Finally a nice stetch of comfortable weather

 

Back at it on a Sunday night. The Dallas Cowboys are messing up a perfectly harmless preseason game with horrendous play on special teams and offense. The defense looks really good and gives me hope for the coming year.

 

We had David and Daniel's cousin, Taylor, come and visit us on Saturday. I had golf and the family ended up going to see Luke play soccer and then off to Folsom Lake for the final weekend that boats are allowed to drive over 5 MPH as they begin to lower the lake level for Winter flood control.  I had our Invitational golf event and had Pete from the office as my guest. The other pictures are of our date Friday night which was dinner out to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary. I made a collage of the pictures taken at our table. Darla is standing and I'm sitting because she is in her 50's and I'm 61. The last picture is a shot I got of Samson relaxing on the couch with his head on the arm of the sofa.

 

Darla and I went to dinner Friday night to celebrate our anniversary which was actually Thursday night, but I had the next to last week of my golf twilight league that night. I got off a little bit early on Friday and we headed out to Lincoln and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. We enjoyed a split plate of Gnocchi and Chicken Saltimbocca. They had a small group playing at the restaurant and it was a pleasant night.

 

Pete and I played together on Saturday. He had taken his clubs in to be re-gripped during the week. He planned to pick them up on Saturday morning. Now, a bit of ancient history. I had ordered a new driver about two years ago and when it came in, Pete accepted it from UPS, took it into his office and removed the driver and left just the packing material and the head cover in the box and he resealed it and brought it to my office. Funny guy. I opened the box and had a fit. Meanwhile, Pete went back to his office and back to work. I called the shop that sent me the club and UPS and raised holy h*ll. I put a claim in with UPS and fumed. Pete came back in about fifteen minutes later with the club and was quite amused with himself. I was less so. I called UPS and told them "good news and bad news". The good news was the club had been found, the bad news was the idiot that hid it had been fired. I filed that one and prepared for payback some time in the future.

 

My chance came this week. I played Thursday night and talked to the guys in the shop and took possession of Pete's driver. I met him early Saturday as we were meeting our agent Ron and his partner for breakfast. Pete went into the pro shop to get his clubs and I followed with him. The guys working had no idea that I had the driver and it turns out that one of the guys was the guy who had actually re-gripped his clubs. He got the irons and handed them over. Pete looked at them and said, "I had a driver as well." The guy looked all over and headed into the back office. I followed him and clued him in on what was going on. He asked if I wanted him to "mess" with Pete. Oh yeah. He came out and said that somehow the driver had been sold. Pete got a little exercised and said,"Well, you guys owe me a driver." I said actually they owe you whatever they got for the driver. Mike played right along and said, "Yeah, we sold it for $17.50." I almost died laughing at the look on Pete's face. He started to complain and I stopped him and reminded him of his little stunt in the office and let him know I had his club. It went off better than I could have planned.

 

Pete is a 19 handicap and we had a 17 team handicap. We played well and shot a 76, net 59 and felt pretty good about ourselves until we got in and saw the 51, two 54s and a 56 on the score sheet. The event was a lot of fun and they had some contest holes. On one of them, it was a 115 yard par three and you had to roll dice to see what club you had to play with. You had to play that club all the way through the hole, including putting. I ended up with a 6 iron and hit a sawed off swing and the ball hit about 40 yards short of the green and rolled up to 3 feet 6 inches away. Someone came in behind me at 3 feet 4 inches. The 18th hole had a collection of persimmon drivers and if you used one to tee off with, you got a free hit. Those old drivers don't fly well and we ended up about 255 yards from the green on a par 4. Because we laid zero, we managed to get on the green in 2 and got our 4. It was fun, but we didn't win anything. I had a great time with Pete and Ron.

 

We got called this week and will get our new sliders installed on Labor Day. They have crews working and they will be here early and tear out the old sliders and put in new ones. They will do everything except the finish on the exterior as the city inspector has to come out and look at the weatherization and sign off on that Tuesday. They will be back on Wednesday to finish the job. I also got a quote from Chad on our other windows and he will be by on Monday to get the contract signed and order those windows. Hopefully he can have that completed before Dad and Shirley come as well.

 

I bought Darla a new laptop as hers was on the fritz and we went big and got her a nice MacBook Pro by Apple. Now she has an iPhone, an iPad, and the Mac book and they all talk to each other and share files and pictures, etc. It is a really nice addition to her work equipment.

 

I will call a halt to this as it is halftime and there are hamburgers to grill. I hope all are well and I will be back at this on Labor Day next week as it is a holiday and I want to get some pictures of the slider work. Have a great week. Ciao.

