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$1.99

Posted on: 11/20/08 3:58 PM | by Jonathan McKee

A decade ago I wouldn’t understand this at all… but I almost did a backflip yesterday when I went to the gas station and saw only $1.99 per gallon.

I thought the days of less than $2 were gone. Once we passed $4… I thought that was the point of no return. This past summer I did several speaking trips where i remember putting gas in the tank for $4.60 a gallon. (ouch… it hurts just thinking about it!)

Being from California, most other states’ gas prices actually look pretty good comparitively. When i’m speaking in another state, it can be up to 50 cents a gallon cheaper. California is usually one of the highest.

That’s probably why I was soooooo ecstatic when it hit $1.99 at my local station yesterday. (I wonder how low it is in other states right now?)

Imagine how happy I was when my I filled my Nissan Sentra for only this much!

Woohoo!!!! We have grocery money left!

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Movies This Weekend

Posted on: 11/19/08 1:14 PM | by Jonathan McKee

This weekend there seems to be a lot of movie options. As a movie fan… I’m intrigued.

I get to a see a screening of the new animated BOLT tomorrow night (Thurs). I’ll be adding my two cents to our movie review page Friday. Todd will be screening Twilight, to post a Friday review of that highly anticipated (clarification: highly anticipated by teen and tween girls) film. I’ve already chimed in on that film in my blog and youth culture window page.

Our movie review page also will have the review for the new Bond film up this weekend- which I am told- was very good. Right now we have the review for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (in Theatre’s now) which Todd scored “Theatre Worthy”, as well as some rental releases including Wall- E (loved it- a score of “Worth Buying”), Kung Fu Panda (loved it), and Tropic Thunder (which Todd didn’t like, but I have to admit was a funny satirical look at Hollywood actors. Careful… really bad language).

A note about Kung Fu Panda. I watched it with my family last night. Usually I’m ahead of the game with movies. But with this one, my kids had seen it, and I hadn’t. They loved it and told me I would too. I was cordial, but inside I was thinking, “Oh brother.” I really didn’t think the previews looked that good.

Boy was I wrong!

It was really fun. I’d give it a score of “Worth Buying” using our movie review page scoring guide. First, it was really funny. Jack Black is a riot. Second, it was actually clean. Animation films of late don’t always achieve that. But this film had about one joke in the entire movie that the most conservative would object to (when the Panda is kicked between the legs and he exclaims, “Oh my tenders!”) The film is actually rated PG for “martial arts violence.” LOL. The film is G… trust me.

Pop some popcorn. A lot of good movies.

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Battle of the Chicago Pizzas

Posted on: 11/13/08 9:33 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Lou Malnati’s or Giordano’s? That’s really what it comes down to.

If you’re familiar with the Chicago area, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There are really only three places that Chicago dwellers talk about: Giordano’s, Lou Malnati’s, or Gino’s East (Sorry, Pizzeria Uno is good, but it’s not in league with the other three).

I fell in love with Giordano’s years ago when my cousin Wendy took Lori and I there. Since then, she’s been known to send me one via Fed Ex on special occasions. Over the years I have had Ginos East on several occasions and enjoyed it; it’s just no comparison to Giordano’s. But for whatever reason, I had never tried Lou Malnati’s. So I made it a priority to try it as I passed through Chicago this week.

Wednesday I flew into Chicago, stopped by my favorite Giordano’s restaurant, and headed up to Wisconsin where I was to teach a workshop for EV youth pastors in the district (fun group- we had a great time). After teaching the workshop Thursday, I headed back down to Chicago (only a few hours drive- worth it, rather than laying over in Chicago). This time I mapped out where a Lou Malnati’s restaurant was… and I stopped in for dinner.

You have to realize… Giordano’s is pure heaven to me. It would almost take a miracle for another pizza to surpass the “heaven sent” goodness of a Giordano’s pizza. So Lou Malnati’s had it’s work cut out for it.

The atmosphere of this particular Shaumburg location was really inviting. The booth was comfy and the waitress was nice. I told her that this was my first Lou Malnati’s experience. She told me that there was no comparison… Lou’s was the best. I was glad to hear it. I eagerly ordered my usual toppings (pepperoni and mushroom) and took the waitress’ advice by selecting Lou’s famous “butter crust.”

The pizza took 30 minutes, as do any good deep dish pizzas (Giordano’s actually takes 40 minutes because I always order the stuffed crust… drool, slobber…).

I was surprised how good the first bite was. My first thought, “Uh oh, Giordano’s has some competition.” Not that Lou’s was better mind you, but definitely in the same league. The sauce was what really caught my attention. Perfectly spicy. One of the best I’ve ever had.

