Memorial Day 2012

Happy Memorial Day. As Jennifer says, It is NOT National Barbecue Day. We set aside a day to honor our fallen heroes, those that fought for our country and gave the ultimate sacrifice. I'm proud to live in a country that honors our war heroes, but embarrassed by the scores of people that only think this is a holiday that is for the Indy 500 or the "unofficial" start of Summer. Fly your colors, be proud of the men and women that serve our country in the various branches of the military and remember those that died in pursuit of your freedom. Now, if we can just get a patriot back into the White House next year, all will be good. Let's make 2013 an end of an Error.

Darla was off to a Silpada gig at a car show at the Folsom Zoo this morning. She was up and at 'em by 6:15 and out of the house before seven. I did roll over and say goodbye. I spent the day working on the pool and the backyard, trimming all of the bushes and ground cover. I did the chemicals in the spa and pool., vacuumed up the leaves and particles that had floated down over the last week and then sprayed down the stamped concrete and took a well earned nap in the sun. The weather is pretty moderate for us this Memorial Day weekend with temperatures in the mid eighties. We had a storm system scoot by us Friday and into Saturday and there were a few showers in the area, but nothing that hung around. We had a couple of stray raindrops right before church yesterday and it was cleared off by the time we got home.

My new assistant, Shawna, started on Monday and had a good first week. she spent a good portion of it taking some online classes and learning about the various systems that we have. She spent the latter part of the week working with a couple of other assistants learning the ins and outs of the job. I sent her a few things to bind and issue and some of the quote set-ups. It will be a slow transition for her, but she is sharp and will pick it up quickly. We had a quarterly luncheon of the networking group that I've been on the board for and she came along with a few other people from the office and enjoyed herself. We have the annual golf tournament a week from tomorrow up at Serrano Country Club. The two guys that played with Matt and I last year both bailed on us and I replaced them with a couple of golfers from one of the retailer s we work with locally.

The furniture installers will be in the office on Tuesday and will complete the buildout on the cubicles. They will also install some shelving and bring 11 new chairs for the office. We have been in need of some new desk chairs for awhile. I have a nice leather chair, but some of the fabric chairs have seen better days. They are all about ten years old. It will be nice to see the finished project as we have been living with stacked up panels and cabinets without tops for a month now. Alan will be here on the 13th and we can finally put some pictures up in the office. He flies in on Tuesday night and we will have a late dinner. Wednesday, he will be in the office all day and we will have lunch with Jeff and Linda and then dinner out with a local retailer. the agent asked if we could meet about 5:30 or 6:00 PM and Alan likes dinner at 7 or 7:30, so I'm hoping we can compromise at 6:30.

I did play golf in our annual memorial Day tournament and all of the tips and instruction that dale gave me came to fruition on a glorious day of golf. I was striping my driver down the middle and it is amazing how easy this game can be from the middle of the fairway. I shot 37+41=78, for a net 66. I stumbled a little bit on the back nine, but ended up with 12 pars and 6 bogeys on the day for the 78. It is the first time I've shot in the 70's since January when I shot 79 at Diamond from the white tees. I did shoot the 66 at Antelope Greens, but it is a par 58 with a rating of 57.1 and a slope of 88. My 12.1 index on that course gives me 8 strokes. This was legitimate and I did it in a tournament. I ended up taking second place as another 12 shot 78 as well, but had a 38 on the back nine (tiebreaker). It's all good.

I will go out again tomorrow morning to erase the good feelings of the 78. We are playing at Woodcreek and I've invited Paul, Neil and Matt to play. Matt hasn't played since January. He has the busiest desk in my office, is in grad school getting his MBA at UC Davis and is getting a CPCU designation which stands for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter. Oh, to be young. I wouldn't want to give up the golf. Darla and I are then going to dinner with Neil and Lilly. It is again Benihanas as Darla has a birthday coupon worth $30 that she wants to use. We do play early with a 7:48 tee time, so i will get some pool time with Darla tomorrow.

The weather will heat up this week right after the three day holiday with temperatures close to 100 degrees due in by Friday. The pool will be heating up and hopefully we are in it next weekend. It is close to 80 degrees, but I realize that the thermometer only captures the top eight inches of pool water as it is rather chilly in the depths. Right now we get a little wet getting on and off the water lounges in the pool.

