Daniel is all Married Up!

 

 

A GREAT time with friends and, especially, family on our trip. Most of my family were there, so for most of my readers, this is all recap. You know what? Recapping a great weekend is what it's all about.

 

Darla and I left for Aptos on Wednesday morning. I had to clean the pool and mow the lawn, so we got on the road late morning. We got into Aptos about 3:00 after stopping for some food along the way. We found the condo and were pleasantly surprised at how big and clean it was and it had all sorts of toys, games and videos for Sam. We went into town and shopped at an overly expensive grocery store in town and paid 25 cents a bag for the ability to cart our purchases out of the store. We spent $140 for basically three days worth of food (3 meals a day for six of us). It did include a nice bottle of wine and some hard apple cider and plenty of snacks for the week.

 

David got in about 10 o'clock after getting slowed down by his Dad on his way out of Roseville. Jennifer didn't get on the road until about 5:30 and arrived about quarter to two. I stayed up and watched old Perry Mason and Bonanza re-runs until they got in. David and Darla headed to bed after midnight and I brought Sam up and put her in the other twin bed in the room with David. McKenny had a 6:00 AM meeting and had to be on the internet, so I hooked him up with the wireless key and went to bed myself.

 

Thursday was Jennifer's birthday and I slept in until almost 9:00 before heading down to help out with breakfast. We were on the beach by about 11:00 and the coast layer of fog had burned off. It was a little breezy, but we saw dolphins and sea otters and Sam got buried up to her neck in the sand. Jennifer is great with her and they played most of the afternoon with Jennifer pulling Sam on the boogie board. We brought lunch to the beach and enjoyed sandwiches and drinks on the sand. We headed back home mid afternoon. Sam and Jennifer walked because Sam was head-to-toe sand. It was even in her hair. We hosed her off in the back yard and walked over to the pool in the complex. We thought we got all of the sand, but the piles of it next to the steps in the pool said otherwise when we left. The weather was great, probably 82 degrees or so.

 

We had dinner and then headed to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was $12.99 Pepsi can night at the park and we had our five cans ready to go (David decided to stay back and firm up plans for the bachelor party.) The trouble was that we left the bag with the cans sitting on the counter. I had to stop at a market close to the park and buy a $4.99 six pack of Pepsi that went to the Pepsi counter at the park. It was $32.99 for wristbands without the cans, so it was a no brainer. We had a blast, Darla and I taking Sam on some of the kiddie rides while Jennifer and McKenny rode the adult rides. We had a ball. The kids took Sam and insisted that we ride the Big Dipper, an old style wooden roller coaster. I rode it once and got jostled all over the place. Darla was giggling and laughing and was ready to go again. I was done after one run and we hooked up with Jennifer and McKenny and Darla went again with them, while Sam and I rode the tram cars over the top of the park. I took Sam over to the caricaturist and we had a gift picture made for her Mom's birthday. Jennifer came by while he was working on it and took a video of the process. She was thrilled.

 

Darla and I took Sam home and McKenny and Jennifer went out for a birthday drink. We got Sam home (after buying more breakfast meat) and to bed, although she was still awake when her Mom got home.

 

Friday we met Don and Alicia after lunch and drove over to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. It is one of the areas in the world where forces cause the land to have some interesting quirks. The land is all on a hill and the phenomenon is all smoke and mirrors, but still fascinating. You can put a level on a piece of wood and see that it is level, but the person that stands on one end of the board is always taller than the other. At one point they said they needed a "smart" person to verify the results of the board test. Sam raised her hand and the guide said to say "Ghost-Ghost-Ghost." Sam did and she said, "Quickly, what do you put in a toaster?' Sam looked at her and said, "bread." That's my girl.

 

We hit the beach in the afternoon and Sam had a bit of an attitude on our way out. She wanted to bring a couple of sand crabs home and we all said no. That didn't go over well for the overly tired girl. We had shish-ke-bobs for dinner and enjoyed a great meal. Sam was in bed at eight as we had a big day on Saturday.

 

Saturday, we were up early and cleaned up the condo and were on the road by 9:00 AM after a breakfast of cereal and toast. Jennifer, Darla and Sam had a 10:30 bridal shower at the Grand Hotel in Sunnyvale. I hung out with Earl and went back to his trailer at the Elks lodge while the girls ate and partied. Sam did a good job and was engaging with all of the girls.

 

We got checked into the hotel and ran into Randy and Cake as we were leaving to run to the store. They got checked in and went to the liquor store and ran into Darryl and Cheryl (they are their father's sons). I had everyone over to the room in the afternoon and we drank Randy's Maker's Mark. I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get the bottle on the plane, so I was doing my best to help out. We went over to the rehearsal at the church while Darryl and them hung out at the pool. We all met up at the restaurant, a huge Mexican restaurant called Ming's in Palo Alto. The food was great and all served family style. Steve had done a nice job buying wine and beer and they had it all set up at a table with a nice table cloth on it. I split the cost of the liquor with him and we split the cost of the dinner for 80 people. It was a great time and we got to meet a lot of Becky's family and some of Steve's. They all made a fuss over Darla and she was a little embarrassed. I think they remember her and Steve hasn't had another significant other in his life in 22 years. If he was remarried or had a girlfriend, it would have been different. Daniel and Becky seemed to have a really good time a the dinner. Sam and Lucas enjoyed themselves as well.

 

Sunday we all met for breakfast at 9:00 and had eggs, sausage, cereal and toast. We ran into David and Steve and their family as well as Aunt Tracy and Uncle Stan, who sat with us for about 90 minutes after breakfast. Darryl was the first to break away and change into his swim suit. I soon joined him and Sam and Jennifer followed. We hung out at the pool most of the late morning and early afternoon, ordering pizza to go with some beer, margaritas and wine that we bought at the store. McKenny had one of his friends who is a single Dad bring his daughter over and Sam and Kiana played during the afternoon.

 

The wedding was that night and it was wonderful. Sam did a great job as the flower girl scattering flower petals, although she dusted Lucas who was supposed to walk with her, but he was busy hamming it up with people as he walked down the aisle. Sam high fived Daniel before finding her place next to her Mom in the front row. The ceremony was wonderful and the reception even better. The food was a little slow to arrive, but they hosted both appetizers that were served in a reception line and dinner. Our table was served. The lateness of the food sort of threw off the DJ and there was only about fifty minutes of dance music. Darla and Daniel had a very touching dance to the song "A Mother's Song' by T Carter. It was a great night with a nice speech/toast by David and a soft moment by Daniel when he thanked everyone for coming and surprised himself when he said, "on behalf of myself...and my wife." We sent them off with sparklers and silly string and the night was done.

