Happy Thanksgiving

Another busyMonday gives rise to a Sunday post. I'm actually sitting in the living room posting this on the wireless internet using Darla's work lap top. I will be playing in one of my insurances agents' Turkey Week at Turkey Creek golf tournaments tomorrow. It will include some contractors, some insurance agency people and some insurance company personnel. In all, we have 23 players competing for a skin pot of $500. There will be side bets aplenty and so far the weather appears to be cooperating.

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at Darla's parents house for our family Thanksgiving. The boys are with their Dad this year and Jennifer is running in a Thanksgiving Day run with her Mother. I think Diane is running the 10K race and Jen will run the 5K. We had a ball on Saturday. John brought up his gas propelled model car and we gave it a good run on the streets of Paradise. It will run up to 45 MPH and John had it really smoking. Jennifer ran it off the road and got it stuck under one of the neighbors' Porsches that was parked in the driveway. John had it going full bore and ran it full speed into a basketball pole and broke off one of the plastic headlights. The car is a model truck with a chassis that has shock absorbers and oversized rubber tires that can run over dirt, rocks and on the street. We ate turkey and ham and played Cranium and the Mexican Train game (dominoes) after dinner. We also were able to get a new family photo which you see above. You can click on any of the pictures above to see a full screen shot of the photo. Jennifer and John had thought about staying in Sacramento Saturday night, but they opted to make the drive home and have a full day at home before going back to work on Monday. I last talked to Jennifer about 11:30 on Saturday night and she and John were playing "twenty questions" somewhere outside of Dixon, California on the drive back to Walnut Creek.

I did play golf on Saturday, but I was wedged into the first foursome (to make a fivesome) so that I could make it to Paradise in time for dinner. As it turned out, the turkey was ready early and they had to start without me. I turned up in time for seconds and to hear the closing prayer by Grandpa Andy as is tradition. I think Jennifer and John enjoyed being up with family and certainly enjoyed the food. Jennifer brought bread and sodas and was a big part of the preparations. I shot an 89 in foggy, wet conditions and I'm just hoping that I saved my best golf for tomorrow.

Work continues to blow along at a good pace. One of my underwriting assistants quit to take a managerial position with a competitor and Gail, my most Senior Underwriter, has left on a medical leave, her second in two years. Hopefully, this surgery fixed her recurring problems and we can put it behind us. She was in the hospital until Friday and is now home on bed rest. I'm not sure when I'll get her back.

The pool continues construction at a torrid pace as the electrical, pre-plumbing and the rebar are just about done. They still need to form the steps and we are set for an inspection tomorrow. They hope to gunite by Wednesday as they are adding gunite near the steps and the deep end swimout for a flagstone walkway between the stamped concrete and the pool. Our designer, Kevin, wants to be here on the day of the gunite to direct the pouring of those two walkways. Hopefully the inspection goes well as Kevin leaves for a week in Cancun on Thanksgiving. The backyard is beginning to take shape and I look forward to the new redwood fence which will dress up the yard even more.

Darla is off work this week and will do some projects around the house, cleaning out the closet in the spare bedroom and using that to store her Silpada inventory and show cases. She continues to do well and has her eye on a trip to Maui next year (for two) paid for by Silpada. She has a fine start on that goal and (if I have to) I will go along with her on the trip and sit by the pool and perhaps even play a round of golf.

Well, this is even shorter than normal, but I have steaks on the grill and a hungry family waiting in the other room. Give thanks to the Lord for he is Good. I give thanks for all of the things and people that HE has blessed me with. Happy thanksgiving and Go Cowboys. Ciao.

Pool Pictures

Pool Construction is under way

I will add some pictures to the blog, but this is a free service and the picture feature decided to have a small fit and refuses to work. It was a hectic week with the demo which I added earlier and then the actual dig on Friday. They ended up knocking down about twenty feet of fence which I've jerry-rigged back together for the time being. They finished the demo on Thursday and I was at work and listening to Darla describe the devastation over the phone ("You better get here, they just knocked down another fence post..oh, and there goes the fence!") Very comforting as I'm sitting at my desk trying to get some actual work done. I told Darla that I'd relieve her in the afternoon, but that I had an agency lunch that I had to attend. She called me at lunch about 12:50 and said that she had to leave, but the fence had been moved to the side and she was concerned about the neighbor's dogs. She called Dwight behind us and he'd put the dogs away. Darla claims that I can't handle the mess of construction, but she sounded pretty stressed out herself.

I finally did get home and they finished up about 2:30 and were on their merry way. They pulled the tree stumps out which is what caused a portion of the fence to fall. I spent the balance of the afternoon putting the fence back together. It was a jigsaw puzzle of broken crossbeams and broken fence boards. There wasn't any one section long enough to close the gap in the fence, so I had to put two broken fence sections together as one longer piece and nail that on to the existing fence. It took me about an hour, but what's there should hold us over until the construction is done.

Darla and I have decided to have a fence contractor come in and redo all of our perimeter fencing. As part of that job, I will have him extend the fence onto the side yard behind the shed and will pour a driveway for the jet ski. The boys and I will have to take out two eight-foot high shrubs that sit along the fence line next to the shed and also border our next door neighbor behind us. Those areas will now be part of an expanded backyard where we will store the ski. Currently we have the ski at Alicia's house, which is nice as it is stored in a garage, but it doesn't lend itself to spontaneity. I will also build a shelter for the ski that will sit over it and keep it out of the sun and rain. The driveway will be 10'x 20' and will be able to accomodate a car if we ever buy an old truck or a toy to drive on weekends.

It is getting exciting as we can now see how the backyard will look with the pool. I will have the fence guy build a retaining wall of 18" in height behind the pool which will hold the dirt behind our raised waterfall and will be a focal point of our planting behind the pool. The spa is gone and we won't replace it for a few years (or until I get a sizable bonus)and I will put in a sundeck on the spot that the spa sat. I will likely follow the theme of stamped concrete, but I'm considering having a deck of pavers put in. I have to replace the sidewalk that Dad and I poured when we put in the shed as it is being beat up by the Bobcat, so I will extend the deck to the shed and up to the driveway that we will pour on the side of the house. The driveway will follow to the street and the fence will have a double RV gate that will swing open to allow us to pull in the ski. The fence has to sit back off of the sidewalk by 24", which is code in Roseville. That will allow us to keep the basketball goal that we have cemented in on the side yard. The boys don't use it much anymore, but the neighborhood kids do.

I had a contractor come out on Friday and give me a quote on the fencing and driveway and his sum total was $16,400. I just about swallowed my tongue when he came out with that. I am having a redwood fence put in for $20.25 a linear foot, or $4,232 for the 209 linear feet of perimeter fence I'm having done. I figure that I can get the driveway poured for about $1700 and the deck and sidewalk should run about $2500. Where this guy got $16,400 for his job I don't know. He was charging $11,500 for the fence, which is about $55 a linear foot. I got a quote of $15.25 a linear foot for cedar, but want to upgrade to pressure treated redwood and metal posts set in concrete. The driveway was going to cost another $5,000 with this doofus. He was shocked that I didn't jump at his proposal.

The dig on Friday was actually pretty easy. I stayed home and was there when they laid out the template for the pool and we made a few minor changes, moving the steps for the shallow end closer to the slider and moving one of the two pool lights so that it wouldn't get shadows from the steps. I was very impressed with the bobcat operator. He's been doing it for about 14 years and he can spin that on a dime. He had about six inches of room between him and both the shed and side of the house and he was able to maneuver it by at a fairly high rate of speed. He was also able to pick up dirt in the pool shell and spin the bobcat around and drive it straight up the ramp and through the gate opening without slowing. He narrowly missed breaking the benderboard as he shot up and down the ramp. The actual dig only took about two hours. They spent three hours leveling the backyard, setting the template and then starting the dig.

I have a stump from a tree I had taken out that needs to be removed and it is right in the access for the pool electrical and plumbing. I talked to my tree company and they scheduled the stump grinding for December 6th. I called her back and said that I need it done Monday or Tuesday. I have calls in to three different tree companies to see if someone can get out here this week to grind down that stump. We can't pull it as it is right next to the existing concrete stamped deck and right next to the fence.

With all of the excitement of the pool dig, I was still able to get out and play golf this weekend. It rained overnight Friday and was still sprinkling on Saturday, but Bob Pando and I braved the elements and were one of a small handful of golfers at the course on Saturday. Boyd bailed due to the rain (if you are retired and play every day, why play in the rain?) Karl, from our life group, also bailed and Bob and I played 18 holes in about 3 and-a-half hours. The course was wet and my grips were soaked by the time we finished. I struggled to a 44+42=86 and Bob shot a very nice 43+40=83 which included three straight "chip ins" on the back nine. Bob played high school golf in San Jose and is one of the best chippers I have ever seen. He has soft hands and the ball just seems to float out of its lie and land softly on the green. He was chipping beautifully when he shot 74 last weekend.

We will celebrate Thansgiving with Darla's parents next Saturday. I have a tournament in the morning and have asked for the first tee time and will join the family in Paradise for turkey and ham and some thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour. Jennifer and John will join us. Jennifer hasn't seen Earl and Frances since she got home and the extended family hasn't met John either. It should be a nice day.

Well, I have a Home Office visitor in again tomorrow and that usually takes me off my game in the office. If they aren't addressing the staff, they usually take up residence in my office and want to "chat". I suppose with the twelve or fifteen managers that don't produce business, it would be a welcome diversion. For me, it just places me squarely behind the eight ball which I have been lining up since the start of the pool project. That is the main reason I'm updating the blog from home. I need to start right in with my sleeves rolled up at 7 AM tomorrow morning.

