Thanksgiving in Las Vegas 2016

 

What a great visit and wonderful time we had in Las Vegas with Jennifer, McKenny, Samantha and McKenny's Mom, Dad , Sister and his two nieces. We flew in Tuesday night and met them at the house about 7:45. We had a nice, cheap rental car and unfortunately the rental car company saves money by not having a presence at the rental car center in Vegas. We had to take a shuttle from the airport to the rental car center and then another shuttle from the rental car center to a place on Las Vegas Boulevard off the strip. We had a VW Jetta at $13 a day. Of course $13 a day for four days works out to $160 because taxes are ridiculous in Vegas.

 

I digress. We were able to meet Wayne and Donna for the fist time and get to know them. We had met Aimee, his sister, last year when they came out to visit and her girls, Lilly and Lauren, actually swam with Jennifer in our pool. It was nice having a few days to get to know McKenny's family.

 

Sam had said she wanted to stay with us, but with her cousins-to-be at her house it wasn't surprising that she decided to stay and be with the girls. We headed back to check into the casino and went down to gamble. Darla and I couldn't catch a cold early on and we lost about $125 the first night. We had fun together and even slept in the next morning. Jennifer had to work until noon and we set up to take Sam and the girls to see the new Disney movie, Moana. Darla and I went and had breakfast at Mimi's. We picked up a dozen muffins as well for the gang at the house. We were out playing with the kids in the front of the house when Jennifer got home. We were kicking a ball back and forth and had just started playing volleyball when Jenn drove in. We took the girls to the movie back at the Aliante where we were staying.  The movie was pretty good for an animated film. We are becoming quite the experts on these films as we've seen The Secret Life of Pets, Moana, The Jungle Book, Cinderella and others over the years with Sam.

 

We were back at the homestead that night for a tremendous dinner of pot roast that Jennifer had simmering all day in the crock pot. It was great. We visited and played a few games that night with the gang. They had plans to go to Fremont Street that night and go on the zip line that runs over the promenade. Surprisingly, Sam decided to go home with us and stay over at the Aliante. We decided to skip the downtown experience and Sam went back early with us. It was a fun night as we watched TV and visited with our granddaughter.

 

We were due back by ten at Jennifer's on Thanksgiving morning and we had muffins for breakfast. Jennifer had both turkey and ham on the menu and I helped barbecue the ham and cut the turkey. She fixed yams, a corn casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, Jello salad, pies and sparkling cider. She also fixed individual Cornish game hens for the girls. The dinner was amazing and, even better, it was finished in time to watch the Dallas Cowboys defeat the Washington Redskins in a game watched by more people than any NFL game since 1995. The viewership of NFL games has been down dramatically this year and there was valid concern. Leave it to the Cowboys to save the day. Colin Kaepernick and his ilk have threatened to shut off the casual fan. Jerry Jones celebrates our military, celebrates America and won't stand for any of his players to disrespect the flag or our country. The dichotomy between the Cowboys who bleed America and the Niners, who disrespect the flag and their weak ownership that allows it, is as far apart as their 10-1 and 1-10 records. I enjoyed the game and  really enjoy the calm and cool demeanor of Dak Prescott and Zeke Elliott. I see that Dak caught a private jet after the game and met his family and his pastor for dinner in Louisiana.

 

Darla and I headed back to the casino again on Thursday night alone and proceeded to have a better night at the casino and actually left with some money in our pockets. We were up fairly early and off to Jennifer's. The girls had plans to go out and get manicures that afternoon and Wayne and I took the girls to the Butterfly Park and let them burn off some energy. The butterfly park is a kid play area with swings, slides, hills and monkey bars. We headed back to the house and had leftovers for lunch.

 

Friday night we had a fire in the backyard and let the girls make smores. We had reservations at Osaka Teppanyaki restaurant at 8 PM, so they actually did their smores and fire time before dinner. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant. McKenny had a wedding job that afternoon where he was the photographer and had to meet us at the restaurant. He got done about 7:30, but went over to look at a drum set that Jennifer found for him on Craigslist. McKenny was a drummer in a band in his early life and hadn't played the drums in about 15 years. He looked at the set which sells new for about $850 and bought them for $225.They are lightly used, but in great shape. He was a little late to dinner, but showed up just as the chef was finishing up. They had saved him a plate.

