Texas Weather invades Northern California!

Yes. It was crazy as funnel clouds formed in the air Wednesday late afternoon and we were under a tornado warning for about 90 minutes. One of the funnel clouds did touch down about a mile from the house and bounced along the ground for about 300 yards tearing off shingles and knocking down fences and throwing a few barbecues into the air and bouncing off houses. Darla and I were supposed to go to our Bible study at church, but we received tornado warnings on our mobile phones advising us to stay indoors. We turned on the television and watched as the path of churning air with funnel clouds spinning at 80 miles an hour traveled right along our path to the church. It was an easy decision to stay hunkered down at home. I met with our leader, Vance, for breakfast yesterday morning and he told me that 17 people showed up for the class.  I'm a "reformed Texan" and have a healthy respect for the unpredictability and power of tornadoes. It was unbelievable to watch as hundreds of local residents drove out to a high point in Rocklin to stand and watch the storm pass overhead, taking cell phone pictures as they went. The pictures above were borrowed from these boneheads who put themselves in harm's way to take a "selfie" with a tornado.

 

The talk of the drought in Northern California is pervasive, but we have received a healthy dose of rain in the month of March and April is to start out just as wet and wild with storms coming in tomorrow and hanging around until early Wednesday. We received about an inch from yesterday's storm and the next round is supposed to add another inch. Darla is on the phone with her Mom right now and they got about 7 inches of rain up in Paradise out of this last storm. We have had rain just about every day this past week.

 

I took Friday morning off and joined the retired gang at Diamond Oaks for some golf on a brief break from the storms. They had 12 golfers on Friday and played a team best ball blind draw. It was one of those "what could have been" days for me as I had five birdies over the course of my round. That would generally equate to about a 73 or so, but I also sprinkled in three double bogeys and a triple bogey just for fun. I ended up shooting 40+39=79 and actually had four of my birdies on the front side, but all three double bogeys and the triple bogey to add to the misery. I shot a net 66 which should have been good enough to get in the money. Alas, the blind draw saw me with Neil, who had a rough day with a 90, net 75. We finished out of the money. 

 

I should have saved some birdies for today. I shot a solid round in our  Master's tournament with a 41+41=82. I missed all four birdie putts throughout the round, but never had worse than a bogey in the round. I ended up in water logged sand traps twice and worried that I'd blow up there, but handled both shots well and ended up with two pars. It was a fun day today as Bob Pando drove in from San Jose and played in the first group with me, Neil and Boyd. Bob also shot an 82, with a 43+39. My net 68 took low net in my flight with a $55 payout. Darla came over and met Bob and had David come as well and we had lunch together. She hung out visiting with Bob most of the afternoon and also spent time with Charlie and Frieda, John Parola, Rick Rusk, Jesse Sierra and others. She took a $40 gift card I had in my wallet for the pro shop and picked out a purple shirt for me with the 50 year script on a Diamond Oaks logo shirt. She was spending my money like water, but also was called on by Jesse to make the draw in our 50/50 drawing for the Christmas party and pulled my ticket (!!!) for an $88 haul for me. I also won $11 in skin money, so it was a profitable afternoon. I had wanted her to get a picture of Bob and I for the blog, but we got too caught up visiting and it didn't happen.

 

Work is going great. I'm still waiting for the final lease addendum to be signed and construction to start on my build out. All of the final figures are in and it is up to Alan as to how much he is willing to pay to do the build out. I finished my employee reviews a month ago and got the compensation form in for approval. Alan and Harvey finally met on it this weekend and I have two days to meet with all of my staff and tell them about their raises which went into affect the last pay period and will be paid on Wednesday. I also have to sign new bonus contracts with the underwriters, so will combine those two tasks.

