Moving Week

We made it through a chaotic week of moving boxes, tubs, crates and having over half the office without a place to sit from Tuesday afternoon on. They had to take down the cubicles Tuesday afternoon in order to wire them and install them into the new space. We set up five work stations in the conference room, but it was hard for everyone to work with telephones ringing and just the bustle of a busy office. I had 6 people working from their homes. We also had to clear out the entire space in Rancho Cordova including two wood desks, file cabinets, file shelving and assorted paper, files, binders, metal organizers, etc. I took two truck fulls of trash to the dump on Wednesday and the movers took a bob tail full of electronics, a desk, the leftover file shelving and a bunch of desk floor mats that are not needed (nor allowed) in the new office.

We finally made the physical move on Friday night. Bekins arrived at 5:00 PM and left with the truck for Roseville at just before 7:00 PM. I went over to the new site and watched them unload and deliver the furniture to the office. They finished up just before 9:00 PM and I took the two IT guys and the Property Manager from HO out to dinner at Fat's, an Asian Restaurant in Roseville. We ate a huge repast of dim sum and Asian dishes and topped it off with two big slices of banana cream pie. I got home about 11:45 after a LONG day.

Saturday, Bob Hand had asked me to play in a two man best ball tournament with him in Antelope. I really wanted to get into the office and get my desk set-up, but it was an 8:00 AM shotgun and the course is a par 58. Bob and I shot a combined 46 and finished in first place, three shots clear of the field. Neither of us shot great. I shot 66, but it was right on my handicap as the slope there allows me only 8 strokes. Bob shot 74 and again it was right on his 16 stroke handicap. We just ham and egged the scoring and it all came together. We had a big barbecue of polish sausages and salads and Bob and I took the first place prize of three rounds of golf at the course each(3??).

I then went into the office and spent four hours setting up my office, pictures, files, desk, and computer. The IT guys had all of the computers already set up and running and the Property Manager had a list of items for the builders to touch up. I did get two new flat screen TVs for the office, a 42 inch in the front lobby and a 55 inch in the conference room.

Darla met me back at the house after her three days in Monterey and Pacific Grove with her family. She had a great time with her brother and enjoyed watching Lucas play on the beach and chase the deer in the park. I would certainly have like to have gone, but the move took precedence. They did sort of push to get us moved in and we were lucky to get the system up and running as Verizon initially told us they wouldn't have our network up and running until Monday. We also had our coffee service taken out of the old office and then they couldn't install it in the new office because the counters weren't in yet because the materials were ordered from Canada and got hung up at the border. They finally installed the sinks and countertops on Friday. The bar area is still not complete as the pedastals had not come in and the contractor just jammed another piece of countertop under it to hold it up and they will finish it tomorrow.

I did play golf today and was very pleased to have Bob in town from San Jose. We played in the first foursome with Neil and Boyd and Darla even came over and hung out with us after we finished and I ran the skins for the tournament. We had $495 in the skin pot and I birdied number 17 and won $38 from the total. My score was a 45+40=85 and could have been better. I struggled on the front side and only had one par to go with 7 bogeys and a double. The back was better highlighted by the birdie on 17. It was great seeing Bob.

Darla and I bought a used spa that will hopefully be installed this week. I have another two days of golf Saturday and Sunday next weekend and will need it. Steve was supposed to install the 220 lines for me, but he is out of town on a fishing trip and leaves for San Diego when he gets back from that. Charlie from the club is also an electrician and will do the work. He has to install a 50 Amp breaker and make some room in the box by putting some twin breakers in. It's all Greek to me, but he will do the work for much less than the $800 the spa shop's electrician wants to charge me. I'll meet Charlie tomorrow morning at 6:45 here so he can get a scope of the work and he will install the lines this week. The spa is a Vita spa and is a four person unit.

Well, I will likely add some photos later to this as Darla has some shots from her trip to Monterey. The boys drove up from Cal Poly as well and hung out with the whole family. I hope you are all doing great and enjoying God's gift of Springtime. Be well. Ciao.

Life goes on

We will be at a Christian concert tomorrow night, so I am getting the blog done tonight. Our weather has turned HOT after nothing but rain and more rain for the past month. We had a nice week this last week with 70's and sunshine leading up to the heat that hit on Friday. It was 90 degrees Friday and 93 degrees today in Roseville.

I played the first round of the Roseville City Amateur and had the smother hook thing going off the tee. I shot 48 and 43 for a 91 and sit in fifth place in my flight with a net 82. There were a number of high scores and the problem at Woodcreek is high rough that hasn't been able to be mowed since before the recent rains. There is still a lot of standing water in the low lying areas of the course. I managed back to back triple bogeys on the front and a 9 on the back, but finished par-birdie-par-par to keep from really putting up a high score. I played with a 6 handicap that shot a 93 so it was a rough outing.

Tomorrow I will play the second round at Diamond Oaks and hopefully I have figured out the driver. It has been the strongest part of my game for about two years, so to lose it like I have is really frustrating. I have always hooded my driver and now it is causing me to smother the ball dead left off of the tee. I started really hitting good drives on the back nine, but hit two out of bounds on number 14 that led to the 9. Hopefully it will portend to good things tomorrow. We'll see.