As I dug deeper into the pizza, I realized that I wasn’t crazy about the crust. It’s good, mind you. But it’s no Giordano’s.

In Lou’s defense… it might be that I ordered the “butter crust.” I’m not a big fan of Gino’s East for that very reason. They literally have a yellow crust, very much like the buttery crust I tasted tonight at Lou’s. Next time I’m in Chicago, I’m going to have to give Lou’s a second chance, ordering the normal deep dish crust.

Well… there it is. Giordano’s maintains it’s position as #1 in my book. Not just #1 pizza place… #1 PLACE! (I’d take Giordano’s over Disneyland any day!)

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My Girls, Part II

Posted on: 11/7/08 2:09 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay… on October 22nd I posted a blog with a picture of my two daughters (so dang cute). Basically, my wife Lori and I had gone running, and my girls rode their bikes with us. They rode back early (bored of watching Lori and I huffing and puffing) and began playing in the front yard (who says that junior high girls don’t still “play?”)

The result was a creative little checkers game they made from bark, leaves, etc.

I thought it was cute so I blogged about it and posted the pic. They thought that was “so cool!”

Sure enough, next time we went running they wanted to go back to the house early again… this time with a new enthusiasm. When Lori and I got home, they had constructed a clever little billiards game.

(they used twigs as sticks and some weird acorns as pool balls)

Now they keep trying to come up with new things. Two days ago they created a Twister game.

(look at their little “spinner” they made with a twig in the upper right of the pic. And notice they didn’t have colors for the dots, so they used a variation of twirls, squiggles, stripes, etc. LOL)

My girls are cute!!!

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Imagine My Surprise

Posted on: 11/5/08 9:20 AM | by Jonathan McKee

My dad and I were hanging out my house last week and I looked over on the kitchen counter and saw the new issue of GROUP Magazine. The cover said, “The Seven Deadly Sins” and had a subtitle about “Volunteer Recruiting Efforts.”

We both looked at each other perplexed and said, “Wow, that sounds a whole lot like THE NEW BREED!”

Dad and I wrote a book together that was released by GROUP last year called THE NEW BREED… a book on recruiting, managing and leading today’s ‘new breed’ of volunteers. One of the chapters is titled The Seven Sins of Volunteer Recruiting… so you can imagine our surprise seeing it on the cover of a magazine. We didn’t know whether we had been plagerized or what.

I quickly thumbed through the magazine falling on the article, only to find our key points in the article (this happened all in a matter of seconds). As my dad and I both started to wonder what the heck was going on (had someone copied our stuff?)… I looked at the title page of the article and saw the words, “By Jonathan McKee and Thomas McKee.”

Oh.

We both laughed… then looked at each other and said, “Did you know about this?”

Funny… we both didn’t mind having the cover article of GROUP magazine. Just… no one told us! 🙂

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Big Room… One Bed

Posted on: 11/2/08 8:29 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Life has been a whirlwind for the last few days- a mix of cross country travel, meetings and podcast recordings. Currently, I’m sitting in my Pittsburg hotel room, preparing for a podcast, putting last minute touches on the seminar I teach at 3:30 today, and connecting with a couple guys about a future podcast. (This weekend I’m at the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention, connecting with youth workers and teaching a couple workshops- see my last blog if you’re lost)

It was funny when we checked in this hotel. We’re at the Pittsburgh Hilton downtown and I booked a cheap room. But I have so many Hilton points from my travel… we got bumped up to the executive floor in a junior suite. Todd and I are enjoying all the food in the exutive lounge, sitting in two seats by the window. It’s on the 24th floor overlooking the Ohio river and Heinz field… for those Steeler’s fans.

When we first checked in they asked me if I wanted the free room upgrade I said, “Sure!” But they said, “Well there’s only one bed.” Todd and I shrugged our shoulders and said, “We’ll take it!” 🙂 (I hope they don’t mind our Sharpie marker line down the middle of the bed!)

This convention has been a lot of fun. It has a similar feel programatically to the Sacramento Convention. If you listen to Brandon and my “Road Trip Podcast” that we just recorded three weeks ago, the current episode on our Podcast Page, then you’ll get a feel for the convention (and a 10 minute excerpt from my seminar, etc.) But I really like the “feel” at this convention better. Maybe it’s just the Pittsburgh downtown… not sure. But it’s a fun group.

I’ll keep you posted more after my seminar and some meetings today!

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NYWC Pittsburgh

Posted on: 10/31/08 8:50 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last night YS kicked off their second National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) of 2008, the one in Pittsburgh, PA. I’m excited about this convention because I’m going to be kicking it with my “Steelers” fan (don’t hold it against him), Todd Pearage.

