Samantha Swan is in the house!

 

 

Yes, Samantha has made it to Northern California and you can see by the temperatures we are having above that she brought the Vegas weather with her. We have been having a ball since she got here and Darla and I are going to bed earlier every night. You forget how much energy a 9 year old has and it is hard to keep up with her. 

 

Darla flew out early Thursday morning to Las Vegas and met Sam and her Mom in the airport. Jennifer was able to get a pass that allowed her to bring Sam to the gate. She met Darla as she got off the plane from Sacramento and they had bagels. Jennifer was off to work and Darla and Sam were off to a 1 stop trip in San Diego and then on to Sacramento. Sam wanted a window seat so they ended up sitting in the very back of the plane on the way to San Diego The problem was they had a tight connection and were worried they'd be running. It turns out the connection was the next gate over, so they were literally able to walk off one plane and right on to the other. I picked them up at the airport at about 1:30 on Thursday and we headed home. We were going to stop and get them some lunch, but Sam wanted to get into the pool, so Darla fixed her a PB&J at the house and we spent the afternoon in the pool. Thursday was the last of the cooler weather (it was 98 degrees!). We hit 102 on Friday, it was 106 yesterday and 108 today with similar temperatures due all week and a high of 110 degrees on Thursday. The pool is a welcome respite to the heat and it is sitting at 80 degrees, which is comfortable.

 

Sam has camp all week and they are suspending their outdoor activities this week because of the heat and the AQI (Air Quality Index). They do have a trip to the Folsom Aquatic park on Thursday and to a trampoline center on Tuesday.  We right now only have Sam signed up for morning camp, but will let her decide if she want to go all day after the first day.

 

She went to church with us today and went to Sunday School and made some friends. She enjoyed the music and the teachers. The church had it's annual Father's Day car show today and we met Neil and Lilly at the church to look at the cars. Neil was interested in the classic Mustangs and was very interested in a 66 Cobra that was on display. Sam got a butterfly painted on her arm (She's too old for face painting!), had a couple of balloon animals made and played in the bounce houses. It was hot today at the church and was over 100 by the time we headed home at 11:30. Sam did get a picture with a female CHP officer who was at the car show to meet the kids.

 

Yesterday we had hoped to get together with Luke, Alicia and Don, but they had plans with friends. One of Darla's good friends has a granddaughter who is 8 and a head taller than Sam. We were able to get her to visit on Saturday and went to Folsom Lake and let the kids play there. It was 106 degrees on Saturday, but felt cooler at the lake. Sam and Riley played in the water, hung out and ate snacks at the beach and bugged us to go home to the pool about two hours into the visit. It took a lot to get ready and it was $12 to get into the lake, so we made them stay about four hours and then they got some pool time at home. You can see the pictures above.

 

The picture of the ice cream running out of the trash can is from Friday when Darla stopped and got Sam an ice cream on the way home from running errands. Sam wanted to go in the pool and told Gramma she was done with her ice cream. Darla told her to wrap it up and throw it in the trash. Sam got the throw it away part, but laid it on the top of the trash and it melted all over the place. Kids.

 

We will have Trico painting out tomorrow to start our cabinet refacing. The job is supposed to be done by Thursday and we leave for Almanor on Saturday.  The timing is not great with Sam here as they will shut down our kitchen, the two house bathrooms (our Master bath will remain open), our garage (which will  be the refinishing area and paint room) and our utility room. I'm taking the jet ski in for Summerizing on Tuesday and I then usually put the ski in the garage until we leave. I'll have to have David help me pull it from the side yard tomorrow and then put it back Tuesday night and haul it out again Friday. The side yard behind the shed is a great place to store the ski, but there is an incline to the street and the ski weighs close to 1,000 pounds. I need his help to pull it out and put it away. It's also a hassle as we will have to do without our kitchen and washer and dryer. Not ideal with a trip upcoming, but we will make do.

