Wow. This weekend was really one for the books. We had a visit by a Christian Evangelist from Uganda that was life changing. This man showed us how the power of Jesus Christ has transformed his country from one of famine, blight and poverty. From a country ravaged by an epidemic of AIDS, it has been transformed into a country on the brink of political, cultural, economic, and health-related revival. Uganda was torn apart by the rule of Idi Amin, a tyrant equal to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in his disregard for human life and his quest for ultimate power. The country was left torn and broken, with an incidence of AIDS that reached 33% and an economic crisis so bad that the country was almost bankrupt. The country was also left with an epidemic of witchcraft and demon worship that threatened the moral fiber of the country. It was through the power of prayer and hope that comes with the emergence of Jesus Christ in a community that saved the country. Jackson Sonyonga is a powerful speaker that is a world crusader for the power of prayer. His country holds monthly prayer meetings in large stadiums throughout the country where millions of Christians come together and pray from 6 PM to 6 AM and ask for Jesus Christ to intervene in their lives. Through that power of prayer, Uganda is the only country in the world that has seen a decrease in the incidence of AIDS to the point that it is now less than 5% in the country and dropping.
Uganda is still very poor, but many of the demon worshippers and even the witch doctors have seen the power of our Saviour at work and have come to Christ. It is an amazing story and he is preaching the power of prayer and how we need to become a church who is committed to prayer. How we need to have a set time in our homes to pray as a family and not just as a blessing over our meal or a token prayer before we go to sleep at night. We went to church yesterday and were blown away by Jackson and returned Sunday night at six PM to the largest turnout in our churches' history. The 3000 seat church was filled to capacity and every classroom was filled with video monitors. There were people standing in the aisles and double parked in the parking lot. It was an awesome sight to behold. Our life group will meet at church tonight and sit together to watch and listen to Jackson speak further on how to turn our country around through the power of prayer.
It is amazing to see the work that God is doing in our church as we had a special offering last week to help bridge the gap in Ajai Lal's church in India to help build orphanages. He was $40,000 short of his needs and we raised $62,000 in two services to humble Ajai and his family. Jackson is also building some orphanages to house the orphans of AIDS who number over 1.8 million in Uganda. The orphanages will each be manned by a Christian family and will house up to 36 children who have lost both of their parents to AIDS. I'm anxious to see how much money our church donates to Sonyonga. He will be here tonight and tomorrow still to finish his series on prayer.
I played poker on Friday night with the guys and won about $40. I sat and listened to a story of how 6 Roseville teenagers, several of whom played youth football with David, have been charged with the rape of a 15 year old girl in Folsom. The girl was so badly injured that she required 23 stitches. This follows the revelation that nine Woodcreek students have been implicated in a theft ring at the local Best Buy electronics retailer. One of the students worked there and allowed his friends to go through his register and he would not charge them for their electronics purchases. They would come through his line with an MP3 player or a car stereo along with a CD and some gum. He would charge them for the gum and the CD and give them the large item without charging them. Most of the students implicated are Seniors and Juniors and most played on the varsity football team and are friends of David. Our community is morally bankrupt and it is being filtered down to our kids. It was good to see David and Daniel at church praying for the ills that affect our society.
Both David and Daniel were baptized this past week at the home of one of the youth directors at church. They chose Earl to baptize them and there we were on a cool and cloudy Wednesday night gathered in the backyard of a home overlooking the 2nd tee of my golf course, Diamond Oaks, and eight students were baptized and made a stand for Christ. With all that is going on around them, it is so encouraging to see the boys choose a path that is so different from their peers.
The boys are locked into the youth group now, so much so that David has invited one of the girls in the group, Destiny, to his Senior Ball next month. Destiny is a blonde gal who stand almost six foot and is a leader in the youth group. They became friends in Mexico and David has eyes for this young lady. She is a committed Christian, but also a beautiful girl. I'm happy for the choice the boys are making and doubly happy that they resisted the group that stole from the local store. It is so easy for these kids to justify it in their minds. I'm just glad that they got caught and glad that the main offenders are all over 18 and get to be tried as adults. Reality will smack them in the head. Mom and Dad can't save them from this.
I played golf twice this week and I struggled on Thursday at Northridge Country Club. My driving is what sets my game apart. I'm usually long and straight, but I picked up a slice on Thursday. I managed to shoot 43+44=87, but was beside myself after the round. I went to the driving range early on Saturday and realized that I was standing too close to the ball. I stepped back about a foor and was again drilling the ball down the middle. it didn't help me score on Saturday in the wind and wet. I shot 44+44=88, but was glad to figure out my problem on the tee box and look forward to getting back down in the low 80's and upper 70's as the weather improves.
Well, work awaits. Jennifer has updated her blog. She is still a little studette soldier and continues to set personal bests in her Physical Training. She is homesick and looks forward to coming home in the next couple of months. Jen, did you get our package? E-mail me. Be good, hit your knees and pray for our country and for your loved ones. We need the power of Jesus Christ in our lives. He will sustain us and help us to prosper in a world gone bad. Ciao.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Monday, April 04, 2005
A New Beginning
The day has dawned with a bright blue sky and a freshness to the air that is electric. It is the day after a cleansing rain and there is something mystical about the shadows that the trees cast across the dew strewn lawns. The streets are all dry, but the parking lot still has traces of rain water in the parking spaces. There is a lone white bird that is walking along the curb looking for worms in the morning light.
My commute this morning was disrupted by an overturned big rig that spilled fuel onto the roadway on the major thoroughfare that I use to cross town from Roseville to Rancho Cordova. Luckily, I sensed that there was a problem and cut over to a side street before getting caught in traffic. I was able to slip around the logjam and get into the office close to my regular arrival time of 7:10 a.m. Cora, our typist, has been promoted to an Underwriter Assistant position and she was not here this morning when I arrived. She worked an alternate schedule of 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, but will be assisting the two ladies in Modesto and I assumed was changing her schedule to at least 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, but she rolled in at 7:30 and had forgot to set her clocks ahead. I asked her to check with the gals in Modesto to see what schedule they want her to work as she is their conduit to the Sacramento office. We have our new typist....or more correctly, our Technical Services Rep I beginning this morning. Her hire is a bit of a coup for me as she is graduating from Sacramento State University next month with a degree in Insurance. I was skeptical of hiring her at such an entry level position, but she wants to learn the insurance job from square one. My goal would be to quickly move her up the food change with the ultimate goal of making her an Underwriter within 4 years. I could see her in an Assistant Underwriter position by year end as we continue to grow. I was able to pay her about 15% more than the position called for because of her degree.
The Sacramento office had our best month since I joined in 2003 and we beat our budget by 30% in March. I took the staff out on Thursday and we celebrated the results at a big lunch at Chevys. I have a great staff and Anthony, my former assistant, is already writing new business in his first month. He was so proud to point out that he was ahead of me as of Friday. Bear in mind it was April 1st and he is still my de facto assistant. He had booked his premiums while my renewals sat waiting his touch. I truly want him to experience early success as it will motivate him for the tough months and weeks ahead.
We had a missionary from India visit us yesterday. He is a third generation Christian born in India. Bear in mind that India is a country of 1.6 Billion people and less than 2% of the population is Christian. He had some very interesting facts to share, the most alarming is that the Islamic religion is growing ten times faster than the Christian faith and at it's current growth rate will be the world's largest religion by the year 2015. He also told us that the name Osama Bin Laden is known by almost 90% of the world's population, but only 70% of the world's population has ever heard the name Jesus Christ. It is appalling and although his call was for additional funding for the world's misiionaries, his points were hammered home in his message. We need to be World Christians insrtead of American Christians.
We had a nice relaxing weekend. I was supposed to play golf, but my friend, Mel is from the Phillipines. He called Wednesday and invited me to play golf on Saturday. I said, "Sure, what time?" He said, "Well, I don't have a time, why don't you set something up?" I said, "No. If you want to play, set up a time and let me know when." Mel is a great guy, but comes from a very privileged existence in the Phillipines and I have to try to retrain him in how we do things here in the US of A. He called me late Friday and asked if I'd set up a time. I told him, "No. You were supposed to make us a time." He said he'd look into it and let me know. He called me Saturday at noon and said he couldn't find anything and we'd play next weekend. No kidding. Perhaps he'll learn. Perhaps not. We play on Thursday at a Country Club in town with his boss and then again on Saturday in our Masters tournament. We will have dinner at Mel and Cora's on Saturday night and the boys are invited. They are becoming Americanized.
Darla and I firmed up our Airline travel to Hawaii last week before the latest increases due to fuel prices. We fly out of San Francisco on Sunday June 12th and have a direct flight to Lihue in Kauia. We will stay in San Francisco at the Best Western in Milbrae. They will keep our car for the ten days we are gone and the cost with the room is just $125. We will also stay over on Wednesday the 22nd when we return as we get into SF at 9:00 PM. The cost for that night's stay is only $79. It is exciting as it feels real now. We leave in about nine weeks and it will be a great vacation. I'm just a little sad that neither Darla's folks nor Dad and Shirley could join us. We'll have to plan a trip perhaps late Summer up to Vancouver.
Darla called me on Friday and told me that she had a special mandatory meeting that she HAD to attend at work during our vacation and wouldn't be able to go with us. I didn't fall for her little April Fool's joke, but only because I had just called a meeting to announce that the girls in Modesto had quit. Cora was telling everyone that and they didn't believe her until she cajoled me into calling a special meeting to announce that they had decided not to run the Service office. I made a big deal about how rude it was of them and how telling me on April 1st was the kicker. Everyone laughed and Cora got the biggest kick out of the ruse.
The boys have decided to be baptized this week at their High School life group. The were both christened as infants, but the Bible says that we must announce our decision as Christians and be baptized in the faith. They have decided that they want Darla's Dad, Earl, to baptize them and will call him tonight to see if he will do it. I'm sure Earl will be touched and perhaps humbled that the boys look to him as their example of a Christian man. The boys have really ramped up their involvement in the church and I'm proud of them.
Well, work is a constant and I need to get at it. I hope your week is full of family, friends, laughter and you look to the Lord for your decisions in life. Ciao.
My commute this morning was disrupted by an overturned big rig that spilled fuel onto the roadway on the major thoroughfare that I use to cross town from Roseville to Rancho Cordova. Luckily, I sensed that there was a problem and cut over to a side street before getting caught in traffic. I was able to slip around the logjam and get into the office close to my regular arrival time of 7:10 a.m. Cora, our typist, has been promoted to an Underwriter Assistant position and she was not here this morning when I arrived. She worked an alternate schedule of 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, but will be assisting the two ladies in Modesto and I assumed was changing her schedule to at least 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, but she rolled in at 7:30 and had forgot to set her clocks ahead. I asked her to check with the gals in Modesto to see what schedule they want her to work as she is their conduit to the Sacramento office. We have our new typist....or more correctly, our Technical Services Rep I beginning this morning. Her hire is a bit of a coup for me as she is graduating from Sacramento State University next month with a degree in Insurance. I was skeptical of hiring her at such an entry level position, but she wants to learn the insurance job from square one. My goal would be to quickly move her up the food change with the ultimate goal of making her an Underwriter within 4 years. I could see her in an Assistant Underwriter position by year end as we continue to grow. I was able to pay her about 15% more than the position called for because of her degree.
The Sacramento office had our best month since I joined in 2003 and we beat our budget by 30% in March. I took the staff out on Thursday and we celebrated the results at a big lunch at Chevys. I have a great staff and Anthony, my former assistant, is already writing new business in his first month. He was so proud to point out that he was ahead of me as of Friday. Bear in mind it was April 1st and he is still my de facto assistant. He had booked his premiums while my renewals sat waiting his touch. I truly want him to experience early success as it will motivate him for the tough months and weeks ahead.
We had a missionary from India visit us yesterday. He is a third generation Christian born in India. Bear in mind that India is a country of 1.6 Billion people and less than 2% of the population is Christian. He had some very interesting facts to share, the most alarming is that the Islamic religion is growing ten times faster than the Christian faith and at it's current growth rate will be the world's largest religion by the year 2015. He also told us that the name Osama Bin Laden is known by almost 90% of the world's population, but only 70% of the world's population has ever heard the name Jesus Christ. It is appalling and although his call was for additional funding for the world's misiionaries, his points were hammered home in his message. We need to be World Christians insrtead of American Christians.
We had a nice relaxing weekend. I was supposed to play golf, but my friend, Mel is from the Phillipines. He called Wednesday and invited me to play golf on Saturday. I said, "Sure, what time?" He said, "Well, I don't have a time, why don't you set something up?" I said, "No. If you want to play, set up a time and let me know when." Mel is a great guy, but comes from a very privileged existence in the Phillipines and I have to try to retrain him in how we do things here in the US of A. He called me late Friday and asked if I'd set up a time. I told him, "No. You were supposed to make us a time." He said he'd look into it and let me know. He called me Saturday at noon and said he couldn't find anything and we'd play next weekend. No kidding. Perhaps he'll learn. Perhaps not. We play on Thursday at a Country Club in town with his boss and then again on Saturday in our Masters tournament. We will have dinner at Mel and Cora's on Saturday night and the boys are invited. They are becoming Americanized.
Darla and I firmed up our Airline travel to Hawaii last week before the latest increases due to fuel prices. We fly out of San Francisco on Sunday June 12th and have a direct flight to Lihue in Kauia. We will stay in San Francisco at the Best Western in Milbrae. They will keep our car for the ten days we are gone and the cost with the room is just $125. We will also stay over on Wednesday the 22nd when we return as we get into SF at 9:00 PM. The cost for that night's stay is only $79. It is exciting as it feels real now. We leave in about nine weeks and it will be a great vacation. I'm just a little sad that neither Darla's folks nor Dad and Shirley could join us. We'll have to plan a trip perhaps late Summer up to Vancouver.
Darla called me on Friday and told me that she had a special mandatory meeting that she HAD to attend at work during our vacation and wouldn't be able to go with us. I didn't fall for her little April Fool's joke, but only because I had just called a meeting to announce that the girls in Modesto had quit. Cora was telling everyone that and they didn't believe her until she cajoled me into calling a special meeting to announce that they had decided not to run the Service office. I made a big deal about how rude it was of them and how telling me on April 1st was the kicker. Everyone laughed and Cora got the biggest kick out of the ruse.
The boys have decided to be baptized this week at their High School life group. The were both christened as infants, but the Bible says that we must announce our decision as Christians and be baptized in the faith. They have decided that they want Darla's Dad, Earl, to baptize them and will call him tonight to see if he will do it. I'm sure Earl will be touched and perhaps humbled that the boys look to him as their example of a Christian man. The boys have really ramped up their involvement in the church and I'm proud of them.
Well, work is a constant and I need to get at it. I hope your week is full of family, friends, laughter and you look to the Lord for your decisions in life. Ciao.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Happy Easter
I normally add to the blog on Mondays, but I have a dentist appointment for a routine cleaning at 8:00 am and won't get into the office until nine, so I will get to this now. Happy Easter, by the way. We've been to church and opted out of dinner with the family in Linden to let Darla rest after her ordeal in Mexico last week. She is fast asleep on the couch as I work in the office.
Darla and the boys made it home about ten last night. They had stopped with the group in Elk Grove at a coin wash and cleaned out the car inside and out. They return the rentals tomorrow and had to clean them (I've never cleaned a rental before, maybe they get a discount or something). They had rain most of the week and actually left Tijuana a day early as a big storm was coming in. The rain was so bad at times that they had to be up every half hour to knock the rain off the tent to keep it from collapsing. Strangely, it rained at night, but they were able to work every day on the houses without any rain. David and Daniel both had a great time and came back committed to getting more involved with the youth at church. They made some great friends and have some tremendous memories. They built a 22'x 11' two room house and the group built six of them in a week. Darla said that the youngest daughter of the single mother who would take possession of the house was there when they raised the walls. The little girl started clapping and saying, "Mi casa, mi casa!" when they tied the walls into the roof. The homes are very basic with flat roofs, no plumbing or electricity. But they have windows and flooring and provide some relief from the elements. The family that will occupy the home have been living in their mother's candy store which is smaller than the home.
We had a guest speaker at church this morning, Ruthie Bolton, the Olympic Gold medalist and Professional Women's basketball player for the Sacramento Monarchs. Ruthie was the sixteenth of twenty children in her family and her father referred to all of them as "son" or "daughter" because he couldn't remember all of their names. She is a PK, or Preacher's Kid and her father has passed on now. Her story was one of overcoming obstacles as she is only 5'9" and was not recruited out of high school. She won two women's championships and played on two gold medal winning olympic teams and has been a WNBA All Star three times.
The Pastor talked about the power of Christianity and told a story of how a missionary family was working deep in the heart of Africa in a small tribe, when a plague hit and several of the tribesmen's children became sick and died. The missionary had not made much headway in sharing his faith with the tribe and decided that he would pray for Jesus to spare his kids and told the chief and elders of the tribe to watch how Jesus would spare his kids. He figured this would make an impact on the tribe. Unfortunately, God works in his own timing and soon the missionaries' children each became ill and finally died. Not only did the missionary suffer the pain of losing his children, but his job was now irreparably damaged by the claim that he'd made. He was in emotional pain and embarrassed professionally. As he packed up his belongings in preparation to leave the tribe and return home, there was a knock on his door. He answered it to see the chief at the door and the main tribe elders behind him. The chief asked if the missionary would tell him about this man Jesus. The missionary was shocked and asked the chief why after years of trying to share his faith, that the chief would want to hear about it now after Jesus did not save his children from the plague. The chief said that the tribesman's children died and they buried them knowing that they would never see them again. They then watched as the missionaries' children got sick and died and how the missionary buried his children with the hope that he would see them again in Heaven. It was the hope that the missionary showed that made the tribesmen want to know about Jesus. It is what sets us apart from other religions. Hope. And that hope comes from the promise that Jesus made to us when he was crucified and died on the cross..for our lives and for our sins. It is an amazing gift.
