Greetings to all! Is it Thursday already? Well, I think I am prepared for the latest rundown so let’s just jump in and cross fingers that my topics add up to five…

Baja Blast 20th Anniversary – I was a bit shocked when I saw the below display in Safeway. Not surprised that 20 years of life with Baja Blast had already passed but rather that it had only been that long. For some reason I thought I remembered Baja Blast being on the Taco Bell taps since the Stone Age, which would pre-date high school and thus eclipse more than 20 years of teal soda happiness. But I will take the word of Mt. Dew and celebrate just the two decade-milestone.

I am actually surprised that Baja Blast has only been around for 20 years.

Parenting Decision – Sidney and I put our feet down the other night. No more! Not in this house! We told Sloan and Beau that they could no longer make “ice cream soup” (their term) when we treated them to dessert at night. Our kids had become pretty obsessed with eating just a couple bites of their ice cream before swirling and mashing it into a lumpy, sticky liquid. I reached my boiling point when I watched Beau turn gourmet, beautiful ice cream into a disgusting soup when I took him out to a parlor after he ran a weekend errand with me. Not only does “ice cream soup” ruin a special treat but it also makes a mess and is terrible table manners. If the kids ever want to eat ice cream again I think we made ourselves clear.

After watching Beau reduce this beautiful treat to ice cream soup (they gave us a dish with his cone which you can’t see in the photo) I knew we had to put an end to the practice.

Throwback – Thought this week would be another good one for a Throwback. This comes from the “awkward Christmas card pose” file. I don’t know which one of us thought, “Oh, let’s go across the street and pose on the playground slide” but it is now etched in time. What were we thinking?! 😂

I will take “Random and Awkward Family Photos” for $1000, Alex.

90s Films – This past week I watched a couple of well-known movies from the 1990s. On Friday night, Sid and I watched “The Bone Collector” with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The ending was completely problematic but it was still a fun mystery to try and solve. Although I usually prefer villain-Denzel, he played a great paraplegic hero in this film. Then, just recently, I watched “Searching For Bobby Fischer.” I thought this movie was great and beautiful at the same time as I thought the performance by the boy who played the chess prodigy was superb. The film made me want to go out, buy a chess board, and teach Sloan how to play.

I enjoyed watching both “The Bone Collector” and “Searching for Bobby Fischer.”

Snowball Growth Chart – With all the snow that dumped on the Inland Northwest yesterday, there was more than enough to roll it up into balls and measure the entire population of Spokane. Beau came in at a solid height of 14 snowballs. I didn’t want to waste Ms. Shaurette’s time so I didn’t measure myself but I am pretty sure I would have measured 27 snow balls.

Beau measured 14 snow balls according to the St. Mary snowball growth chart.

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Alright, everything did add up to “five” tonight. I guess that means my work here is done. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the NFL Playoffs this weekend. Don’t Blink.