Back to Sunshine and Happiness in NorCal

The rain was entirely welcome and we got a nice drenching last weekend. That has moved on and we are back to cold nights and warm days. I played golf today and yesterday and I'm sporting a little bit of a sunburn from the two days of bright blue skies and intense sunshine. It was about 67 degrees both days after overnight lows in the mid thirties.

My assistant, Cora, worked her last day on Friday and she is off to Manila next weekend to rejoin her husband. It will be a transition for me as I will be working without a direct assistant for most of February. Anthony's top assistant, Connie, is also out effective Friday on a medical leave. She will have surgery on Tuesday to remove a tumor that is attached to one of her ovaries. My new assistant, Veronica, will be backing up Anthony as he produces about $55,000 -$60,000 a month in net retained income and helps pay the bills and keep the lights on. I will work with Cindy in the office, who is the assistant to Renee. Connie is expecting to be well enough to continue work from home by the end of February and she will return to the office in Mid March. At that time Veronica will be working with me and Gail in the office. I've decided to attempt to reduce staff because I have some great young talent in the office that I need to boost their salaries and I want to use the fact that we will end up with a net reduction in salaries after the increases to sell this to upper management. I am in the middle of reviews right now and then will move on to salary administration and handle the raises and promotions for 2012. Fun times in River City.

Darla and I took Cora out to lunch on Wednesday and gave her our personal goodbyes. Friday, we had sixteen of the staff go out to Olive Garden to send Cora off in style. We returned to the office about 1:30 and I used the men's room.

This is a potty story so be prepared. I went in and there was a God awful reek in the room. I was washing my hands when the toilet flushed and an older fellow who I had never seen emerged. He was white as a sheet and sweating profusely. I asked him if he was okay and he said that he thought he had food poisoning. Suddenly, he jumped and ran back to the stall where I heard him retching and then I heard some splat sounds and a load groan. It turns out that he was firing from both ends simultaneously and hadn't got his pants down. I again asked if there was anything I could do for him and he asked me to wait. He emerged from the stall about five minutes later carrying his underwear that were loaded and dripping all over. He tried to to stuff them in the trash receptacle and spewed debris all over the wall. Some of it even got on me as I tried to dodge the onslaught. I'm about 9 when it comes to poop stories and started to laugh, but the guy looked about ready to die. I asked if I could call someone or get him some help. It turns out it was his first week with the other insurance company on our floor and he was too mortified to walk back into his office with his poopy pants. He had tried to call his wife who dropped him off at work and was in another office building not far from ours, but she hadn't answered either the office phone or the cell. He sheepishly asked if I could drive him over to her office, that he had keys to the car and could at least get the car and go home and clean up. Now, I am not a total neat freak, but my car is always clean and immaculate and the idea of this guy getting into my clean car was not sitting well with me. I had a towel in my gym bag, so I set that out on the passenger seat and rolled down all of the windows and drove him over to his car. He wanted to shake hands and was thanking me profusely, but I was all of a sudden Howie Mandell and just waved at the guy and wished him well. The car reeked and my gym towel had a silhouette of this guy still on it. I threw it in the trunk and rolled down the windows and opened the sun roof. I also sprayed some car deodorizer on the carpet to mask the smell.

When I got back to the office, it was in an uproar. One of he guys had gone into the restroom and it was thrashed by this guy. There were piles of excrement all over the walls and floor of the stall and the smell was emanating into the hallway. Anthony had put a sign on the door that read "Bathroom closed. Do not enter. (Trust Me!)" I called a couple of the guys into my office and told them the story and we were all in tears laughing about it. How did I get involved in that? The guys thought it was hilarious because they know how I am about my car. It will be interesting to see if the guy shows up for work on Monday or just decides to retire.

We finished 2011 very strong and were up a little over 7% in written premium and over 19% in net retained income and I am thrilled with the results. We made over $800,000 in profit and I am shooting for $1,000,000 in 2012. I will be giving up a lot of my agents this year to Matt and concentrating on my local agents and doing marketing with the younger underwriters. Matt and I have a trip planned up to Chico on Thursday of this week to have him meet my agents up there and take them on. It is a tough decision for me, because I have always been an active underwriter even over the years that I have been managing the office, but I have too many people now and I can't give the customer service to the agents that they deserve. Matt is 29 years old and hungry and will be able to get out and market to the agents and will also give them first rate service. I will probably end the year with just $1,000,000 in written premium after I give Matt a lot of my agents, but it is time. I think I will see him grow a lot of these agents to levels they haven't been with us in years. It will be a tough transition, but I will be able to do more mentoring and concentrate more on marketing to the agents and getting out with all of the underwriters to do marketing calls.

I did play golf both days this week. I snuck out yesterday afternoon and played the white tees with an older couple that were using one of those golf cards to try out different courses. I shot a 41+41=82 and thoroughly enjoyed both of them as we told jokes and learned a bit about each other. Today was our Super Bowl tournament and my driver decided to give me fits today. It was one of those days where my scrambling was excellent. I chipped in on two holes for par and sunk at least five putts of over 20 feet . I shot 40+43=83, but maybe hit five drives that were in the fairway. I played with Boyd who shot 82, Tom who shot 80 and another 4 handicapper who shot 83. It was the type of day that if I was driving the ball well, would have shot in the mid 70's. Oh well.

It was my Mother-in laws birthday this week and she turned 70. Earl and Frances came into town on Saturday and treated all of us to dinner last night at the Outback Steakhouse. It was fun and and we enjoyed the meal and the conversation. Alicia and Don joined us along with Lucas, who was pretty well behaved for a 17 month old.

Darla has been hot and heavy on the Silpada trail, having parties Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today. In fact she just got home and it is 6:45 PM. She is bound and determined to get back on the incentive trip list. The group is going to Oahu in January of next year and she wants to go and maybe stay over and visit her brother on the big island.

