April Flowers

I played golf with some guys from Ft. Collins, Colorado on Friday and they were amazed at the flowers and buds on the trees in our area. In California, the saying is that "March showers bring April Flowers". The pool is in pinks and purples right now as the plants and trees are putting on a show. It was 72 degrees today and a perfect Spring Day. I know it is 90 degrees in Texas, Nevada and Arizona, but I really like the milder Spring temperatures here in Northern California. We get overnight lows into the 40's and highs in the 60's and 70's. Occasionally, the temperatures spike into the 80's, but usually cool right back down. Our average high temperature for this date is 72 and the low 49, so we are perfectly normal and I'm loving it. We are supposed to warm up to about 75 degrees next weekend.

I mentioned that I played golf with two men from our sister company in Colorado, US reports, our inspection company that Kaufman Group purchased last year. Their VP of large accounts joined their local representative out of Oregon for a round of golf with us on Friday. Matt and I met them at a small cafe at the Auburn Airport. The restaurant, Wings, is well known in aviation circles and was profiled in the NY Times a few years ago in their article on the $500 hamburger. There are aviation enthusiasts that fly out of their area to have a good meal at airports all over the United States and Wings was listed as one of the top ten destinations for pilots. They have a huge outside seating area where you can watch planes taking off and landing. If a pilot flies in and comes over to the restaurant to eat, there is a group of pilots that sit on the closest table to the airstrip and hold up pie plates and rate the landing (8.5 or 9.0). You don't want to get a 6 rating from these guys. Breakfast was great and the golf course next door stopped serving breakfast because all of the golfers eat at Wings.

Jason, our rep, and Jon, the VP were great guys and we had a lot of fun playing. I met Jon last year and he mentioned it at breakfast. I couldn't remember him and we ended up riding together in the cart and he mentioned he'd lost 45 pounds since last year. It dawned on me then and I blurted out, "I remember now. Man you were FAT then." He had a good laugh.

Jon is an 8.5 index golfer, but had a lot of rust in his game having come from Colorado where it is 70 degrees one day and snowing the next this time of year. He really struggled and shot 92. Matt and I had trouble on the freshly aerated and sanded greens and we both shot 85. Jason shot 100 plus. He did provide some comic relief late in the round, when he got tired and started shanking the ball. Jon and I were ahead of him as he was hitting his fifth shot to the par 4 and he shanked it right at us. Jon ducked behind me and I felt his hand on my back as he dove for cover. It reminded me of the Seinfeld Episode where George Costanza knocks down an old lady when he is trying to get away from a fire at a kid's birthday party. I harassed Jon the rest of the round for pushing me into the line of fire. The ball ricocheted off my golf shoe and went into the bunker. Taylor Made was having a demo day out at the range before we teed off and I got to hit one of the new R-11 drivers. It is a very light head and I was pulling the ball left big time. I am very happy with my Callaway Big Bertha 460 and have no plans to change drivers any time soon.

In fact, I played in the first round of our 54 hole individual championship today and was bombing the driver right in the middle of the fairway. I'm up to a 13 handicap with my 11.6 index and I put together my best tournament round of the year with a 40+40=80, which gave me a net 67. I was the leader in my flight at -5 when I left the course to get home and watch the Masters on TIVO. There were about half of my flight of 20 golfers still on the course when I left, but I should be in good position going into next Saturday and will be in one of the last pairings in my flight. Both Matt and Boyd struggled today, Boyd shot 81 for a 75 net and Matt shot 79 for a 75 net. It was a perfect day on the golf course and the course is in great shape. The greens are still a little bumpy and the poa anna flowers begin to bud on the greens in the afternoon.

Darla is off at a vendor fair in Folsom this afternoon and she just called to let me know she was at the car and on her way home. We have a pork loin roast that I will barbecue for dinner tonight.

Darla and I leave for Vegas a week from Wednesday. Our return flight is at 7:25 AM out of Vegas and I called to see if we could delay it and fly back in the afternoon (Southwest doesn't charge change fees). They will charge you the difference in fares however and our flight being part of a package, the change in fare was an extra $358. We will catch up on our sleep over the Easter weekend and keep our early flight. We will be out with Mike and Jennifer on Friday night after Sam goes over to John's Friday night, so we'll either call it an early night or just stay up all night and sleep when we get home. I'm voting for the early night.

I will be out Thursday afternoon on a real estate tour of offices in Folsom, California. We will give our landlords a 6 month "early out" option and begin the job of having our build out done for the new site. My understanding is that we will have new cubicles, desks and equipment in the new location. Things are going great at work and I just received a quarter million dollar profit sharing check credited to our bottom line from Colony. Our profit through the first three months in Sacramento is $383,000 vs. $177,000 last year. I am absolutely beside myself with pride and joy at the job my team is doing in Sacramento. It is a great thing and going to work every day is a blessing to me. I'm lucky to work with the staff that I have. They are good and decent people, hard workers and a joy to be around. I have Matt and Anthony leaving for a carrier seminar in Scottsdale on Wednesday.

I have finally decided that with 19 people now reporting to me, I have to start shedding some of my production responsibilities. Matt and I have a trip to Redding planned in early May and I will introduce him to several of the agents that are in outlying areas that I have and just can't adequately service anymore. I want to keep my agents that are in the Sacramento area and peel off some of my outlying agents. The production staff likes to give me a bad time because I used to be second or third in production monthly and now run 4th or 5th out of the 7 producers in my office. My goal is to have every producer beat me month in and out and have me still bringing in about $20,000 in income a month. Pete was giving me a bad time early in the month because Matt was ahead of me. I pointed out two things. 1 Matt was doing great which was a cause for celebration and 2, the bottom line of the branch IS my number, not my personal production. I think it was an "oh yeah" moment for Pete. I am thrilled to see how focused and intent Matt is on being successful. I was talking to him as we were out on the golf course Friday and asked how he was liking his job. He said, "I think I'll get tired of it in about 40 years". He was smiling ear to ear.

I hear the garage door opening, signaling the arrival of the jewelry lady. We will enjoy a nice meal tonight and then take a walk in the neighborhood to walk off the calories. The pictures of Jennifer and Samantha were from a trip this last week that they took to the Seigfried and Roy white tiger exhibit in Vegas. The one of Samantha in her car seat is just a diva shot. Samantha wears sunglasses outside whenever it is sunny. I've never seen a three year old wear sunglasses before, but Sam is sort of special, you know?

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. I'll let you know how I fare in the tournament as my next epistle will come after the final round next Sunday. Darla by the way blew in here, dropped off her jewelry and is now outside washing her car. I got mine washed yesterday afternoon after the Masters ended. I may take the opportunity to vacuum out the interior while she is washing her ride. Be well. Ciao.

