A little rain and back to beautiful weather

 

 

You can see how my day started on Friday of this past week. A little background. I had mentioned to Darla that I'd love an O'Henry bar one night. They still make them, but they are not in heavy distribution and you often see them at dollar stores and aggregators. She put it in the back of her mind and when she ran across a Big Hunk bar she bought me one. Big Hunks, a white nougat candy confection and dental appliances do not play well together and I took one bite of my Big Hunk and my front crown that I've had for 19 years was ripped from the post and left in the bar. I called my dentist on Friday at 8 AM and I have a new younger dentist that took over the practice a couple of months ago and he is trying to pay for his investment so works on Fridays. My prior dentist took every Friday off and played golf. Thankfully they were able to get me in right away and I had my post cleaned and the crown reattached by 10:30 and was able to make my lunch marketing call in El Dorado Hills. I call this picture my NHL shot. I was born in Canada and have no use for hockey, which to me is soccer on ice and just as boring.

 

I've also included pictures from our trip to Marysville last weekend and from Darla's Thursday Silpada party at my office. Most of the ladies you see in the pictures are my staff members, except for Gail's mother-in-law, who was one of the big buyers at the event. It was a $1000 party, so well worth Darla's time.

 

We did have some rain roll in this week, which helped to drop the rest of the leaves from the grove in the park across the street. I did my last leave cleanup of the season yesterday and feel good to be done with that. We had two days of rain and three days of heavy wind that helped to dislodge the remaining leaves. It did leave a mess in the pool that I worked on today. I got most of the leaves up and out, but there are some small leaves and branches left scattered on the bottom of the pool. The sweep should clean that up, but I got a call from our next door neighbor this week and the sweep had got caught on one of the swim outs last week and was shooting water into their yard. I had taken the sweep out as it was getting clogged by the heavy inundation of leaves. I put it back in after cleaning out the pool today and hope that it doesn't cause issues again. The neighbors like to sit out in their backyard and smoke cancer sticks and I actually could have been accused of setting up the water works. I didn't. Really.

 

I set up an away golf trip this weekend to Auburn Valley Country Club up in Auburn. Boyd, Neil and Andy joined me and like clockwork, the winds died overnight and their was but a light breeze blowing as we played. Auburn Valley has pretty hard surfaced greens and pride themselves on the speed of their greens and they were running about 13 on the stimp meter. I had a birdie on number two after almost driving the 295 yard hole, but struggled as we all did on the lightning fast greens and shot 43 on the front nine. I birdied the final hole, a par five for a 42 on the back and an 85 overall. Boyd shot 80 and both Andy and Neil were in the 90's Neil had a nice 43 on the front, but struggled a bit on the back nine. It was a fun day and always good to get together with the guys.

 

We have some work to do in the last three days to keep our streak alive of 10 straight months beating our budget. I am pretty even with last year's numbers. Pete is in Mexico this week with his family and I'm holding his staff responsible for keeping his numbers up. Matt was off for three weeks in October and is paying for it on his numbers this month. It will be close and I'll tell the staff that they can go home on Wednesday as soon as we hit our number. It will provide some incentive.

 

Darla and I went out to an event at the Dream Theater in Roseville on Friday night. It was an evening of skits and music all based on the songs of Lennon and McCartney of the Beatles. The Dream Theater is a music theater for developmentally delayed or handicapped people. There were some really poor performances and three blind men that were incredibly talented and I really enjoyed their performances. All of the staff and many of the students knew Darla from her days at Alta and it was old home week for her. It was a honey-do for me.

 

Next weekend will be our final tournament of the year. It is the Eclectic Final and the last tournament of the year long Eclectic Event. We have 53 players that I have tracked their best scores of the year for each of these players. Our best score is by a 1 handicap player who has a gross score of 57. I have a 64 and still have a bogey on number 18, so I have 9 birdies, eight pars and a bogey. It has been a great year and we will celebrate at our Christmas party on December 7th. December 6th will be our last board meeting of the year, with both the outgoing board members and incoming board members meeting together. They are having a board breakfast at 7:30 followed by golf at Timber Creek afterward. I'm taking the day off work that day to attend.

 

Well, that's it for this week. only a couple of weeks before we are off to Mexico. I look forward to spending time with dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly. Looking forward to the food, the golf, the Happy Hours at dad and Shirley's condo and some sun and fun. I hope all are well and ready for thanksgiving. Be well. Ciao.  

Great weather in Nor Cal

We are definitely blessed in California and when I'm out golfing on November 16th in shorts and a golf shirt, I realize that I really wouldn't want to live anywhere else. The weather was close to 68 degrees on Saturday and we haven't seen rain since September. Luckily, that will change this week as a storm system finally moves in on Tuesday and we'll have two days of rain. The system will be out of here by Thursday and the forecast is for 70 degrees and sunshine by Saturday when I have a 7:30 tee time here in Roseville.

