Family Vacation in Mexico

Well, only 34 pictures on the first blog post after the vacation. We had a blast as a family. We flew out on Saturday at 6:30 AM to Santa Ana with David and met Jen, McKenny and Samantha later in the morning. We grabbed some breakfast with David and then met their plane. We all got some lunch and brought it on the plane for our flight to Mexico. Darla and I shared a sandwich, David got some Chinese food and Jen got sandwiches for their gang.

 

The flight was unremarkable and we were in Puerto Vallarta within three hours. The airport was packed like I've never seen it. There were flights backed up and the baggage claim and Immigration were jammed. We were able to get our bags and finagle our way into a relatively short line and get through pretty quickly. They have a system in PV whereby your push a button and it randomly comes up green or red. Green you go on happily about your day. Red and you get your bags searched. we've been to PV about six times now and never been searched. Jennifer has been there once and got the dreaded red light. There was no issue, but she had to go through the invasion of her bags by the Mexican authorities.

 

Dan and Becky had arrived about 11:00 AM and met us outside the airport and we met our transportation, which was a nice Chevy van that drove us into the resort. The kid's heads were on a swivel as we went through the entry of the resort and into the reception area. We took a shuttle right over to Tower 4 of the Grand Luxxe, which is the newest building. I was told that we could not get into the spa tower again. We upgraded two years ago, but we were in Luxxe 1 the last time we came over. The tower was still under construction at the time. Something must have cleared up because we ended up in the new building, which includes an alcove on the balcony that has a spa table on it. We didn't get in until after 5, so just got checked in and had dinner. The boys decided to go to the Taco Break restaurant for dinner while Jennifer and I ran to the on site market and grabbed some eggs, milk, cereal, bread and lunch meat to tide us over.

 

 

Sunday, we took a cab into Nuevo Vallarta and spent $375 on groceries for the week. We were able to eat all of our lunches and most of our breakfasts in the condo and also had three dinners, including tacos and burritos one night and breakfast for dinner another night. Darla and I also bought two meal plans so we could treat the kids to two dinners and two breakfasts. Darla and I split our meals and Jennifer and McKenny did the same. Daniel bought an extra meal. Dad and Shirley came in that night and met us for dinner.

 

I treated Samantha to a Dolphin Experience for her 8th birthday on Tuesday and she chose to do it with her Mom rather than go to the Kid's Experience. The fun thing about the swim experience is that they were able to swim with the dolphin. You can see Sam in the one picture on the dolphin. The dolphin swims upside down and the swimmer climbs on top and holds the fins as they cut through the water. The dolphin center has quite a gig set up whereby they seat us about 80 yards from the pool in a viewing area and then put camera people in the water with them to get pictures. They got some outstanding photos, but the package of photos was $159. The cost of the actual swim for both of them was a total of $94. We had a zoom lens and was able to get some decent pictures.

 

The Majahuitas and Yelapa adventure that we took with the same company was much more reasonable for their photo package. They wanted $79 for the photo stick and a group picture and any picture in a metal print. We eschewed the metal print and got the cost down to $40. That trip was fun, but we had to be at the Dolphin Center at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. Not a fun thing on your vacation, but we made it work and Jennifer was able to get Sam to bed early. She was so excited to go snorkeling and kayaking that she was up and raring to go in the morning. We had a decent continental breakfast with fruit and pastries, juice and coffee. Unfortunately, McKenny had to work and missed the trip and it was his loss. We had a blast. The boat went first to Puerto Vallarta where we picked up more passengers and then on to Los Arcos, where we slowed and a speed boat delivered a couple who were staying at a resort near the arches. We traveled about an hour and 40 minutes to Majahuitas, where we dropped anchor and spent an hour and a half snorkeling and kayaking. I was in the water for about fifteen minutes and up and out and back in the boat. Looking at fish for me is fine, but ten minutes is plenty of time to spend. Sam was a little fish and spent most of the first hour with her mask in the water looking at all there was to see. They came back up and were the last ones to get a kayak and David joined them.

 

From there, we pulled anchor and lunch was served. They had cold cuts, fruit, salads and an open bar. We traveled about 45 minutes to Yelapa. The town of Yelapa is a fishing village that is only accessible by boat because of the jungle terrain surrounding it. The word Yelapa means "where the sea meets the river". The river does empty into the bay at Yelapa. Becky got sick while she was snorkeling to Daniel's dismay. She unfortunately got sick as they were getting back on the boat, right at the ladder. We got her some Dramamine and she felt better, but decided to skip the hike up to the waterfall. Daniel stayed back with her and Darla decided to visit with Dan and Becky on the beach, so David, Jen, Sam and I headed up to the waterfall. It was an easy hike up a sidewalk to the waterfall. You can see how beautiful the waterfall is. David took the pictures which turned out great.

 

From the waterfall we hiked back through the little village of Yelapa to the bay.  Sam counted 23 dogs, including four puppies all from the same litter and all with different families. The school let out as we were walking back and the children were all in their school uniforms. We saw one father with his kids and a mule ladened with fruit and vegetables. We also saw several men on 4 wheelers with supplies brought in by boat. They also had the requisite Catholic church that looked like all of the town's money was sent building it.

 

We spent about 90 minutes at the beach and Sam made friends with a little Mexican girl who didn't speak English. It was fun watching them interact. Jen bought Sam a water and we offered Daniella a drink. She didn't want any, but kept saying "agua". We finally figured out that she wanted Sam to go back into the water. This is a picture of the girls together:

 

 

Wednesday night we celebrated Sam's birthday and Shirley's birthday at our condo. We fixed tacos and salad and beans and chips. Shirley was really touched as we all made her cards and bought a cake for her and Sam. She told me afterward that she was so touched, she had trouble sleeping that night.

