The Dog Days of August

Strangely, in spite of the calendar, we had a cloudy day Saturday that started out cool (in the 50's) and ended up overcast with a sprinkling of rain which hit while we were at church. It was cool when we teed off on Saturday and I had a light jacket on for the first two holes.  The weather did turn back to seasonal today and we were back close to 100 degrees and a cloudless blue sky.

Darla and the boys went up to Paradise today and surprised Earl and Frances at church. They all went out to lunch afterward and Earl pulled Darla aside and told her that they made her mother's day. They all went to the house after lunch and visited. Darla was home by about 5:45 and met me on the pool.

I missed the trip because I had a tournament at the club today. It was the two man best ball blind draw tournament. I ended up with a partner, who happens to be the office manager for one of my big retailers. I played poorly on the front side and had problems with my putter early on, three putting four of the first nine holes. I pulled it together and had a strong backside, shooting 44+39=83. Ron, my partner, struggled and shot a 91 with his 16 handicap for a 75 net. I had a 74 net with my 9 strokes. My handicap did go up to 9.1 on August 1st and I now get 10 strokes at Diamond Oaks, but this tournament used the 7/15 handicaps because the deadline was last Friday. I don't know what score Ron and I ended up with as I headed home to get in the pool and cool off. I'll find out tomorrow when Joe sends me the scores to post. Joe is filling in for Neil as he is on his Canada vacation.

I did go and play Woodcreek on Saturday for Power Hour and got the $30 green fee and cart special. I played an okay round of golf and shot 42+41=83, only to be usurped by my playing partners, Matt (75), Pamas (79) and even Darren (81). Darren gets 16 strokes and played really well on the back nine with a 39. It was nice to be done early, although Darla was out with Darren's wife, Marisa, signing her up for Silpada. Darren and I stayed at Woodcreek in the sports bar and had lunch and a beer. Darren set up another Power Hour tee time next Sunday. I have a qualifier on Saturday with a tournament that will decide the Rose Cup team for Diamond Oaks. I agreed to play on Sunday as well, but only because it will help Darla with her Silpada business. At least, that's my story. I will be done by close to 11 on Sunday.

Work continues to go well and we were up about 14% in July over the same month last year. I promoted my main typist to an Underwriter Assistant position and I have been doing interviews for the last three weeks for an entry level position. I had narrowed the candidates to two. One young lady graduated in June from Westmont in Santa Barbara in only three years. She had so many honors classes in high school that she entered college as a sophomore. Very smart girl. The other is one of my good agent's daughter. She just graduated from Sac State with a degree in Communications. I had both of them Skype with my boss in San Francisco on Thursday. Both of the ladies did really well, were articulate and engaging and it was really hard to make a decision between the two of them. Harvey and i talked about it on Thursday night and he asked me if I wanted to hire both of them. I'm a big bottom line guy and told him that I wasn't sure and wanted to mull that over. When I shared it with Pete, he almost came unglued and wanted me to call Harvey back and hire them both. He just finished a $95,000 income month, which is our biggest individual month ever. I told him what I would need from the office from a bottom line income standpoint to hire both and he agreed that we can make it. I slept on it Thursday night and Harvey and I decided to make offers to both ladies. I'll know tomorrow if we will add both of them to staff.

The boys are over tonight and have me watching some of the Olympics and it is interesting. we watched Misty May Treanor and Kristi Powell crush the Italians, we watched some women's diving and now are watching the 100 meter men's semifinals. Again, the Olympics aren't high on my radar, I've been watching the Giants play lately as they work toward the end of the regular MLB season and a spot in the playoffs. I have watched a few events, some swimming and the women's gymnastics events, but it's too much and it's not live. If by chance, I've seen the results, I don't waste my time.

Daniel is busy working on some blueprints fro his job in the Bay Area. He is already talking about the fact that he'd like to move to the Bay Area if his boss can guarantee him at least 30 hours a week. He will show her what he is made of before broaching the subject.

Well, not a whole lot of new news this week. Darla and I are really looking forward to our trip to Vegas at the end of the month. Have a great week. Ciao.