The Master Bathroom Remodel Begins

This will be a truncated blog posting as somehow Monday night seems so much more trying than Sunday night. Darla has her Silpada girls over for dinner and their monthly meeting. I came home, took a look at the demo work in the bathroom, set the tape on for the Giants game and went out into the backyard to clean up the leaves and debris that have been blown around with the winds we have been having lately. We had a storm system move through over the weekend and we didn't get much rain, but we had some wind. I trimmed some of the bushes, cleaned up the cuttings, including the bit that fell into the pool. I sprayed down the deck and pool area, came in and just finished some chicken Caesar salad and am at the keyboard.

 

The reason that this is late is that I was in Napa yesterday with 10 of the guys from the club and Gary from one of my agencies. We left the house at 7:30 and I picked up Chuck and then met Gary and Bryan at the Park n Ride in Roseville. We had an 11 AM tee time at Silverado Resort in Napa. It only took about and hour and twenty minutes to get there, so we were there just after 9:20 after stopping for gas. I borrowed Darla's Explorer and have yet to actually borrow it with gas in the tank. We had breakfast and watched the early players in the final round of the Masters, hit balls, chipped and putted and were on the tee at 11. It is a championship course and rated about three shots harder than our course. I got 18 strokes and shot 90 for a net 72. We played a blind draw and I got hooked up with Bryan who shot a net 71. We won with 1 under and there were two teams tied at four over. I always enjoy taking money from my friends. I added some pictures from the course website. We got home about 6:30 and the sun was out. I asked Chuck as we were dropping Gary and Bryan off where he had parked his car and he said..."uh, in my driveway." I dropped him off and then Darla and I put up the new top on the gazebo in the backyard that sits over the picnic table.

 

As I mentioned, the Master Bath remodel is under way. They have an aggressive schedule with flooring due to go in later this week, the windows removed and the new window installed and then frame and sheetrock, which should be complete by Monday. They will also install the shower surround and do the tile work in the shower next week. They will finish the rough plumbing and electrical this week and then texture and paint next week, including the T-111 repairs on the outside and the paint. The cabinets and countertops will be installed early the following week and the finish plumbing, glass shower surround and  finish electrical, light installation, fan and mirrors will go in later that week. The final punch items are supposed to be completed on Monday the 2nd of May and I'll be thrilled to be back in our bathroom. The second bathroom is okay for the boys or a short term visitor, but I want my rain shower sooner rather than later.

 

I have poker this Friday night followed by golf up in Ione at Castle Oak Golf Club on Saturday, followed by an Amy Grant concert Saturday night. It is a busy week already. I got the financials through three months today and we are about 12% below last year and my budget is a 12% increase. I had my 13 year employee in personal lines, Kathy, resign on April 1st and I'm dealing with that now. Linda is my newer underwriter and she has been handed a huge gift. She has four employees working for her and I plan to add either another seasoned UW or a trainee. We'll see. The only thing constant at work is change, but experienced has shown me that whatever doesn't kill me tends to make me stronger. I continue to get a heavy degree of pressure from corporate and we need to see this turn around soon. Even with the downturn, my office made about the 18th most profit of all of our offices last year and I am the highest profit center in California. Harvey has a great office in San Francisco with 4 million dollar producers, but his rent is over $80k a month and his payroll even for clerical employees is astronomical. I have to weather this.

 

Darla and I are living right now with some heavy board on the floor from our bathroom to the front door to protect the floor. When Darla got home today during the demo, they had plastic sheeting up completely enveloping the hallway and up to the front door. It was to keep the dust down, but we have peaked ceilings and the dust in our Master bedroom is palpable. I will keep you up to date with pictures on the process and work on the project as it goes along. Darla and I will be in Vegas the week of April 22nd to visit Jen and Sam. Samantha is in soccer and we will get to see a game and enjoy seeing her with her friends and teammates. Darla and I are going to take her to see the new Jungle Book movie while we are there and invited her out last night on Face Time. She was very cute about it.

 

Well, as I said, this is an abbreviated epistle, but I will be back at it next weekend. I hope all is well with all of you. I know Dad and Shirley are in Whistler enjoying a well earned vacation. Be well. Ciao.

 



Great Weekend

 

It was a busy week and a great weekend. I had one of the corporate Vice Presidents, Michael,  in this week and he worked with my younger staff members to help them drill down on which of their agencies are truly a good partner and which are just spinning our wheels. He ran various reports and showed me some great interactive reports based on zip codes, hit ratios and bind to quote ratios. He went on three agency calls while he was here and we capped the week off with a game of golf, what I call "Sports Marketing". I had tickets to the River Cats exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. Darla was supposed to go with me, but she ended up with a meeting with her foster care agency and I brought Michael. The River Cats are the Giants AAA affiliate and this is the first year that we have had a game between the two. The Giants won 8-4 and it was fun. Mike and I left after the fifth inning to go and get some dinner and the Giants were leading 6-2 at the time. You can see that the Giants brought their 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series trophies with them to the game and had them on display.

 

The other pictures are of the house. We have had several solar power companies come out to the house and all of them want me to trim the large Coast Oak in the front of the house. That tree offers shade to the house and the front lawn and I won't do it. My electricity bills run about $200 a month and that includes sewer, garbage and water. Darla and I don't run the air conditioner much during the Summer. We'll have it on during the day, but it cools down at night and we end up with the whole house fan on and all of the doors and windows open about the time the sun sets. I added lawn seed and topsoil to the yard and also put some red mulch bark in the tree wells and around the planter in the front of the house. I changed out several of the sprinkler heads and Darla planted plants in pots and around the backyard. It was a busy day today.

