Tag Archives: USL Spokane

My Pleasure Thursday Rundown

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We have reached mid-April and we finally received some of the showers that make this month famous. Thankfully Mother Nature waited until after a sunny spring break to bring the rain. Let’s jump into tonight’s Thursday Rundown…

Day Off – Speaking of spring break, I had the opportunity to take last Friday off to be with my kids. I took them to Dave & Buster’s for a couple hours and then we followed it up with lunch at the Spokane Valley Mall food court. As I have written before, I always try to take my children out to lunch on spring break.

A few images from our outing to Spokane’s Dave & Buster’s location and to the Spokane Valley Mall for lunch.

Fun Saturday – My day off on Friday was followed by another adventurous day. On Saturday I had the treat of taking Sid and the kids to ONE Stadium for a USL Soccer match as the Spokane Velocity defeated the Richmond Kickers, 3-1. It was EWU Night and my family had the opportunity to sit in one of the suites with some of my other co-workers and President Shari McMahan. For someone like Beau who is a soccer fanatic, the experience was something that he especially enjoyed.

A photo of Beau absolutely loving life at the Spokane Velocity soccer match we attended this past weekend.

Great Horror Film – I watched the best scary movie I have seen in a couple years this past week. Called “Weapons,” it tells the eerie story about 17 elementary students from the same classroom who end up going missing on the same night at 2:17 a.m. The plot of the movie is completely original, the concepts are creepy, the images are jarring, and the scares are real. The film receives an A+ from me for its creativity. If you are looking for a terrific horror movie that might even resonate with non-scary film fans (it did win Academy Awards after all), I recommend “Weapons.”

“Weapons” was a great film.

My Pleasure – On this date eight years ago, I wrote about “the problem” with the phrase no problem. I also discussed why I will say my pleasure for the rest of my life. But in short, when someone says “no problem,” it insinuates that there is/was a problem. When someone expresses their gratitude to you, it doesn’t make sense to respond by saying something that doesn’t convey any sort of warmth or sentiment. At best, “no problem” means nothing. How is it acknowledging what someone said to you?

This was my Instagram post from my Life’s Little Instructions calendar back in 2018 that influenced me to write a blog post about “no problem” and “my pleasure.”

Popes – Today would have been Pope Bendict XVI’s 99th birthday. Shortly after his death, I wrote this blog post about our former pope’s status as a master theologian on complex issues but also his simplicity at heart. When Pope Francis passed away, I wrote about his humility and exemplification of what it means to be a servant leader. When it comes to Pope Leo, I hope I don’t have to write about his legacy for a very long time 😉. But what I can say about him right now is that I feel extremely blessed to have him as my pope and I hope he continues to advocate for peace at every chance he gets.

Pope Benedict XVI was as sharp as they come (photo cred: New York Times).

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That’s all I have for tonight. Thanks for your readership and I hope you have a nice weekend. Don’t Blink.

Velocity Thursday Rundown

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Thank you for visiting Don’t Blink on this last day of July. I hope your month has been exciting and your summer refreshing. Let’s jump into my latest five topics.

Pro Soccer – This past weekend, I took the kids to ONE Stadium in downtown for the Spokane Velocity soccer match. The Velocity compete in the United Soccer League (USL) and have quickly found a fan base in our soccer-crazed city. Beau and Sloan had a blast. They went on the field for pregame introductions, made cheer signs, ate stadium food, and watched a very closely contested soccer match on a beautiful evening. Unfortunately, the Velocity fell to Sacramento Republic FC, 1-0. Special thanks to the Spokane County Library District. Because the kids reached their mid-summer goal of 300 minutes of reading, they were each given a free ticket voucher from SCLD for the match.

We had a really nice time at the Spokane Velocity game!

Southern Style Snowballs – A story in the Spokesman-Review last week caught my eye. It was about a guy from Louisiana who worked with his young son to create Southern Style Snowballs, a Spokane business that serves shaved ice treats from a truck. His recipe is New Orleans-inspired and that piqued the interest of my very Southern wife 😉. So, last Friday we went to the Spokane Valley Farmers Market where Southern Style Snowballs was a registered vendor. Sloan chose a blue raspberry snowball, Beau opted for blue raspberry, Sidney selected fuzzy navel, and I sampled them all. Although I wouldn’t say it was better than the shave ice I had in Hawaii, the treats offered by Southern Style Snowballs were still above and beyond anything you can find here in Spokane.

I took this photo of the back of the Southern Style Snowballs truck at the Spokane Valley Farmers Market.

Nice Ride – I am not a big car guy but I know some of my readers are. You might be interested to know that my brother-in-law recently acquired a 1966 Chevelle. He was nice enough to take me for a spin in it this past Sunday. Let me tell you, when you ride in that thing you get a lot of looks! We hadn’t even exited the car at the gas station before someone was already asking us questions about the year, speed, history of it. Anyway, the joy ride was a lot of fun—it might have been the fastest I have ever gone in an automobile.

My brother-in-law’s 1966 Chevelle. This is after we parked it at the gas station.

Ugly Hands – On this date nine years ago, I wrote about a less than becoming body feature of mine—my hands! For most of my life, they have been plagued with bulging callouses. However, I can report almost a decade later that those callouses aren’t as pronounced as they once were. I still exercise every week day but whether my workouts aren’t that intense or the equipment at my current gym is more forgiving, my hands don’t scare away 3-year-old anymore 😂.

I have always had calloused hands but they are starting to get better.

Rigged – Thought I would end with this Family Circus strip from yesterday. If you have a young kid, you know how they turn any game of chance into a racket. Beau will challenge me to rock-paper-scissors or ask me to call a coin in the air (the worst!) and he will very non-discreetly rig it. When it comes to what the boy is doing in the comic, if this was Beau, he would simply transfer the object from his left hand to his right hand if I correctly guessed his left hand. Hard to get a fair shake with kids these days.

This “Family Circus” strip is from July 30 and as a father of young children I can relate!

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With that, let’s put a fork in the final July rundown of 2025. This weekend I have Seattle in my future and I hope you embark on an adventure as well. Don’t Blink.