I was supposed to be playing golf today, but I ran into a 77 year old buzz saw in the Club Championship in the form of Andy Ortiz. Andy is a 12 handicap to my 13 and doesn't hit the ball far, but is always in the fairway and is a tremendous short game player. I had my B game on Saturday and shot 85, but Andy had his A game and shot 38 on the front side and 40 on the back for 78 and beat me 4 and 3. It was SLOW on the course and took us 4 and a half hours to finish 15 holes. I am not the most patient of golfers and my best rounds have all been in less than four and a half hours for 18. We still had three holes to play and Andy had already won, so I left the course. It was 104 degrees and we were waiting on every tee box and in the fairway and it was driving me nuts. Neil won his match yesterday and today and will play for his flight championship on Saturday. I'll play in the Consolation Round (I call it the Loser's Bracket).
It has been HOT all week and it finally cooled down today with overcast skies and a high of 90 degrees. I watched the golf on TV and then fell asleep on the pool after 4 PM. The sun wasn't out (it was hazy), but the UV rays were still in evidence and I had on my sunscreen. I woke up and cut the dying blooms off the agapanthas. It is a sad time as it sort of represents the middle of Summer. The fact that a the Hall of fame NFL game is on as I write this is also a sure sign that time is marching on.
You could have fooled me on Thursday night as I played league and it was 106 degrees. We teed off at 4:20 PM and it was the absolute heat of the day. It was also the last day of the month and I was running late as I ran around the office working with each of the teams to get all of our last minute business in. We were close on our budget and I buy lunch if we meet or exceed out goals, so was doing everything I could do to encourage the troops. I left at 3:55 and barely made my tee time as we were on the tee when I pulled into the parking lot. I barely got my green fees paid and I was hitting my first drive. I didn't have time to get water in my bottle and I could really feel the heat. In fact, it is the first time that I can remember ever really feeling in danger of heat stroke. I got light headed and woozy. I yelled at Neil to stop the cart gal and get me a water or tea and strangely he waved her on when she drove by him. There was water on the third tee box, but I already had heat stroke symptoms by the time I got water into my system. I felt nauseous and my head hurt. I played lousy and shot 47, but Neil and I won the match 13-7 and are now in fifth place out of 21 teams. I left the course right after we finished and poured myself in to the pool and cooled my body temperature down.
The pictures above are obviously of the build out going on in my office. I have 4900 square feet now and I'm picking up another 2800 square feet. The first picture is of my new office which is in the far corner of the combined office and has windows on two walls. The second shot is of the new office taken from the middle of the addition. The wall to the left will come down and open up the new suite to the old suite. The third picture is taken next to my new office and looking in to my old office, which will become a small conference room in the new configuration. The fourth picture is looking out from my new office and you can see a third entrance to my office, a new work room and the new private office for my Personal Lines Manager. Down that hall is the new 350 square foot conference room/break room. The last picture is of the new conference room.
We did hit our budget this month. Our goals were $2,380,000 in premium and $368,000 in income. We hit $2,500,000 in premium and $368,450 in income. It was close, but my team seems to know how to get right up to the number without blasting way through it. Just kidding. Even making our number with the reduction in underwriters is spectacular. I lose a main player and my bosses don't relax the budget. Three of my underwriters had tremendous months, which carried us to victory. We missed budget in March, April and May, but have hit budget in January, February and June and now July. Hopefully, we can keep it going this month as well.
My boss is in this Wednesday to do a few interviews and my management team is going to talk to him about a possible promotion in the office to a management position for one of my team. We'd like to see the promotion occur before the opening of the expansion, which is due on September 9th.
I got invited to a soft opening of a new restaurant in Roseville. The new owner was reaching out to other business owners and managers in Roseville and asked me to come out and try his new restaurant on Saturday night. He bought Darla and I dinner and we helped him prepare his staff for the Monday Grand Opening. The restaurant is Noodles, a quasi fast food restaurant located in the shopping center across the street from my office. Darla had Pad Thai with shredded pork and I had Linguine with steak. Neither of us cared for the Pad Thai and we actually sent it back for a Rosa Penne dish. They were very accommodating when we made the switch (of course). I thought the concept of Noodles was interesting, but they are trying to do Asian, Italian and American all together.
I talked to Darryl today and he and Cheryl are coming in on the Saturday before the wedding and will stay until Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing my brothers and we will all hang out together on Labor Day.
Well, I'm writing this and trying to watch a movie on TV at the same time. It is "Enough Said", James Gandolphini's last movie and it also stars Julia Louis Dreyfus. It seems pretty good. I hope you are all well. Ciao.
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