Lake Tahoe with Dad and Shirley

A lot of pictures were taken and a lot of fun had during our three days in Lake Tahoe. Thank you to Dad and Shirley for letting us crash your party. Dad and Shirley got in on Thursday afternoon late and we went out to Mexican Food at a little local hole in the wall Mexican joint in our local shopping center. We walked over (after cocktails) and were glad to have the walk back at 9:00 PM when we headed home. The portions are always huge and even with both couples splitting a California burrito, we were stuffed at the end of our meal.Friday, Darla and I worked in the morning. Dad washed the Cadillac and Shirley went grocery shopping at Bel Air in the shopping center up the street. I returned home at 11:30 just as Darla was pulling into the garage. We quickly loaded up the 300 and were on the road to meet Neil and Lilly in Truckee at Jax by the Tracks, the same restaurant we took Jennifer and Samantha to on our snow trip. Neil and I ordered the white cheddar macaroni that Samantha had and we all just loved on that trip last Winter. It was still awesome, Jen.

We go into the condo at 3:30 and planned to head over to see Dad and Shirley for cocktails at their condo at the Marriott resort next to Embassy Suites and Harrahs in South Lake Tahoe, CA. Our condo was in the Lakeview Village condominium resort in Stateline, Nevada. We had drinks and then drove over to the Lakeside Inn for Prime Rib. Neil ordered the Petite Filet and loved that and the rest of us had the signature prime rib, which was as good as advertised. We were all stuffed after dinner and decided to play some casino games and grab dessert later. Neil and Lilly pooped out early and left about 10:30. Dad and Shirley, Darla and I all went to get dessert about midnight.

Our waiter was a gay man named Wendell that had us all in stitches. We asked about dessert and he said he'd never served it before because he works the graveyard shift and they stop serving dessert at 11 PM. He said to go ahead and order and he'd see what he could do. Dad asked an innocuous question about the dessert and he put his hand on Dad's arm and said, "I may be a queen, but I'm not the Dairy Queen!" Shirley was laughing and he went back to talk to the kitchen staff about what was available dessert-wise and she was still giggling when he came back around the corner. He looked at her and said, "This is a quiet one, but I think she's a bit of a dirty girl. No wonder her husband is smiling so much." That set all of us off laughing. He came back and told us that he was born and raised in Montana and was a fish out of water. His older brother was named Homer and he couldn't pronounce it and called him "Homo". His mother told him later that after him calling his brother "Homo", that nature took it's course and here he is. We had a great time with him and he made the night for us.

Saturday we planned to meet Dad and Shirley and walk the beach walkway from the pier and get some exercise. We couldn't all fit in one car so decided to call them when we got to the Marriott to tell them to meet us at the pier. They weren't in their room, but Dad had told me that he and Shirley might go stretch their legs. We looked all around for them and decided to drive over to the pier and wait. There was construction going on on the roadway and the pier and parking lot were closed, so we headed back to the Marriott. We called the room, couldn't find them, walked around the complex and couldn't find them. it turns out they were sitting at the valet parking stand waiting for us and Darla just happened to look out and see them. They'd been waiting for us the better part of 45 minutes.
We ended up all piling into Dad's Cadillac and driving over to the Tahoe Queen marina and walking the beach there. We watched a wedding party fighting the wind and ending up with about a five minute wedding ceremony. we walked over to the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club, an older condo that both Darla and I like. We walked the beach down to the pier and out onto the pier and finally stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the beach and pier and had fish and chips for lunch.

Pete (one of my top Underwriters and long time friend)and his wife, Vicki, drove in Saturday and stayed at the Embassy Suites and went to dinner with us Saturday night. Dad and Shirley picked them up and drove them over to our condo for cocktails. I fixed barbecued bratwurst and the girls fixed hor de oeuvres to complement the drinks. Lilly fixed her TNT margaritas and I drank too many and was a few sheets short of a laundry basket by the time we drove to dinner. You can see by Darla's expression in the second picture that she is not pleased with me. We had dinner at Teps Villa Roma, again a restaurant that we ate dinner at with Jennifer and Samantha on our snow trip. We had a great evening and Pete had everyone in stitches all night. We ended up over at Harrah's afterward and we played some video poker and called it a night. I was plowed and Darla had to take my pants off and get me to bed that night.

Sunday we met at Heidi's, the best breakfast restaurant in Lake Tahoe and enjoyed a big meal. The girls then went out shopping afterward and the guys watched football back at dad's condo. We had everyone over to our place for dinner (barbecued tri tip) Sunday night. We played Greedy (the dice game) and called it a night about 11:30. Darla and I went into the jacuzzi and enjoyed a good soak.

The condo was great and a real bargain at $116 a night. It was two bedrooms, two baths with a large living area and kitchen and a dining room. They had a two car garage and a hot tub in the alcove above the garage. We will definitely be back.

We met Dad and Shirley at Heidi's again this morning and had breakfast and said our goodbyes. There was a waitress there that looked like the old lady in Titanic that harassed Neil to no end. We got a picture of her with the guys this morning. We sure had a great trip and were home by 1:30 this afternoon.

I then went golfing as I hadn't had my fix. We played behind the girls golf tournament for the area high schools and it seemed slow but we finished in just over four hours. I shot 80, but still struggled at times with my driver and even (believe it or not) shanked my driver on number six and almost hit a guy AGAIN over on the second green. It's in my head now, but I still parred the hole.

