Leadership Meeting 2014

 

As you can see from above, we had a social network that was exclusive to the Leadership Meeting this year. I never take pictures at the meeting because I guess I'm just too busy or uninterested in documenting the week. I left on Tuesday morning at 6:30 AM and set my alarm for 4 AM to try to acclimate to the East Coast time zone. It worked because I forced myself not to sleep on the plane. I was picked up in Detroit by our car service who picked up myself and our VP from Scottsdale, Michael. They were kind enough to send a Lincoln MKZ, which was a nice ride from DTW to Dearborn and The Henry Hotel. I was in early enough this year to join the Managers on the Tuesday night dinner. We had about 24 at Buddy's, a pizza joint in Dearborn where we were able to watch the first game of the World Series. We got back to the hotel about 10 PM and I was able to watch the last of the blowout from my room.

 

Wednesday we were up at dawn and bussed over to Headquarters in Farmington Hills at 7:30 AM. We had a full day of meetings, breakfast, lunches and an all Headquarters opening of the meeting replete with cider and donuts. They had awards and pins for 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and one for 30 years. The first recipient slipped on the steps leading to the stage and fell straight back and hit her head on the floor. They had to call 9-1-1 because the lady was showing signs of delirium. They checked her out and took her through a concussion protocol. She was taken to the hospital, but seemed okay the next day. We headed over to dinner at Andiamo's in Dearborn at 7:30 and were back to the Henry about 10:30.

 

Thursday was a 7:45 bus ride to Headquarters and meetings with our carrier partners followed by a team exercise where we had to do graffiti that depicted the theme of the meeting "Powerful Together". We now have 14 companies that all support what we do at Burns and Wilcox. The combined companies have revenues of $1.6 billion, but Burns does $1.2 million of that total. We now have 1400 employees at Burns and a total of over 2000 globally. We hope to open an office in Vancouver, BC next year and I have offered to come in and help them hire and get set up for the new office. We'll see if they take me up on that. We were done by 2 PM and took a bus ride back to the Henry where we had afternoon meetings until 5:30.

 

Thursday night was Sports Night at the Henry. They brought in over 60 games, including a simulator for golf, tennis, basketball, soccer and hockey that was the hit of the night.  They also had several sets of racing simulators that allowed four people at a time to compete in a race. They had ski ball and basketball games, darts, foosball and air hockey and it was a fun night. Traditionally, we would have dinner at Franklin Hills Country Club on Thursday night, but Alan's son, Danny, is more involved in decision making now and suggested a game night and it was a great mixer.

 

Friday was meetings and breakout sessions at the Henry until 5:30 PM. We had a break from 5:30 to 7:00 PM and I'd just got to my room and changed into my shorts and a tee shirt when Harvey called and said that Alan was ready to meet with me to go over Sacramento's numbers and do my annual review. I followed our San Diego Associate Manager, who has been losing people and premium volume this year. I wasn't sure if he'd be in a good or bad mood, but had little to worry about as we are having another record year. Alan was effusive with his praise and was thrilled when I offered to step up and take over the Fresno Branch, whose Manager is retiring in December and they are struggling. The branch has 15 employees and $12 million in premium volume. Alan has been looking for a way to give Matt, my Associate Managing Director, more authority and an opportunity to take on more of a leadership role. It looks like Alan will have Matt take on the lead role and have me mentor him on how to run a Branch. I'm happy to help.

 

Friday night was our annual Awards dinner and Sacramento had another great night. Matt won an award for having the third highest new business volume in the company and an award as the number two producer in the entire company for Atain, our wholly owned insurance company. Matt also won a Leadership award and an award for being in the top 15 producers in the company. Peter also won the same award. Sacramento was given the Gold Award for Division II companies that write between  $25 million and $35 million in premium. We were the Bronze Award winner in 2013.

