Fun in Reno

 

We had a great time in Reno. In fact, it couldn't have been better. I played some of my best golf of the year, taking first place in both days' tournaments and, as you can see above, also had some great luck at the video poker machine on Saturday night as well.

We had a great time with Vicki and Bob Pando who stayed with us in a condo at the Lakeridge resort in Reno. The condominium was nice, but the difference in the two bedrooms was pretty severe. As a matter of fact, Darla and I got there first and waited to pick a room until Bob and Vicki arrived in order to be fair. One room had upgraded furniture, a television, an attached bathroom and was a grade A room. The second bedroom had only a bed and a closet and a bathroom across the hall. Darla and I practiced tossing a coin before they got there and did win the toss and got the better room. I felt a little bad as Vicki had Bob bring a chair into their bathroom to house some of her stuff as there was only a small sink and vanity, toilet and shower stall.

We met Neil and Lilly for dinner Friday night at La Strada, an Italian restaurant in the El Dorado Casino. We stopped in the bar and had some happy hour Italian margaritas before dining. It was nice to sit and visit and get caught up on what is going on in the Pando's lives over dinner. We got seated a little after 7 PM and left the restaurant at nine. We got back to the room and stayed up until 11 PM talking and visiting.

Saturday was the Lakeridge tournament and Bob and I met Neil and the gang at the golf course at 6:30 for breakfast. There was a double shotgun going off at 8:00 AM and we enjoyed a hearty breakfast, hit balls and headed to our carts. Neil was getting something out of his car and tripped over a curb and just about had a fall. He was flailing his arms and pin wheeling forward and finally caught himself on a cart after tripping forward about twenty feet. He got a round of applause from the guys.

Lakeridge is a Country Club in Reno that is like so many others and is currently in bankruptcy. The course itself is in beautiful shape and you can see the signature island green on number 12 above. You can see in the picture the skyline of the casinos in the distance. I shot an 83 on Saturday and really had to work hard to keep my score at that level. I hit one drive out of bounds and bounced the next shot (number 3) off the fence next to the out of bounds and was able to knock the next shot in front of the green and then on and one putt for a double. It was my only double on the day. Bob and I both hit our shots right on number 9 and he found his on the bank of the creek, but mine was nowhere to be found. I had to take a drop and hit my next one to about 200 from the pin and was finally on and putting for a double, when I noticed Bob's ball had my markings on it. He had hit the wrong ball. We both went back to the creek after apologizing to the guys behind us. I replaced my ball on the bank, hit it to about 150, knocked it on and 2 putted for a par. Bob didn't fare so well with the 2 stroke penalty, the lost ball and his nerves and posted a 10 on the hole. I won first place low net with my 83, net 67.

Saturday afternoon we headed back to the resort and went out to he pool. It was about 90 degrees in Reno and the high altitude always seems hotter. Somehow 90 degrees in Reno is hotter than 90 degrees in the valley, if that makes sense. Perhaps Darryl knows what I'm talking about, having lived a mile high in a former life. The girls joined us and we headed back to the condo to get ready for dinner.

We met Neil and Lilly, Tim and Sue and Kenny and Michelle for dinner at Bertha Miranda's, a 55 year old restaurant in the heart of Reno on Wells Avenue. The food  (Mexican) was great and the $20 margarita pitchers went down easy. We sat and visited until almost 9:30 and it was a hoot, laughing and enjoying the company of friends. Darla has struggled with her health recently and it was nice to see the old Darla back, laughing and having a good time. When other diners were turning to see who was laughing so hard, I knew she was having a great time. It was good for her to get away.

Darla and I went over to the Atlantis casino, one of our old stomping grounds and realized how long it had been since we had been at the casino when we saw the huge expansion they had done three years ago and added over 20,000 square feet to the casino floor. We got there about 9:45 and I wanted to get home early. We played $100 on the nickel machines and had about $115 dollars in winnings. We had decided to call it a night and were playing the last of our original stake when I was dealt the Jack, Queen, King and Ace of hearts with a Ten of clubs. It was a straight  which pays 20 coins on a 5 coin bet. I didn't hesitate and discarded the 10 and got the 10 of hearts for a Royal Flush and 4000 coins paid on a 5 coin bet.

