Easter Rainfall

 

Happy Easter to my friends and family. We awoke to some much needed rain this morning and I had to drain about four inches from the pool as it was up to the top of the tile. Some of the flowerbeds had also overflowed and there was some bark washed into the pool. I put some fertilizer down on the lawn on Friday, so it was good timing for that. I also worked on fixing the switches for the two fans in our lkiving room and family rooms. The prior owner had wired them together so that the fan switch worked both fans and the light switch worked the light on both fans. Darla and I want to be able to turn on the lights individually and don't need the light on in the living room when we are in the family room. I worked for two hours trying to figure out the maze of wiring in the switch box and now one control works both lights and the fans are on all the time. I need to get one of my electrician friends over to look at the wiring. Jennifer could do it, but I don't know when she'll be back in town. As a Handyman, I often find that paying someone to do the job beats me messing it up.

I received a nice e-mail from Neil today that was touching. He was looking at his life from the standpoint of his recent stroke and how he wants all of his friends and family to realize the sacrifice that Jesus made for each of us and to live our life to the fullest because you never know when your time is up and tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. Darla and I also heard a strong message from her Dad on Saturday night about living our life in faith and to stop chasing the almighty dollar. My life has been blessed by our LORD immeasurably and I probably work less hours than most of my colleagues (other Branch Managers). I try to work hard and smart in the 50 hours that I do put in, but do try hard to have a balance in my life. The one thing that Darla and I need to do more of and make a priority in our life is to get back into a Life Group at church. Earl was pretty convicting and he is taking inventory of his life as he gets older and freely sharing his wisdom with all of us.

 

We went to Alicia and Don's house for dinner last night and watched Lucas find Easter eggs in his backyard that were not very cleverly hidden. Don smoked a tri tip in a smoker in his backyard.The meat was great, but it was a little smokey for my tastes. Darla fixed a turkey tonight and it was a 25 pound bird she bought at Christmas time and it was just for the two of us. It was nice. We had a good weekend watching both "Argo" and "Lincoln". I liked both movies, but enjoyed Argo much more. It was well done and Afleck is a great actor.  Daniel Day Lewis did a great job with Lincoln and brought out his humor and his humanity. The time period and the story itself was just a little gray compared to Argo.

 

We finished a record month at work. I remember talking to the staff at the beginning of the month and we were staring at a budget of $300,000 net retained and $2,000,000 in premium. Both numbers are new records for my office. I warned them to work hard, but not be unhappy if we fell a little short of our goal. Our largest prior month was $1,885,000 in premium and $285,000 in net retained. We closed Friday at $2,180,000 in premium and $322,000 in net retained! I learned never to underestimate my staff. It was incredible and I will take the staff to lunch this month at the Spaghetti Factory. I was very happy with the results and the fortitude shown by my employees.

 

Jennifer is in Vegas with Samantha and texted me the two pictures above. We did Face Time with Sam this morning and she was in a great mood as she hung out with Mommy. There was one bit of sad news as the day played out and that is that Kippy, Jennifer's ex Michael's dog had a tumor rupture in his stomach last night and Michael had to have him put down today. Kipp was 13 years old and had gone blind a month ago.

 

I did end up going and seeing Dale at the Golf course this week and getting a lesson. He spent about five minutes watching me hit 8 irons and told me that I was going WAY TOO FAST. He also noticed that I wasn't bringing the back of my left hand through the hitting area square. I'm working on slowing down, taking a breath before I hit and visualizing my shot. I'm working on a new pre-shot routine and working on bringing the logo of my golf glove through the hitting zone squared up. I've played twice since my lesson and it is a work in progress. I shot 85 on Wednesday at Morgan Creek with one of the Vice Presidents at USLI Insurance. He flew in on Tuesday and found out that his license had expired. He is from Los Angeles and had to take a cab from the airport to Woodland, CA and get a replacement driver's license before he could rent a car. Saturday I played in the Diamond tournament and shot an 88. I was hitting the ball much better on the back side Saturday and shot a 41 to finish the round.

 

We are off to Fort Worth on Friday for Jenny's wedding. We are both looking forward to getting away and seeing family. The venue and the hotel both look incredible and we are excited to see Jenny and Alex tie the knot. Given that we will be gone, the blog will be late next week. I will take a week off from golf and could probably use the break. I hope you all had a tremendous Easter and celebrated more than eggs and bunnies and gave thanks to our Saviour, Jesus Christ, for dying in our place so that we can live life everlasting. Amen to that. Ciao!

A Lazy Weekend

 

Barbecued chicken for dinner. It hit 79 degrees today and it seemed the right thing to enjoy a delicious barbecue. I see pictures of Darryl digging out of snowed in Kansas City and wonder what I'm doing in California. I could be clearing driveways with my neighbors rather than finishing up three straight days of golf and trying to avoid an early season sunburn.We had barbecued hamburgers last night and I am enjoying the change in the weather. We are expecting some clouds and a chance of rain mid week.

 

You can see the pictures of Daniel and his friend working on adding some more flooring to the attic. Daniel is leaving for Los Angeles this week. He has a job with the Home Depot in Woodland Hills and will also be getting hours with Kohls. He will ramp up his job search while he is in Southern California. The guys have been working on the attic for the last four hours. What started out as a project to add some space fro his things has turned into an addition to our home. Darla is concerned  that they are actually making a new room up there and they will move in next week.

 

The other picture is of Darla and I at Benihanas. I had a $30 free dinner for my birthday and I never miss a free meal at Benihanas. We went out this last week and enjoyed dinner together on Thursday night. I also got a haircut on Wednesday and got a bit of a scalp job. I got visiting with the stylist and listening to her tale of woe about her ex husband and didn't notice the gray hair flying onto the ground. The difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about a week. Well, if you are a man anyhow.

 

I did get out and play golf Friday at Rancho Murieta with one of my agents, Pete and one of his agents, who happens to be the son of my agent. It is a small world in insurance. The weather was changing on Friday and the wind was up. We had gusts of 25-30 MPH and it was COLD. Unfortunately, I was not up on the forecast, other than that it was supposed to be 70 degrees, and I wore shorts to the course. It slowly warmed up through the day, but the wind stayed up. I shot 85 and my agent, who is a 16 handicap, shot 84. Pete and his agent were in the low 100s.

 

I just took a break and went and looked at the attic. Daniel and his friend have added about another 16' x 8' of space in the attic for storage. Now, we'll never have to throw anything away. We can have a Christmas inventory that rivals Shirley's now.

