June Randoms

All hail Summer.

Hi gang.

Alright, alright, so this is a day early, I get it.  This blog's monthly installments of randoms, for the last several years, have always fallen on the last day of the month (and rightfully so.)  I'd do so again this month, of course, but tomorrow the Houghs are venturing north - really, really north - into the wilds of the Upper Peninsula for our annual summer camping trip with Smitty and Rita (I'll be telling you all about that later this weekend, I'm sure.)

This month, as is the case with all Junes, was really busy with the kick-off of Summer.  Once school let out, Yours Truly was tasked with watching the kids at home while Kris slaved away at her year-round job, which is truly a horrifying prospect for someone like me who lives by the School Calendar.  This meant juggling two bickering sisters while simultaneously attempting to tackle many of my Nerd Projects from day to day.

More often than not, this meant neglecting the latter in favor of the former.  Much to my chagrin.

Anyway, here's a brief look at some of the daily crap that happened around these parts during this, the first stretch of the summer.

While I was away at Cedar Point a few weeks ago, Kris took the girls out to a local Mexican restaurant that she had been wanting to check out since we moved back.  Unfortunately, the food was comically bad, so all the hype was unfounded.

Kris bought a shitload of strawberries early in the month, when they were on sale for like a buck a pound.  After washing and cutting them (with some quasi 'assistance' from Abby), we ended up freezing it for future use.

Towards the beginning of the month, we took the girls out to a local minor league baseball game at the Dow Diamond, where the Girl Scouts had some thingy going on for the Loons (the Tri-City's local team.)  

Hanging out with Ella.

Most of the Girl Scout families spread out blankets on the green - not sure if that was our designated spot or what, I'd never been there.

The game, obviously, was super boring, but the kids killed some of the time by meeting the local mascots (not sure what's up with the camel - maybe that was the visiting team?) and getting their autographs.

Abby found a baseball somewhere and had it signed.

Abby then, somehow, managed to drop her baseball on the field, right by the Loons dugout.  Instead of merely handing it back to her, the entire team signed it first.  I thought that was pretty awesome of them.  

The girls borrowed Kris' phone at one point while they were hanging out with their friends.  Kris found a few videos later. . .

Still baseball.  These games are f***ing loooooong.

My current read.  Kris thought it was weird that I brought a novel to a baseball game, but I don't see how that's weird.

An impromptu game of catch, which ended abruptly when Abby threw the ball directly at her sister's head.

The kids (towards the left of the Jumbotron, or whatever the hell it's called.) were dancing with a bunch of their friends and other girl scouts when the Fan-Cam panned over to them.

One morning, towards the end of my school year, Kris sent me this pic: a gigantic opossum in our backyard.  Kris accidentally let Watson out before she saw it, but fortunately he didn't attack it - he just stopped three feet away from it, barking hysterically, until Kris came out and retrieved him.  The opossum didn't budge once.   

Superhero picnic at the school, featuring BFFs Larkin and Abby.

Kris hung out with her friend Kim one Saturday afternoon, so the girls got to entertain little Makayla again.

The girls started their gymnastics class this month (that Mom got them for their birthday):  every Wednesday for two hours they got a crash course, and unsurprisingly Abby excelled while Alayna half-assed it.  Abby definitely wants to continue, while Alayna has been 'meh' about the whole thing.  We totally saw that coming.

Celebrating a rare, clean basement.

Kris and the girls came back from church one Sunday to find this 'present' that Watson got the family.  Personally, I thought it was fairly thoughtful of him, but Alayna was mortified.

A fond farewell from my 2017 - 2018 students.  I'll miss the hell out of them (well, most of them.)

Our now-completed sectional (and a dog, losing his mind over the mailman.)

This is the new console that we had special-ordered for the couch - this was a key selling point for me.

The features on this thing are super handy, and this particular model is higher quality than most of the other crap we had seen at other furniture stores or on other pieces.  The drawer, for example, is solid wood instead of cheap packed 'wood' that you usually get with cheaper furniture.  That'll be responsible for holding video game guides, primarily.

The top compartment has been designated a remote control cubby.  Training the girls in the usage of this will take some effort, I'm sure:  the girls already lost the TV remote somewhere in the living room.  Pray for us.

I finally pulled the trigger on the Nintendo Switch this month.  I set up its main console docking bay in the Captain's Quarters, but can play it anywhere throughout the house in handheld mode (which is super convenient.)   I only bought one game for it so far (The Elder Scrolls V:  Skyrim, Deluxe Edition - an open-world, fantasy RPG that is absolutely incredible, and will have to tell you folks about some other time), but holy mother of god is it ever worth the money I spent on it.

