Cold Weather and New Ink

Hey gangsters...

Well, we're safely back home after the Christmas Excursion up in Michigan, and are currently settling back into the normal grind that is life in the urban sprawl of Central Florida. I think it can go without saying that we were both pretty down about having to leave the snowy wastelands of the Glove State, but what we weren't expecting is to fly out of the cold, cold winds of Michigan, traverse the continental United States, and land in the cold, cold winds of Florida.

Seriously, people... its 30 degrees outside. What the hell is the problem here?!

So, as we continue to unpack and clean up around the house, we've got the heater on and are walking about in sweatshirts (in the tropics!). My monstrous cacti looked pissed off, but there's not much I can do for them by this point in time - they've already been exposed to the elements, so if they're destined to die, its going to happen anyway. I can't believe its this cold in Florida... is this El Niño (or La Niña, rather, if its a chick storm)? What about Global Warming or something?

I'm not a certified chief meteorologist like Channel 9's reliable, ol' Tom Terry (see jolly looking gentleman to the left), but I'm pretty sure 30 degree weather, for the tropics, is grounds for some serious eyebrow-raising.

Anyway.

I had some ink done with my brother Chris while I was home. This was something that was nigh on four years in the making, and we still didn't get everything we wanted done. Originally, Chris, Jeff and I were all going to get some sort of Hough brother tattoo done, but we haven't been able to successfully plan, design, and agree on any one design in the three years that have passed since we first hatched the idea.

Furthermore, lil' baby Jeffy's now joining the Air Force in March (I think its March), and apparently the U.S. Military has to clear all recruits' tattoos before folks are allowed to enlist... meaning that if he were to get new ink done with his two dumbass brothers, he'd have to postpone enlisting for another six months (which, for him, sounds about as awesome as hammering bamboo shoots underneath his fingernails).


So yeah... here's what I had done. The guy who did it, Jason Rhodes (owner of Intricate Decor in Mt. Pleasant, MI.), does great work and I'm so glad it turned out as I had initially hoped. I had the Hough family crest done, and it took probably four or five months of research and designing to get it to fit well on the inside of my left arm. The surname Hough traces its ancestry to 9th century Cheshire, England, where they were Saxon nobility. I found a couple different family mottos for the Hough surname, but 'Aut Pax Aut Bellum' (trans. from Latin, "Either Peace or War") seemed the most fitting for yours truly:


It was difficult working the design around my existing Gye Nyame symbol on my wrist, but Rhodes wrapped the scroll of the family motto around the side and I included one of my favorite passages in the KJV bible for perspective:


On the other arm, I decided to get the kid's nickname ('Cannonball') done in ancient Irish (seeing how both Kris and I have a lot of Irish in us). I went with a shamrock, too, as other traditional Irish symbols (pint of Guinness, a Shillelagh bashing in a Protestant's skull, etc.) might not be appropriate for a little girl...


Eventually, when the second kid is born, I'll get a design done for him and place it directly below Alayna's shamrock, and then eventually tie all three designs together in some sort of sleeve design. That'll take a couple years (and a couple hundred dollars, no doubt), but it'll look awesome in the long run.

Word. So there you have it. Yours truly had some ink done, its freezing in Florida, and nobody wants to go back to work.

Have a good New Year's, people...

- Brian

'How Terrorists Screwed My Travel Plans,' and Other Holidays Adventures

Post-Christmas time is here again, folks...

How was your Christmas? Awesome? Ours was. This year, the Houghs embarked on an awesome cross-continental adventure - we got to fly home to Michigan for a nine-day, winterland tour-de-force. Loads of fun. We got to spend a lot of time with family, got to catch up with old high school and college buddies, and were able to enjoy all of the old favorites around central Michigan (Buccelli's pizza, local townie bars, snow, etc.).

As usual, the Houghs (specifically Dad, Cindy, and yours truly) took way more pictures that probably necessary. We didn't quite hit the Eight Point Lake typical count of 1200 - 1300 pictures for the week, but I think we crossed 800. As such, I didn't feel like hand-picking a ton of them to post up on here. Again, what's easier for me, is just to provide you with the link where you can view an existing web gallery of our family's vacation up north.


Click here to check 'em out.


It was a good trip, and definitely one of the high points of our year. I managed to squeeze in time for the ol' high school crew, was able to get tattoos done with my brother Chris, got to pub crawl Clare, MI. with the infamous Sausage Pad, see all sides of my family, and still had down time in order to chill by a fire, sip 'nog, and jam out to the Vince Guaraldi Trio's Christmas album. All in all, nine just-about-perfect days at home.

Alas, as is typically the case, the vacation had to come to an end. What made our particular venture back home all the more excruciating was the fact that terrorists decided to screw around with my travel plans.

As we all know by now, some Nigerian idiot decided to pack plastic explosives (or whatever it was) in his underpants and try and blow up a plane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit. The exact same airport we would be flying out of two days later.

(Why he was trying to blow up good ol' Detroit, MI. - a city that's more or less already a smoking crater anyway - I have not a clue.)

