Andy's funeral: Darla did just great on the Eulogy

Darla was understandably a bit nervous before the funeral, but what a great and understated job she did explaining her grandfather's roots and what made him so special to her. When she read the eulogy to me two nights before the funeral, she was emotional and cried and I told her that she had to work through those emotions. That if she was emotional during the eulogy, all that anyone would see or hear would be her discomfort. If she wanted to do her grandfather justice and be able to tell his story, she had to relax. Darla was genuine, relaxed and even extemporaneous in her comments. She laughed at some memories and stressed some points about his grace as a husband when his first wife suffered from Alzheimer's. She had a strong set of themes in the eulogy and touched on each of them extremely well. I was very proud of her courage and her delivery that day. She heard many good comments from friends and relatives and it went off well.

I was a pallbearer, along with both boys, two nephews of Andy's and Darla's brother, Steve, who flew home from Hawaii with his wife, Kristen, for the funeral. We headed from the funeral home to the graveside service, where Andy was buried beside his parents and next to his first wife, Effie. Andy's widow, Liz, attended on her first foray out of the convalescent home. She was gracious and extremely alert and touched by the funeral. Her comment on Darla's eulogy was "Beautiful!" There is a picture of Liz in the silver car above.

I was able to meet Darla's Uncle Gene and his partner, Jim, for the first time. We also were able to visit with members of the extended family that I haven't seen for years and others that I met for the first time. The reception afterward was nice with jello and ham rolls, potato salad and orange punch and cookies. I went over to my Modesto office afterward and checked in with them before heading home.

We hosted the family to a barbecue and swim outing at our house the next day. David had left for Montana, but his cousin, Shea, was there and Daniel came by for lunch before heading to work. We had Darla's folks here as well. Their house is still torn up from the water damage and they are working on laying wood flooring in the entry, kitchen and family room. The carpet will follow later and the interior office is framed and sheetrocked. All of the sheetrock is done and painting will come soon. Earl has decided to have his cabinets redone during this process. They obviously couldn't host everyone, so asked if we would. I barbecued hamburgers and we relaxed in the pool afterward.

I played golf both Saturday and Sunday and struggled a bit both days. I shot a pair of 84's, but it was how, not how much that was the problem. In today's tournament, I fell apart on the front nine with four double-bogeys and limped in with a 45, but pulled it together on the back nine with three bogeys and six pars for a 39. I hung around and helped with the scoring for the blind draw two-man best ball. If I'd shot 39+45 instead of the other way around, I would have been in the parking lot turning over cars. Saturday was 41+43=84 at Woodcreek in a "fall down the stairs" back nine that included four "lip out" putts. We teed off at 6:28 AM on Saturday which allowed me to get home in time for the barbecue. I had a strange experience when I approached the tee at 6:20 AM to drop my cart and walk over to the putting green, the starter stopped me and asked me if I was Manuel Fernandez. Apparently he was waiting for the fourth player in that group. I looked at him and said, "Do I look like a Manuel Fernandez?" I think I'm getting too much sun this Summer.

I forgot last week to mention the hassle we had getting out of Almanor. I went down early to pull our jet ski out of the lake. When I pulled it up to the cabin it was dragging and I found out we had a flat tire. Darla and I drove out to Chester and picked up a can of "Fix It" flat repair that did the trick. 45 minutes later, Alicia pulled Don's boat out of the water and also had a flat tire on the trailer. She drove into Chester where they found a defective valve stem and had her on the road in 30 minutes. That was a strange end to a good trip.

Samantha called us on Saturday while we had the gang over and I visited with Jennifer for awhile. She and John were moving into their new home. She was stoked. By the way, when I say Samantha called, it's true. She got ahold of Jennifer's phone and speed dialed my number. I'm guessing it wasn't by accident. I told Jenn to update her blog and get some pictures of Samantha on their as well as more pictures of their new house.

Well, it is Sunday night and Darla is waiting for me on the couch. Gotta go. Ciao.

Almanor is in the can, Basil Cell carcinoma is zapped off my back and God rest your soul, Andrew Keuning!

Darla's grandpa, Andrew, died last night at the age of 89 from complications of pneumonia. He had the car accident on June 24th and had made great strides toward recuperating. In fact, he had been released from the hospital last week and was put into a convalescent home along with his wife, Liz. Unfortunately he had heart disease and swelling in his extremities. They moved him back into ICU at the hospital on the weekend and his heart finally gave out. Andy was a wonderful Christian man and he will be missed at our family gatherings. I enjoyed his prayers that were always spiced with many thees, thous, yeahs and yees and spoke of a simpler time. Darla and the boys had planned to go to Modesto and see him today, but they were a day late and now the funeral is Friday.

You can see smoke on the water in the pictures of Shea (Darla's niece) and Darla above, but the weather on our trip to Lake Almanor was mostly outstanding. Darla proved that she is still one tough mother by wakeboarding this year. I rode the jet ski and managed to (shocker!) get in a game of golf while we were there. I still bore the imprint of the sliced and diced mole on my back and had it covered with a bandage during the trip. Darla cleaned it and scraped it a little harder than I thought she needed to each night. I did spend a good portion of the trip on the dock reading or on the boat (while it was moored) sleeping, but Darla made sure that I was appropriately lubed and SPF'ed before I let my fresh meat out into the sunlight. Darla's parents came along on the trip, but arrived a day late and left on Wednesday.

Earl and Frances suffered a loss on their home during the fires. They were evacuated twice from their home because of the fire and on their last evacuation, a pipe burst in the inside atrium of their home and water poured throughout the house and downstairs and finally out of the garage. Someone finally noticed it and got the water shut off, but the inside of their home is a mess. The firefighters pulled back the carpets and pushed all of their furnishings to one side of each room and Frances was rather exercised looking at the mess that was her home. Earl has met with the contractors and they are in the process of pulling the old floor coverings and doing repairs to the sheetrock and baseboards. They are rebuilding the house to eliminate the atrium and make that area a small office.

Daniel came up with us from Saturday until just Monday as he has a job working in a warehouse testing and then packaging the credit card swipe machines. His job pays really well, but will end on July 31st as the contract will be fulfilled by then. He may have a chance to continue with them beyond that if they get another contract, but perhaps not. He works from 3 PM to midnight daily.

David has left his job at the engineering firm and plans to do some traveling this Summer. He will leave for Montana and a visit with aunts, uncles and cousins on Friday after the funeral. They have a backpacking trip in Montana planned leaving on Sunday. He will stay about two weeks and then will drive north to Canada and a visit with Dad and Shirley. I think Dad will be amazed at David's maturity and depth of character as they visit together. David is a 21 year old that will make it well in life. He has a great foundation in the Lord and a good work ethic, both are things that are sorely missing in today's generation and highly sought after by employers. His coworkers at Haulsten took David to lunch on his last day and presented him with a steel holder for his architectural drawings. David has spent the last three years designing docks, gangways and metal walkways and awnings and the holder was built out of the material used as the undercarriage of the walkways. It is about 2 cubic feet in total size and probably weighs twenty pounds. They will miss him and I think he will miss the job. He knows that they will welcome him back next Summer, but he wants to perhaps branch out and work with a different architectural firm or engineering company in the San Luis Obispo area next year.