 

Yesterday, i had a free coupon for golf at Diamond Oaks and met Darren, Pamas and Paul for a practice round for today's tournament. My game was on and I shot 40+41=81. Pamas shot 75 and Paul 83. Darren had 92. My concern was that I used up all of my good shots yesterday and would have nothing left for the tournament.

 

Well, a 42+43=85 day proved that to be correct. I was a little sore and my legs hurt after three days of golf. I rode with Boyd today, but got tired on the back nine and finished double bogey/bogey/double bogey at the end of my round. I did go in and set up a lesson with Dale on Tuesday afternoon. I have struggled with the driver lately, pulling the ball left. It got to the point today that I was aiming the ball right and drawing it back into the center of the fairway. The problem with that plan is that if you don't draw the ball, you end up in the trees. Like any golfer, I have developed some bad habits and lazy swing mechanics and need a professional to take a look at my swing and fix my mistakes. I will meet with Dale after work on Tuesday. I have a marketing game set up with one of my carriers and Gary along with Matt from my office. Hopefully, I can make some corrections and have a better round on Wednesday at Morgan Creek. I also have a Diamond tournament on Saturday with Boyd and Paul.

 

Work is going well. I've been working through reviews the past couple of weeks. It is pretty nice to work on reviews of an office that is doing as well as mine. It was overall pretty positive, but I was able to point out some areas in need of improvement. Two of my underwriters who have been a little slow to pick up their premium both had great years, one of them up 29% and the other 40%. That, combined with Pete and Matt doing so well, added up to a record year for my office. Now, I  have those four as a great base and have my Personal Lines Underwriter who was up 15% in 2012 and two newer underwriters continuing to mature and grow their books of business. Adding to that, I will have one of my Underwriting trainees start handling a new territory in April. I am in the process of hiring a new typist for the office and culling through resumes and doing interviews.

 

I have a Fantasy baseball draft tomorrow night at 6:30. It is a Keeper league and I have the first draft choice tomorrow night. Nice.

 

We are off to Dallas in two weeks and look forward to seeing family. Next weekend is Easter and we will have an early Easter dinner with the family on Saturday night at Alicia's house. Darla and I will relax at home on Sunday after going to service in the morning. We went to church this past Saturday night and it was Palm Sunday service and the pastor had the entire service devoted to baptisms. It was nice early on, but got a bit dry by the time they were working on their thirtieth baptism.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you all enjoy the celebration of the death and resurrection of our saviour, Jesus Christ, this coming weekend. Be well, enjoy family time and Praise God for our life everlasting. Ciao.

 

 

 

 



Busy Week..Scottsdale, Jennifer and a New Car for Darla

Okay, admittedly I am a little worn out. I left for Scottsdale at 5:45 AM on Sunday and it was actually 4:45 AM because of the time change that evening. I sleepwalked through the morning, actually losing my driver's license for awhile (in my pocket). I had shown my id at the baggage check in and put it in my pocket with my cell phone. The DL, which has a magnetic stripe on it adhered to the face of my phone and Pete and I spent about five minutes tearing my stuff apart trying to find it. We went over to a table away from the ticketing area and I emptied my pockets. Pete finally found it plastered to the face of my phone. Just a brief panic. We got into Phoenix at 9 AM and were able to get our rental car. It was packed in Phoenix with Spring break revelers and people in town for both Spring Training and the World Baseball Classic. We drove out to Mesa and tried to check into our resort at Painted Mountain, but there was some rather large angry woman working the counter and she was adamant that there were no rooms available until 4 PM. I thought about going and getting a dozen Krispy Kremes and seeing if there were any rooms available then, but we changed in the restroom into shorts and headed over to the Brewers stadium in Surprise for the 1 PM Giants exhibition game. Our seats were great and we were located about 8 rows behind home plate with all of the scouts. There were at least 12 guys with Juggs radar guns monitoring the pitches. Most of the stars were gone off to the various teams of the WBC, but Matt Cain, one of the World Series' heroes was the starting pitcher and Hunter Pence was starting in the outfield. It was a good game and you can see how close we were to the field by the two pictures that were taken of the field from our seats. 

 

We left the game in the seventh inning and headed back out to the resort to check in. We got there at 3:40 and promptly checked into our room. The heavy set clerk was nowhere to be found. From there we cleaned up and drove into Tempe, where we met one of our former underwriters for dinner who has gone to work at another company. We were both tired and headed back to the resort early and got to bed early.

 

Monday, we were up early and headed in to Scottsdale and breakfast with one of our Underwriters, who used to work with Pete and I at Republic Western. Patti is now the Underwriting Manager for the company and is doing well. From there we drove in to downtown Scottsdale and a meeting with our largest carrier. We've been having some issues with their underwriting and how they are treating us as a $3.5 million partner. We met with the Underwriting VP and the first thing I had her do was pull our results from the last eight years. It turns out that our loss ratio is about 18% average annual and the highest loss ratio that we've had was 33%. My point is that my office has made millions of dollars for them over the years and that they need to realize that and start treating us like the true partners that we are. The new underwriter came in and we had a good visit. I went back over the profitability that we have shown historically and that she needs to let her guard down and realize that we are not trying to place substandard business with them and that our history is of good underwriting and profitability. She is new and doesn't know us and Pete and I laid it out pretty directly to her. They have been losing business recently and their competitors are gobbling up business that they have declined and we have other carriers lining up to clean up the scraps. I think we made our point and then went out and enjoyed a great lunch at Tommy V's in downtown Scottsdale.

 

From there, we drove out to the Northern side of Scottsdale and the Biltmore Country Club to meet Mike, my compatriot from our Scottsdale office, and Mike, our underwriter from Burlington. We got some range balls and warmed up after changing into shorts. Pete pulled me aside and said he was hitting balls next to Frankie Munoz, the actor from Malcolm in the Middle. He's obviously older, but I told him he was crazy. They soon called the Munoz foursome  to the tee. On the other side of me was Channing Frye, the center from the Phoenix Suns, who was diagnosed last year with an enlarged heart and hasn't played since. He had a set of custom made golf clubs that were huge. We were putting and still waiting for the Mike's when my phone rang and it was Mike asking where we were. I told him on the putting green. He said he was looking at the putting green and didn't see me. I asked him if he was at the Biltmore and he said, no we changed it to the McDowall Ranch course in Southern Scottsdale. We were about 30 minutes away and our tee time was in 15 minutes. I put the little Rav 4 that we had through it's paces and got to the course in about 35 minutes. The Mikes were on hole number 2 and we  jumped into our cart and met them on number 3. All of the warm up went for naught and I was uncomfortable and stiff. I did manage to shoot 82 with writing in two pars for the first two holes and a nice 39 on the back nine. We went out to dinner with the Mike's and enjoyed some nice Italian at Arrivadercci's in Scottsdale.

