Monthly Archives: February 2026

Rib Eye Thursday Rundown

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Don’t Blink because a new month will be here this weekend. If you are a basketball fan that is a good thing. And if you somehow are crazy enough to like this blog hopefully it is a good thing that my latest Thursday Rundown is ready for you. Let’s get going…

Going For A Ride, Part II – Our kids received some cash from Grandma and Papa for Valentine’s Day so this past weekend we went to the mall so they could (naturally) spend it. Beau opted to spend his money on a Boba drink and 15 minutes on the blue unicorn…that adds up to $20 really fast. If you remember earlier this year, I chronicled the very first time that Sloan and Beau tried out the Spokane Valley Mall go-cart attractions.

Beau felt like the king of the Spokane Valley Mall as he rode his blue unicorn go-cart throughout the main floor.

Jump Around – Sloan used her $20 on Boba, a pair of earrings from Claire’s, and three minutes on the bungee. It was a little more than two years ago that Sloan first tried Fanorama Bungee and after all that time it was calling her name again. It was also calling for my wallet because if you think Sloan was able to afford those three things for just $20 you are crazy.

Sloan jumping around at the Spokane Valley Mall.

Special Anniversary – Tomorrow (Feb. 27) is always a very special date for our family. It was in 2020—right before the pandemic and our big move—that Beau was baptized and Sid was welcomed into the Catholic Church. Fr. Roger Morgan performed both sacraments in the same ceremony as our family, friends, and my fellow Knights of Columbus brothers looked on. Fr. Morgan and St. Andrew Catholic Church will always have specials spots in our hearts. Thanks be to God!

Thanks be to God for Feb. 27, 2020. This is our family at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Myrtle Beach on the day Sidney was welcomed into the Church and Beau was baptized.

WinCo – After the change debacle, WinCo is back on my good side. Sid recently prepared these rib eye steaks for Sunday dinner. We don’t usually buy a lot of meat from WinCo but with the way these chops tasted we might start purchasing more. Of course, Beau passed on the delicious steak and settled for a peanut butter sandwich instead. 😕

These were the steaks we enjoyed recently. WinCo’s meat isn’t that bad.

Cowboy and Fred – For a fun throwback photo, I thought we would go back 20 years to when my brother and I dressed up as this particular odd couple for the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Nah, we didn’t go together as we actually had real dates (can you believe that?) but we did take this photo before going our separate ways. I was a senior at the time and my brother was a freshman.

My brother and I before the 2005 Mead High School Sadie Hawkins Dance.

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And with that, this Thursday Rundown is in the books. Don’t Blink.

The Two Seafood Dishes I Can Tolerate

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I know you are going to call me crazy but I am not a big seafood guy. Okay, fine, throw your crab legs at me for making such a shallow statement but it is the truth. I simply don’t care for the tastes and textures of the cuisine that comes from the sea.

However, I do have two exceptions…

Serve me fish and chips any day. It might be the deep fried batter that converts me, but I really do enjoy fluffy white cod or halibut served with a side of fries.

My other exception is clam chowder. I love soup and clam chowder is actually on my shortlist. But there is a specific reason for why an anti-seafood diner like myself actually enjoys such a delicacy…

Sidney and my sister at the St. Mary Knights of Columbus fish fry on March 3, 2023. They are enjoying the two seafood items I will eat…fish & chips and clam chowder.

I grew up eating clam chowder at my grandpa’s restaurant. As a solid Catholic eatery, the Pastime Café would serve the soup every Friday as an option for those abstaining from meat. When my family would visit our grandparents in Walla Walla we would normally arrive at the start of the weekend (aka Friday) and head straight to the Pastime upon entering town.

As a young boy who would always opt for soup over salad at that point in my life, I would settle for the clam chowder. But I don’t know if “settling” is the right word because I actually really liked it.

And I still do to this day. I find clam chowder delicious and I always look forward to a cup of the soup when we attend the Lenten fish fry dinners put on by my St. Mary Knights of Columbus council.