 

FINALLY..some cooling coming our way

 

 

At it again on a Monday night. Darla is off picking up some tortilla chips to go with our taco soup tonight.

 

The pictures. The top two are of Samantha's new pup, Bootsy. Jennifer and McKenny went out to the SPCA over the weekend and found this little Border Collie that was underweight and somewhat malnourished. They brought Maceo with them and the shelter workers remarked that Maceo hasn't missed any meals. I think that might have helped them get the dog. She is only 3 months old and they are in for the puppy experience, both good and bad. The next four pictures are from Saturday night at Jesse's Grove winery where Darla set up as a vendor during the concert. The bands were both good, Cripple Creek and Whiskey Dawn. The 4th picture in the series shows Darla, Alicia, Shawna and Connie. All three women work for me and Alicia is now working for Darla as well in her jewelry business. Shawna is her Mom. Connie's husband, Kip, makes wine stoppers and Darla invited him along as a vendor. He had a very SLOW night as most of the people who stopped and looked at his stoppers made the same comment, that they don't have any wine left over when they drink and have no need for a stopper. Darla had a great night with about $1300 in sales and felt for Kip and bought 5 of his wine stoppers for $100. He had them priced at $25 each and you got a discount the more you bought. The vendor next to us saw us buying and came over and bought three of the stoppers themselves and that turned out to be the sum total of Kip's sales. The last two pictures are of Samson in a pencil drawing and one of Samson fast asleep on Darla and Darla not far behind him.

 

We stayed until just about the end of the concert and ducked out right as Whiskey Dawn was doing their encore. It was a nice night with a slight breeze and temperatures that started out at 100 degrees and ended up about 75 degrees by 9:45. You can see the top picture of the booth and how crowded it gets. It is the reason that Darla needs someone like Alicia to help her with sales.

 

I played golf Sunday with Darla's business coach. I met him here when he was working with Darla. She had the great idea that he work with me and that I could start a consulting business and continue to work after I retire. Uh, no. I will have worked for 49 straight years when I retire and I think I've earned the rest. He had said that he was an active member at Morgan Creek, which is a high end country club here in Roseville that was very poorly run on the golf side and eventually sold to a local golf investor that opened the course to the public and basically killed the members who paid upwards of $20,000 to buy into the club. He quit the club and is understandably unhappy. He says that he was a 7 handicap when he played there and is up to a 9. We went up to Darkhorse Golf Club up in Auburn. Darkhorse is a tough venue, but also very pretty in the foothills. There is a lot of elevation change and the views are very nice.

 

John, who is Darla's coach struggled on the tough track and shot 98. Paul shot 89, I managed a 92 and our fourth (a friend of John's) shot 112. We played a game o 6-6-6 where we switch partners every 6 holes and all end up playing on the same team. We bet $5 each 6 holes and I ended up winning all three segments and the other guys all owed me $5, so I took $15. I feel like I regressed a little on my game this week, but the slope is 132 at Darkhorse and it is 6,500 yards. Our course is 119 and 6,100 yards. A little different.

 

I had our neighborhood friend, Chad, over last Thursday and he measured for windows. We are having Anderson put in our sliders and I want Chad, who is a licensed contractor, to replace 7 windows on the back side of the house. We are looking at Pella windows. I should have a price this week. We won't get the work done before Dad and Shirley get here , but I'm looking forward to seeing the result. I may move the barbecue that sits right outside the bay windows. Right now the large middle window is a sliding window with a screen. We are changing that out to a large picture window that will overlook the pool.

 

This weekend is our Invitational and I have Pete coming out to play with me in the two man scramble. John wants to join the club and another guy in my office. You can join the week of the Invitational for the renewal rate AND you will get the rest of this year plus all of next year. It's a good deal. Pete and I will play with my twilight partner (and Pete's agent) Ron and his partner.

 

That will do it for another week. I think that Taylor will be in town this weekend to visit the boys and will be over swimming with us. I'll get pictures and be back at this next weekend. I hope everyone is great. Ciao.

 

 



No Pictures this week, just words

 

So back at it a day late and, as the title reads, no pictures.

 

It was a busy weekend with poker on Friday night and golf on Saturday. With the tournament on Saturday morning I brought just iced tea to drink at the game. It was one of those poker runs, where I couldn't catch a cold. I got there at 7 PM and we played until 8:45 and then broke for dinner. I had not won a single hand in the 105 minutes that I played. I was down about $50 and not feeling too good about cards. I brought about $90 in quarters and was ready to make it an early night. We had some chili with Fritos and sour cream, diced onions and cheddar cheese. It was good and my luck started to change. I won the second hand when we returned to cards. My luck was better, but not great on the second half of cards and I ended up losing about $35 on the night. The poker is really secondary. I always want to win, but the chance to visit with these men and share our lives is what is the best part of our poker nights. Steve wouldn't agree and he's ALL about the cards, but we truly enjoy the laughs.

