Back to the salt mine after a week of conventions, parties, Easter and some family time on the weekend. A huge "PRAISE GOD!!" goes out today as Jennifer is on her way back stateside. She originally was supposed to stay in Baghdad until April 22nd, but with the increased hostilities and the marshalling of troops into the area, there are more flights available going back to Camp Doha in Kuwait. She was at the airport this morning with her unit trying to catch one of the flights out of Baghdad. Barring that, her unit would convoy out of Iraq on surface roads. I'm praying that she gets or got a flight out and is out of harm's way. I will be able to breathe again when she is back on American soil. She will be in Kuwait for a few days until she can get a charter back to the United States. Her unit will travel back to Fort Bliss in Texas for debriefing and then she will travel back to her home base in Augusta, Georgia. She will soon learn where her PDS (Permanent Duty Station) will be and Jennifer continues to lobby for Kuwait. We shall see. I hope to hear from her soon and I'll update the blog as soon as I hear from her. Thank you to everyone who kept Jennifer in their prayers. She has had more than a few sleepless nights lately as explosions rocked her base and shook her trailer. She admits to being scared and basically being told only what the Army wants her to know. She made the comment to her Mom that "you probably know more than I do, they don't tell us much".

The conference in Scottsdale was nothing short of a big party and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There are some discussion groups and roundtable conferences, but they simply satisfy the IRS that the conference is a legitimate business expense. The party starts early and lasts late and included a full fledged casino, dance hall, stage review, countless bars, an internet cafe, four different restaurants, a cookout and a full fireworks display that was one of the best that I've seen. The golf was at a world class resort called McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale and it was worth the wait. The course has a lot of sand and water and is immaculate. I also got to rub elbows with a number of senior Burns and Wilcox professionals as well as a number of the top producers. I found that interaction as beneficial to me as the opportunities to meet and interact with the Scottsdale Underwriters. I came back a little sunburned and tired, but was glad for the experience.

I played golf this weekend on Saturday in our annual Master's tournament. This is a tournament hosted by one of the board members of the Roseville Golf Club. There were 14 of us this year and we met at the crack of dawn at The Lincoln Hills Golf Resort at Sun City Lincoln Hills. I started the round double bogey, double bogey, bogey and was 5 over after three holes. I then went on a par barrage and finally birdied number 12 to go four-over after 12 and finished with a 41-39=80. I got hooted by the group as the scores were pretty high at this championship course. I had a net 66 and the closest pursuer shot 71 and then 72. I was pleased with how I pulled the round together after a horrific start. My only disappointment was a double-bogey six on the last hole. I wanted to post a 79. As always, there is room for improvement.

The family was up early yesterday and off to Easter Sunday services at Darla's parent's church in Stockton. We left the house at 7:25 and were in the parking lot of the church at 8:30 for the 9:00 a.m. service. It was kind of nice to be at a smaller church with about 800 attenders rather than the 2500 that were expected at our church. The ease of entrance and exit from their church make our weekly ordeal seem that much more complicated. We then went over to Earl and Frances' home in Linden for a celebration of Easter. The boys were of course with us and Darla's sister and her brother and his wife, daughter and mother-in-law joined us for ham and family time. It was enjoyable.

Their pastor had a story about how human beings deal with death. It is inevitable, but most people tend to regard death as a dirty secret and it ends up being a dark cloud over our lives. Christians do (or at least should) have a diffent view of death as our time on Earth is a beginning and not an end. Anyhow, a man was diagnosed by his doctor as having a terminal disease and he was given six months to live. The man asked his doctor if there was ANYTHING he could do. The doctor told him to sell everything and give it away to charity. The man said, "No problem". The doctor told him to move into tenement housing with no running water or electricity. The patient agreed to do it. Was there anything else he could do? The doctor told him to marry a woman with eight children and move them into the tenement with him. Done. Was there anything else (and this is poetic license on my part)? Yes. Give up golf and all of his friends. "I'll do it said the man. Will this extend my life?" The doctor regarded him and said, "No, but it will be the longest six months of your life!"

Ciao friends. And once again, PRAISE GOD that Jennifer is getting out of Iraq.

I am sitting at home reading my mail and contemplating life with a cup of hot Hawaiian coffee at the ready and it dawns on me that I can update my blog now. I have a 10:30 flight to the land of the sun (Phoenix) and will be staying in Scottsdale for three days at a meeting hosted by Scttsdale Insurance Company. I'll be in meetings this afternoon and tomorrow morning. I will then play in the golf tournament at McCormick Ranch golf course. Wednesday, I'll spend the morning meeting with my underwriters at Colony Insurance and then be on a plane by three p.m. and be back in Sacramento in time for dinner.

We moved our offices from Howe Avenue out to Rancho Cordova on Friday and Saturday. I took Friday off as the tech guys were pulling computers at nine-thirty. I played golf with Gail, Anthony and Mel. We had a good time out at the old Mather Air Force Base golf course. I shot an 84 on the heavily sanded and aerated greens. It could have and should have been a much better round, but I four-putted one of the greens as the ball rolled and hopped all over the greens trying to find traction in the sand and through the waffle-like surface of the aerated greens. I played Mel straight up (he's an 11, I'm a 12). He shot 45-40 as he struggled to find a rythm putting as well. Gail surprised me with her game, which was honed on the links of Marin Country Club in the Bay Area. She shot an 88, which is 14 over on the women's par 74 (two of the par fours are par fives for women). She had two birdies on the par fives and has a straight, smooth swing. It was a good day on the links. Anthony struggled and shot 104 and only because we established a triple bogey maximum for him. Mel's wife Cora invited us all over for dinner at her house. Darla was not thrilled to have to drive across town after a long day at work and reminded me of that fact several times en route to the dinner. She enjoyed herself once she got there. Cora fixed a fondue of tri tip steak with four different sauces and we had a ball cooking up our own dinner. Darla made a nice strawberry salad and Gail brought wine and dessert.

Saturday, Darla and I ventured into the new office and I unpacked my desk and file cabinets. We have all new furniture in the new office and I was able to find spots for all of my various and sundry odds and ends. We have new double-sized four drawer file cabinets and storage space is not an issue as of yet. It was funny in that I had tossed a number of items while I was packing and tossed nearly as many as I was unpacking. A move does allow us the luxury of downsizing. I have to run for my flight, so I'll finish this when I get back from Phoenix.

It is another glorious Monday morning in California. The sun is up and bright, the sky is blue and it will hit about 82 degrees today, absolutely perfect early Spring weather here in Northern California.

I haven't had an opportunity to talk to Jennifer in about two weeks. She has been busy and hasn't been able to get a phone call in. I miss talking to her. We missed her call in Vegas as we were in a noisy casino and I didn't hear my cell phone ringing. We had set up for her to call us on Friday night when the family was meeting at PF Changs, but Jennifer overslept that morning and was almost late to work (it would be her Saturday morning as she is 11 hours ahead of us). She finally called on Sunday night (her Monday morning), but I missed the call. I have, however received numerous e-mails from her. She has a new e-mail address with the military that allows her to send and receive e-mail pretty easily. It is a little cumbersome to get into her MSN account.

Her e-mail address is: Jennifer.Lyon@vcmain.hq.c5.army.mil

It looks like Jennifer will be coming back to her base in Georgia on April 15th as planned. She so wants to stay in Iraq and will miss the civilian contractors who are staying until the communications center is complete. Jennifer's mission was to complete the fibre optics cable installation and then they are out of there. Praise God.

My office is moving this week. We had an efficiency expert, Dave Hossler, in our office last week from Home Office and he took me to dinner one night to pick my brain. He is impressed with the success that I've had and wants to know how to pass that on to some of the other underwriters in the office. I very frankly told him that if he could get them to put in 50 hours a week, they would probably miraculously find that they start to write more business. He has closed out a couple of lines of business that we were writing and he let two people go. It is a little bit nerve wracking in here right now as people fear for their jobs. Dave told me that my job is secure and that they want to build around a nucleus of people in this office and that I'm on the top of his list. That was certainly encouraging, but there are more changes to come and the boat will be a little rocky in the coming weeks.

I played poker on Friday night with the Roseville Golf Club group and then I played golf Saturday morning with two of the low handicappers in our club. I started poorly and shot a 46 on the front side. I was a bit embarassed playing with two of our better players, but I pulled my round together on the backside and shot a 36 to win the money and leave the guys shaking their heads over what happened to them. It was fun. The weather was ideal.

I got my car washed and waxed this weekend and the lawn trimmed. There is something powerful about Springtime. It is rebirth and the fresh blooms on all of the trees and bushes. The backyard is awash in fresh growth and the irises and the umbrella tree over the pond are in full bloom. The goldfish are active again and sunning themselves between the plants in the pond. I took out the hedge trimmer and cut back many of the bushes and hedges last night and everything looks so good. Living in California is a dream and I can't imagine ever leaving the Golden State.

The boys are active in their Spring sports. Daniel is playing baseball on his high school freshman team and David is active in track and field, doing high jump, long jump, triple jump and relays. He is staying active in order to train for football. Darla is still playing volleyball on Tuesday nights and she involves her boys whenever she can. Darla says that I'm the only one not involved in a sport. I can't seem to convince her that golfers are athletes. Craig Stadler has ruined it for all of us.

That's it for this week. I will come in Friday morning to pack my desk and then have an 11:00 a.m. tee time at Mather. I will play with Anthony, Gail and Mel. Anthony is the 27 year-old assistant underwriter in the office, Gail is one of the underwriters and Mel is the husband of our policy typist. I leave for Scottsdale on Monday morning for a convention with Scottsdale Insurance. Emery Jensen, my former boss at Republic Western, is one of the managers at Scottsdale Insurance and we will play golf together on Tuesday. The blog will be late next week for those of you paying attention. Ciao.

Back to the blog after a wonderful and memorable family reunion in Vegas. Seeing my brothers, Dad and Shirley, Janelle and Aaron with Braden, Jesse, Josh, Jenny, Chris, Sherry and Al and the two Barbie twins, Laurie and Laura (Jesse and Josh's girlfriends) was absolutely wonderful. The only thing that could have made it better was seeing Jennifer there, but as we all know, she has a bit more on her plate in Iraq at the moment.

