HE IS RISEN!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beautiful day today, but more rain yesterday!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ready for the Sunshine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March Birthdays are in Full Force

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Cruise Pictures

Cruise Memories and Art Lyon turns 75!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Forced Bachelorhood this weekend and Cruising to next weekend

The blog will take a well earned rest next weekend as Darla and I cruise off with Darryl and Cheryl, Randy and Cake and Dad and Shirley to the Bahamas. I look forward to resting on the ship and relaxing on the pool deck with a tropical drink in my hand. It will be great to back together with the Lyon family and helping to celebrate Dad's upcoming 75th birthday bash. We are off to San Francisco on Thursday night where we will stay over in a La Quinta Inn close to the airport. They will keep our car for the week and drive us to and from the airport. We will have breakfast at the hotel and then take the shuttle over to the airport about nine am for our 11:00 AM flight to Ft. Lauderdale. We are staying at the same Courtyard Inn as Darryl and Randy and will meet them for a late dinner Friday night. I think we get in about 7 PM.

Saturday we will shuttle over to the Cruise Port and stand in line to get through customs and onto the boat. We leave for San Juan Puerto Rico at 4 PM. Sherry has already scouted out how much wine we can bring on board. It should be a fun week.

I will take two weeks off from golf and after the last two weekends, I think I need a break. I can feel my back starting to tighten up and I'm scheduled for a Bowen treatment on the Thursday that we get back. I played poker on Friday night in keeping with the bachelor theme and had a pretty up and down night and probably made about $10 the entire night, but was likely DOWN about $50 midway through the night. It was a nice comeback. The money that we play with is quarters and half dollars that we have collected over the years. I probably have over $200 in change sitting in a file cabinet in my office that I use to gamble with. It never feels like I make or lose much because it is containers of coins. I sometimes feel like a big winner when we have someone new at the game and he buys $60 or $80 worth of coin from me during the night. I'll come home with $150 in my money clip, but most of that is because I don't have an extra $60 in change now.

My golf game has gone south and in a really quick fashion. I played today with Darren, Paul and Neil and shot a horrific 48+47=95 and this comes a day after shooting 47 +43=90 in the 2 man qualifier at Diamond Oaks on Saturday. Steve and I teamed up to shoot a DFL 74 in the best ball competition. It was a magnificent display of ineptitude. I lost a sleeve of balls today and hit one out of bounds yesterday at Diamond. It may be a forced layoff due to the cruise, but I think I need some time away from the game to get my batteries recharged. I went from shooting 81 and 83 a couple of weeks ago to rounds of 89, 90 and 95. It is amazing how fast it can all slip away. No one shot a stellar round today as Neil had 94, Paul had 94 and Darren shot 90. In fact it was so bad that in our skin game, no one had a closest to the pin because no one landed on the green and there was a regulation four par threes on this course. It reminds me often that it is a four letter sport.

Darla will be home tonight from her sojourn to Dallas, Texas with her Silpada sisters. The gang went out to Gilley's last night and Darla had to ride the mechanical bull. I don't know how long she stayed on, but she posted it to her Facebook account. I've talked to her everyday and they have had a great time. She was telling me about being in a famous restaurant in Dallas where they have an artist who paints portraits of all of the famous people who have dinner there. These pictures grace the walls of the restaurant and include local sports figures and international actors and actresses. Darla and her gang were at one of the tables when Sue, Darla's up line, pointed at a black family who was sitting at the table across from them and yelled, " who is that with the monkey?" The waiter who was taking their order took one look at the situation and turned and ran out of the room. Darla picked up on the faux paus as Sue was actually pointing at one of the paintings of a man with a monkey. The black family was not amused and Sue jumped up and ran over to the painting and said, "Hey it looks like Jungle Bob and his sidekick." Apparently that was a local kid's show in Ohio and Darla just started busting up (as only she can do) and had the whole table in hysterics. I guess they eventually clued in the waiter who thought he had a racial incident occurring in his work station.

Darryl is now done with McClane and is an employee of Standard Beverage. He will work from home in Denver this week and then take the cruise with us and then be off to the booming metropolis of Lawrence, Kansas. He will be commuting for awhile as they attempt to get the house sold.

I was relaxing at home last night after the golf game. It was particularly cold yesterday as a cold front moved through and made way for a gorgeous day today. The doorbell rang and I got up to answer the door and there was nobody there. I no sooner sat down than it rang again. I figured whoever it was must have heard me open the door and come back, but I heard the sound of adolescent high pitched laughter as I opened the door. We live on a corner and they were playing doorbell ditch. I decided that if it rang again, I was going to get a pail of water and play "Douse the cheeky little brat." But, apparently they decided that two times was enough. Thank God as I was tired and I probably would have been arrested for assault for teaching a lesson to a juvenile. Life lessons are not allowed in California.

