Moving Week

We made it through a chaotic week of moving boxes, tubs, crates and having over half the office without a place to sit from Tuesday afternoon on. They had to take down the cubicles Tuesday afternoon in order to wire them and install them into the new space. We set up five work stations in the conference room, but it was hard for everyone to work with telephones ringing and just the bustle of a busy office. I had 6 people working from their homes. We also had to clear out the entire space in Rancho Cordova including two wood desks, file cabinets, file shelving and assorted paper, files, binders, metal organizers, etc. I took two truck fulls of trash to the dump on Wednesday and the movers took a bob tail full of electronics, a desk, the leftover file shelving and a bunch of desk floor mats that are not needed (nor allowed) in the new office.

We finally made the physical move on Friday night. Bekins arrived at 5:00 PM and left with the truck for Roseville at just before 7:00 PM. I went over to the new site and watched them unload and deliver the furniture to the office. They finished up just before 9:00 PM and I took the two IT guys and the Property Manager from HO out to dinner at Fat's, an Asian Restaurant in Roseville. We ate a huge repast of dim sum and Asian dishes and topped it off with two big slices of banana cream pie. I got home about 11:45 after a LONG day.

Saturday, Bob Hand had asked me to play in a two man best ball tournament with him in Antelope. I really wanted to get into the office and get my desk set-up, but it was an 8:00 AM shotgun and the course is a par 58. Bob and I shot a combined 46 and finished in first place, three shots clear of the field. Neither of us shot great. I shot 66, but it was right on my handicap as the slope there allows me only 8 strokes. Bob shot 74 and again it was right on his 16 stroke handicap. We just ham and egged the scoring and it all came together. We had a big barbecue of polish sausages and salads and Bob and I took the first place prize of three rounds of golf at the course each(3??).

I then went into the office and spent four hours setting up my office, pictures, files, desk, and computer. The IT guys had all of the computers already set up and running and the Property Manager had a list of items for the builders to touch up. I did get two new flat screen TVs for the office, a 42 inch in the front lobby and a 55 inch in the conference room.

Darla met me back at the house after her three days in Monterey and Pacific Grove with her family. She had a great time with her brother and enjoyed watching Lucas play on the beach and chase the deer in the park. I would certainly have like to have gone, but the move took precedence. They did sort of push to get us moved in and we were lucky to get the system up and running as Verizon initially told us they wouldn't have our network up and running until Monday. We also had our coffee service taken out of the old office and then they couldn't install it in the new office because the counters weren't in yet because the materials were ordered from Canada and got hung up at the border. They finally installed the sinks and countertops on Friday. The bar area is still not complete as the pedastals had not come in and the contractor just jammed another piece of countertop under it to hold it up and they will finish it tomorrow.

I did play golf today and was very pleased to have Bob in town from San Jose. We played in the first foursome with Neil and Boyd and Darla even came over and hung out with us after we finished and I ran the skins for the tournament. We had $495 in the skin pot and I birdied number 17 and won $38 from the total. My score was a 45+40=85 and could have been better. I struggled on the front side and only had one par to go with 7 bogeys and a double. The back was better highlighted by the birdie on 17. It was great seeing Bob.

Darla and I bought a used spa that will hopefully be installed this week. I have another two days of golf Saturday and Sunday next weekend and will need it. Steve was supposed to install the 220 lines for me, but he is out of town on a fishing trip and leaves for San Diego when he gets back from that. Charlie from the club is also an electrician and will do the work. He has to install a 50 Amp breaker and make some room in the box by putting some twin breakers in. It's all Greek to me, but he will do the work for much less than the $800 the spa shop's electrician wants to charge me. I'll meet Charlie tomorrow morning at 6:45 here so he can get a scope of the work and he will install the lines this week. The spa is a Vita spa and is a four person unit.

Well, I will likely add some photos later to this as Darla has some shots from her trip to Monterey. The boys drove up from Cal Poly as well and hung out with the whole family. I hope you are all doing great and enjoying God's gift of Springtime. Be well. Ciao.

