March Madness

Welcome back, Internet.

Our March was nuts.  Crazy busy, continuing the trend for sure.  Abby's involvement in Pom and Basketball took up a lot of our weekdays and weekends (respectfully), and our ever-present social obligations were in full-swing this month (Danielle's 40th, St. Patrick's Day, etc.)  Makes the time fly by, which is awesome at this time of year when it's cold and the warmth of summer is so far off it seems like it'll never return.

There's a crap-load of pictures and video to peruse this month, folks, so I'll cut this short and just leave you to it.

Enjoy. . .

See?  I wasn't jokin'.

Following the girls' final pom performance at Northeast (at a basketball game), we finally got off our asses and got a pic of Harper, Ella, and Abby in their uniforms.

They demanded a Charlie's Angels-esque one, of course.  Hammin' it up as always.

The never-ending ceiling debacle.  As previously discussed, the contractor we had hired to repair our drooping ceiling in the Study did a half-ass job on removing the popcorn ceiling from the room (though fortunately he did a really good job at securing the ceiling itself, which was our top priority.)  Since we had only paid him half up front, we basically told him to f*** off and kept the second half, which was cool because what we paid him for - securing the ceiling - was a fair price and we were fine with it.  That left the ceiling's finish less popcorn-ish than it had been, but not what we had been hoping for.  So Kris spent an afternoon towards the beginning of the month smoothing it out a bit more on her own.

The first week of the month, there was an award ceremony at the Midland Community Center for the Northeast Pom team, with the coaches presenting awards for each player at the close of the season.  Abby got an award for Best Sportsmanship, since she had 'the biggest smile' during routines.  Or something like that, I forget.

The Northeast Pom Team

Abby and her coaches.

. . . and of course there's one of these frickin' poses.

At the close of the ceremony, all the team members were walking around crying hysterically and being super dramatic seeing how it was the close of their season.  As if they weren't going to see each other at school the very next day.  Parents felt this was worth taking a picture of, I guess.  I'd make fun, but, you know, I took a pic, too.

Picking up a Batman pizza on my way home from work one Friday.  I give zero f***s about superhero movies.

Alayna, Kendall, and Amelia at some orchestra function at the school (a festival, I think. . .?)

My high school band numbers were better.  Just sayin'.

Weird pictures taken off Alayna's phone.  Her and Lexi at school, being teenagers.

Me and my friends should use heart stickers like this in our pics. . .

Kris makes a friend at the Midland Mall.

The Storm take the field (er, court) for their first game of hair-raising basketball. . .

These guys have made a lot of progress over the course of their few practices, considering most of their team has never held a basketball before.  Abby is more comfortable with defense than offense, for sure.

That kid in the white headband was the opposing team's player Abby was charged with defending.  She was like 5' 8" and clearly had been playing for years.  Totally fair match-up.

Needless to say, our team was beaten like a red-headed step-child.

Like, it wasn't even close.  You know those '80s movie tropes about a team of plucky underdogs that have zero chance of success at the beginning of the movie?  They suck for the first half of the movie before their gruff, unlikely coach manages to get them to play together as a team, and they somehow - miraculously - manage to defeat the championship team of dickheads at the end of the movie?  You know what I'm talking about?  Think Bad News Bears or Mighty Ducks.  Well, this was like that, except, in our team's case, it was just the first half of those movies where the underdogs are getting totally curb-stomped without end.

Painful to watch.

Later that evening, I had a Zoom/Drink session with these two assholes.  Always a good time.

After we had the popcorn ceiling knocked down a bit more, John came over and helped me re-hang the ceiling fan (it's heavier than you'd think, definitely a two-man job.)

Family game night (feat. dogs.)

Following a sleepover at the Johnson residence, Abby was treated to a healthy McDonald's breakfast.

The following week, another game for the Storm.

Fortunately, this time around, the other team was equally terrible, and our girls mopped the floor with 'em.

Abby's still seemingly afraid of the ball, but she played a lot better.

Kris' coworker made affirming window decals for all the employees in her office.  I should get me one of these for my car.

St. Patrick's Day.  Acknowledged.

Since we don't have recessed lighting in our Study yet (that's the ultimate plan for this spring), and our previous lights - which had been illuminating the bookshelves and fireplace - were removed during the ceiling repair, it had been pretty dark in that room.  I decided to remedy this by pulling the trigger on an LED light system that I had quite extensively researched on Amazon.  By spending a bit more than usual on a set, I was able to get one that had multi-color changing abilities (most LED light strands you can change only whole-string at a time, where the ones I got can change individual bulbs at a time), Alexa-enabled, and app-centric.  I'm pretty stoked about it.

I'm gonna nerd out here for a quick sec.  This app allows you to sync the lights up to music - either through your phone or through the microphone, capturing the sound of the room (perfect for vinyl) - but it also allows you to browse through multiple pre-programmed 'scenes,' perfect for any occasion. 

Some of these are better than others, obviously, but the range of variety with this LED set was well worth the extra I spent.

You can create and customize your own lighting system, too, but I doubt I'll ever get around to messing with that, since there's so much already available through the app that controls the lights.

Over at Mom's at the beginning of Spring Break in order to celebrate Grandpa Chinery's 90th Birthday.

Chris and his brood were in town for the occasion.  Here is his only peaceful child, Nora.

This one's a trainwreck (shown here, shortly after punching me in the face.)

