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.