Peter was supposed to be back to work tomorrow, but his doctor has not released him to drive yet and wants him to work no more than six hours a day from home this coming week. He can work two hours at a time and then has to rest. Hopefully he is ready to return the following week, because I am gone. I'm going to meet Peter at his house and bring lunch on Thursday.

Well, that is it. Not much news. I got the car washed this weekend, the lawn mowed and the pool cleaned. I had my car custom detailed a couple of weeks ago and it is so easy to wash now. He did a really good hand wax on the car after cleaning it and doing the interior, including dressing the seats and the dashboard. I had a hot dog and some garlic fries at Auburn Country Club today and I will likely skip dinner. I have to input the individual scores from the Saturday tournament. I hope everyone has a good week and we'll see Dad, Darryl and Randy (anf their wives) this coming weekend. Ciao.

Before the Rain

If you watched any of the Pebble Beach Pro Am Golf Tournament this weekend, you know that Northern California is bracing for a cold, wet storm. It will blow in overnight tonight and the snow level is expected to drop to around 3000 feet. They were lucky to get the golf tournament in and actually did without any major weather problems. The only issue was fog and cold temperatures. They actually started the week out in perfect conditions, it was 70 degrees here on Thursday and about 65 degrees and Sunny on the Monterey Peninsula. It is one of my agents' birthday tomorrow and his wife asked me to take him golfing. I called the course in Camino today to make a reservation and the pro told me that they may be snowed out tomorrow. This agent, Gary turns 55 tomorrow and his wife turns 48 in April. I turn 55 next month and Darla turns 48 in May. We definitely live common lives, although he has a son who is 11. I'm pretty sure that I don't.

I did get out today and put some fertilizer on the lawn. I also took a garden rake to a portion of it and de-thatched some of the grass. In fact, I just looked outside and the rain has started already.

Darla is at her sister's house. Her parents came into town tonight and I guess are staying over and will watch Luke tomorrow. I was invited, but had some handicapping things to prepare for next week's tournament and wanted to get the blog completed. I just finished a nice dinner of turkey meatloaf. It actually sounds worse than it is and Darla and I have substituted ground turkey for a lot of red meat. If you season and spice it enough, add onions, etc., it actually isn't bad. The meatloaf is a relatively new recipe and delicious.

I guess given what went down with Pete in my office, we need to eat healthier. Pete ended up having surgery on Tuesday and getting the stints installed. He had one stint installed on Saturday night. That artery was 99% blocked and was the cause of his heart attack. They went in Tuesday and did three more. I talked to him Thursday and Friday and he was doing great, but one of the meds caused a rash on his body and he went back into emergency this morning and they took him off one med and put him on Prednisone, which is to help fight the allergic reaction he is having to the drugs he is taking. He will see his cardiologist on Tuesday and we'll know if he will be back the following Monday and also whether he is able to travel with me to Scottsdale in March. If he is not able to travel, Anthony may come in on Sunday night and see the markets with me. Darla and I will still go on the Friday and probably have Jennifer and Samantha come to Scottsdale and hang out with us. It is about 280 miles from Vegas to Scottsdale. Colony is giving me free use of a two bedroom corporate condo in Scottsdale.

I sent Pete a personalized padfolio with his name embossed on it. I also sent him a personalized greeting card with a picture of Anthony, Pete and I on it that reads overlaid on the picture: ""We Need You! and inside it says that if we are to get to the next level in Sacramento, we need Peter back and at full strength for the stretch run. He called when he got it Saturday and said, "Hey, what are you trying to make me cry?" The cost was actually less than the flowers and teddy bear I sent to Connie at the hospital two weeks ago when she had her surgery. I need to get back to having all healthy employees in the office. I really like Personalization.com. Try it sometime, it makes great corporate gifts, but also unique gifts for loved ones.

I got out and played golf on Saturday with Paul, Pamas and Darren. I got up a little late and was rushing to make my tee time. I got there on time and was even able to make it into the restroom for a little morning constitutional and then hit a few balls on the range before rushing to the tee. I teed off and then was transferring my i phone and keys and what have you into my golf bag from my coat when I realized that I left my wallet in the men's room. I asked Darren to take my cart and I ran back to the rest room to get my wallet. Thankfully, it was still stuffed into the seat cover holder where I'd put it. I should have put it in my coat, but that would have been too easy and smart for me. I ran back out toward the first fairway in time to see Darren with both carts flipped over and clubs and balls falling all over the place. He was pushing both carts down the hill when the carts started moving in two different directions and he tried to save both of them from crashing and managed to save neither of them. I played with Paul , who is an 8, Pamas who is a 5 and Darren who is an 18. Paul, Pamas and I all shot 46 on the front side and struggled all over the course. Darren played very well for himself and shot 42. We played marginally better on the backside and I ended up with a 46+43=89, Paul shot 89, Darren shot 86 and Pamas shot 38 on the back for an 84.

