Tuesday, May 29, 2018

A Memorable Memorial Day

 





 
A little late, but here nonetheless. It was a great long weekend and I was able to get out for two days of golf, a concert at a winery, a barbecue with friends and a day working on, in and by the pool.
 
The pictures. The top is of Darla's space at the winery for her Opulenza jewelry. The second is of Darla at John and Camille's barbecue on Sunday. (I took this picture over my head while I was sitting on the couch and she was at the bar behind me). The third picture is from breakfast at the Waffle Barn. The fourth is of the band at Jesse's Grove winery. The fifth and sixth are from Sammy at her soccer game and McKenny's artistry with the camera. The seventh is of Camille in the kitchen of her new house. The final picture is of the glow from the lava flow on the big island of Hawaii and the picture was taken from the back yard of our niece's house on the island. The lava flow is about six miles from her house. That picture was taken with her cell phone and you can make out the eyes of her neighbor's dog on the left side of the photo. Kind of creepy.
 
Golf went about as well as it could have gone. John called me Friday night when we were out to dinner with Darla's parents and sister and nephew. He had an opening in a foursome Saturday morning at 7:20 AM. I jumped on it and played with John, his son Jason and his neighbor, Alek, who is a contractor. I have been up and down in my game and played well on Saturday shooting 40+43=83. John played out of his mind and shot 40+40=80. John has improved so much since I first met him. He is Steve's cousin and joined us in Monterey for golf and shot a 126 about 10 years ago. He was embarrassed, but planning to retire in two years and get serious about his game. He is 66 now and the hard work is paying off. We had a beer afterward and were in the parking lot when Jason said, "I'll see you at the house tomorrow." I looked at John and it was apparent that there was an outing that I was excluded from. I laughed it off, but John called me that night while we were at the winery and invited Darla and I to his new house for a barbecue. I demurred and told him that his son's faux pas was funny and that I had golf in the tournament Sunday and would beg off. He told me that he'd already checked the tee times and that I could be to his house by four and he really wanted us to come and be a part of the fist party at his new home. I agreed.
 
Sunday, I played well again and shot 41+43=84 and tied for first, but lost on the back nine tie breaker I should have shot the 83 on Sunday instead of Saturday, but I'll take it. I've struggled a lot with this shoulder injury, rehab and just getting back to trusting my shoulder. I have started to swing much more naturally and have had several friends comment that it looks like my old swing is coming back. I have golf next Sunday in Reno at Wolf Run, the home course for the University of Nevada Reno Wolfpack. I'm looking forward to getting away with Darla.
 
We did head to John's and I was able to see some of the improvements (cement work, crown molding and pavers that Alek did at John's). Darla and I are looking to change out the sliders in the back of the house and the windows in our bedroom, the kitchen bay windows and the fourth bedroom. I would like Alek to do the work. He is a hard worker and has a family that lives in our neighborhood across the street from where John and Camille were renting. We met his wife and his two daughters. They are just a little younger than Sam, but we may invite them over when Sam is here.
 
Monday, Darla and I relaxed in the backyard. I power washed and cleaned the tile and back splash on the pool and then sealed that. I need to add another coat to the back splash next week. We leave for Reno Friday afternoon and will stay in Sparks at John Asquaga's Nugget. Darla and I will goof around together on Saturday and we golf Sunday morning and then head home.
 
I have a producer who is stepping down from her production role and I am moving her back onto another team as a main assistant. She has been at it for about 18 months, but just got married and they want to have children.. Pete lost an assistant recently and I was interviewing for a replacement. Theresa asked to speak to me and said that she and her husband were trying to have a baby and that when that occurs she wanted to step down from production. She was afraid that if I hired a new assistant and then she got pregnant that I would be a little peeved, so approached me now. I appreciate her honesty and her looking to do what is best for the office.
 
Darla was at a funeral tonight and is just arriving home so I will bring this to a close and wish you all well. The blog will be late again next week as we will be in Reno on holiday. Be well. Ciao.
 