 

Tuesday was my birthday and we met the Underwriting VP and our auto underwriter from Scottsdale Insurance out at the Talking Stick Resort. The Talking Stick is a Troon resort and absolutely beautiful. I struggled a little bit on the desert course getting off the fairway a few times into the desert and seeing some larger scores because of it. I ended up posting a 44+43=87. We went from there out to lunch where we met the Underwriting Supervisor and our Commercial Lines Underwriter. I got a 911 text from one of my friends back in Sacramento and when I called him back, he let me know that my friend, Neil, had a stroke and had been taken to the hospital. It turns out that Neil had a blood clot in his carotid artery that caused him to have a mini stroke. More on that later.

 

Pete and I met the four employees from Scottsdale and had a great early dinner before heading back to the airport and our flight to Sacramento. It was a great trip, kind of short, but it was a good time with our carriers and with Mike from our AZ office. I found out that although Mike and my office write the same premium volume, that my office has more than double the profit that AZ does. That was an eye opener for me and when I called Harvey when I got back, he shared with me that our office is one of the most profitable in the territory.

 

You can also see that we visited Jennifer and McKenny in Pleasanton. We drove down on Saturday afternoon and Jennifer took Darla and I to dinner at an Italian restaurant downtown (for my birthday). We had a nice visit, but something was missing. It was Samantha!! Jennifer is working with an attorney now and hopes to have a visit with Samantha here in California soon. Jennifer seems very happy, but we need to get Sammy here and soon.

 

Finally, you can see Darla's new car. We looked at a bunch of different models from Lexus to Nissan to BMW and Honda. Darla really wanted a Navigation system and a hands free system for her phone.

We narrowed the decision down to a Ford Explorer and a Honda Pilot. Both have three rows of seats and can seat 8. The 2013 Ford Explorer with 17,000 miles on it was about $7,000 more than the Pilot, but had the Navigation system and leather seats as well as a back-up camera and the full SYNC system. Darla loves her Explorer now and she was absolutely sold on the white Explorer with black interior. We looked at the cars on Friday night and left, knowing that the Explorer might not be there when we returned today. We are both big believers in "God's Will" and left it in his hands. If the car was still available today, we would bite the bullet and buy it. We went out to breakfast this morning and had to wade through crowds of St Patty day revelers that were already out and drinking green beer at 10:15 this morning. I had to park a couple of blocks away from the restaurant to get in. The car was there and we pretty quickly worked out a deal for the car. I drove it for the first time and was impressed. Ford has definitely upped their game and I'm proud to have bought a car from the one American car company that did not take any of the Obama bail out money. They kept working hard, making changes to their models and pushing the envelope on technology, partnering with Microsoft on the SYNC system. The car is very clean and very nice.

 

I played golf on Saturday with Boyd, Ron and Pamas and had a little issue with my new driver. I was pulling the ball to the left and decided to adjust the driver to neutral from a closed face and the head got stuck and I couldn't get it fixed. I ended up playing with Pamas' driver  on the back side and shot an 88. I got home and took a look at the driver and somehow the nut got on the top side of the shaft rather than the bottom (sounds like a scene from "Something about Mary..").  I was able to fix it and the driver is great right now. I think somehow I had made the original change and put the nut on the wrong side of the head and I was lucky that it didn't break when I was using it.

 

As to Neil, he has decided to have surgery this Wednesday to have his carotid artery cleaned out. They have to cut it, reattach it to another artery, clear out the clot and then tie it back together. The surgery is fairly serious because it deals with the carotid artery. He could have opted to be on blood thinners for the next month to see if the problem cleared itself up, but his wife and daughter were worried about a recurrence of the stroke and didn't want another stroke to perhaps occur when he was driving or something. I did stop in last Wednesday and visited Neil and Lilly in the hospital. I will also go by on Thursday and see him after his surgery. The hospital is about two blocks from my office in Roseville. Neil will be down for about a month after the surgery.

 

Well, that's it for a busy week. I get the stitches out of my head tomorrow and my head is healing nicely. I'll stop by at the bank after the procedure and get the loan squared away for the Explorer.I put down a nice piece of change on the car, so the payment is nice and low. Have a great week and I will be back at the keyboard next week. Ciao. 

Spring has sprung in Roseville!

 

Spring doesn't officially hit for another couple of weeks, but temperatures in the mid 70's with low eighties on the way this week would suggest otherwise. I spent part of the day today taking out a couple of plants that we lost to frost damage this year and replacing them with a sego palm and some ground cover. You can see the blooms on our fruitless cherry tree, which was in full bloom about a week ago. The March winds have taken their toll on the blooms, but there is still a hint of the vibrant pink that stood out last week. We had a rainstorm come in on Thursday that knocked off quite a few of the blooms and then strong winds today that died out to a beautiful afternoon.

 

The other picture is of Samantha in her Karate gear. I don't know the story on that one, I stole the picture from my ex's Facebook page.

 

Happy Birthday to Dad today. I talked to them before they left for dinner tonight at Elizabeth's in Cloverdale. It sounds like they were having a great day and were able to stay away from the hospital today. They even had breakfast together out this morning. The hospital did try to get them to come in today and help out with an issue with Shirley's aunt, but Shirley stood her ground and said that it was her husband's birthday and they wouldn't be coming in to the hospital today. You go, Shirley.

 

I leave for Scottsdale in the morning. Pete and I fly in at about 9:30. We pick up our rental car and then get checked in at the Painted Mountain Resort in Mesa. From there, we drive out to Surprise and the Spring training ballpark of the Milwaukee Brewers. We will watch the Giant's game and then drive out to Tempe for dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. Monday, we have breakfast with one of our underwriters, who also happens to be a former employee of mine at Republic Western Insurance. From there, we drive into Scottsdale and meet with our underwriter and the VP of Underwriting with Colony. We will have lunch with them and then head over to the Biltmore resort in Scottsdale for golf with my counterpart at our Phoenix office and our Underwriter with Burlington.  

 

Tuesday, we will meet with our Underwriting Director and the VP of Underwriting from Scottsdale at Troon North Golf club in Scottsdale. Tuesday also happens to be my birthday and I can't imagine a greater golf course to play that Troon North, rated one of the top 25 Public golf courses in America. We tee off at 9 AM and then will clean up, get checked out of our resort and then meet our underwriter and her boss from Scottsdale for an early dinner. We have a flight back at 8:30.

