Back at it after a break

Darryl and I at Fat's Dim Sum Restaurant in Roseville 

The gang with Darryl in our backyard (Darla took pic) 

One of Darla's promotional pictures for Touchstone 

Another of same. Samson is a cute prop.

Jennifer and Samantha at Ramen House with the kids.

Daniel and Jen in some kind of noodle competition. 

Jennifer, Samantha and McKenny at Ramen House 

Dan, Becky, Miya, David, McKenny, Jennifer and Samantha

at Ramen House with Darla and I. 

 Samantha on the swings at the park in Grass Valley, CA

Sam discovering boxed water.

Jennifer and Sam in a skiff used to lower miners at Empire Gold Mine

in Grass Valley, CA 

Ken, Jennifer and Sam posing by the pool outside the Bourn Mansion at Empire Gold Mine. 

Jennifer at the Bourn Mansion. 

Sam at one of the fountain pools at the Bourn Mansion.

 Dinner with the family and Jordan and Olivia.

Sam playing with Jordan and Olivia. 

Samantha and Samson. 

Samantha and Jordan playing  in the cold pool. 

Samson waking Sam by jumping on her bed.

 

Jennifer and McKenny with Kimo and Arthur at Jason's wedding.

 

Goofy shot.

 Darla, Jennifer and McKenny at our table at the wedding.

 All of us with the bride and groom.

Goofy shot. 

Ken giving the blessing before dinner.

 Sam and Jordan at the park today.

Samson hanging in the shade with me as the girls play in the background.

 

 

It has been a busy couple of weeks with Darryl in town and then Jen and the Corbin family visiting for the wedding of our friend Jason Ramos to Jennifer Cantu. We dropped the kids off at the airport about 5:30 for their 7 PM flight. Jen sent a note to say they had been delayed until 7:30 and hopefully they are in the air by now.

 

I will add more to this later as the pictures took me almost an hour to upload and caption.

 

Tuesday October 2 6:55PM

 

I thought I would jump back on this and fill in some of the blanks. Jennifer and family arrived Thursday night and we picked them up (the flight was a half hour late, Frontier is consistent) and then met the boys, Becky and Miya in Sacramento at the Ramen House. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and we all certainly enjoyed the fellowship as we laughed our way through dinner. Sam loved seeing both of her uncles and Darla and I bought dinner for the gang. We hung out for about an hour and a half and had a nice visit.

 

Friday, Darla had a couple of errands to run and McKenny had a couple of business calls scheduled, so we let Sam sleep in until we had Samson jump on her bed. You can see the picture of him practically sitting on her head. We drove up to Grass Valley and the Empire Gold Mine. It was a struggling mine in the late 1800's until it was bought by a wealthy industrialist from San Francisco, William Bourn. Bourn grew the mine and increased the output of gold by 50 times in his first five years. He also opened a bank in Grass Valley and although maintaining his residence in San Francisco, he also built a magnificent mansion on the Mine Grounds and held extravagant parties. He was the mastermind of the electricity and gas companies in San Francisco that would become PG&E. During that time he also took the interim Presidnt position with the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.  He bought controlling interest in Greystone Vineyards in Napa in the late 1800s. He took all of the railroad tracks that were ruined in the 1906 earthquake and used the remnants as bracing for his mine shafts. He suffered a stroke in 1922 and was confined to a wheelchair and his wife became the only CEO of a gold mine in the US.  She continued to run it until they sold the mine to the Newmont Mining Corporation.

 

We stopped in Grass Valley and had lunch at a park and then visited the mine and had a great afternoon. We had a bbq on Friday night and Sam invited her friend Jordan from next door, but also Olivia who had just moved into the house behind us. Olivia is 8 and Jordan is 9. The girls had a blast before and after dinner by alternating between the spa and the pool. We had a great night and relaxed and watched The Greatest Showman which we had on the DVR.

