Christmas Eve 2017

 

 

Samson is back after his neuter surgery on Friday. He was pretty drugged up on Friday night and we had to put his E collar on. He stumbled around and hit his head on everything. He was slow to come out of the drug haze and when we put him to bed he stood facing the rear wall with his cone on and wouldn't lie down. Darla and I were laughing, but finally got him to lay down and sleep.

 

We were at the Candlelight service this morning at church and enjoyed the Christmas carols and the message. We stopped after church at PetSmart to see if we could get Samson a new inflatable collar as the cone is really a hazard for him and for us. Unfortunately they didn't have the right size for him. I called around to other stores and we found one at PetCo and Darla ran over to the store and picked one up. You can see the difference between the two. It was amazing. "Was" is the key word because we watched him lay down and start licking his stitches around his junk. $37 was a waste. Darla will return the collar tomorrow. When I say the collar is a hazard for us, it is because he can't see around himself with the collar on. He climbs up on the couch (with his feet on the ground) and lays on my lap. When he hears something or needs to see, he whips his head around and smacks me with the hard plastic collar. We were so hoping the new collar would work because he can eat and drink with it on. We have to take the plastic collar off to let him eat. He could see around him with the inflatable on. It was great, but the whole reason he is wearing it is to keep him out of the incision and let it heal up.

 

He is much better now and handling his cone better. He still walks into things and startles himself and takes off running. I can't let him in the backyard by himself. I'm afraid he'll stumble over a patio light or something and hurl himself into the pool. I was cleaning the pool on Saturday and he was tight roping along the pool deck and I was afraid he was going swimming. I finally put him inside so I could finish the job. I also changed out the patio light in the back and put in an infrared security light with two high beam spotlights, one shining on the potty area and the other on the spa area.

 

We woke up this morning a little later as we were off to the 10:30 service for church. I went out to start my car and it was dead. I had noticed it was a little hard cranking the last couple of days and figured something was wrong. I was praying it wasn't the alternator. We drove Darla's truck to church and called AAA when we got home. They sent out a battery tech and they got here right as the Cowboy game was starting. It indeed was the battery and I had changed it out back in 2013 when it failed me at work. With the computers in cars nowadays the average life of a car battery is 4-5 years. My battery was a AAA battery and had a 6 year warranty. AAA waives the first three months, so I got $50 off the price of a replacement and paid $139 for this one. Hey, Merry Christmas to me.

 

Darla and I were not buying Christmas presents for each other this year until this week when our TV decided to give up the ghost. We sat down Thursday night to a delicious meal of steak and rice (one of my favorite meals that Mom made when I was a kid).Darla and I eat at the table in the family room at the couch. The table has a leaf that lifts up and we sit on the leather couch and share our day with one another. We'll then turn on a program as it is usually after 7 by the time we get dinner on the table. Thursday it was a shock when the TV wouldn't turn on. There was a light flashing that said LAMP. One of the back light lamps had failed and needed to be replaced. Of course, I jumped on the internet and bought a new one. We had a 55 inch DLP HD TV from 2009 and I saw this as a sign that I needed to upgrade to a new Ultra HD Smart TV. We also upgraded to a 65 inch.

 

The old one was about 18 inches deep and the new one is less than three inches. It seems humongous to Darla and I although its only 10 inches larger. The picture is incredible and we got a deal on a 2017 closeout. We had wanted to buy a 65 inch Samsung as our old one was so good. We ordered it and I got a call from the store that they were down to the floor model. They would knock $50 off. I was going to cancel it, but the guy told me about a Sony Bravia 65 inch that was being closed out. It was regularly $1499 marked down to $998 and they were knocking $200 off as long as you bought a $180 three year warranty. I actually got the Sony for $20 less than the Samsung WITH a 3 year warranty. You can see in the pictures above the old one on the floor along with the new one in a box and then on the stand working. The driver for Frys actually took our old one away without charging us.

