Baby's 1st Post-Christmas Aftermath

whew.

okay. so yule party '08 has come and gone, and, if you're reading this, you are among those who came through the gauntlet still in one piece. on this end, the houghs are doing well - we have no casualties to report this time around. this year we focused on the task at hand and stayed away from all manner of shopping centers unless absolutely necessary. the result was an awesome christmas, and our first one with dependants.

as you know, we didn't opt to brave the cross-continental, overland adventure up to michigan this year. last year we did, and it took us about 20 hours driving straight through (with the exception of a unsuccessful 1 hour nap session at a rest stop in tennessee). not fun. we reached central michigan on fumes, after consuming nothing but energy drinks, coffee, and gas station food for 1,200 miles. that stretch of asphalt - through the boring states like georgia and ohio, through the pass of caradhras -is hell enough without the snow-pounding of the century reaking havoc all over the midwest (right through our otherwise projected route). we really didn't feel like driving 15 mph in such weather through appalachia and the smokies. bad things happen to people that fall to the wayside in the back-country of tennessee. and, to top everything else off, now we'd be making that trek with a grump-ass 6 month old screaming in the backseat the entire way.

yeah, i'll pass on that one.

seeing how we were doomed to spend christmas alone in central florida, the ever-vigilant hough clan circled the wagons and set up a webcam on a tripod.

from 7am - 9pm, we logged in over 13 hours of video-conferencing with my dad's side and mom's side of the family. for those of you who are away from family and friends, i highly recommend you look into this if you're computer is somewhat non-crappy - throughout the day, it helped out a lot.

i won't go into what everybody got for christmas, as that'd be incredibly tacky of yours truly (and yours truly is by no means a tacky person, as we all know), but i will say this: we did pretty well. the cannonball, however, did really pretty well. and that's cool - the whole presents-under-the-tree thing is really for kids anyway, and about 8 out of 10 gifts under ours was for her. by my figuring, she won't need any more gifts until she's about 14 or 15.

we seriously deserve a 'thank you' card from fisher-price - those jerks owe us big time.

anyway, thanks again for all of your well-wishing and gifts this year, folks - we had a good time. hopefully next year we'll be flying up to the glove so we won't have to rely on computers for family time, but, worst case scenario, now we know its at least doable.

in closing, here's a crap-load of pictures. enjoy...

Countdown to Christmas: Mass Hysteria and Tardishness

hi folks...

we're about four days away from yule-party '08... and this guy's about all funned-out.

why the humbuggary, you ask? allow me to explain. kris and i were pretty smart this year, and once again accomplished about 95% of our christmas shopping before thanksgiving - giving us an excuse not to brave the hellish gauntlets that we would've otherwise been forced to fight through at one of the local malls and/or shopping outlets. we got it all out of the way so we wouldn't grow sick and tired of the 'season,' that has somehow gone from being a straight-up december-thing to a shortly-before-halloween-through-valentine's day-thing. still, despite our most valiant of efforts, its hard escaping the mass of frenzied idiots when one does have to occassionally venture out into the realm of retail this close to the holidays. i can't stand it.

i don't see why so many people are so friggin' stupid about christmas shopping anyway, but i guess that's because i'm so smart about it. when in public, its common for you to see complete strangers in the parking lots of these strip malls willing to knife eachother over parking spaces... or two grandmothers ready to rip one another's throats out for that last vibrating elmo on a toys 'r us shelf. and at times like that, you find yourself wishing that christmas was already here and over with.

...and while we're on the topic of things that piss brian off, i don't know about you guys, but i've about had it with crappy christmas music. not to be confused with decent christmas music, mind you (much props, vince guaraldi trio, jingle bells-singing dogs, etc.), crappy christmas music grates at your soul like pourous rocks over a fresh wound (mannheim steamroller, pay attention here). this morning, for example, the family and i took a couple of our friends with us to a local church we occassionally attend for some live christmas music. this is out of the ordinary somewhat, but we figured since it was the season for pleasin' and all, why would anyone pass up live christmas music five minutes from their front door? i mean, come on - they had a string orchestra, full band and choir, the works. so we went.

...and it sucked. bad.

not the greatest way to get into the spirit of things, rest assured. it pretty much shot my sunday right in the foot - spoken word over narada-type piano-work? not my idea of christmas jammage. if its one thing i cannot stand, its contemporary christian carols and hymns - give me that kinda material old school and traditional. i want to feel like i'm in a lecture hall when i'm in church, not in some gawdy clapfest. leave the bells and whistles at home, and stick to the traditional stuff. am i boring? perhaps... but i'm also a licensed JamMaster, and know decent music when i hear it. and, in this case, i know when something sucks gigantically as well.

but like i was saying before: we've got four days left of this hysteria before the masses can slow back down again and refocus on what else is going on in the rest of the known world. there's corruption and peril afoot. and apparently some snow. and there's that 'economy' everybody keeps talking about, spiralling ever downward and/or out of control. and there's high school musical 3 making teenagers even stupider and less-cultured. and there's the muppets - still the coolest damn carpet samples known to man.

so, in the meantime, over the course of the coming week, i urge you to stay indoors away from the hell that would surely await you at the mall or a circuit city, and keep your radio turned off to avoid the ear-molestation you'd otherwise have to endure via the backstreet boys singing 'the holly and the ivy.' stay with loved ones, make a snowman, and keep focused on what's important.

