April, or 'False Summer'

Kris helps Abby sort through piles of clothes she never wears anymore.

 'Sup gang.

This was a super weird month, folks.  As Spring Break wrapped up, we got hit with a totally random heat wave that lasted the first couple weeks of the month.  I'm not talking, like, low-60s, which is somewhat normal for this time of year but still definitely on the 'warm' side of things.

No, I'm talking like mid-80s.  Full-blown July weather.  

Thanks, Global Warming.

The uncharacteristically hot weather was definitely appreciated, don't get me wrong.  We spent a ton of time outside the first couple weeks of the month - tackling a slew of yard projects that usually wait until the end of April/beginning of May, attending bonfires with our friend group, and - my personal summer favorite past-time - bronzing on that back patio while enjoying a book and a good pipe.

Sadly, the awesome weather wasn't meant to last.  By the middle of the month, the weather plummeted back down to the usual low-50s with rain coming in buckets.  Fortunately, by the time climate normalcy resumed, I had already thatched my yard and put down a bunch of fertilizer, so it was a welcome change.

Anyway, weather aside, this month was pretty run-of-the-mill.  It's testing season this month, so the girls and I have been up-to-the-hilt in PSATs, MSTEPs, and NWEAs all month.  Fun f***ing times.  Drama and Orchestra crap after school on weekdays, friend gatherings on the weekends, and a few bigger events sprinkled here and there just to keep it interesting.  You know, the usual.

Gonna warn you advance, folks - there's a lot of dog pics in this entry.  I try and grab pics off the girls' phones for these monthly wrap-ups, and this month they happened to take a shit-load of pics of Watson and Samson.  Apologies in advance.

Enjoy.

The first day of the month, we went out to help my brother Chris - an April Fool - celebrate his 40th Birthday.  We had dinner and some drinks with Chris and Nicole - and our littlest brother, Jeff - down at Whichcraft.  Afterwards, we walked across the street to Three Bridges so these two could get themselves some Old Fashioneds. . . which were presented in this little, smoking box for some reason.

The smoke gimmick I guess was meant to 'flavor' the drink but these two said it was pretty subtle.

We had to leave Chris' birthday festivities a little early because The Cannonball was finally rolling back into town around 9pm, having made her way North along I-75 for the last two days.  When she got home she went through the obligatory 'sharing of acquired souvenirs from the trip' showing.

The dogs were pretty stoked to have her back home.

The first week of the month, my school completely lost power for the first four or five hours.  You can imagine how much fun that was keeping 30 teenagers at a time occupied without lights.  Eventually the power came back on in the afternoon - why our district refused to send folks home, I'll never know.

Later that evening, spending some quality screen time with the roommates. . .

I can't begin to describe how awesome it is to enter your car at the end of a long day at work and have your car automatically connect via Bluetooth to your phone, open up Amazon Music, and immediately default to playing one of your kids' K-Pop playlists.  It happens daily.

Kris went through another of her 'purge crap out of the house' phases (always fun for a pack rat like Yours Truly.)  In the process of going through various totes in the Storage Room, we found this old, faded denim vest that Kris wore once and awhile in college, and that her mom had worn around back in the '70s.  Abby tried it on but she's a bit too - um - busty for it, but Alayna managed to squeeze into it.

The first Friday of the month was Opening Day for the Great Lakes Loons at Dow Diamond, so Erik - who enjoys Loons games a great deal - put together an outing for some of us dads (along with him and I, Mitch and Ryan came out for the night.)  Ryan and Mitch were still closing up crap at work, so Erik and I decided to get things started at nearby Decker's (which is within walking distance from the stadium, so we were able to just leave our cars there.)

After dinner and a few beers, we met up with Collier and walked over from Decker's (super convenient to do it this way, as you get around the parking nonsense at the sports complex and just have to hoof it a couple blocks.)

Dow Diamond.  Gorgeous day for a game (which we didn't really watch all that much - kinda just walked around with beers and took in the scenery and vibe of the place.)

National Anthem time. After we had done a walk around the outfield, they began to announce the players and crap (you know, the whole pre-game stuff games usually do), so we made our way back to our seats.

Because aforementioned seats weren't in the sun, this got cold pretty quick so we ended up getting up after a few innings and walking around again.

