VEGAS next week

I will be happy to be in Vegas next week. Jennifer has been having a rough time of it lately. Her hours have been spotty at work and she has had a tough time making her bills. She feels like she just can't catch a break and it's been hard for her to be on her own completely with no one else to help with the bills. She has been enticed with an opportunity to go overseas for several months and make some good money, but conflicted with leaving Samantha behind. She is scared and stressed and needs some time with family to sort things out. I will be there to listen, give advice if it is asked for and just to love her and Sam unconditionally. I feel for her stuck in Vegas with John and his family entrenched in Sin City, a city that has really felt the pinch of unemployment, the housing crash and a slow economy. The failed policies of Barrack Hussein Obama are felt more keenly in a town like Vegas, a city that has little to no economic activity outside gaming and the infrastructure that supports it. She has needed our help to get by recently and is embarrassed and frustrated and wants a quick fix to a problem that has been long in the making. We will sit and talk next weekend.


Hopefully a change is coming in November, but it is hard to be positive as this administration has been one large teat, using our kid's inheritance as a sucker for the unemployed, the welfare recipients and even the big banks that created their own problems. Obama has the lower class, the blacks, the Latinos and the government employees in his hip pocket and it is a long, uphill battle for the Republicans. The answer to our problems is support for small and mid sized businesses that will be the engine that drives employment and prosperity in this company, not taxation of the rich and middle class. That doesn't work and our spending policies are out of control. The current administration is a serious concern for the future of this country as a super power. The one thing keeping us alive right now is the US dollar's use as a trading currency. That is in real jeopardy as China, Saudi Arabia and other countries are refusing to accept dollars as a trading currency instead using the Euro to complete their international transactions. Most oil is now priced in Euros as OPEC has abandoned the US dollar as a trading currency. It's scary and you wonder if the Manchurian candidate Obama is reeling us all into his plan to destroy America. This is all documented in the new movie "2016" that is having a limited showing in cities with a population of thinking Americans. It is getting heavy play in conservative areas like the Midwest and south. The Republican ticket may not be perfect, but the alternative may be the end of America as a super power in world politics.

That is a sunny beginning to a blog entry, eh?  I have serious doubts about the intentions of one Barrack Hussein and see ObamaCare as a huge ticking bomb that will implode in this country and take away all of the democratic and American freedoms that this country represents. Once a government begins to dictate to the people and we lose our free will, we become servants to the government, instead of the government being there to serve us. We have veered way off on the wrong tack and we are drifting toward the rocks. I pray that we can save this country and the future of our kids and grand kids before it is too late. Obama is popular, but so was Hitler and Mussolini.

We had an interesting sermon this morning on the perils of ignoring the teachings of the Bible and doing things our own way. Pastor Rick had an interesting point that Buddhism mirrors the thoughts and viewpoints of Siddhartha, Mormonism follows the thoughts and viewpoint of Joseph Smith and that the Muslim faith follows the teachings and viewpoint of Muhammed. The only religion that has a differing viewpoint is Christianity, it teaches good and evil and warns against having false gods in our lives. CS Lewis wrote: "Anything we make into a god eventually becomes a demon." So true.  All of this ties into what is happening in America today. Moral and religious confusion leads to war and civil war. Civil war leads to loss of life and loss of life leads to loss of personal rights. We are traveling down a slippery slope right now and need to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

I'll climb down off my soap box now. I saw Neil yesterday and we played golf together. We rode together in the same cart and I got the Reader's Digest version of his vacation. they had a total blast up in Vancouver with Dad and Shirley and he couldn't stop raving about them as a couple and as hosts. They got to see Langley and enjoyed the car show in Cloverdale immensely. Neil was retelling the story of driving the 44 Mercury to the car show and how careful he was and then the crush of humanity as they left the show later and how his heart rate spiked as   he drove the several miles back to Surrey. He loved the car show and the time spent with Dad that day. Shirley and Lilly took off and shopped the stores of Cloverdale and the whole gang ate both breakfast and lunch in Cloverdale. Dad and Shirley talked them into staying an extra night and they got to take the SkyTrain into Vancouver and saw the steam clock and other attractions. Neil was tickled pink with the trip. another highlight for them was Mount Rushmore that Neil said was a stirring sight at night when they turn the light on the mountain and play the National Anthem. They enjoyed Yellowstone National Park, but it was really smoky from the forest fires. Neil asked one of the rangers when the smoke would clear and the answer was "not until the first snowfall". Wow.

We have a line of smoke that encircles the valley, but the high level winds have cleared out our skies and it is blue above us, but you can see a ring of smoke to the West and north of us. It is odd.

I did play golf three times this week. Wednesday I played in a scramble event following a Continuing Education event at Timber Creek golf course. The golf started at 1PM and took 5 hours to complete. There wee about 22 teams, but only about 15 actually finished and turned in cards. I played with Gary and Stan and Vicky. I had planned to play with Gary and hook up with two others, but I saw Stan and Vicky when I was registering them and got us all in the same group. We shot a 66 and took second place, which is a $50 gift card. The marketing rep will stop by this week and drop off our winnings. There were only two ladies in the group and Vicky won the closest to the pin for women and one of Pete's agents won the ladies long drive.

Thursday I played in our twilight league. We only have two weeks left and Steve and I are in second place. We are three points behind first, but don't need to move up as the final night will be 1 vs 2 and so on, so we need to stay in second to get a shot at winning the league. I shot 39 on Thursday and Steve shot 42.

