Forced Bachelorhood this weekend and Cruising to next weekend

The blog will take a well earned rest next weekend as Darla and I cruise off with Darryl and Cheryl, Randy and Cake and Dad and Shirley to the Bahamas. I look forward to resting on the ship and relaxing on the pool deck with a tropical drink in my hand. It will be great to back together with the Lyon family and helping to celebrate Dad's upcoming 75th birthday bash. We are off to San Francisco on Thursday night where we will stay over in a La Quinta Inn close to the airport. They will keep our car for the week and drive us to and from the airport. We will have breakfast at the hotel and then take the shuttle over to the airport about nine am for our 11:00 AM flight to Ft. Lauderdale. We are staying at the same Courtyard Inn as Darryl and Randy and will meet them for a late dinner Friday night. I think we get in about 7 PM.

Saturday we will shuttle over to the Cruise Port and stand in line to get through customs and onto the boat. We leave for San Juan Puerto Rico at 4 PM. Sherry has already scouted out how much wine we can bring on board. It should be a fun week.

I will take two weeks off from golf and after the last two weekends, I think I need a break. I can feel my back starting to tighten up and I'm scheduled for a Bowen treatment on the Thursday that we get back. I played poker on Friday night in keeping with the bachelor theme and had a pretty up and down night and probably made about $10 the entire night, but was likely DOWN about $50 midway through the night. It was a nice comeback. The money that we play with is quarters and half dollars that we have collected over the years. I probably have over $200 in change sitting in a file cabinet in my office that I use to gamble with. It never feels like I make or lose much because it is containers of coins. I sometimes feel like a big winner when we have someone new at the game and he buys $60 or $80 worth of coin from me during the night. I'll come home with $150 in my money clip, but most of that is because I don't have an extra $60 in change now.

My golf game has gone south and in a really quick fashion. I played today with Darren, Paul and Neil and shot a horrific 48+47=95 and this comes a day after shooting 47 +43=90 in the 2 man qualifier at Diamond Oaks on Saturday. Steve and I teamed up to shoot a DFL 74 in the best ball competition. It was a magnificent display of ineptitude. I lost a sleeve of balls today and hit one out of bounds yesterday at Diamond. It may be a forced layoff due to the cruise, but I think I need some time away from the game to get my batteries recharged. I went from shooting 81 and 83 a couple of weeks ago to rounds of 89, 90 and 95. It is amazing how fast it can all slip away. No one shot a stellar round today as Neil had 94, Paul had 94 and Darren shot 90. In fact it was so bad that in our skin game, no one had a closest to the pin because no one landed on the green and there was a regulation four par threes on this course. It reminds me often that it is a four letter sport.

Darla will be home tonight from her sojourn to Dallas, Texas with her Silpada sisters. The gang went out to Gilley's last night and Darla had to ride the mechanical bull. I don't know how long she stayed on, but she posted it to her Facebook account. I've talked to her everyday and they have had a great time. She was telling me about being in a famous restaurant in Dallas where they have an artist who paints portraits of all of the famous people who have dinner there. These pictures grace the walls of the restaurant and include local sports figures and international actors and actresses. Darla and her gang were at one of the tables when Sue, Darla's up line, pointed at a black family who was sitting at the table across from them and yelled, " who is that with the monkey?" The waiter who was taking their order took one look at the situation and turned and ran out of the room. Darla picked up on the faux paus as Sue was actually pointing at one of the paintings of a man with a monkey. The black family was not amused and Sue jumped up and ran over to the painting and said, "Hey it looks like Jungle Bob and his sidekick." Apparently that was a local kid's show in Ohio and Darla just started busting up (as only she can do) and had the whole table in hysterics. I guess they eventually clued in the waiter who thought he had a racial incident occurring in his work station.

Darryl is now done with McClane and is an employee of Standard Beverage. He will work from home in Denver this week and then take the cruise with us and then be off to the booming metropolis of Lawrence, Kansas. He will be commuting for awhile as they attempt to get the house sold.

I was relaxing at home last night after the golf game. It was particularly cold yesterday as a cold front moved through and made way for a gorgeous day today. The doorbell rang and I got up to answer the door and there was nobody there. I no sooner sat down than it rang again. I figured whoever it was must have heard me open the door and come back, but I heard the sound of adolescent high pitched laughter as I opened the door. We live on a corner and they were playing doorbell ditch. I decided that if it rang again, I was going to get a pail of water and play "Douse the cheeky little brat." But, apparently they decided that two times was enough. Thank God as I was tired and I probably would have been arrested for assault for teaching a lesson to a juvenile. Life lessons are not allowed in California.