Jennifer called me last night to wish me a Happy Easter. It was Easter morning in Kuwait. I hadn't talked to her since Super Bowl Sunday and it was great getting caught up with her. It turns out that the Army, in its unending wisdom, has raised the promotion points and Jennifer will not be promoted until May now. She and Ryan have called it quits. It was just too hard to carry on a relationship from Georgia and Kuwait. Jennifer was hoping to go to church yesterday and is doing great. She has a buddy in Kuwait who is really pushing her to get in the best shape of her life and she is getting really buff, with big arms and legs, but she still weighs just 106 pounds. She may be tiny, but she's no pushover. It was really a delight to talk to her. She wants to start college when she gets home and is determined to be a teacher. She hates to throw all of her fibre optics training away, but she feels lead to be a teacher. I think it's great to have your life ahead of you at 24 and make of it what you want. More power to her.
Work is excellerating as I've now hired a new Underwriting Assistant. Anthony (my assistant) has taken the empty window office next to Gwen and we are ready to hire a new typist as our typist is being promoted to be the Underwriting Assistant for the Modesto service office. Gail is doing the screeneing interviews and I will meet the screened candidates this week and make an offer. The new Underwriting Assistant comes from Progressive Insurance in the building next door to ours. I had to pay her a little more money than we budgeted, but she seems to be a real sparkplug. She will be able to hold her own with the other assistants in the office, who are all strong headed women. Natasha will work for Gwen and I will have Gwen's assistant Connie assist me. I don't have time to wet nurse a new assistant with my production responsibilities as well as my management responsibilities. Connie is the most knowledgable assistant in the office and I will help train her to take over an underwriting desk in the future.
I did play golf this weekend. I had an extended weekend with Good Friday off and played golf at the Hiddenbrooke Resort in Vallejo on Friday. I shot an 84 and had a solid day of golf. My host is not much of a golfer, in fact he only kept score on the three holes that he shot par or better, so he beat me 13 to 84. I think I hit the ball a little better than him overall.
Mark Konrad invited me to play golf yesterday at 6:36 a.m. I was in a funk all morning and shot one of my worst rounds in recent memory, shooting 48+44= 92 and paying Mark $12. I won $1 from our third player, but it was a bust for me. I was cold in the morning and had to play with a coat on and I hate that. Friday was 75 degrees and sunny. Saturday was a bit breezy and cool. I was quick to post the round when we finished as that 92 may knock out a round in the seventies.
It is a pleasure to have my wife home and the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is so true. I hope you cherish those around you that you love. Until next week, stay strong in the Lord and He will sustain you. Ciao.
Darla and the boys made it home about ten last night. They had stopped with the group in Elk Grove at a coin wash and cleaned out the car inside and out. They return the rentals tomorrow and had to clean them (I've never cleaned a rental before, maybe they get a discount or something). They had rain most of the week and actually left Tijuana a day early as a big storm was coming in. The rain was so bad at times that they had to be up every half hour to knock the rain off the tent to keep it from collapsing. Strangely, it rained at night, but they were able to work every day on the houses without any rain. David and Daniel both had a great time and came back committed to getting more involved with the youth at church. They made some great friends and have some tremendous memories. They built a 22'x 11' two room house and the group built six of them in a week. Darla said that the youngest daughter of the single mother who would take possession of the house was there when they raised the walls. The little girl started clapping and saying, "Mi casa, mi casa!" when they tied the walls into the roof. The homes are very basic with flat roofs, no plumbing or electricity. But they have windows and flooring and provide some relief from the elements. The family that will occupy the home have been living in their mother's candy store which is smaller than the home.
We had a guest speaker at church this morning, Ruthie Bolton, the Olympic Gold medalist and Professional Women's basketball player for the Sacramento Monarchs. Ruthie was the sixteenth of twenty children in her family and her father referred to all of them as "son" or "daughter" because he couldn't remember all of their names. She is a PK, or Preacher's Kid and her father has passed on now. Her story was one of overcoming obstacles as she is only 5'9" and was not recruited out of high school. She won two women's championships and played on two gold medal winning olympic teams and has been a WNBA All Star three times.
The Pastor talked about the power of Christianity and told a story of how a missionary family was working deep in the heart of Africa in a small tribe, when a plague hit and several of the tribesmen's children became sick and died. The missionary had not made much headway in sharing his faith with the tribe and decided that he would pray for Jesus to spare his kids and told the chief and elders of the tribe to watch how Jesus would spare his kids. He figured this would make an impact on the tribe. Unfortunately, God works in his own timing and soon the missionaries' children each became ill and finally died. Not only did the missionary suffer the pain of losing his children, but his job was now irreparably damaged by the claim that he'd made. He was in emotional pain and embarrassed professionally. As he packed up his belongings in preparation to leave the tribe and return home, there was a knock on his door. He answered it to see the chief at the door and the main tribe elders behind him. The chief asked if the missionary would tell him about this man Jesus. The missionary was shocked and asked the chief why after years of trying to share his faith, that the chief would want to hear about it now after Jesus did not save his children from the plague. The chief said that the tribesman's children died and they buried them knowing that they would never see them again. They then watched as the missionaries' children got sick and died and how the missionary buried his children with the hope that he would see them again in Heaven. It was the hope that the missionary showed that made the tribesmen want to know about Jesus. It is what sets us apart from other religions. Hope. And that hope comes from the promise that Jesus made to us when he was crucified and died on the cross..for our lives and for our sins. It is an amazing gift.
Jennifer called me last night to wish me a Happy Easter. It was Easter morning in Kuwait. I hadn't talked to her since Super Bowl Sunday and it was great getting caught up with her. It turns out that the Army, in its unending wisdom, has raised the promotion points and Jennifer will not be promoted until May now. She and Ryan have called it quits. It was just too hard to carry on a relationship from Georgia and Kuwait. Jennifer was hoping to go to church yesterday and is doing great. She has a buddy in Kuwait who is really pushing her to get in the best shape of her life and she is getting really buff, with big arms and legs, but she still weighs just 106 pounds. She may be tiny, but she's no pushover. It was really a delight to talk to her. She wants to start college when she gets home and is determined to be a teacher. She hates to throw all of her fibre optics training away, but she feels lead to be a teacher. I think it's great to have your life ahead of you at 24 and make of it what you want. More power to her.
Work is excellerating as I've now hired a new Underwriting Assistant. Anthony (my assistant) has taken the empty window office next to Gwen and we are ready to hire a new typist as our typist is being promoted to be the Underwriting Assistant for the Modesto service office. Gail is doing the screeneing interviews and I will meet the screened candidates this week and make an offer. The new Underwriting Assistant comes from Progressive Insurance in the building next door to ours. I had to pay her a little more money than we budgeted, but she seems to be a real sparkplug. She will be able to hold her own with the other assistants in the office, who are all strong headed women. Natasha will work for Gwen and I will have Gwen's assistant Connie assist me. I don't have time to wet nurse a new assistant with my production responsibilities as well as my management responsibilities. Connie is the most knowledgable assistant in the office and I will help train her to take over an underwriting desk in the future.
I did play golf this weekend. I had an extended weekend with Good Friday off and played golf at the Hiddenbrooke Resort in Vallejo on Friday. I shot an 84 and had a solid day of golf. My host is not much of a golfer, in fact he only kept score on the three holes that he shot par or better, so he beat me 13 to 84. I think I hit the ball a little better than him overall.
Mark Konrad invited me to play golf yesterday at 6:36 a.m. I was in a funk all morning and shot one of my worst rounds in recent memory, shooting 48+44= 92 and paying Mark $12. I won $1 from our third player, but it was a bust for me. I was cold in the morning and had to play with a coat on and I hate that. Friday was 75 degrees and sunny. Saturday was a bit breezy and cool. I was quick to post the round when we finished as that 92 may knock out a round in the seventies.
It is a pleasure to have my wife home and the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is so true. I hope you cherish those around you that you love. Until next week, stay strong in the Lord and He will sustain you. Ciao.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Back from the Land of the Sun
I'm back and this will be but a quick update to the blog as we are off tomorrow for Good Friday. We get next to no holidays and this Jewish company takes off Good Friday? The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Darla and the boys are still in wet and rainy Tijuana. I've got a feeling it's been a bit miserable living in tents and working all day in wet and muddy conditions. They will be exhausted when they get home. I almost feel guilty about my trip to Phoenix and the 78 degree warm and wonderful weather. I said Almost. What I can't understand is how Dad and Shirley gave up the luxury of the warm and sunny confines of Phoenix and Sun City. I know the family is in Vancouver, but the weather is so ideal in Phoenix this time of year.
I was able to catch a Spring Training game between San Francisco (my team) and Oakland at Phoenix Municipal Stadium (Spring Training home of the A's). I was further pleased to see that both teams had their ace pitchers starting. Jason Schmidt for the Giants and Barry Zito for the A's. The only conclusion from the game is that Zito is closer to ready to start the season than Schmidt. Jason gave up three home runs and the Giants went down to defeat 17-6. It was sunny and hot and I relaxed out on the grass in left field. Well, not "in" left field, but close to it. I left in the fourth inning and returned to the hotel to get in some pool time. I brought a book, but it turned out to be no more than a prop as I was quickly asleep and slept away a good portion of the afternoon on Sunday. The sun felt good and the weather was absolutely ideal. I stayed at the Scottsdale Resort and Convention center.
The convention was put on by Scottsdale Insurance and is a first class affair. They hire singers, comedians, magicians and performers to keep us entertained. This years' theme was "Catch a Rising star" and they had celebrity lookalikes throughout the crowd. I saw Red Skelton, Tootsie, Jim Carey, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader. It was fun and very well done. The juggling act played on a theme of juggling people and they actually took three people and suspended them from harnesses and wires and juggled them like you would balls and eventually had them moving in sync and juggled balls between them. It was great. They also had a full blown casino with slots, roulette, blackjack, craps and poker. It was, as usual, a really fun event. Burns and Wilcox was able to get all of our people together on Monday afternoon for a special meeting and we went over negotiation skills. I had to pass on an invitation to play golf at Twisted Stick golf course to meet with the Burns and Wilcox folks, but then they do pay my salary.
I am in the process of hiring two new people for the office and getting Modesto set up. The problem is that I'm having trouble keeping up with my production responsibilities as well. I've shared some of my frustrations with Management and we've agreed on a date of October for the company to either move me up to Branch Manager or move in another direction. It is a formality as far as I'm concerned as I've earned the job, but I couldn't continue to work as the acting BM without additional compensation. The Branch Manager gets paid a bonus based on the branch results whereas I now get paid on my own results and production. Doing the Manager duties is hurting my production and I'm getting a little frustrated. They know where I stand and the office is running so much better now than it was under Bill's leadership. The only negative feedback I got from the Branch Development Director is that people in my office seem too happy and I need to grow a tougher exterior. I took the input as what it is, but I'm proud that the staff is engaged in their work and happy to be here. That was not the case under Bill Sousa. The atmosphere has changed and I can be tough when it is called for, but I prefer to treat my people as professionals and let them do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
The Modesto office just got keys to their facility on Monday and will get furniture and phones tomorrow. Their computers will get there today and they will have the IT wiring done by Wednesday of next week. They are anxious to get working, but we are still getting them up and running.
I have two interviews this afternoon for the Assistant Underwriter position and I finally turned the hiring of the typist position over to Gail in the office and she is taking the ball on that project.
I haven't heard from Jennifer for awhile, but I know that she is getting ready to physically move with her unit from one base to another in Kuwait. Her new base will be closer to the pool, so she is happy with the arrangement. She is getting ready for her promotion ceremony and has been working out like a little fiend. Jen.... call me. Pretend my name is Ryan.
I did play golf in Phoenix, but it was a scramble and I was the only golfer in the group. I was hitting the ball well, but the weight of carrying three non-golfers was too much. We shot a 75 and the winners had 60. They, of course, were a stacked team with two players that played college golf. Nice for them. I had a good time.
Well, that was short and sweet and I was interrupted about ten times with employees either saying hello or wanting to go over accounts that need my attention. I need to get on with my day. Be well and embrace the gift that is celebrated this weekend. The gift of eternal life in our Lord and Savious, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Darla and the boys are still in wet and rainy Tijuana. I've got a feeling it's been a bit miserable living in tents and working all day in wet and muddy conditions. They will be exhausted when they get home. I almost feel guilty about my trip to Phoenix and the 78 degree warm and wonderful weather. I said Almost. What I can't understand is how Dad and Shirley gave up the luxury of the warm and sunny confines of Phoenix and Sun City. I know the family is in Vancouver, but the weather is so ideal in Phoenix this time of year.
I was able to catch a Spring Training game between San Francisco (my team) and Oakland at Phoenix Municipal Stadium (Spring Training home of the A's). I was further pleased to see that both teams had their ace pitchers starting. Jason Schmidt for the Giants and Barry Zito for the A's. The only conclusion from the game is that Zito is closer to ready to start the season than Schmidt. Jason gave up three home runs and the Giants went down to defeat 17-6. It was sunny and hot and I relaxed out on the grass in left field. Well, not "in" left field, but close to it. I left in the fourth inning and returned to the hotel to get in some pool time. I brought a book, but it turned out to be no more than a prop as I was quickly asleep and slept away a good portion of the afternoon on Sunday. The sun felt good and the weather was absolutely ideal. I stayed at the Scottsdale Resort and Convention center.
The convention was put on by Scottsdale Insurance and is a first class affair. They hire singers, comedians, magicians and performers to keep us entertained. This years' theme was "Catch a Rising star" and they had celebrity lookalikes throughout the crowd. I saw Red Skelton, Tootsie, Jim Carey, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader. It was fun and very well done. The juggling act played on a theme of juggling people and they actually took three people and suspended them from harnesses and wires and juggled them like you would balls and eventually had them moving in sync and juggled balls between them. It was great. They also had a full blown casino with slots, roulette, blackjack, craps and poker. It was, as usual, a really fun event. Burns and Wilcox was able to get all of our people together on Monday afternoon for a special meeting and we went over negotiation skills. I had to pass on an invitation to play golf at Twisted Stick golf course to meet with the Burns and Wilcox folks, but then they do pay my salary.
I am in the process of hiring two new people for the office and getting Modesto set up. The problem is that I'm having trouble keeping up with my production responsibilities as well. I've shared some of my frustrations with Management and we've agreed on a date of October for the company to either move me up to Branch Manager or move in another direction. It is a formality as far as I'm concerned as I've earned the job, but I couldn't continue to work as the acting BM without additional compensation. The Branch Manager gets paid a bonus based on the branch results whereas I now get paid on my own results and production. Doing the Manager duties is hurting my production and I'm getting a little frustrated. They know where I stand and the office is running so much better now than it was under Bill's leadership. The only negative feedback I got from the Branch Development Director is that people in my office seem too happy and I need to grow a tougher exterior. I took the input as what it is, but I'm proud that the staff is engaged in their work and happy to be here. That was not the case under Bill Sousa. The atmosphere has changed and I can be tough when it is called for, but I prefer to treat my people as professionals and let them do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
The Modesto office just got keys to their facility on Monday and will get furniture and phones tomorrow. Their computers will get there today and they will have the IT wiring done by Wednesday of next week. They are anxious to get working, but we are still getting them up and running.
I have two interviews this afternoon for the Assistant Underwriter position and I finally turned the hiring of the typist position over to Gail in the office and she is taking the ball on that project.
I haven't heard from Jennifer for awhile, but I know that she is getting ready to physically move with her unit from one base to another in Kuwait. Her new base will be closer to the pool, so she is happy with the arrangement. She is getting ready for her promotion ceremony and has been working out like a little fiend. Jen.... call me. Pretend my name is Ryan.
I did play golf in Phoenix, but it was a scramble and I was the only golfer in the group. I was hitting the ball well, but the weight of carrying three non-golfers was too much. We shot a 75 and the winners had 60. They, of course, were a stacked team with two players that played college golf. Nice for them. I had a good time.
Well, that was short and sweet and I was interrupted about ten times with employees either saying hello or wanting to go over accounts that need my attention. I need to get on with my day. Be well and embrace the gift that is celebrated this weekend. The gift of eternal life in our Lord and Savious, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Unhappy with Myself
I had a friend pass away on my birthday this weekend. Sid was the ripe old age of 92 and I'm ashamed to admit that my friendship had lagged with him over the last few years. Sid was suffering from the onset of Alzheimers and it was difficult to visit with him in his last few years. I would have to repeat stories 3 or 4 times. We would set up to have breakfast together and he'd have already eaten when I got there. That sort of thing. I still enjoyed seeing Sid, but the visits were fewer and far between as the years lingered. Sid had a knowledge of our Lord, but I'm not sure of his walk and for that I should be ashamed. He was a great friend and mentor for me in my insurance career and he outlived his beloved wife, Jeanne, by seven years (almost to the day). I last saw Sid in January and I hate to admit, but I looked for his name everyday in the obituaries. That's where I found him this morning. I'll miss him and hope that he is in the embrace of our Saviour.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Golf, Golf and...more Golf?
