Month: November 2017

I am in the parking lot of the gym. I am hoping Denise shows up. She may already be here, I have not checked. Their wi fi does not work. Not sure how she plans to download to my phone. She claims my workout plans will be sent that way. Will see.

Have no appointments on the books. Have already received my first work request via text early thia am.

Made it to workout ten minutes early. Denise, my coach, was already there. She was acceptably humble in consideration of missing my appointment yesterday. I gave her a light ration of crap for it, every few minutes. Lol. She is able to take a joke. We had fun with my first wirkout and she seems a very able coach with a rather gentle touch to what she is doing. I am not working out again till Monday. She is going to download workouts once they have their wi fi fixed. So for now, I do a generic weight machine workout.

Heading home to SSS. Then off to work. Just set a 430 appointment so now I have a reason to be there.

Quick job with the morning ablutions and off to work. Quick trip with mothing crazy. Yesterday I saw four accidents on the roads. Yikes.

So I worked all day. The big question, what dis I do all day? I can remember nothing. I know I called the yurt company in Oregon. I wanted to go and see their demos. Looks like a quick trip to Oregon on Sunday. I also had a 15 minute call with a house designer for the Auburn house. But the other four hours leading up to my 430 appointment are a total blank. Maybe I should just stay home. It seems I can only remember the important or interesting things that happen. The yurt quest is incredibly important if I want a place to live next year. I want to get the yurt in place so I can start purtingbit up as time permits. Same thing goes for designers and architects. Their services are needed just not as immediate a need.

My last duty for today was my appointment at 430. I had a couple come in to discuss reducing or eliminating their income tax burden. Both are possible. My associate Hal and I double teamed them to help them understand their options. They would be very well served by a defined benefit plan. We also discussed other options as well that will be a good option for them when they start making more money.

While I was talking to them I received a few texts from buddy Bob. He and his girl friend were at a local reataurant not far from my office. They invited me and Emily to have dinner and a bottle of wine with them. Emily was in yoga class in Vacaville and not done till 715. She did not want to drive all the way Sacramento. So after I had a glass of wine with my friends I went home and had dinner with Emily. I picked up some middle eastern food on the way to the house. It was 830 when i finally got home. We wolfed down dinner.

We watched a little TV after dinner and went to bed.

Woke up early today. Ready for my 8am appointment at the gym I just joined on Tuesday.

I managed to get everything done by 730 without hurrying. Surprised even myself. Anyhow, I am ready to get moving on this. Finally. I left the house by 745 which left me a leisurely drive to the gym. I arrived at 759, one minute early, and went inside. First time i tried the key fob and it worked perfectly. I left 25 minutes later because the moron manager never showed up. I hate her. She has ruined my morning plans and schedule. Id like to kick her heinie into next week but I am sure that would be frowned upon. Cant wait to talk to her and get a ream of excuses. I have to make her squirm. I had an early appointment so u better show up. Annoying is not a strong enough word. I have several choice words and phrases in my arsenal to aim at Denise but I am sure Emily would not like me using them. So I will defer.

I am home and will finish up here and head to work. I have other appointments with people who show up.

So it took awhile to finish up here. After all I took no shower prior to my not a workout. So I was home for awhile. Finally got done with everything.

Got the manager on the phone on my way to work. She says she set her alarm early and forgot why she did when it went off. Dick. We reset for tomorrow at 8. I will forgive her, once.

Off to work. I had appointments at 10 and 11 and at 1 in Lodi. Managed to make the 10 close to on time. Was with Hal so he is easy on me for being late. The 11 was with client Billy. He is a very successful restaurateur. Very. Very high net profit. Hal and I are working on a plan for him. We discussed several ideas and he was somewhat overwhelmed. Normal response. We will follow up with more info later. I think he will pull the trigger on one plan or another. Too good a deal for him and saves him a ton of money on his taxes

The one oclock appointment in Lodi was different. First, i had to drive an hour. It was planned as a you sign the contract I brought and I pay you $50k. Sounds easy and all pre agreed to. So why did it take 3 hours for the meeting? In a word, the lawyer. Other guy was meeting with read the one page contract. Complained about the date in it. So he called his lawyer who called clients lawyer. Then all hell broke loose. The two lawyers argued on the phone for a good hour. We were not privy to that. We sat and drank coffee at Starbucks. And chatted. I suggested a fantastic change to the contract that would solve all problems. Did other guy agree? No, he said I gotta ask the lawyer. Numb nuts moron. Anyhow took a full 3 hours for the attorneys to do what? Reword the contract to what I had suggested in the first place. Almost to the word. Of course, they would not have taken 3 hours of my life away from me if that had been the initial decision.