 

It has been a good weekend. We got to visit with Samantha and Jennifer last night and we got a few screen grabs of our conversation. One is of Samantha acting like she has a loose tooth (it is a piece of popcorn). Also, she is blowing us a kissing in one of them. Jennifer and Sam had gone to a climbing gym on Saturday. Check out the video right to the end and you'll see Sam drop back to the ground and point at Jennifer and say "Your Turn!" Cute. They are doing great. Jennifer has started her new job and is enjoying it, but misses working as a Construction manager. She hopes to get moved to that position in the near future. I'm not sure what exactly she is doing now, but it is more of a administrative role and she would like to be more in control of the work sites. The money is good and she did get a permanent position in Las Vegas. Samantha is thrilled and was really enjoying having a movie night with her Mommy on Saturday.

David got tickets to the Kings nationally televised game on Friday night against Detroit and invited me to join him. It turns out the seats were the corporate seats for the Managers at his firm and we were four rows from the floor. You can see how close we were with the picture of the opening tap meet and greet by the players. I stopped and picked up a couple of bags of trail mix for us and picked him up and we were off to the game. He even had parking passes and we were able to park up close to the entrance. It was a nice night. I took the picture of us above at arm's length.

Saturday, I played in the last Diamond Tournament of the year. These are the tournaments that are put on by the pro shop at Diamond. They are sponsored by one of their vendors and this one was sponsored by Nike. I got to play with Neil, Andy and Paul. For some reason, I have good rounds when I play with Paul. I had my hole in one two weeks ago with him in the group. He shot a really special 75 and I shot 40+39=79. It could have been better (couldn't it always?) as I was four over after 16 holes before finishing with a bogey/double-bogey on the last two holes. How did I do that? I knocked in a 12 foot putt for double on 18. I took first in my flight with a net 66 and Paul took first in the first flight with a net 65. it was fun to have both of us play well on the same day. Neil shot an 87 for net 70 and Andy struggled a little with an 88, net 75.

Saturday night, David joined Darla and I at church and then we went out to dinner at Cha Chas. We had a nice visit and a great dinner and all of us enjoyed the sermon at church. Coincidentally, we are doing a sermon series on the life of King David.

Today, I slept in and Darla went back to church because she missed about 45 minutes of the service yesterday as she was late coming back from an event in Folsom. She was supposed to meet me back at the house at 10 o'clock, but ran into a first time attender at church and showed her around and introduced her to Pastor Rick. We had a very light breakfast (toast) and met Darla's parents for lunch in Marysville at 1 o'clock. We had a great lunch and a good visit. It was Ear turn to pay so the food might have tasted just a bit better.

Darla returned from Dallas on Wednesday and had a great trip, visiting with Diane and Bill and also having lunch with Randy, Cake and Chris. The party was a humdinger and came in at close to $3,000 in sales, so I guess, all told, the trip was worth it. Darla had a good chance to talk to Diane and commiserate about Jennifer and Samantha.

Work continues to go well and I am in the process of bleeding off all of my agents to the other producers in the office. With my new title as Managing Director, I want to be able to work more closely with my new employees, auditing their files, checking their inspections, going on marketing calls with them and directing our growth and managing our profits. I have an employee in Home Office this past week and for the next week as well. She is in the latest training class and I'll have the first three quarters of 2014 to prepare her to move into production. As my office grows I need to be front and center with my younger and newest employees.

As I mentioned last week, Darla was featured in her company newsletter this month, a publication that goes out to over 35,000 employees and representatives. Here is the link to the article. She is on page 7 & 8: http://silpada.https.internapcdn.net/silpada_vitalstream_com/Arrowhead/US/onov876/Arrowhead_Nov_US/index.html#/1/

Well, that is it for this week. I hope all is well with each of you. Darryl will not join us in Mexico, which is a bummer, but I understand. Now, I have to work on Randy. Ciao.


 

Bachelor Again

Some pictures from Jennifer. She had promised me some pictures and I texted her today and she came through for me. I think Samantha is absolutely loving having her Mommy back home in Las Vegas.

 

It is Veteran's Day today and I tip my cap to Jennifer and all of the other soldiers current and past who have given their all for this country. Jennifer finished her career in the military pretty disillusioned with our mission in Iraq and Afghanistan but her experience also prepared her for the great job that she has now. Her prior company had agreed to let her live in Las Vegas, but her work sites were all in Northern California. It wasn't going to be a long term answer for her and she has since found a new job that she started on Monday with a Las Vegas based company that does business with Lucent. I can't drive around anywhere without noticing the rash of microwave antenna sites that are literally everywhere. You don't really notice them generally, but after Jennifer pointed them out to me, it is like a new car, you see them everywhere. I am very happy for her.

 

Darla is in Dallas as I write this visiting my ex wife and her husband. Diane is having a Silpada party for Darla tomorrow night and Diane's parties are pretty legendary. I think she has a lot of trophy wife friends, who are able to buy the jewelry indiscriminately. Darla is also visiting with Randy and Cake tomorrow. Randy and Cake are both driving into the city from their rural home and will have lunch with Darla tomorrow. I think Cake and Darla will spend most of the day together tomorrow and have a nice visit while Randy is working. Cake was nice enough to get a substitute in order to visit with Darla. I appreciate the kindness to my wife from my family. Thanks, guys.