Well that is all the news that is fit to print. Dad and Shirley will be in Tahoe until Friday and then are off to Vegas where they will see Samantha and Jennifer. I wish them Godspeed on their travels. it is supposed to snow on Wednesday night up in Tahoe, so that should be fun for them. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Autumn arrives, but the heat isn't over yet

It is the start of Fall in Northern California and there are signs of the impending weather change: the leaves are beginning to fall, there are evening thunderstorms over the mountains and foothills that make an interesting backdrop to a late night walk, and it is dark in the morning when I leave for work at 630 and dark by 6:30 at night. The weather today would lead you to believe that the change is here as it has rained a bit today, it is overcast and only 70 degrees, but a look at the forecast for this coming week shows temperatures back into the nineties by midweek and into Friday of next week.
Dad and Shirley arrive Thursday night for their trip up to Lake Tahoe and we will drive up together Friday afternoon. The weather in Tahoe is into the upper seventies during the day and down into the lower 30's in the evenings, so bring your coats and jackets. We have rented a private home for three nights up in Zephyr Cove just across the border in Nevada and dad and Shirley are staying near Stateline in California. Neil and Lilli will join us at the house (it is a two bedroom, two bathroom). One of my underwriter's, Peter and his wife Vicky will also join us for Saturday night. Pete heard me talking about the trip and had met Dad back in the late nineties when we all were in Vegas and asked if they could come up and hang out with us. I said, "no problem". Dad has tended to make quite an impression on the people in my life that he has met and spent time with and I think that is a testament to who he is as a man. We will go have hors' de ouvres at our condo Saturday afternoon and then Dinner at Tep's Villa Roma in Tahoe. I'm sure we will then find our way to the casinos and have some fun. I'm looking forward to the weekend away.
I had my boss, Harvey, and our Real Estate Manager, Mike, in the office on Friday. Our CEO wanted him to take a look at the top four buildings that we had seen and make a decision on our new office location. Mike really liked the one story office building in Gold River as a potential real estate acquisition for the Kaufman group. it is nice, but Alan wants to be in the BEST area in Sacramento and Gold River isn't it. The location at Palladio in Folsom, the mixed retail and office location, a so called Lifestyle center was very nice, but the available space had us looking over either the parking garage or the roof of the building behind the office building and he quickly scratched that off the list. He did find the office on Douglas Boulevard in Roseville to be our best location, building and amenities of all of the rest, but unfortunately the build out will not be ready for our lease end of December 10th. They will have to negotiate an extension at our current location and we will probably move in January. We looked at the second office location in Roseville, but the surrounding area (there is a vacant parcel next to the building that has been allowed to turn brown and full of weeds and debris) is an eyesore. They arrived in my office at 9:30 and I finally dropped Mike back at his hotel at 9 PM. Mike and I met Darla and had dinner in Sacramento on Friday night.
This weekend my golf was a big bust. I hit balls on Tuesday night and wore a Dallas Cowboy t-shirt to the range. The range was packed as it was a half price night and one of the golfers had to yell out. "Hey Cowboy fan, you guys were lucky to beat us Sunday!" I said, "Yeah, lucky you guys have a lousy quarterback!' There were snickers and groans down the line. Note to fans of teams that lose games: Just shut up, you LOST. There isn't a silver lining in there, it is an L in the standings.
Saturday I played in the Diamond tournament. This is a tournament (and there are four of them during the year) that are put on by the pro shop of Diamond Oaks and have nothing to do with RGC. They cost a bit more to enter and pay really well. I played with Boyd and Ben and a new member. I staggered early, going five over after five holes. On the sixth tee, I decided to hit a three wood. I teed it up, took my swing and the ball shot right toward the second green. We yelled, "Fore!", but the ball entered a cart sitting by the green and struck one of the golfers in the shoulder, bounced off the windshield and bounded back into our fairway. The ball was traveling about 120 mph when it hit the guy and he jumped out of the cart holding his shoulder and cursing a blue streak. He was about 40 yards from the tee and took the full brunt of the shot in the meat of his shoulder. I was lucky (as was he) that it didn't hit him in the head or neck or even in the collar bone because it would have snapped any bone it came into contact with. He was screaming at me and jumping up and down. I went over to see if he was going to be alright, but he pushed me away and said he was fine. When he got to the tee box he started in with the other three in my foursome, including the wife of the new member who was riding with him in the cart. He called her a "Fat Bitch" and told her to quit looking at him. Why he chose to jump on them instead of me I'll never understand. It was an accident, but I was the only one culpable in his being hit. The wife is on disability and had her spinal cord injured when a care patient of hers who was 90 years old fell on her and his walker snapped and embedded in her spine. She has put on weight and struggled with her self image since the accident and this didn't help. She jumped all over that guy cursing him up one side and down the other and called him a "Big Pussy" for being so upset. It was somewhat amusing in hindsight, but it ruined my game as the adrenaline rush that I got over the whole thing was too much. I had an 8 on that par 5 and a 10 on the par five following that and ended up with a 48 + 41 = 89, which was posted as an 85 because of the Equitable Scoring rules. I finally calmed down on the backside and finished with 4 pars and a bogey on the last five holes. So, who else shanks a 3 wood? Geesh.
I hope to get in some golf with Neil this weekend and Dad if he wants to play. The girls can take a ride up to the outlet mall in Truckee or Reno and we can get in some golf. I was thinking what a disaster my golf would have been in Monterey as those courses are narrow and full of trees. Darryl will be here two weeks from our trip with Dad and Shirley for the golf in Monterey, so plenty of good times ahead. The Blog will be late next week as we will be out of town, but it will return with pictures from our trip.
Darla and I went to church last night and then out to dinner. The Pastor was finishing his series on issues that affect Christians and talked about Anger, Envy and Worry. He told the story of four pastors who would get together every week and pray for each other and for their churches. One of the pastors said that they all want their church members to admit their vices and purge them from their lives and he suggested that they share their own weaknesses with vices with each other and they could help each other through it. He said, "I'll start. I struggle with gambling." The second pastor admitted having problems with looking at other women and the third said that he struggled with his ego and always feeling like he wanted to brag about himself and his church. The fourth pastor was quiet and when prodded, finally said, "My problem is Gossip and I can't wait to get out of here."
That is it for this week. I will return next week with tales of Dad and Shirley and our trip to the mountains. Ciao.