Sunday we were able to sleep in a little bit and Bob and I got on the road about 8:15 for Portola, a 50 minute drive from Reno. We played Grizzly Ranch, a beautiful enclave of homes and a championship golf course in Portola. The course was tight and covered with pines and the scores Sunday went up dramatically from Saturday. For instance, the low gross player from Saturday shot 79, but carded a 90 on Sunday. The low gross was 80 and I shot an 82, net 66 and won low net for the second day. I also won $39 in skins on the strength of an Eagle two I carded on the 255 yard uphill par four 15th with a strong drive that landed on the apron of the green and I knocked in a 50 foot chip with a 6 iron. It was a fun day and the course was tremendous.

We met the girls back in Truckee about 5:30. They had spent the day in Reno and got into Truckee about mid afternoon. They weren't thrilled with the way that we had to travel so far to Portola. They were not going to come over tot he sleepy little mountain town with nothing to do. We transferred Bob's clubs and our bags into the vehicles and Bob and Vicki headed off to friends in Incline Village and we headed home to Roseville. We got home about 7:45 and went to our local Chinese food place for War Won Ton soup and pot stickers. Not the healthiest of dinners, but delicious.

It was a fun and a profitable weekend and I got to spend some of my winnings today on pool supplies. We had switched over to non chlorine shock this year on the advice of our pool supplier and have been having some algae blooms. I took in a water sample today and discussed it with another tech in the same store and he said we needed to use a chlorine shock, that the shock I have is meant for pools with either bromine or ionization. Somehow the $79 that I spent on 25 pounds of shock wasn't refunded and they sold me another 50 pounds of chlorine shock for $144. Nice. The guy that had helped me last time was no longer there and now apparently he's a dumbass. OK. I think I'm the dumbass.

Darla and I leave in a week for Almanor and I'm looking forward to the time with David and Jennifer and Samantha. It will also be a chance to get to know McKenny better. I've spent a little bit of time with him and he seems like a solid guy. Right now, Jennifer and McKenny are coming up on Tuesday and staying until Saturday as McKenny has to work on Monday. I'm trying to talk Jennifer in to coming up with us on Saturday and having McKenny join us on Tuesday.

Well, that is our weekend in a nutshell. We had a blast and it was good to get away. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your start to Summer. We have a Canadian storm that hit last night and will last through tomorrow. We are expected to get about a half inch of rain out of this storm and it would be a record for rainfall in June in Sacramento. It rarely rains here in the Summer. The weather will change quicly as106 is forecast over the weekend. we will be in the pool. Ciao.

Father's Day 2013

 

It was a fun and enjoyable weekend and thank you to Jennifer and McKenny for the visit and the lunch on the beach. McKenny had his sister and two nieces visiting from Virginia and Jennifer was going to come up on her own to see me, but Darla and I invited them up for a day at the beach with the jet ski. Jennifer talked the group into coming up and McKenny had never been on a jet ski before and LOVED it. He said it was the coolest toy he'd seen in years. I think he will be pricing them out on the next few weeks. They met us at the beach on Saturday at 10 AM. Jennifer had a little trouble starting the jet ski until I realized that she wasn't using the choke. I pulled up on that and it fired up right away. I hope so as I'd just dropped $300 on repairs and Summerizing of the unit on Thursday.

 

The day was awesome with highs in the mid 90's and lots of sunshine. The girls are redheads and both got a little burn and McKenny got a lobster burn on his back and shoulders. They concentrated so much on lubing his bald head up, but forgot to get the rest of him protected. Jennifer said that they bought two bottles of Aloe Vera on the way home Saturday night. We had everyone over to our house Saturday afternoon. The girls swam and I fixed two tri-tips for dinner. It was a great visit and the only thing missing was Samantha.

