Father's Day and Two Sons are College Graduates, ...now "Get A Job!!"

I am finally back to the blog after a week off. My intention was to get a post done this week, but I was tired on Monday after driving back from San Luis Obispo. It was hot and Darla and I just relaxed on the pool. Tuesday, my CEO was in the office and I had one of the Directors from Home Office in my office until Friday. Once the week slipped away from me I decided to just wait until today to get the post completed.

We had a ball in San Luis Obispo and stayed in a King Suite at the Pismo Beach Resort. It turns out that our condo was just down the street from the RV Park that Darla's parents were staying in and it was a coincidence as I had done the reservation months before. We got into the resort about 6:30 and had to take a detour as Highway 41 was closed due to a bad accident Friday afternoon.We met Earl and Frances, Darla's folks, and had a late dinner with them at the local Mexican food restaurant.  Jennifer and Samantha were coming in as well, but didn't get out of Vegas until 4 PM. She ended up driving a friend's truck over because she has a tire that needs to be replaced. They finally rolled in about midnight and Samantha, who was fast asleep woke up and was bouncing up and down on our bed within minutes of waking up. Jennifer's friend's truck has a bad ding in the rear bumper and the tailgate can't be opened. You have to jiggle the key in the lock to get the rear window open so you can access the rear compartment. More on that later.

Saturday, we were up a little later. Samantha woke up and wanted to go the beach. San Luis and Pismo runs about 70 degrees in June and the winds are fairly consistent, especially in the afternoon. We wanted to get over to see Darla's parents and there were some ducks and sea gulls that hang out at a small lake behind our resort. We brought some bread along and you can see the picture of Sam feeding the birds. We went from there over to the RV park and saw Earl and Frances.Samantha played at the playground on site as we visited. David came over to see us and our plan was to go to the beach and relax in the sun.  We did walk down to the beach, but the wind was up and we tried to find a spot above the bluffs to get out of the wind, but it was very difficult and the wind was blowing the sand onto our blanket, onto us and into our eyes. Samantha didn't care. She was running through the sand, making sand angels, running on the beach with Jennifer and David. Darla and I were miserable and walked back to the resort to sit by the pool until they got back and then we'd fix hot dogs for lunch. The kids followed pretty shortly after us, although Samantha wanted to stay. There is quite a draw of the beach for kids, especially ones that live in the desert.

Saturday night, we accepted an invitation from Steve, David and Daniel's father, to come to a barbecue at his rented beach house in Morro Bay. The house he rented was two stories with five bedrooms and was situated right across the street from the beach. Jennifer, Samantha and Daniel, who we saw for the first time as he was coming back from Becky's graduation from Grad school in Los Angeles, walked across the street to the beach and walked out on the pier.They had a full house with cousins, aunts, uncles and other family all staying at the home. We had a good time and stayed until about 9 o'clock.

Sunday was graduation day and we decided to miss the combined graduation ceremony and just go the individual ceremonies for the Agriculture and the Engineering schools. Jennifer had an 8 hour drive and decided to drive herself and leave from the school. I pulled her truck over closer to the condo. As we were loading the truck, I took the keys and was jiggling the key in the back lock to open the glass. I couldn't get it to open and took the keys in and just loaded the bags over the seat. As we were leaving for the graduation, Jennifer went out to the car and noticed that her key was broken. She came in and showed me the key and told me I broke it. I was shocked. We looked in the back lock and saw the half of the key stuck in the lock. We called AAA and sent Darla on with her folks to the ceremony. The locksmith took almost 45 minutes to get there and another 35 minutes to extract he half key and make a replacement key for the truck. He ended up making two and the cost was $195, $100 of which was paid by AAA. We missed the ceremony and I took Jennifer and Samantha over to the park to feed the ducks and then over to the big playground to burn off some energy before they left for Vegas. I then took them out to lunch in Pismo.