Peter was supposed to be back to work tomorrow, but his doctor has not released him to drive yet and wants him to work no more than six hours a day from home this coming week. He can work two hours at a time and then has to rest. Hopefully he is ready to return the following week, because I am gone. I'm going to meet Peter at his house and bring lunch on Thursday.

Well, that is it. Not much news. I got the car washed this weekend, the lawn mowed and the pool cleaned. I had my car custom detailed a couple of weeks ago and it is so easy to wash now. He did a really good hand wax on the car after cleaning it and doing the interior, including dressing the seats and the dashboard. I had a hot dog and some garlic fries at Auburn Country Club today and I will likely skip dinner. I have to input the individual scores from the Saturday tournament. I hope everyone has a good week and we'll see Dad, Darryl and Randy (anf their wives) this coming weekend. Ciao.

Before the Rain

If you watched any of the Pebble Beach Pro Am Golf Tournament this weekend, you know that Northern California is bracing for a cold, wet storm. It will blow in overnight tonight and the snow level is expected to drop to around 3000 feet. They were lucky to get the golf tournament in and actually did without any major weather problems. The only issue was fog and cold temperatures. They actually started the week out in perfect conditions, it was 70 degrees here on Thursday and about 65 degrees and Sunny on the Monterey Peninsula. It is one of my agents' birthday tomorrow and his wife asked me to take him golfing. I called the course in Camino today to make a reservation and the pro told me that they may be snowed out tomorrow. This agent, Gary turns 55 tomorrow and his wife turns 48 in April. I turn 55 next month and Darla turns 48 in May. We definitely live common lives, although he has a son who is 11. I'm pretty sure that I don't.

I did get out today and put some fertilizer on the lawn. I also took a garden rake to a portion of it and de-thatched some of the grass. In fact, I just looked outside and the rain has started already.

Darla is at her sister's house. Her parents came into town tonight and I guess are staying over and will watch Luke tomorrow. I was invited, but had some handicapping things to prepare for next week's tournament and wanted to get the blog completed. I just finished a nice dinner of turkey meatloaf. It actually sounds worse than it is and Darla and I have substituted ground turkey for a lot of red meat. If you season and spice it enough, add onions, etc., it actually isn't bad. The meatloaf is a relatively new recipe and delicious.

I guess given what went down with Pete in my office, we need to eat healthier. Pete ended up having surgery on Tuesday and getting the stints installed. He had one stint installed on Saturday night. That artery was 99% blocked and was the cause of his heart attack. They went in Tuesday and did three more. I talked to him Thursday and Friday and he was doing great, but one of the meds caused a rash on his body and he went back into emergency this morning and they took him off one med and put him on Prednisone, which is to help fight the allergic reaction he is having to the drugs he is taking. He will see his cardiologist on Tuesday and we'll know if he will be back the following Monday and also whether he is able to travel with me to Scottsdale in March. If he is not able to travel, Anthony may come in on Sunday night and see the markets with me. Darla and I will still go on the Friday and probably have Jennifer and Samantha come to Scottsdale and hang out with us. It is about 280 miles from Vegas to Scottsdale. Colony is giving me free use of a two bedroom corporate condo in Scottsdale.

I sent Pete a personalized padfolio with his name embossed on it. I also sent him a personalized greeting card with a picture of Anthony, Pete and I on it that reads overlaid on the picture: ""We Need You! and inside it says that if we are to get to the next level in Sacramento, we need Peter back and at full strength for the stretch run. He called when he got it Saturday and said, "Hey, what are you trying to make me cry?" The cost was actually less than the flowers and teddy bear I sent to Connie at the hospital two weeks ago when she had her surgery. I need to get back to having all healthy employees in the office. I really like Personalization.com. Try it sometime, it makes great corporate gifts, but also unique gifts for loved ones.

I got out and played golf on Saturday with Paul, Pamas and Darren. I got up a little late and was rushing to make my tee time. I got there on time and was even able to make it into the restroom for a little morning constitutional and then hit a few balls on the range before rushing to the tee. I teed off and then was transferring my i phone and keys and what have you into my golf bag from my coat when I realized that I left my wallet in the men's room. I asked Darren to take my cart and I ran back to the rest room to get my wallet. Thankfully, it was still stuffed into the seat cover holder where I'd put it. I should have put it in my coat, but that would have been too easy and smart for me. I ran back out toward the first fairway in time to see Darren with both carts flipped over and clubs and balls falling all over the place. He was pushing both carts down the hill when the carts started moving in two different directions and he tried to save both of them from crashing and managed to save neither of them. I played with Paul , who is an 8, Pamas who is a 5 and Darren who is an 18. Paul, Pamas and I all shot 46 on the front side and struggled all over the course. Darren played very well for himself and shot 42. We played marginally better on the backside and I ended up with a 46+43=89, Paul shot 89, Darren shot 86 and Pamas shot 38 on the back for an 84.