It did finally end. Paid the 50k got the signed docs and left Lodi. Yay. Back to Sacramento. Got there about 515. Did maybe two things and time to go home. Its my turn to make dinner. So I had to leave.

Got home. First move, make a cocktail, it was a tough day. Then got dinner going. Emily called and she was still a long way out. So I slowed dinner prep a bit and sat down and enjoyed my drink with my friends Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak

When Emily got home she prepared the asparagus very nicely, I made her a drink, and we ate dinner. All just wonderful.

I washed dishes and she watched TV. Then we both eatched TV. Nice finish to a lousy day. Ready for bed.

When I woke up this morning I noticed something. It was was too damn early. Granted, common theme, but I am a truthy guy, tell it like is. So, early, and its raining. For real, steady rain kind of raining. No issues, nice to see, ski before Thanksgiving? maybe. But rain is new, have not seen it here since last spring. Guess summer is over.

As always I performed my ritual tasks of feeding cats and dogs and wife (breakfast and lunch). Then coffee the wife and myself. Then when all is quiet, I eat in peace (unless a telemarketer calls and one did) and catch up on texting and blogging. I know I have spoken of these things before but these are habits and habits repeat. Perhaps you all should read The Power of Habits. Very few people give thought to how their days are ruled by habit, and weeks and the entire year and your lifetimes. None of you are spontaneous, give it up.

Speaking of phone sales (see above) I got a call from a foreign (gasp! No!) sales person who wanted to discuss my google business listing. First, I dont care, second is there such a thing?, third you are not working for Google. I nicely told her to call someone who cares and hung up. A little later I checked my phone and saw a missed call from a Healdsburg phone number. Strange. But thought it might be Arnaldo. He is in Napa, but its close. So I called the number back. He works for The Bounty Hunter. They have a quarterly newsletter, they sell rare and distinct wines and spirits. They also operate a restaurant of the same name in downtown Napa. I am in a club of sorts and they send me a couple bottles of bourbon every few months. Anyhow, I had finally called him back yesterday, to thank him for my recent order. Sounds weird I know. They should thank me. But, as I mentioned, in a previous post the order was kinda special. I had a long conversation a couple months ago with Arnaldo about the state of Emily’s wine clubs (she chose wineries, we both drink). I was complaining about how many of the selections in the clubs are less than good but we are stuck with them. He suggested their club, wine from wineries around the world. Guaranteed good or you get replacements for free. Nice. I got my next bourbon shipment, two bottles. In addition, Arnaldo sent two bottles of wine, a cab and chard, from one of their club selections. Surprise! A gift. Just to get us to join their club. $95 in wine for free and both excellent. We are switching affiliations and dropping one club. And I called and thanked him. He made our lives better I think. I also bought a nice bottle of scotch for my Dad for Christmas. What the hell, its guaranteed.

Next up, morning ritual, texting Cissie. She is still in the house hunt and has one offer in which will be decided today. Sadly, we lose roomie. But hurray for them.

Well I managed to get ready and head in to work. Not much going because my computer was still out for repair and I need the damn thing for 99% of my work. Good news, Ryan got here to install the new one at 1245. Its new, so that means i have to install all the old progrma again. Ever try that? You can never find the disk, or the correct website or youve lost your login. A true pain in the ass. Ryan was there about two hours installing some and returning functionality to the thing. I had to go to Elk Grove and pick up documents so I left him there and ran off.

The trip to Elk Grove and back took about an hour. Not very exciting but I had to go. I have an important meeting tomorrow and these papers are crucial.

By the time I returned to my office everyone but Cara was gone. My only task was to continue with the installs so I could actually use my computer. So from 330 to 630 I installed software and called Ryan. Hey, I dont know all the answers but he does. By 630 I had to leave. I still have alot of installing to do. That will be tomorrow. I alao have three appointments tomorrow, one of which is in Lodi. Gonna be busy. Plus my first meeting with a personal trainer at the new gym I joined is at 8am. Wish me luck.