 

Next up were promotions and I sat thru about 12 people who were moved up to Associate Manager and Manager positions. I was then called up and Alan went through a fairly long discussion of the evolution of Sacramento from a branch that was losing money to a highly successful office. He also discussed the mentorship abilities that I have shown with the five management trainees that have come though my branch. He then promoted me to a Vice President position and the ovation from my peers was long and loud and complete with a standing ovation. I don't think I've ever felt more respected and loved by a group of people before. It has been a long road here in my office and I can say that I am thrilled to be recognized as a leader in the company. I was beginning to feel Matt breathing down my neck and to be promoted and affirmed by upper level management is extremely gratifying.

 

I got home at 9:30 Saturday night and Darla picked me up. She surprised me with drinks and a card when we got home. I was also surprised to see the main wall between the living room and kitchen repainted by Darla. She put up a French painting of a restaurant named Leon de Lyon. You can see the picture of the wall above. The other pictures show Matt in the top picture(second from the right), our graffiti team and the third picture shows Ajay from my team who was also there as part of the Kaufman Accelerated Management Program (KAMP) in the middle forefront of the picture.

 

I was up early today and off to golf at Diamond. We had a tournament with RGC and it was the Past President's tournament. I would normally have passed as I was exhausted, but wanted to be a part of this event. I shot 38 on the front with two birdies and won $28 I skin money. That was the good. My back nine was a 48 for 86 and I finally gave in to the jet lag and tiredness that surrounded me.

 

That is it for this week. Darla and I have our final Financial Peace class this week and are well on our way to a more relaxing retirement. I hope everything is going well for each of you. I hope also that Dad and Shirley are having a great time on their vacation. Be well. Ciao.

 

Leadership Meeting Week

Still soaking up the great feelings from Pacific Grove and look toward (not forward) to the Manager's Meeting in Detroit this week. Last week's trip is still alive in my heart and the time that I was able to spend with Rick Rusk in my golf cart at Pacific Grove was special. He is such a great guy and such a fighter. He has lived well past when he was supposed to be gone with his cancer and he played two straight days of golf with us last weekend. He was pretty dead tired after the round and had several times throughout the round when he was standing with his hands on his knees, bent over just trying to catch his breath. I'm sure it took a lot out of him, but he wasn't without a smile on his face for the entire trip and I cherish that time with him.

 

I'll be up at 4 AM on Tuesday morning to prepare for my trip to Detroit. The flight leaves at 6:30 and I don't really have to be up that early, but I like to get up at 7 AM Detroit time on the day that I leave and I try not to sleep on the plane. That way, when 11 PM rolls around and I'm trying to sleep, I can fall asleep. I have to be up about 6:30 for the meetings and often don't get back to my room until 10:30 at night. it is a brutal schedule, but happens just once a year and the interactions that I have with other managers is invaluable to me and my branch. I had to send in my premium estimate for 2015 and Matt and I determined that $29,000,000 will be the number. Alan will more than likely increase that to $30,000,000 which is one reason that I came up with $29MM. I fly through Minneapolis(??) and then on to Detroit arriving about 3:30. Our VP from Scottsdale gets in at 4 PM and we will share a limo over to the Henry in Dearborn, MI.

 

I'm still living the dream with the Dallas Cowboys this year and they are now 6-1. I keep holding my breath thinking that the Cowboys will stop running the ball and/or that Demarco Murray will get hurt. The offense is much better this year because of the emphasis on the run game and the defense is much improved, but partly because they have been on the field a lot less. It's funny to me see how many offenses are trying to run the no huddle and speed up the game. Tony Romo uses the entire clock and snaps the ball on average with  three seconds left on the 30 second clock. Dallas is averaging about 39 minutes on offense per game this year which means the defense is only on the field for 21 minutes. The Dallas coaches know that they are undermanned on defense and they so far are doing all the right things.