Anthony sent me an e-mail this week telling me that he underestimated just how much he would miss all of his buddies at Burns. I sent him a note asking him if I knew him and who he was. He sent me a note telling me he would hit me in the knee with a 9 iron. He wants to have lunch on Monday, but it is too soon for me. I think the guys are going to meet him and talk, but I will take a pass for now.
I did make offers to two candidates on Friday and have an acceptance from one. I have one more candidate that I want to hire. She is a small business manager right now and a marketing machine.  She is a little pricey, but the one thing we are missing in my office is a heavy weight marketing person. She doesn't know anything about insurance, but I can fill her in on that. I plan to make her an offer later this week.

With all of the changes in my office, our Home Office decided that they would shorten my trip to Canada to just incorporate the Kelowna conference, but the airfare ended up costing close to $1000 if I stayed in Vancouver and if I flew direct to Kelowna via Seattle the cost was $780 and I would need to stay an extra night at the resort. They took a look at the cost and found a $440 flight out of Los Angeles and will send the Branch manager there. Really, with three or four new employees starting in May I can't afford to be gone.

We have all of our moving crates, boxes, dollies and labels in the office and the cubicles are coming down on Tuesday night. I had a homeless shelter set up to take the file shelving, but they were supposed to show up by 5 PM and called to say they were running late. I finally left the office at 7 Pm and they called at 8:30 and said they were down front and could I come down and let them in. I guess they think I live in an office building. I kind of gave up on them. Thursday afternoon Ricoh will be in to shut down and move the printer and Best Buy will be there to install two wall mounts and two 50 inch flat screen tvs. I went over to the office on Friday afternoon and the carpeting is in, the walls have all been painted, the kitchen floor is in and the office doors and window casings have been installed and we are just waiting for the windows and doors to be put in this week. They still have to install the bar top in the kitchen as well.

It looks like we are due for another round of rain this week midweek and then it will warm back up. All of that just to remind us that it is still Spring.

I did spend some time on the pool this afternoon after golf and had a nice nap. With two days in the 90's and a shallow play pool with a dark bottom, the pool is already up to 78 degrees. I then got out the power washer and cleaned the backsplash and tile. When I cleaned the filter out last week, I tweaked the drain plug at the bottom of the filter tank and now it has a hairline crack and is leaking.
I also got a note from the city of Roseville telling me that my sprinklers were flooding the street. I turned them back on today and I have one that is cracked and is pouring water out of the top of the sprinkler and shooting it in to the street. I guess I need to fix that.

I had a poker game on Friday night at charlie's place by the lake in Granite Bay. I won about $50 and it was great to see the guys.

Well, that is it. It will be a busy week this week with the move. Darla leaves Thursday morning
for Pacific Grove with her sister and will miss all the fun. Our twilight league starts Thursday night and the move will happen Friday night. I will be in the office all day Saturday getting my personal office set up and setting up the empty cubicles getting them ready for the new employees.

A Bad week is Over

It started out so innocently. We just enjoyed our biggest month ever in my office and I took the entire gang out to Benihanas to celebrate. 17 of us all joined in and ate appetizers and steak, shrimp, scallops, sushi, tempura, edamami, chicken, fried rice, salad, soup and ice cream. We were all in good spirits. Pete and I went out afterward and met with the construction supervisor and were assured that the space would be ready for us to take occupancy on April 27th. Home Office didn't want to have to pay rent at the Rancho location, so we have to be out by month end. The offices are all roughed out, the paint has been applied, the carpets and ceilings were due to be done on Friday and the doors and windows will be in this week. The carpet will be installed by week's end.

It was such a good day, but it all came crashing down when Anthony walked into my office and shook my hand and said, "It's been a good eight year run, but I'm leaving. Consider this my notice." I almost fell out of my chair. How could it all come apart so quickly? I was stunned. He is leaving to open a Roseville office for a competitor. I asked him if he was taking any of his assistants and his response was , "I wouldn't do that to you, Ken." Five minutes later, Pete's main assistant walked in and gave her notice as well. She is leaving to join him and help him run the office. I walked back in to Anthony and said, "What the hell? You just looked me in the eye and lied to me." He claimed that No, I asked about HIS assistants. Semantics.

It is really hard for me. I took Anthony from an Assistant UW making peanuts to a top producer making six figures. He would not be in the position he is today without my encouragement and guidance and faith. He has some issues that other managers would not have overlooked, but I gave him his chance and he made the most of it. I will get over it, but it feels like a betrayal.

I took a night to grieve and then hit the ground running the next morning. I promoted one of Anthony's assistants to an underwriting position, broke up his territory among four of my underwriters and made contact with all agents that wrote over $20,000 with us from Anthony's book. I also sent letters to all of the agency principals with details of the new team working with them and an explanation that Anthony had left and that as far as we are concerned it is business as usual and we were ready to handle any and all new business that they have to work on.

