Frances' Birthday 2013

 

We spent Saturday evening up in Paradise at Darla's parent's house. We were invited up and Earl was going to treat us to dinner for Frances' birthday. Alicia and Don decided to join us and their son, Lucas, hasn't been trained to stay in a high chair and it becomes a bit of a pain to be out to dinner with him. They recognize that fact and Don decided to bring ribs and chicken and he fixed dinner in Frances' kitchen. The food was good and the company was great. Lucas was in a good mood and spent a good portion of the day playing in the living room. I had washed the car before we left, because I checked the forecast and rain was not in the forecast for Roseville. I forgot to check the weather in Chico and Paradise and it was raining fairly steadily shortly after we got there and continued up to and beyond when we left. The rain was over and gone by the time we got to Oroville, but it was definitely a waste of my time.

 

We had a good visit and Earl even got pretty serious and talked to the family about the fact that he and Frances are getting older and he has a serious concern that when he has left this earthly coil and is in Heaven, he wants to see all of us there with him. He talked about making sure that each of us had accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour and had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Darla and I were right on board with him and Don and Alicia were both pretty quiet. They ended up leaving shortly after dessert as they had arrived at 2:00 o'clock. We got there about 3:15 PM, so stayed a little longer to visit. Earl shared with us his frustration of getting together with his brothers and sisters and always talking about earthly things and not talking about spiritual things. It was a nice visit and kind of fun to talk about.

 

I played golf today and shot a 40+43=83. Frustrating finish, but it was also a slow back 9 and I play much better if I can get into a good rhythm. I was pretty much on my handicap today, but certainly could have score better. I was even par on the back 9 after 12 and ended up shooting 7 over on the last 6 holes. The weather was great today and the forecast is for warming temperatures the rest of the week and up to about 68 degrees by Thursday. I may try to get one of my retailers out this week to play golf on Thursday afternoon. I hung out awhile after my round and sat with one of the guys who was trying to fill a $1000 Super Bowl pool. I bought one of his $10 squares and had sat with him for about 45 minutes. I got up to talk to Neil and when I came back he was gone and so were my car keys. I tried to reach him by phone, but couldn't and finally had to call Darla to bring my other set of keys so I could drive home. Rob still hasn't called me back and I can only hope that he has them. I checked with both the restaurant and the pro shop and no one turned in my keys. The problem I have right now is that my office keys are on the key ring and I won't be able to get into my office tomorrow. Shawna has a set in her desk and I can get her to meet me earlier. She generally comes into the office about 8 AM and I get there closer to 7:30. If Rob doesn't call me back, I'll get ahold of Shawna and see if she can come in a little earlier tomorrow. It's frustrating. How does someone pick up a set of keys that don't belong to them and then not recognize the fact?

 

Darla and I are still working through this flu. She got a recurrence of  the flu and started coughing and her nose was running. Her co-workers sent her home on Wednesday and she stayed home from work on Thursday and went to the doctor. He gave her some antibiotics, some cold medicine and some Mucinex. I still have a cough and some congestion. It has been a little over two weeks for me and they say this particular flu hangs on for three weeks. So far they are right and I'm looking forward to feeling better this week.

 

I got the final figures in this week for the company in 2012 and we ended the year with a profit in my office of over $950,000. When I took over the office back in 2004, we lost $480,000 that year. I'm proud of the turnaround in my office and look forward to this year as well. Darla and I will buy a new SUV for her in March and Daniel will take her Explorer that we bought new in 2002. It now has over 169,000 miles on it. We will start shopping around my birthday for her. Wait...how does that work?

 

We still don't have any news about Samantha joining Jennifer in the Bay Area. Jennifer hasn't filed anything yet and Darla and I are both nervous about this whole thing. Diane seems comfortable that it will all work out, but I don't know. How does a judge allow Jennifer to take Samantha away from her Dad in Las Vegas? I don't know. As I have said before, I relish the opportunity for Samantha to get out of Las Vegas. It is a filthy, immoral city and no place for a 5 year old to live. The town of Pleasanton is a nice alternative and a great place for her to start elementary school in the fall. We will see. I'm praying that God intervenes in this situation and does what is in the best interest of young Samantha. Jennifer was back in Las Vegas last weekend and Samantha asked her if she could come live with her Mom in California. Jennifer said it made her cry and told Samantha that she has to be patient. 