I feel like I got a good visit with both of my brothers and Dad as we played golf together at Eagle Crest golf course on Friday. Aaron tagged along and made it a fivesome, although Al bowed out as we had an odd number of players. In truth, we had an even number when he was in, but an odd number when he dropped out. Al was concerned about getting on the golf course as we only had a tee time for four of us and driving over in Randy's rental Century. We could have worked it out, but there will be a next time. This was just too much fun to do it once and forget it. It was the first time that all of the Lyon men had played golf together in our lives. Randy, Darryl and I have played several times and I've played with Dad and Shirley several times, but this was a first. True to the calling of men in general, none of us brought a camera to record the event.

We played the par 60 golf course with rental clubs and still played well. I shot 37-36 for 73. Darryl shot 78, Randy, Aaron and Dad were somewhere in the 80's. It wasn't about the score though, and I know we each had a great time and it is a special memory for me.

We met for dinner on Friday night and Shirley and Dad had a reservation for 19 at PF Chang's at the Alladdin. We were seated upstairs and were a boisterous crowd as we enjoyed lettuce wraps, pot stickers, crab won tons, sake, Sapporo and many flavorful and fragrant main dishes. Shirley asked for a menu and we all signed the menu with words of encouragement to Jennifer. We raised our glasses in a toast to her bravery and said a prayer that God keep her in his care while she is in harm's way. It was a party and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Dad and Shirley set up an informal hospitality suite in their room at the Polo Towers and we met each afternoon to socialize and spend some quality time together. Vegas is great, but it can be difficult to get a large group together in any of the casinos. Al, Darryl and I managed to get together at a blackjack table at the Boardwalk and we were soon joined by Jesse and Aaron as we took over the table and had a few laughs playing cards. I was the first one to sit down and the first to leave as my stack of chips grew from $40 to well over $100. I decided to cash in my winnings. I had a hot streak over two hours and hit about a dozen blackjacks, four of which I hit after putting a coin in the 15-1 payout for a blackjack spot, so $60 of my winnings came on that "sucker bet".

The crowd began to thin on Saturday. Randy fell ill and missed the blackjack party. He and his family as well as the boys and their girlfriends all left town late Saturday night with flights back to Dallas. Darryl, Cheryl, Al and Sherry joined Darla and I for dinner out on Saturday night. We all enjoyed Prime Rib and then went out to gamble.

Darryl and Al and Sherry flew out Sunday morning, while Cheryl and Janelle, Aaron and Braden went over to Cheryl's parents' home in Henderson, Nevada. Darla and I were able to visit with Dad and Shirley. We spent time at the pool and then went out to dinner again at PF Changs. We enjoyed it so much Friday night. I told Dad that Darla and I would buy dinner in honor of his birthday (which incidentally made my birthday possible) and he chose PF Changs. We then went over to Monte Carlo and gambled, where I hit a $100 jackpot on nickels (four Aces and a two) and while I was waiting to be paid, I hit four twos and an Ace for 800 coins on the adjacent machine.

We were on our way back to Sacramento Monday morning filled with some good memories and a hardcore tiredness that is just now beginning to wane. I guess I'm too old to stay up until 3 a.m. three nights in a row, eh? We will do this again and Jennifer will be in the middle of it next time. I hope all are well and happy and invested in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.

Jennifer sent her Mom an e-mail and she has met some young hunk in Baghdad. He is from Florida and supposedly in the Army as well. She seemed like she was having a good time and we are all so happy for her. To be 23 and free in Iraq? maybe not so great. Take care.

Wow! The weather here in California has been nothing short of glorious the last week and a half. This weekend saw shorts weather in the low-to-mid eighties all weekend. I think I may have to dress warmer for Vegas as the temps there have been a few degrees cooler than our temperatures. This blog is a little bit late as I had a dental cleaning this morning at 8 a.m. The dental hygienist was very nice, but it was early for her. She got the button stuck on the water and thought she'd turned it off when rinsing my mouth, but ended up squirting me all over my face, hair and shirt. She was mortified, but I had a good laugh. I told her that I'd already showered that morning, but thanks for the effort.

I talked to Jennifer this past weekend. She was in great spirits and had spent part of her day Sunday sitting in a lounge chair soaking up the sun and reading. Basically she was just relaxing and suntanning in the most war torn area on the planet. She has made some excellent contacts with IMG and General Dynamics and will interview with IMG when she gets out. I'm happy for her, but IMG is based in Virginia, near Washington DC and Jennifer would be travelling the world working on military installations. The only difference from then and now would be that she'd be civilian and making serious cash. She has received packages from her Mom, us, Cam and Kathy in Canada (she loved the cards from the boys!!) and from the sorority that several of the ladies here at Burns and Wilcox belong to that inundated her with three boxes of books, games, food and movies. The chocolate that they sent made it to her intact. So much for the military's ban on sending chocolates. Jennifer is doing very well, although she was very jealous of my family's trip Friday night to Benihana's restaurant for dinner. She is also feeling a bit left out of the Lyon family reunion. We plan to take lots of pictures and get a big card to have everyone sign for her.

Darryl called me over the weekend to wish me a happy birthday and told me that his trip to Vegas is on hold. Apparently the Nazis that run Fed-Ex won't let him take his previously approved vacation because of an audit that is being conducted. Darryl is pretty well fried with Fed-Ex and looking forward to getting out of there and soon. The company is well regarded as a family friendly place to work, but Darryl says they do not walk that talk as he was overtly threatened with termination if he left for Vegas. So far, he has the family going and he hopes to arrive by Friday night and spend the weekend. I feel for him. Work should be only a part of your life. Fed Ex wants it to be his life. Hopefully Fed Ex is an ex in his life and soon.

I am really excited about getting to Vegas and spending some time with the family. It will be here soon and go by all too quickly, but I will hang on to the feeling while we are there. Jennifer is going to try to call me on my cell phone on Friday night (her Saturday morning) while we are all at P.F. Changs for dinner and talk to everyone.

I played golf on Saturday afternoon and the equipment, the swing, and the stars all came into alignment and I shot a blistering 75. In fact, I was one-over par going into 17 and finished bogey-bogey for the 75. The new clubs are awesome and I'm ready to bring that game over to my competitive side and start winning some golf tournaments. I have the California Amatuer coming up in May and look forward to seeing if I can bring the focus and energy to that weekend. It was a fun round of golf and this game is really awesome when everything clicks.

We had Darla's Mom and Dad and sister over yesterday to celebrate my birthday and watch the King's game. Earl's recovery from prostate surgery is coming along. He will have to undergo radiation once he regains full use of his faculties and he is in our prayers as he recuperates. The surgery hasn't slowed him down as he just bought a new 5th wheel for traveling. He also had to buy a bigger truck and bought a brand new Ford F250 pickup with a diesel engine and trailering package. He has his motor home at a lot in French Camp to be sold. Earl and Frances are living my dream, which isn't camping, but spending the kid's inheritence while you are still healthy. They are both great people and much of what I love in Darla is reflected in them. I'm blessed to have married into such a great family. Say a prayer for Earl that the radiation treatment will eradicate all of the cancer cells in his body.

The blog will be a little late next week, as we fly out to Vegas on Thursday afternoon and return home on Monday morning.

I'll leave you with the story of Winston Churchill at a cocktail party when a woman who did not agree with his political agenda confronted him. She said to Winston, "If I was your wife, I would put poison in your tea". To which Winston famously replied, "Ma'am, if I was your husband I would cheerfully drink it!"

Well, what a difference a week makes. Last week at this time, the rain was pouring down and the cars outside were slipping and sliding along on their way to work or school. This week has seen the weather gradually improve as a high pressure system settled over the western coast of California and the temperatures slowly rose to the point where yesterday saw shorts and winter white legs in abundance at the park across the street from our house. We had a high temperature of 79 degrees and it is supposed to hit eighty today. I played golf on Saturday morning in shorts for the first time this year. It was a nice change from the bundled up winter wear that restricts a full body coil on your golf swing. It was about 74 degrees on Saturday and a wonderful weekend all told.

I had my new rims installed on Saturday afternoon. As mentioned in my last episode, I had ordered a set of aluminum alloy clear coated wheels, but the company had delivered the chrome wheels. The difference in price was $105 a wheel for the alloys and $195 for the chrome. The manager of the shop hadn't realized that the wrong wheels had been delivered until I showed up for my Saturday appointment. He had signed for the shipment but had not looked at the invoice. The wheels wholesale to him at $142 a wheel and he agreed to charge me his cost and deal with the supplier at a later date. So, I paid more than I had intended, but the wheels are so nice. Again, they are a five spoke diamond design and they really shine. I could have waited until next weekend to get my wheels, but that wouldn't have been any fun. As I told Darla, I didn't spend $37 a wheel more, but saved $53 a wheel off of retail.

Darla and I went to see The Passion of the Christ this weekend and the hype for this movie is more than deserved. Mel Gibson has made a true recreation of the last twelve hours of Jesus' life. It is a brutal replay of the scourging and crucifixion. While I was watching it horrified by the brutality, finally the scourging ended and Christ lay in his own blood in agony, when the Roman soldiers rolled him onto his back and began to whip him again. It made me wonder if my sins were so bad that Christ had to endure that pain for me. I highly recommend this movie. For the critic who ask , "Where is the love? If Christ was such a compassionate soul, why is the movie so violent?" The critics don't get it. The love is so powerful in that Jesus willingly was tortured and crucified so that I could be saved. What greater love is there?

I talked to Jennifer on Friday. I tend to sleep in on Fridays as the traffic is so light and happened to catch a call from her. She had received a couple of packages from home and was enjoying Freetos and Pringles and the simple foods that she can't get in Iraq. She also had many books, games, candy and DVDs to help while away the hours.

I had mentioned that Jennifer is working with General Dynamics on the wiring infrastructure of the palace communications network. General Dynamics is the general contractor and she is actually working with a group from IMG (Information Management Group), a wiring and communications contractor. She is making some good contacts and I suggested that she get business cards from some of the managers and ask to use them as references when she leaves the military. She liked that idea and was going to talk to several of them. The civilian contractors really like Jennifer and her work ethic. They are working from 8 a.m until 8 at night six days a week. It is tiring, but rewarding work for our soldier.