 

This was a really tough budget month for me with $2,450,000 in premium and $375,000 in net retained income. As of Friday, we are at $2,370,000 and $357,000 in income. It will be a close call, but I think we pull it off. We are at 18 straight months of hitting or exceeding budget. Pete hit the $100,000 threshold in income last month for the first time ever and Matt has actually exceeded Pete's total from last month here in March. It is a pretty exciting and heady vibe in my office and the young people that I have working for me thrive on challenges. It is exciting and I'd take a pie in the face for any of them.  

 

We are finalizing all of the 50th birthday celebrations for Darla. We booked a birthday weekend in Vegas for her birthday and will see the boys and Sam and Jennifer, as well as Daniel's fiancée, Becky, and McKenny as well. We fly in Friday the 16th and will stay at the Palace Station Casino. Sam will be disappointed that we aren't at Circus Circus, but the best deal this trip was at the Palace Station. David and Becky will drive in Friday night and David will fly in later in the afternoon. We also are lined up for the week of Memorial Day in Nuevo Vallarta. The original plan was to have the kids all join us there, but Jennifer just started a new job with AT&T and Daniel is still working as an intern at his Engineering firm right now, so it is just David and us. Dad and Shirley are deciding whether to join us. They may come to Mexico or Vegas, they are unsure as Shirley's daughter, Caroline, also turns 50 and is planning to come to Vancouver in May, but hasn't decided when. We'll find out what they are doing soon, but we will go and have a blast one way or the other. We also have our Almanor trip in July and hope to see Jennifer and Samantha along on that outing.

 

I've included a picture of Samantha that McKenny took. I really like this one and called it "strong as bull" on my Facebook page. Well, that is it for another week. Hope you are all well and hope to see you all soon. Ciao.

80 degrees and sunshine..it doesn't get any better than this.

 

A great weekend in the books. It was poker, golf, yard work, sunshine and dinner with friends. A highly relaxing weekend and I even got a nap on the chaise lounge in the sun today after cleaning the pool equipment filter's and tank. I turned on the waterfalls on the pool for the first time this year and the splash of water is playing outside as the slider is open and the screen door allows the smells and sounds of a Spring day to filter into the house. Darla made a run over to her sister's house to see her parent's and Lucas and left me sleeping. I was invited, but Don was intent on sitting and watching basketball today in the house and it was too perfect of a day to be stuck indoors. I talked to one of our managers from Detroit on Friday and they had another 11 inches of snow this week. I know I'm blessed to live in California, but whey would you choose to live in those conditions? 

 

To finish up on last week's Pi day, I did pass out the bonus packets on Monday and did leave Matt's check out of the mix. I was going to each of the underwriters and handing out the packets and Matt called me over and said that one was missing from his group. I asked him which one and he said, "A really important one". I said, "You mean Leah?" He said no it was his and could I make a call on it. I told him I wouldn't and reminded him of his decision to plaster a pie in my face on Friday. I finally relented and gave him his check. He had totally spaced on why I would pull his check out and thought it really was missing.

 

Friday night was poker and Darla and a girlfriend drove up to Wheatland together and Darla had a jewelry party. Poker was at Little John's house and I made about $45. I had golf set up for Saturday with Steve, Paul and Bob Hand, but both Paul and Bob called me during the week and bailed. I had a round at Lincoln Hills golf course up in Lincoln and looked forward to it. I asked Charlie at poker if he and Frieda, his wife, would like to join us. He called her and told her they were playing golf with us on Saturday and they did. Frieda had called Darla during the week to see if she wanted to have dinner Friday night when we were playing poker.

 

Saturday was fun. Lincoln Hills "the Orchard Course" is a challenging track with a lot of hills and large bumpy greens. I shot 42 on the front, but struggled on the back and had to finish strong to shoot 43 and an 85 for the round. Steve shot 87 and both Charlie and Frieda were in the 90's. Frieda asked me what Darla and I were doing Saturday night. When I told her dinner at Carmelita's restaurant, she invited herself and Charlie to join us. She tried to back out later by saying that if it was date night for us, they'd take a rain check. How do you take a rain check when you were never invited in the first place? We are good friends and laughed about it at dinner. I had called Darla and she was all in for having friends join us for dinner. You can see the pictures above of us at dinner.

