Frances' Birthday 2013

 

We spent Saturday evening up in Paradise at Darla's parent's house. We were invited up and Earl was going to treat us to dinner for Frances' birthday. Alicia and Don decided to join us and their son, Lucas, hasn't been trained to stay in a high chair and it becomes a bit of a pain to be out to dinner with him. They recognize that fact and Don decided to bring ribs and chicken and he fixed dinner in Frances' kitchen. The food was good and the company was great. Lucas was in a good mood and spent a good portion of the day playing in the living room. I had washed the car before we left, because I checked the forecast and rain was not in the forecast for Roseville. I forgot to check the weather in Chico and Paradise and it was raining fairly steadily shortly after we got there and continued up to and beyond when we left. The rain was over and gone by the time we got to Oroville, but it was definitely a waste of my time.

 

We had a good visit and Earl even got pretty serious and talked to the family about the fact that he and Frances are getting older and he has a serious concern that when he has left this earthly coil and is in Heaven, he wants to see all of us there with him. He talked about making sure that each of us had accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour and had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Darla and I were right on board with him and Don and Alicia were both pretty quiet. They ended up leaving shortly after dessert as they had arrived at 2:00 o'clock. We got there about 3:15 PM, so stayed a little longer to visit. Earl shared with us his frustration of getting together with his brothers and sisters and always talking about earthly things and not talking about spiritual things. It was a nice visit and kind of fun to talk about.

 

I played golf today and shot a 40+43=83. Frustrating finish, but it was also a slow back 9 and I play much better if I can get into a good rhythm. I was pretty much on my handicap today, but certainly could have score better. I was even par on the back 9 after 12 and ended up shooting 7 over on the last 6 holes. The weather was great today and the forecast is for warming temperatures the rest of the week and up to about 68 degrees by Thursday. I may try to get one of my retailers out this week to play golf on Thursday afternoon. I hung out awhile after my round and sat with one of the guys who was trying to fill a $1000 Super Bowl pool. I bought one of his $10 squares and had sat with him for about 45 minutes. I got up to talk to Neil and when I came back he was gone and so were my car keys. I tried to reach him by phone, but couldn't and finally had to call Darla to bring my other set of keys so I could drive home. Rob still hasn't called me back and I can only hope that he has them. I checked with both the restaurant and the pro shop and no one turned in my keys. The problem I have right now is that my office keys are on the key ring and I won't be able to get into my office tomorrow. Shawna has a set in her desk and I can get her to meet me earlier. She generally comes into the office about 8 AM and I get there closer to 7:30. If Rob doesn't call me back, I'll get ahold of Shawna and see if she can come in a little earlier tomorrow. It's frustrating. How does someone pick up a set of keys that don't belong to them and then not recognize the fact?

 

Darla and I are still working through this flu. She got a recurrence of  the flu and started coughing and her nose was running. Her co-workers sent her home on Wednesday and she stayed home from work on Thursday and went to the doctor. He gave her some antibiotics, some cold medicine and some Mucinex. I still have a cough and some congestion. It has been a little over two weeks for me and they say this particular flu hangs on for three weeks. So far they are right and I'm looking forward to feeling better this week.

 

I got the final figures in this week for the company in 2012 and we ended the year with a profit in my office of over $950,000. When I took over the office back in 2004, we lost $480,000 that year. I'm proud of the turnaround in my office and look forward to this year as well. Darla and I will buy a new SUV for her in March and Daniel will take her Explorer that we bought new in 2002. It now has over 169,000 miles on it. We will start shopping around my birthday for her. Wait...how does that work?

 

We still don't have any news about Samantha joining Jennifer in the Bay Area. Jennifer hasn't filed anything yet and Darla and I are both nervous about this whole thing. Diane seems comfortable that it will all work out, but I don't know. How does a judge allow Jennifer to take Samantha away from her Dad in Las Vegas? I don't know. As I have said before, I relish the opportunity for Samantha to get out of Las Vegas. It is a filthy, immoral city and no place for a 5 year old to live. The town of Pleasanton is a nice alternative and a great place for her to start elementary school in the fall. We will see. I'm praying that God intervenes in this situation and does what is in the best interest of young Samantha. Jennifer was back in Las Vegas last weekend and Samantha asked her if she could come live with her Mom in California. Jennifer said it made her cry and told Samantha that she has to be patient. 

 

The Super Bowl is next weekend. The Niners are favored by 4 and a half points. It should be a good game. I've been telling all of my Niner friends that this team can do something that no other 49er team has ever done. Lose a Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see how they are treated if they lose. It is one thing that Niner fans are proud of, that they are undefeated in 5 Super Bowl trips. Again, both teams are strong on Defense, but the Niner's quarterback has only played 9 games in his career and he says that he doesn't get nervous. We'll see next week. One of the guys at work sent me a note showing that Kaepernick has 2 playoff wins to only 1 for Tony Romo. My response? Romo is married to a beauty queen and makes $18,000,000 a year. Kaepernick makes $850,000 and has nice Christian tattoos. Don't feel sorry for Tony, he is living the dream and will be at Pebble Beach in two weeks playing in the AT&T National Pro Am.

 

Well, that is it for this week. Hopefully, all is well with each of you. Take some advice from Darla's Dad and examine your walk with Jesus and decide whether you KNOW that you are saved. Living a good life won't get you into heaven which is a perfect place. You have to acknowledge that Christ died for your sins and ask him into your heart. I, too, want to see all of my family and friends in Heaven. Have a good week. Ciao. 

 

 

 

Great Weather in NorCal

No pictures this week, which is rare, but it is what it is. The weather has been fantastic for Winter here in Northern California, with cool overnight lows and highs in the mid sixties under blue skies. The only heat we get is from the sun, so it is COLD at night, but crisp and clear. Sitting in the hot tub and seeing the night sky full of stars and a bright moon is great.