Pete and I in my office will be returning to Scottsdale in March for what is becoming our annual trip to see our carriers and to see some Spring Training baseball. Our carrier partner, Colony, has again offered the use of their corporate apartment and this year we will have the ladies fly in with us for Saturday and Sunday and then Pete and I will stay over Monday and Tuesday to see all five of our carriers. We will also have dinner on Saturday night with one of our carrier underwriters and her husband. We will be there in the middle of Spring Break, Spring Training and over St Patty's Day. We will leave on March 16th and stay until the 20th. The girls will fly home on Sunday night.

Well, that's it. Sorry for the poop story, but it is blog worthy, as Darla calls it. Not one to tell over dinner though. I hope you are all doing great. Be well and keep living in the Lord. Ciao.

The Rain has finally arrived in Northern California..Praise God!!

A day late and my brother is already harassing me. I had to work today, Saheeb. It is Winter and the weather finally decided to mirror that fact. The rain rolled in on Friday and it rained off and on all weekend. We had a good drenching on Friday night, replete with wind and cold and it left a lot of downed tree limbs and debris for me to clean up on Saturday. I cleaned up around the house between storms, cleaned out the pool, unblocked one downspout and cleaned out the other gutters. I'm glad I did it, but we had another big storm last night and there are branches and junk all over again. At least the gutters worked well. The storms are supposed to peter out tonight and it will dry out over the next week. We got about two inches of rain out of this system and it was long overdue.
I also changed out the light fixture in the laundry room. It was the light fixture from the kitchen when we first moved in and the ballast was going on it. I tried to take the diffuser off and it was so brittle that I couldn't get it to lift off the base. I went to the internet and saw a posting that said you may as well go ahead and break it now as it would happen two hours later. I finally just took the whole thing down and replaced it with another chrome light fixture with two neon bulbs for $33. The cost to change out the ballast was $22.50 and their were two of them on the four bulb system. It looks nice and took me less time than trying to mess with the current wood light fixture that I took out of the kitchen because I thought it looked cheap. Darla is happy to have light in there instead of the flickering hum of a broken ballast.
Saturday night we watched Sanctum, a good film about underwater caving in Papua New Guinea. It is based on a true story wherein a huge storm caused portions of the cave to collapse as they were exploring it and the race to get back to the surface. It was directed by James Cameron and is worth a few hours of your time. Darla and I watched it on HBO. That night we were awakened by our alarm system at 4:20 in the morning, blaring and blasting away. The odd thing is that the alarm was not set. It turns out that the fire alarm went off because of a dusty smoke detector attached to the system. We were able to disarm the alarm after about ten minutes looking up the code. It was deafening inside and out. Oddly, we had no police show up and no neighbors heard anything. That's a comforting thought. We need to get up and clean out the smoke detector. It went off one other time when we were having the whole house fan installed and the construction debris (wallboard and dust, etc) rained down on the smoke detector below the fan. That isn't something you want to wake up to. Trust me.
I did not get out to golf this weekend and missed it, although my golf elbow appreciated the respite. I have a tournament on Sunday with 108 players and that is why the Blog got missed last night. I watched the two football playoff games after sleeping in Sunday morning (after the fun of the alarm at 4:30). I had to give Neil all of the player's handicaps and tournament handicaps, adjust the white and red players' handicaps and send that across to him. I got done at 9:30 and decided the Blog could wait until tonight.
As to the football, it should be a good Super Bowl with a replay of the 2009 Patriot-Giant slugfest that saw the Giants beat the unbeaten Patriots in surprising fashion. The Pats should have plenty of motivation and I see them winning this one in a fairly high scoring affair. I swear I have tried to see some good in Alex Smith of the Forty Niners. He had a great year and made very few mistakes, but an NFL QB that throws for 197 yards a game and one TD on average is hard to like. Alex Smith was the 19th ranked QB in the league this year, right behind that All Pro Rex Grossman of the Washington Redskins. Alex had a career game against the Saints and played a very good game, but was still outplayed by Drew Brees who had 470 yards passing in the game to Alex' 299. Granted, Alex won the game and made two great drives when it counted. He failed on Sunday with the game on the line. In the 4th quarter he had four straight three and out drives and looked like a scared rabbit as he ran around the pocket either afraid to throw or throwing the ball into the turf. He ended the game 12 0f 26 (46%) for two tds and no interceptions. He didn't make any mistakes, but didn't do anything to help his team. Eli Manning, on the other hand, was 32 of 58 for 316 yards and two tds. I really like the Niners defense, offensive line, running back and tight end, but overall their passing game is what hurts them. Alex Smith made a huge turnaround this year with Harbaugh preaching ball safety and no turnovers.
As a Dallas fan I'd love to see what Harbaugh could do with Tony Romo. Romo's biggest fault is that he takes too many chances with the ball. His stats are great, but he loses games by his street ball mentality. Smith is a cerebral quarterback, where Romo is a great athlete, so apples and oranges, but if Harbaugh can shine that turd with Smith...
Ah, next year. The eternal cry of the loser and right where both Dallas and SF are. By the way, I hear that SF stands for Stop Fumbling. Poor Kyle Williams, nobody knew who he was before yesterday and now he's in line for a share of the Giant's Super Bowl money. He'd probably drop it if they gave it to him anyhow. I know, the jokes are out there. The poor guy had death threats from his own fans last night. I think he and Billy Cundiff could get together and trade sob stories. Both games were tight and came down to mistakes. I would tell any SF fan that the silver lining here is that the Niners are still undefeated in Super Bowls at 5-0. If they'd beat the Giants, New England was ready to pounce. If Eli went for 316 yards against the Niners in the Niner's house, Brady was looking at 400 and 3 or 4 TDs in Indy. It is just too bad that the Packers and Saints got knocked out. They had the best teams in the NFC, but any given Sunday.
My assistant shocked me last week when she turned in her resignation. Her husband had gone back to the Philippines last year and they had a long distance relationship. She was considering what to do with her life and if she would stay here and go on alone, but her family talked her into moving back home and giving it a go. She leaves her two college aged children behind, which is hard for her, but knows it is time to put her energy into her marriage. The kids are moving on with their lives and she would have soon realized that she was truly alone here in the United States. Her husband has a thriving Import business in Manila and he just opened a Thai restaurant in the financial district with a partner, so things are good for him. I'll miss her, but I am excited for my friends to repair their marriage and have a chance for happiness.
Well, I stayed late tonight to work on this and get it in the can. Darla is waiting at home, so I am on my way home. We have been studying how to have a better life, marriage, home and neighborhood at church and Saturday night the big secret was revealed. To be in a better marriage, you have to be a better husband, to have a better relationship with your kids, you have to be a better parent. To live in a better neighborhood, you have to be a better neighbor. A simple concept, but one that not too many people get. I hope you are all doing well. Until next week,Ii bid you adieu. Ciao.