 

Today was really nice and I was able to get a lot of work done. the great weather that we have been having has the plants and trees in full bloom. The grass is growing and the park across the street is abuzz with the sound of Spring baseball and of families enjoying the warm weather. Sunday night is soccer night and we get a regular group of Hispanic soccer players that show up and play a really practiced brand of soccer. They really seem to enjoy themselves and you can also tell that they've been doing it together for a long time.

 

I'm enjoying the longer days and the fact that it doesn't get dark until after 7:30. Twilight league golf starts in about three weeks and I will play with Neil this year. He subbed last year and Steve missed so much time that I actually played more games with Neil than Steve. Steve will be on the sub list this year.

 

Well, that is it. We finished up our series at church on the 10 commandments and I really enjoyed it. pastor finished up with Thou shalt not steal and though shalt not covet. He has a guest speaker coming next week and didn't want to interrupt his series, so put 8 and 10 together. The Bible verse that spoke to me today is 1st Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." A good reminder that the pursuit of riches forces you farther from the Lord and makes your path to Heaven even harder. Have a great week and keep walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Ciao.

 



Birthday, Pi Day and Spring Hits!!

 

Fun Times this week with Birthdays, a Sam Run, Spring coming to roost and Pi Day. What is Pi Day? I still have no idea, but the youngsters in the office wanted to celebrate Pi Day on Friday 3/14 (3.14159...). The twenty somethings approached me about two weeks ago and asked if they could celebrate Pi day. They wanted to do food, costumes and games and wanted the winner of the games to be able to hit me in the face with a pie. Why? I have no idea, but I'm a good sport and went along with the group. The folks dressed up like PIrates, PIlates instructors, nerds, etc. They brought shepherds pie, pizza, pies of all kinds and cookies shaped like the Pi symbol. One of the girls brought a PIstachio pudding. The games consisted of being blindfolded and then trying to pin a sticker on one of the "twos" in the pi number. They narrowed it to four players and then they had to find (in order) the numbers 3, the decimal point, and then the numbers 1, 4,1 5 and 9. The numbers were hidden all over the office and it was quite a competition to see who got to throw a pie in my face. Matt, my Assistant Managing Director, won the honor and then decided to go ahead and do it. Tomorrow we get bonus checks and I've already lost Matt's and I haven't even received it yet. The checks come in teams and I will pull his out and hand him the stack for his team and let him come to me for his check. I'll remind him of his excitement Friday about splatting a pie in my face. I had been given a pair of Burns and Wilcox sunglasses at the Manager's meeting last year and hadn't found a use for them until Friday.

 

Samantha had a fund raiser at school and we were asked to donate $1 a lap for her run. The maximum was 36 laps and Sam had the run on Thursday and  she ran 45 laps. We only have to pay the $36, but now Diane is all excited and thinks that Sam will be a marathoner like her. Hopefully, she has a more balanced lifestyle and has some protein in her diet. I don't want Sam to miss out on the wonderful experience of cake and ice cream and instead eat rice cakes and tofu. In fact, I hope Sam gets to experience all of life's pleasures as she grows up.

 

Darla and I went out last night and bought some new African daisies for the backyard along with a new sego palm, a tomato plant and a bougainvillea. I also reseeded some sections of the lawn in front and put down some bark in the planter above the pool. We had a rough winter with several of the plants still showing frost damage. Most of them will come back, but Darla and I were ready for some instant color and got it today. I also bought chemicals for the pool. The weather really turned Spring like toward the end of last week and we hit 80 degrees both Saturday and Sunday. The weather is supposed to turn more seasonal this week with temperatures in the low seventies. Nice weather.

