Thanksgiving for Everything in Life

 

We had an awesome weekend, with some family time on Thanksgiving and then some alone time on our trip Friday and Saturday to Half Moon Bay. You can see the leaves that we came back to from Hawaii. It is about to come to an end as the trees across the street are almost bare. The liquid ambers on the side yard are a little behind on losing their leaves and I'll be working those leaves for a few more weeks. You can see the picture of Lucas with Papa above from Thanksgiving. It was one of the only pictures with his pacifier out of his mouth and I am not a fan of those things. I was very happy when Samantha finally gave hers up.

 

The second picture is from our dinner on Friday night at Sam's Chowder House on the Cabrillo Highway (Highway 1) in Half Moon Bay. They are known for their clam chowder and for their lobster rolls, who no less an authority that Good Morning America has listed as one of the top 5 sandwiches in the United States. They happened to have a singer from Thunder Bay, Ontario Billy Manzik playing in the bar and we were seated in the bar for our dinner. As I listened to his music, I made the comment that it would make great traveling music and that we should buy a CD. When Darla went up at a break to buy the CD, Billy said to her, "the CD is really good traveling music." The CD was actually made when he was part of a group of musicians and the extra instruments are actually a slight improvement over his acoustic set he was doing in the bar.

 

The third picture down is of the beach at Half Moon Bay, where we went Saturday morning and relaxed at the beach. It was a little breezy, so we decided to take our sandwiches which we bought at the San Benito Inn where we stayed Friday night with us to San Francisco. I was looking for a nice spot overlooking the city and we found Grand View Park which is near San Francisco State university and is actually a high hill that you have to climb up to. Darla counted the stairs and there were 22 per flight and seven flights up to the park. There is one bench at the apex of the hill and we sat there and enjoyed our sandwiches.

 

The final picture is of the sitting room in our suite at the San Benito Inn. We had a Groupon, which is an online coupon for travel and services, that I bought in January. I bought the Groupon for a two night stay in a queen room at the San Benito Inn, but the Romance Suite was available when we checked in and we upgraded for $50 a night to the two room suite with a private bath. The original room was with a shared bathroom. The suite is really nice with hardwood floors, an upgraded bathroom and a large overstuffed bed with antiques and artwork in the room. that was the good part. The bad part was the unending noise from the bar below. The Romance suite is on the street side of the Inn and directly over the bar. Apparently the bar is one of the only hangouts for locals in the area and it used to stay open until 2 AM, but the new owners have changed the hours to close at midnight because of the noise for the inn's guest. They actually turned down the music at 10 PM, but Darla and I were done after just the one night. The noise was deafening and the "F" bombs being dropped by one drunk patron were not adding to the "Romance" feeling of the suite if you get my drift. We checked out after breakfast and were given a refund of the second night's stay. The Inn is really charming, but the 120 year old building just doesn't have the acoustics of newer buildings and sound tends to travel. One of our issues is that the suite does not have a television or stereo and there is no way to mute the noise from the bar.

 

The town itself is really cute with restaurants and shops lining main Street. Dad and Shirley: it would be like spending the night in an Inn in Fort Langley. Darla and I walked the strip and ended up buying some books from the used book store in town. Darla found a nice jacket that she decided to go back and buy on Saturday morning, but the shop owner never showed up. I look at it that she saved $100, but she was disappointed. We got home at about 4:30 Saturday and I washed the car before we went to church. Today, we just relaxed and watched football and I had a nap in the afternoon.

 

Jennifer and Samantha joined her Mom in Southern California for Thanksgiving at Diane's husband's family's house in Redlands. Jennifer is dating a guy from Southern California and they all get together for dinner. They were driving back to Las Vegas this afternoon. 

