The arb and winner winner chicken dinner

Sunday, June 29.  Hi everyone!  I am juiced up and amped today!  What a great day.  I hope you all are doing great as well.  After a good solid day of teaching, I got the chance to experience two new things today.  The first was to take a walk with Paula in the Arb.  I'd been there maybe once as an undergraduate, and Paula had never been.  The Arb is the Arboretum, a nature park owned by the University.  It was a beautiful day for a walk and nice to be around nature.  Nature can teach us a lot.  Especially just being.  Is-ness.  The trees, shrubs, flowers, grass, streams, everything...just are.  They don't resist.  They just are as they are.  As I've learned more and more, that's really one of my goals.  To just be, surrendering to life and not resisting what it brings, good and bad.  We had a great time.

The second thing was to witness my friend and my golf student, Justin, win the Nationwide Tour event in Toronto!  Yes!  He is now driving down to Michigan, where tomorrow I will caddy 36 holes for him in the British Open qualifier.  He'll hang out a few days and then go up to Grand Rapids to spend the fourth of July with his wife and her family.  Very cool and very exciting.  Life is beautiful!

Gotta go now.  Must pack and meet him at a hotel near the course.  Hopefully, get some rest too.  Because he won, he got out of Toronto late and won't arrive until 12:30 am or so.  Our first tee time is 8:17 am, so it'll be a long day tomorrow.  Hopefully, I can report more good news tomorrow as well!  Be safe and enjoy life guys.  Like the trees, just be and let life take you where it takes you!  Later.

Helping someone who needs help

Saturday, June 28.  Hi everyone!  How are you?  I am doing well and hope you all are doing well.  I had a busy day, teaching until 5 pm, then had a nice dinner prepared by Paula.  We later just relaxed and hung out watching Damages, the show Glenn is the creator of and the show we will be extras on when we go to New York next month.  Very relaxing.

My new experience of the day was to give money to a beggar on the street.  I usually don't do that because a part of me feels like they should try to do more to get back on their feet.  Today, though, I thought that perhaps it's not that easy, and maybe things can get so tough that some have to resort to begging.  So I decided to open my mind and give him a little change.  He was very thankful, and I felt good in doing it.  I think I've changed my views on the beggars of the world.  We must help everyone out, whenever we can.  It doesn't matter much who it is.  Those who are really having a hard time especially.  And if this guy was running a scam, so be it.  I trusted him, gave and lent a helping hand, and that's a good thing.

Anyway, time for bed.  Another day of teaching tomorrow, although not as long a day.  Maybe I can play some golf tomorrow.  We'll see.  You all have a great day and keep on thinking positively and with a generous heart.  Great things are in store for all of us!  Good night and enjoy!

Goji juice and lemongrass soda

Friday, June 27.  Hello everyone!  What's up?  I hope all is well, all is great with me.  Another Friday, and another day off for me.  And I had a great one.  Went to deliver meals in the morning, and really enjoyed seeing all of the folks again.  Gave Margaret another hug.  I am very fortunate and feel for her because she is not well and is very lonely.  But I did what I could!  I also ran some errands, took a nap, and went out to dinner with Paula at Big Boy.  Very underrated, that Big Boy.  Good food and reasonably priced.

After dinner, we went to Whole Foods Market to buy dinner to make at home tomorrow.  We bought chicken thighs for the grill, some naan, and some mozzarella cheese to make a caprese salad.  My new experience for the day was to buy two products I have never purchased before: goji juice, a supposedly "super juice" that enhances energy and mood, and lemongrass soda made from cane sugar, which I bought because I figure is better than regular soda pop.  I'll report on how they both taste and if there are any additional benefits.

I hope you all have a great day, enjoy life and live it, and I'll talk to you all tomorrow!

Teaching a nice young man and a nice old man

Thursday, June 26.  Hi everyone!  I hope everyone has had a great day!  I have had an extremely busy one.  It started at 6:30 with 9 holes of golf, lessons all day, and accompanying Paula to her biopsy at the hospital.  She had a couple of moles that needed to be removed and tested.  Better safe than sorry, right?  The prognosis is quite positive, and the risk is very low, so that's great.

