A Great Christmas Past, New Years ahead and Samantha and Jennifer coming to see us.

 

A variety of pictures this week with the first, a picture of our date night Saturday night at McCormick and Schmick's in Roseville, courtesy of Burns and Wilcox and a $50 gift card I received at our holiday event. I've also included a few of Mexico and some of Darla's holiday event at Cabo's in Granite Bay on the 22nd. Finally, a couple of pictures from our Christmas Eve get together at our home with family. The last picture is of Taylor and Shea, our nieces from Sonoma and Steve's daughters. Darla had one of her contacts from a car club in Sacramento, ray, come dressed as Santa at her party and he took pictures with all of us and also with many kids and adults at the restaurant.

 

One of the laughs we have had is the confusion that the Mexicans have with our language. A couple of years ago, we had a cake for Dad and Shirley's anniversary that was decorated with "Happy Anniversity!" This time around, I wrote out "Happy Birthday. Shirley" for the chef and we ended up with Happy Birthday, Sherley!" Nice.

 

It was a quick turnaround when we got home from Mexico with Darla's Silpada Christmas party on Sunday night and then the family here on Tuesday night for Prime Rib. Darla's party was fun. She rented out a private room at Cabo's in Granite Bay. She also had the bar reserved and brought in a DJ (The same deejay we had at our RGC event and one of my buddy's from RGC's sons). Santa was out there and was dancing as well. He had his restored 1947 Dodge pickup parked in front of the restaurant and it was his sleigh. We were there from 5 PM until 9 PM and had a great time. Darla was great and took couple pictures and team pictures of all of her reps.

 

Tuesday night was fun. I let my skeleton crew of employees go at noon and I was home by about one. It is very slow in the office this week as many of the agencies are closed. We are close to missing our budget this month for the first time this year, but we had a huge day on Friday and moved closer to our goal. We will have to have above average days Monday and Tuesday to make it, but I'm not counting my group of employees out. They have amazed me all year. We'll see.

 

I worked on our 2014 budget this week and had it sent through to my Executive VP on Friday. My budget for 2014 is at $25,500,000 and will probably be bumped to $26 MM by our CEO. We will finish 2013 at about $23,500,000 on a budget of $21,800,000. It has been an incredible year. 2014 will see a remodel of my office and an addition in the space behind my personal office to pick up another 800 square feet and room for another 8 employees in cubicles. I will move the two employees that work for San Francisco and Atain Insurance to the back area and also move our Personal Lines department to the addition and spread out my commercial teams a little bit. Also, in 2014, I have moved completely out of production and will concentrate on working with our younger producers to help them grow their books of business. I will also be very involved in doing quality control checks on the policies written and in auditing policies. I will be on the road with employees on a weekly basis and will be very involved in getting to know the agents more personally. I certainly know the agents that I have personally worked with, but need to get to know everyone. It will be critical if we lose any more producers that I am able to not only step in to take over from an underwriting standpoint, but also to keep the relationship alive.

 

It is employee review time and I have all 26 employees to review by the end of January. Luckily, I have the underwriters handling the first line reviews of their assistants this year. I will handle the secondary reviews of each of those. I do have 12 reviews that I have to handle myself (the Underwriters and typists and my assistant). I will also handle the review of Connie, the employee that has moved to Atain as she was with me through October. I will let her manager handle her goals and objectives for 2014.

 

I went out and hit the driving range yesterday to hone my game, but did not play golf. I will play on Wednesday and take next weekend off as well with Jennifer and Samantha in town. I am spoiled with the 88 degree weather in Mexico. It is actually near 70 degrees here during the days, but it is freezing overnight. Samantha is bringing her ice skates and we will take her to the outdoor rink in Folsom on Friday to skate. Darla has both a turkey and a prime rib to fix next weekend.  

 

We will spend next weekend with Samantha and Jennifer and I look forward to the family time. They fly in on Friday and will be here through Sunday night. I look forward to the Dallas-Philadelphia game tonight, but don't hold out a lot of hope without Tony room behind center. randy doesn't care for Romo and his December record is abysmal, but there aren't many players that care more about their job and can extend plays. That has always been his m.o. and one that has served him well. The team's problem is not QB, but a leaky defense that is one of the historically worst defenses in the history of the NFL and one managed by a 73 year old coach that time has passed by years ago. Our real need is GM, but Jerry Jones will never give up that tile as he is playing a real life game of billionaire fantasy football. Perhaps Dallas can surprise them tonight, they are 5-0 in divisional games this year. I will return next week with hundreds of pictures of Miss Samantha and our weekend together. have a very Happy New Year. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 

Feliz Navidad!