 

I was able to watch Dallas lose today on the new TV and in spite of their sloppy play it was incredible to see the game on the larger screen. Dak Prescott had his worst game as a Cowboy and Dez Bryant had a hissy fit and then fumbled a ball and had another glance off his hands and into a defender's for a pick six. Dallas basically gave the game away with 21 points off of turnovers as they lost 21-12. I'm not upset as the team really wasn't a championship team this year. The offensive line was hurt by the retirement of Doug Free, the loss of Ronald Leary in free agency to Denver and the constant injury woes of Tyron Smith. Dallas still has a great offensive line, but they are much worse without Smith. Hopefully we can address the defensive line and linebacker positions in the draft this year as well as shore up the offensive line with the draft and free agency.

 

I played golf Saturday morning over at Woodcreek with Paul, Bryan and Bryan's brother, Steve. Steve is a first responder with Cal Fire in Auburn, a fire captain and at the age of 53 just retired with a full pension after 30 years of service. Steve shot 79, Bryan shot 82, Paul 84 and I shot 88, with a 42 on the back side. Paul and I will team up next weekend in the Holiday Classic at Woodcreek. It is a 2 day event Saturday and Sunday. I will get out on Wednesday again at Woodcreek for a round with Ron and Pete for a holiday sports marketing outing and another day of practice for the Classic. Steve who is now retired will join Pete, Ron and I. Steve and Ron know each other from the club.

 

Darla and I are hosting John and Camille, Charlie and Frieda and Ron and Lizanne for New Years Eve. We are cooking a prime rib and will play pool, games and watch the fun from Times Square on our new TV. Darla was feeling drab and having issues with Samson and was coming out of her funk when we invited everyone and then the surgery brought her back down. She wanted to cancel the dinner, but we are going through with it and I will help her clean the house and with cooking. My golf is a 9 AM shotgun both days next weekend, so I should be home by 2. Pray for us.

 

Work continues to wind down for the year and I'm busy with budgeting, reviews and year end

issues. The Personal Lines candidate met with Harvey and we want to hire her, but we have concern in that she has never done any marketing calls before. Pete and I will meet with her and really hone in on the marketing side. Her current company hires separate marketing reps that do the agency calls. She has been on a few calls, but we will really zero in on her comfort level with the process. I'll probably offer her a job. We also lost another Assistant who has decided to buy a pool cleaning business from a friend of his. He is getting a turn key business with a client list and all of the tools and supplies. I now need another Assistant and frankly, I was looking for a second assistant for this underwriter. Now, she has none.

 

Well. I will add pictures from Christmas and New Years and work on the blog next year. Monday to be exact. I hope you are all well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Ciao.

 

 



Samantha's 10th Birthday this week!

A good weekend in the books. I see that Jennifer hosted a birthday party for Samantha at the Adventurdome at Circus Circus in Las Vegas. Sam at one time thought that we lived at Circus Circus, because everytime we saw her in Las Vegas, we were staying there. We liked it because we could take her to the circus acts and then later to Adventuredome, which is an indoor amusement park. It looks like Sam and her friends had a great day and who wouldn't? I also see that John was there as well, which is healthy for Sam. We will check in with them tonight

 

I took Friday off and played in the In and Out event with the golf club. We do an annual breakfast for the incoming and outgoing board members and then all play golf afterward. This year Brian set the event up at the Timber Creek Golf Club here in Roseville. We got John an outgoing gift as President and he received a dozen AVX Titleist golf balls. a Crown Royal holiday pack and a personal bottle of Three Ships single malt 10 year old whiskey. Not a bad haul.

 

We had 13 players and played a blind draw two man game and a separate skin game for a $10 buy in. There was $125 in the pot as one of the guys was knocked out on the blind draw as we had to have even teams. I played great on the front side and terrible on the back side. I shot 42+47=89, but managed to not only win two skins for $18, but also won the blind draw for $21. Amazingly, my partner shot 83 as a 5 handicap, so we didn't expect to win, but "ham and egged" it on a best ball. I had 18 strokes, so shot a net 71. Harry, my partner said that he tripled the final hole, a par 5 and I parred it for a net birdie. That was the difference. I had a blast.

