Back to the Mundane

It is hard coming off such a fun and relaxing vacation. I had salary reviews this last week which may or may not be tougher on my employees than it is on me. I did manage to get out on my birthday and play golf with some friends and I received many calls from family and friends on my birthday which was nice. Jennifer sent me some personalized golf club markers, which attach to the hole in the end of the grip and have my name and phone number on them, not that I really expect if someone picked up my Scotty Cameron putter that it would be returned to me, but I might get one of my numbered irons back if I left them laying about on the golf course. She had said she'd ordered me something and it wouldn't be here for a few weeks, but arrived as if by divine intervention on my birthday.

It is overcast and cold today (60 degrees for those of you in Colorado and Denver) and threatening rain. One of those days that you know will not rain, but the clouds are dark, but high in the sky. It is supposed to stay unsettled today and tomorrow and be in the mid seventies by mid week. Our rain is slowly catching up and the recent storms have brought us up to 79% of normal (13.05" vs 16.5" normal).

We went to church this morning and I was for some reason exhausted and felt my self drifting during the sermon. The sermon was on Haggai and being the kind of Christian that says Yes to God. I was saying yes to a nap and we came home, had some pancakes, watched a Tivo episode of Gray's Anatomy and fell fast asleep. I slept from 12:15 until almost 3:00 PM on the couch. Darla had worked her way back to the bed and slept just as long. She is off to the gym now for a workout and I sat and watched the WCC CA Championship from Doral on tape. I was going to go out and do some trimming of the plants around the pool, but stole in here to work on the blog.

My golf group is in the middle of a 54 hole team event that started last weekend while we were in Vegas. I set up a round with Mel, Darren and Bob Hand at Woodcreek for Saturday. Mel is a 13, Darren an 18 and Bob a 22. I get 11 now and shot 43+39=82 and ended up owing $1 at the end of the round. Mel shot 92, Darren 93 and Bob 101. Somehow I beat the field by ten strokes, but owed money, I won $5 in the team play, but lost $6 in the skin matches. Go figure. I'm at the point in my golf where it takes me awhile to warm up. The weather was cool and blustery and I played in shorts and a jacket. I shot 44+39=83 at Woodcreek on Thursday with Bob and Boyd on a 75 degree perfect Spring day, but they had us teeing off on the back nine to start because of their mowing schedule, so you could say I shot 78 and 87 combined for the last two rounds. The 82 and 83 will be safer for my handicap because of the way they figure the index based on your best ten differentials out of your last twenty rounds. I went over to Diamond after the round on Saturday to see the guys at the tournament and also to sign up for the tournament next Saturday which is a Nike event put on by the club pro. I walked in and was harassed for not playing. They just finished the two man scramble portion of the event and I let everyone know that I played GOLF and entered a score at the end of my round. They are finishing up today with the alternate shot format.

Work is going well. I've mentioned before that my former assistant, Anthony, is doing very well at work and is head and shoulders my best underwriter. He is great at relationships and his risk analysis is superb (he learned from the best!). I was sitting in his office on Friday waiting for him to return from one of his infernal smoke breaks and he walked in. I was sitting at his desk and he sat down at one of the chairs across from the desk and we discussed the issue I needed to go over with him when his phone rang. I answered it, "Anthony's desk, this is Ken Lyon, can I help you?" The caller was John from an agency in Roseville and a guy I know well. He said he had to discuss something with Anthony, but to also tell him that he owed him $5.00 for their bet. I asked what bet and John said, "Anthony bet me $5.00 that you'd be working for HIM within 6 months." I handed Anthony the phone and John was laughing his head off. I'm going to miss Anthony.

Jennifer and Dina took the Harley and drove to the Los Angeles area this weekend. Jen was going to work overtime, but decided she needed to get away with all the hassles from John. I talked to her Friday and she had a bit of a sunburn from the beach. It is about a four hour ride from Vegas to LA.

Next week will be a perfect Guys weekend. I have a poker game here Friday night and play in golf tournaments both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is an away tournament at Wildhorse in Davis, CA. Darla has parties at the house Thursday night and then a Silpada party on Saturday night. She leaves the following Friday for Hawaii where she is signing her sister-in-law up as a Silpada rep and helping her with her first party. It would have been nice to go, but my ticket can't be written off. Her brother lives in Kona.

We went out to dinner with our friends, Bob and Vicki on Saturday night to Il Forniao. I brought a nice bottle of 2007 Santa Christina San Giovese (actually a mix of 10% Merlot and 90% San Giovese) and it was excellent. They celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary and we celebrated my birthday. It was a fun night out and here are the pictures.

I hope all are well. I will check in with you again next week. Be good and keep Christ alive in your lives. Ciao.

Vegas was a Samantha-Fest

You can see that we had alot of fun in Las Vegas with young Samantha Swan. I need to thank John and Jennifer for allowing us so much time to bond with Sam, she was an absolute delight during our visit. With Jennifer working early hours, we were able to pick Samantha up Thursday night when we flew into Vegas and she spent the night with us at the Sunset Station hotel. She was sleeping when we picked her up, but she got a second wind when we got to the hotel room and she was checking out every drawer, cupboard, closet and water closet in the joint. We were finally able to get her to settle down and to sleep by about 9:30 and she slept through the night until about 7 AM the next morning. If Jennifer had brought her over Friday morning, Sam would have had to get up at 4:00 AM and then go back to sleep after her bottle. We got Samantha up after she took a nap at about 10:30 and bundled her up and off to the Black Bear Diner, her first restaurant that we visited when she was first born in December of 2007. She made a fine mess of crackers and water and had a grand old time. From there, we went to the zoo in Vegas. This zoo is a non-profit affair and it looks it. Several of the main animals have died in the last few years and not been replaced, but they had a small petting zoo and lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Samantha was fascinated with all of the animals and enjoyed a small group of Canadian River otters that had a nice pen with a glass front over the water and the otters would jump into the pool swim across the front of the glass by Sam and then hop out and run into the adjoining cage. Sam was running back and forth to try to catch the otter and clapping and laughing. We also saw a huge male peacock with it's feathers out in all of his glory as he pranced in front of several female peacocks. It is a small zoo and you get close to the animals. We fed the goats and watched the monkeys and were done about ninety minutes after we arrived. Sam was tired and slept on the ride home.

Friday night we met Jennifer and her roommate, Dina, at their house and then took them out to dinner at Claim Jumpers. Samantha was a hit with the wait staff as she enjoyed french fries and ranch dressing along with cut fruit and water. We had a good visit with Jennifer and got caught up on her life and Dina's and left them about 8:30 as Grandma and Papa were tired.

