School Starts for Sammy

 

First day of second grade today for the Sam meister. She looked cute as can be and Jennifer said that  she was really excited for school today. I think this afternoon was also her first day of soccer practice. Still pretty hot in Vegas, hopefully her coach uses some common sense when they are out practicing and keeps the girls hydrated and healthy.

 

I'm sorry that the blog is late. I had to do some handicapping last night for our invitational tournament. It includes a number of players that are not members and I spent a good part of the night on the phone trying to figure out if some of the players have handicaps. One player, Jim Ryan, had twenty players on the NCGA site with the same name. I finally got it done and was going to work on the blog, but decided to call Dad and Shirley instead. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

I played poker on Friday night and then golf early Saturday morning at Whitney Oaks. Whitney is a course in Rocklin that is very nice and was purchased about three years ago by the local Indian Casino and they have poured some money into it and it is country club quality. The normal green fee on the weekend is $60, but they aerated the greens on Monday and I was able to get a $35 green fee with cart.

 

I was concerned about getting up after poker, but it turns out that we had 9 players at the event and had to have one player rotate out. I played until about ten and when it was my turn to rotate out, I headed home. Darla had gone to a Christian event with Julie at a local church and they had a singer from American Idol who is now a Christian artist ( Danny Gokey) and a comedian. She wasn't home yet and I sent her a text asking what bar she was visiting. Anyone that knows Darla, knows that is a joke. We watched a movie and I was to bed by midnight.

 

Saturday was nice and cool early. I drove over and picked up Boyd at 6:40 for our 7:40 tee time. The course was tough and putting was different with the aeration holes and sand. It wasn't necessarily harder as the greens would hold and you could hit the ball hard. The Whitney greens are usually like lightning. I shot 43+45=88, Boyd shot 82, but Paul struggled to a 93. Bryan had been out at a concert Friday night and his alarm went off, was turned off and he woke up about 9. We played as a threesome. Oops.

 

We left right afterward and I left my cell phone in the cart , not realizing it until I got to Boyd's house. I hightailed it back to the course and the cart guys missed the phone in the cubby in front of the driver and they had put the cart back out in the queue. Luckily it hadn't been rented and I got the phone back. Unfortunately, for some reason, the SIM card was inoperable.

 

We had dinner that night with some friends from church in Lincoln at a favorite Italian restaurant (gnocchi!). We were at the restaurant for about 2 and a half hours as Vance can almost keep up with  Darla in the conversation department. Vance has been on staff at church up until the change of ownership and had a lot to tell us. It was a fun night.

 

Sunday we were off to church and then an early lunch to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. I went to AT&T and had them install a new SIM card. The employee said that like batteries, the SIM cards tend to lose power over time. There was no charge to replace it. I did go out today and bought a new battery for my cell phone as it has been losing charge so fast. I had it at 100% this morning and it was down to 28% by 10 AM. Batteries Plus replaces them for $50 if you ever need  new iphone battery.

 

From there we headed over to ASR, a restaurant in Roseville. They had brunch being served and I had a nice Ham and Cheese omelet and Darla opted for a pesto chicken sandwich for lunch.

 

We relaxed after lunch back at the house and both had a nice nap. We're tired after 19 years. I ended up on the pool after doing a little cleaning outside.

 

Work continues to move along inexorably. I had to fire a guy this last week for cause and I'm looking for another employee. Harvey told me today that there is an HR audit that will be done at my office in September. They are also auditing our San Diego office and San Francisco offices. I know they are concerned about turnover and I'm looking forward to addressing that with the HR associate. It's not like I've lost employees to multiple competitors and they have an issue with my office. The fact is that a competitor decided that I had great employees and came in and bought them. That, if anything, should be a compliment for my abilities in grooming young insurance professionals.

 

Darla is home after her visits today with the families that are in foster care. They visit with the natural mothers in this case. She is fixing fried chicken and only because we are out of propane for the barbecue. It smells delicious and reminds me of my childhood. That's it. I need to move on before I drool all over the keyboard. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Memories of the Sam and Jen Show

 

 

Great memories. Sam is now in San Diego with her Dad on a final vacation before school starts for her on August 24th. Jennifer's Mom will be in Vegas later this week to spend the last of Sam's Summer with her. We had a blast with them while they were here and cherish all of the memories that we made.

 

If you look closely at the sign next to Sam on the fifth picture down, you'll notice that the sign reads: "Unattended children will be given espresso and a free kitten." That was a sign at High Hand Nursery. Fun times.