 

Sam surprised us before we left the house and decided to come and stay with us on Friday night. She doesn't know it, but she saved us about $200 coming and staying with us for two nights. She was pretty wired as we drove back to the casino as she had a couple of marble sodas. If you don't know what those are, ask a kid (or Google it). She was very talkative and kept doing "Shelly sells seashells down at the seashore" and " Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers" and "How much wood would a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood." Darla and I were dying as she said them over and over as fast as you can imagine.

 

We had a nice visit that night, but she tired fast and was asleep within 30 minutes of getting back to the room. We took her to the breakfast buffet that next morning and as grandparents we were in charge of her eating tacos, nachos and ice cream for breakfast. That day, Saturday, we all went to Tule Springs park and took family pictures, any of which you can see above. McKenny and Jennifer wanted to get family photos and some engagement photos. It was a fun morning. We went out to a late lunch afterward and then played games back at the house before we had to leave for the airport.

 

It was a fun trip and Jennifer and McKenny are both really happy and looking forward to their wedding likely in the Fall of 2017. We will keep you up to date on her plans and hope to see all of you in Las Vegas for the wedding. Be well. Ciao.

Jennifer, Sam and McKenny are engaged to be a family!

 

Great news on a rainy weekend, Jennifer called this morning to tell us that McKenny asked her to marry him this morning when she got home from her run. McKenny and Sam were in on it and had balloons waiting for her with the ring attached. McKenny had talked to Sam ahead of time and made sure she was okay with it and also bought her a necklace with her birthstone on it. I gave McKenny heck for not asking me first and he said, "Well, every time we talk to you, you and Darla both drop hint that its time." I told him we'd go get a beer when I get to Las Vegas. I have to harass the guy. All three of them seem very excited about the development. McKenny bought the ring back in February and has been waiting for the right time to ask her. It is telling that the person that knows her best had to wait and make sure he was doing the right thing. Jen is a handful and they have been together for four years now and I think he knows her best. It is interesting that he asked her right before our trip to Vegas and the fact that his Mom and Dad will be there. I wouldn't put it past her to get married while we are there, although her Mom would probably kill her. I'm very happy for all three of them.

 

This has been a wet and stormy weekend with rain coming in Friday night and lasting all the way through the weekend. We had a small break on Saturday morning and I got out and cleaned up the leaves and drained the pool down to about the halfway mark on the tile. I took about an hour and a half on the leaves and the respite from the rain lasted about an hour and twenty minutes. I was way around on the far side of the side street clearing out the leaves from our liquid ambers when the rain hit. It was coming down in buckets and I was out there with a rake and an electric blower. I was drenched by the time I finished. It is not just moving the leaves out to the street where the city clears them away on Mondays, but also I have to move them back out of the gutter so that the rain can siphon away to the drains. I never did get a chance to clean out the pool which has a lot of leaves from our neighbor's tree on the top of the water and on the floor of the pool. There was a break in the weather this morning, but I was watching the Dallas game and took Jennifer's joyous call. Daniel and Becky were here (they stayed with us last night after dinner) and they got to talk to Jennifer and McKenny as well. By the time the game was over, the rain was back.

 

We leave for Vegas Tuesday afternoon and will be staying at the Aliente Casino in North Las Vegas. Jennifer and McKenny will have a house full with his parents there as well as his sister and her two children. We look forward to the trip. The time with the kids and our time alone at the resort. Darla and I need a break and look forward to this trip and the trip to Hawaii in a few weeks. We will spend some time with Samantha and likely her two "soon to be cousins" on Wednesday.

 

We did get the whole group together last night for dinner. Only Miya was missing as she was with her aunt celebrating Thanksgiving  as she will be in the Bahamas for the actual holiday with one of her cousins. It was nice to get together with everyone as that was our Thanksgiving visit with the family as we also will be gone. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Roseville and visited with the Westra Clan and the boys.

 

No golf this weekend, but I did play poker on Friday night with the gang. Carl hosted at his house in Roseville that is up for sale. He remarried his wife in Hawaii last month and they bought a new home on some acreage. Danelle and Carl divorced about eight years ago and rekindled their relationship in the last year and seem to be going well. Their son, Adam, was in David's grade and played football on the high school team. They were both quarterbacks. I'm sure their kids are happy for them. He has this house up for sale, but it works well as a poker den for us at the moment. I about broke even on the night.