Yours Truly, Erik, Mitch and Collier.

Few old guys, looking pensive.

I've been wanting to buy a classic snapback hat representing the home team for the last few years now, but have always started looking for one too late in the season and the merchandise ends up picked through.  Every year, I've been out of luck every time I hit up their merch store.  Seeing how it was Opening Night and everything, when I stopped in this time around they had plenty of merch on hand.  I'm not a huge fan of the standard Loons logo (and color scheme), but the team has these 'alternate mascots' they use for certain specialty games throughout the season every year: a Marvel-esque 'Guardians of the Lakes' logo (top), a camel (I forget why), and then the Spicy Pickles of the North logo (for Hispanic heritage or something.)  I found a New Era snapback version of the Pickles one that was perfect and snatched it up.

Walking around the concourse.

After the game, as we were leaving the stadium, we decided to get a pic in front of the Loons Train.

Heading downtown for a few more drinks.

Collier wanted to get a a pic under these lights downtown, so he propped up his phone on the hood of some random stranger's car.  Quality sucks, I think he needs a new phone.

Decided to hit up Whichcraft first.  Some of their tabletops have bottle caps lacquered into the surface.

Erik and I pounced on a table the second one opened up - when we first got there we had to sit at the bar (where you see Collier and Mitch, off to the right) because it was busy as shit in there.

Handsome guys, eatin' snacks.

Leaving Whichcraft at the end of the night.  The next morning was not fun.

Spent the next day cleaning up, purging, and re-organizing the Storage Room.  Again.

Another day, another Nails session with these three.  No idea what's going on with Abby here. . .

We had been getting slammed with rain towards the beginning of the month, and Kris noticed a carpet strip in the Captain's Quarters had gotten a little wet.  Upon removing the carpet and moving some of the bigger pieces of furniture lining the wall, we found a little water beginning to seep in from cracks in the floor where the wall meets the floor.  Nothing major - no standing water, nothing was damaged, etc. - but enough to prompt us to call someone to patch it up.  We got ahold of Kris' Dad's old friend, Don, who has done some handyman stuff around our house the last year or so (fixed the sagging ceiling in the girls' rooms most recently) and he came out to fix it up for us.

For $50, he spent two hours cementing this all up for us.  It's been dry as a bone ever since (thank God.)

The girls enjoy taking pics of the dogs (as I've said before), and this month we definitely got a lot of pics of the dogs.  Doing what they do best.

Alayna's plush bear that she picked up from her recent cruise, which you can toss into the microwave - as shown here - to heat up.

Alayna poses with her bear.  Like a frickin' five-year-old.

Kris and her coworkers have been trying to get people to 'like' her doctor's office on Facebook for a couple weeks now.  Their boss said that he'd reward the staff with treats as they reached certain numbers of 'likes,' so here the staff posted a pic of them enjoying some coffee and donuts once they got however many number of FB likes.

Why would they get coffee from one place and donuts from another?  That makes zero sense to me.

One day Kris saw on her phone a Google Photos notification along the lines of 'On this day 11 years ago...' (I'm sure you've seen those) and featuring a picture of Alayna, around four years old, brushing her two-year-old sister's teeth in our old house back in Orlando.  So, because she's Kris, she decided to recreate the picture with the two girls.

The original.

This is the sort of pics that Alayna texts her boyfriend these days.  I'll take it over her sending him nudes any day.

Just in case you were wondering, America.

We have a lot of signs in our front yard these days (Alayna is a stage hand for that Hunchback play you see there in the foreground.)

Our direct neighbors (not the Angelotti's, the ones on the other side - Ken and Linda) moved out a few months ago due to failing health, and for the last six months their adult-aged daughter has been flying in once every month or so to take care of the house. After months of doing this, they finally decided to put the house on the market. . . where it's been sitting for a few days now. The listing price is very similar to what our house is currently valued at (about $100k over what we bought it for, the market's insane right now.)

Weird video of the Samson licking a plate that Alayna took in her room.

This is the sort of shit we find on our kids' phones.  But, once again, I'll take it over nudes any day of the week.

Kris slowly but surely begins to resurrect the large garden bed in the our backyard.  Ever the work in progress.