 

I was so frustrated with my golf outing last week, that I ordered a new driver on Tuesday. I ordered a Callaway Razr Fit driver. It is the one year old version of the driver and the equipment that Ernie Els used to win the 2012 British Open. True to form, Callaway came out with the Razr Fit Extreme for 2013. I bought last years model for $199 and the new one sells for $399. The Razr Fit was the number one rated driver in 2012. that's good enough for me. I took it out today in the wind and hit it better than my Exotics, even with the wind. We'll see if I'm able to carry that success over to the course.

 

I should have my bonus money a week from Wednesday and Darla and I can start looking for her new SUV. She is set on an Explorer, the new model and we may end up with that, but I want to check out a number of the SUVs, including the Murano, the X-5, the Acura MDX, the ML350 and the Lexus RS 350 among others. 

 

Jennifer is home with Samantha this weekend and I'm hoping that she meets with her attorney on Monday and gets closer to getting our little girl home here in California. At least Jennifer is getting home for about 5 days every two weeks. I really miss Samantha. We haven't seen her since August of 2012 and I'm anxious for her to at least come for a two week visit to the Bay Area.

 

Well, i need to spend some time with my wife. She is not convinced that this trip to Scottsdale is a work trip and coming on the heels of the Guy's trip to Napa last week is at the least bad timing. I need to spend some time with my bride. I hope you are all well and I will see most of you at Jenny's wedding next month. Ciao.



A Quick Trip to the Wine Country for some Golf

 

 Darla was a little short with me over the last week because I overbooked her and I for work related activities and it wore us out. I had dinner with a client and his wife on Wednesday night in Folsom. We closed a big ($130,000) account on March 1st and I decided to reward them with dinner at Land Ocean restaurant in Folsom. Shawna, my assistant, worked hard on the account as well, so we invited her husband, Rick, and Shawna to join us for drinks and dinner. It was fun, but put a bit of a crimp in our week. Then, Friday night, we joined Pete and his wife Vicki for a crab feed in Sacramento. I always forget how much I don't like handling cold crab and trying to get the meat out of the legs. It is a lot of work for something that I'm not that hep on to begin with. I think this will be my last year and I may send another underwriter and her husband in my place next year. Saturday night we had dinner up in Serano with Jeff and Linda, our friends and my agents from El Dorado Hills. Linda outdid herself with Panko crusted shrimp appetizers followed by salad and a dinner of barbecued salmon and barbecued asparagus and Brussels sprouts with cut red potatoes. It was delicious. We arrived with dessert and wine at 6:30 and we didn't say goodnight until almost 11:30. We really enjoy Jeff and Linda. They have similar morals and attitudes as we do and we plan to invite them to Mexico with us in the near future. Their daughter, Clair, who works for the agency will marry on 12-13-14 in Maui and we are invited to the wedding at a private estate on the beach. So we ended Saturday tired and over committed and then...

 

I left for two days of golf in the wine country (Napa and Sonoma County) at 9 AM on Sunday morning. We met at the Park n Ride near the freeway and drove in three cars to Johnny Miller's Silverado Resort in Napa. We were going to take two cars, but Charlie, an electrician, had to stop on the way home today and do an estimate on the electrical on a remodel of a gas station in Vacaville, so took his own car. I drove with Charlie in his bright red 1998 Corvette. Charlie is 65 and drives the car like he's 18. I had to hang on whenever he passed someone or we were getting on the freeway. We all met at the Black Bear Diner in Vacaville at 10 for breakfast. From there we drove the 45 minutes to Napa and the resort. My game continues to befuddle me. I have lost the driver and shot 46 on the front and largely retired the driver on the backside and shot a 41 for 87.

 

 From there we drove another hour up to Windsor, California and theWindsor golf resort which has a World Mark condo on site. Joe and Pat are owners and got us in to two 3 bedroom condos for the bargain price of $35 per man. We slept 4 to a condo and when we got there, Doug and Neil immediately claimed the two single rooms, leaving Tim and I the room with two twin beds. I warned Tim that I snore and he said, that's okay, he uses a CPAP machine. I don't think my snoring was a problem for him as his machine, which hisses and has a high pitched whistle, kept me awake a good portion of the night. The sound is not unlike the sound you hear when an astronaut is in his space suit and is talking. I half expected to hear, "Thant's one small step for man, pssht, pssht, and one giant leap for mankind" at some point. We got checked into the condo and then went to dinner downtown at the City Cafe and had tri tip dips, sandwiches and salads for dinner. it was great.

 

This morning we awoke to a cold, misty FOG that hung on until almost 2 o'clock today. It did warm somewhat, but the sun didn't poke it's head out until we were almost done. I stayed away from the driver on the front side and shot 41, but succumbed to a couple of longer holes on the backside and shot a 46 with one pick-up and another adjustment on a hole that I shot an 8 on. I'm frustrated and ready for a new driver and some lessons from Dale at the club. My driver is an Exotics. I like it, but it has a slight crack in the face and that is really affecting my drives. I was frustrated with a pair of 87's, but truth be told there were a lot of the guys that shot in the 100's and my score was the best both days out of the group.

 

I talked to Jennifer while I was in Windsor and she will be in Vegas this weekend again and has her Mom coming in to town and they will meet with a family law attorney and start the process of petitioning the court to have Sam moved to California. I think she dragged her feet too long on this, but the truth is she is uncomfortable with attorneys and her Mom can help her manage the legal maze and get her set up with a good attorney.

 

I leave Sunday for Scottsdale and have my schedule set now. Pete and I fly in Sunday morning and check into the resort and then head to Surprise, AZ and a game between the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers. We will have dinner that night with one of our underwriters in Scottsdale. Monday, we will be in Scottsdale with two of our carriers in the morning and then will meet the Phoenix, AZ Burns Branch Manager and one of our underwriters from Burlington Insurance in Scottsdale at Biltmore Country Club and will play golf in the afternoon and have dinner that night. Tuesday, we will meet another company and their VP of Marketing and the West Coast Underwriting Manager for golf at Troon North.Iit is also my birthday on Tuesday and I can't think of a more fitting place to have it. The Troon courses are expensive, absolutely beautiful and tremendously maintained. We fly home at 7 PM Tuesday night.  

 

Daniel is considering a move to Southern California to be closer to his girlfriend and to the emerging construction jobs in the area. His degree is in Civil Engineering and he hopes to get an internship with one of the Southern California cities. He had an interview with Home Depot last Friday for a Construction desk sales position with a store in Southern California. I don't know which one.