What a weekend. The temperatures hit 86 degrees on Friday and I was on the golf course with good friends and a cold bottle of Corona. You can't beat that with a stick. I went and visited a new agent in Turlock on Friday morning and then went to Oakdale, a small retirement enclave east of Modesto, and played golf at Oakdale Country Club. The locals would argue with my description of Oakdale, they have a Hershey chocolate plant and a large PG&E plant. The thing is, the town is west of Sonora and a favorite retirement spot for Bay Area transplants, who sell their tract homes for $850,000 and buy a 4,500 square foot dream home for $750,000 in Oakdale. I shot 40+46=86 on Friday and won all of the money from Jerry and Trent, who struggled to 93 and 97 respectively. The back nine falloff had more to do with the sun and the brews than any thing else. I had a great time and we sat in the bar afterward and played dice for an hour. I left my 8-iron at Oakdale and had to use Daniel's Ben Hogan 8-iron over the weekend. I'll be in Modesto Thursday or Friday meeting with the service center employees and will take a side trip up to Oakdale to pick up my club.
Friday night, I met Darla and the boys at Earl and Frances' house in Linden. Earl needed some help on the farm pruning the trees and our two six footers fit the bill. He paid them $100 each for a day's labor. We ate pizza and relaxed. We left the boys and our Explorer at the house and headed back to Roseville.
I played in the 54 hole tournament Day 2 & 3 on Saturday and Sunday. Don Pangburn and I teamed up to shoot a net 58 in the scramble (14 under) on Saturday and 63 (9 under) in the scotch tournament on Sunday. We made up a lot of ground after our first round 66 and finished in the top third of the field and in the money. Daniel's 8-iron even got me second closest to the pin on Sunday at 9 feet, 7 inches. The temperatures stayed warm over the weekend and we had 84 degrees on Saturday and 80 degrees yesterday. There is a slight breeze today and it expected to top out at 78 degrees. Nice weather.
I didn't realize how much sun I'd had over the weekend until Saturday night when I slipped into the hot tub to soak away the muscle strains and pains of two days of golf. It was like slipping into a large vat of scalding hot oil as the pins and needles of my sunburn made themselves evident. I made sure to coat myself liberally with SPF 30 sunscreen on Sunday to aver further damage.
One of the drawbacks to the early Spring is an early bout with allergies. My allergies are to grass pollens and tree pollens and they are rampant. Friday I was suffering itchy, watery eyes and a dripping nose. I pounded Chlor-Trimetron and still the tap was running in my eyes and nose. Saturday, the drill started again with sneezing, watery eyes and the works. Don, my partner, gave me a couple of shots of his prescription allergy medication, a nose spray called Durnaze and it was magic. The draining stopped, the sneezing stopped, and I was fine. On the golf course in the middle of growing grass and a forest of blooming trees. Don has several bottles of the prescription and gave me one for my golf bag and I will take it to my doctor and demand that he write me a prescription for this golden remedy.
We had Cora and Mel over for dinner on Saturday night, barbecued tri-tip and all of the fixins. Mel and Cora are from the Phillipines and have very defined boundaries for their kids. It is basically old school discipline and the children are to be seen and not heard. Their kids have grown up in the United States and are rebelling. We had such a refreshing visit with them and had Daniel and David at the dinner table with us. Cora has been singing the praises of our boys ever since. She thinks they are so well behaved and grown up and wishes that she'd brought her kids on Saturday night. We told them to bring them, but again it is culturally not something that they are comfortable with. Suddenly, Cora wants to get the families together now. The boys absolutely loved Cora and Mel and found their stories of the Phillipines and the Marcos regime fascinating. One of Mel's best friends in the Phillipines is Marcos' oldest son.
My only regret of the weekend was in not getting to talk to Jennifer. She called to wish me a Happy Birthday, but of course, I was on the golf course. She left a nice message and seems to be doing well, although she is rather homesick. She has updated her blog and you can access it at the bottom of this page.
Darla and the boys are off to Mexico this weekend to build houses for the less fortunate. I, in turn, will fly off to Scottsdale, Arizona on Saturday for some sun, golf and a little business on the side. This epistle will be late as I will be away from my keyboard until Thursday. I will update you then on the ongoing saga of Life with the Lyons in Northern California. I hope you all are hale, hearty and in touch with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Friday night, I met Darla and the boys at Earl and Frances' house in Linden. Earl needed some help on the farm pruning the trees and our two six footers fit the bill. He paid them $100 each for a day's labor. We ate pizza and relaxed. We left the boys and our Explorer at the house and headed back to Roseville.
I played in the 54 hole tournament Day 2 & 3 on Saturday and Sunday. Don Pangburn and I teamed up to shoot a net 58 in the scramble (14 under) on Saturday and 63 (9 under) in the scotch tournament on Sunday. We made up a lot of ground after our first round 66 and finished in the top third of the field and in the money. Daniel's 8-iron even got me second closest to the pin on Sunday at 9 feet, 7 inches. The temperatures stayed warm over the weekend and we had 84 degrees on Saturday and 80 degrees yesterday. There is a slight breeze today and it expected to top out at 78 degrees. Nice weather.
I didn't realize how much sun I'd had over the weekend until Saturday night when I slipped into the hot tub to soak away the muscle strains and pains of two days of golf. It was like slipping into a large vat of scalding hot oil as the pins and needles of my sunburn made themselves evident. I made sure to coat myself liberally with SPF 30 sunscreen on Sunday to aver further damage.
One of the drawbacks to the early Spring is an early bout with allergies. My allergies are to grass pollens and tree pollens and they are rampant. Friday I was suffering itchy, watery eyes and a dripping nose. I pounded Chlor-Trimetron and still the tap was running in my eyes and nose. Saturday, the drill started again with sneezing, watery eyes and the works. Don, my partner, gave me a couple of shots of his prescription allergy medication, a nose spray called Durnaze and it was magic. The draining stopped, the sneezing stopped, and I was fine. On the golf course in the middle of growing grass and a forest of blooming trees. Don has several bottles of the prescription and gave me one for my golf bag and I will take it to my doctor and demand that he write me a prescription for this golden remedy.
We had Cora and Mel over for dinner on Saturday night, barbecued tri-tip and all of the fixins. Mel and Cora are from the Phillipines and have very defined boundaries for their kids. It is basically old school discipline and the children are to be seen and not heard. Their kids have grown up in the United States and are rebelling. We had such a refreshing visit with them and had Daniel and David at the dinner table with us. Cora has been singing the praises of our boys ever since. She thinks they are so well behaved and grown up and wishes that she'd brought her kids on Saturday night. We told them to bring them, but again it is culturally not something that they are comfortable with. Suddenly, Cora wants to get the families together now. The boys absolutely loved Cora and Mel and found their stories of the Phillipines and the Marcos regime fascinating. One of Mel's best friends in the Phillipines is Marcos' oldest son.
My only regret of the weekend was in not getting to talk to Jennifer. She called to wish me a Happy Birthday, but of course, I was on the golf course. She left a nice message and seems to be doing well, although she is rather homesick. She has updated her blog and you can access it at the bottom of this page.
Darla and the boys are off to Mexico this weekend to build houses for the less fortunate. I, in turn, will fly off to Scottsdale, Arizona on Saturday for some sun, golf and a little business on the side. This epistle will be late as I will be away from my keyboard until Thursday. I will update you then on the ongoing saga of Life with the Lyons in Northern California. I hope you all are hale, hearty and in touch with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Shorts, Sunscreen and Smiles
It was a Spring Fever weekend with blue skies and warm temperatures bringing out the shorts, tank tops and shark meat white skin to the park across the street and to the golf course, tennis courts and bike trails of Sacramento. After all of the rain that we've seen (122% of normal to date), the sun and the warm temperatures were a welcome respite. It was 72 degrees on Saturday and 75 degrees yesterday and it should continue to warm up to the point that it will top 80 degrees by Thursday and Friday. I have golf planned on Friday, Saturday and Sunday next weekend. Normally I wouldn't get away with it, but it is my birthday weekend and I'll play that trump card for all it's worth.
It is also Dad's birthday on Wednesday. Happy birthday, Dad. I'm glad you had a second chance at happiness with Shirley and she has been a blessing not only to your life, but to ours as well. You don't need any presents as you have the ultimate one that you are sharing your life with, but Darla and I have sent a little something something your way. The gift is a reminder of my passion in life and will likely arrive late as I ordered them on the internet and we haven't had much luck with you and technology as I recall.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in several weeks, but again, I will play the birthday card and expect to hear from her one day this week. I am so proud of her accomplishments in the military and I know how tough it is for women in our military. There is a an article in today's paper entitled "Sexual Combat" and it talks about the real war that female soldiers fight against innuendos and the real threat of rape by one of your own people. Jennifer talked about it when she was home, how you have to make sure you are in a group at all times and be aware of the real threat of being preyed on by the male soldiers. It's a shame, but a reality that every female soldier has to face and the problem is much worse in Iraq, Kuwait and Aghanistan. I look forward to her coming home this year. The link to this article is: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/women_at_war/story/12523663p-13379149c.html
Darla's Grampa, Andy, and his wife have sold their home and moved into a retirement village in Ripon. Darla, Alicia and their parents have been working hard to get him moved, having garage sales and working to clean up the house after the move. Like many of the older generation, Andy and Liz had cabinets full of food, cleaning products, supplies and stuff. Many of the older generation live with extras that could be used to supply a bomb shelter. Darla brought home boxes of cleaning supplies, many of which are not even manufactured anymore. They were in the back of the cabinet with all of the newer supplies jammed in front. Daniel was finally able to discard his old twin bed which barely contained his 6'2" body for a new queen sized bed that was in Andy's guest room. Andy and Liz are now in an apartment and it will take some adjustment as Andy loved his garden and tinkering at his home. He is in his mid-eighties and has had health issues recently (as has Liz) and we all feel better that they are in a home with supervision, regular meals and some supervised activities. They will learn to truly enjoy it over time as Gramp Lyon did when they moved from their home to the condo. I think Gramp had some of the best years of his life at the condo complex.
I did play poker on Friday night and golf on Saturday. I lost about $40 at poker ( I was due to lose having won the last three or four games). We had a blast. Saturday I played in the first round of a three day tournament. The tournament is two man teams and we play best ball the first day, a scramble the second and a scotch (alternate shot) the last day. I'm playing with Don Pangburn and we managed a 66 on Saturday with neither of us playing our "A" games. The leaders are at 59, but the toughest part of the tournament is Sunday, so we are still well in the running.
As I mentioned, I will play golf Friday with my old friend, Trent Davis, at his country club in Oakdale (outside of Modesto). I'll go see an agent in Tracy on Friday morning and meet Trent for lunch in Oakdale and play golf in the afternoon. We are both tremendously competitive and for some reason I always agree to play him at his home course.
Darla and I went to the park across the street from our house yesterday. We took a blanket and books and some sodas. I no sooner got there than I fell asleep in the sun. I woke up to the sound of baseball players yelling at the diamond behind me. The coach was having the kids run the bases and he was yelling for them to "pump their arms" as they ran. Darla was nowhere to be found and I soon saw her in the distance being pulled along by Buddy, our Golden Retreiver. Darla had thought that Buddy would come over and lay down quietly on the blanket and be a perfect dog. In truth he was hyper, wouldn't sit down and she finally took him back home after he spilled a bowl of water on me as he jumped around uncontrollably.
Darla starts teaching a scrapbooking class tonight at the local community college extention center. She sells scrapbooking supplies, etc on the side and thought this would be a good way to increase her customer base. It is a three week class that will help her students organize their pictures into a scrapbook. I will be on my own at the 40 Days of Purpose life group for the next two weeks. We will take a one week break over Easter. Darla will be in Mexico with the kids and I will be in Arizona.
You should have listened to me and bought shares of USTT, the company that manufactures internet kiosks, cashless vending machines and VendingMiser energy efficient vending machine technology. I touted the stock at $.105 and it hit $.24 today. It's not too late, but I've more than doubled my money on 25000 shares. Penny stocks are risky, but can sure pan out. Of course if you bought Krispy Kreme at $12, it is now at $7.55. I have 1000 shares at an average cost of just over $7. Hey, it's the stock market. Like riding a roller coaster.
Well, I better get to work. I have the two ladies from Modesto starting today and will be training them this week. They are opening a new service center office in Modesto and they will report to me. Be well. Ciao.
It is also Dad's birthday on Wednesday. Happy birthday, Dad. I'm glad you had a second chance at happiness with Shirley and she has been a blessing not only to your life, but to ours as well. You don't need any presents as you have the ultimate one that you are sharing your life with, but Darla and I have sent a little something something your way. The gift is a reminder of my passion in life and will likely arrive late as I ordered them on the internet and we haven't had much luck with you and technology as I recall.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in several weeks, but again, I will play the birthday card and expect to hear from her one day this week. I am so proud of her accomplishments in the military and I know how tough it is for women in our military. There is a an article in today's paper entitled "Sexual Combat" and it talks about the real war that female soldiers fight against innuendos and the real threat of rape by one of your own people. Jennifer talked about it when she was home, how you have to make sure you are in a group at all times and be aware of the real threat of being preyed on by the male soldiers. It's a shame, but a reality that every female soldier has to face and the problem is much worse in Iraq, Kuwait and Aghanistan. I look forward to her coming home this year. The link to this article is: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/women_at_war/story/12523663p-13379149c.html
Darla's Grampa, Andy, and his wife have sold their home and moved into a retirement village in Ripon. Darla, Alicia and their parents have been working hard to get him moved, having garage sales and working to clean up the house after the move. Like many of the older generation, Andy and Liz had cabinets full of food, cleaning products, supplies and stuff. Many of the older generation live with extras that could be used to supply a bomb shelter. Darla brought home boxes of cleaning supplies, many of which are not even manufactured anymore. They were in the back of the cabinet with all of the newer supplies jammed in front. Daniel was finally able to discard his old twin bed which barely contained his 6'2" body for a new queen sized bed that was in Andy's guest room. Andy and Liz are now in an apartment and it will take some adjustment as Andy loved his garden and tinkering at his home. He is in his mid-eighties and has had health issues recently (as has Liz) and we all feel better that they are in a home with supervision, regular meals and some supervised activities. They will learn to truly enjoy it over time as Gramp Lyon did when they moved from their home to the condo. I think Gramp had some of the best years of his life at the condo complex.
I did play poker on Friday night and golf on Saturday. I lost about $40 at poker ( I was due to lose having won the last three or four games). We had a blast. Saturday I played in the first round of a three day tournament. The tournament is two man teams and we play best ball the first day, a scramble the second and a scotch (alternate shot) the last day. I'm playing with Don Pangburn and we managed a 66 on Saturday with neither of us playing our "A" games. The leaders are at 59, but the toughest part of the tournament is Sunday, so we are still well in the running.
As I mentioned, I will play golf Friday with my old friend, Trent Davis, at his country club in Oakdale (outside of Modesto). I'll go see an agent in Tracy on Friday morning and meet Trent for lunch in Oakdale and play golf in the afternoon. We are both tremendously competitive and for some reason I always agree to play him at his home course.
Darla and I went to the park across the street from our house yesterday. We took a blanket and books and some sodas. I no sooner got there than I fell asleep in the sun. I woke up to the sound of baseball players yelling at the diamond behind me. The coach was having the kids run the bases and he was yelling for them to "pump their arms" as they ran. Darla was nowhere to be found and I soon saw her in the distance being pulled along by Buddy, our Golden Retreiver. Darla had thought that Buddy would come over and lay down quietly on the blanket and be a perfect dog. In truth he was hyper, wouldn't sit down and she finally took him back home after he spilled a bowl of water on me as he jumped around uncontrollably.
Darla starts teaching a scrapbooking class tonight at the local community college extention center. She sells scrapbooking supplies, etc on the side and thought this would be a good way to increase her customer base. It is a three week class that will help her students organize their pictures into a scrapbook. I will be on my own at the 40 Days of Purpose life group for the next two weeks. We will take a one week break over Easter. Darla will be in Mexico with the kids and I will be in Arizona.
You should have listened to me and bought shares of USTT, the company that manufactures internet kiosks, cashless vending machines and VendingMiser energy efficient vending machine technology. I touted the stock at $.105 and it hit $.24 today. It's not too late, but I've more than doubled my money on 25000 shares. Penny stocks are risky, but can sure pan out. Of course if you bought Krispy Kreme at $12, it is now at $7.55. I have 1000 shares at an average cost of just over $7. Hey, it's the stock market. Like riding a roller coaster.
Well, I better get to work. I have the two ladies from Modesto starting today and will be training them this week. They are opening a new service center office in Modesto and they will report to me. Be well. Ciao.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Urban Renewal
It is Monday morning, the day after a good soaking rainstorm. The sun is out, the sky is blue, the grass is green and the trees are blooming. I have two fruitless cherry trees (a misnomer if there ever was one) that are in their pink and white glory right now. I drove into the office this morning albeit a bit late by my standards and the sun was already out and I had to use my sunglasses instead of my headlights. It is true that the dead of Winter is ready to give way to the hope and the beauty of Spring. I was just recently getting to work and leaving work in darkness and now I leave for work at sunrise and leave for home at sunset. Soon I will have sun on both ends of my day and I look forward to it. I have seen some awesome sunrises recently with the clouds on the horizon as well as some incredible sunsets with purples, reds and golds to light up the sky. Nice.
We had a great weekend with the boys. David's basketball team won their first round playoff game with an inspired effort. That win bought them the opportunity to play Natomas for a third time. They are the league champions and beat us twice in the regular season, although we had sizable leads in both games only to lose to a better coached and more athletic squad. This time was different, but we still lost. Natomas played solid basketball from the opening tip and lead almost the entire contest. They had a 7 point lead with just over five minutes left before Woodcreek went on a furious rally lead by a great defensive effort. We scored the next eight points to take a one point lead at 41-40 with under a minute left. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and Natomas scored twice to win 44-41. Our center, Ike Okouye had a layup fall out that would have given us the lead. They stole an inbounds pass after they scored to go up 42-41 and hit both free throws. Our effort to tie with a three pointer at the end ended up short and the game ended and David's Senior season and high school career came to a sudden and abrupt end. There was a nice picture of David driving for a basket in the game in the local paper, but the online version doesn't include pictures. Here is the story: http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles/2005/02/26/sports/01third.txt
Darla and I took the boys to dinner at Buca Di Pepo on Saturday night. It is an Italian restaurant that serves family style. We enjoyed Chicken Marsala, Lasagna, and a medley of baked pasta dishes. We had a gift certificate that we won at the RGC Christmas party, so it was even better for me. Darla had a CPR class all day on Saturday and got home in time to go to dinner with us.