 

We said our goodbyes after breakfast to Jennifer and Sam and McKenny as they had a long drive to Vegas. The brothers all packed up and went to San Francisco for the day. We met up with Cheryl's brother, Scott and his wife Cindy at Pier 39 and had lunch at the Fog Harbor Fish House. I wanted a chowder filled bread bowl and they are not hard to find in SF. Darla had a crab sandwich. We walked from there up to Ghiradelli Square and had ice cream sundaes after the walk. It was a great day. We left the city at 4 PM and were home by 6.

 

That was our week that was and I'm tired just writing it. I was tired at work today, but should be back to my self by tomorrow. Ciao.

 

 

 



6.1 Earthquake hits Napa...wine damaged

 

Not to make light of a tragic event for the Bay Area and Napa in particular, but much of the coverage has revolved around grocery stores, liquor stores and the wineries themselves that have lost much of their bottled inventory to the quake. I think three people have died and 87 were injured in the last report that I heard. Darla and I slept through it, but the swimming pools in our area were sloshing and splashing after the quake, much like the quake in 89 when I lost about three feet of water out of the pool in Elk Grove. Many locals woke up thinking that an animal or intruder was in their pool. Not us.  In fact, I wasn't even aware of it until I turned on the news when we got up. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the Loma Prieta quake in 1989, but there were still gas and water lines that were burst and several roadways were buckled. Many homes and businesses in Vallejo and Napa had severe damage to the stucco and brickwork. They expect aftershocks for the next seven days which takes us into the wedding next Saturday. I think we are lucky that the quake hit at after 3 in the morning and most people were asleep in their beds when the quake happened. If they had been up and near some of the furniture that toppled or carports that collapsed, it might have been much worse.

 

Darla's Mom had to be admitted to the hospital on Friday and went through a series of tests for what is causing her anemia. She was weak and lightheaded and when the doctor checked her blood pressure he had her admitted to the hospital. They did an Endoscopy on Saturday and basically found nothing and a colonoscopy today with the same result. They had her on a drip and gave her several blood transfusions, but still haven't found the cause of her blood loss. Darla, Alicia and David went to visit her in Paradise today and they had a good visit. The nurse came in about 3:00 PM and gave her the good news that she was going home. She has some follow-ups with her doctor this week, but they have ruled out colitis and diverticulitis so far. Hopefully, it is something they can treat with medication. It is certainly a concern with the wedding in the offing.

 

Darla got home about 5 and we barbecued hamburgers and ate outside. The late Summer weather has been great, but I can feel the pool cooling down (it is still at 80 degrees, but that is the top six inches of the water). We expect some 100 degree days later this week when we will be happily ensconced at a Beach house in Aptos (Santa Cruz). Sam starts first grade tomorrow and will be going M-W and then they will leave Wednesday after school to join us at the beach house late Wednesday night. It is Jennifer's 34th birthday on Thursday and we will head to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk that night and do the rides. Darla and I will be with Sam and take her to all of the kiddie rides while Jen and McKenny go on the roller coasters, etc. It should be a nice birthday for Jennifer. We will be in the beach house until Saturday when we move over to the hotel in Sunnyvale and meet up with Randy and Darryl.

 

Saturday is the bridal shower that Alicia, Darla, Jennifer and Sam will attend. Friday is also the bachelor party that David will attend. They are going to a Giant's game in the evening and a bay cruise in the afternoon. Saturday is also the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Sam is a flower girl in the wedding and Lucas, Alicia's son, is a ring bearer. The rehearsal dinner is at a popular Chinese restaurant in San Jose and, of course, we are hosting 80 of our closest friends and family to dinner.

 

Darla and I leave Wednesday morning for Aptos and will get moved into the house and do some grocery shopping and get set up for our three days at the beach. I really look forward to spending time with Sam and Jennifer and McKenny,  as well as David for a few days. We likely won't see Daniel until the rehearsal as he is busy, but Becky said they might come by on Thursday. If this marriage works out like most, we'll plan to see them on Thursday. The weather looks great as you can see. It'll be nice to get out of the HOT weather of the valley for a few days and enjoy some beach weather. The condo is right next door to the Seascape resort, one of the nicest golf facilities in the area and I will not play.

 

I got that out of my system this past week and actually played golf Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wednesday was the NCGA qualifier. Steve and I went out the week before  and had a practice round at the course. It didn't do us a bit of good. I even went out with Darla on Tuesday night and hit balls at the lighted range at Woodcreek to get ready. I shot the equivalent of a 92, but picked up five times on the course because of wayward shots out of bounds. Steve shot a 103 and we had a 77 as a team. We were (in a word) Horrible. We played with a 1 handicapper and a 12 handicapper as partners. The 12 was outplaying the 1 and they shot a 66 to just qualify to go on to the finals in Pleasanton. Nice guys. It is frustrating to look forward to something and then lay an egg on the day of the tournament. I went out Wednesday night in league and shot a 42 and then had an 84 on Friday and a 85 on Saturday at Auburn Valley. I actually had a chance to go out today as one of my single friends texted me to see if I could play. With Darla gone, I could have, but had things to get done at the house, so took a rain check.

 

Darla and I celebrated our 18 years together on Saturday night with a nice romantic dinner at a restaurant called The Spot in Old town Roseville. The Spot is authentic Italian, so much so that the owner/chef doesn't like any substitutions or additions to his entrees. Darla and I had a nice appetizer of crushed garlic cooked in olive oil on focaccia bread. We could scoop out the hot garlic and spread it on the bread and then dip the bread in the hot oil. It was delicious. We also shared a Caesar salad and ordered their Margherita pizza and I wanted to add slices of thin prosciutto to the pizza. The waitress said she'd try, but didn't think he'd allow it. (What the Hell?). He must have been busy because he made the pizza and she added the prosciutto. We felt like we had to eat it fast unless he came out and banned us from the restaurant for life and fired the waitress. Wow.

 

Darla and I did get tickets to the Sammy Hagar concert in Old Town Roseville on September 13. Sammy's two sons are taking over the running of Sammy's Bar and Grill downtown that shuttered almost a year ago when the owner went missing and was found drowned off the coast of Gualala. He had money problems and his death was listed as a suicide The two son's will move to Roseville and run the restaurant and bar. The city loaned over $1,000,000 to the former owners to build the restaurant at the site of a Penney's store right downtown  that closed in the 70's. The city took back the property when the owner died and his heirs stopped making payments on the loan. We expect to see a lot of Sammy Hagar in town now that his boys have ownership of the restaurant. Sammy is performing the concert with the surviving members of Montrose and two tickets came to the concert with the purchase of a $75 gift card to the restaurant. The sold over 1700 gift cards in less than a day. Thanks, Dad.