 

My office finished February up 20% over 2012 and I will be once again hosting a lunch for the staff in the coming weeks. Things continue to be amazing at work and I am very blessed to have the staff that I have.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I did not get the blog entry done on Saturday like I had hoped, but it was a busy weekend as documented above. I will definitely get it done this weekend as I don't have anything planned including golf. I need to get the handicaps done tomorrow for a tournament next weekend that I won't even be playing in. The cat picture above is a shoutout to the movie "Wedding Crashers" and Will Ferrell's character. The picture of Dad and Shirley is from their trip to a Hot Springs in British Columbia. The other pictures are from Windsor. Be well. Ciao.

 



Spring Fever

 Fun times ahead the next couple of weekends. I will head to Napa next weekend on Sunday and play Silverado on Sunday and Windsor on Monday, a trip set up by Neil Thomas. Silverado is normally $179 to play and they have a $74 deal going on right now, but we needed 12  players. Neil got it set up and we will stay over Sunday night at two condos at Worldmark at the Windsor resort in Healdsburg.

 

The following weekend, Pete and I fly out on Sunday for three days in Scottsdale for Spring Training. This is our second trip for Spring Training. Last year we were supposed to go, but Pete had his heart attack. As it turns out, the two years that we will make it are both years following the Giant's World Series wins. We are staying at the Painted Mountain Resort in Mesa and will play golf there on Tuesday with Scottsdale Insurance. Monday will involve visits with three of our main carriers, lunch and dinner. We were going to play golf Sunday as well, but want to see the Giants play the Milwaukee Brewers and that game is at 1 PM on Sunday. We may end up missing the baseball all together if we get another golf game set up on Sunday. I'd really like to go to the baseball game, but my counterpart in Phoenix wants to play golf and Sunday is my only opening.

 

I had a very nice week at work. I was invited to the Leadership seminar being held at Home Office in April. All of our KAMP employees, including Matt from my office, will be there and selected Vice Presidents from around the company. It turns out that I am the only non Vice President to receive an invitation to the event. I will fly out on Sunday April 20th and fly back on Saturday April 26th. It will be an intense week of training with a motivational group that specializes in leadership dynamics. We will spend Monday thru Thursday at the Henry (it used to be the Ritz Carlton) in Dearborn where we have the Branch Manager's meetings and then head into corporate headquarters in Farmington Hills on Friday. I hope to get promoted to VP this year at the Manager's meeting and this is a good first step in that direction. The KAMP program is our Executive Leadership program and KAMP stands for Kaufman Advanced Management Program. Each of the 12 KAMPs in the company have been tagged as future leaders of the company and many will become Branch managers and Vice Presidents and direct the future of the corporation. There will be six Branch Managers at the event and all of them are Vice Presidents except me. There are 46 branches in the company. I'm pretty stoked about the recognition.

 

I had my cancer pre op appointment on Thursday and I will have the surgery this coming Friday. They will take out the rest of the growth and about a centimeter around the perimeter of the growth. They will then suture up the hole in my head and I will return about three weeks later to have the stitches removed. They will test the outer edges of the scalp removed and if it is cancer free, I'm done. If not, I will return for more surgery. I had the option of having a MOHS surgery, where they take less of the growth and keep testing it for cancer until there is none left. It is a much longer surgery because of the testing element and can last up to five or six hours. I would also have had to wait about 6 weeks to get scheduled and I opted for this. If it had been on my face or neck, I would have opted for the MOHS, but on my scalp, I'm good with this and I want to get it over with.

 

I do have a business dinner on that Friday night (the surgery is 3:15 PM). I asked Harvey, who is Jewish, if I could borrow one of his yamakas that night. I'm afraid I'll have a bandage on my head and don't want to stand out. Harvey had a good laugh over that. The dinner is a crab feed fundraiser for one of our service providers and Pete and I will take the wives to dinner with us.

 

I had the two day NCGA qualifier over Saturday and Sunday. I have really been sore lately and the weather was cold and windy (well it was 62 degrees but felt like 50 degrees with the cold wind). I shot 44+44=88 for two straight days and Steve and I shot a combined 67+68=135 for the two days. The two qualifiers were at 126 and 127 and we finished in the middle of the pack. Steve played really well on Saturday with a 38 on the front side, but he stumbled on the back with a 47 and we finished at 31+36 for 67. We never got in a groove and I had trouble with the driver and holing putts. It seemed like my putts were forever on the lip of the hole and not going in. I'm hoping to loosen up this week as that is two weekends in a row that I have struggled with tightness in my shoulders and neck. Steve said it sounds like arthritis and I'm praying that isn't the case. I felt pretty good to start both days and just tightened up in the cold wind.

 

Darla got home Thursday and I surprised her with a juicer that I bought with my casino winnings. She was planning to go on a 30 day juice fast, but after researching the diet, it is not recommended for diabetics (which she is). Her new plan is to replace two meals a day with vegetable juice. She bought kale, celery, mangoes, tomatoes, apples, beets, cilantro, bananas, pears, oranges, carrots, cabbage, and several green vegetables that I have never seen before. I got her a Cuisinart Juice extractor and it works well. I had juice for breakfast the last two mornings making a juice today with kale, celery, carrots apples, pears and a mango. It was delicious and filling. We will have turkey tacos for dinner tonight, so she is staying on some solid foods. Her motivation for this came from the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a movie by Joe Cross, an Australian who was 100 pounds overweight at 310 pounds, on steroids and suffering from an autoimmune disease. Joe decides to take his life into his own hands and goes on a 60 day juice only diet and transforms his body. Joe Cross is  a tremendously like able Australian photo journalist and he chronicles his story over those 60 days. His movie has turned into a diet craze and Darla's boss is  now on it. She will do a modified version, but Joe Cross is pretty believable as you follow him on his journey and is now an acolyte for the pro juicer crowd.

 

Jennifer is in Vegas with Sam as I write this. She was supposed to meet with a lawyer to start the process of getting Sam to California. Sam misses her Mommy and is asking to move here with her. Jennifer has a fight ahead of her. She asked John if she could bring her to California for a visit and John didn't respond. I told her to leave that up to her attorney.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will do a blog update the next two Saturdays as I will be in Napa and Scottsdale the next two weekends on Sunday. I hope you are all doing well. Dad sent me the picture of he and Mom in Civil War outfits and I decided to add it to the blog. For giggles. Also, I'm in the process of reading a book by Eric Blehm about Adam Brown, a Seal Team Six Operator, who died in Afghanistan. He was not involved in the capture of Osama Bin Laden (he died before the raid), but his story is inspiring. His life was spinning out of control and he had a friend whose father was a Seal operative and vouched for Adam in spite of his problems with drugs and the law and the rest is history. He was a unique man and a Christian. I am enjoying it immensely. Ciao.