I was in the process of hiring one new assistant to replace Cora, but now will replace Pete's assistant and hopefully add one more to help us with the infrastructure and support all of the underwriters. I have interviewed about 12 candidates so far and have four to meet with Harvey on Thursday. He was coming in anyhow to do second interviews on the one position. Now, we will have a full day. I have four more interviews Monday thru Wednesday and hopefully I can add one more person to the rotation on Thursday.

Things are pretty hectic at work right now and everyone is really busy. The move couldn't come at a worst time and I talked to Home Office about letting me out of the Canada trip. They compromised and canceled the Calgary trip, but they still need me to fly into Kelowna. It looks like I will fly in to Abbottsford on Thursday and then on to Kelowna on Friday. I'll still get to see Dad and Shirley, but just for one night.

Darla will have to make the trip with her brother to Pacific Grove without me. She is inviting her sister to join her, so it will be Darla's family all together in Monterey during that weekend. I will be on site to handle the move.

Even with all of the drama at work, I still was able to make it out both days this weekend for our Zone two man qualifier. Steve and I teamed up and after our laid egg in February, we played well this weekend and tied for fourth out of 33 teams. We both struggled individually on Saturday, but played well as a team, shooting a 63. There were four teams with better scores, the leaders at 59. We teed off today third from last as they played in inverse order of position. I shot 88 yesterday, and struggled on a number of holes. Today was completely different and I played great, shooting a 41+40=81. Steve shot 92 yesterday and improved to an 85 today, so individually we improved by 14 shots, but had a 64 today for a two day total of 127. 123 qualified for the tournament in Monterey. I did have a closest to the pin today and put the ball 28 inches from the hole on a 148 yard par three. The ball was tracking straight to the hole and came up just short, but right on line with the pin. I enjoyed myself today.

Tomorrow it is back to the grind. One of my biggest issues right now is how Pete feels about what happened. He lost a major part of his team and one of the reasons that he grew so quickly last year. He is focused on moving forward and has taken on a big part of Anthony's work. There is definitely an undercurrent of unhappiness with Pete right now and we need to work our way through this. Pete and I have had many conversations and he'll get over it. He just feels like he lost a brother and a daughter all in the same day.

Next weekend I will play in the Roseville City Amateur both Saturday and Sunday. The weather has finally turned to Spring and we should see temperatures in the 80's next weekend. The weather continued raining last week. In fact, we had rain all week, right up to Friday night, which saw rain and hail. It was wet at the course all weekend with standing water around several holes and in a few of the bunkers. It will dry out this week with temperatures in the 70's and up to 80 by Friday. It was cold on Saturday morning, but warmed to 68 degrees and up to 72 today and the rain finally moved out. Tomorrow will be 77 degrees and up to 87 degrees on Friday. We need some 70's for awhile and a taste of Spring.

Well, I need to get on to my evening. I hope you all are well and life is treating you well. Ciao.

HE IS RISEN!!!!

He is Risen. What a great opportunity each year we have at Easter time to remember and celebrate the fact that Jesus died for our sins and rose again to be the first of all Christians who will vacate their "final resting place" to join the other believers in glory. Darla and I spent last night up in Paradise (California) with Darla's parents. We took them to dinner out at the Kalico Kitchen on Skyway and I enjoyed my first "Senior" dinner where I had Yankee Pot Roast with two sides, and a tapioca dessert. The food was great and I could have gummed it if I needed to. We went to Easter service with Frances and Earl and then went back home to join Alicia, Don and Lucas for a big ham lunch. Don hid Easter eggs in the backyard and Lucas had a ball finding the eggs that were cleverly hidden on the edge of the grass in plain sight. I've also included a picture of Samantha in her new Easter dress.

I am thrilled to say that there was a wonderful reason for Samantha to have a new Easter dress this year. Jennifer texted me on Friday afternoon and said that she was looking at perhaps taking Samantha to church on Easter Sunday. Darla had already bought the dress and a few other clothes for Sammy and put the receipt in my wallet to add to the checkbook. She mailed the items off and we both decided that Jennifer should have the receipt. I sent the receipt to her and added a note that I was praying that some day Jennifer would find a church and get Samantha into a Sunday School class, that I wanted Samantha to know Jesus. Jennifer texted me asking about a church and then went to her mailbox and found my letter. It was definitely God working upstream and Jennifer felt that it was confirmation of her decision after she read it. Darla found a church on the internet and after looking at Adventure's website. It looked perfect and Darla asked God that if it was the right church that when she Googled the address, it would be within 5 miles of Jen's apartment. It was 4.8 miles.

Jennifer and Sam did go to the church today. Jennifer was running a little late and when she got there, Samantha didn't want to go to class and wanted to sit with her Mom in church. Jen said that she was a little fidgety, especially when the Pastor was giving the sermon, but overall she really enjoyed the music and the service. Jennifer wants to go again next weekend and try to get Samantha to try the class the next weekend. Of course, Darla and I are thrilled.