 

The rest of the trip was fun and mostly spent on the resort. Daniel, Becky, Jen, McKenny, David and Darla went into PV on Monday and I stayed behind with Sam and we went on the lazy river, went on the water slide and I took her to the Kid's Park at Grand Mayan. You can see a picture of Sam eating ice cream. That was on our Monday and I was being Grampa..or Papa as she calls me. We had a ball together.

 

The kids went into PV and shopped a bit in town and then had lunch at PiPi's, a famous local restaurant that we have visited many times. They also went into the Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Puerto Vallarta. They had a great day in the city.

 

You can see the crocodile that we saw in the river outside our condo tower. I had seen the croc early in the week. Darla went to a massage with Becky on Thursday morning and Jennifer, Sam and I saw him again that morning and luckily Jennifer had her phone. The river is man made and fed by the Rio Grande de Santiago. I think the crocodile must have been sucked into the man made river by tubes that feed it. The croc is really young and only about four feet long. He stuck his head in the water inlet tube while we were watching. I'm guessing he eats the iguanas which are in great abundance at the resort. Sam counted 34 during our trip.

 

Sam went Thursday night to see the turtle races. It is a fun thing for the kids, but is actually the sea turtle release by the municipality of Nayarit. The sea turtles arrive in early November and lay their eggs. Forty five days later they hatch and the turtle refuge group releases them back to the sea. It is fun for the kids as they watch the baby turtles run to the sea. Sam swears her turtle won the race among the 50 or o turtles released.

 

Darla unfortunately became ill on Thursday night, having a bad night sleeping and then ending up with the flu in the morning. She was not in any shape to do anything on Friday and spent most of the day in bed. It was our last full day of vacation and the rest of us went over to the Grand Mayan, played pool volleyball, hit the lazy river, went down the slide and spent the afternoon at the beach. It was supposed to rain and the storm arrived at about 4 PM while we were in the ocean. The ocean is 85 degrees in Nuevo Vallarta and the warm temperatures have quite an effect on the weather. The recent hurricane intensified dramatically because of the warmth of the ocean. The rain falling was really pretty cool as we body surfed. Unfortunately, the storm intensified and, although it was still 70 degrees, we got soaked to the bone. We were leaving the next day and had to take the blow dryer to the backpack I was carrying as it was drenched. 

 

Well, I will continue with more from our vacation next week. Dad and Shirley are still in Nuevo for another week and I'm jealous. We left them with a fridge full of leftovers, so they are set for the week. Be well. Ciao.

 

The Blog is going to Mexico

 

A good holiday weekend is in the books. We hosted Thanksgiving this year and had the whole gang over for turkey. Everyone was due to arrive at 1 PM, so I planned my morning accordingly, sleeping in until about 9 AM and then starting on the monumental task of cleaning up the leaves from both the front yard and the backyard. The pool has been clogged with leaves this year as our neighbor's volunteer tree has grown to about 25 feet and even though I cut back the tree so that it is a flat side from my fence straight up, the leaves fall and blow into my yard and into the pool. I spent a good three hours cleaning the leaves, the pool, the spa and side yard. I walked out front and saw Darla's parents car about ten after noon and they were early. Earl was suffering from shooting pains in his head and wanted to get here early to see if he could sleep it off. I thought I was in trouble, but cut my work short and took a shower and visited with Frances and Darla until the boys got here.

 

We fic=xed a 15 pound turkey that was toast by the end o the evening. We did a good job over dinner (which we ate at 1:30) and then the boys and us polished off what was left with turkey sandwiches about 8:00 PM after everyone had left. We had a good visit and spent a portion of the evening after everyone else had left planning some of our Mexico trip in terms of when the gang were going to PV, when we would have Sam swim with the dolphins, as I'd promised her, and then planning a trip to Yelapa and Majahuitas on Wednesday by boat. We were waiting to talk to Jennifer to see if Sam could go with us. John was aware of the dolphin swim, but we wanted to see if he'd allow us to take her on a catamaran trip to the two areas above. Majahuitas is a fishing village that is only accessible by boat and there are no roads in town. Darla and I took the trip last May when we took our solo trip to Mexico and had a great time. The activities include kayaking, snorkeling and a hike up to a mountain waterfall in Majahuitas.

 

We talke dto Jennifer Friday night and she texted the information to John, who responded that there were a bunch of "old suspicious God fearing people" going on the trip and we would watch her closely. I guess he was talking about us or he thinks dad and Shirley are going with us on the trip. My only concern is that we have to meet at the marina in Nuevo Vallarta at 7:30 AM and I'm not convinced that Sam can handle getting up that early and being in a good mood. I think she'd have a blast and hopefully she will be prepared for the trip.

 

I'm going to call Dad tonight and see if he and Shirley want to go along on the trip. It is a 7 hour tour and includes lunch. I'm paying the kid's way on this trip and it is their Christmas present this year. The kids will f=go into PV on Monday, we will take Sam to swim with the dolphins on Tuesday and the Catamaran trip will be on Wednesday. I will stay back with Samantha on Monday. Darla wants to go with the boys on their first trip to Puerto Vallarta and show them some of the sights. I'd like to go, but it will be a fun day to hand=g with Samantha and let her enjoy the Kid's Adventure portion of the park. We will also buy the food for the condo and buy two of the Meal plans to share with the group. It is going to be blast.