I'm feeling much better after battling the flu for a week. Darla and I took Monday off sick and it was a short week for us. I have been working on employee reviews all week and with my staff it is hard to think of superlatives for most of them. I kidded with one of my more outspoken employees that if I ran out of glowing things to say, that I'd stop and work on her review. All of my underwriters were up dramatically this year and I will have a number of promotions to handle later in the year and things are really humming. I have most of the Assistants and clerical staff completed and have the underwriters left to do this week. The reviews will go to my Executive VP and once approved, back to me for discussions with each of the staff. I have to get the compensation plan completed and then  I can move on to other things. I have one employee moving into production in the second quarter and that will necessitate a shuffle of responsibilities and likely another hire. I have been bringing in entry level employees straight out of college. It is a great place to hire people, but I end up with everyone who has tremendous ambition and eventually want my job. Good, but I need some people who are willing to do the heavy lifting. I think I will hire a typist that wants to be a typist and isn't just keeping the seat warm until they can get promoted onto an underwriting team.

We had breakfast with Lilly and Neil this morning after church at the new Black Bear Diner in Roseville. It was packed and took us a half hour to get in, but the food was worth the wait and we enjoyed our visit with them. I got a text from Peter as we were waiting for our food to come. It read: " Hey, my future son-in-law mangled his hand in a machine, broke two bones in his wrist and lost his fingertips on three fingers. We are at the emergency room in Stockton. I may work from home tomorrow if this turns into a long day. If that is OK with you." I texted him back. "Thanks for the text, it arrived right before our food got here." His response? "Suck it up, tough guy." It was a nice visit with Neil and Lil. We may end up going to Mexico with them again in the Fall.

Neil and I played golf yesterday with Darren and Boyd up in Auburn at Auburn Valley Country Club. The reason we met the Thomas' for breakfast is that Neil and I mixed up our Pebble Beach jackets. He grabbed my XL jacket and I ended up with his M. As Neil said, "Ken likely won't shrink to my size and I can't eat enough to get up to a XL", so we decided  to meet and exchange our clothes. It was cold in the morning, but we teed off at 10 AM and it was up to 55 degrees by the time we teed off. I had my jacket off by the time we got to the green on the first hole. The course was great, but really wet. They got a lot of rain two weeks ago and it still hasn't completely dried out. I had to have the guys push my cart at one point, because it got stuck and we saw two other carts stuck in the mud up to their axles as well. I shot an 82, Neil had a 92 and Darren shot a 98. Boyd shot 39 on the front to my 40, but he turned it on with three birdies on the back side and a tremendous 34 for a 73. He finished with two birdie putts of over 25 feet on the last two holes.

We have our first stroke play tournament of the year next week with close to 100 players signed up. I usually work on the handicap list on the Sunday before the tournament, but the GHIN folks who keep our handicaps decided to do maintenance on the system today, so here I sit waiting for it to come back online. I keep a list of Tournament handicaps and we use the lowest of either the GHIN handicap or the Tournament handicap. I added all of the Tournament handicaps, but have to calculate the GHIN handicaps from the 1/15 recalculation and then decide which is lower for each player. The tournament is our Super Bowl tournament.

I've been watching the Division Championships today. I'm happy for the boys that the Niners are in the Super Bowl. I can't really pull for them, because Dallas fans do NOT pull for the 9ers and vice versa. I am really thrilled that Alex Smith got benched and Colin Kaepernick is in at QB for the Niners. They were almost unwatchable with Alex Smith at QB. He is horrible. Kaepernick was sensational last week, but pretty mundane today. In fact the Niners were asleep the first half, but played tough in the second half on defense and they squeaked out the win. The Niner's coach, Jim Harbaugh is about as high strung a human being as I've seen. His fit on the sidelines when a challenge of his was overturned was borderline hilarious, if it hadn't been so embarrassing. He threw a fit, jumping into the air and throwing his headset. He won't be an NFL coach long unless he harnesses his emotions. He'll have a heart attack if he doesn't learn to control himself. The NFL should fine him because his behaviour was so unprofessional. And then to see Eddie Debartolo in the locker room was surreal. He was banned from the league because he committed a felony in his business when he bribed state officials in Louisiana on a business deal. It was a lot like seeing Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. I guess time heals all wounds, especially if the country has no morals. Which, by the way, ours doesn't.

Pete just texted me. It took 3 and a half hours of surgery to repair the arm and wrist and they are now working on the fingers, which is expected to take longer. He will work from home tomorrow.

I have plans to see Bob in San Jose in March. We got a deal for golf at Eagle Vines in Napa that is about $45 a man and includes golf, range balls, a cart and lunch. Bob sent me a note last week asking for prayer for his wife, Vicky. She had been having problems with her gall bladder and was scheduled for surgery last week. She ended up having a mini stroke in early January and lost feeling in the left side of her body. It is slowly coming back and she should regain total control. She did have her gall bladder removed on Thursday and is dealing with some residual pain, but is doing much better.

Well, that is it for now. Darla and I are relaxing watching the last of the football games for the day. I watched the playoff on the golf channel of the Humana Challenge after the Niner game. It is so nice in Palm Springs. The golf courses are so green and lush and the weather looks so inviting. I finally got my car washed today after about a month of rain and then with our being gone to Hawaii. It is too dark to take care of it when I get home from work. Anyhow, I washed the car and cleaned my golf clubs today at half time of the first game. Funny how small things can make you happy. Happy Birthday to Darryl on his 57th birthday. Hopefully 2013 will be a very good year for he and Cheryl. Have a great week. Ciao.

Back from Hawaii and we brought the flu home with us

Yep, we are back from the nation's 50th state feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, but also bringing home a case of the flu. Darla started feeling the sniffles on the plane on the way to Hawaii and was downing Airborne like a drunk working on a bottle of ripple. It didn't do much good as she came down with the flu on Wednesday and hnd it through the weekend. I finally picked it up on Friday night and it started with a sore throat, that turned into nasal congestion and finally a runny nose and bad headache. I would cough or sneeze and my head felt like it was going to explode. Flying home on the five hour flight last night was a little brutal, but I had been up Saturday night tossing and turning and was able to sleep a good portion of the flight. As much as I hated to do it, because I need to get caught up at work, I called in sick today and stayed in bed until 3:00 PM. It was a little surreal for me, because I consider anything over about 7 hours of sleep to be borderline slovenly.  I think I needed it.