 

I played poker on Friday night with the guys and made about $35 on the night. It was nice to see the guys and get caught up on the trip to Solvang that we missed last week. Unfortunately, John and Camille had their car broken into and lost all of the clothes and bags they had bought in Monterey (there was a sale at the Coach store).  John said that he thought that their suitcase had been rummaged through. John had gone out to the car about 7:30 and had loaded his golf clubs up with Neil and Steve and headed to the course. Camille took a shower and was out to the car by 8:30 and the back window had been smashed out and she also discovered that the thief had taken her work computer owned by PG&E. For some reason, John and Camille both feel that the maintenance guy at the hotel was involved. John didn't even finish the round. Camille called him and he walked off the course, met her and they both met the police at the hotel. It turns out that the maintenance guy and the room maid are married and both have felony records. Later that afternoon they got a call from a guy who had bought the computer for cash and found Camille's cell phone number. He wanted to meet and return the computer, so they set up to meet him and had a police detective go in her place. I haven't heard what came of that, but they are pretty sure that they will find the thieves. I told John that he should hold the hotel accountable no matter what given that they had felons on staff and the theft occurred on premises. I think the hotel's insurance company will pay based on incompetence on the part of hotel management.  I feel for them. Camille was supposed to be back in her office on Thursday, but they ended up staying on in Solvang and having the window in the car replaced. Camille bought a brand new 2014 Chrysler 300 a few months ago and I think they spent around $40,000 on the car. It has an unusual warranty that will pay for any exterior damage to the body and any glass replacement in the first year. At least they had that going for them, eh?

 

Darla and I also had some friends over last night for cocktails before going out to dinner at Sammy's Rockin' Island Bar and Grill and then watching the band Strange Brew until about 10:30 PM. We actually sat out by the pool and visited. We had wine and Canadian Mist and Ginger Ale along with an artichoke dip and some chips and cheese dip. I had put together our fire pit for the back yard, but we didn't light it as we need to add some sand to the bottom of the pit and it really wasn't cold enough for it yet. I did not play golf partly for budget reasons, but also because I played three times last weekend. I'll get back from Detroit late Saturday night and have the Past President's golf tournament on Sunday.

 

Tomorrow night the new cubicles and furniture are being delivered for the expansion in the offense. They have completed the flooring, the kitchen cabinets and the new doors and locks have been installed. Tomorrow the new appliances and televisions will be installed as well. I will have the IT crew in next Monday as well as our Real Estate manager to guide us on the move in and make sure that everything is perfect in the new suite.

 

Darla has started a new job with a social services agency. She had her orientation on Tuesday and then worked both Thursday and Friday meeting her new clients in Stockton and Elk Grove. It is a 1099 job where she will work for the agency as an independent contractor. She said that it is good to be back in her field and able to work at her pace. I'm proud of her.

 

Our Financial Peace class at church is winding down and we have learned so much about our personal finances and budgeting.  A couple of things that I'm looking at is changing my medical plan to a n HSA at work, instead of a PPO. Also, I added an identity theft policy through GEICO. It will help us if we have our credit cards stolen or our identity stolen. There is a lot of work to be done if you get hacked and it is expensive. We are signed up for credit monitoring and have a resource if and when we have a problem. The cost is only $89, but the average cost of repairing your credit runs into the $1000's. I'd recommend each of you doing the same.

 

Darla is off to a Silpada meeting right now, but is due home soon so I will wrap this up for now. I wish you all a great week. Pray for me as I attend our annual meeting this year. I'll be back at the keyboard next week. Ciao.

 

 



Pacific Grove 2014

 

What a great trip again this year. We have had such good weather over the last ten years of golf trips to the Monterey Bay area. We drove in Thursday night even though we had planned to drive in Friday morning. We are trying hard to get our budget in order and are committed to it, but getting up at 5 AM and driving all morning to Carmel only to jump out of the car and have to play 18 holes wasn't pretty. I took to the internet and Hotwire and found a three star hotel in Marina for $59. They wouldn't show us the name of the hotel. It was a chain hotel like Best Western, Rodeway Inn, Hilton Garden Inn or Ramada. We decided we could handle whatever it was for one night. It turned out to be the Best Western Dunes Inn in Marina. The guest comments were mixed, some claiming bed bugs, other claiming the hotel was old and moldy, others loved it. We drove in and were pleased to find a clean, well decorated room with a hot shower and a good hot breakfast. The bed was not a Westin bed like ours, but acceptable for one night.