I got home from Almanor and in the mail waiting for me were the results from the biopsy and I have (or had at this point) a basil cell carcinoma on my back. They had me scheduled for electrosurgery at 11:15 AM today at the dermatology clinic. I wanted to reschedule as the timing is terrible for me just coming off vacation, but Darla put her foot down and said, "I don't think so, bucko!" I went on the internet and googled basil cell carcinoma and after experiencing far too many pictures of bleeding moles and red rimmed protrusions on faces and necks, heads, arms, backs and shoulders, I found out that basil cell is the most common form of skin cancer with over 500,000 cases handled each year and also is not a melanoma, which is the cancer that lead to Mom's premature death. I went into the office this morning and got the call from Darla about Andy. I then worked until 10:45, eating three turkey tacos about ten thirty to ward off the possible fainting spells that come with loss of blood. The procedure was mostly benign (good word, eh?) with the most pain coming from the sting of the shots into my back. The doctor scraped and branded my back with an electric prod, burning the skin and cauterizing the cancerous cells. There is nothing quite as exciting as the smell of your own flesh burning..sort of like chicken. I will go back to the dermatologist in six months to make sure the cancer is gonzo, but this procedure takes care of over 95% of the cases, so I feel good about my prognosis.

I did play golf in Almanor at the Bailey Creek resort course, playing as part of a six man group and shooting the low score of 84. It is a tough course with a lot of sand, water and hills. Darla got home this weekend and hosted a jewelry party and kicked me out of the house. I went over to Diamond Oaks and hooked up with two other singles who I spent the round trying to get them to join our club. I managed to shoot 40+38=78 for my best round in a couple of months. It was a great day with temperatures in the low eighties and no smoke in the air. It was nice to shoot a good score and be striking the ball so well. I finished with four pars and a bogey for the 38 on the back side.

Jennifer and John will likely be in their new home this weekend. They are approved and the holdup has been some repairs on the home. They have a freon leak in the a/c (that's BIG in Las Vegas) and that is scheduled to be fixed this week. They also have a portion of the roof that is damaged and needs to be repaired. Right now the escrow is being held up and they finally agreed to move forward with money for the repairs held out of the loan amount until the repairs are complete. John should sign on the house this week and they plan to move in over the weekend. Jennifer is very excited.

Darla and I have booked flights to Vegas arriving on Jennifer's birthday, August 28th, and staying over the Labor Day weekend and arriving back home on the 2nd of September. I really need to get my Samantha fix and look forward to seeing the kid's house and having Jennifer show me around her workplace. Jenn is working with the union and doing electrical wiring on the new civic center in Vegas located just off the strip. Her team works in a basement area and she has several apprentices working for her. John plans to also join the union and work on the civic center after they close on the house. His job has slowed way down as he is working on entertainment centers and home theaters in upper scale homes. He can come into the union at a team leader level and make some good money. Jennifer enjoys what she is doing and doesn't want to work on John's team. Good call, baby girl. I'd leave Darla off my work team as well. It gives us something to talk about at night instead of our combined work.

Well, that is it for now. We'll be off to a funeral on Friday and I'll touch base with my satellite office in Modesto after that. Take care and be well. Ciao.

Vacation, Smoky skies and Skin Cancer

Quite a title, eh? Darla noticed an odd skin growth on my back while we were in Mexico. I set up an appointment with my physician and she took one look and sent me to a dermatologist. That scared me a little bit with what happened to Mom. I went to the dermatologist on Thursday afternoon and he immediately did a shave biopsy, where they numb the area and cut it even with your skin line with a razor blade. I bled like a stuck pig and then started to shake and almost passed out. The nurse said my face went white as a sheet. They brought me some cranberry juice and I was fine five minutes later. I was sweating like a teenager on his first date and clammy hot. It didn't help that our air in Sacramento is smoke filled from all of the fires in our state and it was 108 degrees on Thursday. I will get the results next week, but the doctor confirmed that it is skin cancer and he may need me to come back in and do a "scrape" of the area. I had only eaten a tuna fish sandwich all day and that likely compounded my problem with fainting. I'll make sure I have a rib eye or something if I have to go back for the scrape, which really doesn't sound too pleasant, does it?

We are off to Almanor tomorrow and have to drive about 90 minutes out of our way to get around all of the wildland fires. There are still over 300 fires burning in our state. Some have suggested that the fires are because the state allowed gay marriages effective July 1st, but I have a merciful, gracious God and He wouldn't punish innocent homeowners because gays want to get married in this goofball state of ours. We will drive up to Truckee and then take Highway 89 across the top of the Sierras to Lake Almanor. The 3.5 hour drive will be closer to 5 hours tomorrow.

Well that's it for now. I'll add more next weekend after our trip. Ciao.

I can't get used to working..we're going back on Vacation

Yes. Believe it or not, we leave for a week up in Lake Almanor next week. The fires right now are threatening the trip as Highway 70, the Feather River Highway, is closed due to remnants of the fire having caused a weakening of the hills next to the roadway and the potential for rockslides. Cal Trans is working on the problem and hope to have it fixed soon. We will take the jet ski with us, but I told the boys that I will pay for the first tank of gas (about $175 for the tank and two five gallon containers of gas) and they are on their own after that. David has more money than the local government and Daniel seems terminally incapable of finding a job.

Darla's grandpa, Andy, is doing amazingly well after his accident. He is out of his medically induced coma, has been on his feet and is out of the woods medically speaking. He still hasn't seen his wife, Liz, as she is in a care facility after the accident. Darla has been to Modesto several times to see both Andy and Liz and they are both doing miraculously well. He wants to go home, but I'm not sure either of them will ever be able to return to their little home at the retirement facility. It is more than likely that they will require a convalescent facility with 24 hour care.

The other picture is of the back yard. The cement stain that I put down several months ago was beginning to wear out in spots as I didn't seal it. I sealed the stain last year with a solvent based sealer and it turned out terrible. I talked to the rep at the Spec West facility (they specialize in concrete applications and products) and he said that I should try a water based sealer, but that he only had 5 gallon pails in the store at $106. I went to Home Depot and got three gallons of the Behr "wet look" water based cement sealer and it worked like a charm. It gives the stain a "wet" look and seals it from water and the elements. It even has a UV blocker and is supposed to last for two years. I own stock in the parent of Behr, MASCO products. They also have Delta faucets, Kraftmaid cabinets, Millgard windows, Liberty Hardware, Arrow Fasteners, American Shower and Bath, and Cobra Products, among many others. Buying Masco was like diversifying into the entire Home Improvement products industry.

