Good evening to all my loyal readers and those lucky internet surfers who might be finding this blog for the first time. I am ready for my latest Thursday Rundown so let’s get after it. Five topics are coming your way right now…

Pride – My dad is a retired high school football referee and former Inland Empire Football Officials Association Official of the Year. But his greatest accomplishment isn’t the outstanding ratings he garnered during his career nor the state championship game he was the white hat for in 2014. Rather, it was the sportsmanship award he spearheaded and implemented for the association. My dad had a vision to institute a traveling trophy that would be awarded to a single high school football program that exhibited superior sportsmanship throughout the season. He was successful in making his idea a reality and for years he would travel to deliver the award to the deserving school at their end of the year banquet. At the time, and even after my dad stepped away from officiating, it was just called the Sportsmanship Award. Today he opened up the newspaper and saw that it no longer carries such a generic name. The Tom Reser Sportsmanship Award will be presented to the Ridgeline High School football program on March 31.

The sportsmanship award that my dad established for Inland Empire Officials Association has since been re-named the Tom Reser Sportsmanship Award.

Scraggly Beard – We read a lot of silly books to Sloan but we also like to incorporate some more socially conscious reading as well. Spokane has a large homeless population and Sloan has had some encounters with people on the street. On Tuesday night I read her “The One With the Scraggly Beard,” a story that addresses homelessness in an honest and compassionate way. The book chronicles the questions and concerns of a boy who observes daily a man who sleeps under a bridge and exhibits strange behavior. The boy’s mother is able to help him understand that the guy under the bridge used to be a boy just like him with similar dreams and goals. After reading the book, Sloan and I were able to discuss our own experiences with the homeless and the dignity that they still retain as human beings.

“The One With the Straggly Beard” is a children’s book that addresses homelessness.

Pi Day Creativity – Last week we debuted one of my favorite things that I have helped with while at WSU. On Pi Day we released a video of our math department chair providing an explanation of pi. On March 14, many higher ed institutions and other organizations will try to get cute and incorporate an actual pie into their social posts. It is now cliché. My thought was to take advantage of the world class faculty at WSU and perhaps teach our audience something. Dr. Charles Moore was fabulous to work with as he provided both a one-minute lecture that got right to the essence of pi and a mic drop pun at the end. Our videographers, Jace and Josue, did an exceptional job incorporating the lightboard and perfecting the lighting. Watch the video here.

Charles Moore, the math department chair at Washington State University, was the star of our Pi Day video.

Sloan’s 5th Birthday Cake – Some birthday cakes have received entire blog posts in the past but Sloan’s 5th birthday cake will be given the Thursday Rundown treatment. We bought this unicorn cake at Walmart and had it made with a vanilla bottom layer and a chocolate top layer. All the kids at the party and many of the parents ate a slice and we still nearly half the cake left when we packed up at Chuck E. Cheese.

This was Sloan’s 5th birthday cake prior to its cutting. We ordered it from Walmart.

Shot of the Kids – On Saturday, March 13, we headed to downtown Spokane for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. What a joy it was to attend a parade again! We met my dad, sister, and her two kids for an early afternoon of celebration and fun. While watching the parade, Spokesman-Review photographer Jesse Tinsley spotted our group and asked to take a photo of the kids. Although they didn’t make the front page of the paper, they did make the online gallery that accompanied the story. What a great looking group!

Jesse Tinsley of the Spokesman-Review snapped this photo of Sloan, Mikayla, Johnny, and Beau.

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Thank you for your time this evening. Let us continue to pray for peace around the world. Remember to be positive and lift others up. Don’t Blink.