Darla leaves for Dallas on Wednesday morning and leaves me to my own devices. I have a tournament, our 4 ball qualifier on Saturday and I also set up a tee time for Sunday. I won't be playing golf on the cruise and need to get my fix in this coming weekend. I don't think we'll be able to play tomorrow, but I will probably get in a game later in the week with Gary. Darla will be at the leadership conference for Silpada.

By the way, I haven't seen the "poop man" at the office since his "problem". I'm wondering if he's still with the company. We had an office lunch on Friday and I had one of the caterers bring in the food. This was a reward for the office hitting our budget goals in January. Anthony suggested that we have lunch catered from the Thai food restaurant down the street. That is the restaurant the man had lunch at that caused his issues.

Our lease has finally been signed for the office building in Roseville. I first met with the leasing agent in March of last year and we toured the Roseville site in June. So, basically seven months after we decided on our space, the deal is done. They were fighting over stenciling on the front glass doors and who was going to pay for 15 replacement ceiling tiles and silly stuff. Our lease runs for 88 months, so the cost of either one of those items likely would have been about $10 per month. Whatever. It is done and we can now start planning for our move probably in April. The permits will be pulled for the buildout this coming week and then they will start on the tenant's improvements and betterments. I am really looking forward to the upgrade in our office environment. A bonus in all of this is that my monthly lease nut will drop from $10,000 to $9,600. It will really be nice to work in the community that I live. I'm already considering joining the Chamber of Commerce and maybe even the Lion's Club or another civic organization.

I talked to Jennifer this week and she went from working nights to working in Temecula and being away from Samantha. She got back on Wednesday and her boss asked her to work Thursday night because the job of replacing the radio receivers wasn't complete. She seemed a little aggravated that her boss isn't as organized as she is. He tends to fly by the seat of his pants and with her a single Mom, it doesn't work well. I guess John was a little upset that she had to work after not being with Sam all week. She does get to spend part of the day with Sam, but she also has to sleep.

Finally, I talked to Darryl as well. He talked to his company on Monday about his move and they asked him to stay on for two weeks and help transition his move. The new company has also given Darryl the flexibility to work from Colorado his first week and then start in Lawrence when we get back from the cruise. Darryl will not be working in the corporate office and has told the CEO that he will do a buildout for a new office in the warehouse. He wants to be close to the action because he has a lot of deficiencies that need to be worked on. He seems pretty excited about the possibilities of this new job. He also said that they do all of their offsite conferences at the winery in California, so hopefully we can see something of him. By the way, Darryl, our golf trip to Reno this year is Saturday and Sunday June 9th and 10th. The courses are Somerset Country Club and Lakeridge Golf Club. You'll have to plan to come out for that or if Cheryl isn't working for Spirit, you can come out to Monterey again for the weekend. The dates on that are October 13th and 14th and we will play Poppy Hills and Carmel Valley Ranch Country Club. Spend some of that money you are making and visit California.

That is it for this week. I think I was a little wordy with Darla being gone. If so, I apologize. I hope everyone has a good week. Be well and walk with the Lord. Ciao.

Another Boring Super Bowl in the Books

I was afraid that with one of the worst defenses in the league in New England and the worst rushing team in the league in the Giants, that the SB would be dull, but this was ridiculous. Sure the score was close, but there was a tremendous amount of mediocrity and sheer boredom in the game. I can hearken back to the divisional games with Denver beating Pittsburgh and The Niners upsetting New Orleans. Those were exciting, well played games. How did both of these teams make it to the Super Bowl and not realize that you can only play 11 men on defense? Thank God it is over. As Randy said on his Facebook page, this was the WORST Super Bowl in history. And to name Eli Manning MVP? Wow, that was an amazing two yard passing TD to Victor Cruz. That was the extent of his scoring in the game. MVP, eh? At least I won $75 in our office football pool. That will pay me back for the four hours of my life I lost today.