 
 

Sunday, May 20, 2018

What a difference a day makes...24 little hours.










 
It was a busy week with May birthdays (Darla, David and Alicia), a Make a Wish reveal at our Insurance Association luncheon and the 2 day Zone Qualifier played over the weekend. I was also able to fit in re-staining the stamped concrete deck and I have finished half of the deck sealing. I will finish the rest this week and be ready for Memorial Day next weekend. I still need to work on the stone backsplash on the pool and the tile, but we are getting close to reopening the pool for the season.
 
The pictures. The top two are of the deck, the top one after the wet look sealer has been applied and the second one with just a fresh coat of stain. The next group are of Darla, David, Miya and I at Benihanas for the birthday dinners on Darla's birthday Wednesday night. The final pictures are of a Wednesday luncheon that we had with a reveal of a Make a Wish Disney cruise for Myles. There is a picture of Miles and his mother. He is 6 and has Childhood Leukemia. He is in remission, but has to continue chemo treatments for another year. There is a twist to this story in that Myle's mom also contracted cancer (breast cancer) as Miles was going through his treatments. They are now both in remission and will be picked up at their house by a limo and driven to the airport for their vacation. He was surprised and a total little boy. We also gave him a big wagon full of toys and he yelled out "I've already got a baseball mitt" when he saw one on the cache. The storm troopers were really cool and he really enjoyed the whole experience.
 
Paul and I teamed up in the 2 man Zone qualifier and we had an interesting experience. We played Saturday and shot a 30+33=63 to tie for third going into today. I played really well and made every putt. I shot 40+43=83 in the best ball event. We were both really thrilled with our play. Then, that 24 hours thing came up and what a difference. I left 6 putts on the lip and shot a 48+44=92 and the team shot a 36+35=71. One of the guys we played with on Saturday saw me this morning and said, "there goes the best putter in the club." Nope. I drained two putts of over 30 feet for birdies on Saturday. Two of my "lip" putts were under three feet today. I felt off from the time I got up. I had t run over to the office and pick up some tickets for the raffle at the IBA golf event Monday at Del Paso. I forgot them on Friday and have to be at the course at 8 AM tomorrow. I ran over there and then realized that I'd left my golf shoes at the house and had to run back home before getting to the course. I was a little dizzy the first few holes for some reason. Our lethargy cost us as we shot down the leaderboard and finished one shot out of 10th place and the money. It was a costly day. The guys we played with on Saturday had shot 67 and managed a 63 today and won $72. One stroke of improvement (one of those lip putts going in) would have made us $42. Ouch.
 
Darla shared with me yesterday that Don's (Alicias' husband) niece in Kansas was killed Friday night in a boating accident. The driver of the boat was 22 and had been drinking. They were boating at night at the Lake of the Ozarks and hit a rock bluff that ejected the passengers of the boat. The driver was able to climb back into the boat and row it to a dock. Three people (all young adults) were killed. The driver has been arrested and charged with Boating Wile Intoxicated related to the death of another person. One other young woman was critically injured. Don's niece Haylie was only 21 years old and divers recovered her body Saturday morning. Pray for the family.
 
There is not a lot of news to tell. Happy to see that the Vegas Knights have won their conference and will be in the Stanley Cup Finals. Apparently some hockey fans are upset that an upstart is in the Stanley Cup Finals, but too bad. You all gave up on the players that came together in Vegas to forge a formidable team.. I'd like to see them seal the deal. There are two $1000 bets at 200-1 outstanding in Vegas and both ticketholders have sold off part of the possible profits and have more than made their money back and they still own the majority of the windfall if they win. Nice.
 
Well, short and sweet this week. I have to handicap the Memorial event for next Saturday and we have close to 100 players signed up. Joy. Ciao.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, May 14, 2018

Oh Canada!



