A Sunny Weekend...Finally!

You can see the house in the above shots and how the trees have grown so much in the 13 years we have owned the house. At times I think they are too big, but they provide tremendous shade for the house on hot Summer days on both the front and the sides of the house. The second picture of Samantha is my new favorite, she looks like such an angel and is in contrast to the first picture where she is mucking around in the cake batter while Mom makes a cake. We are definitely looking forward to our trip on April 20th.

The weather has definitely turned Spring-like and Darla is out in the garden as I write this planting a couple of flowering plants in the palm garden to replace a few that the sever winter killed off. I was out when i got back from golf and I mowed the lawns, fixed a couple of sprinkler heads and cleaned the pool. I also trimmed up some plants around the pool and picked up the leaves from a windy morning.

I did play golf today, my third game in four days and it was a bit windy and cold when we teed off. The forecast was for winds gusting to 25 MPH this morning tapering off to a breeze this afternoon. I didn't bring a coat and we teed off at 8:30, so I went into the pro shop and shopped through the lost and found bin for a wind shirt that I put on and wore for the round. It is a size 2X and I'm sure Bubba was probably looking for it when he finished his round (actually, Dale in the pro shop said it had been there for a week). I played golf with the guys at work on Thursday. We closed the month at a new Sacramento record of $235,000 in income and Matt, Anthony and Peter all had their best months ever, so we took a mid afternoon on our close and went and played golf. The course, Mather, which is near our office had just plugged their greens and it was not in the best of shape. It is not a good drainer and they had several holes where the fairways looked like Master's rough. We played the white tees and I managed a 41+42=83. In fact, I played in a tournament yesterday and shot 42+43=85 and today and shot 45+39=84 and came back from the course figuring that it was coming around. My drives are long and in the fairway, but I'm struggling with my sand wedge and putter right now.

Darla and I had dinner with our friends, Neil and Lilly on Saturday night after church. We went to the local Italian restaurant, Strings, and enjoyed two hours of food, drink and good times with good friends. They are both such good people. I told them about Cheryl's mom passing away Saturday morning and they asked me to pass on their sympathies to Darryl and Cheryl and the family. I also suggested to Neil that perhaps I could get Darryl and Cheryl to come out for our annual RGC trip to Carmel in October. Darryl, put October 15 and 16 on your calendar for coming out to California. We will leave Friday for Carmel and stay two nights and play Pacific Grove on Saturday and Poppy Hills on Sunday. Neil and Lilly will be there and some of our other golf friends. It is a shopping and lunching trip for the ladies and a golf trip for the guys. We all meet up in the evenings and have dinner and visit. It is a lot of fun. If you can make it, we'll see about getting a 2 bedroom condo in Pacific Grove for the weekend.

Work is going well, but we have triggered our option to take an early out on our lease on the office building in Rancho Cordova. I spent one afternoon this past week looking at office space and will have another tour in two weeks in Folsom, California looking at space. Our building is thirty years old and doesn't have the amenities available in the newer buildings (gym, relaxation room, upgraded interior moldings and interior doors and windows.) The economy has dropped prices on leases and the longer the lease the better the terms. We are looking at a five year lease and will save money over the space that we are in now and improve the surroundings. There are many class A five year old and younger buildings looking for tenants. I look forward to upgrading the space and then throwing an open house for the agents after we move in.

Our taxes are done and we had to write a couple of big checks again this year. Obama needs the money for illegal aliens that aren't willing to work that want a free handout. God forbid we kick them out of the country. I was astounded this last week when there was an INS raid on one of our local nursery companies. They found that over forty of the workers were illegal aliens. Many of them had worked for the nursery for over twenty years and were paying taxes, had children that had grown up and married after going to college. Those people are being deported. I know I harp on the illegal alien situation, but why is the INS going after the illegals that have jobs, paying taxes, and being positive members of society , yet they leave the illegals that are out of work, on welfare, sucking on the government's teat and being a drag on the taxpayers alone to continue to siphon money from hard working taxpayers? The ignominy of the situation galls me. Dad loves it when I go off on a rant, so this is for you, Dad.

I have our company owned inspection company coming out this week with our local rep and one of his vice presidents and they are taking me golfing on Friday. The VP is a 6 handicap, so I'm bringing Matt with me to round out the foresome. We were going to play at the local Country Club in Roseville, but they have a tournament on Friday. We will go up to Auburn and play The Ridge Golf Club instead.

Well Darla is making fried potatoes and has a London Broil that has been marinating since last night that she wants me to cook, so I need to fire up the barbecue and get to work. I hope you are all doing well. Pray for Darryl and Cheryl as they deal with the death and funeral of Cheryl's mom, Delores, this week. Pray especially for Ray, who has seen his life partner of 61 years fall ill and over the past couple of years and now, mercifully, pass on to heaven. It will be a big transition for him as he learns to live without his friend and wife. Ciao.

Spring Concert for Sammy and the Hole in One that was, then wasn't, but was (I'll explain).

Samantha was adorable at her Pre-school's Spring Concert on Friday. Jennifer said that Samantha got a little lost in the performance as she is so short. I asked Jennifer where she thinks the short gene came from? Just asking. Samantha was playing a butterfly in case you couldn't tell. I think she could have been a Swan, but that would have made too much sense. She loves being in school and having friends and is learning so much. Certainly the smartest three year old that I know.

The incessant and horrid rain that has plagued our area is finally moving north to the great Moss Capital of the United States (Washington state) and our forecast is for Spring-like temperatures up into the mid seventies and low eighties by mid week. Today was overcast and windy, but devoid of rain. I played at Diamond Oaks today and the course is as wet as I've ever seen it. The mowers haven't been able to get on the course for a week and the fairways and rough are wet and long and the ball goes nowhere. The greens have been mowed everyday and are fast and in good shape (all of the greens have been reconfigured to drain well). I was up to almost the top of my shoes in several spots on the course and we lost one ball to the dreaded plug, when we couldn't find Boyd on number 10 when he hit into a particularly deep and wet part of the rough. I shot my routine 41+42=83 and Boyd had a 79. My handicap has creeped back up over the Winter as it tends to every year and I am at 11.6 which gives me a 13 on Diamond's 123 slope course.

As to the Hole in One. It was, but it wasn't mine. I hit a nine iron on the 133 yard fifth hole that was all over the pin. It was tucked behind a bunker and we couldn't see the hole from the tee box. Boyd hit a big fade with an 8 iron that started left of the green and was also tracking to the hole. I thought I was a little short, but when we got to the green there were two balls off the green (our playing partners) and only one ball on the green. My heart was racing figuring FINALLY!, my first ace. Sure enough there was a ball in the cup and when I pulled it out, it was Boyd's Titleist. My Bridgestone was about ten feet from the pin and short as I'd guessed. I celebrated with Boyd, and only after remembering that it was his seventh ace, did I call him a "Pig". My time will come. You can see one of the large oak trees that was felled in the recent storm. It bent over and pulled up the ground around the roots and the tree service will be out this week to cut it up and haul it off. It is covering about half of the seventh fairway right now.

