Of Guns and Baseball

How's it goin', gangsters.

Now, as you may or may not recall, Yours Truly owns a couple firearms.  Nothing too crazy, I'm not some right-wing nut job thinking that the 'libtard gubbermint gon' take away muh freedums' or anything like that; I own guns and I'm responsible with them.  While not a hunter, I do enjoy taking them up to the Midland Sportsmans Club to shoot at targets, as it's a hell of a lot of fun.  I'm not a member myself - it costs like $80 a year to be a member, which is a little too steep for me to justify, as I only go up there once or twice a year.

My buddies Erik and Ryan, however, do have memberships. . . as they shoot and hunt very often, and collect guns like Yours Truly collects vinyl.

Anyway, Alayna has expressed interest in the past in trying to shoot guns (she's always leaned more towards the Dark Side, so that shouldn't be all that surprising.)  I've always been like, 'yeah, sure, we should do that some time,' and then we both forget about it.  Well, last night as our Inner Five Families were all hanging out over at Colliers' house, Erik and I were talking how Ella was going to start Hunter's Safety next month.  We then began talking about how cool it would be to take all of our kids shooting up at the Sportsmans Club, and promptly made some last-minute shooting plans - suckering Collier into the affair as well - for the very next morning.

So check it out, folks - a bunch of little kids, shooting a wide plethora of firearms.

. . . 'Cause Freedom.

Ryan and Erik both brought a few rifles up with them - lower caliber rifles that the kids could manage to shoot.  This here is one of Ryan's AR-15's, modified to fire a .22 bullet - one of the kids' favorite guns to shoot throughout the day (probably because it looks cool.)

Erik and I each brought up our 10/22 carbines for the girls to play around with (mine is nicer, but his has a better scope - I definitely need to buy a new one for mine.)

Alayna takes a crack at the AR-15. . .

Erik assists Abby on his 10/22

Ella's shooting my 10/22 here, with Abby watching downrange to see where it's hitting (we were trying to sight it in.)

These 10/22s are about the easiest thing for kids to shoot. . .

Some video for ya as well. . .

After shooting down at the rifle range for awhile, we decided to move down to the newly created .22 range, where a couple years ago they installed a bunch of carnival-ish moving targets for people to plink away at.  This was by far the kids' favorite spot in the Sportsman Club.

Alayna shoots away on her favorite gun (she was pissed we wouldn't let her save up to by her own.)

Erik also brought along a .22 caliber, single-action revolver for the girls to try - something small he carries to dispatch animals that are wounded up at his hunting property up in the U.P.

Being only .22 and everything, it barely kicks, and is super easy for the kids to fire on their own.

Needless to say, I've decided that I'm going to buy one.

Two hours into shooting, Abby - who had barely slept the night before - was ready to be done.

Erik also brought a couple other rifles for the girls to try out - these ones a higher caliber, meaning they'd be louder and kick more - but there girls were still able to shoot them without issue.

I don't remember the type of rifles these were, but I think he uses them for shooting coyotes and things like that.

Abby rallies enough energy to try her hand at some new guns. . .

Trying to site in one of the scopes.

After the kids had gotten their fill of shooting, we walked the girls over to the club lodge so they could check out the interior of the place.  I haven't been inside this place in a few years, and the girls got a kick out of it.

After we left the Sportsmans Club, Erik and I took all the girls out to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch (because eating out with your kids in a restaurant is awesome.)  Afterwards, we all went home to take care of house/yard crap, rest up, and otherwise kill some time before the evening's slotted activity:  Masonic Night at Dow Diamond.  As we walked into the stadium, the girls couldn't resist the temptation. . .

The Dynamic Duo

Alayna had zero interest in attending this event, which cost us $7 per kid (for simple lawn seats) and $25 per adults (per private box seats with the Freemasons. . . and which included $20 in credit for food and souvenirs, a pretty sweet deal.)  After we got in, we gave the girls our food credit (in the form of cards) and turned them loose.

One of the draws for this evening's game - besides getting a good deal with the Masons - was that the celebrity on hand for the evening was Christopher McDonald, who is best known for playing the main villain in the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy, Happy Gilmore.  Midland usually pays for minor celebrities like this to come out for special event nights, which they can then advertise to bring in more folks.

The weather was just about the best you could hope for this evening.

After grabbing a couple beers, us and the Johnsons did a lap around the diamond in order to check up on the girls and see how they were all set up.