Back from the Great Northwest and a fun weekend with Dad and Shirley following a fun conference in downtown Vancouver.  We flew in on Wednesday and it was one of those weeks where I got upgraded on things for no apparent reason. I had a Chrysler 300 reserved as I knew that we would pick up Dad and Shirley in the city on Friday and I wanted a comfortable car for them to drive in. When we got to the counter in Seattle to pick up the car, the agent told me they had a nice Dodge Challenger for us. What is it about car rental companies where you rent a specific car and they never have it? And who thinks a Challenger is equal to a 300? I told her that a Challenger would not work and I wanted a premium vehicle like I reserved. She offered me an Expedition for an extra $30 a day. Uh, NO. She said she could MAYBE get me an Explorer, but they had one that had just been turned back in and not serviced. She did have a Toyota Sequoia that is usually $25 more a day, but she could let me have it for $10 a day. I stood firm and she finally relented and let me take the Sequoia for the reserved price. The car is huge. It has a 5.7 liter V8. I had trouble parking the thing because of it's size. I had parked on Friday in a rooftop lot and the parking attendant had m move a block over to a basement garage lot because of the weight of the truck.
 
Darla and I drove up to the border and it was a comfortable drive. We stopped in Bellingham and got some cash and took a bathroom break. We crossed at the Peace Arch on I 5 and there were only two cars in front of us. We headed to White Rock and had an early dinner at the Boathouse restaurant overlooking the ocean. We split an order of fish and chips and had lam chowder and a Caesar salad. When it came time to pay, I realized that I had left my debit card in the machine in the parking lot. These new machines have you leave you card in the machine and the older machines had you "remove card quickly". Obviously I like those machines more. We checked with a couple of businesses as the card was gone. No one had turned it in. I finally called Chase and whoever found it had already called it in as lost. There are good people in the world and some of them live in Canada.
 
From there we drove up Highway 1 over the Granville bridge and in to Vancouver and checked into the Marriott Residence Inn on Hornsby. The hotel has underground parking and I had to maneuver the beast into a parking spot just outside the second roll up gate in the complex. I backed it in and had to negotiate around a support post. They could not get us on the 8th floor with the rest of the conference and upgraded us to a small suite on the 17th floor with a kitchen and a balcony overlooking the city.
 
The meeting is our annual planning meeting and we stay two days at the hotel in order to get in a four hour meeting and a dinner. The Marriott did not have meeting rooms, so we walked a half mile down to the University of British Columbia and met in their Law room. Alan had coffee and drink, but no food. Each year prior we had fruit and yogurt. Had I known, I'd have got up a little earlier and had breakfast at the Marriott buffet. I was famished by the time we got done with the meeting and Darla and I went straight to the White Spot on Granville and Drake for a Triple O burger and a shake.
 
Darla and I did relax in the afternoon and took a walk down Granville to the Mall area and she shopped. Surprise.
 
We had dinner that night and ate with our friends Jeff and Linda and one of the leaders of the WIAA agency, Stephen and his wife. Linda is the blonde to Darla's right and Jeff is sitting next to me at the table. We had dinner at Giordanno's on Hornby and had a great dinner. I worked with Jeff at Commercial Union in my first insurance job and we have known each other for almost 40 years. I meet quarterly with Jeff and another agent, Glen, who also worked at CU back in the day for lunch.
 
We invited Jeff and Linda to join us with Dad and Shirley on Friday, but they wanted to sightsee and we were having lunch at the Lonsbury Quay in North Van and then heading back to Surrey. They took off to Grouse Mountain and Capillano. We had breakfast with them and then met Dad and Shirley at the Steam Clock in Gastown. We hit a couple of shops and then walked to the Waterfront station and caught the Sea Bus ferry over to Lonsbury Quay on the North Vancouver waterfront. We had a nice dinner at Pier 7 on the water and then spent an inglorious 90 minutes with Darla and Shirley shopping. We drove back to Dad and Shirley's home in Surrey via the HOV lane and made it in less than 45 minutes, a record for a Friday afternoon.
 
