May Birthdays

 

The busy birthday month has hit. Mother's day, Darla's birthday and David's birthday all seem to hit in a 10 day period. Darla and I got together with David on Darla's birthday and went to dinner at TGI Fridays. I gave her carte blanche on where to go and with her evolving dietary restrictions, she chose TGI Fridays because it has a more American menu, with less carbs. She ended up with soup and salad and you can see her look in the picture with her birthday dessert that she watched David and I eat. She is really serious about her diet and watching her sugar and carb intake. It was like the ice cream could impact her blood sugar just by proximity.

 

I don't know what's up with David and his beard. I'm not sure if he is David or Orville Redencbacher. His job is going well and he is doing some estimating and bid work as well as CAD work and design work. He is very comfortable at his old firm, but will eventually move into something a bit closer to the architecture field. It is a great first job out of college and they appreciate him. 

 

Daniel, on the other hand, is sort of caught between paying his bills and finding a job in his field. He just passed a civil engineering test that will give him some credibility in his job hunt. He works for Home Depot and would like to take on some temp jobs from an engineering perspective, but is torn between paying his rent in Southern California and getting started in his career. Hopefully, he can get hooked into the Engineering temp firm and work Home Depot on the weekends. It is nothing but fun for recent college graduates in the land of Obama.

 

I played golf at 6:12 AM on Saturday. Despite the hour and the difficulty rolling out of bed, the course was pristine at that time of day and we were able to play for $39 with a cart in the Power Hour promotion at Woodcreek, which is the first hour of tee times in the morning. I played with Darren, Neil and Matt and shot a 44+39=83, finally waking up on the back nine and playing some golf. Matt shot 80, Neil 84 and Darren 90. We will try the Power Hour again as we had a twosome in front of us that were gone with the wind after about four holes and nobody behind us. We finished a little after 10 AM and had the whole day ahead of us.

 

I got back home and put the cabinet doors back on the lone cabinet we have lining the wall by Darla's car. She pulls her car straight in and then angles toward the wall. Unfortunately, with the doors on, it adds about six inches to the distance she has to travel around the cabinet and left her car too close to mine at the rear end. I struggled getting the heavy doors back up and ended up with a blister on the palm of  my right hand. I took the doors back down Saturday night when we got home from Alicia's.

 

We did go over to Don and Alicia's Saturday night  to celebrate Darla, Alicia and David's birthdays and Don fixed ribs and tri tip for dinner. He smoked them both in his smoker. The food is good and the sauce he uses (from Kansas City) is excellent. The flavor is of apple wood, which is just a little strong for me. I think you either like the flavor of smoked wood or you don't. It has a little bit of an ash flavor for me and I prefer a straight barbecue. We ended up playing cards and relaxing during the evening. We were home by 7:30 and I took the doors back off the cabinet. I may eventually take that cabinet down altogether and give her the entire room that she needs for her Explorer.

 

The reason that the blog is late is that we met Bob and Vicky Pando for dinner last night. They were in Roseville to see family and we had dinner with them and Neil and Lilly. The Pando's will join us in Reno next month for our two day tournament at Lake Ridge and Grizzly Ranch. I secured a two bedroom condo at The Wyndham Resort at Lake Ridge for $151 per night and we will share that with Bob and Vicky and have time to get caught up on their lives. We still haven't seen their new house in San Jose and have to get a trip planned to visit with them soon.

 

Next weekend I will miss the Memorial Day tournament as one of my employees is getting married on Saturday in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento. It is one of the oldest buildings in Sacramento and certainly one of the mort historical. It will be a full on Hispanic Catholic wedding. Wendy was born in San Salvador and her fiancé in Mexico. The service will be in English and Spanish and the reception following will have traditional Mexican dances, like El Mandillon,  the apron dance and El Meuertito (Dead man) where the groom's friends pick him up and carry him around the room as if he were dead. This symbolizes the death of his freedom and bachelor status. They will also perform the La vibora de la mar (The snake of the sea) where the crowd forms a barrier and the couple run up against it, symbolizing the couple's union even against all of life's adversities. It should be interesting and something neither Darla nor I have ever experienced. Pete and Vicki will be there as well as Shawna and Jeff, so we will have some other non Hispanics to drink this in with. It should be fun.

 

Well, this is short, but the work day has started and I must get to it. I will likely add my next entry on Memorial Day next week. It is Victoria Day in Canada today and they are all off enjoying a three day weekend. I also heard that Darryl is working again and I'm happy to hear that he is off the roles of unemployment. I was afraid that he would turn Democrat if he stayed unemployed much longer. J/K. I hope all are well and living life to the fullest. Ciao.