Okay. I promise. I'm now finished with pictures from Jennifer and Sam's visit to Northern California. It is hard to move on as Darla hasn't even taken down our Christmas decorations or tree yet. We had so much fun and it is the memories that keep us warm until we see our loved ones again. It will be March.
I have arranged with one of our carrier partners to use their corporate apartment in March and head out to Scottsdale for Spring Training. We have the apartment March 6th-10th and I'm thinking right now that I might drive down to Phoenix and then work our way back through Las Vegas to home. It is my birthday on the 12th and I can't imagine anyone that Darla and I would rather spend it with than our granddaughter. We may yet fly into Phoenix and then fly home and then turn around on the 12th and fly to Vegas. Pete, my Underwriting Manager, and I will make the trip to Phoenix with our wives over the weekend and then see our carriers on Monday and Tuesday before flying home. The girls (if we fly) will come in on Friday with us and fly back on Sunday. Pete and I would fly back Tuesday and then I'd still just have Wednesday in the office.
Things at work are heating up. I have a new Personal Lines candidate that I have met with twice. She will make a trip in to SF this week to meet with Harvey. It's a funny story in that I was looking for another Management Trainee, who are fresh out of college and high potential employees. Linda worked for Allied Insurance and was in their Emerging Leadership program. She is a referral from one of my newer hires whose wife worked with her at Allied. Allied merged with the Nationwide Personal Lines unit and they have announced that they are shutting the Sacramento office and moving it to Iowa (Iowa??). Linda had already accepted a position at Kemper. I sought her out and invited her in for an interview. She sent me her resume and has 25 years experience!! This is not a recent college graduate. She is one of those people who is mid forties, but looks thirty. I met with her along with my Personal lines UW and we were both VERY impressed. This last week I had Matt, My Associate Managing Director and Oksana from our PL unit meet with her for lunch and they both came back equally impressed. When I told her that she would be meeting Harvey and that he likes my candidates to have done their homework and know about Burns and Wilcox and our parent company, she sent me a note and said that by the time she gets there on Friday she will know more about the company than he does. Cocky? A little, but a good salesman has a strong sense of self and is very self confident. Hopefully I will have good news on this front next week.
Yep. Dallas lost to Green Bay and is out of the playoffs. I'm not shocked as their defense was never as good as the offense, but the overturn of the call on Dez Bryant's incredible catch on 4th down was hard to swallow. I looked at it ten times and never saw the ball hit the ground. It looked like his hand was under the ball and it bounced forward into the end zone and he caught it again. It was either a completed catch down at the one or a touchdown. I was especially surprised to see the overturn because of the fact that it was called a catch on the field. I think we would have lost to Seattle, but it would have been fun to see. Hopefully they improve on defense next year, but they have to sign both DeMarco Murray and Dez Bryant and that will cost them big bucks. All in all, it was a great year for an overachieving bunch of players in Dallas. I enjoyed it immensely.
Darla has a Silpada manager coming in tomorrow to stay with us one night and then they are off to a management conference in Hollywood. Darla and Sue fly out Tuesday morning and then Darla gets back Friday and then leaves for the Bay Area on Saturday. She is leaving the conference early to work this event. She asked me to go with her and stay with her at the hotel. I considered it, but she is gone to a Volleyball tournament all day and in to the evening. Sitting around by myself just seems like no fun to me. I have poker here at the house on Friday night and just want to spend a quiet weekend. With Darla gone it will be quiet. I'll try and get out and play golf on Saturday later in the morning.
I did play in our first tournament of the year on Saturday and it was our Captain and Crew event. We break it out by A,B C and D players and combine them for a scramble team. I played with John Parola and Charlie Aichele along with Rafa Sierra. We started slow, but came on for a 32+31=63. We missed about a 10 foot putt for birdie on 16 and knew that would cost us. The winners both had 61, with another team at 62 and we were tied for fourth with the 63. I did manage to get us the closest to the pin on number 12 with a shot that ended up 14 inches from the hole. We should take home about $38 per man which about pays for our green fees.
Well, this is short and sweet, but Dad and Shirley are on a cruise, Randy is on business in New York and there is no one reading this drivel, so I'll move on. I hope you are all well. Ciao.
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