I hope that you are all well and that you give some real thought to what you have to Thank the Lord for this holiday season. For one, I thank HIM for all of you. Ciao.

Pool Demo Underway

Wow..one day in and I already have to up my dosage of Prozac. Just kidding, but what a mess. As Darla knows, I don't handle disorder and clutter well and right now the backyard is one dog short of a junkyard. They got here at 11:00 AM this morning and will be back tomorrow. They have yet to cut out the raised deck concrete and remove the rocks and gunite from the pond. They still also have to cut out and haul away all of the bushes and cut the tree stumps back to the ground level. Pray for me. Ciao.

Beautiful Autumn Weather

75 degrees, a cloudless blue sky, not a puff of wind in the air. What do we call weather like this? Golf weather, of course. The dew is still clinging to the branches and limbs of the trees and the grass is still slick and there are footprints on the parking lot where employees have cut across the median on their way to their office. I see several people carrying steaming cups of coffee as they blindly make their way in to work on a Monday. There is caution tape and orange cones surrounding what is left of a tree that fell during last week's storm in the corner of the parking lot. There was a tree service out here last week cutting up the trunk of the tree and what is left is mostly branches and cut up portions of the trunk. I still don't know where the tree fell, but our complex is a block long and consists of nine buildings, so it could have come from anywhere and just been moved to the front of the complex.

The storm last week was the first rain that we've seen this year and although less than an inch fell, it was nice to see the change of seasons. The storm came with some heavy winds that left trees down around the area and storm drains clogged from the downed leaves and tree limbs. It took me over an hour to get home last Wednesday as the power was out on a main street near the office and the traffic was backed up all around us. I ended up taking a short cut around the congestion, only to find the street backed up in water. I was able to navigate my way through the water slowly only to have a guy in a pickup truck shoot through the water on the other side of the road and swamp my Mustang with a wall of water that shot over my drivers door and over the other side of the car. These California drivers don't know how to drive in weather of any kind. The number of accidents on that Wednesday was almost comical.

Daniel started his football game on Friday night and played most of the first series before being yanked by his offensive line coach. The reason was, according to the coach, that Daniel "stood up" in the middle of one runnning play rather than drive blocking. His replacement played most of the game, but what is odd is that Daniel was yanked after his team had driven the ball from the 20 to the other team's 14 yard line. His replacement immediately whiffed on a block and his man sacked the quarterback for a ten yard losss. We did not score on that possession and lost the game 48-7. Daniel knew that his days were numbered as the starter when he lead the quarterback sneak in the last game where the QB followed Daniel's block into the end zone from the three yard line. When the team came off the field, the O. Line coach high fived the qb, the center and the tackle next to Daniel and walked right by Dan. As I said, I don't know how he got sideways with his coach, but he did. One more game and my high school football watching days will be over, at least until my grandsons play or my grandaughter is a cheerleader.

It was a perfect weekend for golf and I played Saturday at Diamond Oaks with Boyd and Bob Pando. Bob is in my Monday night life group and just joined the club. He shot a 92 in the last tournament and was so upset. His wife had to kick him in the pants and get him over himself. It was his last tournament in the Peoria flight (the flight for golfers who don't have an established handicap). He ended up taking second in the flight (they throw out three holes and figure your score off of that) and won $35.00. I managed to win my flight and only won $48.00. Bob established a handicap for November and it came in at 9.9 (I have a 10.4). Bob had a spectacular round on Saturday and shot 37+37=74. Boyd shot 79 and I managed a 42+39=81. It was a great weekend for golf and we were off the course by noon.

I was able to get the lawn cleaned up and mowed and David raked the leaves over to the side of the house. Daniel had lost his wallet last week. He had cash in it as well as his drivers license, ATM card and pictures of a girl that he likes who is now in Africa on a religious retreat. As David was raking leaves he came across a heavy object that turned out to be Daniel's wallet laying in the street, wet and dirty. Daniel parks his truck on the side of the house when he is with us and must have dropped it Monday night when he was moving back to our house from his Dad's. It lay there obscured by the leaves all week and during the storm Tuesday and Wednesday.

I managed to get the spa disconnected from the electrical and the outlet and light in the yard disconnected. The demolition crew will be in tomorrow to take out the spa, steps, cut down the trees and take out the pond and raised concrete decking. I'm taking the day off to be there to make sure it all goes as planned. Hopefully the dig will commence either late this week or early next week. Darla and I went in and picked out the tile and flagstone for the pool. We picked out a "three rivers" flagstone which is tan and rust colors and a dolphin blue colored waterline tile that will go nicely with the Tahoe Blue dark bottom of the pool.

Darla was really pushing for a trip to Canada this Thanksgiving, but with the pool construction and the side yard being closed by a plastic fence, I really don't want to be gone. She wants to get back to Canada soon as we haven't visited with Dad and Shirley in years (we tend to meet them in Vegas which we will do in March) and she wants to see Glad and Jerry. I've committed to a week in Canada next year in addition to our vacation to Hawaii(??). It is Daniel's senior year and we are allowing him to have input into where we go. He is looking at Bermuda and Tahiti, but hopefuully we end up in Mexico or Hawaii. I'm putting out the offer to Dad and Shirley to join us again this year. This may be our last Family Vacation with both boys off to college next year. We'll keep you informed on where we are going and when.

Well, this is short, but the troops are arriving and I have a visitor from Home Office here again today and I have to do payroll as well. We had our best month ever in October and I will be taking the troops to lunch on Wednesday. We wrote over $1,400,000 in premium and brought in over $160,000 to the bottom line. It was a great month. Ciao.

Daylight Savings Time

Now, why in God's name do they call it Daylight Savings? They actually make the daylight end sooner, so the whole idea of having kids safer and saving electricity is ludicrous. I like Arizona's idea of just letting the seasons be and stop trying to control them. Our government wants to control everything and sometimes the movement of time will not be controlled (like all the time). It was nice to drive in this morning with my lights off and sunglasses on, but as the days shorten, even that luxury goes away and I end up driving into the office in the dark and leaving the office in the dark.

Jennifer and John were in town on Saturday and Sunday for a race that Jen's Mom was in on Sunday morning. Darla and I met them in Old Sacramento and we had appetizers and a drink in the Pilothouse Lounge of the Delta King, the floating hotel moored at the dock of the river in Old Sacramento. We went from there to dinner at California Fats on Front Street. California Fats is a Chinese Steakhouse with eclectic dishes like the California Pot which John and I had. It is a stir fry of chicken, rice and vegetables cooked in a pot and served in the same. Jennifer had orange chicken and Darla opted for Honey Walnut Prawns. We ate pot stickers and drank sake and enjoyed our visit immensely.

John and Jennifer were at the house when I got home from golf, but Darla had a party in Monterey on Friday night and wasn't due home until 4:00 o'clock so I sent Jennifer and John ahead of us to the tourist spot and said that we'd join them later. They parked in the street, but the parking there is only good for two hours, so they moved the car to the parking lot. Only John managed to find an open spot off of an alley that let him into the garage. The problem was you need a ticket to exit the garage. He was afraid that he'd have to pay the daily maximum, but I told him to leave out of the same entrance he got in. I hadn't heard what happened to them as we didn't talk yesterday. Perhaps she will update me in her blog.

Darla and her sister did go to Monterey on Friday night for a jewelry party and Darla made about $400 on the show. Her Silpada business is going great and she is doing some traveling which we will write off on our taxes, including her lodging and meals. Darla got home about 4:00 PM and we went and joined Jennifer and John in Old Sacramento for dinner.

Daniel actually started and played left guard on offense for his entire game Friday night. I was not planning on going to the game, but he called and told us he was starting, so I went. It was a good game, although poorly coached, and they lost 22-20 late in the game when they were intercepted in the end zone with 22 seconds to go. They obviously only needed a field goal to win, so why they were throwing into the end zone from midfield is beyond me. Unfortunately, the Woodcreek football team has never finished better than 5-5 in their history and that has more to do with a history of bad coaching than talent. It will end in 2 games as the 4-4 Timberwolves will have to win their last two games against the number 1 and number 2 teams in their league in order to finish 6-4. Sadly, 4-6 is a stronger reality. Daniel played very well, even leading a quarterback sneak for a touchdown in the game, when Daniel manhandled his position and pushed his man back five yards into the end zone and the quarterback followed on his heels for a touchdown. He was much happier during the game and certainly afterward. I don't know why his coaches had a change of heart, but it seemed ludicrous to me to leave a 6'3" 235 pound man child on the sidelines every game.

I played in a Monster tournament on Saturday. The pros at Woodcreek Golf Course set up the course with things like multiple flags on par three holes (only two had holes), a red white and blue hole with the blue hole with an oversized cup, a monster hole with a bucket-sized hole but the pin placed on the side of a mound on the green, and one hole with three flags placed side-by-side-by-side at the back of the green. I played in the two-man scramble with Boyd Robertson and we shot a 71, net 68. It was a fun tournament, but they had some killer pin placements and several holes with the tees at the furthest point on the tee box. I left right after we played as it was a six hour round of golf and I knew that Jennifer and John were at the house waiting. I don't know how we did overall, but I'll find out this week. Boyd and I put $10 in the hat and we took on the two pros who had to play scratch. Hopefully, our 68 got us in the money, but who knows.

Hopefully, the demolition will start this weekend in our backyard. I say hopefully as I finally got a copy of the bid specs for the job and it says they will removes two birch trees (we have three), remove miscellaneous bushes and plants (we have four other small trees to remove), as well as the pond, raised concrete deck and the spa and steps. I will contact them this week and have them change the scope of work as I don't want to get into a situation where they are asking for more money when the crew gets there. I look forward to the work finally commencing. I don't do well with a mess and we will have a slight mess in the backyard for about six weeks.

