Jennifer with her friend Sara at the airport

Jennifer made it home after a grueling set of flights that took her from Kuwait to Shannon, Ireland and then on to Dallas, Texas and finally home to Sacramento. She is thrilled to be back and ready to relax and renew some friendships and spend time with family. The highlight of her trip was when the locals in Dallas met the plane on the tarmac with two fire engines spraying water over the plane and a small band greeting the soldiers as they exited the aircraft. There was a group on hand waving flags and applauding the soldiers and several restaurants had water and muffins for the returning soldiers. Jennifer was able to catch up with Randy, who made a special point of flying home early from Philadelphia to see Jennifer. He and Cake took Jennifer and a lieutenant that she met on the plane out to breakfast off the airport site. Jennifer was amazed at the welcome she received from the people of Texas, as several approached their table and welcomed her home and thanked her for her service. The restaurant manager greeted them at the table and paid for their breakfast. It was a nice homecoming and says as much about the patriotism and hospitality of the Texas people as anything. As the lieutenant from Orange County said, we won't get this reception in California!

It was a great gesture by Randy to meet with Jennifer and help welcome her home and I appreciate it. He hopes to see her on the return trip as well. It will be a great couple of weeks with her home. We are taking the jet ski out tomorrow afternoon. That's it for now. Ciao.

Jennifer home after 22 hours in the air

The Prodigal Soldier Returns!

Yes. Jennifer will be home this week. She may even be on her way as I write this as she had to fly from Kuwait City to Germany and then catch a flight from Germany to Dallas, Tx. From there she takes an American Airlines flight to Sacramento. I've talked to her a couple of times in the last week and she is beyond homesick and ready for the two weeks of R&R. She called last night in the middle of the night and left a message that she will get in to Sacramento at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. It has been so HOT in Kuwait and the days are so long, she can't wait to get back to Sacramento. We will have 104 degrees to greet her tomorrow, but it will seem cool to her after 122 degrees. I will take a few afternoons off to go to the lake with Jennifer and hope to get a day or two off to go up to Reno if I can squeeze into Jennifer's busy schedule.

I was able to talk to both Darryl and Randy yesterday. Randy is busy globetrotting for his job and it sounds like he is doing well. I talked to him while he was in Philadelphia and preparing for a meeting today. I don't think I'd enjoy the amount of travel that he does, but it gives him great perks in airline miles and hotel upgrades and car rental upgrades when he travels for pleasure. It also sounds like his company is doing really well and he is sharing in the increased profits, which is the whole point, eh? Darryl is just back from a trip to Canada and a quick visit with Dad and Shirley. They were able to golf a few times and Darryl helped Dad with a car show in Washington state. Darryl said that Dad won another first place prize for Best Canadian. I assume his car won too.

Work here continues at a frenetic pace and trying to carve some time out to spend with Jenn will be a challenge (and one that I'm up to by the way). I am in the office by seven most days and out by six pm and those fifty hour weeks take a toll after awhile. I'm having a very good month in July and August is shaping up to be even better. We made a nice profit last month even with my extended absence due to vacation and this month appears to be tracking just as well in spite of the loss of Gail to surgery and the subsequent rehabilitation and medical leave. All three of the new underwriters are excelling and each will earn a nice quarterly bonus. The bonus money should serve as a nice incentive going forward and their success is my success, so it's all good.

Darla and the boys returned from a week in Almanor, tired, spent, but happy. We had planned on taking the jet ski out yesterday, but the boy's friends all bailed and just Darla and I ended up at the beach at Granite Bay yesterday. The boys needed some down time. Darla did too, but I needed a trip to the lake. We left the jet ski at home, but took the air mattresses and floated out on the lake in the 103 degree heat. The lake water is so warm right now. I ended up with a light burn from the intensity of the sun. I didn't reapply sunscreen after being in the water and I paid for it. The beach was not as crowded as normal for whatever reason and it was a nice day spent just relaxing at the beach.

I've ordered two new ski vests (one for Darla and one for me) off the internet and a set of ski gloves for me. I found that the vibration of driving the ski at full throttle in rough water caused my hands to go numb on the yoke. We don't have cruise control, but as the guy that sold me the unit said, he'd throw in cruise control for an extra $50. He was holding a rubber band when he said that. Wise guy.
I've also ordered an owner's manual and I still want to get a dual gas tank holder for the trailer.

I played golf on Saturday and shot 45+42=87. Not my best by far. We teed off at 7:00 AM and beat the heat on Saturday. We were done by 11:00 AM and it was nice. I lost an 8 iron when I played in an insurance tournament two weeks ago and It never did turn up. I called Clubfinders, which is an internet based club replacement service. For $59.95 and $10 shipping, they replace a lost club out of a set. I have Wilson Deep Red II irons and they sent me a Wilson Deep Red 8 iron replacement. It doesn't match exactly, but has the modified fat shaft and a similar head design. I play in our annual three club tournament this weekend and will play with a driver, 8 iron and putter. Alot of the players will use three wood, a middle iron and putter and a few use their driver in place of a putter. As any good golfer knows, a five foot putt counts as much as a three hundred yard drive and I'd never play a round of golf without a putter. I'll let you know how I end up.

Again, it should be a great week or two with Jennifer home. I'll bring you up to date on her wanderings in the next epistle and even add a picture or two. I hope you all have a great week and continually give thanks to the Lord for all of the riches that he provides in your life. Be well. Ciao.

Our New Waverunner...David wondering why he let Daniel Drive!

David and Daniel off to have fun

David and Daniel on the Waverunner

A Waverunner surprise for the boys? NOT!

Just back from a relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable trip to Lake Almanor. It has not always been my favorite spot for Summer vacation, but this trip was great for a variety of reasons. First of all, the weather was hot and the lake water was WARM. Almanor is a mountain lake and is fed from the snowfall on Mt Lassen and to a lessor degree Mt Shasta. Although the lower lakes are also fed by snow runoff, the lower elevation lakes are in a hotter climate and warm up much better than Almanor. We have beeen stuck in a heat wave in the valley and it has taken hold in NorCal. Even Almanor at 4200 feet elevation has had daytime temps in the mid nineties and overnight lows in the sixties. We have stayed at Almanor years where we had the heaters blasting in our cabin and still we were freezing as the overnight lows dipped into the low forties and upper thirties. It would be hard for any lake to hold a decent temperature in those extremes.