Sammy's Train Ride

This is the video of Samantha's solo ride on the Miner Train at the Adventuredome in Las Vegas. I uploaded the video using bitripper.com, a great program for uploading video and then carved a shorter clip from the video to upload to the blog using Windows Movie maker. Good memories. Ciao.

September is in Full swing and this was the last full week of Summer

A couple of fun pictures of Miss Samantha from her Mommy (taken from her Facebook). I call them Sammy the Birdwatcher. I don't know what she was doing, but it seemed to fit. The other picture is of the guys from BW. From the left, my Underwriting Manager Pete, my management Trainee Matt, my Rainmaker and Top Producer Anthony and myself. We played in an Enterprise Rents golf tournament on Thursday and came in tied for third with a 63 in a scramble format. It was a good team building event for us and we saw quite a few agents in attendance as well.
I took the staff out to lunch in Roseville at the Spaghetti Factory on Friday (for our Budget Busting in August) and then we toured the proposed new building and office suite in Roseville afterward. There are still a few grumblers and one or two that boycotted going with us, but I figure that the more transparent that I am in the process, the smoother it will go. I have the Real Estate Division Manager in the office on Friday from corporate and he will tour the facility and hopefully get the lease signed and then the TIB buildout can begin. We have to be out of our current space by December 10 and the clock is ticking.

Today was week 2 of the NFL season and I'm proud to say that I sat and watched the games on my DirecTV season pass and it cost me nada. I got on the phone with one of their "Retention Agents" on Monday and threatened to quit the service. He looked up my account and saw that I have been a customer since 1999 and that I have been an NFL Season Ticket subscriber for ten years. He initially offered me $20 a month off the $59 monthly cost and I told him "no sale". He then asked me what I wanted and I told him I sit and watch TV commercials with Deion Sanders dressed like a fairy offering the service FREE to new subscribers and I could swear he was flipping me off during each commercial. The agent ended up refunding $99 to me, giving me the service FREE for this year and giving me three months of HBO at no cost. I had to laugh as I will now be on the phone with them every year and at least get the service for a discounted price.

It was a little tougher to sit in the house and watch the games today because it was 95 degrees in Roseville. I turned off the games about noon, went out and washed the 300 and then spent an hour and a half dozing on a chaise lounge on the pool. I taped the Niner-Dallas game and came in and watched that on a delayed basis after my nap. I couldn't believe the bad luck with injuries Dallas had in the game, from Dez Bryant sitting out to Felix Jones popping a shoulder and Tony Romo cracking a rib. Tony sat out the third quarter and we fell behind by ten points. He donned a flack jacket and played the fourth quarter and lead Dallas to a furious comeback finally winning the game 27-24 in overtime. He threw for over 350 yards and two touchdowns in three quarters of work. Alex Smith on the other hand threw for less than 200 yards in the entire game. The Niners will not give up on this guy, who has been their QB for 7 years and is a joke in the league now. He was chosen as the first overall player taken in the 2005 draft. That same draft produced Aaron Rodgers, the reigning Super Bowl MVP QB of the Green Bay Packers (and a local NorCal kid), not to mention DeMarcus Ware and Marcus Spears of the Cowboys who combined for four sacks on Smith in this game of the six Dallas had. Other players chosen after Smith are Vincent Jackson of the Chargers, Roddy White of the Falcons and in the third round, the Niners best pick of that draft, Frank Gore. Alex Smith was a bad draft choice and the owners of the Niners are loathe to accept that fact. The rest of the league already knows it as not one other team showed any interest in Smith in the off season when he was an unrestricted free agent. For some reason this guy hangs on like a bad smell in San Francisco and it is doing nothing but tarnishing the memory of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice who played a LONG time ago. The Niners were last participants in the playoffs in 2002 when Daniel was 10 years old and David was 12. It was nice to pull out the win so I didn't have to listen to the boys crow about a frankly, mediocre NFL team.

I took a road trip to Nicolaus, California on Saturday with Boyd, Paul and Darren. We played at River Oaks Golf Club, an 18 hole track sitting right next to the River north of Sacramento. I played well on the front with a 40, but fell apart on the back with a 45 for 85. It is a challenging, but fair course and my driver was a bit balky on the back side as I struggled to keep the ball in play. Next week I will play in the Diamond Tournament over at Diamond Oaks. I will try to get out to the driving range this week and work the kinks out of my driver as I am pulling the ball left right now and it is frustrating.

We are quick approaching our trip to Lake Tahoe with Dad and Shirley and will be there in two weeks with Neil and Lilly as well. I look forward to getting away and relaxing in the cool mountain air. Neil had a recurrence of symptoms from his COPD this last week and was having trouble breathing again. I hope the high altitude doesn't adversely affect him.

Boyd's wife, Jo Robertson, is a novelist and has had her first two books published. I bought her first one on the IPad and I Books. It is The Watcher, by Jo Robertson and is very good in the Stuart Woods, John LesCroart mode. I have bought books authored by friends before and suffered through them, but Jo is very talented and surrounded by other authors who have helped her mold her writing into a very entertaining novel. Her second book is The Avenger, which I will buy online and read after I finish The Watcher.

Well, not a lot going on this week, so this is short, but I will be back at the keyboard next weekend and then bring tales and pictures of our trip to Lake Tahoe the week after that. Two weeks after that I will spend a golf weekend with Darryl in Pebble Beach. Not too shabby, eh? Be well. Ciao.

