It’s Lizz’s last week of maternity leave, so she’s playing passenger princess today while Kelly takes the wheel. This episode is packed with birthday embarrassment, a big dill taste drive, and more listener icks.

→ If you’re a Mitsubishi girlie, head over to Apple Podcasts, leave a five star review for the show, shout out your ride, and tell us what you love about listening to The Carpool!

To kick things off, today’s millennial word of the day is ‘rat girl summer.’ If you’re into lurking, snacking, and embracing your rodent energy — this is for you. Kelly will take her hot girl spray tan and iced coffee over rat girl summer any day.

Kelly’s 30th birthday pool party made the Margaritas go down a little too smooth and caused the gals a bit of hangxiety. On the bright side, Lizz’s ice shot glasses and the Alpaca Picnic were both a hit. In her driveway dump, Kelly also shares her take on slicked back hairstyles, toxic messy bun tutorials and the overuse of ‘AI.’

Hidden Valley Ranch with pickle flavored ranch and Spritz Society’s canned cocktail collab with Clausen are featured in today’s taste drive. Kelly and Lizz both agree, Seltzer taste tests need to make a comeback on the Carpool.

Listener icks this week include adults using the ‘little girls room’, sleeping with your childhood blankie, and grown men with towels around their waist. Kelly and Lizz add their most embarrassing moments to the mix.

If you sign up for more free trials than Kelly, you need Rocket Money. Rocket Money finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions and monitors your spending. Rocket Money can even negotiate to lower bills for you by up to 20%. All you have to do is take a picture of your bill and Rocket Money takes care of the rest. With over 3 million users in counting Rocket Money, customers have saved on an average of $720 a year. So stop wasting your money on things you don't use. Cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way.

→ Download the Rocket Money app at rocketmoney.com/carpool

In industry news Mazda’s new SUV, the 2024 CX 90, has a little more oomph and is available as a plug-in hybrid. Lizz says she’d give this ride a chance since it has 490 miles between a full charge and a full tank of gas (which she hates filling up). The Mitsubishi Mirage is the last new car with an average purchase price below $20K. And In July, Americans paid, on average, $48K for a new vehicle.

Sardines are it and listener Genevieve is here to confirm. She’s sending Lizz and Kelly over to Trader Joes to get the best of the best — packed in olive oil, skinless, and boneless. Genevieve shares her tips and tricks to eating them right on toast or broiled with cheese to make a sardine melt. A second ditch the drive-through from Kay, the California Skillet, follows a quick question: is it safe to use an expired car seat in the stroller?

→ To share your ditch the drive-through recipe with us, call (959) CAR-POOL and leave us a message!

→ Write in your icks and ask for advice! Send Kelly and Lizz an email to get your question featured on the show at hello@thecarmomofficial.com

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY WE DON'T REMEMBER