As the title hints, Darla and I bought a Yamaha Waverunner, a 155 hp PWC with plenty of punch and a top end speed into the sixties. The boys have been busy with vacation with their Dad and off to church camp last week. They came home late on Saturday and ended up driving up to the lake on Sunday. We had an opportunity to buy the Waverunner at a good price, including the trailer and decided to jump on it with the lake vacation this week. We kept it a secret from the boys and concocted a plan to surprise them when they got to Almanor. The plan was that they would go out knee boarding on Earl's boat and I'd come riding up on the Waverunner. Darla was going to be on the boat with her camera to record the surprise. We waited Sunday for them to arrive and Darla and I made several runs across the lake to test out the craft. It is a 2001 Waverunner with a new motor (the old one conked out under warranty) that has just 40 hours on the water. The boys finally showed up at 4:30 and were raring to go. We talked to them for a bit down by the water and told them to go get changed into swim suits. We were ready to spring our surprise. They were gone for about fifteen minutes and came back and Daniel said, with a big grin, "Which one is ours?" We looked at him kind of funny and asked him what he was talking about. "The Jet Ski, which one is ours?" We again asked him what he was talking about and tried to play it cool until Frances blurted out, "OK, who told you?" We had told all of our friends at the resort that the ski was a surprise and to keep it on the q.t. It turns out that no one had told them. Daniel is a bright kid and just followed the clues.

First of all, when they got home from church camp (Darla and I were already up at Almanor), they found the Ford oval laying in the laundry room on top of my socket set. We bought the oval as a plug for the slide hitch housing. When they got up to Almanor and parked at the cabin, they saw the jet ski trailer parked on the side of the cabin. Finally, Daniel found the six bottles of Yamalube 2W oil behind the front door of the cabin. The surprise was ruined, but not the enjoyment and appreciation of the gift by the boys. They rode it hard yesterday and today and had already gone through a tank of gas (18.5 gallons) and three quarts of oil. The oil is injected into the gas as the engine is a two stroke engine and takes a combination of gas and oil. The high horsepower eats the gas and it could be an expensive week.

The jet ski will also come in handy next week when Jennifer returns from Kuwait for a twelve day vacation. I'm sure Jen and her friends will make good use of the ski during her time home. I'm really looking forward to seeing her and the jet ski is one reason that we finally talked. I left her a message that I had a Big Surprise for her when she came home and she was finally able to get ahold of me. Amazing.

We were able to go to church up at Almanor and this is our fourth Summer with the same Pastor. He is just starting a series on the Ten Commandments and started with number ten, which is "Though Shalt not covet." The pastor said that this commandment is the basis of all of the commandments, because if you break any of them, it will likely come back to the sin of coveting, whether it is stealing, killing or commiting adultery, the seed of the sin is coveting something that you did not have. It was an interesting sermon and it put a nice bow on my long weekend.

Darla came up to me today when I was finishing gassing up the jet ski and adding oil. She said that we had a problem in the bathroom at the cabin. I just assumed it was Daniel clogging the plumbing, but in fact the sink had fallen off the wall. It had glanced off of Darla's leg, but stopped short of smashing her feet as the hoses to the hot and cold water and the hose to the drain held it up. It turns out that the sink is attached to the pine wall of the bathroom and water had slowly worked it's way behind the sink and rotted out the wall. Whoever had installed the sink had used 3/4 inch stud screws and they came loose. Frank, the owner of the resort, and I reinstalled the sink using four 1 1/2 inch stud screws. Again Amazing.

We bought the jet ski as part of our proceeds from refinancing the house. I had to sign papers on Friday at four PM. Friday was my last day before a three day weekend and I had my senior underwriter, Gail out on medical leave. She has plumbing issues herself and will be out at least a month. Her agents all seemed to call me. I also got calls from a high number of my agents, several with immediate needs that I HAD to get to before COB (close of business). My Monday off turned into my Friday...meaning that my Friday was like the Monday from Hell. I didn't handle the pressure well and was close to losing it several times. I finally got out of the office at 3:55 PM and called the house to let them know I'd be late. I rushed out of there with the phone still ringing, but all of my promised tasks completed. I got home after a spate of bad traffic at 4:30 apologetic as all get out to the Notary , who had been visiting with Darla for half an hour and they were fast friends. My day soon became worse as I realized that my wallet was still in my desk drawer at work. The notary, of course, wanted proof that I was who I said I was. I showed her my just expired license, but she was all by the book and needed to see the current license. She offered to drive back to Rancho Cordova and to meet us at my office. I told her that it was my bonehead move and that, if she preferred, I'd just drop by her home and show her the ID. She agreed. So, Darla and I hightailed it back to my work and then over to the Notary's home in Fair Oaks. We got home about 7:30 and I again took Darla out to dinner (See last week's blog, same bonehead move). We were just relaxing watching the late night news after a marathon day, when the phone rang. We thought it might be the boys, but it was the Notary calling. She had triple-checked her papers and found a missing signature page. She wanted to make arrangements to meet the next morning to get the form signed. I had an eight o'clock tee time (41+41=82!!) and couldn't make it. With Darla going out of town for a week, we needed to do something. The Notary said it was her fault and she came over to our house at midnight where we signed the missing paper. A perfect end to a perfectly awful day.

I hope your week is more like the boys': all fun, sun and happy times. Turn to the Lord and you will experience Mercy, Forgiveness and Peace, something that is very missing in the mass of humanity these days. Think about it. Ciao.

Summer Doldrums

Believe it or not, I've been sitting at work for close to an hour and finally realized that I needed to update the blog. That hasn't happened before and I can only blame it on the hot, hazy, lazy days of Summer. I did get to read the paper cover to cover and get caught up on the nasty doings in the world.

Darla and I had a nice, relaxing weekend, although it didn't start out that way. I forgot my wallet at work on Friday night and didn't realize it until I stopped for gas on my way home. What a bonehead move as work is a good half hour away from home. I called Darla and told her that I'd pick her up and take her to dinner. She was enthused until I mentioned that I had left my wallet at work and we'd eat in Rancho Cordova. The boys were just home from their vacation with their Dad and they were leaving again for a week at a Christian Camp in Viola in So Cal. They had wash to do and would see us about 8:30 PM. Darla and I drove all the way back to my work to pick up my wallet and then I took her to Samarai Sushi for dinner. Neither of us are overly keen on sushi, but they have a nice menu of cooked Japanese food and we settled on the shrimp tempura for Darla and I had the teriyaki chicken with tempura. It was good and Darla was a good sport given my boneheadedness.