You can also see the ground cover around the pool that has grown unbelievable this Spring and Summer. The ground cover has grown as high as two feet in some areas and I have to be constantly pruning it. It has little red flowers on it and the bees come from miles around to taste the nectar. You can also see a little white planter full of the red plants that used to grow in front of the pool. Those plants died off in the winter, but we still get hundreds of little volunteers sprouting up in the ground cover and I decided to plant some of them to see if they would grow and amazingly, they did.

Darla and I were up early this morning for church, but the boys played the part of heathens and slept in until noon. I have trouble praising that sort of laziness and just shake my head when they finally stumble out of bed and look to their Mom for food. The sermon this morning was about Faith and Hope, the crux being that without a faith in God there is no Hope. Christians are often criticized, but materialists who live just for today are dead inside. There is no hope for the future, because there is no future. Sad isn't it?

I played golf yesterday at Cherry Island and shot 42+41=83, a frustrating round that could have been much worse save for about four putts that I made of over 20 feet. I have several golf excursions planned for this year including Monterey in August, the Serrano Country Club three day invitational in September, the NCGA second round qualifier that I play in August 21, a President's NCGA meeting and golf outing at Catta Vadera CC August 18th, and then the coup de grace, a three day outing to Bandon Dunes on the coast in Bandon, Oregon the first week in October. The three Bandon courses are all rated in the top fifty course in the United States. My golf tour of the United States continues. Next year: Myrtle Beach?

We had so much fun in Mexico this year. I really hope we can get Darryl and Cheryl, Randy and Cake, and Dad and Shirley to join us next Fall. The Nicklaus redesign will be done and we can play golf and relax in paradise. We talked about doing it this year, but couldn't get a commitment. What is it we all work for, but vacation and relaxing. I know that Darla and I will be back and hope you can all work it out in your schedules as well.

Little Samantha continues to grow and prosper. She is now crawling and watching her on the Skype is more of a challenge as she toddles to and fro in and out of the camera range. She is adorable. Jen put her in a baby "jump up" that hangs from the door jamb and Samantha was kicking and jumping like a jumping bean. There is a reason that babies are born to younger women as we watched Jennifer chase her down and bring her back to the camera. Jennifer and John will close on their house this week and hopefully be moving in next weekend. Darla and I will be there in August to see them and celebrate Jennifer's birthday. We are looking at being there perhaps the 14th - 18th, so if Dad and Shirley want to plan a Vegas outing near then, we will be in town.

Well, again, we will be in Almanor next week, but I will try to get to the blog sometime during that week. Be happy and content in your lives. Ciao.

Fun in the Sun in Nuevo Vallarta

We are back from Mexico and we had a grand old time. The group that joined us is (using the Pipi's picture with the guys wearing the hats: Bob and Vicki, us, Rick and Jan and Neil and Lilly. It was a great group and we all got along famously. Often these trips are great on paper and then you get to your destination and find out someone is a PIA and complains about everything. We had our share of struggles and trying times on the trip, but the couples were all great and Darla and I were thrilled with the gang.

The trip started out with a 4 AM call from the airline telling us that our Sacramento flight to Phoenix was delayed three hours which would cause us to miss our connecting flight to Puerto Vallarta. Rick and Jan and Neil and Lilly were on our flight. Bob and Vicki, who have never been to Mexico were on a flight out of San Jose and had no problems. We stood in line at the airport for an hour and a half at 5 AM trying to work out a solution to our problem. Neil and Lilly managed to get on a later flight to Puerto Vallarta, but Rick and Jan and Darla and I were stuck in Phoenix overnight. We tried hard to get on another flight and even worked with the corporate office in Phoenix, but we were screwed. Neil offered to give up his flight to us, but US Air was not accommodating and did not allow that. All of the reservations and rooms were in my name as the owner at the Grupo Mayan. I called them and they asked me to FAX a list of our guests along with a copy of my ID and they would check them in. US Air tried to FAX that information to them, but their FAX machine does not allow international faxes (they fly all over Mexico and Latin America). US Air originally told me that they didn't have any rooms available for Darla and I in Phoenix and we'd have to book and pay for our own rooms. I raised a bit of a loud stink and amazingly they got us into the same hotel as Rick and Jan at no charge. We checked into the hotel about 11:00 AM and spent the first day of our vacation in the 114 degrees of Phoenix, Arizona. The amazing part of the blast furnace of cactus and desert is that some people CHOOSE to live there. It is a great place about four months of the year and a hell hole the rest of the time. We read books and sat in the pool and waited for the cooling 104 degrees of sunset to go to dinner.

Rick and Jan had a 10:00 AM flight and Darla and I caught the 12:00 PM flight to PV. Funny that we were the hosts in Mexico and got there last. We finally arrived at the resort about 27 hours late and were ready to relax and enjoy our vacation. We went to dinner at Brasil, a restaurant in Nuevo Vallarta that serves food in a Brazilian fashion. We ate salads and some appetizers and then the show started. They brought us meat on swords about every ten minutes. They served rib eye, chicken, New York steak, pork loin, sirloin, filet mignon, potatoes, onions, peppers, and more. The funny thing was when they finally stopped and we said, "No mas!", the waiter came out and asked us what we wanted to order after all of the "samples". We had a good laugh and I ordered another serving of the filet, which was excellent. True to Mexico, the fare for the dinner was $22 a person. Amazing.

We played four rounds of golf while in Mexico and only ended up playing one away from the resort. The resort course Golf Vallarta, is so immaculately maintained that the fairways are like carpets. Every group has at least one caddy and the caddies work hard to repair ball marks and replace divots and fill in sand mix in lower divots. The course was amazing. We had planned to play three rounds in town, but cancelled those right away. We did play the Nicklaus course up at Vista Vallarta in the mountains east of Puerto Vallarta. It was about a thirty minute drive from the resort and as lush and green as you could imagine. It rained almost every night and Monday we awoke to 85 degrees and a constant drizzle. We decided to push on and drove up tot Vista Vallarta where the rain was supposed to be heavier and the rain stopped and it was partly cloudy and about 89 degrees the rest of the day. I shot 91 at the Nicklaus course and Bob shot 85. Our companions were both over 100 as the rough is as thick and impossible as Torrey Pines. It is Bermuda grass and the grass is about four inches long and too soft to support a golf ball so it buries in the rough and being Bermuda, has fingers of roots that tend to grab and hold the club as you swing through. It was a frustrating day of golf and as one who works for a living, the penal rough at Vista Vallarta was too much. I shot 84, 83 and 82 at Golf Vallarta and enjoyed the rounds much more.

Bob picked up a case of Montezuma's revenge on Tuesday night as we went into town and had large Edsel sized margaritas and chips and guacamole made table side. We then walked down to the beach side restaurants and shops, finally catch a taxi and having him take us up to the El Panorama restaurant, which sits in the hills above the city of Puerto Vallarta and provides a perfect view of the sunset. Our reservations were for 7:30 PM and we arrived shortly after 7:00 PM and were seated on a window table where the sun was blazing on us for an hour before sunset. The gang were nice enough to host our dinner that night in appreciation of our planning the trip. The small restaurants and bars in Puerto Vallarta have questionable water supplies and Bob had some ice for his soda and likely picked up the bug there.