This is Samson's go-to nap location - smack dab in the middle of the dining room floor - if the weather is decent outside.

The first bonfire of the season kicked off on an unusually warm Friday evening over at the Collier's place. This drink here has quickly become my favorite cider - the habanero gives it a welcome kick in the pants.

Friend group, assembled (you can spot Abby off to the far right, there.)

Courtney, Kris and Danielle looking at a phone, with Stefanie and Mees in the background.

The next day, the two girls sort of getting along.  Always hit or miss with these two.

This is how Kris decided to 'tan' in the backyard.  I think she's doing it wrong.

Turned on the TV/Fire Stick one day and this is what popped up on Amazon's home screen.  Hmm. . .

Alayna was making rubber band bracelets on the floor of the living room one evening and Watson - because he's a f***ing dumbass - decided to walk right through the case.  This epic spill disaster took  us FOREVER to properly sort/put way.

Look how much fun we're having.  Watson clearly gives zero shits regarding the mess he created that took us over a half hour to clean up.

More of Alayna's usual pics of the dogs. . .

Some kid left this on my desk at work ('G.O.A.T.,' as hopefully you all know by now, stands for Greatest of All Time.)  I get that sentiment a lot, being the 'favorite teacher' and everything.)

I've been hitting the treadmill in the den a lot lately - I probably log an hour a day on it while wearing a 20 lb weighted vest - but towards the middle of the month it began giving off a burning rubber smell after 40 minutes or so on it. I keep the belt lubed regularly, so I figured I should remove the motor casing and see if anything needed to be cleaned our and adjusted in there.

Pretty gross under there, so I wiped it out and, with a can of compressed air, made sure all the vents and what-not were all cleared out.)

This is a moderately-lower tier treadmill, so the fact that I've gotten seven or eight years out of it is pretty insane - if that spells the end of its life span I'm more than satisfied with the purchase. 

I used it a couple times after this, and the burning smell persisted (usually after 30-40 minutes of use), so I'm left with the choice of either a.) buying a new treadmill and junking this one, or b.) buying a membership to Planet Fitness for me, and keeping this treadmill at home for Kris to use (she only gets on it once and awhile, and then for only 20 minutes - so the burning smell wouldn't start up.)  We'll see what happens.

I recently tricked out the kid hang out/bar area of the basement with lights recently.  As you all know very well by now, I'm a sucker for Govee LED lights.

These LED lights - which I already use behind my vinyl setup in The Study - cost more than your usual LED lights, but they have the cool animations and highly-customizable settings.

The day after our previously-discussed Soiree at the Midland Country Club, Collier held his annual Euchre Tournament - poor planning on his part, really. This is always one of his favorite parties of the year.

Motherf***er couldn't bother to spell my name right, though. . .

Some really weird pic Kris took of me without warning. My hair looks frickin' nuts these days.

The Collier Family dart board has a new resident.

It's hilarious they actually sell a Snoop Dogg version of an Elf on the Shelf.  And that the Colliers own one and display it year-round.

I'm sure I've explained the jist of this tournament before, but every person competes on their own - each round partners are scrambled and points (or, 'hands') earned by teams in any given round are added to each player's individual score.

At any given point, there are five games going at one time, and each game lasts just long enough for each person to deal a hand twice.  That keeps things from dragging on too long.

It keeps things moving so that folks don't get funned out with too much cards too early on in the evening (though it's still a lot of euchre. . .)

Kris hates cards, so she always volunteers to sit out.  I don't mind it (though I'm far from what you'd call a 'fan' of cards), so I always play in these things.

Each player pays $10 as a buy in, with First Place getting $150, Second Place getting $50, and Third Place getting their money back.

Last Place, consequently, has to perform a karaoke song of the crowd's choice.

I almost always end up in the Top Ten, but I've never entered the Top Three.

Collier's recently-renovated kitchen.

Collier's sister, Renee - the thin blonde lady - is an absolute cut-throat at this game.

Probably the lowest I've placed, ever.  A sad showing.

The next day, after two straight days of partying and being social, The Houghs did nothing but sit around the house in lounge wear and watch TV.  Kris put a movie on the projector in the basement and the two of us hung out down here for most of the afternoon and evening.