We went to the Cracked Crab and had clam chowder and Jennifer had crab salad for lunch. I had fish and chips. They had a crab tank and while Samantha was looking at the crabs in the aquarium, the chef came out with a big pot and took the crabs out so Sam could see them. He let Sam touch the bottom of the crab and when she did, Jennifer yelled "boo!" behind her. She of course jumped and one of the busboys was watching over by our table where I was sitting and he said, "Man, that's just messed up." That is my daughter. The chef told Samantha that one of the crabs was already named "Crabby" and he needed her to come up with a name for the other one and it was a girl. Sam thought a bit and said "Shelly". Not bad, eh? They left for Vegas shortly after.

Darla and her parent's and Uncle J.R. got back about 2 PM and J.R. invited me over to this place in Nipomo to play golf at his club, Black Lake. It is a course that I think once was probably really nice, but maintenance and water issues have cost the course some of it's former glory. I enjoyed the round and shot an 84, with a 41 on the back side. J.R. shot about 90 and we had a good time together, finishing our round in about 3 and a half hours. We then met Darla, her parents, and the boys and Becky at JJ Bumps Saloon in San Luis Obispo at 7 PM for dinner.

Jennifer decided to let Samantha see more of the ocean and took the 101 down to the 210 in Los Angeles and worked her way back to Vegas from there. They got home about 8:30.

Darla and I took a slow trip home on Monday, stopping in Paso Robles for breakfast and getting home about 3:30 PM. Tuesday, I had to go to my doctor to have her look at my ear, that had an exterior infection that started as a sunburn. The skin broke open and I kept putting suntan lotion on it and it got infected. My doctor put me on antibiotics for a week and wanted to look at it again on Monday. She didn't like the way it was healing, although I felt much better as the pain and swelling was gone. I went over to see the dermatologist Tuesday afternoon and he put me on a topical antibiotic that I'll apply over the next three weeks and then see me again.

Tuesday night I picked up Alan. I had on slacks and a golf shirt and had brought a dress shirt to change into. I was going to change in the cell phone lot and Pete and I got yakking and I forgot and met him in my Nike golf shirt. He had no reaction, but I'm sure it bothered him. We met Harvey at the hotel and went to a late dinner at Tahoe Joe's. I did change into the dress shirt before we left.

The trip went pretty well. We saw an agent for breakfast, one at lunch and a group for dinner. In between we had our meetings. Alan praised our office for the great 2011 we had and the momentum that we have going in 2012. He then told us three or four things that he feels we can do to improve our mix of business and the agents we do business with. I have said that my definition of marketing is not what you say, but how you say it. For instance, You can tell a woman that she has a face that could stop a clock OR you can take the hand of that same woman and tell her that when you gaze into her eyes, time stands still. You've said the same thing, but likely would get two entirely different reactions. The message was received.

I did get out this weekend, despite the 100 degree temperatures and played golf. Darren and I teed off at 6:30 PM and were done by 9:45. Darren is amazing. He rarely plays golf, but shot 42 on the front nine to my 43. I did play great on the back nine and shot a 38 for 81. Darren showed his rust on the back with a 46 and shot 88. The heat is expected to hang around most of this week and I have a 6:44 tee time at Woodcreek next Saturday morning.

Well, a lot to digest this week, but you got a double dose because of the missing post last week. I hope you all have a great week and Happy Father's Day to everyone! Ciao.

Warm Weekend in Nor Cal and Lucas Turns Two

We did get our new "3 day Closet" installed last week and Darla is THRILLED. You can see the tight squeeze we had before with hanging clothes on both sides of the closet and the mess that we ended up having. I think we had given up trying to organize the closet and just sort of jammed things in. We had talked about having a shelving unit built into the closet before and finally pulled the trigger. It looks good and really cleaned up the space and we actually have additional room now for more clothes. We did really go through and thin the herd on our clothes and this allowed us to get our shoes up off the floor and into shelves.

The weather did heat up this weekend and we saw highs in the mid nineties . The weather will rather quickly drop down to the seventies tomorrow with a storm system coming through. Tomorrow is our golf tournament for the Independent Agents Association and it will be the second year in a row that we will face rain. Both of the two agents that were supposed to play on my team this year (along with Matt) had to drop out and I added two agents from one of our fastest growing agencies. I just received an e-mail today from one of them dropping out. We will just play with three and take turns hitting an extra shot as this is a scramble tournament.