We were up Saturday morning and off to Jennifer's by about 10:00 AM , after an IHop breakfast. Samantha was sleeping and we visited for awhile until she awoke and then took off with Jennifer and Sam for the Bass Pro outlet store. Darla and I had visited it on our last visit to Vegas and it has a huge aquarium in the middle of it as well as many stuffed bears, deer and even a huge giraffe. Samantha was in heaven and the pictures above are of Jen, Sam and I at the Bass outlet, Darla and Sam at the petting zoo, Sam with a stuffed deer that was the same size as her and she dragged it all over the store, Samantha styling in a camo cowboy hat, and Darla and Sam chilling before bed one night. We had a ball and Samantha had a great bit of fun with her family. She sees John's Mom just about every other week, so it was special for her to hang out with the Lyon's for a change. Saturday night we were able to meet Jennifer's friends as they had nine friends come over for a barbecue. I enjoyed Jennifer's friends, but was so proud of Jennifer as she took time to tend to Samantha's needs throughout the group gathering as she put her in her high chair and fed her, got her a bath and down to bed while we all enjoyed the company. Jen is a very good and attentive Mom. Darla and I took off after Sam went to bed and made a sizable donation at the casino that night and didn't get to bed until after three o'clock with the time change.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny Vegas day and we stayed at Jennifer's and just relaxed in the sun. I got a bit of a burn as I didn't put on any sunscreen and the desert sun is so much stronger than the valley sun. Samantha was kept in sunscreen and in the shade as we relaxed together. The kids bought us pizza that night and we sat and relaxed watching movies and enjoying Sam being at home with her toys and cats. Darla and I were able to give her a bath that night and she got all of us wet playing and laughing in the tub. We packed up about 8:00 and took Sam with us back to the hotel for our final night in Vegas. Samantha again slept until we got to the hotel and was raring to go with her second wind when we got back to the room. She ate her Graduate's yogurt snacks while Darla had sunflower seeds and I had peanuts.

Monday we had planned to go to the park and let Samantha ride the swings and merry-go-round, but Vegas decided to give us a wind inferno with gusts up to 45 miles an hour, so we had a Denny's breakfast and then went back to Jennifer's to spend the day. John agreed to let us watch her Monday as that is his day and we arranged to meet him at the outlet mall at 3:30 PM. Jennifer gets off at 2:15 PM and asked us to meet her for an early dinner, so she could spend some time with Samantha. John met us at the restaurant and took Samantha. The kids are still not communicating as they should and it's hard to watch from the outside. John is still really betrayed and hurt and pretty caustic to Jennifer. Jen has never handled strife well and doesn't stand for John putting her down and the stress level in the room was palpable. It was good seeing John and I hope they can get to the point where they can co-parent Samantha as that is in the best interest of my granddaughter.

Work was waiting when I got home and I have 9 reviews and salary discussions to hold by Friday. On top of that, I'm taking Thursday afternoon off to play golf. It is Cheryl's birthday today, Dad's yesterday and Chris' last Thursday. It must be March. Hope you are all well and Happy.

Everything is a Repeating Gong

The rain continues after a slight break this week and my back continues to cause me problems. The rain did finally abate on Thursday afternoon just in time for our trip with the IBA Sacramento group to Silverado Country Club and Resort. Darla and I left here about 8:00 AM on Friday and decided to stop along the way and have breakfast. Our tee time was 11:38 and Darla had a spa appointment at noon. We stopped in Vacaville and drove into Old Town Vacaville, an area that doesn't get much tourist travel as the town is bisected by Interstate 80 and most travelers frequent the restaurants along the freeway corridor. Darla and I didn't want to eat at IHOP or Denny's, but were craving a little cafe style restaurant for breakfast. We found Hannah's Cafe in Vacaville and got more than we bargained for. The food was great and the clientele mostly older and local. The exception was an old drunk Choctaw Indian that was getting into it with a couple of the older men in the restaurant. We couldn't hear the details of their disagreement, but the big guy kept yelling, "I'm Choktaw and this is MY country!" The guy reminded me of the Indian from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest and, frankly, his mental health condition probably made him a candidate for just such an institution. We just about bumped into him as we were coming into the restaurant and he said to Darla, "Hello, Ma'am! Goodbye, Ma'am and nice to know ya." We overheard one of the waitresses call the cops, but no one ever showed up and he finally left after challenging all of the old Republicans to take him on. We finished up the "breakfast with a show" and enjoyed the pancakes and poached eggs. We walked out of the restaurant and turned toward our truck and there was the Choctaw with a bunch of his out of work, drunk buddies between us and the car. We walked past him and he started up with the "I'm Choctaw and this is my country!" theme again as all of his toothless cronies laughed and egged him on. We ignored him and made a beeline for the truck.



The resort was beautiful, older but in one of the pristine areas of Napa, California and wonderfully renovated in the last year. The grounds are immaculate and the golf, tennis and spa facilities are all first rate. We got there about 11:00 AM and our room was not ready yet. We saw one other couple from the group and Wayne's wife was not doing a spa day, but shopping in Napa. Darla came over to the golf facility and sat reading while I hit balls. They called from the hotel to let us know our condo was ready and Darla took off to get the key and move our stuff in before her spa appointment. My back had the benefit of a week off of golf and was feeling tight, but ready for the golf. The day was beautiful with a high sun, a few puffy clouds and temperatures near 70 degrees. I struggled with my back all day and shot 43+44=87 on the tougher South course where both the PGA and Champions tours have played. I played with Tabb, one of my agents and he shot 82 with a finish of birdie-birdie. Tabb can hit the ball a mile and was routinely hitting 280 yard drives. I was spraying the ball as I wasn't making a good hip turn because of the tightness in my back.



I met Darla after golf and she showed me the room. It was a nice 350 square foot suite with a living room, kitchen and large bedroom and bathroom. My back was screaming and we got on our swimsuits and headed over to the pool area for a jacuzzi. We sat relaxing in the swirling hot water for about forty minutes and then headed back to the room for a quick nap. My back had loosened up, but was still tender.



I had a meeting with the board at 6:15 PM and then we met the wives at 7:00 PM for dinner at the Grill Room Restaurant. The food was delicious and the service even better. We had a Bellisara San Giovese with dinner that was out of this world, appetizers, dinner of flat iron steak for me and coconut shrimp for Darla, followed by dessert for everyone. We finally got out of the restaurant after 10:00 PM.



Saturday we left the resort at 8:30 PM vowing to return as the service and resort were truly top notch. The resort offers midweek spa and golf packages for $160 per person, which is excellent. Darla had a party with her Silpada business and I had an 11:00 AM tee time with the guys. I probably should have bowed out due to my back, but I realized after missing last weekend that the golf for me is a social outlet as well as a golf opportunity. It was good to see the guys and my back actually held up very well as I managed a 39+40=79 for my first sub 80 round this year. In fact my index jumped from 8.7 to 10.0 in March and I only have three scores left in the 70's out of my lowest last twenty rounds. Yesterday's 79 will add to that. Honestly, my index is too low and influenced by most of my rounds being played at Diamond Oaks, which I know so well. I've been struggling with new equipment and some swing changes and it was nice to see the hard work turn into a good score yesterday. My back held up better primarily because I walked the course and my back stayed warm as i was constantly moving. Being in a cart like I was at Napa doesn't allow my back to stretch and stay warm as I'm playing.

I got an e-mail the other day that made me smile and I knew I wanted to add it to the blog. Here it is: Got to admire the man for being honest.

