Loving it in Vegas with Sam, Jen and McKenny

Late Monday April 25th. We got back today early this afternoon. We were up at 4:30 and on the road by 5 AM. I drove the first two hours and my eyes were at half mast most of the time and I finally pulled over outside of Barstow and Darla took the wheel. I was soon fast asleep. I woke up just outside of Bakersfield and we stopped and got some breakfast and gassed up. We stopped again in Livingston for a potty stop for Darla and then on to Roseville. We got home about 2:30, so it was a 9.5 hour drive with stops for food and nature. Not bad.

 

I had chores to do today, so got my hair cut, the lawn mowed, Darla's car washed, the deck hosed down and the pool cleaned. I also drained the pool down near the bottom of the tile in preparation for the etching of the river rock surrounding the pool and cleaning the tile, followed by a wet look sealer. The time got away from me, so this will be an abbreviated blog entry and I will get caught up next week.

 

Our weekend with Sam, Jennifer and McKenny was great. We left Friday morning at 4 AM and arrived in Las Vegas at 1:30 after a stop for breakfast and gas. We got checked into the hotel (Santa Fe Station)  and then headed over to Jennifer's to see her and McKenny and then go over to Sam's school and pick her up before going back to the hotel to swim.  I was very impressed with how Sam made a point to stop and tell each of her friends to have a good weekend and gave the girls a hug. Jennifer and McKenny came over to the hotel a bit later and we met them at the pool. We ended up having dinner that night at a restaurant in the casino, Cabo's, a Mexican cantina. We had a ball laughing and talking and Jennifer had a huge Coronarita, a Margarita with a Corona beer turned upside down and sitting in the drink. You can see it in the picture above. She managed to spill it on her self at one point when it slipped and she caught it, but got drenched. We took a number of pictures that night and you can see Sam with her dessert and her and McKenny and her and Jennifer.

 

Sam went home with Mom that night as she had soccer at 9 AM. Darla and I played some cards and lost about $15 in two hours. We were up early the next morning and off to the park near the Aliente Casino where we wanted to stay, but couldn't get in. We got there right after the game started and Sam was on the bench. She was playing forward and got a lot of action. She was one of the smallest on the field, but is a pretty good dribbler. They ended up losing 1-0 and are now 3-4. They didn't win a game last year, so they are dong much better and soccer is now her favorite sport. We took Sam after the game, stopped and picked up lunch and then headed back to the hotel. We ate lunch and then headed to the on site Century movie theater to see The Jungle Book. It was a great movie with incredible special effects. The movie is completely live action, but the Bear, Cheetah, and other animals are all animatronic and incredible. The effects are quite impressive and Sam said she loved the movie. I made the mistake of letting her buy some bulk candy to take into the theater and didn't watch her. She ended up with three pounds of Skittles, Reeses pieces and Grunts and it set me back $16 for her candy. Darla wanted to put it back, but we saved most of it and she was able to take it home. We also had popcorn and soda.

 

We went over to Jennifer's for dinner and she prepared salmon and asparagus for dinner. I brought a bottle of wine and some flowers for our hostess.Darla is on her diet and had some chicken that she ate. We took Sam afterward and got ice cream at Dairy Queen. Darla was a trooper and sat and watched Sam and I eat our ice cream. We then headed to the hotel where Sam spent the night. We had an incident at the hotel where the neighbors got into a verbal altercation and were screaming at the top of their lungs. It scared Sam and she wanted to go home. We called security and they put a stop to the incident, but it tarnished our stay. That was actually the second issue we had as the shower wasn't working properly the first morning and only a trickle made it from the faucet to the shower head. We got that fixed the next morning. Sam finally got to sleep, but wanted to sleep with us in a queen sized bed. Darla was soon forced to the other bed and Sam rolled over by me and pushed me to the edge to the point that I moved to the other bed with Darla. She woke u in the morning with us in the other bed and we told her she was a "Bed Hog". When we told Jennifer the story the next day, she laughed and said that is Sam's thing. She is a Bed Hog and forces everyone to the very edge of the bed.

