Cycling in Ireland

September 6- 16th 2008 Robbie O’Connell’s Pub have teamed up with Plan B to bring you a different version of our fully escorted Ireland tour. This 10 day trip to Ireland will be seen largely from the seat of your bike.

SuperBowl Sunday Ride

Sunday February 3, 2008  8:30 am Join the Greater Dallas Bicyclists as we host our 23rd Annual Super Bowl Sunday ride to the West End. This year our host location will be Dick’s Last Resort. Richardson Bike Mart will host two rides for this event. One leaves from our Frisco store and rides to the Richardson store. They will join up with the Richardson store ride and both groups will ride down to the West End together.

How Is Your Confidence?

Consumer Confidence, Chain Deflator, Hourly Earnings and New Home Sales, those are all what we call Market Movers.  Each day a Report comes out with totals from those listed above of a plethora of others and each day- the traders have “speculation” built in to what those numbers will be.  Speculation in my book sound much like “gamble” and that is truly what happens.  If a report comes out above or below the estimated projections- both of the Markets move.  As a reminder- when you see the Bonds getting bought up- that is a good indication the Mortgage rates will come down the following day.  If you see the Stock Market made huge gains- usually the Bonds suffer and our Mortgage rates go up.

But none of this compare to what the Fed did last week.  When they dropped their rate by .75- it shocked the Markets completely and Bonds were all the favor.  Our rates took a dip not seen in this Market for years.  But the Market corrected themselves and rates leveled out and you can see to the left the effect- great low rates are still around. 

Clothing Order Has Been Extended

We are working with the clothing manufacture and a local designer to help create a new FCC logo.  Once we have that done- we should be able to show off the look the team jersey.

Also- it is time to showcase the teams honorary members.  They are legends in the cycling community and here in Frisco.  Proud to call them all teammates:

Ned Overend

Jeanne Patterson

Steve Stolar

Tim and Suzie Goodwin

Jeff LaBouve

St. Philip’s Senior Pastor Clay Lein has been a priest for over 10 years, but his first career was in Electrical Engineering. He was trained to use data and logic to make decisions, not to rely on faith. In fact, he reached a point where he didn’t even believe in God, thinking Christianity to be irrelevant and untrue. He was skeptical of all things ‘religious’.Obviously that all changed for him – not only did he go from ’skeptic’ to ‘believer’, but answered God’s call to enter the priesthood. But there are still lots of skeptics out there wondering why they should ‘bother’ with faith. In February we are going to be starting a sermon series called “Why Bother? A Skeptic Looks at Faith”. We’ll be asking five questions that could help a skeptic find some answers.

Why Bother? February 10th
What Makes You Think There Is A God? February 17th
What IF God Were One Of Us? February 24th
What’s the Deal with The Cross? March 2nd
What’s All That Got To Do With Me? March 9thIn conjunction with the sermon series we will be starting multiple small group Bible studies that will meet at various times and locations during the week. This will be a great opportunity to examine your faith on your own, within your family, or with a community of others.

If you’ve got questions like these, if you are a skeptic open to some ‘data’, or know someone who would like to hear more, then put it on your calendar for 2008 to come hear a former skeptic answer the question – Why Bother? Come join us at St. Philip’s (6400 Stonebrook Parkway NW corner of the Dallas Parkway & Stonebrook Parkway intersection) to find answers to the skeptic’s questions about God!

Focus on the Solution, Not on Blame

(I found this article in a newsletter and thought I would share- you can read more here)

Angry tirades often reduce your chance of getting assistance. Instead, keep your cool and try to calmly explain exactly what went wrong and how you propose that it be fixed. The adage “You’ll get more bees with honey than with vinegar” should be your mantra.

Many people become obsessed with assigning blame for the problem rather than focusing on possible solutions. Worrying about who was at fault is generally a waste of energy, and it derails the discussion away from the ultimate goal of finding a solution. Rather than making a hotel manager defensive by accusing him or her of losing your reservation, try to get the manager on your side so that you can work toward a solution together. If you apologize for your travel agent’s apparent mistake, and let the manager save face, you’ll almost certainly get a more cooperative and prompt response.

American Cancer Society

“Silver Dollar Ball” will be hosted by former Dallas Cowboy Randy White and Tracy Lawrence will be performing. The Silver Dollar Ball will be at the XO Ranch on May 3rd, 2008. Tables are for ten and cost $1500.  Please contact Marsha Horne for tickets!  marsha@etiquetteschooloffrisco.com