I, of course, played golf on Sunday. I won't say who I played with because of an incident that happened while we were playing. All of the guys that I played with are good friends and it was nice to get together again and play some golf. One of the guys had a stellar front nine and won most of the money....in fact he won skins on the first seven holes. Unfortunately, his day turned bad from there and he went on to have a horrendous round of golf. He shot 42 on the front and 52 on the back. He was pulling putts and on one hole he decelerated on a three- foot putt to win a skin and hit the ball about one foot. He was not happy and muttering to himself as he walked off the green. One of his best friends told him that he needed to stop "choking". The guy went off and started yelling at his buddy. I had to step between them. He said it was horrible to tell a guy that he was "choking" in the middle of the round and dropped a few expletives. Again, I told him to settle down, that we are all friends out for a fun round of golf. He asked me if I thought it was okay to tell someone they were choking in the middle. I'd about had it with him by then and told him that it was okay to say IF it was true and it was. He muddled his way throught the end of the round, three putting all three of the last holes. When it came time to settle up, he decided to go off on his friend again, literally screaming at him. It was embarassing to watch this guy melt down on the golf course. I stepped between them and put my arm around his back to move him away and he slapped at my hand. I got right in his face and told him to settle down. We've all had bad rounds and he needed to get over it. He didn't and I had to calm his friend down afterward. He was really upset over the way he was treated and needed to vent. We talked out in the parking lot for about ten minuts and left. I expect an apology from this guy this week. He was out of control and obviously has some anger control issues. His anger was misplaced at his friend, when he should have been upset with himself. I was fine, I birdied the last hole and won $16 in skin money from the group. I struggled on the front side with the wet conditions and shot 45, but pulled it together on the back and shot 41 for an 86. It's the third straight time I've shot 86 and I'm anxious to get that down closer to 80 in the near future.
I've had a sore muscle between my shoulder blades and running up to my neck for about a week. I first felt it last weekend when I played golf in the two day tournament. God forbid that my back problems return. It hasn't been too bad, but golf exacerbates the problem. I was so looking forward to the hot tub last night after golf, but the rains came in about 5:30 and by mid evening it was a torrent. Darla suggested that we go in the spa and take a golf umbrella and it took no arm twisting to get me out there. We no sooner got settled in the tub when a hard squall hit and we sat there under the Wilson umbrella trying to stay dry and keep our towels from getting soaked at the same time. I am blessed to have an adventuresome wife. We had a good laugh as the rain was pounding off the umbrella and we sat enjoying a good soak in the tub.
Work continues to be a source of stress, but also of some accomplishment. We close February today and we will again make a small profit this month. The home office is just closing a deal to bring two of the underwriters from Richter Robb over to Burns and Wilcox as a satellite office. I worked at Richter Robb for three months before jumping ship to Burns and Wilcox. Their office will be in Modesto and they will be a satellite office reporting to the Sacramento office. The two women that are coming over are the two main producers in the home office and handle over $19,000,000 in premium volume. I talked to Dad and he expects Richter Robb to counter, but I just talked to our Underwriting Vice President and he told me that the two women are primed to move. They have already picked out office space and will quit tomorrow. The kicker here is that the owner of Richter Robb has repeatedly lowballed these gals on both salary and income and they know what kind of money they can make here at BW.
I did talk to Dad and a big congratulations to him on taking 1st and 3rd place with his two cars at the Abbottsford Custom Car Show. He said he made a lot of rookie mistakes in setting up the cars and even in classifying the '39 in the modified category rather than in the stock division, but 1st and 3rd in a show that had over 300 cars, not bad. Like a hole in one in your first round of golf. He has been invited to bring his cars up to the Custom Car show in Spokane, Washington the end of March and will do so. The promoter of the show was in Abbottsford and wants Dad's cars for his show. Big props to the old man. Nice job, Dad. Shirley had helped decorate the cars putting a cooler of Cherry Cola and a bowl of plastic cherries in the trunk of the 39 for atmosphere. Funny, but Dad saw Noreen, our cousin and his niece at the show. She didn't know that Dad would be there and saw his name as the owner of the '39 and '46. They were able to catch up and she was with her husband, Brent and some friends, just out for a day at the car show. Small world.
I just checked Jennifer's blog and she passed the promotion board. You go, girl. We'll be soon calling her Sergeant Lyon. Iknow she's frustrated with her role as primary armorer, but it kept her out of Iraq. She volunteered to return to Iraq, but they turned her down as they need her on site to issue the weapons. Dad here is thrilled that they wouldn't let her return to the site of car bombings and insurgents trying to kill all Americans. Stay put there in Kuwait, Jen. In the sunshine and out of harms way. Congratulations, Jennifer. You are my hero.
Well, I've got to get on with my day. We close the books at noon today and I've got to see if I can get some more money booked before we close. I hope all is well with each of you. Give a thumbs up to the Lord. As they say, if you were born once, you'll die twice, but if you are born twice, you'll die but one time. Praise God. Ciao.
We had a great weekend with the boys. David's basketball team won their first round playoff game with an inspired effort. That win bought them the opportunity to play Natomas for a third time. They are the league champions and beat us twice in the regular season, although we had sizable leads in both games only to lose to a better coached and more athletic squad. This time was different, but we still lost. Natomas played solid basketball from the opening tip and lead almost the entire contest. They had a 7 point lead with just over five minutes left before Woodcreek went on a furious rally lead by a great defensive effort. We scored the next eight points to take a one point lead at 41-40 with under a minute left. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and Natomas scored twice to win 44-41. Our center, Ike Okouye had a layup fall out that would have given us the lead. They stole an inbounds pass after they scored to go up 42-41 and hit both free throws. Our effort to tie with a three pointer at the end ended up short and the game ended and David's Senior season and high school career came to a sudden and abrupt end. There was a nice picture of David driving for a basket in the game in the local paper, but the online version doesn't include pictures. Here is the story: http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles/2005/02/26/sports/01third.txt
Darla and I took the boys to dinner at Buca Di Pepo on Saturday night. It is an Italian restaurant that serves family style. We enjoyed Chicken Marsala, Lasagna, and a medley of baked pasta dishes. We had a gift certificate that we won at the RGC Christmas party, so it was even better for me. Darla had a CPR class all day on Saturday and got home in time to go to dinner with us.
I, of course, played golf on Sunday. I won't say who I played with because of an incident that happened while we were playing. All of the guys that I played with are good friends and it was nice to get together again and play some golf. One of the guys had a stellar front nine and won most of the money....in fact he won skins on the first seven holes. Unfortunately, his day turned bad from there and he went on to have a horrendous round of golf. He shot 42 on the front and 52 on the back. He was pulling putts and on one hole he decelerated on a three- foot putt to win a skin and hit the ball about one foot. He was not happy and muttering to himself as he walked off the green. One of his best friends told him that he needed to stop "choking". The guy went off and started yelling at his buddy. I had to step between them. He said it was horrible to tell a guy that he was "choking" in the middle of the round and dropped a few expletives. Again, I told him to settle down, that we are all friends out for a fun round of golf. He asked me if I thought it was okay to tell someone they were choking in the middle. I'd about had it with him by then and told him that it was okay to say IF it was true and it was. He muddled his way throught the end of the round, three putting all three of the last holes. When it came time to settle up, he decided to go off on his friend again, literally screaming at him. It was embarassing to watch this guy melt down on the golf course. I stepped between them and put my arm around his back to move him away and he slapped at my hand. I got right in his face and told him to settle down. We've all had bad rounds and he needed to get over it. He didn't and I had to calm his friend down afterward. He was really upset over the way he was treated and needed to vent. We talked out in the parking lot for about ten minuts and left. I expect an apology from this guy this week. He was out of control and obviously has some anger control issues. His anger was misplaced at his friend, when he should have been upset with himself. I was fine, I birdied the last hole and won $16 in skin money from the group. I struggled on the front side with the wet conditions and shot 45, but pulled it together on the back and shot 41 for an 86. It's the third straight time I've shot 86 and I'm anxious to get that down closer to 80 in the near future.
I've had a sore muscle between my shoulder blades and running up to my neck for about a week. I first felt it last weekend when I played golf in the two day tournament. God forbid that my back problems return. It hasn't been too bad, but golf exacerbates the problem. I was so looking forward to the hot tub last night after golf, but the rains came in about 5:30 and by mid evening it was a torrent. Darla suggested that we go in the spa and take a golf umbrella and it took no arm twisting to get me out there. We no sooner got settled in the tub when a hard squall hit and we sat there under the Wilson umbrella trying to stay dry and keep our towels from getting soaked at the same time. I am blessed to have an adventuresome wife. We had a good laugh as the rain was pounding off the umbrella and we sat enjoying a good soak in the tub.
Work continues to be a source of stress, but also of some accomplishment. We close February today and we will again make a small profit this month. The home office is just closing a deal to bring two of the underwriters from Richter Robb over to Burns and Wilcox as a satellite office. I worked at Richter Robb for three months before jumping ship to Burns and Wilcox. Their office will be in Modesto and they will be a satellite office reporting to the Sacramento office. The two women that are coming over are the two main producers in the home office and handle over $19,000,000 in premium volume. I talked to Dad and he expects Richter Robb to counter, but I just talked to our Underwriting Vice President and he told me that the two women are primed to move. They have already picked out office space and will quit tomorrow. The kicker here is that the owner of Richter Robb has repeatedly lowballed these gals on both salary and income and they know what kind of money they can make here at BW.
I did talk to Dad and a big congratulations to him on taking 1st and 3rd place with his two cars at the Abbottsford Custom Car Show. He said he made a lot of rookie mistakes in setting up the cars and even in classifying the '39 in the modified category rather than in the stock division, but 1st and 3rd in a show that had over 300 cars, not bad. Like a hole in one in your first round of golf. He has been invited to bring his cars up to the Custom Car show in Spokane, Washington the end of March and will do so. The promoter of the show was in Abbottsford and wants Dad's cars for his show. Big props to the old man. Nice job, Dad. Shirley had helped decorate the cars putting a cooler of Cherry Cola and a bowl of plastic cherries in the trunk of the 39 for atmosphere. Funny, but Dad saw Noreen, our cousin and his niece at the show. She didn't know that Dad would be there and saw his name as the owner of the '39 and '46. They were able to catch up and she was with her husband, Brent and some friends, just out for a day at the car show. Small world.
I just checked Jennifer's blog and she passed the promotion board. You go, girl. We'll be soon calling her Sergeant Lyon. Iknow she's frustrated with her role as primary armorer, but it kept her out of Iraq. She volunteered to return to Iraq, but they turned her down as they need her on site to issue the weapons. Dad here is thrilled that they wouldn't let her return to the site of car bombings and insurgents trying to kill all Americans. Stay put there in Kuwait, Jen. In the sunshine and out of harms way. Congratulations, Jennifer. You are my hero.
Well, I've got to get on with my day. We close the books at noon today and I've got to see if I can get some more money booked before we close. I hope all is well with each of you. Give a thumbs up to the Lord. As they say, if you were born once, you'll die twice, but if you are born twice, you'll die but one time. Praise God. Ciao.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Signs of Spring Around the Corner
The sun is out today after another three day weekend of rain, wind, clouds, intermittent sunshine and even two tornadoes and a water spout hitting in Sacramento. I took yesterday off, President's Day here in the good old U. S. of A. Darla had the day off and we were given a floating holiday this year to use as we see fit. It seemed to fit for me. Darla had the day off. She basically gets every holiday and even some that they make up like Happy Monday and Mental Health Friday. I get seven days off a year and a couple of weeks of vacation.
I played golf in the two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Boyd, went to the event last year when he and his partner, Dave Armijo, qualified. I came to find out two days before the event that an obscure rule made Boyd and I ineligible for the qualifier. He went last year and cannot go this year. The rule in fact is not even in the rule book, it was decided back in the late '90's when the same group went three years in a row. I was fine with it and we were still eligible to win money, so we played. Boyd felt bad and offered to back out and let me get another partner. It was wet, windy, muddy and not the best of conditions for golf. Boyd and I ham and egged it on Saturday and shot a 66 to trail the leaders by 6 strokes. I shot 42+42= 84 and Boyd shot 35+41=76. We were 6 under after nine holes and six under after eighteen. The story of our weekend was poor play on the back side. We did birdie number nine and won a $40 skin, but could have scored so much better. Sunday, we again shot 66 and this time we were five under after nine and managed only one under for the back nine. I shot 42+44=86 and Boyd shot 35+42=87. We were 11 under on the front side and only 1 under on the back for the weekend. I had a blast and really enjoy playing with Boyd, who is a solid 6 handicapper and an even tempered, decent man and a great golfer. My only problem with him is that he is a Morman and I don't think we'll be playing golf together in the afterlife.
I took Darla to dinner on Saturday night at Shanghai Fat's, the new upscale Chinese food restaurant at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln. This is the Indian Casino run by the Station Casino chain out of Las Vegas. The casino now boasts 14 restaurants (8 of them in the food court) and even has a Non Smoking room for those of us that can't stand the smoke. Dinner was excellent and we even managed to leave the casino about $60 ahead of what we walked in with thanks to a video poker machine that produced four aces with a three kicker for a $200 jackpot before we left. As soon as they build the hotel on site, we may even be able to get Dad and Shirley to come out to California for a visit.
Darla and I were supposed to go up to Reno Sunday night, but the weather did not cooperate and the passes were covered in snow and chains were required. Not my idea of fun to slog about in the snow, so we stayed home and I again treated Darla to lunch at Thunder Valley. We used a coupon and had burgers at Fatburger (Dad and Shirley, this is the same chain as the burger joint on the strip in Las Vegas). With the coupon and gambling, our lunch only cost us about $140. We had fun but couldn't catch a cold on the machines. Luckily we don't hit the Indian Casino much as I think their machines are wound just a hair tighter than they are in Vegas and Reno.
David's basketball team did win their last game last week and entered the playoffs as the number ten seed and second place in their division. A number ten seed travels and our first game is against Downey in Modesto on Wednesday. David is still hurting from smacking heads with a teamate in practice. He got the stitches out yesterday, but the wound opened back up. It is right on his left eyebrow and they put surgical tape over it to hold it closed.
David also will begin an internship at a Sacramento Engineering firm. His job will involve working on the CAD system (Computer Assisted Design) as well as doing all of the "go-fer" legwork for the architects and engineers at the firm. The firm specializes in design and engineering of industrial items, including gangplanks and gangways for cruise ships. It should be a fascinating job and he gets paid to do the job. David wants to be a CAD specialist for a design and engineering firm when he gets out of college and this apprenticeship will allow him to get some hands on experience. Leave it to David to make his first real job such a good one. He's not about to bag groceries or fries for a salary. The kid is something else. How about your little (6'4") brother, eh Jen?
Darla and I are in our third week of the 40 Days of Purpose at church. One of the couples in our study is moving to Austin and I may hook them up with Darryl. They are still looking for a house and won't move until the school year is over, but have been looking in the Georgetown area.
I haven't heard much from Jennifer lately. She sent Darla and I a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a teddy bear forValentine's day. Very cute and very appreciated. She is now the full time Armorer for her unit. She will take the Sergeant's test on March 1st, so say a prayer for her. It means more money and more honor in the military and the girl deserves it.
I lost out in the sweepstakes to hire Pete Morrison. He was interviewing with a competitor and they ended up paying him a signing bonus of $15,000. I was willing to trade a first round draft choice, but the cupboard was bare for signing money. Amazing, when you get into a competition how a family run business can compete so much better than a national company because of things like that. Our salary was better, but they have a good ESOP program and a comparable bonus program. I hated to lose him, but told him that I would have made the same choice he did. I can't blame him. They wanted him and were willing to pay to get him.
Well, there is a ton of work waiting for me and I better get at it. I hope all are well. Keep your eye on the Lord and your feet on His path and all will be bliss. Ciao.
I played golf in the two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Boyd, went to the event last year when he and his partner, Dave Armijo, qualified. I came to find out two days before the event that an obscure rule made Boyd and I ineligible for the qualifier. He went last year and cannot go this year. The rule in fact is not even in the rule book, it was decided back in the late '90's when the same group went three years in a row. I was fine with it and we were still eligible to win money, so we played. Boyd felt bad and offered to back out and let me get another partner. It was wet, windy, muddy and not the best of conditions for golf. Boyd and I ham and egged it on Saturday and shot a 66 to trail the leaders by 6 strokes. I shot 42+42= 84 and Boyd shot 35+41=76. We were 6 under after nine holes and six under after eighteen. The story of our weekend was poor play on the back side. We did birdie number nine and won a $40 skin, but could have scored so much better. Sunday, we again shot 66 and this time we were five under after nine and managed only one under for the back nine. I shot 42+44=86 and Boyd shot 35+42=87. We were 11 under on the front side and only 1 under on the back for the weekend. I had a blast and really enjoy playing with Boyd, who is a solid 6 handicapper and an even tempered, decent man and a great golfer. My only problem with him is that he is a Morman and I don't think we'll be playing golf together in the afterlife.
