Just a Quick note

It is Saturday afternoon and I just got back from golf. Darla told me she'd meet me on the pool, but she isn't home, so I thought I'd add to this now. I leave for a three day seminar in Scottsdale tomorrow. It is unbelievably busy at work. I've been putting in 60 hour weeks and now I know what Darryl feels like every week. Ugh. The last time I worked this many hours was when I was a struggling stockbroker, before Darla and I got married.

Darla and I both had setbacks physically this week. Darla went in to have her cast removed and they x-rayed her foot and found that the bone has still not healed and is split. Darla has put entirely too much pressure on her foot and will need surgery if it doesn't heal over the next four weeks. She is in a metal and canvas walking boot now and has been told to stay off her foot. Why they put her in a boot if she is supposed to stay off the foot is beyond me. She wanted to be completely healed, but really was poor about staying off her foot. She drove way too much and her injured foot being her left foot, she put tremendous stress on her foot just getting in and out of her car. She had to step down onto her foot to get out and push off on that foot to get in the car. She is going to take some sick time and work from home to try to rest her foot. The injury was to her fifth metatarsal bone and it is still split. The bone has grown closer together, but the stress of being on the foot caused the bone not to heal. She's frustrated with Summer coming and the prospects of surgery in July, so she is going to heal herself and when Darla sets her mind to something, it generally gets done. Also, with her Silpada business, she put on a big "Cast Off" sale for her customers and didn't want the cast put back on.

I went into my dermatologist for my six month cancer screening after the basil cell carcinoma was cut off my back and it healed well. He checked me out and saw a spot on the top of my right hand. I thought it was a bug bite, because it showed up on my hand, crusted over and then began to itch. I was treating it with Calamine lotion for the itch. He took one look and said, that is a precancerous growth, I'll burn it off. He got his can of whatever it is to burn it off (they actually freeze it) and started to apply the spray. I said, "you might want to clean off the Calamine lotion first with antiseptic" He said, "We'll burn right through that." As he applied it, the calamine lotion liquefied and started to boil and my hand was smoking. He looked at me with a smile and said, "I haven't seen that before." I thought I was in Canada talking to Dad's doctor. People were knocking on the door seeing if there was a barbecue. I think they smelled chicken cooking.

Dad has been back to his doctor and had more cells cut off his body and they will have them screened for cancer. It's too much with this damn cancer stuff and skin cancer definitely runs in my family. I'll be checked yearly now by the dermatologist for skin cancer. The doctor said I have a 30% elevated chance of getting more basil cell carcinomas, now that I've had one. Lovely.

I shot 81 in the golf tournament today and was tied for fourth when I left. There were three groups still on the course. Boyd shot 77 and was tied for second. The weather was perfect, about 78 degrees with a light wind.

The boys are done at Cal Poly for the school year and will be home late tonight. Neither have jobs line up and I'm hoping they land something. I worked all during my college years and don't have a lot of sympathy for them not having jobs. I was never out of a job when I was in school and helped pay for my schooling, taking over paying for my school in my Junior year. They both tried (weakly) to get internships for the Summer, but didn't really follow up on it and will likely spend the Summer sleeping in and complaining they are broke. I hope not.

Darla is in the final stretch of trying to qualify for her annual trip with Silpada. She needs to do like $7,000 in sales this month and I wouldn't bet against her. She has until the end of June and is working hard to qualify. the trip in 2009 is to Maya Riviera near Cancun, Mexico and is an all inclusive resort.

Well, Darla is home and I need to spend some time with her. I think we are having dinner at Black Angus tonight. We have a coupon for bacon wrapped filet mignon for $13.95 and thought we'd take advantage of that. I leave at 9:15 tomorrow morning for Scottsdale. I have an Underwriting Trainee in the office, Matt, and he is leaving for two weeks in Home Office tomorrow. He was saying goodbye yesterday and I told him that maybe I'd see him at the airport. He asked me what time my flight was and I said 9:15. He said, "well, mine is 9:30. What airline are you flying?" I told him US Air and it turns out his flight is 9:15 as well and we are on the same flight to Phoenix. He will change planes there for Detroit. His tickets were arranged by our travel department in H.O. so I wasn't aware of his travel itinerary. Funny stuff. I will add more next week. Pray for me this week as I entertain my CEO Wednesday and Thursday. Ciao.

Busy Times at Work

It has been a cool week with some night thunderstorms, evening rain and sun and clouds during the daytime. We had our Big I Golf Day on Monday and had ideal weather. Darla and I were able to finish the signs and although as one person said, "It looks like someone's third grade daughter did these signs", the event went off without a hitch and I took our art project to the cardboard recycling bins across from the Fairgrounds on Monday night after the event. I also went up in the attic this weekend and cleared out any old signs for companies that have gone out of business or were older signs with an old font we no longer use. I was able to make a new inventory of signs and threw out a bunch of worn or tattered signs. Our team ended up shooting 9 under par and the winning team was a group of novice golfers including my underwriter, Pete, who likely used creative accounting to get their score down to 59. I'm not buying it. I've seen two of them play and , frankly, they look like ex football players trying to play golf. Pete left for a week's vacation to Hawaii the day after the tournament, so I haven't had a chance to harass him yet, but I will.

The merger and purchase of our competitor fell through at the last minute and another of our competitors was able to get nine of their employees to accept positions with them. They had hoped that having their talent would give them access to the book of business, but we hired the five best employees and then reached a late agreement with the former firm to purchase the book. We have rights to all of their in force business and to exclusive renewal rights on the business until July of 2010. I was over in their Rancho Cordova office on Tuesday with 5 of my staff and we picked up all of the files. I then was off to Fresno on Friday morning to pick up files from the Fresno office. The delay was because the other firm that hired nine of the employees had hired the Fresno Manager and staff and subleased the same building that the other firm was in...along with the files that now belonged to us. It is a three hour drive to Fresno and I wanted to be sure we could get access to the office. I called the trustee the night before and told him to make sure I could get in the building because I would be there at 9 AM. I borrowed Gail's F-150 King Cab and left at 6:00 AM for Fresno with Ben, my assistant in tow. Sure enough, when we showed up the manager refused to let us in. She got on the phone with her boss and he said we needed paperwork, which I produced as a cover letter from the purchased company's attorneys granting us full access to all files. We tap danced for awhile and I stood my ground, finally getting the trustee on the phone and having him convince the manager to butt out and let us in. It was uncomfortable, but two hours later we had five trucks loaded up and took the files to our Fresno office where we parted them out to Fresno and Sacramento. I had left a padfolio with my business cards and a legal pad and some papers on the receptionists window and when I went to retrieve it, it was gone. I asked the receptionist and she said, "was it the blue padfolio on the windowsill?" When I said, yes, she smiled at me and said she'd never seen it. Nothing that was in there was important, but I did have an invitation from one of the local country clubs to come out and try their course. I brought it to set up golf for Saturday, but Bob and I ended up setting a game at Cherry Island. Keeping my company property was BS on their part. Ben and I finally got out of Fresno at 2:00 PM and were back in Sacramento by 5:00 PM. I dropped him off, gassed up the truck, stopped at Office Depot to return some boxes that we didn't need and then drove up to Gail's house to drop off the truck. She will be bringing the truck to the office tomorrow and we will unload the files and begin processing them. We will have to scan all of the files into Imageright and then begin making calls to the agents. When I get into the office tomorrow the old phone lines from the purchased company will be patched into my phone system and we will begin servicing their files. A lot of work is in the cards for the next while. I will be bringing in kids of staff to handle the scanning project and paying them $10 an hour.

