in the morning and opened the windows and we felt better after that. We had talked about taking a walk when we got back to the condo, but didn't. We should have.

Saturday was golf at Pacific Grove (the Poor Man's Pebble Beach). It is a mundane front side followed by some of the world's best scenery on the back as the course winds along the 17 Mile Drive and the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Hole number 10 is right next to the Point Pinos Lighthouse, which I have pictured above. Look closely in the picture and you can see a ladder on it's side that they use to clean the windows surrounding the light dome. I guess they can't put it anywhere else, but funny that people come from around the world and see a maintenance ladder laying on it's side in the lighthouse windows.

Darryl hasn't played much golf this year, but he still hits the ball a mile and he had his memorable holes. There was a 295 yard par four on the front side that I almost drove. My ball came up about ten yards short of the green. Bob and Darryl both hit screamers to the left side of the green that hit the cart path and bounded out of bounds about 340 yards from the tee box. Darryl also hit a massive drive on the par 5 number 10 Sunday that put him in position to go for the green over water about 185 yards away. He hit a six iron to about fifteen feet and missed the eagle putt, but tapped in for birdie. It was impressive. I shot 42+42=84 and took second place for the day winning $33. Darryl got his $10 tournament fee back both days as he doesn't have a handicap and guests can't play for the prize money anyway. Bob shot 83, Boyd had 77 and Neil would have had 86, but got a little chippy on one hole and slapped his ball off the green without putting out and disqualified himself. Darryl shot 98.

Darla had the boys drive up from Cal Poly (about a two hour drive) and they had lunch together at the Fish Hopper with Rick's wife, Jan. They then went over to the Asilomar Conference grounds across the street and over to the beach and played football. Becky drove up from the Los Angeles area and drove up with them. They were waiting for us when we got home. We had dinner reservations at Vito's, an authentic Italian restaurant in Pacific Grove for 7 PM. They set us up in the banquet room and we had Neil and Lilly, Rick and Jan, Steve and Brenda and the six of us. Bob was going to join us but decided to drive home to San Jose and bunk there for the night. Vicky was out of town and I think he looked forward to the solitude at home.

Sunday was Poppy Hills and the beauty that is Pebble Beach. We had breakfast with Rick and Steve and then went and hit balls. I had a back spasm on the driving range and was afraid to hit the ball full out. I ended up weakly smothering it to the left and had that problem all day. I shot 45+45=90 on the much tougher course, but did manage to birdie number 2 which Steve quickly matched to keep me out of the money in skins. It was a theme all day as he had three birdies and some big numbers on his way to an 89 and fourth place in the tournament. Bob shot 85, Boyd had 83 and Darryl shot 101. We had a great time with good conversations, good food, fun golf on great courses and a lot of laughs along the way. I told Darryl that he has to plan to come up to Reno with us in May when Cheryl can come and enjoy the trip as well. I'll definitely rent a house up there and we can relax and enjoy the stay. Darryl, if you pay the flights out, I'll take care of the living arrangements. Monterey is GREAT, but we usually go in October and Cheryl runs the costume shop and Halloween store.

I was a little tired at work today, but got to leave a bit early as I had to run by the new office in Roseville and check out the ceiling tiles. True story, our owner didn't want to sign a lease until I confirmed that the ceiling tiles were clean and in good shape (they are). I took a picture of the 3 story building and it is the last one in the photos above. The picture of me in Darla's glasses was at breakfast Saturday morning in Pacific Grove when I forgot my glasses and my spare pair that usually resides in Darla's purse were left at the condo. The picture of Miss Samantha is from her trip to the Rain Forest Cafe in Vegas with Jennifer, Michael and Dad and Shirley. I haven't had a chance to talk to Dad since they got home, but will try to call him this week.

I leave for the Manager's meeting next Tuesday and tomorrow is our annual Insurance Conference at the Community Center in Sacramento. This year I'm going to go into the office for the morning hours and show up for lunch and work the booth in the afternoon.

Well, that was our busy weekend and I had a great time with my older brother and was happy for him to meet my friends and have a chance to play some golf. We will do it again. I had Steve and Rick approach me about maybe planning a trip to Colorado next year for a golf weekend and we may do that if the Inn is open. It would probably be me, Rick, Steve, Neil, Boyd and Bob. We'd fly in Friday morning and fly back Sunday night. I hope you are all well. Cheryl, thank you for the loan of your husband. You all be good to each other. Ciao.