Saturday I played power Hour with Neil, Bob and Darren and shot a nice 36+41=77. I thought I had a chance to put a really low round together, but ran out of steam on the back side. I will play in a Tuesday day event this week and twilight league Thursday before boarding the plane Friday morning for Vegas. I decided to play in the Tuesday event when I found out that one of my carriers is coming in that afternoon and wants to have dinner that night. We will go out to the Chinese Food restaurant in the Thunder Valley casino.

I will add the final piece to my work puzzle tomorrow when Kennah starts. She will be an endorsement specialist and eventual assistant to Connie, my newest underwriter. Connie is putting some serious constraints on when and how Kennah will be used as she will be training her and wants to make sure she isn't inundated with work. This will be a real boon to the office as several of the teams are buried in endorsements.

Well, the blog will be on vacation next week, but will return with pictures of Jennifer and Samantha next week. I hope you are all doing well and will add pictures next week. Be well. Ciao.

Kind of sorry I joked about the Dog Days of August last week

Heat. It can be oppressive and relentless and we are on our fourth straight day with a high temperature over 105 degrees. It seems that no matter how moderate the Summer has been, it will always have a stretch of days over 100 degrees. I know it's not Texas or Kansas City with heat and humidity and our humidity has averaged about 30% (It's a dry heat!), but HOT is HOT. Our pool is sitting at just below 90 degrees and it is truly a bit of a bath. Luckily the 90 degrees is only the top foot of water and it is much cooler when you dunk yourself completely. The forecast for the rest of this week is 107 to 103 degrees through Friday and perhaps cooling down to the mid nineties on Saturday.

Heat and golf don't mix well, but my game lately has been as hot as the weather. I played in our twilight league on Thursday night. It was 106 degrees when we teed off and the sky was hazy with smoke from the Belden fire up near Lake Almanor. I went out in the heat and double bogeyed the first hole and then kicked it into gear, going 1 under par over the next eight holes to shoot a 37. I finished birdie birdie and anchored our team to a win over the second place team 14 1/2 to 5 1/2 to move us back into first place. We play the third place team on Thursday. My partner had a touch of the flu and had a wardrobe malfunction before the round, whereby he had to have his wife bring him a new pair of socks, underwear and shorts. You will have to do the math. I pulled into the parking lot and he was standing with his shirt untucked and a sock and shoe off, looking like death warmed over. I guess you can say I carried the team as he shot a 43.

Yesterday was the Rose Cup team qualifying tournament and again the heat was on with a day at 105 degrees. We teed off at 8:55, but it was 100 degrees when we walked off the course. I shot 40+40=80 and my net 70 didn't qualify for the team. There was a 65, two 66's and a 67 that made the four man squad. I finished 6th out of the 14 contenders in my flight with my 70.

Today was just a Power Hour round at 6:45 AM and Darren and I decided to move up to the white tees and play with Boyd up there. Boyd is 72 years old and he managed to shoot his age today with a 34+38=72. I shot 38+40=78 and Darren shot 90. It was nice to get done before the heat hit  and we were off the course at 11 o'clock. Darren stopped Boyd at one point and told him that he was standing too close to the ball on the tee. Boyd just about had me in tears when He looked at Darren and said, "I've really lost my touch if I have to take golf advice from you, Darren."

Darla had a Silpada party at her Mom's house on Saturday morning and then a Silpada gig at a winery up in El Dorado. I was scheduled to go with her and was all set and suddenly, she had one of her reps replace me. She told me Friday I was out and left to my own devices on Saturday night. I took a trip out to the casino for a spot of video poker and some dinner. I took $140 and spent about 90 minutes at a quarter machine and walked away with $363. I had dinner at the Beach Hut Deli, a nice local chain that is now part of the food court at Thunder Valley. I was home by 8:30 and watched some of the Olympics and Sports Center until Darla got home at ten o'clock. Darla had a booth at a wine event at the winery that had music, food and tasting. She was in line behind an older guy and he had two hot dogs that he put two huge scoops or pickle relish on. Darla commented to him that it was a LOT of relish and the guy went off on her about not needing another mother and he knew what he wanted to put in his mouth, etc. She was totally put off by it.

I worked on the pool, cleaning the tile on Saturday afternoon and it is a time consuming and tedious process. I use muriatic acid and a brush to clean the calcium deposits off the tile. As I was working my way around the perimeter of the pool, I got a cramp in my right calf and it tightened up like a steel ball. I dropped the acid and the brush and limped over to the steps and worked out the cramp. Ouch!

Today we just relaxed on the pool and I sat for awhile in the air conditioning and watched the PGA Championship and the Giants game and slept for a little bit. Darla was tired from her busy weekend and a massage she had at noon. I was tired from being up early and all of the sun I had over the two days golfing.

I hired two new entry level employees this week. Both are young, recent college graduates and will bring a lot to the team. One of them, the new data entry person starts tomorrow and the other, an endorsement specialist, will start next Monday. I am up to 23 people in the office now and we are on track to do $20,000,000 in premium writings this year. They would prefer me to do about $1,000,000 per employee, but my goal for 2013 is $25,000,000 and I need to get the horses ready for that run.

