I’ve a few minutes before the next scheduled meeting. That’s only because
the meeting scheduled for right now has been cancelled. My boss Bruce
just came by a few minutes ago to let me know that I’ve been granted
a sizeable set of LSI Logic stock options. This grant is 7,500 shares at a
strike price of $12.80 per share. The grant vests at a rate of 25% per year.
That means, next year on May 1st, 1,875 of these share will be available for
me to exercise. I have ten years from now to exercise the options. What that
means is that I can do a “same-day transaction” of buying up to the vested
number of shares at $12.80 apiece, and then sell them for whatever the
market price is. The gain is then taxed as ordinary income.

For instance, five years from now I decide to exercise all 7,500 shares of
stock options and the market price is $25.00. I would have a net gain of
$91,500 (7,500*25.00 – 7,500*12.80). After taxes and stuff, that would
result in about $40,000 in my pocket. Obviously, if the stock price were to
be much higher by then, this would be an even more valuable transaction. On
the other hand, if the market price is below $12.80, then the options have
no value at all.

The purpose of stock options is to provide incentive to the employee to stay
with the company and help the stock price to increase. These 7,500 shares of
options along with the options I’ve been given previously, make up a
significant portion of our retirement money. Here’s what’s available to me
right now:

9,000 shares at a strike price of $11.188
4,000 shares at a strike price of $20.938
4,000 shares at a strike price of $12.50
4,500 shares at a strike price of $18.50
4,000 shares at a strike price of $55.50
6,000 shares at a strike price of $21.34

If the stock price got to $60 and I exercised the entire shebang — it would
result in a gain of $1,771,226 of which about half would end up in my
pocket, definitely enough to retire on. On the other hand, if the stock
price were to only get to $30 a share, then the net gain falls to just over
$500,000 and that’s not enough to retire on!!

It has been cold here this week, once again (I’m in California…). It
rained on Monday and Tuesday, but they say the rain is over for the week.
Last night one of my managers in Colorado, Porter Harrison, arrived for some
meetings today and tomorrow. We went to a little Japanese restaurant for
dinner and he got his first real taste of Japanese food. I sure enjoyed my
fare … it appears that he did as well.

Bruce’s staff meeting is in a little while. That will take the rest of the
afternoon. We’ve a dinner tonight celebrating our recent renegotiation on
the North American Wide Area Network. I’ll be well fed today….

This entry was transferred from an older journaling system on 29 November 2002.

The day hasn’t been particularly cooperative so far! I can try to blame it
on the day, but that probably won’t stick. I got up at 4 a.m. to get ready
to leave for Milpitas today. I was intending to leave about 5 a.m. but
didn’t get out the door until 5:15. I got partway down the hill and realized
that I had forgotton to pack any slacks. The only pants I had with me were
the ones I was wearing. So, back to the house to get pants. That made it
5:30 before I was really driving away. I then checked my airline schedule —
I thought my flight was leaving at 6:40 a.m. Wrong. It was leaving at 6:20
a.m.

I drove quite quickly to the airport and then got a VERY SLOW shuttle
driver. It was all of 6:00 when I got to the ticket agent. The line for
security was longer than I’ve ever seen it in Colorado Springs. As a result,
I missed my flight. I was going to fly on a new service that United has
established flying from Colorado Springs to Los Angeles and then to San Jose
on a new smaller regional jet. I’m scheduled to fly back on the reverse of
that route and hopefully all will work out for that trip. As it stands,
we’re about 20 minutes into a 2 hour 20 minute flight to San Jose and I’m in
a middle seat. The guy on my left is trying to sleep, so he isn’t taking up
much room. The guy on my right is a pretty skinny guy and that helps a lot.
So far everything is smooth and quiet. I am at least quite close to the
front of the plane so I should be able to get off quickly. We’re over
western Colorado right now and will be in the Salt Lake area in about 40
minutes. I really dislike middle seats! I sure feel hemmed in and somewhat
captive. It gets much worse if the guy in front of me decides to put his
seat back. So far, so good.

I’ll be in Milpitas until Friday mid-day. The other two managers who work
for me in Colorado Springs are flying out to California this week as well so
that we can have a planning session on Thursday morning. Haven’t done one of
those for quite a while. Should be good to get all four of my managers
together at the same time.

Yesterday was Stake Conference. We had the morning session (the stake is
large enough that the conference is split across two meetings. The wards
which meet in the morning normally attend the morning session of conference.
The wards which meet in the afternoon attend the afternoon session). The
Stake Presidency has decided to institute a “Season of Rededication” to
continue through November. This plan germinated when the Stake President
was in China for a couple of weeks on his first
trip to that part of the world. He was quite struck by the poverty of the
Chinese people, particularly when compared to the life of luxury that we
have in Colorado Springs. Then Church Headquarters issued a letter calling
on all the stakes in the U.S. to have a special day of fasting and mighty
prayer on behalf of the missionary program of the church. That will be held
on June 17th. Finally, the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple will be dedicated on June
24th at the time that Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred in Carthage,
Illinois, some 160 years ago. All of that culminated in the “Season of
Rededication.” Three challenges were issued to the Stake yesterday (and were
discussed in some detail in the meetings on Saturday afternoon and evening):
Perfect a soul, Find a soul, and Redeem a soul.