 

Well, I will be away from the keyboard next weekend, but will catch up sometime during the week with pictures from our visit and the wedding. I added a pic of Sam that Jen texted to me a little while ago. Looks like John and her were at a car show. I hope you are all well and I will see Darryl, Cheryl, Randy and Cake next weekend. Ciao.

I Left my Heart in San Francisco

 

Fun Times in SF. Did I actually leave my heart in SF? Nope. Darla and I both said it is a nice getaway, but we couldn't stand the cold dreary Summer weather. It was nice during the day, but the fog would roll in about 2 AM and not burn off until noon. It was COLD in the morning as we set out for breakfast.

 

We left Roseville at 6:20 AM on Friday and I had told the guys that we would meet them at the hotel at 8:30. None of them said anything to me, but they all thought we'd be lucky to get there by 9 AM. Pete said the same thing. It is about 100 miles door to door to SF from Roseville and generally would take about 2.5 to 3 hours in normal rush hour traffic. Darla and I could not use the HOV lane because it is for three passengers or more in the Bay Area (two here). I have a Fast Trak machine that automatically bills my bridge tolls, so I can use the Fast Trak lanes and not have to stop to pay the toll. That saves a good twenty minutes at the bridge. Also, Fridays are light in the city as many jobs allow a 4 day week and many employees take three day weekends. We arrived at the hotel at 8:10 and they were all at breakfast. They forgot the fact that I told them that we would all eat together at the course. Boneheads! We finally found everyone and set off to Presidio, the golf course in the hills of San Francisco in a National Park. John was my sidekick and navigator and we had a wild ride through the city as he was late telling me turns from Howard to third street and then left on Geary. We were swerving in and out of traffic like a local. We got to the course and they all headed to the practice range. I headed to the restaurant and a nice plate of eggs and bacon.

 

Neil had his game with him on the front side and had a birdie en route to a nice 41. I struggled with my short game and shot 44. Steve shot 43 and John grumped his way to a 52. The back nine was all good news for me as I shot a 40 for 84. Neil cooled down with a 47, and Steve and John picked up on several holes on their way to a 51 and 49 respectively. I took my friends' money for the second straight game. John and I took a selfie at one point (see above) and I also took a picture of one of the par threes on the course.

 

Steve and I play in an NCGA qualifier at Elkhorn on Wednesday. We went out Tuesday for a  practice round  at the course. Jerry Tuel joined me. I haven't seen Jerry in a couple of years after a falling out we had over the sale of Darla's parents home in Linden. It is water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned and it was GREAT to see him and get caught up on things. Jerry and I rode together. I shot a 41+43=84 and took $15 from my friends. Jerry has two married kids now. Jared and Natalie are married and their other son, Matt, lives in Sacramento, has hair down to his mid back and a beard that puts David's former Duck Dynasty beard to shame. Natalie has two daughters and Jared has two sons. They still live in the same house that they bought next to the Spanos' compound in Stockton and have both slowed down a lot. They lost their second house in Lake Tahoe when Tami's real estate partner filed for bankruptcy a few years ago. They were partners in the home. We will get together again.

 

Friday night we had a nice wine and beer reception at the hotel (Anchor Steam for me and a white sangria for Darla). From there we caught a large SUV to Tomasso's in North Beach for dinner. We had a great margherita pizza with thin sliced prosciutto and saw Paul Rudd, the actor at the table next to us. Brenda thought it was him and he looked a little too small for me. I wasn't convinced and Googled "Paul Rudd/ San Francisco" and it came up that he was filming Ant Man, a feature film for Marvel Entertainment in North Beach. The owner of the restaurant confirmed that it was him after we told her we wouldn't bother him. We did leave him alone, but Brenda had to take a picture of him while pretending to take a picture of Darla and I. We had a great dinner and I highly recommend Tomasso's. It is a great restaurant, but unfortunately for them they are located straight across the street from Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. It just feels a little sleazy on the street.

 

After dinner, we walked about four blocks north to the theater district and watched the 8 o'clock performance of "Beach Blanket Babylon". The show has been on for 25 years in San Francisco and was hilarious. They spoofed everyone from Obama to Palin to Pelosi to Madonna and Elvis. It was a musical and very entertaining. We took a picture outside of the theater. We had some stranger take the shot for us. We were supposed to meet the owner of the SUV for a ride back to the hotel, but he was in Oakland when we called, so we grabbed two cabs and headed back for the hot cookies and milk provided by the Harbor court Hotel from 9 -10 PM.

 

Saturday Darla and I went rogue as we are wont to do and left the gang for a walk in the city ourselves and then breakfast. Neil and Lil and Steve and Brenda met downstairs at 8 AM, while we slept in and so did John and Camille. We walked the Ferry Building and looked at a couple of restaurants. The problem with the city is everything is organic and a la cart. I like my breakfast with eggs, toast and a breakfast meet with potatoes. No one had that. We walked over tot he Hyatt and were willing to drop $40 on a decent breakfast, when Ziggy's, a popular Bay Area burger joint caught my eye. They offered three egg omelets with potatoes and toast and I was sold. We just sat down to eat when John texted me. They were at the Walgreen's two doors down stocking up with snacks for the Giant's game that afternoon. They came over and joined us for breakfast and we had a ball talking and catching up.

 

We went back to the room and relaxed until 11, when we all met in the lobby and started off for the 1 o'clock game at AT&T park on the water in SF. Our hotel is on the Embarcadero across from the Ferry Building and about a mile and a half to the park. We walked over, stopping to look at the marina and the yachts parked there. One of the yachts had the unfortunate name ISIS on the back of it. I'd be down there painting it over right now. We toured the park a bit looking at the new additions and then headed in. The game was good, we started out behind 5-1 and came back to win 6-5. It was a great time and a lot of laughs. You can see our view from the seats behind home plate. We were in the third deck, but what a view of the Bay Bridge, Oakland and the Bay itself. It is amazing to me how the seagulls know that the game is close to ending as they begin swooping in. One of them set up shop in the rafters above us and pooped on Neil's head. He took a direct hit on his cap and then moved three seats over only to have the sea gull follow him and poop on the chair next to him. Brenda gave him a "wipe" to clean his hat and I told him he should offer it to the sea gull, he needed it more than Neil.