Did you see the story on television Friday night about the fire crew from Florida that left the station house abruptly to fight a fire and left the stove on and burned down the fire station? Now that pretty well defines irony.

We had a guest speaker at church on Sunday. He is a well known pastor from a church in Kentucky. He talked about friends of his who visited Kentucky from California. They said that they knew Kentucky was a little backwards, but didn't realize how much so until they went to the zoo. They said in California at each enclosure there is a sign that lists what the animal is and in parenthesis the name of the animal in Latin. In Kentucky, they have the name of the animal and then a recipe in parenthesis.

I hope all are well and living a Godly life.

It is a wet, cold, blustery Monday and the cars outside my office window swish through the water as they sail by. Most of the drivers by this time are in search of a hot lunch. I'm just happy to be safely hidden in my office away from the tangle of metal and mayhem on the streets. We hear about two or three accidents a week outside our window and watch as the participants trade information and most of them stand by their cars and wait for the CHP, only to be told by the uniformed patrolman to get their cars out of the street. Friday saw a pretty good fender-bender outside my window as a Home Depot truck collided with a Ford Escort and pushed her into the two cars in front of her. The Escort driver was about nineteen and reduced to tears by the trauma and sight of her little car banjoed in the rear. Her trunk popped open and the compartment was pushed into her back seat. I don't know what the Home Depot driver was doing to miss the red light, but he smacked her pretty good. I wanted to go out and tell the girl to relax. Thank God she got hit by a Home Depot truck. You know he has good insurance and her car will be put back in one piece.

I missed a call from our soldier on Saturday when I was out playing golf. She sounds a little homesick, but the bombings have slowed and the weather is mid-eighties, sunny and nice. She has volunteered to work with a civilian contingent from General Dynamics on the palace and she is really enjoying it. She reports to a civilian contractor rather than to a military person, so her day is more relaxed and the GD people really appreciate her help. She wouldn't be so happy if she knew what the General Dynamic people are being paid to work on the palace versus what she's making. It is great experience for her and will look good on her resume when she gets out of the Army. They are putting in long hours. In fact she was still at the palace when she called me this morning at seven-fifteen. She talked to Darla as I had already left for work. It was six-fifteen pm her time. She has not received any of our packages yet, but we were told that they take ten days to three weeks, depending on the frequency of supply drops to Iraq.

Darla had her jewelry show this weekend at Cal Expo. It went much better than the Christmas show that she attended in December. The difference was great weather and less jewelry vendors. They had poor weather and about 12 jewelry vendors at the last show. This show had four jewelry vendors and it was on a weekend that saw plenty of tank tops and shorts. The temperatures were only in the high sixties, but it was a bright blue sky without a breath of wind in the air.

I enjoyed the weekend with golf on Saturday morning (85 at Woodcreek and I won all bets) and plenty of yard care and car washing the rest of the weekend. All of that to see the rain come back in and a hint of Vancouver weather splatting about out there. My nice clean car is getting soaked. I did go over to several tire and wheel shops and picked out some new wheels for my Mustang. I have the stock Mustang wheels on the car and I'm having a set of American Racing Clear coat aluminum alloy wheels installed next weekend. This is what I wanted for my birthday. The wheels are a five spoke with a diamond design and are called the Casino. The website for american racing let me pull up my Mustang in green and see what the wheels looked like installed on the car. The internet is an amazing resource in this day and age.

David's basketball team made the playoffs and played a valiant game against one of the top schools in the area. His team played stellar defense and took a 7-0 lead after one quarter, frustrating their opponents at every turn. Unfortunately they outscored us in each successive quarter and beat us on a last second shot 38-36. It was a fun season, but a frustrating one for David. He went from starting and playing a majority of the game to not starting about midway through the year, but being the top bench player. He finished the year deep on the bench and not seeing any action the last three games. He will apply himself this Summer and be ready to start as a Senior.

Daniel has been a little bored lately. He missed the cut on his basketball team and was on the bubble for his freshman baseball team. He made the cut and will play third base. Darla was thrilled as Daniel needs the structure of team sports in his life. He's a bit of a couch potato and has put on some weight. The baseball training has sharpened his skills and begun to work on the extra pudge that he's developed since football. David, of course, will transition right into track. He is a total athlete and would either take Athletic PE after school or be involved in a sport. He chose track.

Darla and I did not get out to see the Passion of the Christ this weekend. I wanted to go this week, but she promised to take the boys. Church was a bit extra crowded on Sunday, so the film is having an effect on our society. I'm happy for Mel Gibson. I'm sad that his father is such an anti-semite. Unfortunately Mel is being painted with that same brush...the old, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" argument. Mel is his own man and his film is having critical and box office success. I knew it would, as their are far more Christians in the world than critics.

Our pastor did, as usual, have a good joke on Sunday. A minister in the midwest was eating dinner with his wife. Times were tough and their budget was stretched to the limit. He noticed his wife in a brand new dress and asked her where she got it. She was embarrassed and said she knew money was tight, but the devil made her buy it. She was in the store and found herself trying on the dress. The devil told her it looked great on her. The pastor said, "Well, dear, you know what the good book says about temptation from Satan. You need to point at him and command him to get behind you." "Well, dear, I did that and then the devil told me the dress looked even better from the back!"

I hope you are all well. I look forward to the Lyon family reunion in Vegas in two weeks.

Back at the blog, albeit a little late. I was out of the office on marketing calls on Friday and came back to the requisite paperwork and oddball things that come up when you are in absentia. I spent the day on Friday up in Chico, California visiting agents and simply recharging my batteries. I have been hard at this job since starting in November and a day out doing marketing calls was just what the doctor ordered. I brought back seven applications, so it was a very fruitful day out.

The job is going great, in fact, I am leading the charge here in the office as far as written premium. My bonus program, which is at the heart of my income, is on track for a great first year. I blew through my quota for January and I'm on track for the production goals for February, but my income numbers are well ahead of the goals developed. Unfortunately, the office as a whole is not producing as it should and my boss is on the hot seat. He is actually going to take on some brokerage responsibilities, which he has not done in the past. I don't think that it is his choice to go into production, but a dictate from home office. Our personal lines is very low and the other underwriters in the office don't put in enough hours to write enough business.

I talked to Jennifer last night. They had another attack on her base last night (her Sunday night...she talked to me on her Monday morning). It is pretty tense and the sound of explosions and the smell of the explosions in the air are omnipresent. She doesn't know if there were any casualties or injuries, but the explosions were loud and scary. The insurgents are really increasing their opposition bombings and attacks mostly on civilian population in Iraq. Our military may need to step up counter attacks and begin to once again go door to door and weed out the trouble makers. In the meantime, Jennifer continues her mission at the palace and is working daily pulling fibre optics cable and wiring.

Jennifer had some discussions with her General Manager at Fort Gordon. There is scuttlebutt (and we've already discussed how accurate that can be) that Jennifer's PDS (Permanent Duty Station) will be changed in September and that she will be deployed to Korea. She has volunteered to work at Camp Doha in Kuwait City. She enjoyed her brief visit there and her thinking is that she would spend too much money in Korea. Clothes are cheap and perfume, jewelry, etc., not to mention the nightlife and bars, etc in the cities. In Kuwait, the soldiers are confined to base only and cannot leave. Her thinking is that she would be able to bank most of her paycheck for the last year of service and get out with a significant nest egg when she transitions back into civilian life. Even that discussion with Jennifer shows how much she has grown and matured in the Army. She no longer looks at the future as next weekend, but longer term. I'm not thrilled about seeing her spend a year in Kuwait, but it is in a large city and she would be relatively safe on base.

I've talked to several of you and know that some are planning to send care packages to Jennifer. For those of you in Canada, the address must include USA as the package will go to Iraq via military transport out of the United States. For those in the states, just fill out the address as shown in an earlier post and the zip code will get the package or letter to a military base for shipment. I appreciate everyone who is supporting Jennifer through cards and letters. It is a HUGE deal to actually get something at mail call for a soldier in the field.

I played golf yesterday in an on again/off again rainstorm. The course was muddy and the wind was blowing. I had a good round at Mather Golf Course. It is a former Air Force Golf course and plays long, but has wide, inviting fairways. I drove the ball well and was crisp all day. Unfortuantely I had one BAD hole, a 9 on a par 5. It was the ninth hole and I was two over par going into the hole. I drove the ball well, but put my second shot in the water hazard and then played trees all the way in. I threw a little sand trap play in for good measure. And how did I manage a nine? I one-putted. I shot 42-42= 84 and had to post the score as an 82 due to the equitable score control procedure. I was very encouraged by my day on the links and the new clubs are beginning to show their value on the score card. I'm hitting some great drives and some really pin point iron shots. Golf is getting exciting again.

Darla is off to another crafts show on the weekend and will once again share a booth and sell her jewelry. I am in charge of the boys this weekend and pray both for me and for them if they fail to behave. I hope all is well in your little neck of the woods. Be well and keep Jennifer in your thoughts and prayers.

Ciao.

It is President's Day here in the states of America. We are hard at work again on a day when most of the surrounding population is sleeping late and relaxing on a national holiday that has passed us by at Burns and Wilcox. It seems to me that I pick companies to work for that abhor time off and crack the whip on their employees. It is a quiet day with many chances to get caught up on business without the phone ringing and company insurance personnel actually working and sending faxes and making phone calls. It is a blessing to be working while the bulk of Americans rest and relax. Also on the bright side, it is pouring rain today and I couldn't golf if I wanted to.

We have heard from Jennifer several times this last week. The one unsettling coversation regarded an attack on her camp last week with rocket propelled grenades. Three soldiers were injured and two vehicles destroyed in the nightime attack. One or more Iraqi insurgents lobbed RPGs onto the base camp from several hundred meters away and Jennifer said one of the grenades landed close enough to her that her entire trailer shook on it's foundation. It is war and I can't stress enough the dangers that Jennifer faces every day and night.

I sent a copy of an e-mail to some of you that I received from Jennifer that described one of the sand storms that blew through Baghdad. She said that day turned into night and the sky was a brownish black. In those situations, you simply cover your nose and mouth and wait it out. Jennifer has been able to get some computer access and you can reach her at lyon80@msn.com.