Blog update to come tomorrow

Winter looks like it may show up this week

Just a few more pictures from our visit with Samantha and Jennifer. We really enjoyed ourselves, but the Christmas tree, Christmas lights and other decorations have come down and we are now just back to normal here at the house. I got all of the boxes packed up and stored back in the attic. The memories are still here and I smile when I see Sam's lizard lying around or her punch ball sitting in our tub. I also have some of her Lifesavers in my desk drawer at work. She is growing up and is a sweet little girl.

Our nephew, Lucas, who is a year and a half is visiting us tonight. Tomorrow is MLK day and Darla has the day off. She was nice enough to invite Lucas to spend the night with us and let her sister and Don take an overnight trip to Napa. Lucas is running around throwing balls and playing with Sam's punch ball as I write this on the sofa. It is nice having a laptop and not being banished to the study when I'm working on the blog. Darla has his little DVD player going with one of his Einstein videos, but he is oblivious to it as he plays in his little footy pajamas.

I slept most of the afternoon as the creepy crud that has been on Darla for the last month and has made it's way through my office finally hit me. I didn't get it too bad, but I've had nasal congestion, a cough and had a sore throat last week. Hopefully, most of the worst has passed for me. I do work tomorrow and have the staff coming in casual. It is always dead in Sacramento on national holidays as this is a government town and the roads will be empty. I am working on employee reviews and payroll increases, so quiet will be nice and will let me get through a number of the reviews.

Darla is trying to get Lucas to go down to bed and is having no luck so far. He was down and crying and now is in her arms as she slowly rocks him. He looks tired so we hope to have him down and be on to our evening in front of the tv soon. The Golden Globes are on in the background and Ricky Gervais is skewering everyone in sight.

The NFL playoffs are down to the conference Championships and I was sad to see Tim Tebow take such an unceremonious exit from the national stage. It was perhaps overdue as he isn't much of a passing prodigy. That said, somehow Alex Smith did a turn on Joe Montana's stage and somehow managed to rally his 27th ranked offense to victory over the New Orleans Saints. The huge chasm between their 2nd ranked defense and the 27th ranked offense is HUGE, but they managed to pull it off this week and even saw the favored Green Bay Packers beaten by a 9-7 team in their own park. This will allow SF to host the title game and may even see them favored. The Giants are playing well right now. Frankly I dislike both teams and think neither can beat either the Patriots or Ravens. Funny, the NFC has had the best teams this year, but of the teams left, the AFC has by far the best teams. The win by the Niners likely cements their relationship with Alex Smith, who is a below average NFL qb and actually hurts the Niners. He averaged 195 yards passing per game this year with 1.06 touchdowns per game. Pitiful. They would be an unbelievably good team with even a mediocre qb that can throw for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. They'd be the team to beat if they had Eli Manning as their QB. As it is, they will likely win their division and falter year after year. Of course, they played fantastic yesterday and could manage to pull it off. My thing is I just watched Tom Brady throw for six tds today, and would be hard pressed to ever see Alex Smith do that. Even four td passes and 300 yards is a stretch for this guy. He had a CAREER game Saturday and threw for three tds and 299 yards. Drew Brees threw for 471 yards in the loss.

I made it out and played two games of golf this week. I played Diamond Oaks Thursday afternoon and shot 79 from the white tees on Thursday. I then met Darren out at Diamond on Saturday and we had a two hour frost delay and we played the whites again and I shot 81. For some reason, most people struggle during the Winter and their handicap goes up. Mine has dropped from 11.4 to 10.9 to 10.8 and now down to 10.2. The club played a scramble tournament on Saturday and I skip it every year because I want to post a score if I spend four hours on the course. Interestingly, one of our foursomes had two hole in ones on number 5, the same hole I had my hole in one on last April. The hole in ones came back to back and unfortunately, being a scramble, they could only use one of them. I left to watch football and missed the free drinks.

Lucas is now down and Darla is enjoying a slice of low cal cheesecake. She offered me a slice, but I told her I had to finish this first. I hope all is well for each of you. My only New Year's Resolution this year is to read the Bible cover to cover and I am on track now working my way through Genesis. Be good to each other. Ciao.

Jennifer and Samantha make it a complete New Year

The girls flew in Thursday night into the new terminal at Sacramento airport at 10:30 and it was so good to see them. Sam was awake and chattering away to us about everything on the drive home. We all hit the sack as soon as we got home and were up a bit late Friday morning as we awoke about 9;00 AM. Sam came to our bedroom door and came in and climbed up on the bed to say good morning. Darla fixed a nice quiche and we opened gifts around the tree that is still up and was awaiting their visit. Samantha liked her new clothes and her Tangled doll and she got dressed right in her little purple outfit that her Grandma picked out.

We went out and exchanged a golf shirt that Jennifer bought me. No one believes that I wear an XL shirt, but I have a massive upper body and need the extra room to swing when I'm golfing. A Large shirt feels tight and binding across my chest and shoulders. We also stopped off at a Payless Shoe Source for Kids and bought Samantha some new dress shoes "with a heel" to wear out to dinner Friday night. From there we headed over to the Chuck E. Cheese for some marginal pizza and some fun for Miss Samantha. The manager of the store is one of Darla's Silpada girls' boyfriend and he gave Sam about 150 tickets to spend in the store. She rode rides and played games for about an hour and a half after lunch (she had 50 tokens) and finally decided to get some Nerds candy, a ring and a blue lizard with all of her tickets.