Bob and I did make it out to Cherry yesterday and played golf with two thirty something women who were excellent golfers. I shot 39+42=81 and Bob shot 43+39=82. The ladies were a nine handicap and a ten handicap and said that they had never played golf with any male golfers who were better than them. I think they were more than just friends (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I really enjoyed playing with two women that were very good golfers. It was a treat. At one point, the course comes in contact with a city street on the border of the course and some idiot yelled out, "You bunch of girls!" as he drove by in his beat up pickup truck. One of the women is Irish and she said, "Eh, it looks like they noticed the tits!" I instinctively looked down at my chest and they all got a good laugh out of it.

Darla is anxious to lose her cast as it is time for her to move about without the confines of a plaster boot on her leg. Hopefully, she's learned a lesson, but knowing my wife, I doubt it. She's been in the pool just about every day with saran wrap and a shower boot on her leg since the start of swimming season.

I had a golf tournament today, but woke up with an aching back and an inflamed foot where I stepped on a bee while trimming the ground cover around the pool yesterday. We went to church and then Darla dropped me at the course, where I tried to play, but gave up after nine holes. My back was aching, my foot was pounding and I even have a sore yoke (collar bone). I shot 46 on the front and couldn't make a complete pass through the ball. I called Darla and asked her to pick me up. I sat and watched Tiger play some REAL golf instead.

The pastor talked about the concept of unanswered prayer. Garth Brooks had a famous song about the subject. The pastor's story was about a man who shipwrecked on a deserted island. He prayed every day and night for a ship to rescue him, but none ever came. He finally built a small hut and kept a fire for warmth near the hut. When he was gone one day out foraging and fishing, the winds came up and reignited his campfire which spread to his hut and burned it to the ground. He was mad at God and yelled about the fire and why was God punishing him. He brooded and cursed God, but a ship showed up that same day and rescued him. When he asked how they found him, the ship captain said that they had seen the smoke from his signal fire. God works in mysterious ways.

Well, that is it for this week. I'm off to Scottsdale next Sunday and an underwriting conference. I will try to update this before I leave. I hope you are all well. Do yourself a favor and find a good church to attend. It helps get us through all that is so sad in our world and our economy. Ciao.

Summer is Near

A wonderful weekend is in the books. A highlight for Darla and I was getting back to church and our church family. We had a couple stop us on the way out, some friends from our life group, and they wanted to know what happened to Darla. It was baptism Sunday and there were about forty-five people who were baptised, including a man whose wife has been praying for him to come to the Lord for 11 years. The sermon was on how to find joy in times of trouble and the first lesson in the series was based on the fact that Christians don't fight their battles alone. They are not only directed by God, but also surrounded by Christian friends who help them along the way. If you aren't involved in a church, get involved. Some of our strongest friendships are those we have made in church and they are the ones we turn to in times of crisis to pray for us and to help us get through. The only downer of the service was that Darla had an older gentleman sit next to her that had horrible gas and it was killing her. I got a wave t one point and felt physically ill. I don't know how she could take it. My wife has a tremendous amount of grace, but this old fart, well...you get it.

I spent this weekend taking out a planter in the back yard. We have limited space and this planter is about 15 square feet and had two rows of stones that were forever being tripped over as we moved around the tables and chairs on the back patio. You can kind of get a feel for what was there by the picture above and what I've added is basically pavers. it wasn't easy to fit the pavers into a round space, but I did my best and Darla and I will likely put flower pots on this spot and hand water them. The problems was the stones that were in the way and we've eliminated that problem. If you double-click on the wide picture, you can see the planter pretty well.

The weather this weekend was ideal in the mid eighties and the pool got a good workout as I was in and out as I worked. I took the weekend off from golf as I do have the insurance tournament at Sierra View CC tomorrow. I realized today as I readied the signs for the hole sponsors, Closest to the Pin, etc. that the sign vendor missed seven signs. It was my fault for not catching it, but Darla is hand drawing signs as I write this. With all of the excitement from the pending purchase of our competitor, I've been too busy to worry about my commitment as the sign chairman for the Golf committee. I can't leave the sponsors without signs, so we dashed off to Michael's and bought some sign stock and a couple of post holders and some Sharpies (paint pens) and my lovely wife is making me proud as she works on signs.

The buyout of our competitor hit a major snag this week and fell through. We were waiting until Friday to hear that the sale was final, but legal wording and wrangling by the other company had us back off. It may yet go through, but they have ceased operations, fired all of their staff and basically left their insurance agents without representation. I was at Home Depot on Saturday buying the pavers and I got a call from Harvey. He had been in talks with our CEO and they decided to go ahead and make offers to an underwriter and assistant from the Sacramento branch, so I sat in my car and we teleconferenced with each of the people and hired them over the phone. The underwriter starts tomorrow and her assistant will be in on Tuesday. We are going after the business and ended up losing a couple of the underwriters from some of the offices to other firms, but still will go after ALL of the business. It should be an interesting week. My hope is that they will come to their senses and get something out of the business. If they stand pat, they are basically walking away from millions of dollars in business. The advantage to a purchase is that we don't have to fight for that business with the other wholesalers on the street. It is ours.

We finished the month strong at work and beat both our budget on the bottom line and our premium written from last year. We have some momentum going and Alan will be here on June 18th. I have arranged dinner with one of our retailers Wednesday night the 17th and breakfast on Thursday morning. We will visit with the staff in the morning and then meet with the real estate people in the afternoon. We are looking to finalize our lease deal when Alan is here. I have two extra employees and the space we were looking at did allow us room for growth.

I called into action as a painter of signs, so this is it for this week. It's 11 PM and I have to be at work at 7 AM tomorrow to get ready for my new underwriter and then drive back to Roseville for the golf tournament. Ciao.

A BIG Thank You to the Euless Lyons!