We got home a little after midnight last night and I went into the spa, which in hindsight wasn't very smart. It was 28 degrees outside and although the spa felt wonderful, the journey from the spa back into our room was freezing and I ended up with chills racking my body that took almost five minutes to subside. What was Darla thinking letting me do that? (J/K)

The trip itself was great. We hadn't been to Oahu since we were both 18, it's been about twenty years or so for me (that's what I was telling the staff). Honolulu is a BIG city with traffic problems and infrastructure difficulties. The mass of humanity and asphalt is too much for me and not what I go to an island to see. Waikiki is nice, but crowded. The beaches are nice, but crowded, and the hotels are very nice but crowded. If you didn't get down to the pool by 10 AM, there were no open seats. That's not to say that there were people in all of the seats. Some were likely off on excursions, but their chair was saved with a book and a towel. I sat out on Wednesday and there was one set of six chairs that had towels and bags on them and no one came to sit in them from 11 o'clock in the morning until 4:30 when we went in.

I appreciate the Silpada outings and the fact that we fly all over the world and visit places like the Bahamas, Mexico, Hawaii, Panama, Puerto Rico, Aruba, etc., but I am so tired of the Silpada women that have an aire of privilege to them. There are generally two events during our trips, the opening event and dinner and the closing event and dinner. Other than that, we are free to come and go as we please which is great. We lined up a half hour early for the opening dinner and we were probably 60th in line. From that point forward we watched as over 200 women and their guests pushed in front of us and took their places in line. Most would recognize a friend and jump the line, but some would just brazenly walk forward and take a spot ahead of everyone. It was insane. The line when we got there was about 4 people wide. By the time they let us in the line was as wide as the hallway with probably 25 people across.

We had a group of 6 Canadians in front of us that turned into about 60 Canadians as everyone knew each other and would just push in ahead of us. Several of the women had fake Canadian tattoos on the arms, so they were easy to spot. I had struck up a conversation with one couple from Vancouver and when it became obvious that the entire country would push ahead of us, I suggested that because this was the first International Silpada event, that there was a separate line just for the Canadians and Great Britain's and they should go check it out. I had one or two ready to jump the line, but Darla told them I was just kidding. Rudeness comes in many fashions and it always amazes me that the people involved don't see their actions as rude.

Darla's "rock star" Lisa and her boyfriend, Don, rented a Volvo convertible for Friday and invited us to tour the island with them. The Avis people sent us out front to wait on the car and 45 minutes later, Lisa finally went back to check with them on why it was taking so long. It turns out the car was a hard top convertible and had been sitting there the entire time. We drove into Honolulu with the intention of having a late breakfast, but had a heck of a time finding a breakfast restaurant. We finally found Zippy's a bakery and diner, but they stopped serving breakfast at 11. I stopped a local in front of the restaurant to ask about breakfast restaurants and he said, "If you can find a Zippy's they are really good". I pointed at the huge sign behind me and he said, "well, there you go." We drove around until about 11:30, gave up and had lunch at a Chili's. From there we drove out to the Pealr Harbor site and went through the museum. We opted not to take any of the boat tours to the memorials as they are basically, a memorial built with all of the names of the dead and living from the attack. From there we drove back past Waikiki and on to Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay. We stopped at Haunama Bay, took some pictures and opted not to pay $7.50 a head to walk the mile down to the beach. It is a snorkeling site and we didn't have any gear.

We did stop at Sandy Beach where you can see a picture of the high surf. It was a red flag warning day as the surf was 12-18 feet at any given time and it was powerful. We relaxed at the beach and then drove back to the resort at the Sheraton. Darla had thought we were staying at the Hyatt resort, but we were instead at the Sheraton Waikiki and right at the entrance to the Shops at Waikiki. There is every expensive shop you can imagine from Rolex to Coach to Vivendi to even Peugeot. And there was a virtual Asian invasion of little Japanese and Asian people flocking into the stores and walking out with bags brimming with purchases.

Saturday was the start of my flu like symptoms and also the Silpada farewell Party. We lined up for the buses at 6 PM and again watched as 100s of people pushed in front of us to gain access to the earliest buses. The event was held at the Iolani Palace, the former residence of the King Kalakaua and Queen Lili'uokalani, a palace that almost bankrupted Hawaii back in 1879. King Kalakaua was the first King of Hawaii to visit the United States and he worked with President Grant to put together a reciprocity agreement to allow Hawaiian sugar into the United States duty free. We ate in the gardens of the Iolani Palace and had a great meal with about five courses. It was typically first class by Silpada and very enjoyable.

The travel Sunday was rough as I had not slept well Saturday night, up coughing and wheezing all night. When we got to the airport, we had lunch and then joined Lisa and Don at the gate awaiting our flight. Lisa had saved us chairs next to them and right next to an elderly woman. Darla pulled me back and whispered, "You sit next to Lisa and you know why." I didn't know why and tried to think when was the last time I had assaulted an old lady in an airport. Lisa could see I was conflicted and leaned over and said, "because you are sick, Ken, you don't want to infect the old lady" Oh yeah, right.

Well, that's it for this week. I have poker here Friday night and then play golf with the boys on Saturday up at Auburn Country Club. I will also host a budget buster lunch with food catered by a Greek restaurant on Wednesday for the staff. Here's to a good week and to each of you avoiding this flu that is going around. I know Randy had pneumonia, This is a bad year for illness. Ciao.

Back to Hawaii again? Somebody's got to do it!

We are once again jetting off to Hawaii this time on Tuesday for 6 days with Darla's jewelry business. We will stay in Waikiki on Oahu at the Hyatt resort. The weather has been windy over in Maui, but typically 79-82 degrees in Honolulu with overnight lows in the low 70's. They get a little more rain this time of year and you can expect a shower at some point most days, but also plenty of blue skies and sunshine. We look forward to getting away.

Today was rainy and overcast in the morning, but the weather broke about noon and we ended up with a bright blue sky and sunshine by the time Darla and I slipped into the hot tub about 4 o'clock. We had a fire in the fireplace because it was so cold this morning and when we were sitting in the tub, I could smell something burning. I thought the equipment was overheating before I noticed the smoke billowing out of our chimney and slowly lowering to the ground in the near windless air.