Well, that is the news that is fit to share with you all. I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day and enjoy some good quality family time and maybe even squeeze in a barbecue. Be good. Ciao.

An Absolutely Smashing Weekend in the Books

Temperatures in the low 90's. The pool clean and glistening and 80 degrees. A light, unobtrusive breeze blowing in the air. Nothing not to like about this Northern California weekend. I didn't play golf on Saturday for the first time in about two months and used the time to do some much needed yard work and chores. I was up at the crack of 9 AM and after a hearty pancake and some Darla time, was out to fix a sprinkler riser in the front flowerbed that got broken off underground by an overly aggressive tug on the 100 foot hose on Friday night as I hand watered and sprayed down the grass after mowing. I then took the hedge trimmers, a garden rake, the leaf vac and some hand shears and cut back all of the bushes and flowers in the front and side yards. I filled a 90 gallon trash can that had been emptied Friday morning with trimmings, cuttings and leaves. The yard looks like a whole new landscape as you can now make out each individual plant and see in and around all of the bushes and trees.I can get a little extreme when I finally get to cutting back the plants, but it was long overdue.

I then had a bite of lunch and was on to the backyard. The automatic control for the sprinklers was on the fritz and the 20 year old controller was destined for the land fill. I took down the old one and then had to paint the wall of the house where it resided and could see the original house paint color below (white). I attached all of the wires and set the new controller, testing each station and being pleasantly surprised to see them working. I set the time, date, sprinkler station durations, day of the week, etc and waited to see if it actually came on this morning. (It did.) By then it was 3:00 PM and we had a 5:00 PM party to attend. I wanted to reseal the stamped concrete deck and decided to take on that chore in the hours left of my work day. I took a solution of water and Formula 409 to the deck with a hand mop and then took on the task of hand sealing the deck, from the shed to the spa. I used a six inch stain brush and did the 600 square foot deck in about an hour and 45 minutes. I painted myself right into the back sliding doors and then took a quick shower before heading to Darren and Marissa's barbecue in Roseville. We showed up about 30 minutes late, but there was plenty of beer and drinks left and the hors de ouvres were just coming out of the oven. The crowd was one lady and her husband from Darla's work and about four neighbor couples. I was exhausted and had trouble engaging with people I didn't know very well. They didn't cook dinner until almost 9 o'clock and I was fading fast with the Widmer IPA beers and Sierra Nevada Hefeweisens I was drinking. I spent most of my time throwing a ball for one of the three dogs running rampant in the backyard and talking to a guy who works as a telecommunications expert for the Federal Reserve Bank. He went through all of the Reserve banks in the US and each of their satellite offices. After awhile he sounded like the teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons (Wa Wa Wa). Darla was engaged in a different group in the backyard and kept beckoning me over, but the comfort of the backyard couch that I was sitting on was too much of a draw for me to move over and be engaged in actual conversation. Darla and I both decided that the next time we get invited to an evening party that I shouldn't spend seven hours working on the yard beforehand.

We almost got out of the house about ten PM, but then a couple of the ladies wanted to see Darla's Silpada catalogues and it was all over for me. Darren showed me a picture that he took of the full moon on May 5th and then dragged me out to the spot where he took the picture over the fence and toward the elementary school across the street. The picture was interesting, the view of the venue where the picture was taken not so much. I got back into the house and Darla was finishing up two sales of jewelry for a total of over $400, a good night for her.

We got home about 10:50 PM and went into the spa. The stamped concrete had dried and we spent about 15 minutes soaking in the hot water. Darla got out and I followed, stepping into the water at the bottom of the steps that she had dripped on her way out of the spa. My feet went right out from under me and I crashed onto my tailbone on the hard concrete. I guess I caught myself with my left wrist as it was sore this morning when I got up. For some reason my knees hurt as well and I jarred my head pretty good when I fell as it snapped back. I went to sleep with a headache. I was frankly pretty lucky not to have hit my head on the steps as I fell right at the base of the two steps.

I had golf this morning and was sore and achy. My wrist was throbbing and we looked at a couple of ace bandages, but they were too bulky. The left wrist is the hand that I wear my golf glove, so I just secured that tighter than I normally do. I continued to put the lesson I had with Dale at Diamond to work for me which basically realigned my setup and address position on the ball. He also has me holding my follow through for a few seconds on each of my shots and going through a pre shot routine on each shot for continuity. It's working as I shot a 41+41=82 for a net 69 in the tournament. I was leading my flight when I left, but only know that I should be in the money. This was the second of the four annual Diamond Tournaments put on by the course and sponsored by different golf manufacturers. Today was Srixon and Cleveland's turn to sponsor the event.