 

I have been busy transitioning out of production in my office and taking the underwriters out to visit my agents and meet and interact with them. I have been loathe to give up production, because it is the lifeblood of my office. The problem is that I am so busy with employee issues and administration duties that I have been doing my agents a disservice in continuing to work with them. I am committed to working with the many twenty-somethings in my office that are moving into production. So many of them are really young and have never seen anything but tremendous success and profits in my office. I want to go out on marketing calls with them and also be very involved in quality control of their policies and quotes. We have been growing so fast that I need to take this step to make sure that we continue to grow profitably. My office has grown from $13,000,000 in written premium in 2010 to a budget of $26,000,000 in 2014. I've also grown from 16 employees in 2010 to 26 now. I have plans to continue to add to staff in 2014, but we have to get our build out and lease addendum completed soon in order for that to happen. I am completely out of space and have three employees that now principally work out of their homes because of the space crunch that we are in. Even with the record growth, we have been able to stay on top of our filings and typing. I had an issue with typing because I kept hiring recent  college graduates to do the job. Each of them were happy to get an entry level position with me, but were ready to move up within three months of hiring in. I changed my focus late last year and hired in two ladies who had raised families and were ready to re-enter the work force. I brought them both in as policy typists and they have taken my typing unit from being 60 days behind and over 900 policies to current and only 59 policies in queue. It is a great story.

 

I played golf in the Turkey shoot on Saturday and had a great start to my round. I parred the first 6 holes and felt like it was last week all over again. Well, no. I bogeyed the final three holes for a 39 and then imploded on the back nine for a 45 and 84 on the day. That was good enough for a $20 Raley's gift card that Darla quickly scooped up and used on toilet paper and cat food. My driver left me on the back nine and I ended up getting stuck behind a treeon number 10 and trying a miracle shot that glanced off the tree and went out of bounds. That led to triple bogey and a forgettable back nine. I talked to Neil afterward and he had a similar day shooting a 39+47=86. Brothers in arms.

 

It will be  busy week for me at work with marketing calls both tomorrow and Thursday. Thursday is a follow-up call from the visit we had with a Roseville agency when my CEO was here. Matt and I will take in some personalized marketing materials and make our case to the decision makers in the office.

 

Well, I have some scores to get entered from the tournament on Saturday that Neil sent over to me tonight. I will call it a night and wrap this up for another week. I hope you are all well and living a Godly life. Be well. Ciao.

Sneaking away to Lake Tahoe for a quick getaway

 

 

We are off playing hooky in Lake Tahoe. I usually like to get away after the Manager's meeting for at least a day to recharge my batteries. I mentioned to Neil last week that I wanted to get away and that the Lakeside Inn had their Steak and Lobster Lodging special for $89. He said, as Neil always does, "Count us in!" We drove up this afternoon and stopped at the overlook at Emerald Bay and took a couple of pictures and then drove the rest of the way up to Tahoe and our hotel room. We checked in about 4:30 and rested for a couple of hours before meeting for drinks at 6:30. We got seated for dinner a little after 7 PM and spent the next 90 minutes gorging on steak, lobster, clam chowder, French onion soup, salad, baked potatoes and crème brulee for dessert. It was actually better than I expected, the lobster tail was large and succulent and the sirloin was lean and delicious. We spent a bit of time gambling with little luck and were back in the room by 10:00 PM.  We will meet Neil and Lilly for breakfast at the crack of ten AM in the morning, preferring a leisurely morning. We will drive back around the north side of the lake and stop for a late lunch in Truckee at Jack's by the Tracks, a restaurant that Dad and Shirley know.

 

Halloween came and went this week and some of the younger staff members approached me about a costume contest. I did them one better and offered to get gift cards for best dressed cubicle/office and my assistant threw in a gold cup for the perpetual winner of best dish at the potluck. The Queen of Hearts won the best costume and our receptionist won for best cubicle with a Hansel and Gretel setup of candy and treats to lure young children into her lair. Darla won the best dish for a cat litter box cake that was pretty gross. The cake was made with food coloring and melted Tootsie Rolls. It may have won the cup, but not too many people tried it. Pete had a scoop. Also, you can see a picture of Sam's costume for Halloween. Jen was supposed to send me more pictures, but has been hosting her Mom and McKenny this weekend.

 

Also, this weekend I had another hole-in-one at Diamond Oaks. I could get used to this. My first one was in a tournament two years ago and it cost me $145, which wasn't bad as I had $150 paid to me out of our hole-in-one insurance at the club. This time it was just a social round with John, Steve and Paul (Ringo couldn't make it). I bought a pitcher of beer and lunch for the guys after the round and got out of there for less than $35. The last time I was pretty pumped up and shot an 84 which isn't very good when you factor in an eagle and then the birdie I had on the following hole. This year, I was more focused and ended up shooting my best round of the year with a 37+38= 75, net 62. I told Darla that if I'd shot a 72, I would have just quit as I would have shot a hole in one and a par round on the same day. What's left? She wasn't buying it either. I was really happy with the 75 and pleased with the ace. I hit a pitching wedge on the 116 yard fifth hole that hit the front of the green rolled toward the hole and we lost it in the shadows on the green. I knew it was close and when there was no ball on the green when we walked up to the hole, I knew it was in the hole. So now I've had two aces on the 5th hole at Diamond Oaks. Boyd has also had two there and Bob had one.