Our weekend was relaxing. I tended the yard on Saturday and put some crabgrass control on the lawn. Saturday night David had his first official date and he did it right, inviting one of the cheerleaders to dinner and then to the dance at school. He went with two of the seniors and their dates and they had a great time. He had to go out after one of his basketball games last week and meet the girl's mother. She wouldn't let her daughter go out with David unless she met him first. Sounds like she's from a good family. I asked how that meeting went and David said, "she bought me a chocolate sundae". The kid is full of details. It is another big step in his life and I'm proud of him. David always handles things with aplomb.

Sunday I cleaned out the pond. The aquatic plants had really taken off and covered about two thirds of the pond surface. Darla was complaining that she couldn't see the fish and that the plants which were mostly dormant looked terrible. I thinned out the plants and tossed about half of the hyacinth and the pond is back to being a serene and more attractive highlight to our back yard.

Darla's Dad, Earl, had surgery on Wednesday for prostate cancer. They removed the growth and he is expected to have a complete recovery. Darla and Alicia are taking their day off today and visiting with him. They wanted to go yesterday with the kids, but he is sleeping most of the day and recovering from invasive surgery. We ended up NOT going and I think it is best for Earl. The last thing he needs right now is to entertain a large group of people. I know Dad went through the same surgery and like Earl, neither of them have ever spent any significant time in the hospital and recuperating is hard on them. Shirley had to sit on Dad to get him to relax and Frances will have to do the same with Earl. Their heater went out just before he went into the hospital and he will be itching to get up and get to Home Depot to buy a new one and get it installed.

Finally, Mel Gibson's new movie, The Passion of the Christ, is due out next week. I urge each of you to not only see it, but to invite one of your non-Christian friends to the movie and use it as an evangelistic tool. The movie is changing lives and really affecting Christians and non-Christians alike. Darla and I will line up to see the movie and look forward to buying it on DVD when it is available.

Our pastor had a good joke on Sunday. A young boy was failing at Math. No matter what the parents tried, tutors, after school counseling, internet classes, etc, would help. Finally, they enrolled him in a Catholic school. He came home every day and studied hard, doing all of his homework and extra credit assignments. He barely watched television and constantly had his math text with him. Finally, when the grades came out, he had an A+. His parents asked him what was the difference, was it the school or the teachers or his fellow students? He said, "No. I realized that this school was really serious about math when I walked in the first day and saw the guy hung up on the plus sign over the chalk board."

It is another Monday. The sun is streaming into my office and I had to manipulate the blinds to get the glare off of my computer screen this morning. We are in the midst of some of the best weather we've seen in a while with bright blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the sixties. Not bad for February.

Jennifer has called us from Baghdad. She has arrived at Camp Victory in Baghdad. It is on the grounds of one of Sadaam Hussein's former palaces. Jennifer is lucky enough to be housed in a trailer on the grounds, rather than in tents. The trailer will better protect them from the frequent dust storms that blow through the area and coat everything with a thin film of sand and dust. The trailers sleep four to six people, but Jennifer is one of three female soldiers in her unit, so the gals have a trailer built for four and there are only three of them. Oh, the luxuries of the military. Jennifer has frequent phone usage and can call anytime she wants. I spoke to her two nights in a row. The first was on Saturday night (Sunday morning for her) when she called to let us know she made it to Iraq. They flew in a C130 from Camp Doha into Baghdad airport and then hopped in two Ford F150s and a Toyota van and caravaned to the Camp. It was late at night and dark when they arrived. Jennifer said that the main freeway into and out of the airport has three checkpoints that cars have to pass through to get onto or off of the highway. Camp Victory is very secure with complete insulation from the Iraqi people. The palace was built with security in mind, in fact there is a lake that surrounds the palace and only one bridge over the lake into the palace grounds. Jennifer also called last night to give me her address. Again, it was Monday morning Iraq time and she and her unit were leaving on foot patrol to go and tour the palace grounds and get briefed on their mission.

Her unit will be installing fibre optics and phone lines, video conferencing lines and other communications infrastructure in the palace. The palace is now one of the main coalition military headquarters in Iraq and it is being repaired from the heavy bombing that it sustained during the early stages of Operation Iraqi freedom.

Jennifer's address is as follows:

Army Specialist Lyon, Jennifer
ITT-TAC-SWA
Building #7
APO AE 09342

I'll update as I hear more from our soldier.

This weekend was a Guy weekend. I hosted poker on Friday night and made a few bucks, $20 or $30. Saturday and Sunday were both golf days as I played in a two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Don, and I played great golf on the front side shooting 32 and 30, but we fell apart on the back shooting 38 and 37 both days and it cost us the tournament. The qualifing teams shot 64-63 and 64-65. We shot 70 and 67. I enjoyed the golf. The weather was great.

I hope all of you are well. Keep praying and life will fall into place for you.

I just got off the phone with Jennifer. She was calling from an Army installation at Camp Doha in Kuwait. Her plane, a Continental 777 flew into Kuwait City yesterday and she drove the 30 minutes to Camp Doha. She said that Kuwait City is just like any other large city in the world, except for the Arabic writing on all of the signs.

She will fly by military plane, probably a C-5 into Baghdad on Friday and will be assigned to one of the former military palaces of Saddam Hussein. Her unit will be installing a communications network for a miltary commander who will occupy the palace. She will be allowed to take pictures sitting on Saddam's throne and will be working in a secure area that is heavily fortified and well armed.

She will call as soon as she gets to Baghdad and is situated, hopefully by the weekend. I will get her address and she will be able to call home pretty routinely. Her MOS in communications has some perks that the ground units don't and having telephone rights is one of them. She had to call the Sacramento Army National Guard and then have them give her an outside line. She sounds in great spirits. Kuwait is 11 hours ahead of us, so she was getting ready to go to bed. She arrived yesterday morning in Kuwait City. I will update the blog as soon as I hear anything more.

It is a dreary, windy and altogether blustery Monday morning as a Pacific storm wends its way through the Sacramento terrain, leaving slick roads and downed trees in its wake.

Darla and I were awakened at 5 a.m. this morning with a call from Jennifer. She was turning in her linens and thought that would be a good time to call and say her goodbyes. She is on bag duty this morning, charged with collecting and loading the baggage of the troops being deployed. I guess they looked around and saw a 5 foot, 120 pound soldier and said, "there's the perfect candidate to bust these heavy bags up and onto the plane".

Her unit was moved Sunday into a huge 120-person tent on the outskirts of Fort Bliss. The tent had double bunks and was close to the airport. She was up early this morning and was ready to load the bags into several vans leaving for the airport. Once there, it is her duty to get the bags loaded on the airplane and they are then leaving at ten-thirty for Kuwait. It is about a twenty-two-hour flight to Kuwait and with the time change they willl arrive early Wednesday morning. They will then convoy into Iraq and arrive in about two days. The convoys are large and slow as they include ground forces, air support and minesweepers. Jennifer has her flak jacket and M-16, but also the prayers of hundreds of friends and family and the armor of our Lord and Saviour as her shield. I am tremendously proud of her courage and commitment to the cause of our nation's protection. She and others like her are true American heroes.

Darla had one of her coworkers spouting off about America sticking it's nose in other people's business and how this is a war without a cause. Darla resonded that the families who lost loved ones in the tragedy of 9-11 would know what this war is about. I simply would have slapped the woman and walked away. Ignorance is not a pretty sight and Darla sees a lot of it in her chosen profession, social work, which is a calling for many bleeding heart liberals. She is a conservative Republican Christian in the midst of a liberal, Atheistic democracy. Free speech is a right, but so is self-respect.

Andy Rooney about got himself kicked off "60 minutes" for his recent diatribe about the human condition. He said that the most racist groups he knows are the NAACP, BET and the United Negro College Fund. He said that there would be an uproar in this country if someone were to found the NAAWP, WET or the United White Peoples College Fund. He also correctly pointed out that if a community is 70% Black and 70% of the people in jail are Black, that that is the law of probability and not racial profiling.

I talked to Dad and Shirley over the weekend and we have the Lyon Family Reunion on track for the weekend of March 19th in Las Vegas. Darla and I went ahead and booked our flights. We are arriving Thursday night and will stay over until Monday morning. I look forward to seeing everyone. When I told Jennifer, she said that she will have to pass, that she has something else going on that weekend. She, of course, will be in Iraq doing communications infrastructure work and defending our freedom and right to spend a weekend in Las Vegas.

Jennifer said that she should be in contact with us by Thursday and she will give me her address in Iraq. I will post that on the blog and send a letter to all of my family and friends. A letter, package, or an encouraging word would, I'm sure, be welcome.

Stay well and say a prayer for Jennifer and all of the brave soldiers defending our freedoms. Ciao.

P.S. I had a call from Jennifer at 1:45 this PM. She was in Newark, NJ where they were changing crew on th flight and will be non-stop to Kuwait from there. Jen told me that she had volunteered for the bag duty and as a result she was sitting in First Class of the Boeing 777. Anyone who has flown overseas in coach knows the painful process involved. Apparently there is some grumbling among the troops that are stuck in coach. Sometimes it pays to raise your hand. I can just imagine her little five-foot petite body curled up in one of those leather club chairs while some 220-pound soldier is stuck in a middle seat in coach. He should have offered to help with the bags, eh? She is in great spirits and looking forward to her duty.

I talked to Jennifer last night. She has arrived at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas for further processing and training prior to her deployment in Iraq. They ended up with 11 of the communications specialists from Fort Gordon leaving on the trip. One of the original group couldn't pass his clearance and they are trying to replace him and that person may arrive this week. The group of 11 includes 3 sargeants and 8 specialists. Jennifer said that Fort Bliss has processed over 200,000 personnel leaving for Iraq and the base is one of the major processing stations for military personnel going to Iraq. Jennifer also said that unlike the norm in the Army, she and her unit are being treated exceedingly well by personnel at Fort Bliss and she is being shown a degree of deference that she hasn't seen in two and a half years in our nation's service. She will be at Fort Bliss for a week of training and processing. Her training will include Guerilla warfare and her gear includes helmet, M-16, flak jacket, boots, gas mask and tent and sleeping bag.