Friday is quickly approaching and you will have plenty of options to duck into pretty much any restaurant (or join me at the St. Mary fish fry) and order clam chowder. Or perhaps you should just enjoy some tonight. After all, it is National Clam Chowder Day. Don’t Blink.

Five Gems To Embrace

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This past Saturday I spent the day at Gonzaga Prep for the Spokane Diocese Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference. It was the sixth time I attended the gathering since moving back to Spokane and this year the event organizers didn’t have to go far to find their headliner. Bishop Thomas Daly, the leader of the Diocese of Spokane, served as the main speaker as he delivered three different talks throughout the course of the day.

Bishop Daly spoke to the male faithful at the 2026 Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference at Gonzaga Prep. I took this photo during the bishop’s first talk.

Bishop Daly is a rock star and kept the nuggets of gold coming all day long. In fact, you didn’t even have to be Catholic to appreciate the insight that the seventh bishop of Spokane was dispensing. I thought I would share just a handful of the gems that Bishop Daly shared on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.

It is always a treat to listen to Bishop Daly speak. He was the headliner at the Spokane Diocese Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference.

– Although I had heard Bishop Daly say it before on a podcast, his anecdote of children listen to their mothers but watch their fathers never gets old. It is a reminder that dads have a high call to set the absolute best example for their children because you better believe that they are watching.

– Sometimes life can hit us hard and we find ourselves in desperation. It is possible that praying is the last thing we want to do. But Bishop Daly challenged us to pray when we don’t feel like praying. Whenever any anti-prayer thought enters our mind or heart, the only logical response is to drop down and pray. This even applies when times are really good and prayer might seem unnecessary or when we find ourselves in a prayer rut. Respond to any voice that says prayer is obsolete by—yes—praying!

– A good piece of advice for me to heed from Bishop Daly was his reminder that when we complain about something, we lose God’s graces we could have gained from it. I am fantastic at whining when I get a man cold (just ask Sidney) but if I could instead just take it on the chin perhaps I could recover from it with better perspective and heightened respect from my wife.

– To begin the retreat, Bishop Daly offered mass. During his homily he sternly told all of us men in the pews the following: Don’t be so occupied with fending off evil that you fail to do good. It is admirable to avoid doing bad things but we have to do more than refrain—we actually have to DO. If we just hide all the time, when are we going to evangelize or do all the good acts that Jesus commanded us to do?

– I easily could have stretched this blog post to 10 items but since I capped myself at a handful, let me end with the most fitting and all-encompassing thing that Bishop Daly said. The path of holiness is not beyond us. We can all take up our cross, do good, and live as saints. When Daly was about to become a bishop, he had a mentor who told him the following: “Remember Tom, 11 of the 12 apostles were martyred.” So is it going to be easy? No. But is it achievable? With God, anything is.

Bishop Thomas Daly offers mass at the Spokane Diocese Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference inside the Gonzaga Prep chapel. During his homily he would tell those in attendance to not become so occupied with evil that we don’t do good.

Thanks to Bishop Daly for speaking at the 2026 Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference and for being so open to all of us in attendance. May God continue to bless him. Don’t Blink.

The Best Super Bowl Commercial Ever.

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Tap here to watch EWU’s Super Bowl commercial

When I wrote my Super Bowl LX review, I scrutinized the commercials. However, except for a brief mention, I didn’t say much about the ad that meant the most to me during the big game.

Perhaps my relative silence was due to conflict of interest because the commercial I watched/appreciated the most was that of my employer. I am referring to the Eastern Washington University spot that ran three times during the Super Bowl broadcast.

The Super Bowl commercial that I enjoyed the most was the one we did! This is the opening screen for the spot we created in a very short period of time.

This academic year at EWU has been special because our university president accepted a marketing proposal my team submitted. Because of her willingness to move forward with the plan, our marketing program was significantly funded with the resources needed to do some pretty cool things. While our brand marketing strategy is digital-first, that doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to traditional advertising. And because we haven’t lost faith in the power of traditional advertising, we did just about the coolest things you can do with it—we decided to run an ad during the Super Bowl.

