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.