Yep. Back from Mexico. We had an awesome trip and feel now that a week is not enough time for a Mexico trip. We look forward to taking at least two weeks in the future. I had been thinking of renting a house in Tahoe for Darla's 50th birthday, but think that a trip to Mexico with the family is what is in the cards. We will sit down with Jennifer, the boys and Darla's folks and see if we can make it work. The Vidante resort in Nuevo Vallarta just gets better every year and the amenities, infrastructure, pools, service and the rooms have improved so much that we want to share this with our family. None of them have been to our resort and we upgraded this year to three weeks and moved to the spa tower, which features 2800 square foot two bedroom suites. The contract we signed is "building specific", which means that we know we will be in the fourth Luxxe tower above the fourth floor. We are trying to set ourselves up for retirement and I now have enough time that we can stay six weeks in a row when we finally are retired and able to travel.

 

Our first night in Nuevo Vallarta, we wanted to have dinner with Bob and Debbie Hand, who were at the resort the week before us and were leaving on Sunday. We planned to drive into Paradise Village and have dinner at Brasil, a Brazilian steakhouse that serves meat on skewers. When we arrived, we were saddened to hear that the owner of Brasil had died in the last year and his family had closed the restaurant. We ended up eating at Napolitano's, a Mexican restaurant right next door to where Brasil had been located. 

 

Neil and I played golf five times at the Nicklaus course while we were at the resort and I struggled getting used to the Bermuda greens. I shot 89-82-86-86 and 83, so averaged 85 over the week. We had 7:20 AM tee times each of the days that we played and were off the course by shortly after 11 every day. We didn't play on Wednesday with the idea that we would take a cab up to Busceria or Ceyulito. That plan got shut down when Darla signed us up for a facility tour on Wednesday morning, which turned into us upgrading our contract yet again. I may add one more week within the next ten years so that we can have a month of time in a two bedroom unit, which would give us two months using our lockouts.

 

The weather was incredible every day except our last, which made our having to leave for the states a bit easier. It was overcast and cooler and when Darla and I walked over to the sales center after breakfast, the sky opened up and it poured rain for about thirty minutes (right after we got into the building). The storm left puddles and pooling of water all over the resort.

 

The developer has signed a contract with Greg Norman Enterprises and they are working on the front nine of the new course (the first three holes) now in front of the Luxxe Towers 4 and 5. My building will eventually have either an ocean and poolside view or a golf course view. The rain left much of their equipment stuck in puddles on the developing course.

 

The resort will soon open a Circus Soleil show in contract with the Canadian company that owns the Circus Soleil brand. They also have plans to open a new Disney style resort with attractions and rides that will be just outside of the resort's property, but we will have access to the park as part of our ownership. They will build part of the Norman course adjacent to the new theme park and that will be across the river from our resort. The owner of Vidante owns land all the way to the airport and had planned to build a train from the airport to the resort. The taxi union got wind of the plans and caused so much noise that he dropped the plan and will now build roads to bring his guests to the resort in a more direct route (with taxis). In the meantime they have already bought the trains and have the tracks built on the resort property. The other thing that they are bringing back and I look forward to, are the water taxis that will transport guests from one part of the resort to the other. Right now transportation is by electric shuttle vehicles or by a series of wooden bridges that criss cross the resort.

 

The pictures above are of our Limo ride with Neil and Lilly, Steve and Brenda and John and Camille on the Wednesday before we left for Mexico. It was a magical night with a great meal, good champagne and a nice chilled Bailey's Irish Cream in the limo. The Christmas lights were fantastic and we even stopped at one house that had the lights timed to music that was played on an FM Transmitter. We looked at the local lights in Roseville and Rocklin and then took a drive down to Sacramento and the homes in the fabulous forties, an upscale older neighborhood located at the area from 40th avenue to the mid fifties. That neighborhood went way out and had lights that actually cross over the road from one side to the other making a tunnel effect. I would guess any boom trucks that have to pass through the area aren't thrilled with their decorating. It was a great deal of fun and wonderful gift from Neil and Lilly.

 

The pictures from our trip include many group and couple pictures as well as many of the exterior of the resort. The lazy river and children's area are shown to show Jennifer and Samantha the fun that awaits them if they choose to join us in June. Darla's birthday is in May, but we will delay the celebration to give Sam time to finish up her Kindergarten year.

 

We returned home on Samantha's 6th birthday. The flight was uneventful, but when we got to San Francisco, all of our bags arrived save for Neil's golf clubs. We not only lost Neil's clubs, but we also lost about two hours in San Francisco as we were stuck at Immigration trying to find the clubs. United had scanned the clubs as received, but they were NOT at the over sized baggage location. We are guessing that someone stole them. I know Neil's pain, as I had mine stolen in Denver a few years ago.