Well, again, there is not much news around here. We talked to Dad and Shirley tonight and Neil and Lilly had a great trip to Surrey and Dad and Shirley enjoyed their company. Neil and Lilly had a great time. Here is a note from them to us: "Hi Ken, Lil & I are in Edmonton, a bit of a let down after the fantastic weekend we had with your folks in Vancouver. You are absolutely the most blessed man I know of to have such gracious and caring parents as you. We were treated to one of the greatest and most unforgettable visits that Lil and I have ever experienced." Pretty high praise from two people that I greatly respect. Have a GREAT week. Ciao.

The Dog Days of August

Strangely, in spite of the calendar, we had a cloudy day Saturday that started out cool (in the 50's) and ended up overcast with a sprinkling of rain which hit while we were at church. It was cool when we teed off on Saturday and I had a light jacket on for the first two holes.  The weather did turn back to seasonal today and we were back close to 100 degrees and a cloudless blue sky.

Darla and the boys went up to Paradise today and surprised Earl and Frances at church. They all went out to lunch afterward and Earl pulled Darla aside and told her that they made her mother's day. They all went to the house after lunch and visited. Darla was home by about 5:45 and met me on the pool.

I missed the trip because I had a tournament at the club today. It was the two man best ball blind draw tournament. I ended up with a partner, who happens to be the office manager for one of my big retailers. I played poorly on the front side and had problems with my putter early on, three putting four of the first nine holes. I pulled it together and had a strong backside, shooting 44+39=83. Ron, my partner, struggled and shot a 91 with his 16 handicap for a 75 net. I had a 74 net with my 9 strokes. My handicap did go up to 9.1 on August 1st and I now get 10 strokes at Diamond Oaks, but this tournament used the 7/15 handicaps because the deadline was last Friday. I don't know what score Ron and I ended up with as I headed home to get in the pool and cool off. I'll find out tomorrow when Joe sends me the scores to post. Joe is filling in for Neil as he is on his Canada vacation.

I did go and play Woodcreek on Saturday for Power Hour and got the $30 green fee and cart special. I played an okay round of golf and shot 42+41=83, only to be usurped by my playing partners, Matt (75), Pamas (79) and even Darren (81). Darren gets 16 strokes and played really well on the back nine with a 39. It was nice to be done early, although Darla was out with Darren's wife, Marisa, signing her up for Silpada. Darren and I stayed at Woodcreek in the sports bar and had lunch and a beer. Darren set up another Power Hour tee time next Sunday. I have a qualifier on Saturday with a tournament that will decide the Rose Cup team for Diamond Oaks. I agreed to play on Sunday as well, but only because it will help Darla with her Silpada business. At least, that's my story. I will be done by close to 11 on Sunday.

Work continues to go well and we were up about 14% in July over the same month last year. I promoted my main typist to an Underwriter Assistant position and I have been doing interviews for the last three weeks for an entry level position. I had narrowed the candidates to two. One young lady graduated in June from Westmont in Santa Barbara in only three years. She had so many honors classes in high school that she entered college as a sophomore. Very smart girl. The other is one of my good agent's daughter. She just graduated from Sac State with a degree in Communications. I had both of them Skype with my boss in San Francisco on Thursday. Both of the ladies did really well, were articulate and engaging and it was really hard to make a decision between the two of them. Harvey and i talked about it on Thursday night and he asked me if I wanted to hire both of them. I'm a big bottom line guy and told him that I wasn't sure and wanted to mull that over. When I shared it with Pete, he almost came unglued and wanted me to call Harvey back and hire them both. He just finished a $95,000 income month, which is our biggest individual month ever. I told him what I would need from the office from a bottom line income standpoint to hire both and he agreed that we can make it. I slept on it Thursday night and Harvey and I decided to make offers to both ladies. I'll know tomorrow if we will add both of them to staff.

The boys are over tonight and have me watching some of the Olympics and it is interesting. we watched Misty May Treanor and Kristi Powell crush the Italians, we watched some women's diving and now are watching the 100 meter men's semifinals. Again, the Olympics aren't high on my radar, I've been watching the Giants play lately as they work toward the end of the regular MLB season and a spot in the playoffs. I have watched a few events, some swimming and the women's gymnastics events, but it's too much and it's not live. If by chance, I've seen the results, I don't waste my time.

Daniel is busy working on some blueprints fro his job in the Bay Area. He is already talking about the fact that he'd like to move to the Bay Area if his boss can guarantee him at least 30 hours a week. He will show her what he is made of before broaching the subject.

Well, not a whole lot of new news this week. Darla and I are really looking forward to our trip to Vegas at the end of the month. Have a great week. Ciao.

Nice Relaxing Weekend

Temperatures in the mid nineties, but cool overnight and in the early morning. The overnight low in the upper fifties is great sleeping weather and I actually wore a jacket when I teed off at 6:25 on Saturday. This is often the "Dog days of Summer" and the beginning of "Hot August Nights", but we have been lucky this Summer with relatively mild weather. We had two heat waves that came and went. There is a possibility that we will move back to the 100's next weekend, but initially the heat was moving in mid week and that has been pushed back, so we'll see. Darla and I have been enjoying the warm days in our pool with cold drinks and water lounges.

I spent today thinning out the ground cover and plantings around the pool, cutting back the agapanthas and fertilizing and watering all of the plants. I also drained the spa into the pool and put fresh water into the spa and did the chemicals for both. The African daisies that are so beautiful in the Spring with their vibrant purple blooms, get heat stressed and weary in the Summer and need to be pruned back and thinned out. I removed some of the dead and dying plants and hopefully with the fertilizer and thinning, they will get a second life this Summer. Those plants will come back in the Fall and give us another burst of color before going dormant in the Winter.