 

I had the headhunter call me this week with a potential employee and it was all wrong. She wanted to send me an Underwriting Assistant from one of our competitors and really talked him up. The only problem was that is NOT what I am looking for and I had to have a little reorientation done with her on Thursday. I told her that I am looking for an existing Underwriter or Broker that can bring an existing book of business and relationships with retail agents into my office. I'm sure this kid is great, but I don't have anything to give him as far as a book of business and frankly have enough young people with potential. I need a Rock Star and I'm willing to pay for it.

 

This is inordinately short this week, but I will be back with stories, pictures and tales from our Vegas trip next weekend. We fly back Saturday night. I hope you are all well and feel free to reach out to Jennifer and congratulate her. I'll be back at this next week. Ciao.

Dinner with Friends, In Laws and A Great Weekend

 

A good week in the books. I survived my week as a bachelor and Darla is back home and I have clean white clothes again. I had to drop Darla at the airport at 5 AM on Monday Morning.  I went into work for about 4 hours (getting there at 5:30) and then headed over to meet the guys and drive up together to Winchester Country Club up in Meadow Vista. One of the guys had purchased a foursome at a silent auction and the certificate had to be used by the end of the year. We ended up with a great day and I played pretty well on a very difficult track. I shot 43+42=85 and felt like my game was starting to come around. The course is tight and I was able to keep the ball in play and stay away from any blowup holes. We teed off at 11 and ended up finished about 3:30. Big John was the loser in skins and invited all of us out to dinner at Black Bear Diner in Auburn on the way home. As Darla  was gone to Rhode Island and her Leadership Conference with Touchstone, I was thrilled to get a meal. I joked with the guys as we sat down at 4PM, that I now knew what it was like to be retired.

 

I had to work on my 2017 budget all week and our plans are to write about $28,000,000 in premium next year. I did add in another Producer position in my office and also contacted the professional headhunter on Thursday and put the wheels in motion to find a new employee. I finished the budget and forwarded it to my boss on Friday.  

 

Tuesday was surreal as Donald Trump came back from the dead and beat the wicked witch of Washington. I was thrilled, not that I'm a big fan of Trump, but cannot stand the Clinton machine and the smugness of Bill and Hillary leading up to the election was over the top. Hillary really thought they had this in the bag and to see her melt like the witch in the Wizard of Oz was a fun night for me. I think the populace sent a signal loud and clear to Washington that business as usual will not be tolerated. Watching Obama balloon our debt from $10,000,000,000,000 to $20,000,000,000,000 in eight short years was sad. He added more debt in the last eight years than all other administrations COMBINED. It's insane and how anyone can think outspending your income is okay is unbelievable. The freebies will end under a Trump administration and the money wasted on immigrants, financial support for our enemies and climate change will be channeled into other things like Veterans, social security and Medicare. Many of the ridiculous trade agreements that have seen business flee for overseas will end. Hopefully, we will run this country more like a business and use our tax dollars to make this country stronger and not to make other countries stronger. We are done being the deep pockets for the rest of the world and the United States will start to take care of our citizens first and foremost and slow the influx of illegal aliens into our borders and onto the dole.

 

The riots and demonstrations that continue throughout the country will soon fade away and the busloads of paid protesters will head back home and to their unemployment lines and Trump will get busy putting his staff together. He has a Republican Senate and House of Representatives to help him get things done. He will overturn the illegal Executive Orders used by Obama because he was unable to drive a consensus in Congress. SCOTUS has already turned back his illegal immigration decrees, but many more including gun control and limitation of state powers will be overturned. He has issued over 350 Executive Orders to date. Trump has been smart in how he has set up his transition team and his first three official hires are a woman, a gay man and a black man. Racist? Homophobe? Sexist? Take that.

 

Darla got home Friday afternoon after a good week for her in Rhode Island. Her roommate ended up being a woman from Michigan, whose best friend is Martha Reeves (of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas). She lives in Motown and is a big fan of the Motown sound. She was a fan when she met Martha and they ended up living in the same neighborhood and are now great friends. She goes on Malt Shop cruises and has been able to meet and know Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli. According to Darla, she is a fascinating lady with great stories (as you can imagine). Darla got to visit the Swarovski main office and jewelry plant and had a great week. I picked her up and dropped her bag at the house and then we went out to dinner.