Today, I had the chance to teach two people at the different ends of the age spectrum.  Both were first time students.  Willie, an older gentleman, probably close to 80 years old.  Mark, a young man, around 20 years old.  I'd never met Willie before, and have known Mark for a few years and known he's just a super nice young guy.  It's neat to see people of such different ages come because they want to learn about golf.  And although very different in many ways, they shared an open mind and an eagerness to learn.  I do have to say that each surprised me.  I always have an unfair bias about older people, assuming that they are less open minded about change and more set in their ways.  Willie was just the opposite.  Very attentive and willing to listen, and he really improved.  I learned a lot about my biases from teaching him.  Mark surprised me in how interested he was in my view on spirituality, psychology, and how being in the moment in life helps being in the moment in golf.  I gave him some non-golf books to read that he seemed very interested in, and I think that they will help.  I just loved talking to him about the stuff and he wants to pursue discussions about similar topics in the future.

A great day.  Unexpected wonderful lessons full of surprises from two very different people.  I love it!  That's what makes teaching great, meeting new people.  And I'm learning to be open minded and positive with my expectancy with all lessons, and that tends to make every lesson great and lots of fun.  Anyway, tomorrow is my day off and I look forward to doing some things I want to do.  I'm so busy with golf now that I don't get to spend as much time with real estate and the hat company, but that's ok because I'm forming a financial base to get those projects started.  All in all, a fantastic day.  I hope you've had one too, and hope that tomorrow will be even better!  I know that it will be for me too!  Talk to you tomorrow, all.  Peace and happiness to you all, and thanks for your support and love.

Anachronism and Shakespeare

Wednesday, June 25.  Hello everyone!  How are you?  I hope well.  I am doing fantastic.  I had another busy day of teaching, and am quite tired.  But I also had a chance to hit some balls,  practice, and have a nice dinner with Paula, Aubrey and Elliot.  We also made the decision to pass on the downtown Ann Arbor commercial property.  Just too risky and, given this economic environment, we can be much pickier and hopefully get an even better deal.  I also have committed to investing in the night club in Bangkok with Pae.  I am confident that it will be a success and a money maker for me and us for years to come.  The group has the right formula, understands the business, and have had big success before.  My investment is small, but will give me a decent return.  So sometime next week I'll wire Pae my 1%, which is about $18,000.  Cool and very exciting!

Today's new thing is learning the word "anachronism," which I am told (by Elliot) means something that is misplaced or out of proper time.  The example he used was how William Shakespeare placed cannons in the story of Julius Caesar, even though at the time of Julius Caesar there were no cannons.  The technology didn't exist yet, but he used poetic license to make them a part of his story.  Anyway, it was good to learn something new and we can always learn something new, right?  Part of what this is all about!

I hope you've had nice days, and I hope you all have even better ones tomorrow.  Great things are happening to me now and I'm very appreciative and very excited.  So I'll check in again with you tomorrow to share some more!  See you then!

Walking the dogs

Tuesday, June 24.  Hello everyone!  How's everything going?  I hope well.  I am doing very well.  I had another busy day today at work, and I'm grateful that I am so busy and people seem to respond to my teaching.  It's also nice because it means my paycheck gets a little bigger each week!  

Today, Paula and I walked the three dogs, Pan, Bear, and Alex, all together for the first time.  It's too bad that Lily died a couple of weeks ago and we couldn't take her too.  But it was nice to go for a walk and dogs really need to walk to stay healthy and have fun.  It was fun for us to walk as well.  The weather this evening was so perfect.  A perfect Michigan summer day!  Anyway, we also did some weeding and yard work and it felt good to get some dirt on my hands too.  It's somehow spiritual and nice to physically get in touch with the earth.

I hope you all have great days or nights, wherever you are.  I'm off to finish my spiritual routine for the day and relax a little.  I have another big day of lessons in front of me tomorrow.  Maybe a dip in the hot tub, or maybe just some TV time or maybe some reading.  We'll see.  Enjoy life and do what you want to do.  I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Golfing, planning, and having fun

Monday, June 23.  Hi all!  I hope you are all doing well, I am doing great!  I had a day off today, and had my new experience for the day early: playing golf with Elliot, Paula's youngest son.  It was a good time and he played better than I expected (he doesn't play a lot) and had very good etiquette.  I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to doing it again.

After that, I had lunch with Paula and decided to spend the afternoon looking at new cars.  Both of our leases are up in the next 6 months, so we did a little early searching.  Paula would like to buy her next car so she doesn't have to worry about payments and mileage.  I'm still not sure what I'd like to do.  We don't have to decide anything until November so we'll just let it play out.  Everything takes care of itself in time, right?