...and for yours truly and company, that means making due without snow or family. in order to aid us along in this venture, we're stocked with holiday drinking ingredients, a webcam, and more (non-crappy) christmas music and movies than one could shake a stick at.

do i roll?/well i guess/thunder express.

merry pre-christmas,

- brian

Animal kingdom

Thanks to our good friends Adam and Lindsay, Alayna and I were blessed to be able to spend a day at Animal Kingdom. Pretty nice for a random Monday, if I don't say so myself. It was a gorgeous day out as far as the weather is concerned. But, that's nothing new for Florida in the winter time. If we ever get out of here, I will miss that.

So, anyway, I strapped Alayna to myself with our baby harness and we took a hefty walk through Camp Minnie and Mickey. We left there after a nice photo shoot with the Duck and checked out 'Africa.' Of course she was in need of some refreshments and to my astonishment Disney has a gigantic baby center in the park with changing tables, high chairs, microwave, nursing rooms, couch and tv, etc. So, we decided to hang out there for a while and then she decided to get some shut eye.

I took that time to enjoy the nice scenery of

'Asia' and by the time she joined me again we were ready with our fast passes for the Safari.

She sat on my lap as we drove through the tour and handled it pretty well considering the guy driving was not afraid to hit the bumpy turns hard. We were in a row all by ourselves (who knows how that happened) and I almost flew across to the other side at one point. I found it a bit hypocritical on the drivers behalf after he just finished telling the group to keep kids in their seats and yelling at a guy to do the same after he creeped himself up a bit for a look.

We got some really nice views of the animals since they all seemed to be very close up.

All the excitement had to come to an end after that though. Brian would be home soon and taking care of a 6 month old on my own at a theme park is a bit tiring.

-Kristina

Emergency at Santa's Workshop

So, at Primrose we've been practicing for about a month for our big Christmas concert. My preschool class had to perform 3 songs, and there were 3 other classes doing the same. It's a pretty big event, so we hold it at the nearby elementary school and fill their auditorium with parents. And every year, I guess it's a great turn-out that includes cookies and cocoa with Santa. So, I encouraged Brian to bring Alayna to watch me and my classroom and get some complimentary pictures with the fat man in red. Unfortunately, for all involved, Santa was running late and Brian wasn't feeling good, so I told him to forget about it and we'll do pictures later at a mall or something. So, me and my colleagues hung out behind the big curtain with a good quantity of children under the age of 5.....waiting.....

And finally, we get the wonderful news. Santa is not coming! My director held her composure very well with the exception of her ears turning bright red refusing to hide her anger. And she decided to not only make the assistant director be the bearer of bad news, but make all of us stand in a line with her on top of the stage in front of God knows how many parents. We were pretty much waiting to get stuff thrown at us. Luckily, that did not happen. I did see a lot of pissed off faces though. We were then encouraged to go out and mingle. I love being thrown to the wolves. But, the few people I did talk to were pretty cool and took it gracefully. Probably because we promised Santa would show up at the school next week.

Boy, I hope so.

-Kristina

Here We Go Again...

i've been having an awesome week. i really have.

i have all of my lesson planning done between now and christmas. my gradebook is a well-oiled machine. i have a humongous, class project running eerily well that the kids (surprisingly enough) absolutely love. i was even voted by the 7th grade as the students' favorite teacher.

...and then we had a meeting this afternoon wherein the principle told us we'd most likely be reducing staff number again. cowabunga.

i survived the last fall of the guillotine by God's good graces and the seat of my pants, and was thankful to hold on to my coveted job for a second year. i don't think i'll ever know exactly how close i came to being one of those guys who ended up drawing the 'short straw,' and i don't think i'd want to. granted, i'm in better standing than i was last year - being a second year teacher now and beginning grad school in january and all (by the way, i found out today i was officially accepted). and i don't personally expect this year's staff cut to be as bad - or ominous - as last year's... but, at the same time, you never know.


regardless, being told that 'some people might be let go next year' was enough to put my super-awesome week into a tailspin.

it is, in truth, as my principal says, i suppose: "as goes the economy, so goes our school."

...and on that matter, folks, all i have to say on that matter is this: this whole economy thing better turn around real damn fast or else this guy (yours truly) is going to have to join the military.

(yo joe!)