 

Friday I was in San Francisco as my CEO was in town and Harvey asked me to suit up and come into the city for the day. It was actually nice to not be the focus of his attention, but he did use our success in Sacramento as a rallying point for the San Francisco branch, as in, "You may be up 12% on the year, but your cousins up the road in Sacramento are up 35%!" Nice. They were all going out to dinner on Friday night. I decided to join them for drinks after work and we cabbed up to the Top of the Mark, the bar at the top of the Mark Hopkin's hotel. There was a SERIOUS police presence when we got there and it turns out that Vice President Joe Biden was staying at the hotel and his daughter was graduating from Stanford on Saturday (Maybe it was his granddaughter I don't know). I saw his SUV pull up with six police cars in the lead and another six behind his car as they blocked the road and drove him into the garage of the hotel. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the Obama administration, but I was happy to see Biden in SF and not Washington, where he can cause more damage to our country.

 

You can see the picture that I took from the Top of the Mark of the city skyline and the Transamerica pyramid. It is quite a view. I left the city about 8:15 . They were all still in the bar and were supposed to be over at the R&G Lounge for dinner reservations at 8:00 o'clock.

 

I did play golf early this morning at 5:50 AM over at Diamond Oaks. I shot an 81 and have finally started to turn my game around. I played four times this last week with an 82 on Tuesday in the day On The Oaks weekday tournament, an 83 at Turkey Creek on Wednesday afternoon with one of my agents and our rep for the inspection company that Alan owns. I also shot a 41 on Thursday night in the twilight league. It is nice to see all of the hard work that I've done with the new driver starting to pay off.

 

I jumped in the pool and spa when I got home from golf and then took a quick shower and we were off to Oroville to meet Darla's Mom and dad for lunch. We had a nice lunch and a good visit before heading back to Roseville, where I got a haircut and returned home. I had a nice snooze on the pool and then watched the US Open golf tournament on the DVR recorder. I washed the car after dinner and then we had a nice chat with Dad and Shirley.

 

The blog will be late next week as we will be in Reno with the golf league. We leave Thursday and will be staying at the Lake Ridge resort with Bob and Vicki Pando in a two bedroom condo. We play Lake Ridge at 8:00 AM on Saturday and will then head out to dinner that night and an evening in the casinos. Sunday we play Grizzly Ranch in Portola and the girls will head out from Reno about mid day for home.

 

Work continues to go well. We had our lunch celebration on Tuesday and I had Matt run out and pick up some barbecue from Lucille's in Rocklin. The handle on the bag broke in the parking lot and they dropped three quarts of baked beans in the parking lot. By the time I saw the mess, it had been baked into the concrete and cards had smashed it flat. The restaurant actually cut $50 from our bill because of the mishap and it turns out that we had plenty of food to go around as it was.

 

I now have 25 employees that work for me and we are busting at the seams in the office. I have four new desks and computers on order and they should be delivered the week on July 15th. Right now I have two employees that are desk hopping as I have staff out on Summer vacations. It will be nice to get the expansion completed. If I add any more staff I will have to blow out the back wall and pick up additional space in the vacant office behind us.

 

That is it for this week. It is late and Darla owes me a back rub because she bet me that Phil Mickelson would win the US Open today. Lefty came in second for the sixth time in his career and he has zero wins. have a great week. Ciao.

 

 

June Weather

 

The weather in June can run between 110 degrees and 75 degrees in Northern California. We had a 108 degrees on Saturday and 88 degrees today, a 20 degree drop. It is a strange feeling to feel these extremes. It will be 79 degrees tomorrow.