 

Saturday, we relaxed. I cleaned the pool and mowed the lawn. McKenny borrowed my car and went to the Flea Market in Roseville, which is one of the largest in California. He came back with 10 records and a mask for Jennifer (she collects them and displays them in her home). He paid $17 for the whole lot and said that one of the records that he found was worth over $200. McKenny, if you don't know, is a huge dealer of LP records. We relaxed Saturday afternoon and headed out to Jason Ramos' 5 PM wedding. He had called me earlier in the week and asked me to give the blessing at the wedding. It was an outdoor wedding at the Catta Verdara Golf Course in Lincoln, the next city north of Roseville. We had a great time and were thrilled to see Jason find and marry a lovely girl, who also happened to be named Jennifer.

 

Sunday, the kids went to the High Hand Nursery in Loomis and met Jen's ex Step Dad, Bill, for lunch. I watched the Cowboys finally do an impression of an NFL team and win their second game of the year. The kids got back about 2:30 and I took Sam and Jordan to the park with Samson and we took some pictures.

 

It was a great visit and we had a great time with Miss Samantha and her parents. I will be back at this in a couple of weeks, likely after our visit to Monterey for golf. Next weekend, Darla and I will go with Ron and his wife to a cocktail party under the lights at Raley Field. They will have wine and beer, appetizers, Hors De Oeuvres, live music and casino games from 6-9. This is one of the perks of being a season ticket holder. We just renewed our plan for the fifth straight year. Be good. Ciao.

Lake Tahoe, baby!

 

Back at it after a few days up in Lake Tahoe with Charlie and Freida. It's been a busy ten days with a lot going on and a lot to get caught up on. I've been doing this blog for over 16 years and it may change to an occasional update going forward. It's hard to come up with enough excitement in the life of an old married guy. Funny, I've been feeling that way for awhile and then a week like this happens and I have a lot to say.

 

 

First, the pictures. The top photo is of Freida and the view fro the 8th floor Jacuzzi at the Ridge Lake Tahoe condo resort. It was a VERY nice, well kept, well manicured resort and we will be back. We've stayed up in the basic area of the Heavenly ski resort and always had stairs to climb and climb and climb. This resort has elevators (shocker!) and subterranean parking for the cars. The condo had two master suites and a common area with a nice view of the valley. We did not have a lake side view, but the view down to the Minden valley is nice in it's own right. The second picture is of the 17th hole at Lake Tahoe Golf Course where Charlie and I played on Monday. The third, fourth and fifth shots are from our Sunday night dinner at Tep's Villa Roma n Tahoe, a favorite of ours and a place that we frequent often when we visit Tahoe. Dad and Shirley have bee there with us.The sixth and seventh shots are of our drive to Tahoe and views from the summit as we headed down into the valley. The eight shot is from a house warming at John Parola's house and is of Darla and Neil. I didn't take many shots for whatever reason. The 9th, 10th and 11th pictures are painting that Darla's Uncle Gene painted. He had a great eye and painted Marilyn Monroe, Sammy Davis, Jr, Sinatra, Elvis and others, but the portraits of Ellen DeGeneres and Raymond Burr are two of my favorites. The third is a self portrait that was VERY accurate. Gene passed away last Sunday. The final picture is of Chuck and Linda Cinnamon. Chuck was a member of our golf club.

 

I say Chuck WAS a member of our golf club as he was severely attacked, beaten and killed by his 43 year old mentally ill son last Friday. His son had recently been released from a mental institution and turned over to his parents. He was living in a trailer on his parents driveway about two blocks from the golf course. Chuck was a 72 year old retired Air Force colonel. Linda was badly hurt in the attack, but she was able to escape and call police. The news shook our little club to it's core as Chuck had been an active member for over 20 years. Linda was in the hospital for a week and was released over the weekend. Chuck and Linda travelled extensively and he always had a smile on his face when I saw him at the course. It is a tragedy and the mental health care and rehabilitation in this country needs to be completely overhauled. These murders occur far too often when the patient moves out of care and into the community. I have a friend who worked at the institution where the son was housed and Chuck ad Linda were regular visitors and very active in his care.