I took Darla to dinner on Saturday night at Shanghai Fat's, the new upscale Chinese food restaurant at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln. This is the Indian Casino run by the Station Casino chain out of Las Vegas. The casino now boasts 14 restaurants (8 of them in the food court) and even has a Non Smoking room for those of us that can't stand the smoke. Dinner was excellent and we even managed to leave the casino about $60 ahead of what we walked in with thanks to a video poker machine that produced four aces with a three kicker for a $200 jackpot before we left. As soon as they build the hotel on site, we may even be able to get Dad and Shirley to come out to California for a visit.
Darla and I were supposed to go up to Reno Sunday night, but the weather did not cooperate and the passes were covered in snow and chains were required. Not my idea of fun to slog about in the snow, so we stayed home and I again treated Darla to lunch at Thunder Valley. We used a coupon and had burgers at Fatburger (Dad and Shirley, this is the same chain as the burger joint on the strip in Las Vegas). With the coupon and gambling, our lunch only cost us about $140. We had fun but couldn't catch a cold on the machines. Luckily we don't hit the Indian Casino much as I think their machines are wound just a hair tighter than they are in Vegas and Reno.
David's basketball team did win their last game last week and entered the playoffs as the number ten seed and second place in their division. A number ten seed travels and our first game is against Downey in Modesto on Wednesday. David is still hurting from smacking heads with a teamate in practice. He got the stitches out yesterday, but the wound opened back up. It is right on his left eyebrow and they put surgical tape over it to hold it closed.
David also will begin an internship at a Sacramento Engineering firm. His job will involve working on the CAD system (Computer Assisted Design) as well as doing all of the "go-fer" legwork for the architects and engineers at the firm. The firm specializes in design and engineering of industrial items, including gangplanks and gangways for cruise ships. It should be a fascinating job and he gets paid to do the job. David wants to be a CAD specialist for a design and engineering firm when he gets out of college and this apprenticeship will allow him to get some hands on experience. Leave it to David to make his first real job such a good one. He's not about to bag groceries or fries for a salary. The kid is something else. How about your little (6'4") brother, eh Jen?
Darla and I are in our third week of the 40 Days of Purpose at church. One of the couples in our study is moving to Austin and I may hook them up with Darryl. They are still looking for a house and won't move until the school year is over, but have been looking in the Georgetown area.
I haven't heard much from Jennifer lately. She sent Darla and I a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a teddy bear forValentine's day. Very cute and very appreciated. She is now the full time Armorer for her unit. She will take the Sergeant's test on March 1st, so say a prayer for her. It means more money and more honor in the military and the girl deserves it.
I lost out in the sweepstakes to hire Pete Morrison. He was interviewing with a competitor and they ended up paying him a signing bonus of $15,000. I was willing to trade a first round draft choice, but the cupboard was bare for signing money. Amazing, when you get into a competition how a family run business can compete so much better than a national company because of things like that. Our salary was better, but they have a good ESOP program and a comparable bonus program. I hated to lose him, but told him that I would have made the same choice he did. I can't blame him. They wanted him and were willing to pay to get him.
Well, there is a ton of work waiting for me and I better get at it. I hope all are well. Keep your eye on the Lord and your feet on His path and all will be bliss. Ciao.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Pebble Beach Memories
Wow. The trip to Carmel and my visit to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am was nothing short of AWESOME. We got to Carmel about noon on Saturday and checked into our hotel. The hotel was small and only had a King bed. We brought sleeping bags for the boys and all managed to squeeze into the room for one night. Tami and Jerry had a reservation at the Carmel River Inn, but were able to extend their stay at the time share they rented in Pacific Grove over the weekend. It wasn't initially available and they were on the waiting list and it opened up. We grabbed their room at the Carmel River Inn, but couldn't upgrade to two Queens or a two bedroom as they were booked what with the golf tournament in town.
We met Tami and went into Carmel for lunch. We ate at a little European cafe in the heart of Carmel and ate outside in the sun. Saturday was a beautiful day with no breeze and not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for golf and a perfect day to watch golf. Darla and Tami went shopping after lunch and the boys tagged along with them. I took a long walk down Ocean Street to the beach and down the beach to the golf course. I sat below hole number nine and ten and watched the golfers approach into the tenth hole. Little did I know, but Jerry and his brother, Bob, were set up at hole number nine watching the action. I was below them on the beach.
We met up with Tami and Jerry at their condo in Pacific Grove and had a drink with them and Bob. Bob is a prison guard and had to work Sunday so he made his goodbyes and headed back to Sonora. We walked over to a little Pizza place around the corner from their condo and had dinner. Last year's British Open winner, Todd Hamilton, was in the condo next to Jerry's, but he missed the cut and we assume he was packing up to leave. Dinner was great, but Darla had bought me some new Chaps jeans to wear and they were too tight. My clothes have been getting tighter of late and the jeans really bothered me. I'm back up over 200 pounds and need to lose some weight, so peanut butter on English muffins is off the menu for me and salads are in. I'd like to get back down around 190 pounds and I guess talking about it in my blog should give me the extra motivation I need to lose the poundage.
As we were enjoying dinner and laughing over things going on in our respective lives, a couple next to us asked if we were in town for the tournament. The owner of the pizza joint was just in and let everyone know that the busses to the course out of Pacific Grove would be limited on Sunday as they had some mechanical problems. Jerry had complained of long delays on Saturday (it took them an hour to get a bus out of there). We decided it would be better to leave out of Carmel and Jerry was to meet us at our hotel at 6:45. We got in to Carmel at a little after seven and there were three busses waiting . We grabbed coffee, boarded the smaller shuttle bus that turned out to be an employee shuttle. The driver took us right into the lodge at Pebble instead of to the equestrian center which is about a mile walk from the course where the public is dropped off. We jumped off right at the putting green and saw Mark O'Meara and Jim Furyk practicing. The first tee time was 7:40, so we were able to scout the course and find where we wanted to set up. I wanted to sit at a par three and we finally decided on number 12, which is the toughest par three on the course. We set up right at the gallery ropes and watched all of the competitors come through. The weather had turned for the worse and we endured a driving rain, wind and cold. Jerry had asked me if we should bring the umbrellas and I said no it wasn't supposed to rain until Monday. Oops.
A few observations..Bill Murray is a nut. A truly funny human being. He came to the green and started handing out mini Snicker bars, throwing them to the crowd like a peanut vendor. He missed his putt for par and then stood off to the side as his partner, Scott Simpson lined up a three footer for par. Just as he was about to hit the ball, Murray yelled, "Oh God, I hope he makes this!" Simpson backed off and went back through his routine. Then as he putt the ball, Murray threw a candy bar over his head to someone on the other side of the green. Simpson missed his putt and just shook his head. Chris Berman, the ESPN announcer is grossly overweight, I'd say pushing 280 pounds. He was sweating profusely in the 60 degree weather and dragging a bum leg behind him, probably no better off for having to cart around the side of beef that is his body. He was gracious, but is an inordinately poor golfer at an 18 handicap. I have no idea how his group made the cut. He swung at a ball in the bunker and completely whiffed it.
Most of the golfers were very gracious. Mickelson, who won the tournament, was extremely kind to the gallery and appreciative of the support he got. However, there were a few grumps in the crowd, including one who yelled at a father whose daughter of three was a little unruly. The father told the golfer to do something to himself that is a bit unnatural. There were a couple of golfers that you just hoped they'd miss their putt, they were so grouchy, but for the most part, the pros are just that and realize where their money comes from, the fans.
Friday night was David's game with number one, Natomas. We smoked them in the first half, taking a 30-19 lead and then went on one of those slow falls down the stairs where your head hits the wall, the steps, the landing and it all happens in slow motion. We ended up losing on a three pointer with time running out and it hurt. We are in the playoffs, but the team's confidence is not at an all time high. The goal is to win two games and get to Arco Arena for the tournament. I will have to miss the game on Wednesday as I have a meeting in San Francisco.
Well, that's a bit of a one dimensional view of our weekend and my week, but I have to get to work. Check out Jennifer's blog, she has added to it. Happy Valentine's Day. Ciao.
We met Tami and went into Carmel for lunch. We ate at a little European cafe in the heart of Carmel and ate outside in the sun. Saturday was a beautiful day with no breeze and not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for golf and a perfect day to watch golf. Darla and Tami went shopping after lunch and the boys tagged along with them. I took a long walk down Ocean Street to the beach and down the beach to the golf course. I sat below hole number nine and ten and watched the golfers approach into the tenth hole. Little did I know, but Jerry and his brother, Bob, were set up at hole number nine watching the action. I was below them on the beach.
We met up with Tami and Jerry at their condo in Pacific Grove and had a drink with them and Bob. Bob is a prison guard and had to work Sunday so he made his goodbyes and headed back to Sonora. We walked over to a little Pizza place around the corner from their condo and had dinner. Last year's British Open winner, Todd Hamilton, was in the condo next to Jerry's, but he missed the cut and we assume he was packing up to leave. Dinner was great, but Darla had bought me some new Chaps jeans to wear and they were too tight. My clothes have been getting tighter of late and the jeans really bothered me. I'm back up over 200 pounds and need to lose some weight, so peanut butter on English muffins is off the menu for me and salads are in. I'd like to get back down around 190 pounds and I guess talking about it in my blog should give me the extra motivation I need to lose the poundage.
As we were enjoying dinner and laughing over things going on in our respective lives, a couple next to us asked if we were in town for the tournament. The owner of the pizza joint was just in and let everyone know that the busses to the course out of Pacific Grove would be limited on Sunday as they had some mechanical problems. Jerry had complained of long delays on Saturday (it took them an hour to get a bus out of there). We decided it would be better to leave out of Carmel and Jerry was to meet us at our hotel at 6:45. We got in to Carmel at a little after seven and there were three busses waiting . We grabbed coffee, boarded the smaller shuttle bus that turned out to be an employee shuttle. The driver took us right into the lodge at Pebble instead of to the equestrian center which is about a mile walk from the course where the public is dropped off. We jumped off right at the putting green and saw Mark O'Meara and Jim Furyk practicing. The first tee time was 7:40, so we were able to scout the course and find where we wanted to set up. I wanted to sit at a par three and we finally decided on number 12, which is the toughest par three on the course. We set up right at the gallery ropes and watched all of the competitors come through. The weather had turned for the worse and we endured a driving rain, wind and cold. Jerry had asked me if we should bring the umbrellas and I said no it wasn't supposed to rain until Monday. Oops.
A few observations..Bill Murray is a nut. A truly funny human being. He came to the green and started handing out mini Snicker bars, throwing them to the crowd like a peanut vendor. He missed his putt for par and then stood off to the side as his partner, Scott Simpson lined up a three footer for par. Just as he was about to hit the ball, Murray yelled, "Oh God, I hope he makes this!" Simpson backed off and went back through his routine. Then as he putt the ball, Murray threw a candy bar over his head to someone on the other side of the green. Simpson missed his putt and just shook his head. Chris Berman, the ESPN announcer is grossly overweight, I'd say pushing 280 pounds. He was sweating profusely in the 60 degree weather and dragging a bum leg behind him, probably no better off for having to cart around the side of beef that is his body. He was gracious, but is an inordinately poor golfer at an 18 handicap. I have no idea how his group made the cut. He swung at a ball in the bunker and completely whiffed it.
Most of the golfers were very gracious. Mickelson, who won the tournament, was extremely kind to the gallery and appreciative of the support he got. However, there were a few grumps in the crowd, including one who yelled at a father whose daughter of three was a little unruly. The father told the golfer to do something to himself that is a bit unnatural. There were a couple of golfers that you just hoped they'd miss their putt, they were so grouchy, but for the most part, the pros are just that and realize where their money comes from, the fans.
Friday night was David's game with number one, Natomas. We smoked them in the first half, taking a 30-19 lead and then went on one of those slow falls down the stairs where your head hits the wall, the steps, the landing and it all happens in slow motion. We ended up losing on a three pointer with time running out and it hurt. We are in the playoffs, but the team's confidence is not at an all time high. The goal is to win two games and get to Arco Arena for the tournament. I will have to miss the game on Wednesday as I have a meeting in San Francisco.
Well, that's a bit of a one dimensional view of our weekend and my week, but I have to get to work. Check out Jennifer's blog, she has added to it. Happy Valentine's Day. Ciao.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Great Weekend...Rain Today
As it should be. It was WARM this weekend with temperatures approaching seventy degrees and shorts and polo shirts the uniform of choice. If we are going to get rain, there isn't much that can dampen your spirits further on a Monday, so what the hey. It is a light, but incessant rain today that is doing a job on my freshly washed car. The forecast was for drizzle today, but when you are standing in the warmth of a perfect Springlike day, it is hard to imagine what is out there right now. I was actually a bit surprised when I opened the front door at 6:25 this morning to see the wet streets and hear the swoosh of tires on wet pavement. Ah well.
The weekend was all sun and no clouds and really put the thought of Spring and unending sunshine in my head. I played in the Super Bowl tournament on Saturday and unfortunately it is generally our most crowded tournament of the year. We got locked in to a late tee time and it took five hours to finish our round. I struggled with the delays and shot 42+45=87 on the day. I don't do well in slow play situations and the geniuses in the club put two fivesomes in front of us. The board got an earful from me when I came in from my round. We cannot allow fivesomes. The new board has made a lot of mistakes in their first month on the job, including dropping over $500 of OUR money on jackets for the board members. Their excuse is that it allows the board to be more visible on the course and helps speed up play. Could have fooled me this weekend.
David played two basketball games this week and had two very different results. We went to Placer, a foothill team of large white boys and we beat them rather handily 66-54, but struggled back at home against our cross town rivals, Roseville, losing by eight points and never really being in the game. The coach played ten players which is too many. He should have a set lineup by now and bring in two or three players off the bench with spot substitutions. We were behind by four points when he took out four of our starters and the reserves managed to fall behind by 12 points and we were never able to make up the deficit. It was a big game as we were 1/2 game out of first place and losing to a big rival made it all the worse.
I am off to Monterey this weekend to watch the AT&T Pebble Beach classic. My good friend, Jerry Tuel, has tickets all week and saved me a ticket for the final round. I may bring Darla and the boys, but I don't know what the lodging situation is as Tami made the reservations and I'm taking it from them. To further complicate matters, David has a game on Friday night and it won't end until 9:00 and it is a three hour drive to Monterey. I may just drive down myself as most of the motels are small and don't have a 24 hour office. Kids sports are great, but they can definitely get in the way of life as well. Darla will not miss a game and I don't like to, but Friday night basketball games are a bit much. It tends to take the starch out of a weekend away.
We had some friends over yesterday to watch the Super Bowl. The right team won by the way as I can't stand Terell Owens and it was great to see him make a heroic comeback, play well, and end up a Super Bowl LOSER. This is a guy who when he played for the Forty Niners would complain and whine if he caught two passes for 12 yards in a game and they won, but not make a peep if he caught twelve passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns and they lost. He has NEVER been about the team and always about Terell. He is the worst of what is wrong with the NFL and I can't stand the guy and take a great deal of joy in his loss. Although, he was NOT upset as he had a good game. It really doesn't matter to him if they lose as long as he gets the ball.
I received a phone call right at kickoff and I almost didn't answer. I figured it couldn't be Jennifer as it was 2:45 in the morning her time. I picked up the phone and Jennifer said, "So, who are we pulling for?" The Army gave the soldiers today off so that they could watch the Super Bowl. Now that is something to salute. I particularly enjoyed the Anheuser Busch commercial that showed the people in the airport standing up and applauding the soldiers as they walked through the airport. I can only hope that it sparks some real appreciation in airports and other public places for our troops and the sacrifices that they make for all of us.
I had my assistant, Anthony and his girlfriend, Erin, join us at church on Sunday. We had Dave Dravecky, the former San Francisco Giant's pitcher speak to us and he gave a wonderful testimony of how God has worked in his life before and after cancer, during his comeback and ultimately after his arm was amputated. He really fired up the congregation and got us ready to do our Forty Days of Purpose study. We took Anthony and Erin out to breakfast afterward. We even saw David and Daniel with their Father at church. I thought the roof might fall in. We also saw them at breakfast, although the power went out and they didn't get to eat. We had already been served and enjoyed our meals, even in the low light of the restaurant when the power was out. It was a great day all in all yesterday. We also had a deep conversation about God and his influence in our lives with Greg and Carla last night. It was pretty awesome. Hearing from Jennifer was the strawberry on top of my ice cream sundae yesterday.
We are having server problems this morning at work and I have to tend to that. We can not get on our server and therefore our network this morning. I have our Regional VP in this morning and he will interview Pete Morrison and perhaps offer him a job today. I can only hope.
Take Care. Ciao.
The weekend was all sun and no clouds and really put the thought of Spring and unending sunshine in my head. I played in the Super Bowl tournament on Saturday and unfortunately it is generally our most crowded tournament of the year. We got locked in to a late tee time and it took five hours to finish our round. I struggled with the delays and shot 42+45=87 on the day. I don't do well in slow play situations and the geniuses in the club put two fivesomes in front of us. The board got an earful from me when I came in from my round. We cannot allow fivesomes. The new board has made a lot of mistakes in their first month on the job, including dropping over $500 of OUR money on jackets for the board members. Their excuse is that it allows the board to be more visible on the course and helps speed up play. Could have fooled me this weekend.
David played two basketball games this week and had two very different results. We went to Placer, a foothill team of large white boys and we beat them rather handily 66-54, but struggled back at home against our cross town rivals, Roseville, losing by eight points and never really being in the game. The coach played ten players which is too many. He should have a set lineup by now and bring in two or three players off the bench with spot substitutions. We were behind by four points when he took out four of our starters and the reserves managed to fall behind by 12 points and we were never able to make up the deficit. It was a big game as we were 1/2 game out of first place and losing to a big rival made it all the worse.