 

 

A late addition that Jennifer posted on Facebook. She was out bowling with Samantha. Ciao.

Just a Bachelor at Heart

A picture that Josh posted on Google of Mom and the Boys and another one that sums up my feelings on gun control. It used to be before Obama and the Dems got so busy deciding what we can and can't do, that America was the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Anymore, it is the Land of the Prius and the Home of the Ethnically Divergent. I live in California in a little Republican enclave where Prius' with Obama bumper stickers are few and far between. There are many American flags flown in my neighborhood and people work hard and keep their homes neat and tidy. It is a little like living on an island in the middle of a swamp. Darla won't like it, but I would like to retire to Nevada and live there for 6 months and one day a year and come back for Fall and Winter. I don't like my taxes going to drug addicts and illegal aliens and I don't believe in free cell phones for homeless people.

Darla flew off to Las Vegas this morning and will be there until Thursday with Silpada at the Leadership conference. I think she will be presented her check there for the incentive she qualified for last month. Two of her staff are going and will be presented with their leadership bracelets. Darla has one and has about 6 charms on it from all of the leadership conferences she has attended. She will be busy and won't get a chance to see Samantha.

I took Friday off and went to Napa to see Bob Pando with Neil and Boyd. We played golf at the Eagle Vines Golf Facility and I was terrible. My collarbone and yoke were sore and I stumbled to a 44+45=89. This is two days after joining Gary up at Serrano Country Club, a tougher track and shooting a 40+42=82. My game is completely inconsistent and I will play in a 2 day qualifier with Steve for the 4 ball NCGA event. Hopefully, I can pull it together. We play on Saturday and Sunday at Diamond Oaks.

Darla booted me out of the house yesterday and I was still sore, so actually cancelled my planned golf game at DO and I went up to the casino with $100 and high hopes. I won early hitting three Four of a Kinds in the first hour and then slowly playing all of my winnings away. I always cash out after I hit a Four of a Kind, but I got so cold that I was out of money within three hours. I went and had some lunch and then went over to Woodcreek and hit balls and then came home dejected and glum. Darla and I took a spa and as I was getting ready, I emptied my pockets and found a $67 chit from the casino that I didn't know I still had. I went back out to the casino this morning and cashed the ticket and decided to try my luck again, this time getting hot and coming home with $677 on the strength of two hands of Four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4 for 1200 coins won. Nice to come out on top for a change. the guy next to me was beside himself every time I hit a jackpot as he was playing Keno and seemed to be adding $20 bills at a pretty good clip.

I went from there back out to Woodcreek and hit balls. You hit off the grass out at Woodcreek and it better duplicates a regular round of golf. I also chipped and putted for awhile and then came home and worked on the yard for a bit and then watched the golf on TV.

The biopsy came back positive for basil cell carcinoma. I meet with the plastic surgeon on Tuesday and they will then schedule the surgery. The surgeon will take thin layers of the skin off and test them for cancer and finally stop when the sample comes out clear of cancer. It is an out patient surgery, but is done at the main hospital in Sacramento. I'm a little surprised that I had cancer on my scalp because I ALWAYS wear a hat and I now wear an Australian Bush hat on the golf course. I don't wear a hat when I'm swimming, but I do wear a hat when I'm reading on the pool or doing yard work. My hair is too thin and I have a high forehead and don't want to get burned. The dermatologist tells me that the damage was done in my youth and the basil cell carcinomas can show up at any time. I am my Dad's son as well as my Mom's, who died from complications of skin cancer.

The weather here was incredible this week and it was 72 degrees on Wednesday when I played Serrano and 70 degrees in Napa on Friday. It was great, but luckily, there is a front coming in tomorrow and we expect some significant rain on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Hopefully it is wet all week and clears up for our tournament next weekend.

I am off to Phoenix on March 10-12 for work. I have five meetings set up as well as two golf games and a World Champion San Francisco Giants exhibition baseball game in Scottsdale Stadium. I will travel with Pete and we will wear ourselves out. I get back on my birthday.

Prior to that trip, I have another trip to Napa planned on March 3rd and 4th. Neil set up a trip and we will play Silverado on Sunday and Windsor Golf Club in Healdsburg on Monday. I am looking forward to the trip with friends.

Work continues moving forward at a great clip. I will host the office to a luncheon on Thursday at Tahoe Joe's Steakhouse in Roseville to celebrate our record breaking January. I have about a half of the employee reviews done and will hopefully finish those up in the next two weeks. I have finished all of the ones that have come back to me and will get to the others as they come through to me.

Well, that is it this week I will be back at the keyboard next Sunday and let you know how Steve and I fared in the tournament. Be well and stay safe. Ciao.

Samantha Pictures

Ok. Darla does not like pictures of Samantha with makeup. I'm okay with it as long as it is just dress up at home and she doesn't go out made up like that. It was a makeover with Ashley, Jennifer's roommate's daughter. At any rate she is as cute as they come in my humble opinion.

Great Weather in Northern California

No pictures this week. We need a visit from Samantha to spice up the blog a little bit. We will Face Time with Jennifer and Sam later tonight. I'll ask Jennifer to send me some pictures and add them to the blog.

The weather has been great lately. A little cold in the morning, in fact we had a frost delay on Saturday before golf. We should be close to 70 degrees by Wednesday this week. We need a little rain and some snow in the Sierra, especially the snow pack. We did get about 9 inches of snow on Thursday and about .11 of an inch of rain here in Roseville. I took advantage of the good weather on Wednesday and Friday,taking two of my agents out golfing. I took Ron from a Rocklin Agency to lunch and then golf at Morgan Creek Country Club. Matt joined me and one of Ron's producers came out as well. The weather was great and we enjoyed ourselves. Nobody shot really good golf, but we had a good time. Matt and I both shot 87 and Ron and his producer were both in the 90's.

I also took one of my original agents who is semi-retired and has sold his business to his sons who now run the agency. Bob goes in to the office about twice a week. I played with Pete from my office and Bob. I played better, shooting 40+44=84. Pete shot 95 and Bob had a 97. We played at Bob's club, Rancho Murietta Country Club. It was good to see Bob, who i have worked with for about 30 years, starting with his first agency, then breaking off to form his own agency with 2 partners, one of whom later passed away and the other left to form an agency with his three sons to when he brought in his sons to the agency until now. We keep in touch and play golf at his club about every three months or so.

