Church Signs

More here.

Unleaded $3.96 Today

That was at Safeway with the club-card. I noticed most gas stations in Turlock today were under $4.00. 

Silva's Taco Truck

I went to lunch at Silva's Taco Truck with Scott Nottbohm today. I had a regular chicken burrito. I have not been to the taco truck in 6 months. I won't make that mistake again. It was excellent as always.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Blackberry Bold

News from RIM, the Blackberry Bold is now available for pre-order through Mobile City. That is if you have extra $700 to spend on a phone that may or may not be released Aug 14th. As many times as RIM has pushed back the release date I think it is better to keep the money in you pocket until the phone hits the shelves. This info I read came from www.boygeniusreport.com . I posted this with my Blackberry Curve- that's kinda cool.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Marco...Polo

After church my family and I went over Pastor Rob Dalrymple's house for a delicious BBQ and a swim. They had a full house- Rob's Family, brother Bill and his daughter, his mom, uncle and my brother Jeff and his family. At one point we had most of the kids in the pool when a game of Marco Polo broke out. I think I need to brush up on my Marco Polo skills. It was a lot of fun.

Cornerstone Fellowship

Today Julie, the kids and I went to Church in Livermore. My brother Jeff, his wife, my mother and 2 of his 4 kids also came along. We made the 1  hour drive to Cornerstone Fellowship where we saw some old friends before the service started. 

Pastor Steve Madsen taught on the Lord's prayer today. The congregation has been going through the red letters of the bible studying the words of Jesus. Being true to form he only touched on the first couple of verses.  They started the study in October 2007 and by the fiery pace they are going they should be done in a couple of years or so. Julie and I follow along online. You can also subscribe to the podcast.

Jeff Lascano - Blogger

Jeff Lascano my brother is an official blogger. For his first post he goes head on with the controversial topic of the banning of trans fat starting in 2010.

Worship Music

I was snooping on Brad Boydston's blog and saw this "Why contemporary music makes congregational singing difficult" . Brad also shares his thoughts on his blog.

Party!!!!

The party!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Jonah's Birthday

Happy 7th Birthday Jonah!!!!

Christopher Laurie

It is with great sadness that I tell you that Christopher Laurie, Cathe & Pastor Greg Laurie’s son was killed in an auto accident today. Please keep Chris’ family and the Harvest congregation and ministries in prayer.

Brad Boydston

Hello - my name is Chris Lascano and I am a closet blogger. I never thought anyone would find out. I type out late night entrees when everyone is sleeping. I sneak over to Brad’s blog and study layouts, entrees and glean from all the years of his bloggpertise.

Here is how it all started. I always have admired Brad's Blog and I use to read it when it was published in the Turlock Journal. For years I have thought about blogging. Then the point when I was pushed in to the kiddy pool of blogging with out my floaties was when Brad and Cheryl came back to the states from Guam and we got to spend a couple of hours together. There was a defining moment when I was telling Brad and Cheryl the about influences that they have had in my life, then Cheryl made the statement “are you going to start a blog too”. My thought was “YES I AM”. Well I did start a blog but I only told my wife how to get to it. You see I don’t want to copy everything that Brad Boydston does (I am sure glad Brad cannot see my new hair cut). The Boydston's are wonderful people that have a lot of characteristics that should be copied, especially they way the have let God shape their lives.

In the famous words of Jack Black from the movie Nacho Libre “How did you find me”?

Sagging Pants

Lynwood Illinois will slap you with a $25 fine if you show more than 3 inches of your undies...I guess you can avoid the fine by pulling up your pants or by not wear underwear.

Jon Tacoma

Today Monte Vista Chapel's newest pastor Jon Tacoma was teaching in place of the the vacationing senior pastor Ken VanVliet. As a congregation we have been blessed by great through the bible teaching and today was no exception. Jon had a poignant message delivered with a lot of conviction and love. He picked out some key chunks from the beginning of the book of Jeremiah and cut in to bite size palatable piece for us to chew on. Jon hit a major point with a hint of Shane Claiborne passion regarding the poor and less fortunate. Although he came from Minnesota and was Michigan born - he was still able to make his points relevant to a native Californian. So - yes - he could use a tan... And he does talk with a little bit of an accent , if we can move past that I think he is going to be a great fit to the Monte Vista Chapel Pastoral arsenal.