Thanks to our decision to pay for a lot of TV inventory up front in the early fall, we were allotted local spots to run during the Super Bowl. The plan was to run our brand anthem commercial during our moment in the sun but then something remarkable happened that scraped those plans.

When Championship Sunday concluded and the teams for the Super Bowl were decided, there was something that had any Eastern Washington University fan beaming from ear-to-ear: The Seattle Seahawks (Cooper Kupp) and New England Patriots (Efton Chism III) each had an EWU alumnus playing on their teams.

Our University Relations and athletics departments did everything possible to celebrate/market that two Eagles were playing in the Super Bowl. From flyers to stories to website banners to a watch party, we had it covered.

But what about that Super Bowl spot?

We knew creating an entirely new spot that was Super Bowl-worthy in less than two weeks would be extremely difficult. So we decided to hedge our bets. Our team worked with our marketing agency to create a social media video that was focused on our brand identity as the region’s polytechnic while infusing Cooper and Efton to make our hands-on promise quite literal. Although the plan was to use it solely on social media, we knew it might have greater potential.

Our spot was 100% on-brand with our identity as “the region’s polytechnic” but at the same time it infused the timeliness of two of our alumni playing in the Super Bowl.

When the video was finished, there was no doubt it was too good for just social. Working with our media buyer, we were able to swap out our brand anthem commercial for our new Super Bowl masterpiece.

The spot premiered during pre-game just moments before kickoff. It was then shown during the actual game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It then had an encore showing as the Seattle Seahawks celebrated with the Lombardi Trophy.

Another screenshot from the commercials shows the point when Efton Chism III was introduced.

The reaction to the commercial was overwhelming pride. The EWU community was amazed just by the fact that we pulled off a Super Bowl spot in the first place. But to make it timely and aligned with our brand positioning as the region’s polytechnic? There was no doubt about it…we had scored a touchdown.

Even though it was just broadcast locally, running an ad during the Super Bowl was probably one of the most exciting things I have done in my career. Thanks to my talented team and our partners at idfive for making it happen. Don’t Blink.

Deep Undercover Thursday Rundown

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It is now the Lenten season and I hope things started right for you yesterday with Ash Wednesday. Let’s jump right into things with today’s five topics…

Valentine’s Date Recap – Sid and I had a promising night planned. We had a babysitter for the kids and were looking forward to an evening in downtown Spokane. We made reservations at 7 p.m. for a restaurant we really wanted to try. But by 8 p.m. we had yet to receive our food and with everyone else in our section in a similar boat, we decided to bow out as our movie (at least the previews) had already started. We watched “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.” Sid and I both found the film to be creative and fun. Although we didn’t get the dinner we were looking forward to, the theater came through with chicken strips, mozzarella sticks, and of course popcorn.

My lovely Valentine’s Day date at the not-to-be-named restaurant where we had to walk out.

Goat – Speaking of movies, the day after our Valentine’s date, we returned to the theater—this time with our kids. We watched Steph Curry’s film, “Goat,” and found it very cute and entertaining. However, I don’t know if it was worth $90. For four matinee tickets (with two of them being children’s tickets), a popcorn, and two sodas we spent nearly $100. Although memories are priceless, the cost of going to the movies is getting out of control.

“Goat” was good but I don’t know if it was worth $90.

Deep Undercover – After reading a book about an American spy a few years ago, I decided to read a book about a Russian spy. “Deep Undercover” is about Jack Barsky, a German who was recruited by the Russians to work for the KGB. Barsky eventually went undercover in the United States but eventually embraced the American way of life and found God. The book is pretty interesting and a rather easy read. If you are interested in a good spy autobiography, “Deep Undercover” is for you.

“Deep Undercover” by Jack Barsky was pretty good.

Sumo Wrestling – This past weekend we were at an Asian culture festival when suddenly Beau found himself face-to-face with a sumo wrestler. This guy meant business and wasn’t going to let my son walk off the mat without a battle. In a true David vs. Goliath moment, Beau snatched victory. You can watch how it happened here. Trust me, it wasn’t rigged at all.