Darla leaves for Dallas on Wednesday morning and leaves me to my own devices. I have a tournament, our 4 ball qualifier on Saturday and I also set up a tee time for Sunday. I won't be playing golf on the cruise and need to get my fix in this coming weekend. I don't think we'll be able to play tomorrow, but I will probably get in a game later in the week with Gary. Darla will be at the leadership conference for Silpada.

By the way, I haven't seen the "poop man" at the office since his "problem". I'm wondering if he's still with the company. We had an office lunch on Friday and I had one of the caterers bring in the food. This was a reward for the office hitting our budget goals in January. Anthony suggested that we have lunch catered from the Thai food restaurant down the street. That is the restaurant the man had lunch at that caused his issues.

Our lease has finally been signed for the office building in Roseville. I first met with the leasing agent in March of last year and we toured the Roseville site in June. So, basically seven months after we decided on our space, the deal is done. They were fighting over stenciling on the front glass doors and who was going to pay for 15 replacement ceiling tiles and silly stuff. Our lease runs for 88 months, so the cost of either one of those items likely would have been about $10 per month. Whatever. It is done and we can now start planning for our move probably in April. The permits will be pulled for the buildout this coming week and then they will start on the tenant's improvements and betterments. I am really looking forward to the upgrade in our office environment. A bonus in all of this is that my monthly lease nut will drop from $10,000 to $9,600. It will really be nice to work in the community that I live. I'm already considering joining the Chamber of Commerce and maybe even the Lion's Club or another civic organization.

I talked to Jennifer this week and she went from working nights to working in Temecula and being away from Samantha. She got back on Wednesday and her boss asked her to work Thursday night because the job of replacing the radio receivers wasn't complete. She seemed a little aggravated that her boss isn't as organized as she is. He tends to fly by the seat of his pants and with her a single Mom, it doesn't work well. I guess John was a little upset that she had to work after not being with Sam all week. She does get to spend part of the day with Sam, but she also has to sleep.

Finally, I talked to Darryl as well. He talked to his company on Monday about his move and they asked him to stay on for two weeks and help transition his move. The new company has also given Darryl the flexibility to work from Colorado his first week and then start in Lawrence when we get back from the cruise. Darryl will not be working in the corporate office and has told the CEO that he will do a buildout for a new office in the warehouse. He wants to be close to the action because he has a lot of deficiencies that need to be worked on. He seems pretty excited about the possibilities of this new job. He also said that they do all of their offsite conferences at the winery in California, so hopefully we can see something of him. By the way, Darryl, our golf trip to Reno this year is Saturday and Sunday June 9th and 10th. The courses are Somerset Country Club and Lakeridge Golf Club. You'll have to plan to come out for that or if Cheryl isn't working for Spirit, you can come out to Monterey again for the weekend. The dates on that are October 13th and 14th and we will play Poppy Hills and Carmel Valley Ranch Country Club. Spend some of that money you are making and visit California.

That is it for this week. I think I was a little wordy with Darla being gone. If so, I apologize. I hope everyone has a good week. Be well and walk with the Lord. Ciao.

Another Boring Super Bowl in the Books

I was afraid that with one of the worst defenses in the league in New England and the worst rushing team in the league in the Giants, that the SB would be dull, but this was ridiculous. Sure the score was close, but there was a tremendous amount of mediocrity and sheer boredom in the game. I can hearken back to the divisional games with Denver beating Pittsburgh and The Niners upsetting New Orleans. Those were exciting, well played games. How did both of these teams make it to the Super Bowl and not realize that you can only play 11 men on defense? Thank God it is over. As Randy said on his Facebook page, this was the WORST Super Bowl in history. And to name Eli Manning MVP? Wow, that was an amazing two yard passing TD to Victor Cruz. That was the extent of his scoring in the game. MVP, eh? At least I won $75 in our office football pool. That will pay me back for the four hours of my life I lost today.

I had a call at almost 11 PM last night and it was Pete's wife, Vicki, telling me that Pete had suffered a mild heart attack and was in the hospital. He had done yard work and was sitting on the couch early in the evening and felt his chest tightening and his left arm go numb. They had a neighbor who is a nurse come over and tell them to get him to the hospital. He was sweating profusely. They ran some tests today and he has three blockages in the ventricles leading to his heart. Right now they are trying to decide if they should put stints in to clear the blockage or do a bypass. The stints have a life range of 12-15 years and they would likely have to replace them when he is in his late 60's. The other option is a triple bypass, which would permanently correct the problem, but have him in the hospital for 7 days and out of work for three months. I plan to visit him in the hospital tomorrow night. Darla has a Silpada sales meeting at the house.

