Periodic Exhibitions from the Month of Caesar

Tropical storms over Ginger Mill

If the title of this one confounds you, dear readers, be aware that the much of July was created by - and named after - Julius Caesar.  His grand-nephew, Caesar Augustus, would later be impressed by this feat, and copy his famous uncle in creating/naming a month in his name (hint: it's not February).

Fun facts.  As an Ancient History teacher, I'm frickin' full of 'em.

Having said that, I figured I'd post some pictures from the last two weeks.  We haven't really done all that much, actually.  June was pretty chaotic - with visits from Marcy/Grandma Jordan, Mom/Grandma, Alayna's graduation and birthday party, a trip to St. Augustine, and multiple professional development workshops (from which Yours Truly pocketed an easy $1000) - but, so far, July's been pretty dull.

Thank.  God.

Nay, instead of the hectic-ness, July's been full of pool-lounging, tanning, and side-projects.  Here's a little of what's been going on for the Houghs these last couple of weeks - enjoy:

I recently purchased some dumbbells and a weight bench off of Amazon (as always, I did hours upon hours of research to make sure I was getting one of the highest-rated and most popular models for both).  I've been using these religiously over the last couple weeks, and its been awesome.  As you may know, I loathe exercise in general (I only run when I'm being chased by something), but strength training via free weights allows me to throw in a DVD and work out without realizing I'm working out.  That's the way to do it, folks.

Putting together the weight bench, having some wine, and watching The Muppet Show.  That's how I roll.

I'll spare you the tedious tasking of counting - there are 24 candles on this 'cake.'

My roommates picked out this bitchin' hat and balloon for me.  As you can see, I'm pretty happy about it.

Fortunately, I was able to blow out all 24 candles in one burst of man-breath.  

The kids were after my pie.  I'm not down with that.

Lately our neighborhood - specifically our house - has seen a lot more hawks hanging around.  They're constantly hanging out along our fence, watching us swim and looking terrifying as shit.  Here, atop the streetlight that stands in front of our house, a sparrow is about to square off against the hawk. . . which is really, really stupid.

Another day wasted away playing around in the pool, under the sun

A butterfly makes a pass at our Lemon Tree.

The other day I looked up at the door of my Study and saw the dried remains of a f***ing FROG stuck up at the top.  Now, I was inside my Study at the time, meaning I had opened the door to enter the room and the frog had not fallen down from the top of the door. . . which means that rigor mortis must've set in and this guy dried up in the same position he was in when he died. 

So yeah. . . Ol' Crunchy must've gotten in when we had the door to the garage open on the Fourth of July (Kris and I kept the door open so we could listen for the kids while we watched fireworks in the driveway).  This means he was up at the top of the door for over a week before I finally saw him.  Which, obviously, is really, really disgusting.

During a bad lightning storm at the end of June, our router was fried.  Fortunately, it was within the warranty, so NETGEAR was good enough to replace it for us.  While we waited for a replacement, we had zero Wi-Fi in the house. . . which, although a relatively minor inconvenience, forced me to use the local Library for a few days to work on some of my editing work (I didn't want to sit on the living room floor by the entertainment center to use the Internet, as the only way to get online was to connect directly via ethernet cable.)  I'm a huge fan of the Library, though, so I didn't mind - its got lightning-fast Wi-Fi, and there's zero distractions.

Later in the week, while picking up Abby from her classroom, Alayna's class - in a patriotic parade through the other classrooms of the school - marched through sinking Yankee Doodle.  Up yours, Great Britain!

Like almost every afternoon during a Florida summer, a nasty storm comes rolling in. . . this one bigger than most, though.

Our kids are huge fans of thunderstorms. . . until they start.

Getting free Slurpees at 7-11 on July 11th.

Every Tuesday, the local cinema offers a free kids movie at 10am.   I recently decided to roll the dice and brave taking the offspring.

The movie in question, F.Y.I., was f***ing horrible.

One of Alayna's friends and classmates, Kayla, happened to be there with her grandfather, so we all sat together so the two five-year-olds could talk incessantly about whatever-the-hell five-year-olds talk about.

Keeping the younger, more impatient one occupied while we wait for the movie to start. . .

Striking a pose, after the movie

The bar's become heavily stocked over the last couple of months.  I'm a huge fan of this.

Abby at the Doctor's for a routine check-up (she was actually the better-behaved of the two, if you can believe that.)

More to come.  Stay tuned.

- Brian