 

Darla's business is really doing well and she is now the number one recruiter in the company and on track to promote to a Sterling Manager hopefully next month. She is featured in the corporate magazine this month with an interview about her recent success and she gives all the glory to God in her interview. Also, she has been sought out for speaking engagements at the regional meetings and on the conference calls that Silpada does every week. I'm proud of her and looking forward to seeing her success begin to be seen in our checkbook. She is rebuilding her business after her recent health issues and it all takes time. I'm very proud of her.

 

Our office just completed our 10th straight month of beating our budget and as proud as I am, it all gets put into perspective when my CEO tells me that my budget was too low. We are carrying over our lunch winnings for both September and October and hopefully November and we will rent out a party room at the local bowling alley for our Holiday Party. I get $45 per employee for our celebration and I like to buy everyone $50 gift cards. The room has two alleys, five big screen TVs and it's own bar. It costs $150 an hour and we will rent it for two hours in December on  Monday night.

 

We also are off to Mexico in December, the 14th-21st in Nuevo Vallarta. Dad and Shirley will be there from December 7th through the 21st and we will join them for their second week. Hopefully Darryl and Cheryl are able to make it out as well. We are bringing Neil and Lilly to stay in our two bedroom condo.

 

Well, that is it for this week. Darla is fast asleep in bed as she was up early this morning and I need to call it a day. I hope you are all well. Dad and Shirley will be back from their 28 day cruise in another week or so and I look forward to getting caught up with them. Be well. Ciao.

Manager's Meeting 2013

 

 

Back from Detroit and now I'm a Managing Director. It is more of a title change than anything, but I have been asked to help out more with some of our other offices. The Manager in Fresno is retiring and the plan is that Fresno will fold into Sacramento as a Service Office. Our local Manager has been asked to stay on for the next year as we transition the office. The concern is that we will lose some of the staff because she has been the Manager there for over 25 years.

 

It was a really good meeting for my office as we won 8 awards at the meeting, including a Distinguished Service Award for one of our Assistants, New business awards for both Peter and Matt and awards for Top Producer for both Pete and Matt. Peter also won a Leadership award and our office won an Office of the Year Award. I was still recuperating and the hours were not my friend. We generally start at 8 AM and GO GO GO until 11 at night. Darla asked me to try to make sure I got plenty of rest and didn't push myself too hard. I did NOT go to the Hospitality suite at all this trip, which is rare for me, but we got in so late each night and I was so exhausted, that I just went to bed.

 

I called Darla on Friday night and couldn't get hold of her. It turns out that she took advantage of me being gone and took a road trip to Pasadena to see Daniel. She had a voucher for a free night at a Marriott facility and took advantage of that. Both Daniel and Becky joined her and they had dinner Friday night and breakfast on Saturday. Darla was on the road by two in the afternoon and made it home in time to pick me up.

 

My office also won a bunch of trophies in the Pinewood Derby. Our car wasn't fast and we took second in all four heats that we ran. The trophies we won were all aesthetically based as we took two 3rd fro Carrier's Choice and Executives Choice and a Second Place for Most Original. There were 74 entries, so it was significant and Connie's husband did a great job of building and designing the car.

 

I also came back to the annual fall deluge of leaves as the wind started in on Saturday and blew all day today. I took about 45 minutes to rake up some leaves, but as soon as I picked them up, others blew right in behind them.

 

I got in about ten o'clock last night and Darla and I went in the spa and then I went to bed as it was already 2 AM my time by the time we got home and got out of the spa. I was up about 7:30 this morning and Darla fixed a nice home cooked breakfast of eggs and sausage in a burrito. I then taped the Dallas game and headed to the course. Today was the Past President's tournament for 2013. All of the former President's tee off first and I was in the first group with Neil, Rick and Tim. I played okay, but lost a ball on the 9th hole and took a 7 for a 44 on the front. I had birdied number two but followed that up with a ball in the water and a double bogey on the next hole. I did get it going on the back nine and birdied number 10 and 16 for a 41 on the back and an 85 It won't be good enough to be in the money, but I should get some skin money for the three birdies and I did improve my Eclectic score on two of the holes. The Eclectic is the year long best score on each individual hole at Diamond during selected tournaments. I now have a 63 on the year.

 

It has been over two weeks since this illness took hold and I still tire easily and have a cough deep in my chest. I don't think the trip to Detroit helped and I plan to relax and take it easy the rest of this week. I'll be at work, but will rest when I need to, drink plenty of water and put this behind me for good.

