DAMN-uary

Pretty much.

Hi, fans.

Last year, February was our big Month o' Snow.  Five snow days in a two-week period, it was ridiculous.

Well, this year that distinction certainly goes to January.  Since returning to school from Winter Break, we've had four in the month of January.  And, unlike February, these were scattered about, so they weren't necessarily part of the same system.  It's been absolutely brutal at work with my students:  we haven't been able to fall into a routine since being back in school due to this large number of snow days, and on top of that we've had two professional development days, and two half-days. Factor in an additional two days of assemblies and altered schedules, and you've got a sure-fire recipe for reduced test scores and an increase in student misbehavior.

Thank God for teenagers.

Anyway, that's about all that's happened this month, to be honest.  Kris and I are continuing our ongoing quest for a new place to live with little prospects (not a lot of inventory on hand, unfortunately), so on weekends we devote a day or two to viewing what few properties are available to check out.  The girls have scouts on a weekly basis, and besides that not much else has been going on in the Hough household this last month.  As always, I've included a few snippets of the here-and-there for your viewing pleasure.

See ya next month, folks. . .

Okay, so technically this was from December, on my way down to visit my Sausage Pad compatriots at the end of the month.  My back-roads route down to Kalamazoo from Midland - which shaves off about a half-hour of drive-time - takes me down a bunch of farm roads in between these Dutch-looking windmills, each of which are a hundred or so feet tall.  Definitely surreal.

I sold a rare Nintendo Club figurine on eBay that had been sitting in my drawer for years  - my first eBay sale in over a decade - and used the proceeds to purchase a 3-LP, 180 gram, colored vinyl recording of the Who's Live at the Isle of Wight concert (along with Live at Leeds - which I already own - one of their best concert performances ever captured.)  It's probably one of my favorite LPs in my collection, and sounds amazing on vinyl. 

Dad and Cindy dropped by for a visit with my nephew, Jax, while they were in town getting their dog, Bailey, groomed.  He was a big fan of Abby's Star Wars toys, and enjoyed shooting his aunt in the face with proton torpedoes. 

Alayna's new favorite thing to do on her drum set. . .

Abby brushes up on her math skills in a Star Wars-themed workbook.  Of course.

While Kris and I haven't had much luck this month finding a new house, Yours Truly has been doing something else to speed along the process:  packing for the move.  While purging our house of crap we don't want to move, I came across my old iBook laptop from 2002.  Sadly, despite being plugged in, it no longer turns on.

I found this in the laptop bag along with the iBook: instructions on how to burn an Audio CD.  In case anyone out there needs to know how to do that.

The record collection underwent another purge this month, too.  I ended up getting ride of about 60 albums/boxed sets this time around, which trimmed more of the fat from my collection (including this set you see here.)

Throughout the Record Purging process, I've also started to catalog my collection through Discogs, using its phone app.  I can enter in the serial number of any album, input its record/sleeve condition (using the Goldmine Standard regularly used with vinyl), and add it to my online database.  This tells me how much each album in my collection is worth, how much my entire collection is worth, and organizes my hundreds of LPs into convenient folders and genres.  I've found that this is a solid activity to undertake while the girls are busy watching TV.

More of the same, from the Hough girls.

Outside the newly-opened Radio Wasteland Records, in downtown Midland.  Our realtor, Rick, told me of this place while we were looking at houses once, and said that it had only been open for a day or two.  After church one day, we all swung by to check the place out.  It's a small, family-owned joint and still in the process of setting up, but their prices are decent and I was able to find six or seven records at a pretty good price.  Unfortunately, while I was there, the local NBC 25/Fox 66 crew rolled in to interview the owners and patrons, so Kris quickly ushered the girls out of the store and texted me this picture from the parking lot.

While I was in the store shopping, the owner of the place approached me and asked if I'd be willing to do an interview with the reporter.  Later that evening, my buddy Smitty posted this picture to Facebook - he had been watching TV down in Ithaca when he saw this story.

It should be noted that Yours Truly doesn't have a lot of on-air television experience, and there's probably a good reason for that: I'm absolutely terrible in front of the camera.  They interviewed me for about five minutes - on why I prefer vinyl to other forms of media, what I think about a store like this opening up in Midland, etc. etc. - but they ended up cutting most of it because, well, I'm a really, really shitty interviewee.

There you go:  my two seconds of fame.

After a successful record haul (and a not-so-successful interview), we stopped by a Tim Horton's to reward the girls for their good behavior inside the store.  Of course, they had made a little bit of a scene when they saw Nirvana's Nevermind on the shelf, but one can hardly blame them for that.

After a lack-luster day of house-hunting, having a snowball fight across the driveway.

On Martin Luther King Day - which all of us had off  of school - I took the girls into my classroom with me so I could work on grading a few things, meet with other Social Studies teachers, and catch up on crap before getting students again the next day.

We don't go anywhere in this family without packing up some toys, stuffed animals, and snacks.  'Cause you never know when you're going to need a handful of Shopkins.

The Cannonball leaves her mark on my white board. . .

Another recent purchase:  the newly-remastered Led Zeppelin: BBC Sessions.  Jimmy Page himself helmed the remastering process, which included a whole new LP-worth of previously-unreleased material.

Another commute to work, another morning stuck at the frickin' train tracks outside of Dow Chemical. . .

Trying our hand at this balance game thing that everyone was playing at Christmas. . .

Surprisingly, our kids don't suck at it.

Making a mess in their room with Shopkins.

A rare moment of sisterly love (it doesn't happen often.)

One day the girls were insistent on making Kris a meal, so this is what they whipped up for her:  chips and salsa, an apple, a granola bar, toast, and a cup of water.

Doing some yoga

At the Roll Arena for a Chestnut Hill exclusive skating night. . .

As always, you couldn't keep Abby off the skating rink, and you couldn't keep Alayna on the skating rink.

Alayna prefers playing games and winning tickets.  To each their own, I guess.

These games are such a scam:  you put in $5 worth of tokens just to win 25 cents worth of crap from the 'store.'  I'm in the wrong line of work. . .

Abby's really happy her sister isn't skating with her. . .

The Mad Scientist, back at it. . .

Abby fell asleep reading a book.  Again.

Noah and Alayna, during an after-school play date (I'm not sure - I didn't take this - but it looks like Alayna has a frickin' icicle hanging from her lip.  That doesn't surprise me in the slightest.)

Being groomed for some purpose.  I can't imagine it's for school, 'cause even I wouldn't let Abby go to school wearing that. . .

At school, some random evening.  I'm assuming it's for Girl Scouts, but who knows.  Kris needs to share with me what the hell's happening in some of these pictures from her phone. . .

- Brian