Lots of Sammy Pictures this week

Thanks to David for the great pictures of Las Vegas and Samantha. He certainly had a great time as did Jennifer and Samantha. Samantha decided she kind of likes Uncle David and David was pretty smitten with Miss Samantha as well. It was a quick trip but the kids had a great time together. The only downside was that Michael lost his paternal grandmother while David was there. Mike has flown back to Detroit for the funeral and will be back in about a week. He is planning to drive his Grandma's car back as he needs new wheels. His minivan has been having problems.

You can see the picture of Samantha riding in a little toy Jeep. David and Jennifer were waiting for the Y swimming pool to open and went over to a park with water features and ran into this little Cassanova and his Mom. This will be the first of many pickups attempted on little Sammy and my advice is to hold out for a Porsche. The picture of David and Sam by the waterfall was taken at City Center, the big casino project that Jennifer was working on before Obama got in the White House. There's also a picture of Sam squatting and picking flowers (likely right by the sign that says "Don't pick the Flowers"). The picture farther down of Jennifer sitting at the Diner while Sam fixes lunch is one of my favorites. The last picture is of Sammy and her bright blue eyes. Great pictures, David!

I was up early this morning and teed off at Diamond Oaks at 6:30 AM. We were off the course by 10:30 and I was home working on the "Honey-Do" list by 11:00 this morning. I shot 42+39=81 and I'm happy with the state of my game right now. I will take next week off as we couldn't squeeze golf into a very short Canada vacation for Randy's 50th. Some day I'll get up and play their course. I played golf with Neil this morning and he said he'd love to join us on a trip up to see Dad and Shirley. Maybe next year.

One of my tasks today was to change out a ballast in a fluorescent fixture in the kitchen. The ballast had blown earlier in the week and I had to turn off the power to it to disassemble it. The problem was the light was dead and I couldn't tell if the switch was off or if I found the right breaker (there are two switches for the same light, so up is down and down is up if you know what I mean). I tested the line with a Volt meter and it was dead and took the ballast out of the fixture and ran to Home Depot to change it out. In the meantime Darla had come home and I asked her if she had touched a switch for the ceiling light. She said no and I went ahead and changed out the ballast and turned the switch and it came on. Apparently I didn't find the right breaker and had power off to the refrigerator for over an hour. Oh well. The light is working well and we don't have to work in a dark kitchen anymore.

I also worked on the pool today and added some wet look sealer to the stone backsplash of the pool. It wears down over a season with the waterfalls and splashing in the pool. I then checked the chemicals and added chlorine and acid to the pool. When I opened the acid, I burned my finger. The acid comes in gallon "milk type" jugs and it has a seal over the opening. There isn't a pull tab, you have to poke a hole in the seal and then pull it off. I reached into the hole and yanked the foil seal off and felt an immediate burning in my index finger. Being a complete dumb ass, my immediate reaction was to plunge my burning finger into my mouth. Let me tell you, the taste of Acid in the morning as it burns your tongue is priceless. Luckily I have enough body chemicals in my mouth to fund a small chemistry set and the acid was quickly neutralized. I definitely had an "oh oh" moment today when that finger hit my mouth.

You might wonder why I am working on the blog on a Saturday night. Darla is off to a "Toga" party as a vendor at a hotel in Rancho Cordova. There are 100 couples of a fairly decent income level that have monthly outings planned by this promoter and Darla was invited to bring her Silpada jewelry tonight. Hopefully, it is a lucrative event for her, I decided to work on this now as tomorrow is busy. We have a going away swim party for David tomorrow and I am barbecuing a 7.5 pound pork loin roast that is about two and a half feet long and 8 inches around. The family will gather around the pool and enjoy barbecue and say their goodbyes to Dave who leaves for Rome on Thursday night. Tomorrow night is also the Hall of Fame game with the Cowboys opening the preseason schedule against the Bengals and I want to watch that. I may try to add some pictures of the barbecue tomorrow sometime this week. Darla and I fly out to Seattle on Friday morning for our trip to Vancouver. We fly back on Monday the 16th, so no blog next weekend.

Well, that is it. We hope to set a date for our next trip to Vegas with Dad and Shirley while we are in Canada. I'm thinking September or October. I know Dad and Shirley have a Puerto Vallarta vacation in November. Well, that is it for this week. Stay healthy, wealthy and relatively intelligent. Until next time. Ciao.

David is in Vegas

David leaves in less than two weeks for his semester abroad in Rome and Darla and I decided to send him to Las Vegas for four days with Jennifer, Mike and Samantha. He flew in yesterday and Jennifer, Mike and David hit the town. i don't have any details, but what happens in Vegas... We did talk to him briefly today and Sam was dropped off about ten and they had a big day planned with a swim, a trip to Fremont Street and then a big barbecue by Michael, who is a great cook. We told David to take scads of pictures and I'll add some to the blog next week.





Darla has been having problems with the Explorer's A/C for several weeks and we finally took it into Firestone today. The compressor has a leak in it and the replacement will be about $600. We also need new tires. When it rains, it pours. They kept the car overnight as the part won't come in until tomorrow. Luckily, Darla works from home and she has David's Tahoe to use in an emergency. The car is nine years old and we have had good luck with it up until now. The a/c on the drivers side has actually been blowing hot for the time in question. We've had a mild Summer, but 98 degrees is still hot when your car is sitting in a hot parking lot and you have no way to cool it off. I'll get he a/c fixed now and get new tires before the Fall.





