A Mild February: Pinnacle of the 2020 Winter

Samson, in a rare moment of not being a total spaz.

What's up, fellas.

February may just be the winter-iest month we've had this year, buuuuut that's not really saying a whole lot.  November thru January might as well have been a continuation of Fall; we barely had any snow to speak of, the temperatures hovered in the 30s - 50s, and everyone in the Education sector were furious over the lack of Snow Days.

At least I was.  I love me some paid time off.

Then along came February, which, while much more mild compared with previous Februaries, brought about some more typical wintery weather.  We had two or three snow days, temperatures dropped into the 20s, and the universe seemingly went back to normal.  Still a far cry from the Polar Vortex-slinging, Hoth-ish winters we've had in previous years, but hell - at this point, we'll take it.  Two snow days are better than none at all.

The Houghs stayed pretty busy this month:  nearly every weekend was spoken for, and so not surprisingly this month flew by much faster than its predecessor.  I could've devoted separate blog posts for some of these events, but I'm pretty lazy so I just said 'screw it' and lumped them all together.  So apologies in advance if this month is on the long side.

Here you go, gang - February of 2020.

Enjoy.

This picture accurately sums up what life with two dogs is like.

It NEVER STOPS.

Samson, finished going to the bathroom, keeps an eye on his bro.  They like to wait for one another before going back inside.

Samson's new tactic when dealing with his more dominating roommate, is to hide underneath the chair and attack Watson from safety.  It's impressive.

Snuggle bros.

Like I said before, this winter has been eerily warm (see: Global Warming.)  As such, our buddy Erik - who always hosts the annual Superbowl party for our group of friends - came up with the idea for the dads to watch the game outside this year.  It was in the low 40s, and he dragged out his portable fire pit to keep us warm (the one we utilize during Halloween Trick or Treating, which is also held at his house.)  This allowed us dads to sit around, smoke cigars and drink beer, without having to share TV viewing with moms and kids.  Zero complaints here.

This worked out pretty well - hopefully next winter will be just as warm.  But this is Michigan, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Yes, yes it does.

They're both pretty big fans of napping.  This works out pretty well.

I received my Masonic Passport in the mail this month, which is pretty awesome.  Anytime I go to another lodge, a Masonic event, or any other kind of activity along those lines, I receive stamps - just like when you visit other countries.  It encourages travel between lodges, which I'm a big fan of.

Abby and her BFF, Ella, at their school's World Culture Day event (pretty sure that's what it was called, at least - I could be wrong.)  Some three-hour-long thing they set up in the school cafeteria, where people set up tables for different countries and brought in a bunch of items that represented that culture.

No idea what this is.  I assume Kris took it at their church, because there's a giant frickin' cross in the background. . .

Abby picks out some pretty interesting outfits these days. . .

The girls decided to turn Samson into Simba, after watching the new The Lion King on Disney+, using lipstick instead of ground roots or berries or whatever-the-hell that damn baboon in the movie uses.

Our first Snow Day of the Winter of 2020.  I spent most of the day catching up on house stuff and side projects, doing laundry, and devouring an entire novel in one day (I was pretty proud of myself.)

This is what the girls decided to do with their day off of school. . .

A four-room fort (I might have helped them a little with this.)

The dog's kennel was converted into additional hang-out space.

The dogs ran in and out of it as well, tearing pieces down from time to time.  I spent a good chunk of time doing repairs throughout the day, rest assured.

With all the crazy fluctuations in temperature we've had this month, we were bound to get a bunch of these terrifying, instruments of death. . .

One of Kris' friends texted her this picture, taken when the friend was picking up her kid from Northeast.  We had NO idea Alayna had created this thing, which hung alongside a series of other kids' posters, down a hallway at the school.  Apparently they had to create a poster based on their family's 'culture,' and THAT'S the picture Alayna opted to use for herself.  No question this kid's a Hough. . .

Remember the broom balancing trick thing that was all the rage online for, like, a day and a half?  No?  You didn't miss much, but Alayna felt it was necessary to try it for herself. . .

It sure does seem like we get a lot of these this year, but, once again, Alayna had an Orchestra Concert.  Like last time, it was also held at Central Park Elementary, and seeing how last time we were forced to sit through not only Alayna's 6th Grade Orchestra, but also that of 7th and 8th Grade, this time around I planned ahead:  I brought along a book.

As if sticking around for two additional concerts that your child was not involved in wasn't bad enough, this time around they featured 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Orchestra Concerts not just for Northeast, but also for Jefferson - Midland's other middle school.  Yes, you heard that right:  we had to sit through SIX F***ING CONCERTS.  Alayna (pictured closest to the camera in the back, left row) only played for, like, five minutes, then we had to sit through nearly an hour-and-a-half of three-song 'concerts' from five other orchestras I couldn't give two shits about.  I don't know who the hell planned this thing out, but they clearly don't have children of their own.  Parents don't give a f*** about anyone else's kids, and forcing students to sit and wait for all the other orchestras is just a real, shitty move on Midland Public Schools' part.