 

The Super Bowl is next weekend. The Niners are favored by 4 and a half points. It should be a good game. I've been telling all of my Niner friends that this team can do something that no other 49er team has ever done. Lose a Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see how they are treated if they lose. It is one thing that Niner fans are proud of, that they are undefeated in 5 Super Bowl trips. Again, both teams are strong on Defense, but the Niner's quarterback has only played 9 games in his career and he says that he doesn't get nervous. We'll see next week. One of the guys at work sent me a note showing that Kaepernick has 2 playoff wins to only 1 for Tony Romo. My response? Romo is married to a beauty queen and makes $18,000,000 a year. Kaepernick makes $850,000 and has nice Christian tattoos. Don't feel sorry for Tony, he is living the dream and will be at Pebble Beach in two weeks playing in the AT&T National Pro Am.

 

Well, that is it for this week. Hopefully, all is well with each of you. Take some advice from Darla's Dad and examine your walk with Jesus and decide whether you KNOW that you are saved. Living a good life won't get you into heaven which is a perfect place. You have to acknowledge that Christ died for your sins and ask him into your heart. I, too, want to see all of my family and friends in Heaven. Have a good week. Ciao. 

 

 

 

Great Weather in NorCal

No pictures this week, which is rare, but it is what it is. The weather has been fantastic for Winter here in Northern California, with cool overnight lows and highs in the mid sixties under blue skies. The only heat we get is from the sun, so it is COLD at night, but crisp and clear. Sitting in the hot tub and seeing the night sky full of stars and a bright moon is great.

I'm feeling much better after battling the flu for a week. Darla and I took Monday off sick and it was a short week for us. I have been working on employee reviews all week and with my staff it is hard to think of superlatives for most of them. I kidded with one of my more outspoken employees that if I ran out of glowing things to say, that I'd stop and work on her review. All of my underwriters were up dramatically this year and I will have a number of promotions to handle later in the year and things are really humming. I have most of the Assistants and clerical staff completed and have the underwriters left to do this week. The reviews will go to my Executive VP and once approved, back to me for discussions with each of the staff. I have to get the compensation plan completed and then  I can move on to other things. I have one employee moving into production in the second quarter and that will necessitate a shuffle of responsibilities and likely another hire. I have been bringing in entry level employees straight out of college. It is a great place to hire people, but I end up with everyone who has tremendous ambition and eventually want my job. Good, but I need some people who are willing to do the heavy lifting. I think I will hire a typist that wants to be a typist and isn't just keeping the seat warm until they can get promoted onto an underwriting team.

We had breakfast with Lilly and Neil this morning after church at the new Black Bear Diner in Roseville. It was packed and took us a half hour to get in, but the food was worth the wait and we enjoyed our visit with them. I got a text from Peter as we were waiting for our food to come. It read: " Hey, my future son-in-law mangled his hand in a machine, broke two bones in his wrist and lost his fingertips on three fingers. We are at the emergency room in Stockton. I may work from home tomorrow if this turns into a long day. If that is OK with you." I texted him back. "Thanks for the text, it arrived right before our food got here." His response? "Suck it up, tough guy." It was a nice visit with Neil and Lil. We may end up going to Mexico with them again in the Fall.

Neil and I played golf yesterday with Darren and Boyd up in Auburn at Auburn Valley Country Club. The reason we met the Thomas' for breakfast is that Neil and I mixed up our Pebble Beach jackets. He grabbed my XL jacket and I ended up with his M. As Neil said, "Ken likely won't shrink to my size and I can't eat enough to get up to a XL", so we decided  to meet and exchange our clothes. It was cold in the morning, but we teed off at 10 AM and it was up to 55 degrees by the time we teed off. I had my jacket off by the time we got to the green on the first hole. The course was great, but really wet. They got a lot of rain two weeks ago and it still hasn't completely dried out. I had to have the guys push my cart at one point, because it got stuck and we saw two other carts stuck in the mud up to their axles as well. I shot an 82, Neil had a 92 and Darren shot a 98. Boyd shot 39 on the front to my 40, but he turned it on with three birdies on the back side and a tremendous 34 for a 73. He finished with two birdie putts of over 25 feet on the last two holes.