The boys are both back to school after their Spring break. Darla and I took them out to dinner last night at Lorenzo's Mexican Cafe. We had a nice time visiting and getting caught up on their lives. David is off to a home in Berkeley that he will share with some friends of friends. He got a room for $399 a month. He will take BART into the city for his classes and when he starts interning at the architecture firm. After dinner I paid the bill while Darla and the boys were finishing up and then went to the restroom. When I came out, I was trailing some toilet paper on my shoe. No discretion from my wife as she hooted her Betty Rubble laugh and pointed out to all the other patrons what a boob her husband was. Jeesh.

Work is going well, we weathered a storm of visitors this last week and will have the President of our largest company (Colony) in with the senior VP of the Scottsdale branch on Wednesday. Pete, Anthony, Harvey and I will go to lunch with them. It is unusual for a President of one of our companies to come out and visit a branch, but we are their largest producing office in the entire company and he wants to visit us and see what we are doing right with them. It is a feather in my cap and Harvey was shocked when I told him they were coming in. It should be fun, we are going to Rudy's Hideaway, the lobster house not far from my office. We surpassed $200,000 in income on Friday and our lunch goal this month is $225,500 so we will be close. I will have everyone keeping their eye on the ball until Thursday afternoon.

This is somewhat short, but I stopped to wash and vacuum my car (it hadn't been done in three weeks and I was breaking out in a cold sweat). Darla is calling me to put the tri tip on the barbecue, so I will close this for another week and bid all of you Adieu. Ciao.

Vancouver rains come to Northern California

Yep. We are feeling like people of England after five straight days of rain and over 3 inches of precipitation. It is supposed to rain the next week into Friday and we should get another 2 inches of rain. Needless to say, my golf tournament was rained out this weekend. We had winds upwards of 50 MPH last night and trees were down and power out all over Sacramento. Roseville seemed to escape most of the brunt of the winds, but I still spent over an hour today cleaning up downed branches, leaves and mess from the wind and rain. I also made another application of crabgrass preventer and fertilizer, following up on the aeration that was performed on Friday by a yard service. The ground is saturated in the area and the winds were knocking huge trees over. We watched last night's news as they extracted a woman from a car in a parking lot downtown where a fifty foot tree fell on it trapping her inside and damaging seven other cars. It was a mess, but the winds have moved on leaving my pool a mess and everything wet and soggy.

The aeration service hit one of my solar yard lights in the front of the house Friday and trashed it. The company is supposed to send someone out to replace the light this week. I'll hold off on paying them until that happens.

The pictures above are from Michael and Jennifer's trip to Fremont Street on St Patty's Day as Samantha ran about the mall area and enjoyed herself. I particularly like the first picture of Sam grabbing her Mom's leg and Jennifer taking the picture down at her as she hangs on and smiles. Very Cute. We also have a couple of pictures from our dinner out last night at Sienna in El Dorado Hills. We had a great meal with two of my agents who live in Serrano. We had drinks beforehand and they brought a nice bottle of champagne to celebrate with. The restaurant had an employee trained in "saber opening" of champagne bottles. She took our bottle outside the door by our table and used her saber to cut off the top of the bottle cork and all. Her knife is extremely sharp and she slides it along the bottle and turns it at the end of the cork and makes a clean cut through the glass. The explosion of the cork blows out all of the glass fragments along with the cork and you end up with a bottle cut clean across to enjoy your champagne. Linda, the female half of my agency team (husband and wife) took the severed end of the bottle with the cork intact home as a souvenir. We also had a very nice red wine blend called Siena, that was very nice. I've been enjoying the blends recently and particularly like "Trilogy" and "Menage Au Trois" blends. We got to the restaurant at 6:45 and left at almost 10:30 PM. It was quite a night for us and Burns and Wilcox picked up the $300 tab.

It will be a busy week at work this week. I just finished my reviews of all of the employees and have to go over the compensation review with Harvey on Monday. We also have our two largest carrier partners in this week in Colony and Scottsdale. Colony will be here for dinner tomorrow night and Scottsdale comes in on Wednesday for lunch. I also have carriers in Tuesday and Thursday and am scheduled for some sports marketing with two agents and Matt in the office on Friday if this infernal rain ever moves back up to Washington and Vancouver where it belongs.

We have a slight break in the rain and Darla and I will take a walk up to the shops and return a movie and pick up some condensed milk. Linda gave us a secret on how to make homemade caramel, heating the sweetened condensed milk for an hour on a rolling boil. We are anxious to try it and have some ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert tonight. I will be making barbecued chicken. As the light has changed with Daylight Savings Time, we have incorporated the barbecue back into our cooking plans. Barbecued chicken sounds like a treat tonight.

Darla and I got a smoking deal from Southwest Airlines on a trip to Vegas. We fly out Wednesday April 20th and return on Saturday April 23rd. For $524.77 before taxes, the deal includes round trip tickets for both of us to Vegas, 3 nights at the Luxor Casino and two tickets to the Circus Soleil ELVIS show for Thursday night. The tickets that we received at center row of the arena sell for $139 a seat. Vegas is hurting and we are happy to take advantage of the deals that are out there. The Elvis show is the newest Circus Soleil show and it is at the new Aria casino, the casino that Jennifer worked on for two years. It has been awhile since Darla and I treated ourselves to a show in Vegas and we both love Elvis, so this will be a treat. We will also spend Mike and Jennifer's Wednesday and Thursday off with them and then take Samantha on Friday while they work. We look forward to the trip.

I took the gang out for lunch on St Patty's Day on Thursday at work to celebrate our budget busting in February. We went to the Elephant Bar and had a great time. One of the ladies in my office dresses up for all of the holidays and she had a green wig and green eye shadow. Quite a sight.

Well, not much news here. The boys are both on Spring break and then David starts working as an intern at an architecture firm in San Francisco a week from Monday. He is renting a room in the city and will be home most weekends. Daniel is with Becky in San Jose helping her buy a new car as hers is on its last legs. He will be home mid week. I hope you are all well and healthy and happy. Ciao.

Springing into Spring

Spring has been thrust upon us with the annual pushing ahead of the clocks to save daylight. I'll wonder about the value of this whole exercise tomorrow when i get up for work, but will revel in it when I get home and still have an hour of sunlight before the darkness sneaks back in like a teenager into the house after midnight. Michael, Jennifer's beau, was complaining about it on FB today and I told him that no one works Sundays. Of course he and Jennifer were struggling at work after a night on the Vegas strip last night.