Dad and Darryl both know Neil and Lilly, our friends from the golf club and Darryl and I refer to Neil as our brother from another Mother. They were in Mexico with us last year. Neil played golf on Friday as is his custom now that he's retired and shortly after he left the house, someone broke in their side garage door and entered the home, grabbing pillowcases off the bed and making off with jewelry, electronics, laptops, cameras and some old coins and cash. Neil was distressed that some of the jewelry and rings were family heirlooms dating back over many generations. He was upset, but also had a realistic attitude about things. He said, 'almost" everything can be replaced. They left behind camcorders, VCRs and, although they took the ZZ Top key ring with his keys to his mint 1964 1/2 Mustang. They didn't steal the car. He is having the ignition locks changed tomorrow.





We got together with them at the Pando's last night for dinner and a game night. We had a few laughs and they were able to talk it all out. he sent us a note today thanking us for our friendship and for letting them blow off some steam and have some laughs. It was a stressful weekend. Both Neil and Lilly are both quality people.



Darla and I made it to church today and the Sermon was on Procrastination. Pastor used an example called "Senior Personals" to illustrate his point. He had a variety of 'looking for love' examples, a couple of which tickled me. One had a recently widowed woman, who lost her third husband looking for a new man:



"Recently widowed (for the third time) woman seeks elderly gentleman to round out a four unit plot at the cemetery. Good health is not an issue. A cigarette smoker or someone with a chronic illness preferred."



Another was a man just looking for some peace and quiet:



"Serenity Now. Elderly gentleman who enjoys quiet walks, peaceful contemplation and afternoon naps seeks elderly woman who likes the same. Lets get together, turn off our hearing aids and enjoys some peace and quiet...together."



Another was a woman who won't let age slow her down:



"Sexy 80 year old woman, in good shape, well cared for and well maintained seeks elderly gentleman of same mindset and circumstances. Extra points if you have stylish white shoes with a matching belt."



I guess she was looking to wow the cruise set.



Work continues at a frenetic pace. We were down a bit in July, but our comparison last year was a record month for us. We still finished with numbers approximating our monthly average this year and made a nice profit for the company. Our SF broker who shared my office has left the company to open a new office for a competitor. It will free up her office for me to move one of my assistants into who is moving into underwriting. I now have two new employees in the office, the latest a 26 year old moving onto Anthony's team. She is a Dallas Cowboy fan and I have no feelings one way or the other about that, but I see a great future for her in my office.



Golf this week was on two very difficult courses, NorthRidge Country Club and Darkhorse Golf Club. I struggled on the Stimp 13 greens at both courses and shot 44=42=86 at Northridge and 46+44=90 at DarkHorse. I did birdie 18 at DarkHorse, so all was not lost. Next weekend we will head down to Fairfield and play Paradise Valley Golf Course. it will be a little bit of a roadie as it is about 50 minutes away. DarkHorse Saturday was in Auburn, but in the unincorporated area of Auburn about twenty minutes from town and about 40 minutes from Roseville.



We are off to Canada in two weeks and hope that Darryl and Cheryl can join Randy and Cake and Darla and I in Vancouver. I think Dad has plans to take the gang up to Grouse Mountain on Saturday and then golf on Sunday. I think I will bring my clubs as Southwest doesn't charge for bags.



We had an interesting conversation with Neil on Saturday night. Darla mentioned that Avon had bought Silpada and discussed the pros and cons of the merger. Neil dropped on us that when he was driving truck, he would use Avon's "Pretty Feet" moisturizer on his feet after a tough day on the job. It would clear up calluses and soften his feet. He will NOT live this one down with me.

That's it for this week, I hope you are all well and living a life your kids would be proud of. Ciao.

Just another Bachelor Weekend

These seem to come up too often. I'm not a good bachelor as I forget to eat, I stay up too late, and all I want to do is play golf. It is 8:45 on Sunday night and Darla's flight gets in from Phoenix in about two hours.

I got out for a marketing round of golf on Friday with one of my agents in Folsom. he took me up to his country club in El Dorado Hills that looks out over Folsom Lake. We were supposed to tee off at 9:30, but he called me Thursday night and told me that he had a 1:00 PM appointment that he couldn't get out of and to meet him at the course at 6:30 AM. What he didn't tell me was that he was going to spring it on the starter that he had a threesome and wanted him to fit us in when they start at 7:00 AM. It's a country club and he greased someones palm and we got off as the second group. I shot 41+43 = 84 on the areas fastest greens. I had a ten foot birdie putt on number one that I shot past the hole ten feet and made the comebacker for par. My agent, Gary, also placed a $13,000 account with me this week, so it was a good week. And he paid for the golf.

Friday night I was in the pool until about 8 o'clock and then got some dinner and picked up a video to watch. Saturday I was back out to the golf course for a practice round for today's tournament. The tournament was a blind draw team event and what I needed to practice was getting lucky on the draw. I shot 43+41=84 and seem to be stuck on the 84 number. Last Summer it was 83. Boyd, who turned 70 this year, had a great round with seven birdies and shot a 33+36=69 to shoot lower than his age for the third time. He is an amazing golfer and when he gets it going is really fun to watch.

Today was the tournament and I played better, shooting 40+41=81, but got a lousy partner, a fifteen handicap that shot a 95. My net was 69 and our combined net was 67. No money there. Boyd shot 33+39=72 and his partner shot an 87 with a 22 index for 65. Boyd had a net 66 and their combined net was 58. They were in the lead when I left to come home and get in the pool.

