Category: San Diego Living

  • Our first earthquake

    We were just finishing up a glorious Easter supper when we all said, “Do you feel that?”

    I looked to my right to see the chandelier rocking back and forth. It was about that time when Kristen and I both realized we were having an earthquake.

    It wasn’t violent. Our house swayed back and forth. It literally felt like we were on a ship, rocking back and forth in the waves. And it lasted a while.

    This was our first real earthquake experience since living in San Diego. For our kids, it was the first one they felt.

    Paul– having finished supper and roaming the house in boredom, rode out the earthquake laying on our bed. He thought it was a blast. Megan, slightly more logical, grabbed her stuffed bunny and went outside. Paul giggled and Megan was freaked out.

    Twitter lit on fire. Within 2 minutes of the quake, 35,000 tweets were posted with people saying they had felt it. People up in the Los Angeles area, people in Palm Springs, people in rural California and Arizona, and people as far away as Phoenix felt it. (5 hour drive)

    Scientists later confirmed that the quake was centered south of Mexicali, about 100 miles from our house, and measured 7.2.

    No damage at our house. Within about 10 minutes we went back to Easter as usual.

    Aftershock city! Just like when you get off of a long boat ride, it felt like the earth kept moving. Some were real aftershocks and some were our imagination.

    Our friends south of the border faired much worse, I’m afraid. CNN is reporting that 2 people were killed and lots more were injured. Additionally, tons of homes were seriously damaged.

    It was an Easter to remember. And an Easter to be thankful for building codes.

  • 5 Things I Love about my Church

    This Easter marks roughly two years since I turned in my Pastor Adam card and went from church staff to church attendee. (I was officially done June 1st, but it was during Easter week  that the offer to come to YS came, which completely changed everything.)

    In so many ways I’ve re-learned what it means to be a member of a church. God has shown me hundreds of ways in which my assumptions and desires for people in the pews were flat out wrong.

    But, more importantly, the last two years has solidified a deep love and respect for the church universal as well as the church I’m a part of– Harbor Mid-City.

    Here are 5 things I love about my church:

    1. They model their bridge building strategy with their staff. When I look at the make-up of their staff– I giggle. A PCA church plant with staff from a huge spectrum of Protestantism. Liberals. Progressives. Conservatives. I jokingly remind them, “In most communities this group wouldn’t even get together to pray… and you guys are on staff together!” I love that they chose to unite around Christ and major in the majors. Let me tell you, this is rare.
    2. They meet at Hoover High School. I’m a huge fan of our location and all the challenges it brings along. I love that we pay to rent part of a high school. I love that we bring 200 adults to a high school campus they would rather ignore. I love that there is a constant tension in the space we use for kids is also a teachers space. I love that part of our being Good News to the community is showing up and worshipping at a place, Hoover, that is so common.
    3. The production value of the service is awesome. Seriously, one of the things I love about Harbor is just how rough the tech side of things are. You would think that I, Mr. Super Church Tech Dude, would be annoyed that every week the microphones are jacked up, the projector is crooked, and they lovingly rock PowerPoint when Media Shout, Easy Worship, or ProPresenter are so readily available. Nope. Every time something goes array in the service I just lean over to Kristen and go, “That’s awesome. I love it.” Because I know the flip side of those blemished moments is not a persons hours of hard work. I know that no one is going to get an ugly stare back at the booth. And I know it’s not going to be an hours discussion at staff meeting. Ultimately… it’s no big deal and it’s treated as such.
    4. They love kids and show it. Most churches get this right. But I have to say that there are two places where Harbor gets this right-er than anywhere else I’ve been. Here are two things I can point to which illustrate this thought. First, early in the worship service they invite all of the kids to come to the front to join the worship band. So about 20 kids come to the front and bang on percussion instruments and dance for two worship songs before heading to kids church. Some people might think this completely ruins those songs. But I love the lesson we are teaching… these kids are a part of the congregation and we need to allow them to participate in the worship. It’s a visual way to say “children are valuable to God.” Second, I love how they handle infant baptism. (This is a theological issue I have NO IDEA where I stand on.) So, they baptize the baby and the congregation affirms their responsibility. [All very normative.] But Stephen has started this little thing which I hope he continues. He leads the parents to the center of the auditorium and invites the congregation to quietly sing “Jesus Loves Me” as a lullaby to the baby. I doubt it leaves an imprint on the baby but it certainly leaves an effect on the parents and the congregation!
    5. They value all people. I wish this were the case in all congregations but sadly it is not. Two quick ways this plays out on Sunday. First, we are an ethnically mixed congregation. We have a Spanish-speaking pastor and an English speaking pastor. Each language group is given equal value. (Not time) The only thing we separate for is the message. (Because translating that would be exhausting!) But for the majority of the service we have both groups together and it makes for a fun cornucopia. Second, we work hard to put everyone on an equal playing field socio-economically. El Cajon Blvd, where the church meets, is really a dividing line between the have-nots to the south and the have-alots to the north. There is a conscious effort to blur those lines on Sunday morning. I don’t have any idea how they pull it off… but it’s something I love about my church.

    Those are some things I love about my congregation. What are things you love about yours?

  • Tide pool fun

    This is why Cabrillo National Monument is one of our favorite places to go in San Diego County.

    We made 3 videos as well. 1 2 3

  • Little Italy Mercato: $10 Challenge

    HT to Beyond the Zoo

  • The Future of Food

    Tonight I watched the film above, The Future of Food. You can watch the whole thing, for free, on Hulu. (Or here on my blog if you so chose) You can learn more about how corporations are trying to run [ruin] the food supply at The Future of Food website.

    Another great movie covering more of the food supply is Food, Inc.