I worked a half day on Friday, making it truly a Good Friday. I met Pamas at Sunset Whitney Golf Course in Rocklin and played a practice round for the Saturday tournament with RGC. We played with two members out there and they sort of showed us the ins and outs of the course. It is a 130 slope, so a tough track. I shot 48+41=89 on Friday and felt like I had started to work out some of the issues with my driver. I also realized that I had to play the course very conservatively. Saturday I did just that and pull hooked a hybrid 3 wood out of bounds and started the round with a triple bogey 8. I shot 45 on the front and stumbled around the back nine for another 41 and an 86 for the tournament. I finished in the money, but not sure exactly where I finished as I had to leave early to get up to Paradise. We had a few problems out at the course, including a near fight between one of the guys who notoriously drinks too much and my friend, Paul. Paul made a comment "Are you kidding me?" when the guy sunk a long putt and the guy went off on him dropping F bombs and screaming at him.Paul and another golfer walked off the course and didn't finish the back nine due to the tension in the group. Paul has used the expression a bunch of times with me and it was him praising the shot. This is the second issue we've had with this guy. Last month he almost got into another fight with a different golfer and then when one of my friends asked him about it later, it got heated and I had to grab Brad and pull him into the snack bar to diffuse the situation. Secondly, we had a group that played the ball "lift clean and place" when the conditions of the tournament were "play the ball as it lies". We had to disqualify them. Fun times in the old golf club, eh?

It looks like our move is still on track for April 27th. I did stop by the office and you can see the shape that the interior is in right now in the pictures above. I can't imagine that we'll be ready, but we have to be out by April 30th in the current building and they are pushing to get it done. On a better note, the view from my office is pretty nice as you can see from the pictures. I am supposed to go with Darla to Monterey on the weekend of April 26th and it looks like she will be going without me. Her brother, Steve, will be in town on vacation with his wife Kirsten and they want to visit Monterey and Pacific Grove where they got married. We set up a Thursday and Friday night in Pacific Grove and now the move will likely scuttle that and leave me owing Darla . It remains to be seen if the move will go off as scheduled. The problem is getting the city inspectors to sign off the site as ready for occupancy. If the 27th date sticks, I'll have at least three people in from home office to handle the IT lines, rental contract and phones.

Also this week, I had a call from my boss and he asked me if I was born in Canada. I said yes and he asked if I'd be willing to go to Calgary and Kelowna in May to help our new Canadian entity, Chesterfield, at two Insurance conventions. When my CEO's brother, who is our marketing director and is a transplanted American living in Toronto, found out I was Canadian, he was booking me passage to both conventions. I've agreed to go on the condition that I can work out of Canada for the week. Initially, they wanted me to fly in Sunday night to Calgary, fly back to Sacramento Monday night and then back to Kelowna on Thursday. That was crazy. I have yet to hear that I will be able to do that, but if they want me there, it makes more sense for me to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday remotely from Dad and Shirley's. I need to check in with them tomorrow night and make sure that they will be in town the week of May 6th. We got back too late tonight to call them, so we will call you guys tomorrow night.

Finally, I am in the process of interviewing for an Underwriting Assistant. I have the job posted on our company job website and I'm getting tons of resumes. I weed them out and try to interview just candidates with 4 year degrees and insurance experience. I got a call this week from someone who was a fast talker who "had a bone to pick with me". She said her name was "...stina". I couldn't make out the name and asked if her name was Christina. "No, it's Katina!" The woman on the phone said that she had put in a resume and a day later received a form letter that told her we had candidates that more closely met the job criteria. She said that she had a 4 year degree and had worked at a finance job that is "exactly" like insurance. She argued that the job was an entry level position and that I should have considered her. I told her that the job was NOT an entry level position and that a finance job is nothing like an insurance position. She asked if that meant that I wouldn't interview her. I told her that was what the letter was trying to explain to her. She told me to go F myself and hung up. I was shocked and even more shocked that this young lady doesn't have a job. I'd say she has a future in customer relations.

Well that is the news that is fit to print at this time. I hope you all have given thought to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and that you take it seriously. You have to ask Jesus to be your personal Saviour in order to be saved. Remember, He is Risen!!

Beautiful day today, but more rain yesterday!!

Oh, yes. I did finally make it back on the course. I think Darla was as relieved as I was. It rained again on Saturday and I had to cancel our Morgan Creek outing. We went from a foursome with Neil, Boyd and Darren to me and Paul. It poured rain yesterday and the course was pretty water logged, but today dawned bright and Sunny and the wood fence behind the pool was steaming in the sunshine when I woke up this morning. The funny thing is that there was no one on the golf course until about 11:00 AM. Paul and I played the front nine in about an hour and 45 minutes. The back nine was much slower and it took about 2 hours and ten minutes. I shot 40+43=83 and was very happy with my round in spite of this being only my third round of golf in 6 weeks. I was pushing the ball right off the tee and will have to work on that this week as I have a tournament at Sunset Whitney. You can see the picture from today of the 12th hole at Diamond Oaks. it was good to be out there again.

The rain on Saturday was one of those driving rainstorms with wind and heavy rain and we sent March out with the same intensity that it came in. The rain was quite a storm and Darla and I spent the day hunkered down indoors with books, iPads, Kindles, and NBC golf coverage. We did make it out to Palm Sunday services on Saturday night and the service was a collection of dramas, art and music depicting the days leading up to Jesus's death on the cross and the various emotions that he went through.