Jennifer spent the weekend with us and will head back to Pleasanton tomorrow with her cats. Darla will be happy to see them go as she has been on her own caring for the cats, cleaning up after them, socializing with them and feeding and keeping fresh water available to them. Our 1 week favor turned into three and Jennifer will finally move into her apartment next weekend. It has been nice having her. Her boyfriend, McKenny, stayed in the Bay Area at his music store, sleeping on a couch and using the showers at the 24 hour Fitness. They are staying the rest of the week in an Extended Stay hotel and get the keys to their new apartment next weekend. Jennifer will fly back to Vegas the following weekend to be with Samantha.

I have some pictures to load to the blog from our New Years party and from Becky's (Daniel's girlfriend) visit during the holidays. Unfortunately, the upload mechanism on blogspot is not working today, so I may add them after the fact.

I played golf on New Years day and again this weekend. New Years was a great dat and I shot another 79 at Diamond Oaks. This weekend was another story as I struggled in the cold and wet and managed a 45+42=87 on Woodcreek. I will take next weekend off as I will be in Hawaii, but will get back to it when I get back home.

Now that the budget is complete at work, I am working on employee salary reviews. I have most of the month of January and part of February to get them done, but I have to write each of the reviews, have meetings with each of the employees to go over goals and objectives for 2013 and then have to go over their written response to my reviews. I have each of the underwriters writing up a review on the members of their team now and that will help me immensely in putting all of this together. The budget technically hasn't been approved yet, but I was aggressive in my forecasting and think it will stick.

My former employee, Anthony, got an appointment with my largest carrier starting in January. I found out about it from one of my agents who called to assure me that our business was safe from a mass exodus to Anthony's firm. I called the Underwriting Vice President to ask her to assure me that her statement to me from July: "We are not taking on any new wholesalers, in fact we are looking to decrease our representation...you can take that to the bank." was still accurate. She was on vacation and I asked her to call me on her return to reiterate her stance. She called, rather hat in hand and said, it's just business, Ken. I told her if I took her word to the bank, it would have bounced. Harvey asked me if I was worried about the competition going forward and I told him I was concerned, but not worried. Anthony's firm doesn't have a good reputation and large insurance companies don't want to take money from one pocket and put it in the other. The one thing I was told is that the appointment is for new business only. It will have an impact, no doubt, but I know we pay a higher commission to most of our agents and money talks. The one impact may be to the large carrier as we will be a little less anxious to run additional business their way. One of my goals in 2013 was to build their volume back up as we were down about 25% on their business to $3,000,000 in total. Business is business and it goes both ways.

We are going out to dinner tonight with Jennifer at Chicago Fire Pizza. I have a gift card for $50 and it is her favorite pizza restaurant.

Well, not a lot of news and I will try to add some pictures later as it is not happening right now. I hope everyone is doing well. I know Randy had pneumonia and the creepy crud is going around. So far we have avoided it and my plan is to hide from it on a tropical island. Ciao.

New Year 2013 is Upon Us

The New Year hits on Tuesday and in looking back over 2012, it was a really good year for us. My business really came alive during the year and the hires that I have made after losing my top producer to a competitor have brought some top notch college graduates to the office. Our move in April allowed me to occupy a first class office building, which has helped with recruiting and with the general mood and atmosphere in the office. It is nice to work in a really nice office building and we have picked up our game since the move. I have one day left in December and we are already up over 55% in premium over December of 2011. Our goals for 2013 are pretty lofty, but doable with an overall uptick of 13.3% for the year in revenue.

2012 was also a very good year for Darla and I personally as we saw our two sons graduate from Cal Poly SLO and get on to jobs of their own. They are not yet working in their fields, but they are active and contributing to society by paying taxes to allow Obama to continue to shift wealth from workers to bums and drug addicts. How proud we all are to be part of the enabling of the "don't want to works", also know as committed Democrats. It will be a long four years, but I have already shifted a big portion of my retirement into precious metals for the coming problems in the economy brought on by rampant overspending of the government. I hope things continue to pick up.  I see it with my business as some of the infrastructure contractors (remodelers, communications, etc) are beginning to ramp up. It is my opinion that Obama does not want to gulf the fiscal cliff). He will blame Republicans for his own failure (what else is new) and then will lower taxes just for the middle and lower classes and extend unemployment (again) for the hundreds of thousands of workers that are out of work and not really looking for a job, but collecting unemployment (the so called "long-term" unemployed). It is getting old with this President. One of the drones of Obama, Bill Maher, said that he worries about the American Public because they aren't very smart. Proof positive based on the reelection of Barrack Hussein Obama.

We had our annual New Years dinner on Saturday and both of our guests had leads for David. Camille is the head of a 1000 person call center with PG&E and has David signing up on their recruiting site and using her as a referral. Rick has used the services of one of the largest architectural firms in Roseville as a contractor with the e state of California and knows the principal well. He asked for a copy of David's resume to forward to him. Networking is good.

The Cowboys laid an egg again in a "do or die" game in the NFL and it gets old. Jerry Jones stubbornly sticks to his guns as a GM and spend all off season trying to fix holes in the organization only to overpay for talent, ending up with broken down offensive linemen that can't stop false starting or holding and even when cheating, can't keep the defenders from raining on Romo. Randy has been off the Romo bandwagon for awhile, but statistically Romo is a top five quarterback  and my problem is that I live in Northern California and have watched the side show that is Alex Smith for years. He is a mediocre talent that can't throw the ball beyond about 12 yards with any accuracy. When he is "on" he throws for 175 yards and one touchdown. Romo averages 300 yards and two touchdowns a game. He needs a better offensive line and they need to improve their defensive line, especially their end play. The team needs a makeover, but quarterback is not the problem. The GM and his fumbling of the draft and free agency is the biggest issue.

Darla and I talked to Samantha on Face Time tonight with Jennifer. She showed us all of her toys and presents she got for Christmas and her birthday, including the princess castle that we bought for her.  She took us on a tour of her bedroom and the boys also bought her an art program that has a camera and attaches to your TV. You take a picture and then can trace it on your paper. She took a picture of herself and had it on her TV. It was great. She hasn't traditionally done well on Skype, but she did really well on the Face Time, which is on the iphone system. Jennifer and I both have iphones and we were able to hook it up tonight.