 

I played at 9:05 on Saturday morning and the guy that I was playing is not a regular golfer in the club. He makes sure that he gets his five play dates a year and then he qualifies for the club championship. With the regular golfers we have a better idea if they are manipulating their handicap. This guy may not be, but he hits the ball a mile off the tee. He is a blue tee golfer and was regularly hitting the ball past my drives from the white tees. I decide to just play my game and let the chips fall where they landed. I actually beat him on the front nine and was 1 up after 9. I shot 40 to his 41. On the back nine, he really heated up and had a stretch on 10-14 where he went par-bogey-par-birdie-birdie. I went bogey, bogey, double bogey-bogey-par to fall three down with four to play. I was pretty down and he was one under on the back to my +5. I was able to make a game of it and hit my next drive on the par three to 8 feet (closest to the pin on the day) and parred the hole to get back to two down. I parred the par five 16th to match him and end up dormie in the match. I finished par-bogey to his bogey-bogey and tied him at all square after 18 (I had q stroke on 18).. It was a fierce come back and I think I used up all of my mojo. Both Paul and Ron, who had won their matches earlier,  jumped in a cart and followed me in the playoff and Steve, who I had ridden with on the day, lost on 18, but decided to ride along as well. He hit first and had a soaring drive that hit the trees on the left side of the fairway. I hit a good drive that was about 125 yards in. We got up and helped him look for his ball in the trees and couldn't find it. I looked out in the fairway and there it was about 80 yards from the green. Nothing like a little good luck in a playoff, eh? I managed to smother my wedge shot and left it short of the green in a divot. He hit a beautiful shot hat landed about three feet from the hole and stopped dead. I had to put my chip close and hope he missed his put. Unfortunately, the lie was awful and I skulled the ball across the green. I chipped to about 12 feet and made the putt for five. He got up and knocked in the three footer for the win.

 

I shook hands with him and he said, "I beat you two up". Uh, no, he beat me after 19, 1 up. He said I had 3 and you had 5. Yep. He was a little confused on the concept, but it showed him winning after 19 in the posted results. I shot 83 and 82 in the tournament and although I had a few putts I'd like to have back, I really couldn't have played much better. My net scores for the two days were 66 and 65. Unfortunately, he shot an 80, net 65 as well on Saturday. I hated missing the final on Saturday, but David (who beat me) went on to win our flight, so it was all good. That couple of weeks that I took off while Sam was here really helped to refocus me and I have slowed down my swing and I'm really working on my tempo and it is working. I'm trending to a 15.4 golf index and am down from a high of 19.1 in May. That was when it was a real struggle for me. Now it seems to be coming a lot easier and I'm much more confident.

 

We had Darla's parents over on Sunday for a barbecue dinner. We had planned to swim and relax, but got into a serious conversation about life and family and we never made it out of the family room. I finally got up and got the hamburgers on the grill and Darla served the potato salad. We didn't get the cell phones out and take pictures as the conversation was so intense. We talked about church and their new pastor and our new pastor and it was a nice family time.

 

 I had put the water on in the pool to top it off and forgot about it (always set a timer). The water is right at the top of the tile line and just short of the overflow pipe. I doubled down on my mistake when I turned on the front sprinklers when we got back from the park with Sam and remembered right before I went to bed and the water was pouring down the street. It was a big oops night.

 

Darla has finished up her painting in the kitchen and I put up new curtain rods and curtains on the windows. We have one of the windows that has an air lock leak and is cloudy that I need to get fixed. I had planned on the guy here in the neighborhood doing the work, but he hasn't called me back. I'd like to get those done soon as we will get the sliders in later this month.

 

Well, this is short, but I am short on news. Samantha started fifth grade today. Can you believe that? The girl is growing up fast. Have good week and I'll return for more next week. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 



Smoky California

 

 

Back at it on a Sunday night. I'm a little tired from golf today, but it is a good thing as the numbers added up for me.