Life goes on

We will be at a Christian concert tomorrow night, so I am getting the blog done tonight. Our weather has turned HOT after nothing but rain and more rain for the past month. We had a nice week this last week with 70's and sunshine leading up to the heat that hit on Friday. It was 90 degrees Friday and 93 degrees today in Roseville.

I played the first round of the Roseville City Amateur and had the smother hook thing going off the tee. I shot 48 and 43 for a 91 and sit in fifth place in my flight with a net 82. There were a number of high scores and the problem at Woodcreek is high rough that hasn't been able to be mowed since before the recent rains. There is still a lot of standing water in the low lying areas of the course. I managed back to back triple bogeys on the front and a 9 on the back, but finished par-birdie-par-par to keep from really putting up a high score. I played with a 6 handicap that shot a 93 so it was a rough outing.

Tomorrow I will play the second round at Diamond Oaks and hopefully I have figured out the driver. It has been the strongest part of my game for about two years, so to lose it like I have is really frustrating. I have always hooded my driver and now it is causing me to smother the ball dead left off of the tee. I started really hitting good drives on the back nine, but hit two out of bounds on number 14 that led to the 9. Hopefully it will portend to good things tomorrow. We'll see.

Anthony sent me an e-mail this week telling me that he underestimated just how much he would miss all of his buddies at Burns. I sent him a note asking him if I knew him and who he was. He sent me a note telling me he would hit me in the knee with a 9 iron. He wants to have lunch on Monday, but it is too soon for me. I think the guys are going to meet him and talk, but I will take a pass for now.
I did make offers to two candidates on Friday and have an acceptance from one. I have one more candidate that I want to hire. She is a small business manager right now and a marketing machine.  She is a little pricey, but the one thing we are missing in my office is a heavy weight marketing person. She doesn't know anything about insurance, but I can fill her in on that. I plan to make her an offer later this week.

With all of the changes in my office, our Home Office decided that they would shorten my trip to Canada to just incorporate the Kelowna conference, but the airfare ended up costing close to $1000 if I stayed in Vancouver and if I flew direct to Kelowna via Seattle the cost was $780 and I would need to stay an extra night at the resort. They took a look at the cost and found a $440 flight out of Los Angeles and will send the Branch manager there. Really, with three or four new employees starting in May I can't afford to be gone.

We have all of our moving crates, boxes, dollies and labels in the office and the cubicles are coming down on Tuesday night. I had a homeless shelter set up to take the file shelving, but they were supposed to show up by 5 PM and called to say they were running late. I finally left the office at 7 Pm and they called at 8:30 and said they were down front and could I come down and let them in. I guess they think I live in an office building. I kind of gave up on them. Thursday afternoon Ricoh will be in to shut down and move the printer and Best Buy will be there to install two wall mounts and two 50 inch flat screen tvs. I went over to the office on Friday afternoon and the carpeting is in, the walls have all been painted, the kitchen floor is in and the office doors and window casings have been installed and we are just waiting for the windows and doors to be put in this week. They still have to install the bar top in the kitchen as well.

It looks like we are due for another round of rain this week midweek and then it will warm back up. All of that just to remind us that it is still Spring.

I did spend some time on the pool this afternoon after golf and had a nice nap. With two days in the 90's and a shallow play pool with a dark bottom, the pool is already up to 78 degrees. I then got out the power washer and cleaned the backsplash and tile. When I cleaned the filter out last week, I tweaked the drain plug at the bottom of the filter tank and now it has a hairline crack and is leaking.
I also got a note from the city of Roseville telling me that my sprinklers were flooding the street. I turned them back on today and I have one that is cracked and is pouring water out of the top of the sprinkler and shooting it in to the street. I guess I need to fix that.

I had a poker game on Friday night at charlie's place by the lake in Granite Bay. I won about $50 and it was great to see the guys.

Well, that is it. It will be a busy week this week with the move. Darla leaves Thursday morning
for Pacific Grove with her sister and will miss all the fun. Our twilight league starts Thursday night and the move will happen Friday night. I will be in the office all day Saturday getting my personal office set up and setting up the empty cubicles getting them ready for the new employees.