He missed golf Wednesday morning after being up all night on the throne. We finished nine holes and saw Bob waiting for us. He was sitting on the steps next to the 9th green with his arms resting on his legs. Rick said, "that's probably the position he was in most of the night." He was still suffering the effects of the "curse", yet managed somehow to shoot a 36 on the back side and clean us out on bets.

Darla ran into a group leaving the resort on Wednesday morning and they had bought the "meal plan" that works out to about $22 per dinner or lunch and provides an appetizer, a main course and dessert at each meal. We had bought into the plan, but only had three dinners or lunches per couple. The group leaving gave Darla another 12 dinners/lunches and six breakfasts. We ended up staying at the resort the rest of the time for dinners. They have an Italian restaurant, Tramonto, that served Chateaubriand for two and rib eye steak, seafood and pasta dishes. We also ate at a beach side restaurant whose specialty was seafood and ate the rib eye and lobster tail surf and turf that was listed on the menu for $54. The half lobster was $72 and several of our party availed themselves of that. The meal plan is the best way to go as you can eat really well and not worry about the prices on the menu. The appetizers, salads and soups were excellent and the service absolutely top drawer.

The gang met every afternoon at 4:00 PM at the pool bar for happy hour. The couples would go off and do things alone or in groups of four, but meet every day for the two-for-one drink specials. The first picture above was taken by our bartender at the pool bar. The second picture was taken at one of the restaurants at the resort when we ate outside. The third and fourth pictures were taken at Pipis and the final picture was taken at the balcony of the El Panorama restaurant.

The only real problem with the vacation was the flight problem out of Sacramento. The rest of the story is that the flight crew had arrived late the night before on a flight from the Midwest and FAA regulations require the crew to have a minimum of eight hours of rest. Southwest Airlines would have brought in another crew, but US Air is not quite that savvy. The airline industry is hurting in a huge way and flights are being cancelled routinely now if they aren't full. Our way of traveling will have to change as people will miss weddings and meetings as the airlines dictate how and when they will fly routes. Most of the major airlines have already reduced service, put in baggage charges and cut routes deeply in some markets. American Airlines just pulled out of eight airports including Oakland. it is a sad state of affairs, but none of the airlines are making money and the cost to put fuel in an airliner is incredibly high.

We did have some bad news while we were gone. Andy Kuening, Darla's maternal grandfather was in a car accident on Tuesday. He was driving to the Waffle House as he does every day with his 88 year old wife, Liz (Andy is 89), He turned across traffic and did not see another truck that was doing 45 miles an hour in the 35 MPH zone and was tee-boned. His wife was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown under the dash and her right foot was severed. Andy was thrown into the steering wheel (his 1986 Accord did not have airbags) and broke multiple ribs and suffered a hairline crack in his neck. His kidneys were lacerated and his lung was bruised. He had been in a medically induced coma until today, but is now awake and in a great deal of pain. His wife is in a different hospital and had her foot reattached and is in a cast. She is doing surprisingly well and Darla visited them both today. I went with Darla yesterday to see her grandfather. Pray for God's mercy and God's will in this situation. It is very difficult.

Well, there will be more to follow and more to say as the weeks stretch on. It was a marvelous vacation and even so, it's good to be home. I hope you are all well and happy. Ciao.

Once again, the Blog is going on Vacation to Mexico

I just finished watching the TIVO of Tiger Woods winning his 14th major and 3rd US Open. I was there on Friday and watched Tiger limp around the 7,600 yards of Torrey Pines and I am even more impressed with him as an athlete. The crowds that surround him, from security and media people, to the throngs of gallery are unbelievable. How he focuses as well as he does in that zoo is amazing. He had at least 60 cameramen running ahead of him and taking pictures. There were at least ten San Diego PD officers, five television cameras, seven reporters from NBC, XM Satellite, Sportscenter and some Japanese reporter. Shutters are popping on every shot that he makes. We sat and watched him on hole number 14 on Friday and he hit a pull to the left that buried in high rough. He absolutley killed a shot from about 170 yards into the greenside bunker where he chipped on to the green and made his par. His swing out of the heavy rough was all out and he winced in pain as his surgically repaired left knee buckled on him. We had set up early on 14 and wached the groups come through and there was little buzz, but after Tiger eagled 13, the swarm arrived and pushed us up against the ropes and the police were forced into crowd control.

I loved being at the US Open and enjoy the memory, but it is no way to watch a golf tournament as everything is happening on other holes and you pick up bits and pieces off leaderboards and some satellite scoring machines handed out to American Express cardholders. The crowds were huge with 52,000 of us on Friday holding our $150 tickets. I flew in with one of my top agents early Friday morning from Sacramento. We were met by our host who handed us little picnic backpacks filled with a thermos, salt and pepper, two metal drinking cups and a golf towel and a dozen nike Karma balls. We drove from the airport out to Qualcom stadium where we caught the shuttle bus to Torrey Pines. They dropped us off at the kite airfield, where the human kites usually fly up and over the golf course. The airfield was closed during the open because of the need for parking and because of the blimps in the sky above the course. We had a nice $45 lunch at the Trophy Club behind the number two tee box, that was exclusive to Trphy Club ticketholders, It was an intimate lunch with 5,000 of our closest friends. I bought lunch and Rich bought us CC and ginger ales to walk the course with. It was an event for sure.

Work has been a struggle lately as we are in a downsizing mode and I've had to let four emplyees go. It is exceedingly difficult, but a necessary evil in these times of increased competition, lower prices and squeezed margins. I have moved from a staff of 23 at our peak to a staff of 16. We are lean and mean and I met with the survivors to ensure them that we cut deep and I promised not to pick at the scab. I could have gotten away with only cutting two, but I wanted the cuts deep enough to impact the bottom line and so that I could promise the survivors that only performance will impact them going forward. Tough times.

I played golf this weekend at Ancil Hoffman golf course, famous for being the site of the "new" governor's mansion built by Ronald Reagan in 1979 and then pishawed by Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown). The mansion was never lived in by a California governor and was eventually sold at a loss to the state and subdivided into four home lots including the original mansion. The golf course had a hydrant installed on the number 15 tee next to the mansion for the safety of our governor and that plug still sits by the tee box, looking woefully out of place. I struggled to an 85 on Saturday in the heavily wooded course. I have gone back to my Taylor made R7 driver after an experiment with the Cleveland Launcher driver, which I hit well (at times). I am much more steady with the R7, though shorter off the tee. I decided that I prefer the fairway to the rough.

I played horribly on Thursday night in the league as I was in conference all day on staffing issues and ended up on a thirty minute teleconference in my car on the way to the course. I arrived late, with my group already on the tee and Bob stalled on the box as I changed into my shorts and golf shoes from my work attire. I went in to pay and the starter was on the phone with his girlfriend, I told him (loudly) that I'd be back in to pay after my round. I was almost hyperventilating on the tee and shot a smooth 45.

