Torrey Pines, San Diego and Continuing to Live the Dream

Wow. Another great trip is in the books and I REALLY enjoyed Torrey Pines. The weather was partly cloudy and temperatures in the mid sixties. The course is absolutely beautiful and the venue is breathtaking. We flew out at 7:30 AM on Friday and arrived at 9 AM in San Diego. By the time we got our rental car (a Chrysler 300 instead of a Chrysler Pacifica SUV by the way. Now, why do we make reservations again? Perhaps only the car companies' know.) and over to the course it was about 10:30. Our tee time of 12:40 was too late to get in 18 holes and I'd tried to call and move us up, but to no avail. The guy on the line said, "Just get here early and let the starter know you'd like to get out ASAP. You'll have no problem as we've had so many cancellations because of the fires." Sure and pigs fly. We finally teed off at 12:30 after enjoying a nice breakfast in the Grille room and hitting balls at the practice range and putting. While I was on the putting green, a Japanese gentleman approached me nodding and bowing. I couldn't quite make out what he wanted and finally he pointed at my rear end and I had the paper safety seat from the rest room tucked into my pants and trailing behind me. I wasn't sure what the weather would be when I left home and had worn shorts covered by Reebok work out pants. Apparently, when I'd visited the men's room after a hearty breakfast, I'd brought the paper toilet seat cover with me and couldn't feel it as it was between my shorts and the exercise pants. Classy dude, eh?

The courses we played over the two days were tough, championship style courses and it makes me realize that my handicap is artificially low because of the level of courses that I regularly play and how well I know those courses. I shot 45+42=87 on Friday at Torrey Pines and finally figured out the speed of the greens on the back nine. I managed a birdie 3 on number ten and will watch the pros at the US Open to see how many can't match my score on that hole. The glider port off hole number three is interesting and you can see a picture of one of the human kites flying by on the tee at number 4. At one point there were about eight kites in the sky at one time flying by the beach off the cliffs next to that hole. How they keep from whacking into each other as they twist and turn in the air current is beyond me.

In the pictures above, the first picture is Mel and I. Mel is the husband of my personal lines renewal underwriter, Cora, and we have played golf together for 4 years. The second picture is of me and Boyd. Boyd is a 4 handicap and a regular in my golf group on weekends and in tournaments. Boyd is 67 years old and shot his age in a round this past May. Boyd also joined me at Pebble Beach in April. The third picture is of the course at Barona Creek in Lakeside. Barona Creek is at an Indian Casino outside San Diego and was the home to the Nike Tour Championship event in October. The course is beautiful.

We were supposed to have a foursome for the weekend, but one of Boyd's friends has a father who was just put into hospice and he had to bow out of the trip. He is a member at Barona Creek and set up the golf for us there. Unbeknownst to us, he had comped the $160 per round golf for us on Saturday, so that was a nice surprise as we arrived and were treated royally by the course. We had a 10:40 tee time and as our names were called and we were receiving instructions from the starter, one of the golf club managers approached the starter and drew him aside. I happened to overhear their conversation and the club manager told the starter that they had a VIP that wanted to get out earlier than his 11:50 tee time and to fit him in. It turns out that the "VIP" was the best friend of Oprah Winfrey's boyfriend. Hopefully, I am never that desperate that I have to use my status as the best friend of some nobody to get on a golf course.

Barona was in even better shape than Torrey, but it is located in a valley surrounded by rocky hills and is definitely second rate to the Torrey Pines venue. Again, i struggled early with a 45 on the front side, but pulled it together and had back-to-back birdies on the backside and shot 40 for an 85. Boyd, who shot 85 at Torrey, struggled to a 42 on the front, but played lights out on the back with a one under 35 for a 77. Mel shot 96 at Torrey and 91 at Barona.

I traveled with a 55 year old and a 67 year old and when I suggested that we go out to dinner in La Jolla on Friday night was shut down. Boyd didn't want to have to get back in the car and instead we opted to eat at the Sheraton. It turned out o be a good choice as we had their Prime Rib and scallops, a glass of wine, the Cajun corn chowder and a salad and paid $30 each. The hotel gave us a voucher for 50% off our dinner tab. We finished dinner at 9 PM and headed back to our rooms. Mel roomed with me and we watched the Kings-Cavaliers game on ESPN. I had to give up my tickets to the game to go to San Diego and wanted to enjoy the game. I was hooting and hollering and finally Mel rolled over and said, "Ken. I'm tired. Aren't you tired?" I was out with the party animals this weekend. I quietly watched the rest of the game and went to bed at 10:30. Wild times in San Diego.

I came home to rain and overflowing gutters. The rain was over by yesterday and I spent part of the day raking leaves and the other clearing the gutters. I have gutter guards over the entire length of my rain gutters, but small leaves and dirt still get into the gutters and mulch up and finally clog the downspouts. I hosed out the entire length of gutters and refitted the gutter guards and hopefully will be good for the rest of the rainy season. This last storm knocked down a lot of the leaves and it will take a final cold snap to knock out the remaining leaves. The city is good at collecting the leaves when I rake them and leave them in piles in the street.

Daniel was home this weekend and Darla's brother, Steve, was here from Hawaii, so the Westra clan had a Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday. I had to miss it because I was in San Diego, but the group had a great time. It was quite a storm on Saturday night and Darla and the boys had to traverse the route home from Paradise in a downpour. There was ground fog in Paradise and it was slow going coming home. They got home about 12:30 AM and I was fast asleep.

Darla has ordered a new laptop. She got in trouble at work for using her company laptop to conduct Silpada business. The lady in HR that handled the meeting is one of Darla's Silpada customer's, strangely enough. She has ordered a new HP laptop and is getting an employee discount through her friend, Missy, who works for HP.

Work awaits. it is Veteran's Day and the city of Sacramento is in Holiday mode as this is a government town and most of the population is off on a holiday. It took me about 25 minutes to drive the 18 miles to work today and the on ramps didn't even have the carpool lanes in operation today as the traffic was so light. I will close the office early today and send everyone home to their families mid afternoon. I hope you all are well. I'm off to Santa Cruz and Pasatiempo on Thursday for golf with one of my agents. My assistant, Dinda, had a premature granddaughter born on Friday with induced labor. Camille Elyse is only 2 lbs, 10 oz and has a rare vascular malformation. She is only given a 2% chance to live, so please pray for Dinda, her daughter Gina and little Camille. Ciao.

Indian Summer

It is a staple of Autumn in Sacramento and we love it. Indian Summer is back and the weather the last two days (where I spent part of both days coincidentally on the golf course) have reached the mid-eighties. The temperatures for the rest of this week will be in the mid seventies and I leave Friday morning for San Diego/La Jolla and the majesty of the Torrey Pines South golf course. It has been a tour of outstanding golf venues here in my 50th year of life and I'm not ready for it to end. I also have a tee time at Pasatiempo Golf Course in Santa Cruz next Thursday courtesy of Charles Schwab. Pasatiempo is a Class A golf course and their midweek rounds cost $200 with cart. I'm taking one of my agents and making it a marketing outing. Nice. Hopefully the weather holds.