 

I really enjoyed church today. We are studying the beatitudes and the pastor had a great story of compassion today. Fiorello La Guardia was the 99th mayor of New York City and was mayor during the great depression. He was well known to show up at Fire houses and make runs with the firemen and at police stations and ride long with the officers even into the grittiest part of the city. He would also show up at night court and often excuse the judge and send him home and he would preside over the court for the evening. It was on one such night that La Guardia was presented with a case of an older woman who was in charge of her grandchildren and was caught stealing a loaf of bread from the market and was facing the court that night. She explained that her grandchildren were starving and she only did it to feed them. The shop keeper refused to drop the charges and told La Guardia that he needed to punish her as an example to others as crime was high in the neighborhood, especially during the depression..  La Guardia told the woman that he had to punish her and told her that he would set a fine of $10 or 10 days in jail. He then reached in his wallet and paid the $10 himself. He then went on to say, "I am going to fine everyone in this court 50 cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread to feed her grandchildren". The total collected was $47.50 and it was given to the bewildered woman who had shown up to be tried for stealing a loaf of bread. Included in that amount was 50 cents from the shop keeper and money from over 70 petty criminals who were in court for minor violations like traffic fines. The mayor  got a standing ovation from the crowd. 

 

Well, as I mentioned, we are off to Almanor on Saturday, so I will be back at this around July 4th with pictures and stories of our lake house vacation. Sam will return to Sacramento with us and Diane will pick her up on that Sunday night and fly her to Dallas. Until then, be well. Ciao.

Back from Mexico and the computer is back with a new motherboard

 

The blog took an actual week off last week as we were gone and my laptop was in for repairs and ultimately required a new motherboard. The whole cost was close to what I paid for the laptop, but I have a lot of things on the computer that I wanted to save and I was already in to the technician for $199. It was another $135 for the motherboard. The real hassle with getting a new motherboard is that Microsoft considers it a new computer and will shut down Windows and Office if you can't prove that you bought it. I couldn't with Office as I had lost the Activation code and ended up upgrading to Office 2016 from Office 2013. My company is part of the Home Use Program with Microsoft and I was able to buy the upgrade for $9.95. Windows came on the laptop when I bought it and the code is stored in the computer.

 

Sammy will be here this week and we have her in Sports Camp in church starting next Monday. She is now a 4th grader and finished the year in the GATE program, which is for Exceptional students. She also received an award for getting straight As. I'm very proud of her. Darla will fly to Vegas Thursday morning, meet Sam and Jennifer at the airport and then hop a flight back to Sacramento. We will spend a week with her and then head up to Lake Almanor with the family. We plan a lot of fun activities with her while she is here. She will spend Father's Day with us and go to a car show at our church. We worked the show last year, but will just attend it this year. We also plan to take her to the Placer County Fair.

 

Our weather has been unseasonably cool of late, in fact the high was 69 degrees today (normal high for June 11 is 85 degrees). Sam will feel at home when she gets here though as the weather is warming up. We will hit 100 on Thursday and the forecast is for 102 and 103 through the weekend and in to Monday.

 

I took advantage of my shoulder injury (no golf) and the good weather this weekend and built a new air conditioner enclosure. The prior homeowner had an enclosure that was set in the ground with 4x4's and it was mostly ruined when I had to pull it out when we had a new air conditioner put in 5 years ago. I "joe mcgeed" it back together and had lived with it, but finally tore it all out this spring when I redid the patio stain. I had bought one online, but it was a white plastic unit that was held together with rebar and looked like a mess. I pulled that out and went to Home Depot and bought some wood and put together a new one. I also bought a drill guide that allows me to make pocket screw insets in the wood. That is a nice toy. The result looks nice. I built the enclosure on Saturday and put the first coat of stain on it today

 

I also trimmed all of the palms as the new growth of fronds is coming in and they were due to be trimmed. You can see the pictures of the enclosure and the palm garden above the pool. I also trimmed back the tree on the deep end of the pool. It had some sort of bug that was causing it to spray and that spray was going into the pool and staining the plaster. I trimmed it back and sprayed it with an insecticide.