    I’m not a conspiracy theorist. But in my lifetime I’ve witnessed major food related issues among so many people I know. Too many. For years I’ve heard about this stuff and thought– what a bunch of whacko’s. But the more you learn, the more those whacko’s make sense.

    As I wrote about a few weeks ago, Kristen and I are making a serious commitment to change both the food we eat and the way we get it. Our hope is to reduce our food waste by 25% by composting, buy most of our vegetables and fruit locally buy belonging to a CSA and shopping at a farmers market, and planting our own organic garden. (see the pictures of our garden)

    So far, we’ve kept those commitments. And it hasn’t been hard at all. We’ve enjoyed tons of our own fruit from the yard and last week we started an abundant harvest of fresh lettuce. Today, Paul and I went out and bought a few more veggies, so we have tomatoes, herbs, and jalepenos coming in the next couple months. (And our compost worms are hard at work 24 hours a day eating our food waste!)

    Our next steps involve increasing the percentage of food we buy from local producers, working out a local free range source of meats and fish, and finding a local bakery who is committed to non-GMO grains.

    Maybe this all sounds a bit nuts? The truth is, it’s a lot of fun! We love starting a garden. We love the discipline of spending less at the monster mega-supermarket. And we love seeing what sorts of crazy things appear in our CSA box each week. Even more crazy is that I don’t think its costing us any more money per month.

    There’s something so enjoyable about developing a more intimate connection between what we eat and the people who produce it.

    Oh faithful reader: What are steps you are taking to be more socially responsible about the food you eat?

  • Social Media Training for Pastors Coming to San Diego

    I bump into church staff all over San Diego County who have the same question, “I hear that social media is a great way to reach people, but I don’t know how to get started, and I don’t have a lot of time to figure it out.”

    Youth pastors. Church planters. Senior pastors. They all have the same questions!

    I love the heart behind that question! It shows an earnest desire to try to reach people in their community, but also acknowledges a need for some basic training.

    So when I saw that Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones had put together a one-day training seminar which teaches church staff the basics of blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and live streaming your church service— I knew I wanted to bring them to San Diego.

    I love training church staff over coffee, but the truth was that there are way more pastors who need help on this stuff that time that I have to train them over a cup of coffee. This way is just a lot better and more thorough than I can handle. (Plus, Kristen says I get goofy when I drink too much coffee)

    The first half of the day talks about social media philosophy and the second half is nuts and bolts of getting started. In talking to them about the content, this is entry-level– right where most pastors are. The feedback from participants in other cities has been fantastic.

    I hope to see you (or your boss) there!

    Here are the details:

    Date: March 9th, 2010
    Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
    Location: Christ Lutheran Church – Pacific Beach
    Registration cost: $95, lunch included
    All the details are right here
    Presenters: Doug Pagitt and Spencer Burke

  • December Nights

    Yesterday my family went to December Nights. At the heart of San Diego’s tourist industry stands Balboa Park. It’s a very cool complex of museums, gardens, and of course the San Diego Zoo. Like residents of most tourist destinations, very few San Diego residents regularly go to the tourist industries epicenter. I don’t know what that is, but it’s the same reason why I lived in Chicago for 8 years but have never been to the top of the Sears Tower.

    Once per year, the residents of San Diego go to Balboa Park for a community festival called December Nights. As Midwesterners, we laugh at the Santa Claus’s and hot chocolate stands among the palm trees… but for San Diego folks this is about as cold as it’ll get and they are feeling the Christmas spirit.

    It’s an event filled with wonderful food stands, choirs and dance troupes, and vendors peddling their art.

    It’s also filled with SoCal flavor. Yuppies bring their foo foo dogs. Families bring their kids and grandparents. The singles scene crowds into the 21+ booze area. Political nut cases try to get you to sign their ballot petition. Kids sell candy, some for legit causes some for illegitimate causes. Someone in the parking lot was likely selling weed. Vendors walk around trying to sell you stuff that you don’t want. (But at least they have nice candy canes!) It’s really the same crowd you’ll see at the beach, baseball games, or any other street market in the city.

    Perhaps the most fun thing about living in a tourist destination is being a local who gets to play when all the tourists go home?

  • Guys Night Out

    wingman

    Last Saturday, Paul and I had a guys night out. Mom dropped us off at the SDSU trolley stop and we rode down to Qualcomm Stadium for the home opener of the San Diego State Aztecs. Four quarters of football, the Sky Show, cotton candy, pop tarts, Pepsi, and other junk food later– this is what you get. A kid in a sugar coma on dad’s shoulders on the train ride home. And a dad happy to get a few hours alone with his son.

    Yes, he’s using a Webkinz bat as a pillow on my head.

  • Little Italy Farmers Market

    mercato1

    Yesterday, the family spent some time down in Little Italy at their Mercato. It was super fun for mom and dad– the kids just kind of put up with it and were placatted by free samples. (Paul’s love language is food.)

    Here’s an exceprt from Kristen’s review over at Beyond the Zoo:

    Not just a food market, the Mercato offers something for everyone. I was initially side-tracked by a display of locally made jewelry. With a little help from my family I refocused and let my nose guide me to the heart of the market, the food. Never able to turn a blind eye to food, our kids loosened up when offered samples of juicy softball-sized peaches. It should be noted that the Little Italy Mercato is a great location for selecting locally caught seafood, as well. One unusual sample my husband could not resist was live sea urchin. He’s still alive after trying this spiny wonder! He said it was tasty with the texture of an overripe peach with a hint of brine flavor.

    read the rest

  • Mobile post: line at Hodad’s

    A couple pictures from our wait in line at Hodad’s.