I have a Management trainee candidate coming in to meet me tomorrow. He was offered a position in Los Angeles and told them that he couldn't afford to take the job at the salary they were offering. his rent is close to $2500 a month in Woodland Hills. He is a Berkeley graduate and said that he would be interested if there was a position available in Sacramento. I offered a job to a young woman who is a finance graduate from Sacramento State University. She chose to go to work for the state of California for less money and better benefits. I didn't realize she was a Democrat. Ajay was the top candidate out of 32 candidates they interviewed over two days in Los Angeles (the gal that turned me down was number two). I will meet with him at ten and then go get some lunch together.

I spent the better part of this last week doing employee reviews and realized how much that impacts my ability to handle new business. luckily, I have been cutting back and it wasn't too bad. I also finished up my ASLI class and took the final exam on Thursday night. The office completed our BEST month ever and we wrote over $1,750,000 in premiums this month with net income to the office of over $280,000, both of these numbers are records for us. It costs me about $135,000 to run the office each month with payroll, rent, etc. so it was a really awesome month for us. Anthony, my old assistant, did over $550,000 in premium and $80,000 in net income himself in March. Everyone had a solid showing with the office up about 23% in premium and net income for the month. I told Harvey that it would be an expensive month for him because I will take the office out to celebrate. We will go to either Elephant Bar, Benihanas, or Logans Roadhouse. I have been doing lunches catered into the office, but a month like this deserves a real treat for everyone.

I'm also in the process of adding another assistant to the office who will be my assistant and also help out other teams when they need help. I interviewed one of Darla's friends last week who has a retail job as a store manager and hates the hours. I can't afford to match her salary, but she won't have to work nights and weekends with me. Darla convinced her to call me and apply for the position and when she called I told her that we had the days pretty well covered, but I was looking for someone that didn't mind working nights and weekends and I heard she was up for that. She stumbled around with that and I finally let her off the hook.

I finally bought a new pool sweep with my Prime Amazon membership that I got with the new Kindle. I get two day shipping free with all purchases made through the Amazon warehouses. My sweep has needed to be tuned up and have new parts installed probably for the last year. I looked at Leslie's Pool Supply and they wanted $229 for a tune up kit with new wheels, hoses, bag, etc. I was able to get a new Polaris 360 sweep through Amazon for $358 including no tax and no shipping cost. I had a Polaris 360 and can now cannibalize that one for parts when needed, although a lot of them are worn out. I now have two silt bags and can change those out alternately. It is hard to clean out the bag when it is wet and a snap after it dries out.

I like the Kindle very much, but it is definitely not an i-Pad killer. The i-Pad definitely is a better machine overall, but the Kindle is great for video and definitely for reading. I am working on the Bible in a year and have the Bible in the cloud and can have it read to me which is nice when you are digging through the Old Testament (Merari, father of Ithamar, Aaron, Kohath, and Gershon, who were married to Liz, Beth, Shilo and Qa....). It is the history of the Bible, but one reason most people can't get through the reading. I like it for what it is, but Steve Job's little invention is definitely the bomb.

We will spend Easter up in Paradise with Darla's parents. Darla and I will go to Easter Service on Saturday night at our church. I tee off at 10:02 and the last group is off after 12:30. We have 68 golfers going on the away tournament.

I left my driver at the club today to have a new grip installed. I had worn it out along the thumb line. I'll pick it up Wednesday night as I will be at the club to sign up for the Twilight league. I haven't played in that since 2009, but with our move to Roseville in May, I will be able to make it by 5 PM for our weekly matches this Summer.

Well, that's it for this installment. I just finished cooking barbecued chicken and I'm finishing this up while Darla eats the last of her artichoke. Be good to each other and celebrate the death and resurrection of our saviour this weekend. Ciao.

Okay, it's Spring. Enough with the rain!

Here is Jennifer's new car and a couple of pictures forwarded to me by Dad and Shirley from the cruise. Jennifer had a big week this week, getting her new car and heading out to see some friends after getting it smogged. Her friends work as bartenders at one of the casinos and Jennifer played $20 in a poker machine in order to get free drinks and she hit her first Royal Flush for $1000. It was great timing as her new car needed to have the air conditioning serviced (nothing like a black car in Vegas with no A/C) and the windshield repaired. She also needed to set up insurance on the vehicle and her windfall came in handy in taking care of those bills.

Dad and Shirley are back from the cruise and finally back in their house after babysitting Al and Sherry's horse for the last week. Actually, it is a dog, but the size of a small horse. Dad mentioned that they should have had us come for the second week of their cruise as they got a little lonely with all of us gone. They are settling back in to routine and are happy to be home for now.

Darryl and Cheryl have bought a new home in Kansas and I believe it is 6,300 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. Cheryl will not work as she plans to clean a bathroom a day and it fills up her week. It looks like the house in Colorado will close in early April and they will close on the Kansas home in May. I wish them luck. Darryl, put Monterey on your schedule in October the weekend of the 13th. If you come out, I will work hard this year to get a house in Pacific Grove that we can rent for the weekend. I may get a three bedroom and have Neil and Lilly stay with us.