Next UP? Monterey with my other brother Darryl

I just got in from waxing my car and I have a sweat going that won't quit. After a few days of rain, our weather has returned to the seasonal 80's and it looks good through the week and into our Monterey trip with Darryl next weekend. Darryl flies in on Friday afternoon and I will pick him up after a half day of work. We are staying at the Howard Johnson in Pacific Grove, a hotel that sounds wholly mundane, but is actually an award winning property and a former condominium complex away from hotel row, but still close to Asilomar and the 17 mile drive. We were able to secure a two bedroom unit and. although I really wanted a condo or home like we had last weekend, the owners were not willing to give me a deal on a two day stay. One of the owners offered me a deal at $200 a night for a three night minimum. When I told her I'd only be there for two nights, she offered me the condo at $300 a night. You do the math. With the private homes there is a separate cleaning fee (often $150) and a security deposit of $300 - $500. With just the two nights, I decided that the HoJo's would be sufficient. It may not be as comfortable as a private home, but we'll make do. I got it for $209 a night, so it will be a bargain, if nothing else.

Darla and I are planning a night out with friends on Saturday night. Darla and I ate at a great little Italian eatery in Pacific grove called Vito's a few years ago and decided to have the gang go out on Saturday. So far we have a total of 12 people in the group. One of the guys in the club has 40 people going out the same night, but has reservations at a Chinese Food restaurant. I can't drive three hours to the Pacific Ocean and eat dinner at a Chinese Food restaurant. The same group has dinner plans at the Fish Hopper in Cannery Row on Friday night and we may join them there. The Fish Hopper is one of my favorites in Monterey.

It was a short week this last week and will be a short week this week as well given that I am only working a half day on Friday. To make up for that, I have to be in San Francisco in full corporate regalia with Pete and Matt from my office to meet with our owner and CEO. He is in California for a Surplus Lines event in San Diego from tonight until Wednesday. They will fly back on a Net Jets to SF on Thursday and meet all of us in the office. Harvey will be with him.

I will pick Darryl up about noon from the new airport terminal in Sacramento and swing home to get Darla and then be off to Pacific Grove. Neil has arranged a fivesome for us on Saturday at Pacific Grove Golf Links with myself, Darryl, Boyd, Bob and Neil. On Sunday we play Poppy Hills and it will be me, Darryl, Bob and Steve (my poker buddy). It should be a great weekend. The only downside is that Cheryl couldn't join us and Bob will be without his wife, Vicki, as well. Darla will keep busy with Jan, Lilly, Liz, Sue and the other wives and I'm sure will manage plenty of shopping and lunches while we play.

I set up a golf outing this weekend at Lincoln Hills in Lincoln and we played the Orchard course. The cost is normally $69, but I had a coupon for $39. The course is in awesome shape and a challenge, but they had a tournament off in front of us and we were an hour late teeing off. I shot 44+41=85 and worked out some of the bugs in my driver. I have been rather shallow on my takeaway and letting my hands get ahead of the clubhead and pulling the ball left. I steepened the plane by feeling like I was taking the club straight back (the image is hitting someone with the club who is standing right behind you). It really helped and aside from some putting difficulties on the front side, I had a birdie on each side and played solidly. Hopefully, I can carry that to Monterey. I can get away with a balky driver at Pacific Grove, but not Poppy Hills, which is full of groves of Eucalyptus, which grow tall and very close together. If you hit into them, you have to take a drop. It will be great to play with Darryl and I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend with him. Boyd shot 40 and both Paul and Pamas struggled and shot mid eighties at Lincoln Hills.

Darla and I went out to dinner last night with our friends, Mary and Stan, who will be going with us to our condo in Nuevo Vallarta next month. I had a Groupon that I bought for Susumu, a Japanese Steakhouse in Roseville that is patterned after Benihanas. It is hard to top Benihana, but the Groupon was $35 (half price) and bought us four dinners of either steak and shrimp or chicken and shrimp. We had appetizers of calamari and the guys had Sapporo beer and the ladies lemon drop cocktails and we had a lot of laughs. I think they will be fun to travel with, although Stan went out of his way to make sure that I know he is NOT a golfer. I told him that I would likely play five of the days that we are there and he can join me whenever he wants. We are also going with Bob and Debbie and one of their friends who is a golfer.

Well, Darla has tacos on the stove and I need to put my feet up and relax before work tomorrow. Darla, being a quasi-state worker (her agency is a private agency that works with the state of California and follows their holiday schedule), has tomorrow off. It is to celebrate Columbus Day, a Spanish explorer who got lost on his way to Asia and discovered a country where he could rip off native Americans. I will return next week with pictures from our trip and lots of stories. Have a great week. Ciao.

Lake Tahoe with Dad and Shirley

A lot of pictures were taken and a lot of fun had during our three days in Lake Tahoe. Thank you to Dad and Shirley for letting us crash your party. Dad and Shirley got in on Thursday afternoon late and we went out to Mexican Food at a little local hole in the wall Mexican joint in our local shopping center. We walked over (after cocktails) and were glad to have the walk back at 9:00 PM when we headed home. The portions are always huge and even with both couples splitting a California burrito, we were stuffed at the end of our meal.Friday, Darla and I worked in the morning. Dad washed the Cadillac and Shirley went grocery shopping at Bel Air in the shopping center up the street. I returned home at 11:30 just as Darla was pulling into the garage. We quickly loaded up the 300 and were on the road to meet Neil and Lilly in Truckee at Jax by the Tracks, the same restaurant we took Jennifer and Samantha to on our snow trip. Neil and I ordered the white cheddar macaroni that Samantha had and we all just loved on that trip last Winter. It was still awesome, Jen.