Spring also brings us Spring Training and we were able to make it out to the Giant's game against Texas on Monday night. The World Series champs won (AGAIN) 4-1. Both Texas and SF are having very good success in the desert this year and I expect to see both of them back in the playoffs this year. I put the Giants shirt picture above on FB and Randy commented that the Giants should just worry about repeating and not the team they beat, but at $25 a pop, the Giants are making some money selling these shirts. I didn't buy one, instead buying a faux jersey of Tim Lincecum (The Freak) and a World Series Champions shirt that lists all of the players on the winning team last year. We had a blast at the game.

We flew out Sunday morning, got our luggage and a Ford Edge from Thrifty and drove out to The Legacy Resort in Western Phoenix. We met two of our underwriters from Scottsdale and played the course after a nice breakfast on the deck overlooking the first tee and 18th green. I played okay continuing my good drives and average wedge play for an 86. The weather was awesome, about 75 degrees with high thin clouds and a slight breeze. Sunday night we met our contract underwriter and the Regional Manager from Scottsdale a=fro dinner at Don and Charlies Steakhouse, a Scottsdale institution and a bar and restaurant with some of the best sports memorabilia around. The walls are covered with jerseys, signed photos, golf equipment, baseballs, footballs, basketballs, etc. All signed and stored in glass cases. It reminded me of a Hard Rock Cafe for sports junkies. Very nice and the prime rib was outstanding.

Pete and I stayed in the Colony Insurance corporate apartment and they had a nice bottle of Merlot awaiting us. The apartment is two bedrooms with large walk in closets and two large bathrooms. The apartment is stocked with sheets, towels, blankets, toiletries, food and drink, books, movies and plenty of wine and beer. Very nice. it was a comfortable stay for our three days and we really appreciated the hospitality. As I said before, we write $4,000,000 with the company and are one of the largest agencies for them on the west coast. The VP that runs the Scottsdale branch was back in home office in Virginia when we visited and he called to apologize. He and the company President are coming out to visit us the end of this month. We got back to the apartment about 8:30 and I went in to call Darla and when I came out after 9:00 PM, Pete had already gone to bed. Quite the party animal.

Monday we met our Markel underwriter and Manager for breakfast at a little place called the Breakfast Place and it was excellent. We sat out in the sun waiting for them to get there and watched the Giants fans all starting to get up and greet the day. The downtown area of Scottsdale is Giants country this time of year as they train and play at Scottsdale Stadium in downtown Scottsdale. The Diamondbacks who used to train in Tuscon moved into a brand new facility in North Scottsdale this year, but hat stadium is probably 20 minutes from downtown Scottsdale. Pete and I then went into Colony, visited all of our underwriters and had a meeting with the Underwriting Director and then headed to lunch. We ate witht he Colony gang at Zipps, a local hamburger restaurant that was also amazing. Good food and large drinks (iced tea) which is nice. We went from there over to Scottsdale Insurance to see our underwriters. Susan, our Colony underwriter, told her they'd pick us up at 4:30 at the apartment. We spent about 90 minutes at Scottsdale, although our Underwriting Director wasn't there and had made a trip to Hawaii to visit agents. She will be in my office on the 24th of this month. We saw Emery who was my boss at Republic Western. He has been moved to a Special Assistant position and is working on special projects for the management team and planning his retirement. Emery was the Underwriting Director for 6 years.

We had dinner with Susan and another underwriter at 5:00 PM at Bandera's , a steakhouse in the downtown area of Scottsdale and another excellent choice. Scottsdale has some great restaurants. Both Pete and I were stuffed from eating so much, but put on a happy face and I ate a stuffed chicken breast and some homemade cornbread. It was excellent. We then went off to the game which started at 7 PM.

Wednesday, we checked out of the apartment and dropped the keys off back at Colony and then rushed up to North Scottsdale to meet Patti, my underwriter from RepWest, that is now working for Seneca. We met at the Breakfast Joynt, another tremendous restaurant and a specialist in breakfast items. I had a ham and cheese omelet and Pete and I got caught up on what is going on in Patti's life and also on what is hot at Seneca. From there, we used Pete's Android to direct us to Burlington, where we had a 9:30 meeting. After several wrong turns, we found the office. The meeting went well and we agreed on several issues that have been impeding our efforts to write business with them. From there we headed over to Orange Tree Resort for golf with Mike, our Underwriter and Mike, the Branch Manager from Burns' Scottsdale office. We had a great time and I shot 85 and had a lot of laughs with the group.

We finished up at 3:30 and headed over to turn the rental back in and get to the airport for our 6:05 flight. Pete's Android took us the wrong way on Highway 51 and we had to call Patti to get directions to the airport. We made it in record time using the car pool lanes, but found out that we had been bumped to a 6:30 flight heading to San Diego and changing planes to Sacramento. That got us in at 9:45, but we weren't up for flying all night. The agent got us on a 9:00 PM direct flight to Sacramento that got us in at 10:00 PM. We checked in and headed to Chili's for dinner.

It was a great trip. We got in two games of golf, a Spring Training game, too many meals to count and five carrier meetings. A whirlwind, but also a well planned marketing trip that will pay dividends for us. When we got in at 10:15 (we were late getting out of Phoenix as we were 23rd in line to take off when we got to the tarmac), my golf clubs were not on the carousel. Pete's were there, but not mine. It brought back memories of Denver and the horrible experience of losing my clubs ( I still haven't found a 3 wood I can hit with the confidence of the one I lost). I schlepped over to the baggage office for Southwest and my clubs were there. They came in on the plane we were supposed to take at 6:05 and sat there for anyone to steal before the airline brought them to their office. My luck with airlines and golf clubs is not good.

We talked to Jennifer this weekend and Samantha had a fever last night which broke and she was feeling better today. Sam was with John. Jennifer and Michael took advantage of a Maggiano's gift card we gave Mike at Christmas time and had dinner last night on the strip. They are both doing well. I added some pictures that Jennifer sent us of Sam playing with one of her stuffed animals and also playing hide and seek with Mom.

I am working on reviews this week at work, so pray for me. I tell it like it is in reviews. If you are doing well, you get praise, if you have room for improvement, you hear about it. Fun times. I'll write more next week. Thank you for the birthday wishes. I went out and played golf and shot an 81. On top of that, the pro "comped" my round and the guys bought all my drinks. You can't beat that with a stick. Be well. Ciao.

Just a Quick Update

A couple of pictures texted to me this week from Jennifer. One of Sam in PJ's with what looks like sweet potato fries and one of her new bed. Jen finally moved her out of her crib bed and into a Princess bed complete with canopy. Sam loves it.