 

The results this month at work are epic. As of Friday, we are up 35% over November of 2011 with a full week left to go. Things are really clicking and it is really rewarding to see the hard work that my staff has been doing paying off so handsomely for all of us. We even were able to withstand the loss that we had to pay for ourselves and it is basically a non factor on our profitability because we are up so dramatically this month. We are still working on the Holiday Open House that will be held on Thursday December 6th. We are still working on the menu and the guest list. Shawna received a quote of $3500 from one of the local restaurants and I had a good laugh over appetizers for 150 for $3500. We can and will do better than that. it is not a sit down dinner for 150 for God's sake.

 

I have been off of golf for three weeks and will get back in the saddle weather permitting next Saturday. The layoff has been good for my heel and it feels much better. Hopefully, the worse is behind me. Time will tell.

 

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and have much to be thankful in your life. I'll be back at the keyboard next Sunday. Our RGC Christmas party is next Saturday night and so it begins. Ciao.

Kona Hawaii 2012

 

Obviously, a lot of pictures from the trip. We had a ball. The hotel we stayed in for the Park, Sleep and Fly was fabulous, in Millbrae and had underground, secured parking for the week and the total cost was less than $140. The trip to the airport on Monday from the hotel was flawless, although the driver of the van was listening to the Steve Harvey radio show and there was a bit on it where they take letters from the audience to a therapist and one lady had met a guy online, met him in the city, didn't like him, had sex and got bruised and hurt. Steve Harvey was merciless on this woman, telling her that she should have run when she thought he was ugly, but let "Robbie Rough" take her to bed and cause her pain and suffering. That she was ignorant and careless. The driver was embarrassed, but the 12 riders on board wouldn't let him turn it off.

The condo on Kona was a block from the beach and two blocks to the restaurants and shops on Ali'i Drive. The condo had two bedrooms with a Junior suite in the back with it's own mini kitchen and bathroom. Darla and I claimed that. It had it's own lanai outside the room with a table and chairs and was nice and quiet. The boys like to stay up late and we couldn't hear the TV from there. The condo was stocked with boogie boards and snorkel gear, beach umbrellas and coolers. Darla's brother, Steve, lives just five minutes east of the condo and we were able to get extra snorkels, boogie boards and umbrellas from him. Our flight was delayed from 9 AM until 11:30 on Monday, so we relaxed at the airport and started on our vacation books.  It was mid afternoon when we finally got in and we set up camp in the condo and then went down to the city front and found a nice pizza place to have an early dinner (we were two hours ahead on our stomach's clocks). We then went and did our grocery shopping for the week, loading up on milk, sodas, chips, breakfast items, lunch meats and some hamburger for tacos one night for dinner.

Tuesday we checked out the area, driving down to a snorkel spot and relaxing at the beach. We drove home for lunch (barbecued hot dogs) and then took the boogie boards out for a trip to Magic Sands beach. We relaxed back at the condo and had dinner. Wednesday was our ATV ride and we decided to be up early for the ninety minute ride to Waipaio. We wanted to stop halfway up and have breakfast at Hawaiian Style Cafe that was highly recommended by a co worker. The food was enormous, excellent and the service lightning fast. The pancakes were plate sized and the omelet's 4 eggs. David and Daniel both opted for Hawaiian fare with Portuguese sausage and brown gravy over their eggs. Odd. Darla and I stuck with traditional fare, although Darla had the Macadamia nut and banana pancakes. Good stuff.

We were lucky enough to get an ATV ride with just our family and two guides. The property is a 600 acre cattle ranch and their land extends from the ocean up to the mountains above. We rode up into the ranch lands encountering a small herd of wild Wapaio horses and some donkeys along the way. The ranch is huge and has 300 head of cattle on the ranch. They also have three large ponds of tilapia fish that they raise and sell to the restaurants. From there we ventured back to the barn and loaded up on bananas, sodas and snacks. We took those with us and headed to the lower part of the ranch along the coast. You can see some of the pictures from the coast after the ATV shots above. We were out for three hours and finished up tired, but thrilled with the experience. From there we drove into town and had lunch at the Big Tex drive-in, famous for their malasadas, which are a Portuguese doughnut rolled in sugar. Eaten hot, they are downright tremendous. We drove from lunch to Akaka Falls and then on to Hilo before heading home.