The boys did meet us about nine-thirty as it turned out and we got caught up on their travels through the asphalt clogged cities of Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Again, this isn't my idea of a Summer vacation, but I'm glad that Steve could show the kids some of the east coast. I'll show them Florida and the beaches of South Carolina some day. They were up early on Saturday to meet the SUVs at church for their trip to Southern California. They spent yesterday at Disneyland. Not a bad Summer for the guys so far, eh? They will get home on Saturday and leave Sunday for a week with Darla and her family at Lake Almanor. I will be there until Monday when I return to run the office here. Peter will be out next week and Gail starts her month medical leave on Monday as well. Darla would like me to go up some year and spend the whole week in Almanor, but until I get three weeks of vacation, I don't see it happening. The venue is nice, but it's a mountain lake and the water is freezing. Somehow, I prefer the oceans of Puerto Vallarta or Kauai, where the water temperature is 80 degrees.

I played golf on Saturday in the Buick Scramble with Mel, Steve Matthews and Boyd. We shot a ten under par 62, but lost out to the winners at 58. The team wasn't strong, but Boyd kept us in the match all day and we even managed two eagles on the front side, both on the par 5s. Our undoing were the par threes, where we parred each of them. Finally, we bogeyed the 17th hole of the day (Number 8 as we started on number 10), which was dumb, but it didn't hurt us as we were already out of the tournament. I had a good time, but it was expensive. It cost $65 a man to play, plus green fees and then we had to provide a scorer as well for another team. We paid Mel's son $32 to do the job. Jean Paulo was thrilled and at fifteen, it was his first paid job. The guys in front of us used Jean Paulo and they were supposed to let him ride in the cart. Somehow they talked him into hanging off the back of the cart and we saw him hanging on for dear life as they careened across the course.

Darla and I have bought a pass for Folsom Lake and we spent Sunday at the lake. We left straight from church and stopped at the local grocery store for sandwiches while I dashed into the Taco Bell to change into my swim suit. We got to the lake about 11:00AM and it was mostly deserted. One of the local Granite Bay churches has their worship service at the beach and they were there around the corner on the point. The lifeguards were just coming on and we set up our towel, chairs, umbrella and ice chest a short distance from the first lifeguard tower. We noticed that a horse had visited the beach early and had deposited an offering a ways down from our blanket. We were far enough from the offending nugget to have it not interfere with our enjoyment of the beach. As the day wore on, the little equine prize kept us from having neighbors too close as they would see the deposit and move on. Finally a couple with a small child set up camp within spitting distance of the roadie and Darla felt compelled to mention it to them. The wife looked at Darla and said, "yeah, we saw it." She seemed unconcerned, so we went back to our books. Several minutes later, their friends joined them and the woman took one look at the horse puck and began yelling, "Why are you sitting next to a turd? I'm not setting up by a turd. Did you see the turd? Bubba, it's a great big TURD!" Bubba turned out to be her brother and a more fitting name could not have been applied to this large, okefied man. His sister was also of a rather large frame. She ranted awhile longer about the TURD and finally grabbed her daughter's beach pail and shovel and scooped up the offending fecal matter and sent it flying up the beach. Why she didn't put it in the trash can is beyond me. Darla and I were howling with laughter by now and she walked by and muttered something about why a woman had to pick up the turd rather than the men. I told her, "yeah, that's a bunch of crap." She wasn't amused.

We returned hom in the late afternoon after spending an hour at Alicia's fixing her sprinklers, which were alternately geysers or completely buried in the lawn. I had to locate three heads that were overgrown in the grass and when I showed Alicia, her comment was, "I didn't know I had sprinklers on that side of the lawn." I need to work with David to make sure that I get him to trim back the grass around the sprinkler heads. I installed 8 more solar lights along the walkway at the front of the house and I'm pleased with the result. The solar landscape lights are amber in color and let off less light than their wired brethren. It is a nice soft light that marks the brick and cement walkway leading to our front door.

Our pastor, Rick, spoke on the subject of War and Pacifism yesterday and how the Bible teaches us about this subject. It was enlightening and somewhat controversial, but I agreed with him when he said that War is preferable to the the advance of evil in society. The Iraq War is not popular, but it is much less brutal in terms of loss of life than any other war we've been involved in based on the size of our population and the loss of life as a percentage of same. We hate to lose even one life to a war, but I think we are doing the right thing. We need to defeat the enemy and get out of that country.

Well, not much news to report. The blog will be a day late next week as I'll be in Almanor. Stay well, keep your sunscreen on (SPF 30 or higher) and keep your nose in the Bible. It is the instruction manual for life. Ciao.

David Surfing

Daniel Surfing

Ken and Darla at Luau

Ken and David at Luau

Dan and Darla at Luau

4th of July begets the 5th of July

Happy Tuesday. You have to revel in three day weekends, especially when the vacation hangover is still in place and I'm fighting to get my work focus back. We just closed June and although I had a down month (vacations will eat into your production), the branch made money and I receved a congratulatory call from the Underwriting VP on Friday. The Modesto office is ramping up and Gail had a solid month here in Sacramento.

I was listening to a national radio show yesterday on the way back from Folsom Lake and heard a sports announcer say that the Toronto Blue Jays did not have a game on July 4th and that was because Canadians do not have a 4th of July. Somehow, I thought we were all on the same calendar, but apparently not. Do Canadians have a July 32nd for skipping July 4th? Interesting bit of trivia or simply an act of a bufoon?

Darla and I had a nice long weekend. The boys are still on the east coast with their Dad, I believe somewhere in Washington, DC and Darla and I had to make do with just each other. We started the weekend by going out to Folsom Lake Friday night and enjoying a picnic on the beach. I let the staff go at 3 PM as it was DEAD and most of the companies and agents closed down at noon. I stayed until 4:30 and then met Darla at a parking lot close to the beach entrance. We parked my Mustang, bought some sandwiches and Darla brought drinks from home. We sat in the 100 degree heat, reading books and looking out over the lake and contemplating the free three days ahead. It was a nice start to a good holiday weekend.