Yours Truly, pretending to be into baseball.  We eventually showed up to our seats in the private viewing box, at least to check them out and know where they were, but we didn't end up staying long - there weren't a ton of other masons who showed up for the evening, so we decided to go walking around again.

Abby was a little hangry after filling up on junk food for awhile, but thankfully Ella is a very patient friend and knows how to deal with our trainwreck-of-a-daughter's mood swings.

Sunset over Dow Diamond as the game drags on. . .

We had thrown the baseball game invite out to all the other families, but only two of them ended up coming out - the Griffins and the Bos Family.  Of these two, only the Griffins were able to make it in, as the game quickly sold out and the Bos fam couldn't get in.  Erik and I managed to find Lonnie on the opposite end of the diamond.

Abby had been so grumpy when we left the house that she completely forgot to bring her phone with her for the evening, so we gave her Kris' phone so that we could get ahold of the girls throughout the evening if/when we needed to.  Afterwards, we came across pics like these in Kris' gallery.

The last couple innings of the game we all watched from our assigned seats in the private box (we just snuck our own kids in, no one was really paying attention anyway.)

The elderly people who were sitting to the right of me had been chomping on peanuts throughout the entirety of the game and had left early, only to leave behind this disgusting-ass mess for other people to clean up.  Oh well, it is what it is, I guess.  It's not like the world has to put up with their bullshit for very much longer anyway.  You know, 'cause they'll be dead soon and everything.

Attempted group pic of our row.

Kris, once again, wants a selfie.

We barely paid attention to the game.   I couldn't even tell you who we were playing.  Or what color our team's jerseys are.

Erik manages to grab a pic of everyone looking.

The Diamond sometimes ends games with a pretty decent fireworks display, which is pretty cool.  I'm not one to stick my nose up to free fireworks, folks. . .

- Brian

Everything Else from the Month of Caesar

Well, July is finally over. 

I can honestly say that it will surely go down as one of, if not the busiest summer months the Hough Family has ever had.  A ten-day vacation in Florida, a week at Sanford counseling at a Junior High Camp, a four-day stint up at Eight Point Lake at our family's cottage, the Fourth of July, and several social obligations with our friends.

A whole hell of a lot of July.  And while most of the aforementioned highlights I've already disclosed, there were some other notable highlights to this month as well.  Kris recently decided to undertake the infamous Marie Kondo process of purging and de-cluttering our house, which became the focus on many of our mutual days off.  Yours Truly finally interviewed with the Freemasons, after waiting two months since my initial petition to the local lodge was submitted (the lodge goes 'dark' during the summer months, and they were unable to meet with me sooner.)  Some of our good friends moved away to New Jersey, so there were multiple send-offs for the them and their family.

A crazy, blur of a month which went by in record speed, but holy hell was it a lot of fun.

So yeah.  Here's a few things that popped up here and there between all of the other crap.  Enjoy. . .

Kris kicked off our family 'Kondo'ing' process (yes, the Japanese lady's last name can be used as a verb) where one is supposed to start things:  clothing.  She spent eight hours emptying the contents of her side of the closet and dresser onto our bed, then systematically began the process of choosing which articles of clothing 'bring her joy' (a phrase they often use in the Netflix series and books.)

In the end, she ended up getting rid of nearly half her clothing.  I got rid of about a third of mine, since half of my wardrobe is work clothing, and I rely on it during the school year.  It only took me about fifteen minutes, though.  Just sayin'.

On my birthday, later in the morning, I went to Radio Wasteland to spend a couple hours perusing their wares (a tradition I've adhered to the last few years since they've been open in town.)  I walked away with two new LPs and an arm-load of vintage treasures, but left this gem behind (I took a pic to send to Kris to see if she was interested. . .  she wasn't.)

While I was gone to the record store, the girls decided they'd decorate the house up for my birthday.  Ella, shown here, has more or less moved in with us this summer.  Her parents live around the block from us, so her and Abby have been inseparable this year.

While still waiting for me to return from the record store (yes, I take my time on my birthday), Kris took them up to Plymouth Park for the daily Meet Up and Eat Up program for a late lunch, put on by Midland Public Schools.

In the afternoon, Kris let the girls swim at the neighbors' pool (they - the Angelotti's - were vacationing in Ireland and told us we could use it as often as we wanted, joking it'd be good to stir up the pool once and awhile during their time away.)  We'd end up using this pool on a nearly daily basis throughout the month.  It was awesome.