Beau sure was brave as he faced off against a sumo wrestler.

White Lotus – During the holiday season, we traded out our Hulu sports package for HBO Max. This allowed me to begin watching the critically-acclaimed “White Lotus” series. Last week, I completed the third season (a fourth season is set to be released soon). I was entertained by the wild storylines, great acting, and unique musical scores. Season one was my favorite with season three next on my list. Although Aubrey Plaza is one of my favorite actresses, season two—although still a good watch—is at the bottom of my list.

I recently finished up watching all the currently available “White Lotus” seasons. I find the series to be fresh and entertaining.

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Thanks for reading. I hope everyone has a great last weekend with the Winter Olympics. Don’t Blink.

Jelly Donuts and Lent

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On my way to work in the morning, I often tune into the radio broadcast of daily mass from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. I can usually time it perfectly so that I hear the gospel reading and the homily. Yesterday was no different as I managed to catch newly-installed Archbishop Ronald Hicks’ preaching on Mardi Gras.

He mentioned that the day before Lent he usually splurges on Paczki, a type of jelly donut that is traditionally served on Fat Tuesday. Despite his best intentions to eat just one, he usually ends up eating several.

Archbishop Hicks is fond of eating paczki on Fat Tuesday.

Archbishop Hicks spoke about the tendency of many Catholics—himself included—to indulge in rich foods on Mardi Gras as both a “last hurrah” before Lent and also a way to fill one’s belly before the fasting that comes the next day.

But after mentioning his Fat Tuesday splurge, he related something very telling: he still wakes up hungry on Ash Wednesday.

It doesn’t matter how many jelly donuts he scarfs down, there is still a hunger that nags at him the next day. Simply, the appetite can’t be filled by pre-loading the day before or even in cheating the fast on Ash Wednesday. Instead, the hunger can only be satisfied one way: Jesus.

I hope everyone has a meaningful Lent.

Don’t Blink.

Past Lenten Blog Posts
Lent 2026: How Do You Describe It?
Lent 2025: Looking Into the Spiritual Mirror
Pursuing the Best Reward
Lent 2024: Ash Wednesday Over Valentine’s Day
General Lenten Points of Emphasis
Lent 2023: A Necessary Time
Lent 2022: Solidarity With Ukraine
The Lenten Road
The Journey of Lent
The Real Purpose of Lent

Lent 2026: How Do You Describe It?

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Throughout my life, I have listened to different priests describe Lent in different ways. One compared it to a journey, another likened it to boot camp, and still another one equated it to an examination in front of the spiritual mirror.

Although these priests used different—but very strong—analogies, they all effectively drove home the true point of Lent: to draw closer to God.

No matter how you conceptualize Lent, I hope you are able to draw closer to God during it.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the kickoff of a 40+ day holy period. For the next 6.5 weeks, Christians will focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as a way to walk with Jesus through the desert so that we might properly prepare ourselves for Easter.

Lent isn’t for the faint of heart. As I often quote yet another priest, “Lent isn’t my favorite time but it is a necessary time.” Sometimes you have to endure trials and tribulations to reach glory and I don’t think there is anything that better exemplifies this reality than the relationship between Lent and Easter.

No matter how you conceptualize Lent or how your parish priest describes it, I hope you make the most out of the next 46 days. May your walk with Jesus lead you to a good place on April 5 so that you can celebrate Easter to its fullest. Don’t Blink.

Past Lenten Blog Posts
Lent 2025: Looking Into the Spiritual Mirror
Pursuing the Best Reward
Lent 2024: Ash Wednesday Over Valentine’s Day
General Lenten Points of Emphasis
Lent 2023: A Necessary Time
Lent 2022: Solidarity With Ukraine
The Lenten Road
The Journey of Lent
The Real Purpose of Lent

Wait. It Isn’t Even Ice Cream?

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Growing up as a kid in my parents’ house, we knew we hit it big if Dreyer’s ice cream was in our freezer. Now, to be fair, it wasn’t a rare occasion when we had ice cream in the house but when we did it was usually of the generic, store-brand variety. Not that us kids cared too much—ice cream was ice cream. However, we were aware enough to know (and taste) that Dreyer’s was a step up from Albertson’s ice cream and that if it was in our freezer, it meant my mom probably scored a deal.