Florida's got it right. Bravo for Sheriff Judd !!!

POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA SHERIFF GRADY JUDD
Some 'dirtbag' in Polk County Florida who got pulled over in a routine traffic stop and ended up 'executing' the deputy who stopped him. The deputy was shot eight times, including once behind his right ear at close range. Another deputy was wounded and a police dog killed. A state wide manhunt ensued. The low-life was found hiding in a wooded area with his gun. SWAT team officers fired and hit the guy 68 times. Now here's the kicker: Naturally, the media asked why they shot him 68 times.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, told the Orlando Sentinel: 'That's all the bullets we had !!' Justice Served. Bullets are much cheaper than 40 years of meals, cable and civil rights.

I also got an e-mail full of puns and I wanted to add a couple that I particularly enjoyed:

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, “You stay here; I'll go on a head.”
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, “No change yet.”
The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
A backward poet writes inverse.
In democracy, it's your vote that counts. In feudalism, it's your count that votes.
When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!
The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
and finally, The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

Darla and I will be in Las Vegas next week, so the blog will be a few days late and then will arrive with many pictures of the lovely Samantha Paige. I'm looking forward to spending some time with her and seeing Jennifer. I feel bad for Samantha and for Jennifer, it is a hard road that Jennifer has chosen for them, but I know with God's help it will all work out for the best. Darla has a nice roast going for dinner and I'm looking forward to enjoying that as the rain continues to pound down outside from a tropical front that is expected to be with us most of the week. Vegas has been close to 80 degrees and I'm looking forward to the sun and some relaxation next week. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Still More Rain

It is still raining in Northern California. We had about a two day break at the end of last week and then a strong storm that has been gaining strength in the Pacific pushed onshore late last night and we are getting doused again. I got a chance to drain the pool again and had the water line at the bottom of the tile, but after last night's storm the waterline is back at the halfway mark on the tile. We are supposed to get rain through Wednesday and then tapering off toward next weekend. Our average rainfall is 19.85 inches and we have about 8 inches to date from July of last year. We had a wet year last year after two straight drought years and had hoped to keep the water works going this year. The average to date is almost 13 inches so we are behind and they are threatening water rationing this Summer. It is hard to imagine when the rain is pounding down, but we had a very dry January, which is our wettest month.

Darla just returned from San Diego and another Silpada junket. I missed her as she left Thursday and the dishes just don't do themselves, you know. I had planned to play golf this weekend, but my back has stayed tight and I decided to be an adult about things (and keep Jane, my physical therapist form spanking me)and cancelled my Sunday tournament and got Bob to take my spot at Diamond yesterday morning. It was a tough decision as the weather was nice yesterday, about 69 degrees with slowly increasing clouds during the day that lead to the current storm. I made up for my lack of golf by driving out to Thunder Valley Casino for breakfast and some nickle poker. I played for about three hours never really moving up or down from the $50 that I brought, but finally left a little after noon with $30 left after breakfast. I got home and spent three hours working on the lawn picking up the leavings from the last storm, downed branches and leaves, papers and debris left in and amongst the plants in the front of the house. I also cleaned out the pool, brushed it down and added some algeacide to counteract the effect of all of the leaves and brush that had blown into the pool in the last storm. I also used my leaf vac to clean up the backyard and took the garden rake to the side yard and de-thatched some of the grass there. The overseeding and fertilizer have taken hold and the grass is green and lush and I have to mow every week. My neighbors look at me like I'm nuts, but it is in my DNA. Blame Dad.

I took part of the weekend to add some music to my Iphone. I now have about 2000 songs on my phone and have a docking station at work that I use to listen to music in the afternoons when the phones slow down. I added an eclectic mix of music, with songs by Ray Charles, Aerosmith, Neil Diamond, Cher, Frank Sinatra and Van Morrison. I have music now that matches any mood I may be in.

I am taking Darla to dinner tonight at a new restaurant in Roseville, Cloud Nine. One of the local radio stations has a "half price hook-up" every Monday and last week it was buy two $25 gift cards to Cloud Nine for $25. I bought four of them for $50. I also took advantage of a half price deal at the new John Daly designed course at the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning were I got two rounds of golf and a $50 gift certificate in their steak house for $50, essentially I'll get the golf for free and it runs $65 per person on weekends.

I have to be in the San Francisco branch on Wednesday as our leader, Alan Kaufman, will be in town for a seminar and then he is heading to San Diego for a mid year NAPSLO (National Association of Surplus Lines Organizations) meeting Thursday- Saturday. I've been invited along with my top two underwriters, Anthony and Lorraine (from Modesto). They will be holding a professional lines seminar and I'm bringing Gail along as well. There will be about 26 people crowded into their conference room in SF. Friday, Darla and I will attend a meeting at the Silverado resort in Napa with the IBA association that I am on the board of. We will play golf Friday afternoon followed by a 45 minute board meeting and a nice dinner that night. Darla will have a spa day at the resort while I'm golfing along with a number of the other wives and female board members. It will be nice to getaway, especially after being apart this weekend.

I heard a nice "senior" joke recently:

Three old guys are out walking. First one says, 'Windy, isn't it?' Second one says, 'No, it's Thursday!' Third one says, 'So am I. Let's go get a beer.'

My favorite senior joke is:

An older couple in their 80's are both suffering the onset of dementia, but seem to be getting along great. One night the husband says, "you know what would be a nice treat tonight, scrambled eggs and bacon." The wife jumps up and heads to the kitchen. He can hear pots and pans banging and after about fifteen minutes the wife comes out carrying a big tray with two bowls of rocky road ice cream, covered with whipped cream with a cherry on top. The wife sets the tray down and the old man grabs his bowl, slowly shaking his head. "Honey, you did it again. Your memory is really starting to fade. I asked for Tin Roof Sundae with chocolate sauce!"

Our trip to Vegas will be here in two weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing Samantha and Jennifer and seeing their new house. Jennifer continues to squabble with John and hopefully they will settle their differences sooner than later. I may lose Darla one night on the trip as she met a group of flight attendants from Henderson, NV that fell in love with her jewelry and Darla has tentatively scheduled a party for the weekend of our trip.

I was also able to make reservations for Josh and Laura's wedding in Dallas over Memorial Day. I put a tickler on Travelocity for flights to Dallas from Sacramento. They were all running about $350 at the time, but I managed to get two flights to Dallas and back for $214 a ticket through Travelocity and booked it. They e-mailed me. We arrive on Friday May 22 and fly back on Sunday May 24th. We wanted to fly back on Monday, but the flight jumped to $322 for the extra night. This way, we'll be forced to come home and relax by the pool on Memorial Day (don't cry for us). We'll manage. Randy has graciously agreed to put us up in Dallas and cart us to the wedding and back. I looked at the wedding website which is http://www.joshandlauralyon.com/ which Josh put together and has all of the details. My only complaint is that the wedding is at the Stonebriar Country Club in Frisco and I haven't heard any talk about golf. This is a bad memory of Dad's wedding and Shirley's 70th birthday, each of which was held on a golf course that I have yet to play. Whazzup with that?

