Randoms from the Month of Caesar

What's up, Internet.

So July this year ended up being a study in contrasts.  We did a ridiculous amount of vacationing this month (look at all those damn posts off the right, guys), but we also did a hell of a lot sitting around the house and doing absolutely nothing.  So while there's plenty of pictures of our shenanigans up in the Upper Peninsula, or on Eight Point Lake, there wasn't a lot of captured moments from our day-to-day mundaneness during the down time.

I've been playing a lot of Skyrim on my new Nintendo Switch, a game that's nothing short of incredible, as well as working on nerd projects on the ol' MacBook Pro, not getting much exercise, and otherwise maintaining my yard (which has been a challenge, due to a nasty dry spell we suffered earlier in the month.)  The girls have been kept busy with play dates, luncheons at Plymouth Park, and multiple trips to 7-11 for much-needed Slurpees.  It's been a fun month, America.

So yeah, not a whole lot of pictures this time around, but what you see more or less wraps up the month (unfortunately there are no pictures of the kids drinking Slurpees, or my lazy ass sitting on the couch playing Skyrim.)

Enjoy. . .

The girls got into the habit this month of picking flowers out of the backyard gardens and leaving them on Kris' pillow for when she got back from work.  These plants would then sit there throughout the day, so that by the time Kris came home from work and found them, they were all dried up and shriveled.  So this is the sort of thing she came home to a lot of the time.

Screwing around on the Zipline over at Central Park Elementary (the new waaaay over-rated STEM school that opened up in Midland.)  They, like Plymouth Park, also host Midland's summertime Meet Up and Eat Up program, so we try and hit up any of the locations a few times each week for the free lunch and fresh air.

One afternoon, the girls set up a 'horse and carriage' in the basement, dressed up in period clothing, and pretended they lived on a 19th century farm out West. . . 

"Sleeping on the Trail."  Seriously.

Not sure if you remember or not, but I had scored a few German 45 RPMs from the Goodwill store up in Sault Ste Marie earlier in the month, and was eventually able to give them a listen on the ol' turntable.  And in case you were curious, they sound EXACTLY like the pictures suggest.

Halfway through the month, we made it down to Romulus for Kris' cousin Merry Lynn's Graduation Open House.  For whatever reason, this is the only picture we ended up taking of the day-long visit downstate - it was brutally hot and humid out, and despite the fact it was an outdoor party, we spent a lot of time indoors, taking advantage of the A/C.  This meant ducking into nearby Uncle Wayne's house, where we' bump into his bear-of-a-dog, Captain.

This month saw some pretty nasty weather, especially for one's yard.  We hadn't gotten any rain for weeks, but the humidity levels were off the charts, so the grass was dying from lack of water, but the ground was growing fungus due to the sticky atmosphere.  I ended up dropping $50 on fertilizers and fungicide in order to combat the spread of this crap throughout my yard, but I was able to restore it to full awesomeness in about a week or so (by the time we got back from Eight Point, the grass was back to its usual dark green. . . I just never got around to taking an 'after' shot, my apologies.)

While spending some birthday money at the Midland Mall (and hitting up Barnes and Nobles for some leather-bound Collector's Editions for Yours Truly), the rain - which had been absent for so, so long - finally decided to show up.  With a vengeance.

Re-sleeving some vinyl.  This is waaaay more fun for me than it should be. . .

Alayna had a playdate with her BFF, Maddie, and I decided to take the girls up to Plymouth Pool for a swim session. . .

I didn't think they'd hit the waterslide up right out of the gate - it usually takes a little bit of coaxing on our part to get the girls to do it - but Maddie's presence must have instilled some confidence/courage in the Cannonball.  Those girls went right over to the waterslide and couldn't be pried away from it for over an hour.

Fortunately, it wasn't too busy today, so there was rarely a line for the slide.

I can think of far shittier ways of spending one's hot, summer days. . .

Bought a stylus scale recently in order to better calibrate my tonearm weight.  I was aiming between 2.5 and 3, so I was pretty cool with this.

One morning, Alayna decided she wanted to try making pancakes all by herself. . .

Too bad she can't do the dishes by herself. . .

More culinary aspirations.  Abby made stir-fry in a wok.  What the hell.

And, in closing, here's a couple shots of our central garden in the backyard. . . 

This ground cover is out of control.

- Brian

Warrior Dash '18

What's up, America.

So last year, my brother Chris and I ran the annual Warrior Dash, held down in Mt. Morris.  If you'll recall, this is more or less a glorified 5K, with a dozen obstacles sprinkled throughout the course, which runs through sand and forest, grassy flatland and mud pits.  At the end of the course, when you emerge from the pools of mud, covered in sweat and filth, you're awarded a medal, a fuzzy Viking helmet, a free t-shirt, and a complimentary drink.

. . . 'cause who doesn't like throwing back a cold, alcoholic drink after an entire afternoon of arduous turmoil under an oppressive sun?