 

Darla has an event in Monterey next weekend and she wants me to go with her on Saturday. I think I just need to take it easy at home. We talked about going up to Tahoe on Sunday and staying over at the Lakeside Inn. They have a deal for $89 that includes a night's stay, breakfast for two and a Steak and Lobster dinner for two. Not a bad deal. We'll see if we make it next week.

 

Our office has once again beat our budget goal for the month and we are carrying over September and October for our holiday lunch. Hopefully we will hit our number in November as well and we can have a great celebration in December.

 

I will be changing things up in my office starting this month as I will completely give up all of my agencies. I discussed this with many of the managers that handle offices of my size and they have given up production and concentrated on working with the younger producers and making sure that the younger staff members get the proper training. I have 26 people who all report to me now and I don't feel that I'm giving the few agents that I have left the proper level of service. I will get more involved with marketing and training and making sure that my office remains one of the best in the company. I don't get paid on my own production anymore and I don't like to compete with my guys who do get paid based on their numbers.

 

Well, dinner is served, so I will bid you all adieu and I'll be back at the keyboard next weekend. Ciao.

The Flu turns into Pneumonia

I finally got back to work last week on Thursday but was far from 100%. I was tired and weak and still wheezing and short of breath. I called my doctor and finally got an appointment with one of his colleagues for Friday. I had trouble sleeping again Tuesday and Wednesday night, but found several packages of TheraFlu in the cupboard and made up some hot, lemony brew that finally calmed my cough and let me sleep.

The doctor on Friday examined me, listened to my lungs and pronounced me to have a lung infection. I was put on a prescription of antibiotics and finally started feeling better. I'm still coughing and have some blockage in my lungs, but the symptoms have almost disappeared and I feel much, much better. I will complete the protocol. Hopefully by the then the infection will clear up and I'll be able to breathe deeply again. This has been one of the worst medical dilemmas that I can ever remember going through. I was thrilled that they finally diagnosed the pneumonia as it is treated with antibiotics and almost always a complete recovery. I was talking to Darla about it last night when...

She read me the riot act! She told me that I didn't take care of myself while I was sick, in particular I didn't eat properly and that the flu had morphed into pneumonia because I let it happen. That she has diabetes and I can't allow infectious diseases like pneumonia to enter our house because she is so susceptible to any infectious disease. It certainly gave me pause and I admit to being a horrible patient. I hate being sick and if I don't have an appetite, I don't eat. I think I probably had the pneumonia from the start because I've never had the flu more than two or three days. This illness now has dragged on for 11 days and I leave for five days in Detroit tomorrow. I did lose 6 pounds while I was ill and weigh in at 191 pounds right now. I was at 218 at my heaviest after being at 189 pounds when Darla and I were married. It was a tough way to lose the weight, but I feel physically very good at this weight.

I went out on Saturday and played Timber Creek in Roseville with Neil, Boyd and Tim. We had a $60 Groupon and I was committed to playing. I was weak and tired and basically got out of my sick bed to play golf and not surprisingly shot 50 on the front nine. What I was proud of was that I followed that up with a 40 on the back for 90. It was a great tome getting together with the guys after a week of being ill. Next week we play in the Past President's event which is the annual tournament that honors the past presidents of the Roseville Golf Club. I will play in the first group with Neil and Rick and Tim. All of the Presidents tee off in the first group and we all have our own skins that are paid for by the club. It is an honor to take low net in the Tournament and I will do my best.

I am off tomorrow morning for Detroit and fly from Sacramento to Los Angeles and then on to Detroit from there. We will have meetings Wednesday and Thursday in Home Office and then Friday and Saturday at the Henry Hotel in Dearborn. Saturday we have a Pinewood Derby and I turned the CA03 (our branch code) car to one of my underwriter's husbands who is a woodworker and off on disability. He asked me for some ideas and I told him to knock himself out. This is what he came up with. I don't know how fast our car will be, but it will definitely be one of the cooler looking cars.

I will try to get some pictures and videos. this should be kind of fun and at least different.

Darla is off visiting a new recruit tonight and is bringing dinner home with her. I would have packed while she was gone, but she picked up a new garment bag for me. The clasp on the last one broke on my last trip. I have clothes laid out, but this trip is all dress shirts and suits, so the packing is pretty easy. I usually try to bring a pair of sweats and a t shirt to relax in when I'm in the room. The weather here this week is 82 degree high all week. Detroit is a high of 48 degrees (low 28)  Thursday Friday and Saturday with a slight chance of snow flurries overnight. UGH.

Well, there isn't much to this post, but I was late getting it done again yesterday and decided to do the post tonight. I expect Darla any time and look forward to dinner. Pete and I went out to Fat's Chinese today and I'm ready to eat again. I hope you are all well. Darryl, are you and Cheryl going to join us in Mexico this year? If so, bring your golf clubs. Ciao.

The Flu puts me on my back!!