My new assistant starts tomorrow. She was the Manager of the Brighton Collectibles store in the Roseville Galleria and asked if she could get them through Mother's day before starting work. I agreed. She took last week off to recharge her batteries and starts with me tomorrow. Shawna is a friend of Darla's and worked with her selling Silpada before taking the position with Brighton. Pete at work thinks it is nuts that I hired one of Darla's friends as she now has a set of eyes in the office. Number one, I have nothing to hide and number two, Shawna was an absolute find for me. She has a strong marketing presence and as Harvey said, "she could run your office Ken". I will have her take on some of the management of the typing team and help me with marketing for the entire office. I see her as a part time assistant for me and a marketing specialist for the office down the road. Right now, I have to teach her how to spell "insurance". I am interviewing for one more assistant position in the office and hope to have Harvey do second interviews with the candidates next week. I have one internal candidate and three very strong external candidates for the position.

We are supposed to experience a bit of a cool down this week. Our normal temperatures for mid May are supposed to be about 82 degrees and we ran ten degrees over that this weekend. The forecast is down into the mid seventies by week's end. I will get some fertilizer down on the lawn this week with  the temperatures dropping down. The lawn looks good and I added some grass seed in a couple of the thin areas a couple of weeks ago and it has taken pretty well. With the slight heat wave, I have a couple of spots that have slightly browned out and I can work on those with the cooler temperatures.

Well that is another blog post in the books. Darla and David both had birthdays this week and Darla got a new ASUS computer. I have a Lenovo, which is the old IBM ThinkPad line of computers. I am thrilled with mine and was going to get Darla one, but did some research and found that the ASUS is rated just a little higher than Lenovo overall and especially in terms of durability. Darla is pretty hard on her electronic equipment because she is forever on it and I decided to give the ASUS a try. So far so good. I hope you all have a stellar week and I will blog again next week over the Memorial Day weekend. Be well. Ciao.

Mother's Day 2012

It is always with profound joy that I take time on Mother's Day to remember my Mom, a lady that we lost way too soon. I always laugh when I think of her. Gail in my office just lost her Mom and she is in great pain and grieving the loss of her Mom who was 89. I felt that way right after she passed and it was hard to think about her without breaking into tears or feeling an overwhelming loss and sadness. Well, the loss is still fresh, but the memories are pure joy. Mom lived for her kids and family and much of my self esteem comes from the unconditional love that was heaped onto me as a youngster. Mom was fun and joyful and made those around her happier for having known her. On this Mother's Day and always I tip my cap to my mom, a special lady who left me wanting so much more when she left us. I know that she is in heaven and if you want to find her up there, just follow the laughter. She will be in the middle of it all.

Darla and I just relaxed at home today and went out to breakfast for me (lunch for Darla) at Denny's. We wanted to go to one of our favorite local breakfast cafes, but they were all packed with Moms and their kids who were not on their best behavior and the dad's sitting looking sullen with the Sunday paper open in front of them. Denny's was also crowded, but has the largest restaurant in the area and we got in withing ten minutes. Darla has been complaining about her i-phone lately because she cannot take pictures. She has exceeded the storage on the phone. We went out to the AT&T store to see if they could make some room on the phone for her and ended up upgrading to the i-phone 4S. She uses her phone so much for her three jobs and needs the photo feature to send pictures of her jewelry to her customers that call to ask about a certain piece. She is happy and I am the husband of the year. I once made the mistake of telling her that I didn't get her a Mother's Day card, because she wasn't my mother. That didn't go over too well. I think I made up for that gaffe this year.

Darla and Davids' birthdays are Wednesday and Thursday of this week. We won't see David until June at his graduation, but will be thinking about him.

We did talk to Jennifer today and she had plans with Samantha tonight for Mother's Day. Jennifer told me that she played in her first golf game yesterday, a scramble tournament for a bar where she knows alot of the workers. They played 12 holes (?) and finished with a 2 over score. She had a great time, but said that her ball was slicing because she didn't have the right clubs. Jen, it is the Indian, not the arrow that is the problem.