We headed home to rest up before dinner. I stopped and bought Samantha a balsa wood airplane with the rubber band that you wind up to make it fly. We took that over to the park and the tail section was broken on about the third run. We taped it up and she chased the plane as i sent it flying. I tried to get her to throw it, but she'd let go of the propeller too soon and it would have no power when she finally threw it. We tired of that after twenty minutes or so and dropped the plane off at the seat by our front door and ran back to the park for her to ride the swings and play on the jungle gym. She made a couple of friends along the way and they ended up building a big castle in the sand pit that doubles as a volleyball court when the kids and cats aren't using it.

We took Jennifer and Samantha to Benihana's for shrimp and chicken and Samantha had the fried rice and wide noodles with chicken. We told the staff it was her birthday and they came out and sang to her afterward and took pictures and gave her some chocolate ice cream and whipped cream with cherries on top. There was an older couple at the table and the lady was enthralled with Jennifer. She approached us before they left and asked Darla if Sam was her daughter. I guess they thought Jennifer was the older sister or something. We had put Samantha between Darla and I at the table and I guess that is where she got the idea, although she said that Samantha looks so much like Darla. Darla of course was thrilled and I told her the lady was suffering from dementia. She didn't care for that line. We got home early and watched movies with Samantha and Jennifer and she went to bed about 10:00 PM and Darla and I watched a movie.

Saturday we slept in again. I got up about 9:00 AM and Jennifer asked if she could borrow the car. She wanted to look for a gift for a friend. She was gone for about an hour and a half and Samantha had just got up when she got back home. Darla fixed pancakes and we relaxed and enjoyed the morning. It was really windy, so we just stayed at home. Jennifer's friend, Jason, came by and visited after his wrestling match in Sacramento. Jason coaches his old high school team and this is prime wrestling season. He stayed for a couple of hours. Alicia and Lucas came over and the kids played together for awhile. Jennifer's best friend, Sara and her daughter, Arianna, came for dinner, although they are vegetarians and we had prime rib. I opened a bottle of nice Italian red wine that my assistant, Cora, had bought me for Christmas and we enjoyed a nice dinner and visit. The girls got along pretty well, which was good as Jennifer and Sara were heading out on the town after dinner and we babysat.

The girls had a couple of issues and are both pretty strong headed. They are both 4, but Arianna is 7 months older than Sam and a head taller. They played hide and seek and dolls and set up dominoes only to knock them all down. It was a first sleepover for both of them and they were wound up. We finally got them into bed about ten, but they were watching a movie on Sara's ipad. Darla and I stayed up and watched Saturday Night Live and the girls kept getting up and coming out to ask for water or something to eat. I finally shut the movie off at midnight and texted Jennifer to let her know that they were still awake and asking for their Moms. As soon as I did that, about twenty minutes later they were out ..fast asleep. Jennifer and Sara ended up coming home early (for them) and they all had a big slumber party in the guest room.

This morning Sara and Arianna were off to do some errands and we had breakfast, watched Happy Feet and then went over to the park to let Sam ride the swings and play on the slides. We then went out to lunch at the local taquerria that Dad and Shirley liked so much and dropped them at the airport at 4:30 for their flight home.

It was a fun and enjoyable visit. Darla and I are both tired and wonder how Jennifer does it every day. Sam has a lot of energy and wants things done mostly her way. Her Mom is constantly fighting with her and slowly winning the battle. I love them both and will miss them this week, but hold them memories in my heart until we see each other again, which likely will be April. I hope you all had a good first week of 2012. Do something nice for each other this week and let them know how much you appreciate them. Be well. Ciao.

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year. We brought the New Year in pretty typically for us, quietly and at home watching a movie. We watched Dick Clark mumble his way through the countdown of the ball in Times Square. Someone needs to get to his handlers and tell them to preserve his legacy and keep him off television. It's pretty bad when he is still at six and the ball has already dropped. I know that he had a stroke and is doing the best he can, but there is no reason to have him on television every year. I remember Dick Clark as a vibrant man who never seemed to age. Now, he is a late night tv joke, which is sad.

Darla and I invited Neil and Lilly out to dinner on Friday night and decided to celebrate an early New Year with good friends. We had a $50 restaurant certificate for the Paragary restaurant chain in Sacramento and ate at the namesake restaurant, Paragary's, at 22nd and N street in downtown Sacramento. We had margaritas and Italian food. Afterward, we drove over to Rick's Diner on K Street and had some delicious desserts at the Victorian diner.

I did play a couple of games of golf this week. Monday, I joined Pamas and Neil at Morgan Creek Country Club in Roseville. They had a $30 deal after noon, but it was packed and we didn't get off until 1 PM and the starter dropped our fee to $25. Boyd was supposed to play with us, but wasn't thrilled with the crowds and opted out. We likely wouldn't have finished as it took us 2 and a half hours to play the front side. Pamas decided to skip the back nine and play the front again and I shot 42+41=83 to Pamas' 79 and Neil's 92. We finished before dark. Yesterday, I met Pamas, Boyd and Paul at Woodcreek and played 18 holes in the morning. I shot one of my best rounds in the last couple of months with a 41+39 for 80. Boyd shot 77, Pamas had 79 and Paul shot 82. We will play Ancil Hoffman tomorrow morning and Pamas, Neil, Boyd and I will give the Ancil Hoffman course a try. My handicap dropped to 10 for 2012 after some pretty decent scores lately.

I had to run the sprinklers today as we've had such dry and warm weather lately. Our average temperatures lately have been a 40 degree low and a 64 degree high. I also trimmed the roses back yesterday now that we've had some morning frost over the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday we had Alicia and Lucas over along with Darla's parents for a late Christmas celebration. Alicia and Don have been sick the last week, Alicia coming down with the flu on Christmas day and Don picking up the bug last week. He still wasn't feeling 100% yesterday and stayed home. It was fun hanging out with Lucas and watching him play with his toys and ball. He knocked over my soda as he was throwing his toy football around.