 

We started with church this morning and then went to Home Depot to buy the mulch and lawn soil and Darla loaded up on plants. We then stopped at Ace because I had a $10 off gift card from the Ace Rewards and we bought the sprinkler parts, grass seed, potting soil and granule chlorine. I got home and the granular chlorine was actually chlorine tablets that were mis-packaged. I'll return that tomorrow. I mowed the lawn, cleaned up the ever present spiky balls that fall from the liquid amber trees on the side of the house, and then took care of the chores listed above.

 

This past week was great with Michael. I've known him for the 14 years that I have been with the company. He I a 29 year employee and was the manager of the Phoenix office until he was replaced by one of the "thirty-somethings" that are all the rage in the company right now. Our company, like so many others in this industry, is made up of an aging population of producers and managers and we decided about five years ago to start training the next generation. The biggest issue we have is turn over. The Me generation is not very patient in waiting for their opportunities and some of our more senior managers have been pushed out of their jobs to make way for the future. Michael was moved to a corporate position and is in training now. He has a guaranteed salary and bonus structure and at 68, has about two years left. His position is great. He basically doesn't have a boss and makes his own schedule.

 

I had dinner with him every night that he was here. Darla has started her diet, so it worked out well for me. We played golf on Thursday with Gail in my office and Ron, the Marketing Manager for our largest agency. Ron is also in my golf club and he and I will team up this year in the twilight league.

Michael had to rent a set of left clubs, so we played at Woodcreek, which had a nice set of Adams Speedline clubs in a left hand set. Something clicked for me on Thursday and I shot 38+40=78. Mike had a nice 80 with the rental set and Ron struggled, but finished birdie-par-birdie on the day. I had to run Mike to the airport after lunch and then headed home.

 

Friday, I was caught off guard when my main personal lines Underwriters walked in to my office after lunch and resigned effective immediately. She has been with me for 14 years and had worked in commercial lines for a time. She was frustrated with the lack of advancement and took another position. Hey, it is situation normal (SNAFU). I will be busy this week out visiting her agents and taking our newer underwriter out to meet them.  Harvey will be in on Tuesday to meet with several Underwriting Assistant candidates. We will see each other at some point, but I will have a busy week of calls.

 

Saturday was our Masters tournament at the club and I was able to carry over the momentum I had Thursday and shot a 42+41=83 in the tournament and tied for first low net in my flight. I also won $36 in skin money mostly on the strength of a par on the 448 yard par 4 number one handicap finishing hole.

 

Next week, I have a tee time at Johnny Miller's Napa golf course, Silverado on Sunday. There are 12 of us traveling down and I am bringing Gary, one of my agents from Folsom, as my guest on the outing. The blog may be late next week as I likely won't be home before 8 o'clock or so as we tee off at 11 AM.

 

Next Monday, demolition starts on our master bathroom and the process begins. We will spend next Saturday clearing out our things from the bathroom and taking things off the walls. It will be a long three weeks of waiting, but the result should be well worth the inconvenience.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will get to the keyboard at some point next week, perhaps Monday night. I hope all are well. Ciao.

Easter

 

Happy Easter to everyone. He is Risen and life is so worth living. The pastor today gave us a saying to keep in mind: "Look to your hope as you plan your future and not to your hurt." And we all know that our hope is in Jesus Christ. We had a nice service this morning at 8:30 at Adventure. It was a great service and a great message. The pastor mentioned James Harrison today. He is known as the "Man with the golden arm". He is an Australian who was found to have an unusual plasma composition that has been used to make a treatment for Rhesus disease, a disease that is caused when a fetus has a different blood type than the mother. He has given blood every other week since his plasma was found to have the life saving characteristic and it is estimated that he has saved over 2.4 million lives of babies. He has donated blood over 1000 times. Amazing.

 

I had a Good Friday this week and a Great Thursday. I was invited up to Serrano County Club in Folsom on Thursday by the CEO of the insurance group that I am on the board of. I had Gary join us as well as he is a member. We met out there after noon for a quick lunch and teed off at 12:50. I was anxious to play the course again and to see Folsom Lake from the elevation of the course to see the amount of water that we have in storage now. The second golf picture is of the lake from the course. There are also some really nice pictures of the snow up in the Sierras. It is an awesome course and always

 

 

a joy when I play it. I shot an 89 with a 44+45 and struggled on the fast tricky greens, but I had a blast.

 

Friday, I got up early and washed Darla's truck as I had agreed to drive Neil, John and Steve to the course. We played at Ancil Hoffman and had a coupon for $100 for 4 players with cart. We got out there early and had an early lunch, hit balls, did some putting and then headed out on the course. I shot 90 and, although I had the lowest score, it was a struggle with the driver all day. I had a great driving day out at Serrano, but couldn't find the fairway all day at Ancil Hoffman and struggled just to make pars.

 

Friday night I hosted poker and had six players show up and we had a good time. Darla made us lasagna for dinner and I added French bread. The guys loved it as we usually have pizza or chili and it was a nice change. I won a lot early and lost late to basically break even, so overall a good time for me.