Darla has a coworker whose brother is an Army reservist and has been called up as a convoy driver in Kuwait. He and his group shepherd the troops from Kuwait to Iraq. He has Jennifer's name and will look for her on the manifest and introduce himself to her. It's a small world.

Two of the women in my office belong to a professional sorority and they have "adopted" Jennifer during her tour in Iraq. The group will send Jennifer care packages consisting of audio books, cds, letters, food, hygiene products, etc. The women in the group range in age from 21-28 and are anxious to support one of their age group in the war effort. I was touched when they approached me and asked if they could adopt Jennifer. I gave them her cell phone number and will follow up with how they can reach her in Iraq once she is stationed.

There is widespread support for our troops within this country. Perhaps not in Canada, but currently Canada is too much like the French, their politics are soft in the head and especially soft in the backbone. As I've said before, if Canada was ever a target of terrorism, Cretien would come crawling to the United States and beg for our help. And, of course, he would get it. We don't hold grudges, we simply call a coward a coward and move on. Are my politics too transparent? With a child heading into harm's way, I don't have time for the idiots that want to debate whether we should be in Iraq or not. When Howard Dean said "I've never supported the war in Iraq and I never will", I immediately labelled him "UnAmerican" and was thrilled to see him make an ASS of himself on tv after the Iowa primary. What a prime example of a politician. Hey, Howard, we have sons and daughters, mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers being killed in Iraq. Shut the Hell up and support our troops! Their blood may not be on your hands, but a true American supports the men and women who fight for our country and politics has nothing to do with it. Figure it out...or move to Canada or France with the rest of the world's ostrich population.

Jennifer said that the military is chartering a commercial airliner to move the troops from Fort Bliss to Iraq. The military does not have airliners capable of moving hundreds of troops at a time and uses the commercial airliners to handle large troop deployments. She will leave sometime between Friday and Sunday. If you haven't called her, get off your hands and wish her well.

Again, I can't discuss the mundane in this epistle and will leave it at this. I'm concerned for my daughter's safety and again ask for you to pray for her wellbeing. Ken

It is Martin Luther King, Jr Day here stateside and the entire city of Sacramento is a wasteland. It is never more apparent that this city is a government center than on a national Holiday that has yet to be embraced by the private sector. What I mean is that while those of us who work to bring money into corporate coffers toil, the public sector sits idly at home and enjoys a day of rest. The freeways are at full speed with nary a slowdown at the time that normally they have ground to a halt and traffic inches its way along toward downtown. Today, the freeways were devoid of traffic and congestion. I slept in an extra half hour as Darla and the boys are off today and the house was a little extra quiet. I knew that traffic would be light and actually left the house at 7:15 instead of 6:45 and made it to the office close to my regular arrival time.

Well, reality begins to settle in as the time for Jennifer's deployment has been set and draws near. She will leave this Sunday for Fort Bliss in Texas, where she will learn the details of her mission. She will then take a military plane to Kuwait on January 31st, where she and her group will meet up with other soldiers being deployed in Iraq and will convoy into hostile territory. Sad to say, but a similar convoy was attacked just this past week and two soldiers were killed and four others wounded. This is the real deal. I talked to Jennifer last week and asked her how she was doing with her deployment imminent. She said, "Dad, can you be both excited and scared at the same time?" I told her, that yes, I'd been married twice. Jokes aside, I sent an e-mail to family and friends last week and announced a call to prayer. I asked that you pray for Jennifer's physical and emotional safety and to remember her parents as well in your prayers. Jennifer's tour is expected to run from January 31st to April 22nd and she will be working on the communications infrastructure in Iraq.

Again, this is your chance to call and wish Jennifer Godspeed. PLEASE call her on her cell any night or weekend. Her number is 310-927-6311. Remember, she and the rest of the military are in Iraq because the fight for freedom is still going on. It may appear to bleeding heart liberals that we are fighting for Iraq's freedom, but in reality, we are fighting for our basic human rights and freedom in this country and for all freedom loving countries in the world. Call her and tell her that she is in your prayers and that you love her. She leaves for Iraq on January 31st.

I have trouble prattling on about mundane things like golf and high school basketball in light of the real danger that Jennifer will be facing in the coming months so I'll leave this at that. Please ask God to take Jennifer into his loving embrace while she is in Iraq. There is only one who loves Jennifer more than I do and I'm so happy that He is a loving God. Be well.

It is a frantic Monday morning..or at least it appears to be outside my office window as cars scream by on their way to work and school. I've enjoyed a bagel and a cup of coffee and thought I'd update my blog before digging into work.

Darla and I enjoyed a nice quiet weekend with the boys at their Dad's house. We dined on Pizza on Friday night. I played golf on Saturday in our annual Captain 'n Crew event, a scramble format where we combine A, B, C & D players into a team and play a scramble match. Admittedly, it is not my favorite format (I don't like any golf event where an individual score isn't posted at the conclusion of the round). Our team ended up with an A player that I could routinely outdrive, in fact our team used nine of my drives for the match. That isn't a good thing when many of the teams had A players with 2 or 3 handicaps that can hit the ball 300 yards off the tee. I hit it about 275 on a great drive and about 250 on average. We finished with a 67 and the winners all shot 61.

I'm the Vice-President of the golf club this year and my main duties are in writing the newsletter and in setting up and administering the Christmas Party. I'm on the audit committee and the rules committee as well, but the newsletter and Christmas Party are the two biggies. I am moving the Christmas party this year to a vintage Victorian building in the small town of Lincoln, outside of Roseville. The restaurant wants, and we have contracted to bring in, at least $2,500 for the room based on a dinner price of $42. We are charging the members $30 a plate, so we need to have 42 couples attend to make our minimum. If we do, we will be $1008 short of our tab at the restaurant. What I've decided to do, is hold a 50-50 drawing at every tournament. Our first event cleared $122 on the 50-50 drawing and we have 20 events this year plus 4 open meetings to make money. We are off and running. I haven't announced the cost of the dinners and if we do well, I'd like to drop the cost to $25 this year. The restaurant venue is very nice and I want to market this as an elegant night out with your wife or significant other. A chance to get together with your buddies AND make your wife happy all in the same night.

Darla and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. We thought about going to the movie, but decided to spend a quiet night at home. We are getting old or something. The thought of standing in line for the movie and then sitting in an overly cool theater for two hours just doesn't motivate us anymore. We watched the movie "Just Married" on HBO and had a good evening.

Sunday, we went to church and then Darla dragged me over to her friend, Michelle's, house for a two year-old's birthday party. The party started at noon and I dragged my feet at home long enough that the party was winding down at one o'clock when we got there. There were seven screaming toddlers tearing open gifts and throwing toys around. I thought I'd die, but the party quickly broke up after the breaking of a Scooby Doo pinata and the mad scramble for falling candy was over. The harried mothers gathered their over-sugared youngsters and dragged them to the car for a loud drive home. I have never been a huge fan of little kids and can take them in very small doses. Within forty-five minutes of our arrival, the only child left was the birthday girl and she spent her time dragging a balloon around the room and watching it get batted about by the blades of several ceiling fans as her Dad and several other men including myself watched the Green Bay- Philly game on tv.

I talked to Jennifer last night and she is still in a waiting mode with the military and her deployment to Afghanistan. She is pretty disgusted with the whole incident and there is a rumor that they will have to be re-cleared for the mission if it stretches over thirty-days past their initial clearance. She knows that she will be sent to an air base in Texas for further briefing before they leave for Afghanistan. What she doesn't know is when all of this will happen. Last week during the preparedness drill, the Army pulled three of the soldiers off KP and had them back in the barracks preparing to leave. Apparently even the sergeant weren't aware that it was simply a drill. The soldiers aren't happy and feel that they are being toyed with.

That's it for this week. Be good to each other. Hold up the Lord as the example for your lifeand make His way, your way. Ciao.

Back to the blog after an extended holiday season filled with fun and celebration. The new year lays in front of us like a blank canvas. I'd get my paints and brushes and begin to work on a masterpiece, but life intervenes and my creative impulse wanes.

I came home on Wednesday night to a gathering puddle of water on my garage floor and a leaking hot water heater. The house is thirteen years old and the hot water heater was original equipment. The bottom of the tank finally rusted out and water was dripping. We put some rags around the base of the unit on the pedestal that houses the hot water heater and got on the phone with contractors to find someone who would do the job without breaking my meager bank. I tried several contractors before settling on Home Depot. Many small businesses in communities bemoan the Home Depot monopoly, but I saved $100 on the job and I'm glad they are there to keep costs manageable. Frankly, they have forced several small businesses out of existence, but the contractor who installed my H2O heater is getting plenty of work, and as a subcontractor, doesn't have the overhead of running his own business. He had to install a 2-gallon expansion tank on the wall next to the water heater as we have water meters in Roseville now that will go operational in 2006.

Jennifer is still in Georgia awaiting the military to publish her orders. She was called into a meeting (along with the other 14 soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan) on Monday and told that their orders were being drawn up and that they would be leaving on Wednesday. They took the rest of Monday off to prepare for their departure. Jennifer called family and friends to say goodbye and arranged to have her car put in storage, etc. On Tuesday, they were again called into a meeting and told that the excercise of Monday was a "preparedness" drill and that their orders would be coming at a later date. People have asked me if Jennifer plans to make the Army a career and I tell them that she has already decided to opt out of the military after her four year stint. Stunts like what occured on Monday help to solidify her decision. It seems that respect is a one way street in our nation's military.

David's basketball team has entered their regular season and are now playing league games. They are 1-1 in league after blowing out Placer on Tuesday 77-44 and then losing to the league powerhouse, Granite Bay, last night 63-48. I opened the Sacramento Bee newspaper yesterday morning over my toast and Lucky Charms here at the office and saw a 1/4 page picture of David leaning over with his hands on his knees and his coach imparting advice on how to guard his man and not draw a foul. What the picture doesn't show is the other end of the court, where David's man is shooting free throws after David fouled him. It is a good picture of David the athlete and I tried to scan it to e-mail, but the scanned picture came out too dark. We have several copies of the paper courtesy of friends and teammates and I'll send a copy to Dad and Shirley. The article was about how difficult it will be for area champions to repeat.