That evening, Ella's parents - Courtney and Erik (who sponsored my membership petition with the Freemasons, himself being a Master Mason) - swung over for an evening bonfire and some s'mores.  I've had far shittier birthdays.

An amazing beer.  Dragonmead does their homework.

Sending me a picture from home while I was slaving away as a camp counselor up at Sanford Lake. . .

. . . aaaaand of course there's a weird one.

Free Slurpees on 7-11 Day.

Playing Hogwarts Chess. . . with a couple stuffed animals that they picked up at Universal Studios' Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Who the hell knows why - this is while I was still at camp.

When I finally got back from camp, the second weekend of the month, Kris and the girls were out of town:  Kris was away down in Kalamazoo with the Wives, and the girls were at her mom's house in Clare.  So I went over to my buddy Ryan's house and had a few beers around a campfire.  This Founders offering tastes exactly like a margarita, it's insane.

The next morning, with our wives and children still all out of town (his wife was in Kalamazoo with Kris, as well), Ryan and I loaded up some firearms and went shooting at the Midland Sportsmans Club.  We sighted in my .22 Ruger (shown here) again - I hadn't done so in a year or so - and tried out the new .45 sub-compact my brother Chris had given me before he left for Indiana.  It kicks like a frickin' mule.

After sighting in the .22 and playing around with handguns for awhile (always a good time - I really want to buy a 9mm), we went down to a third range and played with a few larger rifles Ryan owns (he collects firearms like I collect vinyl.)  We shot several magazines worth of ammo through an AK-47 and AR-15, the latter of which was a hell of a lot of fun (the other was meh.)

Yours Truly with an AR-15.  I can see why Trumpers love them so much, they're pretty rad to shoot.

One day while I was out and about running errand with the girls, we stopped off at Target.  Afterwards, on the way back out to the van, we found this:  four identical, black Chrysler Town and Country's (one of these is Kris' - I forget which one.)  There is a serious glitch in the Matrix. . .

Another day of destroying the living room.  And of course this wasn't cleaned up right away. . .

My previously-mentioned new handgun.  For free I'm definitely not complaining. . . but it's definitely more for, say, 'stopping' someone that breaks into your home rather than target shooting.  It kicks like crazy and so is hard to aim well.

One day, while the girls were both away on play dates and Kris was at work, I went to war with the Garage - yet another step on our Kondo'ing process this summer.  The first step was sweeping and blowing out all the debris, dirt and leaves that had accumulated in all the hard-to-reach corners of the garage over the last year or so.

Chris (who, like I said, was moving to Indiana towards the end of the month) was getting rid of some bar signs, and I told him I'd take a few to hang up in my garage.  He was dumping a lot of crap, but I stuck with the larger, nicer ones, which had a beer/Ireland theme to them (fitting for a Hough Family garage, for sure.)

This one is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Cleaned, wiped down, and well-organized.  The garage now 'brings me joy.'

This seriously took an entire day.  But it was soooooo worth it.

 

 

After our vacation at the Cottage, the girls went off to their respective summer camps.  Abby, who has recently started to show a budding creative side with each passing day - writing large-scale stories, drawing, singing, etc. - took an acting camp.  Their production this week was a collection of short stories pulled from Greek Mythology.

I brought along my SLR, but didn't take many photos.  Alayna took a few from my phone, and Kris filmed a bit with hers, but most of the video files were too large to upload to Blogger (I can hook you up if you're really dying to see them, though.)

Abby was the narrator for one of the stories, and had bit parts in two of the other ones.  Here she's, um. . . a rabbit?

The set was built on one of the smaller stages at Midland's Center for the Arts.

(She did the bulk of the narrating because the other girl could barely speak English. . .)

One more dance number to close out the show.

After the play, picking her up from the dressing room.

. . . and outside the Center for the Arts.

A truly great combination.

No idea.

This is how Marie Kondo wants you to fold your clothes.  In case you were curious.

Abby reads a story to a few of her plush animal friends (including her recently-acquired dog, Fang, from Universal Studios. . . who is inexplicably wearing my camping headlight.)

The Study, Kondo'd.  I routinely go through my vinyl and purge records I no longer want/listen to in order to sell at Radio Wasteland for store credit, so the record collection wasn't in need of being Kondo'd at all.  The library, on the other hand, hadn't been purged since 2016, so it was about time to work through that again anyway.  Over the course of a few hours, I shaved off three piles similar to the size you can see there on the floor before I was done, which was really hard to do.  Now I have more room on the shelves for more decor and artwork.  And books.

- Brian