May Days

Houghs assume our usual Couch Formation in the evenings. . .

Welcome back, Internet.

May saw the Houghs bring the School Year to a screeching halt. If you'll recall, most schools in Mid-Michigan kicked off the 2022-2023 School Year in mid-August, and, seeing how we started school a week early this year, we got to get out of school a week early.  This meant that we wouldn't be stretching into the first or second week of June like we always have.  No, dear readers, now we're wrapping up shop on June 1st.

And that's a half day.  I'm more than okay with this.

Kris will eat the shit out of a cinnamon roll.

Besides ending the year early this month (more or less), this month can be divided into two halves.  The first half was very much focused on our yard, the girls' orchestra engagements, and hanging out with my extended family.  The second half of the month, our social calendar exploded: one weekend featured Abby's Birthday and multiple engagements with friends, my Lodge, etc.  The following weekend kicked off a gauntlet of crap - Cedar Point, our maiden voyage up to Eight Point, followed by Collierpalooza, marching in the Parade, and the first pool party of the year.

Definitely a lot of crap going on the ol' Hough stead this last month, and much of which I've already discussed in great detail.  However, we did some other stuff - here and there - on the side, usually on weekdays and what not - which I'll showcase, as always, in this monthly installment of randoms.  From our house to yours.

Happy Summer, readers.

There was a fire drill at work towards the beginning of the month, fortunately during my planning period so I didn't have to do anything with students. Figured I'd give a walking tour of my classroom instead (enjoy.)

Another school night, another evening with the Hough fam - on screens - hanging out on the living room couch.  Kris is a big fan of taking pics like this.

No idea what the girls are doing here.  But at least the weather's been decent enough to where they can do crap like this.

Seriously, Kris.  With the living room couch pictures. . .

Kris recently re-painted the living room.  For no reason.  Here's the results.

And to think it only took her a couple weeks (to date we still have pictures not hung back up on the walls, they're just sitting in random piles on the living room floor.  'Cause wives.)

Recently acquired a limited copy of a Pup album (a newer punk band that's really, really good) on sale via Discogs for, like, half the market price - so I pounced on it and sent these pics to BP (who got me into the band.)

Took me over an hour to track down the correct pressing I received, because the one I opened up from the seller was better than the standard, black edition I thought I purchased at such a low price point.  This one was a colored variant, and I found after finally tracking it down on Discogs it's worth about three times what I paid for it.  Booya.

The first weekend of the month, Kris went out with the moms to celebrate. . . someone's birthday, I forget who.  Doesn't matter.  Anyway, I had the girls all night so we ducked out to grab them some ice cream from U.S. Coney & Cone (which, inexplicably, is open once again after being a restaurant or a laundromat or something for a hot minute - not sure, I wasn't paying attention.)

Old woman selfies.  Kris, Danielle, Mees, Jillian, Renee, Courtney and Deanna (might've been Mees' birthday, seeing how Jillian's her best friend and Renee is Collier's sister, but they're not really core members of our tribe.)

Later that evening, all these sluts went out to Three Bridges for cocktails.

Over the weekend, I picked up what very well be the best $5 I've ever spent - a pineapple slicer.  Found it at Aldi, and Kris thought I was a moron for throwing it in the cart, but hoooooooly shit does this thing work wonders.  I've been cutting up pineapples like a frickin' caveman for years, and now I've entered the 21st Century.

Kris found these carved up whiskey barrel pieces on the side of the road one day after dropping the girls off at her old church's Sunday youth group evening.  They used to be flower planters or chairs or something, and God knows what Kris is going to end up doing with them, but for now they're just sitting in the garage taking up space.

At aforementioned youth group, the girls all made pizzas and were able to bring a ton of it home with them.  When coming out of the church to Kris' van, all the other girls - both Abby and Alayna each took a friend or two - came out with plates loaded up.  Alayna dropped hers as she crossed the street, but was apparently fine with it.  Kris thought it'd be rude to just leave the pizza on the street where Alayna dropped it - despite me telling her it was fine - so, as a result, here's a picture of my wife picking up pieces of pizza off the street.  You're welcome.