Well, folks, that is it. I slept in and missed church this morning, so my bad. Hope you are all doing well. Ciao.

Canada comes to California

We are in the midst of a weeklong storm with wind, rain and cold dominating our outlook. The AT&T Pebble Beach National pro-Am was delayed today as a strong storm swept through Northern California. We haven't had quite as much rain as Monterey, but there are downed tree limbs, leaves and debris scattered all over the area and a moderate rain has been falling all day. Darla and I literally got blown from our car into church this morning as the gusts were at 35 MPH.

We are glad that we made it to church as there is a good sermon series this month on Habakkuk, an obscure book of the Old Testament, but a book about trusting in the Lord in hard times. Pretty apropos to the times we are living in right now. We also had a guest worship leader in Dennis Agajanian. He is a country western Christian artist who has toured for twenty years with The Billy Graham Crusades and currently is a featured artist on Franklin Grahams crusades. He is about 6'5" and 255 pounds and wears a crude black cowboy hat and dresses all in black. He welcomed us to church this morning and said, "in case anyone is confused, this is NOT a gathering of Saints, but a hospital for sinners." He also toured with Johnny Cash, which came as no surprise. He was tremendously entertaining and is about the biggest musician I've seen since Aaron Neville, who also happens now to be a Christian artist. Church was relatively light this morning and Pastor Rick mentioned that we have all been praying for rain and as soon as it gets here, people stay at home instead of coming out to thank the Lord for the rain. He's right.

I need you all to pray for Jennifer and Samantha and for John. John is suing Jennifer for custody of Samantha. It isn't clear what his intentions are, but he has thrown Jennifer into a real tailspin. Suffice it to say that John has thrown out some pretty damning accusations and it is now Jennifer's turn to answer those. My only advice to her is to not engage John in a battle of "He said, She said", but to make sure she puts the best interests of Samantha first. That is what the judge will do and what he will respond best to. In my opinion, it is almost always the best thing to have both the mother and father involved in a child's life. There are exceptions, but this one hasn't risen to that level. Just pray for the situation and hope that cooler heads prevail.

I have been experiencing some back problems lately that I haven't seen in years. I wake up every morning kinked and sore and it takes a couple of hours to work my back straight again. I tend to list to the right when I wake up. I've been to see Jane twice in the last week and she tells me that the problem is playing golf in cold and wet conditions. I asked her what I could do about that and she just stared at me like I was a halfwit. I am trying to dress more warmly and if it is really cold, I take a cart and try to keep my back stretched out. I played Monday in a Cha-cha-cha at Brookside in bitter cold and could barely walk the next day. I'd just seen Jane on the Thursday before. I went in again and she gave me another treatment. I did get out in cold, wet conditions on Saturday and play the Trilogy course at Rio Vista. I got my new R7 draw irons, but with the wet and wind didn't get a good representative idea of what the irons can do. It was blowing about 25 miles an hour and I had one hole that I hit a six iron into the wind from 165 yards and came up short in the front bunker. I usually hit my 7 iron 165 yards. I shot 44+42=86 on a tough course, but had an 86 five of my last 7 golf outings. My index jumped to 8.7 this month and is headed back to close to ten next month. Boyd had a really good round, shooting 39+37=76 and Bob shot 40+40=80. Darren had a bit more trouble and was complaining about the wind on his way to 45+48=93. Darla is out of town next weekend on a Silpada junket to San Diego and I have golf planned both Saturday and Sunday.

Work is going along well. We had a good month in January, ahead of last year, but below the budget. February has been a slow start, but is picking up steam. One of the problems we are having and the company is dealing with is audits for contractors whose work has ground to a near halt in this economy. Oftentimes the audits work out to $20,000 or more and they have had to lay off staff and have no jobs in the bank. They can't afford to pay the audits and are more worried about putting bread on the table than paying for insurance that happened last year. These audits are going unpaid and to direct collections and my underwriters are seeing this phantom income come back off of their numbers at an alarming rate. That happened in February and we actually started the month in a hole. I am anxious to see the economy turn around sooner than later.

I tried to get reservations for our condo in Mexico, but found out that they only take reservations six months in advance, so I will have to get the two condos set up in early May for our November trip to Mexico. I was a little surprised that they only book six months out, but that is the rule. I'd like to plan a little further in advance than that.

For those who just watch network television, you don't know what you are missing. Try watching "Diners , Dives and Drive-ins" on the Food network or "Worst Job" on the Discovery network. There was a fascinating series this week on CNBC called "House of Cards", a look at the mortgage meltdown in America and how greed in the loan industry and mortgage backed securities dealers like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused the house of cards to fall. Good television that really puts most reality tv shows to shame.

By the way, Jennifer identified the black guy in the picture last week as her sister's fiance. She is the shorty in the middle of the picture.

Well, this is short this week, but it is all rain, wind and cold here. Nothing to see here, folks. I hope you are all well and regularly taking advantage of your own "hospital for sinners". Be well. Ciao.

It is a tad quieter in the Lyon household at night now

Jen sent some new pictures and they are always quick to make it onto my blog. Of particular interest here is the picture of Jennifer with her sisters. Dina is Jennifer's roommate with the faux mohawk with purple tips (it is Vegas, you know) and the two other girls are her biological sisters. Jennifer is actually taller than her sister in the middle of the picture. The girl on the far right has the same hair color and type as Jennifer does when it isn't colored. I don't know who the black dude is, the tag line on the picture was "frosty balls". I don't know if the guy was cold or that is just his nickname. It is always good to get pictures of Samantha. Look at how long her hair is getting in the bottom picture. I remember Jennifer at that age and how I started trimming her bangs as they were growing into her eyes.

The title hints of changes in our house and I think our last visit to Canada was a motivating factor for me to do something about my snoring. I've shared rooms with people over the years and always heard about how loud I was snoring. Darla routinely sleeps with ear plugs and Boyd told me that I snored so loud that his earplugs were vibrating in his ears, he had bought earplugs the second night after I kept him up half the night the first night. He said he could hear me from in the bathroom with the ceiling fan on. My brothers gave me grief about hearing me from upstairs in Sherry and Al's house and Darla and I slept in the downstairs bedroom. Jennifer had also remarked that I was horribly loud when she stayed with us the last night in Austin before we all flew home from Jesse's wedding. I did some research and found PureSleep.com. They manufacture a mouthpiece designed by a dentist and I ordered one for $79. It is an upper and lower mouthpiece molded from plastic and it has a large hole below the top teeth and above the lowers. The device is designed to pull your lower mandibular forward to increase the air passage in the back of your neck. You plunge the mouthpiece into boiling water for one minute, let it cool on a spatula for ten seconds and then jam the scalding hot plastic into your mouth and bite down on the device to set your bite into the mouthpiece. The note on the packaging reads that it is normal for your teeth and gums to feel very warm during this process. "No sh*t, Sherlock!" It has taken me a week to get used to sleeping with the device, but so far, no more snoring. Darla was concerned because I was starting to snore a little the second night and she thought I was learning to defeat the device, but it turns out I had a stuffy nose that night and had to breath through my mouth. I did have my jaw cracking and popping the first few mornings after wearing it, but re-read the instructions and it suggests a morning exercise of lightly pressing your lower jaw backwards and holding your muscles for about 45 seconds to reset your jaw. It is a bit of a hassle, but I think I owe it to Darla after twelve years of marriage.