 

The pictures. Willie from last Sunday night. He is really starting to slow down and has been sick of late. He only played about an hour and 10 minutes and waived goodnight and was gone. No encore or anything. The second picture is Darla and I at the concert. The next three are from our dinner out Friday night with Vance and Terralee, friends from church. They had called and asked us to join them for dinner. It turns out they were not only out celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, but it was actually their 50th on Friday. We met them through a bible study and have remained friends for about 10 years. They are in the process of selling their house and moving back to Oregon where their kids and grand kids live. We were honored to have been chosen to join them on Friday night. The final picture gives you a view of what we have been dealing with for weeks now. The wildfires in California have trapped the smoke and it is being pushed back and forth by the air currents. Some days we have sun and clear nights and others ash and a blotted out sun.

 

Darla and I went to her jewelry gig last night at the winery in Lodi and the winds came up in the afternoon and blew all of the smoke to the north. It was a beautiful night with a light breeze and the temperatures dropped into the mid seventies by 9:00 PM. On the drive home north on Interstate 5 you could see a defined line of smoke across the northern valley. I know that our discomfort with the fires which are ash and respiratory issues are small compared to the impact of lost homes and livelihoods for people in the line of the fires. The Carr fire which spreads from Shasta County all the way to Mendocino county is now the 3rd largest fire ever in California. It has been burning for 2 weeks and is only 17% contained. There are four other major fires burning in the state and the fire in the central valley actually closed Yosemite for a week which is unprecedented.

 

It was smoky today and we did have a bit of a breeze, but it was hot and I was suffering in the smoke. My game was very good and I shot 40+42=82 to beat my opponent 3 and 2 in the match play event. I took a three up lead with three to play and then pulled my drive left into a canal that is red staked, so a hazard. I had to take a drop and then play my third to about 160 yards on the par five. I was able to get the ball on the green in four and then sank a 30 foot putt for par to tie him on the hole and win the match three up with 2 holes to play. Fun stuff.  I play David, who beat his opponent 2 and 1 today and shot an 81, on Saturday and if I win, play the winner of another match that will play in our foursome for the championship in our flight. I had two birdies in today's match.

 

My game is coming around and I played well on Thursday night in league. We played Charlie's team. Charlie has been in Colorado on a family emergency and his partner sent me a note and told me that he had a 2 handicap subbing for him. As it turned out, my partner Ron was on a business trip to LA and I needed a sub. I talked to Rico who I play with a lot and he agreed to sub Thursday night. Rico is a 4. It was fun watching those guys go at it that night. David (Charlie's sub) had a stretch of three straight birdies and put us behind and then Rico hit the par 5 6th in two and made the putt for eagle and then had two birdies down the stretch to shoot 34. David shot 36 and I shot 40. Joe, Charlie's partner, shot 44 and watched us beat them. It was fun to watch two really good golfers at their best that night, Rico really enjoyed himself and wants to play in the league next year.

 

Darla has been on a buying binge and creative binge lately. She has painted the kitchen hutch purple and now is painting the kitchen dinette area with bay windows a turquoise green color. When her creative streak comes out I just stay out of the way. Her colors are wild, but generally look pretty good when all is said and done. We have the new sliders being installed later this month and she is planning on putting in new window treatments on the windows in the bedroom and in the living room and kitchen dining area.

 

I edited the picture to take out the pile of stuff sitting on the table as the job is still being worked on. She also bought some rattan sofas for the outside area. It looks nice.

 

 

I redid the sealant on the stamped concrete this weekend and it looks shiny and fresh.

 

 

Work continues to shine. Our numbers look really solid after the first three days and new business needs to stay strong. It's hard to grow right now in personal lines because of the fires. We cannot bind coverage on an new home if it is within 30 miles of an active fire. There are so many fires that it is having an effect on our business. I suppose business that might otherwise be moved is renewing with us, because insurance law does not allow you to get off an account that is currently within 20 miles of an active fire, so we are keeping those accounts.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think we will be attending any more Willie Nelson concerts. His voice was particularly weak during the concert and he had been sick and the fires were really bad up in the Reno area. The city was socked in with smoke while we were there. Alison Krause was excellent and we really enjoyed her set. She came out to sing "Will the Circle be Unbroken", which is a great Old Opry favorite by the Carter family, with Willie. It was a lot like going to church there for a bit. Very enjoyable.