 

Christmas will sneak up on us quickly this year as I am back to work for Monday and then a half day on Tuesday before Christmas on Wednesday. We will host the family on Tuesday afternoon for a prime rib dinner. I hope that each of you have a wonderful Holy-Day season and an equally satisfying Christ-mas. I will talk to most of you on Christmas day. Be safe and be Happy. Ciao.



Leaving on a Jet Plane

We are off to Mexico on Friday (actually Saturday). We will stay at a Park n Fly hotel in Millbrae on Friday night and then catch a 9:30 United flight to Puerto Vallarta out of the SF Airport Saturday morning. Dad and Shirley are already there and working on their tans. We leave with Neil and Lilly this coming weekend.

 

We had the first of our Christmas gatherings on Saturday night, the annual Christmas gathering of the Roseville Golf Club. This year we were back to the Back 9 Restaurant in Citrus Heights, which is part of the Sunrise Golf Club facility. The owner of the prior restaurant/bar was an RGC member and closed the business back in 2010. The new owners reached out to us last year and we decided to give it a try. I for one was impressed with the food and the comfort of the venue. The drinks are $3.50 versus $7 at the Country Club where we have been meeting the last couple of years. They charged us $30 a head and called last week to say they had a cut on the food prices and wanted to offer each person a free drink, so handed out drink tickets when we checked in. They also did a big golf cake for us. In the gift giveaway,  I had my eye on a foursome at Rancho Canada, the Carmel course, but it was won by my friend, Steve, who invited us to go with them along with John and Neil. I did win a twosome with cart at Diamond Oaks, so all is good. The party was great and Darla brought the Santa hats and took couple pictures of everyone. It was fun. We got home about midnight and took a nice soak in the hot tub before bed.

Darla also drove to Santa Rosa on Thursday night and stayed over with her parents in the motor home before heading over Friday to Taylor's graduation from the police academy. She hopes to catch on with local law enforcement in the Santa Rosa area, but is open to almost anywhere in Northern California.

 

The weather here has turned bitterly cold after the unseasonable warmth we had leading up to this last week. we have had overnight freezes each night since Wednesday and even had a few fleeting snow flurries on Friday night as a weather front moved through and we had freezing rain overnight. It has been so clear every other night that the temperatures have dipped into the low twenties and left the grass and rooftops frost white and caused delays at the golf courses.

 

I took Friday off from work and went to breakfast with the board of the Roseville Golf Club and then we headed over to Timber Creek in Roseville. There was a frost delay until 10 PM and we teed off about 10:20. I struggled in the cold and the bulkiness of my coat and shot a 44 on the front. I was able to shed my coat on the back as I had a long sleeve shirt under my golf shirt and pulled it together with a nice 40 on the back nine for 84. My group won the money with a net 73 on the front and a 63 on the back for a total of eight under par (we took the two best net scores on each hole). One of the other guys in our group is 16 handicap and he shot 39 on the back. We ham and egged it for a nice score. It was fun, but COLD. I'm looking forward to the 85 degrees in Nuevo Vallarta with overnight lows in the upper sixties.

 

We set up with Jennifer for her and Sam to fly in for the weekend of January 3rd-5th. McKenney is still in Pleasanton until the end of January and will come up to see them as well. We plan to take Sam out to the outdoor skating rink in Sacramento while they are here and we will celebrate both her sixth birthday and Christmas with her. Her birthday is December 21st, the day that we get home from Mexico. We look forward to visiting with them.

 

This is the week that Neil and Lilly are hosting a Christmas get together at our house on Wednesday night.  We initially told them we couldn't make it and they admitted that they have a limo booked to take us all out to see the Christmas lights. Looking forward to that. We will eat here first and then catch the limo. They let you drink to your heart's desire, but you can't eat in the limo. Okay??

 

Neil has also told us to keep January 28th open and wouldn't tell us why. he had a few margaritas last night and told me that he has four tickets to see journey and the eagles in concert at Sleep train Arena in Sacramento. Should be fun.

 

I have the office Christmas party tomorrow night. I have booked the party room at the Strikes Bowling Center in Rocklin. It is $150 an hour and includes four bowling lanes, six TVs, a pool table and a soft drink fountain. I've also ordered pizza and salad for everyone. We will not do our gift exchange until Friday as we don't want to take time away from the bowling. Also, the Dallas-Chicago game starts at 5:30. We have the room from 4PM-6PM, but Pete is paying for the third hour himself and we will stay at least until halftime.

