Happy Autumn to everyone! The leaves are starting to change colors but we will have 80 degree weather here this weekend so it is like the best of both worlds. Does it get any better? It sure does because here comes the Thursday Rundown…

STEM Activity – We check out these themed STEM kits at our library that contain an activity and usually a few books. We checked out a “construction” themed kit this past weekend and the activity was to build three “houses.” The materials? A bag of straw, a bag of sticks, and a bag of Legos. The book that came in the bag? The Three Little Pigs. On a rainy Sunday afternoon, we built our best houses out of the materials provided and then as we read the book aloud Sloan got to act out the scenes, taking glee in the destruction of the straw and stick houses.

The top right photo shows our stick house. The bottom photo shows the straw house while Sid and Sloan begin to build the “brick” house with legos.

Dinos – On Saturday, my sister and I took the kids to the Spokane Valley Mall parking lot to partake in the Jurassic Empire Drive-Thru. Basically, a section of the lot was roped off and staged with approximately 60 animatronic dinosaurs. We didn’t tell Sloan, Mikayla, and Johnny what we were taking them to until we arrived and they could see the prehistoric creatures. The children loved it and thought it was the greatest thing ever. As for the adults? We were less than impressed. The dinos were showing plenty of wear and tear and they just didn’t look very convincing. The worst part was the price ($80 per car). For what we saw, I believe they shouldn’t charge more than $20 per car. But of course, as I need to point out again, the kids did enjoy it.

Although the kids enjoyed it, I can’t give high marks to the Jurassic Empire Drive-Thru that was offered recently at the Spokane Valley Mall parking lot.

Happy Birthday, Brother – It bring me great pleasure to devote one of tonight’s topics to my own flesh and blood. My brother is celebrating his birthday tonight and I would like to wish him nothing but the best. I think we are at that stage in life where we don’t call out each other’s ages at risk of embarrassment so I will keep mum on that but I will say that I hope Glen is enjoying his steak dinner with his wife. The whole family gets to celebrate this Sunday! I have a great brother and it was a special joy to be his best man this past July. I look forward to many good times with Glen over the course of his latest trip around the sun.

Happy birthday to this guy!

Quarter Century of Listening to Music – A couple anniversary milestones in the music world have made it apparent to me that I have listened to music for 25 years. Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” album is 25 years old and the Fugees album titled “The Source” is also celebrating the quarter century mark. I remember listening to numerous songs off of Morissette’s album and I probably heard “Killing Me Softly” no less than 1,000 times in 1996. Both of those albums produced some of the earliest music I remember listening to. Upon thinking about those tracks, although they bring back memories, I would probably flip the radio station for something else if they came on.

“Killing Me Softly” was a smash and it is playing in my brain as I type this.

RESERved – I am a true visionary! Exactly 7 years ago, I wrote down my epic idea that would revolutionize the supermarket industry. I called the service RESERved and it entailed people placing orders for their groceries and then pulling up at the store’s parking lot to receive them from an employee direct to their car. Have I seen a single financial benefit from this idea that I freely offered to anyone that took the initiative to read my blog? Nope. Do I still claim that I played at least a small part in the explosion of online grocery ordering? Yep!

Before Online Pickup was a thing, I had already thought and written about it.

————————–

Hope everyone has a great first weekend of Fall. Let us be mindful of all the people in our world who are missing and for their families. Don’t Blink.