Yes. The hospitality was gracious and it was great to see both Jenny and Chris home. BTW, is Jenny wasting her time behind the camera? That's one good looking niece. I know, Jenny, you'll put aside vanity to make some money. It's Austin's loss. Cake had gone out and bought us new sheets for the bed upstairs and laid out towels on the bed ala Sherry in Canada. Cake said she thought that was the height of luxury when Sherry did it and we got the royal treatment as well. Of course, I was standing there naked and wet after my shower and the towels were neatly folded at the foot of the bed. (Just kidding!) We enjoyed some good conversation, some laughs and some interesting moments with dogs who run away at inopportune times. Luckily, the dog was found by friends and returned to the backyard of a neighbor and we could get on with our lives. Randy and I had a chance to get caught up on our jobs and lives and it was nice to relax at such a warm home. We had a rental car, which was a complete waste of $10 a day, as Randy drove us everywhere and I'd only put 9 miles on the car when I returned it. The clerk asked me if I refilled it and I said, "Oh yeah, sure."

The rehearsal dinner was great, although we only found out the night before we left that we were invited. We had planned to go out to dinner with Randy and Cake on Friday night, but drove out to the restaurant, Abuelos and helped Darryl spend some of that unGodly salary that he commands. It was good to get caught up with some of Cheryl's family and spend a bit of time with the bride and groom.

The wedding was nice. It was a cloudy day, threatening rain that never came. The venue at the Stonebriar Country Club was a first class affair and mercifully short. I give Josh and Laura kudos for keeping the ceremony to 15 minutes. Having the minister talk about the rings being a "perfect circle of love" for the umpteenth time is tedious. If I could talk to any bride and groom, I'd say brevity is a gift to your guests. As usual the wedding party was gone for forty five minutes taking pictures, but the wait was more than bearable with an open bar near the reception room. Their pastor was hilarious and made the ceremony memorable and kept things light. Weddings are about the reception and this one was great. We were able to visit with all of our family and the few people that I knew there and Darla was able to get pictures and totter about on her broken foot for the afternoon. The food was very good and the line went fast.

Afterward, we enjoyed some downtime at Bruce and Kathy's house and drank a little more and visited a little more and even sat through a performance by Abigail, Janelle's daughter, who is a little ham. She took down everyone's name on a sheet of paper and then did a dance recital by calling each person's name to come and dance with her. Jessie tried to jump the gun and dance before his name was called and Abby sent him back to the couch. It was good fun.

We did manage to play some golf on Sunday, meeting Dad and Shirley and Bruce and Darryl at Riverside golf club in Grand Prarie. I started strong by going par, birdie, par, but the lack of a pitching wedge and hybrid irons caught up to me and I shot 42+43=85 and struggled with unfamiliar clubs. It was a great time and I look forward to Mexico and more golf with the Lyon clan (minus Randy).

I did make it back to work today and the merger is on, so I will conduct formal interviews by the end of the week and we will make offers to the employees we want to keep. It is busy at work right now with the merger and I'm getting ready for the annual golf day on Monday. Of course, I'm on the committee.

I'm going to take this weekend off from golf and work on my backyard as I bought some pavers to take out the half moon planter by the kitchen nook window. I will fill the planter with sand, place and cut the pavers and then paint and seal the finished product to match the decking we have in now. It will give us more room by the pool as we have two sets of patio chairs and tables (4 chairs and an umbrella) in that spot now and need the room. I don't have water run to the planter now and will take out the irises in the planter and transfer them to another spot in the garden. I also plan to finish scrubbing the pool tile and will put a coat of marine wax on the tile to keep the scale and calcium from building up, especially below the waterfalls.

Well, that is it. I will add to this on the weekend. The Insurance Golf Day is next Monday and I have stacked a team this year with Matt, my Underwriting Trainee, who is a 3 and Bob from the club who is a 4 (Bob is also an insurance agent so it's legal). We will play with my workhorse, Anthony, who doesn't have an index, but makes me lots of money. That's it for now. Ciao.

We got Josh and Laura all Married UP

We got home at two a.m. last night after getting out of Dallas an hour and a half late and then enduring a two hour delay in Denver. A tornado touched down somewhere near the Denver airport and threw the entire world of jet travel into or out of Denver into complete disarray. We were finally ready to go out of Denver at 11:30 and then had to wait for four passengers to run to the plane from another waylaid airliner. Airline travel has definitely taken a turn for the worse with the economy In Obama's hands as airlines insist on flying only full planes. The point here is that I slept in this morning and relaxed by the pool today and will add to this tomorrow night. We had a blast in Dallas and thank you to Randy and Cake for their warm and excellent hospitality. I'll add to this tomorrow night. Ciao for now.

A Ridiculously BUSY Week!

It was a BUSY week with Dad and Shirley here, Alicia's 40th birthday, Darla's 45th birthday, David's 22nd birthday, a big acquisition at work and temperatures at 107 degrees. The pool is up to 83 degrees and I'm sitting in a quickly drying swimsuit writing my weekly blog epistle. You can see pictures of Dad and Shirley and Darla and I at Il Forniao Restaurante in Roseville, pictures of Darla's boot bag in the swimming pool, and pictures from the 40th birthday surprise party for Alicia at Turnbull Winery in St Helena.

Darla was in the pool last weekend and her bag sprung a leak and she ended up having to go back into the doctors office and have a new cast put on. She told the doctor that it leaked in the shower, a little white lie.

Dad and Shirley arrived on Wednesday and we visited with them over a nice dinner. They came to the house about 4:30 and visited with Darla and then went to check in to their hotel. For some reason they don't stay with us when they visit and I think it was the bed in the guest room. Well, folks, we have a new softer mattress, so no more excuses about not wanting to bother us when we are busy with work. The jig is up and we are on to you. Darla and I used to sleep on that mattress and it definitely discourages visitors. I got home about 6:00 PM and had a quick shower and we were off to meet them at the Holiday inn Express. I called dad and said we were on our way and he said to meet them in room 309. We showed up at the hotel and were knocking on room 309 when Shirley emerged from a room farther down trhe hall and said that they were in room 309 the night before. Luckily they were on the same floor or we might have gone to dinner with strangers. We had a great visit and an excellent meal at the Italian restaurant at the Galleria Mall, laughing and talking, enjoying an excleent napa valley wine with dinner and the meals were all fantastic. We ended up bringing them back to our house so they could watch the semi-final of American Idol. They were on their way to Las Vegas and were supposed to visit with Jennifer and Samantha this weekend. I haven't heard from Jennifer as yet to how the visit went.

My company has purchased one of our main competitors in Roseville, a company that has been struggling of late and one that has a principal owner that is 93 years old. We finally got him to capitulate and sell and we are doing our due diligence now and the sale is supposed to close on June 1st. I will be busy this week interviewing some of their staff and making decisions about staffing in my office. This is quite a coup for our CEO and the pressure is on the California managers to make the transition work. It is an exciting time at our company right now and I'm thrilled to be with a company that is making bold moves in a tough market.