Perfecting a soul has to do with our own personal circumstances. We are
being asked to raise our performance, faith, and commitment to the next
level, whatever that might be. Finding a soul has to do with missionary
work. We are being asked to find and prepare one person to hear the
missionary discussions. Redeeming a soul, or course, has to do with temple
work. We are being asked to do the family history work on one person and
take that person through the temple. All of this is to be done by November
when the Priesthood Leaders will conduct a PPI with every member of the ward
to obtain an accountability of how they have done on these three challenges.

This Stake Conference was memorable for another reason! There was a lot of
music programmed into the meeting. We had an opening hymn by the
congregation along with a rest hymn (but we only sang two verses of the
hymn). The Stake Choir performed two numbers, including the closing hymn. In
addition, two other solos were performed. One was by a 14-year-old young
lady with a major talent and the other by a fellow with a spectacular bass
voice. So there were six pices of music planned along with 8 speakers. Not
bad for two hours. I was particulary pleased with the amount of music! I
need to send a letter to the Stake Presidency expressing my appreciation to
them for the music. It brings a spirit to the meeting that is hard to
duplicate in any other way.

Saturday we were at the temple for the afternoon. We asked to leave a
half-hour early so that we could get back to Colorado Springs to attend the
evening meeting of Stake Conference which both of us needed to attend. It
was a pretty busy day at the temple. This is the time of year when a number
of people come to the temple for the first time for their own endowment. The
college year has just ended and young men getting ready to go on missions
come to the temple or young men and women getting married come to the
temple. Most of the marriages are scheduled for the morning and most of the
missionaries are scheduled for the afternoon to balance out things. In
addition, the third Saturday is Spanish Day when we have a session in the
morning and another one in the afternoon in Spanish. Their afternoon session
on Saturday had 8 people going through for their own endowments.

Next Saturday will also be very interesting. The Shift Coordinator (Br.
Richard Stott) and the Assistant Coordinator (Br. Mike Pacheco) are both
going to be gone, so the shift supervision falls to me. It should be quite
interesting…. Fortunately, most of the brethren know what they’re doing
and are willing to do whatever is asked of them.

We have come into the Salt Lake area — or at least well south of it. It’s
quite hazy today and hard to tell exactly where we are, but as best I can
figure we’re on the southern route. There’s a pretty big fire burning down
below us. It has been a very dry spring resulting in a number of pretty
serious fires burning. We’ve gotten a little rain recently in Colorado
Springs, but are still only at about half of the water we should have
received by this time in the year.

The deck didn’t get finished. We had enough rain that I wasn’t able to do
the staining. I did get the hot tub finished and it looks quite nice. I have
enough stain left over to do the hot tub again next year. When I get back on
Saturday morning before going to the temple I’ll empty the hot tub, clean
out the filter, and refill the tub. The water needs to be replaced every
three months or so and the last time I did that was in December.

Then we’re headed to Utah and Idaho for the week following Memorial Day.
After we get back from that trip, the deck will definitely get finished.
I’ll sand it down and start staining. It’ll probably take two mornings to do
the sanding and two mornings to do the staining and sealing. Then when
that’s done, I’ll get all of the windows washed on the outside. We haven’t
done those since we moved into the house. High time that they got cleaned
up. I’ll need to wash the frames as well as the windows.

Enough rambling. Time to wrap this up for today.

Transferred from an older journaling system on 29 November 2002

The refurbishment of the deck continues. What I thought would take three
or four days at the most is now well over two weeks and it might not get
done before I have to leave for California next Monday morning! This has
turned out to be a substantial piece of work. I started staining the hot
tub today thinking it would take about an hour or so. Two hours later I
only had two side done and had to quit as it was getting too dark to
see. It’s quite tedious and the wood is really soaking up the stain.
I’ve still got quite a bit of sanding to do (tomorrow morning?) before I
can start the deck itself. I was hoping to start on the deck tomorrow
night after work, but the hot tub will need to get finished first. The
two sides I’ve finished are the easy part — the other two sides I have
to do through the railing on the deck and not get the railing stained.

We are in a major drought. Lots of clouds overhead but no moisture
falling to the ground. It’s currently 66 degrees with 44% humidity and
the barometer is rising. There are thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow
which would, of course, further delay getting the deck finished.