September 11th...America Remembers

I still proudly fly my American Flag every day, do you? Americans experienced a rush of patriotism and pride rarely seen in this country after 9-11. There was a rush to churches for answers and streets and neighborhoods were decorated red, white and blue with flags flying from homes, in yards and even on cars. All of that, predictably, died out within a couple of months and it is too bad. If the surge of patriotism had continued, Barrack Hussein Obama never would have been elected. Frankly, we don't need a politician as our president, we need a man like Warren Buffet, who could put the American Government on a diet and make us a nation that lends money to other countries, rather than the largest debtor nation in the world. Someday, we will wake up and turn all of this around. if we just STOPPED sending billions of dollars to countries like Israel, Pakistan and even Mexico, we could pay off our debt within five years. it won't happen under the watch of Barrack Hussein, the biggest spending President in the history of the United States.

The surge of pride that pulsed through our country came because of the attacks on American soil, but it was helped along by a great patriot in the White House, George Bush, who loves his God and loves his country. I remember members of Congress standing on the steps of the Pentagon singing God Bless America. Of course, many of them were jockeying for the right camera angle, but it was still a touching moment. I recall Billy Graham speaking at a service for the victims of 9-11 and how proud and strong he stood as he praised America and said that God would punish our invaders and that we needed to come together in churches and synagogues and pray for our country. There was some good that came out of an awful situation, but it all faded far too fast. I have had an American Flag hanging on the front of my house since that tragedy and it is only taken down in high winds or when it was unceremoniously stolen from my house before Independence Day. I was quick to replace it and will always fly the red, white and blue at my house and we speak English here.

The day dawned overcast today for the first time this Summer. I was up after 8:00 o'clock to mow and edge the front lawn and then settled in for the first full slate of NFL games on DirecTV's NFL Sunday ticket. I have been a DirecTV Subscriber since we bought this house in 1999 and an NFL Sunday ticket subscriber for 10 years. i will be on the phone with customer service tomorrow as they are now giving the product away to new subscribers. they will get an earful from me and I will ask them to refund the $354 that I paid this year and I will also ask them for some other free pay services. DirecTV is huge on subscriber retention and I will let them know that this long term subscriber is not at all thrilled with how they are treating us. Just a fun pone call for Monday morning. I did sit and enjoy the games today. After Thursday night the bar was set pretty high and only a couple of games met that standard today. I spent a little bit of time looking at the Niner-Seattle game, a game contested with two high school quarterbacks barely throwing for 100 yards each. What a joke. I look forward to the Dallas-Jet game tonight at 5:30 and I am working on my blog now to be ready for some football then.

Darla and I attended our church service last night and the pastor did a great job of showing images from 9/11 and interviewing members of the fire department, military and police departments. He also told the story of Rick Rescorla, the Morgan Stanley Vice President of Security who predicted the terrorist attacks years before they happened. He approached his bosses at Morgan Stanley and told them to move all of the employees out of the World Trade Center because of the threat of attack by planes on the buildings. The leadership listened, but their lease wasn't up until 2006 and they decided to wait until then to move to New Jersey. When they didn't move, Rick instituted drills every three months where he would lead the employees out of the building by way of the stairs. When the first tower was hit (Morgan Stanley was in Towers 2 and 4), he immediately evacuated 1400 employees from the towers and after tower 2 was hit, he returned to the building to make sure that all of the employees were safely evacuated. The tower imploded and of the over 1400 employees at Morgan Stanley, only three lost their lives, Rick and two of his senior staff who returned to the building to check on any stragglers. There is a good story about Rick at this website:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/40201

Interestingly, the version of the article I picked is from the Canada Free Press. Heroes don't get much press in this country, just Presidents who cater to the undocumented aliens (coincidentally one of which he is himself). Rick was a hero in the Vietnam war and his men gave him the nickname "Hard Core". He is a man, born in England who emigrated to the United States and became a US Citizen. Take a minute to read the article, it is pretty powerful.

I've added more pictures from our trip to Vegas as we continue to enjoy the memories of that trip. I have yet to locate the video of Sam on the train, but I will add that at some point.

Of course, I made it out golfing this week. I played Whitney Oaks, a Johnny Miller designed course with a slop of 133 (degree of difficulty). Our course is rated 122. I played the course on Thursday with one of my agents and shot 86 and played again Saturday with Boyd, Darren and Rick and shot 89. It is a tough course, fun and fair and has great holes that you remember after you finish. It also has a lot of water, sand and blind shots (all hallmarks of Johnny Miller). It was a good time with the guys and I hadn't seen Darren in several months. The day started off right Saturday when I pulled into my parking space, opened the door and found a $20 bill on the ground. it was likely lost by the prior user of the space who dropped it when he pulled his keys out of his pocket.
I also played poker on Friday night and won about $100 from my friends. I'm not a big fan of Texas Hold'em, basically a game of luck, but i was on fire Friday night and won about half of the hands all night

Well, this is short, but football awaits and it is calling me like a siren song. Be well and God Bless America! Ciao.

Back from a short Vegas Vacation

Back from a fun vacation to Vegas. The weather was Hot and Windy and it seemed at times that we were in a desert. The room at the Rio was great and the vacation package was awesome. We rented a Jeep Compass, a small SUV that was perfect for our use. I like how all of the car companies let you choose your vehicle now.."anything in the Intermediate aisle". We had set up for a four door Hyundai Sonata of which there were none available. We had our choice of a Chevy HHR, a Chrysler 200 or the Jeep Compass.

We flew in Tuesday night and met Jennifer and Samantha at the hotel. We drove over to the Chinatown Mall and met Michael there and had dinner at the Emperor's Garden, a very good Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas specializing in Szechwan dishes. The food was delicious and the prices very fair. I had an excellent egg flower and corn soup. Sam loved the rice as always.