 

Saturday I was up early again and washed the 300 for our drive up to Paradise and dinner with Earl and Frances. We picked up David at a restaurant here in Roseville and made the 90 minute drive up to Paradise. We stopped at a nursery in Paradise and bought Frances a plant. The picture of David and the wisteria vine above is from the nursery. Don and Alicia were up in Paradise and had stayed the night on Friday night. They had been in Napa doing wine tasting. Their 5 year old son is quite the wine connoisseur now as they are at the wineries quite a bit. We met all of them up at the Black Bear Diner in Paradise at 2 PM for an early dinner. I had the pot roast dinner which was far too much food and had a gut ache the rest of the afternoon. David had dinner and jumped in the car with Don and Alicia for the ride home and we drove over to the folks house in Paradise for some good conversation and some strawberry short cake for dessert. I ate the dessert, although really didn't need it. We stayed until about 6 and were back home by 7:30.

 

Today, we went to church at 8:30 and I got home and did chores all day. I rewashed my car as we picked up a mass of bugs all over the front of the car and on the mirrors, etc. I mowed the lawn, trimmed the bushes, cleaned out the filter and cleaned the pool. I shocked the spa, added some acid and balanced the chemicals. I also cleaned the stamped concrete and weeded the palm garden above the pool. I came in, turned on the golf about 3 PM and fell fast asleep, waking up at 4:30 and finishing up in the back yard. I watched the Kings beat Dallas to cripple their playoff chances and then jumped on the blog. You are up to date.

 

I have one of our corporate vice presidents coming in this week. He is one of our regional trainers now working with the younger producers on marketing techniques and desk management. I have three of the younger producers making marketing calls with Michael. I pick him up at the airport tomorrow morning and he will be here until Thursday. We have golf planned with one of Gail's agents on Thursday and look forward to it. I also have a River Cats (Giants AAA team) game on Wednesday night. They are playing the Giants in an exhibition and it should be fun. Darla and I are going with Pete and Vicky.

 

Well, hopefully you had a great Easter and remembered the reason for the season. It's not bunnies and eggs. Jesus is alive and at work in our lives today! Be well. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring has Sprung

 

 

Actually, the sky has sprung a leak as we have an early Spring storm that has rolled in and is supposed to last through Tuesday and then back to our 75 degree heaven. In fact is will be upper 70's by this weekend. I actually have this Friday off, which makes it a true Good Friday.

 

The pictures are from my game Friday at Sierra View Country Club. The country club almost backs up to our club, Diamond Oaks. I missed golf last weekend and my desire was to get out and play Diamond in preparation for our qualifier this weekend. I set up a 3 PM tee time on Friday and invited one of my agents and Paul to come out and play. I then called Jesse and he has joined Sierra View and invited us out to play with him. Sierra View is about 50 years old, but is an immaculate layout with nice views and tremendous holes. I had trouble getting used to the greens and shot a 45+42=87. The greens were very fast, but true. Once I figured them out, it was much easier around the greens. I had a couple of holes where I used driver and shouldn't have. I'll remember for next time and will get out there a bit more often with Jesse a member there now.

 

My cold has pretty well run it's course and I'm now just suffering from some sinus congestion and living on Afrin at the moment. The interesting thing is that I'm able to use my CPAP machine just fine at night and the positive air pressure keeps my sinuses open overnight. I was off the CPAP for four nights while I get passed the runny nose, sore throat and cough. I didn't miss any work, which would be my CEO's preference.

 

Things at work continue to progress. Our numbers are down and we are struggling with budget, which puts me under pressure, but seeing as I have several brand new producers, I'm overall satisfied with how things are going. Our trend is up each month and things are progressing in the right direction. I just need to manage expectations and make sure that we are doing everything to continue to grow our bottom line. I have another one of my long term employees off on a maternity leave and will be back in about three months. I've added a replacement for her from our Southern California branch that will help us out for the period that she is gone. I may shift the new employee to another team when Oksana is back. We'll see.

 

Darla and I were at church today and we continue to work or way through our ownership quandary. A large church in Granite Bay is willing to take us on and we are doing the dance with them to see if this is a good match. I went to a meeting last week to discuss the machinations of a merger of these two large organizations. Right now, we have the former dean of a Christian college here in Roseville who is acting as the senior pastor until we can find a replacement pastor and make the merger happen. Bryce has been part of our church since 2004 and is in his early 80's. Not a long term solution. Bryce is a lot of fun and Darla and I took a class that he taught several years ago. He handles the senior classes for the church and jokes that he can give the same presentation each week because half of them can't hear him and the other half can't remember. He says the only problem is that he has to prepare that same message every week, because he can't remember it either.

 

It was a nice service today and it feels like a lot of the shock and awe that came from the Texans pulling stakes and heading home has passed and we realize that it wasn't a good match after all. Our executive pastor said that he heard a quote this week that spoke to him: "The Devil knows your name and calls you by your sins. Jesus Christ knows our sins and calls us by our name." Pretty powerful, eh?

 

Darla and I had friends over last night and finally cooked our Prime Rib that we had bought for New Years and Darla got sick. We were concerned the meat might not be good, but it was excellent. Rand and Julie came over and we enjoyed a good meal. The only problem was that Darla told Julie that if they wanted wine to bring it. Neither of us drink wine. I'd much rather have a nice rye than a glass of wine. I'll drink it, but Darla's not a drinker and we just don't keep wine in the house. Strangely, Rand decided that he wanted a red wine with dinner. The problem was they didn't bring one with them. We should keep wine in the house for just such occasions, but I don't do the grocery shopping, so..hey.