 

Darla and I only got four days up in Tahoe, but it was a wonderful, relaxing mini vacation. Darla had to be back tonight for a meeting with her jewelry reps and she works the farmer's market in Sun City tomorrow, which is her regular Wednesday gig. I obviously had to come back as well, so signed up to play golf with the regular group of happily retired golfers who play Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday every week. It is a blind draw two man event tomorrow and I get 17 strokes. The course has been re rated by the NCGA and we expected the ratings to go down because of the loss of trees on the course. The maintenance group had combatted the loss of trees by narrowing the fairways and letting the rough grow up and the ratings from the whites changed from 67.8/114 to 68.4/117. The blue tees moved from 69.0/119 to 69.6/122. The first number is the course rating (what a pro would be expected to shoot from those tees). The second number is the slope and is the degree of difficulty of the course compared to others. Again, we were very surprised to see the ratings go up as we have lost nearly 100 trees over the last five years. Most of the trees are oaks and the grounds crew pours entirely too much water on the trees and kills them. It is a delicate balance keeping the course green during the hot Summer months, but they need to have an irrigation plan set up to keep the sprinklers away from the trees.

 

Charlie and I did play golf up in Tahoe at the Lake Tahoe Golf Club, which is on Highway 50 along the road to the Y entrance to Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Charlie turned 72 on Sunday and thought he had a tee time set up. He had his paperwork and everything showing our tee time, but forgot to hit ENTER in the website. Luckily the pro got a good laugh over his OOPS and got us in at 10 when our "tee time" was 9:48. I shot a 44 +43=87 and Charlie had a good time, shooting over 100. The girls relaxed in the sun back at the condo in the 75 degree air. We met back at the condo and had a late lunch of hamburgers grilled on the deck. We went to Lakeside Casino and gambled until about 10 and then headed to Applebees for a late dinner.

 

I just got the financials for August at work and we made a profit for the month of over $120,000 and the management of the company took notice as I got a couple of congratulatory e-mails today.  As I mentioned last week, we are two straight months of beating budget and need to make a third as I am off to Detroit next month for the annual managers meeting.

 

As mentioned above, Darla's Uncle Gene passed away a week ago this past Sunday and his funeral was on Friday. Darla got a call from his pastor on Wednesday and the funeral was planned for either this past Friday or this week. It turned out to be last Friday and Darla found out it was a go on Thursday. She jumped in the car and drove to Palm Springs Thursday for the funeral. I got her a hotel in Redlands about an hour from Palm Springs and she got in late Thursday night. She and her Uncle had reconnected about six years ago. He had a falling out with his Dad and sister several years ago and it was a sad situation. Darla, with her great big heart, couldn't stand by and became close to him. She HAD to go to the funeral and it was not a planned event, but hey. She was back mid day Saturday and we had John and Camille's house warming Saturday afternoon. I played golf with David and Daniel on Saturday and shot a 45+42=87. David was nice enough to come over Sunday night and watch the dog. We were up early Sunday and off to Lake Tahoe.

 

Well, that's it. I'm tired from the drive today and ready to relax. Darla is off to coffee with a couple of her friends after her meeting and Samson is sacked out next to me on the couch. I ran him pretty good at the park and he found a baseball in the bushes which he brought home and proceeded to tear off the cover. I'm trying to arrange a mobile groomer to come out and groom him as he needs it, but I got no one to call me back and several that told me they are not taking new clients. One in fact said that she does not groom LARGE dogs. Our 65 pound baby was excluded. Bummer.

 

I will get back to this a couple of times a month, but you will have to check in every now and then as it will no longer be weekly. I hope everyone is doing well. Ciao for now.

 

 



Labor Day Weekend 2018



 

It is a weird Labor Day for us as the workers are installing the sliders today, so we are sort of stuck sitting in the house while they work. It's a hot day and because the windows are siting open, the air is off and it is a bit stifling in the house. They are getting closer as the sliders are in, but they are working on the trim around the windows and the doors are sitting open. Samson doesn't know what to do with himself and the noise and disruption of things moved out of their normal area, he is completely freaked out. He was outside this morning in the front yard with me as we waited for the work crew to get here. They were due at 8 AM and finally showed up at 9 AM. Not bad for a holiday.