Work continues to confound me. There isn't a great deal of patience being shown to me in allowing me time to get the office back on track. I plan to have a conference with my boss tomorrow to ask for some grace. I have a plan and I also have some young, inexperienced Underwriters on the front lines and I'm extremely happy with" slow and steady". We are close this month to equaling our numbers from August of 2014, which is a win for us. I'll get this turned around, I just need support and time.

I didn't play golf yesterday which is rare for me. I went out to Darla's Car Show event with her and helped her set up and then went out and got some pool supplies and nursery items for the house. I planted a new palm in the backyard above the pool and also cleaned the pool backsplash and tile of calcium buildup. I then resealed the backspash with Thompson's Water Seal and did the chemicals in the pool. I tried to get the mower going and failed. I had a Toro Mower for 16 years and finally replaced it with another Toro in March. The front lawn is dormant and hasn't been mowed in weeks. I tried to start the mower last weekend and couldn't and ended up trimming some of the lawn with my weed whacker and decided to work on the mower after Jennifer and Sam were back home.

Darla came home about three thirty and we planned to go to church. I told her we were returning the mower to Home Depot. We loaded it up and enjoyed church and then went over to the Home Depot. They told me that the mower needed to be sent back to Toro to be repaired. I wasn't pleased and they called a Manager in the Garden Center and he came over, saw how new and clean  the mower was, checked the air filter and smelled gas. He told me the carburetor was shot and agreed to replace the mower, so we brought a new one home with us.

Today, it was 106 degrees and one of my agents decided it was a good day to play golf. He was bringing one of his buddies who owns another agency that I work with. I had to go, but it was brutal HOT today. I think I drank about two gallons of water out on the course. I shot 43 on the front, but struggled to a 46 on the back and was toast by the time we were finished. Ron himself shot 41+50=91, so that's what he gets for a 10:30 tee time on a day that hits 106 degrees.

We had a lot of laughs on the course today and none more than when the group in front of us left a club on the green. Paul and I drove up to the green they were playing on the next hole. They were all big guys and the largest of them walked up with a quizzical look on his face. I said, "Hey, we've got a bone to pick with you guys!"He put his hands out and said, "Dude, it's too hot to fight." They had a good laugh when we pulled out their club and handed it over, We hadn't had any problems with them, but you always wonder when someone pulls up in a cart and wants to talk.

Darla was waiting for me when I got home and we dunked into the pool and the heat of the day seemed to melt away. I cooked chicken kabobs for dinner on the barbecue and she is making some Silpada calls to clients right now and I'm working on the blog. I finally got her pictures uploaded from her cell to the computer and she didn't have any pictures of Daniel and Becky from breakfast last Saturday and that surprised me. The top picture of Benihana is one that the restaurant takes themselves and I downloaded it from their website.

It is supposed to be HOT the next four days with temps ranging from 109 degrees to 100 degrees on Thursday. It IS the Dog Days of Summer. Thursday is the final night of Twilight league play and we will have our Pizza Night that night at the pizza parlor up the street from our house.

It should be an interesting week of work this week as I have several companies coming in to visit and Pete is out from Wednesday on in Mexico for a four day vacation. I'm continuing to work on the teams in the office and massaging the team players. It is kind of more a science than an art as I work with personalities and individuals.

I brought an idea up to Darla today that I'm toying with and that is eventually selling both our house and the rental and downsizing to a smaller house that we can pay cash for. That is more the idea as I get close to retirement age. Darla and I can both take up to a $500,000 exception on a principal home that we sell and pay no taxes. I would have to take the proceeds from the rental and buy a house that we want to retire in, but rent it for two years and then move into it to avoid taxes on the capital gains from the rental. Funny how hose thoughts begin to seep in as you get closer to retirement age. I'm currently reading a book "Get What's Yours: The Secret to Maxing out Your Social Security." Pretty dry, but it gets into "file and suspend" ideas that will increase the amount that we can make and perhaps even bring in social security payments under a spousal benefit prior to 70.

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you are all doing well. Dad and Shirley, we will give you a call sometime this week. Sunday ends up being our wind down day and it's not a great night to make calls. At least for me. Ciao.



Samantha and Jennifer in the House

 

 

 

 It is Monday night. I have dropped Jennifer and Sam at the airport and they should be in the air by now winging their way back to Las Vegas. We had a great trip marred only by a couple of occasional issues with Samantha and her respect for her Mom's authority. Jen talked to John about and it and his response was that she'd been out of school too long. Sam is quite a Momma's girl. which doesn't seem to go with the fighting authority piece, but Sam has always been extremely strong willed. It was overall a minor problem with our trip, but a bigger problem for Jennifer (and John) going forward. She is a young lady that needs strong discipline because she tests boundaries consistently . Jennifer does a good job overall.  Jennifer knows that Sam plays her and is working hard to stand strong. I'm proud of her.