 

Saturday, I had a tee time at 8:52 at Woodcreek on Saturday and John, Paul and I planned to play. The wind was supposed to come up during the day and be fairly strong in the afternoon. When I woke up, the wind was already howling and I could see leaves in the pool from the roof. The leaves by the way are done and down in both my yard and in the park across the street. I did have quite a few leaves hanging in the valleys of the roof, but those heavy winds cleared that right up.

 

I got up and headed to the course. As I was driving over there were trees blown down, branches all over and leaves swirling in the roadway. I parked in the lot and got out of the car and popped the trunk and the wind blew it shut. It was a biting, cold wind and I headed back to the car. John called. He was in the pro shop and his hat had blown off and he'd just chased his cart that got caught by a wind sheer that blew his cart toward the parking lot. He was debating whether to play. I went into the shop and 90% of the tee times had already cancelled. I soon joined them. I think if I hadn't played on Friday, I might have given it a go. John is retired and can play any time. Paul was running late, but showed up right at our tee time. I sent him a text and told him John and I were in the restaurant. I bought John breakfast. Paul showed up and was anxious to play, so headed over to Diamond Oaks, which is a little more protected, which is good in the wind, but bad for freezing.

 

John and I enjoyed a good breakfast and some fellowship, talking about life and his new home that he will move into in April. We decided to drive over and see the model and his home that is just getting the roof installed. He bought a 2600 square foot 4 bedroom, 4 bath home at the age of 66. His wife is 59 and still working as a high level manager with PG&E. She was actually in San Francisco as PG&E had their holiday party at the Sir Francis Drake hotel. John had oral surgery early last week and wasn't sure how he'd be feeling, so Camille took a girlfriend to the party and they spent the night. I'm happy for him, but I'm glad I'm not taking on a 15 or thirty year mortgage at the age of 60. The home is beautiful, but has a zero lot line footprint and a small backyard.

 

I made an offer to the underwriter in Stockton on Thursday and she accepted the position on Friday. She will start work for me on the 2nd and will be commuting to Roseville from Stockton for six months. It is the first new underwriting position that I have added in three years. The last was a second underwriter in Personal Lines. I look forward to seeing some growth over the next couple of years.

 

We have our office Christmas party on Monday and will do a gift exchange. I had a 50% off coupon at Ace and needed to get some fertilizer, so picked up a Magnum flashlight as my gift. I also went out this week and bought $50 gift cards for each of the employees. We will draw numbers and pick a gift card and then a gift. The next person will pick a gift card and then either pick another gift or steal the first one. There can be two steals and then the gift is locked. We have a pot luck with a brunch theme. I went out last week and bought a flat of 5 dozen eggs. We will have pancakes, waffles, eggs, coffee cake, fruit, etc. It should be fun and I'll get a few pictures. I've included our 2017 office Christmas photo as well as a couple of pictures of my staff at the Insurance Broker's Christmas party on Tuesday.

 

 

There is a big game tonight with Oakland and Dallas and I finished the blog early in order to sit and enjoy it. I added two pictures of our Christmas tree this year. With the dog, we decided not to put up the tree, so Darla bought a table tree this year that is sitting in our kitchen dining area. Have a great week and wish Sammy a Happy Birthday. It is Janelle's birthday as well this week.

 



Back to Normalcy around here, and Samson is Home!!

Good times at the Roseville Lyon home as Samson has returned from his exile in Wheatland. A couple of thoughts here. Our Trainer, Dale, said that Samson was one of the most stubborn dogs that he has encountered in his twenty five years of training dogs. He was supposed to train him on heel, stay, sit, down, come, and a few other commands. Samson was so hard to train that he ended up training him on heel and sit only. We bought the shock collar from him and have had to use it on our walks as he still pulls and strays, but one push of the "nick" button and he bolts back to your left thigh and hugs your side. He is really very good unless there are people we encounter on our walk or other dogs. I have his leash in one hand and the controller in the other when we walk. We are keeping his collar on and using the nick feature if he climbs up on counters or gates or the sliding door. He is learning quickly. It is really good to have him home and have him under better control.