 

Friday I joined the retired group out at Diamond oaks and there were 16 players. They did a blind draw for partners and we each put in $5 and the winner took home $40, second place was $30 and third got their money back $10. It was two man partners and Rico and I won. He shot 70 for a net 72 and I shot 83 for a net 67. We won with a 139 and second place was 141. I think the guys are glad I'm not retired yet. It was a great day, but it started out late as our weather has been cold and clear of late and we had a two hour frost delay as overnight temperatures were 30 degrees.

 

We decided with the boys to go up to Apple Hill on Saturday. Apple Hill is up in Placerville (Hangtown) and about a 50 minute drive from our house. We met Don and Alicia up there as they wanted t leave later than us. We wanted to miss some of the crowd and the boys had a roast cooking at their Dad's and wanted to be home around 4 PM.  We went to 3 orchards and ended up at High Hill for our last stop, which includes a lake, a pony sweep and a Fudge Factory. We had a great visit, but it was "nose running" cold up there with a slight breeze and I was definitely ready to leave when we finally got out of there. The boys bought pies and apples and we got some jams and fudge. We leave on Saturday and neither of us need a big apple pie sitting here tempting us. Saying goodbye to Becky and Daniel was fun as we told them we'll see them next week in Mexico. They get in 4 hours before us and plan to have lunch at the airport and then have access to the airport lounge through one of their credit cards. I told them they could head over tot he resort, but they don't want to go without us. I understand.

 

The last picture of Jennifer, McKenny and Samantha was taken on their Thanksgiving trip to Southern California with her Mom and her husband. They flew into Las Vegas to meet Jennifer and then drove to Santa Ana on Thursday in a rented SUV. Diane and Bob flew back to Dallas out of Los Angeles and the kids drove the SUV home.

I have our annual Holiday party at the office on Thursday night. We have75 agents RSVP'd already and look forward to hosting our clients and saying thank you for all of their business and support over the last year.

 

Well, it will be a couple of weeks before my next epistle, but it will include photos and highlights from our vacation. we really look forward to some holiday cheer with everyone in Puerto Vallarta. Here's hoping David trims that beard, but I'm not holding my breath. I hope you are all well, had a great Thanksgiving and remembered to thank God who makes everything in our lives possible. Be well. Ciao.

Thanksgiving Week Ahead

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The pictures are from the Carrier event we went to in San Francisco last Tuesday. It was held at the Hotel Vitale on Mission Street, which is about a block from the hotel that we stay at when we go every Summer. The picture of the Bay Bridge is the same view that we had during our last stay. This hotel is closer to the Ferry Building, which is the clock tower in the background. The event was held on a terrace on the 5th floor and it was incredible. First of all, the weather was about 65 degrees and, as the temperature dropped, the portable heaters kicked in and kept the venue warm. The bottom picture is of our group and the San Francisco office. Harvey is in the center of the picture in the tie. The tall guy next to him is Rich, who is number two in the company in production. You can also see Pete next to me in his arm sling. The funny thing is that the guy on the left in the third picture down is in a full cast. He is the husband of one of the VPs for our carrier and he had a table saw accident where a piece of wood flew off and hit him in the left hand and broke three bones. He has pins in his hand and a cast over all of that. He and Pete were thick as thieves at the event. Partly because they are both hunters and fishermen I guess, but also fellow accident victims.

 

Speaking of Pete, he left for his family vacation to Cabo San Lucas on Thursday. He set up a trip with his extended family and ten of them were flying together to Cabo from Sacramento. He and Vicki went to check in for their flights the day before and found out that Alaska had changed their first flight from Sac to Los Angeles from 6:30 AM to 7:30 AM and it didn't leave them enough time to change planes for Cabo out of Los Angeles. International rules require you to arrive at least 105 minutes before your flight. The change had them arrive 90 minutes before. He was furious, but had bought his tickets through Expedia and was frustrated trying to work with the two companies. Alaska told them that they could fly in on the 4PM flight and they would put them up in the hotel in Los Angeles overnight. He couldn't get everyone on his list to agree, so ended up booking a limo bus from Sac to San Francisco Thursday morning and catching a direct flight from there. It cost him $500 and they still have the return to worry about. Ouch. Hopefully, they are having a good time. Vicki posted some pictures of their year old granddaughter relaxing on the beach today.

 

We will be in Nuevo Vallarta in two weeks. Dad and Shirley arrive a day after us on the Sunday and will be there for two weeks. We talked to the boys and to Jennifer and McKenny about either planning to turn their cell phones off while we are there or getting a Mexico plan. I actually like not having the phone on. I can keep up with e-mail and anything else I need on the computer, but don't need a phone. McKenny said he has international calling, but I told him to check in with his carrier as that only applies to calls from the United States.

 

McKenny, by the way, is back in Las Vegas and will be home until we get back from Mexico. He may spend a week in Colorado when they get back, but hen will be in Vegas through the end of the year. I guess Diane and her husband will be in Vegas on Tuesday and they will stay two days before all driving to Southern California on Thursday. They are renting a big SUV. Sam will go along and they will enjoy Thanksgiving together. Diane will fly back from Los Angeles and Jennifer and McKenny will drive back to Vegas.

 

 I think we will plan to celebrate Samantha's birthday in Mexico. Probably on the Friday before we leave. We won't be able to see her on her birthday, but will all be together, so it makes sense. It should be fun.

 

I will have the usual skeleton crew at work this week, but even Connie, who is working with me on Wendy's book while she is on maternity leave will be off this week. It has been busy for me and about to get busier. It is good for me to get my hand back in the mix on underwriting. A lot has changed since I handled a territory myself. The numbers look good this month and we hope to at least beat our numbers from last year.