I'm having a good month at work, leading the office in both premium volume and net retained (which is the important figure). I'm having some problems with the brokerage unit that we established this Summer and I'm working on a plan to improve it or remove it. I can't afford to bleed money there when we are looking at improving our bottom line.

I have a Home Office person in tomorrow and he will be here right in the middle of our Halloween party. The office wants to dress up for the holiday and although I hate Halloween and everything it stands for and won't participate in the frivolity, I've agreed to let them dress up. Greg Ludwig, the home office rep, will be here and get to see the goings on and be here for the potluck.

Well, that's it for now. As our pastor said yesterday, "Jesus was rejected and died on the cross for our sins in our place, so that we could be accepted into the kingdom of heaven through his sacrifice." Turn your eyes to heaven and care more about how you stack up in the eyes of the Lord, rather than in the eyes of man. Ciao.

Indian Summer

I knew that we would see an Indian Summer in Sacramento and it has arrived. It is as inevitable as the falling of leaves and the march of seasons in Northern California. After the snow and cold of Detroit, this weekend saw high, thin clouds and a temperature of 85 degrees. I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn after Saturday working in the yard and Sunday on the links.

Saturday I mowed the lawn and raked and vacuumed leaves, drained the pond for the last time and put away the backyard furniture in preparation for the pool construction. I stopped at the pool company on Tuesday and signed the contract to have the pool built. We have to do over $2000 of demo on the backyard having the spa and steps removed, the pond dug out and the rocks removed, trees and shrubs cut down and removed and the raised stamped concrete deck cut out and removed. I have to have the stump of one tree that I had removed earlier ground up as they have to run the electrical along a path right over the stump. I've included a picture of the backyard as it looked a few years ago. The trees have all grown up and this time of year is a disaster of downed leaves and debris from the trees. The pond is constantly covered in leaves and other debris and it will be nice to clear this out and start over with palms and agapanthas and other "pool friendly" plantings. They should start on the demolition either late this week or early next week as the plans are being approved by the city of Roseville now.

Sunday was an excellent day of golf as we had over 100 players competing in the Past President's tournament. We had a 7:30 shotgun start and it was a tad cold and wet on the ground. I had a very good day of golf and stayed away from the dreaded double-bogey or worse and ended up shooting a stellar 39+39=78 to take first place in my flight with a net of 66. One of my buddies shot a 76 to take low gross and actually beat me with a net of 65, but you can't take both ends of the Gross and Net divisions, so I will also get first place money. My driver is really beginning to be a consistent and positive part of my game as I am not only hitting it long, but also in the fairway consistently and when you get into Fall and some early morning dampness and downed leaves, the fairway is even more of a friend than normally.

I played poker on Friday night with the guys and won $18. There were five players and only two winners as my friend, Steve, cleaned up with over $100 in winnings for the night. He also played okay on Sunday at golf in my foursome, shooting an 85, but cleaning up on skins with over $78 in winnings. What a weekend for him.

Daniel continues to ride the bench on his football team and it is hard to watch him prowl the sidelines especially when they are losing. His team is now 4-3 with three games to go. Hopefully they do not make the playoffs and he can move on to a job. Dan somehow managed to get himself sideways with his position coach and he is buried on the bench.

Darla continues to thrive with her Silpada business and she now has four consultants under her and she continues to be a leader in sales for her region. She enjoys the challenge and will be in Monterey this weekend for a show on Friday night.

This coming Saturday we had planned to go into the Bay Area and see Jennifer's new apartment and take she and John to dinner. It turns out that they are coming to Sacramento to attend a race on Sunday that her Mom is doing, so we will take them to dinner here in town.

I was able to get out of Jury Duty last week. My plan was to ask out due to my job, but the jury commissioner told me that work related excuses had to be heard by the judge. I hung around the jury room until we were all called into the courtroom. The judge came out and told us that there was a glitch in the courtroom electrical and that we were all dismissed with the court's thanks and that would complete our service for the year. Nice.

Well, work awaits. I've had to be called away three times as I was writing this to deal with different issues. I have to get payroll out as my staff doesn't show up everyday for giggles. They expect a paycheck, so off I go. Be well and keep the Lord as the center of your life and you will never be unbalanced. Ciao.

Branch Manager At Last

I have returned from Detroit and finally have my legs back under me again. It was an exhausting trip, coupled with a seminar before I left last Tuesday. I left for Detroit on Wednesday morning and flew through Las Vegas. Our flight out of Vegas was delayed for thirty minutes and it turned out that Detroit was down to two runways for incoming flights and the delays in Detroit were up to two hours. My flight was supposed to arrive at 8:00 PM and finally touched down at 9:15 PM. The car service was not there as the flight was taken off the board at one point and the car service assumed it was cancelled. They were able to divert one of their Escalades from the Northwest terminal and they came over to pick me up. I arrived with golf clubs and a new heavy pea coat style overcoat, which was an anomaly, but both of the items came in handy.

We awoke Thursday morning to snow. Big, fat flakes were raining down on metro Detroit and the temperatures were in the thirties. These meetings are brutal for those of us coming in from the west coast as they start at seven-thirty, which jet lag be damned is 4:30 AM my time. Limos met us at the Ritz Carlton in Deerborn and whisked us through the gathering snow to the home office in Farmington Hills. We had a full day on Thursday including meetings all day with various department heads. After a trade show put on by the various home office departments at 6:00 PM, we were whisked away by bus to a restaurant for dinner and drinks. We finally arrived back at the Ritz at 10:00 PM, tired and ready for bed.

The Ritz was a nice bonus this year. Wayne Gretzky and his Phoenix Coyote NHL hockey team were at the hotel when we arrived on Wednesday and the Buffalo Bills arrived on Saturday and had a team breakfast next door to our team breakfast on Sunday. The accomodations and food were truly five star and the service was exemplary.

Friday we were up at 7:00 AM for breakfast and meetings all day. I had been tabbed on Thursday night to sit at Alan Kaufman's table on Friday morning for breakfast. The Advertising Department, which runs the meetings, tries to allocate a spot for all of the managers at Alan's table for at least one of the meals that we have.

The meetings were called to order with a recognition of all of the staff anniversaries from five years up to 40 years. Alan then called me up and promoted me to Branch Manager and went through the chronology of how long I'd been running the branch and how we'd turned profitable last year and were moving forward as a profitable part of the team. I received a very warm and appreciated ovation from the managers that I've sat in meetings with for now my third Managers meeting and my first as a Manager. It was long overdue and truly appreciated by me.

Saturday was a half day session followed by golf in the afternoon. The weather had moderated into windy and a high of 48 degrees and a wind chill factor of 38 degrees. The pro shop had winter gloves on sale for $15 and I bought a pair (Winter golf gloves come with both gloves for the right and left hand). I don't much like playing in a coat, much less gloves, but the weather was COLD and it made sense to stay warm. I had a truly good day on the links and our team took first place and I had both a closest to the pin award and the long drive to clean up on prizes. Many of the golfers complained about the bitter cold, but the course was in impeccable shape and the greens were beautiful.

We went from the golf course to Bucca Di Beppo in Livonia for dinner where we watched the Detroit Tigers eliminate the Oakland A's in four games and qualify for the World Series.

Sunday was another half day session and my one-on-one with Alan Kaufman. The meeting went well and Alan congratulated me on my promotion. He is still concerned about our low ROI (return on investment) and wants me to focus on increasing that number in 2007. With the number of staff that I have, the only way to do this is to either increase our premium income or to reduce staff. Obviously, I would prefer to increase our premium writings. I am looking to reduce overhead in 2007 by beginning to deliver our policies electronically. Right now my annual expense for postage is over $30,000 and if I can get the agencies to accept electronic delivery of policies, I can likely reduce that bill by half.

I flew home at 5:30 out of Detroit and through Phoenix. My flight out of Phoenix was again delayed and I finally arrived at the Sacramento airport at 9:45 PM and after collecting my luggage arrived home at almost 11:00 PM (2:00 AM Detroit time). I took Monday off as a mental health day and planned to be back in the office this morning. Well, lo and behold, I got called into Jury Duty and have to report to the jury commissioner in Auburn at 8;30 AM this morning. I will see if I can get out of the commitment this week due to work hardship as I haven't set foot in my office in a week. I truly enjoy Jury Duty, but the timing this time is abysmal.

Jennifer was here when I arrived home as her shipment of personal items from the military was finally being delivered. Jennifer had joined Das Net so quickly upon her return from Kuwait and her out processing from the Army that she had not had a chance to get her shipment from Kuwait. It arrived after she left for Korea and the Army put it into storage for her until she got back. Now that she has a place in Walnut Creek, she arranged to have the items shipped here. She had 12 boxes of stuff and wanted to go through it, put some in storage in our attic and give some to Goodwill. She spent at least three hours going through the boxes and culling out the clothes and shoes she wanted to keep and those that she would donate to charity. I took that time to go through my closet and ended up with two lawn bags of clothes to donate as well. Jennifer and I went over to the Cancer society thrift store and donated two boxes of her stuffed animals and clothes to the cause. Darla and I are up to three bags of clothes and Darla will add to the donation as she goes through her closet as well. We have a truck coming next Monday for the donations.

I was able to have breakfast and lunch with Darla and Jenn yesterday and get caught up on what is going on in their lives.