 

Saturday was our Turkey Shoot and TOC event at the golf club. Bob Pando came into town and we had the first tee time. I finally put together two strong nines and shot 40+42 for an 82, net 68. I took first low net in my flight and won a $45 gift card for the local grocery store. I hung out with Bob for awhile and then headed home to mow the lawn and clean the pool.

 

Saturday night we went to dinner with one of my agents, Phil, and his girlfriend Carmine. Darla set Phil up with Carmine this Summer. He had worked with me in the National golf event at Del Paso CC and we all went to dinner the last night. Phil is divorced and an eligible bachelor as a small business owner and a really nice guy. Phil told Darla that he wasn't interested in anything serious and that he was happy just to date and live his life well. Darla showed him a picture of Carmine and he was suddenly VERY interested. Carmine was in the same boat having told Darla that she wasn't interested in getting serious and was only interested in dating.

 

They have been together for a few months and are madly in love. It was fun getting together with them as they were both SO thankful for us getting them together. They are both really nice people and both were born in Mexico and came to the US with their parents. Carmine moved here as a young adult and still struggles a little bit with the language. Phil speaks fluent Spanish and she loves that they can communicate (as Phil puts it) in Spanglish. We had a great dinner at Sienna. Darla and I had gone to the original restaurant in El Dorado Hills and they just recently opened a second location here in Roseville. It is a great restaurant. The food is incredible, but the restaurant is a great and comfortable venue. They have seating outside with gas fireplaces that are really warm and comfortable. We will get together with them again. They are really cute together and both really happy with each other.

 

Loved the Dallas game today where Dak and Zeke carried us to another gutty win in Pittsburgh. It was an awesome game with seven lead changes and Dak was able to lead Dallas to a come from behind win with only 41 seconds on the clock when they got the ball back. Amazing. Even Jennifer is totally into Dallas this year and I'm looking forward to watching the Thanksgiving Day game with her this year.

 

Finally, I'm a little late with this tonight as Darla and I met her parents in Yuba City tonight at Cool Hand Luke's. We had a nice visit and got back home tonight at 8:30. I have a busy work week ahead and will be in Stockton on Tuesday at a Diversity conference with the California Insurance Commissioner. I will be there as a representative of WIAA, where I an now the Vice Chairman. Jeff Barnett will be there as well and we will have dinner in Stockton before driving home.

 

I hope you are all well and we will do this again next weekend. Be well. Ciao..

Leadership Meeting, 75 degree weather, playing hookey

 

Back at the blog, albeit a day late. The Leadership meeting in Dearborn wore me out this year. I flew out at 6:30 AM on Tuesday last week and changed planes in Chicago and then arrived in Detroit about 4 PM. We got over to the hotel about 5 and I met a couple of the Managers for dinner at the Big Fish which is on the other side of the mall from our hotel. We walked over and then Ubered back to the hotel afterward.

 

It was a long week, an intense week and a good week. We were at the corporate headquarters in Farmington Hills Wednesday and Thursday. We had dinner Wednesday at the Detroit Athletic Club, which is located between Ford Field and Tiger Stadium (Comerica Park) in downtown Detroit. We had (every night)  cocktails followed by dinner and then Game 7 of the World Series. The game was turned off while we listened to the head of the Michigan Agents Association, who was the National Chairman of the Big I Agents Association in 2014. He was quick with his speech as he knew the World Series was historic.

 

Thursday night we had Game Night back at the hotel with tacos, pizza, sliders, appetizers and (of course) cocktails. They had football games, skee ball, pool, air hockey, pinball, basketball, and a golf-/baseball- hockey- soccer simulator. They also had the NFL game on and I enjoyed myself until about 9:30 and then headed to bed.

 

Friday, we had a working breakfast at the hotel followed by speeches by our Personal Lines Director and our Vice President of Underwriting. Following that, we had a surprise speech and Q&A with Tom Izzo, the head coach of the Michigan State Spartans basketball team. He was great, very laid back and funny. He is one of those really great college coaches who is always mentioned whenever there is an opening in the NBA. He was seriously courted by the Cleveland Cavaliers a year ago and decided to stay when he talked to his team and several of his guys said that the only reason they chose Michigan State was Izzo. He felt compelled to stay and honor his word to his players. He was asked about it and said that they were offering him lots and lots of money. He said. "I make lots of money, but this was LOTS and LOTS of money. His salary with Michigan State is $3,450,000.