Darla's sister, Alicia, had a scary encounter last week. She lives alone with a cat and had left the side door to her garage unlocked by accident. The house door to the garage was broken and couldn't be locked. She woke up to a noise at about two in the morning and their was a man dressed in all black in her hallway outside her bedroom. She screamed at him and grabbed the phone telling him she was calling 9-1-1, which she did. The guy turned and ran out of the house. The Roseville Police arrived within two minutes and told her she was very lucky that she woke up because there was no telling what the guy was in the house to do. Her car was parked in the garage and it was obvious that someone was home. It would appear that someone knew she was home alone. She has since had the door fixed and is looking into house alarms. Darla and I are much more careful about locking our house door to the garage now as we sleep on the complete opposite side of the house and we could get cleaned out and sleep right through it. As the economy turns and there are more and more empty houses in our neighborhood and people out of work, the crime rate is rising.

I talked to Dad and Darla talked to Cheryl last week and we are all on for our trip to Nuevo Vallarta in November. Dad and Shirley are going to a resort in N.V. the week of November 7th -14th. I will be in Detroit through the 8th at our annual Manager's meeting and it appeared that we would get there late, but Darla and I talked and decided to see if Dad and Shirley would be interested in staying in Mexico an extra week and moving over to our resort. We would get two rooms and have Dad and Shirley, Darryl and Cheryl and Randy and Cake (hopefully) join us. Our suites are 1249 square feet, two bedroom units with private baths within each room and a small splash pool on the balcony. I called the resort to make a reservation and they told me to call back on May 1st to book for November. They only book six months in advance and then only for owners. The Jack Nicklaus redesigned golf course reopens on September 12th and we will be among the first to play it. The resort is building a new main shopping district with restaurants and a central check-in with light rail service to each individual resorts (there are three on the property) that will also be finished September 12th and they had to completely rebuild the back nine to accommodate the new construction. The back nine winds around the Cuale River and hosts crocodiles on it's shores.

Darla and I overslept today and missed church. The weather is iffy today with rain likely tonight and into tomorrow. I have a golf tournament in Stockton tomorrow afternoon and hope the rain comes in hard tonight and trains itself out by tomorrow. I am playing an a Cha-Cha-Cha event with some friends from the club and it is an outing put on by the NCGA. I played in our Super Bowl tournament on Saturday at 7:30 AM and it was wet and cold. The scores were all a bit higher and I struggled to a 42+42=84. The driver continues to work well for me, but I struggled with my putting. The greens are still damaged from the late season aerification that the course superintendent did in November about a week before our first frost. I set up a road trip next Saturday to the Trilogy Golf course in Rio Vista with Bob, Boyd and Darren. It is on the Delta about 75 minutes from Roseville and they are running a $100 weekend special for four players including carts. I look forward to it.

Darla and I celebrated Valentine's Day early last night with a night out to Ruth Chris' steak house. We ate well and came home to watch The Express, the Ernie Davis story. It's a great football and human rights story about the first black athlete to win the Heisman trophy. He was one of the greatest college athletes of all time, but he contracted leukemia at age 22 and died at 23 before ever joining the Cleveland Brown's backfield with Jim Brown. That may have been the greatest tandem of runners in the history of the NFL. If you get a chance rent it, it is so much more than a football movie and well worth your time.

Well, Darla is calling to have me go take a walk with her, so I'd better finish this up. I hope you are all well, happy and strong in your personal faith. Ciao.

Why I live in Northern California

Sunday February 1st high temperature 70 degrees, light breeze with a high blue sky. We need rain and I say that's what weekdays are for. Saturday was a carbon copy of today and I brought out the shorts for my day on the golf course. luckily, I have the benefit of a Bahamas vacation in the bank and some tan on my legs. There were a few albinos out on the course wearing shorts and looking vaguely like out of bounds markers dressed in shorts and shirts. I was able to get a good head start on my gardening this year on Saturday and trimmed all of the rose bushes back and pulled all of the downed leaves out of the flowerbeds and put them in the recycling can. I also trimmed the flowers in the palm garden above the pool and trimmed the bushes back away from the palm trees. I mowed the lawn and top seeded the grass and then put down some Turf Builder. I want the seed to have a chance to germinate in the next couple of weeks before I put the crabgrass preventer down in late February. I got an e-mail from Dad this morning and it was snowing in Vancouver. That is why I live in Northern California.

Darla and I watched the Super Bowl this afternoon and saw an entertaining game. I like Larry Fitzgerald and the Pittsburgh defense, but let's just say the game lacked real star players. Warner is a good story and Big Ben is good for 255 yards and two touchdowns in a game. Neither team has much of a running game and there just wasn't a sense of expectation as the game approached. In fact, I was watching the playoff of the FBR PGA tournament and realized that it was time for the Super Bowl to start. I taped the playoff and watched the video recording at halftime. We taped Springsteen and watched that afterward. Several of the younger people in my office were complaining about the halftime entertainment being 80's stars and they are right, but you have to play to the people with money. Besides, when they went younger with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson, there were boobs all over the screen. Kind of like the commercials for Doritos and Go Daddy this year. What the heck?

I did buy the FT-iQ driver by Callaway in spite of my original denials about doing so. I did just want to enjoy the FT-i, but then a pro in Florida had the FT-iQ up for bid on -Bay and I put in a bid at $289 for the $500 club and got it. I had bought my FT-i new for $159 and sold it used for $152. I put quite a description of the club out and caught some interest and ended up with a bidding war that ended at $152. Here is my description for the club: "This FT-i was purchased brand new in December from a pro shop owner in Florida and has been used for three rounds only. If you have not tried the Callaway FT-i driver, you are in for a treat. This is by far the straightest driver I have ever hit. I have a natural fade and I can barely reach the right side of the fairway now. I had an opportunity to buy the brand new FT-iQ at a bottom dollar price and jumped on it. My loss is your gain on this club. I got a steal at $189 and you can have a like new FT-i for a used price. This club would be a 9.5 out of 10 with only very minor face marks and no crown marks. I am an 8.3 handicap and would recommend this club and this technology to any level of golfer. The off center hits are in the fairway! The shaft is a Regular Flex Speeder 586 Fujikura with the Callaway stickers still on the clubhead end of the shaft. The serial number is 7002240719. The headcover is included and is designed where the head is slid in from the side of the headcover and latched shut with the magnetic closure. Happy bidding on this club. I will ship this club within one business day of payment via Fed-Ex ground delivery." You'll notice that I said I bought it for $189, well I wanted them to feel like they got a bargain. it's marketing.