 

We arose Friday morning to a cold, wet fog that enveloped the entire area. The forecast was for 66 degrees and sun later in the day, but it was COLD early on. The breakfast was excellent with eggs and waffles, cereal and fruit. We met the guys at Rancho Canada in the Carmel Valley at about 9:30. The fog had lifted, but the sun wasn't out when we got there. The wet fog was gone and the overcast actually left us with warmth and I was able to play without a jacket. It turns out Friday was my best round of golf with a 41+39=80. The course is fun and challenging with several holes that cross the creek that runs throughout the property. We had a great time together and everyone played pretty well, leaving us all thinking about great things to come for the weekend.

 

Friday night, we decided to meet at Steve and Brenda's hotel room in Pacific Grove for appetizers, adult libations and pizza. Darla and I were supposed to meet everyone at 5:30 and after my shower and some rest, we went rogue and headed over to the Fishwife restaurant for clam chowder and some alone time. We met up with the gang about six and Big John had stopped and picked up a bottle of Crown Royal, so we brought some diet soda for Darla and some Canada Dry Ginger Ale for me. Neil and Lilly showed up shortly after us and brought a bottle of Canadian Mist and a bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. I had a glass of Crown and quickly moved over to the rye. Dad and Shirley, I never thought anyone could get Neil off of Cabo Wabo tequila and perhaps he's just added a new drink to his arsenal. We have ordered pizza from Dominick's the last two years and it is nice for visiting and the pizza is excellent.

 

We played Poppy Hills on Saturday and Bob Pando came in and joined us for breakfast at the course. I love the new design of Poppy Hills, but like I said last time, those are the WORST greens that I have played all year. The greens are all brand new and just haven't matured. They are both hard and fast and almost impossible to hit a ball onto and have it stop on the green. They are better than they were in May when we played it, but still dismal overall. I shot a 47+43=90 with a net of 75. To give you an idea of how hard the course was, my 75 was fifth best on the day for all players and there were 41 players. I also had a closest to the pin at 11 feet 8 inches. I don't know how I got that one to stop.

 

We had our annual Vito's dinner with 24 of us in the back room. We had a good time, but Darla and I have decided it is our last year of planning a big dinner there. People love to complain and there were complaints on service and food selections. We even had complaints that the server didn't bring wine glasses soon enough after we had Vito waive the corkage fee. Basically it was wine that they brought and the guy was whining that it took so long to bring the glasses so they could enjoy their own wine and not pay the restaurant anything. It was BS. Next year we will be back, but will make a reservation with a few of our friends.

 

Sunday was Pacific Grove and we woke to a beautiful morning sun and a temperature near 70 degrees at 7:30 in the morning. Morning sun is great anytime, but especially welcome at the coast in October. It was a hot day for the area with temperatures in the mid eighties. There was also a giant surf and there were surf advisories up in the area for waves upwards of 20 feet. The surfers showed up en mass and Pacific Grove golf course is along Ocean Avenue and we got to see the waves, the surfers and the huge crowds as we made our way around the back nine. I shot a 45+41=86 and had a chip in birdie on number 11. Unfortunately, in our frugal budget mindset, I decided to only play net skins and it was the number 16 handicap hole that I birdied. I was the only one to birdie it, but someone with a handicap of 16 or above parred it and tied me for net. Oh well.

 