Father's Day was a delight. Darla found a deal at Sears whereby if you bought $100 of Docker's apparel, you'd get a $75 gas card to Shell. Not bad. I got some new work clothes, socks, etc and she got two thirds of a tank in her SUV. We talked to Jennifer. She took Samantha out and had some professional pictures taken of Samantha and herself for John for Father's Day. John was appropriately emotional when he walked out and Jennifer had the pictures in frames on the dining room table. Samantha is getting so incredibly cute. She is sitting up in the pictures and is close to crawling. Their house is progressing well and they are excited to move in. Jennifer and John bought a small blow-up pool and took it to Boulder City to visit with his Dad, step-mom, and Samantha's aunt, Olivia. They splashed about in the 106 degree heat.

Darla and I went to church Sunday morning after considering skipping it and were blessed with a great sermon on Noah as the great father, building the ark to save his family. We then relaxed at home in the sun on the pool between trips in the house to get caught up on the US Open on TIVO.

We leave Friday for a week at our timeshare in Nuevo Vallarta. It is the Grand Mayan and we have a Jack Nicklaus redesigned 18 hole golf course on site. Unforunately, the course is still under redesign and only 9 holes are open. We will still play it twice and venture out to PV and Marina Vallarta and Vista Vallarta twice (the Nicklaus course and the Weiskopf course). We will go with Bob and Vicki, the President that i worked as VP under, Neil, and my current Vice President, Rick and their wives. It should be a blast. After all of the stress at work lately, I am looking forward to relaxing on the pool at the Grand Mayan with a nice margarita. Ciao.

The Junior Tournament is FINALLY in the books!

It's not like this tournament took over my life or anything, but it really did. We ended up with 123 participants and I had a total of 27 volunteers who showed up to handle scoring, check-in, starting, rules, the scoring tent, pictures, closest to the pin, spotting and a couple who are retired and just hung around, but didn't want to really do anything other than visit, drink free water and eat snacks and then have a free lunch. They also left right after lunch to supposedly go have a healthy nap after all of the excitement. I had 7 kids who withdrew from the tournament for various reasons and two who just failed to show up.

The tournament is being known as the "Lyon tournament" because of the special mojo that I brought to the 41st annual event. In 4o previous events, the tournament had seen only one hole-in-one. In this event, we were witness to two holes-in-one. One was by an 11 year old boy playing from the red tees and only playing nine holes. He shot a 39 and his ace was from 96 yards with a pitching wedge. When I congratulated him and shook his hand, I asked him if it was his first ace. He shook his head no and held up two fingers. I turned and held up one finger for him. 51 and golfing for 35 years and no hole-in-one and some smarmy kid already has two. The second ace was a 16 year old who also recorded his second career hole-in-one and he did it from 136 yards with a pitching wedge. These kids are good.

The low boy's score was 66 from the 6400 yard blue tees and second was a 68 from a 14 year old boy. The low girl was 14 years old and shot a 77. Very nice. The event is very enjoyable, but also somewhat humbling. These kids all play with state of the art equipment and 9 out of 10 of them hit Pro V1-x balls. In fact we bought balls for both of the guys who had hole-in-ones and they both chose Pro v1-x balls. We also had an eagle on the 465 yard par four finishing hole when a young man of 15 knocked in a three wood from 200 yards.

Bob was scoring for the 9 and 10 year olds and he said they were under fire from the driving range as the 16-17 year olds were hitting 300 yard drives off the practice tees. The day mostly went off without a hitch, but we had one guy who showed up and was recruiting for a rival youth golf program and I had to run him off. We had one of the old retired guys make an incorrect ruling on the course. He allowed a drop for a female competitor because branches from a neighbor's tree were impeding her swing. He was NOT on the rules committee and I asked him to stay off the course after that. Our rules chair was ready to strangle him. He referred to the branches as an outside influence. We referred to him as an idiot.

There were many great stories and one really sad ending to a great day of golf. One of the 16 year olds was having his best tournament round of golf coming in to 18. He was three under par and put his second shot up against the fence. He couldn't hit it and I would have faced the wrong way and punched a three iron toward the green. Instead he took a penalty drop, but wanted to drop within about two feet of the fence. We told him that he had to mark the spot and then a place another tee two club lengths from the ball no nearer the hole. He marked that off and dropped the ball at the furthest point with a tree in front of him. I don't know if he was confused or what, but he could have dropped the ball anywhere within the two clubs. He ended up hitting the tree, knocking his fourth shot over the green, chipping on and three putting for an 8 and a round of 73. He finished tied for second, but took 4th place based on the tiebreaker, where he shot a 40 on the back nine to go with his 33 on the front. OUCH. The young man was shaking when he came to the scorers table. He could barely control his hands as he filled out the card. To make matters worse, the guy he was scoring shot an 83, but was the one to knock his ball in for eagle on that hole.

I played golf Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week and was exhausted by the end of the weekend. I shot 41 in the twilight league, 81 at Wolf Run in Reno (with the marmints above), 87 at the 7000 yard Old Greenwood course in Truckee and 84 in my tournament on Sunday at Diamond Oaks. It was a fun trip and I lost some money gambling, but ate well, drank too much and played some decent golf. Mel and I were paired as a best ball twosome on Friday and shot 38+25 = 63. Good stuff.

Jennifer has some exciting news on two fronts. She finally has made contact with her birth mother. She lives in Ohio and has two sons and two daughters. One of the daughters had a child within weeks of Samantha's birth. Her oldest brother had on his facebook page listed under "people I'd Like to Meet": The sister that I've never met. Jennifer is on cloud nine and plans to meet her mother, Barbara, this Summer in Vegas as well as her two sisters who plan to travel to Vegas to meet Jennifer. The other news is that Jennifer and John have bought a house! It is 1850 square feet, three bedroom, two full bathrooms and located next to a greenbelt with a jungle gym and play area for kids. Both Jennifer and John are very excited. I told Jennifer to give praise to God for all of the good fortune in her life. I also said, "You've got a beautiful daughter, a great house, what's next?" She said, "Marriage?" Hey she brought it up, I didn't.

I finally made contact with Dad and Shirley and it turns out they've been up in Colorado at a car show and visiting Darryl and Cheryl. The trip was ugly with some minor car problems and one gas issue with a leaking fuel hose that stunk up the car and poured some $5 gas on the ground. It was good to get caught up. I also told Dad and Shirley that David is going to quit his job this month and spend part of the Summer traveling. I told them to work on him for a Canada trip. David could come up and help Dad with any projects around the house and they could give him room and board and act as tour guides for him. I'm sure he'd love to see Aunt Glad up in Cultis Lake. With David, it won't happen unless you push him a little bit. First thing he'll need is a passport.

Well, this was late, but I've been busy. I hope all are well and living a life that God would be proud of. Ciao.

Late, but not forgotten

My work IT department has finally shut the door on bloggers and I can no longer access my account at work. I can still view the blog, but I can't work on it. It is fair and makes sense. I get to work at 7 AM and work on the blog, buy I wouldn't want my employees goofing off working on their blogs during work hours so it is a fair tradeoff for me. I had a golf tournament yesterday and will have Junior tournaments the next two Mondays and then be in Mexico, so you might have to look to find my updates. I have OCD, so doing the blog on Monday was my comfort zone. Now, I'll just have to venture into fertile fields.