We have our first stroke play tournament of the year next week with close to 100 players signed up. I usually work on the handicap list on the Sunday before the tournament, but the GHIN folks who keep our handicaps decided to do maintenance on the system today, so here I sit waiting for it to come back online. I keep a list of Tournament handicaps and we use the lowest of either the GHIN handicap or the Tournament handicap. I added all of the Tournament handicaps, but have to calculate the GHIN handicaps from the 1/15 recalculation and then decide which is lower for each player. The tournament is our Super Bowl tournament.

I've been watching the Division Championships today. I'm happy for the boys that the Niners are in the Super Bowl. I can't really pull for them, because Dallas fans do NOT pull for the 9ers and vice versa. I am really thrilled that Alex Smith got benched and Colin Kaepernick is in at QB for the Niners. They were almost unwatchable with Alex Smith at QB. He is horrible. Kaepernick was sensational last week, but pretty mundane today. In fact the Niners were asleep the first half, but played tough in the second half on defense and they squeaked out the win. The Niner's coach, Jim Harbaugh is about as high strung a human being as I've seen. His fit on the sidelines when a challenge of his was overturned was borderline hilarious, if it hadn't been so embarrassing. He threw a fit, jumping into the air and throwing his headset. He won't be an NFL coach long unless he harnesses his emotions. He'll have a heart attack if he doesn't learn to control himself. The NFL should fine him because his behaviour was so unprofessional. And then to see Eddie Debartolo in the locker room was surreal. He was banned from the league because he committed a felony in his business when he bribed state officials in Louisiana on a business deal. It was a lot like seeing Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. I guess time heals all wounds, especially if the country has no morals. Which, by the way, ours doesn't.

Pete just texted me. It took 3 and a half hours of surgery to repair the arm and wrist and they are now working on the fingers, which is expected to take longer. He will work from home tomorrow.

I have plans to see Bob in San Jose in March. We got a deal for golf at Eagle Vines in Napa that is about $45 a man and includes golf, range balls, a cart and lunch. Bob sent me a note last week asking for prayer for his wife, Vicky. She had been having problems with her gall bladder and was scheduled for surgery last week. She ended up having a mini stroke in early January and lost feeling in the left side of her body. It is slowly coming back and she should regain total control. She did have her gall bladder removed on Thursday and is dealing with some residual pain, but is doing much better.

Well, that is it for now. Darla and I are relaxing watching the last of the football games for the day. I watched the playoff on the golf channel of the Humana Challenge after the Niner game. It is so nice in Palm Springs. The golf courses are so green and lush and the weather looks so inviting. I finally got my car washed today after about a month of rain and then with our being gone to Hawaii. It is too dark to take care of it when I get home from work. Anyhow, I washed the car and cleaned my golf clubs today at half time of the first game. Funny how small things can make you happy. Happy Birthday to Darryl on his 57th birthday. Hopefully 2013 will be a very good year for he and Cheryl. Have a great week. Ciao.

Back from Hawaii and we brought the flu home with us

Yep, we are back from the nation's 50th state feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, but also bringing home a case of the flu. Darla started feeling the sniffles on the plane on the way to Hawaii and was downing Airborne like a drunk working on a bottle of ripple. It didn't do much good as she came down with the flu on Wednesday and hnd it through the weekend. I finally picked it up on Friday night and it started with a sore throat, that turned into nasal congestion and finally a runny nose and bad headache. I would cough or sneeze and my head felt like it was going to explode. Flying home on the five hour flight last night was a little brutal, but I had been up Saturday night tossing and turning and was able to sleep a good portion of the flight. As much as I hated to do it, because I need to get caught up at work, I called in sick today and stayed in bed until 3:00 PM. It was a little surreal for me, because I consider anything over about 7 hours of sleep to be borderline slovenly.  I think I needed it.

We got home a little after midnight last night and I went into the spa, which in hindsight wasn't very smart. It was 28 degrees outside and although the spa felt wonderful, the journey from the spa back into our room was freezing and I ended up with chills racking my body that took almost five minutes to subside. What was Darla thinking letting me do that? (J/K)

The trip itself was great. We hadn't been to Oahu since we were both 18, it's been about twenty years or so for me (that's what I was telling the staff). Honolulu is a BIG city with traffic problems and infrastructure difficulties. The mass of humanity and asphalt is too much for me and not what I go to an island to see. Waikiki is nice, but crowded. The beaches are nice, but crowded, and the hotels are very nice but crowded. If you didn't get down to the pool by 10 AM, there were no open seats. That's not to say that there were people in all of the seats. Some were likely off on excursions, but their chair was saved with a book and a towel. I sat out on Wednesday and there was one set of six chairs that had towels and bags on them and no one came to sit in them from 11 o'clock in the morning until 4:30 when we went in.