Other than that, I'm great.  Justin left for Toronto to play in a Nationwide Tour event today, and he will return on Sunday for the British Open qualifying in Dearborn.  As far as I know, everyone is happy and healthy, and life is good.  I have no complaints and I'm truly living the dream.  So enjoy and have fun and do what you want to do, everyone, and I'll write again tomorrow.  B bye.

Giving all I've got

Sunday, June 22.  Hi all!  How's today going for you?  Well, I hope.  I had a busy day of work and will have a nice chance to have a good dinner and a relaxed evening coming up.  Summer's here, and it's busy and fun at work.  All of the other projects are making there small steps forward too, so all's great with me!

Today, my fifth lesson of the day was Alain and Janet, who have taken lessons with me for years.  They wanted to have me take a look at each of their swings and also talk about putting.  Now that's a lot to do in 50 minutes.  But today, instead of really watching the clock and making sure things finished on time, I decided to do and give all I could until what needed to be done was done.  That made the lesson last an hour and five minutes.  But for the first time, I didn't care, even though that meant my sixth lesson, Bill, had to wait.  I just decided to do what I had to do with Alain and Janet, and just somehow knew that Bill would be ok and I'd do what I had to do with him too, even if that meant staying a little extra.

I really enjoyed giving 100% to all of my students, and liked even more that I wasn't anal and overly concerned with time.  Time's time.  I've got all the time in the world until my time runs out, right?  While teaching from now on, I will present myself like I did today and do what I have to do until it's done right.  And if I go 5 minutes too long or if we end 10 minutes early, who cares.  It's just time.  I think giving my heart and soul makes me feel way better than giving exactly 50 minutes of time.  Anyway, off to an early dinner now.  Smile and enjoy life, and let life take you where it wants to take you.  We'll talk again tomorrow.  Bye!

Old friends

Saturday, June 21.  Hi all!  How are you?  I hope well, I am doing great!   I had a full day of lessons today, and got them all in before the rains came.  It's pouring now.  Paula and I were going to play golf, but maybe Monday would be better.

Today's new experience was teaching golf to the wife of an old friend.  Takeshi, who I worked with many years ago in a Japanese restaurant, brought his wife Yoshiko for a golf lesson.  It was great to see both of them and catch up, and it was the first time I've given a friend's wife a golf lesson.  They are headed back to Japan, unfortunately, so I'm not sure if and when I'll see them again, but it was nice to spend some time with them nonetheless.  We can never forget our old friends, can we?  

A short entry today, lots to do.  I have to stop by the grocery store.  Justin is stopping by today and Paula wants to make him a nice dinner and hang out.  So until tomorrow my friends, enjoy and laugh and smile!  Later

Another Open, giving, and hunting for treasure

Thursday, June 19 and Friday, June 20.  Hi everyone!  What's up?  I hope you are all doing well, I am doing great!  Today Paula and I celebrated our third year together.  It has been full of ups and downs, like any relationship, but I find myself very happy today and couldn't be more satisfied with where my life is and where it's headed.  Anyway, I hope you've had a nice day too!

For Thursday, my new experience was to get asked to caddy for a British Open qualifier for the first time.  On account of his performance in the US Open, Justin has improved his world ranking enough to be one of 60 golfers going for 6 British Open spots later this month at Dearborn Country Club.  So he asked me to caddy for him.  He'll spend a few days in Michigan and we can hang out and catch up.  Should be a fun time and exciting.  Imagine that...qualifying for the two biggest Open championships in one year!  Cool.

For today, my new experience is giving on a day where I usually would be selfish and do things for myself.   Paula and I went to help deliver meals again, and it was good to get back to helping and giving.  What was unusual however was that on a day like today, our anniversary of sorts, we would usually take the day to do only things we wanted.  For example, we could've gone to play golf or go shopping or have a day to ourselves.  But for about an hour and a half, we decided to help with Motor Meals and it felt great.  I can honestly say that I've never spent time on a day of personal celebration helping others and giving my time to others.  It felt great and I feel good about the personal growth it showed.

Anyway, time to go to bed.  Back to work tomorrow, and perhaps we'll play golf tomorrow if the weather cooperates.  We'll see.  By the way, we watched "Fool's Gold" tonight, and enjoyed it very much.  Simple fun.  And if you get a chance to watch it, don't you think that everyday of life should feel like a treasure hunt?  Sounds like an idea to me.  I'll start tomorrow approaching the day by feeling the excitement I would feel if I was hunting for lost treasure.  I can't imagine it's going to hurt my attitude for the day, can it?  See you tomorrow, take care and enjoy!  See ya!