We had a tremendous May at work and it is good timing as our CEO will be in town next week. We were up about 16% overall and I'm happy that so far, the loss of my top producer has had a a negligible effect. Time will tell as to what the ultimate effect is for us, but we were proactive and met with each of the principals of our largest agencies that worked with Anthony and made sure they were on board with the direction of Burns. They were and all told me that they had no plans to move any of our business and would continue to use us as usual and so far so good.

The office is slowly rounding into shape as we now have the rest of the build out on the cubicles completed and most of the touchup items in the office have been completed. We finally got all of the marketing supplies and mail room items put away. (We don't have a mail room anymore or a file room.) I've had a few companies come to visit and a few retailers come in to see our new digs and everyone has very nice things to say about the changes.

I didn't play golf on Saturday and spent the day working on the yard and pool. I cleaned the tile with a toothbrush and acid (it is the best way to clean up the calcium deposit on the tile) and vacuumed and balanced the chemicals. I then added water to the spa and balanced the water. We were getting a lot of foaming and I bought a de-foamer and shocked the water to add oxygenation. It is a used spa and I did not get an owner's manual with the purchase. I was playing with the control panel, trying to reset the clock and program the system. I hit the wrong buttons and completely locked the panel. We couldn't turn on any of the jets and the panel was locked. Thank God for the internet as I was able to go online and find a free pdf of the owner's manual and figured out how to unlock the panel. The internet is an amazingly useful tool at times.

I played golf today in the NCGA Net Amateur qualifier. I played pretty well, but had one bad hole. I hooked a ball into the hazard on the par 5 6th hole and then also knocked my next ball into the hazard. I was hitting 5 from 250 years out and ended up slapping the ball around for a 9 and suffered a 45 on the front side. When we came around to number nine which is right next to the number two tee box, I noticed that the blue tees had been moved 25 yards down to the white tee box. It was a mystery to us until we figured out that one of the crazy homeowners on the course had walked onto the course and moved the blocks so his house wouldn't get hit by balls hooked off the tee. He walked up behind us, the first group, and moved the tees. I played with Neil and he was furious. It turns out he had chatted with the homeowner and unknown to him, the guy walked through his gate and up to the tee box after we teed off and moved the blocks. Neil was talking about buying a chain and lock and locking off his gate. What he ended up doing was sending a note out to the membership and telling them that we will always tee off from the permanent blue markers on the second hole in all future tournaments. Our group got hurt by the homeowner moving the tee blocks because we had to play the hole at a 25 yard disadvantage.

I did pull it together on the backside and shot 39 for an 84 (with a nine!!), but even had another adventure with the public. We were the first group and played behind two couples. They were fine, but passed a group of four guys on number 12, playing through them. We found out soon why. These guys were out of Animal House, completely drunk and almost falling over as they played. I sprayed a shot into the wrong fairway on number 16 and had to wait almost fifteen minutes for them to tee off. They each hit two drives and were goofing around screaming and yelling on the tee box. I finally jumped up after the sixth tee shot and hit my shot to the green. I ended up with a double bogey on the hole and was steaming. I hit my next two drives almost 300 yards as I was so mad. It usually doesn't work to play mad and hit as hard as you can, but I pured both drives and finished par-par for the 39 on the back.

Well, Darla has some prime rib dip ready for dinner, so I will draw this to a close. Happy birthday to young Lucas who turned two on Saturday. The blog will be late next week as we will be in San Luis Obispo for the boy's graduation from Cal Poly. Jennifer and Miss Samantha will be with us, so there will be plenty of pictures to come. Ciao.

Memorial Day 2012

Happy Memorial Day. As Jennifer says, It is NOT National Barbecue Day. We set aside a day to honor our fallen heroes, those that fought for our country and gave the ultimate sacrifice. I'm proud to live in a country that honors our war heroes, but embarrassed by the scores of people that only think this is a holiday that is for the Indy 500 or the "unofficial" start of Summer. Fly your colors, be proud of the men and women that serve our country in the various branches of the military and remember those that died in pursuit of your freedom. Now, if we can just get a patriot back into the White House next year, all will be good. Let's make 2013 an end of an Error.