I have a golf tournament this weekend, our first of the year. It is a Captain and Crew scramble event. The tournament is a good mixer and allows new members to get to know the group. I had hoped to have my new Wilson Deep Red irons, but alas, the factory was closed over the holidays and the clubs are scheduled to be shipped out today and arrive next week. My first tournament with the new clubs will be a medal event. Oh well.

I'm sorry that this blog entry is late this week. With all that has been happening, I frankly forgot to blog. Can you believe it?

Work is going extremely well. I just finished my first 60 days on the job and received a glowing review. The production is beginning to take off and the relationships that I'm developing with my agents is priceless. Hope all is well with all of you. God Bless.

Christmas has come and Christmas has gone and the memories endure like a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter night. Jennifer made it home and we had a short, but fun-filled visit. As her military career has drawn out...she is now in her third year...she has appreciated the comforts of home so much more and she is quick to let us know how much she appreciates us. What a blessing it is to have a child show appreciation for the simple things in life.

Jennifer split her time between our house and her Mom's and we even let her two worlds collide on Christmas Day when Diane hosted us for a Christmas brunch. Jennifer was late arriving on Christmas Eve, her flight circling the airport for 45 minutes as the ground crew worked on a disabled plane in their arrival gate. Why they couldn't land at an alternate gate must have to do with some obscure FAA rule, but it was a bit irritating as the crowds in the arrival area waited for their loved ones on the last arriving flight of the night as it did wide loops of downtown Sacramento waiting for room to land and disembark. Finally fifty minutes after their scheduled arrival, the passengers began to arrive in small groups and then a steady stream. Darla, the boys and I waited and finally saw a tired and dishevelled Jennifer riding down the escalator, weighed down with packages and carryon items. It had been a long day for Jennifer. Not only was it 2:30 a.m. her time, but she had pulled a 21-hour shift on guard duty the night before at work. She was a trooper, though and had been able to catch some sleep on the drive to the airport in the morning (no worries, her roomate drove) as well as on two of her three flights.

She woke up bright-eyed and raring to go on Christmas morning, even breaking into her brother's rooms to wake them up from a sound sleep. We ate breakfast together and opened presents. My Dad called and talked to Jennifer and then we were off to Diane and Bill's house for fritatas, mimosas and sugar-free ketchup.

Darla and I took Jennifer, her ex-boyfriend, Jason, and Darla's sister, Alicia, out to dinner on Saturday night at the Zinfandel Grille, a new restaurant in Rocklin. We all enjoyed ourselves and had a lot of laughs. It was nice to have Alicia join us. She is a good role model for Jennifer, as she is an independent and successful woman. Jennifer told me how much she appreciated having Alicia join us for dinner. Jason is a great guy, who is getting his life together at age 24. He still holds a burning torch for Jennifer and is one of her greatest fans and greatest friends. We all retired back to the house and played pool and watched the movie, "The Pirates of the Carribean."

Jennifer slept through the second half of the movie, which was fine as she had to be up at four a.m. the next morning. We had her to the airport at shortly after five a.m. for her 6:35 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City. It was hard to see her go, knowing that she was back to Fort Gordon, only to prepare for her departure to Afghanistan on January 7th.

Jennifer was suffering from some after effects of all of the shots that she's been taking in preparation for her deployment. She had some flu-like symptoms, which were a result of her smallpox vaccine. She also had a nasty blister on her arm from the same shot. You may have heard that the military now has to allow their soldiers to opt not to take the Anthrax vaccine. True, but if they do opt to not take the vaccine, they will not be deployed and will basically end their advancement in the military. Some things never change.

We had a great Christmas, made even better by the gift of having Jennifer with us. For those of you who didn't get a chance to talk to Jen on her visit, you can still call her. Her cell phone number is 310-927-6311 and she is available this weekend or at night. Call her, she'd love it.

Lastly, please continue to pray for Jennifer's safety on her mission. She will be insulated at her military base, but will be living in tents with no electricity and little in the way of creature comforts. It is brutally hot and the sand is omnipresent. She saw pictures of the base and the tents are yellow because of the shifting sand. The soldiers all have respiratory problems because of the fine sand and Jennifer will have to wear a mask when she does tower work on the base. Happy New Year to all and God bless.

It is a wet, rainy and altogether December day here in Sacramento. The cars swish by my office window leaving a wet slick of rain behind them as they all head on to work on Christmas Eve eve. I had trouble sleeping last night for some reason and that last push of the snooze button actually caught the off button and I inadvertantly got an extra 20 minutes of sleep this morning. With the paucity of traffic I arrived at my office only about ten minutes later than normal and was the third person to arrive rather than the second.

Darla and I finished up the last of our Christmas shopping last night, making a nine p.m. call on the local WalMart. There was a surprising number of shoppers out at that hour, but we were able to make our selections of stocking stuffers and last minute gifts in about forty-five minutes and we were home by shortly after ten pm.

David continues excelling at his basketball. He actually scored 18 points in the opening game of last weekend's tournament and led his team to a 74-39 thumping of Mission of San Francisco. They went on to lose their next two games and finish fourth in the tourney. The team is now 5-5 in the preseason and struggling to find themselves.

Darla and I will work a concession stand tonight at Arco Arena for the Kings-Memphis Grizzlies game. We are part of a thirty-person volunteer group that will make $2,500 for the Woodcreek Varsity football team. The King's owners, the Maloof's, are very supportive of the local schools and allow one school per game to volunteer time and make money for their sports programs. We are up tonight.

Work is really rounding in to shape for me and, although my stress level is considerably higher than it was in my last two jobs, the sense of accomplishment and of "belonging" is strong here. I wrote a $30,000 account yesterday and it felt good to put that on the books.

I went out last week and was fitted for a new set of irons. I spent about two hours with the pro over at Haggin Oaks golf course and finally purchased a set of Wilson Deep Red irons. We had to order them through the factory as I have a very upright swing and we had to adjust the lie angle down about 4 degrees. I'll get my new clubs sometime in the early New Year. I also used up all of my money in the pro shop at Diamond Oaks and bought a new King Cobra 440Z driver. I've been slow to accept the new drivers with the gigantic heads and because of that, I'm losing 10-20 yards off the tee. I've tried hitting them and wasn't successful. The pro showed me that I have to tee the ball up higher and now I'm pounding the ball. I played on Saturday in a wet drizzle at Cherry Island golf course and shot an 88. Some of my drives were world class and some weren't. I am a work in progress right now, but my goal for 2004 is to get down into a single digit handicap.

Jennifer flies in tomorrow night and will spend the night with Darla and I and we will spend Christmas morning together. She will be at our house until about ten in the morning, so if you want to call and wish her good luck on her deployment to Afghanistan, call us Christmas morning. I'd like to also ask that you continue to put Jennifer in your prayers that God watches over her as she enters (literally) a war zone.

Merry Christ Mass to each of you and enjoy your loved ones this holiday. God Bless and Happy Holy Days.

It is with a sense of true confliction of emotions that I write today. Jennifer will be home for the holidays and it is an unplanned, but necessary and important trip. We have just been informed that on January 7th of the New Year Jennifer will board a plane and be deployed to Afghanistan. It is the sort of news that you don't want to hear when you have a son or daughter in the military. My conflict comes from the fact that Jennifer is a true soldier and she is anxious and excited to take up her new post and relieve some of the communications soldiers that are in harm's way now. As my dismay at the news lingers, I know that another Father is thrilled to hear that his son or daughter will be returning from Afghanistan.

Jennifer will spend Christmas with us. She flies home on December 24th and returns to Georgia on December 28th to prepare for her departure. It will be a quick turnaround, but (frankly) IF she wasn't coming home, Darla and I would have been on a plane in the new year to see her and spend time with her before she leaves.

As most of you know, Jennifer is a Specialist in the Signal unit of the Army and specializes in communications. She is a fibre optics specialist and can wire a complete telecommunications network from the ground up. In fact, in preparation for this mission, her unit spent a week in the field (which is the vacant land that makes up most of the several thousand acres that is Fort Jackson in Augusta, Georgia). She and her fellow soldiers from the Signal Unit had to wire a complete phone system between the various tents that were set up for the week and then take that communications system down and repack it. My understanding is that she will be working on a base in Afghanistan and completing a new communications center on the base. Her deployment is scheduled to last only three to six months and she will be surrounded by infantry at all times. A Dad can't help but worry though.

I'd like to ask that all of my family include Jennifer in their prayers and ask God to surround her with his loving embrace while she is in hostile territory and guide her on her journey.

Jennifer was very excited and upbeat when she passed the news on to me. I knew something was up because she had called home when I was at work and asked me to call her back and give her my status as a citizen...was I a Canadian citizen, a U.S. citizen or did I have dual citizenship? The US does not recognize dual citizenship, although Canada does, so my answer is different depending upon who is asking the question. I knew that the military was doing a clearance for Jennifer and I called her back and left a message that I had become an Iranian citizen since I'd talked to her last. I figured that would slow her down. In truth, a part of me is excited for her. She has reached the level of a Specialist by being the best at what she does in the military and she is itching to put her knowledge and skills to work. I'm damn proud of her and prepared to see her leave. That is NOT to say that I won't worry about her every day that she is gone, though.

Christmas approaches in it's inexorable way and I look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and I'm especially happy to have Jennifer home this Christmas. I'm sure the hugs will be a little tighter and the conversations a little more focused while she is here.

Darla and I have found the boys a pool table and we have already donated our living room furniture to one of the group homes that Darla works with. The pool table which is a cherrywood standard table with carved legs and a polished wood exterior will fit well in the former living room and now game room. The boys are excited. Darla and I decided to get a new table from a furniture manufacturer, rather than a used table. The quality of this table far surpassed anything we saw on the used market and we will have this professionally delivered and set up, levelled and installed. We are all excited about the addition to the home and, hopefully, the boys will feel comfortable to invite friends over to play pool and hang out.

David has his Mustang back and $2000 later, the transmission is installed and it is running like a well oiled machine. Well, it IS a well oiled machine. He is in seventh heaven having his wheels back.