 

I will wrap this up for the week and I will be back next Sunday to let you know how I fare in the Club Championship event. Be well. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 



Off to Reno for the Willie Nelson Concert

 

Just a really quick update this week as Darla and I are off to Reno to see probably our last Willie Nelson concert. He is 85 years old and still going strong, but he is 85 years old and has subsisted on a daily regimen of pot and booze for about 30 years. I'd think that he will be retiring from touring soon. His latest albums have songs like: "Last Man Standing" and "He Won't Ever Be Gone" and "Still Not Dead" with heavy emphasis on the number of his friends and contemporaries that have passed on. "He Won't Ever be Dead" is a tribute to Merle Haggard, who was a very close find of Willie's. The lyrics to Last Man Standing, read "I don't want to be the last man standing..oh, wait a minute maybe I do." and is about the number of his friends in country music who have passed away. He is a realist and knows that his time left is short. He s an immense talent and really not a shell of the former artist. He plays without a set list and his band goes with his lead. He is playing with his sister and his son, Lukas, who sounds just like his Dad. His sister is a piano player and actually is a year older than Willie. It will be fun. We are staying at the Grand Sierra in Reno and the concert is in their concert hall.

 

Darla had to rush off this morning to get her jewelry set up in Lodi for the annual Italian Festival. It is one of her biggest events of the year and she has a couple of her team members running the show. She left at 7 to get things set up and she is SUPPOSED to be home at 1 so we can get on the road to Reno. The concert is at 8 PM tonight and I want to be there on time because I really like the opener, Allison Krause who is a musician, songwriter and vocalist. She plays the piano, violin and mandolin and is very talented. You might know her from her songs, "When you say nothing at all" and "Lucky One". One of my favorites of hers is "Down to the River to Pray".  We had hoped to get into Reno a bit early and hit the pool after a 2 hour drive up the mountain. You'd think we are getting out of the heat by heading up to Reno. We've had seven straight days now of over 100 degrees and this heat wave will finally break on Monday as that is our last day forecast of 100 degrees. We will cool down to 96-97-98 the rest of the week. Reno is also seeing a heat wave and setting records with temperatures over 100, Today is forecast at 102 and tomorrow 100. The heat is on in our neck of the woods.

 

Anyone who follows me on Facebook knows the Samson story of this week where Darla woke me up on Wednesday morning at 4 AM and said we had an intruder in the house. There were loud voices coming from the family room and I crept down the hall and quickly realized that the TV was on. We had shut it off the night before. I turned on the light and was looking for the remote to turn off the cable when the channel suddenly changed to ESPN and the sound shot up a few more decibels. I could not find the remote and returned to our room to see Samson on his bed chewing on the remote. That dog will put ANYTHING into his mouth and is the reason he had the THC poisoning in LA. If I don't watch him in the backyard he is up in the Palm garden above the pool trimming back the plants. The Sego palms are toxic to dogs so I have to be diligent to keep him out of those. He is also a water dog and wades into the pool when ever we let him out to pee. I've got into the habit of going out with him and guarding the steps to the pool. It is quicker than having to take the time to dry him off. The vet also told us to rinse him after he's been in the pool because the chemicals are not good for his skin. He is a handful.

 

The pictures? The top three are of the golf tournament we played in this weekend. There was a 24 man (12 team) playoff horse race and the picture is of the gang on the first tee waiting for the playoff to start. The last two pictures are of Samson meeting Koa for the first time. This is Michelle and Jeremy's new dog. Jordan is thrilled. They said that they went to the SPCA to get a cat and ended up with the Husky mix. He has bizarre greyish/blue eyes and looks a little like a wolf.

 

Paul and I won our flight in the 4 ball event at Woodcreek this weekend. We shot a 60, which was one shot off of the low round for the day. We actually tied another team in our flight for first. It was a unique tournament in that we played the round in the morning and then had lunch. After lunch they sent out the 12 low teams (four from each flight) to play in a horse race. The horse race is a 4 hole event where they eliminate 4 teams on the first hole, three teams after the second hole and 2 teams after the third hole. The final three teams play for first second and third, or Win, Place and Show. Paul and I played really well and made it into the final hole, but I sprayed our drive left and he had to hit a recovery into the fairway. I then yanked the third shot right almost into the driving range. Paul was able to hit a shot short of the bunker and we laid 4 right next to one of the other teams who was also lying 4. They hit first and knocked one into said bunker. I played a 40 yard chip shot to about 20 feet of the pin and Paul missed the putt. We ended up with a 7 on the par 5 and the other team had 8. The winners had a nice 5 and just watched us hashing around on the final hole. Paul saved us on number 2 when I hit a drive that went a little left and clipped a tree and left us about 150 yards to the green. The green is over water and Paul had to hit a shot that stayed low to get under some tree branches and then jump up over a tree, over the water and onto the green. He put it about thirty feet for birdie and we made the par. It was a fun day.