Finally, I got together with Darren, Boyd and Paul on Saturday at Woodcreek. Playing a third time in four days wore me out and I was really sore through my collarbone and chest. I never did loosen up and shot a 44+44=88. I was in the spa today and finally felt my muscles loosening up. It's a good thing because I have three days of golf again this week. My agent, Gary, has a birthday on Wednesday and we will play his course, Serrano, in the afternoon. I have Friday off and will drive down to Napa with Boyd and Neil to meet Bob and play golf at Eagle Vines. I was going to take the weekend off, but Darla has a party here on Saturday, so I will go out Saturday afternoon and play at Diamond Oaks.

My finger is much better now, but it took a turn for the worse on Monday and I called Kaiser and could not get in to see the doctor until Tuesday morning. There was so much pressure on my finger it felt like the nail was going to pop off. I talked to the advice nurse and she suggested that I lance my nail. It sounds terrible, but basically I heated up a needle to red hot and basically melted a small hole into the m=nail to let the blood out. It was an amazing release when I worked through the nail and I'm doing much better. The doctor checked my nail on Tuesday and had an x-ray done on my finger which was negative. I did talk to her about a raised area on my scalp underneath my hair and she sent me to the dermatology department to have it biopsied. The doctor cut the growth out and said that it "looks" to be Basil cell carcinoma and i should have the results this week. if it is, I have to go in and have surgery done to remove the rest of the cancerous cells. That is done in an outpatient surgery center locally. We'll see.

My DirecTV receiver in the bedroom has been on the fritz for a couple of weeks. Every time I turn it on it is "searching for a signal". The DirecTV people have been slow to replace the unit and I finally yelled enough today, that they agreed to send me a replacement unit. I miss my "Headlines" on the Tonight Show. It is the only show we look at in the bedroom. Occasionally I will watch TV in there if Darla has an event at the house and she does the same when I have poker.

I did play poker on Friday night at John's house. John is one of the two cousins that had a falling out about a year ago. John made amends in December and they are now thick as thieves. They are both retired and spend every day together. John had to stop play and tell us all how much he appreciates us as friends and how glad he is to be back in the group. He missed out playing with us for a year because of his own pride. it is good to have him back. I've been losing continually for the last three or four games and needed a good night. i won early and was up about $50 before hitting a dry spell and going down to about $10 left out of my $100 that I brought. I won big in the last hour and walked away with about $76 in quarters and an extra $20 in paper, for a small victory of about $12. Not bad, considering how bad it could have been.

Darla leaves for Vegas on Sunday and will be gone until Thursday. This is Silpada's annual Manager's meeting and Darla has to go in early for a meeting of the representative that are at the Silver Manager level or higher. This will be Darla's first meeting at the Silver Manager level, so it should be a nice perk for her. I will be batching it for a week and Darla bought extra hot dogs and pizza for me. I guess I am a caracature of an old married man to her. I'll survive.

Well, that is it for me this week. I will be working on sit down employee reviews this week. The approved reviews that I wrote up in January are slowly trickling in and I will work on them as they show up. I have until late March to complete the 22 sit downs that I have to do. I hope all is well for each of you and that some of our awesome weather makes its way to each of you. Ciao.

Super Sunday

The game has just ended. A couple of observations. Jim Harbaugh is so tightly wound, he may have a coronary on the sideline. The Niners had a tremendous comeback, but they never lead in the game and with a defense as cocky as theirs, they averaged giving up 30 points a game in the playoffs. Frankly, I'm not impressed. Another observation, if they can make it to two more Super Bowls, they'll be tied with Dallas at 8. I have a number of Niner friends that had given up on the team in the third quarter. Not cool. They are all acting like they hung in there, but I have Facebook account and can count the negative comments from these guys on their own team. Frankly, I didn't have a dog in the fight and was pleased to win $150 in pool money, all in the first half. I had 4 Ravens and 9 Niners for the Final with 11 seconds remaining  with the score 34-29 Ravens, when the Ravens gave up an intentional safety. A smart football move, but it cost me $125. Final score 34-31.

The commercials were generally lame, including the Budweiser commercial with the foal. Not impressed. The old folks breaking out of the retirement home to have a rage was kind of funny, but why was it in Spanish? Apparently Taco Bell wanted to reach Obama's voter base or something. The halftime show was excellent and Alicia Keys was so good at the National Anthem. Wow.

Again, the game was good and could have gone either way. If Alex Smith had been the QB, they wouldn't have been in the Super Bowl to begin with, but they definitely wouldn't have come back. It wouldn't have been good for me to be around Niner fans during the game, so Darla and I hung out together today and we had fried cheese, potato skins, chips and pizza. Now, back to the diet. I wanted my friends who are Niner fans to enjoy the game. There is a silver lining for them and it is this Kaepernick kid. He is the real deal, but the pistol formation causes him to take a lot of unnecessary shots. Even when he hands the ball off, he gets blasted by a defender, which is legal, especially if he is carrying out the fake well enough. Guys like RG3 and Vick are small, but this kid is 6'6" and 245 pounds. He'll be able to take the pounding for awhile, but concussions ended Steve Young's career early.It's only a matter of time. I watched the Phoenix Open from Scottsdale up until about 2:45 and then Darla and I went in the spa for about twenty minutes before watching the game.

I played golf on Saturday and it started out really cold and cloudy. The day started out wrong when I pinched my left ring finger in my golf cart when I was setting it up. You can see the damage in the picture above. I put on my Facebook that I was looking more and more like my Dad every day and he responded with something about his middle finger. My finger is swollen and really sore because the tissue can only swell so much under the nail, which causes pressure. I was really affected by it early in the round and shot 44 on the front side. I finally worked it out to take my ring finger on my left hand off the grip of the club and shot a 39 on the back side. Hopefully, my hand heals quickly because I have two marketing golf outings (sports marketing) on Wednesday and Friday and then play golf with Boyd, Darren and Matt on Saturday. The following weekend I will drive down to Napa with Neil and Boyd and we will play golf with Bob who moved to San Jose last year.

On March 3rd Neil has set up golf with three foursomes at Silverado in Napa. After that, eight of us will drive up to Healdsburg and spend the night at a resort at Windsor Country Club and play the course on Monday. I enjoy the golf trips with the guys. It is always fun. Of course, April is Jenny's wedding.Fun times ahead. Darla is off to Las Vegas in February and Kansas City in both April and May with Silpada.

You can see pictures of Darla and I out to dinner on Saturday night. We went to church and then to dinner at Suede Blue, a new restaurant in Roseville. We went to celebrate Darla's big bonus with Silpada. They had an incentive that ran for six months and Darla hit the top of the incentive and will receive $15,000 which she will use to pay off some of the credit card bills she has racked up with her business. I'm very proud of her.