Abby and Nora (Abby's great with kids, unlike her sister.)

And another one.

I'm like 99% sure I came down with Covid at the beginning of Spring Break.  Despite a rapid test coming up negative, I didn't bother going out to an urgent care in order to get a legit test because, let's face it, it doesn't really matter anymore.  So I was pretty sick for a solid four or five days, and basically hung out on the couch downstairs and played videogames.  The girls, however, made good use of our occasional decent weather to play in the backyard (with Alayna's friend, Ava, who lives just around the corner on Waldo.)

A super shitty game of 'baseball'. . .

The Johnsons, who had also neglected to go anywhere for Spring Break, opted to get a hotel room at the Holiday Inn half-way through the week in order to break up the monotony.  They invited the friend group out to enjoy the pool with them and we all had dinner poolside while the kids enjoyed the pool and the joint's bizarre half-inside/half-outside hot tub.

Tom, Erik and Ryan.

Houghs, Johnsons, Colliers, and Sheahans chowing down on bar pizza.

I've been getting unsolicited texts from the Democratic Party lately, asking me if I want to run for office.  They must be pretty frickin' desperate these days if they're scraping the barrel like this. . .

- Brian

The Cannonball Turns 12: Coronavirus Edition

Alayna decided on a tropical theme this year.

What's up, guys.

The Cannonball turned 12 today, which is totally surreal and doesn't seem possible.  As with Abby's birthday the previous month, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot we could do in terms of celebrating, what with the Covid-19 pandemic and everything.  While the Stay at Home Order has been relaxed somewhat, a lot of parents are still pretty guarded with everything, including letting their child hang out at a kid's birthday party.

Ready for the following day's festivities.

As such, this year - as with Abby's - we were forced to keep things simple.  One or two close friends (whose parents we were familiar with), keeping things outdoors as much as possible, and then having a sleepover at the end of the night.  Alayna's BFF, Maddie, was out of state visiting family, so unfortunately she couldn't attend this year, but Alayna's close friends Christina and Sylvia were able to (thank God.)  I did curbside pickup at a restaurant of Alayna's choosing (she went with Olive Garden, of all things), and afterwards they girls spent the day swimming in the neighbors' pool (who were nice enough to allow us to use it for the day.)  Sylvia ended up staying the night, and Alayna's birthday came off without a hitch.  Which, honestly, is saying something in these bizarre times of ours.

Anyway, I'll leave you now with the usual dosage of pics and video.

Enjoy.

First thing in the morning, right out of the gate, Alayna wanted to open presents.  She started with cards from relatives (she's a big fan of receiving cash these days.)

This was her big gift from us this year. . . .

I usually save the big present for last, and prefer to do the small ones first, as I feel there's a natural build-up that way.  But whatever. . . .

(This took her forever to open this simple, cardboard box.)

Once you see down Watson's asshole, you can't un-see it.  (You're welcome.)

Alayna has been bothering us for a hoverboard for years, but we've held off because reviews for these things have been dismal.  However, after a couple of years of being on the market, the build quality has improved, the price has dropped, and many of the mechanical and electrical kinks have been worked out.  We almost bought her one for Christmas, but went with a phone instead, so for her birthday this year this was a no-brainer.

You can bet your ass I did a ridiculous amount of research and pulled the trigger on the highest-rated one I could find.  She's already a pro at riding it, since many of her friends have them now as well.

The model I selected came with flashing LED lights, Bluetooth functionality (so she can stream music from her phone to the hoverboard's built-in speakers), and a pretty long battery life.

(Thank God I had charged this up the night before. . . .)

After playing around with the hoverboard, it was time for Round 2 of gift-opening. This was a set of LED Lights, much like her sister's (whom she got the idea from), just longer in feet (Alayna wanted hers to wrap around the entirety of her ceiling) and with Bluetooth functionality (so the lights would match up with the music playing on her phone.)

She's been wanting an organizer for her make-up for awhile.  'Cause middle school.

Per the Cannonball's request, we were having bacon and eggs for breakfast. . .

Can you imagine taking a kid from the '80s and transporting them to today and showing them shit like this?  My head would've exploded.

Later on in the morning, after Kris left for work, Mom and John swung by to give Alayna some more gifts to open up. . .

This Paris-themed throw pillow was off of her Amazon list, and matches the rest of her existing bed set.

She's been wanting this book ever since she finished the previous installment in the series.

A hoodie, also off her Amazon list.  It's from Harry Potter, and, as an Adult Small, is pretty huge on her, but that's how she likes her sweatshirts. . . . so, whatever.

After we ran out to Olive Garden for lunch, the girls high-tailed it for the neighbors' pool. . .

We spent forever in this pool today.

Gotta love this classic pool game. . .

In the evening, after Kris got back from work and the kids had eaten dinner, it was time for cake and ice cream. . .

Kris wants none of Abby's accident-prone 'help.'

Alayna wanted a simple cake this year (anything overly decorated is kid stuff, right?)

Long consideration for Birthday Wishes. . . .

(Got 'em all in one blow this year.)

The Sausage, exhausted from the days' heat and shenanigans.

Christina and Sylvia.

The War Zone

Alayna, Sylvia, and Christina in front of some cheap-ass photo op background Kris found at the store. . .

. . . .aaaaand one with her sister.

This about sums it up, folks.

- Brian