Samantha stayed with us on Tuesday night and we had the best time with her. It was a little windy on Wednesday, so the pool experience was muted by the blowing wind. Sam took her shoes off and they literally blew away, we had to chase them. I woke up to Samantha standing by my bed, pulling on my arm and letting me know she had to go to the bathroom. We made our regular trip to the Black Bear Diner and the last picture is of Samantha on one of the bear statues at the front of the restaurant. Darla and I actually went back to the Black Bear on Thursday for breakfast as well.

We went to Jennifer and Michael's on Wednesday night and Michael fixed an awesome barbecued chicken with squash and potatoes. The man can flat out cook. We had a nice visit and I was able to meet Jennifer's friend, Amanda. Amanda has been a great friend to Jen and a good buffer with John. Michael gets a little worn out with all of the drama with John and Amanda gives Jennifer an ear and a shoulder.

Thursday was Jennifer's day off and although she had suggested that we take Sam to the Adventuredome on Wednesday, we waited for Jennifer to enjoy it with us and experience Samantha's joy at the 5 acre indoor amusement park located behind Circus Circus on the strip. Samantha could only go on about 1/2 of the rides because she is so tiny, so we got her in for $11.95 and it was $22 for Jennifer. Darla and i were able to get in and walk around, but not ride any rides (fine by me). Samantha had an absolute ball riding all of the rides and her favorite was the frogger, the ride with all of the frogs on the background. She rode it with her Mom the first time and then by herself and six other kids after that. They would finished the ride and then run back to get online and ride it again. We had to finally grab her and move to the next ride. You can see the pure joy on her face in many of the pictures. It was a great afternoon, but tiring and we went back to the room with Jennifer and Samantha and Darla and I fell fast asleep.

Thursday night we went to Maggianos on the strip with Jennifer, Samantha and Michael. It is a great Italian restaurant and a must do for anyone visiting Vegas. Samantha loved the pasta and especially the ground Parmesan which she ate by the handful. Darla and I went out to the Gold Coast afterward to gamble, won early and lost late and left down about $200.

Friday we had to check out of the hotel and went over to Jennifer and Michael's about noon. Darla wanted to go to the Black Bear again for breakfast, but I wanted something different. We were lamenting my choice when we drove all over looking for a decent breakfast place, only to stumble upon Shari's Diner, a fifties style diner off Lake Mead Boulevard in Summerlin, about five minutes from Jennifer's apartment. The diner has been there about four years and is run by a mom and daughter from California. They are both Christians and host a bible study one Sunday night a month at the diner. We were going to have breakfast, but the daughter talked us into their 1/2 pound burger cooked to our order (medium rare) and they were to die for. So good. We spent Friday afternoon at the pool at Jennifer's complex with Sam and Michal and it was a nice relaxing end to our trip. We were supposed to have leftovers from Maggiano's for dinner, but Michael went out and picked up a salmon steak and grilled it on the barbecue with asparagus and white rice. He paired that with a thin loaf of Italian bread and it was delicious. Did I mention that man can cook? Darla swears that his culinary expertise is the reason they are still together. Jennifer has wanderlust, but loves Michael's gourmet meals.
Sam was rather unhappy that we had to leave and got real pouty when we tried to say goodbye. Jennifer felt bad, but told us later that Samantha told her she was mad that we were leaving and wanted us to stay.
We had a lot of fun. I was tickling Samantha when she was trying to show Darla something on the night that she stayed over with us and she turned to me with her hands on her hips and said, "That's enough, Papa!" I just about died laughing. She is a riot.
It was nice to get home Friday night and still have the long weekend to relax. I played golf in our labor day tournament Saturday and it was so HOT. We teed off at 11:00 AM in the teeth of the heat and I just about passed out on the back side. I got light headed and had to sit for a minute to clear my head. I shot a 40+44=84, but totally ran out of gas at the end finishing double bogey-double bogey. It was a rough day for the field and my net 71 was good enough to tie for second place in my flight.

We went to Folsom Lake with Alicia and Don yesterday with the boys and relaxed on the beach. The boys took one run on the wake board and Darla took a nasty flip on the tube and got a nose full of water for her troubles. I relaxed at the beach and even got in a good nap. It was a veg day for me.

Well, that is it for this week. I will add some more pictures next week and also try to upload a video of Samantha on the little roller coaster train (she called it a "croller roaster"). I hope you are all well, enjoyed our day off from labor and are walking in the footsteps of our Lord. Ciao.

Vegas Bound

Darla and I are off Tuesday to Las Vegas to see Jennifer, Michael and Miss Samantha. This is the deal that we got. $403 after taxes for 3 nights in a 600 sq ft suite at the Rio, two flights to and from Vegas and a rental car. Actually the rental car comes courtesy of AA Advantage air miles that were set to expire on 9/30. I was able to book a Hyundai Sonata for the three days that we will be in Vegas. We leave Tuesday afternoon and return on Friday night. We are looking forward to getting away and celebrating Jennifer's Birthday...today by the way...Happy Birthday Jennifer!! Darla and I will take the gang out to Maggiano's on the strip on Thursday night. We will have Samantha spend the night with us on Tuesday night and then take her to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner, sort of "our place" with her and the first restaurant she ever went to as a baby. It will be a fun trip and we will return next week with a passel of photos.

I talked to Darryl this week and he hasn't got his flights arranged yet, he had hoped to have that done this weekend. He has paid for his golf and it is non refundable, so he is coming. I haven't been able to book a house for our trip yet, all of the owners want a three night minimum, but it is the slow season and I hope to swoop in the last week and get a deal on a two or three bedroom place. I went ahead and booked a two bedroom suite at the Howard Johnson's in Pacific Grove to hedge my bets. It is about a block from the beach and one of the newer hotels in Pacific Grove. Almost all of the rental services have told me to wait until October 1st and check back with them as the owners will deal if they don't have a week booked out and it will be a slam dunk. I'm not willing to bet our golf trip on that, so booked the HoJo's and we can cancel that if we end up booking one of the cottages.