 

We took the thirty minute walk back to the hotel. As we were walking out of the hotel, a man with an older lady in a wheelchair walked past us and he didn't see the drop off on the curb and dumped her right out into the street. She was laying there rolling around when we left and one of the ambulances headed over to pick her up. Darla and I relaxed in the room and napped a bit, before meeting up with the gang for dinner. We walked three doors down to Perry's. They seated us inside, but next to a large open set of double doors. I was freezing and they finally closed the doors after serving the last of the guests on the sidewalk, who must have been Eskimos. I had the waitress get a picture of the gang at dinner which is the fifth picture above.

We got back to the hotel and Steve brought down a bottle of port and some chocolates for dessert and John and I sat and played chess. I was goofing around with the chess set and John challenged me. We were both rusty and I lost my queen early on and was playing defense most of the night. I conceded when I lost my last castle and was down to my King and one pawn. John still had a bishop and a knight and five pawns. It was fun.

This morning we were up and out of the hotel by nine. The problem was the garage didn't open until 9:15. We got over there early and had to wait until a lady came out at 9:20 to open the door. I was watching behind the gate when she got out of her car, took two steps and fell over a parking curb. I couldn't do anything to help her, so I just contemplated the existence of KARMA as she was late to open the doors. John and Camille stayed on in SF to have lunch together while, Neil and Lil and Steve and Brenda drove back to Roseville with a stop in Vacaville for breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. We got home a little after noon and spent a few hours on the pool, about an hour of which was spent sleeping for me.

It was a great trip and becoming an annual tradition for us. It's a bit expensive. The weekend cost us about $1000 with golf, gas, dinners, drinks, hotel, theater, baseball game and the garage cost, but it was worth it. A great time as always with very good friends.

Dad called us on Thursday night and shared his information about breaking his leg. Shirley seems quite concerned about not being able to help him, especially if he ends up in a cast. They have had to cancel their August trip and have a cruise coming up in November that is in jeopardy.

Well, that is it. Happy Birthday to my little brother, Randy. I look forward to seeing you and Darryl and your lovely wives in two weeks. I hope you are all hale and hearty. Ciao.
 

Sunday night is just allright by me

Sam and Jennifer went up to Red Rock State Park and did some hiking. Their goal was to find a waterfall and they did post a picture of a little swimming hole, but not a waterfall, so I don't know. I called a while ago, but kids these days have caller ID and if they don't want to talk to you, you're out of luck.

 

We had a good weekend, starting with a relaxing Friday evening watching movies to Saturday night out with friends, to a quiet day today watching the final round of the PGA Championship on TV. We did find time to sneak out on the pool and have a nap. I mowed the lawn today, trimmed plants, fertilized both the plants and the lawn and cleaned up the leaves in the front. We get inundated with leaves during the Winter months and I'm not ready for that process to begin yet. We had some wind this last week that took out some of the leaves from the Maples in the park across the street. They all get deposited in my yard and tangled up in the bushes and plants. I used the leaf vacuum today and made short work of the job.

 

I saw someone(an older woman with a backpack) across the street at Carol's house go in the front door and their house alarm went off a few seconds later. One of the other neighbors ran over to see what was going on, so I stayed out of it. Darla told me tonight that Carol's sister has moved in with her and she is about 70. I'm sure it was her and likely scared the pooh out of her.

 

Golf is a fickle game. Thursday night I played in our twilight league and shot a 39 on the front nine. I was dropping in putts from all over the place. Saturday was the Consolation Round at the club (what I call the Loser's Bracket). I felt good, hit balls before hand and was striking the ball well. I parred the first hole and then went on a blind man's journey around the course, finally hitting my second ball way to the right on the 9th hole. I told the guys if it was gone, I'd DQ myself. I got up to the green and sure enough, my ball was about six inches beyond the wrought iron fence and into the parking lot. I DQ'ed myself, took a 7 on the hole for a 50!! I almost walked off, but decided to play on and shot a 39 on the back for an 89. That is Schizophrenic golf.

 

I will be busy this week. I have a tentative golf date with an agent in Stockton on Tuesday. Jerry Tuel is joining me. I'm also having Steve join me as we will play Elkhorn Golf Club in Stockton for our NCGA Senior Best Ball Championship on August 2oth and we want to try the venue. I haven't seen Jerry in about 5 years. He was the Best Man in my wedding, but we had a falling out back when Darla's parent's sold their farm. His wife, Tami, is a real estate agent and was really adamant that she could sell the house. Darla's parents had an agent that specialized in Farm properties. She was a home seller and didn't understand the income potential of the orchards and wouldn't take No for an answer. She called back after we told her they weren't interested and please don't call us. She had a potential buyer and Darla told her off in no uncertain terms and told her that she was threatening the friendship. She called back one more time and that was it. I understand the concept of sales and being aggressive in your approach, but not with friends. Darla's parents were steamed and Darla and I felt violated.

 

I say tentative as I am actually on Jury Duty in Placer County this week. I called in and don't have to report Monday. I hope to skip it all together, but IF I get called in Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, I will go. Friday we are off to San Francisco and already have reservations at Presidio Golf Course, tickets to the play Friday night at Beach Blanket Babylon and tickets to the Giants game on Saturday. I'll let the court know that I have a scheduled event that I can't miss. Hopefully it doesn't come to that and I can get out of it all week.

 

The build out at my office came to a screeching halt on Tuesday over a change order that our real estate department put in. They wanted to upgrade some cabinetry, add a security wall to the demising wall between our suite and the one next door and some upgrades to the electrical. The change order came up to an additional $14,900 on a $65,000 bid. Our side called a halt and nothing was done between Wednesday and Friday. The dispute was settled on Thursday and construction was supposed to commence this weekend. I'll see what they got done tomorrow.

 

Saturday night we did get together with Neil and Lil, Steve and Brenda and John and Camille, the four couples that are going to SF on Friday. I wanted to go out to the new Brazilian Restaurant in Roseville, Fire and Flame. It is an all you can eat restaurant with waiters that bring skewers of meat to your table. You keep getting served until you turn over the RED card showing you are full. I found out the cost is $45 per person and we decided to go to the local Korean BBQ, which is $19.95 per person for bulgagi, pork, chicken, Kobe beef and spare rib meat. We met over at 7 and had a ball cooking our own meat at the table and enjoying (or at least trying) the side dishes of potatoes, cabbage, pickled squash, mushrooms, carrots and cucumbers. The frosted mugs of Sapporo were $2.95 and we had a fun ninety minutes laughing and enjoying our meal at side by side cooking units. We went to a frozen yogurt place afterward and sat out in the cooling breeze of a Summer night and enjoyed all talking together. It was fun.