Well, there you go, folks.  That's all there was from Alayna and her orchestra.

I've never wanted to throw a rotten tomato at someone so much in my entire life. . .

Samson's a big fan of hugs.  Fortunately for him, so is Kris.

Girls Night Out with the Mom Squad

Kris went in to Chestnut Hill to help chaperone Abby's classroom Valentine's Day party. . .

. . . where they had themselves a frickin' Barbershop Quartet?  What the damn hell??

I haven't seen so many spilled, red Solo cups since my days at WMU. . .

These are some lazy-ass dogs, folks.

Abby and her Girl Scout troop assembled one evening to prepare Swedish Meatballs for their upcoming World Thinking Day event.  They went with Sweden this year, so that's the 'traditional' Swedish dish they decided to prepare.  Not sure whether or not that's entirely accurate. . .

I don't know whose house this is, but I truly feel sorry for them.

The staged troop picture. . .

. . . aaaaand the accurate one.

So Alayna, who has always liked the poppy-rap bullshit they play on the radio - like nearly every other middle school-aged girl I know of - has recently gotten into '90s Rap (which, in terms of quality and artistry, could be compared to rock's zenith in the late '60s and early '70s.)  I may or may not have had a hand in this; I realized that if she was going to be playing rap in my house, she might as well be playing good rap music.  So after sampling various artists over the course of many months, she landed on the heavy-hitters as her favorites: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys, 2-Pac, and The Notorious B.I.G.  She texted me this picture one day, which I found hilarious:  these two, hip-hop rivals share the same birthdays as her and her sister.  Thug. Life.

World Thinking Day '20, at long last.  Here Ella and Abby prepare to watch the opening Flag Ceremony. . .

After watching a few, different countries' skits, it was time for Kris and Courtney's troop to present their skit for Sweden:  a dance around ye ole May Pole.  Or something.

The Scandinavians, properly assembled.

I ended up having to leave for Clare (where I was meeting up with my old High School crew for a weekend camping trip in the woods, if you'll be so good as to recall) after about a half hour or so, just long enough to see the girls' skit.  Alas, I had to skip out on all the grazing at other countries' booths (you can definitely fill up on all the free snacks different Girl Scout troops set out to represent their country of choice.)  Kris and several other couples in our friend group - who all have daughters in various troops - stayed for the entirety of the event, which gave the kids time to snack and hang out (as seen here.)

While I was away in the woods, Kris dyed Alayna's hair.  This was taken right after it was dyed, washed, and dried, but eventually it toned down a bit.

Hanging out with Kris' friend, Kim, and her daughter, Makayla.

Came home from work one day and found that Samson had torn up about a 10" piece of carpeting right out of the center of the Living Room.  I f***ing hate dogs sometimes.

We were able to trim it down a somewhat, and superglue down the edges to keep it from being torn up again, but now we're gonna have to plug it with carpet sample or put a frickin' area rug over it.  Thank God it's right in the dead center of the room. . .

I've been wanting a bumper sticker that represented my love of record collecting ever since I got my new car, but all the ones I found online were either too obvious, too obnoxious, or otherwise looked like crap.  I had always thought the Add to Collection logo from the industry standard, Discogs, looked awesome, so I reached out to the company to see if they had a large-size vector graphic with which I could create a sticker of my own.  Their marketing department shot me down, so my brother was good enough to help me create a resizeable graphic based on the design I came up with.  Once I had the design, I found an all-weather, auto decal printer on Etsy who was willing to print the design for me, all for a mere $6.  Now I have a simple, bad-ass decal on the back of my car that only true vinyl enthusiasts will readily identify and appreciate.

The last weekend of the month, it was time for the annual Chestnut Hill Elementary Carnival.  As in previous years, me and some of the other dads in our friend group volunteered to man the kitchen. . .

One of the guys bought cloth chef hats for all of us, which was a nice touch.

Preparing nachos, pretzels, hotdogs, pickles, and gallons upon gallons of cheese sauce for the hungry masses.

We knocked it out of the park this year.  Got this shit down to a science.

Some of the moms, scraping the remainder of the cotton candy cauldron at the end of the night.

Alayna and some of her middle school squad, who were on hand because their little siblings still attended Chestnut Hill.  For awhile in the evening, they manned the ticket booth so give the moms a break in their duties.  Nothin' like child labor to make your workload more bearable. . .

- Brian