Thursday was another beach and snorkel day and we drove about 45 minutes to "Two Steps" beach, so named because the beach has two steps that have been worn into the lava and is a perfect spot to get into the water with your snorkel gear. I'm not big on the whole snorkel experience and tend to take on too much salt water. The boys and Darla were in the water for hours and I ventured out about 20 feet, saw the sights, and was back out of the water in about ten minutes. There was a large sea turtle that found it's way up on to the lava rock for a nap.

Friday, we relaxed in the morning and I made a quick trip to the pool for a mid morning nap before we made our way out to a beach with some sandwiches and had lunch. From there we drove the three hours to Kilauea Volcano, stopping at the famous black sand beach along the way. We stopped in the National Park to see the large lava tube that is an easy hike that you can walk through and then up to the crater where the steam and lava is in evidence. We went after dark at Steve's suggestion and were able to see the red glow that shines up from the crater at night. It was about 50 degrees there and you can see us in coats and long pants. From there  we drove back and stopped for dinner at the southernmost tip of the United States and had dinner at Hana Hou cafe, the southernmost restaurant in the United States. It is a restaurant and bakery and was packed with locals singing and dancing with the two man band at the front of the restaurant. Darla met a guy who bought a gated property. He said it has three cattle gates on the property and was as close as he'd get to a gated community.

We spent the weekend with Steve and Kirsten, spending Saturday at Kau beach where you can see the boys and Steve going boogie boarding and Darla and Kirsten trying to ruin a perfectly good nap for me. We went to their house for dinner Saturday and played bocce ball at the park across from their home before dinner. Steve then cooked ribs for us on the barbecue. Sunday we went back to Magic Sands before going to dinner at Lu Lu's in Kona. The boys went to the Kona Brewery after dinner and Darla and I went back to relax and pack for our trip home.

It was a great trip. We put over 600 miles on the rental car, a Chevy Traverse with seating for 8. We planned our food just right and had just a few condiments and some snacks for Steve and Kirsten. I will be back at the computer this weekend, but Darla and I are off to a two night stay at a Victorian Bed and Breakfast in Half Moon Bay Friday and Saturday. I hope you are all well and living a happy and healthy life. Ciao.

On the Road to Hawaii

I write this with a great deal of anticipation of our vacation. Daniel is working tonight and Darla is finishing up her fourth Silpada party in as many days. We will leave for San Francisco at about 8 PM. We are packed and ready to go.

It is Autumn and the annual deluge of leaves have begun at our humble homestead. It is great most of the time to live across from a public park. The soccer tournaments can be a bit much with traffic clogging the streets and cars parked throughout the neighborhood. That is more of an annoyance. The dropping of leaves from the grove of trees at the park that blow directly into my yard and those of my neighbors is a real pain. I spend hours raking and piling leaves in the street for the city crews to come by with the "claw" and load them into a dump truck for transport to the city mulching facility. The front yard was covered before I cleaned up yesterday and the sad fact is it will be covered again when we return from vacation. The trees are all about sixty feet high.

On top of that, I have four liquid ambers on the side of the house that are all over fifty feet high and those leaves are dropping as well. I don't mind raking those as they actually belong to me. The leaves from the park are public leaves and I feel like handing rakes to people at the park and asking them to pitch in. I don't think I'd get much cooperation though.

I did get the scores from yesterday's tournament posted on the GHIN siet today so I can leave for Hawaii with no guilt now. It was our turkey shoot tournament. I shot 40+43=83 to take third in my 12 person flight. We play for gift certificates to one of the local grocery stores. I paid $15 to play and won $25 toward our holiday turkey. Boyd took low gross in our flight and I should have won that, but stumbled on the back side. Boyd shot 81, which is off of his best. I was beating him 40 to 41 on the front side, but just couldn't keep it together on the back.