 

The golf club played a two day event this weekend in Auburn at two of my favorite away courses. It was tough to miss, but I will be back in action in July and we have plenty of golf left this Summer. I will play my first round of golf next week at Granite Bay Country Club. I have a certificate for a foursome that I won last year and it runs out this month. I will be rusty and actually won't be able to start swinging the driver until next weekend, but the certificate is worth about $225, so I want to use it. I may only play 9 holes or drop the ball in the fairway and play it in from there. I'll see how I feel. My first tournament back will be Morgan Creek on the 15th of July. We will be in Almanor for the Firecracker and the Senior 2 man qualifier.

 

Mexico was a great trip. We stayed at the All Inclusive Hard Rock Resort in Riviera Maya, near Cancun and Playa Del Carmen in Mexico.  We stayed on the Adults Only side, which isn't decadent or topless or anything, it just excludes kids. There is a kid's side that we could access, but no one under 18 was allowed on the Heaven side. I was amazed at how many families were at the resort. The resort includes 9 restaurants, the best of which were Zen, a Teppanyaki restaurant; Ipanema, a Brazilian steakhouse; and Toro, a fine dining steakhouse.

 

Touchstone, unfortunately, had a four night, five day trip planned and expected us to spend two of those nights at a buffet dinner that they hosted. We did the first night and the food was...well, buffet food. The last night we went to Toro and had a great rib eye steak and then went to the Touchstone event and just had a salad. The all inclusive was great. I noticed on the cruise that you guys had to chase down the waiters or wait in line for drinks. At the resort, as soon as your glass was half empty, the waiter was there with another drink for you. I was really impressed with the service, the food and the staff. Plus, the resort had wild monkeys, mongoose and tiny raccoons. Darla and I were on the hunt for monkeys the whole trip to get a picture for Sam, but the best we could do was a mongoose, who snuck into a grove of trees behind where we were sitting at the pool. Those around us said, "a monkey just walked into the trees behind your chairs". They were wrong as the picture above shows. The mongoose has a tail like a monkey. I did see a monkey when I was returning from the pool, but he flashed by me and was into the bushes before I could get out my phone.

 

Darla lost her brand new I phone 7 plus on the trip. We were walking back from the pool and she realized that it was missing. We backtracked, but couldn't find it. We went to the concierge and he had us turn on our Phone Finder App and the phone started chirping and we turned around and one of the maintenance guys had found the phone and was bringing it to lost and found. That app is great. You can lock the phone and it sends a message to call my phone when found.

 

The resort had a lot of music and bars and we enjoyed ourselves. There was a Beatles band and a tribute to Michael Jackson, as well as a Selena signer and a three piece band that played all 80s-90"s music and I have a picture of Darla dancing with  the lead guitarist. The picture of Jim Morrison was in one of the bars and his hair is made of vinyl records. There was also a Swarovski store and Darla really wanted a necklace they had for $299. I was able to keep from pulling that trigger helped immensely by the thousands of dollars of Silpada and Touchstone jewelry in her possession now.

 

You can also see the pictures of Darla with the two parrots. There was a handler and photographer walking around with the parrots and getting pictures and selling them like they do on cruises. I told her to take the picture and I'd get a shot on my phone. The handler is pretty good as he blocks anyone from getting pictures. She ended up buying the professional shots anyhow. Darla also had a two hour massage while we were onsite. We had considered going on an excursion, but with Sam coming and Almanor coming up, we decided to save money.

 

We were back in church today and then went out for breakfast afterward in downtown Sacramento. Darla had to drop off some jewelry and we took a drive and had a nice meal as well. We weren't far from David's hood, but he and Miya are in San Diego this weekend. It was great to be in church and we listened to the Sermon on the Mount. Harry Truman said of that scripture.."I don't believe that

there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the sermon on the mount." Powerful. Looking forward to seeing how Sam enjoys her camp. They do a lot of water sports and some worship as well. 

 

Well, I'll be back at this next weekend with pictures and stories of Sam's visit with her grandparents. I hope everyone is well. Ciao.