I am The Bachelor for the weekend and will pick Darla up at 9:30 tonight. Why she got such a late return flight is beyond me. They actually tried to catch the 3:00 PM flight, but the cost difference was $120 per ticket.
The pictures. The first is Darla from Awards Night at conference last night. She got an award for Rookie Recruiter of the Year and Recruiter of the Year. She has been with the company about two months and already has over 20 reps on her team. I said it last time, if the company was smart, they would hire Darla as an employee and fly her around the company and teach the other reps how to recruit. Not everyone can recruit like she can. She met someone on the beach at Santa Monica last week from Fresno and signed her up. She will drive down to Fresno to help her put on her first party. You have to have the gift of talking to people and making them see your genuineness and not just a killer sales attitude. Nothing turns someone off more than a pushy sales person. The next three shots are of the continued work that Darla is doing in the backyard with plants. The middle of the three pictures is an area that I had planted grass, but our crazy dog prefers using the artificial turf. It's funny, because he LOVE LOVE LOVES the park across the street and rubs himself all over the grass like he's never seen grass before. He just didn't like my little patch of grass and it was a pain to keep up as I had to mow it with a weedwacker because the area was too awkward for the mower. The next shot is of Mr and Mrs Corbin, a shot that McKenny took at the beach in Venice on their first night there. The next two are from poker Friday night and the guys. Scott (the guy in the second picture with the hat) and I have been playing in a poker game since 1983 when I was in Fresno, CA. We worked together at the Hartford and started up a game. I moved back to Sacramento and Scott moved about a month later and we hooked up and started playing again in Sacramento. The game has been going non stop since then and Scott and I are the only original members. Players have come and gone across the years and the current iteration of players have been together for probably about ten years. The final picture is an oil painting on black denim of Willie Nelson that was in the home in Venice.
Darla took off Thursday afternoon for her Opulenza conference in Denver. Becky drove them to the airport in Darla's car and then Becky and Daniel returned the car Thursday night. Darla is working with one of the girls in my office. She is actually the daughter of my Operations Manager and is a high functioning autistic. She has worked for me for about six year and still will not make eye contact with me or engage me in conversation if I pass her in the hall. She works on insurance filings and is content to keep her head down and work and I have no problem with that. Darla has always like Alicia and needed help with her business in setting up and tearing down the displays and hired Alicia to help her. Alicia really likes Darla and decided to go to conference with her. Darla has a huge heart for people with disabilities and I think is enjoying working with Alicia. There are certainly some highs and lows in the actual flow of the work relationship, but Darla has a ton of patience and works through issues that Alicia has and there have been several. Darla also hired two young women from Egypt who are working with her in her jewelry business. She has also hired them to help her organize her office and clean the house. They worked on the house when we were in Venice Beach and did an incredible job. They came in twice this weekend and worked on Darla's office and the main guest room, cleaning up and sorting through stacks of Darla's jewelry and invoices. Both rooms are spotless now and I know Darla won't know what to do with that as she doesn't live a spotless life. I cleaned her car before we took the trip to So Cal and found over 20 items of makeup in the car. I cleaned up catalogues and all sort of things (floss sticks, gum wrappers, an old package of Ritz Crackers) from under the seats. She basically lives in her car during the week doing her jewelry business and her two social work jobs. We'll see if it stays nice. If not, they are a call away. I think she plans to have them clean the house once month.
I'm not sure if I reported that Daniel has secured a job with the City of Roseville in the Public Works Department as a civil engineer. The job is a really good get for him as Roseville is pretty cash rich because of a huge regional shopping mall and a large Auto Mall that pump taxes into the city coffers. He will get a chance to work on a lot of the Public Works projects like bridges and dams as well as infrastructure for the city. He has bought a home here in Roseville and now has a job here, so we will be able to see our grandkids by jumping in the car and driving over there once they start having children. I know Becky wants about 4 children. We'll see. I do wish that Jennifer and McKenny lived closer, but it is what it is.
Darla and I are finally starting our home project for the year. We have done the master bathroom, the kitchen cabinets and family room furniture over the past three years. This year we will change out the two sliders in the back of the house and all of the windows in the back as well. We had the front windows done about eight years ago. I have a guy from Anderson Windows coming out tomorrow night, but I just plan on getting a price estimate. There is a general contractor in our neighborhood that has worked with John and who I have played golf with who will do the job. I just want to get pricing. I want to put in the glass sliding doors that have built in blinds between the glass. They are made by Pella and Anderson doesn't even offer that. The only window that I will put in as a slider will be in the main guest room. The other windows will all be solid windows. The seal is better on them and we never open the sliding windows in the breakfast nook or our master bedroom as we open the sliding glass doors if we want fresh air. Those sliding windows are behind shutters and not used. We meet wit the guy tomorrow night and then I'll call Chad to do the work.
I did play poker Friday night and had a so so game, losing big early and making a comeback late. I ended losing about $35, which wasn't bad. It was great to get together with the guys. We were supposed to get together last month and John's Dad passed away, so the game was cancelled. Next month we will be at John's new house for poker.
Saturday I ended up playing golf. I had planned to continue my hiatus, but looked at the calendar and realized that the Club Championship starts on August 5th and I have to get geared up for that. I was at our golf meeting Thursday night and Paul talked me into signing up for the Skins Game Saturday. I did, but they only had seven guys signed up and ended up cancelling it on Friday. I took one of the tee times and got Bryan, Rico and Paul to come out and play a $20 game. The pro was very apologetic about postponing the event and offered to buy us lunch. We did not argue. We teed off at 9:30 and were off the course by 2. I won $30 of the $80 pot and also had a free lunch, so it was a good day for me. I am also signed up to play in the Day on the Oaks event on Tuesday and will host one of my agents to that event Tuesday morning. Paul also talked me into playing in a two man best ball event next Saturday at Woodcreek and that combined with our Thursday night league, I'll end up playing 4 times in 8 days. So much for taking time off from golf. I shot a good/bad 45+41=86 on Saturday.
I continue to work on the pool and getting it looking pristine. The algae has been a chore, but I think I've finally beat that. The pool water is so clear and soft and the walls are finally algae free. I bought some 5-in-one tablets that I will use going forward that have chlorine, algaecide, descaler, clarifier and rust inhibitor all in one. Pete swears by them. I also ordered some more Hypo chloride for shocking the pool and two quarts of Pool Perfect which removes phosphates from the water. It's a lot of work having a backyard oasis, but oh so worth it.
Darla just texted me and her flight is taking off a little late. I will pick her up about 9:45 and then come home and go right to bed. Too bad we don't get an evening together, but...
That is it for this week. Samson is doing great and has no ill effects from his cannabis poisoning. It was a scary event and I'm just glad we have pet insurance. He was a little hungry after the first night and I guess it was the "munchies". I hope everyone is doing great and we will talk to you all soon. Ciao.
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