I played golf in the Firecracker tournament on Saturday. We played a modified Stableford scoring system with positive points for Pars, birdies and eagles and negative points for double bogey or higher. I shot a 41+45=86 and scored 19 points. I was in the first group off and left right away as Darla and I were off to spend the night in Paradise at Darla's parent's new home. I'm guessing that my 19 points will place me in the middle of the pack. I hadn't played golf in three weeks and was rusty. My short game suffered the most, although my putter was hot. I rolled in three putts of over fifty feet, all of them for par and all on the front side. I easily could have shot 90 if not for a smoking putter.

Darla's parents new home is nothing short of spectacular. It sits in a former Apple orchard in Paradise and is part of a group of custom homes all with at least one acre of land. Their home is a single story home with the garage below the main floor and loads of storage. There are two rooms below the main living area, both used as storage. One is perfect for a root cellar and the other houses the air conditioner unit, the water heater and all of the controls for the sprinklers. They also have a water softener. The back yard is immense and has room for the fifth wheel and a separate two car garage at the rear of the property that is being used as a shop. The garage has water and is plumbed for a toilet. If they finish the construction and add the toilet, Earl could live out there. That building looks fairly new and I'd guess is only a couple of years old.

We went up to help them paint the house and joined Alicia and Darla's brother, Steve, a the house on Saturday night. Earl kept telling me he had a "special" job for me. I'm not much for painting and couldn't really sink my teeth into spending a beautiful July 4th weekend inside painting walls. Earl read me like a book and turned me loose on the nine sprinkler zones over the acre of property. Most of the sprinkler system is drip line and the former owner had used her hoe to dig up weeds and destroyed a good portion of the sprinkler lines in the process. I spent most of the day repairing the broken lines between trips to the hardware store. The rest of the gang were inside painting up a storm and I was completely in my element out in the fresh air digging in the dirt. I ended up changing out two of the sprinkler control valves and moving several of the sprinkler heads to get better coverage. The main lawn has oscillating sprinkler heads and Earl and I moved a couple of the heads to get better coverage. He still has work to do on the sprinkler system, but when we left most of the ground was covered by sprinklers and they could leave the home without fear of dying plants.

Their home is three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths with room for four cars under cover. The home has a formal dining room, a living room and a family room, a hot stove fireplace, a garbage disposal and an inside atrium off of the living room. The home is beautiful and surrounded by a lanai off the living room and master bedroom that looks down on the property. They have a dry creekbed that runs along the side of the property that will have water during the winter months. The property is large and will keep Earl busy during his retirement I'm sure.

Darla and I stayed over Saturday night on an air mattress and sleeping bags and drove home Sunday night after working all day. The home includes a jacuzzi in the master bathroom that Darla and I put through it's paces before bed. Earl and Frances are staying in the fifth wheel for right now. They are redecorating, adding paint, carpet, window coverings and some furniture prior to their move in August. The current carpet is a peach colored monstrosity and they are replacing ALL of it. The home itself is painted an almost peachlike color on the wood sided exterior and they plan on painting the exterior a more natural wood stain.

Darla and I spent the day yesterday relaxing at Folsom Lake on the beach. We bought a State parks pass for this year at $120. It is $7 per entry and the pass is good at all state parks. The lake up near Darla's parent's new home is a state park and we will get in there without paying additional entry as well. The pass is hung from the rear view mirror and David and Destanie can use the pass as well in his car. We had a very rainy winter and Folsom Lake is as full as it has been in ten years. The lake is at 94% capacity and there is very little beach left. Last year we had to drive down onto the old beach and another 300 yards down to the water. We sat yesterday under the shade of an umbrella and on our blanket reading and soaking up some sun between trips to the water to cool off. We watched the park police write up our closest neighbors on the beach for alcohol consumption. They had two gallon jugs of strawberry margaritas and the guy claimed he didn't know they had liquor in them. Usually the police just give a verbal warning and make them pour out the alcohol, but this guy bought himself a ticket for lying to the officer. We had a silent giggle over that. The group next door left shortly after their hootch was poured on the beach. Some people cannot enjoy themselves without drinking and the lake is one place that restricts alcohol. It is truly a family friendly destination as the rowdys stay away in droves. Nice.

Well, I have some pictures to add to the blog from our trip and will do that now. I hope all are well and looking to the Lord for direction in your lives. Remember, God does allow U-turns. Ciao.

Back to the Grind..Oy Vey!

There is no getting around it. Vacation is over and the reality of bills and college and responsibility trump the sweet memories of ukeleles, mango fruit juice and the sound of pounding surf.

Some random thoughts regarding our vacation. Darla forgot to renew her license in the days leading up to David's graduation and our vacation and was pulled out of line at the security checkpoint in SF and subjected to intense screening by the TSA. Her carryons were hand searched and she was frisked before being allowed to move to our gate. The line in San Francisco was long and she actually moved through screening faster than we did. The odd thing is, she somehow had a pocket knife in one of the zippered compartments of her purse that was missed in the intense screening. Makes you feel really safe on domestic flights in the US, eh? We attended a small church in Hanalei last Sunday. The church is pastored by a former bad boy who turned his life over to Christ. He's a bit of a beach bum with longer hair, but a true perspective on the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ. The church had about 13 attenders and we brought the total up to 17 on Father's Day. They even gifted me with a bag of Reeses peanut butter cups when we left. It was good music and a real laid back, beach feeling which added to our vacation and was a blessing to us. I had to drive everywhere on the island as I wasn't about to pay the surcharge for an 18 year old driver and Darla was sans a valid driver's license. Darla did not face the added security on the flight out of Lihue in Kauai as they simply looked at her expired license and waived her through. Things are certainly more laid back on the islands. I'll put the Hawaii trip away in my box of memories. I will add a few pictures to the blog when I finally get around to it.