As I grew older, moved out, and started a family, I maintained my high regard for Dreyer’s (or Edy’s when I lived on the east coast). I considered it premium ice cream and would buy it occasionally on special occasions.

Sloan scooping out some dessert courtesy of Dreyer’s last week. As you will learn as you read on, Dreyer’s is no longer technically ice cream.

However, over the past several months something started to happen that I didn’t put totally together until recently. When I would go to the grocery store, Dreyer’s ice cream was marked down. And it wasn’t like the ice cream containers looked damaged or out of date. Quite the contrary actually. New flavors had been introduced and the packaging looked as fresh as ever.

Funny enough, the discounted Dreyer’s wasn’t an anomaly at a specific grocery store. Instead, it seemed like everywhere from Safeway to WinCo to Rosauers was offering “sales” on Dreyer’s ice cream. Containers were running under $3 at all these stores and were less expensive than their own in-house brands.

Over the weekend I took a photo of the Dreyer’s ice cream at WinCo. As the case has been over the past several months, all the containers were under $3.

The cheaper ice cream registered in my brain but nothing too jarring that made me want to do research or write a blog post (😉) about it. That was until a couple weeks ago when I took our latest supply of Dreyer’s ice cream out of the freezer and noticed something on the packaging. What caught my eye was actually something that negates a term I have been using this entire blog post.

Dreyer’s is no longer ice cream. Rather, it is a frozen dairy dessert.

As you can tell from the packaging (look down at the bottom), Dreyer’s is now a “frozen dairy dessert.”

The FDD designation wasn’t entirely new to me. I have seen it on other ice cream-imitators (and knew what it meant) but I was shocked that Dreyer’s, a once-prestigious ice cream giant, would resort to such a change.

The difference between ice cream and a frozen dairy dessert is straight-forward and objective: the former must contain at least 10% milkfat with limited air while the latter can fall below the milkfat threshold and whip in more air.

Here is another angle of our Dreyer;s “frozen dairy dessert” container that clearly shows the designation.

Yes friends, ice cream uses a higher quantity of quality ingredients and packs in the good stuff while a frozen dairy dessert cuts costs by substituting milkfat with vegetable oils.

Thus, the results are obvious—frozen dairy desserts are less expensive and the reason why a once proud company’s signature product is now coming in at a lower price than its generic competition.

So does my “shock” at the Dreyer’s decision translate to disappointment? To be honest, from a consumer standpoint, my answer is no. I actually appreciate the lower price and really can’t tell that much of a difference in the taste. Don’t Blink.

Beaunaldo Thursday Rundown

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Last week my rundown was absent because Beau’s birthday fell on a Thursday and his special day took priority over my typical five wacky topics. Well, we aren’t celebrating any birthdays today so the Thursday Rundown is back. Let’s get started.

M&M’s – We tried a new flavor of M&M’s this past weekend (remember when there just used to be a few options?). At Walgreens they had a cardboard display with peanut butter cinnamon roll M&M’s. The flavor is part of a “Bakery Collection” rollout that also includes lemon meringue pie and cherry chocolate cupcake—I would like to try both of those flavors eventually. As for the one we did try? Not incredible and not awful. You can definitely taste both the peanut butter and the cinnamon with the latter having a more pronounced note. At more than $3 per bag, you don’t need to rush out and buy one.

Sloan holding a pack of peanut butter cinnamon M&M’s. We purchased the candy at Walgreens.

Ronaldo Gifts – Hosting a class party means you receive a lot of gifts. Beau was completely spoiled this past weekend but I thought I would highlight the gift he received from his cousins, Mik and John. Ronaldo is Beau’s favorite soccer player (we don’t call our son “Beaunaldo” for nothing) so they loaded him up on G.O.A.T.-related items. From stickers to a book to an LED night light, Beau can flaunt his fandom.

Beau received some great Ronaldo gifts from his cousins.