I had a call at almost 11 PM last night and it was Pete's wife, Vicki, telling me that Pete had suffered a mild heart attack and was in the hospital. He had done yard work and was sitting on the couch early in the evening and felt his chest tightening and his left arm go numb. They had a neighbor who is a nurse come over and tell them to get him to the hospital. He was sweating profusely. They ran some tests today and he has three blockages in the ventricles leading to his heart. Right now they are trying to decide if they should put stints in to clear the blockage or do a bypass. The stints have a life range of 12-15 years and they would likely have to replace them when he is in his late 60's. The other option is a triple bypass, which would permanently correct the problem, but have him in the hospital for 7 days and out of work for three months. I plan to visit him in the hospital tomorrow night. Darla has a Silpada sales meeting at the house.

Connie had her surgery on Tuesday and will be out of the office for six weeks. She is feeling stronger every day, but has a great deal of pain. The timing can never be good, but this is really stretching my staff thin.

I took Matt up to Chico this week and introduced him to my agents there. We left Roseville at 6:45 AM and had an 8:30 breakfast, another meeting at 10 AM and then a lunch with another agent. We finished that with a 2 PM call on a fourth agency and all of the calls went really well. The agents that I am turning over to him write a combined $350,000 in premium with us. As I said before, it was a hard decision to make, but one I just had to do. Matt can get up and see the agents and perhaps grow them to over half a million in premium with a more concerted marketing effort. As I told the agenst, I'm still here, but I only expect to hear from them when Matt isn't reaching the customer service level they expect. In other words, I don't plan on hearing from them. It was a good trip and I'm impressed with Matt's demeanor and marketing savvy shown on these calls. He will do very well.

Darryl called me on Friday afternoon and announced that he is leaving McClain and will take a job with Standard Beverage Company in Lawrence, Kansas. I admire him and Cheryl for their ability to shift on the fly. If I was offered a position in our home office in Detroit, I would be moving on my own. Darla isn't leaving Northern California and I can honestly say that I'm not either. I'm lucky to really enjoy my job and the people that I work with. On top of that, I love California (politics aside) and can never imagine leaving. I love the weather, our church and our friends and the golf club and our home. I wouldn't want to mess that up by looking at what is behind door number three. I certainly wish him well and one consolation is that he is moving closer to his family in Texas. I know they all like coming up to Denver to visit and hit the slopes. Kansas has....well......uh, good barbecue? The golf group had tentatively planned to head up to Denver in the Spring to visit Darryl and Cheryl and play golf.

I did make it out to the golf course this weekend, but all of my buddies let me down. Paul from the club joined me and we played the Orchard Course at Lincoln Hills. I shot 42+44=86 and really struggled with my driver on the backside. I managed two birdies during the round, but was quite inconsistent. Paul shot 46+39=85 and played much better on the backside with his two birdies coming on 10 and 12. Paul is an 8 handicap. With Bob having left for San Jose, Mel back in the Philippines and Matt doing his Masters program at UC Davis, that leaves Pamas, Darren and Boyd. Pamas plays in the Golf Channel Am Tour tournaments and works one Saturday a month for the FBI. Darren is inconsistent at best and always has to check with his wife. Boyd is usually good to go, but had a granddaughter's birthday party Saturday. Paul is in now with Boyd and I on Saturdays and I will try to sprinkle in Matt, Neil, Rick, Darren, Pamas and Bob Hand. We had a good time on Saturday. Paul is 58, divorced and likes to carve out time for golf every Saturday (my kind of guy). He moved to the US from Guadalajara when he was 15 and is a registered alien just like the rest of my US family. His green card expired last week and he didn't realize it and was scrambling around to fix that oversight last week. He plans to take out his citizenship in 2012. Darryl and Randy, you should do the same. It's about damn time.

Darla is back in our office working on taxes, getting her receipts together so we can get our tax package off to our accountant before we leave on the cruise. It is always so much fun. We owe every year because Darla does not withhold taxes on two of her jobs. We get our returns back and then wait until the 15th to send in our money. Luckily, I have a bonus check that comes to me in mid March that pays for the taxes due.

We do only have three weeks until we will be on our cruise to the Bahamas. Darla and I leave for San Francisco on February 23rd where we will leave our car at a Sleep and Fly hotel (La Quinta Inn close to the airport). We are looking forward to the trip and I just hope I have a full staff when I leave. That, of course, remains to be seen.

I haven't heard from Jennifer in about a week. She was on nights last week as she was changing out radio receivers on some of the cell towers in Vegas and they have to do it at night when the phone activity is lower. The benefit was that she got some extra time with Samantha and John got to see Sam every evening.

Well, that is the news that is fit to print. Darla has a trip to Dallas coming up right after Valentines Day. She will return from that on Sunday night the 19th and we leave for the cruise on Thursday night. Wild. I hope you are all well. As our pastor says, If you want to be in a better (Friendship, Marriage, Neighborhood, etc.) be a better ( Friend, Spouse, Neighbor, etc.). Good advice. Ciao.