We got good news last night and that is that Dad and Shirley will meet us in Las Vegas over the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Unfortunately they don't fly in until Saturday, so we'll only get one night with them. They couldn't get into the Polo Towers until Saturday and they are averse to paying for hotels. Jennifer is thrilled and we are planning a pizza and game night for that Saturday at Jennifer and John's house. Jennifer is doing well with the pregnancy although she told Darla she often feels like a turtle when she sleeps on her back and tries to roll over to get out of bed. I've never been pregnant (imagine that) , but Darla has and could relate to the experience and had a good laugh. I know that is hard to imagine, Darla having a good laugh, but try.

Our dog, Buddy, is getting older and spends a tremendous amount of time sleeping and he tends to stretch and hobble when he first gets up from lying down. There is a dog on the golf course who is about the same age as Buddy. He is a black lab and we used to play games with him as we waited to tee off on number 3. He'd bring us his knotted rope and pass it through the fence and we'd throw it and he'd run. Now he sits at the window of his house and slowly looks at us as we call for him. It seems at times that he gives us a little nod, but his spirit is no longer there. It's sad, but I see some of that in Buddy as well. Occasionally he gets excited about something and jumps up and down, but then sleeps for two hours afterward as if it took all of his strength to put out that energy. We still take him on walks every once in a while and he used to pull us and it was struggle for the whole length of the walk. Now he walks right beside us and is anxious to get back home when we are done. I think Darla and I will take him out tonight as we have a night off from life group.

Darla continues to work hard at her Silpada sterling silver business. She has parties all of this month and won't slow down until the first of December. In the mean time, as she has parties, I'm out playing golf. I played Saturday with the RGC board members as we had a Saturday morning breakfast meeting and then golf afterwards. I set up a high -low best ball golf game with 16 players. The split for high handicappers to low was 16 and we ended up with eight teams of high-low golfers and took the net best ball of the team. Everyone threw $5 in the pot and we had $80 which was split $50 to the winning team, $20 to second and $10 to third. The winning teams both shot 62 and we had to go to a card playoff to determine the winner. They both had the same score on the back nine and it came down to the last six holes to determine the winner. My team shot 65. I shot 40+42=82 which is right on my handicap. Sunday was the Past president's golf tournament and I shot 40+40=80 for a net 70. I had to leave for a meeting at church, but it should be in the money. I have a goal now not to ever have a double bogey. If however, I do have a double I have to manage a birdie to counter the double-bogey. Sunday, after a 40 on the front, I had a birdie on number 10 only to follow that up with a double on 11. It's not suppose to work in the opposite. I then doubled number 13 and covered that with a birdie on number 16, which was our last hole as we started on number 17 in the shotgun start at 7:30. It was a great weekend weather wise and golf wise. Bob shot a 73 yesterday for a net 68, so I was playing in high cotton with my group. Boyd had 78 and Bud shot 77.

The office continues to shine. I was talking to Dad last night and shared with him that momentum is an amazing animal. When it is going bad, it seems impossible to turn it around, but likewise, when it is going good, the momentum seems to carry over from one month to the next. I am often criticized because our expenses in Sacramento are high compared to Modesto (we are their back office and type the policies, handle the accounting, do all the file work and claims activity, etc.). Well, we just had our highest net retained month ever for the Sacramento office in October, bringing in almost $155,000 after expenses. Modesto brought in another $57,000 and we came close to our biggest month ever as a combined profit center. I'm taking the gang out to lunch on Wednesday.

Well work awaits. I've had three underwriters in my office as I was working on this chatting me up, so the salt mine awaits. I'll have tales of La Jolla and Torrey Pines next Monday. Ciao.

Back from Lake Tahoe and a short vacation.

We only took one picture on our short week in Lake Tahoe which is odd for Darla, but we were both in a total relaxation mood. You can also see that I've added pictures of the "new" living room which is now a milk chocolate color and, strangely, I sit watching television and end up craving a Hershey's bar. Go figure. She also bought the new clock, cross and Italian banner to dress up the room and add some class to our home. The cross is huge and I'm concerned that we are now Greek Orthodox or something, but Darla says that crosses are very "in vogue" at the moment. If she left it up to me, I'd have the Three Stooges golf poster hanging above the fireplace. Note the new white mantle on the fireplace. Double click on the pictures to see a larger view.

Again, Tahoe was very relaxing and I really needed the downtime after the trip to Detroit. The weather was absolutely perfect with daytime highs in the mid seventies and overnight lows in the mid twenties. I actually ended up with a slight sunburn on Tuesday. Darla went out scouting out a couple of the local boutiques for a nail appointment on Wednesday and she wanted to be able to set up her Silpada jewelry at the spa for the day and sell some items. I relaxed at the resort and ended up down at the pool with my book and a towel. I called Darla as I left the room to head down to the pool and she said she was on her way. That was 12:15 PM and I read for a bit and finally shut my eyes and slept. Darla ended up back at the resort at 2:30 PM and I ended up with a sunburn. The rays in Lake Tahoe are so intense because of the elevation. I had called Darla to remind her to grab the sunscreen from my golf bag and bring it to the pool. Oops. We ended up playing tennis, eating out, gambling and relaxing during the week. I met Bob, my friend from church and the golf club, at the resort Wednesday morning and we drove in to Carson City to pick up one of his friends (Jim) and play golf at his country club in Washoe Valley near the Montreaux Country Club. His course was difficult (a 134 slope versus our club's 121). My 9 index netted me 11 strokes at his club and I shot 44+42=86 on the day. Bob also shot 86. It was a perfect day and I enjoyed Jim and the club. Jim came down to Roseville a couple of weeks ago and played in our Invitational with Bob and they played in a foursome with Pete and I. Pete is my number one underwriter from work.

We had an evacuation on Thursday morning as the fire alarm went off at about 9:30 AM. It turns out that one of the guests had poured hot grease from the stove into a basin of water in the sink and sparked a fire. It set off the alarms and we all met in the parking lot. We had met another couple the night before in the hot tub. The husband had apologized as he slipped out of his trunks after donning a robe. I was sitting in the tub at the time and told him I was glad he had on a long robe as he squirmed out of his wet trunks. He laughed and putting on a Swedish accent, said, "Ya, we're just Europeans." That morning he made his way over to Darla and I and said that they'd had a methane explosion in their suite after using the restroom that morning. Funny guy.

We returned home on Friday night as Darla wanted a chance to relax in her own bed after being away from home all week. She left this morning for Monterey and is at a home party for Silpada as I write this. Darla had some good luck at the casinos and hit a Royal Flush for $200 on the nickel machines on Friday night. It was good to see as I had little luck all week, finally hitting a Straight Flush at the Nugget in North Lake Tahoe on Friday afternoon for $32.60 on a 25 cent bet on the nickel video poker.

I have sent a request through the San Francisco Exchange Company for a week in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving. Jennifer has invited us up for Thanksgiving and we will drive up on Wednesday the 21st of November and stay until Sunday. We plan to ask Dad and Shirley if they want to join us as well, if they can get away so soon after the trip to Austin. In fact, they are still in Austin and will fly home to Canada on Tuesday. Jennifer gave me a couple of hotel choices and we will use those as a backup in case the exchange doesn't come through. I hope we can get in on the exchange as it will only cost us $129 with the exchange instead of $140 A NIGHT at the hotel.