 

Sunday, we got up and had breakfast with Sam at the hotel. Jennifer and McKenny had headed in to Vegas to see the Fremont Street video lights that were doing a montage on Prince, who died earlier in the week. They slept in on Sunday. We relaxed in the room and Darla gave Sam her old jewelry making kit and she made several earrings for her Mom. Sam and I went down to get some Panda Express for dinner and Jennifer and McKenny met us a the food court and had a 99 cent margarita while we ate our lunch. We then went to the pool after Sam showed them her fort she built in the room. It was windy all weekend in Vegas and Sunday was no exception. Deck chairs were blowing over and several towels flew into the pool. Darla and I lasted about an hour and then headed to the room to relax. The kids headed back home and we met them later for dinner. We used the leftover salmon and chicken and had build-your-own salads. Sam had taquitos. We played a game and Sam worked on another necklace for her Mom. We soon had to say our goodbyes and gave everyone a big hug and kiss and were back to the hotel about 9. We played some video poker. I lost and Darla won and we broke even over about 90 minutes and headed to bed.

 

We were able to get our resort fees waived because of our problems, but no discount on our room as we had a deal through Expedia. We will work with them to see if they can credit us a free night, especially for the bad shower.

 

That's it for this time. I hope you are all well. I will download pictures from the Canon digital camera and add those to the blog next week. We will check in with all of you soon. Ciao. 

Living in the 2nd Bathroom

 

Using the 2nd bathroom is fine for the boys or for guests that visit for a few days, but I'm ready for the new bathroom. I think using this bathroom for three weeks will make the new bathroom even that much better. I was amazed at how quickly they got going. Wednesday they had three trades on site and the entire wall was taken out and the new window installed and the T-111 put up to complete the exterior. The plumbers were in and jack hammered the slab and moved the drains from the two walls to the center of the shower stall and also did the pre-plumbing for the two showers. Thursday, there were two trades in once again and the hot mop for the shower was completed and the can lights installed and the pre-electrical for the lights over the sinks and they moved the light switches from the outside of the room to the inside. We will have a three way switch for the can lights, vanity lights and one for the whisper quiet exhaust fan that was also installed. Friday, it seemed like not much was done, but they came in and put in the drywall and patched the holes in the walls and ceiling from the old lights, hat racks and the fan install as well as the can lights. Saturday, some guys came out to do the texture on the walls and Monday they will paint. We are on our way.

 

It was a busy weekend with poker Friday night. I had a good night and I took about $85 from my friends. We had a good time and a lot of laughs. I had a better time than some. Saturday was a busy day for me. I had a 10:15 tee time at Castle Oaks in Ione, CA. It is near Jackson and about an hour and ten minute drive from the house. I drove myself as I had to leave right after golf to get home, shower, eat and get over to Bayside church for the Amy Grant concert. It was a great session for me on the driving range and that should have let me know life was about to get complicated on the golf course. I snap hooked my opening drive into the water and finished with a snowman (8) on the opening par five. I then snap hooked my next drive on a par 3 into a lateral hazard and took a 6, and snap hooked my drive on the next par 4 into the water and took a 7. Three straight triple bogeys and I was already 9 over and only get 17 strokes on the course. I pulled it together and shot a 13 over 49 on the front and followed that with a great back nine and shot a 39 for 88. What a weird day. It was slow going and we finished in about 5 hours and I was back on the road home by 3:20. I took a picture of the guys I played with. I don't care for either of them, but they make me look tall. Just kidding. Pamas is on the left and is an FBI agent and a good friend of mine. Chuck lives in the neighborhood and is the secretary in our club and has been for about 16 years.

 

The concert was fun and we ran into Steve Morgan who I worked with at Dean Witter and he was my roommate in New York City and put up with Jennifer coming and crashing with us when she was 16. We had a great visit with him. He is a member at Bayside and was working as one of the ushers at the concert. I made a tentative lunch plan with him for when I get back from Vegas. The concert was great. Amy Grant hasn't been in concert for almost 17 years and it was great to see her out there. She married Vince Gill back in 2000 and basically retired from performing. They had a little girl in 2002 and she raised her while Vince stayed active in music. Her father died a couple of years ago and she decided it was time to start writing and performing again. She was in concert with Nicole Nordeman and Ellie Holcolm and all three performed together, rather than having an opening act, etc. It was great. We left at intermission as the place was packed. I was tired and we wanted to miss the traffic.