The weather has turned here with overnight lows in the 30's and highs in the upper fifties.  We teed off at 9:30 and the temperature was still in the 40's. I warmed up at the range with an ear wrap on my head. The wind was blowing and it was clear. What the wind did during the day was bring in some clouds which actually helped to warm up the air and the sun warmed the day up. I was able to take my coat off about the 8th hole and leave it off the rest of the day.

There will be no golf in Hawaii and I actually plan to take the next three weeks off from the game and completely let my heel heal. Yes I said it, heel heal. It is doing much better, but is still sore when I wake up in the morning or I'm on it a lot like yesterday. I walked the course and then worked on the yard. This is the first week that I have gone all week without my walking boot at work. I just haven't had much pain of late. Hopefully, by staying off the course for these three weeks, I will see some major improvement.

We do have plans to go up to the volcano while we are there to see the plumes of smoke and lava. We will also do some snorkeling and I will get us tickets for a 2 hour ATV tour of the coastline in the Northern Hawaii shore. I told the boys and Darla to pack long pants and old shoes for the trip as we'll be through mud and water. We will get a chance to swim at a waterfall on the trip, which will be nice. The guys will just wear our swimsuits under our pants. Darla will look for a dressing room.

We will stay at the Marriott by the San Francisco airport and take the shuttle at 7 AM for our 9 AM flight to Kona.  We get in about 12:30 and will get our rental car, check into the condo and then head over and get some groceries at the Costco which is close to our condo complex. The condo is about five minutes from Steve and Kristin's house. Steve is Darla's brother. Darla's parents were going to be there as well, but Frances had some back spasms this last week and they decided to cancel their trip. They had cancellation insurance so didn't get hurt on the transaction.

We get back about 8:30 on Monday night the 12th and then have to get our car and drive back to Sacramento. I let Shawna, my assistant, know that I'd be in about 9 AM on Tuesday. I'm sure there isn't a lot of empathy for me coming off vacation. oh well.

Darla and I will celebrate Thanksgiving at home and then leave for a two day trip to Half Moon Bay on the coast south of San Francisco. I bought a Groupon back in January for a two night stay at a 120 year old Victorian Mansion in the old town section of Half Moon Bay. We will relax for a couple of days and eat clam chowder and fish and chips. It will be a fun trip with the boys, but I'm looking forward to a weekend away with my wife when we get back as well.

Things are going well at work. Having a lot of young people on staff is both a blessing and a curse. One of my young, newer employees made a mistake about a month ago and told one of our agents that a canceled file was still in force. That policyholder had a loss last weekend and the loss falls on me as the policy was legally canceled. The young lady feels really bad and I've told her to let it go and we are using it as a training issue in the office. The problem was more one of supervision than anything worse. Shawna was able to take the young lady out for coffee this week and talk it out. She told her that I wasn't mad about it, that I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again. The insured is a tire shop and a wheel came off a vehicle they worked on. The only damage was to the car and there were no injuries. The loss will cost us about $3500, which is not bad all things considered.

Well, I will be back to the blog late next week with pictures and tales from Hawaii. I hope you are all well and looking forward to Thanksgiving. Be well. Ciao.

Excellent weather in Northern California

An interesting assortment of pictures. Samantha dressed up as Astrid from "How to Train Your Dragon". I had to look up the photo from the movie and it is a great representation of the character. I guess Samantha loved it. Unfortunately, she was ill overnight after Halloween. She didn't have too much candy, she just got a case of the flu at a bad time. Darla said that she could sort of tell from the picture that Sam wasn't herself (she wasn't smiling).

The picture of Barrack Hussein simply points out how clueless BHO is. He wants to add a Secretary of Business to his Cabinet, which probably more or less would come as quite a surprise to his Commerce Secretary. By this time next week the campaigns will be over, the mind numbing commercials will be mothballed and hopefully Mitt Romney is transitioning for his move to the White House in January. My hope comes from the closeness of the polls showing a virtual dead heat between Romney and Obama. That hope springs from the fact that the polls are skewed to mirror the last election and the turnout that the election had. The groundswell of Hope and Change brought out the Democrats and young people in droves. The complete and total disappointment of the electorate with the economy and with BHO's job performance will more than likely significantly lower the turnout. Some of those voters are actually part of the undecided and will likely choose not to vote for BHO. Whether or not they vote for Romney is immaterial as each of those voters that fires BHO will make Romney our next President of the United States. We only have  few days to wait and see.