Part of what is going on with the club is a changing of the guard with the board. Neil will be replaced next year and the guy coming in as the new Tournament Director has trouble working with the current Tournament Bookkeeper so they are looking to replace him as well. The problem is the person that the new TD wants to have as his bookkeeper is a person that  has not been a member of the club for four years. The bye laws are a little fuzzy on appointed positions. We are clear on elected positions and you must have been a member of the club for the previous one year and have played in at least six club events. There is no bye law for appointed positions and we need to fix that. I had a meeting with our President and our VP (the incoming President) and gave them my opinion on the issues as I will be out of town (in Detroit) at the next board meeting. I asked the incoming President if he would listen to the board on making any decisions on bringing in a guy who is not a current member of the club after letting both of them know that I am in direct opposition to doing it. The VP said that he has the right to make his own decision on this. I told him that he was absolutely right, but that if the vote was 11-3 against bringing in a non member to the board that that is also the likely vote that would come if we decided to impeach him. I THINK he got my point, but it remains to be seen. I told him that he could do whatever he wants, but that I feel so strongly about this issue that I will resign my position if he pushes it through. He also let Neil know about his being replaced by e-mail and I told him he needs to sit down and have a conversation with Neil and give him the respect that he deserves after so many years of hard work and dedication to the board. The guy is in his mid thirties and we need the young blood on the board, but we also need to teach them about honor and respect.

 

Darla and I were supposed to go on to Solvang today and tomorrow, but unfortunately, the course that we were playing has an NCGA event going on and isn't available until Wednesday. I have some personnel issues going on at work and need to get back. Darla also has been offered a contract job with one of the social work agencies and she has an orientation meeting with them tomorrow morning and will likely get her cases then. We were up early today and I handled payroll remotely and then we drove down to the beach and saw the waves and then had breakfast at Toasties in Pacific Grove, one of our favorite breakfast restaurants. We drove back and got into town about 2 PM and I slept for 90 minutes before getting up and cleaning up the leaves and acorns in the front yard from a windstorm that apparently rolled in after we left. I know it was a windstorm because one of the umbrellas from our pool had lifted up and was laying on the side yard of our neighbor. I cleaned the leaves out of the pool and took down the umbrellas and took the lounges out of the pool for the year before taking care of the chemicals.

 

As we were driving back into town I pulled up at the stoplight behind a middle aged guy driving an Audi. The back window of his car was plastered with stickers about liberal issues, including two stickers saying that there is POISON in our drinking water. FLUORIDE. I just assumed he was another Obama Democrat with a skewed brain. That was confirmed when I pulled around him and saw him smoking a cigarette! Yep, look out for the silent killer Fluoride while you suck down your cancer sticks. What a moron!!

 

Well that is our weekend in a nutshell. I hope you are all well. I had planned to add to this last night, but Darla vetoed that idea. We had arrived back at our hotel about 9:30 after a late dinner with Rick and Jan and Neil and Lilly. Be well. Love the picture of my granddaughter. She is quite a beauty. Ciao. 



Indian Summer here in Norcal

Heat. It is something you can count on in early October in the Sacramento Valley. It is 97 degrees here which is not a surprise, but it is also 90 degrees in San Francisco. We are off next weekend to Carmel, Pacific Grove, Monterey and Solvang. I'll play golf four days out of five with Carmel Valley on Friday, Poppy Hills on Saturday, Pacific Grove on Sunday and Alisal in Solvang on Tuesday. I'm hoping the good weather will hold for the coast areas that we are heading to as well.

 

Darla and I are both having a tough time reconciling this trip with our new budget and luckily I have three paychecks this month, which is softening the blow a little bit. We built the trip into our budget for this month, but it is quite a cost. I've paid for all of the golf and three out of the four nights in the hotel ahead of time, so we are set up pretty good for the trip, but the meals out will put a small dent in our budget. I'm looking forward to the trip. Rick, who has been struggling with pancreatic cancer and is just finishing up his third round of chemo will be there and plans to play both Saturday and Sunday. He stopped golfing in May and started up again in August. He has lost weight and muscle mass. His current handicap is 12.5, but he has shot rounds ranging from 92 to 100 and played 7 rounds since starting playing again. I worked with my Handicap Committee to calculate a new Medical Exemption handicap of 22.5 for Rick, which will hopefully allow him to enjoy his games down there.