Jennifer was offered a position with ITT over in Afghanistan and stood to make about $150,000 for a one year stint. It would have been an easy decision to take the job if she was single and childless, but she turned it down and as Jennifer said, "I need Sam as much as she needs me, maybe more!" Samantha is definitely Jennifer's greatest accomplishment in life and they are as close as a Mom and Daughter can get. Jennifer misses her as soon as they are apart and weekends feel like an eternity to her. Hopefully, Jen will get back to making more money soon and be financially more stable than she is now. At least she is working.

I leave for Scottsdale at 4:30 tomorrow morning. We have the 6 AM flight (the same flight I took on 9/11) from Sacramento to Phoenix. We arrive in AZ at 8:49 as they are an hour ahead of us for the next week (Daylight savings starts a week from Sunday!). Pete and I will grab a rental car and head over to the Legacy Resort which is ten minutes from the airport and play a round of golf with Scottsdale Insurance. We will from there check into the corporate apartment in Scottsdale, shower, change and then meet our Scottsdale underwriter, Sandra and her boss for dinner at a Steakhouse (Don and Charlie's) close to the apartment. Monday morning we meet our underwriters and managers from Markel at a restaurant in Scottsdale for breakfast and then will spend the morning and early afternoon with Colony, our hosts. Monday night we have the Spring training game between the Giants and Texas Rangers with Colony. Tuesday morning we meet again at a restaurant close to the apartment for breakfast with Patty, my old Arizona Underwriter from Rep West days. She is now the underwriter with Seneca and we just wrote a $9,000,000 account last week together. From there, we are off to Burlington for some meetings followed by golf at Orange Tree Resort in Scottsdale and then the flight home Tuesday night. It will be a jam packed trip.

The colonoscopy went off without a hitch. I highly recommend the cocktail of Valium and Morphine used in the IV sedative. I was flying high after the surgery. The worst part was the prep and trying to drink 4 litres of the salty, lemon flavored lubricant that cleans you out like a bottle brush working a Coke bottle. I found that I was so bloated, that I needed to drink some soda to make myself burp. One of the worst feelings when you are gagging down so much liquid is the dehydration that is caused by it moving through you so fast. I have two brothers over 50 and you both need to get this done. I was free of polyps and other problems and don't have to have another until I'm 60. I'm 53 years old and that was my first sedated procedure that I have had. Amazing.

I came home after the procedure flying like a kite and slept for two hours on the bed. Darla finally woke me up and we headed out for a big lunch. I was famished. Pete told me that he drove straight to Denny's and had a Grand Slam. I was loopy and didn't feel hungry although my body was craving nourishment. Darla and I had lunch at Benihana's and my meal was free for my birthday month of March.

We are actually going back to Benihana's tonight with Bob and Vicki. They have sold their home in Roseville and will be moving back to San Jose within a month. I'll miss Bob, who is a great Christian friend of mine. The nice thing is I'll have a friend in San Jose and we can plan on meeting in the Bay Area and playing golf. He will also come up here and play in some tournaments still.

Work is going well. We hit our budget number in February and have a strong start already in March. I had received two tickets from Cal Trans for toll evasion from our trip last week to SF. I used the Car Pool lanes on both bridges, but now know that the toll was changed for Car Pools from Free to $2.50 on both the Bay Bridge and Carquinez bridge. The only way you get the reduced toll is through Fast Trak, an electronic reader you keep in your car and it deducts money from your account. I ended up signing up for the system and they waived my penalty on both violations, simply charging me the $2.50 for each crossing. It is another money grab by the state in the wake of Obama's overspending on welfare and non-citizens. The sad part is the Car Pool lanes are still there and there are no signs saying a toll is in effect. I'm sure families from other states buzz through the Car Pool lanes and end up getting a $27.50 fine in the mail and just pay it. I put $25 into the Fast Trak account and can use it when I got to SF. I still have $20 in the account, but it reloads when the balance gets down to $15. Damn you, Barrack Hussein!

It is Chris Lyon's 21st birthday today and I'm glad I'm in California and not Oklahoma. There will be a LOUD party tonight. I'm sure my Godson has had more alcohol in the last 5 years than I have in the last 10 and he's just now legal. He's definitely a Texas Boy.

It is Dad's birthday on Wednesday, Cheryl's on Friday and mine next Saturday. Happy Birthday to the March babies. Darla and I are heading to Saturday church, so I have to sign off and get dressed. I hope everyone is happy and healthy. I'll bring tales of my Arizona adventures next week. Ciao.

Cold and Sunny in Roseville

Yeah, it's not always 70 degrees in California. We had some snow make it's way down to the valley floor on Friday and I endured an Arctic blast on the golf course yesterday. It is the kind of weather with a bright blue sky that looks very beautiful from inside the comfort of a heated home, but the bone chilling frost and any breeze or wind will freeze you out. We had heavy rain and wind again last week and I had to empty my pool Friday night of water that had raised above the tile line and was creeping up the coping. I should have emptied it Friday morning before venturing off to work, but it was raining and windy and I didn't want to face the barrage of weather. I did have to shut the lids on both trash cans that were parked at the curb and waiting for the garbage service to empty them. The temperature is in the low fifties, but there is a cold in the air and the ground that is chilling. We have had overnight temperatures in the 20's every night for about five days with white frost on the rooftops and trees. We have several varieties of trees that are already budding for Spring after the 70's we had earlier in the month. Our fruitless cherry tree in the front yard is in full pink bloom.

Today is the last day of nourishment before my colonoscopy on Tuesday. Darla is fixing a pork roast for dinner. Tomorrow I will be on clear liquids only as I prep for the procedure. I'll have a delicious lunch of chicken broth and jello followed in the evening by a beef broth and 4 litres of lemon flavored Gavilyte that will see me cleaned out like a gutted fish. My understanding from other men over 50 is that the solution tastes vaguely like lemon flavored salt water and you have to drink 8 ounces of the stuff every fifteen minutes for 4 hours in between runs to the bathroom. I've had plenty of advice, from make sure you drink lots of 7 up to bite on a lemon or lime. I might lean toward the lemon as 4 litres of liquid is enough in a 4 hour sitting. That is equivalent to drinking down two large 2 litre soda bottles in a 4 hour time frame. I will get through it, though because one of my friends not only has issues with pre-cancerous polyps, but also chose not to drink the entire container because he felt ill and was sent back because his colon wasn't clear enough. I sure as heck don't want that. I am leaving the office early tomorrow to come home and prepare for the explosions to come in the bathroom. Oh, Happy Day!

