San Francisco Giants 2012 World Series Champions!!

Sweep tonight for the Giants in the 2012 World Series. I just got back from Detroit and there are a lot of unhappy Tiger fans at Home Office. We won the first two games while I was at the Manager's meeting and the Detroit fans were completely shocked that the giants were able to get to their ace, Verlander and Panda (Pablo Sandoval) hit three home runs in game one to set the pace for the series. It was more than fun to watch the strong pitching and timely hitting of the Giants. We've already heard how the Tiger's went cold at the wrong time after knocking out the Yankees in four games, but that theory overlooks the dominant pitching performances by the Giants. Well, we've won it twice in the last three years and done it on the strength of our pitching. randy saw it first hand two years ago and the Tiger fans saw it again during this Series. There was a San Francisco fan that tried to get into Comerica Park in Detroit tonight with a broom and the stadium officials told him to lose the broom or leave the stadium. if he was smart, he would have brought a whisk broom in his pocket. I think, given the thug nature of Detroit, that those stadium officials may have saved his life.

The Manager's Meeting was great again this year and my office received a lot of recognition at the Awards Dinner on Friday night. Peter won a Director's Award for being in the top 30 of all Producers in the company. We have 270 producers and Brokers, so that is a prestigious award. Matt and Pete both won awards for being in the top 25 of all producers in new business. We have won awards the last three years for Office of the Year, but with the increase in wind rates in the South (Houston, New Orleans, etc) and Coastal Areas (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida), it is hard to compete from a premium perspective. I have finished out of the money for the last three years in the Manager of the Year award and have lost out to the Houston manager two of the last three years. This year I was very pleased to have my name read for Manager of the year in my division. Well, I was happy until they announced later that Tony had been promoted to a Vice President position. That is my next goal and I will be working hard to reach that summit.

There were a couple of funny instances during the meetings this year. I was standing next to one of our professional underwriters when the opening speech by our CEO was starting. The lobby at home office is a large open space in the middle of the three story building and the people on the second and third floor can look down on the proceedings. All of a sudden there was a loud "whack" and the guy next to me ducked. A water bottle had glanced off his neck and back and was spinning on the floor. i asked him what happened and he said that someone had "smoked" him with a water bottle from upstairs. It turns out that our Environmental Director from Denver had set her water bottle on the ledge of the second story and someone had knocked it off. The CEO was unaware of the water bottle falling from upstairs and the speech went on as planned. If the bottle had hit him in the face or head or fallen directly onto the floor and burst open, it would have been a different outcome.

The second event was on Friday when my office watched the speech from the Henry by our CEO. He tends to read his speeches and they finally talked him into spending $400 for a teleprompter system. during the video of the speech, the office could see the plastic panels that are used in the teleprompter and helps the speaker keep his head up and more engaged with his audience. Bonnie in my office saw the opaque panels and blurted out "Oh my God, he has bullet proof glass surrounding him!"  Uh no, the managers are not all "packing" at the meeting.

I got home about 9:30 on Saturday night and went right into the spa. I really missed the heat and soaking relaxation of the spa while I was gone. I have trouble adjusting to the time change and spend the first few nights tossing and turning. As soon as I do adjust, I'm back to California. I went to bed about 10 PM (1 AM Eastern time) and got up at 7:30 this morning.

I had the Past President's event at the club today and really wanted to play in it, so asked for the first tee time with Neil and off we went. My driver continues to cause me fits and I have little confidence in it. I even teed off with my 3 iron on the first hole and used it on shorter par fours all day. I managed my way around the golf course after going bogey-double bogey on the first two holes and shot a 40+40=80 on the day for a net 70. It would have been even better, but I had a triple bogey 7 on the back nine, backed up by two birdies. My game is not great right now, but obviously I can manage it  to keep my scores low. Well, at least at my home course. Carmel was a little rougher.

Jennifer was in a car accident on Tuesday and I found out about it right before I boarded my plane for Detroit. Jennifer and I had not been in contact because of the issues with Darla, but I called her. She had to go to a 24 hour Emergency because of pain in her neck and shoulders. She smashed into a Hummer that had stopped abruptly in front of her because of an accident. Jennifer could not stoop fast enough and slammed into the Hummer. It totaled her truck, which we had bought her and just spent $1000 to fix when we were there in August. Her Mom flew out to Vegas to be with her and to help her get a new car. She helped her arrange financing for a Hyundai Sonata that has 49,000 miles on it. I don't know the details of the financing, down payment, etc, but we were not able or willing to help out this time around as our $3,000 went up in smoke in the accident. Jennifer did end up calling and talking to Darla and they hashed out their issues. Darla and I are still working on some things with regard to Jennifer's relationship with us and how it sometimes splits us when issues come up. Luckily, Jennifer was on her way to work and did not have Samantha with her when this all went down. I have included some pictures of her new wheels above.

Well, that is it for tonight. It is late as I watched the Giants game before starting the blog tonight. I hope you are all well and living your lives to the fullest. Ciao.