We go into the condo at 3:30 and planned to head over to see Dad and Shirley for cocktails at their condo at the Marriott resort next to Embassy Suites and Harrahs in South Lake Tahoe, CA. Our condo was in the Lakeview Village condominium resort in Stateline, Nevada. We had drinks and then drove over to the Lakeside Inn for Prime Rib. Neil ordered the Petite Filet and loved that and the rest of us had the signature prime rib, which was as good as advertised. We were all stuffed after dinner and decided to play some casino games and grab dessert later. Neil and Lilly pooped out early and left about 10:30. Dad and Shirley, Darla and I all went to get dessert about midnight.

Our waiter was a gay man named Wendell that had us all in stitches. We asked about dessert and he said he'd never served it before because he works the graveyard shift and they stop serving dessert at 11 PM. He said to go ahead and order and he'd see what he could do. Dad asked an innocuous question about the dessert and he put his hand on Dad's arm and said, "I may be a queen, but I'm not the Dairy Queen!" Shirley was laughing and he went back to talk to the kitchen staff about what was available dessert-wise and she was still giggling when he came back around the corner. He looked at her and said, "This is a quiet one, but I think she's a bit of a dirty girl. No wonder her husband is smiling so much." That set all of us off laughing. He came back and told us that he was born and raised in Montana and was a fish out of water. His older brother was named Homer and he couldn't pronounce it and called him "Homo". His mother told him later that after him calling his brother "Homo", that nature took it's course and here he is. We had a great time with him and he made the night for us.

Saturday we planned to meet Dad and Shirley and walk the beach walkway from the pier and get some exercise. We couldn't all fit in one car so decided to call them when we got to the Marriott to tell them to meet us at the pier. They weren't in their room, but Dad had told me that he and Shirley might go stretch their legs. We looked all around for them and decided to drive over to the pier and wait. There was construction going on on the roadway and the pier and parking lot were closed, so we headed back to the Marriott. We called the room, couldn't find them, walked around the complex and couldn't find them. it turns out they were sitting at the valet parking stand waiting for us and Darla just happened to look out and see them. They'd been waiting for us the better part of 45 minutes.
We ended up all piling into Dad's Cadillac and driving over to the Tahoe Queen marina and walking the beach there. We watched a wedding party fighting the wind and ending up with about a five minute wedding ceremony. we walked over to the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club, an older condo that both Darla and I like. We walked the beach down to the pier and out onto the pier and finally stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the beach and pier and had fish and chips for lunch.

Pete (one of my top Underwriters and long time friend)and his wife, Vicki, drove in Saturday and stayed at the Embassy Suites and went to dinner with us Saturday night. Dad and Shirley picked them up and drove them over to our condo for cocktails. I fixed barbecued bratwurst and the girls fixed hor de oeuvres to complement the drinks. Lilly fixed her TNT margaritas and I drank too many and was a few sheets short of a laundry basket by the time we drove to dinner. You can see by Darla's expression in the second picture that she is not pleased with me. We had dinner at Teps Villa Roma, again a restaurant that we ate dinner at with Jennifer and Samantha on our snow trip. We had a great evening and Pete had everyone in stitches all night. We ended up over at Harrah's afterward and we played some video poker and called it a night. I was plowed and Darla had to take my pants off and get me to bed that night.

Sunday we met at Heidi's, the best breakfast restaurant in Lake Tahoe and enjoyed a big meal. The girls then went out shopping afterward and the guys watched football back at dad's condo. We had everyone over to our place for dinner (barbecued tri tip) Sunday night. We played Greedy (the dice game) and called it a night about 11:30. Darla and I went into the jacuzzi and enjoyed a good soak.

The condo was great and a real bargain at $116 a night. It was two bedrooms, two baths with a large living area and kitchen and a dining room. They had a two car garage and a hot tub in the alcove above the garage. We will definitely be back.

We met Dad and Shirley at Heidi's again this morning and had breakfast and said our goodbyes. There was a waitress there that looked like the old lady in Titanic that harassed Neil to no end. We got a picture of her with the guys this morning. We sure had a great trip and were home by 1:30 this afternoon.

I then went golfing as I hadn't had my fix. We played behind the girls golf tournament for the area high schools and it seemed slow but we finished in just over four hours. I shot 80, but still struggled at times with my driver and even (believe it or not) shanked my driver on number six and almost hit a guy AGAIN over on the second green. It's in my head now, but I still parred the hole.

Well that is all the news that is fit to print. Dad and Shirley will be in Tahoe until Friday and then are off to Vegas where they will see Samantha and Jennifer. I wish them Godspeed on their travels. it is supposed to snow on Wednesday night up in Tahoe, so that should be fun for them. I hope you are all well. Ciao.