- brian

Pirates?! Pssh...

you know, at first i thought this whole somali pirate craze thing was kinda cool. i mean, pirates? in the 21st century? attacking merchant ships on the high seas? peril?!

yeah... i found this considerably awesome.

this, of course, is coming from a kid who's childhood vocational dream was to be come a pirate himself (after realizing that there was practically a 0% chance i was ever going to learn the ways of the force and own my own lightsaber).

i was obsessed with pirates growing up, and, like most other kids, couldn't shake the romantic view of pirates that hollywood and popular culture has capitalized on over the course of the last hundred years or so. keep in mind that this was way before that whole johnny depp franchise came along, too... had i been still a kid when those movies came out, there's a solid chance i'd be cruising around in a fishing boat in the indian ocean today carrying an AK-47 and flying a jolly roger.

but let's not kid ourselves, folks...

pirates, as probably most of you are aware of, are not nearly as awesome as we make them out to be. very few pirates - bartholemew roberts and edward teach (blackbeard) being the exception here - ever tooled around in large, man-of-war, galleons the type of which are considered the pirate standard in the pirates of the caribbean franchise. and pirates usually didn't steal gold, or spanish dubloons, or any other type of treasure from their captured prizes - nine times out of ten, they were gunning for spare sails and rope, food and medical supplies, ship hardware, and, of course, casks of rum.

but let me stop right there for a sec - i realize that i'm beginning to transform into mr. hough... giving all you folks a lecture in blog-form. not my intention. nay, readers - my reason for writing about pirates this morning is to simply state my opinion on the whole, on-going fiasco happening today with these somalian pirates.

since the somalian government collapsed in the early 1990s, the country's become a safe-haven for pirates. no order, no stability, no peace = pirate heaven. now, for whatever reason, the global community - with all its naval firepower, state-of-the-art intelligence and global positioning equipment, financial capital, etc. - simply cannot stop a handful of half-starved somalians from putting along in their rusty fishing boats with outdated russian-issued no idea. these guys are just way too damn much for the likes of us.

...are you kidding me?!

this crap is ridiculous, ands its pretty much gotten to the point now where if countries are going to consistently act like morons when dealing with this threat, than they deserve to be hijacked and plundered. that's the price for being an idiot, guys. quit whining.

me? i'd take a lesson from the annals of history (another reason why i teach social studies). before getting his ass handed to him by julius ceasar, co-consul of rome pompey magnus was - and is still considered today -the greatest pirate hunter of all time. he single-handedly wiped out piracy in the mediterranean sea, creating a 'roman lake,' around which the entire empire spread out. and the funny thing about this is that he did it rather easily - it wasn't a brilliant plan by any means, it only took a matter of months, and, for the life of me, i can't understand why the hell we're not doing this right now.

here's how it works:

1. create huge bounties on pirate leaders, and offer rewards for captured pirates

2. bribe major pirate leaders to take down fellow pirates

3. blockade pirate safe havens and raid strongholds(what's up, somalia?!)

4. increase naval supremacy in the region and take no prisoners when encountering pirates

5. execute everybody you can get your damn hands on

that's it. that's how we solve the pirate dilemma in the indian ocean. the pirates of tunisia and algiers in the last century B.C. were a hell of a lot more sophisticated and organized than today's rag-tag assortment of hoopleheads, and they were vanquished with little or no technological support. i see no excuse for the global community's complete and utter lack of smartness.

in closing, i hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your lesson today - your homework assignment is to do the section assessment on page 297, questions 1 - 7. have it to me by monday.

- mr. hough

Grad School = Big Pain in the Ass

i already hate grad school, and i haven't even started classes.

as stated before, i have no head for financial figuring-out, using fax machines, scheduling through various departments, calling different agencies and waiting for 3 to 5 business days for answers to simple questions, etc. etc. - all important aspects of the applying-to-graduate-school process. it should come to no surprise, therefore, that i've been having one hell of a time with the whole ordeal. this is absolute hell, folks. and is turning out to be even more of a pain in the ass than the peace corps application i had to undergo. not very much fun.

as it stands - and again, this is from what kris and i can gather (she's been doing her best to help me out with this, as i'm clinically retarded with this crap) - it looks like all i have to do in order to obtain my professional certification (the five-year renewable teaching certificate that allows me to keep my job) is complete my second year of teaching and take the graduate courses outlined in my masters program. that's it. i was convinced that i'd have to take a crap-load of undergraduate courses, thereby stalling my graduate classes and blowing handfuls of loot just in order to keep my job. that would've sucked big time.

then again, when you owe over $26,000 in student loans, what's another $20,000? i've already come to the realization that these loans are never going away, that i'll have to pass them on through subsequent generations as family heirlooms. i'm sure my great-great-great grandchildren will appreciate this.

