Wow, lots of emotion this week in Don’t Blink as I wrap up my time at WSU and reflect on a special visit from my in-laws. I am glad the Thursday Rundown is here so I can return to the “nobody cares” genre of writing that I seem to have mastered 😂. Alright, here we go…

Exploding Cans – I guess it could be worse for Southwest Airlines…it could be Delta. But even though Southwest wasn’t impacted by CrowdStrike as much as its competition, it is dealing with a dilemma: exploding soda cans. More than 20 airline flight attendants have been injured when the soda cans they were opening exploded. The culprit is the record-breaking heat and lack of ground refrigeration. Because Southwest doesn’t serve perishable food on its flights, it has no need for refrigerated trucks on the ground. That means the soda is exposed to scorching heat before it is packed on the plane and thus cooked to burst once a poor stewardess attempts to open it. Get the airline some ice troughs!

These Dr. Pepper cans wouldn’t stand a chance on a Southwest flight.

2024 Summer Olympics – I love the Summer Olympics and am so excited for them to start tomorrow. If the Paris games are half as good as the Tokyo games we are all in for a treat. It will probably come as no surprise to you that I have written A LOT about the Olympics over the years but I don’t want to overwhelm you with a bunch of different links. Instead, I will just offer one: My top 5 favorite Summer Olympics events. Enjoy the games, everyone!

Back in 2021, Sloan loved watching the Tokyo Games. This is her cheering on the U.S. men’s swim team.

Shoe Swap – An embarrassing episode occurred as we left a birthday party that Beau attended on Saturday. We walked out the door with the blue crocs we thought belonged to him. Shortly after we arrived home, Sid looked at his shoes with a mortified look on her face and explained, “The sun shrunk Beau’s crocs!” She was about to leave for Target to buy a new pair when she looked at the shoes a bit closer. She noticed they were a 6-size, a far cry from the original 10-size that Sid bought for Beau. I texted the birthday party host and confessed that we likely took someone else’s shoes while leaving Beau’s at their house. Thankfully, we lucked out. The shoes in our possession belonged to the birthday girl’s 2-year-old brother. As the mom told me, “No one went home shoeless” 😂. I was mildly embarrassed when I drove back to the house to make the switch.

These were the crocs I mistakenly brought home. I sent this photo to the party host and luckily she responded by saying they were her son’s shoes meaning no one went home shoeless.

#TBT – Figured I would include a Throwback Thursday image in tonight’s rundown. This photo was taken on this date four years ago and it certainly takes me down memory lane. Back in July 2020, Sloan was a pipsqueak and Beau had just recently started wearing his helmet. Okay, that’s all I got for that one.

In this photo, Sloan was 3 and Beau was 5 months.

Last WSU Video – I wanted to share the final video I worked on while at WSU. In honor of National Ice Cream Month, we planned to do a video with Food Science Professor Carolyn Ross. She specializes in food sensory perception and we wanted her to explain what makes ice cream taste so good. But the night before the shoot, our video director had an awesome idea. He pitched that we position the video in the style of the show “Hot Ones.” So what we ended up doing was purchasing several flavors of Ferdinand’s ice cream and having Dr. Ross taste each one individually. Her analysis and on-camera demeanor were just what we were looking for! Watch it here.

Thank you to Dr. Carolyn Ross of WSU Food Science for helping us make a fun and educational video.

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Okay, that’s five topics, right? Tomorrow is the end of an era as I wrap up my time as an employee at Washington State University. Look for a special and rare Friday blog post as I thank those who made the last four years so rewarding. Don’t Blink.