This has been an unprecedented year for the Presidential Debates. That first debate that BHO whiffed on was a game changer and the swell of support that came in behind Romney will sweep him into the White House. That debate will be part of high school civics classes from here on out because of the fact that it legitimized  a candidate that was so far behind and convinced so many Undecided voters that Romney could be a real Commander in Chief. Everything that Obama has done since has reeked of desperation and the two almost unwatchable debates that followed had little to no effect on the groundswell that was built on that first debate. I sure hope that Romney follows through with a win, because I can't imagine another four years with the spending and Big Government that has been the the hallmark of his Presidency. I hate to see what Wall Street and the economy will do if BHO gets another four years to further bankrupt this country.

The fourth picture is of a lighthouse on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania during Hurricane Sandy. Even with all of the pain and suffering, death and destruction that Sandy wrought, it did bring some unbelievable pictures. The power of a tropical storm is something that is almost too hard to believe. The fact that this storm came onshore and ran into a low pressure system and turned into a killer super storm.

The weather here has been in the 80's every day with overnight lows in the mid 50's. It is supposed to change by the end of the week and our daily highs will drop into the upper 50's.

Darla, the boys and I will be off to Hawaii a week from tomorrow. We leave on Sunday night and will stay at a Park and Fly hotel in San Francisco within a mile of the airport. We will stay on the big island in Kailua Kona and spend a week visiting the beaches and volcanoes of the area.  The average temperature in Kona right now is a high in the mid eighties and lows in the 70's. Not too shabby.  I'll have a blog entry next week, but the following week will be late.

I played Power Hour on Saturday at Diamond Oaks. We teed off at 7:48 AM. I shot a 42+43=85. I'm still struggling with my driver. It is off and on and I'm mixing in my 3 iron on shorter holes. We play our turkey shoot tournament on Saturday.

We finished October at work with a 17% increase in profits over October of 2011. I am lucky to have such a great, hard working staff. We have been adding employees and we still have record increases due to the efficiencies that we have built into the processes at work. Pete and I interviewed a recent college graduate this week. She graduated in December and is working for the local Fox television affiliate. I am looking at her as a replacement typist for the woman who fired herself last month. It has been a fun run with the office over the last couple of years and with the young people I have working for me, I see even bigger things in our future.

I am working on setting up a Holiday Open House for our office this year. I have the help of our marketing department in San Francisco who are working on the invitations and name tags and my assistant, Shawna, who is working on just about everything else. We will put on the dog for our agents in early December. I plan to serve hors de oevres from a local upscale Chinese restaurant and beer, sodas, water and wines.

Darla is busy with her Silpada business. She is trying to get an incentive paid by year end that will help her pay off some of her credit card bills that she has used to build her inventory. She is also working to get another one of her girls up to a Star leader. Once she has three Star leaders, she will promote up to a Manager level. I won't bet against her. We are off to Oahu and Waikiki Beach in January on Silpada. She even kicked me out of the house today and I had to run over to the local casino to kill two hours. It is all worth it though. Next up in 2014 is Portugal!!

Well, that's it for this week. I will add a quick note next week before we leave for San Francisco. We had a sermon on Saturday night about Gratitude. A UC Davis professor did a survey on success and the common denominator that was found in successful people was gratitude for the little things in life and saying thank you to those that you meet along the way. Ben Stein said: "I cannot tell you anything that, in a few minutes, will tell you how to be rich. But I can tell you how to feel rich, which is far better, let me tell you firsthand, than being rich. Be grateful - it is the only totally reliable get rich quick scheme." So be grateful for what you have. Ciao.