...though by that time i'm sure we'll all be ruled by space gorillas and robots, so it won't really matter. (see picture)

fortunately, that's not the case. i get to start right away with the mega-hard classes... which i'm not looking forward to in the slightest. like i said before, folks - i hated college (classes). i'm not good at studying, i'm easily-distracted, i can't stay on top of due dates, and i'm arguably the world's worst procrastinator. so, more or less, i'm screwed with this whole grad school nonsense.

so why am i putting myself through this gauntlet of hell? because the houghs are on a timetable, that's why. when kris and i moved down here to florida in january of '07, we expected to live in florida for four to five years - long enough to obtain teaching jobs, finish grad school, and find work elsewhere. i think i've spelled this out before. ideally, i'd like to find a teaching job in illinois or indiana - somewhere in the midwest, close to michigan (there's practically a zero percent chance i'm going to find any work in michigan any time soon). it'd be nice to be able to make the drive from our place to home in less than 10 - 12 hours. now it takes about 22... and that was driving straight through, without a kid. that drive would be absolutely hell now.

sure, you can fly. but around the holidays, you get screwed with ticket costs and all those crap-fees. $700 - $900 to fly home for christmas for four or five days? not worth it, as far as we're concerned.

and so, with grad school out of the way - hopefully by the fall of 2010 - i'll be in prime positioning to start scouting out job prospects in the great white north.

...at least that's the plan so far.

- brian

The Lost Art of Haberdashery

folks, i've found myself in somewhat of a 'quandary.'

(if i even spelled that right.)

you see, about a month ago, i inherited a bunch of my grandfather's old hats. some fedoras, several old derby and slouch hats, etc. - most of them from the '60s - '90s. now, the derby hats are fine the way they are - they just need to be handwashed and air-dried and they'll be good as new. the fedoras, on the other hand, have brims that are bent out of shape from years and years of being stuffed in a closet. i suppose an experienced hand in the art of hat-bending would be able to bend these old hats back into their original shape and form; alas, i have no such experience.

so my dilemma, as it were, is this: in 2008, where the hell does one find a hatsmith?!

i can't find one. anywhere. ever since hats (real hats, that is) went the way of the dinosaur (thanks a lot, JFK), hatsmiths the nation over have been driven into obscurity - forced to scrape a living off of rocks on the edge of civilization. sounds crazy, you say? well then, friends, answer me this: when's the last time you drove past a hattery on your way to target? or, perhaps, a habberdasher? or a whatever-the-hell-they're-called? you haven't, because they probably don't exist anymore.

but, if they do, this is one guy who's determined to find 'em. this is one guy who has some hats that deserve to be worn.

...help me out here, folks.

- brian

Da Bomb (or, How to Kill 90 Minutes of Potential Free Time)

ka-BOOM.

hey players... how's everybody's week going so far? pretty nice?

that's swell. glad to hear it.


alright... here's the deal.

smurf this, folks: today at 3:00pm, as mr. hough was trudging waist-deep through chapter 6, section 1 ('the land and economy of mexico'), and his last remaining class for the day was busy creating concept maps and making fun of eachother's mamas, an announcement was made over the P.A. system alerting all staff and students to assemble in the field for a 'fire drill.'

...a 'fire drill' that required all students to immediately leave the buildings, and to take with them their backpacks.

this is unheard of, in the educational realm at any rate, and you could hear it in the voice of the administrator speaking over the P.A. that something was wrong. what they weren't telling us at that point in time, of course, was that the sheriff's department had received a threat over the phone from some kid saying that there was a bomb planted in the school. and, even though the chances were slim to none that this threat had any substance behind it, our school took the appropriate measure and immediately unleashed our hordes of terrors from their academic confinements and out into the biting cold (florida biting cold, rather).

for over an hour and a half, we were assembled on the athletic complex behind the school... much like - wait for the nerd reference, folks - the forces of haradrim on the fields of pelennor. now, keep in mind that although school let out at 3:30pm, no one - students and faculty alike - was allowed to leave. not a soul. and let me tell you this much, dear readers: trying to keep two dozen teenagers in line after the end-of-school bell sounds - and who have no idea what's going on in the first place - is pure, unGodly hell. the kids weren't allowed to do anything but stand around and complain, which, as you can probably imagine, was tons and tons of fun. ultimately, this unruly mob of nearly 1500 bored and tired lemmings/students was systematically dispersed only after K-9 units and the like swept through the school (and the teachers' individual cars), sometime around 4:15pm or so.

after that, teachers had to wait an additional half-hour or so before the go-ahead was given for us all to risk our lives in retrieving our car keys from our classrooms. pretty awesome.

all in all, not the greatest way to end one's tuesday. that's my two cents.

personally, i would've tempted the fates and put my neck on the line simply in order to grab my keys and get the hell out of there somewhat earlier than all of this. but, then again, i am incredibly brave.... and am courageous beyond all rational thought.

...which, i suppose, is why i teach middle school in the first place.