I played in the Insurance Association Golf Day yesterday. I was in charge of the signs and my friend, Bob, picked me up at 9:30 and we loaded up his truck and had the signs at the course by 9:45 AM. We played at the local country club, Sierra View, and I stacked the deck with Bob's 4 handicap and another agent, Rich's, 5 handicap. I'm a 9 and Anthony in my office is probably a 16. I'm not a fan of scramble golf and half the field plays once or twice a year so it is an exercise in frustration if you take it too seriously. They sell "player improvement packages" with 2 feet of string, a mulligan, and a free throw for $20. The packs make a lot of money for the association, so it's good. We used all of the above and shot a 19 under par 53. We shot 15 birdies, two eagles, and a par for 53. The winners shot a 25 under par score of 47 and there were two groups at 48. When they went up to get their prize of $100 restaurant certificates, the tournament director said we better check their card. I yelled out they better check their urine! Unbelievable. It was a good time and I got to see most of our local agents in a single setting.

I played golf Friday and Saturday as well and it is getting to the point that I could fill out my scorecard before I play. I shot 43+40=83 at Rancho Murietta North. It is a course designed by Arnold Palmer and he has a green on the number three par five with huge undulations in it. It looks like two dinosaurs laid down on the boundary of the green and the grass grew up over them. Palmer thought it was unique. The country club design committee thought it was ridiculous and Palmer's group was paid to put in 18 holes of golf and 17 greens. His company was never paid for the third green as they insisted he change it and he refused. Palmer has never set foot on the course again. They named the road he lived on while the course was being built Latrobe Road. I think they thought that was his birthplace, but it was actually Youngstown, PA. The country club has several Palmer Courts and Arnold Drives, etc. I went out Saturday and played Cherry Island and shot 42+41=83. 83 is my number right now. Both Cherry and RMCC North are 133 slope courses and my nine is safe. I dropped to 9.4 this month and once was an 8.8. I'm giving that number a run for the money this Summer.

I leave Thursday night after my golf league for Reno. We are staying at the Peppermill Casino. We play Friday at Wolf Run, a course famous for it's run of marmints all over the course. I'll try to remember to bring a camera this year as the little furry creatures are fascinating. Wolf Run was built by a wealthy alumnus of the University of Nevada Reno as the home course for the UNR golf team. We will stay over Friday night and again make a trip to the Santa Fe Inn for their $17.50 rib eye steak. It is a Basque restaurant and they feed you pasta, salad, cheeses, chicken, sausages, cream corn, potatoes, a relish tray, asparagus, bread, butter, lots of wine and of course the main course. Amazing, even a better deal than the free drinks in Reno. Saturday we will pack it in and head back through Truckee and play Old Greenwood, a course that is storied and well designed and I really look forward to playing it. The course sits under snow all Winter and uncovers in late Spring in all of it's glory. It reopened two weeks ago and it will be a blast. I'll be home Saturday night, play in a tournament on Sunday at Diamond Oaks and then host the 41st annual David Oxley Memorial Golf tournament on Monday at Diamond Oaks.

I am the tournament director this year and now have 126 junior golfers signed up to play on Monday. I have Sysco Foods donating the hot dogs and buns, Darla and I are supplying 15 cases of water, I have one of the guys with over $80 of snacks for the kids. I have 22 volunteers that will work with me as scorers, marshals, closest to the pin monitors, starters, check-in people, scoring tent monitors, computer scoring, rules officials and some "hangers on" that don't do much beyond eat the free lunch and just hang around.

Darla and I will be off to Mexico in two weeks and the Nuevo Vallarta vacation is coming at a good time. This tournament has worn me out. The kids are great, but their parents are monsters. The deadline for entry was May 24th and I'm still receiving entries. I got one in the mail today with an April 30th dated check and the post mark on the envelope was June 2nd. I am not allowing any late entries and have been called a few names for my stance. The way I look at it is that 126 players got their entry in on time and I'm not sure I would want the kids of some of these parents. The kids are obviously spoiled and don't know the meaning of a deadline. I know the tournament will be excellent, but I'm looking forward to relaxing with a margarita at the pool bar at the Grand Mayan on June 21st.

Darla has been struggling just a little in her business lately. She has had several cancellations of shows and her girls have been dragging. The gas prices and the economy are definitely playing a role. She has a good attitude and will bounce back and is still doing so much better than her peers in the business.

Jennifer's Mom is flying in to Vegas tomorrow to visit with Jennifer and John and Samantha. Jennifer is going in to her union to see about getting placed in some jobs. She can't get her certification until she has worked in Nevada for a year and it has been less than that, especially with her pregnancy. She just needs to get on some union jobs and bide her time and she'll be fine. The pay is very good.

Well, that's it for this week. I will try to update this over the weekend sometime. I hope all is well with each of you. Be happy in life and you will influence others around you. Ciao.

Memorable Memorial Day

The weather has cooled off dramatically and we actually had rain on Saturday. After a spate of record high temperatures, we are now experiencing some record low high temperatures with Stockton hitting a high of just 63 degrees on Monday and Sacramento at 66 degrees. Roseville hung in there with temps in the 70s over the weekend, but we are more used to HOT weather over the Memorial Day weekend than colder weather.

I had to work the Jazz Festival yesterday, so the cooler weather was actually welcome. I worked for the beverage services group which is headed up by Pete's Mom and we did the teardown of all of the bars in Old Sacramento yesterday afternoon. As the venues closed down, we were there with golf cars to pick up the unopened hard liquor and return it to the warehouse. My shift was 12 to six, but when I got there, was told to return at 2:00 PM. A phone call would have been nice as I was already downtown, so I cooled my heels and listened to some Jazz. There was a band from New Orleans playing Cajun jazz that was excellent as well as a band called High Street that played mostly zydeco music with a Latin beat. My back is sore today from hauling cases of booze and mix around all day yesterday. I did score a couple of bottles of Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey and some Red Bull that I brought home. We could only store unopened bottles of booze and most of the venues were pouring out the leftovers. I thought that was a huge waste and took some home. I also brought some limes and celery. They had two cases of limes leftover and a case of celery for the bloody mary drinkers. It was fun to help out (volunteer) and both Darla and I will volunteer next year.

We talked to Jennifer and John last night and tried out Darla's new laptop on the Skype. Her laptop has a built in webcam and microphone so Samantha could see and hear us as well last night. It was nice. Samantha is getting so big and curious. Jennifer's Mom bought Samantha a new walker and she is working that new ride hard. She was jumping up and down and Jennifer had her standing up. She is soooo cute and we have to get out to Vegas soon. Our short term is pretty busy with Mexico next month and Almanor in July, but we will definitely be in Vegas in August.