Connie had her surgery on Tuesday and will be out of the office for six weeks. She is feeling stronger every day, but has a great deal of pain. The timing can never be good, but this is really stretching my staff thin.

I took Matt up to Chico this week and introduced him to my agents there. We left Roseville at 6:45 AM and had an 8:30 breakfast, another meeting at 10 AM and then a lunch with another agent. We finished that with a 2 PM call on a fourth agency and all of the calls went really well. The agents that I am turning over to him write a combined $350,000 in premium with us. As I said before, it was a hard decision to make, but one I just had to do. Matt can get up and see the agents and perhaps grow them to over half a million in premium with a more concerted marketing effort. As I told the agenst, I'm still here, but I only expect to hear from them when Matt isn't reaching the customer service level they expect. In other words, I don't plan on hearing from them. It was a good trip and I'm impressed with Matt's demeanor and marketing savvy shown on these calls. He will do very well.

Darryl called me on Friday afternoon and announced that he is leaving McClain and will take a job with Standard Beverage Company in Lawrence, Kansas. I admire him and Cheryl for their ability to shift on the fly. If I was offered a position in our home office in Detroit, I would be moving on my own. Darla isn't leaving Northern California and I can honestly say that I'm not either. I'm lucky to really enjoy my job and the people that I work with. On top of that, I love California (politics aside) and can never imagine leaving. I love the weather, our church and our friends and the golf club and our home. I wouldn't want to mess that up by looking at what is behind door number three. I certainly wish him well and one consolation is that he is moving closer to his family in Texas. I know they all like coming up to Denver to visit and hit the slopes. Kansas has....well......uh, good barbecue? The golf group had tentatively planned to head up to Denver in the Spring to visit Darryl and Cheryl and play golf.

I did make it out to the golf course this weekend, but all of my buddies let me down. Paul from the club joined me and we played the Orchard Course at Lincoln Hills. I shot 42+44=86 and really struggled with my driver on the backside. I managed two birdies during the round, but was quite inconsistent. Paul shot 46+39=85 and played much better on the backside with his two birdies coming on 10 and 12. Paul is an 8 handicap. With Bob having left for San Jose, Mel back in the Philippines and Matt doing his Masters program at UC Davis, that leaves Pamas, Darren and Boyd. Pamas plays in the Golf Channel Am Tour tournaments and works one Saturday a month for the FBI. Darren is inconsistent at best and always has to check with his wife. Boyd is usually good to go, but had a granddaughter's birthday party Saturday. Paul is in now with Boyd and I on Saturdays and I will try to sprinkle in Matt, Neil, Rick, Darren, Pamas and Bob Hand. We had a good time on Saturday. Paul is 58, divorced and likes to carve out time for golf every Saturday (my kind of guy). He moved to the US from Guadalajara when he was 15 and is a registered alien just like the rest of my US family. His green card expired last week and he didn't realize it and was scrambling around to fix that oversight last week. He plans to take out his citizenship in 2012. Darryl and Randy, you should do the same. It's about damn time.

Darla is back in our office working on taxes, getting her receipts together so we can get our tax package off to our accountant before we leave on the cruise. It is always so much fun. We owe every year because Darla does not withhold taxes on two of her jobs. We get our returns back and then wait until the 15th to send in our money. Luckily, I have a bonus check that comes to me in mid March that pays for the taxes due.

We do only have three weeks until we will be on our cruise to the Bahamas. Darla and I leave for San Francisco on February 23rd where we will leave our car at a Sleep and Fly hotel (La Quinta Inn close to the airport). We are looking forward to the trip and I just hope I have a full staff when I leave. That, of course, remains to be seen.

I haven't heard from Jennifer in about a week. She was on nights last week as she was changing out radio receivers on some of the cell towers in Vegas and they have to do it at night when the phone activity is lower. The benefit was that she got some extra time with Samantha and John got to see Sam every evening.

Well, that is the news that is fit to print. Darla has a trip to Dallas coming up right after Valentines Day. She will return from that on Sunday night the 19th and we leave for the cruise on Thursday night. Wild. I hope you are all well. As our pastor says, If you want to be in a better (Friendship, Marriage, Neighborhood, etc.) be a better ( Friend, Spouse, Neighbor, etc.). Good advice. Ciao.