I played golf on Thursday with our local US Reports representative. Us Reports is a Burns and Wilcox sister company, also owned by Kaufman Enterprises. Aaron took Peter and I out to Morgan Creek Country Club and we had one of Pete's agent's, Phil join us. Aaron played one year of college golf and shot a 77 using nothing but a five iron to tee off with. I can see why he only played one year with his driver issues, but it was impressive to see a 5over with irons off the tee. I struggled and shot 43+41=84, but had a great time. That course is so nice and well maintained. I then went home, did some work from the house and played in my twilight league and shot 39. Steve and I are in first place among the 18 teams in the league. It is close and we will have to continue to play well to stay where we are.

The Olympics are in full swing and I think I've spent a total of about thirty minutes watching the event. I think I've grown tired of the whole spectacle. I know Dad and Shirley loved the Vancouver Olympics and it was civic pride, but the whole overblown opening ceremonies where they try to showcase how savvy they can be in making the crowd turn into a big TV screen is embarrassing. I saw some scene of a bunch of kids in their pajamas singing with Mary Poppins-looking women flying in the sky and turned over to a tivo'd episode of 20-20 and was eminently more entertained. I guess it is fun for some people, but I don't need to see Eskimos singing or nannies dancing. What does any of that have to do with sporting excellence? If they want to showcase London, show bad teeth and an outdated monarchy system that has been usurped by Parliament. Also, what is with NBC tape delaying Michael Phelps first medal attempt on Saturday? Did they honestly think that anyone interested would not look at the internet or ESPN to see who won? Very strange decision making by the number three network. I will catch bits and pieces of this Olympics, but there is absolutely nothing compelling to me about the games this time around.

Darla and I had dinner with Neil and Lilly last night at Sabores restaurant in Roseville. They only have a beer and wine license and both Neil and Lilly love margaritas. Thgey were already seated when we got there and Neil was drinking a diet coke. Darla and I had a diet coke and iced tea respectively, but Lilly was only drinking water. The servers kept coming by and asking her if she wanted anything and I think it irritated her. Finally on about the third time they asked, she said, "yeah, I'd like a shot of tequila!" A few minutes later the waitress returned with a shot glass filled with Los Cabos tequila. When I asked how they had tequila, she answered that they make wine margaritas. Huh? I think she poured a shot of the bootleg tequila that the boss keeps in the cupboard. We had a good laugh over that. They leave Wednesday for Eugene and will be in Seattle on Thursday and Surrey on Friday. Dad and Shirley will have lunch ready for them and they will go out and see (I'm guessing here) Fort Langley and White Rock Friday afternoon. They also have a car show on Saturday and Neil has already been drafted to drive the '39 over the the park. He is REALLY excited about being not only at a car show, but part of the show itself. I'm sure he and Dad will have a ball together and dad will introduce him to all of his buddies in the BC Hot rod club. They will be there over the weekend and I think Neil plans an afternoon trip Sunday up to Whistler. I know that Dad and Shirley have tickets to Yanni on Sunday night.

Well, some good news on the job front for the boys in that Daniel has landed not one, but two jobs. He will be working with a civil engineer from Lafayette doing some piece work for her. This will be part time. Daniel also got a job at Kohl's department store and will be working in sales. Congratulations to him.  David continues on the hunt.

I did also play golf on Saturday and we once again enjoyed Power Hour, the first hour of tee times in the morning that are $30 with a cart. I shot 40+43=83 on Saturday. We will play Power Hour again on Saturday and then I have a tournament at Diamond Oaks on Sunday. Darla had a retirement jewelry party on Saturday from 10-12 at the house, so I stayed a little late at the course and enjoyed a meal of pulled  pork and cole slaw sandwich and a beer. I got back right before noon to a houseful of women frantically shopping over the racks of jewelry in our living room. Shawna, my assistant, was there as well and freaked out because she had come straight over from yoga and I saw her. Darla made her feel better by letting her know that I hadn't showered before golf that morning.Thanks, hon.

Boyd made it out for golf in spite of some problems at home where his ex daughter in law had committed suicide and left her kids behind. His son is single and it will be a hardship for him to do on his own. Boyd and his wife will end up having to pick up the pieces for him. His wife insisted he get out of the house and play golf on Saturday.

We have made our reservations for Vegas and I will miss the Club Championship this year. We fly out August 24th and will stay at the Circus Circus in Vegas for three nights. We got a Southwest vacation deal for the flights, room, resort credit of $50 and a rental car for $700. Sam will like us staying at the Circus Circus and we will take her down to see the circus acts. We can also take her over to the amusement park as well. we look forward to seeing them and really missed Samantha at Almanor this year.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope everyone is doing well. I was happy to see the blog top 10,000 hits this week. I have been doing this for thirteen years now and what is more amazing to me is that we have been without Mom and Gramp Lyon for that amount of time. Hard to believe. Be good. Ciao.

I Survived another bachelor week

Darla decided to dump me again for a week and flew off to Kansas City for her Silpada conference ("I'm sick to death of hearing about Kansas City!"). I guess it was an ungodly heat wave there which, combined with the humidity, made the weather absolutely dreadful. As for Texas, Kansas City, Vegas, etc: I LOVE California. My brother in law is from Kansas City and spends hours singing the praises of the mid west, but it is hard to sell a Californian on the wide open spaces. When someone mentioned to him that Kansas City is a big town in the middle of nowhere, his comeback was, "Yeah, well Omaha is close by." I think he was making my argument for me. When you live 90 minutes from both San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, you never want to leave. The parenthesized quote above is from my sister-in-law, who had enough of hearing about Kansas City and let him have it.