I am writing the blog on Saturday night partly because I have the time, but mostly because I have one of the Senior VPs from Burns in on Monday along with Harvey. I actually worked pretty closely with Irene in Detroit as I was on her team in the sales training and we were in competition with eight other teams. Our team was made up of Branch Managers and I think the goal was to get us acquainted with Irene, who is in charge of Branch Development and has been on the job a little over a year. I had the crew clean up the office and had the office management company set up to have the floors cleaned and polished prior to the visit. Hopefully the office will show well as this is Irene's first visit to our office. Harvey's office is in the middle of converting to Imaging and she is out to work with San Francisco, but asked to come out and see Ken's office as well on her trip. C'est la vie.

I played golf today in the 3rd Diamond Tourney, It is a club within our club as there is a Diamond upgrade that buys us six free rounds, exclusive tournaments with industry vendors (today was Srixon), a hat, a windshirt and ten range tokens all for $50. It's a good deal. I met with Scott, our club pro before the round and he said that he is going to give me free golf next year for every tournament we have. it is a savings to the club of about $360 as they were going to pay my green fees in 12 events. Scott has agreed to pay for all of my golf this next year, so I'm very pleased with his generous offer. I shot 39+42=81, for a net 71 and third place in today's tournament. I played with Bob, Boyd and Robert (our pro shop starter). They shot, 79, 78 and 78 respectively, so my 81 was a reflection of the talent I was playing with.

Tomorrow, Darla will be home about 2 PM and we have a Halloween event to attend at the church tomorrow night. it is Trunk or Treat, where cars are dressed up and the trunk is full of candy for the kids and each car is part of a booth with games and fun. Darla and I will work an hour at one of the booths and hand out candy. It should be fun and is an outreach of our life group.

The church continues to struggle with the resignation of about half of our church leaders. They had asked our pastor to step down and he refused, leading to a mass exodus. Pastor Rick is being tutored by the dean of our local Christian college and being held accountable by two of the senior pastors in the church. The whole disagreement has to do with Rick's management style. Apparently, he is a bit of a micro-manager and the staff rebelled. It is a mess, but the dissenters are leaving and a new staff will emerge with an emboldened and chastened pastor, who is moving the church past this event and hopefully we will end up stronger through all of this. That is the prayer. The life group leaders, including Darla and I will meet with Rick next Sunday and I'm anxious to hear what he has to say.

Well, I have a movie waiting with my name on it, so i will bid you adieu. Ciao.

A Promotion at Work!

True. It is long overdue, but I was finally promoted at the annual Branch Manager's meeting from Assistant Branch Manager to Branch Manager of both the Sacramento and Modesto offices. I still don't know who I was supposed to be assisting, but that is water under the bridge. I was gratified to be the recipient of a long standing ovation as my name was announced and I went forward at the Awards Dinner to accept my new commission. I have been long suffering in my Underwriting Manager days and more recently with my days as an Assistant Manager as I dutifully showed up at the Branch Manager meetings (this was my fourth and first as a Branch Manager) and did all of the tasks and went to all of the meetings that the Branch Managers did, but was somehow not an equal to the rest of the Managers. There were three of us out of 8 Assistant Branch Managers that actually were the de facto Branch managers of our offices. The other ABMs all were "assisting" Branch Managers (what a concept!). All three of us were promoted to Branch Manager. There is one ABM who is still a de facto Branch Manager, but he joined us last January and has to put in his time, I guess. He is in the Houston Branch. I was thrilled to finally get the recognition as a full leader in the management of our $1 Billion company. The fact that my branch has grown from $6,300,000 to $14,000,000 since 2004 when I took over might have something to do with the promotion.

The fun and rewarding thing for me is that I will no longer be compensated on my own production, but now be rewarded on the strength and profitability of my two offices. The company has a lot of new and innovative ways to drive new business and a couple of initiatives with the underwriters to increase new business production in the last couple of months. It was a fun and informative meeting this year.

I came home to a new living room as Darla had painted the walls a soft brown color and painted the mantle on the fireplace white from the stained wood look it had before. It was a surprise, but frankly, I was so tired when I got home last night that I didn't even notice that she had painted the mantle as well. It looks really nice.

I was exhausted by the time I got home at 10:40 PM last night, which happened to be 1:40 AM EST. Darla was understandably chatty and wanted to bring me up to date on what had been going on. I finally fell asleep about 12:15 AM and was up at 6:00 AM and in the office by 7:00 AM. I have to leave early today as I have my permanent crown put on for the tooth I cracked on the trip to Austin. Darla and I will leave tonight for Tahoe where we will spend the rest of the week at a timeshare at the Tahoe Beach and Ski resort. We, at one time, considered buying into the Tahoe Beach and Ski as we like it so much and is a great location in Tahoe, but with our two other time shares in Puerto Vallarta and Hawaii as well as our two weeks a year in Nuevo Vallarta, we have plenty of trading opportunities. This week is courtesy of our timeshare in Kauai. It will be nice to have some down time after the meetings. I flew in last Wednesday and it was nonstop from then on. Part of the true value of the meetings is the networking that the Managers do before and after work hours and unfortunately, they keep us busy until about 10 PM every night. Then, of course, the hospitality suite opens and getting to bed at a reasonable hour is a chore.

I flew through Las Vegas and had about an hour and forty-five minute layover. If it was longer, I would have met Jennifer for lunch, but I didn't want to go back through screening with such a tight window, so I just sat and lost money at the poker machines as I waited for the flight. I did call Jennifer and say "Hi. I'm in town." Darla and I will stay in Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving weekend and it will be good to visit with both Jennifer and John.

Well, this is short and I've actually been working on it all morning, but getting interrupted by staff and payroll, etc. I'll add some pictures next week of our trip to Tahoe. The weather looks great with highs here in the 80's and the 60's in Tahoe. Ciao.

Daniel Home for his 18th Birthday

The pictures are from Saturday night when we all went to Old Sacramento and had dinner at Fultons Underground. The restaurant is famous for their Prime Rib and we ate well. Daniel is now 18 and I no longer live in fear of what he may have done. He is his own adult now and my liability is secure. The pictures were taken at the ramp in Old Sacramento that David designed with his engineering firm. It is an access ramp for the public down to the docks at Old Sacramento. The ramps sit on a barge that floats and the ramps descend at low tide about fifty feet to the water line. The ramps are metal and obviously move with the shifting tide up and down. He also built in a storage building at the base of the ramps and it is a pretty impressive site. I'm sure the Old Sacramento Merchants Association weren't aware that the ramp was designed by a (at the time ) 19 year old boy.