I took a road trip with Neil, Boyd, and Pamas this Saturday up to the foothills community of Valley Springs and La Contenta Golf Course. It is a challenging and memorable track with a lot of hills and twists and turns. So many golf courses are forgettable with one hole that looks like the next and it is nice to play a unique track like La Contenta. It also appealed to my cheap side as I was able to book a foursome with cart for $100. I put into play the new Exotics driver that I bought on EBay and so far the reviews are very good. I'm hitting it a bit lower and longer with more carry once it hits the ground. Pamas played in the finals of our Club Championship scratch flight for the second year in a row and I was routinely bombing my drives past him. I shot a very encouraging 39+39=78 on the course and feel like my game is really peaking right now. Funny how fast it can change. Boyd and Pamas both shot stellar 74s and Neil shot 88. It was a nice ride up with the guys and we had a lot of laughs on the 75 minute ride up and back. I really enjoy the road trips for golf and even enjoy more being able to come home mid afternoon and sink into the pool in the back yard. The pool temperature is 85 degrees and we did hit 100 degrees yesterday and today for the first time since early July.

Darla had Silpada events yesterday and today and did well at both of them. She was up and out of the house at 6:30 this morning and I slept in until 8:30 (Such decadence!). We did make it to church last night and then out to Cha Cha's Mexican restaurant for margaritas and dinner. I fixed myself a nice egg, ham and potato burrito for breakfast and then went out to wash and wax the car. When I had used the rubbing compound last time on the water spots, it left rings in the paint as I had used a circular motion when applying the rubbing compound. You are supposed to use a back and forth motion, so I stripped the wax and treated the surface again with the rubbing compound and then re-waxed the car again. It looks much better, but not perfect. I will add another coat of wax in the next week or so.

Darla just said that the boys and Becky are coming over to swim. Daniel and Becky fixed us Chinese food on Monday night and we had won ton soup, fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and teriyaki pork. It was a nice change. It's alot of work to make the Chinese food and Darla usually only does it for bigger groups than just the two of us. I've been eating good all week.

David just got here and I heard a huge splash in the pool and it was him leaping in and cooling off. He comes over about three times a week after work and relaxes in the pool after a hard day. He has enjoyed being back at the architecture firm in Sacramento and doing his Cad work with them. He has also enjoyed the extra do-re-me as well.

I put my Callaway 460 Big Bertha up for auction on eBay and paired it with a Callaway X 3 wood that I bought and quickly changed out for an Exotics 3 wood (thus the move to the Exotics driver). I guess I am committed to the Exotics driver now, but the extra distance is paramount if I'm going to get back into single digits. My handicap will drop back to an 11 on September 1st due to my recent hot streak.

We get back from Vegas late Saturday night and I have a tournament at the club on Saturday. Bob is coming in from San Jose and it will be good to see him again.

Our nephew, Lucas, ended up with a breathing problem last week and spent two nights in the hospital. He was having trouble breathing and they told Alicia to bring him into the hospital. They had to open his airway and wait for the constriction to pass. They aren't sure exactly what happened, but he is back to all boy and feeling fine again, so Praise God.

Well, I will be back at the keyboard next Sunday and I will bring you tales of Vegas and lots of pictures. Have a great week and God Bless. Ciao.

2011: A Good Golf Year

Well, after all of my concerns about my decaying golf game. I won my flight this year in the Club Championship and pocketed $140 in first place money. I am usually right at my lowest handicap of the year coming into the Club Championship and end up playing against golfers that are just a notch ahead of my ability. This year I was the golfer in my flight that was just a notch better than my fellow competitors. I beat my three opponents by a total of 5+3, 4+3 and 5+3 today. I shot 83, 81 and 83 and was NEVER behind in any of my matches. That fact alone allowed me to relax and just play golf. I was ahead by 4, 5 and 4 after nine holes in each of my matches and had my opponents on the ropes, having to play flawless golf to beat me. I'm extremely happy and this is annually one of my goals in my golf "to do" list every year. I want to qualify for an NCGA tournament, make the Rose Cup team and win my flight in the Club Championship.

This year I couldn't play in the Rose Cup as it conflicts with Monterey, I came in second in one of the qualifiers, I had a hole in one and I won my flight in the Club Championship. I think that qualifies as a good year, eh?

My friend, Phamas, the FBI man, made it to the Club Championship finals but lost today 6+5. Boyd and Matt were both out in the first round, but my poker buddy Steve won his flight today and we shared a drink over lunch after the matches this afternoon.

I am hitting the ball very well off the tee and hopefully won't screw that up. I just bought a Tour Edge "Exotics" XCG 3 driver on EBay for $80. I was watching a few auctions and noticed that this one didn't have any bids and made the minimum bid at the last minute and won the club. I have hit this club at a Demo day and loved it, but that is range golf, so we'll see. I am playing La Contenta Golf Course up in Valley Springs next Saturday and will bring both of my drivers and try it out during the round. It is newer technology than my Callaway Big Bertha that is technology about five years old and I want to gain even more distance and try to hit drives up with Darryl. What was fun about my last two matches is that I was out-driving my opponents by 50 - 75 yards and it is a huge advantage to try to attack a green with an eight iron in your hand instead of a hybrid.

My boss will be in town on Wednesday and we will take a tour of the Roseville office space. He hasn't seen it and my CEO wants him to sign off on the location before we move forward with the build out. He just got back from the owner's meeting at the Broadmoor in Colorado with Scottsdale Insurance with Alan. Alan agreed during the meetings to allow Anthony to come out to Detroit during the Manager's meeting in October. Anthony is one of the top producers in the company and has not visited Home Office. He will speak to the management trainees, do some socializing and dinners with them, visit all of our Home Office underwriters and managers and be able to sit with me at the annual awards dinner on the Friday night of the Manager's meeting. It will be nice to have him there and Anthony more likely than not will be running this branch after I retire. Pete and I are essentially the same age and Anthony is in his mid thirties.