I've said before that marketing isn't about what you say but how you say it. I have a BS degree in marketing (appropriate, eh?). You can tell a woman she has a face that could stop a clock and you'll get one reaction. You can take the hand of that same woman, and tell her that when you gaze into her eyes, time stands still. You've said the same exact thing, but you got two different reactions. The difference: "marketing".

I have been tinkering with my equipment quite a bit and have yet to get my game back on solid footing. in fact, my last three games have all been 43+43=86. I'm driving the ball well, but struggling in the wet sand traps and struggling with the condition of the greens that haven't fully healed from the waffle cut that the greenskeeper did in late November. We ended up with several early frosts in December and it will take weather like we've had the last few days to fully heal the greens. My handicap went up to 8.7 from 8.3 in February, but it will only help me on tougher courses which will lift my strokes from 9 to 10. on my home course, I remain a 9, which mean I have to shoot 81 to shoot net par. I won't completely have my game set until march when i buy my new irons, until then, I'm a work in progress. I have definitely upgraded my equipment in the last three months with the new driver, Scotty Cameron putter, and Pro V-1 golf balls. Again I'm watching e-Bay and looking at Ping irons, Callaway X-22 irons, the new Taylor Made R-9 irons and the new Nike Tiger Woods Victory red irons.

I play in a shotgun on Saturday at Diamond Oaks and then a cha-cha-cha at Brookside Country Club in Stockton a week from Monday. The cha-cha-cha is a four man better ball game where you use the one best ball on the first hole, two best balls on the second and three best balls on the third. It then reverts to one on the fourth hole and so on. My team will be Boyd, Bob and Neil and I look forward to it. Steve had set up the game and then injured himself in the final round of last week's tournament. he pulled the muscle that is tolled over the shoulder blade and was in real pain last weekend. he couldn't lift his arm above his shoulder and his game went south. The doctor told him he has to take 2 months off, but Steve plans to lay off 4 weeks and then see how he feels.

Work is going well, we ended 2008 with a nice profit although slightly less than in 2007. January has started strong and my number one underwriter, Anthony, was up almost 25% for the month versus 2008. We were up, but behind budget, which is always artificially high. I'm running a renewal contest for my renewal underwriters this year and my assistant, Ben, has won the contest for the 15th and 31st this month by running almost 92% on my renewals. The other renewal underwriters are already grumbling, but the higher our renewal retention the less new business we have to write to get to 100% of last year. The company has always promised an incentive plan for assistants and I decided to throw $1200 on the budget and make it a $50 contest twice each month. I think it will motivate the troops to make those extra phone calls to see if we can retain the business. I'm a little bit out on a ledge here as other offices don't do this, but I'm running our numbers and the renewal retention for January was at 66% versus 58% in the year ago period, that relates to about $111,00 in additional renewal revenue for a $100 cost. I think I can sell that and hopefully our numbers will stay as high.

Still keeping my fingers crossed for the corporate outing to the Masters in April. We'll see. I hope you are well and quietly following in the footsteps of God.

Rainy weekend, but plenty of clearing for golf

This is currently my favorite picture of Ms. Samantha and it adorns my wallpaper on my IPhone. She is the real deal and an absolutely doll.

Our weekend was spent dodging raindrops as a storm front moved through the area. We drove up to Paradise on Saturday night to visit with Darla's folks and on the drive up we hit a rainstorm that reminded me of a Summer rainstorm in Texas. The rain was coming down so hard it was bouncing off the truck and the roads were a sheet of water and we hydroplaned along waiting for the storm to slacken so we could get our bearings. The last time we were in a storm that intense was several years ago (1999) when we drove up to Canada and the skies opened up outside of Portland and cars were skidding into the median and trucks were throwing up walls of water when you passed them. Your windshield wipers are mostly ineffective against a storm like that and it finally slackened and we were able to work our way up the foothills to Darla's parents' house.

It was an interesting visit to the Westras as Fran made us roast turkey. I got the early tee time in my tournament in order to get up to Paradise by 5:00 PM and dinner was slated for 6:00 PM. When I put the mashed potatoes that we brought into the kitchen I couldn't smell the turkey, which had been cooking since 1:30. It was a 19 pound bird that should take about 4-4 1/2 hours to cook. It ended up almost 7:30 and we were all starved when Earl finally took the turkey out of the oven and pronounced it still raw inside. They scooped out the dressing, nuked it, sliced some white and dark meat and nuked that and we sat down to a meal that was all the better for the wait. It turns out that their oven is on the fritz. One of my buddies in the golf group is an electrician and he said that there are two separate power sources in an oven and likely one has burnt out. It lets the oven still work, but not at the temperature that it would be at if both power boxes were operational. It also takes extra electricity as the power continues to surge to the broken power source trying to get it to turn on. they will be out oven shopping this week. The turkey was still in the oven when we left at 10:30 last night.

It rained solidly over night and when I got up at 7:30 this morning a shower passed over and hit us hard, but the skies dried up and we were off a our appointed time this morning. I had hooked up with Steve, my poker buddy, to play in the qualifier this year. We've qualified twice for the regional 4 ball qualifier that plays at turkey Creek, but never in the two man that goes direct to Poppy Hills. We decided to give it a go and it was a great 18 holes for us, the problem is the tournament was 36 holes. We shot 63 on Saturday good for a tie for second place, Steve had his A game and shot 81 to my 82 and also had an exceptional eagle on the par five sixth hole, draining a 40 foot putt after knocking a 4 iron on from 200 yards. He had a stroke on that hole, so it was good for a double-eagle on our team score. As well as we and he played Saturday, Sunday was a travesty dressed as a golf game. Steve shot 92 to my 86 and we had seven net birdies to go with three net bogeys and one net double bogey. it was brutal and we limped home with a 70 and a two round total of 133. 125 and 127 qualified for the trip to Monterey and we moved form a tie for second to a tie for 17th in the 32 man field. Ouch.

On a good note, Idid manage to buy a new Callaway FTi-Q driver. I didn't enjoy my FT-i for long as I just heard too much buzz about the FTi-Q. I keep an eye on E-Bay and this one party had won a new FTi-Q at a member guest in December and it was only bid up to $230 with an hour to go in the auction. It hit $255 with 10 minutes left and I put in a maximum bid of $325 and bought the club for $289. The FTi-Q clubs list for $595 and routinely sell on E-Bay for $450, so I got a steal. I have the FT-i in an auction now with a "Buy It Now" price of $159. The auction ends on Thursday, so I'm anxious to see what I get for it. I bought it new on auction from a pro shop owner in Florida for $155. Darla says I'm hooked on "the crack" and I'd guess she is right. I am completely upgrading my golf equipment for bargain basement pricing. Those that know how frugal I am can probably understand why I like this so much.

Darla and I are looking forward to our trip to Vegas in March. We have arranged for a stay at the Station Casinos in Henderson, Nevada in a 395 square foot guest room for $250 for four nights. We got the airline tickets for half price through Southwest and our car rental ( a Buick Lucerne) from Alamo Car rental is $10 a day. Now that could warm a miser's heart.

Darla got her Explorer repaired from the car accident in December and she has a new rear bumper and left rear quarter panel. The car looks new and she is thrilled.