- brian

The Week in Review: Fevers and a Shuttle Launch

if its one thing i'm sure all of us can appreciate, its a three-day work week.

that's what i had this week. three days of teenagers and textbooks, two days of pajamas and DVDs. tuesday, as we all know, was veteran's day; and yours truly, being the humble public servant that he is, obviously got the day off of work. cowabunga. i ran a few errands with the kid, got some stuff done around the house - the usual boring stuff boring adults like me do on their days off. this particular day off, however, soon spoiled when the cannonball - who had received a DTAP vaccination the previous friday - began showing a temperature. and sure enough, at 2:30am wednesday morning, she woke up with a 102 - 103 degree fever.

kris had to stay home with her all day on wednesday, and alayna seemed to be doing better there for awhile, but then, sure enough, late wednesday night her temperature spiked again. and so, once again, yours truly got to take yet another day off of work. what i should point out here is that, as a teacher, i'm given ten paid-days off a year - after that, i can still take days off, but i'm no longer paid for them.

as of right now, i've officially taken off six of those days. and its only november.

how awesome is that?

anyway, we finally decided on friday that the kid was well enough to hang out at daycare. we both went to work, the kid went to daycare, and all normalcy resumed in realm of the houghs. i should add, by the way, that its pretty cool paying a full week of daycare when your kid only shows up for a one Goddamn day. i think that's just swell. i really do.

in closing, dear readers, kris and i finally got to see a shuttle launch. finally. being in central florida, with cape canaveral and NASA's shuttle launch facility only a quick drive away, its possible to see shuttle launch's relatively up close and personal. now, we've been down here in florida for nigh on two years, and we've never seen one in person. not once. and its not as if there haven't been shuttle launches to be had, either - they practically have them every few months. instead, rather, we just consistently forget about them, and miss out on them every single time. but last night, at 7:55pm, the shuttle endeavor blasted off from florida and into space with its very important cargo (the toilet they were carrying to install in the international space station).

...and we got to watch it from our veranda. which was cool.

happy pre-holidays,

- brian

Flabbergasted

hey kids.

i was going to write about this yesterday, but, after a full day of work and a full stint of ridiculous ESOL education shortly thereafter, by the time i finally made it back to my humble abode last night it was nearly 8pm. and by that time, dear readers, i didn't feel like doing anything but having a drink and going to bed.

you see, i had about four hours of sleep tuesday night. i'm sure many of you did as well. after following the primaries and general election for the last 21 months - most likely closer than most americans and those of you who read this (though i know of plenty of exceptions and like-minded souls on either side of the partisan line) - i felt like it was my solemn duty to see this crapfest through... all the way to the end. that meant staying up to watch the polls close, and staying up even later to watch the speeches. perhaps not the most impressive of feats to some, but this guy - me - has the internal clock of an old man... and gets to wake up every morning at 5am and spew learning at barbarian teenagers all day long. furthermore, like i've said before, on wednesdays i also get to attend a three hour ESOL (english as a second language) instructional method course directly after work. loads of fun wednesdays are.

(pfft.)

anyway, i'm not about to go into a political rant here, folks, so don't worry. nobody wants that. the purpose of me writing this is to vocalize a concern i'm sure a great deal of us now have at this point in time:

what the hell do we do with all of our spare time now?

some folks aren't 'news' people. they don't care that much, they find it boring, whatever. more power to 'em. me? i'm a 'news' person. can't get enough of the crap, even if it is biased, dramatized and skewed beyond all rational thought. i used to religiously check online and read the headlines at least a few dozen times a day. i'd watch political analysts and chief strategists on tv, i'd listen to experts on NPR, i'd watch the polls and track the electoral map during whatever spare moment i could get my hands on. and now that barack obama has clenched the presidency, i'm at a loss.

i have absolutely nothing to focus my attention on.

work? yeah, sure. i suppose i could focus more on work. after all, kids need teaching, kids need social studies. but honestly... who enjoys devoting their free time to work? i mean really? i love my job - don't get me wrong, here - but i don't love it that much. i suppose what little free time i have now, and that i used to devote towards tracking mud-slinging through the associated press, will soon be devoted towards grad school and homework.

i can't even begin to tell all you folks how thrilled and excited i am for that hellfest to begin.

but in all seriousness, i have no idea what to do with myself now. i need to pick up a new hobby.

flabbergasted,

- brian

School Sucks

well, it looks like yours truly is one step closer to getting into grad school.

hooray.

i figured the threat of my temporary certificate expiring in a year was sound enough motivation for me to begin furthering my professional development. around these parts, one must take an additional 20 semester hours of additional education coursework on top of a three-year, non-renewable 'temporary certificate' (which is what i hold now) in order to obtain the almighty 'professional certificate' (which is five-year, renewable, transferrable license). from what i can gather, if i don't take 20 semester hours within the next year in a half, before my temporary certificate expires, i run the risk of losing my job.

...at least i think i do - i'm having one hell of a time sorting all this crap out.

generally i get easily confused with this crap: not getting straight answers from anyone, having to hold for an operator for nigh on thirty minutes before being told you've contacted the wrong department and they can't transfer you, losing important documentation and having different customer service represenatitives contradict one another over policy, etc. what's really, really great about all of this is that, like all other civilized businesses in the free world, the florida department of education (FDOE), whom i've been dealing with in order to get the ball rolling with my certification nightmare/grad school application, is only open from 9am to 5pm monday - friday. and guess who's unable to get to a phone before 5pm? yeah, that's right. me.

this, as you all well know, is impossible for yours truly unless i handle correspondence with aforementioned institution in the middle of my classroom. this crap gives me a headache.

if you can take away one thing from all of this, guys, it is this:

school sucks.