 

Work is going well. I got my financials for July and we made a profit of $116,000 in July, so all is good. One of my companies sent us a S'mores kit with Hershey bars, marshmallows and graham crackers and I set up one of my 23 year olds to make s'mores for the office. It was fun and pretty gooey. I was in a meeting when she made them and came out and made my own. Apparently, you put the graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow in the microwave for 15 seconds. I put mine in for thirty seconds and the marshmallow blew up to double its' size. It was good, though. We still have to set up lunch for the gang this month to celebrate our July. The issue is with 26 employees, someone is on vacation every week in August.

 

Well, that is the news for this week. I hope you are all well. I look forward to seeing Randy and Darryl over Labor Day and Dad and Shirley in September. I realized that I booked our Vancouver trip on the heels of a trip to Bodega Bay for golf with Bob Pando and Neil. Darla and I will be overnight Thursday night in Bodega Bay, return Friday afternoon and leave for Vancouver Saturday. Now I know how Dad feels. Ciao.

Lazy Sunday

 

I was supposed to be playing golf today, but I ran into a 77 year old buzz saw in the Club Championship in the form of Andy Ortiz. Andy is a 12 handicap to my 13 and doesn't hit the ball far, but is always in the fairway and is a tremendous short game player. I had my B game on Saturday and shot 85, but Andy had his A game and shot 38 on the front side and 40 on the back for 78 and beat me 4 and 3.  It was SLOW on the course and took us 4 and a half hours to finish 15 holes. I am not the most patient of golfers and my best rounds have all been in less than four and a half hours for 18. We still had three holes to play and Andy had already won, so I left the course. It was 104 degrees and we were waiting on every tee box and in the fairway and it was driving me nuts. Neil won his match yesterday and today and will play for his flight championship on Saturday. I'll play in the Consolation Round (I call it the Loser's Bracket).

 

It has been HOT all week and it finally cooled down today with overcast skies and a high of 90 degrees. I watched the golf on TV and then fell asleep on the pool after 4 PM. The sun wasn't out (it was hazy), but the UV rays were still in evidence and I had on my sunscreen. I woke up and cut the dying blooms off the agapanthas. It is a sad time as it sort of represents the middle of Summer. The fact that a the Hall of fame NFL game is on as I write this is also a sure sign that time is marching on.

 

You could have fooled me on Thursday night as I played league and it was 106 degrees. We teed off at 4:20 PM and it was the absolute heat of the day. It was also the last day of the month and I was running late as I ran around the office working with each of the teams to get all of our last minute business in. We were close on our budget and I buy lunch if we meet or exceed out goals, so was doing everything I could do to encourage the troops. I left at 3:55 and barely made my tee time as we were on the tee when I pulled into the parking lot. I barely got my green fees  paid and I was hitting my first drive. I didn't have time to get water in my bottle and I could really feel the heat. In fact, it is the first time that I can remember ever really feeling in danger of heat stroke. I got light headed and woozy. I yelled at Neil to stop the cart gal and get me a water or tea and strangely he waved her on when she drove by him. There was water on the third tee box, but I already had heat stroke symptoms by the time I got water into my system. I felt nauseous and my head hurt. I played lousy and shot 47, but Neil and I won the match 13-7 and are now in fifth place out of 21 teams. I left the course right after we finished and poured myself in to the pool and cooled my body temperature down.

 

The pictures above are obviously of the build out going on in my office. I have 4900 square feet now and I'm picking up another 2800 square feet. The first picture is of my new office which is in the far corner of the combined office and has windows on two walls. The second shot is of the new office taken from the middle of the addition. The wall to the left will come down and open up the new suite to the old suite. The third picture is taken next to my new office and looking in to my old office, which will become a small conference room in the new configuration. The fourth picture is looking out from my new office and you can see a third entrance to my office, a new work room and the new private office for my Personal Lines Manager. Down that hall is the new 350 square foot conference room/break room. The last picture is of the new conference room.

 

We did hit our budget this month. Our goals were $2,380,000 in premium and $368,000 in income. We hit $2,500,000 in premium and $368,450 in income. It was close, but my team seems to know how to get right up to the number without blasting way through it. Just kidding. Even making our number with the reduction in underwriters is spectacular. I lose a main player and my bosses don't relax the budget. Three of my underwriters had tremendous months, which carried us to victory. We missed budget in March, April and May, but have hit budget in January, February and June and now July. Hopefully, we can keep it going this month as well.

 

My boss is in this Wednesday to do a few interviews and my management team is going to talk to him about a possible promotion in the office to a management position for one of my team. We'd like to see the promotion occur before the opening of the expansion, which is due on September 9th.

 

I got invited to a soft opening of a new restaurant in Roseville. The new owner was reaching out to other business owners and managers in Roseville and asked me to come out and try his new restaurant on Saturday night. He bought Darla and I dinner and we helped him prepare his staff for the Monday Grand Opening. The restaurant is Noodles, a quasi fast food restaurant located in the shopping center across the street from my office. Darla had Pad Thai with shredded pork and I had Linguine with steak. Neither of us cared for the Pad Thai and we actually sent it back for a Rosa Penne dish. They were very accommodating when we made the switch (of course). I thought the concept of Noodles was interesting, but they are trying to do Asian, Italian and American all together.

 

I talked to Darryl today and he and Cheryl are coming in on the Saturday before the wedding and will stay until Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing my brothers and we will all hang out together on Labor Day.

 

Well, I'm writing this and trying to watch a movie on TV at the same time. It is "Enough Said", James Gandolphini's last movie and it also stars Julia Louis Dreyfus. It seems pretty good. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

It is the middle of Summer in Nor Cal

 

Just a couple of pictures tonight in spite of the fact that we had Don, Alicia, Luke, David and Daniel over for swimming today. We had a good time, we just never got the camera out. It was sort of an odd day today with some monsoonal clouds that passed over the area early and kept the temperatures down. In fact it was only 90 degrees at 3 PM, but the clouds cleared off and the blue skies returned and it was 100 degrees by 5 PM. Luke had a great time jumping and splashing in the pool and then had a real blast when Daniel and David got here and played with him. We had a barbecue lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool.

 

It looks like Daniel and Becky finally got their wedding invitations done and mailed this weekend. The hold up was that Becky's Mom had some students that do calligraphy and she wanted them to address the invitations. I'm sure it will look nice, but the envelopes will likely get thrown in the trash. We've had a lot of family call and ask when they would get the wedding invite and we told them to be patient, that Becky's family had a plan.

