Darla was a little short with me over the last week because I overbooked her and I for work related activities and it wore us out. I had dinner with a client and his wife on Wednesday night in Folsom. We closed a big ($130,000) account on March 1st and I decided to reward them with dinner at Land Ocean restaurant in Folsom. Shawna, my assistant, worked hard on the account as well, so we invited her husband, Rick, and Shawna to join us for drinks and dinner. It was fun, but put a bit of a crimp in our week. Then, Friday night, we joined Pete and his wife Vicki for a crab feed in Sacramento. I always forget how much I don't like handling cold crab and trying to get the meat out of the legs. It is a lot of work for something that I'm not that hep on to begin with. I think this will be my last year and I may send another underwriter and her husband in my place next year. Saturday night we had dinner up in Serano with Jeff and Linda, our friends and my agents from El Dorado Hills. Linda outdid herself with Panko crusted shrimp appetizers followed by salad and a dinner of barbecued salmon and barbecued asparagus and Brussels sprouts with cut red potatoes. It was delicious. We arrived with dessert and wine at 6:30 and we didn't say goodnight until almost 11:30. We really enjoy Jeff and Linda. They have similar morals and attitudes as we do and we plan to invite them to Mexico with us in the near future. Their daughter, Clair, who works for the agency will marry on 12-13-14 in Maui and we are invited to the wedding at a private estate on the beach. So we ended Saturday tired and over committed and then...
I left for two days of golf in the wine country (Napa and Sonoma County) at 9 AM on Sunday morning. We met at the Park n Ride near the freeway and drove in three cars to Johnny Miller's Silverado Resort in Napa. We were going to take two cars, but Charlie, an electrician, had to stop on the way home today and do an estimate on the electrical on a remodel of a gas station in Vacaville, so took his own car. I drove with Charlie in his bright red 1998 Corvette. Charlie is 65 and drives the car like he's 18. I had to hang on whenever he passed someone or we were getting on the freeway. We all met at the Black Bear Diner in Vacaville at 10 for breakfast. From there we drove the 45 minutes to Napa and the resort. My game continues to befuddle me. I have lost the driver and shot 46 on the front and largely retired the driver on the backside and shot a 41 for 87.
From there we drove another hour up to Windsor, California and theWindsor golf resort which has a World Mark condo on site. Joe and Pat are owners and got us in to two 3 bedroom condos for the bargain price of $35 per man. We slept 4 to a condo and when we got there, Doug and Neil immediately claimed the two single rooms, leaving Tim and I the room with two twin beds. I warned Tim that I snore and he said, that's okay, he uses a CPAP machine. I don't think my snoring was a problem for him as his machine, which hisses and has a high pitched whistle, kept me awake a good portion of the night. The sound is not unlike the sound you hear when an astronaut is in his space suit and is talking. I half expected to hear, "Thant's one small step for man, pssht, pssht, and one giant leap for mankind" at some point. We got checked into the condo and then went to dinner downtown at the City Cafe and had tri tip dips, sandwiches and salads for dinner. it was great.
This morning we awoke to a cold, misty FOG that hung on until almost 2 o'clock today. It did warm somewhat, but the sun didn't poke it's head out until we were almost done. I stayed away from the driver on the front side and shot 41, but succumbed to a couple of longer holes on the backside and shot a 46 with one pick-up and another adjustment on a hole that I shot an 8 on. I'm frustrated and ready for a new driver and some lessons from Dale at the club. My driver is an Exotics. I like it, but it has a slight crack in the face and that is really affecting my drives. I was frustrated with a pair of 87's, but truth be told there were a lot of the guys that shot in the 100's and my score was the best both days out of the group.
I talked to Jennifer while I was in Windsor and she will be in Vegas this weekend again and has her Mom coming in to town and they will meet with a family law attorney and start the process of petitioning the court to have Sam moved to California. I think she dragged her feet too long on this, but the truth is she is uncomfortable with attorneys and her Mom can help her manage the legal maze and get her set up with a good attorney.
I leave Sunday for Scottsdale and have my schedule set now. Pete and I fly in Sunday morning and check into the resort and then head to Surprise, AZ and a game between the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers. We will have dinner that night with one of our underwriters in Scottsdale. Monday, we will be in Scottsdale with two of our carriers in the morning and then will meet the Phoenix, AZ Burns Branch Manager and one of our underwriters from Burlington Insurance in Scottsdale at Biltmore Country Club and will play golf in the afternoon and have dinner that night. Tuesday, we will meet another company and their VP of Marketing and the West Coast Underwriting Manager for golf at Troon North.Iit is also my birthday on Tuesday and I can't think of a more fitting place to have it. The Troon courses are expensive, absolutely beautiful and tremendously maintained. We fly home at 7 PM Tuesday night.
Daniel is considering a move to Southern California to be closer to his girlfriend and to the emerging construction jobs in the area. His degree is in Civil Engineering and he hopes to get an internship with one of the Southern California cities. He had an interview with Home Depot last Friday for a Construction desk sales position with a store in Southern California. I don't know which one.
My office finished February up 20% over 2012 and I will be once again hosting a lunch for the staff in the coming weeks. Things continue to be amazing at work and I am very blessed to have the staff that I have.
Well, that is it for this week. I did not get the blog entry done on Saturday like I had hoped, but it was a busy weekend as documented above. I will definitely get it done this weekend as I don't have anything planned including golf. I need to get the handicaps done tomorrow for a tournament next weekend that I won't even be playing in. The cat picture above is a shoutout to the movie "Wedding Crashers" and Will Ferrell's character. The picture of Dad and Shirley is from their trip to a Hot Springs in British Columbia. The other pictures are from Windsor. Be well. Ciao.
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