I did survive my five days of bachelorhood and got some things done around the house. I cleaned up the laundry room and made room for more hanging coats and clothes to be cleaned. I also cleaned the kitchen and both bathrooms, even sweeping and washing the floors. Darla will be happy that I went to the effort if for no other reason than I saw first hand the uselessness of our vacuum and ordered a new Hoover Wind tunnel vac that will arrive via Amazon on Tuesday. I also worked on the yard and was able to spray some lawn weed killer for a bit of clover that was creeping into the side yard.

I received my quarterly green fees on Thursday night for acting as the club handicapper and used them promptly on Friday to have the 300 detailed. I had a number of swirl marks and some light scratches on the hood and trunk space. I took it into the hand car wash by my office on Douglas and talked to the detail manager. He said that a regular hand wax wouldn't do the job and suggested a $300 hand sanding and wax treatment. I balked and we finagled down to $150 for the detailing and $75 for two rock chips to be repaired. The total of $225 was expensive, but I can get the $75 reimbursed by my car insurer. The result was incredible. They took out all of the swirl marks, removed the light scratches and did the complete Maguire detailing, including use of a clay bar and a hand buffed gloss finish. They also treated my dash, seats and header, cleaned my mags and put tire dressing on the tires. They topped it all off with an application of Rust-oleum clear coat polish applied with an electric buffer. The car absolutely shines and moist people wouldn't get it, but it is so nice to have the mirror finish back on my car. Do it yourself is great until you just need professional help.

I played golf early today, Power Hour is the first hour open and the cost is $30 with a cart. We played Diamond Oaks and I struggled a bit today shooting 43+41=84 and paying my friends $15 for our 3-3-3 bet. The most you can win is $15, but the most you can lose is $15. I did have a birdie on both sides, but also a double bogey on both as well. Next Saturday, Darla has a Silpada gig at the house and we have the Power Hour deal at Woodcreek at 6:28 AM. I hope to play the first 18 and then play a second 18 for $16 with cart. We'll see how crowded they are when we finish.

Darla and I spent the balance of the day on the pool. It was 102 degrees today, but we stayed cool on the 86 degree pool. There was a light breeze that felt hot in the sun, but was refreshing on the pool when you were wet. we both really appreciate the pool and use it religiously.

Jennifer did go into  her doctor today and they confirmed that she did rupture her eardrum in the wakeboarding fall. The doctor expects it to heal itself, but did refer her to a specialist as well. She got Sam back on Wednesday and was on cloud 9. The ten days that John was in Colorado was the longest she has ever been apart from Samantha. I will call them tonight to see how they are doing.

I went to a Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Friday. We are new to the chamber and the City Manager was giving a speech on the state of the City and some of the new businesses moving in to the area. I ended up sitting at a table with the CEO of the Chamber, the Mayor of Roseville and the City Manager. They asked me to lead the pledge of allegiance and also allowed me a two minute commercial on Burns and Wilcox. It was good PR as I had three agents approach me afterword to get more information on BW. I made the comment during my talk that I was proud to live and work in a city in California that wasn't going bankrupt and got a round of applause for that. Ray Kerridge, the City Manager also mentioned in his remarks that BW as new to Roseville and stopped to say, "boy, Ken, this is turning into a commercial for your business." I did find out that Sammy Hagar is opening a new Sammy's Rockin' Island Bar and Grill in Roseville on September 15th and will open the restaurant with a free concert in the street on Saturday afternoon. Sammy lives and works in Marin and will make the trip up to Roseville along with may of his musician friends to put on a concert. Neil Thomas is a big Sammy Hagar fan and we will go to the opening with Neil and Lilly in September.

Speaking of my good friends, Neil and Lilly, they leave August 1st for Canada and will visit Dad and Shirley over the weekend and go to a car show. Dad and Shirley have tickets to a Yanni concert one night and Neil has decided that they will take the train up to Whistler that day. they are both really looking forward to the trip and I know that Dad and Shirley will enjoy their visit. Neil is such a car buff and Dad is plugged in to the BC Hot rod Club and Neil will be in Pig Heaven  when he is at the show with Dad. Dad and Shirley are in Southern California this past week for a Disneyland trip with family. I know that Kathy and Cameron and their family are along on the trip because i saw a Facebook post from Kathy last weekend.

Darla did see Darryl and Cheryl and their new monstrosity of a home in the suburbs of Kansas City during her visit to the Silpada annual conference. She loved the home, but thought it was inordinately large. we love our 2100 square foot home. Large enough to stretch out and small enough to clean easily. It also is located in California, which is a plus for us. They had a good visit, did some shopping ( I heard Darryl spent 45 minutes in a Victoria's Secret store), and had lunch together back at the house. I don't know that I will see the house as I'm not sure how long they will be in Kansas. Our next trip is to Vegas at the end of August to see Jennifer and Samantha.

Well, that is the news that is fit to print. I think dinner is around the corner and I've worked up an appetite. I hope all are well and living a good life. Ciao.

Lake Almanor is Paradise, but actually is closer to Chester, CA

Another successful vacation in Almanor is in the books. The weather was excellent, in the nineties every day and the water was warm, calm and fantastic. The cabin was near perfect, except for a lousy sofa bed that they insist on leaving in the cabin year after year.