I am off to Monterey this weekend to watch the AT&T Pebble Beach classic. My good friend, Jerry Tuel, has tickets all week and saved me a ticket for the final round. I may bring Darla and the boys, but I don't know what the lodging situation is as Tami made the reservations and I'm taking it from them. To further complicate matters, David has a game on Friday night and it won't end until 9:00 and it is a three hour drive to Monterey. I may just drive down myself as most of the motels are small and don't have a 24 hour office. Kids sports are great, but they can definitely get in the way of life as well. Darla will not miss a game and I don't like to, but Friday night basketball games are a bit much. It tends to take the starch out of a weekend away.
We had some friends over yesterday to watch the Super Bowl. The right team won by the way as I can't stand Terell Owens and it was great to see him make a heroic comeback, play well, and end up a Super Bowl LOSER. This is a guy who when he played for the Forty Niners would complain and whine if he caught two passes for 12 yards in a game and they won, but not make a peep if he caught twelve passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns and they lost. He has NEVER been about the team and always about Terell. He is the worst of what is wrong with the NFL and I can't stand the guy and take a great deal of joy in his loss. Although, he was NOT upset as he had a good game. It really doesn't matter to him if they lose as long as he gets the ball.
I received a phone call right at kickoff and I almost didn't answer. I figured it couldn't be Jennifer as it was 2:45 in the morning her time. I picked up the phone and Jennifer said, "So, who are we pulling for?" The Army gave the soldiers today off so that they could watch the Super Bowl. Now that is something to salute. I particularly enjoyed the Anheuser Busch commercial that showed the people in the airport standing up and applauding the soldiers as they walked through the airport. I can only hope that it sparks some real appreciation in airports and other public places for our troops and the sacrifices that they make for all of us.
I had my assistant, Anthony and his girlfriend, Erin, join us at church on Sunday. We had Dave Dravecky, the former San Francisco Giant's pitcher speak to us and he gave a wonderful testimony of how God has worked in his life before and after cancer, during his comeback and ultimately after his arm was amputated. He really fired up the congregation and got us ready to do our Forty Days of Purpose study. We took Anthony and Erin out to breakfast afterward. We even saw David and Daniel with their Father at church. I thought the roof might fall in. We also saw them at breakfast, although the power went out and they didn't get to eat. We had already been served and enjoyed our meals, even in the low light of the restaurant when the power was out. It was a great day all in all yesterday. We also had a deep conversation about God and his influence in our lives with Greg and Carla last night. It was pretty awesome. Hearing from Jennifer was the strawberry on top of my ice cream sundae yesterday.
We are having server problems this morning at work and I have to tend to that. We can not get on our server and therefore our network this morning. I have our Regional VP in this morning and he will interview Pete Morrison and perhaps offer him a job today. I can only hope.
Take Care. Ciao.
Monday, January 31, 2005
The Sun returns to warm the hearts of those in Sacramento
It's true, the Sun is back in all it's glory and the fog has moved back to Siberia or wherever it came from and all is bliss in the land of Northern California. We had a marvelous weekend after enduring rain and fog most of all of last week. In fact the rain lasted right up until Friday night. I had a 9:09 tee time on Saturday morning and we were sweating the rain right up until the last minute.
There are a few clouds in the sky this morning and it is COLD, but the sky is blue and the grass is green and my car is washed and waxed and stands gleaming in the parking lot with shiny chrome wheels and dressed tires. It is depressing to drive a rain-streaked car and so nice to travel in a freshly washed and shiny car. My Dad ruined me with his obsessiveness about his cars.
Speaking of Dad..and Shirley, I called them last night in Hawaii and we visited for about a half hour. I told him that I knew he was trying to hide on vacation, but his mistake was in giving us his itinerary and phone numbers. I have Verizon cell phone service and Verizon is the largest phone company in Hawaii. My plan includes free long distance and free nights and weekends and includes both Hawaii and Alaska in my calling plan. It costs money to call Vancouver, but not Hawaii. Go figure. They are having a great vacation, but true to form ran into another housing crisis. The second hotel that they booked through Expedia was a complete dump and Shirley was very unhappy. So much so that they checked out after one night and moved to another resort. Dad didn't really get into specifics, but it couldn't have been as bad as the time they had a mouse infestation at the hotel in Hawaii and woke up to mouse droppings in their bed. They do manage to have quite a time on their Hawaii vacations. Dad said the weather has been great and they had several meals at Turtle Bay where the Senior Golf tournament was being held this weekend. Dad sounded relaxed.
I played golf this weekend with Boyd, Mel and one of Daniel's friends, Wes Sandroni. We had a foursome with Greg Wanee, but he called me Friday night to say he had to work. By the time I got back from David's basketball game it was too late to call anyone as a replacement. I had Dan call Wes to see if either he or his Dad wanted to join us. Wesley is about an 8 handicap and will be on the Woodcreek golf team this year. He is an accomplished golfer and has been playing the game for about five years. He used to be a neighbor on our court and I used to chase him off my lawn where he was hitting plastic balls from one yard to the other and taking big divots as he did. He always had a golf club in his hand and it has paid dividends. He handled himself well with the adults and shot a 41+41=82 in wet conditions on a course he hasn't played much. I showed up at 8:30 to pick him up Saturday morning and when his Dad answered the door I asked him if Wesley could come out and play. I shot 40+43=83 on the day, but hit the ball really well. I had an eagle putt on the 488 yard par five 15th, after hitting a driver off the deck from 235 yards that landed on the green on the fly and left me a forty foot eagle putt. I missed the putt, but made the birdie. Boyd shot 78 and Mel shot 90 and paid each of us $2 for his efforts. It was a good day and gives me confidence going into the Super Bowl tournament next Saturday.
David's team played Rocklin on Friday after having a bye early in the week. Rocklin is a great defensive team and they have something of a genetic Science experiment at center with a 6'8" albino black kid. He has red hair and white skin with black features. He is a second generation albino as his father is also an albino black man with red hair. Ike once again left the team in the lurch when he showed up for the game 45 minutes late (the team has to be there an hour early) and was benched for the first quarter. David has been moved to the starting lineup and the guy he replaced moved over to take the center spot. We scored the first basket and then went through a painful stretch where we turned the ball over and missed shots to the tune of a 14-2 deficit after the first quarter. Ike started the second quarter and we closed the gap, moving to within 4 points before having Rocklin go on a tear late in the second to take a 10 point halftime lead. They led by eight after three and by the same 8 with four minutes to play. Woodcreek finally turned up the defensive pressure and we scored the next ten points to take a two point lead with 23 seconds left. They worked the ball well and hit a banked three pointer with 14 seconds left. Our point guard got loose and hit a driving tear drop floater in the lane with 4 seconds left and our fans exploded. They had one chance left and tried a three pointer that bounced out, but was put back by the Science project for an apparent win. The officials waved off the basket as coming after the horn and ran off the court to the safety of the locker room as both sides cheered in the confusion. The scoreboard operator had put up the winning basket for Rocklin and their fans were celebrating, but we saw the officials wave off the basket and our team was jumping and high fiving each other. It was a great come from behind win and we are solidly in second now with a 5-2 conference record. This is the second time that we've beat Rocklin, who was a ranked team early in the season. We may finally get some play as a ranked team in Sacramento now. Awesome stuff.
Darla and I started our Life Group last week. Our church is going through Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life", "40 Days of Purpose". We met with the group as an ice breaker to get to know the group and to socialize before we start. We'll meet again tonight to go over ground rules and set up our reading for the week and start the study next week. One of the couples in the group I know because the husband, Gary, is in my Men's group. I will take a leave of absence from the Men's group during the next seven weeks as I can't afford the time for two groups a week on top of the fifty hours I put in at work. The sermons will kick off on Sunday with Dave Dravecky speaking to the group on his calling after he lost his pitching arm to cancer in 1989.
Work is good and getting better. We will finish at least $100,000 over budget this month and I may add a new underwriter sooner rather than later. I received a call on Monday last from Pete Morrison, the underwriter that I hired to replace me at Republic Western when I was promoted to Underwriting Manager. Pete had left the insurance industry and was working as a mortgage banker the last two years. He made a lot of money, but got severely burned out on the 70 hour weeks he was putting in. He called me to ask about a competitor that he was slated to interview with. I said, "Whoa, if you're available, I may be able to create a position for you here". I called the Regional VP and he told me to interview him and then he'll arrange to come out this week and interview him as well. Pete is willing to take less salary than he's been getting because of the bonus plan. Pete was a new business machine for me at RWIC and I need that kind of production to get this office rolling.
Well, folks, be kind to one another. Remember I live in Sacramento and "Sacramento" is a Spanish word for the "body of Christ". I'd rather live no where else but in the body of Christ. Ciao.
There are a few clouds in the sky this morning and it is COLD, but the sky is blue and the grass is green and my car is washed and waxed and stands gleaming in the parking lot with shiny chrome wheels and dressed tires. It is depressing to drive a rain-streaked car and so nice to travel in a freshly washed and shiny car. My Dad ruined me with his obsessiveness about his cars.
Speaking of Dad..and Shirley, I called them last night in Hawaii and we visited for about a half hour. I told him that I knew he was trying to hide on vacation, but his mistake was in giving us his itinerary and phone numbers. I have Verizon cell phone service and Verizon is the largest phone company in Hawaii. My plan includes free long distance and free nights and weekends and includes both Hawaii and Alaska in my calling plan. It costs money to call Vancouver, but not Hawaii. Go figure. They are having a great vacation, but true to form ran into another housing crisis. The second hotel that they booked through Expedia was a complete dump and Shirley was very unhappy. So much so that they checked out after one night and moved to another resort. Dad didn't really get into specifics, but it couldn't have been as bad as the time they had a mouse infestation at the hotel in Hawaii and woke up to mouse droppings in their bed. They do manage to have quite a time on their Hawaii vacations. Dad said the weather has been great and they had several meals at Turtle Bay where the Senior Golf tournament was being held this weekend. Dad sounded relaxed.
I played golf this weekend with Boyd, Mel and one of Daniel's friends, Wes Sandroni. We had a foursome with Greg Wanee, but he called me Friday night to say he had to work. By the time I got back from David's basketball game it was too late to call anyone as a replacement. I had Dan call Wes to see if either he or his Dad wanted to join us. Wesley is about an 8 handicap and will be on the Woodcreek golf team this year. He is an accomplished golfer and has been playing the game for about five years. He used to be a neighbor on our court and I used to chase him off my lawn where he was hitting plastic balls from one yard to the other and taking big divots as he did. He always had a golf club in his hand and it has paid dividends. He handled himself well with the adults and shot a 41+41=82 in wet conditions on a course he hasn't played much. I showed up at 8:30 to pick him up Saturday morning and when his Dad answered the door I asked him if Wesley could come out and play. I shot 40+43=83 on the day, but hit the ball really well. I had an eagle putt on the 488 yard par five 15th, after hitting a driver off the deck from 235 yards that landed on the green on the fly and left me a forty foot eagle putt. I missed the putt, but made the birdie. Boyd shot 78 and Mel shot 90 and paid each of us $2 for his efforts. It was a good day and gives me confidence going into the Super Bowl tournament next Saturday.
David's team played Rocklin on Friday after having a bye early in the week. Rocklin is a great defensive team and they have something of a genetic Science experiment at center with a 6'8" albino black kid. He has red hair and white skin with black features. He is a second generation albino as his father is also an albino black man with red hair. Ike once again left the team in the lurch when he showed up for the game 45 minutes late (the team has to be there an hour early) and was benched for the first quarter. David has been moved to the starting lineup and the guy he replaced moved over to take the center spot. We scored the first basket and then went through a painful stretch where we turned the ball over and missed shots to the tune of a 14-2 deficit after the first quarter. Ike started the second quarter and we closed the gap, moving to within 4 points before having Rocklin go on a tear late in the second to take a 10 point halftime lead. They led by eight after three and by the same 8 with four minutes to play. Woodcreek finally turned up the defensive pressure and we scored the next ten points to take a two point lead with 23 seconds left. They worked the ball well and hit a banked three pointer with 14 seconds left. Our point guard got loose and hit a driving tear drop floater in the lane with 4 seconds left and our fans exploded. They had one chance left and tried a three pointer that bounced out, but was put back by the Science project for an apparent win. The officials waved off the basket as coming after the horn and ran off the court to the safety of the locker room as both sides cheered in the confusion. The scoreboard operator had put up the winning basket for Rocklin and their fans were celebrating, but we saw the officials wave off the basket and our team was jumping and high fiving each other. It was a great come from behind win and we are solidly in second now with a 5-2 conference record. This is the second time that we've beat Rocklin, who was a ranked team early in the season. We may finally get some play as a ranked team in Sacramento now. Awesome stuff.
Darla and I started our Life Group last week. Our church is going through Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life", "40 Days of Purpose". We met with the group as an ice breaker to get to know the group and to socialize before we start. We'll meet again tonight to go over ground rules and set up our reading for the week and start the study next week. One of the couples in the group I know because the husband, Gary, is in my Men's group. I will take a leave of absence from the Men's group during the next seven weeks as I can't afford the time for two groups a week on top of the fifty hours I put in at work. The sermons will kick off on Sunday with Dave Dravecky speaking to the group on his calling after he lost his pitching arm to cancer in 1989.
Work is good and getting better. We will finish at least $100,000 over budget this month and I may add a new underwriter sooner rather than later. I received a call on Monday last from Pete Morrison, the underwriter that I hired to replace me at Republic Western when I was promoted to Underwriting Manager. Pete had left the insurance industry and was working as a mortgage banker the last two years. He made a lot of money, but got severely burned out on the 70 hour weeks he was putting in. He called me to ask about a competitor that he was slated to interview with. I said, "Whoa, if you're available, I may be able to create a position for you here". I called the Regional VP and he told me to interview him and then he'll arrange to come out this week and interview him as well. Pete is willing to take less salary than he's been getting because of the bonus plan. Pete was a new business machine for me at RWIC and I need that kind of production to get this office rolling.
Well, folks, be kind to one another. Remember I live in Sacramento and "Sacramento" is a Spanish word for the "body of Christ". I'd rather live no where else but in the body of Christ. Ciao.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Just Another Foggy Monday
I suppose the heavy fog is pennance for the sunshine that we enjoyed yesterday. It is a heavy ground fog that coats your car with a layer of water as you cut through the dense, wet and cold mist. The trees are dripping water and the ground and lawns are thick with moisture. We had a lighter fog yesterday morning and the sun finally burned off the fog about 1:30 in the afternoon after trying for an hour and being a large, bright halo in the sky behind the fog.
This was the poker and golf weekend and I had a blast. Darla unfortunately had her plans cancelled by Joni in Marin. Darla doesn't know what's up with Joni, but is tired of worrying about it. You can't force friendship and unfortunately I don't think Joni ever got over our marriage. They had a "Lavene and Shirley" friendship where they did everything and anything together and were inseperable. Joni actually had moved to the Bay Area prior to Darla and I beginning to date. Marriage can and does change friendships. Joni is still one of Darla's best friends, but from my perspective, the reciprocal is in question.
Ah well. Poker was a success at my house. We had six players and I managed to take $58 from my friends and finance a nice dinner out with my wife on Saturday night. One of the players, Steve, is a friend of mine from the golf club and he has played in three games at my house and let me know that he's lost a sum total of $220 in those games. He has decided to host the next game on March 4th to try to change his luck. To make matters worse, he had to get up at 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning to commute to a job in the Bay Area. Steve is an electrician and the jobs are often few and far between this time of year. So he got fleeced Friday night, got no sleep and had to commute two hours to work. At least he got double time for working on the weekend. I also invited Greg Meacham, who we had over on New Year's with his family. Greg lost some money, but had a great time and will be back.
Golf was a little frustrating this weekend. I showed up Saturday and was told that the tournament director had made a mistake and the tournament was set for Sunday instead of Saturday. Most of the guys got games together, but I had things that I wanted to get done at the house, so headed home. I called Darla and invited her to lunch and then stopped at the store to pick up some fertilizer for the lawn. Darla and I got a package together for Jennifer (we had some mail and she wanted some more shampoo and conditioner) and went to mail that and then stopped at a little Roseville restaurant for lunch. Darla seemed a little cranky and when I asked her about it, she said, "Well this was supposed to be my day and you were supposed to be playing golf." Oops. I didn't even stop to think about that and thought it would be fun to go to lunch. I kind of made myself scarce when I got home, basically by curling up on the couch and getting a two-hour nap in. I then went out and did some chores, working on the spa and spreading the fertilizer on the lawn. Jerry Tuel called while we were sleeping (Darla took a nap on the bed) and when Darla said that we were both napping, Jerry thought he was interrupting something and we were using code. I set him straight there.
We did have dinner with a couple of friends from the golf club and their wives on Saturday night. We ate at Brother Olivers, an old fashioned steak house in Carmichael. Gary and Greg are both wine guys and brought their own bottles of wine and we paid corkage. It was a nice evening and we are planning a trip up to Amador to do some wine tasting in the near future.
We finally got in the golf tournament on Sunday and as I said, we actually saw some sun. We have a new tournament director this year and he made quite an impression on his first away tournament. Not only did he make a mistake on the day of the tournament, but he also had us tee off from the blue tees. Our home course is 6200 yards from the blue tees. We played at Mather Golf Course and the yardage from their blue tees is 6800. They have five par fours that measure over 435 yards from the blue tees, including a 460 yard hole that runs straight uphill. A good drive in the foggy, wet conditions was about 235 yards (no roll, heavy wet air). I managed to have a great round in spite of the tough conditions and shot 41-39=80 and won my flight with a net of 68. The low round of the tournament was 74 and I was third with an 80 out of 32 players. The average score was 91 and the guys were not happy at the end of the day. I won 68 dollars and bought myself some new black Nike golf shoes, a hat and a golf glove with my winnings. It was a great weekend from stem to stern.