 

Harvey was in the office on Thursday and interviewed two candidates for an open position. It turns out that one of the ladies that I really liked is the sister of Dana, who used to work for me and left with Anthony five years ago. She mentioned it to Harvey, but not to me and that was enough to spoil her for me. We ended up hiring a young man who works for one of our agents now. He will start the Monday after Thanksgiving.

 

Darla was away all weekend at an event in Auburn, the Mandarin Festival. She has a great weekend with over $2k in sales. I played golf in our final event on Saturday. I was 2 points behind for the Player of the Year, so played in the second group. I had a pedestrian round of golf and shot 42+44=86. I will finish third in the POY, but a good showing this year. I was also tied for net in the year long Eclectic competition with a 48. I didn't pick up any strokes, but my index is up to a 15, so now have a net 47. The final is based on our December 15th GHIN handicap, so we will see where I end up.

 

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, even those of you up in Canada that refuse to follow the proper Thanksgiving where there is NFL football on television. We will host this year and Becky and Dan will be in town as well. I will again assume my position in front of the keyboard next Sunday for my last blog entry before the trip to Mexico. Be well. Ciao.

More rain and California Cheers!

Yep, that is my good looking daughter. She was over the moon happy this week over buying Sam's plane ticket to Nuevo Vallarta. She ended up getting the last ticket on the flight and that is a God thing. It turns out that Daniel and Becky were holding off buying their tickets because of some free companion ticket they had and they couldn't get on the same flight as us. They're leaving four hours before us and will cool their jets in the Puerto Vallarta airport for about three hours before we get there. It will be their first visit to Mexico and they will get a good look at the airport before we get there. We Face Booked with Jennifer and Sam last night and they are both so excited about our trip. What was touching to me was that Jennifer somehow didn't know that Dad and Shirley were coming as well and she was so excited! She kept saying to Samantha, "Won't it be fun to see GGPa and GGMa? I'm sure we've mentioned it before, but with her job situation and John's initial reluctance to let Sam come, that note got lost in the shuffle. We were sure that it was a dead issue until his Mom heard about it and told him to wise up. It was a great opportunity for Sam to see another country and she is sure we will keep Sam safe. John not only changed his tune, but met Jennifer at the Post Office to get Sam her Visa. A nice benefit is that they are now free to bring Sam to Vancouver and that will be my next goal, to set up a trip to Surrey to see Dad and Shirley with Jennifer, McKinney and Sam.

The Sunday night game just started and each game had a moment of silence for the victims in France. During the silence, someone blurted out "Isis Sucks!". It seemed appropriate to me. I can't wait to get a patriot back in the White House instead of the loons in charge now. These morons want to bring in 65,000 refugees from Syria without any vetting whatsoever. I am so tired of pandering to people of the Muslim faith. Yes, terrorists and Muslims are mutually exclusive, but all Isis are Muslims. I don't want this country bringing terrorists in because we don't want to offend anyone. Take whatever money Hillary and Obama want to spend on bringing Syrian refugees to the US and spend it on Veterans Affairs.

It was a good week of work this week and we did host a Continuing Education class for our retail agents. The insurance industry has a requirement that licensed agents get 24 hours of continuing education within every two years. We had one of our carriers come in and host two three hour classes on Thursday. We supplied the room, the breakfast and the drinks. Our carrier supplied the speaker, the courses and the lunch. It was well attended and great to see the agents. Our carrier hosted us for dinner on Thursday night at McCormick Schmick's. Pete still cannot drive because of his arm injury and came into the office with one of my other underwriters. He decided to enjoy dinner with us and then Uber home.

We all met for drinks beforehand in the bar and I picked up the tab for that. Dinner was awesome and there were 11 of us, including 8 from my office and our two underwriters and the VP speaker from the carrier. Pete was having problems with his phone and couldn't get the Uber app to load. It is one of the problems with Uber, you can only order a car on your phone. He asked me to borrow my phone and I don't have the app. He asked why not. I told him I don't drink to excess when I'm out and can drive myself. He finally got Sean, our underwriter to order an Uber car on his phone. They were coming in 5 minutes, so I walked out with Pete and got his gear from my car. I drove around closer to the front door as it was after 8 and the parking was less crowded. I pulled up in front, found a spot and a silver Audi pulled up to the front of the restaurant. Pete grabbed his stuff and headed to the car. I said my goodbyes as he was putting his stuff in the back seat of the car and headed back into the restaurant and our group.

About five minutes later Pete came back into the restaurant and got Sean's attention. I hopped up to see what was going on. He wanted to know the make of the car coming to get him. The guy in the Audi was pulling up to pick someone up when Pete opened his rear door and started loading his stuff into the back. The guy asked if he could help him. It wasn't the Uber driver and now I have a new story to tell on Pete. He has a titanium brace on his arm and I had introduced him at the CE class and told the group that there was a pop quiz. Pete had injured his arm either: A. Playing Australian Rules Football or B. He fell over a curb. I told them to engage him at the break to get the scoop.

The guys all got together Friday night for poker and I begged off. I had forgotten that it was Friday night and was exhausted. I was out late Thursday night and wanted to spend time with my wife. Steve kind of gave me a bad time about my commitment level and I told him that I wasn't a retired guy that looked forward to poker all month long. If it was convenient, I loved to see the guys and socialize, but I'd been in Detroit the week before and wanted to spend some time with my bride. Geesh.

We played the Turkey Shoot golf tournament on Saturday. I hadn't played or practiced in two weeks, so was a little rusty. I shot 44+42=86 for a net 72 which gave me second place in my flight. I had four realistic birdie opportunities (within a 20 foot putt for birdie) and I didn't convert even one of them and actually three putted on two of those for bogey. It wasn't my best round of golf, but it was a beautiful day and great to be out there with friends.