I was out of the office Friday on marketing calls and got a call in the late morning that our IT crew was in the office to set up our VOIP soft phones. Our company is moving to Voice over Internet Protocol for our phone system. The technology has advanced so much in the last year and the call quality is almost as good as digital fiber optic cable. They were in the office over the weekend installing the soft phones and we will test the system tomorrow and Tuesday. I had the IT guys coming in this upcoming Friday on my calendar. They leave for SF on Tuesday.

Randy's birthday celebration in Vancouver is coming up in three weeks. I checked the flights and couldn't find anything less than $550. I told Dad that we might have to forego the trip as I am not taking on any new debt. At 53, my focus is paying off debt. He told me to check on Allegiant Airlines. It turns out they fly out of Oakland into Bellingham at a R/T price of $198. I was ready to bite on that, but Darla's flight on Thursday to KC was overbooked and they offered anyone willing to fly later a $300 voucher plus the cost of the leg from Sac to Kansas City. She took the bump with a girlfriend and ended with $490 in credit with Southwest. I went online Thursday and booked us R/T tickets to Seattle for $486. The only thing I had to pay was $73 in taxes and airport fees. Darla and I both see that as a "GOD" thing and will be happy to be part of the celebration. Now, Dad has to set up golf for us on Sunday at his country club (Shirley's country club). Darla still got into KC by 6:30 and her conference didn't start until Friday morning. She enjoyed the conference, although it is alot of people at the national conference. She was a little wary of Avon's purchase of Silpada, but the CEO of Avon wowed the ladies in his speech. He reminded them that Avon started 113 years ago before women even had the right to vote and was a company founded on an all women sales team. He assured them that the purchase was due to the company's desire to have Silpada as a flagship of Avon and to leave the operation exactly as it is with no changes to the structure or values of the company. He characterized their interest as an investment in upgrading the Avon name. I think he was preaching to the choir as the Silpada gals ate it up.

David is two weeks away from his departure for Rome, Italy and a semester abroad. He will take about ten days traveling in Germany, France, Switzerland and other spots in Europe before the school semester begins with a friend (female). Darla and I offered him a trip to Vegas to see Jennifer and Samantha, but he has limited time left and a lot to do. So he hasn't bitten yet.

Speaking of Jennifer, she found herself a "for now" job in Vegas. She is working at one of the upscale restaurants in The Venetian as a barrista. The restaurant is upstairs and she is working in the coffee house located in the casino. She worked for Starbucks while she was living with us and going to school and used her experience to get a job after her unemployment benefits ran out. She will be eligible for benefits in 90 days and that will help she and Samantha immeasurably. I'm looking forward to planning our next trip to Las Vegas and hope to sit down with Dad and Shirley and get something on the calendar while we are in Canada. Samantha is two and a half and Dad has never met her. We will fix that.

Well, short and succinct, but my mind is just that lately. I'm looking forward to having my wife back this week. I have a marketing golf outing planned on Thursday and then will go with the guys to Darkhorse Golf Club in Lake of the Pines on Saturday morning. I hope you are all well. Be nice to each other. Ciao.

Lake Almanor 2010, Happy 50th Anniversary Earl and Frances

Now that was how to have a vacation. The only thing missing was Jennifer and Samantha. It was a week of celebrating 50 years of marriage for Earl and Francs, Darla's parents, but also a week full of family. The week started with a huge dinner on Sunday night hosted by Earl and Frances. I was overwhelmed by the nearly 60 bodies that descended on Marie's Mexican Restaurant in Chester, California. Earl asked each family to stand up and tell how they were related to the clan, which really helped me put some order to the various groups. These were all relatives from Earl's family. He has two brothers and two sisters and each of those families were well represented with sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters and even a few great grandchildren thrown in for fun. Earl's older brother and sister have already been married for fifty years and his younger sister is well on her way to 50 as well. His other brother, JR, is a confirmed bachelor, although when he was making his announcement, he said, "My wife is out there somewhere, I just haven't found her yet." We had a ball and many group pictures were taken. The top picture is of Earl and his siblings with their spouses. The fourth picture is of his sister, Geneva, and their extended family. They mostly live in Idaho and were the largest group represented at the dinner. The ninth picture is of a potluck that we had on the Wednesday night when several of the families had already left to head home. We still had over thirty for the potluck .

I had arranged a golf outing for eight of us on Tuesday at Bailey Creek Golf Course and the golfers and wannabes showed up Tuesday morning for our 8:50 and 8:40 tee times. The course is a resort course with a bit wider fairways, but still plenty of trees and some water to make things interesting. My group teed off first and we played the white tees to make things easier on the recreational golfers. Earl's brothers played behind us and decided to play the blue tees. When they finally caught up to us they gave us a bad time for playing the whites. I actually found the whites to be tougher as the ball travels so far up in the 4000 foot elevation. I shot 42 on the front and switched to the blues on the back and shot a nice 39 for an 81. Don and Robert in my group shot 93 and the brother's claimed to stop counting on the backside and started drinking.

Stan is Earl's brother-in-law and a cutup. He complained that a farmer should have designed the course, because they had some nice sand boxes and no kids playing in them, some water holes and no one fishing in them and the guy that designed the ball washers made them too high as he damn near broke his leg when he fell off the thing. We kidded JR as he was wearing a knee brace after golf and we figured HE was the one that fell off the ball washer.