A Bad week is Over

It started out so innocently. We just enjoyed our biggest month ever in my office and I took the entire gang out to Benihanas to celebrate. 17 of us all joined in and ate appetizers and steak, shrimp, scallops, sushi, tempura, edamami, chicken, fried rice, salad, soup and ice cream. We were all in good spirits. Pete and I went out afterward and met with the construction supervisor and were assured that the space would be ready for us to take occupancy on April 27th. Home Office didn't want to have to pay rent at the Rancho location, so we have to be out by month end. The offices are all roughed out, the paint has been applied, the carpets and ceilings were due to be done on Friday and the doors and windows will be in this week. The carpet will be installed by week's end.

It was such a good day, but it all came crashing down when Anthony walked into my office and shook my hand and said, "It's been a good eight year run, but I'm leaving. Consider this my notice." I almost fell out of my chair. How could it all come apart so quickly? I was stunned. He is leaving to open a Roseville office for a competitor. I asked him if he was taking any of his assistants and his response was , "I wouldn't do that to you, Ken." Five minutes later, Pete's main assistant walked in and gave her notice as well. She is leaving to join him and help him run the office. I walked back in to Anthony and said, "What the hell? You just looked me in the eye and lied to me." He claimed that No, I asked about HIS assistants. Semantics.

It is really hard for me. I took Anthony from an Assistant UW making peanuts to a top producer making six figures. He would not be in the position he is today without my encouragement and guidance and faith. He has some issues that other managers would not have overlooked, but I gave him his chance and he made the most of it. I will get over it, but it feels like a betrayal.

I took a night to grieve and then hit the ground running the next morning. I promoted one of Anthony's assistants to an underwriting position, broke up his territory among four of my underwriters and made contact with all agents that wrote over $20,000 with us from Anthony's book. I also sent letters to all of the agency principals with details of the new team working with them and an explanation that Anthony had left and that as far as we are concerned it is business as usual and we were ready to handle any and all new business that they have to work on.

I was in the process of hiring one new assistant to replace Cora, but now will replace Pete's assistant and hopefully add one more to help us with the infrastructure and support all of the underwriters. I have interviewed about 12 candidates so far and have four to meet with Harvey on Thursday. He was coming in anyhow to do second interviews on the one position. Now, we will have a full day. I have four more interviews Monday thru Wednesday and hopefully I can add one more person to the rotation on Thursday.

Things are pretty hectic at work right now and everyone is really busy. The move couldn't come at a worst time and I talked to Home Office about letting me out of the Canada trip. They compromised and canceled the Calgary trip, but they still need me to fly into Kelowna. It looks like I will fly in to Abbottsford on Thursday and then on to Kelowna on Friday. I'll still get to see Dad and Shirley, but just for one night.

Darla will have to make the trip with her brother to Pacific Grove without me. She is inviting her sister to join her, so it will be Darla's family all together in Monterey during that weekend. I will be on site to handle the move.

Even with all of the drama at work, I still was able to make it out both days this weekend for our Zone two man qualifier. Steve and I teamed up and after our laid egg in February, we played well this weekend and tied for fourth out of 33 teams. We both struggled individually on Saturday, but played well as a team, shooting a 63. There were four teams with better scores, the leaders at 59. We teed off today third from last as they played in inverse order of position. I shot 88 yesterday, and struggled on a number of holes. Today was completely different and I played great, shooting a 41+40=81. Steve shot 92 yesterday and improved to an 85 today, so individually we improved by 14 shots, but had a 64 today for a two day total of 127. 123 qualified for the tournament in Monterey. I did have a closest to the pin today and put the ball 28 inches from the hole on a 148 yard par three. The ball was tracking straight to the hole and came up just short, but right on line with the pin. I enjoyed myself today.

Tomorrow it is back to the grind. One of my biggest issues right now is how Pete feels about what happened. He lost a major part of his team and one of the reasons that he grew so quickly last year. He is focused on moving forward and has taken on a big part of Anthony's work. There is definitely an undercurrent of unhappiness with Pete right now and we need to work our way through this. Pete and I have had many conversations and he'll get over it. He just feels like he lost a brother and a daughter all in the same day.