 

Darla and I were up early today and off to church. We stopped at the store on the way back so I could get a breakfast burrito and some distilled water that I needed to use with the water based stain. Darla is still on her diet and has lost about 12 pounds to date and looks great. We got back, I ate my breakfast and was on to power washing the deck and then using a driveway cleaner to get the oils and dirt off of the deck surface. I came in and let the deck dry for about 45 minutes and then back out to work. I had bought an airless sprayer to use, but the water based stain was too thin to work and the stain was just dripping out of the sprayer, so we ended up going the roller and paint brush route. The roller really sped up the process and I finished in a little over an hour. I came in to let the first quote dry, looked at the golf, was bored and went in for a nap. I had planned to be up by 4:30  finishing the task, but slept until 5:00. The sun was warm today and made me drowsy. It was about 88 degrees with 90 degrees on tap for tomorrow. I finished up with the second coat and basically used up the stain concentrate. I changed the color slightly this year from a bark brown to a Dark Adobe color which has a little more red in the stain.

 

I had to let the deck dry before we started the tri tip which is on the barbecue right now. The Giant game is on at the moment and I have that on tape while Darla is watching Island Living on HGTV. She is hooked on all of these shows (Property Brothers, Love it or List It, Flip or Flop, etc.). It started with the master bathroom remodel as she would watch the shows to see ideas on the bathroom. Now she has got to know the hosts and is hooked. I'll get out either later this week or when we get back to apply the sealer on the deck. I also have to take an etching product to the river rock around the pool and then reseal that as well as we prepare for Summer and the opening of the pool.

 

Later...Just finished dinner. Darla had her 3 ounces of steak and is setting aside another three ounces for another meal. I'll bring the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I'll have a  busy week this week at work and then off Friday and Monday for our trip to Las Vegas. I have a couple of marketing calls early in the week and then lunch with Alan, the CEO of WIAA, who will host me in Washington, DC in June.

I want to ask him about some of the activities that we can do in DC and also hit him up on our agency E&O products. He has an exclusive program currently and writes about 240 of his agents for their E&O. He has over 350 in his group, so they are missing somewhere on either price or coverage. We have a Center of Excellence that writes nothing but Agent's E&O and I'd like a shot at those accounts as they renew. I also have a golf meeting on Thursday night.

 

Darla and I will leave about 4 AM Friday morning and drive to Las Vegas. We are picking up one of Jennifer's paintings. I'm also really looking forward to watching Samantha in her soccer game. She is pretty active according to Jennifer and it will be great to be there to cheer her on. We'll take her over to the hotel and swim after her game. Darla's diet will compound our options this trip on eating out and she will actually bring the George Foreman grill with us so she can cook her meals. We may go out to dinner and Darla suggested a steak restaurant. Yeah, great place to take a couple of vegetarians. We'll see.

 

Well, the Blog will be late again next week as we are in Las Vegas, but I will return with tons of pictures of the kids as well as further updates on the remodel. The warm weather is here and it is warm tonight. I have the screen door open and the fan on above me. It is 72 degrees at 8:00 PM after sunset. We are expecting some rain the end of the week and we'll be in Sunny Las Vegas.

 

I hope you all are well. I'll be back at the keyboard after our trip. Be well. Ciao. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Master Bathroom Remodel Begins

This will be a truncated blog posting as somehow Monday night seems so much more trying than Sunday night. Darla has her Silpada girls over for dinner and their monthly meeting. I came home, took a look at the demo work in the bathroom, set the tape on for the Giants game and went out into the backyard to clean up the leaves and debris that have been blown around with the winds we have been having lately. We had a storm system move through over the weekend and we didn't get much rain, but we had some wind. I trimmed some of the bushes, cleaned up the cuttings, including the bit that fell into the pool. I sprayed down the deck and pool area, came in and just finished some chicken Caesar salad and am at the keyboard.

