A day late, but back at the keyboard. We were out to dinner last night with David for a late birthday celebration. Darla is finished with her diet and back on 2100 calories and boy, did we use them well last night at Benihanas. Miya, David's girlfriend was supposed to join us, but had a death in the family on Saturday, when an aunt passed away. She was spending the day with her cousins. The picture above is from Benihanas. We had a good time. Dinner was at 8 last night as Darla had an event in Lodi that didn't end until 6 PM. She got home a little after seven and we headed over to the restaurant to meet Dave. Benihanas uses about 6 cooks to handle 12 tepanyaki tables and sometimes it can take awhile to get your chef. It was after 9 before he finally showed up at our table. Our server came over and announced that they were sorry for the wait, but that we would all enjoy Martinis. Darla got overly excited for someone who doesn't drink, but the server was actually saying Martinez would be our chef. We had a good laugh over the confusion.
Martinez showed up and asked if we wanted him to shave David as he pulled out his chef's knife. That was the start of a fun night. He looked at me and said, "Hey where have you been, man? Do you still have the blue Chrysler?" He said that he had seen me a few times driving in Roseville. He is a long term chef at the restaurant and we have had him more than a few times, but it was odd that he not only remembered me, but figured out that it was me in the car. The Chrysler has limo tint windows and it's hard to see me when I'm driving. We finally got out of there a little before ten after a fun night of food and laughter.
The other pictures above are of Darla with Jennifer's painting mounted in our bathroom, some of Darla's flowers in the backyard, a picture of the final piece of the Master bathroom remodel, the opaque windows that were installed just today, and a picture of Samantha that I edited using an Old Tyme photo app on my phone. It is nice to have the construction behind us and we are thrilled with the result. The shower is huge and we had an initial issue with the temperature of the water. It didn't get hot enough. We had the plumber come back in and adjust the faucet to increase the heat, which worked great. We were both pretty upset that the faucet only gave us a lukewarm shower. I also worried that the tile was already in and all of the plumbing was in the wall behind the tile. As it turned out, the plumber hadn't set the faucet to turn on far enough and the hot water mix was too small. Thank God they were able to fix it.
Darla was off to Lodi and the Italian festival on Sunday and David came over to help me work on a broken fence post. I had planned to change out the rotted post, but was told about the metal sleeves that are sold that are pounded between the fence post and the cement that is set in the ground. David and I were able to set two sleeves on either side of the post and bolt it in. It was amazing how solid the post was when it was complete. The post was leaning at about a 30 degree angle and we got it back to almost plumb. I was supposed to play golf with Paul and he had an 11:45 tee time. David was meeting me at 10. Well, he showed up at 10:30 and it took us longer than we had planned. Getting the sleeves set in the concrete was not easy and the spot where the fence post was set was in a raised bed above the pool with a retaining wall behind it. We were pounding in the sleeves with a hand sledge hammer and kept hitting our hand on the retaining wall. We were working at the neighbor's house and they had opened their garage so we could get power. I went in and grabbed a backpack and set it over the retaining wall to keep from bashing our knuckles. when it was all over and complete, I found the backpack in my garage as David misunderstood and thought it was ours. The neighbor didn't help or pay for materials, so I should have just kept the backpack. Just kidding, I laughed and returned it.
I went over after and met Paul coming off number 9 at the course and we played the back nine together. We kept going afterward and played the front nine again. I got in 18 holes and Paul played 27 holes. I shot 42+42 and played the white tees on the back and the blue tees on the front. I got home about 6 and had hoped to do the blog then, but got a note from Neil that he needed the handicaps for the Memorial tournament (that is next week) early Sunday evening as they were heading out of town. I did the handicapping while I watched the taped golf tournament and then got a shower before Darla got home.
Saturday was the Senior 4 ball qualifier. Steve and I won it last year and went and played the regional tournament in Santa Clara. This year, Paul and I hooked up and played and Steve and Ron played as a team. Paul and I struggled on the front, shooting a 34 and turned it up on the back nine with a 31 for 65.Our slow start cost us as the qualifiers shot 61 and 63. We took second place out of the non qualifiers and won $114. I also had a closest to the pin with 4' 10" on the 180 yard par three 15th hole. It was a fun day, but we left some strokes on the course.
I did get out this last week and played the course at Serrano. I'm on the golf committee and we went out Wednesday and six of us toured the course. I shot 88. Thursday night was league and I was completely out of sorts, shooting a 50 and never getting in any kind of a groove. I hit my first shot out of bounds and it went from there.
Darla and I have decided not to go to Mexico this year in December. We are going to Hawaii instead to see Darla's brother Steve and his wife, Kirstin. We usually go to Mexico with Dad and Shirley, but they have a cruise planned. We will all be together on our family cruise for my 60th, Dad's 80th and Sherry's 50th. It will be a great trip and not going to Mexico will save us over $1600. Daniel and Becky are getting us our flights to Hawaii this year for our 20th anniversary. Daniel has tons of free miles. he pays for everything with mileage cards, including his rent in Pasadena. It has been about four years since we've been to Kona to see Steve and Kirstin. We will stay with them for four days and probably spend three days in either Maui or Kauai.
We did invite Dad and Shirley to join us in Lake Tahoe in August. We'll have Jennifer, McKinney, Samantha, David, Daniel and Becky all at the 4 bedroom condo at some point during the week. We would love Dad and Shirley to join us as well. The condo is located on the slopes of Heavenly Valley ski resort in Nevada and with a view of Lake Tahoe.
Darla and I have two trips planned prior to the Tahoe vacation. We'll spend four days in Washington DC in June with my board duties wiht the Western Insurance Agents Association. We also have a golf trip planned up to Graeagle in Plumas County in late June. We will rent a house on the 16th hole at Plumas Pines golf course with Charlie and Frieda and Neil and Lilly. The group will play Plumas Pines on Saturday and Graeagle on Sunday. We are going up for the three days, but I will only play golf at Graeagle. I have played Plumas Pines before and want to spend the day with Darla up in Reno on Saturday. We will be back late afternoon and will have a big barbecue at the condo that night.
Well, that will do it for this week. Darla will get her Explorer back from the body shop tomorrow. Paul said that the paint and body work is all done, but they had to replace the right headlight and ordered the wrong one. They will get that tomorrow and have it installed. I hope you are all well and enjoying this thing called life. Be well. Ciao.
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