I have suffered all weekend from a cold. I picked up a sore throat on Thursday and made it all the more worse by getting caught in a rainstorm on Friday at Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton. Our Golf Association, The Northern California Golf Association, had their annual meeting last Friday at Castlewood Country Club followed by golf afterward. We had rain Thursday night, but it had tapered off Friday to partly cloudy skies by the time we teed off at 12:30 PM. We got in the first four holes and a slight drizzle started. By the time we finished the fifth hole, the skies opened up and there were rivers of water covering the greens and I was soaked to the skin. Neil, our President, and I hightailed it back to the clubhouse and found some hot soup to soothe our cold. The effect of the soaking was felt all weekend as my throat got sore and then croaky, where it sounds bad, but feels better. Yesterday I was all plugged up and my sinuses were causing me major discomfort. I had aches and pains in my joints. Today, I am much better, but still have a cough and some residual sinus blockage. Hopefully, I'm better by the time I fly to Detroit Wednesday afternoon.

The Managers meeting is on this week and I couldn't have picked a better time to go. My office just completed a quarter where we won the sales contest for the third quarter with a 15% in net retained income for the quarter. Our office for the year is up 21.6% in premium and 17.94% in net retained income. I'm almost looking forward to my meeting with the CEO of our company this year. It is a good story and we continue to thrive in a tough market.

I did play golf this weekend and suffered through a foggy, cold start to the round on Saturday. I wasn't feeling well and managed a 45 on the front side, but was able to pull my game out of dry dock and shoot a 38 on the back for 83. My index has dropped to 9.0 and have little room for error in my game right now. i lost $5 to Mark on a straight up bet, but won $5 in the match play to break even.

The golf club had elections on Thursday and although I ran for President unopposed, I still managed to win the office. We have a good board for 2008 and I will appoint several positions in December. I will have my Friend, Bob Pando, appointed to the board as a member-at-large. Bob will be mirroring our Tournament Bookkeeper and will take over that position in 2009. My proposed new By-Laws were also voted in and we are no longer paying members of the board a salary, but will be paying for green fees in 2009. This is an important change for the club as we have to start filing an informational return to the IRS and we have never had our members claim the earnings from being on the board.

We are going through some pain at church right now as our pastor, Rick, who is so tremendously popular has been asked to step down by the board of Elders at the church. Apparently, his management style is that of a micro-manager and we have lost a number of key staff positions over the years. Rick, so far, has refused to step down. As a member of the church body, my concern is for the teaching in the church and Rick is an awesome teacher, in fact the best I have ever experienced. This is the Devil infiltrating our church and I pray that the leadership reach an amicable meeting of the minds on this issue. I think the church would be devastated if we lost Rick. Our Seniors' pastor, who is about 78 years old, stood up and addressed the church on this issue yesterday and he said, when he first head about the disagreement that he would take an early retirement. One of his friends pointed out that he was about 15 years late. He is sticking with us and hopes to see a positive resolution to a sorry situation.

Well, that is it for this week. I am off to the manager's meeting on Wednesday, but will be back in the office next Monday for one day before Darla and I head to Lake Tahoe for a much deserved rest. We have a condo at the Tahoe Beach and Ski Resort set up for next week. Ciao.

Jennifer is back to Las Vegas..it was a great visit!!

Jennifer's shower was a big hit on Saturday. Of course, I was out on the golf course, but I saw the pictures and heard the stories. Darla and I and Diane and her husband, Bob, went in together on a crib and changing table for the baby's room. Diane ordered the crib online and set up to have it delivered this week to Las Vegas. As it turned out, the crib was delivered on Friday and John arrived home to find the boxes on their porch. He called us to find out what was going on and we told him it was a surprise. He offered to put the crib together and send pictures to us to put in the package for Jennifer. Darla cut out the pictures and put them on a page with the e-mail from John. When Jennifer opened the package and saw the crib pictures, she was thrilled, but when Darla told her to look closer at the pictures and she realized the crib was in the baby's room at their apartment, she started to cry. She couldn't even read John's e-mail to the ladies and her friend, Sara, had to step in and take over. Sara is a great friend of Jennifer's and has two little girls already, so she bought Jennifer a baby monitor as well as a whole bag of things that new Moms need..things like thermometers for under the baby's arm, burp cloths, her own hand made extract for stretch marks, chlorine free diapers, etc., etc. Jennifer thoroughly enjoyed herself and has about $500 of gift cards to Babies R Us and Baby Gap and places like that. She will be busy when she returns to Vegas shopping. Darla's sister, Alicia, and their Mom bought Jennifer the mattress for the crib and she will be able to buy some bed clothes for the crib with her plastic money. Diane is shipping her gifts to her as she had so much she couldn't take it on the plane. Between Texas and here, Jennifer is well set up to welcome baby Samantha into the world.

Jennifer stayed with us last night and, as I write this, Darla and she are on the way to the airport. Jennifer has a 9:40 flight to Vegas on US Air. I paid for her flight home and set her up on US Air. Southwest is great, but it is a cattle call and a pregnant lady doesn't need to be jostled around in that fight for open seating. US Air has reserved seating and will let her pre-board as well. Jennifer and I went out to lunch on Thursday and ate at Fat's Dim Sum Bar in Folsom. We had a great lunch and a great visit. Last night we sat watching some TV and the football game and Jen was trying to get me to feel Samantha kick. She never did for me, but Darla was able to feel a kick as they were sitting there. Jennifer looked over at me at one point and said, "Dad, do you think all of your hair will turn gray some day?" I looked at her and said, "Why, do you plan on moving back in?"

I think Darla and I will head to Vegas over Thanksgiving and visit the kids. We thought about heading up to Canada, but with our Hawaii trip in January, we wanted to be able to spend some time with Jennifer and John and Thanksgiving will be a good time for that.

I played in our club's Invitational this weekend and invited Pete from my office out to play. He does not have a handicap and is probably about a 20. We shot 35+37=72 in the 2 man scramble format. Pete played well and even made a 20 foot putt for birdie on our last hole that saved us both $10 as we had a bet with Steve Matthews and his cousin on the match. They also shot 35+37=72 and we finished well out of the money. We played in the Peoria flight and finished with a net 72. We had two bogeys, two birdies and the rest pars. The course is in great shape as they punched the greens about a month ago and it is in good shape. The course superintendent scalped the fairways last week so he could overseed for the winter. The lunch afterward was great with tri-tip, baked beans, salad and rolls for lunch. The chef at our club was an old Army chef and seasoned the tri-tip on Friday in rock salt, olive oil and marinade and let it sit until Sunday. It was fantastic. I also played on Saturday with Bob, Boyd and a friend of Bob's who was in from Minden, Nevada for the Invitational. I shot 42+41=83 on Saturday. The club gave away hats that said "RGC Invitational" as tee prizes.

This week is the Open meeting where we will vote for the club officers on Thursday night. I am running for President this year and also adopting a change to the By Laws whereby we will no longer pay the board members a salary, but pay for selected green fees as a perk. As president, I will receive 12 green fees a year. It is equivalent to about a $500 perk. We were concerned about running afoul of the IRS by paying salaries to our board and we are, after all, a golf club so what better perquisite that paid golf?