Todd is a PA native and is often found donning a Steelers jersey. Ya gotta love a guy who supports his home team. You’ll usually find me in a Manchester United shirt… and I’m from California. Yeah… whodathunkit! What can I say… Manchester rocks (and many of you are probably asking yourselves right now, “who the heck is Manchester United?” I’ll let you Google that one.) Most of you know Todd from our movie review page and several of the podcasts he has done with us. Todd and I did the Top Five Movies of the Year podcast last year… we’ll be doing that one again this year. I’m glad we get to hang out at this convention together.

I’ll be doing two seminars at this PA convention, one, a brand new training based off my new book 10-Minute Talks, and the other, also a brand new training from my upcoming book CONNECT: Engaging One on One Relationships in a World of Isolation. Here’s the schedule and descriptions of these seminars from the YS site:

If you’re one of the thousands of youth workers at the convention, say hi after one of my seminars. I’d love to meetcha face to face.

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My Girls

Posted on: 10/22/08 12:28 PM | by Jonathan McKee

My girls are so dang cute!

Lori and I went on a run today and the girls (Alyssa and Ashley… 13 and 11) rode their bikes next to us. They cut out early when we rounded a corner by the house and rode their bikes in our cul-de-sac.

When Lori and I finished running, we didn’t see the girls. As we turned up our driveway we saw them sitting by the house playing with something on the ground. You have to realize how creative my Alyssa is… she makes little crafts or projects out of any household utensil! Don’t ask!

Here’s what we saw.

Yeah… they have different colored leaves as checkers! (the board is made from bark fragments ground into the sidewalk). Alyssa claims they were going to play blackjack, but they thought it would take too long to mark up all the leaves.

🙂

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Thursday at NYWC

Posted on: 10/9/08 11:14 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Thursday was a fun day at the YS National Youth Worker’s Convention in Sacramento. I met my youth worker buddy Brandon before and we drove there together. At the convention we immediately saw some youth ministry friends: Tic Long, Les Christie, Jim Burns, Walt Muellar, Kara Powell, Wayne Rice, Cliff Carey from Hume Lake, Ryan and Trevor from Paradise… a bunch of folks.

Brandon and I got a chance to sit down and talk with Marko about Youth Ministry 3.0 as well. If you haven’t heard the buzz, Youth Ministry 3.0 is Marko’s new book talking about a much needed change in youth ministry. Brandon and I got to read the transcript a few days ago and we chatted with him about it. It’s hot off the press for this convention and will be available through YS in a few weeks (although the YS site says February… not sure why).

We’ll be doing a podcast with Marko on the subject soon to let you in on the discussion. Fascinating stuff. I really like how Marko is stretching us to think. I’m still be stretched by it all.

The actual sessions and seminars start tomorrow. I don’t teach until Sunday (whew!), so I’m spending time mingling with youth workers and chilling with Brandon.

Side note about Brandon– you can all pray for him right now. Brandon’s church has been having financial trouble lately and had to cut costs… so they cut the most productive ministry they had- youth ministry. So Brandon has been “unemployed” now for a week. He’s looking for a youth ministry job… he’s got several Sacramento churches looking at him. Whoever snags him will be lucky to get him. Brandon is an amazing guy. God’s really done some amazing work in his life.

I’ll continue to blog throughout the convention.

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Another Freebie From YS

Posted on: 09/24/08 10:09 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Yesterday I received the YS Update, the free resource email from Youth Specialties (YS) that goes out to over 20,000 youth workers. The subject line: 10-Minute Talks- Ready to Go. (A nice little plug for my newest book, 10-Minute Talks) They even provided a link to a free sample talk out of my book (a different one than the freebie talk I provided a few weeks ago- so now people have two freebies from this book). I gotta give a little shout out to YS marketing.

People always ask me how happy I am with my publishers, who I like best, etc. I’ve had 7 books published so far, 5 of which are already in print, one e-book, and one that is coming out next year. Of those 7 books, I’ve had 3 publishers: Gospel Light (my first book, The Top 12 Resources Youth Workers Want), Group (my book on recruiting and managing volunteers, The New Breed), and Youth Specialties for every other book.

I’ve got nothing to say about Gospel Light (I’ll leave it at that).

I love Group. They’re doing a great job with my book.

But if you asked me who seems to be really getting my book out there in magazines, emails, web promos, etc… I would have to say YS. YS constantly features my books in their email publicity and web promos. My first book with them was even on the cover of their YS Magalog. They get it done.

YS also brings me out to their conventions to teach workshops on the titles of my books. This is good fun, and a great opportunity to equip youth workers… but I’m sure it doesn’t hurt book sales either. 🙂

It’s funny… I noticed that YS has my newest book priced a little higher than we do on our page. He he… I guess that means that my subscribers will want to buy it here. 🙂 Either place is good for both of us.

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