I got home after golf and spent the day cleaning the pool, the spa, and doing the yard work. I cleaned up all the leaves and put them in neat piles on the street. I vacuumed up the leaves in the back yard and on the side yard. And...then the rain and wind came in today and the leaves are scattered all over the front yad again. There are leaves in the pool and all over the backyard. Oh well, it looked nice for about an hour or two.

I have a cocktail party with another carrier on Tuesday night and Pete, my Operations Manager and I will attend. It is at the Americano Restaurant inside the Hotel Vitale on Mission Street in San Francisco. The event is 4:30 -7:30 and we will likely leave Sacramento about 2:30 on Tuesday. I hope to be home by 9:30.

I am back in production as one of my underwriters is out on Maternity Leave. She was due on December 1st, but had some complications. She ended up in the hospital on November 1st and just got out on Friday. They did a C section and she gave birth last Tuesday morning. The baby underwent surgery on Tuesday for a tumor on her back and they also removed her appendix. She is obviously undersized, but is doing well. They expect her out of the hospital sometime this week. I an re-learning a lot of our systems and have undergone a few "Train the Vice President" sessions with some of my underwriters. Her book of business is very fluid and busy and I am exhausted trying to do her job and mine. I look forward to seeing her back in the New Year.

Well, this is it for this week. We will be in Mexico in three weeks time. In the meantime, we have Thanksgiving dead ahead and some work yet to do. Have a great week and I'll jump back on this next week. Ciao.

2015 Detroit Leadership Meeting is in the rear view mirror

Yep, back after the marathon that is our annual leadership meeting in Detroit. I left on Tuesday morning and flew through Dallas, stopping for lunch in Dallas before flying on to Detroit and arriving at 5:30 in Detroit, after leaving Sacramento at 7:00 AM. There were a group of female firefighters that were on my flight from Dallas to Detroit. I was impressed with their dedication, but there was one woman that had to be close to 280 pounds. She was loud and obnoxious and when the flight attendant asked her to buckle her seat belt, she told her it wouldn't reach around her. When they brought her an extender, she sad, "Hey, those are for fat people." Really? She took it and stuffed it in her front seat pocket and shoved the loose belt buckle up between her waist and the armrest. I was a little concerned as she was ahead of me and I didn't want her hurtling around in the bulkhead in the event of an emergency.

 

The meeting was really pretty good this year, although I was probably a bit more quiet than normal. We are down just over a million in premium and about $350,000 in income this year. I was content to take my lumps this year and try to learn from some of the offices that are doing better than I am. My goal and pledge is that this will be a one year anomaly.  I had so many people approach me and want to talk about Matt and how we are doing without him. He was beloved in the company and a hard guy to replace. I told anyone who asked that no, I haven't replaced him, but have back filled his position with two younger employees and we are doing okay. We finished October with a record revenue and income month and I feel that we are close to being on track. Of course, headaches abound. Wendy, who stepped up as a producer when Matt left, is out on maternity leave and has some complications with her pregnancy and is in the hospital now. She is due in early December, but they are ready to induce her delivery and get the baby into surgery. She won an Outstanding Service award at the meeting and was thrilled when I texted her a screenshot of her award.

 

I was able to get Pete taken care of at the meeting as I discussed his situation with our CEO and I think we're locked in with him for awhile. It is one less headache for me and allows us some stability going forward. I'm excited about the future and I plan to hire a young man who interned for us this past Summer. He graduates from the University of Arizona in December and I hope to plug him in next year. I see some of the same things in him as I saw in Matt: determination, ability, attention to detail  and speed. He is still working for me about 12 hours a week remotely and I hope to lock that down by December. I talked to our Director of Compensation to make sure we won't have a problem getting him a good starting salary as I'm currently paying him $12.50 an hour.

 

I've added a few screenshots from our network app from the meeting. You can see the gang that were waiting at the airport for our flights out on Saturday. There were actually about 10 more people there, but they were at a different bar. I flew home through Phoenix and had a late dinner at Bog's Big Breakfast in the Sky Harbor Airport. It is one of the best airport restaurants that I have eaten at. They specialize in breakfast and the portions are large and delicious. I had eggs, bacon and potatoes and they included two huge slabs of marble rye toast on the side.

 

It is always difficult to fly East and have early meetings. I got into the hotel at7 :00PM and ended up hosting a group of six employees for dinner, including folks from Arkansas, Denver, Kansas City and Cleveland. I happened to head down for dinner and ended up the highest ranking person in the group and bought the dinner as a VP.

 

You can see the picture of Alan and his family on the screenshot above. His son, Danny was promoted to Senior Vice President and named to the board of directors for the family owned company. His daughter, Jody, was named a Corporate Vice President and is the Director of Canada. They are both very good at what they do and are both lawyers, Jodi having practiced for seven years in Toronto before joining the family business.

 

It is raining here and Darla fixed a nice tri tip roast, mashed potatoes and gravy that we ate while watching the Dallas game. They just lost AGAIN and are unofficially out of the playoffs. I feel for Tony Romo as he doesn't get any younger, but tonight's loss was firmly on the defense. They couldn't stop anyone when it mattered. The offense played their first complete game since Tony was hurt and it meant nothing. When the overtime coin toss came up Eagles, I had a bad feeling. Oh well, it's just football.

 

No golf as I was exhausted after the trip. I had a good night's sleep, but still slept out on the couch for about two hours today. Darla put away my suits and shirts as I slept. I have to do the handicapping for the Turkey Shoot next weekend. We have 90 players signed up so it's a bit of a PIA. I may work on it tomorrow.