Thursday night we have Jennifer and Samantha coming to town to celebrate a late 4th birthday for Ms. Samantha and a late Christmas as well. I have Friday off on a floater holiday and we will have some fun together. We plan on going back to Incredible John's pizza in Roseville and letting Samantha ride the rides again. Jennifer will have a couple of her friends, Jason and Sarah come over for prime rib on Saturday night and we will babysit while Jen hits the town with her friends afterward.

Hard to believe, but the Dallas Cowboys are still alive for a playoff spot thanks to the New York Giants playing so poorly and losing to a division opponent the week after beating Dallas. I'm hoping they can put together a solid, error free game and win the game tonight. It's hard to feel confident the way that they've played this year, but New York is vulnerable, aren't a great home team and anything can happen. Here's hoping that they can bring the division home tonight.

Well, that is it for this week. I will be back next week with a bunch of pictures of Samantha and Jennifer. I am really looking forward to seeing them and spending the weekend together. I was able to Skype with them earlier last week and Jennifer gave me a video tour of her new apartment. Samantha was in a playful mood and said she is looking forward to coming to my house. Be well and have a wonderful and safe 2012. Ciao.

Boxing Day 2011

You can see the absolute excitement of Christmas Day in the picture of me fast asleep on the couch. We had the boys over in the morning and opened gifts. Darla fixed a nice quiche for us and the boys ate and said their goodbyes as they were off to a day with their Dad at his cousin's house. The basketball games came on and I found my spot on the couch and slowly my eyes grew tired and soon I was off to dreamland. The boys were over the night before and we watched "The Help" on dvd, the second time for Darla and I. If you haven't seen it, do. We also made it out to the Christmas Eve service at church which was very nice.

The weather here has been the same for weeks on end. Freezing temperatures overnight and then crisp, clear days with temperatures into the sixties. The forecast is changing this week with some clouds rolling in and the freeze moving out and perhaps even some rain by the end of the week. This has been the driest December on record for Sacramento with only a trace of rain for the whole month. I am off to Morgan Creek Country Club at noon today for a round of golf with Neil, Boyd and Pamas. I set the round up late in the day because Matt in my office wanted to join us, but would be in the Bay Area. I accommodated him and then he texted me last night that he wouldn't be able to make it. Neil filled in, but my concern is getting in 18 holes as we tee off at 12:48 PM. The pro said to get there early and he'd try to get us on the course before our tee time. We'll see. With the frost this morning, they probably won't start teeing off until 9:30 or so.

Darla just joined the land of the living and she is fixing me some left over quiche. Life is good.

You can see in the pictures above the sky over Vegas on Christmas day. Someone had a skywriter put up Lyon Heart in the sky. Jennifer got a picture of it and was tickled. I also have a picture of my hats in the master bathroom. Darla told me I either had to downsize on the hats or find a place to store them. I put up a set of racks above the belts and the mirror and problem solved. I did throw out a few hats, including a couple of Darla's and she was less than pleased.

It is a short week this week with Monday off. Originally, Friday was a holiday on the original work schedule, but because it is the last day of the month and the year, they changed it to a work day and gave everyone a floating holiday to use between December 1st and January 6th. I am taking the 6th of January off when Samantha and Jennifer join us. I am in the middle of both employee reviews and the 2012 budget at work and it should be quiet enough to get a lot of that accomplished this week. The budget is due on Friday and the reviews sometime in January. The employees are working on their self reviews now.

We were supposed to go over to Don and Alicia's on Saturday for prime rib. They went out and bought a $100 prime rib and then Lucas got sick with the flu on Saturday and passed it to both Alicia and Don. Don went ahead and cooked up the meat on Saturday and must have a refrigerator full of meat now. Darla had bought a prime rib as well and ended up cooking it Saturday night and the boys pretty well devoured it. We had bought two pies from Nations for the meal at Don's house that we are slowly eating.

The Dallas Cowboys remain alive for their division championship, almost unbelievably as the New York Giants gagged on their game with the Redskins. They will play in New York on Sunday with the winner moving on to the playoffs. I don't know what to expect as the team has played brilliantly and horribly at different times this year. At least it will make for some interesting football this weekend.

I got out to Serrano Country Club on Thursday and played golf with Gary, my agent who is a member there. Last time I shot 84 in winds of 45 MPH. This trip saw another 84, but in ideal conditions, playing wise. We got stuck behind the LPGA, three groups of women that were on a social outing. It took us two and a half hours to play 6 holes and we ended up skipping ahead to number 12, playing the back nine in a little over an hour and then coming back to play the five holes we missed. It was a bit of a cut up 18 holes of golf, but we made it through.

Darla has left for a scheduled visit with the natural parents of a couple of her foster kids that she supervises as a social worker. She will pick the kids up from the foster parents and meet the natural parents at a McDonald's for their hour visit. I will head out to golf and meet up with her later this afternoon.

Jennifer got moved into her new apartment this weekend and it will be just her and Samantha for the time being. I'm happy for her and I think this is something that she and Samantha need at this point. She has depended on others so much in her life for shelter and has always been at the mercy of her relationship. She needs to develop a solid home for Samantha and let her personal life play out separate from her relationship with Sam. Jennifer and John are getting along better which is great for Samantha. They were able to have dinner with Sam on her birthday and then open presents together at John's house on Christmas morning. I am very happy for Samantha.

Well, that is it for this week. The New Year beckons next weekend and I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012. Ciao.

Just a week until Christmas?

Just a week away from Christmas and only 3 days until Samantha hits the big 4 and just a year until I'm guessing she will start Kindergarten. Time is forever clicking away. The pictures above are from my staff Christmas Party on Friday afternoon. We had lunch at Rudy's Lobster house in Rancho Cordova and exchanged gifts and I bought gift card for each of the staff. We mixed it up a little this year and I bought $50 gift cards from various vendors and had the cards sitting out next to the gifts and whomever had the number would pick a gift and a gift card. The gifts could be stolen up to three times and the gift cards twice. It was pretty funny watching the group haggle over gifts and gift cards and at one point we had four of the kitchen staff lined up behind us watching the festivities. I ended up with a gift card to the Paragary Restaurant chain in downtown Sacramento and a portable speaker dock for my iPhone which will come in handy out by the pool this Summer. We were seated at the restaurant by 1:00 PM and out of there by 3:00 PM.