Peter and I leave for Scottsdale on Sunday. We fly in at 8:15 after leaving here at 6 AM. We will get our rental car and then head over to the Legacy resort in Phoenix for a round of golf with Scottsdale Insurance. From there we will go in to Scottsdale and check into the corporate apartment that is being provided to us by Colony Insurance. We will have dinner at a steakhouse in Scottsdale with several executives from Scottsdale Insurance. Monday, we have breakfast with our underwriting team from Markel Insurance and then will spend the rest of the day with our hosts, Colony Insurance. My office is the largest producer on the west coast for Colony Insurance and we finished 2010 at just short of $4,000,000 in premiums written with a loss ratio of 21%. We will have lunch with the director of underwriting and then an early dinner with the VP and our underwriter before heading over to Scottsdale Stadium for the Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants night cactus league baseball game. I haven't been to Spring Training since 2004 and look forward to it.

Tuesday, we have breakfast with Seneca Insurance followed by a meeting with Burlington Insurance and then golf at the Orange Tree Resort in Scottsdale with our Burlington Underwriter and with the Vice President at Burns' Scottsdale office. Our flight home is 6:30. It is a jam packed schedule with no room for any thing else. it should be fun and it will be good to see all of our companies in one visit.

Our office may be moving in July. We have an "opt out" clause in our lease and the space is larger than we need. Because of the configuration of the space it looks near impossible to downsize. Alan is interested in buying a building and we will be looking in both Folsom and Roseville for office space both to buy and to rent. If we buy a building, it will have to be three stories and at least 25,000 square feet. We would be located on the top floor and Burns would have signage on three sides of the building. We could end up staying in our space, but the landlords would have to charge us for space based only on the square footage we need (7500) instead of what we now occupy (10,000). My staff, especially the underwriters, will have some big changes in store for them as the company has moved to an open floor space plan, meaning the only offices will be reserved for Managers. My space would be configured with three offices and the rest of the underwriters would move into "partner" cubicles along with their main assistants. As it is now, we have 8 offices in addition to my corner office and each underwriter has a window office with four walls and a door.

We did end up hiring one Management trainee for my office when I was in San Francisco on Tuesday. We also offered the position to one of my assistant underwriters and she shocked all of us by turning it down. Her reasoning is because she was getting married in July and wanted to be able to commit time and effort to her marriage in the first year and because she loves working for the Sacramento office and doesn't want to be held accountable to the Home Office. I think it is a mistake on her part, but it is quite a compliment to the atmosphere and team attitude we have in my office.

Darla and I received a letter from a claims administrator for the city of Folsom on Friday telling us that they intend to subrogate against us for the costs of the cleanup from the transmission fluid spill earlier in the month. As California cities become more and more financially strapped by the weight of undocumented aliens and uninsured transients, they are looking for citizens of means to pay for services that our taxes have always paid for. It is classic double dipping and I will have a word with the claims examiner on Monday and tell her to either 1. contact the transmission shop for payment of the cost of the spill or 2. Stuff It! Unbelievable. This is the type of garbage that Obama has wrought in this country with his plans to embrace the undocumented "citizens" as he likes to call them. Arizona has it right when they will deport any undocumented persons found inside their borders. And now Obama has joined with the country of Mexico in deciding to sue the state of Arizona. Arizona is only upholding laws that are federal laws on the books since 1954 and of which Obama has "decided" that such laws are unconstitutional. I'll tell you what is unconstitutional is a President that decides to interpret laws and not enforce laws that he is duly sworn to uphold. There is a reason that we have branches of government and Obama can't just decide to make or interpret law, it is not in the constitution for him to do so. This President is a joke and this country is in the worst shape it has ever been in in my lifetime. And Friday, Obama decided the Federal Defense of Marriage Act is now unconstitutional. When did we elect this guy King? I think I missed that election. God help us.

I played Cherry Island yesterday following the rain and frost of the past week. I shot 42+43=85 and felt like I survived the round as much as played it. It was cold and I took a cart to at least have a windshield in front of me. The carts were relegated to the cart paths which hurt me a few times when I arrived at my ball after a walk from the cart with the wrong club in my hand. I'm sure mis-clubbing cost me at least three strokes during the round. I will miss the next tournament at Diamond due to the Scottsdale trip, but the weather forecast for Scottsdale is 77 degrees and Sunny, so I'll take that.

Dad and Shirley were in San Francisco on Friday and perhaps even got to see the first snow flurries in SF in 35 years as the weather was COLD. Darla and I did not make plans to see them as it was a pretty tight schedule with them leaving Saturday morning early for the airport. We will call tonight.

Well, that is the news for now. I'll update the blog next Saturday with tales from my colonoscopy. Again, I leave for Scottsdale Sunday morning. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Gotta Love California

As the rest of the country continues to struggle with crushing snowfall and cold temperatures, I have to endure another mild sunburn because I never think to put sunscreen on in February. We had a wet and Wintry week and the weather turned to sunshine and happiness just in time for the weekend. I was able to get out and play golf both days with Darla away in New Orleans. I was going to try and play nine holes late Saturday with Matt, but he was studying (He is taking his MBA at CSUS), so I went over to Woodcreek to hit balls. It was dead at the course and the pro, Rob, talked me into playing 18 by giving me a cart, golf and a cheeseburger lunch all for $20. I ended up playing with a guy named Carlos who was about a 10. He doesn't keep a handicap and I talked him into joining RGC. He will call me and I'll put him in my foursome and introduce him to the guys. I shot 41 + 41 =82 and wasted my better round on a practice round. Matt and I played in the qualifier today and I shot 44+40=84. I made a nice comeback on the final nine, but neither Matt nor I had any game and we shot a 37+33=70 as a best ball team (horrible, by the way). We did play side by side with the guys who won the tournament by shooting 29+33=62. We tied them on the back, but that doesn't mean much. The weather was ideal today as you can tell by the pictures. Not warm, it only hit 55 degrees, but a high sun in a bright blue sky.

Darla is in the air as I write this winging back to Sacramento after her conference in New Orleans wrapped up. She said she has some stories to tell me. These women get away without their husbands and lose all sense of decorum. Not a good thing in a town like New Orleans. I am very secure in my relationship with Darla. She is a great Christian women and knows boundaries like no one I've ever met. She taught me some boundaries as a single Dad when we were dating and continues to mold me into the man she wants. If she could just get me to give up golf, life would be good. i say that, but it's funny if I have a Saturday without golf she gets irritated because I'm "hanging around" the house getting in her way.

Tomorrow is President's day and it will be DEAD at work. All of Sacramento (a government city) is shut down and most of our agents are off tomorrow. I've got the staff wearing casual Friday clothes and we will probably shut down a little bit early. I stay until the workday is over, but let the staff take off if it is abnormally slow and it will be.