Don planned a horseshoe tournament complete with a trophy for the winner. They played it the same day we golfed and I wanted to relax at the lake. I ended up going late and actually made it into the quarterfinals before getting beat by David. H e lost to Don in the final and Don won his own trophy. Don had a phone call on Thursday night and his 18 year old dog was so sick he couldn't get up. His friend called him and told him the dog wouldn't take his pain medication and tried to bite him when he was trying to feed it to him. The dog actually went into convulsions and Don rushed home in the middle of the night, but the dog died while he was en route. Alicia stayed on with Lucas until Saturday.

Our cabin was a 1600 square foot haven on the lake with it's own beach and a spot for us to put the jet ski for the week. We set up two Easy-Ups and left them up for the whole week and hosted many families, who made the trek over from the RV site to our cabin to use the ski and the private beach. Darla particularly liked it because it had a large kitchen, a huge deck overlooking the lake and a nice gas BBQ. It was two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a nice living room. The boys had the kids over one night and they played cards and dice until midnight. You can see a picture of the gang huddled around our dining room table above.

I also took Robert and his son, Drew, golfing on Thursday and we played nine holes at the Almanor West Golf Course on the West side of the lake. That course is much narrower and has pine trees throughout the course. I had a good day with the driver and shot a 39. Robert had a 44 and Drew shot 53, with a nice par putt on the final hole. We stopped for hamburgers at The Depot on the way back to the lake.

The families all enjoyed using our jet ski and we had four of them buy us gas during the week. The ski got quite a workout and went through about 50 gallons of gas. There were times that the ski was in constant use during the day as the teenagers were taking it out in twos and threes and even the adults were getting in on the fun.

We saw about five bald eagles and numerous osprey and other birds during our stay. The bald eagles are majestic and fun to watch as they scan the lake for fish. We could see them swoop down and grab the fish in their claws and head up to a perch in the trees high above to eat their prey. David hiked over to try to get some pictures of the Bald Eagles and stumbled upon a cache of about ten fish that the buzzards and osprey had collected and piled up in a clearing.

Well, that's about it. Darla is working on a tuna fish salad for dinner and boiling up some eggs. I'm sure it will include onion and celery and probably some dill pickle as well. That woman can cook. I hope you are all well and I'll write more next week. Darla is off to national conference with Silpada so I'll be batching it next week. Ciao.

Independence Day 2010

Just back from an early July 5th golf game. We teed off at 6:44 AM this morning with the intention of getting back early and having the whole day to spend with family. Darla is working on something and said, "Go ahead and work on the blog and we'll meet on the pool in an hour." Okay by me.

We had a nice gathering at the house yesterday in celebration of the Fourth of July. Darla and I both warn our guests that we are pool people and if they join us, plan on spending time in the pool. Darla and I have been to so many pool parties where not one soul gets into the pool. It's roasting hot outside and the whole gang is gathered under a pop up awning sweating like pigs and smiling at each other. We have said that we will not have that kind of gathering and the folks that come to our house put on swim suits and relax together in the pool. We still work on settling all of the problems of the world with a cold drink in hand, but we do it from the comfort of the pool.

Speaking of which and I am stepping onto a soapbox, so steel yourselves....we will not truly have another Independence Day until Barrack Hussein Obama is out of office. His entire agenda is to get more and more souls signed up on the public dole and voting for him and his party. There is nothing independent about people being tied to public assistance, it is quite the contrary and you allow the government to control your destiny rather than have the freedom and the self esteem to make your own decisions in life. I have been absolutely broken watching this great country being taken over by the great unwashed and illegal aliens that flood into this country to be a part of the Obama campaign for an electorate of indentured servants. I have watched the great companies of this country move many of their headquarters overseas where they are embraced and welcomed as the government in the US become more and more bloated with borrowed money. This is a country with a broke social security, a broke Medicare program, a flawed IRS system, a hopelessly partisan system of government that now wants to take on a health care system and run that into the ground. God is watching all of this and shaking his head. They ask what the difference between Obama and the White House dog is. The White House dog has papers. I hold out hope that this country will again embrace the ideals of our forefathers, who broke away from a tyrannical government to be free, to prosper and to be independent. God help us free ourselves in 2012 before this country becomes completely morally and financially bankrupt.

Okay, I'm better now.

We sat in the pool yesterday until almost 4:30 and then I barbecued skewers of chicken, steak, onion, zucchini, mushrooms and bell pepper. Freida brought carne asada beans that were to die for and a lemonade cake with fresh fruit for dessert. Jan made cut stars fruit salad, marinated mozzarella and tomato skewers for appetizers, and cheesecake stuffed strawberries with white chocolate drizzled over them. Darla made the meat and veggie skewers, chips and salsa and a delicious potato salad. Finally, Debbie brought a German chocolate cake. It was a feast to behold and a repast to be remembered. We found our way back into the pool after an hour of eating and solving the international debt crisis. At nine, we went across the street to watch the Roseville Fireworks show being sent into the sky from the fairgrounds about a half mile from the house. In the past the fireworks have been a thirty minute show building to the finale. This year, with the budget crisis upon us, it was literally a seven minute show that built to nothing. The finale seemed more like a hiccup than a crescendo. We'd barely found our seats and it was over. We stayed and watched our next door neighbors light their safe and sane fireworks and it was a longer and more fulfilling show than the professional dud at the fairgrounds.

I did (of course) play golf over the weekend and shot a 40+42=82 (net 70) at the Firecracker tournament on Saturday at Diamond Oaks. I took third in my flight. Today, I played with Boyd, Mel and Pamas and shot a 43+38=81, so put up some decent numbers this weekend for a change. Matt Hulburt and I played last Tuesday out at Mather Golf course near the office and I shot an 81 there as well. Matt's game has been hot lately. He shot 34+39=73 on Tuesday and followed that up with a 37+36=71 on Saturday to take low gross for the tournament. He played with myself, Boyd and Bob and had two eagle chips that hit the flagstick and left him tap in birdies. He easily could have shot in the 60's. Oh, to be 26 and talented.