My boss will be in the office tomorrow to talk to the staff and go over some planning for 2009. We will bring in sandwiches and make a day of it. I had a Corporate VP from USLI in this week and he saw my office decor of golf balls and photos and by the time we got to the restaurant (he drove separately because of a 3:00 PM flight), he'd arranged for me to fly out to South Carolina in April for two days at a corporate retreat, two days of golf and two practice rounds at the Masters at Augusta. I still have to clear it with my boss, but what an opportunity. he is also trying to wrangle me an invite to their corporate golf outing in Florida with Warren Buffett, their owner via Berkshire Hathaway. Honestly, if I had my choice between the two, I'd go to Florida and rub elbows with the Oracle of Omaha.

Well, short and sweet, but I got home late this afternoon from golf and had to do some down time with Darla and decided to get he Blog done before bed. I would have broken out in hives if I left it until Monday. Hope you are all well. I'll add more after the Super Bowl next week. Go Cardinals. Ciao.

Atlantis in the Bahamas, Not Too Shabby

Back from the sun and fun. The trip was as much fun as we'd hoped and we were glad to be able to get there early and relax for a few days before all of the Silpada Barbies showed up. We stayed the first two days at the Cable Beach Resort Wyndham and just relaxed at the pool and took walks into the town for groceries and just spent time together. The weather was fantastic with highs in the 80's and lows in the upper sixties. It was 72 degrees at midnight, which is nirvana. It was nice to start the trip away from the Atlantis and to see some of Nassau before the influx of the Silpada gang hit. Darla and I had a great dinner Saturday night at the Steak and Seafood restaurant at the Wyndham and then went gambling at the Cable Beach casino on sight. We sat and listened to an excellent band in the nightclub above the casino and really enjoyed our time together. Darla and I managed to win $185 at the casino that night which made the trip that much more pleasant. The first picture in the list above is of the Cable Beach Resort taken at the pool.

Sunday we moved to the Atlantis Resort and were met by representatives from Silpada, who streamlined our check-in process. We checked into our room, which was nice, but faced the harbor instead of the ocean. We could see the cruise ships and the bridge from Paradise Island to Nassau. The resort is impressive, but (frankly) the $450 a night price tag is steep. Our time share in Nuevo Vallarta is a two bedroom suite and the resort is almost as nice. Atlantis has more aquarium features and includes several shark tanks, stingray ponds, a predator lagoon (the second picture above is of a hammerhead shark), a dolphin habitat that boasts 12 dolphin saved in Hurricane Katrina, and several fish tanks that you can access below the water level and watch the fish in their natural habitat. The Atlantis has aquarium features that are actually superior to that of the Monterey Aquarium. They are also well known for their water features that include several sheer drop slides, a mile long "lazy river" that splits off into current and rapids. Darla and I ended up on a river plunge that took us on our two person raft down a sheer drop through a dark tube and into a wall of water and rapids. It was great fun and the oceans of green and aquamarine are beautiful. The sand is white and wraps around the resort. The resort offers a "walk with the sharks" where you suit up in a metal helmet and wet suit and walk in the sharks' habitat. We passed. They also have a dolphin encounter where you can actually ride the dolphins in deep water or just swim with them in the shallower water. We skipped that and just went to the dolphin show one afternoon and watched them with their trainers. The Atlantis also has a casino that doesn't pay off. The casino was always quiet although crowded with people. There was no "buzz" in the casino, likely because everyone was losing money. We tried twice and finally licked our wounds and went back to our room.

We did venture out with the gang to a restaurant in Cable Beach called "The Poop Deck". I was concerned that it was a nickname for food poisoning, but the food was good, although expensive. I had a wonderful filet mignon and drank several Kalik beers, the local beer of the Bahamas. I figure that I had Red Stripe in Jamaica, so should indulge in Kalik in Nassau. Silpada put on two very nice events, the Welcome Reception on Sunday night on a beach at the Atlantis. The food was buffet style and okay, but nothing special. The drinks were great and we enjoyed a few Bahama Mamas and a Silpada Sling. We met the two founders of the company which is the 6th photo above and the famous arch between the Royal Towers is shown in the 5th photo. We stayed in the Royal Towers. Darla and I ate several breakfasts at Anthony's Grill in the Paradise Village shopping center and it was the most reasonable and best breakfast on the island. We also ate one night at Johnny Rockets, a 50's style diner in the Marina Village shopping Center.

The trip was very reasonable for us, as the airfare was paid for, the resort was paid for, our trips into Nassau were paid for and Silpada gave us $175 credit on our room that paid for most of our food while we were at the Atlantis. Next year the event will be held at the Mayan Riviera, which is an all inclusive resort. it is in Mexico and we will likely only go the length of the trip and not extend as we have a shorter flight.

Darla had a "Darla" experience during the trip. Leave it to my wife, a conservative social worker from California to meet Joe Bob from Arkansas. She met a couple in line at dinner on Wednesday night and invited them to have dinner with us at our table. The woman is a rep from Arkansas and her husband, we'll call him Joe Bob, was on a roll. He was telling a story about being a friend of Barry Switzer and being invited to Dallas to see a Cowboy home game back in the day that Jerry Jones hired his coaches based on his affiliation with them from his home state of (you guessed it) Arkansas. Joe Bob and his wife were put up in the Cowboys local hotel room where they stay the night before home games. He was invited down on the field before the game and then sat in the owner's box during the game. He was explaining to Darla that while he was on the field, the team photographer approached him and asked if he wanted his picture taken with Emmitt Smith, now the all time rushing leader in the NFL. Joe Bob told Darla that he declined as he, you know, doesn't like rubbing elbows with them black folk. I watched Darla's face turn red and she dug her nails into my thigh. I was waiting for her to let him have it, when his wife shushed him and said, "Now don't start that talk, Joe Bob." She looked at Darla and said, "Where we come from the blacks all stay on their side of town and we just don't mix." It was quite amazing to meet some backward hicks from 1950 at the Bahamas in the year 2009. Old Joe Bob and his wife have quite a shock coming to them on Tuesday when Barack Hussein Obama is sworn into the White House. Darla couldn't wait for them to leave our table which they did right after dinner. This man sat in a country with a 90% black population and shared his bigoted views with us. We were truly shocked. I heard some similar things when I lived in Texas and it was one of the things that I truly disliked about Texas. In my opinion, if you want to appear truly stupid, share bigoted opinions in a crowded venue.

Darla took Airborne before our flights this year. It is a concoction of vitamins and amino acids designed by a school teacher to combat airborne illnesses. I've read several articles pooh poohing the effectiveness of the product and decided to take my chances. We were seated next to Jose Flu-bug Virus on the plane from Miami to Dallas on Thursday and we were sure that Darla would catch the bug as she was seated right next to him as he coughed and wheezed his way across the southeast. Well, Friday night I came home from work with a sore throat and runny nose and have suffered with chills and a stuffy sinus cavity all weekend. Darla has been fine and continued to take her Airborne to keep from catching what I have. So far, she is fine.