I did not play golf again this weekend as I had set up another round in Napa and it poured rain on Saturday. The sad part is that it didn't rain here in Roseville. The forecast was for a big storm with rain throughout the entire weekend, but we saw about .30" overnight Saturday night and it was dry Saturday and Sunday during the day. I have set up a round at Morgan Creek Country Club on Saturday here in Roseville and hope to get in a round of golf. The time off has been cathartic and Darla and I have played racquetball both weekends. My wind was better today, but I lost two games to one. Once I'd lost the second game I knew I was toast as I was really breathing hard. She had me running and the exercise was GREAT. I know that the weight work that I do on the Smith machine and the fifteen minutes that I spend on the Lifecycle isn't helping my stamina. if I continue to fit in an hour a week of racquetball, my stamina will continue to get better.

Work continues to go great. Matt has really picked up his game and will do close to $30,000 in net income this month and I have had to shuffle the deck in the office to get him an assistant. I have put in a hiring requisition for another assistant. I will hire that assistant for myself and have them work part time with Anthony's team. We are experiencing growing pains in the office and will have our largest month ever this month. Matt, Peter and Anthony all are on track for their personal best months and both Gail and Renee are having good months as well. I did hear from Home office that the move date is scheduled for April 27th. That came from our telephone unit in Home Office and I don't think that date will fly. We were originally scheduled to move in mid May and I think it will be earlier, but I'm guessing early May. Darla and I are scheduled to be in Monterey with her brother on April 27th, so I better be right.

The weather has really been a huge benefit for our flowers and landscaping. All of the trees are in bloom and the African daisies above and behind the pool are a huge splash of color. The lawn is growing like crazy as the yard got aerated and fertilized right before and during the rains that we've had over the last two weeks. The rain is due to take a one day break and then return on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Hopefully, the rain stops for next week.

Darla and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. I had an e-mail from Benihana offering me $30 off on dinner fro my birthday. We set up a dinner for Saturday after church and when we sat down to dinner I looked at the e-mail, it was good only Monday - Thursday. Oops. We stayed and enjoyed dinner, but it just goes to remind you that you need to check your coupons. Darla and I love Benihana and may even go one day this week and use the coupon.

Well, that's it for this week. I am still working through my reading of the Bible in one year. This week is my final exam in the ASLI class that I'm taking online for work and I will be working on employee meetings all week with reviews and goal planning for 2012. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Ready for the Sunshine

It has been one of those weeks that we have really needed as we are so far behind on rainfall, BUT I am ready for some sunshine after a week of solid, steady rainfall that was oh, so Vancouver in it's pervasiveness. We had a few breaks, but like today, when it stopped raining for about an hour and a half, it was followed by about 40 minutes of hail and rain. I did get out and get the grass cut and another application of weed and feed applied between the showers. The lawn is growing fast. I had it aerated last week and the first application of weed and feed applied and it really took to the fertilizer. I ran the mower and had a full mower bag of lawn clippings when I was done.

The boys are home on Spring Break and Darla and I took them to Fat's for dinner tonight. It is a local Dim Sum restaurant and we enjoyed a Dim Sum basket before dinner and then shared fried rice, honey walnut prawns, Hong Kong Chicken Chow Mein, Shanghai noodles (with pork, shrimp, chicken and calamari), and sweet and sour pork. We ate at 4 o'clock in honor of Dad and Shirley. Actually I had a 6PM online baseball draft for a keeper league that I'm in and had to get home. They all went over to visit Lucas at Don and Alicia's home. Becky was in tow as well.
Both boys have an interview with an engineering firm on Tuesday morning in Stockton. It is a firm that did a lot of business with Earl's firm in Stockton and one of our friends knows one of the owners. David was supposed to go see him, but somehow wrangled an invite for Daniel as well. Daniel has actually been done with school since December but hasn't been able to find a job. With David graduating in June, the rush is on to see what they can find. Daniel had to get some engineering certification testing done before he could get a job in his field and has that now. Hopefully, he will find something soon.

I did not play golf this weekend because of the storms, but have set up a game in Napa next Saturday with Bob Pando and Neil and Darren will drive down with me. I haven't seen Bob since Monterey in October. I did get out and play on Monday and even though I invited my buddies to join me, they would not let me pay my own way and were nice enough to host my golf up at Winchester. The course is very difficult and humbling. I shot 48+45 for 93 and felt lucky to get out of there with that score. My first par didn't come until the 14th hole and I quickly followed that with a birdie on the 144 yard par three 15th over water. It was really the only highlights of my round. We had a great time and it is always fun for me to spend time with good friends.

Jennifer has bought herself a car, an SUV actually a 2001 Chevy Blazer with 93,000 miles on it. She had a company truck, but they wanted that for an intercity job and gave her an older Toyota that broke down on her when she was driving to California. They will give her the company truck back when the job is completed, but she didn't want to get stuck without a car again. One of her coworkers happened to have a car that was sitting unused and had been since he was in the Army a few years ago. He took it in and had it serviced for her and she has to get the air conditioning fixed. The blue book on it was about $2700 and he sold it to her for $2200. She will take it in next week and get the air repaired.