Again, its quite late and time for bed. I always seem to finish off each day with a post. You lucky people. The TV satellite is out again so its book and bedtime.

PS, Cissie rescinded her first offer and put an offer in on another today. Think positive thoughts. Vibes.

Another Tuesday and Im still not in Belgium. Damn. The day stretches out in front of me like an eastern Montana road. Nothing on either horizon, cloudless sky, no hope of any relief. Sadly, it seems like this in every negative way. But, I like the boring Montana road. Its a drive unlike all others. But, today is Tuesday, I will be at work. Luck may take my mind on a journey, away down the Montana hiway I speak of, but only in my mind. At least I always have that.

Today will be non descript – clear, cool and sunny. No rain till tomorrow. I have nothing planned for outside though its a great day for a long hike. The kind of hike when you can wear a light jacket and not benover dressed, still wear sunglasses and maybe shorts. Not too hot, but a little on the cool side. Note to self, forget work and go for a walk in the woods. Try to remember what it is in life that is truly important. Very few, if any, work days in your life will be important.

Does everyone, at my age, approaching retirement become as sanguine (Latin again!)about life as I am? I seldom ask others but maybe I should make more of a study of the topic. I do know that most, from what conversations I have had, are looking past the work they are doing and thinking of all the things they would rather be doing. Maybe they think this way to survive long enough in their job to get there. Or maybe the fantasy of a better future will get them there even if they never even attempt to make it come true. I don’t know.

Just had a long texting session with my favorite and long winded (if a texter can be) friend Cissie. She is intensely on the house hunt. New place to live for her and
Husband Dave. Also, seperate quarters for her adult daughter Trisha. As you know, Trisha lives above our garage right now. Cissie has two offers out right now and from what I can tell, its looking good for one being accepted. She sent me links with lots of pictures so i made my vote on my favorite. And my opinion is incredibly important. She had the audacity to like my second choice. The nerve. Its very exciting for them and we will lose Trisha. And her 10 cats. Oh well.

This morning, on the way to work, I did something I have been planning for a while. I joined a local gym. Now that I have finally reached my weight goal its time for fitness goals. I had scoped out local gyms over the last few weeks and this one was the clear winner. It also happens to be a franchise and has a location near our new home in Auburn. Double benefit. I sat with the manager for half an hour and got the full run dowI on the place. She is going to meet up with me this coming Thursday morning, early. We are going to set up a program for me that she will download to my phone. A live coach setting up a virtual coach. I am looking forward to the workouts. In 6 to 8 weeks I will be a lean, mean fighting machine, like John Candy. Or, 160 lbI of solid steel and sex appeal, men’s fright and women’s delight. Fish will fear me. Yeah, right. It could happen.

Got to work at 11 in time for my appointment with Hal. We are going over mutual clients and calling prospects and checking status on work in progress. We set up some more appointments for lower level tax planning. We do some multi million dollar planning but some folks need lower level work. I don’t like leaving any money on the table.

Hal and I worked on clients and related issues till 130, I had no more appointments for the day. Except for my IT guy. He came by to pick up my CPU. It needs to become a 64 bit machine in order to be up to date enough to run my tax software. Lovely, I gotta spend more moneI to stay up to date. I have spent $6K in the last three months on computers. I hate this crap. The most expensive thing I have to pay for after salaries. Running a business sucks.

Well, Ryan of IT fame, took my ability to work with him when he took the CPU. I can’t do anythinI without a computer. So I could have just left and gone home. Instead I did filing and desk cleaning. That was awesome. I also made phone calls (but not emails). This filled the rest of my day which seems hard to believe.

I had a couple of stops on the way home. I need a duster. I noticed, once I had cleaned my desk off, how dirty and dusty it was. Hence the duster. I also need a lanyard for my gym fob. The fob gets me in the door. I got the dusteI but no lanyard at the market. Next stop, Taco Tuesday!! My favorite dinner of the week. Carnitas and Chile Verde con Nopales for me and my bride. They are sometimes just better than usual. Today it was. It was also fun to have the girl at the carniceria trying to guess what I was going to order. I go there way too often I think.