The surprise party for Alicia went off without a hitch as Don and Alicia were in Napa for her birthday and took a cooking class at the winery. The class was about how to pair wines with food and they both enjoyed it. The class got out at noon and we were all in the courtyard of the private residence at the winery and caught Alicia completely unaware as they walked into the courtyard to look at the gardens. Darla was in the planning with Don and we picked up the food at a small local restaurant that the two enjoy. We had pasta, salad, pizza and vegetables, along with wine from Turnbull winery. One of Don's friends brought some beer and Darla made a special trip to get another 36 pack of water as the day was 95 degrees, which is absolutely scorching for Napa. Darla's Dad and Mom brought their fifth wheel and are camping at the fairgrounds in Calistoga for the week. Darla was partly in charge of getting people to show at the party and she finagled her aunts and Uncles to come and they all brought their trailers and fifth wheels and were camping with Darla's parents. We did not stay over as I had poker on Friday night and the golf tournament today, so we drove down in the morning and back that night. Joni Minear, a good friend of Darla's and her Maid of Honor at our wedding drove down with us and was glad we didn't spend the night. Darla and I both sank into the pool when we got home as it was over 100 degrees in Roseville.

I bought Darla an IPhone for her birthday and she loves it. I also bought her an FM transmitter so she can play the 200 songs I have downloaded onto her car stereo. She is enjoying having internet connection and pictures of Samantha at her fingertips.

The dreaded 107 degrees hit today and I had the last tee time in the tournament. I almost wilted as our foursome took the brunt of the heat as we teed off at noon. I brought two frozen bottles of water and rotated them in the cooler pouch of my golf bag and the ice lasted until the 15th hole this time. Usually I bring one bottle and the ice is gone by the ninth hole. I also kep a wet towel and used it to wipe my face and arms and hang it around my neck to cool me off. It helped, but the weather was brutal. I struggled in the heat and shot 41+43=84 and finished second in the tournament. A 14 handicapper who was 3 behind me at the start of the round shot an 84, net 70 to edge me by one stroke. He is also the low overall at 209 for the tournament to my 210, so I may still take low net in my flight and he will be the overall winner. The sad thing is, I was sweating so bad that I had sweat in my eyes on the 17th hole and missed a three foot putt that would have at least tied me. Overall, I played a good tournament and finished at seven under par. My total would have outright won the A flight, which I will join next month. Thanks to the 75 I had two weeks ago, my tournament handicap is now an 8. I had fun, but today was flat brutal. I turned in my score, paid my skins and was off to home and the coolness of the pool. That pool has been a huge blessing to Darla and i and she enjoys it as much as I do. It wasn't as big a hit with the boys, who have grown up in the vidoe and video game age (what's fun about being OUTSIDE?), but Darla and I love it. We look forward to having Samantha here to visit and play in the pool. Darla and I plan to fly Jen and Samantha to Sacramento next month.

Randy has let me know that he and cake will NOT be able to join us in Mexico in November. It is the close of his second quarter and our trip is the week before Thanksgiving week, which is traditionally a dead week for his business partners. he can't afford to be away the week before, so we are bringing some friends from Roseville to take their place. I talked to randy tonight and invited he and Cake to Mexico some other year> they will be missed and will miss out on some Mexican style partying for sure.

Darla and I were up for our regular Sunday worship at nine o'clock, but ran out of gas on the way to church. The 300 has a really quirky gas gauge that moves from a quarter full to empty in a blink of an eye. I went out last night and picked up a couple of movies and some food for dinner and the Fuel light went on while I was in the parking lot at Save Mart. I drove the mile home and we left this morning for church and got about two miles from home and the car quit. I was telling Darla about the screwy gauge and wondering how far I could drive as the gauge was past E when the car died. We nursed it around a corner and into some shade and settled in to wait for AAA. The temperature at 8:45 was already 85 degrees on it's way to triple digits. I paid the driver $5 for two gallons of gas which shot the gauge up past the 1/4 mark and drove on to the gas station. Darla and I went back home and settled in the pool while I waited for my tee time. I read a book and swam and was reluctant to get out of the oasis and put on golf shoes and a golf shirt and shorts, but did so only to get beat by a higher handicap. Oy vey.

Next week is Josh's wedding in Dallas and we will be gone Friday - Sunday. I will post on the blog on Monday, Memorial Day next week and have plenty of pictures from the wedding and attendant parties and even some golf with Dad and my brothers. It will be nice to fly home Sunday and have Monday to decompress from the festivities. Things are going to busy for me at work until this acquisition is finalized. Well, that is it for another week. I hope you are all well and living in the pathway of our Lord. Ciao.

Mother's Day 2009

You can see how I spent part of my Mother's Day. We went up to Paradise last night and stayed with Earl and Frances. I rushed out of my golf tournament, showered and we were on the road by 5:20 Saturday night and up to Paradise by 7 PM, where we enjoyed a meal of barbecued pork chops. Earl and I prepped the grill for installation that night. We took the old grill off and masked it and painted it black. We also took the new grille which showed up with a ding in the upper right corner and straightened it. Earl wasn't thrilled with the result, but he's a perfectionist and it looks fine. We let the old grill dry overnight and went in to play some cards (3-13). Sunday morning we were up for Earl's famous Sunday morning pancakes and eggs and then off to church. I took the gang out to lunch at La Posada in old town Paradise and then Earl took us on a nickle tour of Paradise, showing us the large homes that overlook the canyon that runs down to Chico. They have some friends from church that have one of the nicest lots in the area and looks right down on the city of Chico from the mountainside. Typically, they are unhappy with the heat that emanates up from the valley and their house is always hot in the Summer. One of the charms of Paradise is that it is a mountain community and is usually ten to twelve degrees cooler than the valley. It was 90 degrees in Roseville today and only 82 in Paradise. We returned home to fasten the new chrome grille overlay to the old grill. We painted the old grill black so it can't be seen behind the overlay. The overlay is a billet grille style with horizontal billets 1/2 inch apart across the front of the grille. It attaches right to the old grill shell and uses the original Chrysler emblem along the top of the assembly. It was funny that the grill was only attached using two screws. Either the dealer or the original owner took off a chrome grill and replaced it with the original factory grill. The Stull version of the grille that I bought sells for $289. I bought mine on E-Bay motors for $65 and it was manufactured in Korea. It took us about twenty five minutes to install the overlay and attache the grille back onto the car this afternoon. I drove home and washed the car tonight and it is ready for the showroom. Earl continues to be the Pimp Daddy as far as getting my ride ready for the big time.

I mentioned the second round of the golf tournament. I played in the last group and the difficulty for me as a ten handicap is that my flight goes up to 16 and the second place golfer (Steve) had shot an 84 last week which gave him a net 68. My 75 gave me a net 65. Saturday, he matched me shot for shot on the front and shot a 38 to my 39. Of course, it was his best nine holes EVER. He settled back into his handicap on the back and doubled both par threes on his way to a 44 for a BEST EVER 82 and a net of 66. I ham and egged it, double bogeying the last hole for a 41 and a round of 80, net 70. I'm now in second place with a two day total of 135 to his two day total of 134. I think he fed off my play, especially on the front nine. I didn't have my A game and double bogeyed the first hole before running off six straight pars, a bogey and a finishing par. I did birdie 16 again, but struggled on the back to five over. (I guess I actually played to my handicap on the back nine). We will finish the tournament on Sunday next week so I am able to make it. Steve said he has family in town and will have to miss the last day, but I expect to see him. I'll give it my best shot next week no matter what.