Darla and I leave for Vegas a week from Tuesday and we are looking forward to seeing Jennifer and Samantha. Jennifer turns 31 next Sunday. Amazing, isn't it? We will see Samantha and hopefully have her spend the night with us on Tuesday night. Jennifer now works on Wednesdays and has Thursday and Friday off.

I had an e-mail sent to me last week and I think it is important enough to add to the blog. Not that I let my political bent show at all:

"Salary of a RETIRED US President $180,000 for LIFE
Salary of a member of the House/Senate $174,000 for LIFE
Salary of the Speaker of the House $223,500 for LIFE
Salary of the Majority/Minority Leaders $193,400 for LIFE
Salary of an Average Teacher $40,065
Salary of a Soldier deployed in Afghanistan $38,000

Do you happen to see where the cuts should be made to help
with our budget deficit and debt ceiling?"

I don't care what your party affiliation is, this is obscene. Nancy Pelosi made $193,400 and her face looks like that? What is the matter with that woman? When did public service become a wealth building exercise? When they started voting for their own salaries, benefits, private health care, private retirement accounts (opting out of social security by the way), etc. This needs to be fixed and we need to find a way to get young people involved in government again. Term limits help, but you get $174,000 a year for life if you serve one term in Congress? Anthony Weiner will make $174,000 a year for life? It is a disgrace and better yet, a damn shame. Career politicians are the slimiest of life forms.

Well, this is short, but there is a Dallas Cowboy game on the tube that I am taping and I want to sit and enjoy the game with a rum and Coke. I hope all is well in your slice of the world. Have a great week. Ciao.

California Dreamin'

We had our annual Summer Picnic this weekend for my office and we had a sparse turnout. We only had four people out of 20 attend from the office and I was ready to call this the last annual picnic, but we have so much fun every year and I've decided that I'm going to offer it to the group and those that want to attend will have a great time and the rest can go about their boring weekends. We had tri tip this year with carmelized onions and skewers of garlic shrimp. We had salads and salsa and a nice selection of desserts. Darla and I got their pretty late as she had (shocking!!) a Silpada party Saturday afternoon. Daniel and Becky joined us this year as Becky is in town doing classes at a local church for the next two weeks. I'm sure they offered these same classes in San Jose, but this is a good excuse for her to see Daniel. They played basketball and volleyball and Darla really had a blast playing volleyball. I played early on, but then some younger guys showed up who were doing jump serves and spiking at the net and I chose to sit on the sidelines and enjoy a cold beverage. I enjoy the game when it is just fun volleyball with other folks who play twice a year, but when it gets serious, I move on to other things. As it was, I had already played 18 holes of golf and it was my second day in a row of golf and I just wanted to sit and relax.

I went to an insurance education seminar on Friday morning at Empire Ranch Golf Club and then we had a nice lunch followed by golf. I went with Matt in my office and one of my agents, Gary, and we went rogue choosing to bypass the scramble format and just play our own ball. This was one of the worst tournaments I have yet played in. The owner of the restoration company is a non golfer and it was run horribly. We had a shotgun start at 1:15 PM, but he had groups of non golfers playing together and it took us three hours to play 11 holes. We finally realized that there were three groups backed up and a huge hole in the course in front of them, so cut around them and ended up playing 16 holes in just over four hours. We didn't turn in a scorecard and I interpolated my score for the round to a 41+43=84, a good score under the circumstances.

Saturday, I played as a marker for Matt in the scratch qualifier. He shot 79 to make it into the field of eight for the Club Championship. It turns out that my 82 would have also qualified 8th in the field and I would have been fodder for the current Club Champion, who is a 2 handicap. I played today in the first round of the tournament. This is our match play club championship and the only time all year that we play match play. Their are pools of eight players in each flight and $300 on the line. $140 to the winner, $80 to second place and $40 each to the third and fourth place finishers. I won my first round match against a guy who was once a 6 handicap and has ballooned up to a 13. I figured I was doomed, but shot a 39+41=80 to beat him 5 and 3. I chipped in for birdie on the first hole and took the first three holes to go three up and was never less than two up the rest of the round. It is nice to be playing some good golf after all of my trials with the game this year. To shoot 84, 82 and 80 on back to back to back days was gratifying. Unfortunately both Matt and Boyd were eliminated today in their matches, both at 4 and 3, so it is just me moving on. Neil is still in the hunt and Steve my poker buddy beat Rick who traveled with us to Mexico three years ago. I hadn't seen Steve since my hole in one in April and he wanted to buy me a beer. I was so dehydrated after the round that I just drank a Sports Drink with lunch. I will be on to the second round Saturday and hopefully the finals on Sunday. More, of course, to follow.

Very happy to report that Darryl will join us in Monterey in November. We will rent a house through homeaway.com, a GREAT service to put renters in touch with owners of rental dwellings in resort areas. I've already booked a home in Zephyr Cove for September when Dad and Shirley are in Lake Tahoe. Also, happy to report that Neil and Lilli will join us on that trip. Neil and Lilli met Dad and Shirley on our trip to Mexico two years ago. Neil will see Dad and Shirley and two weeks later see Darryl in Monterey. He is our brother from another mother.

You can see pictures of all of our dry goods piled up on tables in the house. We had a moth infestation in the kitchen and the guy from Clark! came out this week and sprayed. It gave Darla a good excuse to "thin the herd" in the pantry as it was beginning to look like we were a Mormon family storing up for a famine or something.