 Jennifer almost didn't make the trip because she had a couple of checks that hadn't cleared her bank and couldn't rent a car for the trip. Her truck has a few mechanical issues and broke down recently on a trip to Los Angeles and she didn't trust it on that far of a drive. Her brothers and step-mom came to her rescue with a loan and she was able to get her little rental Hyundai Elantra and get on the road. I was golfing when all of this came down and they were able to help her out of her jam. She left for Roseville about noon Saturday where she spent the night at our house and was to meet up with Daniel Sunday for the trip to Almanor.

I played in our Firecracker event, shooting a 79 and taking second low net with a 68 before heading home, showering and getting on the road to Almanor with Darla. We drove up, stopping for dinner in Oroville and got to the resort about 7:30 PM. Jennifer was still on the road and I took a picture of the lake from the deck and texted it to her with "Hello, Almanor". Her response was, "Hello Fresno!" Nice.

David and I got the ski in the water Saturday morning and drove it over to our little beach below the cabin. Earl put his boat in and also moored it along the beach as they had a few dock spaces that were damaged in the wind the week before and space was at a premium. Almanor is calm and smooth as glass in the morning, but the wind comes up nearly every afternoon and the chop starts and by mid afternoon it is whitecaps and waves pounding the beach. The ski was taking a pounding and David swam out and put in the anchor from Earl's boat and we hooked the ski up every evening to the anchor, where we left a buoy tied to the clasp end of the rope. That problem was easily solved and I will get an anchor for the ski next year so we are set.

The ski ran well all week and I'm guessing we went through about 50 gallons of gas and two gallons of oil for the week. We tend to get the teenagers and young adults over from the gang and they want to use the ski. Funny, Jennifer got in about 1 PM Sunday and I was cooking sausages for lunch and they were almost ready. She took one look at the lake and changed into her swimsuit and was on the ski before you could turn around. I guess she didn't drive 13 hours to eat.

We did have one unfortunate incident on Jennifer's last day at the resort. She was out wake boarding and took a bad fall and we think injured her eardrum. She had a bad ringing in her ear and then some blood that came out. She googled the injury and ended up packing her ear with cotton balls and keeping water out of it. She is supposed to see her doctor tomorrow, but as of yesterday was feeling much better and had regained hearing in that ear. It was very painful for her and scared her as well. Hopefully she is okay.

The boys just came by and helped put the jet ski back in it's spot behind the shed and in the backyard behind the double gate and driveway on the side yard.

They are both ready to get serious about finding jobs and will be working and networking this week on jobs, internships and opportunities in their respective fields. Robert, who is married to Darla's cousin, Carol, was up at the reunion this year and his brother is the main engineer for the Modesto Irrigation District and is looking for an intern, preferably with a degree in civil engineering from Cal Poly. Daniel will follow up with him this week. Robert said that he has trouble getting any interested students to move to Modesto.

I did play golf at Bailey Creek again this year. Initially we had two foursomes and that whittled down to 5 players, but when it came time to play, only Robert and I made it to the course. I got us a 7:50 tee time on Thursday and they paired us with two very good golfers, one from Napa and the other from New Brunfield, Texas. One shot a 34 on the front side and 75 for the round, the other shot 76. I managed an 83 and Robert shot a 105. It was a lot of fun and the course was in excellent condition. Robert and I stayed afterward and had a drink and ate lunch at the bar.

Jason and his girlfriend, Lucy, came up and spent Tuesday night with us. David took them out for a boat ride with Earl's boat and it broke down. The starter was bad and Jennifer had to tow them back with the jet ski. Earl had the boat fixed by the time we left, but the waves were so bad on the shore during the week that they had worked his swim dock at the back of the boat loose and he has to fix that now. What do they say about boats? It is like digging a hole in the ground and throwing money into it.

I grew a beard during the vacation, actually starting it when we were in San Francisco and letting it grow up until we got back from Almanor. I shaved it off this afternoon and with it the mustache that I've had for the last 38 years. I should have shaved it off before Almanor, because now I've got a light line around my mouth and upper lip where the sun hasn't been able to tan the skin completely. Oops.

I did play golf again today with Darren, Boyd and Andy. We teed off at 6:50 AM. I shot 43+40=83. Sounds decent, but my index has dropped on 7/15 to 8.7, which gives me a 9 on Diamond Oaks. Now I have to shoot 81 just to shoot par on the course. It is my lowest index so far.

Darla leaves for Kansas City and her conference with Silpada on Wednesday morning. She plans to call Darryl and Cheryl and see if they can get together while she is there. We will give you guys a call tomorrow night to see if it works out for Darla to see you and maybe come by the house.

Well, that's it for this week. Pray for me as I will be batching it for the next week. Darla gets home on Sunday. I hope your week is wonderful. Be well. Ciao.

San Francisco Dreaming

Fun Times in the city over the weekend. Unfortunately, all didn't go off without a hitch as Steve's wife, Brenda, took a nasty fall out of a cable car on California Street Saturday afternoon and had to be transported to the hospital. Darla and I missed it as we went back to the hotel to rest up for dinner and the Alcatraz tour that night. They had been standing on the cable car and some seats came available and they all scrambled to get over to them and Brenda missed a step and fell backwards off of the trolley and caught herself with her right arm. She ended up dislocating her shouler. I guess it was quite a scene with the police and paramedics blocking off the street. Brenda kept trying to get up and Steve made her lay down and wait for the paramedics. He told her that as long as the police didn't start drawing a chalk outline around her when they got there, everything would be fine. That got her smiling, but she was pretty embarassed. That episode sort of took the glow off a pretty great weekend.