I have the Insurance Day tomorrow at the Sacramento Convention Center. The booth came in on Friday and we will be out there this afternoon to get the booth set up with our flyers and giveaways. I have to go over to Home Depot this PM and pick up the gift certificates. I'll buy 4 $50 gift certificates. This year I'm bringing the whole staff to the I Day. They will meet us there for lunch. The California Insurance Commissioner is speaking this year. After lunch, they will all tour the booths and put their business cards in for the drawings. The exhibitors give away some pretty nice prizes with a lot of gift certificates, but also I-Pods and portable DVD players and such. It will be fun for the gang this year.

I mowed the lawn this week and decided to vacuum up the leaves that fill my yard from the park across the street. The leaf vacuums are great, but always have iffy bags that attach. I was just about finished and vacuuming up the last of the leaves when the bag blew off the vacuum and the fine particles of leaves all blew up my nose and into my throat. I was literally gagging over the mess and hacking up some disgusting bile from my throat. I must have ended up scratching my throat pretty bad, because I'm still hoarse and people think I have a cold. I was bent over gasping for breath after the incident and looked up to see three little kids in the park across the street laughing their little buns off and pointing at me. Luckily I'm old and chasing them and pummeling them wasn't an option. I'll tell you, the life of Lyon is sometimes more than I can take.

I hope all are well. I'm off to Detroit and the Managers meeting for BW next week. I leave on Wednesday and will be back Sunday night. I'll be in the office Monday and then Darla and I have a week at the Tahoe Beach and Ski condos in Lake Tahoe. I look forward to some down time with Darla. Ciao.

Jesse and Lorrie's Wedding Weekend

We got Jesse and Lorie all married up!

It was a great FAMILY time in Austin. We had some great food, good drink, great conversation, played a little golf, and celebrated the wedding of Jesse and Lorie. The weekend went fast and it seems like a blur, but we packed an awful lot into a short time span and we are really glad we went. The only change I'd have made, is that I would have planned to fly in on Saturday and fly back on Tuesday.

Most of my readers were actually at the wedding so it would be superfluous to recite in detail the wedding and the trip, but these are my thoughts and recollections, so I will give you my impressions of the weekend. One of the things that touched my heart the most this weekend was the ladies getting together and throwing Jennifer a little impromptu baby shower. It was huge for me to see the love that you all so easily showered (no pun) on Jennifer and her excitement in being loved so much by all of you. Thank you Shirley, Cheryl, Janelle, Laura and Cake. We are truly blessed to have each of you in our family.

The wedding venue was very interesting and very auspicious. The grounds were beautiful and the weather turned out to be marvelous. The ceremony was just the right length and the party afterward was tremendous. I especially enjoyed the ribbing of "Roy" Brodigan and being able to celebrate their 56 years of marriage at the wedding of his grandson. The drive up to the grounds was a bit bumpy and reminded me of Mexico. I expected some roosters and a burro to come walking along on the road leading to the estate. The decision to bus the crowd up to the estate was a good one as that winding, dirt road was a drunk driving test in action. We had to wait a bit long for the bus when we were ready to leave, but it was a mild inconvenience.

We drove back to the airport La Quinta and Jennifer decided that she needed to get another bag for her trip as her bag was over-weight when she left Vegas and she had a bunch of baby gifts to transport. Her suitcase was so full and heavy that the latch was popping open. They let her get by with it in Vegas, but a tattooed pregnant lady is not so unusual in Vegas. She didn't want to push her luck in Austin, Texas. We found a 24 hour Wal Mart and found a small case that she could pack some things into. The souls that inhabit Wal Mart at 11:30 on a Sunday night are not a crowd that I generally run with. In fact it took us almost twenty minutes in line as the checker was handling food stamps and WIC certificates. We could have gotten through the line faster If I had announced that I was an INS officer and needed to get back to work. The place would have cleared out in a heartbeat.

I was able to get the gals dropped off at the hotel, return the car gassed up to Avis and get back by shuttle to the hotel within about 20 minutes and was in bed shortly after midnight. The girls were chatty and talking about the wedding and other things. I asked for quiet and was rewarded with a stream of water from Jennifer's water bottle for my trouble. Nice.

The office hung in very nicely while I was out and we finished September up in earned premium 124.4% over the September of 2006. We were also up 138% in written premium over the same month in 2006. The office is humming and it is a good time for me to be heading to Detroit for the Managers meeting. I leave on the 17th. We have our Sacramento Big I Day next Tuesday and I'm bringing the entire office out this year for the lunch and to tour the exhibits. I think it is important for the staff to see what an I Day entails and to see how we set up our exhibit. Also, the California State Insurance Commissioner is the keynote speaker for us this year.

It has been fantastic visiting with Jennifer the last few days. She heads over to her Mom's tonight and I plan to have lunch with her on Thursday. I have to go in and have my tooth fixed tomorrow ( I cracked a molar on the trip to Texas). Jennifer's shower is Saturday and I have golf both Saturday and Sunday morning. It is our annual invitational and I have Pete from work playing with me this year. Thank you, Darryl and Cheryl, for your hospitality and it was simply fantastic visiting with the family over the weekend. I hope all are well and in lockstep with the LORD. I will add some pictures from the visit to the blog tonight. Ciao.

The Boys Are Back!!

You can see that I've added some pictures of my office to the blog. I have (surprise) a golf theme to my office with over 120 logo golf balls displayed as well as pictures of the Princeville golf course in Kauai and Pebble Beach. I have pictures of the 7 th hole at Pebble which is the par three on the bluffs that I parred and the 5th hole at Pebble, which was redesigned by Jack Nicklaus after the last squatter on Pebble Beach finally sold their house and the Pebble Beach company was finally able to straighten out the hole. They used to have to play around the home that was built on the bluff, and when the owner finally sold, the hole was redesigned with the tee box where the home used to sit. I have items from St Andrews and The US Open at both Pebble Beach and Winged Foot from 2006 when my boss went to Mamaroneck , New York and saw the US Open and brought me back some memorabilia. The logo balls are 100% courses that I have played. I always have friends that want to pick up a ball at some course on their travels and give them to me, but I only display balls from courses that I have actually played. I learned that from Dad who used to collect beer cans and only would only display cans of a brew that he actually drank. Luckily, he wasn't picky. Just kidding, Dad.

The weekend was relaxing and I enjoyed watching the Dallas Cowboys dismantle the Chicago Bears last night. it looks like the team has finally turned the corner and much of the credit goes to Wade Phillips, who has instilled a more relaxed "team" approach to football, which for some players is a nice change from the drill sergeant approach of Bill Parcells. NFL football players in 2007 are completely different from players in the seventies and eighties, when Parcells was King of the league. I think the players respected him, but some players were afraid to play on instinct and skill because the Tuna would crack on them so hard if they made a mistake. the Cowboys seem to be playing with a freer and more athletic mindset and so far it is working. Fun stuff for Cowboy fans.

I talked to both Cheryl and dad last night as we prepare for our trip to Texas this weekend for Jesse's wedding. Dad told me that Darryl quit his job at FedEx two weeks ago and is interviewing with a firm out of New York and may be moving to Atlanta, Georgia. I knew that Darryl was frustrated and unhappy at FedEx, but didn't know that he walked away from his job. I guess his boss was tough to work for and Darryl had lost 25 pounds and was working 60 hours a week with his facility short staffed. He decided to quit for his health and because he hated what he was doing. I respect that immensely and know how much courage it took to walk away from a high paying job. Darryl will land squarely on his feet, simply because he always gives 110% to the job, and frankly he is good at what he does.