David's basketball team struggled without their center on Tuesday and they lost 63-54 to Natomas. We actually had a three point lead at half time, but imploded in the third quarter being outscored 14-3. They came out with a half court press, doubling the ball when it crossed half court and we had turnover after turnover. It was a brutal game to watch. We did manage to whip Del Oro on Thursday night with Ike coming back to lead the team with 18 points and 18 rebounds. David scored eight points and was a force down the stretch hitting key free throws and playing some great defense. They have a bye on Wednesday and play again on Friday night. We are in second place in the league with a 4-2 record, behind Natomas and look forward to playing them with our full complement of players at home in the next couple of weeks.
David had a scout from William and Mary college in Oregon talk to him last week at school. They'd like him to play football for them, but aren't offering a scholarship. At this point, David is concentrating on academics and is only interested in an Architectural program, which W&M doesn't offer.
Well, that is the news for this week. I hope you all stay well and live lives that are a light in God's kingdom. Do something nice for someone today, it'll throw them for a loop. Ciao.
This was the poker and golf weekend and I had a blast. Darla unfortunately had her plans cancelled by Joni in Marin. Darla doesn't know what's up with Joni, but is tired of worrying about it. You can't force friendship and unfortunately I don't think Joni ever got over our marriage. They had a "Lavene and Shirley" friendship where they did everything and anything together and were inseperable. Joni actually had moved to the Bay Area prior to Darla and I beginning to date. Marriage can and does change friendships. Joni is still one of Darla's best friends, but from my perspective, the reciprocal is in question.
Ah well. Poker was a success at my house. We had six players and I managed to take $58 from my friends and finance a nice dinner out with my wife on Saturday night. One of the players, Steve, is a friend of mine from the golf club and he has played in three games at my house and let me know that he's lost a sum total of $220 in those games. He has decided to host the next game on March 4th to try to change his luck. To make matters worse, he had to get up at 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning to commute to a job in the Bay Area. Steve is an electrician and the jobs are often few and far between this time of year. So he got fleeced Friday night, got no sleep and had to commute two hours to work. At least he got double time for working on the weekend. I also invited Greg Meacham, who we had over on New Year's with his family. Greg lost some money, but had a great time and will be back.
Golf was a little frustrating this weekend. I showed up Saturday and was told that the tournament director had made a mistake and the tournament was set for Sunday instead of Saturday. Most of the guys got games together, but I had things that I wanted to get done at the house, so headed home. I called Darla and invited her to lunch and then stopped at the store to pick up some fertilizer for the lawn. Darla and I got a package together for Jennifer (we had some mail and she wanted some more shampoo and conditioner) and went to mail that and then stopped at a little Roseville restaurant for lunch. Darla seemed a little cranky and when I asked her about it, she said, "Well this was supposed to be my day and you were supposed to be playing golf." Oops. I didn't even stop to think about that and thought it would be fun to go to lunch. I kind of made myself scarce when I got home, basically by curling up on the couch and getting a two-hour nap in. I then went out and did some chores, working on the spa and spreading the fertilizer on the lawn. Jerry Tuel called while we were sleeping (Darla took a nap on the bed) and when Darla said that we were both napping, Jerry thought he was interrupting something and we were using code. I set him straight there.
We did have dinner with a couple of friends from the golf club and their wives on Saturday night. We ate at Brother Olivers, an old fashioned steak house in Carmichael. Gary and Greg are both wine guys and brought their own bottles of wine and we paid corkage. It was a nice evening and we are planning a trip up to Amador to do some wine tasting in the near future.
We finally got in the golf tournament on Sunday and as I said, we actually saw some sun. We have a new tournament director this year and he made quite an impression on his first away tournament. Not only did he make a mistake on the day of the tournament, but he also had us tee off from the blue tees. Our home course is 6200 yards from the blue tees. We played at Mather Golf Course and the yardage from their blue tees is 6800. They have five par fours that measure over 435 yards from the blue tees, including a 460 yard hole that runs straight uphill. A good drive in the foggy, wet conditions was about 235 yards (no roll, heavy wet air). I managed to have a great round in spite of the tough conditions and shot 41-39=80 and won my flight with a net of 68. The low round of the tournament was 74 and I was third with an 80 out of 32 players. The average score was 91 and the guys were not happy at the end of the day. I won 68 dollars and bought myself some new black Nike golf shoes, a hat and a golf glove with my winnings. It was a great weekend from stem to stern.
David's basketball team struggled without their center on Tuesday and they lost 63-54 to Natomas. We actually had a three point lead at half time, but imploded in the third quarter being outscored 14-3. They came out with a half court press, doubling the ball when it crossed half court and we had turnover after turnover. It was a brutal game to watch. We did manage to whip Del Oro on Thursday night with Ike coming back to lead the team with 18 points and 18 rebounds. David scored eight points and was a force down the stretch hitting key free throws and playing some great defense. They have a bye on Wednesday and play again on Friday night. We are in second place in the league with a 4-2 record, behind Natomas and look forward to playing them with our full complement of players at home in the next couple of weeks.
David had a scout from William and Mary college in Oregon talk to him last week at school. They'd like him to play football for them, but aren't offering a scholarship. At this point, David is concentrating on academics and is only interested in an Architectural program, which W&M doesn't offer.
Well, that is the news for this week. I hope you all stay well and live lives that are a light in God's kingdom. Do something nice for someone today, it'll throw them for a loop. Ciao.
Monday, January 17, 2005
The Rains Came...and Went. MLK Day
The rains have come and gone and what once seemed like a storm of Biblical proportions now seems a faint memory. The fog has come to replace the rain and it has left the land sodden and weary. We finally got a day of sunshine yesterday and it warmed back up into the low sixties and the park across the street was ripe with families, soccer players, baseball players and kids running and yelling and being outdoors. I was able to mow the lawn, wash the car and clean up the back yard and side yard of leaves and papers and things blown about in the latest series of storms. We are supposed to have sun and fog all week.
Saturday was a bit different in that the sun never did win the battle over the fog and it was socked in all day. I finally ventured out to the golf course for the first time this year and it was a cold, wet and early experience. I had trouble finding partners to play with me and it ended up just Mel and I at 7:24 in the morning. The sun was up by the time we teed off, but you would have had trouble proving it as it was overcast with a chill and wetness to the air. We teed off on the back nine as the front was still a bit overwet from the storms. I struggled in the cold and the wet and managed just a 45 in the conditions. I was able to pull the round together on the backside and shot a 42 for 87. Mel struggled to an 89 and we sought the shelter of the indoors. I called Darla and invited her to lunch. I went home first to change out of my wet and dirty clothes and we had a nice lunch together while the boys were in Linden helping out Darla's Dad with some chores out at the farm. Darla's Dad, Earl, has graciously financed the boys' trip to Mexico this Easter by having them help him out at the farm and paying them $100 a day for their labor. He needed the help out at the farm, but more than that he knows the value of this trip to the boy's development as Christian men and citizens of this country and I applaud him for his love of the boys and his stewardship of their development. He is a wonderful role model to the boys of a Christian man in the way that he lives his life and in the way that he loves the Lord.
It is Martin Luther King, Jr Day here in the United States. The state and feds have the day off, the banks, the Post Office, but schlubs like me are at work. The roads were nearly empty this morning when I drove in at 6:30. Martin Luther King is still a vivid symbol of philisophical change and the fight for equality in the US. As was mentioned in church yesterday, King said in his famous speech, "I have a dream that one day my four children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream." That dream has not been realized in this world and may never be, but there is a place that it is a stunning reality and that is at the foot of the cross. Jesus does not see color or circumstances, he sees character, evidenced by the way he treated the prostitute, the beggar and the criminals as he was dying on the cross. Praise God, eh?
David's basketball team is beginning to jell and Ike has started to play like he is one of the premier players in the Sacramento area. We won two league games last week and now stand at 3-1 in league and 10-7-1 overall. We are tied for first in the league and play the other team tied for first, Natomas, tomorrow night. Unfortunately, we will have to play that game without the services of Ike. Ike has had to put up with a lot of trash talk and the chant of "overated" every time he misses a shot or a dunk. It has been eating at him, but for the most part he has responded with his play on the court. Thursday night, his anger boiled over after the Woodland game. The fans had been taunting him all night, yelling some racial comments and other assorted badgering. He missed a shot late in the game and the fans went wild yelling all manner of things at him and chanting the dreaded "Overated" when he ran up and down the floor. Frankly, Ike should have let it go as he scored 28 points and had 23 rebounds, but as he walked off the floor after dunking the ball off of a perfect alley-oop from David to win the game 64-63, he ran at the group of fans and began yelling at them and cursing them. Our Principal ran on the court and pushed him back toward our bench and actually pushed him into the opposing coach, who stuck his hand in Ike's face and yelled at him to get into the locker room as fans began pouring onto the court and it was getting ugly. Ike slapped the coach's hand and told him to "get out of my face". For that, Ike earned a one game suspension, right at the wrong time. David will start the next game at Power Forward and unfortunately, Natomas features the other 6'8" center in our league and now we will feel like so many other teams do when they play us. We have no one to match up with their center. Actually, we do, but he'll be sitting on the bench in street clothes. We had one other player suspended for the game who came off the bench and began yelling at the fans in Ike's defense. He is a key reserve, but won't hurt us as much as the absence of Ike. Ike has already verbally accepted a scholarship to Wyoming and I think it hurts his decision making. If he was still trying to impress the scouts, he would have his head in the game more. Oh, well, we'll see how we do this week.
Saturday night, Darla and I had dinner with Mel and Cora at their house in Carmichael. Mel was a wine importer in Paris for several years and Cora has run a catering operation. They are tremendous hosts and always cook five course meals when we join them for dinner. Saturday's dinner was no exception as we dined on fish soup, green salad, cooked tomatoes, lamb, gorgonzola cheeses, fruit, brushetta and a dessert of hot chocolate sauce over a chocolate tort cake filled with more chocolate sauce. Darla is on Weight Watchers and has lost a great deal of weight, but used up her flex points on that dinner for the next month. We ate with Mark and Pamela from the club and some friends of Mel and Cora, Ed and Mary. It was a nice evening.
Darla and I have signed up for a Life Group at church. We will begin the study, "40 Days of Purpose" in February and have it run up to Easter. The entire church is going through the study and we will kick off the study with a presentation by Dave Dravecky, a wonderful Christian witness and a former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, who lost his left pitching arm to cancer during his prime years as a pitcher. Our Life Group will be Monday nights and is in our neighborhood. I look forward to the study as I've heard many friends talk about the conviction that they felt during the study.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in awhile. Did you get our package, Jen? She is getting ready to start a new mission on a communications building in Kuwait. I received some pictures from Jennifer and will post one on the site that I am using as my background on my computer. Can a soldier look cute? Check out the picture and you tell me.
I play in my first golf tournament of the year next Saturday and also play in my first poker game of the year the Friday night before. Boy, do I plan these things or what? Darla will be going to the Bay area to visit her friend, Joni, and it will just be poker, golf and male bonding next weekend. Pray for me. Take care. Ciao.
Saturday was a bit different in that the sun never did win the battle over the fog and it was socked in all day. I finally ventured out to the golf course for the first time this year and it was a cold, wet and early experience. I had trouble finding partners to play with me and it ended up just Mel and I at 7:24 in the morning. The sun was up by the time we teed off, but you would have had trouble proving it as it was overcast with a chill and wetness to the air. We teed off on the back nine as the front was still a bit overwet from the storms. I struggled in the cold and the wet and managed just a 45 in the conditions. I was able to pull the round together on the backside and shot a 42 for 87. Mel struggled to an 89 and we sought the shelter of the indoors. I called Darla and invited her to lunch. I went home first to change out of my wet and dirty clothes and we had a nice lunch together while the boys were in Linden helping out Darla's Dad with some chores out at the farm. Darla's Dad, Earl, has graciously financed the boys' trip to Mexico this Easter by having them help him out at the farm and paying them $100 a day for their labor. He needed the help out at the farm, but more than that he knows the value of this trip to the boy's development as Christian men and citizens of this country and I applaud him for his love of the boys and his stewardship of their development. He is a wonderful role model to the boys of a Christian man in the way that he lives his life and in the way that he loves the Lord.
It is Martin Luther King, Jr Day here in the United States. The state and feds have the day off, the banks, the Post Office, but schlubs like me are at work. The roads were nearly empty this morning when I drove in at 6:30. Martin Luther King is still a vivid symbol of philisophical change and the fight for equality in the US. As was mentioned in church yesterday, King said in his famous speech, "I have a dream that one day my four children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream." That dream has not been realized in this world and may never be, but there is a place that it is a stunning reality and that is at the foot of the cross. Jesus does not see color or circumstances, he sees character, evidenced by the way he treated the prostitute, the beggar and the criminals as he was dying on the cross. Praise God, eh?
David's basketball team is beginning to jell and Ike has started to play like he is one of the premier players in the Sacramento area. We won two league games last week and now stand at 3-1 in league and 10-7-1 overall. We are tied for first in the league and play the other team tied for first, Natomas, tomorrow night. Unfortunately, we will have to play that game without the services of Ike. Ike has had to put up with a lot of trash talk and the chant of "overated" every time he misses a shot or a dunk. It has been eating at him, but for the most part he has responded with his play on the court. Thursday night, his anger boiled over after the Woodland game. The fans had been taunting him all night, yelling some racial comments and other assorted badgering. He missed a shot late in the game and the fans went wild yelling all manner of things at him and chanting the dreaded "Overated" when he ran up and down the floor. Frankly, Ike should have let it go as he scored 28 points and had 23 rebounds, but as he walked off the floor after dunking the ball off of a perfect alley-oop from David to win the game 64-63, he ran at the group of fans and began yelling at them and cursing them. Our Principal ran on the court and pushed him back toward our bench and actually pushed him into the opposing coach, who stuck his hand in Ike's face and yelled at him to get into the locker room as fans began pouring onto the court and it was getting ugly. Ike slapped the coach's hand and told him to "get out of my face". For that, Ike earned a one game suspension, right at the wrong time. David will start the next game at Power Forward and unfortunately, Natomas features the other 6'8" center in our league and now we will feel like so many other teams do when they play us. We have no one to match up with their center. Actually, we do, but he'll be sitting on the bench in street clothes. We had one other player suspended for the game who came off the bench and began yelling at the fans in Ike's defense. He is a key reserve, but won't hurt us as much as the absence of Ike. Ike has already verbally accepted a scholarship to Wyoming and I think it hurts his decision making. If he was still trying to impress the scouts, he would have his head in the game more. Oh, well, we'll see how we do this week.
Saturday night, Darla and I had dinner with Mel and Cora at their house in Carmichael. Mel was a wine importer in Paris for several years and Cora has run a catering operation. They are tremendous hosts and always cook five course meals when we join them for dinner. Saturday's dinner was no exception as we dined on fish soup, green salad, cooked tomatoes, lamb, gorgonzola cheeses, fruit, brushetta and a dessert of hot chocolate sauce over a chocolate tort cake filled with more chocolate sauce. Darla is on Weight Watchers and has lost a great deal of weight, but used up her flex points on that dinner for the next month. We ate with Mark and Pamela from the club and some friends of Mel and Cora, Ed and Mary. It was a nice evening.
Darla and I have signed up for a Life Group at church. We will begin the study, "40 Days of Purpose" in February and have it run up to Easter. The entire church is going through the study and we will kick off the study with a presentation by Dave Dravecky, a wonderful Christian witness and a former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, who lost his left pitching arm to cancer during his prime years as a pitcher. Our Life Group will be Monday nights and is in our neighborhood. I look forward to the study as I've heard many friends talk about the conviction that they felt during the study.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in awhile. Did you get our package, Jen? She is getting ready to start a new mission on a communications building in Kuwait. I received some pictures from Jennifer and will post one on the site that I am using as my background on my computer. Can a soldier look cute? Check out the picture and you tell me.
I play in my first golf tournament of the year next Saturday and also play in my first poker game of the year the Friday night before. Boy, do I plan these things or what? Darla will be going to the Bay area to visit her friend, Joni, and it will just be poker, golf and male bonding next weekend. Pray for me. Take care. Ciao.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Rain Rain Go Away
After 11 straight days of rain, I am pretending that the rain is going away. We are between rainstorms now and I washed my car yesterday. I was so tired of my rain spotted, dirty and downtrodden looking Mustang that I got out a bucket and some car wash and scrubbed the car clean yesterday. I detailed the wheels and dressed the tires. Darla and I went to the movie (Meet the Fockers) yesterday afternoon and the car shined. It was nice and, in fact, it hasn't raned since, but the clouds outside are slate gray and building and it is just a matter of time before the skies open up and the rains come to depress me and all of those around me once again. BTW, Meet the Fockers is a tour de force for both Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. Funny stuff. Darla thought some of the gags were a bit over the top, but I laughed my way through that movie and it was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
We were able to officially pack away Christmas for another year this weekend. I snuck out Saturday morning and took down the Christmas lights from the house and then helped Darla on Sunday dismantle the Christmas tree and assorted ornaments and other Christmas decorations and pack them in boxes and settle them back up in the attic to await another season this year. We once again have some room to stretch in our family room and things don't seem as cramped nor as festive as they did when the fibre optic angel waggled her wings at us or the golfing Santa waved his driver at us. The boys return from a week at their Dad's tonight and adding two teenagers over six foot to the mix will help fill that void.