The weather was great, in the low seventies all weekend and the high 50's overnight. We did get some high, thin fog that swept over the city and the ballpark during the Giants game and some that blanketed Alcatraz on our night tour of The Rock. Our hotel, The Harbor Court, was a block off of the Embarcadero and across the street from the Ferry Building and another block down from the Embarcadero Shopping mall.

I played in our Thursday night twilight league golf league and then met Neil and Lilly back at our house for the drive into the Bay Area. Steve was horrible on Thursday night and shot a 55. I continued my recent spate of good play and shot a one over 37, but we got spanked by our opponents 12.5  to 7.5 and the 7.5 were all my points, believe me. Darla had a Silpada gig Thursday night and got home about 8:45 and we were off like a dirty shirt. We stayed in Richmond at an Extended Stay Inn which was close to the Hilltop Mall and clean and comfortable. We tried to add Thursday night to our itinerary at the Harbor Court, but they wanted $329 for an extra night. We only paid $115 a night through hotelscheap.com for Friday and Saturday night. We couldn't figure it out until we got there and experienced the first class ambience of the hotel. The rooms were relatively small, but had a soft top King size bed in the room and a nice sitting area and bathroom. The front lobby had a nice fireplace, a library and chairs and tables, couches, etc. for a nice gathering area and it had a great view of the bay and the Bay Bridge. The key to the hotel is it's location about a mile from AT&T Park and about three miles to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.

We arrived Friday morning and Neil and I dropped off Lilly and Darla at the hotel with the luggage and picked up Rick and Steve and their golf clubs and we were off to the Presidio golf course for breakfast. The Presidio is an old Army base and the golf course was an officer's club. We had a grand breakfast in the wood paneled dining room and then went and hit balls and putted before our tee time. Steve saved his A game for the Presidio, shooting a 39 on the front to my 40. He struggled to a 47 on the back and I shot 43 for 83. Neil and Rick both shot in the 90's and we all had a grand time in great weather and with good friends. You can see the picture of Neil pointing to his ball about a foot and a half from the hole on the 4th hole. I had put my ball three feet from the hole and he trumped me.

Friday night we cabbed over to Mo Mo's across the street from AT&T Park and had a great dinner and drinks before heading over to the ballpark. The fog was coming in and I bought Darla and I a sherpa blanket in Giants colors and logo for $55. It was worth it as the fog was wet and cold. The Giants came into the game on a four game shutout win streak and promptly got spanked 5-1. Their lone run coming in the 9th inning well after we had packed up and headed home. We tried to get a cab back to the hotel, but they were all full, so we hoofed it, getting home in about twenty minutes

We did go out to breakfast on Saturday morning at a restaurant in the Ferry Building and then walked the shops, stopping to watch a young 13 year old trumpeter and dancer you can see in the pictures. He is a street performer and had just been chronicled in the SF paper that week. We wandered over to the Farmer's Market at Embarcadero Center and Darla and I begged off to head back to the room. I have finally put my bowel issues "behind me" so to speak, but was still feeling the effects of all of the enemas, suppositories, laxatives and other God awful remedies I had used since last week. I was a bit sore from the various treatments and don't want to get more graphic than that. It turns out the issue was caused by the mediction I had used for my ear infection.

 Darla and I relaxed in the room and at one point we heard a scratching at the door, I then heard what sounded like a key tapping at the front door and jumped up in time to intercept a maid pushing her way into the room. I was not dressed (you do the math) and she got the Full Monty on me before I slammed the door in her face. She was very apologetic and I told her we were good to go. I joked later with Neil and Lilly that I saw her later downstairs and she called me "Tripod". Neil and Lilly also had the maid enter their room when they had the Do Not Disturb sign up and brought them fresh towels when they were out. They specifically didn't want the maid in the room and Neil went down and talked to the Manager. He also told them about our experience and the hotel sent each of us up some truffles ands a bottle of Merlot with a card apologizing for our inconvenience. I told Lilly our card had a PS on it that read, "Congratulations to Mrs. Lyon. Well Done!" and was signed by the maid.

I finally got a bread bowl and clam chowder from the Boudin cafe in Pier 39 on Saturday night and then we were off to Alcatraz. Brenda was a real trooper as she came along with her arm in a sling and feeling no pain on Vicodin and Percoset. I'm not sure that she remembers much of the tour, but she did get us preboarded on the boat and she was able to take a tram the thirteen stories up to the main prison buildings on Alcatraz rather than walk like the rest of us.  I had been on the tour before years ago and they have really improved it with an audio tour of the cellblock, hospital, dining room, library, solitary confinement and the warden's house and officers quarters. They played alot of the history including the escape that was chronicled by Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. They showed the cells where the fake mannequins were put in the beds and the vents pulled out and widened for the escape into the vents and pipes in the opening behind the wall. They also put in a plexiglas over the wall showing where the escape took place. Much of that was re-done for the movie back in the seventies and left for posterity. They also chronicled the American Indian takeover of Alcatraz in 1969 and the history from that period. Unfortunately some of the buildings were destroyed during the uprising.

We were up early this morning, said our goodbyes to everyone and drove to Fairfield for breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. We got home about noon and rested on the pool and I napped during the golf tournament won by Tiger Woods today.