Matt and I were up in Arcata on Thursday and there was a marine layer over the golf course and it didn't get out of the sixties. I was dressed in shorts and quickly changed into long pants. Unfortunately, I did not have a coat and it got really cold on the back nine. One of the agents we were playing with lent me a medium wind shirt and I struggled into it. I had trouble swinging the club, but at least I was warm. I decided to take it off on the last hole as none of the three guys were able to hit the green on our approach. I got the jacket stuck around my neck with my arms trapped behind my head and had the three guys all laughing hysterically as I struggled to get it off. Matt finally yanked hard and got that second skin off of me. We ended up winning the tournament with a 62 and I won two dozen Pro V1 golf balls, a Nike golf shirt and a golf towel.

Matt and I stayed over Thursday night in Eureka and stopped in Ukiah on the way back Friday and visited one of Matt's agents for coffee and muffins and then my agent for lunch. We were back in Roseville about 5 PM and it was 106 degrees. I got into the pool and cooled off before hosting the  guys for poker.

I was surprised that we won the tournament with a 62 because my team shot a 60 on Monday in the Sacramento Golf Day and we took 7th. I was in charge of the signs and the awards at the tournament and it was a long day with arrival at the course at 9 AM and finally leaving for home at 7:45 PM. My company also put on a putting contest and I had to set that up and show Shawna and Ajay how to run the contest.

I did have an NCGA qualifier on Saturday and played pretty benignly on the front side, finally hitting a birdie on number 9 for a 42 on the front. I followed that up with birdies on 10 and 11, but the 108 degree heat wilted me on the back side and I finished with a 41 for 83, net 70. I missed qualifying for the qualifier tournament by one stroke. Darla and I had dinner with Neil and Lilly tonight and Neil told me that he was having trouble getting the qualifiers to commit to going on to the next event. He ended up calling me when he got back and the final 69 qualifier backed out and he gave me the spot based on my net 34 on the back side. I will play with two other players from my club in the regional event in September and try to qualify to move on to the finals at Spyglass Hill in October. I'm happy, I haven't made it to a qualifier in about three years.

You can see the picture of Darla with her new car plates "SILVR GL" and the picture from the tournament up in Arcata where a family of deer came to join us on one of the holes. Also, we did go to Alicia and Don's for dinner and Lucas' 3rd birthday celebration. They had planned to have a birthday party in the park, but it was 108 degrees and they cancelled it earlier in the week.

I talked to Jennifer this weekend and she is looking into a position with Verizon back in Vegas, hopefully starting in August. If it works out, she hopes to move with Sam into a house close to John's place so she can be there to take Sam to Kindergarten in the Fall. She is conflicted because of her boyfriend and because she REALLY likes working for Ericsson. I think it will all work out and the sadness that I saw from both of them when Jen had to leave last Sunday can't continue.

This is really short, but I got a late start because of dinner with Neil and Lilly. we did have our largest month ever in May and 5 (FIVE!) of my producers had personal best months. I have to go into San Francisco on Friday to see our CEO and I have no issues. The office is really humming right now and it is a great place to work. As I told my boss in my Manager's Report this month: "There is a misconception that the happiest place on Earth is Disneyland, but it is actually my office!" I hope you are all doing wonderfully and living life to the fullest. Be well. Ciao.

Fun with Sammy in Vegas!

 

It was the best of times and it was over all too quickly. It had been far too long since we visited Vegas (last September) and we made up for it with four days of fun and frivolity. We flew in early on Thursday morning and met John to pick up Samantha. We were able to get an early check-in at Circus Circus and we were in and off to the pool by late morning. Samantha made a couple of fast friends at the pool, one of which was a four year old from Oklahoma that at one point asked Sam if her Mom could take pictures of them together. The little girl had an older sister with her who looked to be about 16 or 17 and when she brought out the camera and started taking pictures, Darla and I were amazed. The young girl WAS the mother! We met the father, who was about thirty. We also kept a close eye on him the rest of the afternoon as he apparently likes young girls. Jeesh.