Anyway, his botched suicide-bombing attempt more or less meant that we had to stand around in pain-in-the-ass lines even longer, and had to deal with heightened security (orange level! gasp!).

Running the airport gauntlet with a pregnant woman and a toddler is just as much fun as it sounds, folks.

News cameras felt it necessary to stick video cameras in people's faces throughout the long lines, which is like the last thing you want to endure after lugging around fifty pound suitcases whilst placating a toddler in the middle of a freak-out. A couple of these newsies even felt it necessary to videotape our daughter as she played around with a suitcase on the floor while we were in line. I didn't know they could do that without offering us a consent form or something. I mean, not that I really minded all that much, but I do enjoy the occasional form-signing. Makes me feel important.

So in conclusion, the Houghs had a good time in Michigan for the Holidays, and are looking forward to it again next year. Only next year, we'll have a second kid (hopefully a boy), and will be forced to make the 1300 mile overland trek - through the Deep South, over the Mountains, and up through the Midwest - in our family's Battle Wagon, as neither Kris nor myself feels like forking out an additional $300 for a third plane ticket (Alayna will need one by then). I'm sure that'll be an awesome car trip.

pfft...

- Brian

Fondewds and Dollar Store Gifts

Happy Pre-Christmas, everybody!


Well, its that time of year again. Time for the annual Hough/Voigt/Gowen bizarro Christmas Gift Exchange and Fondue Extravaganza. Always a good time. More or less a practice run for the up and coming 'real' Christmas, but with less family drama and more beer. Basically, everyone brings two dollar store gifts (gender appropriate, of course) to exchange, and everyone walks away with two random, usually tear-inducing, Christmas presents (though the Cannonball usually does pretty well for herself).


Here's some pictures from this year's blowout. Enjoy:

- Brian

Merry Christmas from the Houghs, Vol. V

Dearest friends, family members, and random people who come across this blog from the far corners of cyber space,

We, the Houghs, wish you all the merriest of Christmases (unless, of course, you don't celebrate Christmas, in which case we'd wish you 'Happy Holidays' in order to remain PC). Here is this year's installment in the ongoing Hough family Christmas card saga.

Enjoy.

Too Yule for School,

- The Houghs

Kid Sitting on Random, Bearded Old Guy's Lap, Vol. II

Well, I think they'd take our parenting merit badges away if we didn't have pictures of our kid sitting on some old, bearded guy's lap for the holiday season.

Spoiler Alert: I don't think this was the real Santa Claus, because these pictures were free. I'm sure it'd cost a lot to sit on the real Santa Claus' lap, seeing how he's somewhat famous and all, and I'm sure a lot of kids (and maybe adults) out there would love to sit on the real Santa's lap...

See ya in Vol. III, Old-Guy-Who-Somewhat-Resembles-a-Fictional-Character-Connected-to-a-Religious-Holiday!

- Brian

One Beat's Enough

kris went to the doc today, and, according to the heart monitor-thingy, it looks like we're having one child. this is really, really welcome news, as yours truly didn't have the heart to pay for the whole 'buy one, get one free' deal. one's a lot easier for the wallet to deal with. besides the financial side of things, kris is happy she doesn't have to deal with giving birth to two kids at the same time (or however that works).

that's all for today, folks. looks like we dodged the twin bullet yet again.

relieved,

- brian

Christmas, All Systems Go

The Hough family has officially endorsed the Christmas season. Yulefully.

Although the pairing of Clark Griswald and Scrooge McDuck might seem a bit odd, more or less that's the holiday dynamic between Preggosaurus and myself: I tend to rather enjoy Christmas lights year-round, and therefore see no problem with stringing them up the weekend before Thanksgiving in order to relish in festiveness throughout my week-off of work. Kris, on the other hand, foams at the mouth when she sees anything related to Christmas pop up in front of her before Thanksgiving (i.e. the day the Lions always lose).

As we've done in recent years, the Griswald and McDuck have come to a compromise in regards to holiday decorating: I get to string up Christmas lights the weekend before Thanksgiving, but the actual Christmas Tree, as well as anything that has Santa's face on it, may only be put up the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday, as I guess we're calling it now).

It might seem a bit unnecessary, but that's what keeps our marriage chugging along.

Anyway, so this year we ran into a bit of a dilemma. I have always, always, always hated our Christmas Tree - we've had it since we first got married and were throwing together Christmas decorations, and therefore what we've been using for the last three years is a $20 Family Dollar tree that could pass off as Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree's mentally disabled step-brother.

Taking this into consideration, this year I opted to upgrade to a $70 pre-lit tree that was a foot taller and much more filled out - still not the $250 job I'd like to own someday, but I can't really bring myself to spending that much money on something I throw up for a month.

Kris wasn't gung-ho with this purchase, but she relented eventually, and now our Charlie Brown-esque auxiliary tree is positioned back in my man-room, if only to keep the Hermit Crabs company during the holiday season.

Merry Commercialism,

- Brian

Side-Project Shmorgasbord

Booya.