We had our drinks and appetizers in the backyard on a glorious Canada Spring afternoon and then barbecued steak for dinner.
 
The Burns and Wilcox Brand Ambassadors in Professional golf, Jimmy Walker and Webb Simpson both had great weekends at the Player's Championship and I got to enjoy it with Dad as we taped the golf both Saturday and Sunday. Webb ended up winning the tournament by 5 strokes and Jimmy took second place and Burns and Wilcox was on parade as both players wear our logo on their shirts and Webb's caddy, Paul Tesori, wears our hat with a huge logo on the front. I think my boss had a GREAT weekend as both players were prominently featured on the telecast.
 
We did drive in to Fort Langley on Saturday and had ice cream and the girls...uh, shopped. The big winner was Samson as Darla bought him a couple of toys. In fact one of the toys was a leather bag that had a plastic water bottle sewn into it. I couldn't see that one lasting with our "power chewer". The shop proprietor insisted it would be a great buy. Well, five minutes and he had the thing torn open, the ears torn off it and the hair scattered everywhere. She also bought him a rubber squeaky toy that is still going strong.
 
We had dinner with Al and Sherry at their home and Al cooked a nice salmon and barbecued some chicken breasts. We hung out with their dog, Sprocket, and I was encouraged as some of his issues are the same as Samsons's.  It was a nice night.
 
Sunday we were invited to church with Matthew and met him in Abbotsford at 10 AM for service. His pastor had just got back from a conference in Sacramento and it turns out the conference was at our church and our main pastor had been at their church the month before and had lead their service. Small world. We had a nice time at church and then drove into town and met Cam and Kathy for a late brunch at the restaurant that Chris works at. Breakfast was great and he fixed a special scramble that was made with as Chris said, "everything we had in the kitchen". It was a nice visit and both Chris and Johnathan work at the restaurant (Johnathan just started and works as a prep chef). We got some nice pictures.
 
We sat and watched the end of the Players back at home and then were on the road by about 5:15 for our drive to the Seattle Tacoma airport. We stopped at the border and changed some money for chocolate. When we crossed the truck border, they had a detour around the main entrance road. I looked back when we got around it and there was an overturned pickup truck and a tarp over a body. Darla saw it and said it looked like the truck had lost it's load. Okay, we'll go with that.
 
We drove on to Bellingham and I had to gas up the beast and $70 later it was full. Darla wanted to have dinner, but everything was packed for Mother's Day. We stopped at several places that had an hour wait and got into Red Robin and seated right away. It was about 6:30 and when the food hadn't made it to us by 7:15, we up and left as we had a 10:20 flight and a 90 minute drive. We got stuck in traffic in Everett and it was stop and go. We were really sweating making it on time and finally the road cleared up and we got to the rental place about 9 PM. I did not stop to top off the tank and it was about a quarter low. We hopped the shuttle and dropped our bags about 9:20 and grabbed a steak bowl at the Q Doba and jumped on the plane. We got in at midnight and I slept in this morning until 8 AM and then mowed the lawn and cleaned up the yard. Darla and I drove over and picked up Samson who was thrilled to see us. He had torn up his bed and the new kennel employee was so apologetic. We know Samson and just shrugged it off. 
 
I went into work this afternoon and you are up to date. I went with the golf committee on Tuesday and we played Del Paso and I shot an 88 on the slope 139 course, so was happy with the outing. The picture of my foursome is the last one above. I play in a two day qualifier with Paul this weekend and this event sends the two qualifying teams straight to Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach. I'll let you know how we do. I hope you all are well. Ciao.
 
 
 
 

Sunday, May 06, 2018

54 Hole Individual Golf Tourney





The blog will be late next week as we are off to Vancouver on Wednesday and will be there until Sunday. I will probably get to the blog early next week. I'm at it actually a little late tonight a I had to input scores, send individual scores to the webmaster and update and forward new Tournament handicaps to the webmaster. Darla is yakking on the phone to a girlfriend so I'll get on this. It was a busy weekend that started with poker Friday night, the third round of the 54 hole Individual golf championship on Saturday and a busy Sunday which saw the start of the staining of the stamped concrete deck.