 

That afternoon we cleaned up and went out to dinner at the Deli at the Circus Circus, and then took Sam up to watch the circus acts and to have some fun at the midway. I was able to pound hard enough with a rubber mallet to send a rubber chicken through the air and into a pot on a rotating base and win her a small stuffed snake. We let her ride the rides and play some of the video games, one of which had Samantha and Darla riding a motorcycle through the streets of Los Angeles. Samantha was tired that night and we let her watch a cartoon of Curious George and she was fast asleep by nine. Jennifer's plane came in at 11:15 and I was off at 10:30 PM to meet it, but got turned the wrong way on Industrial Avenue and never did find the I-15 freeway, instead backtracking to Las Vegas Boulevard and getting stuck in the world's biggest traffic jam before finally getting to the airport at 11:30. Jennifer was amused by my story of trying to find the freeway and getting utterly lost.

 

Friday, we were up pretty early and off to the Black Bear Diner with Jen and Sam. It is the first restaurant that Sam ever went to as a baby and we make sure to go there every time we are in town. From there it was back to the hotel and another day at the pool. Friday was 98 degrees, Saturday 102 degrees and Sunday topped out at 106 degrees. Yes, we were in the desert.

 

Friday night was Sam's Day Care graduation and we had her over to the school by 5:30 to get dressed in her cap and gown. She was the smallest one there and her gown dragged the ground where most of the kids were at mid calf. There were 12 graduates and they sang four songs, recited the pledge of allegiance and all got there diplomas. It was very cute and I'm glad we got to be a part of it. John was there with his mom and step dad  and we all got along okay. Sam was happy to have her Mom and Dad both there to share in her day. Afterward, we went to Chinatown in Vegas and had Korean barbecue at Mothers, a great place that we have been to twice with Jennifer. Good food and a nice hibachi grill at your table.

 

Saturday, we were up fairly early and off to Karate. Sam was cranky and didn't want to go to her class and really lost it when we stopped at Burger King instead of McDonald's for breakfast. She got over it, ate some food (fuel) and then was great at karate. She was the highest belt there for the first ten minutes, but then some of the older kids showed up and her red belt was trumped by yellow. She is very good and pays attention to her Sensei and really does her moves clearly and correctly. She even had a one on one with another smaller boy in the class and knocked him out of his stance and won the match. She lost to a bigger boy first, but was beaming when she won. The class is well done and both of her instructors preach discipline and focus to the class and most of the kids respond. There was one bonehead in there that kept trying to leave the room to get to his father and the Sensei's were all over him. It was fun. We went from there to the pool.

 

Saturday night we had dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy on the strip. Sam was a little cranky again before dinner and I think she really feels the separation from her Mom and acts out  a little bit. She pulled it together and had a nice dinner. We even had the guitar player play "When you wish upon a star" for her. It was a fun night.

 

Sunday, we talked to the hotel staff and got an extended check-out and were able to stay in the hotel until 6 PM for $20. We used the pool after going to a late breakfast at the Egg and I in Vegas. It was a wonderful little coffee shop packed fifteen deep with people waiting to get in. It is a big place with indoor and outdoor seating. It was 106 degrees Sunday and we lucked into an inside table. We had dinner at the Grill in Circus Circus and Darla and Jennifer used the Aqua Massage tables before dinner. We had a 9:10 flight that night that kept changing. I got a call in the morning that it was delayed to 9:45, then a call that it was back at 9:10 and a third text that it was now 10:05 PM. We did take off at 10:05, but not until we drove out to John's to drop Sam off and she took us on a tour of her room, the garden in the back and her turtle cage. She was so proud and then the water works came as we had to leave. She pleaded with Jennifer to come with her to California and poor John had to hold her as we drove away.

 

Jen knows that she has to find a solution to her situation. She has a GREAT job, but she is away from her daughter who needs her now more than ever and it is really hurting both of them deeply . Jennifer was really emotional in the car and has come to hate everything about Vegas and just wants Sam in California. John won't allow that, so it is an impasse of mega proportions. We'll see how it plays out, but it is very emotionally draining.

 

Well, on that upbeat note, I wish you all a great week. Be good to each other and say a prayer for Samantha and Jennifer. Ciao.