Well, last year, shortly after we ran it, we decided that it'd be a lot of fun if our wives ran alongside us.  Nicole would have done so last year, but she was, well, growing two miniature human beings inside her at the time.  I managed to convince Kris that she should run it with us, and so all four of us pre-registered for the 2018 race last summer.

Fast forward a year - a year in which none of the four of us managed to get in shape, or train in any way whatsoever.  No, instead, Chris and Nicole had been pretty sedentary, shackled with two kids.  Kris spent five days of each week over the course of the last year sitting in an office chair in front of a computer.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

And me?  Well, I went ahead and broke my foot.

This year, unsurprisingly, was pretty rough.  Running on a broken foot isn't cool at all, and it was pretty painful.  Kris nearly passed out after the first mile - the sun was intense, and running without shade in the mid-80s through sand isn't as fun as you'd think.  Chris' shoes were rubbing him raw behind his ankles, to the point where they were bleeding.  Honestly, the one person who held up the most happened to be the same person who had carried and delivered a set of twins.

Still, we had a blast.  It was a rough go, but was definitely a highlight of the summer.  I think it can go without saying that we'll be running the sum'bitch next year, in the Summer of 2019.  Maybe we'll even train this time around so we can save ourselves some of the physical exhaustion. . .

. . . .buuuuut, who am I kidding.  We probably won't.

Here, check it out:

A screen shot of the following video, from MLive's article on this year's Warrior Dash (you can see Kris at right, with Yours Truly coming up behind her.)

(You can spot us at the 1:36 point.)

This is the Pallet Jacked obstacle, which I revisited here because you can see me at the 0:31 point, awkwardly attempting to cross those plastic platforms of death. . .

Approaching the fire obstacle (forget what it's called), towards the end of the race.  We didn't run into many photographers along the course, like we did last year, but they always have one camped in front of this one. . .

Kris makes some pretty rad faces when she's feeling 'hardcore.'

Hard.  Core.

We actually jumped over slightly ahead of Chris and Nicole, so Chris took both images from the Warrior Dash website and photoshopped it so it looks like we went over at the same time.

Kris sticks the landing.  You can see, at left, my broken foot.  By this point in time, it felt like it was about to fall off.

Yes, that's Iron Man walking behind Nicole.

Once we cleared the fire obstacle, we had to climb a wall and then slide down the other side.  For whatever reason, they didn't have a pool of water waiting for us at the bottom of the slide this year, just a pile of dry-ass dirt.  It sucked, as we were kinda looking forward to being cooled off again - the heat was ridiculous.  (That's my arm off to the right, fans.)

After crawling under the barbed wire, through a giant pit of mud, we crossed the Finish Line and were handed our medals.  Kris asked a stranger to take a picture of us and text it to her, and - thank God - the lady wasn't a complete b**** and followed through.

Post-Showers, we opted to snag one more group picture in front of the big ol' Warrior Dash rock, like Chris and I did last year.

The race had a few different sponsors - nothing new, there - and among them was White Claw, which makes fruit-flavored spritzer drinks that have a 5% abv.  Not my cup of tea - tastes like slightly-flavored club soda with a hint of booze in it - but Kris (and every female in the United States, apparently) loves them.  The girl working the booth, who was, like, 21, didn't mind giving out an endless supply of samples to Kris, who promptly took advantage of her generosity.

She soon started sending us out to pick some up for her.  I suppose she earned it.

Awwww.  Wives take the cutesiest pictures. . .

- Brian

Eight Point Lake '18, Pt. IV

(. . . and now, the final chapter of this year's Eight Point saga.)

Monday

July 23rd
"The Sandbar and Exodus"

A dark and dreary morning on Eight Point Lake.  I had slept in on this particular morning, and consequently missed the sunrise entirely. . . but Dad, who flew out for New Jersey early in the morning and left waaaay before anyone else was up, managed to take this and text it to me.  Proper documentation of our family's stay at the cottage is a team effort, America.

Yet another slow morning around the cottage (with Alayna in her usual spot on the couch, nestled deep in a comforter, with probably some kind of screen in front of her.)

Someone had brought up the old '80s classic Guess Who up to the cottage this year, and after a quick demonstration on how the game was played, it quickly became the kid favorite.

(I had to help Jax.  The little dude's Art of Deduction would make Sherlock Holmes kill himself.)

Bean Boozled.  I had originally bought this for the girls, but forgot to give it to them. . . so I brought it up to the lake for the nephews to have fun with.  Basically, what you have is a simple-looking bag of jelly beans, and within it you will find two beans of each color:  one is a normal flavor, the other is, well, disgusting (Tutti Frutti or Rotten Fish, Coconut or Spoiled Milk, etc.)  It's Russian Roulette, in jelly bean -form.  

Hilarity ensues.

They even tricked Uncle Bryan, who wasn't all that amused.

Back at Guess Who, the game that surprisingly never gets old.

Fast-forwarding a bit, following a slow morning and then lunch, we decided to start getting the kids around in order to take them up to the infamous Sandbar.  Believe it or not, we hadn't yet made it up there during the week (not that the weather helped things at all.)

The Sandbar of Eight Point Lake.

