artificial christmas trees

It's that time of year -- time to decorate the Christmas tree. We enjoy letting the girls pick out their favorite ornaments and place them around the tree. A few years ago we decided to buy an artificial Christmas tree and it has survived several moves back and forth across the country. No needles to pick up and the lights are already wired on! It doesn't get much better than that!

One of the items we picked up at Blue Haven Pools & Spas for our holiday catalog are artificial Christmas trees. And these are not your big-box discount store trees ... these are really nice trees. Click here to see our collection of artificial Christmas trees.

gift cards for fire victims

LifePoint is partnering with Pomerado Christian Church in Poway to provide relief and assistance to families who lost or suffered damage in the recent San Diego fires. We are collecting gift cards from stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, etc., that will be distributed by Pomerado Christian Church to families in their community. You may bring your gift card to any LifePoint event and we will route them to PCC. Thank you for your help and support!

beating your drum too loud

Every now and then I'll crank out a line in a message that I really like -- I should do that more often! Here is one that came to me as I writing out tomorrow's message: "Sometimes we beat our drum so loud that we drown out the music of God."

a new look, same old me

In good lawyer terms, "on or around" my birthday I decided to shave off my goatee. This also coincided with a new pair of glasses and a haircut. No need to worry about a fancy sports car ... my 1996 Honda Accord is paid for!

Inflatable Fun for Winter

People in San Diego talk about visiting the snow for an afternoon. Growing up in Illinois, the snow visited you ... for about three months out of the year. I would have loved to have had one of the winter inflatables that we sell at Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct. Given that I made due with the lid to a garbage can, I would have been in snow heaven on a Rugged Rush Snow Tube or a Nordic Express. Of course, I'm too old for that now ... :-)

See them all in our holiday section.

latest project at blue haven

We've been working on several projects at Blue Haven related to the launch of our holiday catalog. One of the most effective was a recent email blast we sent out to over 54,000 people. It's been really cool to see the results roll in. The email blast was a basic HTML newsletter that I designed, similar to the ones I send out for LifePoint.

Another project that has consumed much time has been our Whitehall section. Whitehall is a leading provider of home and garden decorations and accents. They are especially well known for their weathervanes. We created a special landing page that features only Whitehall products. Take a peek and let me know what you think.

san diego fire relief

Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct, my day job, is located in downtown San Diego. As part of the San Diego community, we have decided to offer help to those who suffered loss in the recent fires. We will be scheduling a volunteer work day to assist with clean up. In addition, we've created a page where people can purchase basic pool cleaning supplies that will be donated to homeowners who need them. You can find the page here.

san diego fires

Just a quick note to let all my friends out in the blogosphere know that we are OK. Several major fires are burning throughout San Diego County but we are a safe distance away. With Santa Ana winds, that could change rather quickly but we feel very blessed. Over 500,000 people were asked to evacuate their homes. Please keep our friends and neighbors in your prayers.

dancing fools

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!Tonya and I getting a little exercise, compliments of Jib Jab.

it's ho ho ho time already

Ready or not ... it's true ... the Christmas shopping season is already upon us!

I just wrapped up the holiday redesign of Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct -- and it's not even November. We "flipped the switch" yesterday morning.

This coincides with our first-ever Holiday catalog, set to hit mailboxes starting this week. We've added an array (I've been looking for a way to say array) of diverse and fun products.

Take a look for yourself ... who knows ... you might just be inspired to buy me The Tingler!

Buy Me One!

i've been trained to make coffee

It's official -- I've been trained to make coffee. In order to continue consuming mass quantities of free coffee at work, I had to go to training. That seemed fair enough to me. Now I'm dangerous ...

divine appointments

"Divine appointments." That’s a phrase I first heard several years ago and it immediately made sense. A divine appointment is one that God places in your path. It may be an unexpected phone call, a question from a stranger, or even the reason behind why you went to Coco’s instead of somewhere else to eat.

I enjoyed a divine appointment last Friday night as I was leaving work. Our parking deck is less than a block from our building and I had just crossed over Broadway on my way to go home. Looking over my shoulder, I see Steve Denney walking up behind me.