Darla and I talked to Jennifer this afternoon and it looks doubtful that they will be here for Almanor. They are considering it, but would have to drive up in Jennifer's two door Scion TC with both Samantha and their dog, Kippy. She was going to let us know tomorrow, but I think we'll offer her a trip up to Roseville in August for her birthday where they can fly in, spend some time on the jet ski at Folsom lake and just relax. This big 50th anniversary party in Almanor for Earl and Francis is alot to take on at one time. I will be gone next week, so the blog will be on vacation and my next post will likely be on July 17th.

Darla is still trying to talk me into going to Italy in November and if I do, I'll come home early from Almanor to save some vacation time for that week. I'll be making a decision on that this week. Well, the pool beckons as the temperature heads up to 100 degrees this afternoon. I hope you are all well and stayed safe and sane over the Fourth of July holiday. Ciao.

Late June = HEAT in Roseville, CA!

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The Heat is on in Roseville. We had 101 degrees yesterday and 103 degrees today. The pool temperature is up to 85 degrees and Darla and I spent a god portion of the weekend submerged in the pool reading and sleeping. It was nice and we had been looking forward to the warmer temperatures after a very mild Spring. We got it in Spades this weekend. I fixed barbecued pork spareribs over the weekend and Darla made our first potato salad of the season. We also have iced tea in the house again. Yep, it's Summer!

I was hoping to have pictures of Miss Samantha and Jennifer this weekend, but their planned trip fell through due to some scheduling conflicts with John. We are all off to Almanor the weekend after next and are hoping that they can come and join us. I think Sam would have enjoyed the pool. Jennifer said she was looking at some pictures of our trip to Vegas the other day and Samantha pointed at our picture and said , "We need to see Papa and Grandma!" Yes you do, Sammy! Instead, I added a picture of the palm garden in bloom above the pool and the gazebo in place after the boys got it put up.

We were at church this morning after missing the last couple of Sundays and it feels like home. The pastor had a sermon on the "Biggest Mess up in the Bible: Lott." His message was about how you can lose everything you love by living a life absent of God. Lot lived in Sodom and didn't realize that the sexual immorality around him was wrong. He took two angels into his home and when the townsmen appeared at his door and told Lott to hand over the two men so they could have sex with them, he instead offered his two virgin daughters in their place. The angels ended up destroying the city and all it's inhabitants and let Lott and his family go free, but his wife turned back to Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt. Pastor told a descriptive story of how a Sunday School teacher was attempting to tell his young class about the vagaries of sin. He took four mason jars and added alcohol to one, burning cigarettes to another, pure chocolate to another and rich soil to the fourth. He then added worms to the jars. As he went back to the jars and opened them, the worms in the alcohol were dead, the worms in the cigarettes were burned and dead and the worms in the pure chocolate were also dead. The only worms left alive were the ones in the rich, clean soil. He asked the class what the moral of the experiment was. A young boy raised his hand and said, "if you drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and eat chocolate, you won't get worms." Somehow he missed the lesson.

Darla is making phone calls to her clients about a retirement party for the 2010 line of jewelry that is being phased out. Her retirement party is Tuesday night and I have to make myself scarce. I plan to entice Matt in the office out for a game of golf at the local course near our office. Hopefully, he doesn't have plans or a softball game that night.

I have a new employee starting tomorrow, the replacement for Toni-Anne. Tuesday I will interview a young lady who is flying up from Torrance for an opportunity to join Anthony's team. She has experience with one of our competitors and is dying to get back to NorCal. She moved down to SoCal with a boyfriend and they have since split and all her friends and family are here. Hopefully it works out. Anthony and I have interviewed about a dozen candidates and with the 10 I interviewed for Peter, I'm getting drained. Anthony has two others that are on his list if this doesn't work out, but he said, "I have a good feeling about this, Ken". We'll see.

I played two games of golf this last week and I'm getting in a rut scorewise. I shot 42+42=84 on Friday and 42+43=85 on Saturday in the Diamond tournament. I'm hitting the driver pretty well, but having trouble putting my approach shots close to the pin and giving myself birdie chances. I had no birdies Friday and drained about a sixty foot putt for birdie on 16 on Saturday or would have shot even higher.

June has been an anomaly at work as our numbers are down. We wrote $185,000 in June last year and are sitting at $160,000 as of c.o.b. on Friday. I know I picked up a new $22,000 account on Friday that has yet to be booked, but the total is earned income, not premium. We are actually ahead of last year in premium already. I think we will get there. It seems the guys really turn it on at the end of a month.

Well, that's it for this week. We have the long weekend next week and I'll get to the blog at some point over the July 4th weekend. The following week we leave for Almanor. I hope you are all well and ready for SUMMER! Ciao.

Lots of golf tournament, not much golf for me, though!