A questionable offer

Wednesday, June 18.  Hi everyone!  I hope you all are doing well, I am doing great.  Had a full day of teaching today, and the lessons were great.  Pretty uneventful.  My new experience for the day is getting an email from someone willing to rent my house for $2,100.  That's good news.  The bad news is that the guy said he was from the UK and coming to Ann Arbor for a year.  The company and company address he gave me were not findable at Google, and he was not able to tell me what city he was going to work in once in the U.S..  Fishy.  Finally, he said that the organization that he is going to do work for is the "United States Architecture Foundation."  Guess what?  That too, doesn't come up when I Google it.  

I'll keep playing along, being careful to not reveal any information that is too revealing, but it sounds not right to me.  Funny that people spend all this time trying to figure out ways to screw other people over.  I'll assume that it's for real but with a slightly suspicious eye.  If he wants to rent my place out no questions asked, then it'll happen.  I'll be keeping a sharp eye out and be consulting my attorney first, though.  Very interesting.

Talk to you again tomorrow, love to all.  Thanks for all of your love and support.  Later.

The Trackman

Tuesday, June 17.  Hi all!  How are you?  I hope well.  I am great.  Today's entry will be a short one as I am tired and want to relax a little.  Today was good.  Gave 6 lessons and had a chance to have dinner with Paula and spent some time talking to Justin on the phone about the week.  It was great to catch up with him and hear about the good and bad from the week.  But he is very happy for the experience and has moved on to Knoxville to play in the Nationwide Tour event this week.  He will also be swinging by Michigan at the end of the month, and we'll hang out a little, and I may caddy for him.

My new thing for the day was to test drivers out on the state of the art Trackman fitting system at work.  Now I've been fit before, but today I set it up and did it all on my own.  Not a huge accomplishment but something new nonetheless, and was kind of cool in that the system is a $30,000 setup!  I had a good time doing it.  I also got a very short lesson on my swing from Tom Harding.  I've never asked him for any advice before and hit a few balls and felt some good things.  Now I've just got to get out and play some!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your time doing whatever it is you're doing today or tonight.  Smile lots, laugh lots, and live life!  I'll talk to you all later on tomorrow.  C ya.

Making friends with a stranger

Monday, June 16.  Hi all!  How's everyone doing today?  Great I hope.  I'm doing just fantastic.  Today was my day off, and I had a good time.  I slept in a little and saw that I missed a call from the radio show that I did on Thursday and Friday.  Seems that I was supposed to be on today at 7 am too!  So I called in at 8:45 am to apologize, but they asked me if I wanted to say a few words on air, so I did.  It was fun and kind of wrapped up the crazy week.

From there, I played a quick nine holes (shot 37--not bad for my fourth round of the year), then came home to help Paula make some pies to bring to Julie and her colleague running the food part of Giftorama.  They want us to make at least 2,100 pieces for their fundraiser!  It might even be more!  It's a great opportunity to get exposure for the business and hopefully we can get some catering jobs from it and then open a pie store.  Cool, huh?

After dropping the pies off, we went to dinner at Mitchell's Fish Market, one of our faves, and had a nice dinner and hit it off with our waitress, Lauren.  We ended up having a nice long conversation with her and ended up exchanging contact info.  She's a really nice person.  See, the thing is that last night we listened to a Joel Osteen sermon on complimenting people and helping them and encouraging them for no reason as good spiritual mojo.  So it was kind of funny that we had an opportunity to do that with Lauren.  By the time we were done, we all gave each other hugs and I can't say that I've ever done that before!

Anyway, something non golf related for the first time in a week.  Try it sometime, just compliment someone sincerely.  It makes them feel good and you feel good.  And also download some Joel Osteen podcasts from iTunes if you can.  It makes you feel incredibly positive and good.  He's got a great, not too religious, positive message for the world!  I'll check in tomorrow.  Til then, have a great day or night and enjoy!  Cheers!

National TV

Sunday, June 15.  First of all, happy birthday to my sister Julie!  How are you all?  I'm doing great.  Tired, but great.  It has been an exciting and exhausting weekend.  It's nice to see it come to an end with everyone happy and I'm glad I had a chance to experience all the craziness.  Today, I taught a few lessons, got fit for a new driver, went over to Julie's house with Paula, and watched the exciting end of the US Open.