 

Work is going well and we should hit our budget numbers this month. My two newer underwriters are a little slow out of the gate, but Renee had a huge month and is keeping us in the game. She is about 40% over budget for the month. Pete is off on a two week Alaskan cruise and his team is keeping the ship afloat while he is gone. We continue to interview for a new team member for Pete and Harvey is being really picky about who we get. We sent him a couple of what we thought were excellent candidates and he turned them down because they scored too low on the numerical reasoning test. He turned one millennial down because she said she uses a calculator to figure a tip at a restaurant. Millenials use their smart phones for EVERYTHING.

 

That will do it for this week. Next weekend is the start of the Club Championship and I will play the first round on Sunday. I'm not overly confident. I shot 87 on Saturday with a 41+ 46 at Woodcreek. I had a good front nine and helped us to a 29, but a lot of fits and starts on the back. Interestingly the tournament was an 8:30 Shotgun and we started on number 12, so the front was the back and vice versa (sort of). I'll be back at the keyboard next Sunday night. Ciao.

Darla is in Colorado for Opulenza

I am The Bachelor for the weekend and will pick Darla up at 9:30 tonight. Why she got such a late return flight is beyond me. They actually tried to catch the 3:00 PM flight, but the cost difference was $120 per ticket.

 

The pictures. The first is Darla from Awards Night at conference last night. She got an award for Rookie Recruiter of the Year and Recruiter of the Year. She has been with the company about two months and already has over 20 reps on her team. I said it last time, if the company was smart, they would hire Darla as an employee and fly her around the company and teach the other reps how to recruit. Not everyone can recruit like she can. She met someone on the beach at Santa Monica last week from Fresno and signed her up. She will drive down to Fresno to help her put on her first party. You have to have the gift of talking to people and making them see your genuineness and not just a killer sales attitude. Nothing turns someone off more than a pushy sales person. The next three shots are of the continued work that Darla is doing in the backyard with plants. The middle of the three pictures is an area that I had planted grass, but our crazy dog prefers using the artificial turf. It's funny, because he LOVE LOVE LOVES the park across the street and rubs himself all over the grass like he's never seen grass before. He just didn't like my little patch of grass and it was a pain to keep up as I had to mow it with a weedwacker because the area was too awkward for the mower. The next shot is of Mr and Mrs Corbin, a shot that McKenny took at the beach in Venice on their first night there. The next two are from poker Friday night and the guys. Scott (the guy in the second picture with the hat) and I have been playing in a poker game since 1983 when I was in Fresno, CA. We worked together at the Hartford and started up a game. I moved back to Sacramento and Scott moved about a month later and we hooked up and started playing again in Sacramento. The game has been going non stop since then and Scott and I are the only original members. Players have come and gone across the years and the current iteration of players have been together for probably about ten years. The final picture is an oil painting on black denim of Willie Nelson that was in the home in Venice.

 

Darla took off Thursday afternoon for her Opulenza conference in Denver. Becky drove them to the airport in Darla's car and then Becky and Daniel returned the car Thursday night. Darla is working with one of the girls in my office. She is actually the daughter of my Operations Manager and is a high functioning autistic. She has worked for me for about six year and still will not make eye contact with me or engage me in conversation if I pass her in the hall. She works on insurance filings and is content to keep her head down and work and I have no problem with that. Darla has always like Alicia and needed help with her business in setting up and tearing down the displays and hired Alicia to help her. Alicia really likes Darla and decided to go to conference with her. Darla has a huge heart for people with disabilities and I think is enjoying working with Alicia. There are certainly some highs and lows in the actual flow of the work relationship, but Darla has a ton of patience and works through issues that Alicia has and there have been several. Darla also hired two young women from Egypt who are working with her in her jewelry business. She has also hired them to help her organize her office and clean the house. They worked on the house when we were in Venice Beach and did an incredible job. They came in twice this weekend and worked on Darla's office and the main guest room, cleaning up and sorting through stacks of Darla's jewelry and invoices. Both rooms are spotless now and I know Darla won't know what to do with that as she doesn't live a spotless life. I cleaned her car before we took the trip to So Cal and found over 20 items of makeup in the car. I cleaned up catalogues and all sort of things (floss sticks, gum wrappers, an old package of Ritz Crackers) from under the seats. She basically lives in her car during the week doing her jewelry business and her two social work jobs.  We'll see if it stays nice. If not, they are a call away. I think she plans to have them clean the house once  month.

 

I'm not sure if I reported that Daniel has secured a job with the City of Roseville in the Public Works Department as a civil engineer. The job is a really good get for him as Roseville is pretty cash rich because of a huge regional shopping mall and a large Auto Mall that pump taxes into the city coffers. He will get a chance to work on a lot of the Public Works projects like bridges and dams as well as infrastructure for the city. He has bought a home here in Roseville and now has a job here, so we will be able to see our grandkids by jumping in the car and driving over there once they start having children. I know Becky wants about 4 children. We'll see. I do wish that Jennifer and McKenny lived closer, but it is what it is.