 

The top picture is of Sam on a hike with Jen and McKenny today. They took their dog, whose name was Gunner last week , but is now Maceo, which stands for "gift of God" in Spanish. The bottom picture is of Darla at conference with the ladies of Silpada last week.

 

It was a HOT weekend and the forecast is for 100 degree temperatures all week. We have had three straight days of 100 degrees. I played golf yesterday with Ron from one of my largest retailers. He called me last week and invited me to a Mini Invitational at his Country Club here in Roseville. We had an off week for the Roseville Golf Club and the Club Championship starts next Saturday. I was free and I really like the Sierra View course. The format was a flighted 9-9-9 event, whereby there are 8 players in each flight and we played as two man teams. We played 9 holes of best ball against each of the other three teams and it was a total points event. There were two points available per hole with an additional 2 points to the winning team. We lost the first match 8-12 and won the next two matches 12-8. Our total was 32 points and both Ron and I thought we had won when we walked off the course. Unfortunately one of the other teams had a two win, one loss performance and they had 33 points. The saddest part of this is that Ron played my ball on one of the holes that we lost in the final match and we couldn't find my ball (it was already up on the green). We looked for fifteen minutes and I finally conceded my score and then Ron realized he played the wrong ball. Those two points cost us the match. The winners of each flight won $75, but more important got into the horse race where the winners won $450, the second place team $225 and the third place team $150. Oh, well, it was fun. I shot 44-40-42 for the three rounds.

 

I have been out of my office for a week and a half and they will finally start the demolition on Monday. The delay was for some minor finishes that we wanted changed. The builder wouldn't start the work until the change order was signed and that occurred on Friday. The time line shows that we will move into the new space on September 9th. I'm ready. We are having a good month so far this month with four business days left, but I can definitely use some new blood. Harvey will be in the office a week from Wednesday to interview a couple of final candidates I have for the pool Assistant position. I want to hire one more for that unit and bring in a Business Support Specialist for our Personal Lines unit. I'm not really enjoying the new office, which is much smaller and kind of a fish bowl. I'm used to a little more privacy and it is easier for the employees to just stop in and chat now. They used to have to make a point to come back and see me. I do have an open door policy, but I like to have a point for the employees to come in and see me, not just to shoot the breeze.

 

Darla and I heard last week that our pastor is stepping down at church. We read his letter to the church and he says that he is out of gas, that the church has stopped growing. We have heard rumblings that the debt load of the church is really high and that some projections for growth of income and members had really slowed. This has been going on for most of the year. Rick has been Senior Pastor of our church for 20 years and is ready to pass the baton. Strangely, the plan is to join with a church in Amarillo Texas that has 8 campuses and become a 9 church body and the senior pastor, Tommy Politz, will take over as the Senior Pastor of our church. There will be a vote next weekend during the three services. Tommy preached today and I really liked him. I still think the combination is a little odd, but Tommy obviously knows how to grow a church as his main church in Amarillo has doubled the membership from 3000 to 6000 in two years. The only problem is he is in the Bible belt in Texas and Nor Cal is one of the most un-churched areas in the country. I hope it all works out. Tommy has agreed to take on the challenge and move to Northern California, but asked Rick to stay on staff and to be his personal pastor. More to come on all of this.

 

I hope you are all well and living life to its fullest. Be well and stay in the footsteps of our Saviour. Ciao.

 



This Bachelor thing isn't my cup of tea

I admit that I miss my wife when she is away on conference. My biggest problem and why I wouldn't make a good bachelor is that I get busy and forget to eat, forget to go to bed. I'm oblivious to things around me. I noticed the cat's water was out today. I wonder how long they've been slowly dying of thirst. They aren't my cats, but Darla would probably be upset if she came home and both cats were lying on the floor with distended stomachs slowly dying of dehydration. Just a guess. In fact, it is ten to ten on Saturday night and I haven't eaten dinner yet. I played golf today and stopped on the way home at 2:30 and had a late lunch. Actually, it was a second lunch because I had brought a sandwich with me. maybe that's why I'm not hungry. I'll probably have a cheese quesadilla in a few minutes and call it a day.

I talked to Darla a minute ago and she is heading to bed and will be up to catch the airport shuttle at 6:40 tomorrow morning. I'll be asleep. Tonight was the awards ceremony and she walked the stage twice tonight and received awards. One was for lifetime recruiting and the other ( I believe) was for number of recruits that she brought on last year. I complain about her being gone, but I do enjoy the trips that we have taken, including the Bahamas 9my favorite so far), Hawaii twice and Mexico, Punta Cana is this next year. They announced the next destination for 2016 tonight, but I haven't heard where it is. I forgot to ask. I'm proud of Darla. She is so much healthier since she quit work and much more balanced since she got her medications under control and her diabetes seems to be in check.

We had our quarterly golf meeting on Thursday night and Rick and his wife came out to see everyone. He stood up and gave an update on how he is doing. He is finished with stage one of the chemo and on to round two. He went in and had another cat scan to get a baseline on how his cancer is responding and, amazingly, he has no new lesions and the lesions that are there have all shrunk. I say amazing because round 1 is also known as "chemo lite" because the body has to slowly adapt to the poison that is being injected into it. Normally, the best case is that it is status quo. To see the cancer shrink and the chemo working is very rare. Hopefully, Rick continues to respond well to his treatments and can beat this bastard disease.

I played golf yesterday with Paul Gonzalez, one of my bachelor friends. We got on the course at 3:30 and finished in 4 hours. I shot 87 in practice for the 3 club tournament. I used a driver, 7 iron and putter. Paul used three wood, 7 iron and 60 degree wedge. He putted with his wedge and did quite well, shooting an 81 in his practice session. Paul is a 10 handicap, so was at 71 net. I was home by 7:30 and was able to relax at home and watch some TV before bed.

Today was the 3 club and I shot a 41 on the front side, but followed that up with a 45 on the back. The 7 iron is great from the fairway, but useless in the thick, wet rough we have at Diamond and a real problem in a greenside bunker. Paul shot 40 on the front and 47 on the back for 87 and was out of the money. My net 72 was good for second low net and $45. I also had a nice birdie on number 15, the 176 yard par three. I hit a drive to 20 feet and drained the putt. I won $21 in skin money. I stayed to the end and helped Neil post the scores on the board and pay out the skins. I was home by three and had a nice nap on the pool.