Darla and I will attend a funeral tonight for the husband one of Darla's good friends. Her husband just turned 50 and died last week of congestive heart failure. He'd been in the hospital after two heart attacks and died two hours after being released from the hospital. He turned 50 while he was in the hospital. Sandy, his wife, is devastated and Darla is improving my diet and is intent on keeping me alive.

Darla and I have decided to have Premier Pools build our new backyard pool. Their designer and construction supervisor was excellent. A big part of the dig for us is the excavation and demolition of our existing concrete and koi pond prior to the work starting. The guy we met from Aquatique Pools would not lift a hand to help us in the process, whereas Kevin bent over backward and got both a tree service and a concrete cutter lined up to clear the backyard. Kevin going the extra mile bought him the job. We had thought about contracting this ourselves, but I'm sold on the theory of having a project manager control the process, pull the permits and get the job done. Premier has all of their own subs save for gunite, so the argument that I could get the same work done myself is bogus. The cost savings would have been about $7,500, but the job likely would not have been handled as well and I don't need to buy headaches right now in my life.

Well, I need to get off to Jury Duty now, so I will add more next week. Jennifer's blog is now on a new site. It is www.jswanonline.com. Check it out.

Columbus Day

A holiday for some, but just a nice driving day for me. The roads were next to empty as the state and municipal workers have the day off. Darla also has the day off, but was up as usual at 5:40 AM and off to the gym to work out with her friend, Missy. I rolled out of bed about 6:15AM and was in the office by 7:10 AM with two pieces of sourdough toast and a cup of ice water.

I had a nice weekend, starting with missing the high school football game on Friday night. It was the homecoming game and there wasn't a parking spot anywhere near the school. I finally decided to drive into the parking lot to let Darla out, but lo and behold a spot opened as we were driving in. I decided to stay and we grabbed our stadium seats and coats and then looked up to see a line of about 200 people waiting to buy tickets. I gave Darla a kiss and a hug and drove home. Daniel is not playing this year. He has the size and the strength to play, but doesn't have the heart. He played two plays at the end of a blowout win 44-20 and Darla had left by the time he did get in. The stands were packed and I personally get tired of all the tough 16-18 year-olds who strut around like God's gift to the world and then get in their cars and drive home to Mommy and Daddy's house. I've never been a big fan of teenagers and sure enjoy my relationship with Jennifer more now after she finally grew up.

Saturday I played golf in our invitational. For $65, we had breakfast, a cart, golf, prizes and a barbecued tri-tip lunch with ranch beans, salad and bread. I played in the two-man scamble with Bob Pando, a friend from our life group. Bob is joining the club and we managed to win our flight with a 70 and won $78.00. Bob, of course, thinks the club is great and plans to win every tournament from here on out.

I played golf with some agents on Thursday and struggled to a 44+42=86. Brian, one of my golfing buddy agents shot a 39+37=76, but I parred the last hole of the day to win 23 skins on that hole (25 in total) and I won $18.50 to his $20.50. The other two players dropped the $39 that it cost to pay us off. I left my six iron on the course and for the third time in the last three years it was not turned in. What do people get out of keeping a club from someone's golf set? Thank God for Club Scouters as for $59, they replace the club.

We finally made it back to church this week after being AWOL for trips and golf the last couple of weeks. It was Missions Sunday and a missionary from Chile spoke. He grew up in a dysfunctional family in Oregon and his two alcoholic parents actually had a hat made for him at the county fair when he was 5 that read, "Mistake", as he was an unplanned pregnancy. He found God after a life of drugs and booze and turned his life over to God. He just celebrated his thirtieth year in the missions field and has two sons and a daughter who also do missionary work. Amazing.

The weather is absolutely crisp and beautiful this time of year. It heated up to 87 degrees on Sunday and we should have taken the jet ski out for a last run. I need to get it into Yamaha and have it winterized. We'd hoped to have it on the water one last time, but Fall hit fairly quickly and we are still waiting for a little Indian Summer. It is supposed to be in the 80's all of this week.

I leave for the Branch Managers meeting on Wednesday. This will be my third Branch Managers meeting and my first as a Branch Manager. I've heard that my promotion is on the agenda this year and, frankly, it's about damn time. The meeting is being moved this year from the Westin in Farmington Hills to The Ritz Carlton in Deerborn, Michigan. I'm hoping that this is a real first class affair. The Westin has been nice, but the food was subpar last year and they had problems keeping our rooms clean. I got out of meeetings at 4:00 PM and came back to my room and it hadn't been cleaned. We spend a LOT of money on these annual meetings and the hotel should be catering to US, not dumping on us.

This year will be a little different as we will start the meeting at the home office on Thursday and finish the meeting with the golf tournament and dinner on Saturday afternoon/evening. My office has gone from losing $500,000 the year that I took over to making about $140,000 in profit this year. I just finished the budget for 2007 and we have a goal in 2007 of making just south of $800,000. If we hit that, my bonus will be a nice chunk of change.

On top of the Branch Manager's meeting, we also have the annual Sacramento Insurance Day tomorrow at the Community Center in Sacramento. We have a display booth again this year as we do every year. My assistant is already panicking as she will have to pick up the slack this week while I'm gone.

I went out and bought a new suit for the meeting on Saturday and also got a new dress shirt and a couple of ties. I don't wear dress clothes at work as our dress code is slacks and collared shirts, no ties or jacket. This is a good excuse to improve my wardrobe. I also bought a new overcoat that is a cahmere blend pea coat style overcoat. I've had the London Fog style overcoat for years and it was time to upgrade. Finally, I bought a new pair of black oxford dress shoes.

It was actually an expensive weekend as I took Darla out to Home Depot and we picked out a new dishwasher (the quiet style) and a new side-by-side refrigerator. Our fridge has been on it's last legs for a while and the milk is barely lasting until expiration and the seal around the door is losing it's seal. We will move the fridge to the garage and have them take the garage fridge away. Darla never loiked that one in spite of the fact that it was FREE. I will also replace the seal on the refrigerator we are moving to the garage.

We are still working on getting quotes for the backyard pool. Daniel saw the plans and was complaining that it is a game pool. 3 1/2' depth to 5 1/2' depth back to 4' depth. He complained that there is nowhere in the pool that he could stand and be covered by water. I told him two things. One, you don't stand in a pool and Two, I'm planning this pool for Darla and I and our grandchildren, not for a 17 year-old who will hopefully be out of the house in two years!!

Well, that is it for this week. Pray for me as I enter the danger zone in Detroit. Hopefully, my trip will go better than last year. Be well. Ciao.

Back from a short Golfing vacation

It was a quick run up to the foothills, but we had a blast. I got off work early on Friday and Darla and I met Bob and Debbie Hand and we drove up together to Angel's Camp above Jackson and below Sonora in the Sierra Nevada foothills. We considered stopping in Sutter Creek on the way up for dinner, but Angels Camp is only about 30 minutes southeast of Sutter Creek, so we pushed on to the Greenhorn Country Club and the Trendwest facility that borders the tenth hole. Ed Powell and his wife Janette are Trendwest members and invited us to stay with them in a three-bedroom condo. We got checked in and asked for a good Italian restaurant and were pointed to Main Street in Angel's Camp and a small ristorante with good food and a great wine cellar. We met up with Greg Wanee who was bunking on the couch in the condo and drove over to the main downtown area. When we walked into the restaurant we saw four other golfers from the club and their wives (including Ed and Janette), so we all visited in the alcove of the restaurant near their table as our table was getting prepped. It was funny with all of the choices in town that we ended up at the same restaurant.

The facility was first class with a penthouse bedroom and two bedrooms on the main floor, each with their own bathroom. Bob and I flipped for the bedroom with the queen bed and I lost out and Darla and I were relegated to the bedroom with two twin beds. We quickly rearranged the furniture and pushed the two beds together. The disadvantage of our bedroom was the two beds and the fact that our bathroom was open to the main hallway and used by Greg and Boyd who drove up on Saturday and spent Saturday night with us as well.

Saturday we played Greenhorn and it is a first rate golf course and a tough test of golf. I played exceedingly well on the front nine, shooting a smooth 40, but lost my mind on the back nine and went double-bogey, double-bogey, quadruple-bogey to start 8 over after three holes and finished with a blemish of 52 on the back for a 92. My free fall down that flight of stairs cost me winnings as I tied for sixth low net out of twenty golfers and lost a tie breaker which is the back nine score. I was disappointed, but was driven to enjoy myself that night as we were hosting a barbecue for the thirty people on the trip at our condo and I was on barbecue duty. We had a few beers and drove back to the condo.

Poor Bob received a phone call on the course that his aunt had died. She was a spinster and Bob was her closest relative and the executor of her estate. He considered going home as he had to call relatives and set up the funeral and mortuary services, but I convinced him that there was nothing he could do that couldn't wait until Monday. I did drive him back to the condo right after we finished so he could start on calling relatives.

Darla was still out with the girls shopping when I got back and Ed, Greg and I put on swimsuits and headed to the spa. Bob joined us shortly and seemed relieved to have some of the phone calls out of the way. I fired up the barbecue at about six o'clock and the girls fixed snacks and margaritas and we had about eight bottles of wine and beer and a good time. I fixed five tri-tips and about eight pounds of chicken quarters on the grill and we ate three salads, bread and fresh fruit for dinner. It was awesome.

Darla and I snuck out of the party about nine o'clock and went over to the spa to relax and get caught up on each other's days. It was nice to visit with everyone and yet to have a quiet moment together as well. We headed back to the condo at ten and the party had already broken up and the folks were heading to bed. We had made plans to meet at seven-thirty the next morning for breakfast in town and then drive the thirty miles to Valley Springs to play La Contenta golf course. Darla and the girls were going to sleep in and take a slow drive back to Sacramento, stopping for lunch along the way.