- brian

The Cannonball's Spooktacular

We had a pretty fun Halloween. The day started out a little hectic, with a trip to the health department for a vaccine, but immediately following that we got to hit up Alayna's School Parade of Costumes. There happened to be two other monkeys in her classroom, so they put them all together in a crib and we had our three little monkeys. It was quite cute. They got to be pushed down the sidwalk along the outside of the building in front of an impressive line of parents.

Some were a little fussy at sharing a crib with others,

but I'd like to say that Cannonball did extremely well and was even talking.

Tons of compliments followed the parade as I carried her around my classroom and introduced her to the parents of the kids I teach.

All in all, I'd say it was a 'cute' time.

But, our day didn't end there. We headed straight to SeaWorld's Spooktacular. Brian had to work, so it was just mom and daughter. We watched Shamu and did a little walking around, but she started fussing from all the activity so I decided to

wait for Brian before doing all the Halloween activities. So we headed home for snack and a nap and then back to SeaWorld when Brian got home. It starting cooling down so we dressed her back up in her costume and went to see the Sesame Street Count Down to Halloween Musical and then the closing show of Shamu Rocks.

Of course we squeezed in one little trick or treat.

-Kristina

The Importation of Grandfolk

the hough family is quickly becoming aware of the fact that grandbabies are, in fact, powerful, powerful bargaining chips.

before we had alayna, guys, we saw our folks about once (maybe twice) a year. now that a granddaughter has surfaced in central florida, the importation of grandparents has risen dramatically.

the most recent example was a visit with my dad over the weekend. he had a medical conference up in jacksonville that he had to attend for his work anyway, so he just rented a car and commuted from orlando instead so that he could hang out at our place and dote upon his grandkid. he flew in friday morning and got to spend the day around the house, and then left saturday morning for his conference.

while he was in jacksonville, kris and i took the cannonball out to pick up her first pumpkin (conveniently located at the church we occassionally - and rather infrequently - attend). for whatever reason, they had a couple ponies there. i had no previous inclination that ponies had anything to do with halloween, but... what the hell. who doesn't like ponies, right?

anyway, we brought back a couple pumpkins and, the next day, dad and i showcased our pumkin-knifework while the kid got thrown in a monkey suit.

now, something i apparently forgot over the course of the last fifteen years or so - and i don't see how i managed to do this - was the fact that after a pumpkin is carved, it begins to rot. this makes perfect sense, as it really is, in fact, a vegetable (or is it a fruit? i don't know). and down here in sunny, tropical florida - where i highly doubt pumpkins are indigenous - these vegetables rot pretty damn fast.

and rotten vegetables left out in the florida sun which are occassionally brought inside = mold city. and mold city, dear friends, = allergy city for yours truly. not cool.

anyway, in conclusion, this was a short weekend visit, but still a good time. we officially have the world's largest airmattress, folks, so visitors always have a place to sleep at casa de hough.

a maraaba.

- brian

Election Day

hi readers.

now, while florida has been known to suck on occasion since we’ve been down here, it has also proven to be quite awesome from time to time. take the weather, for instance. when not bracing for a hurricane, one really can’t beat the tropics. palm trees and 80 degree weather in november? yeah, i’ll take that over the cold drizzle and grey overcast skies of snowless michigan right now. and being this close to all of the theme parks, ocean, and beaches? slightly more stuff to do here than in clare. granted, you have to pay $1200 a month in rent, and you do run the risk of being shot at or killed in a car accident via one of the many, many stellar drivers we have down here... but, that's the price you pay for location.

what i’m getting at, folks, is that florida has a tendency of surprising you with little flashes of awesome when you’re least expecting it (of course, this also swings the opposite way, but let’s try to stay optimistic here). the hough family was recently made aware of yet another one of florida’s perks: the ability to vote early.

florida isn’t the only state in the union that does this, i know, so i’d urge you to look into whether or not that’s available to you in your own backyard. here in America’s Penis (if you look at a map of the continental united states, this is what florida looks like… seriously, people), kris and i decided to take full advantage of this and ‘get our vote on.’ as its somewhat still frowned upon to leave babies unattended down here (apparently the ol’ 'leave-the-baby-under-an- upside-down-laundry-basket-with-a-brick-on-top' trick doesn’t "fly" anymore), we had to take the cannonball with us to the local early voting location – the nearest branch of the orange county library.

expecting a four-hour stand-a-thon, the hough family geared up like we were setting off into the serengeti. parking was terrible, and we had to fight our way through hordes of volunteers out supporting their candidate of choice (mostly local positions - county commissioners, stuff like that - no mccain people about... though there were plenty of obama people to be seen). the circus ended up being a little easier than we had anticipated, and running the entire gauntlet ended up only taking about an hour. i had alayna strapped to me in a harness, and she only started acting up when i was in the voting booth.

the people around me most likely did not appreciate this.

anyway, the moral of the story (if there even is one) is this: vote early. do it. get it out of the way. seriously. regardless of whether or not you’re voting for the erratic old guy/bat-shit crazy lady combo or the socialist/foot-in-mouth combo, save yourself the trouble of standing in line for hours and hours on november 4th and make that crap happen.

if you don’t, you don’t get to complain about anything for the next four years. and complaining is an american right.

fight for your rights, america... fight for your rights.