It looks like I will be heading an intervention with the two dueling cousins from poker. I got john to agree that he needs to put this behind him and he asked if I'd act as a mediator and set up a lunch with Steve and John. I told him I'd be happy to and will talk to Steve at poker on Friday night.

Next Tuesday (March 1st)is my colonoscopy. I'll take a half day off on Monday to prep for the procedure and have Dulcolax tablets to take and four liters of Gavilyte to drink. It will clean me out and prepare for the colonoscopy. The television program "Men of a Certain Age" had a hilarious episode on the guys taking a golf weekend to Palm Springs combined with a resort treatment and colonoscopies.

On March 6th, Pete and I will fly to Scottsdale on business. We are playing golf with the Western Regional Director of Underwriting from Scottsdale Insurance and then going out to dinner that night. Monday morning we have breakfast with another company, Markel, followed by a day of meetings at Colony Insurance and then an early dinner and the Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants Spring Training game at Scottsdale Stadium that evening. Tuesday morning we will be in the Scottsdale office of Burns and then over to the Burlington Insurance office mid morning followed by golf that afternoon. We will sneak in an early dinner with Seneca Insurance and then a 6:30 flight home. We will be moving the whole time we are there. We will play golf at the Legacy Resort on Sunday which is near the airport. Of course as I am wont to say to my assistant, it is all Sports Marketing.

We are having another strong month at work and have almost surpassed a strong 2010 with still over a week to go, so the results continue to be strong. I'm proud of the staff and we will likely earn a lunch for beating our budget this month. Things are definitely good at work.

Well Darla has landed and will be home soon. I still haven't showered since getting home from golf. I mowed the lawn after raking up all of the infernal spiny balls from the liquid amber trees on the North side of the house. I have to spray the pre-emergent this year to see if I can ward off those little devil balls this Spring and Fall. I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Ciao.

An Ill Wind Blows In

I was very concerned about the high winds that blew into our area on Tuesday, but my CEO was in town and I couldn't do anything about it. We didn't take down the gazebo this Winter, instead anchoring it down with cinder blocks. It turns out that we should have taken the canvas off as the winds lifted up the gazebo and tossed it around. I called Darla as the winds grew stronger during the day and asked her to check on the gazebo. She had a full day and couldn't get home either. I picked my boss up at the Net Jets runway over at the old Mather AFB at 6:30 and we were at the Hyatt by 7 Pm and to dinner by 7:45. I didn't get out of the restaurant until 10:30 and took Anthony back to his house and finally got home about 11:20. I asked Darla how the gazebo fared and she said, "fine." I went out back and took a look and called her out there. What about our gazebo upside down in the pool is "fine"? She said that it was dark when she looked out and everything looked okay. Uh, right. I dismantled the twisted metal and torn fabric from the structure on Saturday and have the metal on the side yard ready for a trip to the recyclers.

The visit with our CEO went rather well. He brought me a nice San Giovesse from Italy as a gift and had very positive reinforcement for the office and the staff. We had agency visits Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning. I saw the talk show host, Montel Williams at the Hyatt Tuesday night as I waited for Alan and Harvey to check in. Wednesday morning saw the Dallas Mavericks and their team bus at the hotel as they were gathering to head over to the practice facility at Arco Arena (nee Power Balance Pavilion). Alan had some solid suggestions with regard to increasing our penetration into the middle tier and top tier agents in Sacramento, but again, the theme was very positive and he thanked me and the staff profusely for our results in 2010. It was a nice visit.

The staff was jittery all day on Wednesday with Alan in the office and I think most were surprised at the very positive tone of our meetings. Alan likes to grill the staff on company history and our statistics, but I had them prepared for the visit and we had grilled on statistics and history for three weeks before the visit. Alan did take a shine to my two newest hires, Connie and Dana, and have both of them coming into San Francisco next week for an assesment for the company management training program. I lose some measure of control if they join the program, so I'm a little ambivalent on their involvement, but see the need for the company to increase our bench strength. Of course, my bench strength will suffer if they are both picked for the program. I already have Matt in my office as a graduate of the training program. I will be sitting in on the assesments next Tuesday in San Francisco and we will do some role playing, having the candidates attempt to sell us some insurance products and grading them on their sales presentation and creativity. It should be interesting. I will be sitting in with Harvey (my boss), the VP of Human Resources and the head of college recruiting for the company.

Darla did get her car back on Monday after the shop repaired the damage. As I surmised, one of the hoses came loose from the transmission and sprayed the hot transmission fluid all over the engine and road. According to the shop owner, it was a pressure clamp that should have failed immediately, but lasted four hours and 69 miles before it gave up the ghost. As far as the accident, we have been cleared of any wrongdoing and the motorcycle's insurance (which so happens to be our insurance as well) will subrogate against the shop for the damage to the motorcycle. The shop power washed the engine before repairing the damage, but it still has a bit of a burnt transmission fluid smell to it.

I set up another out of town golf trip this weekend and we headed up to Darkhorse outside of Auburn, near Lake of the Pines on Saturday. The course is a championship layout and I've struggled each time I've played there. The greens are sloped and lightning fast and there are hazards, tight fairways and trees galore. I shot 44+46=90. Bob shot 81, Matt had 83 and Boyd shot a solid 36+38=74, a round that included 5 birdies. Boyd, at 71, is a golfer that takes his game on the road and plays well at almost any venue. It must be nice. I play in an NCGA 4 ball qualifier with Matt on Sunday.

Darla leaves for leadership conference with Silpada on Wednesday. She'll be gone until Sunday and the convention is in New Orleans this year. Mardis Gras is close and it should be a fun trip for her. I fly out to Scottsdale on March 6th for three days of carrier meetings. I will play golf on Sunday and then see the San Francisco Giants reprise their World Series matchup on Monday night at Scottsdale Stadium against the Texas Rangers. Spring training starts this weekend.

We have had Springlike temperatures this week, topping out at 74 degrees on Saturday, but Winter will return this week with rain for the valley and snow in the Sierra. The AT&T Pebble Beach golf tournament had excellent weather this week and I'm sure left most of the country longing for the blue skies and warm temperatures of California.

So, I will be batching it next weekend and hopefully the rain will end by Saturday and I can get in two days of golf next weekend. It was sure fantastic on Saturday. I hit two drives of close to 300 yards on Saturday and felt like Darryl. On one hole I was 80 yards past my playing partners. It's not really my game, the long ball off the tee, but fun when you nut one. My drives have been excellent the last month, but I haven't scored because of my poor chipping and putting. I know what I'm doing on my chips and pitches,(rolling over my right foot when I bring the club back). I'm working on keeping my right foot on the ground and planted, but it is a work in progress right now. Frankly, I'd rather be working on that than struggling with the driver.