Finding oneself out of work for the week is an awesome, awesome thing. Granted, grad school still feels like work, and I generally do have a lot of crappy homework to do, but a week off is a week off. Its time for side-projects.

This week, I've got a couple things planned. Not necessarily major things, per se, but stuff that I've been wanting to do but haven't yet had the chance to work because of work and (get ready for it) grad school. Side-projects that are to be tackled this week include the following:

Long Ridge Writing. I've got to submit a story to these guys by the end of the month, so hopefully I can finalize this and mail it out before heading back into the school year. So far the writing program is working out real well, and its by far the coolest thing I'm doing right now... cross your fingers this stupid story thing gets finished this week.

Tattoo Design. Christ (brother, not spouse) and I are getting some ink done when I go home in December for Christmas. Initially we were going to get brother tattoos done with Jeff, but since Jeff is leaving for the Air Force in March, he can't get anything new done without messing up his enlistment (not sure how that works, exactly). So, in the meantime, Chris and I are getting separate work done. He's not sure what he's getting yet, but I know that I want our family's coat of arms and motto on the inside of my left arm, right above where I have my existing adinkra symbol from Ghana. I want to try and finalize the design before heading home, so a week off is the perfect time to do it.

Organize iTunes, iPhoto, and iEverything else. Yes, nerdery galore, but its necessary stuff that, while boring to hear about, keeps my sanity in place and my day-to-day sense of normalcy running as it should. Don't make fun of me.

Categorize Vinyl. I've been meaning to categorize my vast album collection, if only for insurance purposes - if there were a fire or something, I wouldn't know half of what to replace, and I've got some great, great pieces of music that are definitely worth saving.

I'll stop now, but that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I have in mind for this break. I probably won't get half of it done, but its nice to aim high once and awhile. More than likely, I'll just end up sitting on the couch and decompressing in front of the TV between spurts of chasing the Cannonball around the house.

Let's do this.

- Brian

Gorilla Poop

So I got to see a gorilla eat his own crap the other day. That was a first.

I suppose generally that wouldn't have been all that impressive, had it not been for the manner in which the gorilla decided to eat his own crap. At Animal Kingdom, there's this gorilla sanctuary. 'Sanctuary,' in this sense, referring to a caged area where gorillas are housed (I think companies and zoos enjoy throwing 'sanctuary' in there in order to fluff up the fact that the animals are, in all actually, still surrounded by a giant fence). Anyway, within this area, there's a spot where visitors are able to walk up and, from behind the safety of what I can only assume is a really, really thick piece of glass, check out their ancestors.

The gorilla in question, having been stared at probably the sound majority of his pathetic life, wasn't shy about eating his own crap in front of intrusive spectators. Upon crapping into his own hand (paw, whatever), he walked the morsel over in front of the glass wall and, with a touch of pride, began chowing down on his freshly made meal right before the gathered masses. He could've done this in private, but this gorilla was a showman, and probably on a contract.

He works at Disney, so I guess that shouldn't be surprising.

- Brian

Halloween

so halloween's over and done with, and we had a pretty good time this year.

the cannonball was old enough to actually get a little more out of it this year (opposed to last year when she was only a few months old and we'd just randomly sit her in front of crap and take pictures).

she picked out her first pumpkin (which we accidently left at the pumpkin patch and then had to eventually replace), she got to march (i.e. drunkly wobble) in her first school parade, and even got to trick or treat (in order to collect candy for her pregnant mom).

so here's some pictures of our halloween (kris and i didn't dress up, as we're incredibly lame). enjoy.

- brian

Retribution, Roseola, and Radical Teachification

now, let me start off by saying that this is arguably the suavest 7th grade social studies teacher you are likely to see this year.

this was taken back in august, and sense then i have led my ever-vigilant teenage disaster-bombs through two months of european history. as the first nine weeks draws to a close, i have a few new grey hairs but haven't yet suffered from an aneurism. cowabunga.

updates. remember when a 20 year old kid decided to rear-end my pregnant wife in a school zone a last week? when she was completely stopped at a school crossing, allowing children to scamper off on their way home from school? remember that? well, that 2o year old kid's dad just ended up taking a big, fat $1400 love bill up the kiester, folks. that's the amount of repairs kris' uplander is going to require in order to remedy this fella's handywork.

serves the guy right for texting on his damn cell phone.

in other news, guess who worked a half day today? (it was me.) last night, the cannonball decided to spike a 102.4 degree fever. preggosaurus' mom sense (think 'spidey sense') went apeshit at about 12:30am, and she sprung out of bed to randomly check on the kid. sure enough, fever time. afterwards, yours truly couldn't fall back asleep until 3:30am. two hours later, the alarm clock bellowed and i was off to a bland half-day of work before commuting all the way back up to home in order to take the kid to the pediatrician's.

final verdict: the kid's sprouting three new teeth, a series of ant bites, and roseola... which i guess is some kind of baby rash that prompts toddlers to bust out 103 degree fevers. who knew.

...that was our day. how was yours?

slainte,

- brian