Our weather has finally turned for the better. We added another 4 inches of rain this last week and we are now up to 85% of our total annual rainfall which takes us through June of next year. The weather finally broke Saturday afternoon. I played golf Saturday under the threat of rain. It was overcast, but the rain never did materialize. I shot a surprise 39+40=79 at Diamond Oaks and took $9 from my friends. Boyd shot 84 and Darren had a 92. I will play golf on Tuesday at Diamond Oaks with the weekly group and then play Woodcreek on Saturday with my weekend group. Darren and I spotted a couple of Golden Eagles in the trees by the sixth hole. Darren got the picture above right before the eagle swooped from his branch and grabbed a frog in it's claws and the two of them took off for a meal.

Jennifer will be moving into an apartment in Pleasanton. She has signed a one year lease. It is probably the easiest town in the Bay Area for us to get to because we drive in from I-5 to 580 and down to Pleasanton. We miss all of the traffic in the Bay Area. I can't wait until Samantha gets moved here. The waiting is the hard part.

I work until about mid afternoon tomorrow and then Darla and I will head over to friends tomorrow night to ring in the New Year. It is late after watching the mess that was the Redskin-Dallas game and
I will sign off now to spend the last of the evening with my bride. I wish you all a prosperous and relationship filled new year. Be nice to each other and if need be, draw closer to God. In these days, it is the only thing that keeps me sane, the knowledge that God is in control. Ciao.

Christmas is Coming!

 

It is the calm before the storm. No, that's wrong, in truth the storm rolled in yesterday and we have wind, rain and more rain. This is one of the wettest years that I can remember. Our normal rainfall Jul 1 to date is 6 inches and we have received 10.24 inches to date. I know Dad and Shirley and folks in Seattle would laugh at us, but it does interfere with our golfing here in Northern California.

 

You can see from the picture above that Jennifer is here with us. Her job started last Monday and her boyfriend left for Virginia on Friday. She drove up Friday night and will be here until Wednesday morning, celebrating Christmas with us. She drove up to Yuba City today and had brunch with Jason, her friend that still comes up to Lake Almanor with us. Tomorrow she will meet Diane's other ex-husband, Bill, and her friend, Sarah, for lunch in Folsom. She is in the process of walking all of the sites that she will be working the next few weeks and has been on her computer since she arrived making notes and preparing for walking the sites with her Manager. Jennifer will then need to make arrangements to order materials and equipment for the construction job. She will work Wednesday and Thursday and then heads to Vegas Friday through Monday to hang out with Samantha. We Skyped with Sam on Friday and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She was in a great mood and showed us some presents that she had. Jennifer will celebrate Sam's birthday and Christmas next weekend. Sam is with John and his family in Southern California for Christmas. Sam is 5 now and will start Kindergarten next Fall.

 

The other picture is of Darla's cousin, Brenda and her husband, Mark and daughter, Meghan. They were in town to celebrate Christmas with Mark's family and drove out to Roseville and had dinner with us at Sammy Hagar's restaurant downtown. It was a nice visit. They live in San Jose and we need to get out there to see them and Bob and Vicki.

 

We will have a houseful on Christmas Day with Darla's parents, Jennifer, David, Daniel and Darla's sister, husband and nephew, Luke. We are serving a Prime Rib (7 rib) and all of the trimmings. The boys will be over tomorrow night and we will open presents. We will also go to Christmas Eve service at church and sing Christmas carols and enjoy the Christmas sermon. We were going to go to service on Saturday night, but cancelled when Brenda was able to come by.

 

We had our Christmas party for work on Thursday at Sammy Hagar's restaurant in Roseville. The manager over at Sammy's was great and set up a deal for us to have a limited menu and add sodas and coffee and tea for an extra $2.50 and give each person a drink ticket for another $5.00. We were able to feed 22 of us for just a little over $400 with tax and tip included. We did our gift exchange where we draw numbers and you can steal. I was the first person to choose and at various times during the afternoon had a wine pack, a vodka pack, a set of binoculars, and a blanket. All of those were stolen from me and I ended up with a pizza maker. Darla took one look at it when I got home and said it was a space waster. I have one of my guys, a 23 year old, that really wanted it, so I will bring it to him on Wednesday. Our newest employee, Dylan, who will type policies for me and back up on Underwriting teams, was invited and will start for me on January 2nd. His first day, he ended up with a Grey Goose gift pack and a $50 gift card for Chicago Fire pizza.Not a bad first day. I bought $50 gift cards for everyone and set those up on a table and had everyone pick one as their number came up. The gift cards could be stolen as well and it was an amusing free for all as gifts and gift cards were taken at will. Each gift or card could be stolen twice and then were locked. I had about four of each card, so it was an interesting match. Darla and I ended up with both a gift card for Suede Blue, an upscale Roseville restaurant, and one for McCormick and Schmick's steakhouse.

 

Our office is doing great again in December and we are really on a roll at the end of the year. As of Friday, we were already 35% up over December of 2011. We are getting some good attention in Home Office for our recent run of success. Things are really going great as we wind up the year. I finished my budget on Friday and have figured in a 13% increase over 2012, which will be a record year for my office. I am a blessed man.

 

Well, that is it. I will be back at the keyboard next weekend for the last blog entry of the year. Darla and I will also be hosting a year end party for friends on Saturday night and we will fix another prime rib. New Years eve we have been invited to a party at Freida and Charlie's house in Granite Bay.We will have the same gang over on Saturday that we went to dinner with last week. It is basically the crew that we went to San Francisco with and John and Camille. We have invited Bob and Vickie from San Jose to join us, but don't really expect them. We invited them to stay in our extra bedroom. It would be nice if they could make it. Have a tremendous Christmas Day and God bless all of my family and friends. Ciao.