Okay so what do we really know about Jon. Well here are somethings I found out about him. One of the items he says he likes to do is "growing things green"- we may want him to expand on that a little. So here are a few of his favorite things:

Authors	Motto
Brian McLaren David Benner Richard Foster Philip Yancey	John 10:10
Hero	Food
Obi Wan Kenobi	Never met a food I didn’t like.
TV Show	Movie
Lost Heroes	Last Samurai
Color	Candy Bar
Growing things Green	Nestle Crunch
Singer/Band	Outdoor Activities
Sting U2	Camping
Magazine	Cereal
Popular Science	Lucky Charms
Sports Team	Snack Food
Detroit Lions	Maple Nut Goodies

Pinkberry

Tonight we made homemade frozen yogurt. I found a recipe that taste a like lot the Pinkberry yogurt. It was real easy to make it took about 35 minutes in my ice cream maker. 

Unfortunately we do not have a Pinkberry near me but I guess I can make it at home.

Wanted Dead or Alive

Today my daughters and I harvested tomatoes in the backyard when I noticed some missing leave and small black poop balls on the plants leaves... yes I have Horned Tomato Worms. I tried the organic method of farming but after 30 minutes of trying to find the little critter I laid down a carpet bombing of malathiyon. I do not think he will be eating in my garden anymore.

Chipotle

Chipotle restaurant is having their Grand Opening tomorrow in Turlock CA . Today and yesterday they gave everyone who waited in line free food. Yes I was one of the hundreds of people who stood in line for a free and I must say delicious burrito bowl. The line moved fast and the service was very friendly. They will see me again soon. I was surprised to find out that it is pretty healthy also. I found a site that you can calculate the nutritional info of your meal.

Budweiser

Belgium based InBev buys Budweiser for $52 billion.  I do not drink but I believe that is only few dollars more than what SBC Park charges for a large Bud in a S.F. Giants collector Cup.

Harvest Crusade

I found a link to the Harvest blog where I was interviewed. If nothing else enjoy the goofy picture.

Jesus for President

Last night Julie and I went to San Francisco to see Chris Haw and Shane Claiborne's presentation of Jesus for President. These young guys have figured out how to present the Gospel in the most unique way I have ever seen... They keep it in it's original context and they apply it to their daily lives. So at the end of the day it is Jesus shining through them that people see. That means I do not have to cleverly sell Jesus to other like I have been taught for ever. Go see it if you can or buy the book.

iphone

Big deal. Don't we have something better to talk about.

It is finally here!

No-not the new iphone ... the list of the The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.  I am pleased to report that I can stomach 10 out of the 11. I did not see powdered sugar doughnuts, it must have been number 12. 

Garbage Pickup

Garbage Pickup

There are few things in life that are as reliable as our 5:15 am garbage pickup . Turlock Scavenger is good at what they do but very noisy. Check out the city law on noise or fill out a Citizen Report form if your so inclined. 

Heat

~Heat~

Okay it is 108 today in Turlock but- it is a dry-heat. Thats the good news. The bad news possibly 111 by Thursday. Time for a Slurpee at 7-11.

Defenders Turlock City Champs

Nat'l Defenders win AAA city 

Turlock Journal photos by John-Joel Griffiths
Ben Lascano hurls a pitch during the top of the sixth inning Saturday at Soderquist Park.

This is the team my son Ben played on this year. They are great group of kids who play really good baseball.

New Hot-Dog Champ

In Coney Island, a New Hot-Dog Champion Is Crowned 

  It is great to see the belt come back to American soil, especially on July 4th. Takeru Kobayashi was not 100% as he recently had a wisdom tooth removed. I think we will see him in better shape next year.

Same Cafe

Cafe’s owners operate on donations, trust ‘so all may eat’ What a concept! I love the idea-although I believe that a lot of restaurants are nonprofit (not intentionally).