We had a nice meal. Finished off the rest of the free wine I got last week. It is perfect with Mexican food,

The rest of my evening was spent watching TV and typing up the blog. And, it’s Tuesday so I get to put out the garbage!! I know, you want to be me. Too bad, no more room at the top. Time for garbage now. Then bed.

Monday morning and the excitement is palpable. Ok, its not. But I did get to use a word like palpable. My 7/8 grade latin/greek teacher would be proud. Yes, I studied both, and sorry to say, latin and greek are important in writing still. That sound you just heard was all my old english teachers rolling in their graves. Lol.

I am sitting here at the kitchen table, Emiky just left. This is my best time fir writing something without interruptions. Unless Emily calls from the road. She does once or twice a week. I pick up the hiuse phone on my way in from seeing her off and set it at the table. I am lazy and dont like to get up for the phone. Emilys calls are usually road reports(accidents, dead animals) or reminders. My memory sucks. She helps, although she seems to resent the duty at times. No call today. Maybe I will get a telemarketer, 9 to 930 is their favorite time to call. Maybe I will talk to them, maybe hang up, maybe say something like “I want that!” then abruptly hang up. Lol. Wasting their time with a call just to entertain myself can be fun. If its the IRS call, i always engage them and lead them on. They are such idiots. No more stupid than the people who fall for it and actually send money. Some of my clients have called me about it and I have to explain why its crap.

So I got ready for work and head out. One stop on the way at the UPS store. I gotta mail back to a client the crap an auditor returned to me. If I don’t mail it back the clients will usually abandon their paperwork on me. Inhave some stuff that is ten years old. Yes, I still have it after ten years. We are talking about immense loads that cant be mailed. Anyhow, package mailed. I put my bill in the box. With charge for postage.

Direct to work after that. No appointments today, but plenty tomorrow. This time of year there is not so much work to do, as I have mentioned before. I seem to always find something to do, though. I did manage a phone call with an attorney for half an hour, and a loan agent for a client. Then sent off docs to him. I know what you are thinking, my day is dripping with excitement. No, it isn’t. But it pays the bills.

Middle of the day I went across town to a finance company. I had to make a payment in person on my daughters car loan. They failed to send a monthly statement. The company is a pain in the ass. They have zero online services so no payment that way. No phone number published and I found out no over the phone payments either. So drive over and pay. Of course, I am not my daughter so they refused to give me info on the missing mail. Love them. She pays extra each payment and they would not say how that was applied to the balance. I found out later, applied in their favor. Marika called later and straightened them out well enough.

Back to work and the excitement continues. Worked on more tax returns. I should mention, my tax software company has been telling me for a couple months that the 2017 software would require a hardware upgrade. Well, this afternoon I updated the 2016 and as soon as I did the 2016 stopped working. What a bunch of assholes. If I knew they were going to screw me I could have updated my hardware. Of course the company was closed when I called to look for a fix. I hate them. Truly hate them.

Not long after this debacle, I went home. A day like today can really drain you. Go home and drink.

When I got home I did make a drink. A Mai Tai, to compare to last nights. Mine are way better than Trader Vics. Sorry Trader, but some modification is required. At least that worked out. We had leftovers and lamb chops for dinner. The leftovers were rack of lamb so they did go together well. Dinner was great, and I dont think Emily even broke a sweat. She is that good.

After dinner we watched TV for an hour and went to bed.

Todays paper was just as I predicted all week. Lousy. Light on info, light on entertainment, light on sports. Under ten minute read. Ghastly. That might describe it.

Emily is leaving for Sacramento in a few minutes. She has a yoga event to go to with sister Dee. They enjoy these things together. On the way, a little shopping must be done. Some Christmas, some household. There is a very short porch until the holidays are here. We would like to get ready and be ready. I even called our son Michael to find out what he is doing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We need to know. He would never say and just show up when he wants and leave whenever he wants. He has no concept of planning. I would also say he doesnt care. Difficult to ascertain, he does not talk much. Everything happens between his ears and is seldom shared.

Anyhow, I called him today to discuss the holidays and what he planned on doing. We want to get ready. And, I need to discuss what came of his watch repair. He shipped it to me for repair because the clasp broke. And its a Rolex, gift from grandpa, and fixing a Rolex costs a fortune and he does not want to pay. Shocking. He cant afford it on a students salary. Lol. But he needs to hear about it. I wonder if he will call back? Its as if he has forgotten how to make a phone call.