That week, after a couple days of not having access to our family treadmill, Yours Truly decided to pull the trigger on a membership at our local Planet Fitness (located in the Midland Mall, about a five-minute drive from my house.)  My first time there I just stuck to an hour on the treadmill with a weighted vest, like I had been doing at home, but there are sooooo many other things to do there that I'm going to start going daily in order to take advantage of it all.  I mean, after a few years - for the price of a new treadmill - I'll have access to hundreds of machines and options.  This was a no-brainer, and I wish I would have done this years ago.

Aaaaaaand here's some more picture of the dogs, courtesy of the Cannonball. . .

(If you can't tell, they're pretty big fans of hanging out in the backyard - Samson would live out here if he could.)

First mow of the season.  Grass was starting to look a bit shaggy, and since the weather was warming up, I figured 'sun's out, guns out.'

I absolutely love mowing my lawn.  Not so much messing with weeds, and fertilizers, and gardening, and all that other shit, just the mowing.

We're gettin' there.

Some scars leftover from last summer, when I accidentally sprayed non-safe weed-killer on the grass instead of the usual stuff.  Should bounce back in a couple more weeks, though.

Dude does this ALL THE TIME.

Another Alayna pic (pretty sure this is Samson.)

Following the aforementioned first mowing of our lawn, I had Ace Hardware in town pick up our rider for maintenance.  I wanted the blades sharpened, the belts adjusted, and everything else cleaned up, topped off, and tuned up where needed.  They ended up picking it up and servicing it over the course of about a week or two, and did a phenomenal job.  Price was reasonable for everything they did - mice and chewed up some of the wires so there were some replacement parts I had to approve - but, all in all, I'll be using them from now on.  This baby's ready to roll now.

Yes, Kris decided to repaint more walls in our house.   Again.

We've had that same beige-y brown in our house since we first moved in, so now - because she's a big fan of the current trend - we'll be painting the walls a grey.

Of course, this meant moving the sectional away from the wall(s), so she had to disconnect the pieces and move them into the center of the living room - something that hasn't been done in, oh, four or five years.  The results was, well, just what you'd be expect. . .

My kids are straight-up pigs.

The couch and TV, moved away from the walls into a temporary functionality.

Later that weekend we randomly took the dogs for a ride with us when we went to pick up Alayna from her friend Lexi's house.  They enjoy themselves a solid car ride once and awhile.

Not sure why Alayna took this video, but the reason I'm including it here (because I know none of us care about a dog chewing a frickin' rawhide bone) is to showcase how I've set our living room smart bulbs.  Solid ambience for movie-watching.

Abby and Alayna were hanging out in Alayna's room with the dogs the next day, being lazy.

I don't like when they take the dogs into the top bunk, but whatever - kept the girls occupied with the dogs while Kris was painting in the hallway and living room.

I'm glad Kris enjoys painting, because I absolutely despise it.

Alayna likes bothering her little sister by walking around and taking pictures of her.  Abby does it, too.

Abby shows off her poorly-blended smoothy.  Again, this is a Cannonball pic - I'm not sure why this is photo-worthy, but whatever.

Kris, still painting.  FYI - I took this picture, and you could clearly see my reflection in the mirror (because I'm not a vampire), but I used that new Google 'Magic Eraser' feature and - poof - I vanished.  Kinda rad.

This is scary.

Getting artsy.

Towards the end of the month - the 29th of April, to be exact - it was Watson's 10th Birthday.  In order to properly celebrate the old bastard's birthday, Alayna insisted on baking Watson 'pupcakes.'  She's made these before, back during the Covid quarantine, and repeated the same dog-friendly recipe.

Alayna, Abby, and Alayna's friend, Amelia, ready to celebrate with the birthday 'boy.'

(He has no f***ing clue what's going on here.)

More Samson naps.  You know, because you haven't gotten enough dog pics yet in this frickin' post. . .

Birds are coming back now.  I don't like Blue Jays, they're jerks.

Alayna spotted this dead bird on the walkway leading up to our front door.  And, in true Hough fashion, felt compelled to take a picture of it.

Kris snapped this pic of me and the girls at the end of another school night.  All on the couch, all on devices.  This is basically the evening ritual before we all start getting ready for bed.  Pretty sure that's the case in most homes.

- Brian