 

I did play in the qualifier yesterday and actually showed up at 8:30 for a 10:23 tee time. Paul wanted to meet for breakfast, which I did. I ended up reading the paper and relaxing until about 10:00 and then starting my practice before teeing off. Again, I started slowly, this time leaving putts short because of the speed of the greens at Sierra View. I shot 45+41=86 and Paul shot 83. Together, our best ball score was 68. It was a tough day for most and scores ranged from 75 to 61. We ended up in the money.

 

I will be in charge of scoring and caddies at the National Trusted Choice Golf tournament in August. I was volunteered by the Tournament Director who is one of my agents. It will be a long week as I have to have spotter and fore caddies in place by 7 AM everyday and scorers ready to go by 7:30. I will need about 50 volunteers and need some millenials as the scoring involves the use of ipads and the scores have to be uploaded to the scoring system. it will be interesting and a busy week actually starting on Saturday and ending on Thursday night. This event will bring some of the best 16-18 year old golfers from around the country. In fact, there will be college coaches on site as well as some college recruiting trailers. Former winners and participants include Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Charles Howell III, Justin Leonard, Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson, David Gossett, Grace park, Christy Kerr, Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer. Burns is a sponsor and I will have a number of my staff members there during the week.

 

Well, that it is for this week. I will be back at the keyboard next weekend. Be well and continue to follow in the footsteps of The Lord. Ciao.

 

 

Back from Canada with a Cold

 

I can't really blame Canada for this cold, but it started up on Friday at work. I was sneezing over and over like I was allergic to something in my office. It was bizarre. By the time I went to bed Friday night I was completely stuffed up and couldn't use my new CPAP machine that I picked up on Tuesday. I had planned to play golf for my birthday with three friends and when I woke Saturday, I was completely congested, feverish and feeling none the better for a night of sleep. I texted my buddies and begged off. They ALL knew I was really sick if I was missing golf.

 

I spent yesterday in bed in the morning and then Darla had a Silpada gig at the house and I decided to get up and mow the lawn and rake up some of the spiny balls that fall from the liquid amber trees on the side yard. I'd no sooner got outside and Darla came out and gave me Hell for being out in the cold. I had cabin fever and had to get outside. She said, "If you get pneumonia I'm not taking care of you." I promised to come in as soon as I'd finished the lawn. I put on some ear muffs and a hat and worked for about 45 minutes. Aside from that I've been cooped up in the house all weekend under blankets and hopped up on Day Quil. I feel a little better today and hope to be well enough to head to work tomorrow.

 

Darla and I met with the builder and picked out our granite counter tops on Tuesday (You can see a picture of the sample we have above). We have the floor picked out and are working on the faucets, shower tile and paint now. We know that we will have white cabinets and will meet with the builder again on Tuesday to go over the rest of the choices.

 

Our trip to Canada was fun. We flew out Friday morning at 7:20 AM to Seattle. Darla was up at 4 AM and I was up about 4:45 for the ride to the airport. We slept a bit on the plane and were in Seattle by shortly after 9. We shuttled over to the rental car location and ready to pick up our Chrysler 200 and they were out and we settled for a Mazda 5, which is a little Japanese POS that looks like a cross between an appliance box and an actual appliance. It got the job done and at $17 bucks a day I couldn't complain. As a matter of fact the little four cylinder putt putt made it to Canada and back on 3/4 of a tank of gas.

 

We did mostly relaxing and visiting with Dad and Shirley on this trip. Shirley had a nice Italian soup waiting for us when we got there and we sat and visited. Darla and I were tired and took a nap before our cocktails and "appies" at 5 PM. You can set your watch by Dad on their cocktail hour.

 

They had a family dinner planned on Saturday with Cam and Kathy coming over and Sherry and Al. Tyler had just celebrated his 21st birthday the week before, but he had to work and couldn't join us. , Josh, Mathew and Jonathon were able to make it, but Chris had just had his wisdom teeth out so was rehabbing at home. Mathew had his girlfriend there as well, a nice young lady named Sydney, who will be in Australia this week on Spring Break. It was great getting caught up with everyone that night. It turns out that Cam and Kathy had forgotten about the cruise next year and got signed up to join all of us on the trip. That makes it extra fun.

 

Sunday, we visited in the morning, had leftover ham and eggs from the dinner the night before and then we drove out in Dad's new Cadillac to White Rock. It was kind of cold and rainy, but the resort town was busy and we were lucky to find parking across the street from Moby Dick's, the fish and chips shop we wanted to eat at. The fish was outstanding and the shop doubles your order. Darla and I split a one piece and each got a huge piece of fish, chips and we split a clam chowder. It was awesome. We stopped at Al and Sherry's on the way home for a drink and an opportunity to see their new kitchen and bathrooms as we get started on our plans.

 

Monday, we had breakfast with Dad and Shirley, visited for a bit and then followed them over to the White Spot at the mall. Dad tried to ditch us by making a right turn in front of a bunch of traffic, but I spotted him ahead and he pulled over in a shopping center to wait for us. It was a great visit, just what we needed and a chance to honor my 79 year old father. Next year will be a blast with everyone together to celebrate Dad's 80th.