Darla was off to a Silpada gig at a car show at the Folsom Zoo this morning. She was up and at 'em by 6:15 and out of the house before seven. I did roll over and say goodbye. I spent the day working on the pool and the backyard, trimming all of the bushes and ground cover. I did the chemicals in the spa and pool., vacuumed up the leaves and particles that had floated down over the last week and then sprayed down the stamped concrete and took a well earned nap in the sun. The weather is pretty moderate for us this Memorial Day weekend with temperatures in the mid eighties. We had a storm system scoot by us Friday and into Saturday and there were a few showers in the area, but nothing that hung around. We had a couple of stray raindrops right before church yesterday and it was cleared off by the time we got home.

My new assistant, Shawna, started on Monday and had a good first week. she spent a good portion of it taking some online classes and learning about the various systems that we have. She spent the latter part of the week working with a couple of other assistants learning the ins and outs of the job. I sent her a few things to bind and issue and some of the quote set-ups. It will be a slow transition for her, but she is sharp and will pick it up quickly. We had a quarterly luncheon of the networking group that I've been on the board for and she came along with a few other people from the office and enjoyed herself. We have the annual golf tournament a week from tomorrow up at Serrano Country Club. The two guys that played with Matt and I last year both bailed on us and I replaced them with a couple of golfers from one of the retailer s we work with locally.

The furniture installers will be in the office on Tuesday and will complete the buildout on the cubicles. They will also install some shelving and bring 11 new chairs for the office. We have been in need of some new desk chairs for awhile. I have a nice leather chair, but some of the fabric chairs have seen better days. They are all about ten years old. It will be nice to see the finished project as we have been living with stacked up panels and cabinets without tops for a month now. Alan will be here on the 13th and we can finally put some pictures up in the office. He flies in on Tuesday night and we will have a late dinner. Wednesday, he will be in the office all day and we will have lunch with Jeff and Linda and then dinner out with a local retailer. the agent asked if we could meet about 5:30 or 6:00 PM and Alan likes dinner at 7 or 7:30, so I'm hoping we can compromise at 6:30.

I did play golf in our annual memorial Day tournament and all of the tips and instruction that dale gave me came to fruition on a glorious day of golf. I was striping my driver down the middle and it is amazing how easy this game can be from the middle of the fairway. I shot 37+41=78, for a net 66. I stumbled a little bit on the back nine, but ended up with 12 pars and 6 bogeys on the day for the 78. It is the first time I've shot in the 70's since January when I shot 79 at Diamond from the white tees. I did shoot the 66 at Antelope Greens, but it is a par 58 with a rating of 57.1 and a slope of 88. My 12.1 index on that course gives me 8 strokes. This was legitimate and I did it in a tournament. I ended up taking second place as another 12 shot 78 as well, but had a 38 on the back nine (tiebreaker). It's all good.

I will go out again tomorrow morning to erase the good feelings of the 78. We are playing at Woodcreek and I've invited Paul, Neil and Matt to play. Matt hasn't played since January. He has the busiest desk in my office, is in grad school getting his MBA at UC Davis and is getting a CPCU designation which stands for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter. Oh, to be young. I wouldn't want to give up the golf. Darla and I are then going to dinner with Neil and Lilly. It is again Benihanas as Darla has a birthday coupon worth $30 that she wants to use. We do play early with a 7:48 tee time, so i will get some pool time with Darla tomorrow.

The weather will heat up this week right after the three day holiday with temperatures close to 100 degrees due in by Friday. The pool will be heating up and hopefully we are in it next weekend. It is close to 80 degrees, but I realize that the thermometer only captures the top eight inches of pool water as it is rather chilly in the depths. Right now we get a little wet getting on and off the water lounges in the pool.

Well, that is the news that is fit to share with you all. I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day and enjoy some good quality family time and maybe even squeeze in a barbecue. Be good. Ciao.