Things here at work continue to go well. We are up for September and should breeze to the sales award this month. Darla and I took the office's number one agency out to dinner on Friday night. The insurance agency is a husband wife team that concentrates on contractor business and we renewed a $300,000 account with them in August and I wanted to reward them. We had a great dinner at Ruth Chris' steakhouse in Roseville. Both of them are very funny and entertaining and Darla had a blast with them. There was a couple in a booth across from us that couldn't keep their hands off each other. It was completely out of place in a fine dining establishment and even more so because the couple consisted of two males and they were perched in the ultra conservative confines of Republican Placer County. I thought that if the barrister had turned a seltzer bottle on both of them, it would have been appropriate.

I did manage a game of golf this weekend, but one of our players arrived at the course and his electric window wouldn't slide back up. We could hear the motor running, but the window was somehow off the track. The weather was iffy with rain possible and he decided to run the car over to the dealer to get it fixed rather than stay and play. Priorities. Both Boyd and I said that we would have played golf and got the car fixed afterward. I would have run to the store and got some saran wrap and taped the window shut and run to the car dealer after golf. Our tee time was 7:50 and we were off the course by 11:30. Mel decided to take his new BMW over to the dealer and get it fixed. Somehow it wasn't covered under warranty and it cost him $400 to have it repaired.

I shot 43+39=82 to Boyd's 39+35=74, but we broke even on skins as I get 11 strokes to his 4. He beat me 1 up on the front and I beat him 1 up on the back with a tie on the overall. We decided to play match play in honor of the Club Championship just completed. My second place finish was worth $75 and I'm still smarting from the defeat. Next year. My only golf goal met this year was getting to single digits in my handicap. I should drop to an 8 after this month''s play. My scores over the last three weeks are 76, 79, 79, 79, 80, 80, 82, 82, 84. I also had an 85 at Whitney Oaks, but the slope is so much higher there. I will play Whitney again tomorrow with my friend, Bob.

Bob and Vicki had a huge scare last week with their daughter, Stephanie. Stephanie is 25 and lives in LA. She went in for a routine ob gyn appointment and they found some problem with her pap smear. They ordered some test, concerned about cervical cancer. They took some sections and had them analyzed and it was a false alarm. The relief is palpable and I offered to take Bob golfing to celebrate. I got a $24 deal with cart at Whitney Oaks and look forward to playing with Bob.

Our life group on Mondays is going well and we are just starting to study the weekly sermon more in depth. We are working on the book of Hebrews, which is heady stuff. Darla has only made it to one meeting and will have to miss again tonight as she has a meeting with her foster agency that she works with.

Well, folks, that is it for this week. The blog will be a day late next week as we will be in Austin, Texas for the wedding. I look forward to seeing the family and especially to seeing Jennifer and her unborn daughter, Samantha Paige. It will be nice to spend some time together. She will fly from Austin back to Sacramento where she will spend a week with all of us, culminating in her baby shower on Saturday , the 6th of October. Ciao.

Beautiful Weather!

This is the time of year when it is so nice to be a resident of Northern California. Our daytime highs are in the mid eighties with light breezes and overnight lows are dipping into the fifties for really great sleeping weather. The temperatures drop pretty fast when the sun goes down and it is really pleasant to sit with the windows open and a nice cool air seeps into the house and makes life worth living.

Darla and I were in the Monterey Bay area Thursday and Friday. She drove down with me on Thursday morning and I played in the Monterey Bay Insurance Agents golf outing. I sponsored a hole for $275 and got an entry into the tournament. The shotgun tournament started at 1:30 PM at Salinas Golf and Country Club and we had run a MapQuest for directions. Unfortunately, and I find this fairly often, the directions given were incorrect and we got stuck in the middle of Salinas hopefully lost. I was not handling the faux paux very well and finally we stopped at a small bank and the manager there got me directions to the course. I arrived at 1:10 PM and gobbled down a cold hamburger (they had a barbecue that was hot and fresh at 12 PM). I played with two guys from the Monterey bay area and one from San Ramon. My putter was on fire and we shot a 61, which won second place and a $50 Visa gift card. Darla had joined me for dinner at the course and the $50 gift card made it in to her purse and I haven't seen it since.

We stayed at the Centrella Inn, a bed and breakfast in Pacific Grove. The picture above was taken with my cell phone as we forgot our camera at home. I also took a cellphone picture of a family of deer that invaded my golf game at Pacific Grove Golf Links. Darla and I stayed in the upstairs bedroom on the corner of the house with bay windows that look over the street. It was a relatively small room with a big claw foot tub and shower, Victorian antiques, a nice queen bed, a beautiful old armoire and, best of all, no television. We slept in on Friday, cleaned up and went down for the breakfast. It was very nice with fresh fruit, cereals, pastries and a choice of blueberry waffles, oatmeal or an apple sausage and mushroom quiche that was out of this world. The inn was built in 1889 and has 23 rooms, including five cottages that can be rented individually. It was very nice and we will stay there again. The inn is two blocks off the ocean and within a block of the shopping district.

Darla and I took a drive down to the beach, stopped and watched three guys fishing for eel and watched one haul one in and then wrestle it into a catch bin. I heard them say they were going to have pan fried eel strips for dinner. It would take five or six of the Budweiser's they were drinking to get me to eat eel. There were two local inebriates on the beach and the local constables showed up and hauled the 270 pound black guy off to the clink, leaving his friend behind. Luckily the guy agreed to go to jail, because he was bigger than the three cops put together. We took a drive down to Cannery Row and shopped the outlet mall there where I got a few new golf shirts at Izod, a hat and some shorts and a new pair of dark blue khakis from Van Huesen. Darla had shopped the day before as I was golfing and refrained from spending any more money.

Darla had been rather upset with me on my last trip to Monterey when I'd left her several times as she was shopping and wandered farther along the shops and she had to hunt for me. She sort of let me have it and let me know that she felt that I was disrespectful for not staying with her or letting her know where I was. She had several articles of clothes and had gone in to the dressing rooms when I noticed the time and knew that our meter was running out. I was torn between feeding the meter and letting her know where I was. Luckily, I sprinted out to the truck just in time to meet the meter reader who was prepared to write me a ticket. I asked him if I was too late as time had run out on the meter and he said, "Do you have a quarter?" I produced the quarter and fed the meter and he said, "It looks like you have time left. Have a nice day." I shook his hand and thanked him. When I got back to the store, Darla was standing with her hands on her hips and a look of exasperation on her face. I quickly explained the situation and she was mollified to know we saved a $50 ticket.