Darla and I had a strange week. She thought at one point that she'd dropped a sunflower seed down her cast. She was in the bathroom blowing a blow dryer into her cast trying to loosen the seed. It never came out, but whatever was sticking her was gone and she is back to normal. Friday night, one of the cats came into our bedroom and ran up the bed and used my bare back to turn around and head back out of the room. I was in a dead sleep and jumped when the cat dug it's claws into my back. Darla was also awakened from a dead sleep and said she felt something wet on her head and when we turned on the light, she had a four inch scratch along her hairline that was bleeding. We can't figure out if I swiped her when I was flailing in pain or the cat got her as well. We both ended up tending to each other's wounds with peroxide in the middle of the night. The door to our room will remain closed for a while.

I talked to Jennifer tonight and she just hosted her Mother for the weekend. They had a nice visit and John even agreed to switch weekends with Jennifer so she could have Samantha over Mother's Day. I'm not going to say anything about change in their relationship as CPS will be on Jennifer's doorstep again tomorrow, but it was a nice gesture. By the way, John has password protected Samantha's site, so you'll just have to stay tuned here to get your Sammy fix. We plan to fly Jennifer and Samantha out here for a weekend in June.

Well, it is late on Sunday evening ( I took a break to eat and to visit with my wife), so I will wind this up. I'll let you know how the tournament turns out next week. I'm just thrilled to be in the hunt at nine under par.

Darla's Broken Foot

If you are a regular blog reader, you know that Darla tried to take down a chair from the cabinets in the garage last week as she was perched precariously on top of a an ice chest and when the chairs shifted, the ice chest slipped out from under her and she fell rolling her foot underneath her. Her foot was bothering her during the week and she had black marks between her middle toes and along the instep of her left foot. I told her to go to the doctor, but when her boss finally told her that he had done something similar and when he finally went into the doctor, they found a broken bone in his foot, she went. Of course, she had broken a bone that runs on the outside of her foot to the small toe. Initially the bone was broken and pushed so far out that they thought they might need to do surgery. They decided after consultation with a podiatrist, that they could cast it for six weeks and see how that goes. She is supposed to stay off it, but she was at a Silpada party on Friday night, at the salon yesterday and has another party today. There is no keeping a good woman down. She will have to pick a purple dress for Josh and Laura's wedding.

Funny that Darla had to get the word from her boss before she acted. My typist has an 8 year old son that I met once. He was quite impressed that I was his Mom's boss and got a big kick out of my corner office. He got in trouble recently for using his middle finger. A little girl had flipped him off in school and he found the "bird" fascinating and used it on his Mom at dinner. She was not impressed and had a discussion with him about how it meant a bad word and it was the same as saying it. He thought about that and kept asking his mom about different fingers and if they meant bad words. He stewed on it for a few days and came in to his Mom and asked her if he took his shoes off and held up his middle toe, if that was a bad word. She said, "I'm not sure, I'll have to think about that, but don't do it." He said, "Well, Mom, why don't you wait until tomorrow and ask your boss and then we'll both know." Kids.

It has been raining this week, actually doing a good impression of Seattle weather. We have received about an inch of rain out of this local storm. It did manage to mess up our golf tournament. We have a 54 hole individual tournament going on and were able to play in wet, rainy conditions yesterday. It rained hard last night and the course had standing water today and the decision was made to postpone the event. The third round is supposed to be next Saturday. The TD decided to add a date on May 16th, which has many of the players in an uproar as they have weddings, graduations, etc that day. It is Darla's birthday on may 16th and we have plans to be in Napa that weekend. The problem I have is that I played my BEST tournament round of golf yesterday and lead my flight by three strokes going into next week.

It was a static rain yesterday with a high temperature of about 60 degrees. It wasn't cold, but we had to do everything we could to keep our hands and equipment dry. I have a large Golf Pride umbrella which attaches to my cart and I hang a towel under the umbrella from the support and I will hang two golf gloves under the umbrella to keep them dry. I kept my hood for the clubs up and unzipped the top to access the clubs and it was a pretty good day overall. I parred the first five holes before running into a bogey train where I bogeyed three holes in a row. I did manage a par on the tough number nine which is the number 2 handicap hole for a 39 on the front. I went out in the steady rain and birdied number ten, bogeyed 11, parred 12, 13 and 14, bogeyed 15 and then finished birdie-par-par for a 36 and a total of 39+36=75. It all came together on one day and now may fall apart because I can't play the last date. This is a major tournament with trophies and bragging rights. Darla has offered to let me play on Saturday the sixteenth and then meet up with them for dinner Saturday night. I feel like I'm in a no win situation and the board will discuss the tournament at a board meeting tomorrow night. I've already won $30 for my tournament low net of 65 yesterday. It seems like kismet that I end up in this situation. Perhaps I shouldn't take my golf so seriously. Fat chance, eh?

It actually ended up being a pretty nice afternoon as the rain stopped and the sun broke out for a little while. We have two days of rain left in this storm and it should be back up to 80 degrees by mid-week.

We had a speaker at church today, a 26 year old man from Sydney, Australia that was born without arms and legs. He is a handsome, gregarious guy and totally on fire for the Lord. He was born to a pastor and his wife and attempted to kill himself at age 8 by drowning himself in his tub, but he couldn't do it as he didn't want to put guilt on his parents. We've known for a month that Nick Vujicic was coming to preach. He is a funny guy. He told the story of how kids will always come up to him and stare. One little guy boldly asked him what happened to him. Nick said, "Cigarettes, tell all your friends!" He also had his handler put him up in the overhead compartment on a plane and close the door. When the next person opened the compartment he yelled at them for not knocking first. Another time he had a girl staring at him at a stoplight. She could only see his head and he did a complete 360 in the seat and she drove off terrified. The result of Nick's testimony was a packed church with even the balcony being filled (We have room for 300 in the church). He had literally hundreds of people come to Christ at the end of the service after his powerful testimony.

Darla is managing with her disability and is at a jewelry show today. She probably puts too much stress on her foot as she has a walking boot that slips onto the cast using velcro. She uses her crutches, but I'm sure is using her foot more than she should. She said this morning that she hoped her doctor wasn't at church because she is supposed to be staying at home. I say this with her out with her truck at a party. Luckily, her foot that she broke is her left foot as she is still able to drive.