An Absolutely Smashing Weekend in the Books

Temperatures in the low 90's. The pool clean and glistening and 80 degrees. A light, unobtrusive breeze blowing in the air. Nothing not to like about this Northern California weekend. I didn't play golf on Saturday for the first time in about two months and used the time to do some much needed yard work and chores. I was up at the crack of 9 AM and after a hearty pancake and some Darla time, was out to fix a sprinkler riser in the front flowerbed that got broken off underground by an overly aggressive tug on the 100 foot hose on Friday night as I hand watered and sprayed down the grass after mowing. I then took the hedge trimmers, a garden rake, the leaf vac and some hand shears and cut back all of the bushes and flowers in the front and side yards. I filled a 90 gallon trash can that had been emptied Friday morning with trimmings, cuttings and leaves. The yard looks like a whole new landscape as you can now make out each individual plant and see in and around all of the bushes and trees.I can get a little extreme when I finally get to cutting back the plants, but it was long overdue.

I then had a bite of lunch and was on to the backyard. The automatic control for the sprinklers was on the fritz and the 20 year old controller was destined for the land fill. I took down the old one and then had to paint the wall of the house where it resided and could see the original house paint color below (white). I attached all of the wires and set the new controller, testing each station and being pleasantly surprised to see them working. I set the time, date, sprinkler station durations, day of the week, etc and waited to see if it actually came on this morning. (It did.) By then it was 3:00 PM and we had a 5:00 PM party to attend. I wanted to reseal the stamped concrete deck and decided to take on that chore in the hours left of my work day. I took a solution of water and Formula 409 to the deck with a hand mop and then took on the task of hand sealing the deck, from the shed to the spa. I used a six inch stain brush and did the 600 square foot deck in about an hour and 45 minutes. I painted myself right into the back sliding doors and then took a quick shower before heading to Darren and Marissa's barbecue in Roseville. We showed up about 30 minutes late, but there was plenty of beer and drinks left and the hors de ouvres were just coming out of the oven. The crowd was one lady and her husband from Darla's work and about four neighbor couples. I was exhausted and had trouble engaging with people I didn't know very well. They didn't cook dinner until almost 9 o'clock and I was fading fast with the Widmer IPA beers and Sierra Nevada Hefeweisens I was drinking. I spent most of my time throwing a ball for one of the three dogs running rampant in the backyard and talking to a guy who works as a telecommunications expert for the Federal Reserve Bank. He went through all of the Reserve banks in the US and each of their satellite offices. After awhile he sounded like the teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons (Wa Wa Wa). Darla was engaged in a different group in the backyard and kept beckoning me over, but the comfort of the backyard couch that I was sitting on was too much of a draw for me to move over and be engaged in actual conversation. Darla and I both decided that the next time we get invited to an evening party that I shouldn't spend seven hours working on the yard beforehand.

We almost got out of the house about ten PM, but then a couple of the ladies wanted to see Darla's Silpada catalogues and it was all over for me. Darren showed me a picture that he took of the full moon on May 5th and then dragged me out to the spot where he took the picture over the fence and toward the elementary school across the street. The picture was interesting, the view of the venue where the picture was taken not so much. I got back into the house and Darla was finishing up two sales of jewelry for a total of over $400, a good night for her.

We got home about 10:50 PM and went into the spa. The stamped concrete had dried and we spent about 15 minutes soaking in the hot water. Darla got out and I followed, stepping into the water at the bottom of the steps that she had dripped on her way out of the spa. My feet went right out from under me and I crashed onto my tailbone on the hard concrete. I guess I caught myself with my left wrist as it was sore this morning when I got up. For some reason my knees hurt as well and I jarred my head pretty good when I fell as it snapped back. I went to sleep with a headache. I was frankly pretty lucky not to have hit my head on the steps as I fell right at the base of the two steps.

I had golf this morning and was sore and achy. My wrist was throbbing and we looked at a couple of ace bandages, but they were too bulky. The left wrist is the hand that I wear my golf glove, so I just secured that tighter than I normally do. I continued to put the lesson I had with Dale at Diamond to work for me which basically realigned my setup and address position on the ball. He also has me holding my follow through for a few seconds on each of my shots and going through a pre shot routine on each shot for continuity. It's working as I shot a 41+41=82 for a net 69 in the tournament. I was leading my flight when I left, but only know that I should be in the money. This was the second of the four annual Diamond Tournaments put on by the course and sponsored by different golf manufacturers. Today was Srixon and Cleveland's turn to sponsor the event.