From there we headed back the coast to Pacific Grove and had lunch at the Fishwife restaurant. I drove up the coast to Big Sur and we went into Carmel Highlands and saw the Tickle Pink Inn and the Highlands Inn, along with the spectacular view of the ocean from the cliffs that define Carmel Highlands. I dropped Darla at 5:oo PM at her hostesses' house where she put on a Silpada party. From there I headed back to Pacific Grove Golf Links to hit balls next to the ocean. They wanted $9 for a large bucket of balls and only $20 to play the course on a super twilight rate. I opted to play the course and played the inland front nine with two balls, shooting 40 and 39 on the par 35 nine holes. The course is immaculate and known as the poor man's Pebble Beach.

I also played the final weekend of the Club Championship and played our number one player on Saturday. Ben is an 11, but always comes to play in the match play format. He proved a tough opponent as I shot 39 to his 39 on the front and led by only one hole after nine. I played exceptionally on the back and shot 37, closing Ben out on number 15 (5 and 3). Sunday I played my friend, Steve, in the final and had shot 76 on Saturday to his 86. It seemed a mismatch, but that's why we play the match. I shot 40 on the front Sunday to his 39 and he led the match one up after nine. I parred 10 and 11 to his bogeys to move one up and then parred 12 ,13 and 14 to his par, par and bogey to go two up with four to play. At that point the match was over for the guys playing with us. They elected to continue to play out the round and that was a mistake for me. One of the guys was wild off the tee and kept sculling the ball over the green. It began to get under my skin that this guy was getting in the way of our match. I double bogeyed14 and then parred 15 to Steve's bogey-birdie to knot the match all square. I then pulled this other guy aside and asked him to just let us play. He argued that he'd paid his money and wanted to continue. I told him that when we reached the green, that Steve and I would putt and he could wait until we were through. He then took five shots to reach the green and I had to wait for him to hack his way out of the trees and ended up shanking my second shot into the trees and knocking the ball over the green and taking another double bogey to Steve's par and he had me dormie with one hole to play. One of the frustrating things about the match was that I "lipped out" six putts in the course of the round. I will often have one or two lip outs during a round, but the bug was on me yesterday. I landed on the 458 yard par four finishing hole in three and had a 25 foot putt for par and Steve had a 20 foot putt. I hit a perfect putt that rolled slowly toward the hole. I had my putter in the air and was walking toward the cup when the ball did a complete 360 and stopped on the lip of the hole right at the spot that it entered the hole. I conceded the match at that point and told Steve congratulations and that I was going to my car and head home lest I throttle the idiot that got in the way of our match. He was standing off the green waiting to hit his seventh shot onto the par four when we finished putting. He shot 29 over the last four holes to completely interrupt our match. It was my fault for letting him get into my head, but as I said to Steve on the last hole as he hit his sixth shot toward the green, "Doesn't this idiot have pockets in his shorts? Pick the damn ball up." It was a tough loss for me and even harder to know that If I had won even one hole over the last four I would have guaranteed a playoff. Was it a lesson learned? I don't know. I truly feel that I lost to an inferior golfer and that were we to play nine matches more, I'd win eight of them. I finished with an 82 to Steve's 81, but if even half of the lip outs had stayed in, I'd have shot a 79. Frustrating? I'd say so.

Well, work awaits. Our month is in full swing and we are leading the sales contest for the quarter that ends September 30th. Take care. Ciao.

Hot Days and cool, clear nights..we must be in Sacramento!!

Yep. It is starting to get almost cold overnight. We sleep with the window open on the bedroom and find myself cold in the middle of the night and cuddling up in the blankets a bit more. I drove into the office this morning with the headlights on (that's actually on in the Mustang, not another reference to the cold). That is depressing. I also noticed that it was almost completely dark by 7:45 PM last night. The pool temperature has plunged from a high in the nineties to just over 80 degrees. It is still nice, but I'm sure as the nights stay cool and the daytime temperatures start to drop, the pool will soon be done for the year and we will look forward to Spring again.



Darla took Daniel down to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this weekend and got him set up in his off campus apartment. They drove down Friday afternoon and stayed in San Luis Obispo Friday and Saturday night. The hotel had problems with the air conditioner in their room and instead of blowing cold air, the heater was on and the room was about 100 degrees when they checked in. The maintenance people came in and "fixed" the unit, installed an industrial sized fan in the room and the gang went out to dinner while the unit cooled down. They got back in the evening and the air conditioner had not been fixed properly and was still blowing hot air. They finally shut off the unit, opened the door and windows and ran the fan. They had trouble sleeping as the walls and floor were so hot and the fan so loud. The hotel dropped their price from $189 a night to $109 to compensate Darla and moved them to a new room on Saturday. It didn't make up for the discomfort, but they all slept well Saturday night in air conditioned comfort. I understand they even had COLOR TV in the room. Wow.



Alicia went down with Darla on the trip as our club had our club championship this weekend. Darla's parents, Earl and Frances, were in San Luis Obispo with their fifth wheel and they all met Saturday afternoon and went to dinner that night.



Sunday was a nightmare at the off campus facility, Mustang Village, as all of the incoming freshmen were checking into the facility. They opened at 8:00 AM and there was a line outside the door at 6:30 AM. Darla and Daniel got there about 8:30 and had an hour and a half wait to get his keys and then it was a nightmare of cars and trucks moving everyone in. She said she was glad I wasn't there and nobody is happier about that than me. Daniel met two of his roommates and one of the guys is about 6'3 and 250 pounds, a clone of Daniel according to Darla. This kid ( I don't know his name) has always been the biggest kid in his school and he was thrilled to meet Daniel. The other roommate is 6'4" and probably played quarterback in high school. The three of them made quite an imposing trio. Their fourth roommate hadn't checked in, but is a surfer type with long blond hair.



I had to keep myself occupied, so played plenty of golf while Darla was gone. I played Thursday with an agent at Whitney Oaks, which is a penal golf course designed by Johnny Miller. I humbled myself in fighting through that round of golf with a 45+41=86. It was what I needed going in to the qualifier on Saturday at DO. This was my first year playing in the scratch qualifier and I really didn't want to qualify, I just wanted to get in a practice round. I went four over in the first three holes and then relaxed and shot a 42+37=79 and almost qualified as there were 8 qualifiers and the highest score taken was 77. I was moved back into my own flight and flighted as the number 2 golfer in the flight (out of eight). That meant I took on the number 7 golfer, who happens to be my tax accountant and he was coming off three months inactivity with a broken ankle. What I didn't realize is that he still has the cast on his leg and played with crutches and a walking boot. It was a no win for me as he hadn't played a round of golf in three months and I was expected to beat him soundly. I shot 42 on the front to his 45 and was only up one hole ( I had to give him two strokes and we played match play.) He was sinking 25 foot putts like they were tap ins and he had me worried. I settled down after a talk with myself and shot 38 on the back for an 80 and beat him on the 14th hole 5 and 4. He tired on the back side and shot 46 for a 91. He told me thank you for beating him as he was so tired, he couldn't make two more rounds next week. He hobbled around the course and we had to hold his crutches and get his ball out of the cup. The way he played on the front side, it was like playing the Bionic man or something. As it was, I was needled for taking so long to put away a gimp, imagine if I'd lost. So I am on to the second round and play a guy who was in our foursome and also dispatched his opponent 5&4 on the 14th. He shot 42+38=80 as well so it should be a good match on Saturday. Ben is my opponent and he joined the club the same year I did and has been on the board with me. Bob Pando won his match and is in the hunt for the title of Club Champion in the scratch flight. Boyd lost 1 up on the final hole. Steve Matthews is in my flight and alive for the title. If we both win our matches on Saturday, we will play for the title on Sunday.