 

Jennifer is Back in California

Yep. Jennifer starts her new job tomorrow. Samantha is back in Vegas for now and Jennifer is keeping her apartment there until she can get to court  and get her moved to California. Her job is in Pleasanton (that's the office), but she is in charge of facilities from the Bay Area to the Oregon border. The facilities are T Mobile infrastructure and Jen will be working for an Independent Contractor that has a contract for the facilities with Ericcson Electric, which holds the contract to build and service these facilities. Jennifer is a Construction  Manager and will manage the team of electricians that are working at the sites. I asked her if she'll be rolling up her sleeves and doing some of the work herself. Her contract only allows her to supervise the electricians and not do any of the physical work herself. It is a really good job and her new boyfriend, McKenny, helped her arrange the job. He now works directly for Ericcson and did work for the Independent Contractor that Jennifer works for. She hopes to get on full time with Ericcson in the near future. In the meantime, this job is a very high paying position that will allow her to provide for her and Samantha.

Jennifer and McKenny drove up on Saturday afternoon to drop off her two cats, who will be here until they get moved into a house. Right now they are looking in Santa Rosa, although they are staying at an extended stay hotel in Pleasanton for the interim. Darla and I took them out to dinner at Ginger's, a Hawaiian style cafe in Roseville. McKenny got right into the theme as he ordered loco moco, a Hawaiian breakfast delicacy made from rice, beef patties, two eggs and brown gravy. There is also Spam loco moco, that he was smart enough to avoid. McKenny lived in Hawaii for two years and even drives a car that still has Hawaii plates. he seems like a really nice guy and Jennifer is rather taken with him. They drove home after dinner.

Jennifer will come and spend Christmas with us as Samantha will stay with Jon and they are visiting his family in Southern California. Jennifer had Samantha over Thanksgiving this year. She will work in the Bay Area this week and drive up on Friday and stay through Christmas. Samantha's birthday is this Friday and Jennifer won't see her until the weekend before New Years.

It is back to a series of rain and storms. I played golf yesterday afternoon after being pushed out of the house for one of Darla's Silpada parties. We teed off at noon right behind Dave and Wes, our old neighbors from Padgett Way. Missy, the wife and Mom was at my house with Darla handling the party. I played with Pamas and Paul and shot a 42+43=85. The rain came in on the back side and was pretty steady by the time we finished up. It was nice to get out and stretch my legs and the price was right. $35 at Morgan Creek Country Club with a cart and range balls thrown in. I had a bowl of their three meat soup before I teed off and it helped to warm up my bones.

Thursday night was the annual sale and Christmas party for the Diamond Oaks pro shop. I went over and bought some golf gloves and another pair of golf shoes. For that purchase I received three tickets for the drawing and promptly won a new Burton Signature Cart Golf bag. I have a brand new Ping bag and so I put the bag on Craigslist Friday night. The bag lists for $159 on the Burton website, but I found it online for $89.95. I priced it at $50 and had someone text me almost immediately to ask me to hold it for him. He came by Saturday morning and bought it for his father for $50. A good deal for him and for me.

I also bought a new flat screen TV for the master bedroom with the money I got from the Wade Cable award. We don't watch much television in the room, but I do tape Headlines on Monday nights on the Tonight Show. Darla always complained that the 20 inch TV we had was way too small, so I bought a 32" HDTV for the room. I can see sitting in there more often and watching TV before we go to sleep.

The company had us adhere to a corporate gift for our agents this Holiday season and would not pay for each branch to purchase individual gifts. What they ended up with was branded popcorn tins with caramel popcorn. I would have appreciated the three type popcorn tins, but they were not an option. The issue is that the tins are $24 each and I could buy similar popcorn at Costco for $16. The second problem is that it was ordered so late that we will not even receive it until tomorrow. One of my underwriters was bemoaning that fact this week, asking if she should sing the Little Drummer Boy ("I have no gifts to bring, pahrump a pum-pum-rump-a-pum-pum.") We will be running around this week delivering the booty to our agents.

Darla has her Christmas party for her Silpada gals on Tuesday night and I have again been banished from my own home. I will ride this one out at the casino in Lincoln. Thursday is my Christmas lunch for the office. We will go to Sammy Hagar's Island Bar and Grill in Roseville. That is our friends and us from the Golf Club at Sammy's on Friday night in the picture above. We will enjoy lunch and have our annual gift exchange, where we pick numbers and then pick wrapped gifts off of the table and they can be stolen by the next person or they can pick another off the table. I have $45 per employee to buy gift cards. I end up buying most of them from Costco where I can get two $50 gift cards for $80. I'll get about 6 different cards and have four of each to choose from and they will also be able to steal the gift cards. It makes for a lot of fun and can test some people's patience.

It was Shirley's birthday this weekend and we have Samantha's and Janelle's coming up this week. After the tragedy in Connecticut this week, it makes us appreciate our friends and family even more. There will likely be a rush to want to institute gun controls nationwide again, especially with the deaths of so many innocent children. The problem with that (and you can't get liberals to understand this), but criminals don't buy their guns from gun shops, they buy them out of trunks of cars with the serial numbers filed off. If the public would just look at countries that have armed citizens, they will see that criminal activity is almost non existent. The reason that criminal activity is rampant with firearms in this country is that the criminal rarely have to worry that their victims will fight back.

The above says it all. Well, that is it for this week. Have a relaxed and safe week this week as we all prepare to celebrate the birth of the Baby Jesus, our Saviour and Redeemer. Ciao.

Happy holidays Indeed!

Another week has gone by and another holiday party is in the books. I hosted our first Holiday Open House at work on Thursday night and it was a tremendous success. We had over 125 guests  come and enjoy the food, beverages and conversation. You can even see in the last picture that the bosses' wife even showed up and was part of the fun. I took the Executive Vice President, Ron,  of one of our largest retailers and his wife out to dinner after the party and Darla, Matt, Harvey and Pete joined us at Sammy's Rockin' Island Grill in Roseville for some dinner and conversation.

The top picture above is of my entire staff  and we are using this picture as our Holiday card this year. I enlarged the photo and used it in a photo card that I'll pick up on Tuesday at Costco. We had a great time and even met one of our company VPs for breakfast on Friday morning. Harvey stayed over Thursday night and spent a little time after breakfast with some of our newer employees. We had five of our insurance companies send Managers to our party and four of the five flew in and back on the same day, which was a tremendous honor to me. The party went really well and the food and drink were plentiful. I did not have to send anyone out to get more beer or wine and planned that well. Also, I had two of my carriers give me $250 which paid for all of the beverages.