We were up about six-thirty Sunday and visiting with the gang. Bob and Debbie were slow to arise and finally at 7:20 we knocked on their door and they were still asleep. Bob quickly jumped up and showered and met us about 7:40 at the car. Somehow the breakfast plans had not trickled down to them and he knew we didn't tee off until 10:50 AM so was in no hurry to get going. We had breakfast with six of the golfers and then drove on to La Contenta, arriving about 9:30 after a leisurely breakfast.

I played a little better on Sunday, shooting 44+43=87, but still not really on my game. My score was good enough to win $25 and $16 in skin money and I left town with a new hat and golf glove. We had a great time and Darla and the girls enjoyed their shopping and lunches together, so it was fun for one and all.

I talked to Jennifer last night when we returned and she and John are doing great. I teased her about not keeping up with her blog and she said, "what are you talking about, Dad? I 've updated it three times." I had given up checking her blog as she hadn't added anything to it since she left Korea. But check out the link at the bottom of the page as she is back to blogging.

I also talked to Dad and Shirley last night. They have picked the dates for the trip to Vegas for the Lyon family reunion and celebration of Dad's 70th and my 50th. It will be the week of March 5th-11th. Darla and I will likely drive down on Wednesday night, staying over in Bakersfield and then driving on to Vegas on Thursday morning. This time around we will have all of Darryl's kids, Randy's kids and our children. Jennifer is planning on coming with John and I will set up golf for Friday. It will be fun. Shirley kidded us about traveling so much, but forgot that they had just arrived home from Vegas after their week long trip to California in September.

Now that we have the date set for that trip I can book my tee time and stay at Pebble Beach in April. I will play Pebble Beach in my 50th year of life.

Well, the gang is arriving and my door is constantly being darkened, so I better attend to the staff. We had a good audit last week from a home office Vice President, who was in town for three days and I'm off to the Manager's meetin in a week from Wednesday. Stay well. Ciao.

Another weekend in the books

Autumn has arrived and with it, a sore throat and runny nose. Darla had suffered with a similar malady just a week or so ago and now it has hit me. I never handle the change of seasons well and the problem is I'm warm when we go to bed and freezing in the morning. I had been leaving the fan on over the bed and the window cracked open, but closed the window and shut down the fan last week as I was waking up cold in the morning. I guess I didn't do that soon enough as I sat amid a growing stack of used kleenexes yesterday and watched football. The outside temperature was still in the mid and upper eighties, so I can't blame the weather. I am stuffed up with a runny nose (if that is even possile) and have a sore throat. I'm drinking alot of water and living on Nyquil right now.

Darla and I are off to the last golf trip of the season this coming weekend, when we will join 23 other golfers and their significant others for a trip up to Angel's Camp to play the Greenhorn Country Club on Saturday and then on to Valley Springs to play La Contenta on Sunday. I have never played Greenhorn and we will stay in a three bedroom condo at the resort with two other couples and two stragglers, Boyd Robertson and Greg Wanee, who will leave their wives behind. We will have a big barbecue on Saturday night, play cards and party. I told Darla that I'd take her out to dinner on Friday night in Angel's Camp. Angel's Camp is in Tuolumne County and is the site of the annual Frog Jumping Jubilee that Mark Twain wrote about so many years ago. Twain (Samuel Clemmons) grew up in this area and was a newspaperman for the local paper.

Darla and I had Daniel's football banquet (dinner dance) on Saturday night. This is the annual fundraiser for the football team with silent auctions, live auctions and a chance for the 40 something woment in the crowd to strut their middle-aged stuff and embarass their 16 year old football players or cheerleaders. It is always fun for Darla and I to watch these siliconed wonders with their low cut tops and low self esteem try to act twenty again. It is pathetic in reality and we always go home firm in our resolve to be ourselves, tight waistlines and all. I always manage to buy some bargain at this event. Last year, I got a $100 gift certificate to La Provence restaurant for $90 and this year I got a $100 gift card to Fat's (a local chain of six fine dining Chinese restaurants) for $85. When you are trying to feed the six footers in our house, you need all the help you can get.

Daniel continues to prowl the sidelines at his games being little used and much forgotten. He did get into his second game when they were in a blowout 46-6 and he played most of the second half. They squeaked by in this last game 42-36 and Dan did not see the field.

I played golf this weekend and shot a 43+40=83 at Diamond Oaks. I had the reservation for two weeks and had trouble getting anyone to come out and play this weekend. The club had an elite event on Saturday for the members who pay an extra $60 for the Diamond membership, so many of the guys were otherwise disposed. I finally got my old partner, Dave Armijo to join me and we played as a twosome. Dave shot about a 93 and I had a birdie on 17 to help me keep my handicap in tact. I look forward to the coming weekend and two days of golf in the foothills.

Darla and I have been struggling with the boys' lethargy at home. Both of their rooms are nightmares of clothes and junk strewn all over the room. I have an agreement with them that I won't bitch about the condition of their rooms during the week if they keep their door shut so I don't have to see it (or smell it) AND that they have the room clean, vacuumed and dusted by Sunday night when they leave. They have been pretty good with the first rule, but have completely lost interest in the second rule. They like to come back on Monday afternoon and cram everything back away in ten minutes and call it a week. Their bathroom is atrocious, rarely if ever cleaned, the mirrors are filthy and the tub and shower a nightmare. I had a small fit yesterday and told them to have their rooms clean by Sunday night and they both blew me off and didn't get it done. Daniel has some puppy dog crush on an older gal who has graduated from college and is leaving today or tomorrow for a year in Africa doing missionary work. They had dinner last night and he spent all day worrying over a going away gift and the card he was going to give her. He was so distracted and smitten that he got even dopier than usual and couldn't concentrate on anything. I was really mad last night and told Darla she needs to deal with this situation because I am at my wit's end. She doesn't understand how I can yearn for the day that they are both out on their own and soiling their own homes instead of mine. Neither of them do chores around the house anymore. Last week I was trimming trees and working on the outside of the house. Darla had fixed a roast and came out to say both boys were hungry and could I hurry up and come inside. Did either of the boys come out and offer to help me? God forbid that they do anything to help out around the house. I'm very frustrated with this and really crave the weeks that they are out of the house.

Well pray for me as I suffer through this family problem. It will really take Darla and I having a united front to deal with this. Daniel thinks that his football practice is everything and he should be able to come home and lay in his sty of a room and watch cartoons on television and demand dinner at a certain time and David is just as bad as he gets home from work or school and can't see outside of himself. Personal accountability has always been a missing element with these kids. I can't seem to get them to see how selfish they are and how you have to pitch in to be a part of a family. I happily do the lawn every week, but when I'm raking leaves or trimming plants it would be a pure joy to have one of them ask if they could help me. Usually they walk by and try not to make eye contact with me lest I corral them into helping. It's tremendously frustrating to me. Neither one of them has been bitten by the "work ethic" bug and it won't serve them well as they go on in life.

Jennifer and John got moved into an apartment in Walnut Creek this weekend. They picked up the trailer on Saturday while I was golfing and took it to Walnut Creek and loaded up their new apartment. I am not in favor of them living together, but that is my conservative bias. Jennifer is 26 and makes her own decisions and I understand that. I won't let them stay in my house together and the same rules will apply to the boys as they get older. Jen and John have about a 15 minute commute to work and their apartment includes a gym membership. She is happy and I'm happy for her. Living out of a suitcase gets old and even if the apartment sits empty for months on end, at least they'll have a place to call home when they get back. So far, there are no plans for her to return overseas any time soon.

Well, that's it. Sorry to go on a rant, but that is what the blog is for. Sometimes I just need to sort out my emotions on electronic paper. Take care. Ciao.

Back from a quick vacation in Lake Tahoe

Yes, we are back from a relaxing and restful vacation. The Mexico trip was fantastic, but sometimes the sheer gravity of such a big vacation can be overwhelming and you end up back in the United States tired and, in some ways, even more stressed than you were before you left. This vacation was long on relaxation and short on any structured activities.

As you can see from the first picture, we had some fun at the casinos. Darla and I enjoy gambling, but we are really pretty tame when it comes to spending money gambling. I've said before, that we play nickle machines and almost exclusively video poker. We had a decent run at the machines on Saturday night, but still gave up $80 to the billionaire owners of the casino. Darla and I enjoy the Lakeside Inn in Tahoe. It is a small casino away from the main strip of Harveys, Harrahs and the new Mont Bleu casino. The Lakeside Inn is favored by the locals and has the best $8.95 Prime Rib in Nevada (I had 3 of the Prime Rib specials in four days in Nevada). Sunday we stayed away from the casinos and just relaxed at the resort, reading books and relaxing at the pool in the 80 degree temperatures. Darla was nice enough to sit with me and watch the Dallas-Washington NFL game Sunday night. We started out at a small local pizza joint and then moved back to the big screen in the game room at the resort. Monday we returned to the Lakeside for dinner and some gambling. We lost our shirts gambling and were down about $200 by midnight when we decided to have breakfast and decide if we wanted to call it a night. We went back up to the casino from the downstairs restaurant and played some 5 cent Wheel of Fortune. Darla won over $100 and got us going again. I quickly lost $20 and went back to video poker. Within ten minutes I hit on four aces and a two for a $100 jackpot. The funny thing is, the combination was dealt to me! Not a bad payout for a 25 cent bet. Darla finally gave up on the Wheel and came over to join me about 1 AM. I was getting tired, but stayed on for a bit and had a Ten, Jack, King and Ace of clubs dealt to me. I held those and the Queen of clubs came up for a 4000 coint payout on a 25 cent bet. All told, we finished the night with $495 in our pockets and two smiles on our faces. It was my fourth Royal Flush and as nice as it was, one of the Progressive nickle machines paid out over $600 for a Royal Flush earlier that night, so my luck was good, but my timing not so much.