I've since timed the plants in the back yard, cleaned the pool and added new chemicals, sprayed down the rear yard, which is now a fine able offense in Roseville because of the drought, and washed Darla's truck. I'm not too concerned about spraying down the deck, for two reasons: 1.) it is in my back yard and not the purvey of the city of Roseville, and 2.) I'm a Republican and believe in freedom of choice.

I did buy a bumper protector for Darla's truck and installed that yesterday. The new Explorer has a metal top on the rear bumper and she tends to nick it up when she pulls her jewelry cases from the cargo area. I was able to cover that area with a rubberized mat made by Ford for this very purpose. I washed her car and will show it to her when I pick her up from the airport.

Randy is lined up for his trip in for the wedding and we look forward to seeing them. They fly in Friday night of Labor Day weekend and fly back on Tuesday. We will hang out with them after the wedding on Monday. I haven't heard from Darryl. but may give him a call tomorrow.

Work continues to go well. I have one team that is struggling and the underwriter principally works from her house. I will have a meeting with her this week and tell her that she is moving back in to the office once the build out is completed. Her team has been complaining that she disappears too often and goes off the grid. They can't find her and they get frustrated. It will get fixed.

Well, that's it for this week. Darla is back tomorrow and I wanted to give her all of my attention, so I got this taken care of today. I hope you are all well and enjoying the Summer. I will be back at the keyboard next week. Be well. Ciao.



Finally, the walls are coming down at work

 

Back at the keyboard. You can see that Jennifer has been busy. A new dog and more holes for Samantha's head. Sam asked her Mom if she could get her ears pierced and John agreed, so off they went today and got her ears pierced. I haven't talked to her, but they also got a new dog, Gunner. He is an Australian Shepherd mix and looks like she'll be a good dog for them.

 

The temperature here continues to be HOT. We had 100 degrees yesterday and today and tomorrow will be 109 degrees again. The last three weeks have had HOT weekends followed by a really hot Monday and then cooling for the rest of the week. This week will follow the same script. It is going to quickly cool off after Monday. It will be 100 degrees on Tuesday and on into the mid nineties for the rest of the week.

 

Darla is off to Kansas City on Wednesday through the weekend with Silpada. It is their annual convention and she is off with some of her down line representatives. Darla has a special dinner and bracelet and meeting with the owners on Wednesday night for making it to Sterling Club as a Silver Manager. The rest of her girls are on their own that night. The conference is held in downtown Kansas City and they will be staying at the Westin. She will be home on Sunday.

 

As the title indicates, the build out on my office is beginning this week. I moved out of my office on Friday and into one of the other offices in the suite after moving someone else OUT. They will tear out the wall in my office and begin the demolition of the walls in the suite that we are adding on. I found out that they will add a Hot Spot in the new conference room and we will have seating in there for 20. That's nice, but I have 26 employees. We will be able to move in extra chairs when we have our sales meetings. The build out is expected to take a month and a half and we should be in the new digs by early September.

 

I had a wonderful opportunity this week to have dinner with Rick, my friend who is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. Rick has always been a big man standing 6'1" and weighing in about 220 pounds. He has lost all sorts of weight to the point that the is now 175 pounds. The good news is that he dropped to 170 pounds after the first round of chemo, but has gained five pounds back. What struck me more than anything is his optimism, but also his sense of reality. He knows the odds are against him, but as a Christian, he also knows that his life is not in the hands of his doctors, but in the hands of his Saviour. They have given him six months to live. Rick says that six months is the median time that people with his diagnosis live. Some die quickly and some have a positive reaction to the chemo treatments and live for years. Occasionally, a patient will beat the diagnosis and the cancer will go into remission. He knows that he has an uphill battle to fight, but is seeing the glass as half full. We had a great lunch and a good visit and it was as good for me as it was for him.  I pray that the Lord take control of his medical condition and that His will be done.

 

Thursday, I took the day off and met up with Steve, Neil and Tim at the Park N Ride in Roseville at 6 AM and we were off to Pebble Beach and the course at Poppy Hills. We got into Pacific Grove at 9 o'clock and stopped off at the Pacific Grove Golf Course so Neil could pay our deposit for the October tournament. We all had the ham and cheese breakfast burrito (that Tim paid for) before jumping back in the car and driving the ten minutes to Poppy Hills. I absolutely love the redesign of the course, BUT the greens are rock hard and incredibly slow. They have taken a lot of water out of the course and their intention was to speed up play. The original course had a lot of sharp doglegs and the redesign has softened the course and taken the sharp angles away. The designer has also taken ALL of the rough out of the course. The fairways are wider and there is a lot of waste area that has been added to keep the ball from running into the trees. All of the redesign is great, BUT the rock hard condition of the greens does not allow you to hit a golf shot into the greens. For the most part you can run the ball onto the green, but even that is like trying to run a ball onto a freeway and have it stop. I hit a great drive on the first hole and had 135 yards into the green. The golf staff warned us about hitting balls onto the green, so I hit a sand wedge about 10 yards shot of the green and it bounced onto the green and shot through almost to the back of the green. That was hole number one and it continued throughout the round. It was a frustrating round and I don't hit enough good shots to not have a good shot count. I shot 92 and Neil and Tim were both close to 100 and Steve shot 93.

 

We stopped at Casa De Fruta on the way home and had dinner and ice cream before driving on home. Steve and Neil split the cost of the dinner. I stopped for gas on the way back and put $70 in the car. Amazingly, none of the guys offered to chip in for the gas. I should have insisted that they all chip in. Tim was great and slipped me $20 for the gas on top of buying me breakfast. I think I'll make sure that if I drive again, that I'll make it clear that I need each guy to chip in for the gas. I think they all are retired and think I'm a rich working guy.

 

Saturday was the Diamond tournament at Diamond Oaks. The company that runs the golf course for the city puts on about six tournaments a year. They are sponsored by different golf suppliers and this one was sponsored by Puma. I shot 41+40=81 for a net 67 and tied for first. I won the card playoff and took $80 for first place. I bought a new pair of Puma golf shoes with my winnings. I played with Paul who shot an 80 and Kelly who also shot an 81.

 

Next week is the 3 club tournament that we haven't played in the club for three years. I will use a driver, 7 iron and putter. Many of the guys don't bring a putter and try to put with their driver, but the number of putts per round that the average player has in a round makes it a no brainer to bring a putter.

 

Well that is it for this week. I will be batching it next weekend and will likely get this done a little bit early so Darla and I can visit next Sunday night. I hope you all have a great week. Be well. Ciao.

 

 

Another Blazing July 4th Weekend

No pictures this week as Darla's battery is discharged in her camera and she has misplaced the battery charger. I just need to look for it and I'll find it.

