Eight Point 2009

hi gang...

so we recently came back from this year's week-long, tour-de-force hough family vacation. always flying home for a week on a lake. boating, boozery, and bonfires without internet, phone reception, or cable television. the annual, week-long unplugging from the inter-grid is a much-needed recharging of the ol' batteries before heading into yet another school year, and our family vacation is definitely something we look forward to throughout the entire year.

the three of us flew up this year, and it was the second time we've flown with the kid. she did pretty good on the normal jet-liner from orlando to cleveland (thank you very much, children's benadryl). on the connection flight from cleveland to good ol' flint, michigan, however, we had one of those crappy prop-job planes... and those 45 minutes of turbulent, pure hell was enough to drive each one of us to suicide. the kid woke up halfway through the flight, and i think it can go without saying that toddlers do not particularly care for turbulence.

besides that, though, the cannonball traveled fairly well. the airlines are brutal these days with those stupid additional bag fees, so kris and i, not wanting to pay additional the $50 in additional fees for checking a second bag, were loaded like pack mules with carry-on luggage... which, consequently, meant the traveling throughout airport terminals with a wobbling child in tow all the more fun.

flying home at christmas should be loads of fun...

anyway, the majority of our week at the cottage was spent hanging out on the lake - boating, fishing, going on beer runs, etc. we managed to see a few old friends from high school and college while we were up - zack, the seloskes, grit, lee, trevor, the hilgers, kim, sara, etc. - as well as our extended families (kris' side, my mom's side), sporadically throughout the week. on sunday we took alayna to the church's campgrounds in sanford, and there had john and jann wolf administer her blessing. once the majority of the spectators left after the service, the core of my dad's family stuck around and we had a short memorial service for my grandpa, and got to scatter his ashes at the campground's point. we also were able to have some professional pictures of the kid taken while we were home, which turned out really good (if not a bit on the pricey side).

now, i was going to throw up a bunch of pictures from our trip home (collectively, our family took over 1200), but i'm a lazy, lazy man... and i think its way easier to just post a link to my dad's website, where there are already a ton of pictures already up.

enjoy: http://web.me.com/jhough/JHH_iWeb/8_Point_Lake_2009.html

- brian

Purgatory, of Sorts.

well folks, i feel as if i've been driving through iowa for the last three weeks.

hear me out.

i believe i mentioned before how time-consuming raising a kid can be. not only are they expensive, but, when you're all alone at home with them for an extended period of time, they literally suck the life force out from inside you. i'm not exaggerating. i think, in all honesty, the reason why i'm coming across so dramatic with all of this is because of all the many, many things i had planned for my ultimate summer vacation this year, i've accomplished probably 12% of it. that's it. maybe 15%. the vinyl collection has yet to be cataloged. my book has been neglected like a red-headed step-child, as has my writing through long ridge. to this day, i have yet to crack open any of my school resources for lesson planning the upcoming 2009-2010 school year. i manage to get my lazy ass up and into a 30 minute work-out two or three times a week if i'm lucky.

in fact, the only thing i have managed to stay on top of this year is grad school, and that's only because i'm paying out the ass for it and i don't want to fail.

...furthermore, grad school isn't fun, so its not like my summer's been totally awesome because i've been staying on top of my studies. holy borefest.

no, friends, this summer's been pretty wasteful - looking back i feel like i've pissed away a decent chunk of it. sure, the kid's birthday weekend was eventful, and we did have a great family vacation to treasure island two weeks ago... but those remain the high points of my summer. in a few days, we depart to michigan for a week-long stint at my dad's cottage on eight point lake. that's the highlight of my summer; once we return from michigan, at the beginning of august, its all downhill from there. i start getting back into school mode, and, before you know, i have to return to work and begin prepping for next year's batch of students.

...and that's the summer. absolute purgatory.

- brian

(happy birthday, mom!)