In the meantime I am going to the hardware store for a specialty bulb. Then time for mow lawn and sweep driveway. Oh, joy! Gotta keep the streak going. Emily will be back 430 and we can head out to Emeryville for dinner.

I just finished two hours of mowing and pushing broom (no 8×10 four bit room) and Im kinda tired. The sweeping is murder, the dustpan pick up of all the piles is insane. Mowing, not so bad. Winter sucks because of all these damn leaves and branches. The mess is never ending. Next place, no real yard yet so no clean up. I wont be needing a very large riding mower. Thats a bonus.

While I was out working, the restaurant called to confirm my reservation. Just wanted to be sure we were coming. I have never had that happen. I figure they need business or they are so full they are looking for gaps. Crazy. But no problem, I am confirmed.

Well, outside work is done. Had a light lunch at 4 oclock and toodled around the house doing laundry and other crap. Emily got home around 430. We both changed for dinner and managed to get out around 5. Turns out thats a good thing. The normal 45 minute drive was an hour and 40 minute drive. Traffic everywhere. Lovely. We ended up calling the restaurant to say we were late. Worst part of the trip, I had to drive. This is normally Emilys job, and she is fantastic. But, for some reason tonight I had to drive. Maybe she figured she would be too drunk to drive home?

We arrived near 645. Valet grabbed our car. On the way in I had said where the hell can I park? Well, valet solved it. I like valet. They do so much better of a job than the normal drunk slobs do. Hey, heres an idea: Uber Valet. Guy shows up anywhere just to park your car. Ball game, drop yourself off at the gate Uber Val takes ur car. Airport, no more long term parking, UberVal takes ur car. A brilliant idea. Just a few issues with car insurance and bailments, etc, etc. I dont want to work on it, its a give away and the managers of the company just need to hire me and give me a 10% stake. Then Im happy.

Inside the restaurant it was so LOUD. Salsa band going crazy and large crowd in the bar salsa dancing. I say large, they filled the bar. You could not hear yourself think. It was loud where we sat in the back. It did quiet down later.

This being Trader Vics, we both ordered original Mai Tais. Its a thing. I have to say, I use his original recipe and mine are better. Oops. On my second round, i mentioned to the waitress my feelings and she brought me a slightly different version with a float of 151. That worked. We ordered a crab artichoke dip appetizer. Wow was that the bomb. And, they served it hotter than hell, my favorite temperature. Also, instead of bread, they brought some crispy flatbread and crackers with coconut peanut butter. Sweet. Original dish. I recommend it, and they bring it anyway.

The menu was not huge, so selections were not to numerous. Choose a meal, choose small bites, or luau size which may feed the whole table. But, again, not too many selections. Does make it easier. We ended up choosing individual dinners. Emily rack of lamb and I had moo shu duck. When we were done we had no room for dessert. Just coffee. I say just coffee, it was more of an Americano served with raw sugar cubes. And the cups were cups, not coffee cups. Immediately reminded me of Morocco and how they served their coffee, exactly the same. And the coffee here was excellent. Emily wants to bring Marika and maybe a larger crowd next time. If we get here in the daylight we could also wander around the marina. It is huge. Thousand boats or more. I was here two weeks ago picking up Renees boat.

We had a fast ride home, no traffic. Where the hell did they all go? I have my new FasTrak so I don’t even stop for the toll anymore. Thats gotta save at least two minutes. The trip was half the time of the drive down. Pleasant.

We got home a little after ten. And it is a school night, so watered the dogs and went to bed.

Today is Veterans Day. A national holiday to honor all veterans. It is November 11. I learned all about the holiday in grade school. There is special significance to this exact date going back to the First World War. Fearless leaders in DC made yesterday the fake holiday. Thats because they really do not care for the historical significance of 11/11. All they care to do is give a convenient day off. Whatever the reason. Of course, these leaders have no honor. I cant expect much from them. I need to stop ranting, there was alot yesterday. Enough I think.

Today being Saturday, I get a paper delivered. Lead story, front page, is capture of a mountain lion. You know right away this paper will be a throw away. One story about a veteran on front page. All other holiday activities in 3rd section.