July 4th was fun and mostly devoid of fireworks which is fine by me. It amazes me what lengths people go to in amusing themselves with store bought fireworks. I'm cheap and sitting out in front of my house and watching $100 burn up isn't fun. I'd rather go to the casino and blow that money. As we were driving home from our friends on the evening of July 4th, the parade grounds were just letting out and there was a traffic backup in the "shortcut" to our house. We drove through older neighborhoods with 100's of people outside with fire pits, chairs, tables, ladders, hoses, buckets of water and other paraphernalia. I have never seen such a display of white trash America. It was like driving through a small town in Texas or Tennessee. I think the ladders started up because the fireworks specifically say to use on the ground only.

We were at friends on Friday and had a great time. I'm not mentioning their names because their interaction with one another was like the show that came with the dinner. I had to jump in when the dinner started because this gentleman is notorious for overcooking his hamburgers and I acted like I just wanted to help. I actually wanted to have a nice hamburger and not a hockey puck. Dinner was great with corn on the cob, baked beans, salads, the hamburgers and hot dogs. We checked with the gang as to who wanted what and most of the crew were up for hamburgers, so I cooked 10 hamburgers and four hot dogs. When the hamburgers were ready, I plated them and brought them in along with the four hot dogs. Unbeknownst to me, my friend threw the rest of the wieners on the grill to cook up. We went in and made up our plates and headed back out to the dinner table by the pool under the screened in gazebo and the barbecue was raging with a huge fire incinerating the wieners. The wife came out, took one look at the burned meat and laid her head against the wall and stayed there for about five minutes. The rest of us started eating our dinner. She finally came out of her trance and went over to the incinerated hot dogs still on the grill and stared at them for another minute before slamming down the grill and and storming off. She finally composed herself and joined us at the dinner table. The husband tried to laugh off his mistake by going over and fixing a hot dog made with one of the charred tubes of ash, but his wife was not amused.

She was on him for the rest of the night and he couldn't do anything right. I made a comment about a stone waterfall that they had on the hill behind the gazebo and she started in on him that he was supposed to have cleaned that out so they could run it. He jumped up and filled it with water and it was squirting all over the place because it was jammed with leaves. He tried to clean them out and just made it worse. I was dying inside as his wife let him have it.

She made a comment at one point during the evening that her husband had said that he wanted to sell their house in the upscale community they live in because PG&E was too expensive and their bills run close to $1000 a month. He wants to sell and move to Roseville, where the Roseville Electric rates are less than half their rate. She said that was like selling a Cadillac and buying a Toyota to get better gas mileage. From then on I teased her mercilessly about Darla and I living in Toyota Town and being blessed to join them in Cadillac City for the holiday. She was trying to backtrack and say that it was just a bad comparison, but it was too late. We had a good laugh over that.

It was a nice three days off, but it went too fast as always. Darla and I relaxed on the pool Friday before heading to our friends about 2:00 PM. We relaxed in their pool for most of the afternoon to chase away the 100 degree heat.

Saturday was 102 degrees and I had the Firecracker tournament. I've missed this tournament the last few years because we are usually in Almanor. We teed off at 10 AM and Boyd dropped out of the tournament. His doctor found a couple of spots on his face that are cancerous and one that is pretty large above his eyebrow. It isn't affecting his game as he shot his age or better for the 24th time on Wednesday with a 73. He wants to stay out of the sun during the peak of the day and is only playing if he tees off early in the morning. I played with Steve and John, the two cousins that I also play poker with. Both are now retired and their golf games are improving with more play. In fact, John, a 19 handicap (down from 27 a few years ago) shot an 82 in our last tournament for a net 63. Saturday was a hard day for me on the course. I felt great on the practice tee and was hitting the ball straight and long. Once I hit the course, I had a case of the "rights". My drives were fine, but my approach irons all were hit 15 yards right of target. I had five straight bogeys and then a double bogey. I followed that with two pars and another bogey for 44. I did straighten things out on the back nine shooting a 40 for 84 and net 71 to tie for fifth in my flight. One of my problems is getting tired toward the end of my round and I play 17 and 18 poorly. We have a year long Eclectic tournament and my gross score is 70 with every hole a par or better, but 17 and 18 both having a gross bogey. I picked up one of those in this tournament by parring 18. John, Steve and I all ended up with net 71's on the day.

Work is great. My boss is off the next two weeks on a vacation to Switzerland and I will be busy interviewing for a new pool assistant for the office. My Operations Manager has six interviews lined up for me tomorrow starting at 9 AM. We finished June off with a bang, beating our budget for the month after missing it the last two months. One of the main problems we have is that I had an underwriter leave in March and his numbers are reflected in the budget. I'm trying to get one of the trainees up and running and prepared to take his place, but it will be 2015 before she is ready to hit the ground. I will take the entire office out to celebrate at a Budget lunch at the Spaghetti Factory in two weeks.

I mentioned last week about Darla scrambling to get her incentive trip. She is amazing. She started last weekend down $7000 on her needed sales to qualify for the trip and she ended up with close to $7500 in sales in a three day period. She qualified for her trip and we will be off to sunny Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in February. That will chase away the Wintertime blues. Here are a few pictures of the resort we will be going to.

 



I am incredibly proud of her. She was pretty intense all last weekend, at times fired up about getting there and then down in the dumps and then she'd get a $1000 sale and be right back in the saddle. It was a trip to watch her go through the motions (and emotions) and I mostly stayed out of her way. The fact that I get to join her on this trip is awesome. Last year was Panama and neither of us were excited about that. With all of her medical issues last year, it wasn't in the cards for us to go and we hear that it was one of the worst incentive trips that they have ever had. They are making up for it in 2015 with a trip to the all inclusive Paradisus  Resort in Punta Cana. They even have golf included in the package, but I've already read the fine print that "motorized buggies" are required and cost $65 per round. I may play a round or two of golf this year early in the day, we'll see.

I want to remind my brothers that the condo in Aptos is a three bedroom and you are both welcome to join us starting on August 27. We will be at the condo August 27-30 and then move to Sunnyvale. Jennifer and McKenny will be there, but I will boot them out of a bedroom if you both join us. Alternatively, there are several nice motels in Aptos if you want privacy. We are encouraging you to come in early and enjoy Santa Cruz and Aptos and maybe even make a jaunt into Carmel and Monterey.

I will be in Pebble Beach on Thursday with a couple of my golf buddies (Neil and Steve) and will play the completely remodeled Poppy Hills. We will drive in early Thursday and back that night.

Well, that is it for this edition. I hope all are well and in good spirits. Ciao.