The staff was great. I had spent time ahead of the party to coach them about making sure to meet and greet each of the guests as they came in and to offer to get them drinks . I also insisted that they remain engaged during the event and that I didn't want to see staff members visiting with each other and they were great about making people comfortable, doing tours of the office, and making sure that our guests were well taken care of.

Well, it has been a month since I was on the golf course. I didn't practice or do anything golf related in the four weeks and I let my heel heal (so to speak). After that kind of a layoff, the rest was evident this weekend. I had a golf board meeting on Saturday followed by golf at Morgan Creek Country Club. I hit a bucket of balls and chipped and putted before the round, but still managed to duck hook my first drive out of bounds. I lost four balls on the front side and shot a 45. I calmed down a little on the back side and shot a 42, but still lost two balls OB on the back. I was happy to have the Saturday round to prepare me for today's tournament, our last of the year. The Dallas-Cincinnati game was on and I sat in the restaurant and watched the first half before teeing off at 11:40 AM.  I hit four drives on the range and headed to the tee. I bogeyed the first hole and then ripped off six pars before bogeying 8 and 9 for a 39. The back side was similar with 4 straight pars followed by bogeys on 4 of the last 5 holes for a 40 and a total of 79. I was thrilled with the round, although I had numerous birdie chances that went unrewarded throughout the day. The short game is the first part of the game to suffer and although I only had one three putt on the day, I also only had four one putts. Bottom line is I took a month off, let my heal get better and then came back and took first place in my first tournament back with a net 68. Good stuff.

I got the Christmas lights up on Saturday afternoon after golf and also got a chance to wash my car. It is nice to have the lights up, the leaves gone and some really good weather after the storm last week. Today was mid sixties under a bright blue sky. The course took a beating last week with the 5 inches of rain in three days, but it is back to green and beautiful although still pretty wet. The rushing water on the course took out one of the foot bridges over the creek on number four. The water actually lifted the bridge up off it's pilings and moved it about a foot. That buckled the wood planks and they have some repairs left to do.

I have a number of Holiday lunches to attend this week and Darla and I will take Jeff and Linda out to dinner in Folsom on Tuesday night. I also have the IBA Sacramento Holiday party on Tuesday and will take another agency to lunch on Wednesday. Saturday we will get together with Neil and Lilly and enjoy a meal out again at Sammy's Bar and Grill here in Roseville.

Darla and I went out on the weekend and got her a new radio for her car that has Bluetooth capability. She got a cell phone ticket a couple of weeks ago and we needed to get her a new radio anyhow, so we combined the two and she now uses her radio to make and receive calls. Merry Christmas, Darla and Daniel gets some benefit out of it because he will take her car when we buy her a new SUV next year.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you are all getting prepared to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ in a little over two weeks. Be well. Ciao.

We Survived the Deluge

 

We had a series of storms blow in over the last four days on the back of a Pineapple Express blowing in from Hawaii. We received about a third of our annual rainfall in those four days and almost 3 inches overnight. I had emptied the pool down to the bottom of the tile yesterday and it not only reached the coping, but the flowerbeds adjacent to the pool all overflowed and I ended up with both dirt and some bark chips floating in the pool. Always a fun event. The rain actually stopped this morning and I was able to get out and clean up the backyard of downed leaves, drain the pool and clean up the spa and clean out the filters and drains on the pool. The job in the front yard of raking up and piling the leaves was made easier by the wet leaves and no wind. Working with wet leaves is certainly easier, especially when you are piling them on the street. The "claw" will be along tomorrow and will pick up all of the leaves and haul them away. Nice to see all of the bare trees after this storm. There are still quite a few leaves on the roof along the flashing that will eventually find their way to the ground.

We did have the Christmas party for the Golf Club last night. Darren and Marissa were supposed to join us for their first experience with the club's holiday party, but Marissa fell ill after contacting some illness on the flight home from Dallas last week. She was having trouble breathing and Darren took her to the 24 hour Emergent Care on Saturday morning. Darla and I went over at 6:30 and had a great night with Rick and Jan, Tim and Sue, Dick and Denise and Neil and Lilly. I was lucky enough to win the "Wade Cable" Award, which is the lifetime achievement award for the club. It is the award that is given annually to a board member who has been a valuable board member for a sustained period of time. I have been a board member now for 9 of the last 11 years and  guess it was my turn in the barrel. Neil, Rick, Charlie and Gary are all past winners of the award. Wade Cable was a board member and his son set up an annual award after his death in the seventies that honors a board member each year. The award comes with a nice plaque and a $250 stipend. I also won two free rounds at Diamond Oaks in the door prize drawing. We stayed until about 11 PM and enjoyed a few adult beverages as well as some dancing during the evening.

I'm very proud of Darla as she promoted up at the end of November with Silpada to a Silver Manager. I'm not exactly sure what the parameters are for the promotion, but she has two of her team that are now Star Leaders (her prior title) and she had to have a certain amount of dollar income from herself and her team. She was sweating it right up until 10 PM on Friday night. She texted me while I was at poker to say she hit the mark. There are only two Silver Managers in all of Northern California and her percentage goes up on her team's earnings. She is thrilled and i am very happy for her. When that girl puts her mind to something, she gets it done.

We finished the month at work with an increase of over 65% in premium increase and 54% in net income increase over November of 2011. We ended up number two in the entire company in percentage increase for revenue in November. We were second to an office that writes half of what we write. We were also up over $80,000 in income and second to New Orleans, which is a $60,000,000 branch. I am absolutely thrilled and blessed to have such a great and hard working staff.  We will host a Holiday Party on Thursday night and have over 125 guests coming to see our new space and enjoy some appetizers and libations. I also have about 6 company executives coming in for the party. Harvey will be here and i am taking one of our $1,000,000 agencies out to dinner. Ron is a member of the golf club and also a VP with a large national insurance brokerage. I invited Ron to dinner after our event and also invited his wife. Darla will join us and we will have dinner at Sammy Haggar's Rockin' Island Grill in Roseville. Darla has not met Harvey and it will be a good opportunity for them to visit on Thursday night.