I am going into some serious withdrawal pangs from golf. I haven't played since June 11th and will finally tee it up again on Saturday in our Firecracker tournament prior to the 4th of July. We had to go to Sonora on Saturday to wish Darla's sister-in-law, Kristin, and her niece, Shae, a fond farewell as they are moving to the big island of Hawaii in Hilo to look for work. Darla's brother, Steve, will retire from his bread job in September and join his family in Hawaii. Why? Who knows, a middle age crisis or a true calling to live in Hawaii. I don't know. We will be able to visit them on our next trip to Hawaii, when we can take a week in our condo and then a week at their place on the big island. Kristin just graduated from college and will look for work in the social services field in Hawaii. I was invited to play golf by Mark Konrad on Saturday, but his tee time was 9 am and I had to leave about 1:30 for Sonora. I grudgingly passed on the opportunity.

Darla's parents, Earl and Frances, have sold the family farm in Linden and will move to a new home on one acre in Paradise, California (outside Chico) in August. They take possesion of the new home this coming weekend and will be up painting the house. We are excited for them as this will force Earl to finally retire. He retired from his construction job a few years ago, but the orchard continued to demand alot of his time and energy. This is a huge step in his life and Earl is going kicking and screaming. I think he knows in his heart that this is the right move, but a farmer is a farmer and most never really retire. The land is in their blood and it's one reason that they bought a home with some acreage. I can't see Earl happy in the middle of suburbia. Currently, his closest neighbor is about 5 acres away from his home and he likes it that way. Darla and I may venture up to the new homestead this weekend as they will be working on the home. We'll pack up some grilling meat of some kind on July 4th and head up to see them. Their new home is close to Lake Oroville and on the way up to Lake Almanor. Earl and Frances had thought about buying a home in Almanor, but when they realized that the region gets some serious snowfall in the winter decided to take a second look and settled on Paradise. The town has a reputation as a retirement area. I do have an agent in the area and will stop in and see them once they are moved in.

Both Darla and the boys have had a hard time with the move and will miss the farm. The boys have spent a great deal of time there the past year helping Earl with some construction and on the farm itself. Darla lived there during her high school years and Daniel lived there when he came home from the hospital as Darla and her ex were separated at the time. We hope to make it up to the farm for a barbecue and swim party before they move.

Work was actually pretty well handled between Anthony on the new business side and Connie on the renewals and endorsements. I have about 28 applications on my desk, which really isn't bad. The problem is that I have some reports to do from a management perspective which interrupts my ability to handle the load. Both Pete and Audra have started with us (our new underwriter and AR person). I will take Audra to lunch today to welcome her. She handles my set-ups of new business and I have to spend a little time getting her on the same page as me. Dinda taught her how to handle the desk and made my set ups a secondary priority. I have to impress upon her that income pays her salary and anything we can do to streamline the revenue flow, the better it is for her.

Gail will be taking off most of July between vacation and some elective surgery. I need to get Peter up to speed, but also need to get him into a licensing class and off to Scottsdale to meet our number one company and the underwriters there. Emery Jensen was our boss at Republic Western and runs the Western region for Scottsdale, so will take good care of Pete.

I haven't heard from Jennifer in awhile. She called to wish me a Happy Father's Day, but her message got cut off. "Jenn, call your Dad!" I want to talk to you about your trip home and just get caught up on what's going on in your life.

The boys are off to Philadelphia, Washington and New York. David called last night and said he was just finishing a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. His luggage didn't make it on the plane and they were still waiting for that to show up. It sounds like they are having a good time with their Dad, which is good.

It was great to be back in church yesterday. The new executive pastor gave the message and he talked about Fear being the "darkroom where negatives are developed". I liked that and found it so appropriate to life in general. I hope that you are all well and looking to the light of the Lord, who casts out the darkness and the darkrooms in each of our lives. Be well. Ciao.

We are Back!!!

I'm adding to this on Thursday night as I know my Friday back to work will be Hell on wheels. Darla checked in today and had 42 messages. I had called in on Tuesday to get an address and to check in and my assistant wouldn't talk to me. She has been stressed and said she would wait until Friday to talk to me. Hopefully, she isn't quitting. In truth, I think she just didn't want to rain on my vacation and figured that anything that was on the burner could wait two days.

We had a great time and I'm a little sad that it's over, but we took some good memories from the trip and I know the boys had a blast. We stayed in San Francisco on Saturday night before our Sunday flight and my good friend, Mel Tobias, who owns the inspection company that I use at work, took the family out to dinner at the Elephant Bar in Millbrae. We ate to our heart's content and Mel and his wife, Trish, sent us off on our vacation in style. I called to get his address as we wanted to send a post card from the family to thank them for their generosity.

We were able to do many activities on our trip and they included, in no particular order, snorkeling, surfing, driving trip to Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii), a 4 hour ATV trip through a 22,000 acre private ranch )that was the setting for Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, King Kong, 8 days-7 nights, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many other Hollywood films), body surfing, boogie boarding, suntanning, a luau and polynesian show, spending time at the swimming pools, shopping, eating, sleeping and more. It was a jam packed ten days and worth the cost of our trip. The ATV trip was the highlight for me. David got pulled over by the owner of the ATV tour and told that he was hot dogging. He was fishtailing a little on the practice trail. We all laughed at him as he was IN TROUBLE. David and I rode four wheelers, nice Kawasaki newer bikes. Daniel and Darla rode a Hippo, which is a four wheel, two passenger ATV. It had a little more horsepower than the ATVs and they had to ride at the end of the line. David and I rode directly behind the women as the tour operator put all of the gals at the front followed by the men. Dave and I would slow down and pretend that we were repositioning our helmets and face rags (it was dusty on the trail) and then we'd go full out down the hills and over the rocks. David got his bike up to 44 miles an hour on the straightaway and I pegged out at 39. My bike had a governor on it. At one point Dave and I were both going full throttle and the group had come to a stop around a bend. We both had to lock up our brakes to stop in time. The trip was excellent and they took us to the top of a hill overlooking another private ranch and private beach. In truth there are no private beaches in Hawaii, but this beach is only accessible by water as the land around it is all private. The boats have to dock thirty yards from shore and the surf is rough, so the only beach users are the family that owns the ranch. The beach was the scene of King Kamehameha's sole attack on Kauai. Kauai is the only island that Kamehameha never conquered, as his troops were overcome with disentary and overwhelmed by Kauai's forces on the beach. Kauai was eventually included under Kamehameha's rule, but only through diplomacy. Kamehameha controlled the shipping lanes and goods were not making it to Kauai and the ruler decided to switch rather than fight and was made the governor of Kauai by the King.