 

The hot tub is out of commission right now and it has a flow issue whereby the flow of water to the heater is restricted probably by a gate that automatically shuts when the bubbler is turned on. That gate is stuck or the control panel is corrupted. Either way, I need to have service out to look at it and I need to schedule that soon. The heater shuts off when the flow is restricted so it won't burn out.We do enjoy our spa time.

 

This afternoon we were invited out to dinner with Freida and Charlie from the golf club. They also invited Rick and Jan, and Neil and Lilly. It was a surprise dinner for Frieda and Charlie also invited their close friends, John and Darlene from San Jose. John and Darlene lost their daughter to a brain aneurysm last year and are now raising their granddaughter, Caitlyn, who is three years old and adorable. She was the hit of the dinner as she sang Happy Birthday to Frieda and I. Charlie kept stealing her French fries and she finally told him that he could have one, but he had to ask and say "Please".  She was saying goodbye to us and hugging Darla and playing with her jewelry (sounds like Samantha) and I got a picture. It was a fun night.

 

I did take my birthday off work and went with Neil, Rick and Boyd to Darkhorse Golf Club in Auburn. It was a perfect day with highs in the mid seventies and no wind. It was breezy in the valley, but nice up in the foothills. I struggled on the hilly course and shot 90. It was a great time. The course got hit hard with the recent rains and several of their sand traps were under renovation. I also played Saturday with Boyd, Andy and Paul at Woodcreek and shot a more respectable 84, although it was 44+40. I had to finish par-birdie-par to shoot the 84, but enjoyed the day with the guys.

 

It looks like we may sign the lease addendum this week and start construction in the next three weeks. The new build out will include three more offices and a larger conference room. our current conference room is 300 square feet and the employees are huddled on cabinets and in chairs along the walls. The new conference room will be 550 square feet and include a refrigerator, sink and coffee maker. I will also get a conference table that will hold 25 chairs. I have 26 employees now and I plan to max out at about 32over the next three years.

 

Well, it is late because of our dinner plans this afternoon, so I will sign off and enjoy the rest of my evening with my bride. I hope you are all doing well and living life to the fullest. Keep God at the forefront and you will have a blessed life. Ciao.

 

 

Happy Birthday Chris, Dad, Cheryl...

It is the March Birthdays. Darla and I had really hoped to be in Canada for Dad's birthday and talked about it when we were in Mexico with both of them, but Darla and I are still sorting out our lives after she left her job last year and we just couldn't pull it off financially. Happy Birthday, Dad. 77. wow, you're old! Cheryl, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and Darryl takes you out for a wonderful birthday dinner. Do me a favor if he does, post a picture of the two of you on Facebook. I don't want to see the interior of the restaurant or your plate of food. Chris is living the dream as a single man and now in Hawaii with his folks enjoying some island time. Good stuff.

 

The pictures above are of Darla and I and our dinner Saturday night at McCormick and Schmick's Steakhouse in Roseville. We enjoyed a fun night out and Landry's Seafood (owners of M&S) even kicked in $25 for our dinner on their loyalty card. The picture of Sam was of Sam and John Densmore of the Doors. I grabbed the picture off of Jen's Facebook and cropped out the old fart and there is a cute picture of Miss Sammy. The Yosemite picture is of the cover of Boyd's son in laws' Yosemite calendar for 2014-15. The calendar starts with March and runs through March of 2015 and includes some stunning pictures of Yosemite and the Yosemite valley taken by Mark Spicer. I bought one to support him, but love the Yosemite valley and the beautiful vistas of one of God's best natural creations. The link to buy is: http://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-spicer/yosemite-valley-2014/calendar/product-21478647.html

 

There is a Friends and Family discount for the $14.99 calendar and it is GETIT25 which will get you 25% off the calendar. It may be a waste, but Boyd is my friend and I bought one. I'll let you know what I think when mine arrives.

