Happy 30th Birthday, Miss Jennifer. Weddings, Barbecues and 80 degree temperatures in August!

Another weekend is slowly winding down. It is a weekend that the golf group was in Carmel at our annual trip and I agreed to stay home and go to a wedding with Darla. Those are major husband points and don't think that I won't cash those in at some point. Darla's former roomate and best friend, Joni, was married on Saturday. I was a little surprised that Darla wasn't in the wedding, but Darla and Joni have grown apart in recent years, mostly because Darla was married and Joni wasn't. Joni was Darla's maid of honor in our wedding. I suppose it shouldn't be that big of a surprise as my best man, Jerry Tuel, and I barely speak now as our lives have just gone in different directions. We see each other maybe once a year. Her groom's father is a member of the Model A club in Sacramento and they had three of the model A's at the reception and took James and Joni on a tour of Folsom after the send off and reception. Darla and I walked out and talked to the owner of one of the cars during the reception and we had a couple of pictures taken in one of the Model A's.

It was a spectacular weekend with Saturday's high temperature on August 21st just reaching 83 degrees. This has been one of the mildest Summers on record. Today was 88 degrees, BUT there is a high pressure system spinning toward us from Utah and tomorrow will hit 100 degrees with Tuesday and Wednesday at or above 102. The long range forecast is for a cool down with next Saturdays temperature back down in the mid eighties

We had the wedding on Saturday morning in Roseville and then a twenty minute drive to Folsom for the reception. From there, Darla and I ran by my office to change clothes and head over to the Burns and Wilcox Summer picnic. We were providing the main course and arrived about 4:15 after another quick stop at the grocery store for supplies. We played sand volleyball at the picnic and then had a repast of sirloin burgers and barbecued chicken with salads, chips, beer, soft drinks, zucchini bread, and fresh sourdough. We didn't have much dessert as the person signed up for dessert failed to show. We had a good time and although I stressed my back a little playing volleyball, it was great exercise and a lot of fun. Of course, Darla and my team won 7 out of 8 games played. Winning is always fun.

I have one of the senior brokers and a product manager in town tomorrow and tomorrow night and I was asked to join them for dinner in Sacramento. I know what my big boss and my father would say as far as being there for the visitors, but it is Darla and my anniversary tomorrow night and I already had a date to take Darla to dinner. I called and talked to the Brokerage VP and told her that in my first marriage I would have gone to the dinner and celebrated another night, but in this marriage my commitment is to my wife and that I would have my number one underwriter fill in for me and take them out to dinner. She asked how long we'd been married (14 years) and then asked me to come to San Francisco and teach her husband about setting priorities. I think I probably made more of an impresson on the two ladies coming to town because of my decision to have dinner with my bride rather that go out on the town with them. I know all about the sacrifices that a manager has to make for his job, but I also know what is most important in my life and I choose to honor that.

I did play golf today and teed off at 11:01 AM after church. I now remember why I don't like to play golf later in the day on a weekend. There was every father and son and boyfriend and girlfriend on the course taking five and a half hours to play 18 holes. We followed a work tournament that played a scramble format and had people on the course that had no business having a golf club in their hands. I saw one group almost drive their power cart onto a green and leave it parked steps from the green. Of course the driver was a big tub of lard that should have been walking and certainly could have used the exercise walking from the cart path to the hole. You just shake your head at things like that. I usually really struggle in a "hit and wait" golf game, but managed a 39 on the front and a 43 on the back for 82. Boyd shot a stellar 73 and Bob Hand had a 99. We enjoyed the fellowship together, but I look forward to my 7:38 AM tee time this coming Saturday.

I hadn't completely expanded on our trip to Vancouver and back. We had to meet Randy at the border as he left his Blackberry at the house when he left for the airport and Jenny and Justin's flight to Dallas. We met them and drove up to Tukwilla casino outside Seattle and played some video poker. The machines were tight and Randy pointed out how loud the machines were, making it sound like a lot of action, but no one was winning. We left them at the casino and drove on to Seattle. Our flight was 6:15 PM and we wanted to tour Seattle. Their flight was 3:30 and I can't imagine that the drive to the airport was fun as they were cutting it close. There was a slowdown in Seatlle with the traffic moving at a crawl. Darla and I got lost trying to find the fish market in Seattle and finally settled for a nice Italian restaurant close to the UW campus. We lucked into a great menu and wonderful food. We were able to visit and talk with each other, going over the weekend and the week ahead and then take a leisurely drive to the airport, where I watched the first half of the New York Giants preseason NFL game and Darla read. We were home by shortly after nine and able to wind down before bedtime. It was a great trip.

