• Paul’s Party is here!

    From the moment that we found out we were pregnant (OK, Kristen was pregnant) with Megan we’ve heard the phrase "It goes by so fast…"

    Today Paul has his 4th birthday party. (He turned 4 on August 8th) And it has gone by too fast. I’ve never claimed to like the "baby stage" of life and I’m greatly looking forward to doing dad things with a "big boy." But at the same time I look at him and think, "Man, you were just born a few weeks ago!"

    Here’s a couple of things I love about Paulie.

    • I love wrestling with him… he’s got cool moves.
    • He loves his mommy… maybe too much sometimes.
    • He tells great stories.
    • He’s infatuated with growing up and being "big" like dad. He always wants to do stuff on his own right before he’s big enough. That shows some emerging character.
    • He’s super smart. He can write his name, he’s working on what letter makes what sound to spell stuff and loves math!
    • He loves music. Both our kids like music… but Paul loves to sing the songs from KidsTown, privately.
    • He’s got the most infectious laugh.
    • He loves to climb stuff… he would be a mountain climber when he grows up, but he doesn’t want to leave mommy.
    • The thing he loves more than mommy… eating. We’ve joked since the day he was born that the only reason he wakes up is to eat. Just about the first thing he says every morning is, "Mommy, what can I eat?"
    • When he gets excited, he pants like a dog.
    • He plays with his sister. Sure they fight sometimes… but I love watching them play together.
    • He is very teachable. We have two "McLane things" about competing. When we race, "Winner don’t look backwards." And when we wrestle, "We never give up."
    • He’s very funny when playing the Wii. It needs to be seen to believe.
    • He will play dress-up with his sister. This won’t last long, but we’ve got pictures!
    • He makes super silly faces. A lot of people think he is shy. But at home, he’s got some serious acting potential.

    I could list stuff I love about Paul all day! He’s my favorite little boy in the world and I love telling him that I love him best. (Of course, I tell Megan I like her best too!)

  • A great night for the MainStreet team

    For anyone who has ever been to MainStreet, you know we like to be creative and have a good time. Truth be told… a lot of the process isn’t always fun. It can be downright stressful to continue developing and evaluating and getting ready to do the next one. We like to use the term "dynamic" to describe the process that produces MainStreet.

    Tonight was a blast!     Since we have a race theme this month, we decided to do one of our scenes via video at a local go-kart track. So at 6:00 the whole team met up and we grabbed some video cameras and just had some fun. The whole cast, in costume, took to the track and shot some great scenes. The whole time we were out there I kept thinking of different lines from last summers blockbuster, Talladega Nights. "If you ain’t first, you’re last." "Shake and bake." On and on…

    After filming was over, we headed to McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat. Then we all drove back to the church for our first full rehearsal. In our process, this is the 3rd meeting in preparing for the September but it the first real rehearsal. I just have this one hint about the next MainStreet. We have a new character… and he is very funny!

    This was the kind of group building night we really needed.     It was a lot of fun and very productive.

  • New Innovation: Youth Ministry Classifieds

    Over at Youth Ministry Exchange Headquarters Patti Gibbons and I had a board meeting where we decided to launch a brand new line of business. In truth, Patti and I chat over AIM all the time and we came up with this idea Friday morning and ran with it. We don’t have an office and we don’t have meetings. We’re way more progressive than that. 

    It’s a totally new, from scratch, ground up idea. What is it?

    It’s not 100% ready, but check out the Beta release of www.youthministryclassifieds.com.

    Here’s a couple reasons I’m really jazzed about YMC.

    1. It’s a totally free resource to the Youth Ministry Community.You can list and buy stuff with no transaction fees.
    2. It’s going to fill a gap of something that is not already out there. There simply isn’t an "after-market" anywhere for Youth Ministry stuff.
    3. It’s very simple to use. It’s actually a very "plain" site intentionally.
    4. It’s totally independent of our main site, www.ymexchange.com. Other than being owned by the same company… they are independent sites with different goals, different audiences, and different measurements for what makes it a success.
    5. It integrates all that we are at Youth Ministry Exchange. It’s a compliment to so many other things out there and competing with nothing. How cool is that?

    So… even if you aren’t in youth ministry. It’s worth checking out.

  • Farewell Paul at Fred’s Market

    PaulI know people read my blog from around the country, so you may not be aware of my geography. I live in a small town that was once rural but is now semi-suburban Detroit. I live "in the village" meaning that my house is in the oldest part of town. (Our house dates to 1871)

    One of the long time institutions of Romeo is just across the street from our house… Fred’s Market.

    Here’s a story about the retirement of the store’s owner, Paul Ruggirello. Paul is a fine man. He knew Kristen and I before we even moved in. I went in and introduced myself shortly after buying the house and Paul said, "So, you are Mr. McLane. I understand you are a man of the cloth." We’ve had many good chats and I will miss his companionship. There have been many times we’ve had a party and I’ve dashed across the street to pick up a last minute item. He is one of the few places in the world who offers store credit… and he’s even offered me the keys to the shop "just in case" I needed something. Truly, there are few men like this in America today.