My new assistant starts tomorrow. She was the Manager of the Brighton Collectibles store in the Roseville Galleria and asked if she could get them through Mother's day before starting work. I agreed. She took last week off to recharge her batteries and starts with me tomorrow. Shawna is a friend of Darla's and worked with her selling Silpada before taking the position with Brighton. Pete at work thinks it is nuts that I hired one of Darla's friends as she now has a set of eyes in the office. Number one, I have nothing to hide and number two, Shawna was an absolute find for me. She has a strong marketing presence and as Harvey said, "she could run your office Ken". I will have her take on some of the management of the typing team and help me with marketing for the entire office. I see her as a part time assistant for me and a marketing specialist for the office down the road. Right now, I have to teach her how to spell "insurance". I am interviewing for one more assistant position in the office and hope to have Harvey do second interviews with the candidates next week. I have one internal candidate and three very strong external candidates for the position.

We are supposed to experience a bit of a cool down this week. Our normal temperatures for mid May are supposed to be about 82 degrees and we ran ten degrees over that this weekend. The forecast is down into the mid seventies by week's end. I will get some fertilizer down on the lawn this week with  the temperatures dropping down. The lawn looks good and I added some grass seed in a couple of the thin areas a couple of weeks ago and it has taken pretty well. With the slight heat wave, I have a couple of spots that have slightly browned out and I can work on those with the cooler temperatures.

Well that is another blog post in the books. Darla and David both had birthdays this week and Darla got a new ASUS computer. I have a Lenovo, which is the old IBM ThinkPad line of computers. I am thrilled with mine and was going to get Darla one, but did some research and found that the ASUS is rated just a little higher than Lenovo overall and especially in terms of durability. Darla is pretty hard on her electronic equipment because she is forever on it and I decided to give the ASUS a try. So far so good. I hope you all have a stellar week and I will blog again next week over the Memorial Day weekend. Be well. Ciao.

Mother's Day 2012

It is always with profound joy that I take time on Mother's Day to remember my Mom, a lady that we lost way too soon. I always laugh when I think of her. Gail in my office just lost her Mom and she is in great pain and grieving the loss of her Mom who was 89. I felt that way right after she passed and it was hard to think about her without breaking into tears or feeling an overwhelming loss and sadness. Well, the loss is still fresh, but the memories are pure joy. Mom lived for her kids and family and much of my self esteem comes from the unconditional love that was heaped onto me as a youngster. Mom was fun and joyful and made those around her happier for having known her. On this Mother's Day and always I tip my cap to my mom, a special lady who left me wanting so much more when she left us. I know that she is in heaven and if you want to find her up there, just follow the laughter. She will be in the middle of it all.

Darla and I just relaxed at home today and went out to breakfast for me (lunch for Darla) at Denny's. We wanted to go to one of our favorite local breakfast cafes, but they were all packed with Moms and their kids who were not on their best behavior and the dad's sitting looking sullen with the Sunday paper open in front of them. Denny's was also crowded, but has the largest restaurant in the area and we got in withing ten minutes. Darla has been complaining about her i-phone lately because she cannot take pictures. She has exceeded the storage on the phone. We went out to the AT&T store to see if they could make some room on the phone for her and ended up upgrading to the i-phone 4S. She uses her phone so much for her three jobs and needs the photo feature to send pictures of her jewelry to her customers that call to ask about a certain piece. She is happy and I am the husband of the year. I once made the mistake of telling her that I didn't get her a Mother's Day card, because she wasn't my mother. That didn't go over too well. I think I made up for that gaffe this year.

Darla and Davids' birthdays are Wednesday and Thursday of this week. We won't see David until June at his graduation, but will be thinking about him.

We did talk to Jennifer today and she had plans with Samantha tonight for Mother's Day. Jennifer told me that she played in her first golf game yesterday, a scramble tournament for a bar where she knows alot of the workers. They played 12 holes (?) and finished with a 2 over score. She had a great time, but said that her ball was slicing because she didn't have the right clubs. Jen, it is the Indian, not the arrow that is the problem.