A Day In The Park

So, Alayna is getting bigger than ever. A whopping 11 pounds 2 ounces in her 3rd month of life. She is doing great at school, rolling over on her own now, and eating cereal. Not to mention laughing; although the giggles are few and far between. She likes to make us work hard for those.

Florida is finally cooling off now that we're into fall, so we decided to spend a day at the park over the weekend.

She loves the fresh air, as we all do. That same day we attempted her 3 month pictures only to have it turn into disaster. She decided to not be the happy baby we all know and love, but instead to cry the whole time and be uncooperative with the poses. We ended up getting some pictures anyway, which in a few weeks we'll be sending out to everyone.

No need for you guys to cough up your own money this time around. Then hopefully around the same time we'll be getting school pictures in. If those don't cost an arm and a leg (hopefully not since I get half off), then we'll be getting you some of those as well.

Which, if my coworkers are telling the truth, turned out really cute.

We also just had her follow-up appointment with the cardiologist. And, unfortunately she still has her heart murmur. Still small and no worries, but we'll be checking up with him again when she's around 1 year old. For those of you who didn't know about this, don't worry. It's very common and people who have them live perfectly normal lives. However, we are still crossing our fingers that it will close up on its soon within time.

Besides all of that, her new new obsession is sucking her middle two fingers.

Take care,

Kristina

Sniffles McGee and the Case of the In-Network Plus Plan, Pt. II

meanwhile, back at headquarters...

i cannot stand handling the paperwork that deals with all this insurance and/or finance crap. i don't have a head for any of this at all, and was really hoping to only have to deal with this said gut-wrenching once every few years. however, as i've said before, the state of florida hates its teachers (don't ask me why), and, also like i've said before, the budget for education was slashed to smithereens (this is somehow not as puzzling).

... and so, too, went my old health insurance. which was awesome.

now, dear readers, kris and i each are on our own insurance policies through our own places of employment. with the economy falling ever souther into the dumps, we had to suspend our nightly $100 burning and tighten our belts up a few dozen notches. the cannonball - if all goes according to plan - is going to be covered under something called kidcare, which i had never heard of before and haven't the slightest idea of what it all entails (kris handles this sort of thing for the most part, as i'm nearly useless when it comes to figuring all this crap out).

usually, i'm a pretty optimistic person. despite what these postings and others may have otherwise led you to believe, its true. but with regards to this sudden health insurance fiasco, and the economic fallout of the state's education budget, i'm starting to grow concerned. i mean, i have no intention about bringing up politics in this blog (as nearly half of the people reading this crap most likely vote for the 'other' party), but i think the nation's economy being in the shitter, by this point in time, is a bipartisan truth that both sides of the aisle can agree upon.

it definitely doesn't take a genius to realize florida's hurting in a bad way. but before, when florida was walking around with a black eye and a fat lip, it was more annoying that frightening.

now, with a leg missing, an eye ripped out of its socket, and its innards spilling out of its open belly, florida is no longer annoying. its flat-out disgusting.

Sniffles McGee and the Case of the In-Network Plus Plan, Pt. 1

i feel like crap, readers.

in fact, you know the way your crap smells when you're sick? that acidic-sulfur smell? as if it were somehow possible for your bowel movements themselves to vomit? you know what i'm talking about?

that kinda crap. that's how i feel right now.

i'm officially using my first day of sick leave tomorrow. coincidentally, this also happens to be 9/11... so i'm sure the sub holding down my room will have a blast with my students. anyway, i wouldn't have gone to work today, except that i had an ESOL overview workshop that i had to attend. that's right, kiddies - i get to take that class all over again.

remember that, folks? when i went to one way back in june, only to leave 40 minutes later when kris decided to up and have a baby on me? i could've hacked the class out in two, four-day weeks of super-compressed 6 hours days. instead, i get to prolong the misery by spreading out 60 hours of ESOL training over God knows how long... 3 hour classes each wednesday after school. i'm not a whiz with math or anything, but i think that adds up to something like 20 months.

not happy about this at all.

anyway, so i had to go to that today 'cause if i didn't then i wouldn't be able to take any additional days absent from the workshop without forfeiting my spot. and doing so, consequently, would cost me my job.

let's hope kris doesn't plan on popping out any more babies in the next three or four months.

(...if she does, i'm going to be really, really concerned.)