I'm doing the blog early this afternoon as Darla and I have a Valentine's date at McCormick and Schmick's steakhouse at 5:30 tonight. I hope you are all well. Our worship pastor quoted Psalm 18 today: "...He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in my day of disaster, but the LORD was my support, he brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." Call upon our Saviour in your times of struggle and he will protect you. Happy Valentines day. Ciao.

Really, is it that hard to fix a transmission?

It was a fantastic weekend in Northern California with a high of 76 degrees yesterday and 75 degrees today. Great weather for golf and for a little yard work which I got done today. I was able to mow the lawn, edge, weed, put down some crabgrass preventer and fertilizer as well as clean the pool and for all of my trouble, I even got a little sunburn. To be honest, I also walked dead into one of the limbs of a tree on the side yard and almost knocked myself down to the ground. For that I got a nice smile shaped cut in my forehead and a bit of a ringing in my ears. What a dope!

As to the title of this epistle, we had Darla's truck in the shop all week and rented a car for Darla to use. She returned the rental truck on Friday and after juggling some money in our accounts to pay the $2600 tab, she picked it up and was on her way. We were meeting Darla's folks at 6 PM at Visconti's in Folsom to celebrate Frances' birthday. I was on my way to the restaurant Friday afternoon when Darla called and said she had a problem over at her sister's house with the truck and to detour over there. I turned into their side street and was confronted with both the Folsom Police and Fire vehicles directing me around a large spill in the roadway. Apparently one of the hoses on the transmission worked loose and sprayed hot transmission fluid all over the roadway. A Folsom police officer saw Darla's truck smoking and followed her to Alicia's. As they were discussing her truck, one of the neighbor's on a motorcycle hit the slick transmission fluid in the roadway and his bike slid out from under him. He landed hard on the roadway and one of the handlebars on the bike was broken and the tank and side of the vehicle scratched up. The firemen stayed on site cleaning up the haz mat spill and waited for the tow truck to come and take the truck away so they could get the rest of the spill beneath the truck. We ordered dinner delivered to Alicia and Don's house and the tow truck showed up just as the food arrived. The driver said that he needed to have one of us at the delivery site, so I gulped down my food and headed over to the transmission shop in Rocklin. Lucky for us, we needed to be there as the BOZO tow driver dropped the truck right in front of the dumpsters on the side of the business. He planned to leave it there, but I made him help me push it into a parking spot. He wasn't happy, but I don't care. The truck would have been towed this weekend if we left it there. The shop doesn't open until the morning and the owner will find out he not only has to redo our rebuilt transmission, but also has to turn in a claim to his general liability carrier for the motorcycle accident caused by his tech not tightening an O ring on to one end of a hose on the transmission.

We decided to have them do the work as AAMCO screwed up last Fall by changing the solenoid rather than checking the belt, which is what caused the "check engine" light to come on. Gene at the shop said it is one of two things when the light comes on, the solenoid or the belt. AAMCO chose wrong. Alicia had work on her Dodge there a few years ago and recommended them, but when I was talking to her after the wreck, she said, "The guys great, after my truck was fixed the light came on when I was leaving and he got me right back in, got me a rental and fixed the problem." Alicia was commenting on the good customer service, what I heard was that this shop has screwed up before by not getting a vehicle fixed right the first time. We will deal with him in the morning, but right now I need three things, a rental for Darla, the transmission fixed properly and a claim presented to his GL carrier for the motorcycle wreck of which the proximate cause was their shoddy workmanship.

The Super Bowl is over. Some will say what a great game, but I saw a sloppy performance by the Steelers and a lack of killer instinct by Green Bay. They should have rolled the Steelers after going up 21-3, but their own ineptitude and their players falling by the minute made the game closer. Miss Samantha won the first quarter of our neighborhood pool and won $25. We always put the kids names in and give them the money of they win. I think we've played for seven years and this is our first win. Good for Sammy.

I also wonder how Forty-Niner fans feel after watching a local product, Aaron Rodgers win the Super Bowl and also take home the MVP trophy. They chose first the year he came out and could have traded down to get him, but instead chose a Utah player to be their franchise quarterback, Alex Smith, who has been a colossal failure in the NFL. Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback for the Cal Bears and a local hero. David and Daniel say that the divergence of Rodgers and Smith is a byproduct of coaching, but I see a star quality in Aaron that is sorely lacking in Alex Smith. Smith was a good college QB who won the Heisman Trophy and is a serviceable backup quarterback in the NFL. Where would the Niners be if they had traded down and drafted both Aaron Rodgers and a wide receiver in the first round that year? We'll never know. Someone should have been fired in the Niners front office for that blunder.

I did play golf on Saturday in a shotgun at 8AM. It was a little cold when we teed off. My drives are straight and long, but I couldn't chip or putt all day on my way to an 88. Next week, we are on another road trip, this time up to Auburn and Darkhorse Golf Club. looking forward to it. Matt and I will play together in the next qualifier on February 19th, a two man best ball regional qualifier for the NCGA.

This will be a crazy week for me at work. Last week was companies in and dinners out. in fact, we saw Tyreke Evans and Donte Green of the Sacramento Kings at Benihanas on Wednesday night. They bopth had dates that were about 5 foot tall. Funny sight. This week will be a little more intense with our CEO visiting Tuesday night and Wednesday. I spent two days on the phone with both of his executive assistants last week setting up his itinerary. He flies in on Net Jets on Tuesday night and I will pick him up and drive him to the Hyatt in downtown where he will check in and then we are off to dinner at the Firehouse in Old Sacramento where we have dinner with one of my top retailers. I received his itinerary on Friday and it shows his arrival at 6:15 PM, a 25 minute drive to the hotel, a fifteen minute check-in at the hotel followed by a three (3?) minute drive to the restaurant. The next morning we have a breakfast meeting with one of our retailers, a thirty minute drive to the office, meetings scheduled with times during the day, an office lunch at 12:30 and departure at 4 PM. he and Harvey go on to SF, where they will meet a retailer for dinner. both of my retailers are excited and nervous about meeting a CEO of the largest wholesaler in the country.

I had the carpets cleaned Friday night, have been grilling the office on company trivia and will be doing walk throughs of the cubicles and offices on Tuesday morning. I will pick Anthony up Tuesday morning and he will go with me to the airport and dinner and, of course, Harvey will be in tow. It should be an interesting visit as it always is.

Well, this is a bit late due to the Super Bowl telecast, so this will be a bit short. I will have news on the transmission shop's response to all that has happened since Friday in the next visit. I hope you are all well. Darla and I made it back to church on Saturday night and it felt like coming home. Honestly, if you find a good local church, it makes your life so much better. Be well. Ciao.