 

I played golf on Friday in one of my service company's golf tournaments at Timber Creek here in Roseville. I played with Gary, Chad and John, all agents of mine locally. It was a scramble and we played really well, shooting a smooth 56, 16 under par. We birdied 14 holes and eagled one. We didn't even finish in the money. Second place shot 52, 20 under par which seemed unbelievable. The whole dinner crowd booed lustily when they announced the winning score of 49, 23 under par. Somehow this group birdied 13 holes and eagled 5 holes. Safe to say, that no one bought that score. The purple picture above is of Gary, myself and John after they both got a t shirt from one of the vendors. I grabbed one for Darla to wear to bed. The other picture of Elvis and Marilyn is from the course. They had one vendor that was giving free massages and when we got there, Elvis was getting a massage while Marilyn waited for him. The theme of the tournament was American Idols of the past. Elvis and Marilyn were driving around handing out drinks. 

 

I did not play on Saturday as I wanted to get some work done. I've had continuous problems with a neighbors' tree behind us. He had a "volunteer" tree spring up on his side yard and he just let it grow right into the side of his house and up over the fence and into my yard. I've ended up with leaves, buds, and debris of all types landing in my pool. I decided to shave his tree straight up from the fence line and spent about two hours on Saturday with a set of pruning shears and a lopper and pulled down a full 80 gallon garbage can full of trimmings into the trash. you can see the tree above and a shot of it along the tree line. It is half a tree now, but won't cause a huge mess in my pool this Fall.

 

I've got a busy week ahead before we leave for Carmel. Tuesday is our Big I Day at the Community Center in downtown Sacramento. The companies are all in town for the event and I start with AIG tomorrow morning for breakfast at 8 AM. I have one of our program underwriters, WKFC , in for lunch and then go down to the Community Center to help set up our booth mid afternoon. I'll then meet Markel and one of our professional lines underwriters from Detroit for dinner at PF Chang's at six tomorrow night with Pete and Matt. Tuesday, we are hosting one of the continuing education classes at the event in the morning with our Professional Lines guy (Taras) doing a cyber liability class and Markel doing a class on Professional Lines. Dad will remember that I was dealing with Taras trying to cancel his trip while I was in Canada. He said in a note to me, "I hope this doesn't cause any inconvenience". Well, I called Harvey and blew a gasket as we have over 1000 people coming to the I Day and over 65 signed up for the cyber liability class. Taras had forgot to set up his travel and when he went to set it up a week before, the trip was going to cost him $800 and Alan balked. Harvey stepped up, explaining to all who would listen the harm this would do to the reputation of the company if we cancelled the class and got it back on track. Thank God.

 

The build out is in full swing and we are now working with a visqueen shield over the work area after they broke out the wall behind Shawna's desk. She had to be moved over about ten feet. On Friday morning we had our furniture vendor in and they were working on moving two more of  my employees over from the wall that used to be outside my old office. It is a lot of upheaval, but the final result will be well worth the hassle we are going through now. The work will be completed the week of October 27th and I will have home office IT and real estate folks in that week. That is the week after the Leadership meeting in Detroit.

 

Darla and I had dinner with friends last night at their house. It was a fun night and the food was great as well as the company. Randy, the host, served me a Barrel Rye with Ginger Ale after dinner which reminded me of Dad and Canada. He served the drinks with Ice Balls. These are solid ice balls about the size of a small rubber ball and slowly melt in your drink unlike ice cubes, which melt rather quickly. Now, I'm on a quest to find the molds for these. Randy had been looking for these for awhile after seeing them in a Food Network show on cocktails and found them at TJ Maxx of all places. I'll check with Amazon.

 

Darla was at a street fair in Lodi, California today and was up at 4 AM to get to the event by 6 AM to set up. She did well today (almost $1000 in sales) and she got home at 5:30. She is fast asleep on the couch next to me. I have to make hamburgers for dinner soon as I sit and watch the Sunday night game. This isn't near as much fun as it was last week with Dad and Shirley and the Dallas game. Dallas won again today to keep me smiling.

 

I will likely bring my laptop with me and try to upload some pictures from our trip and get a blog entry in next Sunday night. No guarantees as my bride will have some say in that, but that's my plan as of tonight. I hope you all have a GREAT week and I'll check in again next weekend. Ciao.