Dad came through his surgery pretty well and is feeling the pain of the surgery on his ear and especially behind his ear where they took skin to reform his ear. the doctor seemed a little confused and asked Dad where the cancer was again. When Dad finally got him directed to the correct ear, the surgery went well. Dad is concerned that they got all of the cancer as the doctor seemed a bit off. I know he sees the doctor again on Tuesday where the guy will probably want to look at his back or something before dad points to his ear. This social medicine in Canada is a little scary.

I did manage to get reservations for our trip to Mexico in November. we will be there from November 15-22nd and I look forward to a vacation with my brothers, their wives and Dad and Shirley. It will be a memory maker I'm sure. Well that's it for this week. I think I'll take advantage of a break in the weather and go mow the lawn. I hope you are all well

74 degrees with high thin clouds

In other words Perfect Spring Weather. That little Summer front that passed through with high pressure over the area moved out about Wednesday of last week and after a day of light rain during both the morning and afternoon commute, we have happily settled into Spring. I could really go for April to be in the seventies, May in the eighties and June hit the nineties and then it could just stay there for the Summer. I was in Modesto on Tuesday and got home about 4:30 and Darla and I had our first "in pool" day of the year. It was 92 degrees and the pool water was 80 degrees. I splashed about for a bit and then got out the rafts and Darla and I lounged on the pool for about an hour. It was nice and foreshadowed some fun days on the pool in the near future. I had to start the pool for the Summer about three weeks ago and now have chemicals in the pool. That was the weekend that I cleaned the pool filter and cleaned out the pool sweep as well.

I spent part of yesterday and today on the pool deck. The lighter color over the darker from last year is a tough sell because if any of the stain flakes off, the rust color shows through pretty clearly. I took a wire brush and scrubbed several spots where the stain had flaked and re stained it yesterday and then followed up with another round of the Behr "wet look" sealant today. The lighter color really shows the dirt and needs to be sprayed down more often than the darker color. I also put another coat of the sealant on the river rock on the back of the pool and will turn the waterfalls back on this week. I had them turned off during the Winter as the hard water builds up in the caulking around the rocks pretty bad and nobody is out enjoying the pool when it is 40 degrees and raining.

Anthony, my top underwriter and formerly my assistant, just got back from a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona and Anthony was recognized there in a Burns and Wilcox only meeting as the number three producer in the company for new business in 2009. My office continues to hit our goals for production and profit every month and we are having a really good 2009. It is nice to be on the radar of the company for good reasons for a change. We are having a VERY GOOD April and hope to keep the momentum going.

I went out and played golf with Matt, the insurance intern from my office, Boyd and Phamas at Alister MacKenzie golf course in Sacramento on Saturday. MacKenzie is the course where the State Fair championship is contended every year and the Sacramento Amateur. I shot terrible on the front nine after starting double bogey-double bogey, but pulled it together on the back nine and took some money from my friends with a 45+39=84. The greens at MacKenzie are SLOW and I was leaving putts fifteen feet short. I three putted the first two holes. They had a Golf Expo going on and I wandered through the booths and tried a few putters and talked to some vendors afterward. I didn't buy anything as my whole set is relatively new, but would have bought some golf shorts if they had any of the sale shorts in my size (36). They didn't.

Darla has been a fiend this weekend with her Silpada. She had a home party on Friday night. She spent yesterday in Paradise at a street faire with one of her new recruits. This morning she was up early at a baby boutique at the Placer County fairgrounds and this afternoon is in Cameron Park at another house party for Silpada. She was up early on Saturday and out the door by 6:00 AM. Unbeknownst to me she had slipped in the garage when she was getting down a folding chair from the top of one of the built in cabinets. There are four chairs stacked up there, stored for the winter. Apparently, she used a small ice chest to stand on and it slipped out from under her when she was reaching for the chair and she fell and turned her foot. She called me at 7:00 AM to tell me the story. I was oblivious as I was still sleeping in. The last time she slipped was at Sherry and Al's house in Canada and I was in trouble that time. We heard the crash from downstairs and when I asked her if she was okay, she said, "I'm fine." Somehow that was code for "come up here and help me" and I missed the signal. This time I think I scooted by because I was asleep. Her foot is black and blue between the middle two toes and a little swollen. She iced it and took some Ibuprofen and she has soldiered on all weekend. She has twenty some girls working for her now and is constantly shuttling jewelry between one rep or another and it is all her jewelry. I don't know how she keeps up with it all.

I will be booking our rooms in Nuevo Vallarta this week for the Lyon family trip to Mexico in November. Jack Nicklaus and his design people are working on the final stages of the back nine at the Grand Mayan and it is slated to open in September. The Grand Mayan is offering golf at half price this year to all owners and their guests, so it will only cost us $25 a round to play on a course with a rack rate of $160 (the normal owner cost is $50). I look forward to the trip and to spending time with my brothers, my Dad and their wives. It will be a great family week.

I talked to Jennifer this week and she is doing great. She has adjusted her schedule and is taking Sam into day care at 5 AM now. There was talk of them moving to a different day care that is 24 hours a day as theirs just changed to a limited schedule, but that won't happen until it is in John's best interest. I don't know how she puts up with the situation, but she has decided the less contact with John the healthier it is for her. I truly hope that time heals some wounds for John as he ended up being a real shrew. Some of things he has said and done to Jennifer, I hope no man ever says or does to Samantha. On a bright note, Samantha is doing great. Her teeth are coming in one at a time as they are wont to do in toddlers and he she is a happy and healthy 17 month old.

That's it for now. I have the first weekend of a 54 hole individual championship next weekend. It is a chance for us to play a 54 hole stroke play event and see how we can do against the rest of the club. It is not our club championship, which is match play, but probably the number two tournament for bragging rights in the club. We play Saturday and Sunday next week and then the following Saturday before Mother's Day. I hope you are all well and the weather is Spring-like in your area and that you are all healthy and happy and following in the footsteps of our Saviour. Ciao.

The HEAT is On!!

It happens every April and it shocks us every time. We had 91 degrees Saturday and 93 degrees today and the pool water is up to 72 degrees. It is supposed to be warm all week and we will probably be swimming by next weekend. I played golf both yesterday and today and feel like I was rode hard and put away wet. I ventured into the steps of the pool, but 72 degrees is still a bit cool for me. 77 degrees is just about right and our pool has a dark bottom and is a play pool with a depth of 3.5' x 5.0' x 3.5', so it warms up quick. i have two friends with older 9' deep white bottom pools and their water is about 60 degrees. I'm already running chemicals in mine.

We met the Mexico gang for dinner on Saturday night at a new restaurant in Roseville, Cloud Nine. It is an upscale bar and restaurant (with a martini menu) and because the main restaurant was rented out to a 25 year high school reunion, we had to sit in the bar for dinner. We had an excellent margarita and brought our own wine for dinner. Darla had a double crusted chicken and I had the Kobe steak and it was very good. The dessert was even better with a strawberry cheesecake that was the best cheesecake I have ever tasted. The gang was happy to be back together and we had a lot of laughs before finally calling it a night about 9:30 as the bar was really happening by then and we had to yell to hear ourselves. The bar was pretty well taken over by twenty-somethings at that point and the old farts were the 25 year reunion folks at 43, so we decided to beat a hasty retreat. The Mexico gang is the group that went to Mexico with us last year and stayed in our condo.