As I mentioned in the last blog, my handicap did drop on July 1st to 9.3 and it is as low as I can remember it being. I now get 10 strokes at Diamond Oaks and have to shoot 82 to hit my handicap.

Well, that is it for this week. We will have the gang over for swimming and a barbecue of either tri-tip or kabobs on Wednesday July 4th. Neil is bringing some jumbo prawns for the barbecue as well and we will do a potluck with about five couples. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Ciao.  

Cooler June weather and we will enjoy it while it lasts

The weather has turned cool after the HEAT of last weekend. I had an early tee time on Saturday and we teed off with coats and jackets on. We had a high of 78 degrees on Friday, 80 on Saturday and 83 today. The heat is expected to come back later in the week and we will be back to the 90's by next weekend. The 80's are actually very comfortable for doing yard work and chores. I mowed the lawn yesterday and took advantage of the unseasonable weather to put down some fertilizer. I also cleaned the patio tables and chairs and Darla and I bought new chair pads for the chairs. I used CLR and it was amazing on both the glass and the frames of the tables and chairs. I used some leftover of the CLR and hot water mix to clean the spa cover as well.

I added some pictures from the Pismo trip as we had more. You can see Sam and David completely enjoying themselves at the beach, although you wouldn't know that the wind is blowing the sand sideways. It was a great time, although I feel bad about missing the ceremony over at the college.

As I have passed the age of 50 and begun to feel more of the aches and pains that accompany getting older, I have been lucky to avoid some of the more serious ailments like lack of sleep, stomach issues and things like constipation. The latter creeped up on me this last week. I've never had a problem like this before and have been on a stool softener since Friday. I talked to the advice nurse at Kaiser on Thursday and she suggested I try a stool softener. I went to Wal Mart Friday and it was the only thing I had to buy. Thank God they had a self check-out lane. I had visions of a price check on Colace Stool softener being broadcast to the entire store. I did some research on the problem and found a hilarious story about magnesium citrate and it's effects. Here is the link and I strongly encourage a look at it, but don't do it in your office as you'll be howling with laughter: www.poopreport.com/consumer/magnesium_citrate.html

I have made it through the weekend with little relief and being on a laxative is not the best thing if you have to leave the house for any reason. I had to leave Darren on the 4th tee at Woodcreek and run to the restroom. I had a cart thankfully as I got a $42 deal and it was $37 to walk. With the cool weather we both decided to ride. Good plan. Although I'm still backed up, the Colace causes water to be absorbed into the colon and both the large and small intestine and the idea is it will soften any blockage. What happens in the meantime is massive amounts of liquid pass through you as you wait for the brick to soften and move out of your system. When it is time, there is no opportunity to relax and take your time, alacrity is needed and you need a bathroom NOW. Darla and I walked up to the store this morning and I just made it to Bel Air before the "urge to purge" overcame me. Luckily there was no one in the bathroom. If it had been locked, I would have had a problem. 

Darla's sister has chronic problems in this area and David, who is home, met them for a day on the lake wake boarding today. Darla had shared my predicament with Alicia and she is sending some magic elixir home with David. It supposedly works overnight. Luckily I work close to home. Right now I'm just looking forward to farting again.

Darla and I leave Thursday night for San Francisco. We have been married for 16 years and have never taken an overnight trip to the city before. We are going with Neil and Lilly, Rick and Jan and Steve and Brenda. The guys will play the Presidio Golf course on Friday. We then stay over in the city at the Harbor Court Hotel on the Embarcadero and about a mile to AT&T Park. Rick and Steve both set their reservations for Thursday to Saturday nights. We got a great rate of $115 a night and when Neil and I tried to add Thursday night, the hotel wanted $289 for just Thursday night. We got the deal through hotelscheap.org and the Harbor Court rack rate is $289. We decided to just stay off the 80 freeway in the Bay area and found an Extended Stay hotel for $80 a night and Neil and Lilly and Darla and I will stay there Thursday night and meet the others at the golf course. After golf, we will check into the hotel, get cleaned up and head over to Mo Mo's, a restaurant across the street from the Giant's ballpark for dinner. We then have tickets for the Giant's-Red's game at 7:15 PM. Saturday, we have tickets to the night cruise to Alcatraz and will bundle up for the boat ride and tour of the old prison. During the day, we will hang out at Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. We will get an early start back to Roseville on Sunday and relax by the pool.

I will play golf Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week before relaxing in San Francisco over the weekend. My index is down to 10.2 and could drop back into single digits again soon. I shot 37 at our twilight league on Thursday night and that included a birdie- birdie- triple bogey- birdie stretch. It was skin night, but this league has golfers with 16 handicaps (for 9 holes!) I get 5 strokes, but my birdies were all matched by stroke players. Oh well. I did come back to earth on Saturday and shot a constipation fueled 86 at Woodcreek. Tuesday is the second of our midweek tournaments at the club. I had to miss the first one because of work, but have some company clients coming in Tuesday night and will be out to dinner that night, so decided to play this time. I have the first tee time (8:02 AM) with Neil and will be into the office by 1:00 PM.

So far, neither of the boys have arranged a job yet and so I ask for your prayer. Daniel actually graduated early in December and still hasn't found work. I suggested they both head to South Dakota and work the oilfields. They are paying roustabouts $30 an hour and will pay $45 per hour for someone with a flatbed truck. So far, they don't think that is feasible. Hopefully (like my situation), something will break loose soon.

That is it for this week, I hope everyone had a great first week of Summer. We are loving the cooler weather here. Be well. Ciao.

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.