I have several more holiday lunches to work my way through this week, starting with a "lunch and learn" at the office tomorrow, where our Special Risk Department is putting on a presentation by web conferencing on cyber liability. Tuesday is a lunch in Woodland with one of my and Pete's biggest agents and Wednesday is lunch with Jeff and Linda along with Darla. I have had annual dinners with Jeff and Linda for years and Darla and I have visited their home and had dinner there as well. Thursday I hope to take the boys out to lunch. They have both been working with me for a week getting the insurance files scanned and ready to be shredded. They are working on the 2008 files now and we hope to have those completed this week. Daniel told me that he is willing to stay on past January 2nd if there is still work. He is essentially done at Cal Poly with just a credential test to pass to get his degree. David has just one semester left (or two quarters if you will) and he will be graduating.

David had his fourth surgery last week on his teeth to have posts installed and permanent replacements put in for his large rear molars. He had surgery over Thanksgiving to have bone material fused to his jaw and surgery last week to have the post implanted into his jaw. He will have the permanent tooth installed in the Spring. His mouth has been pretty sore and he has essentially been on a liquid diet since Tuesday. If he's up to it, I will take them both out to lunch on Thursday.

I look forward to celebrating Christmas with Samantha and Jennifer, a few weeks late, but in person as they will fly to Sacramento for three days starting on January 5th through the weekend. We had thought about flying out to Vegas again, but it is actually cheaper for us to fly them in and stay here. We also want Samantha to get to know Papa and Grandma's house. The plan is for them to spend a full week with us in Almanor this year in July.

The weather has been sensational here this December with highs in the 60's during the day and overnight lows below freezing. The problem with that is that we are encountering frost delays at the golf courses locally. I had an 8:36 tee time on Saturday at Cherry Island and true to form, there was a 90 minute frost delay. We finally got onto the course at 9:30 as several foursomes just bailed leaving us going off second. I struggled this week and shot a 44+44=88, actually picking up on three holes once I was over double bogey. Neil asked me why I didn't finish those holes and I told him that in my maturing age there are three things I do: One, I stop eating when I'm full. Two, I stop doing things I'm not enjoying (I won't sit through a bad movie or sporting event) and Three, I won't spend time with people I don't like socially (sometimes you have no choice when it is business or family). Boyd really struggled on the front nine with a 47, but true to his abilities came storming back on the back nine with a 37 for 84. Pamas shot 78 and Neil 94. I had a great time with the guys. This coming week is Christmas and although I have a tee time for Saturday, I hear that we are getting together with my in laws for Christmas at Don and Alicia's house on Saturday so that may be a dead end.

The Golf Club over at Diamond Oaks had their holiday sale last Thursday and I stopped by for some Rum and Eggnog, some meatballs and chicken wings and I also bought some new golf shoes, some ProV1 golf balls and a logo golf shirt. In the past they had you spin a wheel for your discount (20% off, 15%, free golf balls, a free round or golf, etc.) This year they gave us a free cart for spending $50, a free round for spending $100 and a free round with cart for spending over $150. My purchases worked out to $165 and I put away a certificate for a free round with cart to use next year. I was amazed to learn that I had $500 on the books at the clubhouse. I have done very well this year in winning my flight in the club championship ($110) as well as the hole in one ($50) and finishing in first place in three tournaments ($55 each) as well as in the money in many other tournaments, so the money just added up. I still have $335 on the books and really no need for new clubs or anything, so I'll have plenty of money for golf balls and range balls this coming year.

The Cowboys lost that game to the Giants last week and I figured it was over for them. The way that they lost was pretty emotionally crippling, but here one week later, the Giants lose to a 3-9 Redskin team and Dallas is back in sole possession of first place in their division. The game with the Giants looms on New Years Day,but if Dallas wins Saturday and the Giants lose, Dallas is the division champion. Even if Dallas loses Saturday, the game against the Giants will be the determining factor. What a wacky year in the NFL.

Darla has her monthly Silpada party at the house tomorrow night (right in the middle of Monday Night Football). It's okay, because some bonehead in my fantasy sports league scheduled a fantasy draft for the NBA league at 6:30 tomorrow night, so I won't see much of the Niner-Steeler clash.

Well, I hope all of your Christmas shopping is done and you can spend some quiet time reflecting on the reason for the season. The greatest gift you can ever receive was handed to us by Jesus when he died for us on the cross and resurrected into Glory. All that you have to do is accept it and ask him to become the Lord of your life. At that point, people who never had a concept of hope, learn what Christians already know. This life is temporary and but a blip on the radar. Our Heavenly Home is eternal. Merry Christmas to all of you, Happy Holy Days and Saviour's Greetings. Ciao.

Lazy Sunday

I just woke up after a 90 minute nap on the couch. The lack of compelling football on television and the combination of a good breakfast and a warm blanket had me out like a light. The house is warm and comfortable and I slept pretty soundlessly (At least from my perspective. Darla would likely argue that).

I had two heating and air companies out this last week to take a look at our system. We have a newer Amana 90,000 BTU heater that was installed 5 years ago. The company that installed it was owned by the husband of one of Darla's coworkers and he gave us an awesome deal on the system. It turns out that he cut some corners in getting us as good a deal as he did. The system is over sized for the duct system that was in place and we needed two plenums installed with two returns. The system was installed with a single plenum and return and the heater would actually lift up the electrostatic filter that we have and it would BANG back down when the system turned off. The first company that came out gave me a quote of $4200 to have all of the duct work replaced and the plenum and return installed. I called one of my insurance retailers that specializes in contractors and he referred me to a heating and air contractor in Roseville. I met with the contractor on Tuesday morning. He inspected the system and told me that the duct work was fine, that he could install the new plenum and return and reroute a couple of the ducts to the end of the heater to give those more airflow for $1,085. He came back on Thursday and installed the return with another electrostatic filter and actually replaced part of the duct work that was leaking. The system works much better and is tremendously quieter. One of the issues was an almost lack of heat in David's room and that now has a good flow of heat to the room. The room is still colder than the rest of the house, but it appears to be an issue of wall insulation that I will have to have looked at. The room is much warmer, but there is some residual coolness to the walls.