David is well into his last season of Varsity basketball at Woodcreek. They have a good team this year led by their All League 6'8" center, Ike. David is close to 6'4" and they have three players all at or closer to David's height. The problem seems to be the lack of plays. We have a new coach and he doesn't draw up plays. He wants the boys to move and send the ball around the perimeter and look for open shots. Often, two players are running in the same area and trip over each other. When it works, it is a thing of beauty, but when it doesn't it is ugly. The team is 8-8 overall and 1-1 in league play. I don't see them improving over a 50% team unless they get more disciplined on offense. In their last game, they had a five point lead with 90 seconds left in the game and promptly turned the ball over on offense in their next six possessions and lost the game by a point, wasting a 27 point effort by Ike. The coach told the guys they were playing not to lose rather than to win, but the coach needs to find a mirror if he wants to see the problem. Hopefully they learn from that experience and improve. We should be 2-0 in league and you can't afford lapses like that if you want to win in their league. Three of the teams in their league are all ranked in the top 15 schools in Sacramento. Shades of the football season. It is Deja Vu all over again.
David has played particularly well coming off the bench. He should be a starter, but again, David's team attitude has hurt him. When he asked the coach why he wasn't starting, he was told that a couple of the guys don't have the "personality" to be reserves, that they need to start because of their egos. Gee, coach, good reason to start a kid. You know life will beat down that ego eventually, why not give them that life lesson in high school? David is averaging about 18 minutes and six points. He plays tenacious defense and forces a few turnovers each game. He has one dunk to his credit this year, although in the last game he had a steal and a breakaway and had planned on dunking, but got too far under the basket and had to lay it up instead.
Daniel is taking a break from basketball and is instead playing on Darla's volleyball team on Tuesday nights. Daniel is the serving whiz and helped them shut out their last opponent three games to nil.
Darryl called me this weekend to report that he shot an 80 on his home course this weekend. I was happy for him, but would love to have some of his 70 degree weather here. We can play golf year round in Sacramento, but it is quite cold this time of year. I have a tournament on January 22nd at Mather Golf Course and hope that this storm rains itself out by then. I bought a new hybrid "rescue" style club to take the place of my three iron. When I ordered my Wilson "Deep Red" irons, I ordered them with a 4 thru 9 iron and did not order the 3 iron with the intent of getting a hybrid. I bought a Cobra hybrid that matches my 440 driver and look forward to getting back on the course. I haven't had a chance to get out and play yet this year, but did play on December 31st. At least when I do play, it is winter rules and I can bump the ball. Also, all of the other guys in the club are in the same boat in terms of not playing through the rain.
I talked to Dad and Shirley on Saturday night and they are preparing to leave Wednesday for a three week vacation in Hawaii. They are staying on Oahu for the entire trip and will get to relax and enjoy the 80 degree weather and recharge their batteries. Shirley is trying to talk Dad in to bringing the golf clubs and playing. One of the resorts that they are staying at has a golf course and they might play nine holes in the late afternoons a couple of times. I envy them this trip, although they are leaving snow on the ground and temperatures in the thirties. At least here, we still get into the fifties and sixties during the day.
I also talked to Randy this weekend and he's been enjoying having Jenny home for the Christmas break from school. She just got back from Idaho where she spent the better part of a week skiing and enjoying her vacation. Randy continues to criss cross the country in pursuit of his job and will be in Los Angeles later this week after visiting Wisconsin and Georgia last week.
Finally, I had a nice visit with Jennifer last week. She called and just wanted to talk, which was nice. She misses home and doesn't realy have any close friends in Kuwait. She is forcing herself to get out more and spend time with people as well as getting in to running and exercising more. Jennifer aced the Physical Training test and no longer has to get up with her unit to do PT at 5:00 am. She sleeps in until 7:00 am and then gets breakfast at the mess hall before starting work. Perhaps, that alienates her from her unit, but as Jenn says, they just need to ace their tests as well. The unit will start a new mission in the next week where they will be putting in some new communications infrastructure at the base in Kuwait. The mission is expected to last three months and Jennifer is looking forward to getting busy with putting her training to work again. Check out her blog at the link at the bottom of this page.
Well, that is all the news that is fit to disseminate for now. Take care of each other and God Bless the US of A. Ciao.
We were able to officially pack away Christmas for another year this weekend. I snuck out Saturday morning and took down the Christmas lights from the house and then helped Darla on Sunday dismantle the Christmas tree and assorted ornaments and other Christmas decorations and pack them in boxes and settle them back up in the attic to await another season this year. We once again have some room to stretch in our family room and things don't seem as cramped nor as festive as they did when the fibre optic angel waggled her wings at us or the golfing Santa waved his driver at us. The boys return from a week at their Dad's tonight and adding two teenagers over six foot to the mix will help fill that void.
David is well into his last season of Varsity basketball at Woodcreek. They have a good team this year led by their All League 6'8" center, Ike. David is close to 6'4" and they have three players all at or closer to David's height. The problem seems to be the lack of plays. We have a new coach and he doesn't draw up plays. He wants the boys to move and send the ball around the perimeter and look for open shots. Often, two players are running in the same area and trip over each other. When it works, it is a thing of beauty, but when it doesn't it is ugly. The team is 8-8 overall and 1-1 in league play. I don't see them improving over a 50% team unless they get more disciplined on offense. In their last game, they had a five point lead with 90 seconds left in the game and promptly turned the ball over on offense in their next six possessions and lost the game by a point, wasting a 27 point effort by Ike. The coach told the guys they were playing not to lose rather than to win, but the coach needs to find a mirror if he wants to see the problem. Hopefully they learn from that experience and improve. We should be 2-0 in league and you can't afford lapses like that if you want to win in their league. Three of the teams in their league are all ranked in the top 15 schools in Sacramento. Shades of the football season. It is Deja Vu all over again.
David has played particularly well coming off the bench. He should be a starter, but again, David's team attitude has hurt him. When he asked the coach why he wasn't starting, he was told that a couple of the guys don't have the "personality" to be reserves, that they need to start because of their egos. Gee, coach, good reason to start a kid. You know life will beat down that ego eventually, why not give them that life lesson in high school? David is averaging about 18 minutes and six points. He plays tenacious defense and forces a few turnovers each game. He has one dunk to his credit this year, although in the last game he had a steal and a breakaway and had planned on dunking, but got too far under the basket and had to lay it up instead.
Daniel is taking a break from basketball and is instead playing on Darla's volleyball team on Tuesday nights. Daniel is the serving whiz and helped them shut out their last opponent three games to nil.
Darryl called me this weekend to report that he shot an 80 on his home course this weekend. I was happy for him, but would love to have some of his 70 degree weather here. We can play golf year round in Sacramento, but it is quite cold this time of year. I have a tournament on January 22nd at Mather Golf Course and hope that this storm rains itself out by then. I bought a new hybrid "rescue" style club to take the place of my three iron. When I ordered my Wilson "Deep Red" irons, I ordered them with a 4 thru 9 iron and did not order the 3 iron with the intent of getting a hybrid. I bought a Cobra hybrid that matches my 440 driver and look forward to getting back on the course. I haven't had a chance to get out and play yet this year, but did play on December 31st. At least when I do play, it is winter rules and I can bump the ball. Also, all of the other guys in the club are in the same boat in terms of not playing through the rain.
I talked to Dad and Shirley on Saturday night and they are preparing to leave Wednesday for a three week vacation in Hawaii. They are staying on Oahu for the entire trip and will get to relax and enjoy the 80 degree weather and recharge their batteries. Shirley is trying to talk Dad in to bringing the golf clubs and playing. One of the resorts that they are staying at has a golf course and they might play nine holes in the late afternoons a couple of times. I envy them this trip, although they are leaving snow on the ground and temperatures in the thirties. At least here, we still get into the fifties and sixties during the day.
I also talked to Randy this weekend and he's been enjoying having Jenny home for the Christmas break from school. She just got back from Idaho where she spent the better part of a week skiing and enjoying her vacation. Randy continues to criss cross the country in pursuit of his job and will be in Los Angeles later this week after visiting Wisconsin and Georgia last week.
Finally, I had a nice visit with Jennifer last week. She called and just wanted to talk, which was nice. She misses home and doesn't realy have any close friends in Kuwait. She is forcing herself to get out more and spend time with people as well as getting in to running and exercising more. Jennifer aced the Physical Training test and no longer has to get up with her unit to do PT at 5:00 am. She sleeps in until 7:00 am and then gets breakfast at the mess hall before starting work. Perhaps, that alienates her from her unit, but as Jenn says, they just need to ace their tests as well. The unit will start a new mission in the next week where they will be putting in some new communications infrastructure at the base in Kuwait. The mission is expected to last three months and Jennifer is looking forward to getting busy with putting her training to work again. Check out her blog at the link at the bottom of this page.
Well, that is all the news that is fit to disseminate for now. Take care of each other and God Bless the US of A. Ciao.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Monday, January 03, 2005
Happy New Year 2005
2005. The rains have come to the valley and we can't seem to get a break. It has been raining off and on now for almost nine straight days and we are beginning to wonder if we fell asleep and woke up in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is an incessant rain that has waterlogged the land and is causing runoff into local streams and canals and is beginning to cause some localized flooding. The boys were off school last week and Daniel had to haul out the ladder and unclog one of the downspouts on our guttering system on the house. I installed drain covers several years ago, but the fine debris that rains down from our white birch trees in the backyard finds its way through the slats covering the gutters and will dam up the downspout. The rest of the house seems fine, but the back yard was a problem. I don't know what got into him to have him fix it, but it's a good thing. Normally, he would internalize the information on the problem and tell me as soon as I walked into the house after a ten-hour workday. Perhaps the boys are growing up.
Our New Year celebration was quiet and very relaxing. In fact, I was in bed by 11 PM on New year's Eve. I didn't hit the spa before bed due to the rain, but I was tired and needed to get some rest. Darla stayed up with the boys and watched one of the television stations and rang in the New Year. It was pouring rain and there was a large crowd in Old Sacramento that stood wet and forlorn and watched fireworks lit in the wet and stormy sky. I guess they got a real downpour right before midnight, but the fireworks are lit by electricity and the show went on in spite of the rain and mire.
We had friends over on New Years and we played pool, Scrabble, cards and talked the day away. We had the football games on in the background, but it was simply white noise as we stayed busy with billiards and then poker in the late afternoon and into the evening. The couple we had over have boys that are in the 10th and 12th grades, the same age as David and Daniel, so it was a nice day for the group.
The article on my stock pick came out yesterday. I'm including a link at the end of this paragraph. I was at the photo studio for about 45 minutes and the photographer took at least 60-70 shots. The editors chose a shot of my head that is such an extreme closeup that it is almost a joke. Darla was a bit surprised when I showed her the shot, she kept saying, "Oh my God" over and over. Now, she just laughs every time she looks at it. Leave it to Daniel to sum it up when he said, "You look like a fat guy who picked Krispy Kreme just to get some free donuts." Nice. I had several friends call yesterday as the article was on the front page of the business section and included the color picture that you see. Here's the link: http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/11917384p-12804278c.html#more_images
I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but I do have goals for the year. One is to trust God more and to put him in charge of my finances. Another is to lose a few pounds and to control my nightime snacking. Darla and I are big on a scoop of ice cream in the evening and that needs to stop. Finally, I always have golf goals and they are as follows: 1. To win my flight in the club championship. 2. To reduce my handicap to single digits. 3. To qualify for the Spyglass tournament in Carmel. and 4. To qualify for a spot on the Rose Cup team in 2005.
Jerry Tuel called me last week and then again last night. Tami, his wife, gifted him with tickets to the AT&T Pebble Beach golf classic in February. Jerry promised his brother that he could go with him, but he is a prison guard and has to work on Sunday, February 13th. Jerry said that I could go to the practice rounds Monday-Wednesday or watch the final on Sunday. Well, I'm a golfer. I don't care about the celebrities and only want to see the pros play, and what an opportunity to see the final round of the tournament. I'm in for the Sunday round and really look forward to it. It will be fun to hang out with Jerry Saturday night as well. It looks like the wives will be home and the Tomcats will be on the prowl. Of course, excitement for Jerry and I is a glass of beer and a dart board, but then we are both Christian men who love our wives.
Jennifer has added to her blog a few times recently and a link to her blog is found at the bottom of this page. She is suffering a bit right now with news that her best friend, Jason Ramos's twin brother committed suicide back in November. I had just met him on Jen's last visit home. Unfortunately, he had a very contentious relationship with his girlfriend and the mother of his child. They were having problems and he was overwhelmed. Jason was very tight with his brother. When Jen and Jason were dating, he kept an out of date cell phone for the single reason that his brother had bought it for him. Jason was heart broken over the loss of his brother and he kept it from Jen for almost a month figuring that she had enough on her plate in Kuwait. It is hard to understand, but it underscores that if you put your happiness in things of this world instead of in the Lord, you will never find true happiness and contentment. Please pray for Jason as he struggles with his brother's choice. They were both coaches for their high school wrestling team and Jason has a huge hole in his heart now.
On a happier note, it is 2005 and Jennifer will be home and out of the Army this year. As much as I have supported our decisions in going to war in Iraq, it is time to turn the country over to local control and to begin our planned exodus from that country. The elections need to go forward and the insurgents caught or killed. We need to turn our attention to Al Queda and Bin Laden and nuetralize that threat. In spite of the clear majority that President Bush carried in the election in this country, the war has caused a polarization of citizens in this country and we need to bridge the gap somehow. I'll be thrilled to see Jennifer bid adieu to the Army and begin her life back home as a civilian.
That is all the news that's fit to print. Be well, be healthy, enjoy your families and put your hope in the Lord, who sustains all of us. Ciao.
Our New Year celebration was quiet and very relaxing. In fact, I was in bed by 11 PM on New year's Eve. I didn't hit the spa before bed due to the rain, but I was tired and needed to get some rest. Darla stayed up with the boys and watched one of the television stations and rang in the New Year. It was pouring rain and there was a large crowd in Old Sacramento that stood wet and forlorn and watched fireworks lit in the wet and stormy sky. I guess they got a real downpour right before midnight, but the fireworks are lit by electricity and the show went on in spite of the rain and mire.
We had friends over on New Years and we played pool, Scrabble, cards and talked the day away. We had the football games on in the background, but it was simply white noise as we stayed busy with billiards and then poker in the late afternoon and into the evening. The couple we had over have boys that are in the 10th and 12th grades, the same age as David and Daniel, so it was a nice day for the group.
The article on my stock pick came out yesterday. I'm including a link at the end of this paragraph. I was at the photo studio for about 45 minutes and the photographer took at least 60-70 shots. The editors chose a shot of my head that is such an extreme closeup that it is almost a joke. Darla was a bit surprised when I showed her the shot, she kept saying, "Oh my God" over and over. Now, she just laughs every time she looks at it. Leave it to Daniel to sum it up when he said, "You look like a fat guy who picked Krispy Kreme just to get some free donuts." Nice. I had several friends call yesterday as the article was on the front page of the business section and included the color picture that you see. Here's the link: http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/11917384p-12804278c.html#more_images
I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but I do have goals for the year. One is to trust God more and to put him in charge of my finances. Another is to lose a few pounds and to control my nightime snacking. Darla and I are big on a scoop of ice cream in the evening and that needs to stop. Finally, I always have golf goals and they are as follows: 1. To win my flight in the club championship. 2. To reduce my handicap to single digits. 3. To qualify for the Spyglass tournament in Carmel. and 4. To qualify for a spot on the Rose Cup team in 2005.
Jerry Tuel called me last week and then again last night. Tami, his wife, gifted him with tickets to the AT&T Pebble Beach golf classic in February. Jerry promised his brother that he could go with him, but he is a prison guard and has to work on Sunday, February 13th. Jerry said that I could go to the practice rounds Monday-Wednesday or watch the final on Sunday. Well, I'm a golfer. I don't care about the celebrities and only want to see the pros play, and what an opportunity to see the final round of the tournament. I'm in for the Sunday round and really look forward to it. It will be fun to hang out with Jerry Saturday night as well. It looks like the wives will be home and the Tomcats will be on the prowl. Of course, excitement for Jerry and I is a glass of beer and a dart board, but then we are both Christian men who love our wives.
Jennifer has added to her blog a few times recently and a link to her blog is found at the bottom of this page. She is suffering a bit right now with news that her best friend, Jason Ramos's twin brother committed suicide back in November. I had just met him on Jen's last visit home. Unfortunately, he had a very contentious relationship with his girlfriend and the mother of his child. They were having problems and he was overwhelmed. Jason was very tight with his brother. When Jen and Jason were dating, he kept an out of date cell phone for the single reason that his brother had bought it for him. Jason was heart broken over the loss of his brother and he kept it from Jen for almost a month figuring that she had enough on her plate in Kuwait. It is hard to understand, but it underscores that if you put your happiness in things of this world instead of in the Lord, you will never find true happiness and contentment. Please pray for Jason as he struggles with his brother's choice. They were both coaches for their high school wrestling team and Jason has a huge hole in his heart now.
On a happier note, it is 2005 and Jennifer will be home and out of the Army this year. As much as I have supported our decisions in going to war in Iraq, it is time to turn the country over to local control and to begin our planned exodus from that country. The elections need to go forward and the insurgents caught or killed. We need to turn our attention to Al Queda and Bin Laden and nuetralize that threat. In spite of the clear majority that President Bush carried in the election in this country, the war has caused a polarization of citizens in this country and we need to bridge the gap somehow. I'll be thrilled to see Jennifer bid adieu to the Army and begin her life back home as a civilian.
That is all the news that's fit to print. Be well, be healthy, enjoy your families and put your hope in the Lord, who sustains all of us. Ciao.