That's my girl. And a picture from Jennifer of Sam doing homework for Kindergarten. No other  pictures this week as I spent most of the weekend flat on my back with a BAD case of the flu. It started Friday night after poker when I came home and decided to sit in the spa with Darla. I had some body aches that were creeping in and we spent about twenty minutes relaxing in the spa. When I got out, I decided to add some chlorine to the spa, but I couldn't even pick up the bottle because I started having body spasms that were chills. My entire body was shaking and I could barely open the slider to get back in the room. Darla thought I was kidding. I've never had chills like that before in my life. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up over my face and tried to get my body to relax. It finally did and I actually slept well Friday night.

Saturday I was up early for golf and I felt great (surprisingly). I thought the worst has passed, but boy was I wrong.  I actually played one of my better rounds of late shooting a 37+43=80. I was actually 5 over par after 17 holes, but had some serious problems with my sand wedge up by the green. I took 5 to get on and then just missed a 15 foot putt and took a triple to end the round. Ouch.

I left pretty early after the round as I needed to clean the pool, trim some bushes in the back yard and clean up the downed leaves in the yard. I worked for about 2 and a half hours and then felt tremendously tired. I laid down and slept for about two hours. When I woke up I had the return of body aches and got into the spa for about thirty minutes. When I got out I took a shower and then laid down and fell asleep again for an hour. Darla came home and I had a fever, a stomach ache and a splitting headache. We skipped church Saturday night and I laid on the couch and slept off and on. I took some Advil and Day Quill and went to bed about 11:30. Saturday night was a really rough night as I had trouble sleeping because of my cough which exacerbated my headache. I also woke up about 4;00AM with a tremendous fever that caused me to sweat through the sheets. Darla wasn't in bed and she was up with some stomach issues of her own. I got up and took a Nyquil and a couple of cough drops.

I didn't get out of bed until noon on Sunday. Darla was up and off to a Silpada event after going to church. I felt like Hell and got up and watched some of the football games while actually sleeping off and on. Darla came home about 4 PM and I turned the TV off after the last game and fell asleep hoping to wake up for the Dallas game that night. I slept through most of the first quarter before waking up and watching the game while laying flat on my back.

I had another rough night last night and was awake with my cough and headache. I got up about 8AM and called into work and did payroll and then a project for Harvey that was due today and I went back to sleep. I woke up at about 11 and worked on the computer for an hour and fell back asleep until 1 PM. I was really sore and got up and went into the spa and let the hot water pound away at my sore body. I got out of the spa and felt really weak and laid down on the chaise lounge in the back yard and let the sun work on my mood. I crawled from there back to bed and felt like Hell. I had congestion in my chest, a headache, a cough and body aches. I laid on the bed and Darla came home and I asked her to call the advice nurse at Sutter to figure out why I wasn't getting better after 48 hours.

We changed to Cigna health Coverage from Kaiser and the wait for the advice nurse was a half hour. We finally got to talk to her and she told me to take Nyquil or Day Quil and stay away from Ibuprofen or Tylenol as the Day Quil already has that ingredient in the mix. It also has a decongestant and a cough suppressant. She told me to drink lots of water and don't do any strenuous activity. I talked to her about my concerns that this might be walking pneumonia as my friend, John, just went though that and was on antibiotics. My symptoms are more closely related to flu and I hope to lick this soon, because I have work to do.

Well that's it for this week. I didn't feel like even doing a blog entry, but I am my Dad's son and a bit anal, so here you go. I hope you all have a good week and avoid this flu. It has been brutal. Ciao.

OH..Monterey, Baby!!

 

Back from Monterey and a really great weekend of friends, golf, food, wine and fun. I survived my visit with my CEO and he was very appreciative of the job that I'm doing and of the staff in place now at my office. We met with the staff, had lunch with one of our better prospect agencies, and also met with the landlord to look at expanding the space in my office. The landlord wants us to take on about 1100 square feet more than we want, because it would be dead space in the corner if we took just the 1100 square feet that we want. We asked them to give us a proposal and we will negotiate based on the space that we need. I had Alan on his jet and whisking off to Los Angeles by about 5:45 in the afternoon after picking him up at 9:30 in the morning. It was a bit of a whirlwind.

 

I was home by 7 PM and we were on the road to Capitola by 8 o'clock. Darla and I were up at 8 AM Friday morning and we blew a fuse in the room when we both had blow driers going and had the furnace on. We wandered down to the breakfast area while they reset the breaker.

 

We played Pajaro on Friday in Watsonville and in spite of the sanded greens, I managed an 84. Neil, Steve and John all shot in the upper 90's and low 100's, but we had a good time and enjoyed each others company. Darla and Lilly, Camille and Brenda all enjoyed their day in Capitola, strolling the beach and doing some window shopping. Neil drove me to Monterey after the golf and we met up with Darla and Lilly at their hotel. Darla and I drove on to Pacific Grove and checked into the Lighthouse Inn. We were put in a room right next door to John and Camille and Steve and Brenda were in the next building. We had everyone over for drinks and appetizers with the idea of heading out to dinner afterward. Neil and Lilly came over and we sat and talked with everyone and drank margaritas, wine and sodas and ate chips and dip. Our balcony overlooked the golf course and was next to the cemetery and the lighthouse in Pacific Grove. A baby deer and her Mom came over and were below our window. Darla threw them fruit and they enjoyed strawberries, plums and bananas. It got late and we decided to just order in pizza from Gianni's in Pacific Grove. It was excellent and we all enjoyed the relaxing evening.