 

I did go and get my CPAP machine after we picked out the granite. The CPAP is actually a computer modem that runs the results of my sleep to my doctor and to the provider of the machine. I can't wear it when I'm congested as it is a nose pillow that blows air into my airway through my nose. I breathe in and out through my nose when I have the contraption on. I don't snore with it according to Darla.

 

Spring is in full bloom in our yard and you can see a couple of pictures of the African Daisies that are around the pool. Everything is in bloom, although we have had wet weather all week. There was a break in the storms Saturday that would have allowed me to play golf and the club was able to get the third day of the 54 hole team event in. I have an NCGA qualifier next week and will play with Paul Gonzalez instead of Steve. We needed a break. His 101 the last time we played sort of broke the bank on that partnership. I hope to get out and practice a bit this week. I have Good Friday off and will play golf at Ancil Hoffman with Steve, Neil and Charlie and I host poker that night.

 

Darla is back from her visit with David at the Kings game. He called me on Wednesday and had tickets to see Lebron James, so John and I went to the game. It was fun, but the Kings are horrible again this year and their star center got into a verbal altercation with his coach (George Karl) during the game and was suspended for the Friday night game. They lost again this afternoon, but at least David has access to good seats and they were about ten rows from the floor. You can see the view from the seats Darla sat in tonight above.

 

The picture of Sam studying was from Diane who is there (or was) visiting this week. Darla and I have reservations for the weekend of April 22 in Vegas and will be there to see Sam's soccer game and spend the weekend with them. Jennifer has been working a lot more lately on cell sights in and around Vegas for her company. McKenny has been helping out with Sam while she worked.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will be back next week with a fresh perspective and hopefully full health. Be well. Ciao.

 

 

A week until our Canada trip

 

It is always good to go home even if that hasn't been your home for 50 years. I left Canada when I was 9 years old and became a US Citizen when I was 33, but the Canadian Immigration officials always welcome me home when they see that I was born in Vancouver. I need to prepare myself for the rain as I see the forecast is pretty wet during the weekend that we are there. 

 

We had rain in the forecast up until today for this area. We were supposed to see a storm in on Thursday and then rain returning on Sunday through a big portion of next week, but that has dropped out of the storm track. We still need rain. It has been in the 70's for about 8 days and you start to get concerned after 5 years of drought. We have an above average snowpack at the moment, but that could slip at any time if we don't get more storms in the Sierras.

 

I played golf on Tuesday with the retired guys and they are all glad that I am still working. It was a blind draw and I show 84, net 68 and got paired with Boyd who shot a 76, net 69 ti win the $30 first prize. There were 6 groups that showed up and I had my friend, Bob Hand, who is retired join me and play with Boyd and Andy. I also played on Saturday and struggled with my putting stroke all day. I was pulling the ball left and ended up with a 45+44= 89. I had a good time with Charlie, John Parola and his daughter's boyfriend, Justin. I hope to play golf on Thursday as I have one of our Inspection company representatives coming into the office. We will meet one of our agents for lunch and then play golf at Morgan Creek Country Club here in Roseville. He works with US Reports, which is an owned entity of our parent company, Kaufman Enterprises. Gail and her agent, Ed, will join us. It is the one =day that was forecast to rain, but now just shows as cloudy. We'll see.

 

Darla and I fly out early Friday morning for Seattle, where we will rent a car and be up at Dad and Shirley's place by lunchtime. I'll buy the requisite bottle of Canadian at the border before crossing over. I look forward to helping Dad celebrate his 79th birthday. Next year is the cruise, his 80th and my 60th. Fun stuff.

 

Darla and I met with another contractor, Valley Home Construction, on Tuesday and he met ALL of our requirements. We will have a large shower with two heads, one on either side. One will be a rain shower head and the other an adjustable stream head. We will put in a tile floor that will mimic hardwood in a white/grey color. The two cabinets will be white with a white and gray marble look granite countertop. We will remove the two windows that are behind the shower and tub and put in a 4' x 1' slider high on the wall. We will have a nice mosaic floor in the shower and tiles all the way to the high ceiling. We will have a shower door in the center of the shower. We were going to have an open entryway if we went with the one showerhead. That changed and I think we'll like the double shower. Darla and I went out last night and looked at tile and fixtures. You can see the picture of the tile décor that Darla liked (It matches her jewelry). The place that we went is called Floors and More and it is a HUGE showroom that formerly was a super store called Food 4 Less. We were there for over an hour looking through tiles and flooring.

 

This morning we went to church. Our church has changed from 3 services to 2 and the new 11 AM service has about the same amount of people that we had at the 9 o'clock service. I guess when you make an announcement that you are getting out as the pastor and church, people get out and find other churches. I was really upset aster the last service and the announcement, but have had time to reflect and I'm in for staying for the new iteration of our church. I guess in looking at the Texas ownership they either cut and run when things get tough, or they realized that they made a bad investment. Either way, it hurts for the long term church members.

 

Darla and I went out and looked at more tile and fixtures this morning before church and then afterward went to a flooring store in Roseville. It is owned by an Indian family (from India) and it is the most cramped, crowded and messy retail store that I have ever stepped foot in. And their prices were about 50% higher than the box stores. Darla and I have a good idea of how our finished project will look. We have appointments on the Tuesday and Thursday that we get back from Vancouver and will pick our granite countertops and do our pre site meeting with our designer and contractor.