My webmaster quit on me last week. I have changed the By Laws of the club to eliminate salaries and make all compensation green fees only. I strongly believe that a volunteer club should not be paying it's board members a salary for their volunteer work. I reworked the By Laws to require the Board members to be at a fixed number of tournaments each year and the club will pay their green fees for those tournaments. The net savings to the club is about $600 a year and the board members who were not salaried will be given a Rose Card that gets them two free rounds of golf and a 10% savings on green fees and food in the restaurant. The webmaster was not at the board meetings where I discussed my proposal and it was agreed to by the board. He went off at the meeting where the proposal was brought before the board for a formal vote. He was particularly upset with me for not calling him to tell him about the By Law change and springing it on him at the meeting. He chewed me out during the meeting to the point that several board members attacked him for missing so many meetings. The proposal passed 13-0, but it didn't stop him from grabbing me in the parking lot and continuing to harangue me. I finally shut him down and went home. He sent the board a message the next day stepping down at the end of the year.



I immediately sent an e-mail to the club soliciting volunteers to work the web next year. I have three great candidates, including the current webmaster for the Department of Justice in Sacramento. I will interview each of them, but will likely pick him. The current webmaster will train him for the rest of the year and the new webmaster will take over in 2008. He will get six green fees during the year as compensation for his work on the board (a $240 stipend).



This week, I will be up in Redding tomorrow for the Shasta I Day golf event. Back in the office Wednesday and then off Thursday and Friday in Monterey for the Monterey Bay Insurance Agents Golf Event. Next weekend is two days of golf in the finals of the club championship. I will be traversing the state this week and will see a good number of our agents in these two events. Darla will go to Monterey with me and we are staying at a nice bed and breakfast in Pacific Grove Thursday night. The Victorian mansion was built in 1889 and we will be staying in one of the Victorian rooms with feather beds and antiques. It will be a blast. The website is http://www.centrellainn.com/.



We start our new Life Group tonight with Bob and Vicki Pando. It will be a mostly social gathering tonight as we get to know the new members of our group and set some guidelines for our group going forward. It will be nice to get back into the Word and being part of a life group after the break this Summer. It's also nice to have football back. I hope you are all well. Jennifer is fat and happy. Check out her blog at the link to the right of this entry. Dad and Shirley should be getting back from their trip this week and we look forward to seeing the family in Austin at the end of this month. Ciao.

End of Summer...Not quite yet!

We spent part of the weekend up at Bullard's Bar, a reservoir above Marysville and outside of Grass Valley. The lakes in our area, including Folsom Lake have released so much water that they are now 5 MPH only lakes and only fishing boats are allowed to dock at the lake. You can see by the picture of a brooding David that even Bullard's Bar is lower than normal as the water line on the dam indicates. The lake was really nice and even has a waterfall about 4 miles up the lake that adds a bit of serenity to the scene. I took the jet ski up to the waterfall and checked it out after some boaters on the lake told us about it. Bullard's Bar has boat camping and is a nice spot to relax. We found a nice flat spot on the shore and set up for the day with Earl's boat and our jet ski.

The outing was not without it's problems as we once again put the ski into the water without the drain plugs being put back in. We were driving from the dock out to the middle of the lake when I noticed Darla and Daniel riding low on the ski. I told them to pull it over to the shore and check the plugs. Sure enough, they were out and the hull was already up to about ten inches of water. David and Daniel were able to wrestle the ski up the bank far enough to let the hull drain and Darla bailed water out. The electrical never got submerged so we dodged a bullet and the ski ran great all afternoon.

I played two games of golf this past week, one on Thursday before our fantasy football draft for the golf club. I shot 40+41= 81 on Thursday and then shot 42+41 on Saturday in the Labor Day tournament. I had three birdies on the backside to go with two double bogeys and walked away out of the money in the tournament, but with $36 on skin money. More importantly, I improved my year long eclectic score to 67, down from 70 with the birdies. The eclectic is a tournament whereby we keep the best scores on each hole throughout the year and then use that score as a final tournament at the end of the year. Right now, with my 9.9 index, I have a net 56 in the tournament. I won it last year with a net 55 in my flight, so have a little work to do yet.

I was in Modesto on Friday and interviewed for a new Underwriting Assistant. I took the gang out to lunch afterward and Darla asked me to stop by her Aunt's house to pick up some jewelry that was sent there accidentally. She also asked that I stop by and see her Grandfather, Andy and his wife Liz, who live in an independent living facility up the street from her Aunt Tracy. I called Andy to ask if it was okay to come by and visit. His hearing is not what it used to be (he is 87 after all) and he couldn't figure out who I was, but finally said, "if you know where I live, come on over". We had a nice visit and I think they appreciated the company.

I have set up my trip to Torrey Pines in November. Darla won't go with me as she is so low on vacation time. I will bring my friend, Mel Padeirnos, along with Boyd and one of Boyd's friends. We fly to San Diego at 8:15 AM on November 9th, play Torrey Pines that afternoon at 12:40 PM, stay overnight and play a course in Carlsbad Saturday morning and fly home Saturday night at 6:00 PM. It is a quick turnaround, but should be a blast. The US Open is being played at Torrey Pines in 2008 and we wanted to have a go at the course before that. It will be more fun to watch the Open next year remembering having played the course. So, this year, I've played Pebble Beach, the 2009 President's Cup venue (Harding Park) and will play the 2008 US Open venue at Torrey Pines in November. It's all good.

I had a waterline break at the house last week. I was relaxing at the house on Monday talking to a friend on the phone, when some neighbors knocked on the front door. A sprinkler valve had worked loose from the inlet and I had a geyser spraying all over the front of the house and filling the front planter with about 8 inches of water. I shut the water down and ended up fixing the break on Friday afternoon. I had to hand water the lawn all week until I got it fixed.

We have once again set a new record at work for production in August and wrote $1,393,605 with $211,909 in earned income for the month. We were up almost 19% in earned income for the month. I will take the gang out to a rib restaurant up in El Dorado tomorrow. We also have Cora, Mel's wife, starting back with us this week in our personal lines department so we will have several events to celebrate tomorrow.

Darla is taking Daniel down to Cal Poly on the weekend to get him set up in his new apartment. They leave Friday afternoon and Darla will be back on Sunday night. I play in the club championship on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is scratch qualifying and I am in the scratch qualifier for the first time this year, but it is more a chance to practice for the championship that starts on Sunday. If I make the scratch flight, I will quickly go down to defeat at the hands of some 3 handicapper like Boyd or a 5 like Bob Pando. it will be a good experience and give me some stellar competition to prepare for the championship.

Daniel is coming by my office today and we will have lunch together. I am buying him a haircut with my Hawaiian barber who gives the best head and neck massage as part of his service.

Well, that is the news that is fit to blog to the moment. Have a good week. Ciao.