 

Saturday, I got up early and met Steve and John for the drive up to the Carmel Valley and Quail Lodge golf course. We had breakfast first at the Wagon Wheel restaurant, a breakfast place that we discovered last year. It was unbelievably warm in the Carmel Valley on Saturday with highs reaching 88 degrees. We got there too early and practiced too much and it hurt us on a very difficult course. I pulled my first drive and actually lost my sunglasses when they slipped off the cart while I was trying to extract myself from under a bush. I am a wimp when it comes to sunshine and struggled the rest of the day with a high sun that was really hard on my eyes. I shot 46+46=92 and never really felt comfortable. I loved the course and the conditions, but the greens were lightning fast and I never adjusted to them. I played with Boyd, Steve and John. Steve played really well on the front, but struggled on the back side. He hit a shot that ricocheted off the side hill of the green and into the OB next to some homes. When I told him to hit another, that his ball rolled out of bounds, he had some choice words for me. He apologized, but the Lord had other things in mind for old Steve on the next hole.

 

 Steve hit his ball left into a drained water hazard. He asked me if he could play out of it if he could find his ball. He walked out on the lake bed and was looking through all of the 100s of balls embedded in the dirt when he started to sink. His left leg sunk down to his knee and he was able to turn his right leg and keep the weight off it so he didn't sink in with both legs. He called to me for help and I tried to get out to him, but the ground was soft and I couldn't make it to him. John found some PVC and was pulling it out of the ground to use to pull Steve out when it snapped back and hit him in the cheek. We were playing golf and devolved into a Keystone Kops episode. We finally talked Steve into crawling out on his hands and knees and he was able to extricate himself. He has bad feet and was wearing golf sandals that stayed on his feet when he yanked his foot out. Small solace as he ended up covered in dried mud and started to stink as the day wore on. He showered up when we finished and shot a 42+50=92. John shot 104, which put him in the money with his 28 handicap.

 

Saturday night we had the gang over for appetizers again and had some chicken mole and guacamole that was left over from the Silpada party that Darla had in Marina while I was off playing golf. Bob and Vicky Pando came over and had drinks with us and then we headed off to Vito's for dinner. Bob didn't play in the tournament this weekend because they have been remodeling their home in San Jose. We had a great night at Vitos and had a lot of laughs, some good food and even better wine. Bob got a call about 9:30 from Lifeline and his Mother, who is 93, had set off the alert. It was pretty tense for awhile, but we found out later that she had accidentally set off the alarm and was confused when the fire department showed up. Bob's daughters took care of the problem, but Bob and Vicki hurried home anyhow.

 

Sunday, we were up early and packed up the room and headed over to Toasties in Pacific Grove for their scrambles. They have excellent breakfasts and didn't disappoint.  From there I drove to the course with Neil, and Darla and Lilly were off to a day of sun and shopping. Sunday was nearly as warm early as Saturday, but some high thin clouds rolled in late in the day. I did play better and managed a 43+42=85 and took third net in the tournament. I think Pasadera was actually a more challenging course than Quail, but I managed the course better. Boyd shot 82 and played very well.

 

We met up with the girls after golf and the Country Club would not allow us to come inside and insisted we sit outside at tables and be waited on. There was NO ONE in the members lounge and the NFL games were on. I was offended as was Darla. Neil seemed to think it was their right to limit access as they were members, but somehow our money was good enough for them, but we were riff raff after we were finished. Most country clubs are really suffering and cater to the public to help supplement their income. I won't go back there and they are lucky to be in Monterey with old money, because the face of country clubs across the country are changing. 

 

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you all are doing well and I will log back in another week to purge my literary soul. Ciao.

 

 

Vegas, Baby!!

 

 

Back from Vegas and tired, but happy. Darla and I both saw a HUGE change in Samantha. With Jennifer moved back to Vegas, she is happy and confident and a joy to be with. We didn't expect her to stay with us, but she really wanted to stay at Circus Circus and spent both Friday and Saturday night at the casino. She went to bed early both nights and didn't argue about watching movies or wanting to stay up. We had a great trip with Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lil and Samantha, Jennifer and McKenny.

 

Jennifer got to Vegas on Friday morning and got moved into her new apartment with Samantha. It was a good thing for Jennifer that Samantha wanted to come and stay with us as it allowed her to get everything unpacked and the rest of the things moved from her other apartment.

 

We flew in on Friday morning and met up with Neil and Lilly at the casino and brought them over to the Polo Towers to see dad and Shirley. They had no idea that Neil and Lilly were coming and as we were greeting them in the lobby, Neil and Lilly walked up and Neil said, "Boy, the people you see when you don't have a gun." They were pretty surprised. We went up to their suite and visited for a bit and then headed over to New York, New York for lunch at Gonzalez, the Mexican restaurant. From there we went to the M&M World and Shirley bought Samantha her birthday and Christmas gifts, buying her a suitcase and a shirt, some silly straws and a stuffed monkey. Darla bought her an M&M blanket for her bed.

