Everything Else March

What's up, gang.

So Winter '21 is finally starting to thaw somewhat.  This month has been pretty busy, what with St. Patrick's Day, my trip down to Kalamazoo, Spring Break, you name it.  We're still in the school/work grind, and during this third quarter slums, we're all just trying to survive until the end of the year (this is usually the low point in the school year, after the Holidays and before the good weather decides to get its ass in gear.)  

Anyway, here's your monthly round-up of all things Hough, March Edition.

Enjoy. . .

After Lodge, the first Thursday of the month, Erik and I had a couple post-meeting beers over at Whichcraft.  This one was fairly decent.

That weekend, Mitch decided to bust out some of his mad-scientist grill/smoking skills and threw this slab of brisket on his pellet burner.  Awesome as always.

Some shots with the boys to chase down the meat.  I wasn't sure I was gonna be up for hanging out on this particular night, since I had taken my 2nd dose of Moderna earlier that day and that one usually puts folks on their ass with fever-like symptoms.  I managed to hold it together for most of the night, though - I didn't start to feel shitty until about 4am.

Hanging out at the wives table.

Our snowman family isn't holding together so well these days. . .

Our girls like adding 'inspirational quotes' on our weekly meal menu on the side of the fridge.  None of it makes a whole hell of a lot of sense.

The second week of the month, I dropped Alayna off at the orthodontist to have her grill removed. . .

The end of Phase I.  She'll need to wear a retainer for awhile, then might need to get more stuff done in the future.  She's pretty excited.

Erik and I, who co-lead our Masonic Community Initiative, have been working to build our lodge's presence out there in the local area, and have been working with reporters to have articles printed in the Midland Daily News.  Here's Part II of a series they did on our lodge's 150-year history in the area.

Cleaning up dog shit in the backyard.  Always fun.

Testing out one of my lenses for our upcoming St. Patrick's Day party.

This kid is weird as f***.

The Johnsons took Abby out with them to visit some ole timey something-or-other one weeknight, somewhere where you can collect your own maple syrup.  They sent us this pic of the girls checking out the syrup-making process.

Mr. Hough.  For the children.

Questin' with some ESO.

While I was down in Kalamazoo, adventurin' with the ol' Sausage Pad, Kris and the girls enjoyed a male-free weekend.  The moms got together one night at our house for some drinks and nail-accessorizin', which is all the rage these days I guess.

Out for lunch with Kris and Courtney. . .

Grease Fest

(Not sure what they're doing or where they're at.)

Hanging out with Ella downtown.

The girls had their nails done, too.

On a scavenger hunt down at Kris' church, Sunday morning.

The sign that is currently hanging on Abby's bedroom door.  Kids are awesome.

A glimpse at the Hough's March.

Taking the Dynamic Duo out for an afternoon stroll. . .

I forget which kid drew this.  Both girls are getting more and more into drawing lately.  They come by it naturally.

While shopping at Kohl's with Kris one weekend, I noticed they had a ton of suits on clearance.  Since I wear suits a lot these days (mostly for Lodge), I decided to stock up.  Kinda hard to pass up $200 jackets for a mere $35 (seriously.)  They're not custom tailored, so they have that off-the-rack fit, but still - you can't pass a deal like that up.

Part of our annual Lawn Resurrection process:  burning all the debris in the yard that's accumulated over the course of the Fall/Winter.

This is how our girls 'help' us with yard work. . .

Kris focuses primarily on our ridiculous amount of garden beds.  It's a non-stop battle.

This fire burned all damn day.

A hearty meat offering off the grill.  I don't get down with 12-hour smoking like some of the other dads I roll with, but I can handle my own with traditional fare.

Having a beer/bathroom break at the Collier residence while out on an evening walkabout with Erik and Mitch.

A coworker of mine has a daughter currently enrolled in Delta College's Dental School, and she needed a child to log some hours with in the chair, so to speak.  So I bribed Abby into spending two morning having her teeth worked on over Spring Break (cost me a bit, but it helped out a college kid with her coursework.)  While Abby was occupied with this, I nerded it out working on some side projects in one of the nearby study lounges.  Just like old times.

On another walkabout with the families in our friends group.

A solid easy-drinking offering from Bell's.

Erik and Ryan, prowling the streets of Midland.  We'll be doing this more and more frequently as the weather starts to heat up.  Finally.

- Brian