Darla and I went to a surprise 50th birthday party for one of my insurance agents, and friends, Linda. Her husband, Jeff, pulled off the surprise in spite of working with her every day and living with her 24/7. He pulled it off partially because her birthday was in March and the event held on May 12th. It was held at an upscale Folsom Restaurant, Sienna, and Jeff put on quite a spread with wine and appetizers, a wonderful dinner with soup and entree, and a cake made in the style of the Scottish flag. Linda is a Scot, born in Scotland and she emigrated to the US as an adult. She thought she was going to dinner with good friends and for some reason didn't put on makeup and was horrified at the surprise. I've included a picture of Jeff and Linda taken with my cell phone. In the future, we will use Darla's new i-phone which has a built in flash.

I did get the stone backsplash for the pool resealed today with a wet look sealant. The stone tends to gray out over time and the sealant brings back the browns and oranges in the rock and it always looks so much better. I will have a day off from golf next Saturday and will also wash down the stamped concrete and add a coat of the sealant to that. I may also pick up another bottle of the bark brown stain and touch up a few spots where the stain is wearing off.

I finished up the three day golf tournament this week and finished fourth out of 23 golfers in my flight. I was on my way to a second place finish, having shot a 42 on the front and then putting up two birdies on the back nine to be at 1 over par for the back nine with only the 18th to play. As Yogi says, "It isn't over until it's over". I put my second shot in the bunker and it buried against the outer lip with a carry of about 40 feet over the length of the bunker to the green. I hit an explosion shot that launched the ball about 50 yards over the green and into the heavy rough of the perimeter of a hazard. Five more shots later I had an 8 for a 42+41=83. Even a bogey would have given me an 80 and a three day total of 5 under par. The golf wizards can play mean tricks on you. I was happy to be under par for the tournament and in the money, but that 8 will stay with me for awhile. I think it left a mark.

I went out on Wednesday and took a lesson with one of our teaching professionals at the club. I had him look at my stance and setup and he suggested two fixes that had me back hitting the driver down the middle. It's funny how fast you can lose your swing and just how easy the fix usually is. I wasn't perfect with my drives, but I hit a few bombs that had me way past my playing partners. Dale, the pro, wants to get together with me this week, because he saw something in my launch angle that can help me get more yards off the tee. He didn't want to mess with it last week because I was in the middle of an event, but would like to work with me to get the most out of my drives. I have over $500 on the books at Diamond Oaks and I have no needs for clubs or bags right now, so can spend it on a few lessons and see if that gets me to drop a few strokes. I liked his style and how he was able to pick up on the nuances of my game so quickly. He didn't charge me for the lesson last week, which also makes me realize how serious he is.

I took the staff out to lunch this week to celebrate our great April. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Roseville and all of the new employees were there. My new assistant, Shawna, doesn't start for another week, but came out and joined us anyhow and enjoyed the group and the office dynamic. She is a friend of Darla's and texted Darla afterward to tell her that she may never be able to repay her for suggesting that she apply for the job. Shawna is the manager of the Brighton Collectibles store in the Roseville Galleria and works about 60 hours a week and weekends. She misses her family and is looking forward to the Monday to Friday schedule. She will work part time on my book and eventually take on a role as a marketing specialist for the office. My guys are getting so busy that they can't get out on marketing calls. Shawna will eventually be able to go on calls for them and talk about the new products and markets at Burns and Wilcox.

Well, that is it for this week and this chapter of the blog. All is well with the Northern California clan of the Lyon family. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there and may God continue to bless each of you in His special way. Ciao.

New Spa

Two weekends in a row of golf both Saturday and Sunday and it was time for a new hot tub. Darla and I have missed the hot tub over the last five years and although we didn't have a perfect spot for it, we were able to fit it in next to the air conditioning enclosure and by the window to the guest bedroom. We ended up pulling it away from the house because of the lifting mechanism that lifts the cover and drops it folded behind the spa. Darla thinks it is too far out into the deck, but I think it works. I am absolutely loving having a hot tub to soak in after my golf rounds and Darla and I have been in the spa four times already since we had it installed on Friday. The install didn't go without a hitch as one of the motors was not coming on and it just got hot. The installers had to pull the old motor and install a new one at no charge to us. It is a used spa, but the people who bought it never used it. The wife surprised her husband with the spa and he never liked it. They used it a total of about 5 times and gave up on it, draining it and having it just sit in their backyard until they finally decided to sell it. It is a 6'x7' Vita Spa and it sold new for $5,400 with the cover, lifter and steps. We bought it from Spa Doctors here in Roseville, the company that repaired our old spa. They sold it to us used for $2690 and threw in a years worth of chemicals, a one year warranty and delivery and installation.