So I finished the paper before I finished coffee and breakfast. This just starts the day all wrong. I know Sundays paper wont be much better, just more in volume. At least that’s still better.

Managed to shower and shave without problems. I had to actially iron my shorts. They had wrinkles beyond belief. I thought they were linen, that bad. But they are an old guy blend of cotton and spandex. Yes, my shorts are for fatties or overweight slobs. I am neither. So I ironed. I look better in ironed clothes. Or, ironed clothes look better on me. Not sure which.

Next task on the weekend workday was washing of the cars. And a little vacuuming. Maybe some wax. But not the full Brazilian. They looked fabulous when I was finished. So did I. Emily was out so not her car. She has a subscription to the local car wash anyhow.

After the washing, i took the convertible down to the local tire shop. That would be Haughn Tire, owned by bestie Jim Haughn. I needed to use their rack to find out what was thunking around underneath the car. After having it on the rack, I have no f…ing idea what is making the noise. Infuriating to say the least. Maybe to say the most. I think I will take her to the dealer and see if they can figure it out. They do a nice job of diagnosing problems. I like my local dealer.

Emily got home after i did. We decided to do a little advent shopping today. Advent, for you poorly informed folk, is the days prior to Christmas. We celebrate advent starting on December 1st. We have an advent calendar which has twenty four large numbered pockets on it. In each pocket goes a small gift. Each person gets to open a gift for every day of advent, 1 to 24 days of December. Got that? So we went out today and started on advent gifts. Could be a toy. A bag of cookies. Who knows? Changes a little every year. So we shopped till we dropped. We also went to the grocery store for split pea soup fixins and to Tommy Bahama to take advantage of their sale. I ended up with 1 item I chose and four Emily chose. Would have been five but one thing was damaged. A quick 2 and 1/2 hour shopping trip but we came home with quite a haul. Now we have to wrap each gift. And hang the calendar. And stuff the gifts into the calander pockets. Easy peasy.

We got home about 530. Emily started in on the soup. I put the shopping away where it needs to go. No problem, only took half an hour.

I was going to make the corn bread but realized I needed milk for the recipe. So I zoomed up to the market and grabbed some milk. The market being a gas station that smells bad inside. No matter, I need milk. Raced home and made the corn bread. And then, opened the bottle of cabernet I received as a freebie just for being me and doing whatever I did to get $100 dollars worth of free wine. So the cabernet is very good. I would say better than the chardonay I also received free except Emily loved the chardonnay. Loved it. But, still, excellent cabernet. I am enjoying it still.

Next up is dinner, and I am really looking forward to it.

Well, I must say, the spilt pea soup is super fabulous. I woukd say Emily out did herself but that may not be possible. The chipotle cornbread should consider itself lucky to be dipped in this soup. I am afraid to eat seconds because I could explode. Tomorrow, after the soup has cured, this will be truly spectacular. Sadly, we are going out to dinner tomorrow so more soup waits till Monday night. I am sure it will only get that much better.

I think i should wash the dishes, it is a rule here – when you cook, you dont clean. So I gotta clean. Not so bad, very few dishes to clean. And the soup pot is still on the stove simmering. That will be a clean tomorrow thing.

We watched TV for awhile, in the front room, not in bed. I grabbed some ice cream cake, left over from my birthday, for Em and I. Still good two months later. The freezer is a commercial model and keeps everything frozen hard. So the cake keeps well. Obviously.

After dessert its finally bed time. Now we can warch TV from bed. Actually, I read and Emily snores. But shes not sleeping!! Just try and turn the TV off. She has a conniption. I do not, and probably never will, understand her need to have a TV on while she sleeps. I think its because her parents sleep all night with the TV on. It bothers me. I give her the remote when I lay down and she turns it off at some point. Makes her happy.

OK, time to gripe again about holidays. Specifically, what the government does to them. For instance, today is NOT Veterans Day. But every bank and government office is closed. The feds said today, because its a friday. Heaven forbid thr holiday is inconveniently falling on a Saturday. What the hell!? I believe Armistice was 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month without any qualifiers saying its got to be a Friday. Same goes for Washington and Lincolns birthdays. When i was a kid we sometimes had midweek holidays because we celebrated the ACTUAL day they were born. How novel. Try telling your kid this year your hirthday is friday and then ignore his real birthday. Its just more bullshit from our leaders. Why bother with the pretense at all. Just make every God damn friday a holiday and skip the naming. We are headed that way anyhow. Why, for the love of god, can we not just keep the holiday on its day to honor its original purpose? Is that so difficult?