 

Darla took him in Saturday and had him bathed, groomed and his nails trimmed. You can see the picture of him sleeping in his bed in the family room with his Merry Christmas bandana on. He is REALLY happy to be home and back to his toys and treats and being spoiled by Darla and I. He has been really good since we got back and he had not gotten into any trouble until today. We sat home and watched football today and he was up every five minutes ringing the bell to go out. I finally got tired of it and put him out at about 4:30 an left him out for about 45 minutes. I opened the door to let him in and he had plants lined up that he had leaves and branches rom plants that he had pulled off. I have to be outside with him and catch him chewing up the plants and then zap him. He is smart and knows that when he gets zapped not to repeat whatever it is he was doing. The collar has a vibration feature that simply reminds him that he has the collar on and if I'm calling him or telling him to come or whatever that he better listen. We bought the bandana to cover the shock collar as there are likely some liberals in the neighborhood that would feel that a shock collar is cruel and unusual punishment. They are also the people whose house is wrecked by their kids and out of control animals. I can see a huge change in Samson and know that he will learn quickly and the collar will be retired as soon as he "gets it".

 

Friday afternoon I left work at 2 PM and Darla and I made the thirty minute ride to Wheatland to pick up Samson. We met Dale at the gate and he told us to wait in the car and he'd get Samson. He brought him out and walked the property with him and we were amazed to see Samson walking right on Dale's hip the whole way around the property. He had his collar on and Dale was constantly stopping and changing direction and Samson stuck to him like glue. He then let us come out of the car and approach Samson, but made sure he stayed calm and didn't jump up or go crazy, which was probably the most impressive thing for me as Samson is usually losing his mind. Dale told us that he didn't once :nick" Samson while he was walking him or while we approached him. The point is that Dale had him trained to obey him. The key is can we duplicate that?  Darla took the leash and walked Samson around the property and he stayed right on Darla's side. Dale was showing us how to change direction and make sure that Samson sticks with us. Now is the challenge and we have to follow up on his training. He could have bolted at any time, but for the fear of the collar around his neck. We will continue to remind him who is boss and make sure that he sticks with his training.

 

Dale had made a big deal about Darla not paying, but I think his frustration with Samson's strong will ended that. Darla had me work with Dale on the payment and I ended up paying the full $600 for training and $250 for the collar. I guess friendship only goes so far. I was going to insist on paying him anyway, so its all cool.

 

Friday night Darla really wanted me to stay home with her and Samson, but I had poker and told her that I'd go over for at least a couple of hours. I got there at 7 PM and was getting killed for most of the night. I won a few pots here and there, but by 9 PM I was down about $50 and was thinking of heading home. I decided to hang on until ten and then started to win. I ended up winning the pot of the night that was about $80 and some side money for about $30 and actually walked out of there at 10:00 up about $55. I will host poker in January.

 

I was happy to be home to hang out with Darla and Samson, who was laying on our bed and Darla was actually asleep when I got home. She woke up and we watched a couple of programs and put Samson to bed about 11:30. He seemed thrilled to be back inside the house with blankets, pillows, treats and toys. I had early golf the next morning with Ron, Paul and Bryan, so it was good to get to bed relatively early. Ron was playing poker the night before and said they went to almost 12:30.

 

I played golf Saturday from the blue tees for the first time in awhile. We can pick the men's tees or the championship tees at our club and I choose to play the men's tees so I can have a shorter second shot to the green. It was a great day, but we got started about 45 minutes late because of a frost delay. It got down to about 35 degrees overnight, but the low-lying areas of the course tend to get colder than that and several of the greens had frost on them. It was a cloudless day and the sun did its' job and we were out by about 8:45. Bryan shot 76, Paul shot 79, Ron shot 90 and I had 44+43=87. I play golf Friday in our annual club In and Out tournament which brings together the current board along with the incoming board. We will have breakfast at 7:30 at Timber Lodge over at the Roseville Sun City complex and then play golf at the Timber Creek golf course. I think we had dinner with Dad and Shirley one year at Timber Lodge.

