National hot dog day | Don't Blink

Today is National Hot Dog Day. Over the years I have devoted a lot of ink to hot dogs but I won’t re-hash the many mentions tonight—you can just read about them here (it is pretty entertaining).

So while I won’t re-hash the old, I will update everyone with three extremely brief hot dog stories and developments from the past 12 months…

By the way, I really love hot dogs!

– I took Beau to a 250th America celebration in June. I packed us picnic lunches as it was an outdoor event that occurred over the course of lunchtime. When he saw I had packed him a Subway sandwich that had a topping he didn’t like, he started to throw a fit. I was content to let him just feast on the chip but he insisted on a hot dog. Since there was a local hot dog vendor close to us, I decided to comply with his request.

I stood in line and eventually made it to the front and ordered him a marked up hot dog. Despite the cost, it looked and smelled great—way better than anything that comes in an Oscar Mayer package. In fact, if I didn’t have to put ketchup on it to appease Beau, I think I would have ate it myself and accepted the scorn when I returned empty-handed. Alas, I didn’t do that. When I presented Beau with the hot dog, you should have seen the look of disgust on his face. Although grill lines indicate a hot dog that was cooked right, my son apparently considered them to be the plague.

Knowing this probably wasn’t going to end well, I told him to at the very least try it. He took the smallest nibble and spit it out. What a waste of time, money, and food.

Beau hanging with some colonial men at the “Celebrating America’s 250th: Picnic in the Park” event at Balfour Park in Spokane Valley. This was a few minutes before the lunch disaster.

Two more super quick hot dog anecdotes…

– Although Beau won’t eat a hot dog with grill lines, he will certainly eat one surrounded by sour candy. When we attended a Gonzaga Prep football game this past fall, Sloan and Beau took advantage of the free hot dogs given away prior to kickoff. Instead of topping his frank with ketchup, he topped it with Sour Patch Kids. I will take the “Worst Dad of the Year Award” for actually letting him eat it.

Beau’s candy hot dog. He would later sprinkle Nerds on it too.

– And finally a positive story about hot dogs. Back in August, my brother caught something special from the sky during a Seattle Mariners game. If you have never heard of the team’s Hot Dogs from Heaven promotion let me enlighten you. Once each game, hot dogs that are attached to parachutes are dropped from the upper deck onto a lucky lower deck section. The cards aligned during our Seattle visit and my brother used his height to snag one of the dogs that floated over our row of seats.

My brother holds the hot dog he caught during the “Hot Dogs from Heaven” promotion.

Hope everyone takes some time to celebrate today by eating a hot dog. Here’s to more hot dog experiences (hopefully all positive) between now and the 2027 National Hot Dog Day. Don’t Blink.

Greetings! Thanks for returning for Don’t Blink’s greatest tradition…the Thursday Rundown. Alright, we have five topics lined up so let’s get after it…

Blue Bunny Ice Cream – We recently tried a couple different flavors of Blue Bunny ice cream. We purchased a container of super fudge brownie and a container of a crazy flavor called cookies, candies, and brownies. In my opinion, the ice cream itself isn’t anything special. But I do have to hand it to Blue Bunny when it comes to appearance. When you open a container the ice cream is molded in an elegant pattern with the sauce or topping (i.e. caramel, fudge, etc.) threaded around it. Sure makes it inviting to eat!

A look at the two Blue Bunny flavors we tried this weekend. It was a very inviting sight once we took the top off both containers.

Summer Poster Boy – This is what summer looks like, folks. Sidney took this photo of Beau earlier this week on a particularly hot afternoon. Just take a moment to gaze at its hilarity. Beau’s face screams heat exhaustion, his hair is wind swept, chalk covers the right part of his forehead, dirt is visible at the bottom of his nostrils and around his face, and his shirt is marked with Doritos dust and more chalk. The boy plays hard! Talk about a face only a mommy and daddy could love.

This is what summer looks like!

National Hot Dog Day – I will eat a hot dog any chance I get. Don’t believe me? Type “hot dog” into the search bar of this blog to view the countless times I have written about the culinary delight over the years. Despite so many hot dog memories to choose from, for this space I must commemorate the 10th anniversary of when I attempted to eat “The Big Dog.” In 2012, I went with my family to Northern Quest Casino to celebrate my mom’s birthday. My brother and I each ordered the aforementioned menu item, thinking it would be just enough to fill us up. What came out was a 22-inch gigantic dog smothered in chili and cheese with large mounds of fries on either side of it. The thing was so big that when the waitress brought it out I thought it was a joke. I struggled to finish half of it but I will never struggle to remember that night when I felt like I was on “Man Vs. Food.”

This is me with The Big Dog at Northern Quest Casino in Spokane during the summer of 2012.

Ball Player TBT – Every now and then I sneak a Throwback Thursday into the Thursday Rundown. Tonight you are lucky (I guess?). This photo shows a 6-year-old Brent suited up to play some t-ball for the Expos. My hat didn’t fit on my head and those blue sweatpants were pulled up Urkel style but I was living my best life. Funny thing is, almost 30 years later, I can still smell the leather of that first little kid glove I owned.

I was a proud member of the Expos t-ball team.

Sloan Joke – I don’t know where she learned it, but Sloan has repeatedly told a joke to anyone she has come across this week. With no solid fifth topic in mind, I decided I would share it.
Q. What do you call a cow with no legs?
A. Ground beef!