I just got back from spending my late morning and early afternoon marshaling a junior golf tournament. Initial impressions: 1. These guys are good. There was a junior golfer aged 12 that shot a 68 today. The low round was a 67 shot by a 17 year old who plays high school golf for Clovis West High School in the Fresno area. 2. These kids need to bone up on the rules. I spent most of my day at the par three 12th hole and had about 15 rules decisions. The water hazard is a yellow lateral hazard and the kids were completely confused on where and when to drop. I had one kid that had a ball that came to rest on the grass above the water but within the hazard line. He almost picked the ball up to play a drop, but one of his competitors said, "Ask the marshal." I said, what do you need? He said, "I don't know what to do." I said, "What are you asking me?" He said, "Oh yeah... for a ruling." I told him he could play the ball where it laid, but he couldn't ground his club. He yelled, "Oh, yeah, I remember!" Wow. I also had many of the kids that landed in the water and just teed up again from the tee box. It is an option, but they could have come up to where the ball last crossed the hazard and dropped within two club lengths of the hazard no closer to the hole. One girl did a "Tin Cup" and put three balls in the water before finally dropping one in the greenside bunker. She took a 7 on the hole. It's hard to Marshal because your tendency is to help them even if they don't ask for help, which isn't what we do. The younger kids have scorekeepers, nice folks who just want to help, but they give the kids all sorts of bogus advice. I watched one help a kid mark his ball and then take a club length relief from his opponents line and when she put it back used just a clubhead length. I stopped the kid from putting and asked him if he remembered how to remark his ball and he did. The scorer was ticked, but you don't want to help the kids by having them cheat. If he had putted it and moved to the next hole, it would have been a two stroke penalty. I had a good time today, but I'm exhausted.

Yesterday we spent the day at the US Open at Pebble Beach. One of my agents called me on Friday afternoon and asked if I'd be interested in tickets to the US Open's final round on Sunday. I was. He has a 7 year old son and his wife didn't think the son would enjoy spending the day at Pebble with his Dad. Apparently, she was under the impression that Sunday was Kid's Day. Hey, more of the good stuff for us. Darla was a trooper and agreed to join me for Saturday night in Salinas and Sunday at the golf course in Pebble Beach. My agent was getting the tickets from one of his companies (a quasi competitor of mine) and he set up for me to meet the marketing rep in Roseville and pick up the $150 tickets from him on the ruse that the agent and I were going to the event together. He called me at work this morning and asked if he enjoyed himself, where we setup, which groups we watched, etc. I think he was anticipating a call from the marketing rep and wanted his cover story. Darla and I stayed at the Salinas Valley Inn, a Best Western property and enjoyed our time away together. We ate breakfast at the Black Bear Inn, a favorite restaurant in the Carmel area and the first restaurant that Samantha ever went to as a baby, when we visited Vegas after she was born. The transportation was well thought out with buses leaving the Fort Ord military camp where we parked and making the fifteen minute run to the course. The transportation was shorter than at Torrey Pines when the parking venue was the San Diego sports complex, a thirty minute drive away.

Darla and I wandered the resort a bit and checked out the 18th and 17th, sitting in the stands at 17 and watching the golfers try to hit the toughest hole on the course, a 220 yard par three to a ridiculously small green. We then watched at number four, the short par four and number 6, the short par five where a 2 was recorded Sunday. We walked over to number 14 and watched the groups try to navigate the small undulating green on that par five and finally settled in the sun on the stands at number 15, a downhill par four where we watched about twenty groups move through. At one point a small plane flew over carrying a banner that read: "Tiger: Are you my Daddy?" Funny stuff. We finally gave up about five thirty with Tiger and Phil's groups still two groups behind and the crush of humanity weighing on us. We walked to the merchandise shops and bought some souvenirs ( a shirt, balls, hat and towel) and listened to the final four holes on ESPN radio. It was a great event and I'm glad we went. We got home about ten last night exhausted and somehow better for the experience.

Darla managed to somehow blow a circuit in our room on Saturday morning by plugging in a blow dryer. All of the lights went out when I was "deep in thought" in the bathroom. We had to call the front desk and have them trip the breaker for us. Nice.

Jennifer is coming to visit this weekend and bringing young Samantha along. We look forward to seeing them, but don't know when they will arrive. She is still working out the logistics with John. We hope to have the jet ski up and running and take it out over the weekend. I charged the battery over the weekend and want the boys to see if they can get it going or if we have to take it into the Yamaha dealer.

The boys went over and saw their nephew, Lucas, last week and I added some pictures for the blog. He seems to be doing well. Both Alicia and Don are home right now, Alicia on maternity leave and Don between work gigs.

I did make it out to the golf course on Saturday before we left for Salinas and put a pretty good round together. I shot 42+39=81 and would have been happier if I hadn't double bogeyed the last hole. I stood on the tee and announced to my playing partners that I needed just a bogey to hit 80 and a par to shoot 79. Well, all great plans come asunder. I was hitting the ball really well and hitting my new driver long and straight. I will play with a couple of agents on Friday and I hope to be swimming in our pool with young Miss Samantha on the weekend.

David and Daniel are home and currently jobless, which is sort of a microcosm of the economy. They are both looking for jobs and if anyone has one, call either of them. We could use the income. They were able to get our backyard gazebo assembled and the tables and chairs moved out into the back yard for pool season. It was 94 degrees today and I think they made good use of the pool as well.

I have hired for one of the open positions in my office and hope to have an offer soon for the other opening. We will have Pete's new assistant start next Monday and she will have two weeks to train with Toni-Anne before she leaves for Switzerland.

Well, short and sweet, but I didn't get home until 8:00 PM after helping with the scoring at the tournament and then doing cleanup. Darla and Daniel took a walk and are exchanging "the Book of Eli" for another Blu Ray disc. By the way, have I mentioned how great it is to have a whole house fan? The temperatures drop rapidly in the Sacramento area after the sun goes down. We open the windows and turn on the whole house fan and drop the inside temperatures fifteen degrees in fifteen minutes. Awesome. I'll write more next week. Ciao!