 

They came in on Wednesday afternoon and I left early from work to pick up Darla and head to the airport. They were both in a great mood and we had a fun night, grabbing a late lunch/early dinner at El Azteca, the little Mexican food shop up the street from our house.

 

Thursday, Lucas came over to play with Sam and they spent most of the day together. I went to work and Jennifer was on the computer most of the day. I got home at regular time and Jennifer and Sam were already off to Folsom and dinner with her ex Step dad, Bill, who Jennifer considers a father figure and Samantha calls him Grampa Bill. 

 

Friday I took the day off and we went to Benihana for lunch. When we asked Sam what she wanted to do during her visit, one thing was "Go to Benihana's". We had a ball watching the food being prepared and Sam enjoying the show. We got home mid afternoon and went in the pool followed by a trip to the park where Sam could play at the play area. Friday afternoon, we had Lucas and Alicia over for swimming and a barbecue and Darla's parents and David joined us to make it a party. I cooked two tri tips on the barbecue and everyone brought salads, fruit and desserts. David brought an appetite as I remember. Sam and Lucas had a ball together and it went to the next level when David got there. He was taking the kids and having them dive off his shoulders. The adults were visiting and we would look up when one of the kids would say, "Watch this!", which was often by the way. At one point Jennifer climbed up on David's shoulders and jumped off. I wasn't quick enough with the camera, but the were being siblings.

 

The kids played so much they drained about four inches of water out of the pool (don't they know we are in a drought?) and another two inches out of the spa. They were going from the pool to the spa to the pool to the spa over and over.

 

David stayed late that night and we watched a movie with Sam (Big Hero 6) and then an inane Will Ferrell movie called "Get Hard."

 

Saturday, Daniel and Becky came into town for, what else, a wedding and they joined Jennifer, Sam , Darla and I at the Original Pancake House in Roseville for a late breakfast. I had gone into the office Saturday morning to forward a report to home office that they were missing and to pick up my Oakley sunglasses that I left on my desk. I then went to get a haircut and by the time I got home we were packing up to go to breakfast. We had a nice visit wit Dan and Becky (Darla has the pictures on her phone) and Sam enjoyed seeing both of them. From there we drove out to Loomis and the High Hand Orchard. High Hand was a large packing shed back in the early 1900's and had undergone several changes since then, being warehousing for awhile before a couple of Loomis landowners bought the acreage 30 years ago and remade the buildings into retail spaces for craftsmen and opening a large nursery and restaurant on site. They have a lot of the old High Hand signs and crates and packing boxes displayed. We crawled around the nursery for awhile and shopped a bit in the stores. Jennifer bought a little fairy plant stick that is metal and goes into the soil around your plant. It is decorative. I bought Darla a hanging plant basket for the backyard made of a peat ball with plants embedded into the soil. We'll see how it does out in her growing plant nursery in our backyard.

 

From there I had promised to take Sam to have a milk shake at Taylors, a Frosty-style restaurant in Loomis that boasts over 250 different flavors of milk shakes. Sam had an Oreo shake and I settled for a mint chip shake as I was sharing with Darla. I wanted the Carmel Raspberry banana shake, but she won. Happy wife... 

 

Saturday night we relaxed at home and had leftovers. Sam had mac and cheese and some leftover tri tip. Darla and I both had tri tip (mine in a burrito) and Jennifer had some Chili Rellenos and a tamale that Darla picked up for Jennifer at the Farmer's Market on Wednesday. We all went to bed early knowing that we would be up early Sunday for our trip to Lake Tahoe.

 

I had managed to book us a suite at the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel which used to be the Embassy Suites and is located right next to Harrah's. Dad and Shirley, this is right next to the Marriott Grand Vacations that you stayed in. The resort is 8 stories and built in a courtyard style with a large atrium in the middle of the rooms which are all built on the outside of the resort in a square. The atrium has a large area for both afternoon cocktails (Happy Hour) and the included breakfast buffet. They also have a large koi pond with both fish and turtles and an indoor swimming pool.

