Saturday, June 28, 2003

In order to escape the heat, we headed about 90 miles east for a day hike in the Sierras. We did a four mile hike on the Caples Creek trail. Jack hiked about 3 1/2 of the four miles; I ended up carrying him only about 1/2 mile.




Friday, June 27, 2003

hot, Hot, HOT It reached almost 104 degrees today at our house.

We went to dinner with Sharon's parents and both of her brother's families to celebrate her parents 61st wedding anniversary! Afterwards, everyone went back to her parent's house and Sharon made an amazing Baked Alaska.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

It rarely gets over 100 degrees at our house. Last year, there were only five days with temperatures over 100. We are about a mile and a half east of the main channel of the Sacramento River and almost always get a breeze in the afternoon. Nevertheless, today, the temperature hit almost 101. This is the first 100 degree day at our house since July 10 of last year.

Unfortunately, this afternoon was the Sutter Health Support Services company picnic! Sharon, Jack and I went to the picnic at a park off of the Garden Highway. Jack did a few games and activities, but it was just too hot.

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

I have a series of meeting in San Francisco tomorrow starting at 8:00 a.m. so we headed over to the city late this afternoon. We stayed at the Galleria Park Hotel and ate at Ristorante Fior d'Italia. Established May 1, 1886, the Ristorante Fior d'Italia claims to be America's oldest Italian restaurant.




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Friday, June 20, 2003

Sharon and I met with our financial advisors this morning: David Stone and Adam Andelin. We worked on the annual update to our financial plan.

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Jack has been taking swimming lessons every night for the last two weeks.




Today is also Hunter's 50th birthday. I left him a voice message yesterday about getting together for a beer but have not heard back from him.

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

I spent one and a half hours at the dentist this morning getting a root canal. The only good news was that it gave me a chance to catch up with Mike Wilson, my dentist. Mike is another old aggie. He and I played rugby together in Sacramento after he came back from dental school in D.C. We had a wide ranging conversation while the Novocain took effect that included his two boys, 11 and 14, and his trip to Paris.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Ranked by staffed acute-care beds, Sutter Health is the second largest secular not-for-profit healthcare system in the United States.



Saturday, June 14, 2003

Jack and I scooped up Morgan and headed to the Bell's. The Bell's have started a tradition of hosting a barbecue on the Saturday before Father's Day. They have a group that heads to the Crawdad Festival on Friday. They barbecue and hang out by the pool on Saturday and finish up the weekend recovering and watching the last round of the US Open on Sunday.

Sharon did her first wedding as a wedding coordinator and then met us at Matt and Sherry's. Anyone who gets a chance should ask Sharon about her first time as a wedding coordinator; it was a unique experience.

We swam in the pool and enjoyed a Matt's barbecue!







Friday, June 13, 2003

2003 SHSS IT Golf Tournament plus preschool graduation

Friday was one of those days where everything seems to fall on the same day. Sutter Health Support Services IT Department held its annual charity golf tournament. In the past two years, Sharon and I have played in a foursome with Donna and Kevin Gainsley. Sharon had another commitment so we recruited Jayne Wong, Sutter's IBM account rep and the wife of someone (Randy Wong) who I have gotten to know personally and professionally over the last sixteen years. We started off pretty well; we were 1 over after six. Then, as Kevin aptly described, the wheels came off and we bogeyed six straight holes... The weather was wonderful and we had a great time.

I bolted from the golf tournament to attend Jack's preschool graduation. Jack has gone to daycare at the same place for more than four years. There are a number of kids who have been together since they were six months old. They are all starting to spin off to kindergarten.

Finally, Sharon enlisted to be a wedding coordinator for the church and today was the first wedding she was coordinating. She spent the afternoon working with the Priest and the wedding party at the rehearsal.





Thursday, June 12, 2003

A ranking by net patient revenue in Modern Healthcare shows Sutter Health as the tenth largest healthcare system in the United States.



Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Elk Grove is the fastest-growing city in Sacramento County and the second-fastest in the six-county region, behind Lincoln in Placer County. In particular, Elk Grove Boulevard west of the old downtown is being developed rapidly. There was a good article titled: "Elk Grove Boulevard: Fields today, dreams tomorrow" in the Sunday Sacramento Bee that outlines the planned growth. We live at the western end of Elk Grove Boulevard and about two miles west of the intersection of Elk Grove and Franklin.




Sunday, June 08, 2003

We took Sharon's mom and dad to church at St. Marys this morning. Afterwards we stopped by Kim and Brun's and saw their one month old baby, Velta.

Saturday, June 07, 2003

After a number of hectic weekends in row, we stayed closer to home today. Sharon, Jack and I went to see Finding Nemo this afternoon at the UA Laguna theater. Afterwards we wandered across the street for a graduation party that our neighbors were having for their daughter who just graduated from UC Santa Cruz. We ended up staying a couple of hours and having a great dinner and a nice time.

Their house is on the lake and it fed some discussions that Sharon and I have had about wishing we had brought a lake lot! After going out to dinner on Friday night, we had driven around Laguna West looking at houses on the lake.

Thursday, June 05, 2003

Sutter Health is pursuing several IT initiatives that stress patient safety. We are working on two very rewarding projects: building electronic ICUs and a system to reduce medication errors. Both of these projects are outlined in a recent article in InformationWeek.

Monday, June 02, 2003

We finished up a quick trip to San Diego by wandering around the Zoo this morning for a couple of hours.




Sunday, June 01, 2003

Sharon successfully ran the Rock and Roll marathon in San Diego today as a fund raiser for the American Stroke Foundation. She did great! Here is a copy of the message that she sent out afterwards:

From: Sharon Heringer
Subject: I did it!

Well it was a long day – starting at 3:15 am and finishing around 2:00 pm but it was a wonderful, hard, and great experience. Thank you again to all my donors and emotional supporters. It was an honor and an incentive to run for my mom and all my other stroke heros. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Attached below you will find a link to a website with pictures from throughout the day. Mark and Jack met me at mile 10, 19 and the finish line for support.

http://www.heringer.org/marathon/index.html