Darla and I did attend two time share presentations in order to reduce the cost of the ATV tour and the Luau. We do intend to buy another week on Kauai as we want two weeks every other year, but with David in school and Daniel getting close, that will have to wait. I feel very good about our condo in Princeville. It is the oldest and has the largest square footage of all of the condos. The two bedroom that we upgraded to from our one bedroom is huge and has two master bedrooms and a gigantic living area. All of the other condos in Princeville are multi-family units with six-plexes being the norm. The two bedrooms at the Makai Club are stand alone units. One of the nice features is that we have windows on all sides of the unit so that the trade winds can blow throuh and cool off the unit. Our condo was right next to the pool and was a handicap unit. The bathroom in our bedroom was huge and made so that a wheelchair could turn easily in the room. I'm glad that we had a week in the two bedroom unit, because the one bedroom that we moved to in Lihue was much smaller. The boys had to share a fold out sleeper and their clothes and towels were everywhere. I got an impression of what it would be like to live at their Dad's house and it wasn't pleasant. The second resort was part of the Radisson and had five pools including a sand bottom pool, three tennis courts, two restaurants, three bars and two jacuzzis. They had a hula group and band playing the first night that we checked in and I sat in the hot tub and watched the show. It was great.

We did give the boys surf lessons and they both did well. They were both upset that the surf was so small on Hanalei Beach where they took the lessons, but they were soon to find out how good it was there. They were both up and surfing within fifteen minutes. We rented a board later in the week along with a carrier for the top of the SUV. I rented a Jeep Laredo for the ten days and it was plenty big for our two six footers. We took them out to Shipwreck's Beach and they got to watch the local surfer champions take on some huge waves and they really enjoyed it. The next day we went to a beach on the west side of the island with six-foot waves and neither of them could even row the board out to the waves as they kept getting pushed back.

We took them to Duke's beach next to the Marriott and they were both able to ride some four-foot swells. David got his feet cut up on some coral and was fighting scabs for the rest of the trip. Duke's is a beach made famous by Hawaii's first Olympic champion and he runs a bar and restaurant there now. We ate dinner at Duke's one night. Darla and the boys enjoyed body surfing at Dukes as the waves are big and really pound you. I read my book and took in all of the surroundings.

I did enjoy snorkeling and we bought two sets of snorkel gear that we brought home with us. Kauai has some of Hawaii's best snorkel beaches, including Anini Beach, Tunnels Beach and Ke'e Beach. My favorite was Ke'e at the end of the raod north of Hanalei. The beach itself is beautiful white sand and the snorkeling is great with huge reefs and coral and an abundance of sea life. Darla and David were surprised by a seven foot sea turtle that happened by while they were snorkeling. Daniel and I were able to run out and get a close up view of the huge beast. It was definitely a sight to see.

Finally, we did enjoy a luau on Monday night with all you can eat barbecue, featuring a pig cooked in an Emu pit for fifteen hours. We dutifully tried Poi and decided that it would be handy if you ever needed to glue something in a hurry. It was flaverless, but the consistency of Elmer's glue and a dull shade of purple. Yuck. I had a few mai tais and a Hawaiian beer as the drinks were included. David and Daniel enjoyed the dancing with girls in grass skirts and coconut bikinis. It was a great show and again we truly enjoyed ourselves.

Darla and I saw more of the island on this trip than we did in 2003 and we stayed busy. The boys were worn out by Tuesday and sat in the room and watched tv Tuesday afternoon while Darla and I went to the pool. We used up three tanks of gas in ten days, so we were definitely moving.

You'll notice that GOLF was not on the agenda. I had hoped to play in one of the 9 hole tournaments, but we were busy and the focus this trip was more on the boys and doing things as a family. It was tough. Our condo in Princeville is adjacent to 45 holes of championship golf and I had to swallow hard not to play. What a grownup I am, eh?

The boys have returned home to their Dad's and will leave Saturday for a two week trip to Washington, DC, New York City and Philadelphia. Not my idea of a vacation, but to each his own.

I will write more later and I'll get a couple of pictures from the trip on the blog. It's good to be back, but I'm sure mountains of work await me tomorrow. I like the idea of going back to work on a Friday to get the lay of the land. I hope you all are well. I'm excited that Jennifer will be home next month and plan to take a day off and maybe Darla and I will take her back up to Reno to spend the night. Ciao.

Next week we will be in Paradise!!

I'm referring to Hawaii and not the new home of Darla's parents. The hits keep on coming at work. I'm trying to hire a new underwriter and the CEO of the company has been brought in and is nickle and diming my candidate. We could lose this deal and I'd be back at square one. Hopefully, we can pull this together this week and get him hired. Now, my accounting person has given me her resignation and I'm trying to hire someone there as well. The CFO of the company has called me and told me that he wants final say on any candidate. Nothing like full autonomy to get the job done.

The weather has finally turned to Summer and the constant rain of the last two months is past. It was weird weather in that we would get the rain and wind and then it would be 90 degrees for two days and then another storm would roll in. Our blood was thinning and thickening and finally matasticizing into a gel-like state.

I am back to work after taking the last half of last week at an Insurance event in Eureka (Humboldt County). Darla was able to join me and it made the trip so much nicer. To begin with, the drive is 5 1/2 hours. We drove up through Redding and then took Highway 299 through the mountains and over to the coast. It is a nice drive, but pretty windy through the mountain pass. The drive was much nicer with my Mustang last year than with the Explorer this year. Darla was getting a little testy on the latter part of the drive as the curves were turning her stomach and she thought I was driving a little fast. Maybe I was. We had a cocktail reception on Wednesday evening at the Ingomar house in Eureka. The Ingomar was a private residence built by one of the lumber barons at the turn of the century (1900, not 2000). It is now a private club owned by about 350 of the movers and shakers of Eureka. The home is a palatial three-story, 5000 square foot home with magnificent views of the bay and a small turret on the fourth floor of the home (the attic) where Mrs. ingomar set up a telescope and would watch for her husband to return from the sea as he made trips to sell his lumber.