US OPEN

We got home about 10 PM tonight. I'll update the blog tomorrow.

A Quick Post before Dinner

A couple more pictures of Alicia and Lucas. I thought it only fair as she had the 20 hour labor shots in the blog last week.

Jennifer sent the picture of Sam to me on her phone. I didn't get the back story on this, but I can imagine this is them getting to the pool at the YMCA and Samantha making a beeline for the pool. It is incredibly cute and shows Samantha's personality. I also like her little Crocs and. of course, her water wings. With the temps in Vegas the last few days, I'd be running to the pool as well.

We had some HOT and WINDY weather the past three days with 90 degrees Friday and Saturday and the winds dying down a bit today and 95 degrees. I just came in from outside. I did a bit of reading on the pool, a bit of sleeping and then tended to some new wildflowers that I planted on Saturday adding some topsoil to the planting bed on the side of the house. I also built a small rock garden next to the shed, trimmed a few of the palms and bushes and then sprayed everything down for the work week. The house and grounds look so nice with the fresh paint, deck stain and the new roof.

We talked to Dad and Shirley last night. They were on a plane this morning, flying to Seattle and then changing planes for a flight on Icelandic Airlines to Racovich, Iceland. They will be in Iceland for ten days and then finally back home for the Summer. Dad was saying that he hadn't even put any fertilizer down on the lawn yet and finally got to that this week. I'm guessing he'll have a thatch of lawn to tend to when he gets back. It has been extremely rainy in Vancouver this Spring. I always have to remind myself that Summer doesn't officially start until June 20th. When the heat starts to rise, it is Summer. I guess Memorial Day is the unofficial start of Summer. When I was a kid, it was the last day of school that signaled the start of another Summer vacation. Dad also told us that Randy has decided on a Canadian vacation for his 50th birthday and we will all convene in Surrey the weekend of August 13th-15th. I will start to look for flights to Seattle for the Wednesday or Thursday of that week. David leaves for Rome on August 12th, so we will not leave until after that.

Dad had sent me a groping of pictures showing him trying on a size 28 suit coat on their recent cruise and I couldn't figure out why he was wearing such a small suit. It turns out that he took his suit into the cleaners to have it cleaned for the cruise and they delivered him a small Chinaman's suit when he went back to pick it up. Dad didn't realize it until they were on the cruise and opened the jacket. He had to buy some pants in Potugal to get through the cruise. Only Dad. Come to think of it "small Chinaman is an oxymoron.

Speaking of the end of school, the boys both finished their quarter at Cal poly on Friday and are heading back home tonight. David has to clean out his apartment as he won't be back in the fall. Daniel will keep his apartment over the Summer and be back in August. I'm hoping that both boys can find work this Summer.

My work continues to be a source of extreme fulfillment. We finished May with record results and June looks solid. I am interviewing for two positions and have one young lady meeting with Harvey this week at which time I hope to make an offer. She is a replacement for Toni-Anne who is moving to Switzerland with her husband. He is already there and she has to arrive by July 15th as a condition of his work visa. The young lady who is interviewing for the position is 24 years old and spent the last 5 years in England going to school at the University of Redding. She started out as a foreign exchange student and dropped out of the program after two week sand registered at the school full time. She currently works for her Dad's insurance agency in Roseville and will be a great addition to our team. I have several more interviews this week as we are promoting Matt to an underwriter position and bringing in a new assistant for Anthony's team. It is an exciting time at work and we have to stay ahead of staffing to keep the ball rolling.

I played golf three times this week. My team shot a15 under par 57 at the insurance tournament on Monday and took THIRD place in the tournament. We won $50 gift cards to California Pizza Kitchen and Darla and I met Bob and Vicki there for dinner on Friday night. Wednesday, all of my frustrations lifted in my golf game and I shot a 39+40=79 at the very difficult, hilly and tree laden Apple Mountain Resort up in Camino, CA. The ball was jumping off the face of my club. I had two birdies and no double bogeys in the round and it was fun. Reality however, came in the form of a 40 MPH gusting windstorm on Saturday as our golf club made the trek up to the Lincoln Hills course in Lincoln and played the Hills Course. The course is designed with nine holes going away from the clubhouse and nine returning to the clubhouse. The win was at our back on the front side and directly in our face on the back. I shot 39+46=85 for a round that was the "tale of two nines". The wind was brutal and it was nearly impossible to reach even short par fours into the wind. I did birdie the number one handicap 465 yard uphill par four with a second shot that was on the lip of the cup. I prefer to remember the front nine and ignore the back.

I did get a new driver, a Callaway 460 Big Bertha which I put in the bag for the first time on Saturday. I'm hitting it really well and will sell my Callaway FT iq on e-bay. that club, more than any other helped to improve my driving statistics and made it possible to upgrade to a club that allows me to work the ball more. I would highly recommend the Callaway FTiz to anyone looking to improve their driving accuracy. Don't mind me, I'm just working on my e-bay ad.

Finally, I bought a new blu-ray DVD player last week on Amazon. I got the Panasonic
DMP-BD 65 Blu Ray player. I'm looking forward to getting a better experience out of my Samsung HD big screen DLP. The player even has an upscale feature for non blu ray discs that has them play with almost HD quality. I look forward to checking it out this week. I suppose it is my Father's day gift to myself.