I've included pictures from our group dinner and from Darla's trip to Hawaii with her brother and sister-in-law.

Friday night was poker at John's house in Roseville. He lives four blocks over from our house and fixed barbecued chicken and hamburgers for us. We played four handed as John worked the barbecue. he started screaming at his dog and we all jumped up to see what happened. His fifteen year old retriever had an albino ferret in his mouth and was tossing it up in the air and catching it. The neighbor popped his head over the fence and asked if we'd seen his ferret. john got it away from his dog and the only thing that saved the ferret's life was the fact that the retriever had been a bird dog and has a "soft mouth" from retrieving downed birds during hunting season. I won about $50.

Saturday I had golf at Woodcreek Golf Course and shot a 41+43=84 in the heat and a 5 1/2 hour round of golf. Today I was able to go to church and then meet the guys for our 10:58 tee time. We teed off at 11:11 and it was a four hour and forty minute round of golf. I shot 40+39= 79 today and my partner, Steve, shot a 91 for a combined best ball score of 67. He was heavy today and struggled tee to green. Boyd also struggled with Bob as his partner, although Bob shot 75. Their combined score was 70. Well, I'm going to leave this until tomorrow. I'll be in my Modesto office tomorrow and likely home early, so I'll continue with this then. Ciao

Monday April 20th

The pool is at 75 degrees and almost habitable. I was thinking about the heat and how it always seems so oppressive when it hits in April. I remembered last week looking at the weather in Denver and seeing 74 degrees on Monday, 58 on Tuesday and 34 with snow flurries on Wednesday. Now, that is a shock to the system. It was a straight shot from tank tops and sandals to parkas and galoshes in 48 hours. I'm surprised any plants survive this time of year. It was 93 degrees today and I have to have the building maintenance crew out to check the a/c in my office. This happens every year. My office has a bank of windows on the west side of the building and the temperature in my office this afternoon was probably 85 degrees at 4:30 PM. I called the landlord and specifically asked to have their guy come out tomorrow about 4 PM. He'll show up at 10:30 AM and it will be comfortable and he'll say "what's the big deal?" If I can catch him, I'll tell him to come back in late afternoon (right before I throttle him). The windows are actually too hot to touch with your palm late in the afternoon.

My boss, Harvey, will be in the office tomorrow and we will tour four of the office complexes we are looking at. My favorite is about a half mile from our current space and the anchor tenant is Zurich Insurance. We would be on the first floor of this class A office space and the lobby is done in marble and smoked glass. It is really first cabin.

I had an e-mail from the CEO's executive secretary and he will be out to see the Sacramento office in June now. I will actually just be returning from a conference in Scottsdale on Tuesday June 16th and he will be in the office on June 18th.

Darla and I just returned from a walk and it is about 8:45 and I need to get to the couch and spend some couple time with my wife. I'll add more this Sunday. Be well. Ciao.

RESURRECTION SUNDAY!!

Yes. It arrives along with Spring. We had 77 degrees today after a week last week of rain and storms that helped bring our rainfall totals up to 14.75 inches. We are gaining on our 18 inch total. Happy Easter to everyone.

Darla and I just returned from a trip up to Paradise and a Saturday night stay with Darla's Mom and Dad. Earl has a 2006 Chrysler 300 like mine with smaller wheels and tires. He has put chrome door edging on his and installed a new front grill and we spent part of the day today installing the door guard on my ride. Jennifer called in the middle of the job and I told her Earl was busy "Pimping my Ride!" Jennifer spent the day with friends and cooked a turkey with all of the trimmings for the holiday. She is taking Samantha to the park tomorrow to hunt for Easter eggs and then going home and coloring hard boiled eggs. Our traditions are passed down from generation to generation. Her house will smell like vinegar tomorrow afternoon. Take lots of pictures, Jennifer.

Darla and I went to Friday night Good Friday service at our church and were shocked by the service. The worship leader came out, did not acknowledge the congregation or the other singers with him. They then sang four or five songs and we were directed to the screens at the front of the worship center where a movie in Bulgarian with subtitles was shown. It was about a man who took his son to his job as a bridge tender and he lifted the railroad bridge over the water so boats could pass. The bridge was up and the train was early and he had to decide to either save his son who was on the bridge or the trainload full of passengers. He chose to lower the bridge and his son was killed as the passengers went on about their life as if nothing had happened. It had a drugged out woman, a soldier and a pair of lovers on the train. It made no sense. The reference to God and to Jesus was obvious, but the movie was a convoluted mess and you ended up mad at the bridge tender for not taking care of his son as he should have. The screens then directed us to Communion and then we all left wondering how we had completely lost that hour of our lives.

Our office closed early on Friday and I had set up with the guys in the office to play golf. I have an insurance intern working for me that had played college golf with the Sacramento State Hornets golf team and he kept telling me he wanted o get me out on the course. It rained Friday morning and cleared up for our golf game. I started birdie-birdie-sandy par and Matt was dumbstruck. He ended up shooting 81 to my 37+40=77. I had told Anthony, my former assistant and now number one underwriter in my office, to bring his old Tommy Armour Silver Scot irons he had bought from me four years ago and I'd exchange them for my Wilson Deep Red fat shaft irons that I recently upgraded to the Taylor Made R-7 irons. I wanted to keep a set in case any of my family comes out and wants to golf. I gave Anthony 10 clubs (the 3-9 iron, pitching wedge, 52 degree wedge and a sand wedge all with brand new Winn grips). He gave me in return a 4 iron, 5 iron, 6 iron, a Mizuno 8 iron, and a pitching wedge. When I asked where the rest of the set was, he said, "oh, I lost those on different courses." This guy is having a child in four months and I'm concerned if he takes his newborn to the park what he'll come home with. As a golfer, I gave him heck for losing his clubs. On top of that the ones he gave me were crusted with mud and a mess. He said he'd make the trade even and gave me a 9.5 degree Cobra driver that I gave to him two years ago! So if any of you come to California, I've got a set of clubs for you.

The trouble with my 77 on Friday was that I had a tournament Saturday morning at Diamond Oaks. Darla stopped me on my way to the course and said, "Honey, you can't compare whatever you shoot today to what you shot yesterday. Just go out and do your best and have fun." She knew we had a ninety minute drive up to Paradise that evening and wanted to hedge her bets against a cranky Ken. I played with two two-time club champions in Boyd and our current club champion, Jay. Jay shot 36+36=72, Steve shot 37+38=75, I shot 39+38=77 and Boyd shot 39+42=81. My round included a closest to the pin on the 185 yard fifteenth hole and only one birdie on a snaking 25 foot putt on the number 5 hole. I was thrilled to put up back to back 77s and did it with one birdie, six bogeys and 11 pars. It was a good day. It is getting late on a Sunday evening and I am going to visit with my wife and will finish this up tomorrow night. Ciao.