I appreciate the Silpada outings and the fact that we fly all over the world and visit places like the Bahamas, Mexico, Hawaii, Panama, Puerto Rico, Aruba, etc., but I am so tired of the Silpada women that have an aire of privilege to them. There are generally two events during our trips, the opening event and dinner and the closing event and dinner. Other than that, we are free to come and go as we please which is great. We lined up a half hour early for the opening dinner and we were probably 60th in line. From that point forward we watched as over 200 women and their guests pushed in front of us and took their places in line. Most would recognize a friend and jump the line, but some would just brazenly walk forward and take a spot ahead of everyone. It was insane. The line when we got there was about 4 people wide. By the time they let us in the line was as wide as the hallway with probably 25 people across.

We had a group of 6 Canadians in front of us that turned into about 60 Canadians as everyone knew each other and would just push in ahead of us. Several of the women had fake Canadian tattoos on the arms, so they were easy to spot. I had struck up a conversation with one couple from Vancouver and when it became obvious that the entire country would push ahead of us, I suggested that because this was the first International Silpada event, that there was a separate line just for the Canadians and Great Britain's and they should go check it out. I had one or two ready to jump the line, but Darla told them I was just kidding. Rudeness comes in many fashions and it always amazes me that the people involved don't see their actions as rude.

Darla's "rock star" Lisa and her boyfriend, Don, rented a Volvo convertible for Friday and invited us to tour the island with them. The Avis people sent us out front to wait on the car and 45 minutes later, Lisa finally went back to check with them on why it was taking so long. It turns out the car was a hard top convertible and had been sitting there the entire time. We drove into Honolulu with the intention of having a late breakfast, but had a heck of a time finding a breakfast restaurant. We finally found Zippy's a bakery and diner, but they stopped serving breakfast at 11. I stopped a local in front of the restaurant to ask about breakfast restaurants and he said, "If you can find a Zippy's they are really good". I pointed at the huge sign behind me and he said, "well, there you go." We drove around until about 11:30, gave up and had lunch at a Chili's. From there we drove out to the Pealr Harbor site and went through the museum. We opted not to take any of the boat tours to the memorials as they are basically, a memorial built with all of the names of the dead and living from the attack. From there we drove back past Waikiki and on to Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay. We stopped at Haunama Bay, took some pictures and opted not to pay $7.50 a head to walk the mile down to the beach. It is a snorkeling site and we didn't have any gear.

We did stop at Sandy Beach where you can see a picture of the high surf. It was a red flag warning day as the surf was 12-18 feet at any given time and it was powerful. We relaxed at the beach and then drove back to the resort at the Sheraton. Darla had thought we were staying at the Hyatt resort, but we were instead at the Sheraton Waikiki and right at the entrance to the Shops at Waikiki. There is every expensive shop you can imagine from Rolex to Coach to Vivendi to even Peugeot. And there was a virtual Asian invasion of little Japanese and Asian people flocking into the stores and walking out with bags brimming with purchases.

Saturday was the start of my flu like symptoms and also the Silpada farewell Party. We lined up for the buses at 6 PM and again watched as 100s of people pushed in front of us to gain access to the earliest buses. The event was held at the Iolani Palace, the former residence of the King Kalakaua and Queen Lili'uokalani, a palace that almost bankrupted Hawaii back in 1879. King Kalakaua was the first King of Hawaii to visit the United States and he worked with President Grant to put together a reciprocity agreement to allow Hawaiian sugar into the United States duty free. We ate in the gardens of the Iolani Palace and had a great meal with about five courses. It was typically first class by Silpada and very enjoyable.

The travel Sunday was rough as I had not slept well Saturday night, up coughing and wheezing all night. When we got to the airport, we had lunch and then joined Lisa and Don at the gate awaiting our flight. Lisa had saved us chairs next to them and right next to an elderly woman. Darla pulled me back and whispered, "You sit next to Lisa and you know why." I didn't know why and tried to think when was the last time I had assaulted an old lady in an airport. Lisa could see I was conflicted and leaned over and said, "because you are sick, Ken, you don't want to infect the old lady" Oh yeah, right.