Emily had the day off. The school district celebrates Vets day on a whatever basis. She had wanted me to sty home and do things wih her. Well, its not a GD holiday. I went to work. Fortunately, most of the world is stupid and they took the day off. So my day was very slow. At least no calls in and no visitors. None. I always have alot of work to do no matter what. But, as usual, I could not tell you what I did. I can not remember anything. Except, Walker is having an ongoing argument with a surety. The surety wants incorrect financial statements prepared for a client to get his bond. And Walker likes correct financials. Unfortunately, thenonly solution required me to get involved and speak to the surety and try to calm her down. The woman is a bitch. Truly a bitch. We believe we have this solved. So I will not need to have a conversation with her again. This part of my day I remember. At the end of the day I grabbed three tax files. I managed to finish these three and bill them. The important part. Billing. This final act makes me feel the day was not a complete waste, at leastni earned some money.

Short drive home it seemed. Spoke to Marika for a few minutes, obviously I was in violation of the hands free law. She is doing well and she was having tri tip for dinner. I would have liked that too. I called Emily too and let her know what was up. Not much really.

We had a nice dinner, salad topped with the fried pork. Same as a few days back. It is very tasty. We also opened the free wine i talked about from a couple days back. Emily loved it. A nice chardonnay. I liked it but Im a red wine drinker. I believe my wife could drink it every day. She finished the bottle.

This brings us to now. We are doing dishes and putting crap away. Emily said something snarky about that because I am sitting and writing versus cleaning. To which I give a hearty “whatever”. I still get to go to bed and read.

Last evening Emily and I went out to Turkovich winery for our club member wine pickup. They provide food and tastings for all members at pickup. Food is always quite good, wine depends on your taste but I would say half of last nights were good. Anyhow, plenty rich food and 8 or so very small glasses of wine. Of course, as I mentioned yesterday, Barb and Kirk, our friends (Barb is Emily’s bestie) went with us. They have 1000 bottles in their cellar. They belong to the Turkovich cheese club. They don’t need more wine. Getting back on topic, I drank my share and ate a small plate of rich food. We went across the street later and had Mexican food. I had a large glass of Sangria.

After returning home, i managed to get all ready for bed. I was sleepy. Or drunk. Ended up, I woke up at 1230 and i was already hungover. Remember, I have not had any alcohol for the last month whileni was trying to lose the last few pounds on my diet. So, I guess what little I drank had a huge effect on me. I ended up taking a sleeping pill so i could get back to sleep. Woke up this morning and felt like crap. A pill/wine combo nasty feeling. It amazes me how easily you can forget that u need to take things easy in situations like above. But, of course, I have those two bottles of Bourbon and wine I opened yesterday to at least try. I see trouble brewing. If I try to hold it to one small glass of wine, really try, I think I will be ok. You’d think with all the pro drinkers in my family I could handle this. Obviously, you would be thinking wrong.

In spite of how I felt, I got up earlier than usual by fifteen minutes. So I easily got the dogs and cats fed, Emily fed and coffeed and lunched, before she was ready to leave. I had my breakfast (yogurt, yay) and coffee before she left. She did take extra time getting ready, its picture day. But still I moved quickly.

Once she had left I sat around for a few then decided to invite Cissie over for coffee. Of course, she is back home in Tacoma. She said she would be here in a few minutes. So then we texted for half an hour. Fills the morning well.

I had to get ready and go to work. Nothing else to do. The drive to work was amazing. I was in lane number 2 from Dixon when I merged on the freeway all the way thru Sacramento to my exit. I was never below 70 or above 80 mph. It was crazy, I never had to move around anyone or even get out of the way. Never happened before that i can remember.

I had a very slow day at work. I managed to work on several things but was unable to complete anything. Happens to often, but inam used to it. I was at work till about 6. Had to leave cuz I am in charge of picking up dinner. I get texts from a local place with whatever hot deal they have for the day. Today you got three free rolled tacos if you bring a frind. Nice. So I went there for dinner. And they gave me two orders of rolled tacos for free. Why, i dont know. I got some other food as well to fill out our dinner menu. Truly a feast.