 

Darla and I are finally starting our home project for the year. We have done the master bathroom, the kitchen cabinets and family room furniture over the past three years. This year we will change out the two sliders in the back of the house and all of the windows in the back as well. We had the front windows done about eight years ago. I have a guy from Anderson Windows coming out tomorrow night, but I just plan on getting a price estimate. There is a general contractor in our neighborhood that has worked with John and who I have played golf with who will do the job. I just want to get pricing. I want to put in the glass sliding doors that have built in blinds between the glass. They are made by Pella and Anderson doesn't even offer that. The only window that I will put in as a slider will be in the main guest room. The other windows will all be solid windows. The seal is better on them and we never open the sliding windows in the breakfast nook or our master bedroom as we open the sliding glass doors if we want fresh air. Those sliding windows are behind shutters and not used. We meet wit the guy tomorrow night and then I'll call Chad to do the work.

 

 I did play poker Friday night and had a so so game, losing big early and making a comeback late. I ended losing about $35, which wasn't bad. It was great to get together with the guys. We were supposed to get together last month and John's Dad passed away, so the game was cancelled. Next month we will be at John's new house for poker.

 

Saturday I ended up playing golf. I had planned to continue my hiatus, but looked at the calendar and realized that the Club Championship starts on August 5th and I have to get geared up for that. I was at our golf meeting Thursday night and Paul talked me into signing up for the Skins Game Saturday. I did, but they only had seven guys signed up and ended up cancelling it on Friday. I took one of the tee times and got Bryan, Rico and Paul to come out and play a $20 game. The pro was very apologetic about postponing the event and offered to buy us lunch. We did not argue. We teed off at 9:30 and were off the course by 2. I won $30 of the $80 pot and also had a free lunch, so it was a good day for me. I am also signed up to play in the Day on the Oaks event on Tuesday and will host one of my agents to that event Tuesday morning. Paul also talked me into playing in a two man best ball event next Saturday at Woodcreek and that combined with our Thursday night league, I'll end up playing 4 times in 8 days. So much for taking time off from golf. I shot a good/bad 45+41=86 on Saturday.

 

I continue to work on the pool and getting it looking pristine. The algae has been a chore, but I think I've finally beat that. The pool water is so clear and soft and the walls are finally algae free. I bought some 5-in-one tablets that I will use going forward that have chlorine, algaecide, descaler, clarifier and rust inhibitor all in one. Pete swears by them. I also ordered some more Hypo chloride for shocking the pool and two quarts of Pool Perfect which removes phosphates from the water. It's a lot of work having a backyard oasis, but oh so worth it.

 

Darla just texted me and her flight is taking off a little late. I will pick her up about 9:45 and then come home and go right to bed. Too bad we don't get an evening together, but...

 

That is it for this week. Samson is doing great and has no ill effects from his cannabis poisoning. It was a scary event and I'm just glad we have pet insurance. He was a little hungry after the first night and I guess it was the "munchies". I hope everyone is doing great and we will talk to you all soon. Ciao.

Venice Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at it after a fun, exhausting, traumatic and overall GREAT trip with the Corbins of Las Vegas.

I will get to the pictures to give them context. The first five pictures are from Sam's Camp and involve some of the activities that they were going through, including making donuts (I wish I'd been there that day). The next four are from our outing to the AAA River Cats game. They are the farm team for the SF Giants and actually were once located in Vancouver, BC. You can see the girls on camera in one of the shots and they actually made it on the Jumbotron. The next two are of Sam at pizza the night I took her to the movies. We went and saw Jurassic Park, the Lost World and at one point I was looking a little concerned when the dinosaur was devouring one of the poachers and Sam leaned over and asked if I was scared. I told her no and she said, "I'm right here, Papa." The picture of her hiding behind the pink cup was an ongoing issue where she wouldn't let me take pictures of her. The next shot was of Sam and Sam in the backseat on our drive down to Southern California. The next four were from our dinner at Killer Shrimp in Marina Del Rey. Killer Shrimp is located on the water in Marina Del Rey and boaters can tie up to the dock and come in and eat. The owner is a former studio musician who played with the Doors, Sopwith Camel, Jefferson Airplane and others. The furnishings include pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Percy Sledge, Jimmy Hendrix and others. We had fun and it was good food. The next seven pictures are from our Sunday visit to Santa Monica Beach and the Santa Monica Pier and Boardwalk. You can see how crowded it was when we left at about 2 PM. The picture of Sam and Jennifer was from a ride that they were on. The final six photos are from Sunday at the condo and when we were saying goodbye to Jennifer, McKenny and Sam.