I played in the Memorial golf tournament on Sunday at Diamond Oaks. I had one of those "could have been great" rounds and shot 43+38=81 with four birdies. I finished out of the money, but won $60 in skin money with all of my birdies. I improved my Eclectic score from 71 to 66. The Eclectic is the year long tournament that takes your "best" score on every hole throughout the year and combines it for an 18 hole score. Boyd and Bob lead the scoring with 64s, so I'm very happy with my nine strokes to be sitting with a "net" 57 this early in the year.

I have a busy golf schedule next week with a marketing golf game on Friday at Rancho Murietta, golf at Cherry Island Saturday, the Insurance Brokers golf tournament Monday at Sierra View Country Club, my league golf on Thursday (we have a bye this week), and then two days of golf at Wolf Run and Old Greenwood up in Reno Friday and Saturday of next week in an agent outing. Fun stuff ahead. I played with one of my inspection company vendors and Mel and Boyd at Apple Mountain up in Camino, California on Wednesday of last week. Camino is in the Sierra foothills above Placerville and almost up to Pollock Pines off Highway 50 That is a tough track in a hilly venue of Sierra pine trees. The guy from Portland was out for his fourth game of the year and shot 112. I birdied the second hole on my way to an 84. Boyd shot 80 and Mel had 94. I really enjoyed the golf course, but would approach some holes differently when I play it again.

I took advantage of the cooler weather this weekend to fertilize the lawn. The heat of last week had stressed portions of the lawn and I'd been hitting those with extra water. After a nice cool weekend, the grass looks stronger and more healthy. It will be a hot Summer ahead and I'm trying to prepare the turf to weather that storm.

Darla and I are both on diets as we prepare for our trip to Nuevo Vallarta June 20-27th. We met with Bob and Vicki, Neil and Lilly and Rick and Jan on Friday night at Cabo's in Rocklin for our final Mexican dinner in preparation for our trip. We are using both of our weeks together and getting two two bedroom condos for the group. We are all looking forward to the trip. Bob and Vicki have never been to Mexico and are in for a treat. We will play golf at the resort which is still undergoing a major renovation by the Nicklaus Company as well as Vista Vallarta (the Nicklaus and Weiskopf courses) and Marina Vallarta (designed by Joe Finger) while we are there. Our goal is to play golf in the morning with the afternoons to sightsee or just lay about by the pool with a cold drink and a good book.

Well, it is closing in on work time. So far I only have one casualty of the long weekend as Anthony has called in with a headache. I have a headache every day and come to work. Often the headache appears after I get to work, but that's another story for another time. I hope all are well. Here is to those brave souls who have died for our freedom! Check out Jennifer and Samantha's blog at the link above. Jennifer has updated it with new stories and some new pictures. That's where I stole the piuctures of Jennifer, John and Samantha above. Ciao.

May Birthdays are HOT HOT HOT!

It was a big birthday weekend in the Lyon household as Darla celebrated the 14th anniversary of her 29th birthday and David hit 21. Darla was actually in San Jose on her birthday as she had one of her cousins in town from Idaho so she left Thursday and spent the evening with them and returned on Friday. Darla had asked me about three weeks ago to not buy her a birthday present or a Mother's day gift and just put the money toward a new laptop for her. We have an HP desktop computer and she has a state owned laptop computer that she uses for work. With her jewelry business growing so fast and her work with the foster agency that requires monthly reports, she wanted her own laptop. I told her at the time that her business needed to buy the computer and that I'd already bought her birthday gift. I shut her down pretty quick and she didn't really give it another thought. In reality, we have some friends that work for Hewlett Packard and I had already ordered her a new HP Pavilion dv9700z Entertainment 17 inch laptop with web cam and 2 GB of memory. The laptop has fingerprint sign on, Microsoft office and Vista Windows and is very nice. I surprised her with it on Wednesday night when we got home from dinner with the Home office visitors at Joe's Crab Shack in Old Sacramento. She was completely surprised and here it is Monday and she's already taken the computer on two trips, one to San Jose and one to Lake Tahoe.

Darla got home on Friday and we met Alicia and her boyfriend, Don, at Paul Martin's American Bistro restaurant in Roseville. Alicia and Darla share the same birthday, although five years apart. It was an interesting visit. Don had stopped at the restaurant earlier in the afternoon and dropped off a cake and two sets of roses for Alicia and Darla. Don and Darla have very similar personalities and both are passionate people and the conversation got a bit heated at times as we discussed the state of health care in America. I had to calm both of them down. It was like a tennis match for Alicia and I watching the two of them go at it. I thought we could have gone to the bar and got a drink together and not been missed. Paul martin is the "P" in P.F. Changs and this is a great restaurant with great food.

Saturday was David's 21st and we took him up to Tahoe for his first "legal" drink and a night of gambling. He was working on some online classes and didn't get finished until almost 4:30 and we left from Roseville picking Darla up in El Dorado Hills at a fundraiser for injured horses where Darla was selling her jewelry. We got up to the hotel (Tahoe Beach and Ski resort) about 6:45 and got checked in. David had to go online and submit his tests and then we went out to the Lakeside Inn and Casino for their legendary Prime Rib dinner. We got David signed up for a players card and both he and Darla got t-shirts, dice, a free drink coupon and a coupon for a free dinner because it was their birthday month. We put our name in for dinner and sat in the bar and David had a margarita. Dinner was great and I splurged with a prime rib as well. David opted for the 20 ounce prime rib and we had lettuce wraps and coconut shrimp appetizers. We finished dinner about 9:30 and ended up sitting and playing nickle video poker until about 1:30 AM. Darla and I paid for David's gambling and with dinner, the room, gambling and breakfast, it was about a $250 outing. We held our own gambling for quite awhile, but were cold late. David hit a number of jackpots with four-of-a-kinds and really seemed to enjoy himself. We went out to Heidi's for breakfast Sunday morning and were back and relaxing on the pool by about 1:30 PM Sunday.

The weather did change last week and we hit 102 on Thursday, 100 Friday, 103 Saturday and 100 yesterday. The heat wave has subsided and today is supposed to top out at 95 degrees and it will be back seasonable by about midweek with mid eighties. The early heat wave really shocked the system. You just haven't prepared for the blast furnace heat and it saps you. I played golf on Saturday and it was 92 degrees when we teed off at 8:30. It seemed even warmer as the water from the ground is evaporating up and the humidity on the course is probably 80 percent. By the back nine, it was up to 98 degrees, but the course had dried out and it was more comfortable. I shot 41+41=82 and took $6 in skins from the group.

We went out to a house party at Darren and Marissa's last night. I had thought it was just the golf guys getting together, but when we got there he had all of his neighbor's over for a barbecue. We got there a little late as Darla didn't wake me from my slumber on the pool until 4:45 and the party started at 5:00 PM. Their neighbors seemed nice enough, but it was like we had crashed a neighborhood watch meeting. Bob and Vicki showed up about 5:45 and we sat outside while the neighbors all visited inside. We tried a few times to mix with the group, but it just didn't jell. It was an odd mixture of people and Darren even mentioned that there was a division in the groups. Vicki had been in Southern California for two weeks helping her daughter who had just given birth and we wanted to get caught up. Darren and Marissa have a beautiful home that was once owned by the Christian artist, Lincoln Brewster. Lincoln played bass guitar in Journey with Steve Perry and is now the music pastor at our old church, Bayside in Granite Bay.