Aw, a father/son game of catch.  In a lake.

Basically everyone at the cottage went except for Cindy, so we needed two boats to haul everyone and our supplies up there.

Abby explores the rockier, more un-tamed side of the 'Bar.

The kids always love playing in this damn tree. . .

Alayna, once again, was showing how old she's really become this year:  she was bored with the whole sandbar scene, and didn't even want to come out with us (I had to force her.)  She told us she was bored before we had been there five minutes, and it took a lot of coaxing to get her out of the boat at all.

Abby, on the other hand, loves the Sandbar.  Can't get enough of the place.

Digging around in the sand dirt.

Bryan's old friend Brent met us all up there, and brought along his siblings and their families as well as his own.  Fortunately, there weren't a whole lot of other folks around while we were up there (being a Monday, it was pretty dead), and we had more or less staked out the entire beach part of it with our three boats.

Building sand castles (or whatever the hell these are) kept the Cannonball occupied for awhile.  Thank God.

Watching Bryan mess around with the red boat's engine.

Another solid brew from the boys at Short's.  Perfect for an overcast afternoon on the lake.

Alayna, back on the boat.  She kept complaining that she was cold, so I just let her hang out on the boat and mope after awhile.  I'm no one's entertainment committee.

I left my phone on the boat, and at one point in time Abby found it.  I came across this selfie later on in the day while I was going through pictures.

Aunt Lucy makes an appearance.

Alayna looks totally thrilled to be out on the lake.

The Michaels clan brought up this inflatable whatever-the-hell-this-is with them.  Abby had a lot of fun on it.

Still cold.  And bored.

Abby orders other kids around.  Totally normal.

Siblings and offspring.

The Michaelses.

That's what she gets for wearing a damn sweatshirt at the beach.

Beautiful. . .  and I suppose the girls aren't bad, either.

It was overcast, and a bit on the chilly side for being in the water (mid/upper 70s, thereabouts.)  Still better than being cooped up in a rinky-dink cottage, though.

Surprise, surprise.

Cindy had asked that I get some good pictures of Bryan and his girlfriend, Chelsey, while we were up at the Sandbar.  When I passed this information along, Bryan decided to pose a few for his mom.  'Cause it's Bryan.

He's bonafide.

For whatever reason, Brent's little sister, Heather, and Bryan decided to try their hand at recreating that one scene from Dirty Dancing.  No idea why, but the results were pretty hilarious.

Another attempt. . .

Alayna, after an hour or two, begins to warm up to the Sandbar.  FINALLY.

This kid and her f***ing gymnastics. . .

Jax runs for his life.

We got a few of these uncles in the family. . .

Back to being bored and cold.

As it closed in on dinner time, we decided it was about time to haul all the kids back to the cottage and get them fed and what not.

Arriving at port.

Someone else caught this.  My kids, like their old man, know absolutely nothing when it comes to fishing.

Evening creeps in.

Abby stepped on something sharp at one point, but fortunately we had a certified nurse on hand to help bandage her up.

Super thrilled.

Pre-dinner snacking.

Devices.

More devices.

Chelsey and Jill, keeping it classy.

While Cindy once again kept watch over the younger grandkids, the rest of us went out on a hardcore tubing circuit. . .

Jill makes some crazy-ass faces when she tubes.

Brian whipped the holy hell out of these two.

Man (er, woman) overboard. . .

A desperate hand reaches out over the waves (pretty sure it's Jill's.)

Blake and Nick's turn. . .

Blake goes down.

Brian scans the waves, makes sure his son gets his ass beat.

After the boys had had their fill of tubing, Uncle Bryan wanted a turn at wake boarding.

(He's actually pretty good at it.)

The sunset was perfect lighting for these shots - I just had to wait for the right angle, lest he become back-lit.

Thankful he landed that last one.

(He didn't quite land this one.)

Back on dry land, we came back to find Nana and the grandkids baking up some treats in the kitchen.

Jax asserts his dominance.  Didn't get him very far.

Abby, as usual, talking someone's ear off.  Whoever she's talking to probably stopped listening about ten minutes ago, that's usually what happens around these parts.

Winding down with hoodies, tablets, and Netflix.  That's how the Cannonball rolls.

Tuesday

July 24th
"Swan Song"

One last morning at the lake.  The girls and I left today, as they were basically running on fumes and, by this point in time, were funned out with the cottage (Alayna, at any rate - I probably could've gotten another day or two out of Abby.)

Guess Who (along with the usual tablets and Netflix) kept the girls entertained while I loaded up all our bags, mini-fridges, and all the other crap we brought up with us this year into our van.  We ended up waiting around until after lunch to leave, so that we could say bye to the Waites before we headed back to Midland (and Civilization.)

Before we left, Mackenzie swung by the house and brought along this old school paper she wrote in, like, sixth grade.  I guess the assignment was for students to write about someone they think is interesting - something along those lines.  Personally, I think she has pretty good taste (although she may have embellished the pool part - I totally suck at pool.)

- Fín -

- Brian