Darla just bought me a new Kindle Fire with points she had accumulated with Silpada. It was a contest that ran from July 1st to February and she had enough to order me a Kindle, get herself a Coach purse and get us a new 4 slice toaster. We had a toaster with 4 slices, but two of them were burned out and the other didn't pop up all the way. It was a toaster from Dad's parents that finally has given up the ghost. Darla has an i-Pad and I like to read books on the i-Pad, but she is so busy with it that I can never get near it. The Kindle Fire has a full processor and internet capability, so will be nice for me to have. It is so funny watching Darla at night. She is working on the i-Pad, has her phone within reach and often texting with her Silpada team and friends and then has her computer plugged in and going as well and often is pulling up stats for her team as she talks. She is a multi-multi tasker.

The rain really got to me this weekend and I set up a racquetball match with Darla while she was out shopping for new sheets for the bed on Saturday. I texted her that we had a racquetball court at three -thirty. When we went over to the gym, they didn't have Darla in the system. It has probably been eight months since she has been to the gym. She does Wii fitness in the house and runs the neighborhood. We had to get her signed back up and it will now cost me an extra $15 a month for the gym because I wanted to play racquetball. I am happy to say that I beat her two games to none, but it was a hollow victory as I was out of breath and sweating so bad after we finished that Darla was concerned about my heart. I also bruised my achilles heal on my right foot. I was lying on the bench on my back outside the racquetball court trying to catch my breath. Her endurance is so good because of the running. I work out on weights during the week and ride the Lifecycle, but it didn't prepare me for running full tilt for forty five minutes.

Work is going great. We are on pace for our biggest month ever this month and I will have a full staff as of Monday, with Peter back to full time hours and Connie back from her surgery on February 1st. The move is scheduled for mid May and I won't have much time to get everything squared away, because my CEO will be in the week before Father's day to tour the new offices.

Well, that's it for this week. David brought his camera to the restaurant tonight, so has to download those pictures to my computer, so look for those this week. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

March Birthdays are in Full Force

As always, the March birthdays which start with my Godson, Chris, and end tomorrow with my birthday have come and most have gone. Dad celebrated his birthday on board the cruise on Friday and they are on the way home to Surrey today. Cheryl celebrated her birthday on Friday in Kansas looking for houses. Darryl sent us an e-mail with a picture of a house he said he bought. It was a picture of the Silpada Designs headquarters building. I will take tomorrow off and go up to Winchester CC and play golf. We are sitting in the path of a week long series of storms that are expected to hit by 8 PM tomorrow night. It looks like I will have a little window of opportunity to play golf. I will play with Boyd, Neil and Rick tomorrow.

You can see pictures of our outing Friday night with Pete and Vicky from my office. We had bought tickets for the Enterprise Rents Crab Feed. We had a blast and Pete was really good, limiting his intake of crab and using a homemade low fat dressing for the crab. I decided after this crab feed that I'm not really a crab fan, at least a crab feed, where they bring the crab out ice cold and you have to peel and eat it. I enjoyed the salad and pasta a lot more than the crab. We had set this up way in advance, but it was nice that it came when it did as it was Pete's first foray after his heart attack. He ended up winning a $5o Home Depot gift card so he can buy some work for Vicky to do.

Darla is off to Paradise today for a jewelry party. She left early this morning and met her folks at church and then they were going out to brunch. Her party was 1:30 to 3:30 and I expect her back any time. She has been busy since we got back from the cruise with parties and meetings just about every night. She had a party yesterday and today.

We did go to church last night and the pastor talked about death, which most churches tend to avoid. He said that death for a Christian is like a young boy who sits with his father at night unable to sleep and Dad calms him and when he wakes up the next morning he is in his bedroom. So it is with death, where our Lord carries us to Heaven after we go to our eternal sleep. Death is a scary proposition for people who aren't believers because their life just ends. Well, at least they think so. The eternal life in Hell is never factored in. Darla and I then went out to dinner on the way home at Dickey's Barbecue. We have a new franchise in Roseville and the restaurant is from Texas. Darla had seen one in Dallas when she was there. it was great with big baked potatoes and macaroni and cheese.

Gary, one of my agents, invited me to golf on Friday at Serrano CC. He took two of his insureds and me to the golf club, hosted our lunch and then golf. I hadn't played in three weeks, partly because of the cruise and partly because I needed a break. I was able to shoot a 44+41=85. I also played on Saturday at Diamond and shot 45+41=86. Now, I just have to figure out how to get my game going a little quicker.

Work has been going great and we just finished our biggest February ever. I owe the staff lunch, but will wait until Connie gets back the week of March 19th in order to celebrate our success and to also celebrate having a full staff back and everyone working full time. Pete has been back part time for the last two weeks and will work 6 hour days this week. We finished 2011 with just over $800,000 in profit. We lost $600,000 the year that I tool the branch over. Connie has been out since February 1st with major surgery and Peter had his heart attack just over a month ago.