Friday I was in Stockton with our new Commercial Underwriter and we visited agencies and had lunch. Pete drove up from Elk Grove and joined us at Dave Wong's Chinese Restaurant. I got back to Roseville about 4 and let Samson out and then power washed half of the deck in preparation for staining. Poker was at Steve's that night and I was horrible, losing about $60 in 5 hours. You can't win every time.

Saturday was golf and the third round of the 54 hole Individual championship. I was horrible the first two rounds and was playing from the trees most of the time. I shot 90 on Saturday and 91 on Sunday and sat way back in the standings and had an early tee time Saturday. I somehow figured it out after a double bogey-bogey start. I shot 1 over the rest of the front nine for a 40. I stumbled on the back, but shot 44 for an 84, net 67 and moved up the leaderboard to take 7th place. I had a chip in birdie on the par 5 number 6 that was worth $37 in skin money and I won $27.50 for 7th place, so not a bad weekend. I guess you could say I made up for my poker losses.

You can see a turtle that we saw on the 2nd tee box. He had climbed the hill from the lake by number six and was rooting in the dry grass by the rough next to the cart path. I also have a picture of David and Miya in their chef aprons that Darla bought them for Christmas. There is a picture of one of the peacocks that have been gracing our courtyard at work for the last month. Finally Samson is looking like a Snoop Dog on his 1st birthday.

Darla and I went out for dinner last night at Sabores Mexican Restaurant for Cinco De Mayo. I had an iced tea and Darla had a diet Coke. We are definitely a party couple. We enjoyed fajitas and rib eye and then took a trip over to PetSmart and bought Samson some new chew toys.

Darla took a walk as I was writing this and Samson wandered into her office and got hold of some jewelry pads and tore them up. She got home and called me into the bedroom and Samson was sitting in a pile of chewed up pads. Oops. He continues to be a handful and Darla struggles with him. Hopefully he grows out of some of his destructiveness.

Today Darla was up at 5 AM and out of the house for the Lodi Street Fair where she was selling her Touchstone jewelry. Samson let me sleep in a little and I got up at 8:30. I worked on the side gate that has been dragging. I want to set up a dog run on the side of the house and let Samson relax.  He isn't thrilled with it as the side area has two gates and he can't see in either the front or back yard. We want to actually build a metal gate with a mesh door that extends into the back yard and we can leave the wood gate open or take it off. That will allow him a potty area in the plants.

I put him in the run and he whined and dug under the fence to the blocks that I placed there to keep him from digging. I finally gave up and brought him into the house and put him in his crate and worked on the stain on the dick. It looks great, but I am tired and sore tonight.

Darla got home about the time I was knocking off and she took Samson to the park for a run and I got a shower. We had barbecued hamburgers and that brings you up to date.

I had an odd interaction on Saturday with one of our new members. He is playing in his first tournament along with his brother. He shot a 76 on Saturday last week that gave him a net 61. On Sunday he shot 86 for a 71, but had a hole in one, his first. I was talking to him after the round and I asked him where his brother was. He told me that their sister had died unexpectedly the night before and his brother was with their brother in law. I asked him if his sister lived close and she lived in Roseville. I asked him why he showed up and he said, "Well, I was in the hunt for fist place and wanted to see how I could do." I was stunned. His sister was 70 and in good health and had a stroke. I enjoy golf, but would have made a different choice if I was him. He shot 90 and although he finished in first, I would not have made that choice.

Well, that is it for this week. I will be back at it next week with tales of Vancouver. I am going with the Insurance group that I am on the board of. It is our annual planning meeting. We were in New England last year and Washington DC the year before. We will stay with Dad and Shirley over the weekend. Have a great week. Ciao.