We are getting prepared for Christmas. We have some of the shopping done. We are finished with Darla, David, Samantha (both Christmas and birthday gifts), Lucas, and myself. I bought a new Lenovo 15.6" laptop that I am working on right now. Darla is almost done with her Christmas cards. She does our personal cards as well as cards for her business.

I had to install the handicap software on the laptop and will meet with Gary this week for additional training on the handicap system. I went to the last board meeting of the year for the golf club last week which is the annual "In and Out" meeting where the new board members attend as well as the outgoing board members. This year will be our golden anniversary with 50 years as a club and we have designed a new logo for the club to celebrate 50 years.

I did set up a golf game for Saturday up in Auburn at Auburn Valley Country Club. Boyd, Pamas and Neil joined me and we drove up at 9 AM for our 10:10 AM tee time. There have been frost delays all week in Sacramento with overnight lows down into the upper 20's. Auburn is at a higher elevation, but there was a still a slight delay and we were able to tee off about 10:30. The course is great and has fast greens with not too many flat lies on the green. We all struggled with putting, but I was able to put together a 42+42=84. Boyd and Pamas both shot 85 and Neil shot 93. I was lucky enough to win $15 from my buddies. We had a great time and the sun came out and warmed us up as we played.

Today is a little more cloudy as a weather system passes to the south. It looks like we might even get some rain in the area by Thursday, but should clear up for the weekend and another golf game.

It will be a busy week for me at work. I have several agency luncheons early in the week and then our office Christmas luncheon on Friday. We will return to Rudy's Hideaway, the lobster house in Rancho Cordova. This will be our last year there as we will finally move to Roseville likely in March or April. The last I heard, the lease has still not been signed, but they are arguing over minor terms now and this should be completed soon. We will do a gift exchange and I will buy each of the employees a $50 gift card.

Dallas plays the New York Giants tonight in a game that will likely decide the NFC East. Dallas leads the division now by a game, but if they lose this game, their psyche will be shattered. Hopefully they show up for the game and take care of business tonight.

Jennifer has found a new home and will be moving next weekend. She and Michael have reached a parting of ways and Jennifer is renting a one bedroom apartment in Vegas. She and Samantha will share a room and it will just be the two of them. I am happy for her. She has been a roommate in all of her homes except the small apartment she rented in Roseville. She will no longer be at the mercy of the person on the lease, because that will be her. Things are going well for her in both her professional life as well as her personal life. She is happy again and she and Samantha are both doing well.

We got the rest of the bill for Dad's birthday Bahamas cruise paid for this week and we look forward to seeing the family in Florida and on the cruise in February. I have arranged for a hotel in SF on Thursday night and long term parking for our car while we are gone. I haven't set up the hotel in Ft Lauderdale yet, but I'm leaning toward a Rodeway Inn in Dania Beach that will pick us up from the airport, take us to the port on Saturday morning and then pick us back up the following Saturday and give us a day room to use before our flight Saturday afternoon back to SF. Their cost of $179 is close to what we'd pay for just a night's stay most other places. Our flight back to SF isn't until 5 PM on Saturday.

Well, that is it for this week. Darla is off at a foster agency Christmas Party and will be home soon. I hope you are all well and getting prepared for the holidays. The boys are on their way home from Cal Poly and both will be working for me over the holidays. We are having quite a few of our policy files scanned into our system in order to save from having to store them after we move. The new office does not have a file room as we have been paperless since 2009. I have files in the office from 2005 and we will scan all of the 2007 and 2008 files. David and Daniel will be working on that project for me and both will be in tomorrow for training. Have a great week. Ciao.

Some pictures from our Golf Club's Christmas Party that was Saturday night at Sierra View Country Club in Roseville. This is the second year that we have been back to Sierra View and the food, the room and the decorations were much better this year. They fixed a New York Steak that was cut in slices and was incredible. The bar also ran out of house Gin and was pouring Beefeaters for well prices, so the evening took a very fortuitous bounce in my direction once they ran out of the London's Edge gin they were pouring. It was good to get together with all of our golf friends and I walked away with a wall plaque for my Club Championship win. Two of the guys at our table won runner up awards in the Club Championship and I referred to those as "participation awards". They were not overly amused. I also won a nice Samsonite trunk organizer for my golf balls, shoes, towels, etc. Darla and I had a very nice evening and were able to dance and enjoy each other as well as our friends. I'm adding a picture of Neil and Lilly for Dad and Darryl. You can see how skinny Lilly is getting now that she is retired and a married woman. I think Neil is holding her to two meals a day now that they are on a fixed income. That way he can continue to play as much golf as he wants. Just kidding, Neil.

I was at the golf course until almost 5:30 tonight working with the current handicapper to learn the systems and how to post the scores quickly and efficiently after the tournament. I also have to learn and work with an Excel program that tracks our year long eclectic scores, which are the best score on each hole during specified tournament. I was able to shave two strokes off of my gross 64 today and dropped my net down to 49. I was leading the net category in my flight going into today, so I'm pleased. I also took home $20 in skin money. My score in the tournament of a net 73 and a posted score of 85 will not win anything, but I'll take some money home in the year long tournament. We also closed out the tournament schedule today and my hole in one held up as the only hole in one for the year long closest to the pin award which pays $50, so overall, I had a good day. I was one under par after 5 holes, but came apart in the end and it was a pretty pedestrian round, but I did birdie both par threes on the front side.

