The Importation of Grandfolk

the hough family is quickly becoming aware of the fact that grandbabies are, in fact, powerful, powerful bargaining chips.

before we had alayna, guys, we saw our folks about once (maybe twice) a year. now that a granddaughter has surfaced in central florida, the importation of grandparents has risen dramatically.

the most recent example was a visit with my dad over the weekend. he had a medical conference up in jacksonville that he had to attend for his work anyway, so he just rented a car and commuted from orlando instead so that he could hang out at our place and dote upon his grandkid. he flew in friday morning and got to spend the day around the house, and then left saturday morning for his conference.

while he was in jacksonville, kris and i took the cannonball out to pick up her first pumpkin (conveniently located at the church we occassionally - and rather infrequently - attend). for whatever reason, they had a couple ponies there. i had no previous inclination that ponies had anything to do with halloween, but... what the hell. who doesn't like ponies, right?

anyway, we brought back a couple pumpkins and, the next day, dad and i showcased our pumkin-knifework while the kid got thrown in a monkey suit.

now, something i apparently forgot over the course of the last fifteen years or so - and i don't see how i managed to do this - was the fact that after a pumpkin is carved, it begins to rot. this makes perfect sense, as it really is, in fact, a vegetable (or is it a fruit? i don't know). and down here in sunny, tropical florida - where i highly doubt pumpkins are indigenous - these vegetables rot pretty damn fast.

and rotten vegetables left out in the florida sun which are occassionally brought inside = mold city. and mold city, dear friends, = allergy city for yours truly. not cool.

anyway, in conclusion, this was a short weekend visit, but still a good time. we officially have the world's largest airmattress, folks, so visitors always have a place to sleep at casa de hough.

a maraaba.

- brian

Election Day

hi readers.

now, while florida has been known to suck on occasion since we’ve been down here, it has also proven to be quite awesome from time to time. take the weather, for instance. when not bracing for a hurricane, one really can’t beat the tropics. palm trees and 80 degree weather in november? yeah, i’ll take that over the cold drizzle and grey overcast skies of snowless michigan right now. and being this close to all of the theme parks, ocean, and beaches? slightly more stuff to do here than in clare. granted, you have to pay $1200 a month in rent, and you do run the risk of being shot at or killed in a car accident via one of the many, many stellar drivers we have down here... but, that's the price you pay for location.

what i’m getting at, folks, is that florida has a tendency of surprising you with little flashes of awesome when you’re least expecting it (of course, this also swings the opposite way, but let’s try to stay optimistic here). the hough family was recently made aware of yet another one of florida’s perks: the ability to vote early.

florida isn’t the only state in the union that does this, i know, so i’d urge you to look into whether or not that’s available to you in your own backyard. here in America’s Penis (if you look at a map of the continental united states, this is what florida looks like… seriously, people), kris and i decided to take full advantage of this and ‘get our vote on.’ as its somewhat still frowned upon to leave babies unattended down here (apparently the ol’ 'leave-the-baby-under-an- upside-down-laundry-basket-with-a-brick-on-top' trick doesn’t "fly" anymore), we had to take the cannonball with us to the local early voting location – the nearest branch of the orange county library.

expecting a four-hour stand-a-thon, the hough family geared up like we were setting off into the serengeti. parking was terrible, and we had to fight our way through hordes of volunteers out supporting their candidate of choice (mostly local positions - county commissioners, stuff like that - no mccain people about... though there were plenty of obama people to be seen). the circus ended up being a little easier than we had anticipated, and running the entire gauntlet ended up only taking about an hour. i had alayna strapped to me in a harness, and she only started acting up when i was in the voting booth.

the people around me most likely did not appreciate this.

anyway, the moral of the story (if there even is one) is this: vote early. do it. get it out of the way. seriously. regardless of whether or not you’re voting for the erratic old guy/bat-shit crazy lady combo or the socialist/foot-in-mouth combo, save yourself the trouble of standing in line for hours and hours on november 4th and make that crap happen.

if you don’t, you don’t get to complain about anything for the next four years. and complaining is an american right.

fight for your rights, america... fight for your rights.