Jennifer has been having some car issues with her company truck being taken for a job and the car she was given blowing an engine. She is now driving a 2002 Chevy Blazer that belongs to a co-worker and he will sell it to her but won't take payments. Darla and I have agreed to finance this for her in order for Samantha to have a proper vehicle and Jennifer not to have to rely on her employer or friends for a car.

Well, this is rather short, but I don't really have much to report. It's been a busy week since I got back from the cruise and I'm proud to say that Darla didn't gain any weight on the cruise and the pound and a half that made it on to me has already been sweat off at the gym. I am now into the Book of Judges in my quest to read the Bible in a year. I have an application on my i-phone that tracks the reading for me which makes it pretty simple. I fell a little behind on the cruise but got caught up over this weekend. My trip to Scottsdale has been postponed because my boss didn't send the paperwork in to our travel coordinator and the fares went up from $180 round trip to $505. We are looking at still doing this in April. We'll see.

I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Cruise Pictures

Cruise Memories and Art Lyon turns 75!!

This will be short, because the pictures are aplenty. We are back from a week in the Eastern Caribbean, Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, St. Martaan and Princess Cays in the Bahamas. As you can tell by the pictures, it was a great family time and we had a ball. The picture of me with Barack Hussein Obama Darla felt was in poor taste, but I'm not punching him. It's a love tap. Hey, he even sent me a birthday card. Darla and I both sort of dreaded the formal nights, but it was a great picture taking opportunity and it was nice to hang out in formal attire with Dad, Darryl and Randy and the wives. We also celebrated Cheryl's birthday and my 55th birthday.

Shirley got the gang dancing on Thursday night and there are pictures of that as well.

I think my only regret on the trip was not exploring the island of St Martaan/St. Martin, which is a Dutch and French island and we ended up shopping with the gang for three hours and missing out on sightseeing. All of them had been to the island before and they were looking at watches and jewelry and time just got away from us and then Darla and I bought a few things and were out of cash, so we just headed back to the ship.

We did take a tour on San Juan and saw the downtown and part of the island. Darla and I also broke away from the gang on Wednesday and took a cab on a short sightseeing tour of St. Thomas and were then dropped off at Coki Beach, one of the white sand beaches with green water that is so famous there.

Darryl and Randy both had shopping agendas. Darryl bought a new Canon Rebel digital camera and a couple of new lenses. Randy bought a Tag Hauer watch in St Thomas for a small fortune. Even Dad and Shirley got into the act and bought his and her Seiko watches on St. Thomas. Darla and I are still paying for two students to attend cal Poly SLO and did little shopping of consequence. I got a tank top and a golf shirt and Darla got a cover up. We did spend some money on pictures taken by the professional photographers on the cruise ship. It has been awhile since we had any new pictures taken professionally and they turned out very nice.

You can see how close we were to Darryl and Cheryl with the picture taken from our balcony down to theirs. Randy was two rooms to the right of them as you look at their balcony and dad was down about three rooms from Randy. They all had rooms with a Jr. Suite, consisting of a bed and a sitting area with a couch and the balcony. They also had a shower and a tub. Our room was just the bed and a small desk with a mirror and it only had a shower in the bathroom. We had drinks most nights at either Darryl's room or Dad's.

Darryl and I both bought the same shirt on St Martaan and ended up both wearing the same shirt on the trip home. Darla got a kick out of it and had to take a picture.

We had a long wait at the airport on Saturday before the flight home, but that turned out to be a blessing as I had left my eyeglasses at the restaurant of the Courtyard hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and they could not locate them on the Saturday that we left on the cruise. They are nice Oakley frames and I thought perhaps someone had stolen the frames. The glasses somehow appeared during the week that we were gone and one of the shuttle drivers met me up at the Virgin America check in and brought the glasses to me. We were relieved as I would have had to order a replacement pair.

Speaking of Virgina America. I have taken many of the airlines from American to United, Southwest, Frontier, Continental, Alaska, etc., but not one holds a candle to Richard Branson's airline. First of all, he has wireless internet on the plane, DirecTv service on the seat back in front of you, video games, music, movies and television shows at your fingertips. You order your food right from the video screen and the flight attendants bring it. They don't push a big cart up the aisle and bring you cold sandwiches. More airlines should do it the Branson way, but most won't. The old joke is how does a billionaire become a millionaire? Buy an airline. So far, Richard Branson has dodged that bullet.

It was a gorgeous day in Roseville today with blue skies and 72 degrees with no wind. I was able to clean up the yard and put down some crabgrass preventer on the lawn. I also cleaned up the pool and drained off some of the water from the recent rains. I also went all around the house and sprayed weed and grass killer on all of the grass buds coming up in the cracks of the sidewalks, driveway, flowerbeds, and tree rings. We have the fruitless cherry tree on the side yard in full pink blooms and the African violets around the pool are in their full purple royalty.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you are all well. The weather was amazing on the cruise and we saw rain once or twice, but the tropical variety which lasts ten minutes and goes right back to 90 degrees. It was definitely a tremendous memory for us and for Dad and Shirley. They are on the second leg of their cruise, having visited Princess Cays today and sailing on now to Aruba. Stay strong in the Lord and remember that all of the good in your life comes from Him. Ciao.

o