The resort was very nice and we had a studio in the building on the beach and located next to the main pool. Our building has the fitness center in it and the game room with the large screen television. The game room sits empty most of the week, but was jammed on Sunday afternoon for a free wine and cheese gathering. The blue haired brigade showed up in force for the freebies. It was an ongoing joke with Darla and I as the senior crowd was mostly invisible at the resort until something was free. We never saw these people unless there was a free barbecue at the beach or the wine and cheese event and then they were like ants on maple syrup. I mostly stayed out of the way at these free events for fear of breaking a hip (mine or theirs). They had free apples at the front desk and if you saw a senior outside of the freefests, it was usually walking with an apple from the office.

The resort was noisy this time. We awoke Saturday morning to a group of hispanic maids (Darla and I termed them "Lupe and Maria") arguing about something loudly in Spanish. They finally finished that argument and Lupe decided to vacuum the hallway rug outside our door, banging the vacuum against the door several times to make sure we knew it was 8:00 AM and the world was awaiting us. Finally, Lupe broke out into full throated singing, a Spanish serenade something about her "corazon". We finally decided to get up and join the world. Saturday night found Darla awake at two AM to some inebriated neighbors arguing in the hall about who had "paid for the room" and "get out of my face" and other boozy proclamations. I slept through the whole thing. Tuesday morning we both awoke to hammering on our roof as a roofing crew was there to do a tear off and rebuild. We both really like the facility and would like to stay there one week a year, but we will trade in as opposed to buying. The resort is about thirty years old and the maintenance costs are escalating. We did sit through a time share presentation, but took the $75 Visa gift card and weren't tempted to buy in, especially after the money spent in Mexico.

Jennifer's boyfriend, John, did get his transfer to California and arrived back in the state on Sunday morning. He had packed up his apartment in New York on Thursday and drove cross country in his Tacoma hauling a UHaul trailer with his possessions. It is now sitting on the side of our house as he is trying to get an apartment in the Bay Area, near his work in Concord. Jennifer is happy to have him back. I played a little joke on Jen. She'd called us in Tahoe and asked if it was okay for John to leave his trailer at the house. When we got back, there was the trailer on the side of the house. I called Jen and asker her why the trailer wasn't there, did they bring it to Concord with them? She started to freak out, but I let her off the hook. Very funny, Dad.

Well, work awaits like a dull ache in a bad tooth, so I'd better hitch up my britches and get on with my day. I hope your day is a Royal Flush. Ciao.

Strange Goings On in The River City

Darla and I had a strange experience this weekend as we attended the wedding of my ex, Diane, to her new husband Bob. We have a good relationship with Diane and I'm glad that we were able to attend and see Jennifer act as the Maid of Honor for her Mom, but it was still a bit strange to be a part of the wedding, knowing very few of her friends and, obviously, none of Bob's relatives or friends. Jennifer was beautiful and we sat with Sara (Jennifer's best friend) and E, her boyfriend, and Sara's daughter, Sierra. Sara only knew Jennifer and John so we were able to visit with them and enjoy the day. The wedding was held in the courtyard of one of Sacramento's nicest restaurants and it was a first class affair. The only real problem with the setting is that there are wild chickens that inhabit the grounds and they got a little loud during the ceremony and walked up on the wedding altar and there were quite a few people tittering as the two wedding participants were declaring their undying love for each other. If you couldn't see the chickens, you'd think they had RUDE friends.

Diane had reconciled with her sister, Elizabeth, who was part of her wedding party. I got to visit briefly with her and the girl has a screw loose. She shared with me that Diane is estranged from her brother Phillip and how she was hating being at the wedding, that Diane's friends are pompous and uppity. We later heard that she made a scene back at the house and drove off squealing her tires and leaving a vile message on Diane's phone. Jennifer had to settle her Mom down as she was pretty shook up over her sister's actions. I think it is safe to say that the reconciliation is history. It is sad to see how that family imploded after the death of their parents. Jennifer says good riddance to all of them as they are kooks.

Diane came over and asked me to dance during the reception. I think Jennifer enjoyed it as we danced with her. I had a nice dance with Darla afterward. It was a bit odd dancing with my ex, but Diane is a good person and I wish her well in her new marriage. Again, I appreciated the opportunity to see Jennifer in the wedding and to spend some time with Jennifer and John when they were both dressed up.

I had poker this weekend followed by the wedding, a 60th birthday party for one of my friends (I'm getting OLD), and then the club championship on Sunday followed by an afternoon of jet skiing at Folsom Lake. Poker was nice, but after winning $85 last month, it was sure to be a losing proposition and I gave about $25 to the cause after a night of cards. It was great to see the guys. I did miss Daniel's first football game of the season. His team got whacked 48-21 and Daniel did not see the field during the game. Dan is just not "in" to football this year and I think his coaches realize that. He is a large benchwarmer at 6'3" and 235 pounds.

The golf was great this weekend, although I got hit by a buzzsaw in the form of our current President, Joe Santone, who shot a 36+39=75 to my 42+41=83. It was match play and I lost 4+3 to Joe. I went out and bogeyed the first three holes to his three pars and was quickly three holes down and never caught up. He had me five down after 9 holes and I crawled back winning number ten, losing 11 and then winning 12 & 13 with birdies, but quickly lost another hole on 15 to fall four down and then splitting 16 with pars to close the match out 4&3. I can't be upset as I played a good match, but just got beat by someone who was on their game. As it turns out, Darla and I have a condo reserved in Tahoe for this upcoming weekend and had planned to stay there from Friday through Tuesday. If I'd won my match, I would have had a second match on Saturday with the finals on Sunday. This way we can head up to Tahoe on Friday after Daniel's game (we'll probably leave after halftime to get up there). This was an extra week that we had with the Puerto Vallarta timeshare and we would have lost it if we didn't use it now. I know we are just coming off the Mexico trip, but things are soon to intensify at work (I have six reviews to complete, I have the Manager's meeting in October in Detroit, I have the budget process to complete, I have an audit with our sister company USF in two weeks and we have the Insurance Day at the community center on October 10th.) I can use a few days away with my wife. We plan to sleep, eat good food, read some books and relax at the beach and the pool.

It is the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and I still remember my experience flying to Phoenix that day. I wrote about my experiences on one of the anniversaries and it is in the archives of this blog somewhere. In short, my plane was grounded in Las Vegas and I had to rent a U-Haul and drive back to Sacramento. To this day I have seen very little footage of the crash and the horror of the towers collapsing as I was on the road for twelve hours driving home. I did hear about it on the radio, but those images that were burned into the minds of so many have escaped me. One of the good things to come out of this tragedy was Jennifer joining the US Army and finding her calling in life with the Network Installations and fibre optics specialty that she developed over that time. She is in a much better place now than she was before the tragedy of 9/11.

Well, the denizens of Burns and Wilcox are slowly filtering in on a Monday morning. I just went through a policy with our new typist and the "good morning" gang continues to flock by my office, so I need to get back to the task of running the office. Jennifer starts work in Concord this week and John flies back to New York where he will wrap up his job there before joining Jenn in Concord later this month. I hope all are well. The blog will be late again next week as we will be in Tahoe. Take a look at God's How to manual this week. It is called the Bible. Ciao.

Hola..we are back from Mexico

Yes, we are back from a great vacation. I feel a little tired, but we spent a good week making memories and even doing some vacation planning for the future. The weather in Puerto Vallarta this time of year is rainy, but we saw little in the way of precipitation. Any of you that were paying attention know that Hurricane John was making a nuisance of himself in Alcapulco and did threaten the coast of PV, but turned out to sea and was never a factor in our weather. We saw some cloudiness, but the promised 70 mile an hour winds never materialized and we saw only some high clouds and some drizzle out of the hurricane warning. The locals took the warning to heart and boarded up windows and put tape across the windows in a big "X" pattern. I actually played golf that morning and the hurricane was supposed to hit around 2 PM. There were a total of 13 golfers on the course and it was eerily calm and quiet.

Darla and I decided to take a trip up to Nuevo Vallarta on Monday. Nuevo Vallarta is about thirty minutes from the downtown of Puerto Vallarta and is a resort area with expensive condos, timeshares and homes set on a strip of beach and cove area. We signed up for a tour of the Grand Mayan resort, which consists of two timeshare resorts, a hotel and two permanent condo towers for full time residents. The resort is first class and the Grand Mayan is the crown jewel of the resort. Darla and I bought two weeks at the Grand Mayan (We actually bought one week and they threw in the second week). I had no intention of buying another timeshare as we have every other year in Kauai and Puerto Vallarta, but several factors made our decision for us. The first is that the resort corporation owns 11 resorts, eight in Mexico and three in the US (Orlando, Las Vegas and Mauai, HI). Each of the resorts have a guaranteed week for us any time we want to travel as owners of the Grand Mayan. All of the resorts are five years old or newer and each has the exact same layout of the rooms. We bought a two-bedroom with separate bedrooms and a central living area. The patio area has a small pool at each unit. The piece de resistance for me is that each resort has it's own golf course and I also have ownership in the golf facilities and will pay $50 for golf at any of the resorts. The facility in Cabo has three golf courses designed by Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus and the public pays $280 to golf at each of the courses. Darla and I will likely sell the Puerto Vallarta time share and may well hang on to our Kauai property.