Well, that's it for this week. I have poker here Friday night and then play golf with the boys on Saturday up at Auburn Country Club. I will also host a budget buster lunch with food catered by a Greek restaurant on Wednesday for the staff. Here's to a good week and to each of you avoiding this flu that is going around. I know Randy had pneumonia, This is a bad year for illness. Ciao.

Back to Hawaii again? Somebody's got to do it!

We are once again jetting off to Hawaii this time on Tuesday for 6 days with Darla's jewelry business. We will stay in Waikiki on Oahu at the Hyatt resort. The weather has been windy over in Maui, but typically 79-82 degrees in Honolulu with overnight lows in the low 70's. They get a little more rain this time of year and you can expect a shower at some point most days, but also plenty of blue skies and sunshine. We look forward to getting away.

Today was rainy and overcast in the morning, but the weather broke about noon and we ended up with a bright blue sky and sunshine by the time Darla and I slipped into the hot tub about 4 o'clock. We had a fire in the fireplace because it was so cold this morning and when we were sitting in the tub, I could smell something burning. I thought the equipment was overheating before I noticed the smoke billowing out of our chimney and slowly lowering to the ground in the near windless air.

Jennifer spent the weekend with us and will head back to Pleasanton tomorrow with her cats. Darla will be happy to see them go as she has been on her own caring for the cats, cleaning up after them, socializing with them and feeding and keeping fresh water available to them. Our 1 week favor turned into three and Jennifer will finally move into her apartment next weekend. It has been nice having her. Her boyfriend, McKenny, stayed in the Bay Area at his music store, sleeping on a couch and using the showers at the 24 hour Fitness. They are staying the rest of the week in an Extended Stay hotel and get the keys to their new apartment next weekend. Jennifer will fly back to Vegas the following weekend to be with Samantha.

I have some pictures to load to the blog from our New Years party and from Becky's (Daniel's girlfriend) visit during the holidays. Unfortunately, the upload mechanism on blogspot is not working today, so I may add them after the fact.

I played golf on New Years day and again this weekend. New Years was a great dat and I shot another 79 at Diamond Oaks. This weekend was another story as I struggled in the cold and wet and managed a 45+42=87 on Woodcreek. I will take next weekend off as I will be in Hawaii, but will get back to it when I get back home.

Now that the budget is complete at work, I am working on employee salary reviews. I have most of the month of January and part of February to get them done, but I have to write each of the reviews, have meetings with each of the employees to go over goals and objectives for 2013 and then have to go over their written response to my reviews. I have each of the underwriters writing up a review on the members of their team now and that will help me immensely in putting all of this together. The budget technically hasn't been approved yet, but I was aggressive in my forecasting and think it will stick.

My former employee, Anthony, got an appointment with my largest carrier starting in January. I found out about it from one of my agents who called to assure me that our business was safe from a mass exodus to Anthony's firm. I called the Underwriting Vice President to ask her to assure me that her statement to me from July: "We are not taking on any new wholesalers, in fact we are looking to decrease our representation...you can take that to the bank." was still accurate. She was on vacation and I asked her to call me on her return to reiterate her stance. She called, rather hat in hand and said, it's just business, Ken. I told her if I took her word to the bank, it would have bounced. Harvey asked me if I was worried about the competition going forward and I told him I was concerned, but not worried. Anthony's firm doesn't have a good reputation and large insurance companies don't want to take money from one pocket and put it in the other. The one thing I was told is that the appointment is for new business only. It will have an impact, no doubt, but I know we pay a higher commission to most of our agents and money talks. The one impact may be to the large carrier as we will be a little less anxious to run additional business their way. One of my goals in 2013 was to build their volume back up as we were down about 25% on their business to $3,000,000 in total. Business is business and it goes both ways.

We are going out to dinner tonight with Jennifer at Chicago Fire Pizza. I have a gift card for $50 and it is her favorite pizza restaurant.

Well, not a lot of news and I will try to add some pictures later as it is not happening right now. I hope everyone is doing well. I know Randy had pneumonia and the creepy crud is going around. So far we have avoided it and my plan is to hide from it on a tropical island. Ciao.