<>

We did get discounted tickets for Las Vegas, managing to find $149 flights and we will be in Vegas Thursday October 14th until Tuesday October 19th. We are hoping that Dad and Shirley can join us. They have time at their condo, but it is a cost consideration as they are off to Mexico in November. At any rate, we will get to spend some time with Miss Samantha, Jennifer and Michael. By the way, Jennifer turns 30 next Saturday. I guess I am officially OLD at that point.

I hope you are all doing splendidly and enjoying the dog days of Summer. Happy Birthday, Jennifer. I love YOU! Ciao.

We'll start with Canada Pictures and Randy at 50!

And one of David on his last day stateside. This will be short as it is 9:00 on Wednesday night and Darla is due home any minute. We had a gas in Canada, lots of laughs, too much food and booze and lots of good, fun family time. Thank you, Al and Sherry, for the use of your home and the hospitality. It was much appreciated. Thank you, Dad and Shirley, for being base central and for all of the great food and drink while we were north of the border. Darla said a prayer while we were having dinner in Seattle and it was basically praising God for such a great family. We are truly blessed. Jenny and her boyfriend, Justin, were a highlight of the trip. Jenny is so down to earth and basically calls it as she sees it. She kept Darla and I in stitches. Justin was the butt of a few jokes, but took it all in stride. Great people.

We have heard from David and he is in Germany today and off to Switzerland tomorrow. He's had some difficulty with language and getting around, but has some amazing pictures and experiences. His traveling companion, Mya, only lasted a few days with him and bolted for a trip to the Alps with some of their friends in Germany. David wanted to stay in Germany and see more sights and is hooking up with the group tomorrow. He will get together with my former employee, Toni-Anne, in Zug, a suburb of Zurich probably Friday. We have sent some paperwork and a Schwab debit card to home care of Toni-Anne, so he will pick that up from her. he will continue travels in Switzerland over the weekend and then be in France next week. he arrives in Italy the weekend of the 28th and school starts on Monday the 30th. I will post some of his pictures when we receive them.

Dad and Shirley have a great house for entertaining, but only have two beds in the five bedroom house. It's an odd set-up, but they have theme rooms, a music room, golf room, etc. We stayed with Al and Sherry, just a stone's throw from their house. The home behind them has been torn down to make room for three more houses and right now you can see Al and Sherry's house from their backyard. Al's boys come through the lot and hop the fence.

You can see the picture of all of us taken up at Grouse Mountain on Saturday. We asked one of the climbers that had just finished the Grouse Grind and he was a pretty boy with flat abs, but a little lite in the loafers. It looks like he thought the tree was part of our family as he lined up the picture. Grouse was fun with the tram ride up and down and the bird show and lumberjack show on top of the mountain. We rode down and found a White Spot over in West Vancouver and had a late lunch.

Sunday we took a trip in to Granville Island and the farmers market. It was hot and absolutely packed. The people were like ants on syrup crawling all over each other in the market. There were Asian people with cameras poised at the fruit, taking close up pictures of bunches of grapes and heads of lettuce. I wouldn't want to get stuck watching slides of their trip to Canada. Randy treated us to a late lunch at Bridges restaurant on the waterfront that afternoon. I almost ran over a little kid when I was exiting my parking spot. Some woman let her kid go loose and he walked in back of my car from the driver's side. A car had stopped for my spot and I started backing up and the woman smacked my car and screamed at me. The spot I had was so tight I had to crawl out of the car from the passenger's side when we parked. I couldn't see the kid and was looking back over my left shoulder as I backed into the street. Luckily I didn't hit him, but the whole place was a mass of humanity. Not my cup of tea (not that I really like tea to begin with).

I will add more to this on the weekend. I've been working hard to get caught up at work. Darla and I had dinner at one of my agent's homes in Lincoln last night, so tonight is my first down night. Ciao.

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.