 

I did work on the yard today and added some topsoil and grass seed in the bare areas of the yard. The grass is bright green and looking good after the wet January that we had and the warm, sunny February. I sprayed for the early season weeds and added fertilizer and Ironite to the lawn. I was planning on the coming rain to help with the seed and fertilizer, but will likely have to water the lawn.

 

The blog will be late next week, but I will be back with pictures from our trip to Canada. I hope all is well. It was a Happy Birthday for McKenny yesterday and the March birthdays begin this week. I hope you all have a good week. Be well. Ciao.

 

Just Chillin' on a Sunday

I mentioned the fruitless cherry tree last week and how it is in full bloom here in mid February. It is pretty well flanking our house and leaving white blossoms all over the lawn and sidewalks. We did get back to rain this past week and had three days of good storms. It rained right into Friday night and cleared for the weekend and our 36 hole NCGA qualifier. The above pictures were taken Saturday morning as I prepared to leave for golf. It was a transition day as the day started out overcast  with low level clouds. It was breezy and downright cold. The sun finally came out about 2 PM and warmed us up. Today was the start of a stretch of days in the mid seventies and it was borderline hot today as I played in shorts and a golf shirt. It was a Chamber of Commerce day with no wind and a high sun in a cloudless blue sky. I was able to get the lawn mowed yesterday and the pool cleaned and the backyard vacuumed of leaves and other detritus. I also had a chance to vacuum the car out, wash and spot wax the car. I had a couple of scratches that were in the handles of the car that I was able to buff out and clean up.

 

Our bathroom remodel is coming along. We have a budget of $20,000 and one more estimate to come in and one more contractor to see on Tuesday. I m taking the day off work and playing golf in the morning and meeting contractors in the afternoon. I think Darla and I have a good feel for who we will use, but I want to do my due diligence before signing a contract. I'm also talking to a contractor on Tuesday afternoon that specializes in re-facing cabinets and getting a quote for the kitchen cabinets. The old honey oak cabinets that were all the rage in the 80's look yellow now. We will get a quote to have them refaced and painted antique white with new hardware. Darla is really leaning toward having two shower heads installed in the new shower and having the entry in the middle of the two. I'm concerned about pressure and how often we would use them at the same time, but she knows what she wants. (Hey, she married me, she has good taste!).

 

I played poker Friday night and won about $65. I couldn't win a hand early on, but it is always best to win late in a 4-5 hour game of cards. Carl hosted and we had seven players, which is perfect. My golf partner for the weekend, Steve, had a horrible night and lost about $120. He was crabby and mad that we had a tee time at 8:16 AM. He likes to sleep in and plays better after 9. What?

 

Saturday was the first round of our 36 hole qualifier and Steve was not on his game. He had five holes where he picked up and left me to play on my own. It was a two man best ball tournament. We ended up shooting 37+34=71 the first day, but that doesn't tell the story. I shot 86 and had a decent round, nothing spectacular. I received 13 strokes. Steve had 12 strokes and shot a blistering 101. It is not fun to play yourself out of the tournament on the first day.

 

We had an 8:23 tee time this morning and I got to the course about 7:45 and Steve was at the driving range hitting balls. When I joined him, he was talking to one of our members and telling him that he had to play a "little" better today. I corrected him as a little better would be breaking 100. I told him I needed an 84 out of him. We teed off on time and I hit a big drive down the middle and Steve....hit his drive out of bounds into the driving range. What??!! He settled down and shot an 88. I had an 85 that included a birdie on 16, where I was on the par five in two and just missed an eagle putt. We finished the day with a 65 for a two day total of 136. The winners had 129, so we needed a 64+65, which wasn't to be. Steve asked me if I was available or the Senior 4 ball in April and I was non committal. It may be time for a new team.

 

I have been interviewing at work. One of my underwriters lost her second assistant to a young lady. His girlfriend is a fitness instructor and is going to work at a gym in Colorado Springs and he is going with her. He was never really an insurance guy and a bit of an odd duck. He liked to play on the dance reality machines in bars and the bowling alley and liked stuffed animals and was a soft soul. I need a few tigers at work. I interviewed a couple of very bright women this last week, but both are socially awkward and one I think has a speech impediment that she has overcome and now pauses a painful amount of time before she responds to a question. She spent Summers in England and went for a semester to Scotland where she actually worked for the Scottish government. She has a background in insurance, but is young and only has a few years of experience. The other is a graduate with a degree in mathematics. She has worked for a couple of firms in accounting and finance and Pete wants to hire her for his team. She had another offer and the hands of time turn slowly when we are interviewing, so I'm guessing she probably took the other job.

 

I am done with the employee reviews this year and just have the compensation package that I sent in to be approved. Once that is complete, I will meet with each of the staff members and do salary reviews. Each of the underwriters now do performance reviews with their teams and I do only the production staff and the managers. It makes life much easier for me. I put in some fairly aggressive compensation plans for my staff, so we will see how it all pans out.