The Trouble with Pterodactyls

hi folks.

early this morning, when i went outside on my veranda to water my cacti, i discovered a horrible, horrible atrocity: a pterodactyl - or pterosaur (i easily confuse the two) - had shat on the top of my car. that's right: a pterodactyl shat on my car. this isn't the usual exaggeration from yours truly, either, folks. i do tend to stretch things a bit - i'll concede that much -but this pterodacytl business is nothing of the sort.

this is what i think happened:

a beast with at least a twenty four foot wing span flew over our parking lot, at some point in time over the course of the previous night, and shat on the top of my car. it saw that my humble, little clown-car of a ford focus had been recently washed and waxed, and, as we all well know, dinosaurs are instinctively drawn to prestine, shiny things. now, when i say "shat on the top of my car," i mean emptied about four or five gallons of white and brown bird down upon my vehicle. i'm not 100% sure why this paleolithic creature chose my car, of all cars, to defecate on: my assumption was that it was either a die-hard chevy dinosaur, or else a huge supporter of john mccain and the grand ole party.

...that, or else it really hated babies. which, as we all know, is absolutely ridiculous.

Gold Star For Primrose

Well, it only took a couple training days and a bad experience with the in-home daycare for my job to make a space for Alayna. That's right, my baby gets to come to work with me now. Things couldn't be any better! (Well, they could if Brian's car stops breaking down, but that's a whole other story.)

This first week of actual work has gone great. I'm loving my new classrooms.

I actually float between two different preschool rooms. I'm sort of the floater for the other teachers on their days off since we all do the 4 day thing. So I work with a different person each day. But even though I'm not in one steady classroom, I'm still just as much in charge. I'm getting to know the other teachers pretty well and they are all fantastic to work with. I get

to spend my entire break with Alayna, who is right down the hallway. Not to mention being able to peek my head in the window whenever I go to the bathroom. Brian still picks her up after he gets home from work so she's not there the whole 10 hours with me. That and he gets a little one-on-one time before I get home for the night.

So far, she is doing great at 'school.' They all love her. My director is always going in and holding her and telling me how cute she is. As well as, everyone else. She still sleeps most of the day and they get a kick out of her catnaps, stinky farts and painted toes. She's the youngest of all her friends, but the room she's in is under 6 months, so they are all pretty small. She's starting to 'coo' a lot more now and is still smiling all the time. But just as important, she's sleeping longer at night!

Stay tuned for the up and coming Alayna news.......The Ear-Piercing.

Tropical Storm Gay

the title speaks for itself, guys. it really, really does.

i've never once in my life been known as a 'go-getter' or anything, but i think i've reached that point in my life now where if my occupational headquarters (i.e. school) calls and says 'hey guy, why don't you take the day off today?' my initial response is no longer a 'booya' or, perhaps, a 'cowabunga,' but, instead, a much lamer 'really? are you sure?'

yes, readers, i've gotten that lame.

on tuesday, as ol' fay began pounding southern florida with rain and wind, the higher-ups at the district level decided that our entire county would take the day off of school. at that point in time, i guess, tuesday was to be the day that we central floridians would be getting hit the hardest by fay. and so, on tuesday, my second day with students this year, i didn't have to go to work.

now, i'm a big fan of sitting on my ass and not doing anything (believe it or not), and that's pretty much what happened: i sat around the homestead and did some lesson planning, changed a few urine-soaked diapers, and spent some quality time with the wii. alas, the day off of work didn't feel justified, and was therefore not thoroughly enjoyed, because there was no Goddamn storm. the weather outside was nothing more than the occasional terrifying fury of sprinkles and slight breeze. nothing near to what had been initially predicted. it was just crappy enough outside to prevent us from doing anything entertaining. to make matters worse, i knew i'd be making this day-long prison sentence up by sacrificing one of my thanksgiving vacation days later on in the year.

not so cool.

i'm also a big fan of the 'better safe than sorry' rationale, folks, but come on: nobody realized at some point in time that this storm was nowhere near us on tuesday? seriously? don't they have satellites and other such space tools out there that give people (i.e. meteorologists, other scientists) the appropriate information needed to make such calls as 'on tuesday, we're all pretty much f***ed.'?

apparently they don't.

the next day, on wednesday, we did get hit. my school was without power for two hours in the morning, and i had to consequently keep a room full of bored teenagers content in a dark, sweaty classroom without air conditioning or fans. i couldn't teach and we couldn't go outside because of the wind and rain. horrible, horrible business.

the following day, on thursday, i had to drive through absolute hell to get to work.... that is, if hell was a place where instead of having one's flesh burnt off in fiery pits, one was instead just constantly drenched with rain. on several occasions during my commute, i was nearly killed by morons who don't know how to drive in more than a drizzle. this is somehow not surprising in florida - i'm a firm believer in the theory that all of the world's worst drivers have been relocated here.

...and, might i add, on neither of these two days - neither wednesday nor thursday - was the call made to cancel school. "well crap, fellas - we already took tuesday off, didn't we? the kids need to go to school... and, more importantly, we don't wanna look bad here."

thanks a lot, guys.

- brian