    Paul has assured me that the family who has bought Fred’s shares his values. Paul has had many opportunities to expand the store and make it less "family  based." Sure, it’s a liquor store. Sure, he sells lottery tickets. She he sells his fair share of cigarettes. But he has never taken advantage of people. He’s just your friendly, helpful, humble, store owner. I hope that the new owners are at least a shadow of Paul.
    He will be missed. I know its odd, but Paul and Fred’s Market are one of the great assets to our neighborhood and I will miss his presence.

    If you are in Romeo in the next few days, drop in and thank Paul for his service to this community.

  • Saturday Tunes

    Saturday_tunes_2It’s kind of a slow Saturday. Hot and sticky in Romeo. The kind of weather that just makes you want to do nothing outside. So, without any further introduction here are the next 10 songs piping into my ears. No cheating, rating included.

    1. God’s Gonna Cut You Down, Johnny Cash ***** (Little shout out to my earlier post today)
    2. Tell Me Who, Chris Tomlin ***
    3. Enough [Acoustic verion] Chris Tomlin ****
    4. I Will Not Be Silent, David Crowder Band ***** (Can’t get this song out of my head)
    5. Made to Worship, Chris Tomlin *****
    6. I Saw the Light, David Crowder Band *****
    7. Peachy, Family Force 5 *****
    8. Heal Yourself, Ruthie Foster ****
    9. Our God Reigns, Tomlin/Crowder/Redman *****
    10. Wonderwall, Oasis *****

    Um, I think I need to shake my iTunes or something. That’s quite a string of songs from Six Step Records.

  • CSR: Peppers

    Csr_great
    Location:
    In the Fiddler’s Cove shopping center on Van Dyke and 33 Mile Road. Peppers was one of the most anticipated store openings we’ve seen in the 4+ years we’ve lived in Romeo.

    Description:
    Romeo is short on variety for dining out. There are plenty of places that offer the same types of food. So when Peppers came to Romeo, there was a lot of excitement that we were getting a decent Mexican restaurant. (Bear in mind that most Romeo people think Taco Bell is an acceptable Mexican-style food.) Inside is a well decorated and clean restaurant. The food on the menu is… Mexican! One thing that I love about Peppers is their $5 lunch specials. And while Peppers got a bad rap for poor food when they first opened it has consistently gotten better. While I wouldn’t label it "true, authentic" the food there is pretty good. Staples like tacos and burritos, chips and salsa.

    Service:
    I’m a repeat customer as we go about once per week for lunch. In the process we’ve gotten to know most of the wait staff. They are always friendly and thoughtful. (Most be those big tips I give!) They are always quick witted and most important for a lunch crowd… they are fast.

    Cost:
    A typical lunch stop at Peppers cost me about $8 with a drink and chip/salsa. (One of the few places that charges for chips. There’s are homemade and worth getting.) I’ve always been surprised that more people don’t go there after church as their lunch specials are featured on Sunday as well. All-in-all, it’s a very reasonably priced local eatery.

    Rating:
    Decent food at a good price with fast, fun service. While not perfect, they are definitely changing my first opinion of Peppers. (When they opened we spent an hour before we got our food and the food was bad.) There is a reason Peppers is high on my list, that’s why I’m labeling it "Great."

  • Tell ‘Em God’s Gonna Cut You Down

    This isn’t brand new, but it is powerful. I know from a musician standpoint the celebrities and musicians involved likely did this as a tribute video. But considering the words and the people involved…. it’s powerful. The music if obviously from the late Johnny Cash.

    Who do you recognize? You may have to watch it twice to place all the faces.
    ht to Think Christian

  • Big Storms Rumbling Through

    Tonight a big thunderstorm blew through the Detroit area. While I’m happy to report that Romeo wasn’t hit too hard, (from what I’ve seen) some communities to the west of us were hit hard. A town about 25 miles west of us, Fenton, has some heavy damage.

    As the Detroit area seems to flood easily… it’s been a messy night.

  • I Work at Kroger

    This has a bit of a slow start… but it is well worth the wait. This young man is involved in student ministry at nearby Woodside.

  • Site issues at YMX

    From a site development perspective, we’ve had a couple very stable years at YMX. That seems to be unraveling right now because two major groups of people aren’t getting along in the "open source" world.

    The people at Joomla and Simplemachines aren’t co-developing a bridge anymore. To existing members, they may notice a couple of old features aren’t working anymore. But the major annoyance is that our system of paying for stuff (like subscriptions) seems to be busted. I’m in the process of looking at a solution to get that working.

    So, our bread and butter main things for our existing members are working just fine. But we’re going to have to be creative to sort out a couple other issues. Right now I’m looking at a forum module that will allow people to take care of their subscriptions right through the forums. This may actually be a blessing as it handles renewals and everything.

    More on this later.

    In other news, there was a power outage at the church last night and I get to get reset the network there. This is the first real test of our new server system. If it worked correctly, the battery back-up should have shut down the server correctly. If it didn’t work… my day off may be ruined.