Back from the Manager's meetings in Detroit

 

 

Back from Detroit and the countdown (for me) is on to retirement. I have three more meetings left and then I'm done. I could stay on longer if they make me an offer that I couldn't refuse, something like three or four days a week with a guaranteed salary and a guaranteed bonus. Wendy joined me at the meetings this year. She has been with me for six years and is an MBA and a great choice to replace me. There is no guarantee that she will be the replacement, but they are grooming her now for a Management role. She is in our KAMP (Kaufman Accelerated Management Program). She spent six days in Home Office learning and meeting staff. She teamed with four other KAMPers and is working on an internal program to help new employees assimilate into the company. The KAMP participants joined us for the four days of the Leadership meeting.

 

The pictures. The first shot is of dinner Tuesday night after a day of travel to get to the meetings. The second picture is of Michael and I and was for Darla. The third and fourth pictures are from the Detroit History Museum, where we visited on Wednesday night for drinks and dinner. They have all sorts of history of the Detroit area and businesses. The pictures I took are of a Cadillac assembly line from the 1980's which was built in the museum to show how the cars were built. 5-7 are pictures of the surprise visit from Webb Simpson. Webb won the Players Championship this year and the picture of Michael and I with him also has him holding the crystal trophy from the Players. The last four pictures are from Saturday and our trip to the Little Caesar's Arena, which is home to both the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Pistons.

 

The visit from Webb was certainly a highlight for me and I got to visit more with him at the Detroit Institute of Arts which we visited on Thursday night. That visit was highlighted by the Detroit ensemble, SelectedofGod, an all black singing ensemble best known as the group that sang Eminem's Lose Yourself in a Chrysler 200 commercial shown in 2013. They performed several songs including Lose Yourself and were excellent. Again, we had dinner and drinks at the Museum and were able to view the works of art, including the Wedding Dance by Peter Bruegel which is worth over $150 Million and an 1887 self portrait by Van Goh worth about $80 million. I was amazed that these pieces are displayed in the open on the walls of the Institute and can be touched although it is discouraged.. The entire collection is valued at about $850 million.

 

It was a high energy busy week and I'm exhausted.

 

I play in the annual Rose Cup goof tournament this weekend. It is a Ryder Cup style event that pits the four Roseville area golf courses against one another over two days. The first day is best ball and the final day is individual play. I played in three of the fist six events, but haven't made the team I about 8 years. This will be the 16th Rose Cup.

 

Speaking of golf, I have 12 tickets fort the final day of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am in 2019. It will be Pebble's 100th anniversary next year and the US Open will be played at Pebble in June. I will also host Ron Floyd next year at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix. We will have tickets with a private booth for lunch and dinner on Friday and will be able to walk the course. Saturday we have tickets in the pavilion at number 16, which is the par three ad known as the biggest party in golf. It should be fun.

 

That is it for this week. I hope all is well. Ciao.

 

Back from Pacific Grove

 

 

 

Just back from my golf trip to Monterey/Carmel. Darla and I always stay in Pacific Grove because we like the proximity to the beach and we really like the restaurants in PG.

 

The pictures. The top group was a week ago Saturday when Darla and I hosted our friends, Ron and Lysanne to a night at the River Cats stadium. I got the freebies as a season ticket holder. They had a live band, food, drinks and casino games. It was fun although you weren't collecting money for anything other than fun. I played roulette for a long time and cleared out a color on her. Wish that had happened at a casino. Ron lost his Mom recently (She was 95), but he's been dealing with the funeral, selling her house and now her estate. He has been stressed and tired and he REALLY enjoyed the night out. You can see him playing craps. He had a ball.

 

The next group of pictures is from our trip to Pacific Grove. The last three of that set are with Darla's cousin, Brenda and her husband, Mark. Darla dropped me off at the Nicklaus course in Monterey Sunday morning and drove over to Gilroy to meet Brenda. They are moving to Idaho and had an Open House that day and Brenda was thrilled to get away with Darla. The girls went to the beach outside Santa Cruz and then came back to Monterey and met me at the course. We drove from there to meet Mark in Moss Landing at a restaurant/fish market called Phil's. We got there and there were at least 70 people in line to order the seafood. We waited about 20 minutes and Mark showed up and got us a table. I had perhaps the BEST halibut and chips that I have ever tasted. The halibut was cooked crispy and the meat was the consistency of chicken. It was incredible.

 

The next set is the guys at the Nicklaus course. I struggled on the front, losing THREE balls in the water. I brought a new sleeve of Pro V1s and offered those up to the water hazards on the front side. I shot 47 on he front and was frustrated. I came back nicely on the back and shot 42 for 89 and second low net. There were some ugly scores. Paul shot 89, Dan shot 93 and Ron actually DQ'd on number 15 when he lost his third tee shot OB. He posted a 98, but his score was in the 100's. One of our guys shot 132. He is the guy who will be taking over for me as handicapper next year.

 

The next picture is from Friday as Darla hosted Daniel out for his birthday lunch at Benihana's. Dan turned 29. Dan just passed his test for his civil engineer licensing. He has a new job with the city of Roseville and they already matched his LA salary. Now he gets a 5% bump for being licensed. Nice.

 

The final picture is from our window project where we changed out all of the windows in the back of the house. The photo shows that we changed out the large sliding window (with a screen and lines down the center)  for a picture window and put in two casement windows on the sides that lift both up and down and lift in for cleaning. The view from the living area to the pool is now unobstructed.

 

I will get back to this at some point, but have to grab dinner and then get on to a Bible study. Darla and I are back in a Life Group on Wednesday nights and we are really enjoying it. Until later then. Ciao.