 

I think I will also set up golf at the other Sun City course for Saturday as I have a certificate for a free round that I have to use up before the end of the year. That is the Lincoln Hills course of which there ate actually two, the Oaks and the Hills courses. My certificate is for the Hills course, so there we will play.

 

Work is going well. We had a really good month in November and beat our budget on both the top and bottom line. I was able to buy the office lunch on the same day that we did our gingerbread house contest. We had names drawn and worked in teams of two or three and built the gingerbread houses. We picked the theme and brought in things to use in making the house. My house was a Golf Pro Shop and we built the house, put up a sign made from Melba toast, added a putting green and parking spots including one for the "Employee of the Month" that ended up being Jack from Jack in the Box in a red convertible. We didn't win the contest. The beach house did and I have pictures of both. I got a couple of shots of the teams working on the houses. I was disappointed in the profit for the month as we had a Bad Faith claim that came in last month and although it is focused on the agent and we had nothing to do with the complaint, we have to respond and we put up a $25,000 reserve that comes right out of my profit, so rather than a $55,000 profit, we show only $30,000. I'll get it back, but it won't likely close until next year.

 

It looks like we will make an offer to an underwriter to work for us in the Stockton area. She actually was referred to me from our Daytona Beach Manager. I have a position open for an Assistant Underwriter. I knew as soon as I interviewed her that she would not be a good Assistant candidate, but a good Underwriter possibility. She worked as an Assistant at another wholesaler for the Daytona Beach manager in Stockton and he promoted her to Underwriter where she worked for four years. The DB Manager that referred her told me that she was "hands down" the BEST employee he ever had.  She has been away from the wholesale side for six years and has been working for a retailer in Stockton as an Office Manager. We have very light penetration in the Stockton area because there are two wholesalers that are domiciled in Stockton. She knows a lot of agents, showed up for her interview with Harvey with a two year business plan and basically wowed them. The biggest issue we have is that she lives in Stockton and will need to commute to Roseville (about an hour commute) for the first six months. Harvey had me do a six month training module for her and I actually have her in the office for four months and then slowly bleeding off to full time at her home in Stockton. Pete and I will travel to Stockton and make marketing calls with her. They should be making an offer this week.

 

I am continuing to interview for a new Personal Lines Underwriter to take Linda's place. I've probably met with over 10 candidates so far and we are being really picky about who we bring in. I met with an underwriter from a competitor last week and we had reached out to her on Linked In to see if she was interested. She has been there for 14 years, but they are downsizing and although she would keep her job, she is frustrated with the agents discomfort with that companies' changing appetite. Most of her calls recently with her retailers have been with her agents unhappy. She is interested and will meet with Harvey either next week or in the New Year. It was an interesting interview for me, because she was as much interviewing us as we were interviewing her. She liked a lot of what she heard from us especially that we work as a team and her e-mails are handled when she is out of the office. In her current job, if she takes a week off, she comes back to a pile of work.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will be back at the keyboard next weekend. Sam's 10th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. I included her 4th grade school picture for you to see. Have a great week. Ciao.

 

 

 



Globetrotting to Canada, Monterey and back to Sacramento

 

 

A busy and chaotic travel schedule last week and I'd only do that for my Dad, Shirley, Jennifer, McKenny and especially Samantha. The top picture is of Samson's home the past two weeks as he is in Obedience school. The venue is nice out in the country, but also pretty barren as he wasn't even allowed a blanket or toy in his kennel as the owner won't take on the responsibility of the dog chewing it up and ingesting it. I understand, but the pup is such a toy hound that he must be going nuts. I'm sure he thinks we have abandoned him by now as we dropped him off last Monday and won't pick him up until this Friday afternoon. Darla is absolutely heartbroken that he is gone, but I'm sure he will return a new and better dog for the experience. I talked to Dale yesterday and he said that Samson is really coming along on his training an he has him off the leash and walking right by his side as he walks the farm. Dale was also surprised at how little Samson knew as far as come, fetch and heel. When he said that to me, I told him that's what we are paying you for. Friday can't come soon enough as we really miss the little guy.