 

The trip overall was good, but it ended on a sour note when Samson got sick. He was shaky and couldn't walk and looked to be seizing. Darla rushed him to the Emergency Animal hospital and they did tests and determined that he had THC poisoning. The only thing that we can determine is that there is a Buddha statue on the front porch and he is holding an ashtray and there were marijuana buds in the ashtray in the morning that were gone Sunday night. We can assume that Samson who eats everything, got into the buds and got himself sick. It was scary watching him stumble around and we had no idea what was wrong. Darla was really upset with the home owner, but I'm not sure where the cigarette came from. It was either not cleaned up by the cleaners or it showed up after we arrived. Jennifer and McKenny swear they had nothing to do with it. It was really concerning and the doctor said that this type of poisoning is on the rise as cannabis becomes legal across the country.

 

We did visit Santa Monica early on Sunday morning after getting a very late start on Saturday and getting stuck in traffic. We were back and forth in traffic for about an hour and finally gave up. We decided to hit the beach at 9 AM on Sunday and were among the first to arrive. We were at the beach until about 11 and then went up on the boardwalk and checked out the rides and games and saw Darla on the beach from the binoculars at the tip of the pier. We had a great day and you can see the pictures above of Sam playing in the surf and on the beach.

 

Samson had quite a trip as he got so excited when we first got there that he got his leash wrapped around a palm plant and snapped it at the stem. He jumped all over Jen and McKenny and when we put him in the courtyard to settle down, he slipped and fell in the koi pond and broke the water feature that aspirates the pond water. We were up late Friday night visiting and up late Saturday morning. We went to the Garden store to buy the replacement plant and the parts for the water feature. By then it was too late and we got stuck in traffic. We ended up having an early dinner at Killer Shrimp and then hanging out at Mother's Beach in Marina Del Rey.

 

We did take a drive into Venice Beach to see the canals, but it was so packed with people that we just ended up driving over them and seeing the homes along the canals. We had planned to walk the dogs along the canals. There are about five square blocks of canals left from Abbott Kinney's original design of about a mile square. Most of the canals were filled in for roads and infrastructure, but these original canals built in 1905 are still there as history.

 

The home that we ended up in is a three bedroom two bathroom home that must go for close to $2 million. It was remodeled into a duplex and the upper part of the home was added on and is a 1/2 address. The main building is 825 and the upstairs 3 bedroom is 825 1/2 and accessed in the rear alley. The home was very eclectic with paintings and art work throughout the home. The bedroom that Jennifer and McKenny stayed in was off the front door and was two steps down. They had a sitting area and a separate bed area. Our master bedroom was spacious and had both a Jacuzzi tub and a separate shower in the on suite. There was also a large walk in closet and French doors leading to the enclosed patio and barbecue area. The kitchen also had French doors that accessed the same area.

 

We really enjoyed our time with the kids and we had a lot of good talks and fun times. Sam was a joy visiting with us and we look forward to her return next year as well. She is growing into a wonderful young girl and is very sweet and fun. She did her chores all week and got paid an allowance.  

 Part of her allowance was paid for her to get up early every day without issue and she lived that all week. She even got up after the concert and was tired, but did not complain. It was quite a week for her with the concert, camp, the movie, playing with Jordan in the pool every day and the baseball game. The week was topped off with our visit to Venice Beach and the weather was mid seventies, which was heaven for the Corbins' who left 108 degrees in Vegas. We topped out at over 100 and we are in the third day of a five day plus 100 degree stretch here in Nor Cal.

 

I am on a three week hiatus from golf and will not play again until a week from this weekend. I just needed to get away from it and try to rediscover some of the joy that the game brings me. It has been a chore of late.

 

I will bring this to a close and grab a late dinner. Darla is at a jewelry meeting/dinner with her reps and I was working on the pool. We got home late yesterday as we decided to drive home overnight and left Venice Beach at 10 PM and got home about 4 AM. I got a haircut and bought a new vacuum for the pool and some algaecide. I applied it and vacuumed the pool and decided to clean out the filters again tonight after work as the algae gets trapped in them.

 

 I finally started this about 7:30 and it is almost nine now and I forgot to eat dinner or feed Samson, He is thankfully back to normal after a $323 vet bill. I'll be back at this over the weekend. Ciao.