Next weekend I will play in the Roseville City Amateur both Saturday and Sunday. The weather has finally turned to Spring and we should see temperatures in the 80's next weekend. The weather continued raining last week. In fact, we had rain all week, right up to Friday night, which saw rain and hail. It was wet at the course all weekend with standing water around several holes and in a few of the bunkers. It will dry out this week with temperatures in the 70's and up to 80 by Friday. It was cold on Saturday morning, but warmed to 68 degrees and up to 72 today and the rain finally moved out. Tomorrow will be 77 degrees and up to 87 degrees on Friday. We need some 70's for awhile and a taste of Spring.

Well, I need to get on to my evening. I hope you all are well and life is treating you well. Ciao.

HE IS RISEN!!!!

He is Risen. What a great opportunity each year we have at Easter time to remember and celebrate the fact that Jesus died for our sins and rose again to be the first of all Christians who will vacate their "final resting place" to join the other believers in glory. Darla and I spent last night up in Paradise (California) with Darla's parents. We took them to dinner out at the Kalico Kitchen on Skyway and I enjoyed my first "Senior" dinner where I had Yankee Pot Roast with two sides, and a tapioca dessert. The food was great and I could have gummed it if I needed to. We went to Easter service with Frances and Earl and then went back home to join Alicia, Don and Lucas for a big ham lunch. Don hid Easter eggs in the backyard and Lucas had a ball finding the eggs that were cleverly hidden on the edge of the grass in plain sight. I've also included a picture of Samantha in her new Easter dress.

I am thrilled to say that there was a wonderful reason for Samantha to have a new Easter dress this year. Jennifer texted me on Friday afternoon and said that she was looking at perhaps taking Samantha to church on Easter Sunday. Darla had already bought the dress and a few other clothes for Sammy and put the receipt in my wallet to add to the checkbook. She mailed the items off and we both decided that Jennifer should have the receipt. I sent the receipt to her and added a note that I was praying that some day Jennifer would find a church and get Samantha into a Sunday School class, that I wanted Samantha to know Jesus. Jennifer texted me asking about a church and then went to her mailbox and found my letter. It was definitely God working upstream and Jennifer felt that it was confirmation of her decision after she read it. Darla found a church on the internet and after looking at Adventure's website. It looked perfect and Darla asked God that if it was the right church that when she Googled the address, it would be within 5 miles of Jen's apartment. It was 4.8 miles.

Jennifer and Sam did go to the church today. Jennifer was running a little late and when she got there, Samantha didn't want to go to class and wanted to sit with her Mom in church. Jen said that she was a little fidgety, especially when the Pastor was giving the sermon, but overall she really enjoyed the music and the service. Jennifer wants to go again next weekend and try to get Samantha to try the class the next weekend. Of course, Darla and I are thrilled.

I worked a half day on Friday, making it truly a Good Friday. I met Pamas at Sunset Whitney Golf Course in Rocklin and played a practice round for the Saturday tournament with RGC. We played with two members out there and they sort of showed us the ins and outs of the course. It is a 130 slope, so a tough track. I shot 48+41=89 on Friday and felt like I had started to work out some of the issues with my driver. I also realized that I had to play the course very conservatively. Saturday I did just that and pull hooked a hybrid 3 wood out of bounds and started the round with a triple bogey 8. I shot 45 on the front and stumbled around the back nine for another 41 and an 86 for the tournament. I finished in the money, but not sure exactly where I finished as I had to leave early to get up to Paradise. We had a few problems out at the course, including a near fight between one of the guys who notoriously drinks too much and my friend, Paul. Paul made a comment "Are you kidding me?" when the guy sunk a long putt and the guy went off on him dropping F bombs and screaming at him.Paul and another golfer walked off the course and didn't finish the back nine due to the tension in the group. Paul has used the expression a bunch of times with me and it was him praising the shot. This is the second issue we've had with this guy. Last month he almost got into another fight with a different golfer and then when one of my friends asked him about it later, it got heated and I had to grab Brad and pull him into the snack bar to diffuse the situation. Secondly, we had a group that played the ball "lift clean and place" when the conditions of the tournament were "play the ball as it lies". We had to disqualify them. Fun times in the old golf club, eh?

