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.