 



We are just back from Canada, eh?

Had a great trip with Dad and Shirley. We got home about 7:15 last night and had to do our homework for the Financial Peace University Class that we are in. Funny story there. Darla and I are both 100% in on this class and getting our finances in order so that I can retire at a relatively young age. We get to the class and listen to the lessons by Dave Ramsey and get all fired up. The last class was on Dumping Debt and the Debt Snowball and how to become debt free. We were so inspired, we came home and cut up all of our credit cards. Oops, we had a trip to Canada and I had to rent a car. The last time I rented, they wouldn't let you use a debit card to rent. I didn't realize the error of my ways until Friday and it was too late to get a replacement card. We went off to Bodega Bay and returned Friday night and pieced the card back together and taped it on a copy of the bill.

Luckily, when we got to Seattle, the rental car industry has recently changed and will not put a hold on your debit card as long as you show them a return flight reservation. I didn't have to go through the embarrassment of handing them a credit card that had been cut up. Live and learn.

It was a whirlwind weekend, with Darla and I leaving for Bodega Bay and the Links at Bodega Harbor on Thursday afternoon. We stayed in the small town of Valley Ford in an Inn built in 1869. It was all of 7 rooms with no televisions. The Inn was quaint and the rooms were surprisingly comfortable with newer decorations, beds and bathrooms in the hotel. They had a bar on the first floor that we availed ourselves of before heading in to Bodega bay and dinner at the Tides Restaurant. We met Neil and Lilly and Bob and Vicki at the Valley Ford Inn and had a great time getting caught up.

We took our truck on the ride over to the restaurant and it seems that Jennifer or Sam had spilled some sort of chocolate drink on the third row of seats and Neil sat in it and said nothing. On the ride back, Darla took the back seat and was appalled to find the spill. We got that cleaned up post haste when we got home. The third row of seats aren't used very often, obviously. we had a great meal and then headed back to the hotel.

Friday, we were up early and the guys all piled into our Explorer and we drove out to Bodega bay for breakfast. The restaurant at the golf links were only open on weekends, so we headed back over near the tides and found a little place called the Dog house and had breakfast before heading to the course. The Links at Bodega harbor is a tough course built along the shores of Dillon Beach and stretching up into the hills above. It is tight and narrow and rewards good shot making. Alternatively, it penalizes wayward shots. I managed a 43+42=85 on the par 70 layout. Bob shot 92 and Neil had 97. Ken Olmstead, who drove up from Sac that morning and met us at the course shot 39+42=81. He had an accident about 18 months ago with UPS and just got a settlement from them and is still suing the driver of the car that ran a red light and hit his truck. He has had lots of time to work on his game and it shows. We had a quick drink after golf, meeting back up with the ladies and Darla and I were off for home.

We were up at 3:30 (or Darla was) for our flight to Seattle. We used our air miles and had to fly through Phoenix, change planes and then on to Seattle. Our flight out of Sac was 6:00 AM and I was out as soon as my head hit the seat on the plane. I woke up on descent in Phoenix. Darla and I grabbed some breakfast and jumped on the next plane for Seattle arriving at 1:45 PM. It was a turbulent flight and the captain never did turn off the seat belt sign as we were rocking and rolling through the sky. When I got to Seattle, I nearly sprinted to the men's room. A stall opened up before the urinals as I danced in line and I dove in there. The guy before me had left his i Pad behind, but by the time I saw it I was beyond the point of no return (so to speak). I had hoped he'd realize it and be waiting by the stall, but no. I took the i pad and turned it into the US Airways Customer Service counter.

By the time we got our luggage and shuttled over for the rental car and got that all squared away, it was after 3. We drove through Seattle, stopped for a quick bite in Everett and were in Dad's driveway by 5:20 PM. The border patrol agent asked me why I didn't have a Canadian Passport and looked none too pleased when I told him I was a US Citizen. He told me, "You know, you can have both as you were born in Canada." Yep, I could pay for two passports or punch myself in the nose, too.