 

Darla and I went out to dinner Saturday night at McCormick and Schmick's steakhouse and ran into an old friend. Rob and his wife Cheryl were very close friends of ours once upon a time and we spent many weekends together when our kids were younger. They were a blended family like us and we had a lot in common. Darla and I pulled away from them when Cheryl kicked Rob's daughter, Katie, out of their house. She was 13 and rebellious, but we really liked her and the rules were different for Rob's kids from Cheryl's and it bothered us. They ended up moving away to Washington state and we kept track through Christmas cards. We had heard that Cheryl had pancreatic cancer and Rob let us know that Cheryl passed away in October. It is sad and he retires next year. I feel for him and it makes Darla and I cherish our marriage all the more. Cheryl's son, Nick, was there with his fiance' and came by and said hi to us as well. It was good catching up and seeing that the kids all turned out.

 

Well, that is it for another week. We are in town next week and then off to celebrate Dad's birthday in Vancouver the following week. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your weather. I see from both Darryl and Randy that some nice weather has hit both Kansas City and Texas. Surrey, I'm sure. has some nice days to go with the rain. Be good to each other. Ciao.

El Nino

A good weekend is in the books. What happened to our rain. 77 degrees is forecast for tomorrow after 75 degrees today. I played golf on Saturday and got a little burn as the sun was so high and warm and I'm such a white guy. El Nino is not over, but taking a break right now. The temperature of the ocean in the Pacific is so warm and still in control of the weather, but right now the storms just aren't out there, s they aren't coming our way. We are expecting a little storm to roll in Wednesday and last until Friday. Hopefully it brings some good rain. My fruitless cherry tree (which is an oxymoron, btw) is starting to bloom now. Our sunsets have been incredible as you can see above.

 

I took a day off on Tuesday and played golf with the retired guys. I ended up shooting 42+43=85. I won $5 and bought myself some chicken breast at KFC on the way home. It was nice and I had a coupon for $20 to play with a cart. I also saw the old center for the Kings, Brad Miller out playing behind us. He's almost 7 feet tall and hit the ball about 300 yards. It was fun to watch him pound the ball.

 

Charlie and Frieda both called us this week and wanted to go to dinner on Saturday night. They had thought they were going to dinner with us last Saturday night and wanted to make up for lost time. I played golf with Charlie on Saturday and then had another remodeling contractor out to bid the master bathroom. We are completely gutting the bathroom and putting in a new walk in shower, new cabinets, new mirrors, new granite counter tops, fixtures and tile. Our first quote was $40,000 which was ridiculous. He dropped his quote to $30K, but we are looking at other contractors. The guy we met with on Saturday is about 38 and full of energy. He wants to put in a walk in shower with mosaic tile on the floor and 24X36 tiles on the walls all the way to the ceiling. He will fill in the two windows that we have now and put in a rectangular slider above the current window line now. He should have us a price on Wednesday. I will meet with another contractor on Thursday and one more and then make our decision. We are taking out the tub in the room and putting in a shower that runs the length of the back wall. What I mean by a walk in shower is that there will be an opening at the far end, but not a shower door. The controls for the shower will be moved to that side so that we can turn on the shower without having to step under the head.

 

We went to PF Chang's with Charlie and Frieda and had quite a feast. We met at 4:30 and were over to their place by about 7. We were going to play a game and Darla decided she wasn't in the mood. so we ordered a movie, The Butler. It was a fun night and an excellent movie.

 

I did play golf with Paul, Charlie and big John Parola on Saturday. I had a good front nine with 41 and a bad back with 45 for 86. I did have two birdies on the day, which was encouraging. I have a two day tournament this coming weekend and it is an NCGA qualifier. Steve asked to play with me again and I agreed. We'll see how we do. I had to get the handicapping for the event done this afternoon. It is difficult because I have to do it by teams, so hard to work from an alpha standpoint. Then I use 90% of the lower of the GHIN or our tournament handicap for our course (which I keep on my computer). And is the two players have more than an 8 point differential, I take another 10% reduction. It is time consuming and my Valentine was good enough to help me.

 

We had an e-mail from our pastor this week announcing that we were having one service this weekend and an announcement would be made. Darla and I attended. After 18 months ago being bought by a Texas church corporation out of Amarillo, thy have decided that the purchase wasn't to their liking and they are looking to sell to a big church in Granite Bay. Our Pastor, Tommy, was reached out to by our former pastor, Rick, and things moved pretty fast. Tommy, who is 49 took over the church and the corporation in Texas assumed our debt burden, which is significant. From the time we completed the new church building and school 12 years ago, the attendance, membership and giving has dropped precipitously. I sat and listened to the explanations and the discussion and left feeling completely abandoned by our pastor. Darla says that I'm looking at it all wrong, but I can't shake the feeling that the Texas group has come to the realization that they made a bad play and are cutting their losses and getting out. i was really steamed when we left. Tommy took over for a senior pastor who was with us for 20 year and he wasn't up to the task. The church that is looking to take over is the church that Darla and I left 22 years ago because we didn't like the ego of the senior pastor. Time will heal these wounds, but it colors my feelings about my church right now. I need to pray about this and come to terms with it.

 

I received the final figures for 2015 at work and we ended up making just over $800,000 in profit, down from over $1,000,000 last year, but not bad with all of the turmoil that we experienced last year. 2016 will be a great year for my branch and I'm very comfortable with the staff that we had. We are still looking at the possibility of bringing in a high profile competitor and that will happen in the first quarter if it pan out.