My weekend started with poker on Friday night and I am pleased to say that I cleaned my friends out of about $60 and heartily ate the tri tip sandwiches that were barbecued by Steve. Darla called me about ten o'clock and she had just got home from one of her Silpada parties. She had taken out her "easy-Up" shade before she left and had moved the Yamalube (jet ski oil) in the process. She ran over the $28 jug and spilled the oil in the garage. The spill was about the size of an open patio umbrella. She called me in a panic and asked what to do. I told her to get the cheapest cat litter she could find and spread it over the spill and let it absorb and then sweep it up, She had to make two trips to the store to buy $1.99 cat litter, but it did the trick. The mess was cleaned up by the time I got home at shortly after midnight, although the garage smelled like the inside bays of a corner gas station.

Jennifer ran in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Vegas today with her Mom. I tried to call and see how she did, but she didn't answer. The run was from the Manadalay Bay along the strip to Fremont Street and back. She was looking forward to the music as they have bands at each of the water stations along the way and Jennifer planned to take her time and enjoy the music. If her Mom wanted to run faster, she could go ahead. I've included a picture of her from her trip to Dallas over Thanksgiving. it's good to see her hair back to blond, but I won't hold my breath. She and Sam are flying into Sacramento the weekend of January 5th and we will celebrate a late Christmas with the two of them.

I think I left my eyeglasses at the golf club this afternoon. When I sat down to work on the blog, I couldn't find my glasses and think I might have set them down after spending two hours with the current handicapper. I'm sure I set them down to rub my face. He is a little anal about the whole process.

We have a heating and air company coming out to look at our system tomorrow. The system is fairly new, but David's room is an ice box and I think the duct work venting into his room has a leak in it. I didn't want to climb in the attic and mess about, so I'll pay someone else to do it. I've done some research and it is claimed that up to 70% of all heating and air systems are not properly sealed and the efficiency of the system is compromised by hot and cold air blowing into the attic. I'm hoping this is an easy fix and that they can get the system running at peak efficiency and warming David's room. I have my eye on that room as the new office for the house. It looks out over the front yard and is isolated from the living areas. The lack of heat wasn't a problem when David was in there, but if I end up spending time in there we need to get the room properly climate controlled.

Well, this is relatively short, but it is almost eight o'clock and I have some couch time to do with my bride. I hope you are all well and have got your Christmas cards ready to go in the mail. Be well. Ciao.

The Holidays are Here

It is amazing to me how fast the Fall has come and gone. It seems like we were just swimming and relaxing in the pool two weeks ago. Oh, wait, we were, but that was Nuevo Vallarta. Dad and Shirley are in Hawaii and I lost their e-mail that said when they would be back. I know they left the week that we were in Mexico. Darla has the tree up and the house decorated, but I won't put the lights on the house until next weekend. It has to be December for me before we start burning the Christmas lights on the house.

The boys were home for Thanksgiving and they ventured out Thursday night to get the Black Friday deals. What a marketing gimmick the retailers have come up with and how the American public follows in line like sheep. WalMart will bring in 25 42 inch tvs and sell them for $199 and 500 people will show up with pepper spray in hand to try to get one of the loss leaders. I've learned to do almost all of my shopping online and tomorrow is Cyber Monday, another gimmick, but one that they can't limit quantities on. I'm in the market for a new laptop as I'll be working this next year as the handicapper for our golf club and want to be able to use a laptop to store all of my handicapping tools and programs on. I was thinking of getting an HP laptop, but Daniel talked me out of it and has me looking at a Lenovo. He had all sorts of problems with his and now Darla's has a short in it where you have to have the lid open about eight inches for the screen to turn on. Both David and Daniel have Lenovo's and swear by them. We'll see.

We had a very nice holiday weekend with temperatures close to 70 degrees once the sun came out. Friday was gorgeous with a bright blue sky and warm temperatures. I woke up about *;00 AM and realized that I had forgot to put out the trash the night before and ran out to see if it had already come. It had. The day was so nice that I threw on some sweats and washed the 300 for our trip to Paradise and Darla's folks for our one day late thanksgiving celebration. Darla and i had fixed a small turkey on Thursday and watched NFL games all day. I think Darla was on overload by the time Baltimore had wrapped up their game against the Niners.

The drive up to Paradise was nice, but it got colder and more overcast the farther north we went. It had rained overnight in Paradise and everything was fresh and clean and the sun finally showed it's face about 2 PM. We ate a big helping of Thanksgiving fare and I promptly fell asleep on Earl and Francis' very comfortable recliner in the living room. The guys were playing cards and I said that I'd catch the next game, that I was just going to close my eyes for a minute and woke up 90 minutes later. I gave Earl a bad time as we hadn't been up to see them since Easter. I told him that and he said that we never come see him. I told him that I come up every time I get invited.

I did play golf on Saturday and unlike Friday it was foggy, wet and cold. i played with Boyd, Matt and Darren and I shot 41+44=85. Matt shot 81, Boyd had his regular 78 and Darren shot 94. It was good being out with the guys and I enjoyed getting a little exercise after all the heavy meals of the two prior days. I then went out and raked leaves off the side street side of our house. I have six trees on that side and they are all shedding their leaves at a frantic pace. I raked them into piles on the street and the city should be out Monday to pick them up. Darla and I went to church last night.

Today we just relaxed and I watched football as Darla put up the holiday decorations. I went out at halftime of the afternoon games and cleaned up around the pool and vacuumed up leaves from the interior side yard of the house next to the garage. I sprayed down the deck and realize that I will probably have to put another coat of the stain down on the patio next Spring.

The picture of Samantha is from Jennifer's FaceBook and a picture taken by John and shared with Jennifer. We Skyped with Jennifer and Samantha last Tuesday and we only saw flashes of Samantha on the screen as she somersaulted by. She was standing on her head on the couch in the back of the room and we were laughing at her and I think she decided to put on a show for us. The Skype experience isn't quite up to the energy level of a three year old. Samantha will turn 4 later in December. Jennifer flew out to Dallas and spent thanksgiving with her Mom while Samantha spent it with John and his family.

Well, that is it. I have some boxes top put back up in the attic and Darla is fixing turkey tacos for dinner. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Remember as you face the hustle and bustle of the holidays, remember the words of C.S. Lewis: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Amen to that. Ciao.