Dad and Shirley had set up a meal for the ages with Roast Turkey AND Roast Ham. I felt like the Prodigal Son in the Bible, but I'm sure I haven't squandered any inheritance. I told Dad to plan on spending his last dime right as he breathes his last breath. Randy, Darryl and I are all in good places in our life and don't need any inheritance to live well. Both Cam and Sherry and their whole families came over to have dinner with us. I was honored, although if they had been invited after dinner, we likely wouldn't have seen any of the boys. They are all great kids and we had a ball with everyone.

Dad was still in his boot and hobbling around in his short pants like one of the boys in Oliver. He had a doctor's appointment on Monday and I'll get to that.

Sunday, we woke to a huge breakfast made by Shirley with eggs and ham, a huge cinnamon bread concoction called Crazy Bread, toast and fruit. We over ate the entire weekend, but didn't complain until we both got on the scale when we returned. They have rye and ginger each afternoon with appetizers and wine with each dinner and it all caught up to us rather quickly. I really enjoyed Sunday watching the NFL games with Dad. He doesn't really have an interest in the NFL, but his cable provider has nearly every NFL game on you could wish to watch. We watched the Baltimore- Carolina game followed by the Philadelphia-SF game. We had dinner (leftover turkey and loved every bite) and then sat down to watch the Saints take on Dallas on Sunday night. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but especially watching it with Dad. That was FUN.

Monday, we were up, had another too big breakfast and took Dad over to his doctor's appointment in Surrey. He had another x-ray and was in with the doctor for awhile. Dad was hoping to get out of the boot and brought his tennis shoe in a plastic bag. When they came out of the doctor's office he was carrying his boot and kind of limping along. After little use of his foot for six months, he was a little tentative and it took some walking to get him comfortable on his feet. He has to wear the boot off and on and do some walking to strengthen his foot and ankle before they leave on their cruise in two weeks.

We headed home, relaxed, had more appetizers and drinks (I ate more cheese this weekend than I have in two months), and then got ready for a trip in to town and dinner at the Keg restaurant. Both Darla and I and Dad and Shirley split an entrée, but we had soup and salad and tons of bread. No cheese, though. We complemented the meal with a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and then Dad out arm wrestled me for the bill. He said I can pay when he comes to California. The dinner was great and we got some nice pictures. I uploaded them to the computer last night, but I can't find them today. I will add them later.

We were up at 6:00 AM on Tuesday, had a quick meal with Dad and Shirley and were on the road with a bag of almonds to keeps us company at the long wait at the border. It turns out there was NO WAIT at the truck border and we pulled right up to an empty booth and were out of there in minutes. The traffic was light until we hit Everett and then it picked up. We were able to use the HOV lanes and cruised into Seattle, where we switched to the Express Lanes. All went well, until I stayed in the HOV lane and was forced to exit on 5th Avenue in Seattle. I realized it too late to move over, but we were able to make a quick left and then a right and were back in business.

We were at the rental car lot by 9:00 and at the airport by 9:30 for our 11:20 flight to Phoenix. We had an early lunch of a pepperoni Stromboli and then caught our plane. The flight was fast and I slept again as Darla talked and made friends with her seatmate who complained about her marital problems to Darla. Darla told me this later as I mercifully slept thru it, but perhaps her eagerness to spill her marital problems to a complete stranger might have some effect on the quality of her marriage? We grabbed an early dinner in Phoenix and relaxed at  the large table and rested, finally ordering a cheesecake s=dessert as we had been sitting for an hour after our meal was complete.

It is a small world and I was reminded of that by the sight of Theresa from my office in the airport. She was returning from a company seminar that I sent her on and was on the same flight as us heading home. She couldn't quite wrap her head around what we were doing in Phoenix if we had flown out of Seattle, but, hey, free is free.

It was a whirlwind weekend, but I am so glad we made the trip. Dad is healthy and happy and he and Shirley make the perfect couple. She is pretty good at making sure he eats well and toes the line from a health standpoint and that is all good. I hope you all had a good week as well and we will meet again at the Blog in a week's time. Ciao.