 

The reason that this is late is that I was in Napa yesterday with 10 of the guys from the club and Gary from one of my agencies. We left the house at 7:30 and I picked up Chuck and then met Gary and Bryan at the Park n Ride in Roseville. We had an 11 AM tee time at Silverado Resort in Napa. It only took about and hour and twenty minutes to get there, so we were there just after 9:20 after stopping for gas. I borrowed Darla's Explorer and have yet to actually borrow it with gas in the tank. We had breakfast and watched the early players in the final round of the Masters, hit balls, chipped and putted and were on the tee at 11. It is a championship course and rated about three shots harder than our course. I got 18 strokes and shot 90 for a net 72. We played a blind draw and I got hooked up with Bryan who shot a net 71. We won with 1 under and there were two teams tied at four over. I always enjoy taking money from my friends. I added some pictures from the course website. We got home about 6:30 and the sun was out. I asked Chuck as we were dropping Gary and Bryan off where he had parked his car and he said..."uh, in my driveway." I dropped him off and then Darla and I put up the new top on the gazebo in the backyard that sits over the picnic table.

 

As I mentioned, the Master Bath remodel is under way. They have an aggressive schedule with flooring due to go in later this week, the windows removed and the new window installed and then frame and sheetrock, which should be complete by Monday. They will also install the shower surround and do the tile work in the shower next week. They will finish the rough plumbing and electrical this week and then texture and paint next week, including the T-111 repairs on the outside and the paint. The cabinets and countertops will be installed early the following week and the finish plumbing, glass shower surround and  finish electrical, light installation, fan and mirrors will go in later that week. The final punch items are supposed to be completed on Monday the 2nd of May and I'll be thrilled to be back in our bathroom. The second bathroom is okay for the boys or a short term visitor, but I want my rain shower sooner rather than later.

 

I have poker this Friday night followed by golf up in Ione at Castle Oak Golf Club on Saturday, followed by an Amy Grant concert Saturday night. It is a busy week already. I got the financials through three months today and we are about 12% below last year and my budget is a 12% increase. I had my 13 year employee in personal lines, Kathy, resign on April 1st and I'm dealing with that now. Linda is my newer underwriter and she has been handed a huge gift. She has four employees working for her and I plan to add either another seasoned UW or a trainee. We'll see. The only thing constant at work is change, but experienced has shown me that whatever doesn't kill me tends to make me stronger. I continue to get a heavy degree of pressure from corporate and we need to see this turn around soon. Even with the downturn, my office made about the 18th most profit of all of our offices last year and I am the highest profit center in California. Harvey has a great office in San Francisco with 4 million dollar producers, but his rent is over $80k a month and his payroll even for clerical employees is astronomical. I have to weather this.

 

Darla and I are living right now with some heavy board on the floor from our bathroom to the front door to protect the floor. When Darla got home today during the demo, they had plastic sheeting up completely enveloping the hallway and up to the front door. It was to keep the dust down, but we have peaked ceilings and the dust in our Master bedroom is palpable. I will keep you up to date with pictures on the process and work on the project as it goes along. Darla and I will be in Vegas the week of April 22nd to visit Jen and Sam. Samantha is in soccer and we will get to see a game and enjoy seeing her with her friends and teammates. Darla and I are going to take her to see the new Jungle Book movie while we are there and invited her out last night on Face Time. She was very cute about it.

 

Well, as I said, this is an abbreviated epistle, but I will be back at it next weekend. I hope all is well with all of you. I know Dad and Shirley are in Whistler enjoying a well earned vacation. Be well. Ciao.

 



Great Weekend

 

It was a busy week and a great weekend. I had one of the corporate Vice Presidents, Michael,  in this week and he worked with my younger staff members to help them drill down on which of their agencies are truly a good partner and which are just spinning our wheels. He ran various reports and showed me some great interactive reports based on zip codes, hit ratios and bind to quote ratios. He went on three agency calls while he was here and we capped the week off with a game of golf, what I call "Sports Marketing". I had tickets to the River Cats exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. Darla was supposed to go with me, but she ended up with a meeting with her foster care agency and I brought Michael. The River Cats are the Giants AAA affiliate and this is the first year that we have had a game between the two. The Giants won 8-4 and it was fun. Mike and I left after the fifth inning to go and get some dinner and the Giants were leading 6-2 at the time. You can see that the Giants brought their 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series trophies with them to the game and had them on display.