Well, this is a little short, but it is payday and I have to do payroll to make sure the troops get paid. It is a relief to have the visitors from Home Office gone and the office back to normal. I hope all is well in your world. I will get a few pictures uploaded tonight. Take care. Ciao.

The Heat is On!

Yep, Spring has Sprung and Summer isn't far behind. We actually had a very comfortable weekend with highs in the mid-eighties and nice cool nights, BUT all of that will change toward the end of the work week when the high is expected to creep up over 100 degrees. In fact, 100 is supposed to hit on Thursday, which is the night of my golf league. I very well could go from the course home to my pool. The pool was up to 76 degrees this weekend and Darla was on the pool in an air mattress yesterday getting some sun.

Mother's day was a nice relaxing day. I coaxed David into hosting his Mom to a Mother's day lunch at Chevys. I n fact i called him Saturday night and told hime that he was taking his Mom to breakfast the next day. He did me one better and bought her lunch. We met at church and the two of them headed off to lunch in Rocklin at the new Chevys there. I headed home chopped up some potatoes, some onion, some turkey bacon and had it all nicely frying on the stove, when I realized that we were out of eggs. I enjoyed a breakfast of potatoes and turkey bacon with toast and no eggs. A little weird, but it works. I set out to the back yard to cut back some of the ground cover around the pool. It is so healthy that it keeps growing up the fence line and onto the raised flowerbeds above the pool. I took my hedge trimmer and cut it back along the border of the patio and the pool edging and went about cleaning up all of the trimmings. Darla and David made it back home and soon Darla and I were relaxing by the pool with a cold drink and our books, while I slowly nodded off to sleep. Darla woke me up with a start and I looked up to see an 8" rat sitting on the raised flowerbed. His tail was about 7 inches long and he scampered into the bushes before I could react. We let the cats out to see if they could raise him, but no luck. When I went out to barbecue dinner, he had fallen into the pool and was lying dead on the steps. Hopefully he doesn't have a whole family back there. I was going to call Clark to come out and set up some traps, but he committed rodent suicide before I had the chance. David took pictures of him in the pool, but I even I have standards high enough not to publish that picture in my blog. Well, not yet anyhow.

We had a fun weekend with a dinner and poker on Saturday night at one of my friend's' houses. He lives about four blocks from us and is the cousin of my two man best ball partner. We will go to Poppy Hills together with the wives in August. His cousin, John, is a master barbecue chef and his wife, Camille, is the sauce master. They prepared tri tip and chicken breasts. The sauce recipe that Camille prepares from scratch was "stolen" by her brother and he markets it commercially and is in both Costco stores and Wal Mart. I was really looking forward to going off my diet and enjoying some tri tip. I did, but the sauce on the chicken is so good that I could have passed on the tri tip. The chicken was moist and tender and delicious. John puts the marinated chicken breast on the barbecue and turns the meat every three minutes to keep it moist and on the third turn dunks it again in marinade and then turns it once more. The meat is cooked on high over charcoal for twelve minutes and is to die for. We all brought bottles of wine and the wine connoisseurs sniffed and tasted and rolled the wine on their tongues. i enjoyed the Armida Cabernet Sauvignon and the Stewards Private reserve Merlot. We also had a Greg Norman Cabernet that was very nice.

The guys played poker and I introduced Darren to the group and to poker. As is the norm in our group, Darren could not catch a card and proceeded to lose $110 in about 3 1/2 hours. He finally quit and retired to the couch. The girls were going to go to a movie, but were enjoying their vodka lemonades a little too much and ended up sitting in the kitchen talking and laughing. Darla hauled out her jewelry (by request) and soaked our friends for about $500 in sales. I won about $45 in poker so it was a good night.

Saturday was the final round of our 54 hole individual championship. I was pretty stressed out after a week of meetings and training and needed to relax and play golf by Saturday. I shot 39+41=80 for another net 70 and a three round total of -4. The winner was at -8 and I finished fifth out of 24 golfers in my flight, so was I pleased with my play throughout the tournament. I made a lot of one putts on Saturday and parred the top four holes at Diamond Oaks. I never did manage a birdie on the day, but played solid golf the entire tournament.

I am in the middle of preparing for two golf tournaments on back-to-back Mondays in June. The first tournament is the Sacramento insurance agents' annual tournament on Monday June 2nd. I am on the golf committee and in charge of the signs. We have about 30 sponsors each of which has to have an individual sign (hole sponsor, beverage, closest-to-the-pin, long drive, etc) and then I have to do a 3'x3' sign thanking all of our sponsors. On top of that, I am knee deep in preparing for the annual junior golf tournament that we sponsor at the Roseville Golf Club. The tournament is in memory of one of the junior golfers from Roseville that died in 1967 in a boating accident. He was 17 years old and already a plus golfer (meaning his handicap was lower than a zero) and his father was on the board of the Roseville Men's Club (We changed our name after being sued by an ACLU lawyer in 1991). The tournament has been going now for 41 years helped annually by a donation from the young man's family. So far I have 74 golfers signed up and expect over 100 young people to come out and play golf in our tournament. I am the tournament director and have handled all of the entries, phone calls, marketing, donations, etc. for the tournament. It is the sole biggest job of the President of The Roseville Golf Club and once this is complete, I will be done with about 90% of my responsibilities as the head of our club. The one thing that I am proudest of as President of this club, is establishing a slow play policy and enforcing it. We have purchased clocks for the first tee and the last tee and require each player to record the time they teed off and the time they finished. our slow play policy requires every player to finish in 4 hours and forty minutes or within fifteen minutes of the group in front of them. You never wanted to be in the last group of our tournament because your tee time would be pushed back thirty minutes and it would take a minimum of five hours to finish the round. Since we instituted the slow play rules, not one group has taken 4:40 to play and not one group has finished farther than fifteen minutes behind the group in front of them. I teed off Saturday in the third to last group (out of 20 foursomes) and we started within eight minutes of our tee time and finished the round in 4:15. The rules are working and the players are aware of the two stroke penalty for slow play and don't want to be the first to get whacked.

John and Samantha treated Jennifer to a spa day yesterday and then went out to dinner at some Italian festival in Las Vegas. I didn't talk to her, but Darla did and she was having a great day on her first Mother's day. We also didn't get a chance to call Shirley last night as we were busy with movies. We watched "PS: I Love you. ", a total chick flick, but an entertaining one. We had "27 Dresses" as well, but David refused to watch that.

Well, the gang is arriving and our Home Office trainers will be here shortly, so I have to get prepared for the day. I hope all is well with you, that Mother's Day was a celebration of your Mom, or you, and that God continues to direct your life and be in the center of it. Ciao.