Thursday was the golf tournament. Darla spent the day shopping in Eureka and Arcata, two towns lost in the sixties. Darla said that she saw more dreadlocks and hippies in those towns than she's seen in years. The golf tournament is played at Baywood, a private course in the foothills outside of Eureka. I was able to play my own ball and struggled to a 44+44=88. The problem wasn't the conditions or the course, but the alcohol and partying. Each hole was set up with a different theme. They had the Mardi Gras hole with Jagermeister and jello shots, the Manhattan hole, the Margarita hole, the wine and cheese hole, and the barbecued oyster hole which featured Coronitas, the little eight ounce Coronas. There were five groups backed up on the hole and they were dancing and listening to Jimmy Buffett. Groups were waving others through and it was a nightmare. The rythmn of golf was not present. Darla met me for dinner and they had a nice prime rib and chicken picata. We enjoyed the festivities and I left with a new golf jacket, won in the raffle.

We stayed over Thursday night and I drove home after a late breakfast. We drove back up Highway 101 and I took a detour to drive throught the Valley of the Giants in the Redwood National Park. I wanted to drive through the famous "drive-thru tree". We took in the beauty of the forest and drove through dense trees and tunnels of foliage, but no drive-thru tree. We finally drove into a little town and saw the sign "Drive-thru tree 200 feet". We drove right past the little town and saw no tree. I turned around and saw the gift shop and novelty store and saw an admission entrance for the "drive-thru tree". It was $1.50 per person to walk or drive thru the tree. There was no one at the admission booth, so we drove on and there sat a tree about 12 foot in diameter in which the owner had carved a 7'x7' crude tunnel through the tree. I was about to drive thru when Darla stopped me. The carving was sideways and rough at best and she was afraid we'd get stuck. I backed up and drove out. There was an older woman standing near the admission booth with her hands on her hips staring me down as I drove out of the little "rip off" den and got back on the highway. Darla and I were howling with laughter. That tree was a sad state of affairs and we wonder how many SUVs have been wedged into that tree over the years. We drove on and saw the turn off to the actual drive-thru tree about eight miles later, but drove past having had enough fun for one day.

We drove back through Highway 20 and past Clear Lake on our way home. It was a nice drive punctuated by the soft snores of Darla as I drove on and she slept on.

We came back late Friday afternoon and had a graduation party for David scheduled for Saturday night. I answered my e-mail to find an invitation to play golf on Saturday morning. I so wanted to rid myself of the Eureka golf experience and Darla was gracious enough to allow me to play. We teed off at nine and I was back home by 2:00 PM. I played with Boyd and Mel and shot a stellar 37+40=77, much better and more to my standards. It was nice to wash myself clean of the drunken party that stood in for a golf tournament earlier in the week.

David's party went well. We had about thirty people, including Destanie's parents. Her Dad is Justin and a longer haired musician type with a soul patch and bleach blonde hair. A great Christian man on fire for the Lord. He thinks David is great and told us stories of David asking him to date Destanie. Earl and Justin hit it off as both worked as Construction Foremen and had similar experiences with the trades. Steve's wife, Kirsten, mistook Justin for one of David's friends, thrilling him to no end. David made a nice haul with his graduation gifts which were over $1,500 at the last count. Daniel wanted to have a party to celebrate graduating from the tenth grade after watching David's party. I told him "Fat chance."

Well, work awaits. The blog will be on vacation along with us for the next two weeks. I hope you are all well, happy and one with the Lord. Be kind to each other. Sorry that Dad and Shirley, Jennifer, and Earl and Frances couldn't join us in Kauai, but we will have plenty of good times in your stead. Ciao.

Memorial Day

The sun is out and warming the landscape. It should be mid-eighties today and we have a picnic planned with our life group from church. The nice thing is that the picnic starts at 4:00 PM and even better, it is at the park across the street from our house.

I'd like to offer a prayer of thanks to the men and women of the military, the ones who bravely serve us now and the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives for this country. There was a story in the paper of a 22 year-old soldier who served in Fallujah and threw his helmet over a live grenade at a checkpoint and then covered the helmet with his body. He was a platoon leader and saved his squad from injury, but died when an eraser sized piece of shrapnel pierced his skull. He was home at Christmas and told his parents that he was going to extend his four years of service until his unit finished it's tour in Fallujah. His mom asked him if he wanted his dress blues at his funeral and he said, "Yes". The amazing thing is that his little brother, who is 17 wants to be A Marine as well.

Darla and I enjoyed the San Francisco Giants game on Saturday at SBC Park in San Francisco. Our inspection company invited Anthony and I and our significant others to the game. We met for lunch at Amici's across from the ballpark and then walked across the street and watched the game. It was about 68 degrees in SF and the Giants lost. We hiked back to our car to find our front right tire flat. Our host had left and Anthony and Erin were leaving for Santa Maria. We sent them on their way and called AAA. AAA was not helpful in that they directed us to the services booth at Lot A. The Giants run a tow truck service and they unlock cars and change tires and tow if necessary. We hiked all the way back to lot A to find that the tow truck had not shown for this game. We called AAA back and they argued with us, before Darla finally let them have it. They finally sent a truck and he changed our tire. The tire had a large bolt in the tread. We got home about 7:00PM. It was a long day.

Today, we took the tire in to Firestone. I was afraid that they wouldn't repair the tire due to the fact that we have 49,000 miles on the tires and, true to form, they called to say that the tread was too thin to repair. So, now we sit waiting for the $550 worth of tires to be installed and balanced and a front-end alignment to be done. Hey, it's only money.

Work has turned into a chore with not only Gwen, one of the Commercial Underwriters having quit, but Dinda, my Accounts Receivable person having given her two weeks notice. Dinda has had health issues and now has a tumor in her stomach about the size of a softball. She will work until June 15th and then fly to the Phillipines for surgery. Dinda is the sister of Cora, Mel's wife, and an Underwriting Assistant in the office. I'll miss Dinda and wish her a speedy recovery. It was like piling on this past week after Gwen gave her notice. Dinda felt so bad, but I told her I was numb and I was only worried about her. Not true, I'm worried about replacing her, but it will all work out in the wash.