 

I don't think I have added Sam's soccer picture before, but if I have, so be it. Very cute. Jennifer has all of their passports taken care of and will buy Sam's plane ticket next week. Looking forward to all of the fun in Mexico with the kids and Dad and Shirley. It will be fun. I rode the last leg of my flight lat night with a couple who live in Grass Valley who were returning from Cabo. There excitement about their trip, go t me fired up. Now that the Leadership conference is over, I can start looking forward to the trip. I think Darla and I will have Sam swim with the dolphins at the Vallarta Adventures compound down the street from the resort. It will be great and only about four weeks until we leave.

 

I have a Continuing Education seminar that my office is hosting on Thursday. This is the third straight that Markel has hosted and we have bought the lunch and provided the venue and the retail agents. Markel has a guy who has been in the business for 40 years and he is hilarious. We have our agents calling us to see when the next event is. We also have our annual Holiday Open House on December 3rd. We have our Water Remediation contractors lining up to host our open bar every year. Their customers are the retail agents and they will do anything to get in front of them. I look forward to those two events before we fly off to Puerto Vallarta on December 5th.

 

Well, I'm tired and ready to watch some TV with Darla, so I will bring this to a close. I hope you are all well, living in the footsteps of our LORD and living a life you desire. Be well. Ciao.

 

 

 



Halloween 2015

Fun as always and , as is our custom, Darla and I had a date night Saturday night. Darla is a diabetic and we don't need candy in the house. We went to an early movie and saw "Woodlawn", a Christian film that portrayed a school in Birmingham that went through integration in 1972 and had one of the top athletes in the country play for them. He was a black running back who went on to play in the NFL and was one of the first black superstars to play for The University of Alabama and Bear Bryant. He helped that team win a national championship as a freshman. Great feel good story, but also one that opens your eyes to the pain and suffering that forced busing caused the black community. Birmingham was widely noted as the most segregated city in the country in the late 60's, in no small part due to their Governor, George Wallace, who was a noted and acclaimed racist/segregationist.

From there we drove on to Gingers, a local Hawaiian style restaurant and had burgers for dinner. They had quite a deck party going on with a DJ and dancing. It was unbelievably loud and I chose to eat inside the restaurant rather than blast my ear drums. Darla reminded me that I'm getting old, but with age comes wisdom and I think I made the right call. Dinner was delicious.

We finally had a rain storm roll in early this morning and we've had off again/ on again rain all day. It was fairly light, but has ramped up tonight and we expect heavier rain tonight and tomorrow morning. I put down more grass seed this weekend so the rain is welcome.

You can see pictures of my pirate woman, who dressed up on Friday to go and see one of her foster families and oversee a visit between the natural parents and the kids. Her foster Mom also dressed up and the kids loved it. You can also see the pictures of Sam, who dressed up as Alice in Wonderland and went trick or treating with the boys who live next door. The bottom picture is of those in my office who dressed up this year. We had a baked potato bar this year with cheese, sour cream, avocados, onions, green onions, shallots, chili and whipped butter. It was tremendous. Two of the staff members also set up games and we broke into two teams and did two one-on-one games. The first was holding a tongue depressor between your teeth and then stacking six dice up one on top of the other. The second game was the "candy elevator" where two pencils were taped together and strings tied to each end of the pencils and three skittles being placed on the pencils and the strings being placed behind your ears and you have to raise the candy up to your mouth and then eat the candies. It was a lot of fun and we had a good day.

Saturday was our Monster Golf Event at Woodcreek Golf Club. I played with Steve Matthews who just got a cast off of his right ankle. This was his second golf game in four months and I didn't expect much. It was a two man scramble event and they had long drive and several holes with multiple flags on the greens. I played well, but Steve couldn't hit the ball 200 yards as he can't push off on his foot yet. We had a good time and shot a 69, which wasn't DFL, which is good. In fact there was a husband and wife that played and shot a net 80. Ouch. I had a really good time with Steve and we had a catered lunch afterward. I almost drove the green on the 325 yard 11th hole. It is a dogleg left and you can cut the corner and it is about 290 yards. My drive hit the very top of a tree that guards the front of the green and ended up about 25 yards short. It was fun. I ended up second in my flight at the Past President's event to the guy who won among the Presidents. He was in my flight. I won't play golf again until the week of November 14th, which is our Turkey Shoot.

I leave for the Leadership meeting in Farmington Hills, Michigan on Tuesday morning. We finished October with a record month and just short of our budget goal. We were at $2,850,000 in premium and over $416,000 in income. We beat 2014 by about 8% and that was with one more underwriter and three more employees. I have two openings for staff and have been interviewing left and right for staff. I have found a couple of excellent candidates, but they don't have degrees and my boss is standing firm on hiring only college graduates.

The Leadership meeting is usually a fun affair for me, but we are down in 2015 and well off budget. I look forward to my first VP meeting which is day one of the event. I don't anticipate any awards other than a couple of production awards for Pete. I am proud of my staff for really stepping up this month. It will be a tough go for a couple of months as one of my newer underwriters had to leave a month early for maternity leave. I had hoped that she would be with me until I got back from Mexico, but she had circulation problems and he feet swelled up and her doctor put her on bed rest. Her father in law passed away two weeks ago and her stress kicked in about then.

Well I will check in again next week after my marathon meetings this week. Be well. I hope to talk to Dad and Shirley tonight after dinner. Darla is cooking pot roast with corn bread and the smell is filling the house. Nice. Ciao.