 

We have an Underwriting Manager with our company owned carrier who is a HUGE Michigan State fan and she stood up during the Q&A and was tongue tied. She said that she couldn't believe that she was talking to the great Tom Izzo and what an honor it was. He said, off the cuff to "call my wife at 501-555-5555 and tell her what a great guy I am. Sometimes she forgets."

 

Friday I met with our CEO and we talked about the struggles I've had in Sacramento in losing people and having to compete with people that I spent years training. He asked me what I thought the solution was. I told him we needed to add more producers. He suggested that I approach my best agencies and try to hire a 25 year old to come work for me. I was not thrilled with that suggestion and told him that I'd like to hire a corporate headhunter to find us a current wholesale underwriter who wants to make a move. He agreed. He took care of me financially and we spent about a half hour talking.

 

Friday night was the Awards dinner. Pete won a Presidents Award for premium production over $1,000,000. I also had my newest producer, Theresa Woods, win a Service Award and she was thrilled with that. I had nominated her when she stepped up when Leah quit. It was a good night and I was in bed by 11:30 in spite of the hospitality suite in full force downstairs.

 

The gifts this year were very nice. I got blue tooth earphones, a Foot Joy blazer, two signed Jimmy Walker PGA Championship hats and a Foot Joy leather and canvas duffel bag. Jimmy had one of his tour golf  bags made up for Alan filled with signed flags from each of the tournaments that he played in during 2016. I'd love to have the Masters and PGA Championship flags. Our marketing manager kept that secret from Alan and presented it to him at the Awards dinner. That is job security.

 

We will take a group of select agents to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am in February for 18th hole seats and a private tent for a meet and greet with Jimmy Walker. I look forward to that.

 

Saturday was a working breakfast with seminars during the morning and a planned Team Building exercise in the afternoon. It turned out to be  series of challenges (soccer, Jenga tower building, trivia and an obstacle course). When we got done with that, they had 18 boxed BMX bicycles that we had to assemble. We were in teams of 8. We were building the bikes to donate to the Southeast Michigan Boys and Girls Club. We were building our bike for Steven, a 7 tear old boy in the organization. Being insurance executives, we made a mess of the assembly, could not connect the brake cables and ended up with a nut left over. They had bike mechanics on site that checked over the bikes, but they didn't get a  chance to look at ours. We took it up and set it out with the other bikes for pictures.

 

What they didn't tell us is that the kids were there and they brought them in. Steven was thrilled and wanted to ride his bike. We couldn't let him until the mechanics fixed our mistakes. I told him to wait with the others and I'd get the bike fixed for him. While I was wheeling it over, Harvey told me that I had a shadow. I turned around and Steven was right there. Apparently he didn't trust the big old white guy that took his bike away. We got it fixed up and he was thrilled.

 

I have several pictures from the day, including a shot with Alan and Steven on stage. It was a powerful way to end our week and I was off to the airport on the first shuttle at 3:30 Saturday afternoon.

 

I got home to Sacramento late as the flight was delayed and it was after 11 by the time we landed and I got my luggage. Darla and I got home near midnight and it was three in the morning for me. I told Darla that "I love Jesus, but I was sleeping in on Sunday." She had gone to church Saturday night, so she was good. I'm the heathen.

 

I'm still struggling with some jet lag as I was up this morning at 4:30 to take Darla to the airport. She is in Rhode Island for her conference with Touchstone and will be back Friday afternoon. I had one of the guys from RGC send me a note this week and I agreed to play golf today with Chuck, John and Neil at Winchester Country Club in Meadow Vista in the lower Sierra  foothills today. I was in the office at 5:45 this morning and left at 9:30 to meet the guys at the Park n Ride in Roseville.

 

You can see the pictures from the outing today. It is one of the toughest courses in Northern California and I was very happy with how I played. I had two bad holes, but still managed to shoot 43+42=85. John lost the bets on the day and ended up buying the group dinner at the Black Bear Diner in Auburn. It was a great day and I really love that course. It is so lush and well maintained.

 

I will play in the Turkey shoot on Saturday at Diamond and look forward to seeing Bob Pando, who will be in town to play in the event. We will go out in the first group with Neil.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will survive this week on my own as long as I don't run out of clean socks or underwear and there are always stores for that. Right? Have a great week, Ciao.