It looks like our move is still on track for April 27th. I did stop by the office and you can see the shape that the interior is in right now in the pictures above. I can't imagine that we'll be ready, but we have to be out by April 30th in the current building and they are pushing to get it done. On a better note, the view from my office is pretty nice as you can see from the pictures. I am supposed to go with Darla to Monterey on the weekend of April 26th and it looks like she will be going without me. Her brother, Steve, will be in town on vacation with his wife Kirsten and they want to visit Monterey and Pacific Grove where they got married. We set up a Thursday and Friday night in Pacific Grove and now the move will likely scuttle that and leave me owing Darla . It remains to be seen if the move will go off as scheduled. The problem is getting the city inspectors to sign off the site as ready for occupancy. If the 27th date sticks, I'll have at least three people in from home office to handle the IT lines, rental contract and phones.

Also this week, I had a call from my boss and he asked me if I was born in Canada. I said yes and he asked if I'd be willing to go to Calgary and Kelowna in May to help our new Canadian entity, Chesterfield, at two Insurance conventions. When my CEO's brother, who is our marketing director and is a transplanted American living in Toronto, found out I was Canadian, he was booking me passage to both conventions. I've agreed to go on the condition that I can work out of Canada for the week. Initially, they wanted me to fly in Sunday night to Calgary, fly back to Sacramento Monday night and then back to Kelowna on Thursday. That was crazy. I have yet to hear that I will be able to do that, but if they want me there, it makes more sense for me to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday remotely from Dad and Shirley's. I need to check in with them tomorrow night and make sure that they will be in town the week of May 6th. We got back too late tonight to call them, so we will call you guys tomorrow night.

Finally, I am in the process of interviewing for an Underwriting Assistant. I have the job posted on our company job website and I'm getting tons of resumes. I weed them out and try to interview just candidates with 4 year degrees and insurance experience. I got a call this week from someone who was a fast talker who "had a bone to pick with me". She said her name was "...stina". I couldn't make out the name and asked if her name was Christina. "No, it's Katina!" The woman on the phone said that she had put in a resume and a day later received a form letter that told her we had candidates that more closely met the job criteria. She said that she had a 4 year degree and had worked at a finance job that is "exactly" like insurance. She argued that the job was an entry level position and that I should have considered her. I told her that the job was NOT an entry level position and that a finance job is nothing like an insurance position. She asked if that meant that I wouldn't interview her. I told her that was what the letter was trying to explain to her. She told me to go F myself and hung up. I was shocked and even more shocked that this young lady doesn't have a job. I'd say she has a future in customer relations.

Well that is the news that is fit to print at this time. I hope you all have given thought to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and that you take it seriously. You have to ask Jesus to be your personal Saviour in order to be saved. Remember, He is Risen!!

Beautiful day today, but more rain yesterday!!

Oh, yes. I did finally make it back on the course. I think Darla was as relieved as I was. It rained again on Saturday and I had to cancel our Morgan Creek outing. We went from a foursome with Neil, Boyd and Darren to me and Paul. It poured rain yesterday and the course was pretty water logged, but today dawned bright and Sunny and the wood fence behind the pool was steaming in the sunshine when I woke up this morning. The funny thing is that there was no one on the golf course until about 11:00 AM. Paul and I played the front nine in about an hour and 45 minutes. The back nine was much slower and it took about 2 hours and ten minutes. I shot 40+43=83 and was very happy with my round in spite of this being only my third round of golf in 6 weeks. I was pushing the ball right off the tee and will have to work on that this week as I have a tournament at Sunset Whitney. You can see the picture from today of the 12th hole at Diamond Oaks. it was good to be out there again.

