Sorry to everyone disappointed by yesterday’s events with Punxsutawney Phil. He saw his shadow and that means we must deal with six more weeks of winter. Hopefully my latest Thursday Rundown can lift your spirits. Here come five topics…

New Donut Shop – Our family started our own tradition of bringing donuts home on our birthdays. Unfortunately, our go-to donut shop shuttered because of the pandemic. When we celebrated Sid’s birthday last Friday we tried the Casual Friday Donuts location in Spokane Valley. I tried to sample a little bit of each donut and I think the classic maple bar was my favorite. That one donut you see in the bottom right was filled with a peanut butter icing that naturally appealed to me.

These were the donuts we tried from Casual Friday Donuts last week.

Celebrity Big Brother 3 – Many of you are well aware that I am a “Big Brother” fan and that extends to the celebrity version as well. To compete with the Winter Olympics, CBS launched the third ever season of Celebrity Big Brother. The first episode aired last night and many more will follow this month because a winner will be crowned on February 23. I am cheering for Todd Bridges!

The season premiere of the third season of Celebrity Big Brother aired last night.

Home Team – One of the top 10 Netflix selections right now is “Home Team,” a very loosely based “true story” about Sean Payton coaching his son’s middle school football team while he was suspended from the NFL for Bountygate. The part I liked about the movie was the performance of Kevin James as Sean Payton. James had to be somewhat serious at times and it was quite the departure from his usual roles. The movie itself though is pretty bad. The football scenes are horrendous and some of the antics in the film (i.e. vomit scene) are so juvenile it hurts. I definitely laughed throughout the movie but I can’t say that I would recommend it.

I would not recommend “Home Team.”

More Football – Okay, let’s move from the fictional Sean Payton to the real Tom Brady. Two days ago, Brady officially announced his retirement. As I have documented, I disliked the quarterback for the first 20 years of his career and discounted some of his accomplishments. But after he signed with Tampa Bay and led that team to a Super Bowl victory, what more could I say? I wish him well in retirement. As for this year’s Super Bowl, I could flip a coin. Once kickoff approaches though, I think I will pull for Cincinnati. I don’t think I have ever watched less NFL football than I have this season.

My attitude toward Tom Brady changed a lot over the past year. (photo courtesy of the NFL).

When You Know You Failed – Below is the expression that no husband wants to see when his wife opens a birthday gift. One of the presents I gave Sid was a leg pillow and her initial reaction wasn’t exactly what I was going for. Oh well, I think Sidney said it was more confusion than anything as she didn’t know precisely what it was at first (I will keep telling myself that). With all that said, I am happy to report that she actually does use it.

This was Sidney’s reaction when she opened up the leg pillow I gave her for her birthday. Perhaps she just didn’t like the wrapping paper.

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Time for me to stop writing and return to the “Gabby’s Dollhouse” binge my children are on. Enjoy your Thursday evening. Don’t Blink.