 

Darla and I have bought our tickets for Vancouver and we will be with Dad and Shirley for Dad's 79th birthday. Well, we won't actually be there on his birthday, but we will celebrate the weekend before. After that, we have to set up our next trip to Las Vegas. We are both  ready to see Jen and Sammy soon.

 

Well that is it for this week. I hope all is well with all of you and you are staying close to the Lord and letting him lead your way through this life. Be well. Ciao.

Super Bowl Weekend

 

 

A great weekend is in the books. I was batching it at the end of the week as Darla was away at a Christian networking conference in Lodi on Thursday and Friday. She then worked a volleyball tournament over the weekend and I played golf.

 

Friday night I headed over tot he casino for dinner and played some video poker. I lost about $100, but that included $12 fir dinner at Fatburger. I had a nice run in the middle of the night and ended the evening on a horrible run. I should have headed home about 9:30. I was up about $80 at that point.

 

Saturday, Darla was up early at her hotel and off to Cal Expo for the volleyball and I had a 9:15 tee time in the Super Bowl tournament. We had 96 players signed up for the Super Bowl, which will probably be our biggest turnout of the year. I played with Paul Gonzalez and Neil didn't put me in with Boyd and Andy for some reason. Andy had been rushed to the hospital on Thursday with congestive heart failure. Andy is 79, so I was worried, but he got out Friday and played golf on Saturday in the tournament. I had an up and down round, missing three foot putts and making a 40 footer for par. I shot 42 on the front and 43 on the back for 85, net 71. I walked off feeling that I left a lot in the tank and figuring I might take 5th place or so. I know from the other players in my foursome that the course was playing tough. I was the only one under par net. As it turns out, this was one of the highest scoring tournaments that we have ever had. Gary Krohn shot 66 net, but there were many, many players that had nets in the 80s and 90's.. My net 71 was better by four than anyone in my flight. I didn't win 1st place net though as my 85 was the low gross in my flight, so I took 1st place low gross. Neil took low net in my flight with a 75.

 

Charlie Aichele played on Saturday and we had a surprise 50th wedding anniversary party for he and Frieda that night a Cabo's Mexican Restaurant in Granite Bay. He had to leave early as he was "going out with his two girls for dinner". I asked where they were going for dinner and when he said "Cabo's", I told him that Darla and I love Cabo's. He invited us to go with them and I told him that it was family time and we'd do it another time. I laughed with the other guys going to dinner. Charlie texted me about 45 minutes later after he'd talked to Frieda and they decided we HAD to go to dinner with them. So, we had to play along, checking in that night with the group in the banquet room and then heading to the bar to meet them for dinner. We met their daughter Karen for the first time. She is the blonde in the family shot. We know Jennifer as she is a golfer and has played in our club before. Karen was at the restaurant getting things prepared for the party and planned to meet her parents for dinner. We met her and were sitting at the bar visiting when they came in. They had NO clue that there was a party planned. Karen told them that she wanted to show them something in the back room before we got seated and the gang was all there to surprise them. Charlie jumped right into the party, but Frieda was shocked and stood in the hallway and cried. It took some encouragement by her daughter and I to talk her into the party. Once she relaxed and got over the shock, she had a great time. We enjoyed fajitas and rice and beans for dinner as well as a nice cake for dessert. The party started at 6 PM and we were home by 9. Darla and I enjoyed the spa and got caught up on each other's lives.  

 

The weather tuned warm the middle of the last week and we had 70 degrees yesterday and 72 today. The rain really helped put a dent in the drought and the picture of Folsom Lake tells quite a story.

 

 Darla was up and off to the second day of the volleyball event today and I headed off to the Super Bowl tournament at Woodcreek. They had a nice breakfast buffet with a Bloody Mary bar followed by a hosted driving range. We teed off at 9 AM from the 16th tee playing a four man scramble with Paul, Bryan and Jesse in my group' We birdied the first three holes and then went on a five hole stretch of pars. When we turned the corner from back nine to front nine, we stopped at a Margarita Bar hosted by 1800 tequila. It was great and I had a grapefruit raspberry margarita. It was awesome. We ended up shooting a 62, which was 7 shots off the lead. We were 8 under on the back nine, but only two under on the front. We finished up and had a great appetizer bar of crispy shrimp, Thai chicken wings and Buffalo chicken legs. It was a great day and included a sleeve of Super Bowl 50 golf balls and several ball markers and ball mark repair tool. We also got 3 squares in the Super Bowl pool that paid $320 total.

 

I got home right before Super Bowl and actually taped the game and watched the playoff at the Phoenix Open between Ricky Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama that Hideki won on the third playoff hole. Darla got home about 4:15 and we put on the DVR recording of the game. It was hard to catch up to the live game as we wanted to watch the commercials. Honestly, there was nothing that excited me about the commercials. I was pleased to see Peyton win his second Super Bowl in 4 tries. I am not a fan Eli Manning and didn't like the comparisons between Peyton, one for the greatest of all time and Eli,  bland quarterback that isn't even in the top 10 of quarterbacks in the league, much less all time. It was a very well played Super Bowl, especially by the two defenses. Well done. I ended up winning $100 in my office pool for winning the third quarter, which was nice.

 

Well, it is getting late and Darla wants to hit the spa. I'm in on that and say goodnight to all of you. Darla and I will call Dad and Shirley this week and set up our Canada trip. I hope all is well. Ciao.