 

Well, again, I will be on vacation next weekend, but will return with vacation pictures and stories from our visit to Mexico. I hope you are all doing well and prepared for the blitz of Christmas hype. Settle in and remember that we do all of this because God made himself human and came down to earth to save each of us from Eternal Death. That is something to celebrate this Holy Day Season. Mery Christ-mas!! Ciao.

Thanksgiving for So Many things in 2013

A great four days off and too much rich food eaten. I woke up Friday night with extreme heartburn and two Tums later I was feeling better. We had two turkey dinners and it finally got to me Friday night. We spent Thursday with Don and Alicia at their home in Folsom. The boys were with their Dad in Sonoma and could get together with us on Friday, so we did it all over again Friday afternoon. Taylor, the boy's cousin drove up from Santa Rosa and visited with us as well, which was nice. We had a good visit and enjoyed the family time. Darla had a Black Friday jewelry sale and was gone most of Friday morning to  mid afternoon and left it up to the boys to get the house cleaned up and make the potatoes and side dishes. I played golf three days in a row and played with the regular weekday group on Friday with Neil and Boyd in my group. I shot 84 for a net 72. I got home and cleaned up the spa, the pool and the outside, mowing the lawn and putting the Christmas boxes back up in the attic. Darla got home about 3:00 PM and Darla's folks showed up about the time I was sweeping up after mowing.

 

We had a loud buzzing that was coming from the garage during our gathering and I determined that it was the expansion tank on the hot water heater. We had to have an expansion tank added to the hot water heater when the city installed water meters a few years ago. I don't know why the unit was rattling and buzzing, but I shut off the main water to the house, bled the lines and, when I turned the water back on, the rattling and buzzing had stopped. I figure I saved about $300 bucks on that move as a plumber undoubtedly would have sold me a new expansion tank.

 

The weather this weekend once again was just amazing with highs in the low 70's each day and a cloudless blue sky with a warming sun. We do have a major cool down coming this week with highs expected to drop down to the mid fifties and an overnight low of 27 degrees. We need to get our weather to a more seasonable state, but it sure has been great enjoying some Southern California weather up here in Nor Cal. I played Cherry Island on Saturday and again shot an 84, net 71. The course is interesting in that they have a Foot Golf course built into the course and some Foot Golfers came out and were playing the course on the front nine. They just fit them in between foursomes. Luckily, they weren't out there when we played the front nine. They are basically soccer players that play a course designed to kick the ball from the tee box to a designated bucket in the ground (marked by a flag) on each hole. Their course is shorter and there are two Foot Golf holes on each golf hole, so they play their course in 9 holes. It is a new sport and the players were decked out in silk pajama looking uniforms and played in teams of 2 against other teams of 2. It was odd and I'm hoping it doesn't catch on in too big of a way. The courses are currently on three Sacramento County golf courses, but none in Roseville.

 

Darla had her Black Friday sale on Friday, Saturday and today and did very well. She had a great month in November and her good friend, Missy, who has been in Silpada with Darla from the start finally promoted to a Leader position (Sterling or Silver or something). It is a level down from Darla and Darla was just about as happy as Missy was when she qualified. 

 

I went to church on Saturday night as Darla was finishing up her party and making sure that all of her parties got booked as it was the end of the month. I had golf today, so went last night and she went this morning. It was a great sermon and a few Christmas songs like "Go tell it on the Mountain". Very nice.

 

I did play in the last tournament of the year today and struggled with a 46 (10 over) on the front side. I did get it together and shot 39 on the back for 85, net 74.  I ended up shooting 84-84-85 over the three days. Consistent, but unspectacular. My index dropped to an 11.3 today, the lowest it has been all year. I will take Friday off this week and play in the Roseville Golf Club board's annual incoming board member golf outing. We will have a breakfast meeting beforehand and then play the Timber Creek course in Roseville. Friday night is poker and then Saturday night we have the RGC Christmas party in Citrus Heights.

 

The year is quickly coming to a close as we will hold our Holiday party for the office a week from Monday and then we leave for Mexico on that following Saturday. We have a gathering at the house on the 10th for Neil and Lilly. They asked Darla and I to open our house, but that they will host a gathering of four couples for dinner. We found out that they have rented a limo and the eight of us will go out and see all of the local Christmas lights as we enjoy a few adult beverages along the way.

 

I finished the month at work with our 11th straight month over budget. Pete was out for two weeks and Matt coming back from a two week vacation at the end of October. It was rough sledding especially considering that we were coming off of a 66% increase in 2012 over 2011. We did it and I just need to learn not to question the team that I have assembled at work. They are awesome. I will wrap this up and must say that I give Thanks for each of you and all of my friends and family. Have a great week. Ciao.