 

Well, Neil and I really "screwed the pooch" this weekend after entering the last day of our tournament being tied for first in both net and gross. We couldn't do anything right. It was a Chapman event where we each tee off and then switch shots. I hit my second shot with his tee shot and he hits mine. We then choose a ball and play it in alternate shot from there. We bogeyed the first three holes and parred number four. On number five (my two time hole in one hole) I hit a shot right at the flag and it came to rest 40 inches from the stick...and Neil missed the putt. On six, I hit my ball left into a hazard and he hit his down the middle. I hit his tee shot to about 100 yards dead in the middle of the fairway on the par five, we chose that ball and..... he shanked it left into the water. It was one of those days. We shot 47 on the front and 39 on the back for 86 and a net 72. it was almost surreal how often we had problems. We did settle down on the back side with two birdies, but it was too little, too late. We finished in the middle of the pack. This event used to be three days of best ball, which I would prefer, but the higher handicappers in the club lobbied to change the event to one day of best ball, followed by two man scramble and then Chapman Scotch the last day. I'd love to go back to the old format as I like to play my own ball and post a score after competing, but that won't happen. At least from a handicapping perspective, I only had to post the scores from the first day.

 

Darla got a little testy with me earlier in the week when I announced to her that I was taking Wednesday off and heading to Darkhorse Golf Club with the guys to play golf on my birthday. She rightly pointed out that if I wanted to take the day off, I should have checked with her first to see if she wanted to do something with me. She's right and I walk a fine line with honoring her Silpada job and supporting her in that endeavor and realizing that she can also take a day off if she wants. The guys asked me and I jumped on it without checking in with my bride. My fault. She honestly doesn't have a problem with my golf obsession, but does want to be honored in the process. I remember my Dad's Father, Grampa Lyon warning me, when I came to Vancouver for Gram Lyon's funeral, to not let golf interfere with my relationship with Darla. I heard him, but he also told me at lunch that I looked like a "damn fool" for having a beard on that trip. Perhaps that took some of the importance out of  his wise counsel for me?

 

I was in Modesto on Friday and finished the last of my employee reviews for the year. I had Gail's team left and she was on jury duty and got dragged into a trial earlier in the week. It was over on Thursday and I wanted to do her review, her inside assistant's review and her outside assistant who lives and works down in Modesto. I met Gail and Michelle at a restaurant for breakfast and Gail and I did Michelle's review right after breakfast. We sent her on her way and I did Gail's review and then Gail and I drove down to Modesto in her brand new Mercedes 550, had lunch with Veronica and then did her review. I was back in Roseville by 4 o'clock and able to clean the pool and spa before dark.

 

Things are going well at work. It looks like the lease addendum for our space will be signed this week and hopefully the sound of saws and hammers will commence shortly thereafter as we expand our space by 2800 square feet. We have no need for that much space, but the landlord cut us a deal to slowly work our way into the entire space payment over four years. We only needed 1100 square feet and the landlord contended that the leftover space available would be too cut up and not rentable. We  told them we weren't going to pay for space that we didn't need and the impasse began. We finally hashed out the language for the lease and the final sticking point is TIB allotment, which will allow us to build out the space to our specifications. We are beginning to stack the employees in like cord wood and I need the extra space if I am expected to meet my budget goals. I had 17 employees when I moved in and now have 26 plus two other employees, one who works for our company owned Insurance Company (Atain) and one that works for Harvey in San Francisco. It will be a big relief to finally be able to move several of the units into the new space and bring together some of the team members who are on an underwriting team and have them sit together.

 

Darla and I missed church today and it was Daylight Savings, meaning we missed an hour of sleep. I didn't set the alarm last night and we overslept this morning. Darla fixed omelets for breakfast and I relaxed watching the golf from Florida, before catching an hour nap on the couch. Darla is now off to her team meeting in Granite Bay and I'm left to do the Blog and have some Mac and four cheeses with prosciutto for dinner leftover from our Saturday date. It had shrimp in it as well, but I polished those off last night. 