Today was a work-from-home day. Spent the morning in phone meetings. At
lunch Nina and I retrieved the camping trailer from its current storage
lot and transferred it to a new home out by Petersen AFB. The place
where it was raised their rates once again, now charging $67 a month.
The new place is about twenty-minutes further away, but charges $30 a
month for a pull-through slot. That is quite a bonus! The slot is a
straight shot from the entrance as well. Much easier to put the camper
away. We’ll use the camper over the 4th of July weekend when we go up to
Soda Springs for my class reunion.

There isn’t very much news! Looking ahead, I’ll be in California all of
next week. Leave Monday the 20th and return on Friday the 24th. That
Saturday I’m the substitute for the substitute shift coordinator at the
temple. Well leave on Sunday to go to Utah for the week, returning that
Friday. We’ll spend Monday and Tuesday in Orem and then go up to Soda
Springs for a couple of days. Dad had another stent put into his heart a
couple of weeks ago so we want to visit up there as often as possible.

My normal assignment at the temple is the shift trainer. My job is to
help folks get qualified to work at different assignments they can
receive. We have two new brothers on the shift so they keep me busy.
We’re also very short staffed, so there isn’t much of an opportunity for
brothers to work in the initiatory and learn that dialog. There are
quite a few assignments:

Patron Guide: This person sits in the lobby near clothing and provides
directions and assistance to patrons coming into the temple. We almost
never have enough staff to give this assignment to someone.

Locker Guide: This person rotates folks through the lockers so that we
don’t have too many people waiting for someone to get finished with
their locker. This is another position that we almost never staff. In
the Oakland Temple, the lockers are out in a common area with dressing
rooms along the walls. It’s a better system, I think.

Initiatory: There are three assignments working in the initiatory —
washing, annointing, and clothing. There is also an Initiatory
Coordinator who often also fills one of the three assignments as well.
We so short of staff that we only have the initiatory working when
someone comes for their own endowment or someone shows up with family
file work to be done. Then we really have to scramble to provide at
least two workers for the initiatory.

Name Issue: This person slices off proxy names if the patron doesn’t
have a family file name to do. He also scans the name into the computer
and stamps it. Quite often this position isn’t staffed and the New Name
person does both jobs.

New Name: This person performs the new name ceremony and directs the
patron into the chapel to wait for the endowment session to start.

Sealing Guide: This person assists a brother who is coming to the temple
to be sealed / married. The major task here is to get the brother
properly clothed and looking sharp for his bride.

Own Endowment Guide: This person assists a brother who is coming to the
temple for the first time to take out his own endowment. The assignment
takes about an hour and a half and consists of getting the brother to
the Recorder, then through the initiatory, and finally to the President
for instruction prior to going on an endowment session. This assignment
is very enjoyable and all the brothers look forward to this assignment.

Session Follower: When there are more than 12 brothers on the session,
or the session is an own-endowment session, then a brother follower is
assigned to be on the session. When there is a brother follower, then
that person conducts the prayer circle as well. We also use this
assignment as a way to train a brother to officiate a session.

Session Officiator: This person directs an endowment session. It starts
with opening the room fifteen minutes before the start of the session
and preparing it for the session. Quite often the officiator will work
New Name for a half-hour prior to opening up the session room. After the
session, the Officiator straightens up the room and closes the room.

Veil Presentor: This person works on the patron’s side of the veil and
assists the patron as needed. Some of the veil positions are for sisters
and will have a sister presentor. The others are for brothers and will
have a brother presentor.

Veil Receiver: This person works on the other side of the veil and
received the patron into the Celestial Room. The temple has four
endowment rooms, two on the north side and two on the south side. There
are 11 veil positions on the north side and another 11 on the south
side. Up to 11 presentors and receivers will be assigned to work on a
session. The actual number assigned depends on the number of patrons on
the session. Sometimes we really scramble to have enough people to work
on the veil when a session ends with a lot of patrons on the session.

Veil Assistant Coordinator: This person assists in staffing the
receivers on the veil and then supervises the operation on the back side
of the veil at the end of each session.

Veil Coordinator: This person staffs the presentors and manages the
front side of the veil. Quite often the two veil coordinators will
switch off the assignments.

Shift Trainer: Responsible for training the brethren on each of the
assigments and verifying that they can perform the assignments given to
them. Also conducts the weekly training session which is part of prayer
meeting at the beginning of each shift.

Shift Assistant Coordinator: This person is responsible for loading
endowment session, assigning the witness couples, and getting the
session ready to start. He also assists the Shift Coordinator and
substitutes when the coordinator can’t be there. The Assistant
Coordinator is responsible for closing up the back of the temple — all
the endowment rooms, sealing rooms, and Celestial Room.