Steve is the pastor at CityWalk Christian Church, the downtown church that LifePoint supports with our missions tithe. We’ve had the blessing of helping Steve establish a different type of church for the ever-growing downtown community.

Rather than hop in the car and head home, I ended up taking an hour’s walk with Steve through his neighborhood. I got to see and experience what makes Steve so excited about CityWalk and the opportunity to impact downtown San Diego for God. It was the best way to end a day of work!

Some would say that it was only coincidental that Steve and I crossed paths. Others might say that it was mathematically just a matter of time before we stumbled across each other. Steve lives downtown, I work downtown -- it was just a matter of time.

I’d rather believe that God knew we needed to connect and placed us both at the same intersection at the same time.

Have you had an divine appointments lately? It’s very likely that you have but may not have thought they were. Many of our divine appointments are less obvious than bumping into a good friend in the midst of downtown. They may even come from someone you’ll never see again.

A key part of our spiritual growth is simply being aware of what God is doing. Keep your eyes open -- you might have a divine appointment scheduled.

i like jesus but the church ...

Why are most people OK with Jesus but not too hip about the church?

That’s a question that modern-day followers of Jesus need to wrestle with. Many pre-Christians and non-church-going folks are attracted to Jesus -- but not his church.

In some cases, it stems from a lack of truly understanding Jesus. In my own life, as I’ve learned more about Jesus, it often challenges me to change something I’d rather hold onto. I’ve discovered that Jesus is far from a soft and cuddly action figure. He’s a cultural and moral risk-taker who challenges his followers to do the same.

That might be enough to unsettle a few of those who claim to like Jesus but not the church.

But that’s only part of the answer. The other part of the answer lies on the inside, not on the outside. It’s a call for the church to practice self-reflection.

It’s too easy to say we’re just misunderstood. That’s a defensive answer that will win no one over to Jesus. The Bible places the burden on the church to paint an authentic picture of what life is like within the faith community. If we are misunderstood, maybe it’s because we’ve allowed it to happen.

Being a part of a church should be noticeably different than attending a business meeting or hanging out at happy hour. There should be the unmistakable spiritual atmosphere that brings to live true priorities, true purpose, and true meaning.

In a culture that is shifting away from Christian influences, churches may be tempted to change
things politically or rely more on marketing to attract crowds.

Neither is inherently wrong. But when they become the dominant identifier of the church, perhaps we’ve lost our way.

Wouldn’t it be much better if a non-believer could say, “If Jesus is like that church, then sign me up!”

brand management

As I have said before, I will say again: I am big fan of all-things Google. One of the many things I enjoy about Google are the little surprises they throw your way ... like the ability to do math by typing it in the search bar. Try it sometime: type “2+2” and hit enter. Or put “half a cup in teaspoons” and hit search.

In an age when corporations are all about protecting their “brand,” Google again stands out. Have you ever visited Google and seen a different version of the Google logo? (Visit the archive of Google logos).

Churches lose their way when they become concerned about their “brand.” It’s easy to fall into the image-driven trap of our culture -- to worry more about how you’re perceived than what you’ve become.

Jesus had brand identity: love God and love others.

questions and answers

I started a weekly Q&A at LifePoint last Sunday. We began circulating question cards a few weeks earlier and the response has been really good. It's open to any questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, LifePoint, or the SETI project. OK, maybe no questions about UFO’s.

the first official affiliate

It's true ... I'm the first official affiliate partner with Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct. We're rolling a test affiliate program and since my blog gets swamped by pool enthusiasts from across the globe, I decided to sign up!

Don't worry -- you can sign up, too. Just click here to be on your way.

julian fire

After picking the aforementioned apples, we set off for the town of Julian, intent on spending an afternoon strolling the streets. For those who aren't San Diego locals, Julian is a historic mining town set in the hills above San Diego. It dates back to the 1800s and is a local treasure.