The rain on Saturday was one of those driving rainstorms with wind and heavy rain and we sent March out with the same intensity that it came in. The rain was quite a storm and Darla and I spent the day hunkered down indoors with books, iPads, Kindles, and NBC golf coverage. We did make it out to Palm Sunday services on Saturday night and the service was a collection of dramas, art and music depicting the days leading up to Jesus's death on the cross and the various emotions that he went through.

I have a Management trainee candidate coming in to meet me tomorrow. He was offered a position in Los Angeles and told them that he couldn't afford to take the job at the salary they were offering. his rent is close to $2500 a month in Woodland Hills. He is a Berkeley graduate and said that he would be interested if there was a position available in Sacramento. I offered a job to a young woman who is a finance graduate from Sacramento State University. She chose to go to work for the state of California for less money and better benefits. I didn't realize she was a Democrat. Ajay was the top candidate out of 32 candidates they interviewed over two days in Los Angeles (the gal that turned me down was number two). I will meet with him at ten and then go get some lunch together.

I spent the better part of this last week doing employee reviews and realized how much that impacts my ability to handle new business. luckily, I have been cutting back and it wasn't too bad. I also finished up my ASLI class and took the final exam on Thursday night. The office completed our BEST month ever and we wrote over $1,750,000 in premiums this month with net income to the office of over $280,000, both of these numbers are records for us. It costs me about $135,000 to run the office each month with payroll, rent, etc. so it was a really awesome month for us. Anthony, my old assistant, did over $550,000 in premium and $80,000 in net income himself in March. Everyone had a solid showing with the office up about 23% in premium and net income for the month. I told Harvey that it would be an expensive month for him because I will take the office out to celebrate. We will go to either Elephant Bar, Benihanas, or Logans Roadhouse. I have been doing lunches catered into the office, but a month like this deserves a real treat for everyone.

I'm also in the process of adding another assistant to the office who will be my assistant and also help out other teams when they need help. I interviewed one of Darla's friends last week who has a retail job as a store manager and hates the hours. I can't afford to match her salary, but she won't have to work nights and weekends with me. Darla convinced her to call me and apply for the position and when she called I told her that we had the days pretty well covered, but I was looking for someone that didn't mind working nights and weekends and I heard she was up for that. She stumbled around with that and I finally let her off the hook.

I finally bought a new pool sweep with my Prime Amazon membership that I got with the new Kindle. I get two day shipping free with all purchases made through the Amazon warehouses. My sweep has needed to be tuned up and have new parts installed probably for the last year. I looked at Leslie's Pool Supply and they wanted $229 for a tune up kit with new wheels, hoses, bag, etc. I was able to get a new Polaris 360 sweep through Amazon for $358 including no tax and no shipping cost. I had a Polaris 360 and can now cannibalize that one for parts when needed, although a lot of them are worn out. I now have two silt bags and can change those out alternately. It is hard to clean out the bag when it is wet and a snap after it dries out.

I like the Kindle very much, but it is definitely not an i-Pad killer. The i-Pad definitely is a better machine overall, but the Kindle is great for video and definitely for reading. I am working on the Bible in a year and have the Bible in the cloud and can have it read to me which is nice when you are digging through the Old Testament (Merari, father of Ithamar, Aaron, Kohath, and Gershon, who were married to Liz, Beth, Shilo and Qa....). It is the history of the Bible, but one reason most people can't get through the reading. I like it for what it is, but Steve Job's little invention is definitely the bomb.

We will spend Easter up in Paradise with Darla's parents. Darla and I will go to Easter Service on Saturday night at our church. I tee off at 10:02 and the last group is off after 12:30. We have 68 golfers going on the away tournament.

I left my driver at the club today to have a new grip installed. I had worn it out along the thumb line. I'll pick it up Wednesday night as I will be at the club to sign up for the Twilight league. I haven't played in that since 2009, but with our move to Roseville in May, I will be able to make it by 5 PM for our weekly matches this Summer.

Well, that's it for this installment. I just finished cooking barbecued chicken and I'm finishing this up while Darla eats the last of her artichoke. Be good to each other and celebrate the death and resurrection of our saviour this weekend. Ciao.