 

It is just now becoming dusk at 6:45, which will be nice going forward to be able to get some outside chores done after work. It will be a little weird with the mornings being darker. I have a tee time at 7:40 next Saturday morning and it may be cool and dark when we tee off. I hope you all have a great week and Happy Birthday to those who have an anniversary of their birth this week. Be well. Ciao.

 



A Fabulous February in the Books

 

A tremendous month for my office has just concluded. It was pretty unexpected as most of the big numbers hit late in the month. Pete led the way with an office record of $100,000 in income for the month. I can remember when I first took over the office and a good month for us was $120,000 income for the whole office. We finished the month at $355,000 in income up from $265,000 in February of 2013, an increase of 33% year over year. Our premium was up over 40%. It was a nice way to end the month after all of the headaches I had during the month with employees leaving. The most amazing thing is that we did all of this in a short month. Praise God for continued success.

 

Darla returned from conference last weekend and I've included some pictures of her and her team from their trip. The lady she is kissing is Missy, one of her best friends and earliest team members with Silpada and Missy promoted up to a Star Leader at the Management conference. I don't know who was happier, Darla or Missy. They had a great time in Atlanta. Darla came back to me with a full beard. I told her that when you turn me loose in a single lifestyle, I'm going caveman. It will be cut off before too long, but I'm sticking with it for now.

 

The last picture is a picture grab from Jennifer's Facebook account. Sam won a citizenship award at her kindergarten for Leadership and her Mom was "over the moon" happy for her daughter. I'm proud of her. One thing I have noticed with Samantha is that she is very attentive with her teachers and coaches and when other kids are goofing off, Sam is engaged with whatever the task at hand is.

 

My back has finally come back around to full health and I was able to get out with Neil this weekend and play in the first two days of the 54 hole team championship. I'm pleased to say that we are tied for first place overall going into the final day next Saturday. Yesterday was the best ball portion of the tournament and I shot an 82, Neil had an 83 and we shot 63 as a team. The leaders had 61 and we were tied for third after the first day. Today was the two man scramble event and Neil and I shot a gross 73 and had a 59 with our 14 team strokes. We shot overall low gross in our flight with the 73 and took home low gross money for the second day. Our total of 122 net is tied for first with one other team and our 149 gross is also tied for first. I had a great time, although had a bit of a sore back after yesterday. I was in much better shape after the round today for some reason and stayed all day to help Neil with the scoring.

 

The weather has been rainy, but for the most part held off for the weekend. I met Neil at the course Saturday morning to look at the condition of the course to see if we could start the tournament. We drove the course in carts at 6:15 AM and saw that although there was standing water in many of the bunkers and in a few of the fairways, the weather was overall dry and we decided to go forward. We got just a little bit of rain during the round and I had my umbrella out for just one or two holes. Today was a bit tougher weather wise with wind and rain. The problem with the wind is that it was so strong that it was next to impossible to open your umbrella and keep it from turning inside out. Luckily, I was playing with the Tournament director and we got done before the hardest part of the rain hit. It was a warm storm with temperatures of 68 degrees, but some of the guys toward the end of the day were absolutely drenched and their scorecards were sopping as well.

 

Darla and I made it to church on Saturday night and we are still going through the series on The Ten Commandments. Last night was Thou Shall not Murder. Many people still think of it as Though Shall not Kill, but the Bible is clear that it is referring to Murder. Part of the issue in modern day America is that many people have become inured to death and many know people who have committed suicide and it is a fact that with movies, TV shows and video games that the average American child will have seen over 18,000 murders by the time they turn 18. The problem with suicide is that it gives friends and family of the person committing suicide implicit permission to do the same to themselves if things get tough. It was a very well done sermon and one that touched both Darla and I.

 

This is incredibly short this week, but I got home late, cooked some barbecued chicken and Darla and I are sitting through the Oscars, which we never watch, but wanted to see Ellen as host. So far, so good. I am busy this week with Employee Reviews. I worked on all of these earlier this year, but will sit down with each of the employees this week. Have a marvelous week and I will be back at the keyboard next weekend. Ciao.