My office again had a stellar month in January. We were up 15% from 2011 to 2012 and I was hoping to come in with about a 10% increase this year. We finished the month on Thursday up 26% and were number three out of 47 offices in the US and Canada for growth. I turn 56 in a month and I am absolutely riding this wave at the moment. I turn another producer loose in February and I'm hoping he can help us continue on our growth plane. Ajay is 23 years old and a graduate of UC Berkeley in Business Administration. he is of Indian descent and he plans to go after some of the over 1000 Indian insurance Agents in California. Agents from India are notoriously loyal to working with other Indian business people. Ajay will play that card and become the wholesaler of choice to those agents. I've told him to work with our companies to put together some hospitality insurance programs because many Indian businessmen own hotels and restaurants, including Ajay's own father, who is an innkeeper out of state. Good times ahead.

Well, it is a short blog entry this week, but the Super Bowl ended late due to the power outage at the Superdome. I hope everyone is doing well. Jennifer will be back in Vegas this week and beginning the process of trying to get Samantha to join her here in California. Pray for what is best for Samantha in this situation. Ciao.

Frances' Birthday 2013

 

We spent Saturday evening up in Paradise at Darla's parent's house. We were invited up and Earl was going to treat us to dinner for Frances' birthday. Alicia and Don decided to join us and their son, Lucas, hasn't been trained to stay in a high chair and it becomes a bit of a pain to be out to dinner with him. They recognize that fact and Don decided to bring ribs and chicken and he fixed dinner in Frances' kitchen. The food was good and the company was great. Lucas was in a good mood and spent a good portion of the day playing in the living room. I had washed the car before we left, because I checked the forecast and rain was not in the forecast for Roseville. I forgot to check the weather in Chico and Paradise and it was raining fairly steadily shortly after we got there and continued up to and beyond when we left. The rain was over and gone by the time we got to Oroville, but it was definitely a waste of my time.

 

We had a good visit and Earl even got pretty serious and talked to the family about the fact that he and Frances are getting older and he has a serious concern that when he has left this earthly coil and is in Heaven, he wants to see all of us there with him. He talked about making sure that each of us had accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour and had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Darla and I were right on board with him and Don and Alicia were both pretty quiet. They ended up leaving shortly after dessert as they had arrived at 2:00 o'clock. We got there about 3:15 PM, so stayed a little longer to visit. Earl shared with us his frustration of getting together with his brothers and sisters and always talking about earthly things and not talking about spiritual things. It was a nice visit and kind of fun to talk about.

 

I played golf today and shot a 40+43=83. Frustrating finish, but it was also a slow back 9 and I play much better if I can get into a good rhythm. I was pretty much on my handicap today, but certainly could have score better. I was even par on the back 9 after 12 and ended up shooting 7 over on the last 6 holes. The weather was great today and the forecast is for warming temperatures the rest of the week and up to about 68 degrees by Thursday. I may try to get one of my retailers out this week to play golf on Thursday afternoon. I hung out awhile after my round and sat with one of the guys who was trying to fill a $1000 Super Bowl pool. I bought one of his $10 squares and had sat with him for about 45 minutes. I got up to talk to Neil and when I came back he was gone and so were my car keys. I tried to reach him by phone, but couldn't and finally had to call Darla to bring my other set of keys so I could drive home. Rob still hasn't called me back and I can only hope that he has them. I checked with both the restaurant and the pro shop and no one turned in my keys. The problem I have right now is that my office keys are on the key ring and I won't be able to get into my office tomorrow. Shawna has a set in her desk and I can get her to meet me earlier. She generally comes into the office about 8 AM and I get there closer to 7:30. If Rob doesn't call me back, I'll get ahold of Shawna and see if she can come in a little earlier tomorrow. It's frustrating. How does someone pick up a set of keys that don't belong to them and then not recognize the fact?

 

Darla and I are still working through this flu. She got a recurrence of  the flu and started coughing and her nose was running. Her co-workers sent her home on Wednesday and she stayed home from work on Thursday and went to the doctor. He gave her some antibiotics, some cold medicine and some Mucinex. I still have a cough and some congestion. It has been a little over two weeks for me and they say this particular flu hangs on for three weeks. So far they are right and I'm looking forward to feeling better this week.

 

I got the final figures in this week for the company in 2012 and we ended the year with a profit in my office of over $950,000. When I took over the office back in 2004, we lost $480,000 that year. I'm proud of the turnaround in my office and look forward to this year as well. Darla and I will buy a new SUV for her in March and Daniel will take her Explorer that we bought new in 2002. It now has over 169,000 miles on it. We will start shopping around my birthday for her. Wait...how does that work?

 

We still don't have any news about Samantha joining Jennifer in the Bay Area. Jennifer hasn't filed anything yet and Darla and I are both nervous about this whole thing. Diane seems comfortable that it will all work out, but I don't know. How does a judge allow Jennifer to take Samantha away from her Dad in Las Vegas? I don't know. As I have said before, I relish the opportunity for Samantha to get out of Las Vegas. It is a filthy, immoral city and no place for a 5 year old to live. The town of Pleasanton is a nice alternative and a great place for her to start elementary school in the fall. We will see. I'm praying that God intervenes in this situation and does what is in the best interest of young Samantha. Jennifer was back in Las Vegas last weekend and Samantha asked her if she could come live with her Mom in California. Jennifer said it made her cry and told Samantha that she has to be patient. 

 

The Super Bowl is next weekend. The Niners are favored by 4 and a half points. It should be a good game. I've been telling all of my Niner friends that this team can do something that no other 49er team has ever done. Lose a Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see how they are treated if they lose. It is one thing that Niner fans are proud of, that they are undefeated in 5 Super Bowl trips. Again, both teams are strong on Defense, but the Niner's quarterback has only played 9 games in his career and he says that he doesn't get nervous. We'll see next week. One of the guys at work sent me a note showing that Kaepernick has 2 playoff wins to only 1 for Tony Romo. My response? Romo is married to a beauty queen and makes $18,000,000 a year. Kaepernick makes $850,000 and has nice Christian tattoos. Don't feel sorry for Tony, he is living the dream and will be at Pebble Beach in two weeks playing in the AT&T National Pro Am.

 

Well, that is it for this week. Hopefully, all is well with each of you. Take some advice from Darla's Dad and examine your walk with Jesus and decide whether you KNOW that you are saved. Living a good life won't get you into heaven which is a perfect place. You have to acknowledge that Christ died for your sins and ask him into your heart. I, too, want to see all of my family and friends in Heaven. Have a good week. Ciao.