We were greeted on the road into town by passing fire engines and helicopters flying over head. Yes, we arrived at the same time a fire broke out just over the hill from Julian. From our parking lot we snapped the following pictures:

picking apples

I can remember going with my parents to an orchard just outside of Peoria. I believe it was called Tanner's Orchard, though I'm not one hundred percent certain. We could pick our own apples and drink apple cider made right at the orchard.

So we decided to take the family up to Julian to a local orchard. We found one through the Julian Chamber of Commerce website and had a blast filling up a bag with apples. The girls went from tree to tree and got to pick their own apples, including a few "baby" apples. Here are a few pictures from the grand event ...

christian threads

Like many companies, our’s has a company shirt that it gives out to employees. It’s a simple blue polo shirt with the Blue Haven logo embroidered on the left side. I was flattered when they handed me a medium-sized shirt during my new employee welcoming party. Flattery quickly gave way to reality and I swapped it out for a large.

Since one of my determining factors for picking clothes to wear involves choosing the least-wrinkled option, I chose to wear my new shirt to work last week. And so did three of my co-workers and the president of our parent company. We joked about posing for a group picture -- and at least one of the ladies considered leaving early.

As a man, I was thinking ... "If I’m careful and hang this up when I get home, I might get another day of wear out of it."

Companies give out shirts to build camaraderie and team spirit. It’s fairly inexpensive and it helps foster a good feeling among employees.

As Christ-followers, we’ve been issued a set of clothing as well. In fact, it was more like an exchange -- we gave up our old wardrobe in exchange for a new one filled with God’s idea of fashion. Obviously, I’m not talking threads but values and principles and priorities.

The Bible describes the redemptive process in this way: "You are all sons and daughters through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Galatians 3:26-27).

It should be no surprise that when Christians gather for worship or meet over coffee, that they show up wearing the same "clothes." If you’ll pardon my pun in advance, the one common thread we all share is Jesus. As the old hymns says, "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love."

So the next time you bump into a fellow Christ-follower, greet her by saying, "I just love what you’re wearing." You and I will know what you mean :-)

toy recalls

I'm very interested in all these toy recalls, especially the ones involving Mattel. Back in August when the issue first started heating up and before Mattel was forced to recall not one but multiple items, this quote appeared in the August 3, 2007, copy of the Wall Street Journal:

Mattel won't publicly name the manufacturer until the El Segundo, Calif.,
company completes an investigation of how the toys were tainted. But Jim Walter,
the company's senior vice president of world-wide quality assurance, said, "It's
my understanding that they are producing toys for other companies." He said if
products from the factory were sold to other companies, it would be the
responsibility of the factory owner, not Mattel, to alert them.

"We have no right to go in there to ask, 'Who else are you
producing for, and what else are you making?' " Mr. Walter
said. He added that he had personally received no calls from toy companies
seeking the name of the factory. The Toy Industry Association, which has close
ties to Mattel, said it hadn't asked for information on the toys' source.

That Mr. Walter is the senior vice president of "world-wide quality assurance" is not reassuring to me as a parent. His quote strikes me as "we have no moral or ethical responsibility to our consumers if it doesn't wear a Mattel label."

First of all, a company as large as Mattel surely knows who else is using their vendors and manufacturers. Do they have an a moral or ethical responsibility to their consumers? I think so. Where is the "greater good" concept that people used to believe in?

Personally, I believe most of the toy industry is in the same bed as Mattel and knowingly so. It's hard to believe that these many products could come from the same country and the senior vice president of world-wide quality assurance didn't know they had lead in them.

Second of all, how did this guy get to be a senior vice president of world-wide quality assurance and still allow himself to be quoted like this in the WSJ?

It's obviously a much wider issue than just toys and Mattel. The larger issue is our dependence on cheap stuff and, therefore, our addiction to Chinese resources.

Now, of course, the company is taking a totally different posture and the CEO is putting out warm fuzzy videos that seek to "empathize" with parents and consumers. Maybe it's conscience; it's probably a simple matter of economics spelled C-L-A-S-S- A-C-T-I-O-N- L-A-W-S-U-I-T-S.