Darla and I went to a surprise 50th birthday party for one of my insurance agents, and friends, Linda. Her husband, Jeff, pulled off the surprise in spite of working with her every day and living with her 24/7. He pulled it off partially because her birthday was in March and the event held on May 12th. It was held at an upscale Folsom Restaurant, Sienna, and Jeff put on quite a spread with wine and appetizers, a wonderful dinner with soup and entree, and a cake made in the style of the Scottish flag. Linda is a Scot, born in Scotland and she emigrated to the US as an adult. She thought she was going to dinner with good friends and for some reason didn't put on makeup and was horrified at the surprise. I've included a picture of Jeff and Linda taken with my cell phone. In the future, we will use Darla's new i-phone which has a built in flash.

I did get the stone backsplash for the pool resealed today with a wet look sealant. The stone tends to gray out over time and the sealant brings back the browns and oranges in the rock and it always looks so much better. I will have a day off from golf next Saturday and will also wash down the stamped concrete and add a coat of the sealant to that. I may also pick up another bottle of the bark brown stain and touch up a few spots where the stain is wearing off.

I finished up the three day golf tournament this week and finished fourth out of 23 golfers in my flight. I was on my way to a second place finish, having shot a 42 on the front and then putting up two birdies on the back nine to be at 1 over par for the back nine with only the 18th to play. As Yogi says, "It isn't over until it's over". I put my second shot in the bunker and it buried against the outer lip with a carry of about 40 feet over the length of the bunker to the green. I hit an explosion shot that launched the ball about 50 yards over the green and into the heavy rough of the perimeter of a hazard. Five more shots later I had an 8 for a 42+41=83. Even a bogey would have given me an 80 and a three day total of 5 under par. The golf wizards can play mean tricks on you. I was happy to be under par for the tournament and in the money, but that 8 will stay with me for awhile. I think it left a mark.

I went out on Wednesday and took a lesson with one of our teaching professionals at the club. I had him look at my stance and setup and he suggested two fixes that had me back hitting the driver down the middle. It's funny how fast you can lose your swing and just how easy the fix usually is. I wasn't perfect with my drives, but I hit a few bombs that had me way past my playing partners. Dale, the pro, wants to get together with me this week, because he saw something in my launch angle that can help me get more yards off the tee. He didn't want to mess with it last week because I was in the middle of an event, but would like to work with me to get the most out of my drives. I have over $500 on the books at Diamond Oaks and I have no needs for clubs or bags right now, so can spend it on a few lessons and see if that gets me to drop a few strokes. I liked his style and how he was able to pick up on the nuances of my game so quickly. He didn't charge me for the lesson last week, which also makes me realize how serious he is.

I took the staff out to lunch this week to celebrate our great April. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Roseville and all of the new employees were there. My new assistant, Shawna, doesn't start for another week, but came out and joined us anyhow and enjoyed the group and the office dynamic. She is a friend of Darla's and texted Darla afterward to tell her that she may never be able to repay her for suggesting that she apply for the job. Shawna is the manager of the Brighton Collectibles store in the Roseville Galleria and works about 60 hours a week and weekends. She misses her family and is looking forward to the Monday to Friday schedule. She will work part time on my book and eventually take on a role as a marketing specialist for the office. My guys are getting so busy that they can't get out on marketing calls. Shawna will eventually be able to go on calls for them and talk about the new products and markets at Burns and Wilcox.

Well, that is it for this week and this chapter of the blog. All is well with the Northern California clan of the Lyon family. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there and may God continue to bless each of you in His special way. Ciao.

New Spa

Two weekends in a row of golf both Saturday and Sunday and it was time for a new hot tub. Darla and I have missed the hot tub over the last five years and although we didn't have a perfect spot for it, we were able to fit it in next to the air conditioning enclosure and by the window to the guest bedroom. We ended up pulling it away from the house because of the lifting mechanism that lifts the cover and drops it folded behind the spa. Darla thinks it is too far out into the deck, but I think it works. I am absolutely loving having a hot tub to soak in after my golf rounds and Darla and I have been in the spa four times already since we had it installed on Friday. The install didn't go without a hitch as one of the motors was not coming on and it just got hot. The installers had to pull the old motor and install a new one at no charge to us. It is a used spa, but the people who bought it never used it. The wife surprised her husband with the spa and he never liked it. They used it a total of about 5 times and gave up on it, draining it and having it just sit in their backyard until they finally decided to sell it. It is a 6'x7' Vita Spa and it sold new for $5,400 with the cover, lifter and steps. We bought it from Spa Doctors here in Roseville, the company that repaired our old spa. They sold it to us used for $2690 and threw in a years worth of chemicals, a one year warranty and delivery and installation.