Alayna had to grow bean plants for Science class (no idea why, something to do with Biology I'm told.). She initially gave these seedlings to her friends' mom, who was taking care of multiple kids' plant projects (I guess she has a 'green thumb' or something.)  Anyway, Kris and I were definitely not cool with this - what kind of parent willingly does a bunch of teenagers' school projects for them? - so we made Alayna get her plants back.  For the last few weeks, the Cannonball has managed to keep these things alive, and was able to get an A on her project.  This child is going to be the death of me. . .

The second week of the month, Alayna had her final Concert Orchestra performance of the school year.  We figured it'd be an hour and a half or so - multiple orchestras and choirs were performing - but little did we know that, as the seniors' final high school performance, this stupid orchestra teacher would give each senior orchestrist (whatever you call them) their own, individual send-off.  We were there, like, five hours - it was a f***ing nightmare.

This would ultimately be Alayna's final performance in the entry-level Concert Orchestra.  As Second Chair, she was more than ready to start the year off in the advanced Symphony Orchestra, but didn't want to push herself too hard her Freshmen year of high school (because it's Alayna.) A week or so after this performance, she auditioned for Symphony and absolutely crushed it (like we knew she would) - so she'll be playing with the advanced students next year.

The final performance of the evening saw the Symphony get joined on stage by multiple Midland High alumnus's, including our neighbor, Dave (the bald guy in glasses, there) who plays bass for the Midland Symphony and gives bass lessons from his home.

That's a shit-load of people crowded onto one stage.

Kris took this picture of our front garden bed.  Not sure why, exactly.

Abby and two kids from her school.  I hate those frickin' Snapchat filters. . .

Just in case you were curious, yes, Watson still does this. 

The second weekend of the month, my brother Chris and I ran out to the party store in order to grab some booze to take over/donate to our baby brother Jeff's house.  Jeff is currently going through a divorce, and his now ex-wife moved out for good the day before.  Perfect time for Borther Beers, folks.

My younger brothers don't really hang out all that late these days, so after I left Jeff's place I drove over to Mitch's to snack on some tri-tip steak, watch Happy Gilmore (on his outdoor, pavilion-mounted TV) and have a few drinks with Mitch and Erik.  Low-key, but you can't complain with tri-tip straight out of the smoker.

The next morning, after church, we met the brothers and their families over at mom's for Mother's Day. . . something that's slowly becoming a tradition around these parts.  Kris loves church, so the girls and I wake up with the impression that we're all going to church on Mother's Day.  After that, Kris could give two shits about the rest of the day, so we figure it'd be a good idea to swing by mom's since she's in town and, you know, she's my mom.

The next day, after work, I grilled up some chicken for dinner.  This was picture-worthy because this was actually the first time Yours Truly has used the grill since last summer.  I'm not a huge fan of grilling, I don't get the appeal.

While I was slaving away at that, Abby went down to Ella's to help her and her dad construct some garden beds for their backyard (or sideyard, I forget.)

Finished product.

While they were doing that, Kris was helping Alayna get ready for the Midland High Drama Club's end-of-year banquet, which - I kid you not - is a somewhat 'formal' affair.  You may recognize the dress is Alayna is wearing here: it's Kris' that she wore at that Soiree we attended at the Midland Country Club, back in April, for the Cancer Services Center.

After dinner, and after Alayna had gone off to the drama club thingy, Yours Truly had to drive downtown to City Hall.  The City of Midland is doing some heavy-duty construction in our neighborhood this summer, ripping up our entire road (and several other roads) and disconnecting all the drain pipes from the houses to the storm system line (or something.)  Every house on the street is getting $7.5k - $14k from the city to use to get plumbers to overall their sump pump and drainage systems.  The whole reason behind this expensive but much-needed overhaul is that our neighborhood was one of the heaviest hit in the Great Flood of 2017 (although our house, fortunately, wasn't flooded at all - our house has some upgrades that keep us dry during flood occurrences, but we're still down with upgrading our existing system if the city's footing the bill for it all.)