My new experience for the day actually happened on Friday, but so much has happened that it just seems fair for me to carry one over.  On Friday's ESPN telecast of the Open, the lead announcer, Mike Tirico, mentioned my name on national TV as Justin's instructor!  How cool!  Rick's dad also said that I was mentioned on the Golf Channel later that night on their "Live from the US Open" show.  I don't know anything about that and have not heard anything about that from anyone else, but cool, I'll take that too.

This week, things get back to normal a little.  Teach some golf, hopefully play some golf, and just hang out and relax some.  I hope you all have a good day or night, and thank you for all of your love and support as usual.  I'll check in with you again tomorrow.  See ya!

Doing the "Lesson on Golf" radio show

Saturday, June 14.  Hi all!  A little more calm now that Justin has fallen back a little.  I did my normal lesson day and gave 7 lessons.  It's nice to get some accolades and some recognition for my relationship with Justin.  But I'm sure he is a little calmer and relishing having the spotlight off of him for the final two days.  He shot 75 today.  Much better!

Today's new experience was to do a new radio show, "Lesson on Golf" with Jeff Lesson.  It was short and everything went fine.  It was similar to the other radio show, but this time the radio station was a bigger one and had more listeners.  Cool.

Other than that, life is still good and trucking along.  I plan to go out to dinner tonight with Paula and just relax a little, and watch more golf.  The US Open is still such fun to watch even though Justin won't win.  Have a good day or night, enjoy life and smile, and I'll check in again tomorrow!  Later alligators.

TV and a US Open leader

Friday, June 13.  Hi all!  How are you?  I'm doing absolutely great!  Lots of excitement today as I find myself the instructor for the co-leader of the US Open.  I'm getting lots of attention and calls and emails from all over the place.  Very exciting.  Justin, unfortunately, didn't play very well.  That's ok though because I'm still proud of him and he learned a lot today.  It's not everyday you're in the lead of the US Open you know.  Anyway, let's hope he has a great weekend, because he did make the cut.

Another new event for the day was to do a TV type interview about my relationship with Justin.  It's not anything major, but something I've never done before.  Outside of youtube, I don't even know where it will air.  It was fun and I wasn't too nervous.  Just spoke from the heart and told the truth and didn't think too much about it.

Other than that, today was spent watching a lot of golf.  It's weird with the tournament on the West Coast to watch live golf until 10pm our time.  But it was worth it to see how my buddy Justin handled himself so professionally.  I'm very proud of him and having a good time with it all myself.  Goodnight, good morning, and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

A US Open leader

Thursday, June 12.  Hi all!  Today was a truly fantastic day.  It started with my first radio interview about my teaching and my relationship with Justin, who I'll get to later.  The interview was fun and I think I came off great.  I then went for my business school interview, which went great as well.  Upon leaving, I felt very good about just being myself and expressing my goals and desires with passion and energy.  If they want me, they want me.  I feel good about myself no matter what, and it's out of my hands.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of fun.  In addition to teaching a normal load of lessons, Justin was doing himself proud at the US Open.  So as my day passed, he finally made his way to leading the US Open!!   I'm so proud of him and happy for him and his family.  And I'm proud to have played a small part in his success and to be his friend.  A side effect of all of this was to get a whole bunch more calls from radio shows and journalists and a TV (Golf Channel) personality to get more information about Justin and my relationship with him.  Very exciting!

Anyway, lots of first today, but I will have to say that being the teacher of the first round leader in a US Open, one of the three biggest golf tournaments in the world, takes the cake.  I'm flying and on top of the world with happiness.  I smiled all day today!

So send him some good energy and best wishes these next few days and lets hope that we have a new US Open Champion on Sunday!  Love you all and thank you for your support and love.  I will keep you updated on everything and talk to you tomorrow!

Another community bank and banker

Wednesday, June 11.  Hello!  What's up?  Hope all is well with everyone.  I had another busy day today.  I have some golf lessons and did some running around.  I had a chance to talk to Justin out in San Diego today to catch up on how things are at the US Open.  He sounds good and I think he'll do well this year.  Other than that, I had a fantastic day!

My new experience for the day was to talk to Patrick Cavanaugh at United Bank and Trust about setting up a banking relationship with them and our real estate company.  He was very nice and I had a good vibe about the meeting, maybe even better than the other day's meeting with the nice folks at A2 Commerce Bank.  Both institutions treated me wonderfully.  I am thinking about doing all of my personal banking at one of the two branches too.  I just really like the community feel of the places.  All of the employees are super nice and it just feels better.  The bigger banks just feel colder and more corporate and rigid.  We'll see.  It's kind of a pain in the ass to transfer everything over, but I think I'll do it eventually.  They just make you feel like you live in a community, you know?