 

We drove up leaving about 9:30 and driving up Interstate 80 to Truckee and taking Highway 89 to Tahoe City and then around the west side of Lake Tahoe. We were going to stop at Inspiration Point overlooking Emerald Bay, but the traffic was packed with people coming and going and it took us the better part of an hour to make the 23 mile trip around the lake. We stopped in South Lake Tahoe on the California side and had lunch at a nice Sub shop. It was about 12:30 when I called the hotel to see if we could get in. There were no rooms ready yet, but they took my cell number and would call when it was ready. We walked a couple of blocks down Lake Tahoe Boulevard (Hwy 50) to a little Frosty ice cream shop and had a couple of cones and Sam had another Oreo milk shake. The girl is going through a growth spurt and can eat! We got the call that our room was ready so headed over to the resort and got checked in.

 

We went down with Sam and swam in the indoor pool. I sat out on the pool balcony for awhile and soaked up the 78 degree air. It was awesome. We went up, took showers and dressed for the 4:30 happy hour. They had mixed drinks, beer, wine, margaritas and daiquiris for $2 and sodas and juices for free. We all got our drinks (Sam got a Shirley Temple) and filled up on pretzels and popcorn. We were there for a little over an hour and then headed up to the room to get some warmer clothes on for the evening. We decided to walk to dinner and had nothing in particular in mind. We checked into a pizza joint called Base Camp that was in the middle of the Heavenly Valley shopping complex next to the Marriott resort. It was an hour wait, so we shopped for a bit and Sam collected flowers. I took a break at one point and was relaxing near Highway 50. An Oriental gal, or is it Asian, I always forget?...anyhow, she ran to make the crossing light and left the sidewalk with 7 seconds left on the light. She got halfway across and dropped a wad of currency. She turned to pick it up, but the wind whipped it up and carried it all over the road. I couldn't see how much money she dropped, but I did see a $20 bill and a $5 bill dancing in the air. The cars then commenced to further whip the bills into a frenzy. She looked back waved her hands and walked on. When the light changed, a good Samaritan ran out and scooped up as much money as he could find and was in hot pursuit of the young lady to return her $$. I don't know if he caught up to her, but it was quite a sight. 

 

Our table was ready in 30 minutes and we sat in the restaurant. Sam had her issues that night and Jennifer ended up taking her out of the restaurant and back to the room. To complicate things, the restaurant baked the wrong pizza for Darla and I and they gave that to us free and baked our combination pizza after that. The waiter felt bad and "comped" us our drinks. The bill was $38 for three medium pizza, three lemonades and iced teas and Jennifer's IPA beer. We brought a full medium pizza home with us.

 

Jennifer was pretty stressed out when we got back to the hotel and I told her and Darla to go down to the casinos and I'd stay with Sam. I had a heart to heart with her about how she treats her Mom and how much it hurts Jennifer's feelings. She was crying and said she wanted her Mom. I calmed her down, we got her a drink, she brushed her teeth and she was asleep in ten minutes.

 

Today we were up early, had our breakfast at the hotel and on the road by 9:30.  I took everyone over to the beach so Sam and Jennifer could see the lake and Sam could build a small sand castle. From there we stopped at the overlook on Highway 89 (pictures above) that was devoid of a crowd that early in the morning. I gassed up in Truckee and we were home by one o'clock. Darla and I played with Sam in the pool  (and the spa) while Jennifer packed up, downloaded some of our photos onto her computer and then had a conference call with her work.

 

And we are to date at the moment. Darla is off on a supervised visit with a foster Mom and the real Mom right now. She has a couple of cases that she supervises a week and that keeps her in seed money. Well, that is our week in a nutshell. I hope you are all doing well and everything is progressing for Dad and Shirley with their medical and dental issues. We continue to pray for you both. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer and Sam will visit this week

Darla and I were talking about when we would make another Vegas trip and decided to ask Jennifer if she and Sam wanted to fly out and visit for a week or so and we would pay their airfare. Jennifer jumped on the idea and they fly in on Wednesday afternoon and will be here until Monday. We are planning a trip up to Lake Tahoe over the weekend. Luke found out that they are coming and wants to do a sleepover, so will be here Thursday night. He asked his Mom if he could call Sam and discuss it over the phone. Cute.

The pictures above are from our dinner out Saturday night at a new restaurant in Roseville called ASR. They are a new trendy restaurant and "Ultra Lounge" where they are a restaurant until 10:00 PM and then reopen at 10:30 as a nightclub with live music. Darla had a Groupon and I had played golf on Saturday and wanted to do a dinner out. I had a flanken steak, which is the tender meet near the rib eye. It was prepared with a cilantro salsa over it and served over scalloped potatoes and was incredible. Darla had a mushroom ravioli and we shared a dish of mac and cheese as an appetizer. Excellent. I had iced tea and Darla had a blackberry margarita that was outstanding. It was a good night out. The bill came and it was $72. We had a Groupon for $40 that Darla had bought and brought it up on her phone and I immediately saw the Sunday through Thursday limitation. Oh well, it is a great restaurant and we will eat there again. One of the best things about Groupon is trying new places without worrying about wasting your money. I think the $40 Groupon was $20.