We ended up moving from the Sheraton facility to the Grand Mayan on Monday. The funny thing is that the salesman who sold us the timeshare gave us his Hummer H2 to make the move. Debbie and Bob, who traveled with us also bought a week at the Grand Mayan and I think the salesman hit a bonanza. Bob drove the Hummer through the streets of PV with all of the crazy Mexican drivers and we loaded up our belongings from the Sheraton and returned back to the Grand Mayan for the balance of the week. The resort itself has ten restaurants and 11 bars and you literally don't need to leave the resort. We bought a meal plan that provided 6 breakfasts and six dinners for $235. It sounds pricey, but the restaurants had lobster and steaks that went for $50, so it was a great deal. The dinners included appetizers, the main course and dessert. Breakfasts included the main course and drinks. The resort also has eight interconnecting pools, a lazy river ride that takes you around the perimeter of the Grand Mayan, a water slide, two wave pools, three swim up bars, boat taxis, a train and a mile long stretch of beach with white sand.

The golf was great and we cancelled our reservations at Marina Vallarta in order to play the course at the Grand Mayan. They paid for one round and Bob and I paid $50 each for the other two. It is resort golf with alot of water and sand and I hoped to break 90 the first day and gradually get better as I learned the course. As it turned out, I shot 40+39=79 on the first day and a pair of 83s the next two. On Friday I struggled with a 45 on the front, but came roaring back with a 38 on the back side for my 83. That was probably my favorite round as I was so out of sorts on the front side and made up my mind to play well on the backside and did.

The trip was not without its problems as we lost Darla's new Canon Rebel digital camera to a taxi driver. It was my fault as I had taken charge of the camera when we left the Vista Grill in PV for the ride back to Nuevo Vallarta. I set it down on the floor of the cab in the front seat and left it when we got back to the Grand Mayan. Darla realized it immediately and we should have been able to stop the taxi at the front gate of the resort, but the bellmen all speak "Spanglish" and we couldn't seem to communicate to them to have the cab stopped at the gate. By the time they reached the cabby, he claimed there was no camera in his cab. Yeah right. That camera was probably two months salary for that guy. The sad thing is the camera is $900 and he will probably pawn it for $50. Bastardo. Obviously, I won't be adding any pictures from the vacation any time soon. The hard part was losing our pictures.

Darla and I had a chance to meet Jennifer's boyfriend, John, and we are both very impressed with his manner and especially with how Jennifer is with him. She seems much more settled and focused with John. She has always enjoyed partying and being at the bars late. Now, she gets tired and calls it a night early. Nice to see. We took John and Jennifer to Folsom Lake yesterday, but the ski wouldn't start. Daniel wasn't able to install the spark plug wires that I bought and we are taking the ski into the shop today to have it looked at and tuned up. Hopefully they can have it ready this week and we can get John out on the water sometime this week.

I had 139 e-mails waiting for me when I got in this morning. I only had two voice mails as my voice mail was very specific that I was on vacation and would NOT be returning calls and to contact my assistant, Connie.

Writing this has been difficult as my staff each stops in my office to talk to me as they arrive. I will leave this for now and attend to them. I hope all are well and I'll write more soon. Ciao.

The BLOG is going on Vacation!!!

I think I will join the BLOG and take a week off in sunny Puerto Vallarta next week. It is a bit rainy there this time of year, but low 90's with plenty of sunshine as well. We are going with our friends, Bob and Debbie Hand. Bob and I will golf a couple of times and the ladies will shop. Bob and I plan to play early in the day before the expensive shops open for the day..we aren't completely out of our minds. Darla and I met Bob and Debbie for dinner last night on our way home from Almanor. We met in Lincoln at one of Darla's and my favorite restaurants, Buonarotti's. It is an Italian restaurante and serves excellent fare. I had a flat iron steak that melted in my mouth and Darla had scampi and pasta. It was a nice stop after two and a half hours on the road. We visited with Bob and Debbie and laid out some tentative plans for our trip. They fly in on Sunday and Darla and I arrive Saturday afternoon.

You can see I added a picture of my former assistant, Anthony, in the jalapeno bobbing contest last weekend. It amazes me what twenty-somethings will do for our entertainment at these parties.

It was a great, though jam packed weekend. Darla left friday afternoon for Almanor and I stayed behind to play golf on Saturday. Darla and I sort of had our wires crossed on the weekend plans and I had already set up a golf game for Saturday when she told me that she'd booked a cabin for the weekend at Almanor. We arm wrestled over that one and finally agreed that she would drive up Friday with her sister and I'd join them after golf on Saturday afternoon. Of course, that left me with a free Friday night. I decided to take $120 to Thunder Valley in Lincoln, have some dinner and see what kind of luck was in store for me. I play nickle slots (video poker) and I sat down when I arrived and got a royal spanking. I lost $80 in about 55 minutes. I limped away from the machine and went over to the Gordito Burrito in the food court and washed away my sorrows with a large iced tea and a small shredded beef burrito. I resurrected my self esteem and filled my gullet and headed back to the same machine. Luck had reversed it's course and in the span of about two and a half hours I turned 400 nickles into over 6000 ($300). In that span I hit two straight flushes (one dealt to me), three four-of-a kind aces, two with a 2-3 or 4 kicker for a 2000 coin win on a 5 coin bet. It was magic and I left the casino with $200 in winnings.

Saturday morning I played golf with Boyd, Bob Pando and Bob Hand. Boyd had just returned from his golfing trip to Scotland where he'd played five times in six days, including stints on Royal St. Andrews and Prestwick (the sight of Tiger's recent victory at the British Open). A reporter from the Sacramento Bee interviewed Boyd and another of the travelers on Thursday in the paper and when Boyd started to tell his stories, I stopped him and told him that I'd read all about it already. I shot pedestrian golf on Saturday with a 42+43=85 that included three double bogeys. My chipping needs work and I'll concentrate on that in practice for awhile until I can straighten it out. Boyd and I won the skin money Saturday.

I left for Almanor right after golf and arrived about 4 PM. I barely got settled in the cabin and was whisked off to visit some friends at another resort. We went over by boat and part of the allure of the visit for Darla and Alicia was to show their parents an RV park where they might set up their 5th wheel next Summer. Darla and I took the gang out to pizza on Saturday night in Westwood, one of the dinky little resort towns nearby. Westwood was a company town back in the thirties with a large sawmill. The homes were all built by the mill and are small two bedroom homes that all look alike. The mill burned down in the late forties and the town is like a time warp with the small homes all still standing and small businesses catering to the retirees and resort workers that live in the town. It is a town that is all but dead in the Winter months as the resorts all close down for the Winter and the economy dries up until Spring.

We went to church Sunday morning and then returned home for barbecue hamburgers. We got about two hours in the sun and then packed up for our trip back home and dinner with the Hands. It was a hectic weekend that will make my lounge chair by the pool in PV feel so much better next Sunday.

Gary and I have made it into the finals for our twilight golf league this Thursday night. We will take on a team that I really don't like for first place. The team is made up of two retired guys and one of them is a crotchedy old man who is older mentally than his birth certificate reads. I had a confrontation with him a couple of weeks ago when I arrived late for my tee time. I have a standing agreement with my partner that if I'm running late, I'll call him and he can let another group go ahead of us. I made my call as I didn't get out of work until 4 PM and we had the 4:40 tee time. I drove to the course and puttered around getting my bag together and finally walked in to pay about 4:40. Gary came running in and said, "Hurry up, we're on the tee." I said, "Give me a second Gary." He said, "Take your time I'll tell the other group to go." That meant to me that he'd have the foursome behind us tee off. But no, in Gary's mind, that meant he'd tell the twosome playing against us to tee off. I paid and went back out to my car to get a water I'd left in the console. Gary came flying out in his cart and said, "C'mon, everybody is waiting for US!" I jumped in the cart with him and here was Bob Tucker standing like an old goat with his arm crossed across his chest next to the tee. "About damn time, you idiot!", he said. I jumped out of the cart and walked over to him. "Did you say something to me?" He turned his head and walked away. I followed him. "Listen, pal, if you've got something to say to me, say it." He was beet red and mumbled something about me being a rude sob. I said (and God forgive me), "Listen, Grampa, I've got a job with twenty people depending on me for their jobs. I'm not a retired old bastard who has this golf league as his sole point of excitement for the week!" I let Gary have it big time. I told him to never set me up like that again. If I'm running late, I don't need to jump out of my car and run to the tee. So, it should be interesting to play the old goat this week. I just hope I can kick his scrawny butt.

I talked to Randy last night. He just celebrated his 46th birthday last week. We will all be together next March or April for a family reunion and a celbration of Dad's 70th birthday and my 50th. It will be great to see every one again and Jennifer will get to join us this time around.

Well, that's it for TWO weeks. I will be back refreshed and restored with pictures and stories about my vacation. Until then, stay grounded in the Lord and he will set your path before you. Ciao.

Jet skiing at Folsom Lake

August weather here in August

I had wanted to add some pictures from our trip to the lake this week and sent those to my work e-mail last night, but the firewall here at work is delaying the pictures from passing over. Hopefully they show up later today and I can add them. We have been enjoying Jennifer's visit home and have been to the lake twice with the jet ski including yesterday. Just Darla, Jennifer and I were able to go to the lake and it was a nice relaxing day. The boys were with their dad and Jenn's friend Sara had child care issues as her daughter was with her dad (Sara's ex), and she had to pick her up at 3 PM. Jennifer is becoming quite a daredevil on the ski as she is doing 360's and really running the ski hard. The boys always laugh at me as I usually get on the ski with a hat and sunglasses and take a leisurely run around the lake. I have been trying more daring runs with more fast turns and spins. I leave the hat and glasses on the beach now. I took a nasty fall yesterday as the wake was huge and the wind was up a little. The lake was busy and the waves by midafternoon were pretty choppy. I spun out and hit one of those waves and found myself flying off the ski. Unfortunately I hit my hip on the side of the ski on my trip into the water. I'm pretty sore today. The ski continued with the wave and when I came up out of the water, it was about thirty yards from me and drifting in the swells. It took me about five minutes to swim back to the ski and I was so tired when I got there that I just hung on the back of the ski until I could catch my breath and have enough strength to pull myself up out of the water. Darla and Jennifer saw the result of my wipeout with me in the water thirty yards from the ski, but neither of them saw the spill.

