You can view read my blogs, see my speaking schedule, and view photos and videos. As well, you'll find out news (important and trivial) and get my quick thoughts (mostly trivial) on a frequent basis...like a mini-blog if you will.
Keep on coming back, I promise to keep it up to date!
-Had a chance to see some dear friends who are visiting from out of town. Ken and Aya were here from Beijing (theirs was the wedding I served in as a Bridesman or Groomsmaid). We were able to catch-up over a nice lunch. Also, Phyllis is visiting for a month from New York. Along with Joyce and Liz, the three of them were instrumental in helping me get through UBC Commerce.
-Kayla Marie got her ears pierced at 4 months and 4 days old.
-The polls have closed and the results are in. Check out our findings as Gail and I enlisted the aid of our friends and family in determiningTip or No Tip. Gail has until the end of the month to write and recite me a love poem!
As I was leaving Best Buy at Lansdowne yesterday, I ran into (not literally) my friends Christina and Bernice from St. Joseph the Worker Parish. After exchanging greetings, the conversation quickly turned a bit…uh…abnormal.
“Wow, you shop at Best Buy?” one of them asked almost incredulously.
Looking at the big, bright yellow Best Buy bag in my hand, I answered “Yes, I do!”
“You mean, you shop at normal places?” the other one asked, just as incredulously.
I wasn’t sure where there was going. Many different thoughts started racing through my head simultaneously as I tried to figure out a proper answer.
Amidst all the busyness of our Youth Day weekend, I could have done without the 2 medical situations that occurred. The first took place on Friday afternoon, as I was driving our keynote speaker and worship leader Steve Angrisano from the airport to the hotel in anticipation of the big Youth Day youth rally that evening. We were having a great chat about family and I was in the middle of bragging about my family, in particular how caring, loving, and understanding my lovely wife Gail is. Then the phone rang. I recognized the number (and the personalized ring tone of Sean and Jake saying "Dad pick up the phone" repeatedly) and thus found it ironic that my family was calling just as I was talking about them.
The incomparable Steve Angrisano during the closing session at Youth Day 2008, held on May 2 & 3 at Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School in Port Coquitlam, BC.
For more info on the Youth Ministry Office and youth ministry in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, visit www.youthmin.com
So there I was at the closest McDonald's to my work: the one at Library Square downtown Vancouver. I approached the new and friendly-looking manager and ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal with a coke (surprise surprise) and extra onions on the burger.
The chatty manager declared (unsolicited), "Oh I like extra onions when I'm cooking, but not to eat. Too strong."
I was blessed to meet Matt Maher way back in 1995 during a trip to Mesa for a LIFE TEEN conference. Back then, he was just starting his music ministry career at St. Timothy's. And back then, he was already tall and lanky, although with less grey hair. A couple of years later, 10 of us from St. Paul's (me, Gail, Gerard, Gen, Rich, Jenn, Dave, Gary, Brian and Diane) took a memorable trip to Mesa and again got to connect with Matt. Since then, he has been up to Vancouver to minister on a number of occasions, once for St. Paul's in 2003 and every year since 2004 for either Youth Day or Spirit Day. I've also seen him at numerous conferences throughout North America.