The holidays bring basketball tournaments aplenty and David's team took third place in an eight team tournament last weekend and will play in another eight team tourney in Rocklin this weekend. David continues to start at small forward for his Varsity team and is getting more into the flow of the game, even scoring the first four baskets of one of the games during last weekend.

That's it until Christmas weekend. I did play golf last weekend in our year-end tournament. Unfortunately, I was at my work Christmas party at my boss' home in Folsom on Friday night until about 1:00 a.m. and felt the effects of a few beers the next morning. I didn't overindulge at all, but Darla does not drink and I generally don't either. I was a bit cottonmouthed and foggy on Saturday and started my round with a skull shot into the water that culminated in a deathly 9 on the par 5 starting hole. I struggled back to a 44-43=87 or a net 75. Unfortunately with my handicap, I post that as an 85. Please do pray for my daughter and God bless each of you.

Good Monday morning from the golden state. It is a frosty, yet clear and cloudless day. The sun is working its magic on the frost that still clings to the trees and rooftops and the result is a steam that gently rises into the air. It is nice to view the surroundings from the warmth of my office with a mug of hot coffee within easy reach. A group of joggers in shorts and sweatshirts with hoods pulled over their heads jogs by, the steam from their breath obscuring their faces as they run to who knows where for who knows what reason. I admire their tenacity and take a long sip of my hot coffee.

This past weekend went by in a blur as we enjoyed two Christmas parties with two vastly different groups of people. Friday night was my annual golf Christmas banquet and Saturday night was a Christmas dinner with Darla's co-workers from the Auburn office. I still don't know how or why we were invited to that gathering as Darla works in the Roseville office, but it was a nice outing with excellent food from one of Folsom's better restaurant's, The Cliffhouse over looking the American River. We stayed on after dinner and did a bit of dancing in the bar.

The combination of two outings on the same weekend tended to crowd the weekend and it seemed that Sunday night was upon us shortly after I got off work on Friday. I was able to get the car washed and the lawn mowed over the weekend, but it was a rare golfless weekend.

I talked to Jennifer last night and she survived her week in the field. She endured rain and cold and spent Monday and Tuesday running phone lines between the groups of tents and then dismantled the communications network from 9-11 pm on Thursday night and they broke camp Friday morning. It is important training for the military, but grueling work and, as Jennifer said, it makes you appreciate the warmth and comfort of your own bed after sleeping in tents for a week.

David's Mustang will be back in his possession on Thursday after two weeks of inactivity. The transmission was shot and it was prohibitively expensive to rebuild his transmission. They ended up buying a rebuilt transmission from Ford and a local transmission shop is pulling the old transmission and installing the rebuilt. His father decided that the work was too much for he and David. I was actually glad to see that and David will now have a warranty and the work done right. He is tired of driving his Dad's old Ford F250 truck to school. He said he's embarrassed by the beat-up appearance of the rusty old tub. I think the Mustang has spoiled him a bit. I also told him that he could have his grandmother drive him to and from school. He said that the truck isn't THAT bad.

David is doing very well with his basketball team. It is still non-league season and they have so far played three games and won them all. The fun part is that they have played three Division 1 schools and dominated in all of the games. The only game that was close was against Folsom High School, Jennifers alma mater. We actually had a 13 point lead late in the game only to survive an onslaught of three pointers to win by two points on a missed final shot by Folsom. David is the starting small forward and he is enjoying himself. His team is the defending Nor-Cal champions from last year and they have a nice team this year. Two of their starters are juniors and one is a sophomore, so they should be good for the next two years. Tournament season starts next weekend and David will play in tournaments two of the next three weekends.

Darla and I have decided to get the boys a pool table for Christmas. I'm still a little conflicted about turning my living room into a game room, but frankly, like so many modern homes, our living room sits empty most of the time as we sit in the family room enjoying television or just reading on the big sofa or recliners. We will move out the sofa and coffee table and replace those with a pool table and perhaps another television and some barstools. Darla and I have decided that we want our home to be inviting to the boy's friends and a place that they can come and relax and play pool or listen to music.

I admit that infrequently I would steal away into the living room with a cup of coffee and the paper and sit and relax. I'll miss that, but it was not very often and the joy that the boy's and their friends will get from the game room will make up for my small sacrifice.

That's it for this week. I hope all of you are well. Darla and I have another Christmas party this weekend at my boss' home and then we will take some friends to our church's holiday play, It's a Wonderful Life on Saturday night.

It is Saturday night and I've already enjoyed the magic and solitude of church. Darla is off to a Craft show at Cal Expo that spans the weekend and, in fact, she won't be home until eight-thirty tonight and back at her booth by nine tomorrow morning. I decided to go to church tonight and enjoy sleeping in tomorrow morning. It is getting harder and harder to get up as the temperature dips and that goose down comforter is just so warm and comfortable. I suppose it's name is appropriate.

Anyhoo, Pastor Wayne Bigelow, our seventy-something servant leader of the Senior community at church was the speaker. He announced himself in honor of our new governor, as the Sermonator. He told a story of the last time that he preached, he showed up with two bandages on his jaw. Pastor Rick asked him why he was bandaged up and Wayne said that he was so involved in preparing his sermon that he cut himself. Rick said that all of the sermons have been too long lately and that Wayne should concentrate on shaving and cut his sermon, not his face.

Wayne is a genuinely funny speaker and just an old farm boy. He spoke of the two seniors in his group that both having been widowed, met and fell in love and decided to marry. They went to the local drug store and enquired about several items. They wanted to know if the store stocked plenty of Ace Bandages and linaments. The store manager answered, Yes, that they had those available. They then wanted to know if he had plenty of Aspirin and various antisceptics and cold medications. Again, the druggist said Yes. They then enquired about laxatives, bran cereals and prunes. Again, the druggist said that he had all of those items and could he help them round them up and ring them up. The old couple said, no, that they were merely getting ready to register for their wedding gifts.

Finally, Wayne told the story of the blonde woman who went to her doctor complaining of pain all over her body. The doctor asked her to be more specific. She pointed at her wrist and said it hurt when she touched there. She pointed at her head, her knee, her shoulder and her stomach and said that it hurt everywhere she touched. The doctor did a quick examination and told her that she had a dislocated finger.

Wayne's sermon was on gratefulness and that God wants us to be thankful of the blessings that he has bestowed on us. Wayne said that prayer is nothing more than us thanking God for his goodness and his grace. It was a great sermon and left me with a lump in my throat and a bounce in my step. There is something about sitting in your home church not surrounded by people that you know. We don't attend Saturday nights and it is a different group of people. It allowed me to concentrate on worship and to develop a sense of intimacy with the Lord that is often missing. I thoroughly enjoyed myself tonight.

David and Daniel both tried out for their respective basketball teams. It was no surprise that David not only made his team, but will be starting at Small Forward. The surprise was that Daniel did not make the team. The coach was looking more for speed and ball handling. Daniel at 6'1" and 205 pounds is more of a bruiser and certainly more football player than basketball player. Daniel almost didn't try out for the team and was conflicted about even going through the motions. He doesn't care for several of the guys on the team and felt like he needed a break after football. The coach ended up making his decision for him and Daniel is now deciding whether to go out for the wrestling team. The wrestling coach wants him, but Daniel is thinking it over. I'll keep you informed.

David already had his first game and he played all four quarters with just short breaks on the bench for a breather. David is a tenacious defender with a hand always in your face. He is developing a nice shot, especially when facing the basket, but he is a pass first, shoot seciond kind of player (his teammates love him for that). I sit in the stand and have Darla yelling, "Shoot the ball!" in my ear all season. It is a rite of Winter.

Jennifer was the chef at her Thanksgiving dinner with friends this week. All of the group is single and decided to get together. Jennifer offered to cook the turkey and stuffing. She called Darla and got her recipe and made a 14 pound turkey. She said it turned out great and she is enjoying all of the leftovers. They now have a microwave as I shipped hers to her a couple of months ago, so leftovers are a big deal to Jennifer and her roomate. She enjoyed cooking and was justifiably proud of herself. She is off on to the field this week, where she will be sleeping in tents and sleeping bags the whole week. Think of her out freezing when you tuck yourself into your warm beds this week. I certainly will.

I picked Alicia up at the Dodge dealer this morning where she was in for her 36,000 mile rip off of single women checkup with a price tag of $400. They did a tuneup and changed the oil and did a complete checkup which Firestone would do for $79. Oh well. We went from there over to Cal Expo to lend our support to Darla and her jewelry booth. She had a slow start yesterday with sales, but we were all hoping that it picks up today and tomorrow. We wandered the long lines of exhibitors and counted 29 jewelry booths out of the 300 plus exhibitors. It is pretty competitive in there with prices really low. Darla has quality handmade jewelry and was finding it hard to compete with the sheer number of shops.

I dropped Alicia off this afternoon and took a drive past David's Dad's house to see how the Mustang was coming. They were to be installing a new tranny this weekend. The Mustang was sitting forlornly at the front of the house with no sign of activity. David will be pretty sore if the work isn't done this weekend. He had done the research on rebuilt transmissions and was waiting for his Dad to decide which one to buy. Hopefully it gets done.

Darla and I are busy for the next few weekends with holiday parties. This coming weekend will be the Roseville Golf Club dinner banquet, followed by Darla's work's dinner the following weekend and my work's dinner the same weekend. So far, we haven't had a conflict on nights. We still have the tree to put up. I think we'll have a live tree this year as my fake tree left over from my bachelor days is a bit shop worn and old. Hopefully after the holidays we will replace the fake tree and be ready for the next few years. I am NOT a fan of live trees in the house. My pest control guy told me that the largest cause of winter pest infestations is the live Christmas tree. I will likely put up the lights on the house next weekend when I have those two six footers available to help me.

Well, that is it for this installment. Remember during the upcoming holiday season to keep the Lord in the middle of our festivities, after all, Christmas is named after our Savior. God Bless.

Monday again. It is actually a glorious Northern California day with a bright blue sky and sun streaming through the windows. I had to adjust the blinds to keep the sun off of my video screen as I sit here and postulate on the world around me. The only problem with the bright blue sky and sunshine is that we've had frost the last three mornings and it delayed my golf game yesterday by an hour.