It was a pretty awesome weekend for me with poker on Friday night (I was hosting), golf saturday morning, a company barbecue Saturday afternoon and evening and church followed by jet skiing yesterday. I won $80 at poker, shot 43+39=82 on Saturday at Woodcreek Golf Course and thoroughly enjoyed the picnic and skiing. Church was great.

We had the Seniors' pastor, Wayne Bigelow, speak on marriage and family and relate that to our relationship with Jesus Christ as his bride. It was well done and he punctuated his remarks by introducing three couples from his senior's group that had all celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in the last couple of months. One couple are golfers and have played golf in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. Nice. Wayne also told the story of two medical students, one a doctor and the other a dentist who decided to join forces after graduation and open a joint practice. To save money they hired a shared receptionist. Over time, both Doctors began to develop romantic feelings for their receptionist and it became a heated battle for her affections. The dentist had a one week meeting at the American Dental Association that he had to attend and he was concerned that his rival would win her heart while he was gone. He racked his brain to think of how to keep his interests safe while he was gone and he finally hit on a plan. The day that he left for the week away, he put seven apples on the receptionist's desk. Think about it. Wayne then shared the story of the Indian who sat on the cliff watching the sunset. He couldn't figure it out until several hours later when it dawned on him.

Dad and Shirley will be on the road this week on their way to California and the car show in Pleasanton the weekend of August 25th-27th. They will stay with us on the 24th and then drive in to Pleasanton. Darla and I are off to Puerto Vallarta on the 26th for a week and Dad and Shirley will return to our house on Sunday night and stay until Wednesday. We will leave our SUV for them to drive and take a trip in to San Francisco and perhaps Monterey/Carmel depending on their whim. Unfortunately Jennifer will be in Vegas and San Diego while they are here and will not return until September 1st. Darla and I fly back on September 2nd.

Golf this weekend was fun, although I awoke at 6:15 AM on Saturday with a pounding in my ears from the diet of cards and Heineken from the night before. I took a couple of aspirin and was teeing off by 7:25. I played surprisingly well and parred the first three holes. I followed that up with a 6 on the par 3 fourth hole. I finished the front with a double-bogey on number nine after hitting my second shot in the water in front of the green protecting the short par five. I got into a groove on the backside and shot par golf with five pars, a bogey and a birdie through 16. I then went double-bogey/bogey to finish the round and shoot a 39. I shot six over par on the four par threes and ten over (82) in total. It could have been a great round instead of a good round. I played with Bob, a new friend from our life group at church. He played on his high school golf team and shot an 85. Mel also played with us and shot 86.

The barbecue was also great as most of the characters from work showed up. Kathy, one of the underwriting assistants opened her home and we had tri-tip, chicken, brauts, salads, chips, dip, desserts, etc. and had a ball. Dana, Kathy's husband, acted as the emcee and they had a jalapeno bobbing contest which the younger crowd was a part of and Heather, our personal lines underwriter, was able to pluck 17 jalapenos out of the tub of water with just her mouth in 30 seconds. It was hilarious and we got pictures for the office. They have a beautiful home in Rancho Murieta and a wonderful backyard with a pool and a "poop deck" off the back of the house with a hot tub and a great view of the rolling hills around them. The backyard has a nautical theme. The home itself is a tri-level custom with an upstairs master suite with a private office off the bathroom that looks out over the pool. They had karaoke and pool volleyball. It was a great afternoon.

I will take Wednesday afternoon off again and take Jennifer out on the ski. Darla will of course go as well and we hope to have Sara join us again. In the meantime I need to get to work. Stay well and, like the Indian, I hope your mortality has dawned on you and you are living in the light of our Saviour. Ciao

Jennifer returns from Korea

Yes, Jennifer returned home from 7 months in Korea. I don't know how her job calculates time away from home as her contract calls for overseas travel up to 75% of the time. In my calculations that would be 9 months out of the year overseas. She has a month off and then will start her job in the Concord office of Das Net. Jennifer and John, her boyfriend, both work for Das Net and they are having second thoughts about their career choice as they want to be together and there is no guarantee that they will be deployed to the same region. John's office is in New York and Jennifer's is in California. John, who lives in Las Vegas, has asked to be transferred to California, but that request has been denied. It remains to be seen how this all shakes out. They are both committed to sticking with Das Net until they can find other jobs or until they can work out the logistics of work and their relationship. We will get a chance to meet John later this month as he will come to California for two weeks.

Jennifer surprised her Mom at her bridal shower yesterday. She had told her that she was flying home on Monday and Diane bought it. Jennifer actually flew home on Friday, actually leaving Korea at 8:00PM Friday night, flying twelve hours and arriving in Sacramento at 7:30 PM Friday night. International travel can be bizarre. Jennifer coordinated with the hostess of the shower and arrived about twenty minutes after her Mom and surprised her. Jennifer called her on her computer through Skype, A VOIP (voice over internet protocal) Sunday morning from my house and acted like she was still in Korea getting packed to leave. Diane will marry for a third time and here's hoping this one sticks.

Darla and the boys went up to Lake Almanor this weekend and I stayed home to visit with Jennifer. We invited her up, but she was loathe to spend six hours in a car (to and from Almanor) on Saturday a day after spending twelve hours on the plane. I couldn't blame her. As it turned out the jet ski battery was drained again and they never got the ski into the water. I will stop and pick up a trickle charger from Kragen Auto Parts tonight and get the battery fully charged for our trip to Folsom Lake on Wednesday afternoon. David is taking a half day due to some computer changes at work and Jennifer and her friend, Sara, will join Darla and I at the lake for an afternoon of relaxing and jet skiing at the lake. Daniel starts school that day and will have to miss the outing.

Today is a bit overcast and breezy. The temperatures have remained in the upper eighties and low nineties since the heat spell. Today is supposed to top out at 90 degrees and Wednesday should be 95 degrees at the lake.

The hot weather took a huge toll on the course at Turkey Creek where I played the NCGA qualifier on Thursday. I was shocked on Tuesday when I saw how bad the course was. We'd just played there three weeks ago and it was in great shape. One of the course maintenance guys told me that they had sprayed a fungicide on several of the greens on the morning of the 116 degree day and it absolutely burned the greens up. They have about seven holes where the fairways are all but gone due to the sun baking the grass. The NCGA officials apologized for the conditions and said that if they had been informed earlier, they would have moved the tournament. Steve and I struggled to a best ball 68 which we thought was terrible, but they ended up taking four teams that shot 63, 64 and two at 67. We missed the boat by one stroke. The sad thing is we had shot a combined 62 three weeks ago albeit in wholly different conditions. The twosome that we played with had an even worse experience as they shot four under par for the first six holes and four over par for the last 12 holes to finish at 72. One of their players started the first hole by walking all over my line on the green and almost knocking my ball marker out of position. Both Steve and I jumped all over him for that. Three holes later, he played MY ball in the fairway and I coiuldn't find my drive and took an "X" on the hole. Steve parred the hole for a net birdie and I could have gone back and played my ball from where he hit it, but we were in with a net birdie already. This guy was obviously not used to tournament golf. I ended up with a 92 and Steve shot 91 in horrible conditions. Steve almost lost it when an NCGA official told him that he had to move his ball off of some newly laid sod and he went from inches off the green and a 15 foot putt for birdie to a 25 yard chip which he shanked. I told him to not take it out on the official lest we get DQ'd for his attitude. I went back to Diamond Oaks that night and shot a 39 in my twilight league to realize that all really was right in the world. It is too bad that my first experience in an NCGA qualifier was so poor, but I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to more in the future.

Work continues at a fairly frenetic pace. I hit a large renewal on August 1st to the tune of $215,000. My normal month is about $250,000-$300,000 in premium volume, so here it is the 7th and my month is made already. That's a good feeling.

Darla and I are hosting our life group at a dinner tonight at our house. We are barbecuing shish-ke-bobs and the group is bringing salads, drinks and dessert. We are trying to do a social event once a month and Bible study the rest of the month. This is our first time to host. Jennifer and the boys will join us for dinner. The group spent a lot of time praying for Jennifer while she was in the Army and it will be nice for them to meet her and hear some of her stories.

Jennifer talked to Jesse yesterday and he is doing better. He has plans to get well enough to attend a concert in Austin next month. Perhaps that is "pie in the sky", but it is a goal for him and he is working hard to rehab and get well. As soon as his neck is stable, he will undergo surgery to repair his broken shoulder. I talked to him briefly and he is such a positive kid. His outlook on life will help him to heal faster. Keep praying for him as there are costs associated with the surgery that need to be covered. There are doctors who will donate their services, but there are hospital costs that will have to be borne somehow.

I'll try to get some pictures from our trip to the lake on Wednesday to add to the blog next week. Jennifer was able to go to church with me on Sunday and it was a blessing to me. Pastor Rick came over and welcomed Jennifer home, which was nice. I hope all are doing well and leading a quiet Christian life. Ciao.