I will check in tomorrow, of course.  I am sure that I will have lots of interesting things tomorrow because I have my first interview on the radio, my interview at the Business School, and my normal golf teaching schedule.  Exciting stuff!  I hope you all have a fun and exciting day!  Talk to you later.  Bye!

Offering more but getting rejected

Tuesday, June 10.  Hi all!  I hope everyone is doing well.  I am doing well.  A full day of teaching today--8 hours in a row!  But that gave me a chance to be done by 5pm, which gave Paula and I a chance to go see a movie.  We saw the new Indiana Jones movie.  It was fun and pretty good, but not nearly as good as the originals from the 80's.  Overall, a pretty good day.

The new experience for the day was to have the highest offer out there for the student rental property, have financing lined up, and being rejected.  The seller chose to go with the offer that was $10,000 less!  Huh.  I guess that I don't understand everything about things if that happens.  I was told that there were "fewer contingencies" in the other offer.  If this means that the other buyer didn't need to verify income and expenses and rent rolls and get inspections done, then this was not the deal for us.  I can't quite believe that someone wouldn't want or need to get that information before buying, but I guess some go in with full trust.  Curious.

I'm a little disappointed, but overall ok about it all.  It was another good experience and means that there are going to be good deals out there, and probably even more deals at better prices as the economy flounders and real estate owners get nervous hanging onto their properties.  I feel very good and confident about things and will revisit the commercial property and a few other student rental properties as well.  Things are looking up and I will not be denied!  Great things are coming my way and coming soon.  Everything is coming together quite nicely.

Again, I hope all is well with all of you and I will check in again tomorrow!  Good day or good night, and don't forget to enjoy and laugh!  Later.

Readers and investors

Monday, June 9.  Hi everyone!  How are you today?  I hope you've all had good days.  I have had another busy but fun day.  Again, Monday is an off day for me, but I managed to stay really busy.  I started it off by sleeping in.  I was running on fumes for a while there.  This seems to be the start of a busy week!

Really a couple of new things to talk about today.  First is my first scheduled radio interview that has been scheduled for 7 am Thursday morning.  One of my students, Justin Hicks, has qualified for the US Open and the radio station wants to talk to me on air about the relationship.  Pretty cool!  I'm not too nervous about it but it'll be broadcast on about 10 stations throughout the state so I'll get some exposure.  I just hope I wake up for it!  I also have my Business School interview that morning so that'll be a busy day.

I also discovered during a nice chat with the folks at Ann Arbor Commerce Bank that I have readers other than my mom, my aunt, my sister, and the odd friend or two.  One of the office assistants recognized me from this blog!  How about that?  That makes me feel good and a little anxious at the same time because I don't know how many readers there are, now that I know that there is at least one!  Maybe a hundred?  Maybe a million?  Who knows?  All fun.

Lastly, money came through for the investment that Chad, Julie and I are looking to make in the form of Mom.  So thank you Mom for being strong and making a decision on your own (I'm proud of you), and believing in us and how we just want to make our futures brighter (I thank you from the bottom of my heart).  I promise to make you proud!

I love you all and hope you have a good day or night!  I'll keep you updated on this exciting week that is sure to be full of great surprises one way or another.  Remember to laugh and smile and take time to love those you love.  Life is really just too short to do anything else!  Later dudes.

A new restaurant for a new kind of celebration

Sunday, June 8.  Hi again.  Another hot and full day of golf teaching today.  I had my busiest week so far for the year.  Afterwards, Paula and I went to Troy to have a celebration dinner for Kirin and Coco at a newly opened place called Ocean Prime near Somerset Mall.  

It's nice to see the kids reach milestones and so I enjoyed being a part of it.  The food was also excellent and it has quickly climbed into my top 5 of best local restaurants.  It was also good to be able to see the family all together without drama.  I've decided that I'm going to take my good attitude and energy to EVERYTHING.  And I'll leave how all other people are gonna be their business.

Anyway, it was fun to try a great new restaurant and great to celebrate something with people I love.  From now on, I am celebrating everything and anything!  I hope you have a good day and enjoy!