 

The other pictures are of the house. We have had several solar power companies come out to the house and all of them want me to trim the large Coast Oak in the front of the house. That tree offers shade to the house and the front lawn and I won't do it. My electricity bills run about $200 a month and that includes sewer, garbage and water. Darla and I don't run the air conditioner much during the Summer. We'll have it on during the day, but it cools down at night and we end up with the whole house fan on and all of the doors and windows open about the time the sun sets. I added lawn seed and topsoil to the yard and also put some red mulch bark in the tree wells and around the planter in the front of the house. I changed out several of the sprinkler heads and Darla planted plants in pots and around the backyard. It was a busy day today.

 

We started with church this morning and then went to Home Depot to buy the mulch and lawn soil and Darla loaded up on plants. We then stopped at Ace because I had a $10 off gift card from the Ace Rewards and we bought the sprinkler parts, grass seed, potting soil and granule chlorine. I got home and the granular chlorine was actually chlorine tablets that were mis-packaged. I'll return that tomorrow. I mowed the lawn, cleaned up the ever present spiky balls that fall from the liquid amber trees on the side of the house, and then took care of the chores listed above.

 

This past week was great with Michael. I've known him for the 14 years that I have been with the company. He I a 29 year employee and was the manager of the Phoenix office until he was replaced by one of the "thirty-somethings" that are all the rage in the company right now. Our company, like so many others in this industry, is made up of an aging population of producers and managers and we decided about five years ago to start training the next generation. The biggest issue we have is turn over. The Me generation is not very patient in waiting for their opportunities and some of our more senior managers have been pushed out of their jobs to make way for the future. Michael was moved to a corporate position and is in training now. He has a guaranteed salary and bonus structure and at 68, has about two years left. His position is great. He basically doesn't have a boss and makes his own schedule.

 

I had dinner with him every night that he was here. Darla has started her diet, so it worked out well for me. We played golf on Thursday with Gail in my office and Ron, the Marketing Manager for our largest agency. Ron is also in my golf club and he and I will team up this year in the twilight league.

Michael had to rent a set of left clubs, so we played at Woodcreek, which had a nice set of Adams Speedline clubs in a left hand set. Something clicked for me on Thursday and I shot 38+40=78. Mike had a nice 80 with the rental set and Ron struggled, but finished birdie-par-birdie on the day. I had to run Mike to the airport after lunch and then headed home.

 

Friday, I was caught off guard when my main personal lines Underwriters walked in to my office after lunch and resigned effective immediately. She has been with me for 14 years and had worked in commercial lines for a time. She was frustrated with the lack of advancement and took another position. Hey, it is situation normal (SNAFU). I will be busy this week out visiting her agents and taking our newer underwriter out to meet them.  Harvey will be in on Tuesday to meet with several Underwriting Assistant candidates. We will see each other at some point, but I will have a busy week of calls.

 

Saturday was our Masters tournament at the club and I was able to carry over the momentum I had Thursday and shot a 42+41=83 in the tournament and tied for first low net in my flight. I also won $36 in skin money mostly on the strength of a par on the 448 yard par 4 number one handicap finishing hole.

 

Next week, I have a tee time at Johnny Miller's Napa golf course, Silverado on Sunday. There are 12 of us traveling down and I am bringing Gary, one of my agents from Folsom, as my guest on the outing. The blog may be late next week as I likely won't be home before 8 o'clock or so as we tee off at 11 AM.

 

Next Monday, demolition starts on our master bathroom and the process begins. We will spend next Saturday clearing out our things from the bathroom and taking things off the walls. It will be a long three weeks of waiting, but the result should be well worth the inconvenience.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will get to the keyboard at some point next week, perhaps Monday night. I hope all are well. Ciao.