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Wine Deals

Somebody recently asked me where I buy wine, and with the weekend here I thought I’d share my favorite secret tip.

First, obviously I love shopping at wine shops, my favorite being The Wine Steward in Pleasanton. Sometimes I buy at the wineries themselves if they happen to have something extraordinary. And I’m a member of four different wine clubs (Justin, Biale, Pear Valley, and Fisher).

But lately I’ve also been buying through Invino, which is an online retailer. You get daily emails with the specials of the day, and they are often very good deals. Sometimes they …

Book Reviews, Random Thoughts,

The Man in the White Suit

Okay, I admit it, I’m a huge fan of the BBC show Top Gear. Maybe it’s for middle aged guys who fantasize about driving like Mario Andretti, but it is one of the few shows that makes me laugh out loud. As you can see in the photo on the right, I even have a Stig t-shirt (thank you, D’Aun, for the awesome Father’s Day gift).

You might be asking, “Who or what is the Stig?” Glad you asked. Top Gear is a show about cars, so they take cars onto their test track for timed laps. They want …

Book Reviews,

Twenty Five Books That Influenced My Life – #17

The first time I read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, I was mesmerized by the story. It was adventure, action, dangerous villains, and good vs evil all packaged into one incredible story for kids. It was scary enough to send chills down my spine but safe enough for me to read at a young age. The kids in the book were just like the rest of us, with hidden skills and big dreams, but somehow they were overlooked by the rest of the world. That’s how most of us feel growing up, don’t you think?

Here was …

Random Thoughts,

Best Way To Die

Came across this and just had to share it. Not sure who made it, so I can’t give credit. But whoever did was onto something!

…

Belize, PathLight,

PathLight Students

This is cool. Here’s a photo of twenty new PathLight students! These kids come from three villages in Belize, all of them underprivileged communities. The students dream of a different life, one that embraces spiritual, social, and intellectual rigor.

Okay, so they would never express it that way … they are only about 14-years old! But some day I hope they can and will say it that way. My dream for them is their dream for themselves: to embrace life and fully understand the potential that exists within their hearts, minds, and souls. Won’t that be cool when it happens!…

Wine Reviews,

White Wine Challenge

I went to BevMo with plans to buy every nickel wine rated over 90 points, just as I’ve done in the past. Oops, wrong plan. There are over 150 wines in the sale rated over 90, so it’s not practical to buy them all. Not to mention tasting them all!

Instead, I chose a dozen summer wines to taste. These are all white wines under or around $10 when you factor in the nickel sale price. The results are below. Keep reading for the SURPRISE winner!

The Italian Stella Rosa Imperiale Brachetto is a unique sweet sparkling wine made from …

Junkyard Management, Random Thoughts,

Intention Allows for the Organic

A recent workshop had me thinking about the importance of being intentional.

The things we call “organic” in an organization, movement, or other endeavor are actually changes, connections, serendipitous moments, and unexpected consequences of something that was originally intentional. The intention creates the environment for the organic to happen.

Now this might seem obvious to you. I suppose it is obvious. But I’ve never heard anybody express it before. Maybe I haven’t been listening? Whatever, it’s an interesting insight that I want to ponder a bit.

You see, things can happen intentional or organically. Said another way, you can plan …

Belize, PathLight,

What an amazing year it has been for PathLight!

PathLight has had an amazing year. There really is no other way to say it. Amazing. And I wanted to share a few highlights.

Another seventeen PathLight students have graduated from high school. All seventeen have applied to college – an amazing accomplishment for these young men and women!

The school year went well with after-school tutoring and weekly discipleship classes for the students. The students attended several special events, such as a weekend workshop led by Brenda Salter-McNeil, the YC Belize youth conference, and a fantastic grad party for the graduating seniors!

There are 60 students in the program …