Father/Daughter Dance – For the fourth straight year, Sloan and I attended the St. Mary Father/Daughter Dance. I will share our official dance photo taken at the school when it is available but until then you can enjoy the montage below. Last year I wrote about the dance and the traditions we have established.

Sloan and I attended the St. Mary (Spokane Valley) Father/Daughter Dance for the fourth time on Feb. 6, 2026.

100th Day of School – We might have done this super last minute, but this is Beau with 100 pasta noodles to commemorate the 100th day of school. To be honest, our intention was to use large rotini noodles from a box that was already open. However, when I saw how much was left, I knew we would be cutting it short, and, alas—we only had 77 pasta pieces. So we had to pivot and go with the much smaller and underwhelming mararoni pasta pieces. Well, at least he had something!

Beau holding his 100 pieces of macaroni pasta. If we were able to use the rotini pasta it would have looked more impressive but we didn’t have enough.

Valentine’s Fortune Cookies – But today wasn’t just the 100th Day of School, it was also the celebration of Valentine’s Day at St. Mary Catholic School. This year, our kids gave out pretty creative Valentine’s. My wife found Valentine’s Day-themed fortune cookies on Amazon and put in an order. Each cookie comes with a label on the wrapper that says, “I’m fortune to be your friend – Beau and Sloan Reser.” A next level activation would be if we could add a customized fortune on the inside. As of right now, all fortunes are the same within the cookies.

Sidney ordered these custom Valentine’s Day fortune cookies for Beau and Sloan to pass out. Each fortune inside reads the same.

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Thank you for taking the time to visit Don’t Blink. Traffic to my blog has dramatically increased in 2026 so if you are a new reader, let me wish you a very warm welcome. If you are a longtime reader, thanks for staying with me all these years. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone! Don’t Blink.

Ordering American Food at a Mexican Restaurant

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On a random weeknight last week, Sid kicked the kids and me out of the house.

“Go to McDonald’s or something,” she told me.

Sid wanted to clean the house and didn’t want dishes and pots/pans from dinner cluttering up the kitchen. So like any good husband would, I got the kids in the car and we left. However, we didn’t go to McDonald’s.

Instead, I took them across the street to a tiny Mexican restaurant called Fiesta Grande. It truly is our neighborhood Mexican joint where we enjoy delicious food, coziness, and consistency. But this time, we did things a little different. Perhaps it was because it was such a spur of the moment thing and/or because Sidney wasn’t with us, but we didn’t order Mexican food. Yes, we had the audacity to order off the American menu.

Sloan ordered chicken strips and fries, Beau chose the grilled cheese and fries, and I opted for the cheeseburger and fries. Here are three things I observed from our extremely non-adventurous ordering…

Last week I took Sloan and Beau to Fiesta Grande in the Spokane Valley for a quick dinner. We all ordered American dishes.

1. We received two sides for the price of one! All of our meals came with fries but we still got bottomless chips. I admit it was kind of weird to eat tortilla chips when I knew a cheeseburger and fries was on its way but I couldn’t pass them up because they are so good at Fiesta Grande.

2. It is much less expensive ordering American items. My cheeseburger was $11.95 which was $3 less than the cheapest one item combination dinner at Fiesta Grande. I went back and forth in my head on whether it makes sense for an ethnic restaurant to charge less or more for American items. On one side, I can understand charging less because it isn’t the restaurant’s specialty. On the other side, I think charging a little more would be appropriate because you are essentially ordering an item that doesn’t fit with the menu and probably takes additional considerations to stock/prepare.

3. Our server didn’t care what we ordered. Even though we went to a delicious Mexican restaurant with truly incredible food, our kind waiter didn’t raise an eye or make a sarcastic remark when we ordered American entrees and fries. And you know what? All the food was really good!

I once wrote a post about how a family Mexican restaurant can truly stand out. I think I now know the answer: offer a tasty and inexpensive American menu. And one more thing to add…Sidney didn’t go hungry because we brought her home a to-go order. Want to guess what she got? Chicken strips and fries 😂. Don’t Blink.