A reunion

Saturday, June 7.  Hi all!  How are you doing?  I hope fine.  Today was an amazing day.  I taught 6 lessons, then got ready for my 20th high school reunion.  I had to be pushed and prodded a little bit by Paula, Julie, Glenn, and Ravi to go.  But I did.  The first one I've ever gone to.

Paula and I arrived at around 5:30 at Cranbrook and walked to the the Quad for the cocktail party.  And I had a great time.  It was great and weird to see faces of people that I had never thought about for 20 years.  I've kept in touch with very few, and had seen some during my college years, but for the most part I've done my own thing.  It was nice to reconnect.  The Quad party moved over to my friend Sam's house (actually his parents' house) near the school, at which we had something to eat and met up with more people that I didn't see at school.  

We left at about 10:30 and I really do have to give thanks to those who encouraged me to go, because I had a great time!  I'm gonna go because it's a busy day today, but I will talk to you soon!  Have a great one!

I will prosper

Friday, June 6.  Hello fans!  How are you?  I hope fine, and I am doing great!  Today was a busy day off, but a great one.  It started with a therapy session with Judy, where we talked about a lot of different things.  In the end, it was affirming and positive like many of the therapy sessions are.  And unlike in different times, I am committed to continuing at some pace with both Bob and Judy.  No reason to stop now that I feel better and am making huge progress with myself and growing as a person.

I also got a chance to talk to the founder of Ann Arbor Commerce Bank and I think he will be a good resource for all of my real estate goals.  I then went to see Larry my accountant, and found out that I'll be getting about $2,500 back from the IRS and another $600 from the relief stimulus thing.  Good good!

I then spent a couple of hours visiting with Glenn, my closest friend from high school.  We have not seen each other or spoken for probably 14 or 15 years.  It was fantastic to catch up and the old dynamic of good friends kicked right in.  We had and still have a lot of similar experiences with choosing non-traditional paths and really connected again.  He even said that I could be in an episode of his TV series "Damages" which is one of my favorite shows.  I am truly happy for his success and his happiness.  Awesome!

My new experience of the day, however, was to discover a source for funding and borrowing money called prosper.com, a community of peer to peer lending that may give me a chance to find the money to participate in the real estate deals.  It's just borrowing money from those willing to lend money online.  I have to research it more, but I think it might be good from what I've read so far.  It makes me really proud that last night I bounced back from feeling disappointed to feeling hopeful and trusting that my dreams would come true and trusting that my positive attitude and expectancy would pay off.  And the universe delivered me a possibility.  The power of positive thinking and never saying no and never giving up!  It works!  Try it sometime.  Pretty cool.

Well, that's all for now, tomorrow is another day of lessons followed by my 20th year reunion in the evening.  Should be interesting and I'll keep you posted.  Until then, my friends.

Not having enough money

Thursday, June 5.  Hi all.  Today was hot like Thailand and a busy day teaching golf.  There were seven teachers each working at least 8 hours today.  Wow.   Lots of lessons.  That took  up most of my day.  I had dinner with Paula and her family.  Her sister Michelle and her kids are in town from New Hampshire for Elliot's graduation from high school.  Not much after that, some TV and some relaxing.

Today's new experience is not having enough money to put on the down payments for two properties that I found that are cash flow positive.  The office building that I've talked about is a 17% return (if all the tenants stay) with $120,000 down.  I also found a new student rental that is a 12-14% return (all tenants are signed) with $81,000 down.  So at this point, I'm just giving the opportunities to Chad, Julie, and Derrick, a colleague of Chad's.  I'd rather have them have it than someone else.  To tell you the truth, it's very disappointing because I did all the work in finding them and it took over a year and a half of work just to find these two properties.  But I'm happy that those guys will have something that will pay them passive income of over $15,000 each per year.  They will get be able to get out of the rat race of working as they add to their portfolio and the money they make can eventually go towards buying other properties.  The idea is that in 10 years or so they won't have to work!  But that's life I guess and I feel that I learned a lot about the process and the business of real estate.  I'll just have to find a way to gather enough money to be able to put up a down payment myself, right?  Anyway, I'm glad that they got it and not someone else.  I'm disappointed but the sun is shining and it is a new day.  We'll see what happens today.  Bye for now.

I'm a journalist!

Wednesday, June 4.  Hi all!  How are you?  I hope doing great.  Today was another busy day.  Lots of golf lessons, some real estate action, and Elliot's high school graduation.  Elliot is Paula's youngest son, and he's done and moving on!  Paula also treated us to a great dinner at The Chophouse, and I had a huge bone-in ribeye steak.  A very nice piece of meat and a nice time.  The Red Wings also won the Stanley Cup tonight.  Fantastic.  I feel like sports do a lot to bring a city and a community together, so it's always great when a local team does well.