 

So we dropped him off Monday morning and when we pulled up to the gate of the farm, we called a number that was posted and no one answered. We waited about ten minutes and we saw a bike heading down the path from the main house. It was a tall lanky older man, who looked like something out of Deliverance. We hadn't seen Dale in about fifteen years and he looked familiar, but had he aged that much? It turns out it was Dale's father who helps out in the kennels. We met Dale up at the house and toured the kennel. It was pretty grim with about ten dogs all placed in small crates and the crates were rocking back and forth as the dogs barked. I almost lost Darla at that point, but we signed the paperwork and handed Samson over for his training. Dale trains hunting dogs as well and had about six hunting dogs in residence and his program lasts three months for the hunting dogs and costs over $2000. He also offers a Duck hunting only course for nine weeks at $1500. He knows dogs and dog training so I look forward to seeing how our dog does.

 

Tuesday we were up early and off to Canada via Seattle. We flew in about 9:30, collected our rental, A Kia Soul like McKenny has, and drove on to Canada, about a two hour drive. It was raining and we stopped at the border to buy Dad a handle of Canadian Club. I stopped at the second Duty Free and the larger bottles are at the first store. I walked in the rain to get the booze as you can't backtrack once in the Duty Free area. More on that later. We got to Surrey about 12:30 and enjoyed a hot bean soup that Shirley had cooked up. She had a turkey for dinner and we were able to visit with Cam and Kathy and Al and Sherry over dinner. Tyler came over for dinner as well. It was a fun night and good conversation with the Millers and Nowakowskis.

 

Wednesday morning was almost a complete disaster for me as I got up to take my shower and noticed a bath mat to put down in the tub to keep from slipping. Unfortunately I placed it down while the tub had running water and when I got in, it slipped like a skim board and I went down like a sack of oranges, crashing through the curtain and on to the floor of the bathroom. I'm sure it sounded like a plane hit the house to Dad and Shirley downstairs. Darla came in as I was rolling around on the floor like a turtle turned on it's back. I honestly don't know how I kept from cracking my head on the toilet or breaking my back or butt when I landed. It all happened  so fast. One minuet I was stepping into the shower and the next I was on the floor with the shower curtain and rod on top of me. I was sure that I would end up with a stiff back and not be able to walk the next day, but the hand of God was on my shoulder and I was fine.

 

That start to the day should have indicated that it was a good day to stay in bed. Instead, we loaded up and headed to White Rock.. Dad took the Cadillac even though I offered to drive. On the way I mentioned that Darla had never seen the Peace Arch. Dad said we could drive to the border, park and walk to the Peace Arch Park. Dad was looking for "Zero Avenue", which we never found. He pulled into the Duty Free to ask them for directions. As we pulled in there were spike strip and signs posted that you could not pull back out. Obviously the Duty Free is not available to Canadian citizens to shop and drive back home. We pulled out of the shop and up to the US border as we were all close to panicking. Darla had our passports, but Dad and Shirley hadn't prepared for a foray into the US. We found a side street that took us back to the Canadian side and breathed a sigh of relief until we realized that we were heading right to the Canadian border. We were in Purgatory. Dad pulled up to the border and we waited for the one car to finish their business. Unfortunately Dad did not wait for the light to turn green and pulled up to the booth. There we met an officious little woman who chewed Dad out for not waiting for the light to turn green. He explained our dilemma and her response was, "That still doesn't give you the right to run a red light." Wow, I was afraid to see Dad and Shirley strip searched for running a red light. The woman grilled them about where they were born and what our business was in the US. Dad explained again that we never entered the US. She told him to open the trunk and searched it finding a tin of rolled US pennies. She checked it out, but shut the lid and sent us on our way. We not only enjoyed our fish and chips at the Beach House in White Rock, but said thanks for nor being thrown in jail for running a red light at the border.