Shift Coordinator: This person supervises the brethren and makes the
assignments for the shift. The job starts with making up the schedule of
assignments, preparing the agenda for the prayer meeting, and then
managing the work on the shift. It’s a very busy assignment and includes
a monthly meeting in the temple with the Temple Presidency.

We generally need about 25 brothers on our Saturday afternoon shift to
be able to handle all of the assignments. Right now we are staffed with
18 brothers and a few of them don’t show up on occasion.

Our first endowment session starts at 1:00 p.m. and a session is
scheduled for each half hour. The last session starts at 4:00 p.m. A
session takes about 90 minutes, so our first veil is also at 1:00 p.m.
The last veil is at 5:30 p.m. It is a very busy afternoon — but very
enjoyable. I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing than working at
the temple on a Saturday afternoon.

This entry was transferred from an older journalling system to this program on 29 November 2002.

It’s coming up on time to head for bed. I’ve been getting up early and
working on the deck for about an hour or so before spending a few
minutes in the hot tub, and then cleaning up to go to work. The deck
hasn’t been refinished, stained, or sealed since it was built about 5
years ago. It was getting into sorry shape. So, since Monday morning
I’ve been working on cleaning the wood so that it can be stained and
sealed. I’ve got at least two more days of work to complete the cleaning
process, and maybe three days. The railing around the deck is taking the
most time and by the time I spend an hour or so, I’m pretty sore. I
still need to finish the railing, do the hot tub, and then do the deck
floor one more time. Then after it dries for at least 24 hours, I can
begin doing the actual staining and sealing. Hopefully when I’m done
it’ll be looking like a deck that has been somewhat maintained.

It has been extremely dry here in Colorado. Some have referred to this
as the hundred-year drought. Today was the first rain in a very long
time, and it only lasted for about a half hour. We’ve had a number of
wildfires around the area, and it will probably get worse as spring
turns into summer. But with the rain today a cold front has moved
through making the evening very cool. We even turned the furnace on to
warm up the house a little bit. It’ll likely be too cold tomorrow to use
the cleaning solution. If so, then I’ll use the morning to do some
repair work on the deck. I need to fix a board on the steps and tighten
up a number of screws.

It’s a Wednesday evening. The noise on the TV is the Colorado Avalanche
in hockey playoffs against the San Jose Sharks. Just at the end of the
2nd period Colorado leads this game 2-1. San Jose leads the series 2-1.

Today the Chairman and CEO of LSI Logic, Wilf Corrigan, visited the
office. He conducted a briefing on the current company situation for
about an hour or so and then took questions. LSI Logic was severely
impacted by the high-tech implosion last year and is just now starting
to recover. He says that we’ll be cash-flow positive by the end of the
2nd quarter (end of June) and will return to profitability in September
to October. Meanwhile our stock has tanked. It got down to below $10 a
share yesterday but last night’s announcements from Cisco and GE caused
a pretty good market bounce. The stock recovered to just over $14 today.
It can stay down around these numbers for another week, however, since
the Employee Stock Savings Program will do their stock buy on May 14th.
The cheaper the better as that sets the buying price for the next year.
Further, I should have been granted a number of stock options last week,
again at a very favorable price. I’ll be retiring in five to seven years
and these options are a key component of our retirement savings program.

I’m headed for bed in a few minutes. I’m worn out and Nina has already
headed that direction. Perhaps more later this week!

This entry was copied from an older journal into this system on 29 November, 2002.

I’m watching “Star Trek — Return of the Jedi” on TV, checking e-mail, and
wrapping things up for the night. I’d like to get to bed by about 9:30.
Tomorrow after some meetings in the morning I’m headed back home to Colorado
Springs. It’s been a pretty busy week. Lots of meetings. This morning was
the annual shareholders meeting. It was an interesting meeting. Wilf
declared the recession over and said that our book to bill ratio had climbed
above 1 (that is, we were getting more bookings that we were shipping
product. That means the backlog is starting to build). I’d sure like for the
stock price to start moving upward again. Our retirement depends on the
stock options having some reasonable value.

I went up to Oakland to the temple last night. I left work about 4:30. The
traffic was reasonable and I got to the temple a little after 6:00 p.m. I
had dinner in the cafeteria before going on the 7:00 p.m. session. The
session was sparsely attended — 5 sisters and 8 brothers. It’s interesting
to me that the attendance at the Denver Temple is better than at the Oakland
Temple, which is about 5 times the size of the Denver Temple in a district
at least five times the population.

It has been very cold here this week. It rained on Tuesday and was cloudy
most of Wednesday. The sun was out today, but it was still chilly. I’ll
leave tomorrow just as the weather warms up. I could easily have used my
leather jacket here this week. I keep cranking up the heat in the room
trying to keep reasonably warm. It’ll be good to get back to warmer country.

This entry was copied from an older journal system into this program on November 29, 2002.