 

Friday night we had drinks at dad and Shirley's and then we drove over to Jennifer's new apartment and had pizza with them and visited with Sam. It was there that Samantha decided that she wanted to spend the night with us. We got back to the room early and let Sam watch a movie before going to bed about 8:30. About four in the morning, our neighbors came in loud and obnoxious. They were banging around and talking loud and we called security to come over and shut them up. That was just the start of the problems with these folks.

 

We woke up about 8 on Saturday and relaxed in the room for awhile. The neighbors got up about 10 AM and started smoking in a NO SMOKING room. We had an adjoining room and the smoke was pouring into our room from under the door. We called security again and they showed up and told the neighbors that they couldn't smoke (there is a $250 cleaning charge for smoking in a no-smoking room). We heard them behind the door say, "Well, we can't smoke in front of the guard, but what they don't know won't hurt us." Darla was furious and told the front desk that they needed to either move them or us. It didn't happen. we had the cleaning staff drop off a bottle of industrial strength air freshener and stuffed a towel under the adjoining door. We met Jennifer and McKenny, and Neil and Lilly at the Black Bear Diner on Tropicana after picking up Dad and Shirley. We had a great late breakfast and then spent the day with Samantha. We went to the Adventuredome, but only had her ride one ride and promised her a chance to go on Sunday.

 

We again had drinks with Dad and Shirley and Samantha got a chance to open her gifts and then we were off to Maggiano's and dinner on the strip. It was an enjoyable evening and a great dinner. From there, we walked across the street to the Wynn complex. Neil and Lilly were able to see the Wynn properties for the first time and we walked around to the waterfall and took a few pictures. From there, we had to get Sam home and to bed and with the Adventuredome waiting for us on Sunday, Samantha wanted to stay with us again.

 

About ten o'clock, Darla smelled smoke again and commented on it and Samantha said, "So, what are you going to do about it, Grandma?" She was egging Darla on, but I think the smell was just residual. As a matter of fact, I think they had moved out of the room.

 

We got up on Sunday and Darla and Samantha got into a big discussion about God and Jesus and why Grandma was reading the Bible and doing her devotions. Samantha took a bath and Darla and Samantha kept talking and Darla asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart and she prayed and became a Christian. It was very cute and she shared the news with her Mom later that day. Darla was really jazzed about the discussion and shared the news with all of her Facebook friends.

 

We went down to breakfast and had a really crabby waitress that wouldn't let Samantha have a pancake with her meal instead of toast. We ordered a separate pancake and paid the extra, taking part of it out of the waitress's tip. From there we headed up to the Adventuredome and Jennifer and McKenny joined us after a bit. We bought Sam's wristband and she went on three or four of the kiddie rides before Jennifer and McKenny showed up. Darla and I went up and relaxed in the room and watched some football.

 

We headed over to Dad and Shirley's for drinks and appetizers and watched the Sunday night game. Jennifer had to take McKenny to the airport and get Samantha home and ready for school on Monday. Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly joined us and went to Sam's Town for a late dinner and a little bit of gambling.

 

Monday we met Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly at Black Bear Diner for a late breakfast and then Neil headed out to Paso Robles. He and Lilly are taking a ride over to Monterey where we will meet them this weekend for golf. We went over to Dad and Shirley's place and visited with them all day. We went up to the pool and enjoyed the 90 degree day poolside. Jennifer and Samantha came over and we cleaned out Dad and Shirley's pantry and loaded up Jennifer's new one.

 

Sam got a little weird when it was time to say goodbye. I think Jennifer's time in California caused Samantha to have a real problem with goodbyes. Darla thinks she has always been a little weird about saying goodbye, but I think it got worse as they had a couple of hard and sad goodbyes over time.

 

Our plane was over an hour late getting out of Vegas and we didn't get home until after 12:30 and I was exhausted all day today. This is an important week as my CEO arrives on Thursday for a visit. I ran the third quarter numbers today and we are up almost 42% in premium for the year and 35% in income year to date. I am up over 14% on my budget numbers and on track to write over $22,700,000 this year and make over $1,250,000 in profit. It is a good time to have a visit from The Man. Many of our offices really struggled this last month as we had outages and computer problems, but my office finished up 35% on the month and 15% above budget.

 

Alan flies in on Net Jets at 9:30 and leaves at 5:00 PM. Darla and I are then off to Capitola that evening for the start of our golf trip. We play Pajaro in Watsonville on Friday and then  Quail lodge Country Club on Saturday and Pasadero Country Club in Carmel on Sunday.

 

The blog will be late next week as we won't get back until late on Sunday. I hope you are all well. we had a blast with everyone this past weekend, look forward to next weekend and still later our trip to Nuevo Vallarta in December. I hear a rumor that Darryl and Cheryl may join us. I'll believe it when I see it. Ciao.