October Meanderings

 

Just a couple of pictures from Jennifer, two of her Mom and daughter date last weekend and another of a pumpkin patch trip Sam took with a girlfriend. Looking forward to seeing these two when we all go to Nuevo Vallarta in December. That trip was almost thrown up into the air by Hurricane Patricia, the largest hurricane to ever approach the western coast of Mexico. The El Nino waters caused the hurricane to grow exponentially overnight and as it approached the coast it was aimed right at Puerto Vallarta. Luckily, the storm trended further southwest and landed right between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. Not to diminish the widespread damage, but only the wings of the storm hit Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo and the winds at the time were about 65 MPH and caused very little damage. The winds at the eye of the hurricane were 165 MPH. There was damage to homes and businesses in the very lightly populated areas south of Puerto Vallarta. One resort that is rather exclusive and remote was hit pretty hard and roofs, trees and buildings were uprooted and damaged, but the resort was evacuated and there were no injuries. The huts and homes of the very poor were damaged badly and there were numerous injuries and flooding and the damage is still being assessed.

 

It was a good week of work and a great weekend with poker at my house Friday night and golf today. I did yard work on Saturday and Darla and I went out to dinner after church on Saturday night. Darla fixed a taco soup for the guys and I grated cheese and offered chopped onion, sour cream and hot sauce along with bread and butter. I had a good night with the cards which is fairly rare when I host (for whatever reason). I made about $75. The game ended at midnight and I was in bed by 12:15 after cleaning the kitchen and shutting down the house.

 

Saturday I slept in until almost 9 AM which is a rarity and then headed over to Home Depot to get some plants, grass seed, and lawn weed killer. We had a couple of plants that gave up the ghost in the backyard above the pool and I replaced those. I trimmed back the tree at the back end of the pool, cleaned the pool, sprayed down the back yard stamped concrete after using the Toro Yard Vac to clean up the leaves, clippings and other blooms that had fallen in the wind we had during the week. I also put down the seed and mulch around the dead spots in the front and side yards.

 

Darla called on her way home from Luke's game and woke me up as it was already 4:30 and I had dozed off after all the yard work. I jumped in the shower ad we ended up about 5 minutes late at church. We went over to Cha Cha's, a favorite Mexican food spot across from church and we spend some of my poker haul.

 

Today I was up and off to golf early. I hadn't played since the epic fail in Aptos. I hadn't practiced or even looked at my clubs in two weeks. Darla had fixed a quiche on Saturday morning and I had a bite of that before heading to the course. It was a good morning as Robert in the golf clubhouse "comped" my round today and I was able to use a 2 for 1 beverage coupon on the course and a 2 for 1 lunch coupon after the round with Neil. I played well, but missed a four foot putt for birdie on number 2. I ended up with a 40 on the front nine and a 43 on the back for 83 and a net 68. Joe, our two time President in 2003 and 2006, shot an 83 as well with an 18 handicap and had a net 65 which won the competition between the Presidents. Charlie also had an 83 and a net of 66. I took third out of the ten playing. My 68 should be good enough for third or so in my flight. I left early to come back and watch the Dallas game. Tough loss for them and now they face Seattle at home this next weekend. I was suppose to go to that game, but with all of the hassles I've been through at work, decided not to push the issue. Our Dallas Executive VP offered me the tickets after I let Ajay take over Reno. He only lasted a month there and quit to go to Scottish, where I've lost five employees. Frankly, I wouldn't want to spend the money to fly in and watch Matt Cassell throw interceptions. Randy, we'll do it another time.

 

I have some good news on Jennifer. We had a referral to Camille's brother-in-law for her and  she finally met with him on Friday. He loved Jen and her experience. He is an engineer trained in Tower construction for cell towers. A few years ago, he and a partner began building medical offices, hospitals, surgery centers, etc. They are so busy and he is desperate to get some help with permits and reading plans. Jennifer can do that for him. They are both ex military and he is very impressed with Jennifer's progression both in the Army and in business. Jennifer is ready to try something new and will meet with the partner hopefully this week. They want her to brush up on her CAD knowledge,. Interestingly, David is a CAD expert. Fingers crossed, but John (Camille's husband) said his brother-in-law was absolutely glowing about Jennifer. Good to be wanted. The company recently finished a building in Sacramento and has projects throughout the west coast. They need her in Vegas, where the corporate offices are and a big portion of their construction.

 

Work is going very well and we are on track for budget this month. The timing couldn't be better as I head to Detroit and another Leadership meeting a week from Tuesday. All of the teams are working hard and having stellar months. I'm proud of all of them.

 

The staff bought me some gourmet cookies for Boss' Day last Friday and one of them ran down the back stairs to catch me as I left early to head to LA. She flagged me down like she was landing a plane. The cookies went quickly with David and Daniel in the middle of them last weekend, but the card and the sentiments written by the staff really warmed my heart. Great to hear such positive and uplifting comments after a really tough year. It isn't fun to be in charge of an office that has higher expenses and lower revenues. We are bringing it around and the reduction is totally expected, but management has little patience for the bump in the road. I expect to get back on track in 2016 and back to being one of the top offices in the company where we frankly belong.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I hope all are well and living a happy and content life in the shadow of our Lord. Ciao.