 I paid separately to have the electrical lines run. Their electrician wanted $800 for the job, but I have two friends in the golf league that are electricians. Steve offered to do it for $400, but couldn't get to it until next weekend. Charlie came out and said he'd do it for less than $500. He runs a business and was having one of his employees come out with him to do the job. They came out Wednesday and had the lines run and the breaker box installed by 2 PM. He wanted $450 for the job, but I was so impressed with his professionalism and follow through on the job that I paid him $500. So all said and done the spa was $3,100. It will get good use by both Darla and I.

We had a contractor come out this week and give us a bid to have our master bathroom upgraded with a new tub, shower enclosure, new cabinets, granite counter tops, tiled shower, tiled tub surround, new fixtures, new faucets, sinks, new tile floor, and new paint and mirrors. The bid came in at $14,000 and we will likely decide to have the master bedroom closet redone by 3 Day Closets or California Closets and have the tile floor, counter tops, fixtures, sinks, and mirrors done along with new paint in the bathroom. I will have both 3 Day Closets and California Closets out this week to give us a bid on redoing the closet. It has been a real pain for Darla ever since we moved in and we need to have a new Closet Organizer to help us fit our clothes in the closet more efficiently.

I have two new employees starting this week, one tomorrow and one on Tuesday so help is on the way. The problem short term is that we have to train these people and get them up to speed. We finished the month up 20% on net income and 10% on written premium. I think it may be our best month ever because of the circumstances. We had both the gut check of Anthony walking out on us and the disruption of a month end move to overcome. We did it and both Matt and Peter had great new business months as they were number 2 and 4 in the region for new business in April. I will take the gang out to the Old Spaghetti Factory on Thursday and just pray that none of my other employees decides to pick that afternoon to walk out on me.

I talked to Jennifer last night and she has been working ten hour days this last week on a project. The temperature is headed to 97 degrees in Las Vegas by Friday and she will take her truck in next Saturday to finally have a leak in the air conditioning lines fixed and then new freon installed. Sam is doing great and they had been at a dog show yesterday and Sam got to see and play with a lot of the dogs.

We have plans to meet up with Jennifer and Samantha in Pismo Beach the weekend of June 10th. The boys both graduate from Cal Poly on Sunday and we will be there from Friday night until Monday. The place we have reserved is a block from the beach and is a two bedroom condo. We will have to really enjoy our time at the beach with Samantha as we found out this week that she won't be able to go to Lake Almanor. Her Dad has a family reunion in Colorado the same week and Jennifer agreed to let Sam go to that as she will be meeting family members that she has never seen. The agreement is that Sam will be able to go with Jennifer to Almanor every other year. Jennifer will still come up for about five days and use the jet ski and have a fun family time. Sam will really be missed and I have to tell you I was pretty bummed about the whole thing.

I played in the first two days of the 54 hole Individual Championship this weekend. I am in the second flight and there are 23 players in my flight. I stand in 5th place with a two day total of -1. The leader is at -6 and then it drops to -3 and down to me. I likely won't win unless I go low next Saturday and the leader implodes, but I have a better score than 18 other guys in the flight. It was a windy weekend and a lot of the golfers struggled in the wind. I shot 82 on Saturday and 85 today with my 12 handicap. I honestly don't know how I held it together as well as I did, because the driver is still giving me fits. I talked to one of the pros today and asked him to give me a one hour lesson this week and just concentrate on the driver. I'm hitting the rest of my clubs pretty well, I'm just struggling to get the ball in the fairway. I'm sure it will be a simple fix, but I need a professional to take a look and give me a few tips to improve.

We went to church last night and then to dinner at the Elephant Bar. It was a nice couple time for Darla and I and the sermon series is on How to Protect your Family in these trying times. The music was great as always and the message spot on. It is such a joy to belong to a great church. I hope you are all well, seeking Jesus constantly and living a life of peace and joy. Be well. Ciao.

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.