Monday 7 PM

You can see I added some pictures, The first picture is of the Chrysler with the door trim that Earl and I added. It is pretty subtle, but maybe Dad will appreciate it. I went online today and ordered a new grill insert for the car. Earl has the vertical chrome and I got a diamond chrome pattern grill from JC Whitney. Hopefully I like it as much as I like his. The girls (Darla and Alicia) had to get pictures as they both showed up at Earl's house for Easter with the same Cabi blouse on. You'll notice also that Darla has been losing weight. It is a slow road with her diabetes, but she's lost about 12 pounds so far and feels healthier and looks great. The other picture is of Daniel, Becky and Becky's roommate, Jenny. Daniel is the one in the middle. Darla took them out to Chinese food while they were briefly in town for the Easter holiday.

I just found out late this afternoon that our President and CEO will NOT be here tomorrow due to weather in Detroit and Chicago. There was a fog bank that covered both cities. He is now leaving tomorrow morning and will fly directly to Los Angeles. Anthony and my Modesto underwriter, Lorraine, will see Alan at the underwriting conference in Scottsdale later this week.

I have another golf tournament this weekend, but this time on Sunday. It is a qualifier and Steve and I qualified last year so we are playing together as we can't qualify. We are, however, playing for money. I will spend part of Saturday touching up the deck. I have to add another coat of paint and then two coats of sealer. I thought the sealer in the paint would work, but parts flaked off when I hosed down the deck last week, so off I go again with the sealer. Does it ever really end? No. That's it for this week. Be well. Ciao.

Warm Spring Weekend

You can see Darla and I bought ourselves a little work this weekend. The pressed concrete was flaking and in dire need of a face lift. I found some Sand colored stain on closeout at Ace hardware for $11.00 a gallon. Mind you the stain that I had used in the past was $69 a gallon and took two gallons to cover the surface. This product is manufactured by Thompson's Water Seal and has the water sealer built into it. I used a gallon of the Quikrete cement solvent which when mixed with a gallon of water and used with a stiff brush completely cleans up all stains, grease, dirt and loose stain. I had to trim back the ground cover that was growing onto the walkway over the long winter and Darla and I set to work. She taped off the house and shed and I tried to use a tank sprayer to apply the product. it was much too thick and clogged up the sprayer although the directions said to apply with a garden type sprayer. I switched to a brush and it took twice as long to apply. In the past it took about ninety minutes to apply the stain and another half hour to put down a second coat. The problem I had with the tank application is that the stain would pool in the crevices of the stamped concrete and dry with a spongy feel to it. The brush method took three and a half hours to apply and another hour and a half for the second coat, but the adhesion to the concrete seems so much better and especially in the cracks and indentations of the stamping process. We now have a white sand beach outside of our pool. I like the look and Darla said it will grow on her. When I pressed her, she said, "Well, when we make changes to the house I like to be involved in the decision." Wow, at least she was honest. I bought the stain when she was on her "working vacation" in Hawaii. it was a perfect weekend to work as the temperature yesterday was 72 degrees and today topped out at 76 degrees.

Darryl mentioned that he loves Denver because it feels like 80 degrees when it is 60 degrees. i love Northern California because it feels 76 degrees when it is 76 degrees, which is often in early Spring. I see Denver had a high of 33 degrees with an overnight low of 22 and snow flurries. how warm does it feel when it's 30 degrees and snowing? I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn today after two days of golf and work on the deck.

I did play golf yesterday and it was one of those surreal rounds of golf. I shot 41+41=82 at Cherry Island, one of the local championship muni courses in the area. I played with Boyd, Darren and Mel. We play a 6-6-6 game where you have a different partner every six holes and I picked my partner by throwing a tee=. Mel shot 51+41=92 and I had him as my partner on the first six holes. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and we lost the first four holes right out of the gate and I was down $5. We also play team "junk". 50 cents for birdies, greenies, sandies and polies (a putt equal to or longer than the flag pole for par or better is worth an extra dot. My second partner was Darren , who shot a smooth 34 for the six holes that we were partners. We were actually tied with Mel and Boyd going into the sixth hole and he and I had a stroke against Mel's stroke and Boyd was playing straight up. I had a par, Mel parred it to tie me, Boyd had a 4 and I needed Darren to have a 5 to tie Boyd. he had a double bogey six. finally, I had Boyd on the last six holes and he shot one over and I shot two over for the six holes and we lost to Darren and Mel who both decided to play golf. in all, I lost $15 on the team game and another $12 on junk. $27 lost and I shot 1 under par with my handicap. Mel shot 92, Darren 78 and Boyd 86 and I paid $27! It's just not right. I stayed and enjoyed the pitcher of beer the guys bought and an order of garlic fries before driving home to start work on the deck.

I talked to Jennifer Friday on the drive home and she is doing well. She was laughing and playing with Samantha. She sent us a text picture of Samantha with her hair up in small spikes on Saturday morning. You can view the message until Saturday at www.viewmymessage.com/en/legacy/login.jsp. The Msg Id is h0zsgpc1c and the password is kegs94knit. Very cute. Things seem to be settling down a little bit with Jennifer and John and then it all blows up again. They have to change day cares because their day care is going to a shorter schedule of 5 AM to 7 PM. They were 24 hours. The new day care will be at the MGM Grand on the strip. Jennifer was able to have a civil conversation with John on Friday regarding the day care and she was happy that they could talk about Samantha without any animosity between them. And then CPS showed up at Jennifer's house on Saturday. John is really losing it and desperately needs some grief counseling.

I really am enjoying Spring. I just stopped to put the chicken on the barbecue and it is still light at 7 PM and about 71 degrees out still. Darla and I took a walk about 5:30 out to the local shopping center where she put in some checks into the bank for her jewelry business and then we walked back through the park across the street and watched a soccer game going on as we walked. Good stuff.

I have my company President and CEO coming out in a week from Tuesday. We will view a few new buildings as we will be moving and then meet with the staff. My branch is doing very well this year and we are ahead of budget through three months on the bottom line. We are short of budget on the top line, but it just shows that we have tightened our belts and are doing a good job. The office made a $55,000 profit in March. There are a lot of branch managers in the company who wouldn't welcome a visit from the CEO, but I look forward to seeing him.

Well, that's it. Easter week is upon us. I have a Masters golf tournament next Saturday at the club and ten we will be in paradise with Darla's folks on Easter. I hope you are all well and looking forward to the celebration of the biggest gift you will ever receive: Christ's death on the cross to absolve you of your sins. Ciao.