My sunburn has subsided and I ended up with a slight peel around the apex of the two moons. I continued to coat myself with the gel refrescante and it is all gone now except for a slight bronze glow. I'm done with tanning booths as well.

We were told that the Atlantis is the new Monte Carlo and that we would likely see celebrities galore. I never saw one until we were in the airport on the way home and Chris Evert was getting a yogurt at one of the airport shops. The Atlantis will be teeming with celebs starting Thursday of this week when Michael Jordan hosts a celebrity golf tournament on the island's golf club.

I missed my golf game over the weekend and came back to a rusty game. I couldn't get loosened up in spite of some unseasonable warm weather in Sacramento. We hit 70 degrees yesterday and the sky is a solid blue with not a cloud to spoil the canvas. I started out with THREE straight double-bogeys and limped to a 44+43=87 at Diamond Oaks yesterday. I need to hit the driving range this week to work on my short game. My drives were long and straight, but I was a spastic around the greens. I play in the two man qualifier for Spyglass with Steve Matthews next weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

I almost skipped church today, but having missed last week and facing perhaps missing next week due to golf, I got up at 8:30 and rushed a shower. The sermon was on "Are Christians homophobic?" and it was great. The tone of the sermon was on tolerance and what tolerance means. It isn't about embracing something and accepting it, but about being tolerant of people with SSA (Same Sex Attraction). It was about being loving people and realizing that all people were made in God's Image. It was an enlightening way to view the issue. That there are people with SSA and they struggle with issues as we do. Rick specifically said that nowhere in the Bible does it say "Love the sinner and hate the sin". That is a 21st century saying. It is Love everyone and concern yourself with your own sin. We all sin. I came away from the sermon with a whole new outlook on how Christians should act. Well worth getting out of bed.

Well, that's enough for now. We now set our sights on our trip to Las Vegas in early March to see Jennifer and Samantha. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

A Tribute to Buddy, a good dog to the end

Yep, Buddy breathed his last on December 30th as I had to take him in to the vet to be put down. He was ready to go and it was the humane thing to do. He had been a miracle dog, having survived both distemper and parvo as a Pup. Those diseases caused him to have seizures his entire life and to have a deficiency of Vitamin D and an overwhelming need for water. Buddy drank probably up to 112 ounces of water a day. At the end, that combined with his confusion about the correct place to pee (the backyard, NOT the living room!) caused us to make the tough decision to put him down. He will live on in our hearts, but he did manage to live for almost 14 years after his bouts with parvo and distemper. I will always remember him for his enthusiasm and spark and, of course, for the fact that he cleaned up after himself in the backyard as he had quite a fondness for his own feces. Darla likes to call it recycling. To each his own. We've missed him since we put him down as we had a few bones left still from the prime rib and leftover pizza crust that he would always polish off for us. With our coming trip to the Bahamas, it was time for him to go on to doggie heaven.

We discussed our situation with Buddy on New Years Eve with our friends, Bob and Vicki, at dinner that night. They also have a golden retriever and said that when it is time for him to go, they will have to have a funeral. I suggested a "celebration of life" instead. I guess if you are going to do something goofy, take it to the next level.

In preparation for our trip next week, I decided to go to the local "California Sun" tanning parlor to work on a base tan. Darla has gone there for years as the tanning helps her with the absorption of Vitamin D into her skin which helps with her psoriasis. She warned me to go slow on the first session and not go over 5 minutes in the bed. I got there and was greeted by a young lady with way too much personality for a tanning salon. "Bubbly" would be an insult to her. She was chewing gum and had me fill out a questionnaire about how my skin reacts to the sun. I tan easily and burn rarely. She looked it over and said, you can easily go 8 minutes your first time. Just be sure to apply lots of indoor tanning lotion and wear the goggles. Now, I know I should have listened to my wife, who once burned herself severely in the tanning booth, but it just somehow seemed okay to go longer on the advice of a 19 year old with (no offense, Jennifer) a tattoo of the Tasmanian Devil on her right bicep. Idiot is the word. I do tan well, but have parts of my body that have never seen the sun and I went into the tanning bed "au naturel". Right now I have the reddest red ass you have ever seen. My butt literally creates it's own heat and I can literally feel the heat coming out of the back of my pants. I was lucky not to burn myself on "little Kenny" as the upper lights are not as close to your skin as the ones below you. I do have an almost perfect pair of red shorts where my swimsuit should cover. Right now I am wearing cotton sweats and a liberal layer of some sunburn medication we bought in Mexico called "Gel Refrescante - para despues del sol con Vitamin E y aloe". I have no idea what is in this blue concoction, but it is the only thing that has been able to soothe the burning fire that is now my nether region. Darla had a good laugh when she saw the red moons that now inhabit my backside. I smiled weakly and wiped on another layer of blue heaven.

I did get out today and play golf after my entire two foursomes abandoned me. It rained overnight and the forecast was for about a 70% chance of rain today. We all decided to bag the 8:41 and 8:48 tee times and sleep in. Darla decided to go to work (amazing that she didn't have today off and I did, I call it justice) and I decided to go ahead and go out to the course and catch on with some other players. The rain moved north and it was cold and windy, but dry. I didn't manage to hook up with anyone else as their were foursomes all over the course and no singles. I played two balls and caught up to a group of three guys on the second hole. They invited me to join them, but were hackers and I waved them on. I managed to put up a 38+39=77 and a 40+40=80 over the day and had six birdies in total. I finished my round in 3 1/2 hours by skipping hole number 5 (the number one handicap hole) to get around the "Threesome from Hell". I took a bogey on both cards for that hole and it was smooth sailing the rest of the day. I was upset that my handicap stayed at 8.3 for January as I thought it would go up, but in truth I am playing to my index and I can see it staying low. The Callaway FT-i driver is incredibly straight and keeps me in the fairway all day and the new Scotty Cameron putter gives me confidence over any putt. i will get a new set of either Taylormade R7 draw irons, Callaway X-22's or the brand new Victory Red TW Nike irons for my birthday in March. I will play golf tomorrow morning with the gang at Diamond Oaks. My Odyssey putter will close on EBay tonight and with three hours left has been bid up to $34.01. I paid $78 for my Scotty Cameron and it is in pristine condition. The Odyssey definitely has some face dings and doesn't include the original head cover which was lost in Mexico. I am selling it with the Bandon Dunes head cover I bought earlier this Fall. Whatever I get for it is a bonus as I don't need two putters.

It is good to put 2008 behind us at work. We were down about 12% in premium, but actually up about 8% in policy count and up about 4% in net earned income, which is what really matters. I had to lay off staff in 2008 (5 positions) and the staff that remains is working much harder. I continue to hear it from several underwriters that they could use more support staff and I point to the fact that I am sharing an assistant with another underwriter in the office, so if I can bite the bullet, so can they. Hopefully, the reports of pricing coming back up is true and we will see a return to a hardening price market in 2009. All of my underwriters will make more money, which will certainly improve my pocketbook as well.

Well, Darla is home and I will add more to this Sunday night. Rest in Peace, Buddy, you have been a faithful servant to the end. Ciao.