 

The pictures?  We had our VP of Sales Development, Michael, in this week. Darla and I joined him for dinner Monday night at Benihanas and had a blast. We had a fun table (well, Darla WAS there) and had a lot of laughs with our chef and the other couples, including a gay couple who were a riot. They were really quiet initially, but Darla brought them out of their shell and they were fun and really funny. What a fun night. The next two pictures are from the golf course Thursday night where we had the goats brought in and fenced in at the creek areas. There were probably about 150 goats and they were herded by an Australian Shepherd who was outstanding at his job. He wasn't really thrilled when I approached to take pictures, but that's his job. I played Saturday and they completely stripped all of the vegetation from around the creek beds ad you can see one goat climbed up on a tree and pruned that back as well. The final pictures are of the tenting around the sliders in our family room and master bedroom. I will take pictures and add them of the finished product.

 

 

Here are the pictures. The sliders are white on the exterior an wood covered on the interior. It looks good with the wood floors.

 

 

I did play in my final Thursday night Twilight league of the season this week. My partner, Ron, lost his Mom on Tuesday night and I had John play with me and, even though we finished out of the money for the year long competition, I won so many skins throughout the year that I made $105 out of my $60 initial investment. Ron made $51. It was fun and we will do it again next year. Yesterday was the Labor Day event and I was off my game. I thought it was going to be a good day as I hit my drive on number one left into the trees and hit an amazing shot below the limbs and lifted up over a tree near the green and rolled to within 20 feet of the hole. I proceeded to 3 putt and missed a three foot putt for par. That was the start of a tough front nine as I shot 47 and rebounded with a 42 on the back for 89. I was pleased with the comeback on the back side, but didn't win jack.

 

Darla and I are off to Lake Tahoe next week and will travel with our friends, Charlie and Frieda. It is unfortunate that Dad is having some health issues and won't be able to come as we were looking forward to a fun week with them. The one good thing to come of it is that Charlie is celebrating his 71st birthday on Sunday and he and I will play the Tahoe Golf Course on Monday. I've driven past the course a few dozen times and will enjoy playing it on Monday. It will be nice to celebrate his birthday with him.

 

Prior to that, I will play golf with David and Daniel on Saturday at Diamond Oaks. I have set up with Paul as well, but he may have to pass as his grandsons are in soccer and play most Saturdays. If he can't play I will invite Darla's business coach, John Pyron to join us. We'll see how that plays out next week.

 

Darla and I went out to dinner Saturday night at Scott's Seafood in Folsom. That is the restaurant that we ate at with the couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Darla had dropped one of my business cards in the drawing bowl and they picked my card. I ate there two weeks ago with Pete as we were the "Business of the Week" and got 50% off our entrees for everyone in the office for a calendar week. My personal lines group went as a team and had an early dinner last week. I had won a $25 gift card and Darla and I went and enjoyed a nice meal on Saturday night.

 

Darla and I actually snuck out today when they started the work and went out to breakfast as they worked. Samson was tied up in the back yard and was freaked out when we got back. Darla was undoing his lead line and he reared up and smacked her hard in the face with his snout. She yelled and came up with a small shiner under her eye. He is still pretty uncomfortable as he lays by my feet and they are working on the trim with pneumatic air nail guns that make a loud pop when they seat the nail. He is jumping every time the gun goes off.

 

We had another solid month at work and beat our budget again for the second month is a row. I told the staff that two months is a trend and three months is a habit. I really need us to hit our numbers this month as I head over to see Alan in October in Michigan. Our numbers this month were $2,800,000 and $430,000 in income (up from $2,295,000 and $395,000). We are now up over a $1,000,000 in premium and over $100,000 in income for the year. It is a good story in the Roseville office right now. We are up about 9 % in premium and about 7% in income. The company as a whole is up 5%.

 

I will get to the blog at some point next week, but it will be late as we leave for Tahoe on Sunday. I hope everyone is doing well and I especially wish dad a quick recovery from his health concerns. We love you and look forward to December and the Shirley cruise to Mexico. Ciao.