We decided to open up the two bottles of whiskey I received from my club. We had a few tastes before dinner and for that matter with dinner and after. I added in another bottle I had just for comparison sake. Well, lines were drawn and favorites chosen. In the end, we both liked the same bourbon. Seemed obvious to me. Its fun to have stuff like that to do. Breaks up the day and makes it special. Adds something extra or different to your day.

After all the whiskey and rich food its time for bed. Yes, its only 830, but I love getting to sleep. Im tired now. And to quote my friend Cissie, you can never have too much sleep. Well, maybe u can but I slept really poorly last night. And I would like to get better sleep. As always, I have lots to do tomorrow.

A bit of a misnomer. As many of you are aware, Wednesday’s are my weigh in day. So, first thing, out of bed, go to scale, fully naked (yes, TMI) and weigh my self. Well, I am finally in the range I want to be. I weighed in at 148.4, loss of three pounds, and am between 145 and 150. My goal. Yay. That means a couple of hundr d more calories each day. That translates to NO more nasty pancakes. Thank god.

For breakfast today I will be having yogurt with some grape nuts in it and fresh fruit on top. Can I get a resounding Amen?!!! Thank you.

With the end of the weight loss period I now need to restart my workout routine. Another piece of the puzzle to keep me charging hard into old age. I need to get as far as my dad has. His doctor says, “you’re 87, drink as much booze and eat as much rich food as you want. Smoke if you feel like. Carouse with coarse women.” So I have to get that old. Or change doctors. And, by the way, my dad does what his doctor tells him to do. Could be why he has lived so long.

So today being Wednesday I usually work from home. I have quite a few things to do today like grocery shopping and phone calls. A few bank recs. Nothing fun. I am going to call some of the yurt vendors and push that process forward. Get it to a point where I have it “built” then get Emily’s thumbs up and order it.

Speaking of Emily, I just received the first gift of Christmas. Its actually a gift for Emily and I stuck it in my closet. The second gift came today from Cissie for Em and I. Cissie pays attention. We got a teardrop trailer this summer and our gift reflects that. Very nice.

So this am, instead of being productive i sat around and chatted withh Cossie about whatever. I did not get to calling yurt makers and I did not get any real work done. Oh well. I did get to the grocery store and get that shopping done. I am not completely worthless.

When i got home from the grocery, i decided to open the two boxes i got from The Bounty Hunter. I joined a Bourbon club there a couple weeks ago. I received the two boxes shortly thereafter which I assumed were the two bottles of bourbon. Well, I opened the first box and there were two bottles of wine, a chardonnay and a cab. First thought, they screwed up. But, there was a note “our wine club is better, switch to Bounty Hunter, i will take care of you” signed by Arnaldo who set me up with the Bourbon. The wine was free. Wow. Now I gotta join their club. Which is fine, its better than either of our clubs. I have to call and thank Arnaldo. Here it is

I kept this cool free wine a secret from Emily. I wanted to share it as a surprise, like when i opened the box and fumbked through it till i found the card. I though she would enjoy it too.

I went up stairs and finished up running through several hundred emails. Mostly garbage, with a few that needed attention. That took awhile. While i wasnin that, Cissie showed up. I have to take her to the airport and she wanted to leave at 430. So, off to the airport. We got there ans she insisted on a selfie

So she is off to home. We will miss her. She will be back once she has purchased a house and has room for Trisha. She is coming back to move her home. I hope she finds a house soon. It will settle her life a little.

I got home, Emily was there. Inshowed her the wine. She had the same response i did – we should join their club. I will call tomorrow. She wants to keep the local club still and we can get rid of the other.

We left to go to a wine club event in Winters at Turkovich. We belong to the local winery club. We had hors douveres and wine there with Barb and Kirk, neighbors and friends. A good time was had by all. Kirk said he would help me put up our yurt when we are ready. Yay, help. After wine, we went to a local place for Taco Wednesday. First time Ive been there for that. It was nice, but definitely white guy Mexican food. At least I got a glass of sangria

We are now home. Emily is in bed. I am going up in a second. Its bedtime.