Well, that's it for this week. I wish Dad and Shirley Godspeed on their journey trough Iceland, hopefully they packed gloves and coats for their Nordic adventure. Everyone have a great week. Ciao.

It's NOT Vegas, but the Heat is On in Sacramento

The pictures above are young Lucas Alexander and of the River Cruise we took with Colony Insurance on Thursday night. The picture of the boys is Peter, Anthony and myself. The white ramp behind us is the one that David designed when he was working for Hallsten. My assistant, Cora, is in the red and white top and her niece, Toni-Anne is in the red and white top. Connie is Gail's assistant and Gail was missing the shindig with some medical issues. The next to last picture also includes Cindy and Terri. Cindy is Renee's assistant and Terri is Pete's second assistant. The bottom picture shows Renee on the right. Initially only the underwriters were invited on the dinner cruise, but I asked our underwriter to include the assistants as well. I am very big on TEAM and the assistants are as much responsible for our success with Colony as the underwriters. It helps that we are on track to write over $4,000,000 in business with Colony this year, by far their biggest agent in California. The assistants in particular enjoyed the three hour cruise, the dinner and the open bar. It was a very nice perk for us and the only problem was that spouses weren't invited.

I mention the heat and we warmed up into the low 90's this weekend and the pool heated up to over 82 degrees and Darla and I were swimming for the first time this year. I played golf today in the 93 degree heat and it was nice to get back home and submerge in the pool. I just got out about twenty minutes ago and Darla is napping on our bed after spending the day in the sun. Jennifer sent me a text on Friday that showed the forecast for Vegas as 106 degrees, 107 degrees, 108 degrees and 108 degrees for Friday - Tuesday. Now THAT is HEAT!! I have finally had a chance to use our attic fan this year and it is awesome. In the early evening, when it is cooler outside than in the house, we turn on the attic fan for fifteen minutes and you can feel the cool air being drawn into the house. Very nice.

Darla and I had a day together on Saturday and we re screened the screen doors and Darla sanded and painted the screen frames and the slider door jams with a black metallic paint. It looks really nice and adds to the newness seen around our house. She was concerned with over spray getting onto the newly painted house, but she did a great job.

Alicia had her baby on Wednesday, an 8 lb, 1 oz 21 inch long little boy named Lucas Alexander Hochenadal. God bless him. Alicia actually stopped contractions on Tuesday night after getting the epidural and then started contractions again in the early morning hours of Wednesday. Lucas was born at 5:15 AM and finally got out of the hospital on Saturday after being jaundiced and requiring some special blue lights to get him well. He was turned in the birth canal and his forehead hit her pubic bone and he was born with a bit of a conehead and with a large red welt on his forehead. Darla and I went to see him on Friday night. Don and Alicia were in a maternity room, but Alicia was considered a "boarder" as she had been officially released Friday morning. Alicia still had a bed and Lucas was in a bassinet in the room. I'm sure they were thrilled to get back home as this all started on Tuesday.

Darla and I spent a good part of Saturday on the pool as we relaxed and read our books. It was so nice after all of the stress and mess we have put up with on both the roofing job and the paint job. I ended up spending $500 on 20 hours of work that the handyman did. The only problem I had is that part of the repairs were built into the bid I got from the painter. I asked him about it and was pretty steamed when he told me that the repairs were over his head and he had to call in a handyman (and that's my problem how?). IF there is a next time, I will use my own handyman and make the painter live up to the terms of the contract. He is a friend of Darla's via one of her Silpada gals (her husband) and I didn't want to make too big of a stink. I think this job was bigger than he thought, it took him longer and used more paint than he had anticipated and he was cutting his losses at my expense. Too bad, because the job he did is excellent.

I have golf tomorrow at Lincoln Hills Golf Course with the IBA Golf tournament that I am the golf chairman of and then have one of my underwriters in from Burlington Insurance who is taking some of us golfing on Wednesday at Apple Mountain Resort in Placerville.

I played today and continued the confounding good nine, bad nine trend that I've been in lately. I shot 40 on the front side and ran out of gas on the back with a 44 that included a 6 on a par three were I hooked the ball out of bounds. Bob continued his stellar play, following his 71 last week with a 73 today. He is on my team tomorrow and I look forward to having him drive the team.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you are all well and living La Vida Cristo. Ciao.

More house pictures

Unbelievably, Jeff worked all day today with a crew of 3 and still hasn't finished the house. They have several areas of trim to get to in the front of the house and several areas of the base paint that need to be touched up. The trim at the very highest point of the house needs a second coat as it is white trim paint covering the cobalt blue from before. The job is spectacular. At this point, I think he'll finish sometime before Summer. That gives him three more weeks, I think I'm safe. The handyman waited for me to get his check today. He was across the street watching the kids play baseball when I got home at 6:30 PM. Luckily, I didn't go over and wait at the hospital with Darla (more on that below). He put in 20 hours of repairing dry rot on the house. I had several areas of belly board and siding that were soft, including an area at the base of the chimney that should have had flashing covering it. The handyman, Dave, put in a trim board all the way around the base of the chimney and also had to replace one of the trim edges up the whole side of the chimney. He charges $25 an hour and was here for three days, so we got our money's worth. He fixed all of the problems areas around the whole house. As soon as they finish, the house will look brand new. Well, sort of like a 60 year old woman with a face lift, but you get the picture.

Oh... Darla is at the hospital in Folsom with her sister. She has been in labor about 12 hours now (Darla's sister that is) and the last guess was she'd have the baby by about 9:00 tonight. I hope you are all well. Ciao.