 

The rest of our trip was fun as we went to the 99 Nursery and saw the Christmas decorations and then went Thursday night to Al and Sherry's for a pot roast and all the fixins. Dad and I watched the Dallas Cowboy game later and I headed to bed about 10:30 as Friday was a marathon. Dad sat and watched the Cannuck game as Darla and Shirley kibitzed.

 

Friday we were up for Shirley's monkey bread and then on the road by 9 for our flight from Seattle to Sacramento. We arrived in Sac at 4:30 and had already packed Darla's truck with about $7500 worth of her jewelry inventory under black tablecloths. Luckily nothing had been disturbed and we were on the road to Monterey and in town by 8:00 PM. We were able to get a two bedroom hotel room at the Comfort Inn in Monterey and it was comfortable for all five of us. We kind of got our wires crossed as McKenny had plans Saturday to drive to the Bay and sell some of his records at the local record shops. We had thought we were going to all visit Monterey and Pacific Grove, but McKenny was up the next morning and off to San Jose at 9 AM. Darla and I took Jennifer and Sam to our favorite breakfast place in Pacific Grove, Toasties,  for breakfast. From there we went to the butterfly sanctuary in PG. It was a bit anticlimactic, but luckily the docents had a digital telescope trained on the neighbor's eucalyptus tree that was housing about 200 butterflies all grouped together for warmth and security. From there we drove over to the Pacific Grove golf course and saw a family of about six deer walking up the 9th fairway. We got out to take pictures and Sam ran to the fence. There was a foursome on the hole and Sam went back to the car and had a little snit. I asked what was wrong and she said, "That golfer looked right at me and then chased the deer away." I had to explain to her that the golfers had paid to play and the deer were in their way. She wasn't pleased. The guy looked right at her and them shooed the deer away.

 

We stopped at the beach and watched the waves and Jennifer and Sam collected shells. Sam found a 15 foot long sea "something" and was dragging that around with her and we had to finally corral her and get her back to the car. We stopped at the cliffs and park in Pacific Grove and Jennifer and Sam walked down to the beach and took the picture of us staring down at them from the bluff. They walked the trail from the beach up to the cliff that the surfers use and came back up. We had to take Darla to her party in Marina and then drove back to Cannery Row and shopped the outlets. I bought Sam a new backpack, some candy and a pretzel. We stopped at a magic shop and the store owner spent about a half hour showing Sam magic tricks and we left the store with about $25 worth of magic tricks for her to use on her friends.

 

We picked Darla up and heeded back homeward bound. We stopped in Stockton and met McKenny at the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Sam couldn't wait to show her magic tricks and we had some laughs at the table.

 

McKenny left Sunday morning for a DJ marathon at the radio station at Stanford University that ran from 4PM to 6AM Monday morning. He dropped Jen and Sam at Bill's house in Folsom and they drove up to Nevada City to see the Christmas decorations. They even had dinner at the same restaurant we ate at with Steve the week before. I played golf and actually won my flight with an 85, net 69 which won me $48. I also won another $21 in skin money.  I am making a little comeback in golf and have another game set for this Saturday and then tournaments the next two weekends.

 

Jen and Sam got home about 5:30 and we had lasagna for dinner and then invited Jordan next door over and Sam and she went in the spa which you can see in the pictures. It was a great visit and McKenny did a great job with his record sales and his marathon. He got back here about 8 AM and they were off for the 10 hour drive back to Vegas.

 

We certainly enjoyed our week and weekend with family and it was fun, exciting, fast paced and I was exhausted when it was all over. I finally got a good night's sleep Monday and Tuesday night. I think I'm good now. Dad and Shirley and Darryl and Cheryl are in Nuevo Vallarta at our resort there. It would be great to be there, but we need to save money for the wedding. I hope everyone is great. Be happy. Ciao.