Treasure Island

our family lives in a pretty touristy area. central florida can be a sprawling, congested, urban smear filled with bad crime and badder drivers, but, at the same time, it offers limitless sources of entertainment.

we live in orlando, but not in the touristy part you may be accustomed to. we live in a golf club part of town, which, while nice, feels nothing like touristy florida. jimmy buffet cannot be heard in the streets, but T.I. can. there are palm trees, sure, but only at major intersections and at the gates of fancy planned communities. in order to get that traditional, 'fun in the tropics' experience down here in central florida, you have to a.) go to a theme park, or b.) drive a couple hours to either coast and escape central florida all together.

now, we have a couple friends down here who have always been more than generous in the area of park admittance. its appreciated, and its awesome (as the countless pictures already posted across this here blog attest to). however, for our first 'family' vacation (as a dynamic trio), we decided to spend a few days on the coast in a beachfront hotel, living it up like a gang of tourists.

our destination: treasure island.

treasure island is located a few miles north of st. petersburg, in the greater tampa area, and is absolutely gorgeous. kris ended up finding dirt-cheap rates for a room at the treasure island bay & marina hotel, which was, by far, the best room we've ever stayed in (with the exception of a room we got once while traversing the bahamas). the view from our balcony was of the ocean and beach itself, which was literally a five minute walk from our hotel room door.

we spent as much time on that beach as humanly possible (or, rather, as alayna could tolerate without going ape-shit ballistic), and did more than our fair share of souvenir shopping along the main strip.

we also hit up john's pass - which we coincidently went to during our april mini-reunion with ex-peace corps compatriots lauren, brett, bonnie, and susannah - while we were in the neighborhood, and yours truly bought himself a new old man hat to replace my grandpa's (which i'd prefer to preserve as long as possible). in addition, we also picked up a hermit crab as a new pet while we were out there, which i was adamant about obtaining from day one...

as far as souvenirs go, you really can't go wrong with hermit crabs.

all in all, it was a solid, touristy vacation in the tropics, with a final price tag of about $400. not too shabby at all, and highly recommended for you locals out there looking for a change of scenery (as for you non-locals, it'd still run you about $400, but then add a couple hundred for the rental car and a few hundred for the plane tickets).

so yeah... our first 'family' vacation was a success. henceforth, we're making treasure island our annual mid-summer family vacation/getaway as long as we're stuck down here in the sunshine state (see also america's wang).

slainte,

- brian

Mo' Channels, Mo' Jacko

hi.

so kris and i decided to stick it out another year at camden of hunter's creek. why not. its roomy enough for the three of us, and there's no rush to buy a house yet (the exception being the inevitable drum set that i obtain once i own the house to sheath it in). there isn't a whole heck of a lot of gun play to be had around these parts, and as long as you can tolerate the background hum of the 417 expressway nearby - and the occasional motorcycle rev-fest from the mechanical college students next door - its a pretty, little decent place to live.

our rent didn't go up either this year, but - get this - we were forced to pick up cable for our next lease. that's right: forced to get cable.

evidently, the property decided to purchase a giant cable package through brighthouse networks, and, in order to get a sweet rate on all of their cable packages, every tenant was forced to get cable.

including us.

so now we have cable... and i love it. history channel, comedy central, discovery channel... awesomeness abounds. having an HDTV was fun and all for DVDs and the Wii, but now that we have HD channels... holy crap. if kris and i ever divorce, i'm totally marrying my television set. seriously.

this cable, however, has become a double-edged sword over the course of the last few days. while it does give more channels than we could possibly ever watch, every single Goddamn channel is talking about michael jackson!! every single one of them! why the hell are people so worked up about this? a week ago he was the laughing stock of the entire entertainment industry: plastic surgery gone wrong, child molestation, creepo parenting, financial turmoil and scandal... you name the sleaziness, the guy had his hand in it.

but now? he's a legend. a legend.

really? really folks?!

are we supposed to pretend that those last, fifteen, creepy, creepy years never, ever happened? remember the two - count 'em, two - court trials where he was brought up on sexual assault charges for having sleep overs with little boys. or how about the fiasco where he screwed paul mccartney out of all those beatles songs that paul wrote himself? and what about his trusty, pet chimp 'bubbles,' his purchasing of the elephant man's skeleton, his blanketed kids, the surgical masks, the whole nose-falling-off thing, all that hullabaloo at neverland ranch...

neverland ranch?! c'mon, people!!

here's my suggestion, television (listen carefully): remember him for who he was. that's totally cool in my book. yes, he was a talented musician for the first half of the spotlight, and you can talk about this... just so long that you mention that he was a bat-shit crazy pedophile for the second part. if you're going to glorify the former, media, you best argue your case for completely ignoring the latter...

...'cause that's how this guy's going to remember jacko, folks.

gross...

- brian