 I paid separately to have the electrical lines run. Their electrician wanted $800 for the job, but I have two friends in the golf league that are electricians. Steve offered to do it for $400, but couldn't get to it until next weekend. Charlie came out and said he'd do it for less than $500. He runs a business and was having one of his employees come out with him to do the job. They came out Wednesday and had the lines run and the breaker box installed by 2 PM. He wanted $450 for the job, but I was so impressed with his professionalism and follow through on the job that I paid him $500. So all said and done the spa was $3,100. It will get good use by both Darla and I.

We had a contractor come out this week and give us a bid to have our master bathroom upgraded with a new tub, shower enclosure, new cabinets, granite counter tops, tiled shower, tiled tub surround, new fixtures, new faucets, sinks, new tile floor, and new paint and mirrors. The bid came in at $14,000 and we will likely decide to have the master bedroom closet redone by 3 Day Closets or California Closets and have the tile floor, counter tops, fixtures, sinks, and mirrors done along with new paint in the bathroom. I will have both 3 Day Closets and California Closets out this week to give us a bid on redoing the closet. It has been a real pain for Darla ever since we moved in and we need to have a new Closet Organizer to help us fit our clothes in the closet more efficiently.

I have two new employees starting this week, one tomorrow and one on Tuesday so help is on the way. The problem short term is that we have to train these people and get them up to speed. We finished the month up 20% on net income and 10% on written premium. I think it may be our best month ever because of the circumstances. We had both the gut check of Anthony walking out on us and the disruption of a month end move to overcome. We did it and both Matt and Peter had great new business months as they were number 2 and 4 in the region for new business in April. I will take the gang out to the Old Spaghetti Factory on Thursday and just pray that none of my other employees decides to pick that afternoon to walk out on me.

I talked to Jennifer last night and she has been working ten hour days this last week on a project. The temperature is headed to 97 degrees in Las Vegas by Friday and she will take her truck in next Saturday to finally have a leak in the air conditioning lines fixed and then new freon installed. Sam is doing great and they had been at a dog show yesterday and Sam got to see and play with a lot of the dogs.

We have plans to meet up with Jennifer and Samantha in Pismo Beach the weekend of June 10th. The boys both graduate from Cal Poly on Sunday and we will be there from Friday night until Monday. The place we have reserved is a block from the beach and is a two bedroom condo. We will have to really enjoy our time at the beach with Samantha as we found out this week that she won't be able to go to Lake Almanor. Her Dad has a family reunion in Colorado the same week and Jennifer agreed to let Sam go to that as she will be meeting family members that she has never seen. The agreement is that Sam will be able to go with Jennifer to Almanor every other year. Jennifer will still come up for about five days and use the jet ski and have a fun family time. Sam will really be missed and I have to tell you I was pretty bummed about the whole thing.

I played in the first two days of the 54 hole Individual Championship this weekend. I am in the second flight and there are 23 players in my flight. I stand in 5th place with a two day total of -1. The leader is at -6 and then it drops to -3 and down to me. I likely won't win unless I go low next Saturday and the leader implodes, but I have a better score than 18 other guys in the flight. It was a windy weekend and a lot of the golfers struggled in the wind. I shot 82 on Saturday and 85 today with my 12 handicap. I honestly don't know how I held it together as well as I did, because the driver is still giving me fits. I talked to one of the pros today and asked him to give me a one hour lesson this week and just concentrate on the driver. I'm hitting the rest of my clubs pretty well, I'm just struggling to get the ball in the fairway. I'm sure it will be a simple fix, but I need a professional to take a look and give me a few tips to improve.

We went to church last night and then to dinner at the Elephant Bar. It was a nice couple time for Darla and I and the sermon series is on How to Protect your Family in these trying times. The music was great as always and the message spot on. It is such a joy to belong to a great church. I hope you are all well, seeking Jesus constantly and living a life of peace and joy. Be well. Ciao.