Behold, America - the Cannonball's first boyfriend, Aiden. He's a freshman in the Midland High Drama Club as well, having been the lead role in their rendition of The Outsiders. I guess they had one of those backdrop-and-prop photo op stations set up for the teens, aaaaaaand this is what these two came up with.

The next day at work, we had this stupid 'dress like your building color' day for Spirit Week. Each grade level is color-coded to a building, and us 8th grade douchebags all teach in East Hall.  Guess what color our building is.

Another week, another frickin' orchestra concert - this time the two Northeast orchestras (6th grade and 7th/8th grade.) Fortunately, seeing how there weren't any graduating seniors hanging out around all these middle schoolers, this concert didn't take nearly as long as the week-long event we had to endure with Midland High.  Their teacher makes the orchestra not performing at the moment to all sit together in a designated section of the Central Auditorium (where these things are always held), so here you have the 7th/8th grade squad sitting not-quite-patiently while the 6th graders perform on stage. You can spot Abby at the far right, second row from the front, with Ella sitting directly to her left.

Abby makes a face for her sister, who she spotted in the balcony before the show started.  Alayna's got a pretty decent zoom on her camera, the same one Kris has (mine, of course, is even better, but I was taking video. . . the files of which were too big to upload here. . . again.)

Abby and her cello.

That Friday, Kris went to Northeast with a bunch of other parents to help out with. . . something.  I forget.  But anyway, here's her with Abby and her friend, Alivia.  You're welcome.

The next morning, following a super-fun (but late) couples night out at the Dow Diamond watching the Loons, Erik and I got up super early in the morning in order to join some of our brothers from Centre Lodge #273 down at the Center for the Arts parking lot at 8am.  Like last year, Erik put together our involvement in the annual Midland Blooms event - where various businesses and organizations throughout town all come together and volunteer to plant flowers up and down either side of Eastman Street.

We got the same stretch of road as last year, which was cool (seeing how it's a high-profile spot and everything) - right at the intersection of St. Andrews and Eastman, directly across the street from the Library.

Erik, Tom and Worshipful plant petunias.

Chris and John

The more exposure the better - that's why I always bring one of our Lodge signs to stick in the ground so passing cars can see who's helping out with this volunteer nonsense.

Just about wrapped up with the actual flower-planting, about 45 minutes in.

This year they wanted us to put down this coffee-smelling mulch down around the flowers, which was an additional step we didn't have to mess with last year.

Pretty straight forward, though - only took us an additional 15 minutes or so.

Another Midland Blooms in the books, folks.

My brother Jeff screenshot this notification that popped up on his phone randomly over the weekend.  The image on his phone's lock screen doesn't make this any less creepy, I'm afraid. . .

Kris and her co-worker, Nicole, show off some of the fancy new chairs their doctor gave them for office assistant's day (or whatever it was.)

Checking out something on Alayna's Chromebook. I'm sure it's not nearly as funny as they think it is.

Alayna and her frickin' Snapchat filters. . .

An artsy picture of Watson taking another nap (not sure which kid took this one.)

What kinda '80s hooker vibe is she going for here?

Coming back from the gym (the Planet Fitness is located in the Midland Mall) one evening, towards the end of the month, I managed to get a pic of one, giant wing of the mall being ripped to shreds.  I've been watching the progress for a couple weeks now, and every time I'm driving home from the gym I forego the opportunity to take a picture.  Rumor has it some young investor dude finally bought the mall and is changing things up a bit - this section of the mall used to be Yonker's.

Abby, mid-YouTube binge (I'm sure.)

And, in closing, here's this.  Alayna recently downloaded some photoshopping app on her phone, and took an old picture of Kris 'sunbathing' (or whatever the hell this is) in our backyard - back in April - and super-imposed it onto a stock image of a bed.  Rookie execution, but still frickin' hilarious.  See ya next month, Internet.

- Brian