 



Dan's Birthday Trip to Pasadena

A great trip to Southern California. It was almost the trip that wasn't. The Grapevine over the Tejon Pass sustained a heavy rainstorm on Thursday night with rain falling at the rate of 5 inches per hour. The heavy rain caused a massive landslide that inundated the portion of Interstate 5 that runs over the Grapevine. It was closed in both directions and we weren't leaving until noon on Friday, so we monitored the news. The Northbound direction was opened at noon with the Southbound lanes expected to reopen about 5 PM. We took a deep breath and I worked half a day and headed home to pick up Darla and head downtown to get David. We picked him up about 1PM and off we went flying down I-5 and trying to get updates along the way. David finally got a tweet from the CHP at 4PM that two southbound lanes were open and there were CHP officers ferrying traffic over the grade. We hit Bakersfield about 4:30 and the base of the Grapevine at about 5:00 PM. The traffic was at a crawl, but we had been hearing all day how the 101 route via HWY 41 was stopped  and it was taking about ten hours to go Sac to Los Angeles. We had about an hour and 20 minute delay and once out of the gridlock, we made it to Pasadena by 8:00PM, a trip of about 7 hours that usually takes about 6. Not bad at all.

 

We met Dan and Becky at their home in Pasadena, picked them up and headed out to The Hat for dinner. The Hat has multiple locations in the LA area and is famous for their pastrami sandwiches. I had a cheeseburger and frings for dinner. David and Daniel both had the pastrami and liked it. We headed back to their home and visited for a bit, but I was dead tired and we left David with them and headed to our hotel. We were saying goodbye and Dan had to head to the loo. He texted Becky and told her he might "be awhile". She blurted out, "Daniel might be awhile, you should say goodnight through the bathroom door." It was such a Newlywed moment. Darla and I died laughing and Daniel was heard to say, "Really, Becky?!!" We waited for him to say goodbye and had a good laugh at his expense. They are a great couple and a really good match. Their little place is definitely small, but it's home.

 

Saturday the boys joined us for breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. The boys had some funky looking cheese omelet that I didn't touch as they had been sitting out in a heated tray for half an hour before they got there and who knows how long before Darla and I got there. We had bagels and cereal and a cinnamon roll. We packed up there and headed out to Los Angeles. Becky had a training and was due back about 11PM. David wanted to go see the Broad museum, which is a huge building consisting of 100's of privately owned art in the personal collection of Eli Broad, a founder of the largest home builder in the United States, Kaufman and Broad. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get a free ticket to the gallery. It was nice and has been years since I've been to an art museum. There was some modern art on display that looks like a 5 year old painted it. I don't get modern art. I like color and texture. Jennifer is painting and specializes in both of those things. One of the pieces I saw looked like it was the handwriting of a 7 year old with a bunch of random words like Destiny and Upheaval. Nice NOT.

 

From there we drove over to the Pueblo district which is like Chinatown, but more like Mexicotown. There were trinkets and things you'd see in any tourist area of Mexico. We killed some time as we waited for Becky to take the Metro Train into Union Station, which is across the street from the Pueblo district. From there, we walked down to a little deli restaurant called Phillipe's that served carved sandwiches. Very nice meal with dill pickles and potato salad.

 

From there we drove down to Santa Monica and spent the afternoon wandering the pier and looking at all of the people on the beach and on the boardwalk.  We wandered for awhile, took some pictures above and then wandered into the city so the kids could have some coffee. Coffee? Well, iced mochachino or something.

 

We finished up there and then drove onto the Pacific Coast Highway and the coast drive to Malibu. There is a little fish market and restaurant called Malibu Seafood Patio Cafe and Seafood Market.  The food is incredible, but you order and have to pick up at the window. They have a large two tiered patio that looks out over the beach and ocean of Malibu. It was our big dinner for Daniel's birthday and his choice for dinner.

 

We drove back after dinner. Sam and Jennifer wanted to join us, but she couldn't find anyone to watch the dog and Sam had a sleepover planned and soccer on Saturday.  Sam made us promise to Face Time with her and so we called her when we got back to Daniel's. They had been out on a Mommy-Daughter date to see Pan in 3D. They were on the drive home and Jennifer called us back and had Sam on the phone from the backseat. She had a huge bowl of popcorn. I guess they bought the big tub you can refill and had filled it right before they left. Jennifer would live to regret that. We laughed when she showed us the huge bucket. David came in and she had to show him the bucket, except she tipped it, dropped it and dumped it all over the backseat and floor. She was belted into her car seat, so couldn't catch it. We had a good laugh that continued when they got home and Sam ran in to get the dog to help clean up the mess. At one point Jennifer grabbed the phone and gave us one of those "exasperated Mom" looks that had us howling. We visited for awhile and my phone battery was waning, so we said our goodbyes. I was absolutely exhausted after a long day.

 

We were up today and off to meet the kids at a little breakfast place called Europe Pain. I had a great sandwich made with cheese and bacon on olive bread. It was spectacular. Dan and Becky ordered a ham version of the sandwich and had them add two poached eggs on top of their sandwich. The sandwich you eat with a fork and knife as the bread is dipped in egg and fried. Absolutely delicious. We drove over to their place in Pasadena and picked up David's gear, including a Keurig coffee maker that Dan gave to Dave as they had two.

 

We got out of there about 11:15 and back to Sacramento about 5:15. We ran into a huge slowdown in Sacramento because of a major accident downtown and we were able to get off the freeway and take side streets into David's neighborhood. It was a great trip and a good time with the boys and Becky.

 

I have the Past President's tournament on Sunday and will play in it. We have a separate skin's game for the Presidents and there is a perpetual trophy for the winner between all of the Presidents. There are 9 of us Past Presidents playing in the event this year. It is a tournament within a tournament as the rest of the players are there and playing as well (there are 80 players). Each of the Presidents are competing in our flight as well. I need to get those handicaps done tonight.

 

Well, I'm beat and ready to sit back and relax once I get those handicaps done. I hope all are well. Take good care. Ciao.