We got two new TVs in our house this month, too, so I had to do some shuffling around the premises in order to accommodate them all.  Our new larger TV replaced our old one in the living room, which then found its way into the basement.  I disassembled the armoire in the basement and turned it into two, separate TV stands (it'll work for the time being), one of which was placed in the section of the basement that had previously been the girls' 'playroom.'

I kept this TV where it was, in front of our not-used-nearly-enough exercise equipment.

Finally, the Playmobil component of the playroom was moved into this vacant spot in our basement's 'side room,' which houses the musical instruments and some other toys.  It all worked out eerily well.

This is a pretty accurate representation of our house on any given day.

More selfies.

First pass at dying Alayna's hair, which turned out a little too subtle.  It was pretty faint, and Alayna really wanted to keep it that way, but Kris later convinced her to re-dye it a second time in order to brighten the color.

One of Alayna's friends, during her sleepover birthday party earlier in the month, took a swan dive into one of our kitchen cabinet doors (that Kris had open, as she was getting into it at the time.  The kid hit the door so hard that the wood split without pulling any of the hinges out.  No idea how that happened, but I was able to glue it back together without you being able to really tell it was damaged.  Thank God.

Afternoon board games (or, 'bored' games, as the case may be with Abby, here.)

There was a flash sale on Amazon for a new and improved version of Kris' now-destroyed Instant Pot, so I forced her to purchase a new one.  She's happy she did.  

Catching a free meal at Plymouth Park, during one of Midland's Meet Up and Eat Up events.

It was a bit on the brisk side while we were up there, Alayna was pretty miserable.

Later on in the day, I took the girls up to the playground at Chestnut Hill. . .

This made me sick to my stomach just watching them. . .

One day, while Abby and I were in the backyard, a chipmunk bounded across the backyard.  Watson got to it before I could stop him, and shook it about in his mouth before dropping it.  The chipmunk's leg was injured, so I grabbed a pair of those extendo-grip things and helped it underneath the bridge in our garden, where Watson couldn't get to it.  I told the girls it would get better under the bridge, when in all actuality I simply placed it under there to die a slow and horrible death.

The girls, of course, named the chipmunk ('Chipperette' - Abby claimed it was a female because she had seen its vagina.  Seriously.)  They then wanted to make it a sign to place in the garden, so I gave them a couple of old paver stones I wasn't using and they got to work - a fun art activity that killed a couple hours.

They wanted the painted stones to be placed by the bridge, to identify the chipmunk's house.  While they were preoccupied with their painting, however, Chipperette limped out from underneath the bridge, and Watson promptly killed 'her.'  He dragged the dead animal, unnoticed by any of us, and placed it against the board along the edge of the rock bed behind our house (you can see Chipperette at the far right edge of the picture, right where the grass touches the board.)  I had to take a picture of the girls painting these cute signs for their chipmunk friend, who was coincidentally lying some ten feet away, mangled and dead.  They eventually discovered the atrocity and were hysterical, but it was kinda funny.

Another day in the sprinkler. . . with Watson losing his f***ing mind.

 

On our way out for a celebratory dinner, honoring the girls' straight As report cards.

This lady was super, super creepy.  She was parked like this outside of Kohl's, mysteriously surrounded by an entire flock of seagulls, but also geese and ducks.  Many of the birds flew away as we pulled out - I didn't get a shot when all of them were there - and the lady glared at me for taking her picture, but come on - why the hell is she sitting in a car, parked sideways, outside a store she's clearly not frequenting, surrounded by a bunch of birds?  How could I NOT take this lady's picture?

A great sampler from Short's Brew I picked up for our upcoming camping adventure in the U.P.  I think it'll serve me well.

I began collecting sunglasses whenever I saw a pair lying around the house, as a way to prove to Kris that she and the girls own enough sunglasses (they're always complaining they never have any.)  For the record, I own one pair, which I've owned for three years now.

Kris ordered some replacement filters for our vent system, and Amazon shipped it in a box that could have easily fit eight of them inside it.  I hate it when Amazon does this sorta shit.

Dad invited us up to Clare the last weekend of the month, the day before we left for camping, to swim in their pool and also to drop off Watson before we headed north (Dad and Cindy had to go to my cousin Kyle's wedding the following day, and dropping the dog off in the morning would've been too difficult.)

We were going to head back to Midland later on in the afternoon to finish packing, but Cindy ordered us Buccelli's (the greatest pizza on the face of the earth), and we're not ones to turn down Buccelli's.  We ended up bringing home a few pieces for Kris -since she was still at work for all of this - which she greatly appreciated.

Bidding Watson farewell, as we leave Clare and prepare for the morning's departure into the great wilds of Northern Michigan. . . 

- Brian