Darla had me fill in for her volleyball team last Tuesday night and I felt a pop in my right elbow. I think I might have strained a tendon or something ( I guess this is the dreaded tendonitus), but it is so sore. I suffered through the malady yesterday and struggled to a 44-43=87, which won me nothing. Well, actually I got a turkey certificate, but then everyone that played did. I had them put the money on the books in the pro shop. I'll be buying some new irons this Christmas. I've had my Tommy Armour Silver Scot 845's for about five years and I'm ready for some new sticks. I'll probably end up with the Calloway irons, but I'll be shopping next month for some irons that feel right to me.

Well, David's car ended up with major problems with the transmission and he and his father will be spending the Thanksgiving Holiday together installing a rebuilt transmission into the Mustang. David was pretty bummed, but warmed to the idea of working with his Dad to install the rebuilt transmission. He became less down about things when his Dad offered to pay for the rebuilt tranny and help him install it as a Christmas gift. I told David that I had $4000 invested in his car and that I pay his insurance, so repairs, maintenance and gasoline are on him. Hopefully, they get the car back up and running by the weekend and David can smile again.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday with Darla's parents, her sister, and her brother and his family at Darla's parents ranch in Linden, California. Unfotunately, our star athlete, David, couldn't join us. His basketball team had a team meeting at the coaches' house on Saturday night. Darla was a bit non-plussed that he had to miss our celebration, but as David said, the coach didn't expect us to be celebrating Thanksgiving on the Saturday before the actual holiday. David has missed vacations and other family events due to his sports, so this is simply another chapter in that book.

I had to miss church yesterday because of my golf tournament and I was bummed until Darla told me that they had a children's program yesterday as the service. I've said for years that
they should have those children's services well marked and announced and allow those of us that would prefer to avoid the pain of sitting through one of those yawners, to plan around them.

Darla and I will host her parents and sister on Thanksgiving for a small get together and we will roast another turkey. We both love turkey and enjoy the leftovers.

I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and much love and laughter throughout the holidays. God Bless.

It is Monday once again. I come into the office at 7 a.m. mostly to avoid the traffic mess on the freeway. It's been almost eight years since I've worked in an office environment, having worked out of my house since January of 1996. The traffic outside my office window rattles along with each car on it's way to work or school. My office is located close to my alma mater, California State University, Sacramento. Darla and I came in to the office this weekend and decorated. I put up a picture of the third hole at the Makai course in Kauai that I bought and we had framed. I also put up a print of Thomas Kinkade, "The Forest Chapel", that my employees bought for me one Christmas at Republic Western. Finally, I put up the Golf Ball collection and clock combo that Dad gave me as a gift for being in his wedding. I have a large collection of balls of California courses at home, but this collection is of courses in Canada, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.

This weekend saw the end of the football season for the boy's. Daniel's team finished the year at 6-4 and just missed tying for first place in their league. David's team went 2-6-2 and lost the final game 28-0. There was a collection of excellent junior quarterbacks in the division this year. Unfortunately none of them played for Woodcreek. The junior q.b. for Del Oro, the team that they played on Friday, threw four touchdowns in the game and threw for 357 yards passing. Our quarterback fumbled twice, threw an interception and managed a paltry 57 yards passing. There is a good sophomore quarterback coming up from JV next year and we hope that the team is improved on offense next year. Both David and Daniel played well this year and we hope that David is given some consideration for All League at Free Safety. It's time to start getting some attention from college recruiters.

The boy's both start basketball practice this week and David's first pre-season game is Wednesday. The basketball program has been practicing for two weeks and they will be approaching the final cuts this Friday now that the football players are on board. Both Daniel and David should make the teams. The Varsity squad is the league defending champion and played in the California championship game last year at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

David's car is on the fritz. He has been having trouble with the automatic transmission and Darla and he are taking the car into the shop today to have it looked at. We are hoping that the transmission simply needs to be adjusted and the belts tightened. He had trouble shifting into reverse last week and the car is clunking from first to second when he accelerates. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it isn't something more ominous than that.

My golf game got rained out this past weekend and the game has been postponed until next Sunday. It is our annual Turkey Shoot tournament and Tournment of Champions. I was lucky enough to win three tournaments this year and will play for the trophy. Darla and I went out to dinner on Saturday night after stopping by my office. We ate at Scott's Seafood of San Francisco, although at the Sacramento branch of the restaurant chain. We both had a delectable filet mignon and prawns dish that was to die for. I said to Darla that I couldn't remember the last time I'd enjoyed a meal out so much. She pointed out several meals that we'd had the week before in Hawaii. I just smiled.

Church was a nice refuge on Sunday. The sermon was on Christmas and how to claim Christmas back from society. Americans spend over $15 billion dollars on Christmas gifts and over 60% of that is bought on credit. Darla and I have never gone overboard on Christmas and the message was How to have a GOOD christmas. GOOD = Get Out Of Debt. The pastor was presenting his sermon early to try to prevent his flock from overspending this Christmas. A message that was both timely and well received by us.

Jennifer just returned from a mission where she spent five days in South Carolina setting up a new Communications network for an Army National Guard unit that is training for a tour to Iraq. They caravanned from Augusta with about twenty Army vehicles including three Hum Vees from Fort Gordon. Jennifer drove one of the Hum Vees and said that she got some nice "thumbs up" from the civilians on her trip. She enjoyed the assignment and just got back yesterday. She was tired and hoped to have next Thursday and Friday off to make up for her weekend duty this weekend.

Have a great week. Ciao.

We are back from paradise and mired in the minutia of day to day life once again. Hawaii was an awesome and awe inspiring site. Kauai, the garden island, is by necessity the rainiest of the islands and, although this Sun God prefers heat and sun, the misting rain was a nice respite from the sun and heat. It rained every day off and on, but the rain is more of a mist and never seemed to last more than five minutes or so and then the sun was back in all it's glory. We spent three straight days in Princeville, which is on the jungle side of the island and I played golf two of the three days. It was nice to have the misting rain on and off as we played. The temperature remains at near 80 degrees when it rains and it moves on so quickly that it is nothing more than a chance to cool off from the heat. The temperature in Kauai at this time of year is an overnight low of 75 degrees and daytime highs ranging from 83-85 degrees. I realized the cooling effects of the rain when we played Poipu Bay Golf Resort (the site of next month's PGA Grand Slam of Golf). Poipu is on the sunny side of the island and it was brutally hot when we played. I found myself missing the rain, strange as that may sound to those of you who know me well.

Darla, true to her word, matched me dollar for dollar on her purchases in relation to my golf expenditures. She bought some jewelry, clothes, candy and gifts for the boys and for others. She and Marilyn had a good time shopping, especially in Hanalei Bay, which is about ten minutes from Princeville. She also made some good buys (according to her) in and around Poipu Bay and Lihue while Dave and I were playing the Poipu Bay course.

Golf is great, but expensive in Hawaii. It cost me $234 for two days at the Princeville courses, which included the Makai course and the Prince course. The Prince course is the more difficult of the two, but the Makai course is more picturesque as the front nine plays along the ocean and has some spectacular views. In fact, the third hole (a par three) plays over water to a small green with the ocean as a backdrop and the Princeville Hotel off to the right. A local artist has a painting of that hole that was put into print form, numbered and signed and I bought a print for my new office and had it shipped home. I'll have it framed and mounted and hang it in the new office when we move in January. I shot 40-46=86 at the Makai course and 44-47=91 at the Prince course.

Dave was able to sign us up for a tournament (The Big One) at the Poipu Bay course and we got in for $100. The normal green fee is $185, but it was cheaper for the tournament and he decided to save some of my hard earned money for me. I shot 39-49=88 at the Poipu Bay course and was fortunate enough to put the ball about four feet from the pin on the par three seventh hole. I won a free round of golf at Poipu ($185 value) for closest to the pin. The problem is that I have to use it by next November. I'll probably sell the round on E-Bay as we likely won't be back to Hawaii that soon. I was tired after three straight rounds of golf.

We will be back to Hawaii and we assured ourselves of that by buying a time share rental at the Makai Villages at Princeville. The Makai Villages have just been taken over by the Pahio Resorts and the condos have fallen into some maintenance problems. The prior owners were not maintaining them to Gold Crown standards and they lost the Gold Crown designation. In taking over the units, Pahio kicked out about twenty owners that were in arears on their maintenance fees and that was one of the units that Darla and I bought. The complex is twenty-three years old and is showing it's age. Pahio will completely gut the units next year and put in all new flooring, cabinets, furniture and appliances as well as new fixtures in the bathroom. They will remodel the exteriors and add skylights to each unit. They will also remodel the pool and spa and make the facilities at the other three resorts at Princeville that they operate open to the Makai owners. All of the seven properties operated by Pahio are Gold Crown resorts and it is their intention to have Makai upgraded and returned to that designation as well. We jumped on the opportunity for two reasons. One, we wanted to own a timeshare in Hawaii and we wanted to shift our RCI membership from the "weeks" concept to the "points" program. The upgrade has a one time charge of $2,690, but it was included in the cost of the timeshare. We got a very good deal.

Included in our purchase were several two-for-one dinner coupons and a two-for-one helicopter tour of the island. Kauai has over 1400 waterfalls and most are not accessible by car. We took a 45-minute helicopter tour of the island on Friday and saw the desert, the jungle, the volcano, the Wailea canyon, the waterfalls and the beautiful coastline, all in one. A helicopter tour is the ultimate way to see Hawaii and Darla and I had a ball on the trip.

I have begun my new job at Burns and Wilcox and it is living up to my expectations already. The staff is very professional and helpful. I am taking over an office from someone who is out on disability and I had to spend most of yesterday just clearing out the office and getting myself situated. The former office occupant was a packrat and had reams of paperwork jammed in every corner of the office. I am just beginning to get my feet under me and will spend the next several weeks in training. The move to our new office has been delayed by corporate until January as Tampa Bay had a greater need to move than we did. We are disappointed, but it gives me that much more time to get educated in the Burns and Wilcox way before the move.

Well, this was long and winded. I enjoyed the vacation immensely, but really missed church while we were gone and look forward to getting back to the Word this week. It is truly the sustenance of life. Be well.