On the positive side, I did meet with Peter Morrison and I think we will nail him down this week. Pete worked for me at Republic Western. It is a frustrating experience, in that I will be paying Peter more than I make, but my bonus situation is much more lucrative. It's just frustrating in that I have to beg, plead and cajole to get anything for myself and it seems they bend over backward for others. Pete will be a great addition to the office. Gwen was the least engaged Underwriter I had. Her territory is beginning to take off and Pete should be able to keep the momentum going as he is a new business machine. He knows the agents so well in the territory and is very well liked.

David's graduation went pretty good on Friday night. Destanie even joined us and watched the boredom as 460 seniors were graduated. I know it is a rite of passage for the kids, but the ceremony lasted two hours in the blazing sun and we had to listen to the valedictorians quote Hercules, Cinderella and even Alladin. I thought I'd fallen asleep and awakened at an 8th grade graduation. Both of the female speakers quoted Cinderella and Hercules. What's up with that?

David and Destanie then went out with some friends bowling. I got to know Destanie a bit better over the interminable two hours of the ceremony. She is a very responsible young lady from a close Christian family. She will graduate next year and then enter a one-year missions program, where she will train for four months in Hawaii and then travel overseas for eight months on a missions trip.

I will update this blog but one more time before we head off to Hawaii. The trip cannot come fast enough especially with the problems at work. I just want to get away and relax on a beach and forget about the problems of dealing with employees. People just tend to care about themselves and my only joy in the Gwen situation is that I know the guy she is going to work for and he overpays his people because he is a tyrant. He is a rager and tends to blow up in the office about once a month. He is the nicest guy other than that problem, but he usually loses an employee every time he has one of his fits. He ends up screaming at an employee and then apologizing and trying to buy them off with extra vacation or a gift. Good luck, Gwen. Will I miss her? Well, I didn't try to match her salary or keep her if that's any indication.

Take care and be well. Ciao.

David and Destanie Prom 2005

Graduations and Proms

I am exhausted as I sit and write on a Monday morning. The trials of work are such that I'd like to get on that plane and fly to Hawaii right now and just stay there. I was out last week in Philadelphia after Tuesday and I had five of the eleven staff members either sick or out during the time that I was gone. I'm not happy with that and then I open my e-mail to find not only a note from one of the underwriters to say that she will be off a month in July for a hysterectomy, but an e-mail from another resigning as of June 3rd. Hey, welcome back.

The trip to Philly was much too short and much too rushed. On top of everything, I got hit with a horrible case of food poisoning (And I'm not suggesting that there is a tremendous case of food poisoning out there). I flew out at six am on Wednesday and stopped in Phoenix for an hour. I then boarded another plane to Philadelphia and arrived at 5:55 PM. Our Phoenix Branch Manager was on the same flight and we were met by one of the Marketing Managers at USLI, the company hosting our meetings. The problem was that the manager called us on the cell phone and told us he'd be driving a green pickup. It turns out it was a green Suburban. The fellow is Irish and he considers any SUV or truck a pickup truck. We finally met up with him after about forty-five minutes of waiting. He took us directly to dinner at a country club in Villanova. The dinner was nice and we finally got to the hotel at about nine-thirty. We had a full day of meetings on Thursday and then gathered for dinner at the CEO of USLI Tom Nierny's estate again in Villanova, near the University. His house is a five-level mansion with eight bedrooms and over 12,500 square feet. Dinner was stuffed shrimp, stuffed chicken and stuffed filet minon. It was the latter animal that caused my heartache. The only thing I drank that night was a glass of Amstel Light, a glass of Pinot Noir with dinner and a Bailey's coffee after dinner.

I woke up with a horrible stomachache at about twelve-thirty and went ten rounds with the devil over the next three or four hours. It was brutal and dehydrating (if you get my drift) and there was even some good that came out of it. I lost eight pounds in the ordeal (imagine the exorcist). The worst part was that I had a six-hour flight the next day. I took the morning round of meetings off as I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I got up about eight-thirty and showered and drank half a bottle of water. Big mistake. (Think out-of-control fire hose). I finally roused myself at eleven after going back to bed and called over to the meetings for a ride. I sat in on the afternoon sessions, sore and tired and completely uncontent.

The flight home was brutal as I sweated and tossed and turned on the five-hour flight from Philly to Phoenix. I arrived and had a few odd stares as I walked off the plane. I walked in to the men's room and saw my hair worked into a spike from leaning against the window and trying to sleep. The sweat and tears caused my hair to spike up like Martin Short's. I combed myself back into simply a weary traveler and was able to slowly coax a half sandwich down and it stayed put. I drank some Sprite and walked to the next plane. I arrived back in Sac at 11:50 PM and waited for my luggage. One piece showed up rather quickly, but my main case did not show. I called Darla to warn her that I'd pulled the bonehead traveler move of packing my car keys in my suitcase and could she drive down with the other set of keys? I waited in line at the baggage counter of America West for twenty-five minutes and finally put in my claim. My bag was found at the carousel in Phoenix and would be on the next plane out in the morning.

Darla showed up none too pleased with her oafish husband and I got home about 1:30, which was 4:30 Philly time. Nice trip, eh?

David had a fun filled weekend with his prom and several dates with Destanie. I sent some pictures to family and will post a picture on my blog today. They had a great time and danced the night away. David took our Explorer and brought another couple from his Church youth group with them. They ended the night at Josh's house in the spa...under adult supervision. Destanie brought sparkling cider and snacks for the trip and a change of clothes for the dance. Her long gown didn't allow her to dance, so she changed into a short skirt and was able to have some fun at the dance. She is a lovely Christian girl and I'm very happy for David. Darla asked if she was his girlfriend and David said, "If that happens, there will be an announcement." (Typical David) He spent Friday night at a youth event with her, Saturday at the Prom and Sunday they went to see the new Star Wars movie. An announcement seems imminent to me.

No golf this weekend, but that's a good thing as I was convalescing. I won't play in the tournament next weeknd either, but have one of my suppliers with tickets to the
Giant's game on Saturday May 28th at SBC Park in SF. We will have lunch in SF and then go over to the game. Darla is going, along with Anthony and his girlfreind and the supplier and his girlfriend. It should be fun.

The weather has heated up here (90 degrees) and I have a bit of a sunburn. I need to get a base tan before we head to Kauia. Well, that's it, folks. Not much news, but I've got a small ton of work awaiting me and now I need another underwriter. Will the joy ever stop? Keep your eyes on the Lord and your heart will follow. Ciao.