Jennifer sent me a text this week that she has accepted a job in the Bay Area. She is dating a guy who is moving to the Bay Area to take a job and I can only imagine that he hooked her up with the same company. I think it is Ericsson Electronics, but I'm not sure. I asked her by text if she had told John yet and she said she had. Apparently, they have a mediation appointment with the courts and then the courts will decide if Jennifer can take Samantha to California. We are thrilled and hope it all works out for her and Samantha. I enjoy visiting Las Vegas, but think that it is a lurid, horrible town to raise children. There is nudity all over buses, billboards and signs all over town. Samantha so far has not been adversely effected by the town, but as she gets older, it will be harder and harder to keep her innocent.

Jennifer and Samantha will fly out on January 4th to visit with us and to see an animatronics show at Sleep Train Arena. The show is "How to train your dragon" and stars Astrid, the little girl that she dressed up as for Halloween. We haven't seen them since mid August when we were in Vegas to see them for Jennifer's birthday. Darla and I leave for Waikiki on January 8th and will be there for five nights on her annual Soar trip. Next year is Panama and Darla is well on her way to qualifying for that trip. She has until June of 2013 to qualify and is well on her way.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope all is well in your world. I will make sure to wear plenty of sunscreen in Hawaii. Dad has been diagnosed with skin cancer again and got yelled at by his doctor for his dark tan coming home from Mexico. He was wearing 75 SPF sunscreen, but the years of exposure to the sun are catching up to him. Be well. Ciao.

Thanksgiving for Everything in Life

 

We had an awesome weekend, with some family time on Thanksgiving and then some alone time on our trip Friday and Saturday to Half Moon Bay. You can see the leaves that we came back to from Hawaii. It is about to come to an end as the trees across the street are almost bare. The liquid ambers on the side yard are a little behind on losing their leaves and I'll be working those leaves for a few more weeks. You can see the picture of Lucas with Papa above from Thanksgiving. It was one of the only pictures with his pacifier out of his mouth and I am not a fan of those things. I was very happy when Samantha finally gave hers up.

 

The second picture is from our dinner on Friday night at Sam's Chowder House on the Cabrillo Highway (Highway 1) in Half Moon Bay. They are known for their clam chowder and for their lobster rolls, who no less an authority that Good Morning America has listed as one of the top 5 sandwiches in the United States. They happened to have a singer from Thunder Bay, Ontario Billy Manzik playing in the bar and we were seated in the bar for our dinner. As I listened to his music, I made the comment that it would make great traveling music and that we should buy a CD. When Darla went up at a break to buy the CD, Billy said to her, "the CD is really good traveling music." The CD was actually made when he was part of a group of musicians and the extra instruments are actually a slight improvement over his acoustic set he was doing in the bar.

 

The third picture down is of the beach at Half Moon Bay, where we went Saturday morning and relaxed at the beach. It was a little breezy, so we decided to take our sandwiches which we bought at the San Benito Inn where we stayed Friday night with us to San Francisco. I was looking for a nice spot overlooking the city and we found Grand View Park which is near San Francisco State university and is actually a high hill that you have to climb up to. Darla counted the stairs and there were 22 per flight and seven flights up to the park. There is one bench at the apex of the hill and we sat there and enjoyed our sandwiches.

 

The final picture is of the sitting room in our suite at the San Benito Inn. We had a Groupon, which is an online coupon for travel and services, that I bought in January. I bought the Groupon for a two night stay in a queen room at the San Benito Inn, but the Romance Suite was available when we checked in and we upgraded for $50 a night to the two room suite with a private bath. The original room was with a shared bathroom. The suite is really nice with hardwood floors, an upgraded bathroom and a large overstuffed bed with antiques and artwork in the room. that was the good part. The bad part was the unending noise from the bar below. The Romance suite is on the street side of the Inn and directly over the bar. Apparently the bar is one of the only hangouts for locals in the area and it used to stay open until 2 AM, but the new owners have changed the hours to close at midnight because of the noise for the inn's guest. They actually turned down the music at 10 PM, but Darla and I were done after just the one night. The noise was deafening and the "F" bombs being dropped by one drunk patron were not adding to the "Romance" feeling of the suite if you get my drift. We checked out after breakfast and were given a refund of the second night's stay. The Inn is really charming, but the 120 year old building just doesn't have the acoustics of newer buildings and sound tends to travel. One of our issues is that the suite does not have a television or stereo and there is no way to mute the noise from the bar.

 

The town itself is really cute with restaurants and shops lining main Street. Dad and Shirley: it would be like spending the night in an Inn in Fort Langley. Darla and I walked the strip and ended up buying some books from the used book store in town. Darla found a nice jacket that she decided to go back and buy on Saturday morning, but the shop owner never showed up. I look at it that she saved $100, but she was disappointed. We got home at about 4:30 Saturday and I washed the car before we went to church. Today, we just relaxed and watched football and I had a nap in the afternoon.

 

Jennifer and Samantha joined her Mom in Southern California for Thanksgiving at Diane's husband's family's house in Redlands. Jennifer is dating a guy from Southern California and they all get together for dinner. They were driving back to Las Vegas this afternoon. 

 

The results this month at work are epic. As of Friday, we are up 35% over November of 2011 with a full week left to go. Things are really clicking and it is really rewarding to see the hard work that my staff has been doing paying off so handsomely for all of us. We even were able to withstand the loss that we had to pay for ourselves and it is basically a non factor on our profitability because we are up so dramatically this month. We are still working on the Holiday Open House that will be held on Thursday December 6th. We are still working on the menu and the guest list. Shawna received a quote of $3500 from one of the local restaurants and I had a good laugh over appetizers for 150 for $3500. We can and will do better than that. it is not a sit down dinner for 150 for God's sake.

 

I have been off of golf for three weeks and will get back in the saddle weather permitting next Saturday. The layoff has been good for my heel and it feels much better. Hopefully, the worse is behind me. Time will tell.

 

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and have much to be thankful in your life. I'll be back at the keyboard next Sunday. Our RGC Christmas party is next Saturday night and so it begins. Ciao.