9:30 PM

Darla called me to dinner and we ended up watching a captivating episode of 48 hours that was 2 hours long and I realized when it ended that I hadn't finished my blog. I'll wrap this up and get back to the couch.

I am taking Thursday off this week and joining Boyd, Neil and Rick on a road trip to Rio Vista Golf Club up on the delta outside of Lodi and Antioch. Groupon had a $49 for a twosome deal a few months ago and we are taking advantage of it this week.

I have completely quit coffee. I've been on decaf for the better part of three years, but just had my teeth whitened and decided that I prefer white teeth to unleaded coffee. I've been drinking a lot more water, which is great for me.

Daniel finished up his work for me at the office this week. They completely boxed up and catalogued 5 years of files. They used 595 cartons and it took just over three weeks to complete the project. I will move the cartons to our file storage company just prior to our move in December.

As to that, it is like pulling teeth to get information out of our real estate division. I know that the Roseville location on Douglas Boulevard is the leading candidate. It is by far the nicest office building, although the location in Folsom is newer. That location is a lifestyle location and is a four story office building located in a shopping mall area with a movie theater and many restaurants. If we ended up there, it would be a big deviation from the standalone office buildings that the company has now.

Well, that is it for another week. Do a small nicety for someone in your life this week, just to tell them they are important to you. Be well. Ciao.

Perfect August Weather

The weather continues to shine in NorCal with a high today near 90 degrees after an overnight low of 57 degrees. Darla and I sat watching the Movie Unknown on Blu Ray last night and had all of the windows opened and the fans going and it was so nice and relaxing. I see Dallas has 107 degrees to 110 degrees for the next five days, Vegas 104 to 106 degrees, Phoenix 112-115 degrees. We will be 92-95 degrees over the next five days. Surrey shows at 73 to 76 degrees, a great place to be if you like it cooler.

The pictures above were taken with different effects on Darla's I Pad. She doesn't like the result, but I like the two of Samantha in a kaleidoscope and Samantha and Jennifer with the middle mirror images. It's just fun and the girls loved it. Things are good with Jennifer and Samantha as well as Jennifer and Michael. They went through a rough patch and almost split up, but they are together and working hard on their relationship. Jennifer turns 31 later this month. God, I'm old. I have four people who work for me that are younger than Jennifer.

My golf game has been in the crapper lately and with the exception of a two game stretch right after vacation, I have been falling down the stairs and feeling every bump when I hit. It culminated this last week when Pete in my office (on occasional golfer who was teeing it up for the 4th time this year) beat me 86-87 on Friday. Now, Pete had a career round, but it just shows the state of my game. I shot 46+41 to his 42+44. Pete generally shoots in the mid nineties, but was sinking long putts and even chipped in for birdie. Even Anthony had a birdie and Matt had 2 in his round of 80. When Anthony putted his in for a 4 on a par 5, he said, "Raise your hand if you haven't had a birdie. I used to like that guy. I had a tournament on Saturday and continued my sloppy play with a 47 on the front side and I almost walked off the course. My drives were all over the place and I was stubbing chips and sculling pitches. I three putted on number 9 for a double bogey six and almost walked to the car and left, but decided to soldier on. I decided to slow everything down and concentrate on technique, and low and behold I shot seven pars, a bogey and a birdie for 36 and a round of 83. I was thrilled with how I finished, but left a lot on the table with my 11 over front side. I'll see if i can carry that over to next week which is the start of our Club Championship.

It is looking like Darryl may come out and go to Monterey with Darla and I and the golf group. Neil has been pushing for Darryl to come out and he was looking at flights this week. I found a nice 1600 square foot home in Carmel overlooking the water that rents for $225 a night. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath home with a nice big kitchen, a wraparound deck two queen sized beds in the bedrooms and a nice location five minutes from the main street in Carmel. It would cost each of us at least $129 a night to stay in a hotel in Carmel and this will give us more room to relax. We can even have some people over after dinner on Saturday night if we want. Darryl hasn't quite committed yet, but I will call him tonight to see if he has worked out his flights. Hopefully it works out, but Cheryl will have to stay behind as she is working at some Halloween store in Colorado during that period. Our outing in October 15 and 16.

Work continues in a positive fashion and we added another $75,000 to our profit for the year in July. The Branch Manager's meeting comes up October 26-29 this year and one of my management trainees, Andy, will be in a three week class during that period at home office and will be part of the meetings. Also, I have set up for Anthony to come in and speak to the trainees about his success and how he managed to go from taking a very small book of business and building it to one of the largest in the company. He will be involved on the periphery of the Manager's meeting and will come to the awards banquet on Friday night and this time accept his own awards for production, new business and the like.

We leave for Vegas in three weeks from Tuesday. Jennifer now has Thursdays and Fridays off and she and Michael at least share one day off as his schedule is Fridays and Saturdays off. Darla and i fly in Tuesday night and will spend the day at the pool with Samantha on Wednesday while Mom works and then spend the Thursday and Friday with her and Samantha and Michael on Friday. I look forward to the trip.

So, busy times ahead for us with Vegas, Monterey, my Detroit trip in October and our vacation to Puerto Vallarta in November.

We will have our Summer picnic with my work group on Saturday. It is a smaller turnout this year and Darla and I are providing tri tip for the ones who are attending. Renee in the office will make caramelized onions to go with the meal and we will have appetizers, lots of beer and wine and desserts. We'll also play volleyball and basketball. The boys are joining us this year. Daniel is a contract employee and will be there for his second week starting tomorrow and David is just good at volleyball, basketball and eating tri tip, so it will all work out. I will take the gang out to lunch on Thursday to celebrate our budget busting from July. We will go to the Elephant Bar.

Well, that is it for now. I hope to talk to Darryl as well as Dad and Shirley tonight. I hope all is well with each of you and you are living a Godly life. Be well. Ciao.