Today's new experience was getting my first article published in the Dexter Newspaper!  Yes!  I haven't actually seen it yet but Terry, the editor, told me he would send me a couple of copies, and said that they are ready for more articles from me.  How cool is that?  So I'm pretty pumped up about that and about all of the other things going on.  Some real estate deals that look pretty good, Muse opening in about a week, still getting Gabaan going, and helping Paula get the pie company off the ground.  Busy and exciting times for sure!

I hope you have had a nice day or night, and wish you the same for the upcoming day or night!  Enjoy, laugh, be present, and believe that great things are going to happen to us all!  Because they are!  See you tomorrow all, bye for now.

Finally some nicer student rentals

Tuesday, June 3.  In addition to teaching 7 hours today, I went to look at 3 more student rental properties.  It is part of a group of 11 or 12 properties owned by a trust that are being sold.  And all three were quite nice.  Not the animal house type trashed houses.  So that was a first.  I really liked the first one and decided to make an offer on it.  If all of the information is correct, then it will provide a nice cash flow right from year one.  I've been so patient in looking for the right opportunity, and I think that this one might be it!

There are just so many opportunities to invest now.  Muse is the nightclub in Thailand, Paula's pie business, a noodle shop, and real estate.  Choices are good to have.  Today was also the first time I looked at properties with someone other than Susan N.  Today Susan M. showed me the properties and maybe that'll change our luck!

I hope everyone is doing well.  I just keep moving along!  I'll talk to you again tomorrow.  Have a great day or night and keep on enjoying life!

Meeting a potential partner

Monday, June 2.  Hey all!  How are you?  I'm doing great.  It was my day off today, but I got a lot done.  I had a counseling meeting with Dr. Bob, and told him about all of the stuff that has happened over the last month.  We focused some on Paula and I and a LOT on my dad and I.  I won't bore you with the details, but basically he felt like I was making progress as a person and as a man by standing up to him and doing what I want to do with my life. 

After my session, I went to play nine holes with Paula and had a great time.  It was a beautiful day in Michigan, sunny and warm.

Then I went downtown to meet with Chad, Julie, Mom, the kids and finally met Derrick.  Derrick is a radiologist like Chad and is our new potential partner in our quest to invest in real estate.  They went to look at the property I have talked about in downtown.  I think that we have reopened the case and will seriously consider purchasing the share again.  So that's happy news!  It was nice to meet him and see everyone.  He seems like a genuinely nice guy and seems like a guy I'd want to partner up with.  We'll see.  But like I've said, it will happen sooner or later, just don't know how or when.  But it will happen.  I trust it and believe it with all of my heart.

So I bid you goodnight for tonight, and hope you have a good night or day.  Be happy, think about all we have and how lucky we are, and laugh and smile a lot until we talk again tomorrow.  Adios amigos!

A (stupid) rival

Sunday, June 1.  Hi everyone!  I hope you all are doing great!  I'm doing very well.  Today was another very busy day teaching.  Still a little jet lagged but getting better.  Paula's dog Lily died last night so it was a late night.  Sad but everyone is doing as good as they can do.

Today's new experience was finding out that I have a rival in the fedora making business.  And a jealous and petty one at that.  Ernie, the owner of the ad agency that does the commercials for Miles of Golf, the range where I work, is also developing a line of fedoras.  Today through one of my students I found out that he was very angry about me starting my company because he thought that I stole the idea from him.  Haha.  "Stole" the idea?  For making fedoras?  I guess I don't have that much to worry about because if he thinks that the idea is his, then he's just an idiot and won't be able to make his business work anyway.  What kind of childish craziness is that.  You can't own the idea of making hats.  Moron.  Anyway, it kind of pissed me off for a while, but whatever.  If his product is so good, he wouldn't be so sensitive, right?  And if he was at all confident, it wouldn't matter anyway.  Even if I did take the idea from him, which I didn't, it still wouldn't matter.  Stupid fool.

I dealt pretty well with it overall and had a good day anyway, but the next time I see him I will be sure to say something about his absolute idiocy.  That's like Coke being upset at Pepsi.  Anyway, have a great day or night and I'll talk to you tomorrow.  Thanks for all the love and support!  I can feel it everyday!