The picture of Darla's boganvillas I really liked. It shows off the stamped concrete and we even got a comment on the shed when Darla posted it on Facebook. They asked if that was a small cottage in our backyard. Well, sort of. We had the shed repainted when the house was painted and it matches the house.

Steve and I did take a road trip to Santa Clara on Wednesday to compete in the Senior 4 ball event and qualifier. We left the house at 6:30 for our 10:30 tee time and the Bay area traffic is so ridiculous that we arrived at 9:30. We wanted to eat some breakfast and also hit balls, but opted for nourishment over practice. Steve was able to hit about six balls on the range after our omelets came out. I chose to hit the practice green instead to get a feel for the greens. I was horrible the first three holes, spraying my drives and Steve kept us in the match with three straight pars that were net birdies. I finally woke up and had four pars over the next six holes and we made the turn at 5 under par. The back nine we ham and egged it pretty good, never having a net bogey and finishing 10 under par for a 62. We were in third when we came in and sat and watched as the scores were posted. We stayed in third for the next 90 minutes, dropped to 4th and then the last four groups out had two 61s and a 60 and we ended up 7th out of 40 teams. Unfortunately, the next round in Poppy Hills only had five qualifiers from our site. We are the second alternate. There were 8 sites around Northern California that hosted qualifiers and it turns out that a 62 would have qualified at all the other 7 sites. Our luck. Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club is located right across the street from Levis Stadium, the new home of the Santa Clara 49ers. Steve asked if I wanted to go over and take the tour of the stadium while we waited and I told him he'd have to pay the $25 fee as I could give a hoot about the 49ers and don't want to pay to see all the hype abut the 5 Super Bowls they won back when David and Daniel were babies.

We were pretty depressed when we got knocked out, but happy with the way that we played. I shot 84 and Steve shot 87. We decided not to get stuck in rush hour traffic and headed over to Sunnyvale and an Asian restaurant Steve likes called Tao Tao. It was very good, but they add shrimp to their fried rice. It sort of ruins it for leftovers, but was excellent when we had it for dinner. I actually brought the leftovers to work and picked out the shrimp before heating it up.

The Club Championship was this weekend and I actually warmed up for it by shooting a 40 on Thursday night in league. Saturday I played a newer member of the club and he was good. I had to give him four strokes and knew it would be a tough day early on as I was one under after six holes and only had a one hole advantage. I finally closed him out on 17, when he got into a sand trap and it took him three to get on the green.

Today, I played a 17 handicap. I get 15, so had to give him two strokes. I was awful on the front nine and shot 49 to his 47 and he had a 2 hole lead after nine. I got him back to All Square after 11 and we stayed there until 17. I had a chance to go one up as I was on the green in two, but three putted from 12 feet, pulling a Dustin Johnson. We both had 5. He had a stroke on 18 and I was 12 feet in three and he was off the green in three. He almost chipped in and took five. My only hope was to knock in the putt and go extra holes, but left the putt six inches short and it was over. I certainly wanted to win, but now we can make a trip next weekend with Sam and Jennifer as the final round is on Saturday.

My finger continues to swell and cause me some difficulty, but I will take two weeks off from golf and hopefully it will heal up. It is pretty gnarly looking right now.

Harvey is back from his safari in Africa and put me on notice that I am on the Home Office radar. The five employees that I've lost to competition are now somehow my fault. It's amazing that a 30 year old being paid $60K would leave for a company offering him $110K. I guess if I had a stronger relationship with these millenials, they wouldn't have left for an 83% increase in pay. Yeah right.

Jennifer's company is going through some changes and they just terminated their construction division. McKenny was in Virginia this week and terminated their 1099 employees and shut down the unit. It is a startup and always a bit iffy as to whether it will be a go long term. Jennifer said that Ericcson is opening up three positions in Las Vegas for wireless managers and Jennifer is going to apply. It would be nice to have the two of them not be both dependent on the same small firm for their livelihood. Jennifer even thinks that she could possibly take the job with Ericcson and continue to work nights for their company. We'll see how that goes for her.

The Blog will likely be a few days late next week as we will be with Sam and Jennifer and likely out of town. I will return with plenty of stories and pictures. It will be a fun week ahead. Be well. Ciao.