Remember, Remember Ye Randoms November

'Sup Gang.

Here we are once again at the end of another November, the red-headed stepchild of the Months, always in the shadow of its cooler, older brother, December. Aside from Thanksgiving, which is honestly only a holiday if you're big into food (which we're not), November is just the pre-season of the Holidays, sandwiched between two bigger months with far grander holidays to look forward to.

That being said, we kept busy this month, just like last month and next month (I'm sure) with the usual bullshit. Pom stuff, Orchestra stuff, friend stuff, party stuff, school stuff, work stuff. This month, like May or June, always flies by, as the first part of the month is devoted to cleaning up the debris from Halloween and the latter part of the month is devoted to the Holidays (decorating, shopping, etc.) 

Anyway, here's this month's installments of random crap that went down throughout the month of November. Enjoy, folks. . .

Another day, another dog picture taken off of Alayna's phone. . .

Rowley sent me a pic of their Wedding License they received towards the beginning of the month, following their nuptials in Tennessee a week or two ago. We were both apprehensive that we had, in fact, filled out all the paperwork correctly, so this was reassuring knowing that it was definitely official now.

The first Friday of the month, the girls got their Report Cards back and Abby got straight A's (no A-'s either, just straight A's across the board.) Alayna managed A's and B's (her advanced high school classes are obviously more challenging), so since both girls knocked it out of the park for this first quarter, we took them out to celebrate at Fuji Sushi (one of their favorite spots in town.)

Alayna loves sushi, it's her all-time favorite.

The server left oranges at our table as a dessert following the meal, so of course this happened.

Beginning to stock up on the Holiday essentials for the Season. I learned my lesson in previous years, and made sure to swing out to my favorite liquor store, Cork and Ale, in order to pounce on the available Christmas beers while the good stuff was still on the shelves. The Southern Tier stouts and spiced ales are some of my favorites, so I made sure to stock up on those, as well as the Shiner (another great, day-drinker), and a handful of randoms. Kris is gonna be super excited about all of this.

The second batch of leaves, vanquished. I had to wait for the giant oak tree in my backyard to finally start dumping its leaves before I raked up the backyard. I probably have more rake left this month, but it won't be much at all.

Mitch invited the families over to the Bos residence that first Saturday of the month, for food, cards, and drinks. I broke out this Creme Brulee stout from Southern Tier that, of course, is one of my favorites (I know I just talked about this, but these guys make really, really good beer.)

Mitch decided to have an impromptu Euchre Tourney after folks had eaten (not quite Collier level, just six hands with a $10 buy-in.) I was pissed because after six hands I was in the lead, and the pot was mine, but then folks asked to play three more hands, and I fell to 2nd place. F***ing bullshit. 

I'm slowly but surely working on emptying my beer fridge of last year's fall selections. I still have about a half-dozen or so ciders in there that have no business being drank (drunk?) in the winter months, so I threw this one into my cooler for the evening. Pretty good cider, especially at 8% ABV.

The next morning, bright and early (you can imagine how much fun that was), Kris ran Abby over to the Midland Community Center to meet up with the rest of the Northeast Pom Team and their moms in order to start the hours-long hair-and-makeup process. They were once again competing in this year's MAPP High Kick Competition, and were going with a Disney World Vacation theme (last year, if you'll recall, they did a Christmas theme.)

As always, we met up with the Johnsons and my parents (Dad and Cindy) for the event, but this year the Larsons accompanied us as well, seeing how their son, Jackson, is currently romantically involved with one of the girls on Abby and Ella's team. Ah, to be young. . . 

A few selfies taken off Abby's phone (this was during the morning while the other teams were doing their routines, and the Northeast Pom team was waiting for their chance to go on.)

So here's a link to this year's Northeast's performance: https://vimeopro.com/828studios/2023-mapp-hip-hop-and-high-kick-small-middle-school-high-kick/video/882202926

Around noon, after all of the middle school, junior varsity, and college teams had performed, they held the award ceremony so the judges could announce their scores. Like they do every year, all the pom teams sat around in these weird-ass circles, and held each other's hands while the judges announced the places in each category (small middle school teams, large middle school teams, junior varsity teams, etc.) 

Northeast awaits the verdict. . .

They didn't come in last this year (thank God), but a few girls on the team who never practice or put forth effort during performances like this dragged the rest of the team down. Abby and Ella were both pissed, but not as bad as they had been in previous years.

Abby and Ella, following the end of the awards ceremony.

Aaaaaand one with all the kids. Abby, Ella, Sophie, Jackson, Aiden (Jackson's BF), and the Cannonball.

Heading back to the cars, four or five hours after being inside Saginaw's Dow Event Center.

The pom thing had eaten up a big portion of our Sunday, but we weren't in the clear just yet. After getting about an hour back at the house to eat lunch and sit down for a sec, we had to turn back around and head on over to Bullock Creek High School so that Abby and the Midland Community Orchestra (yes, she's involved with that this year) could put on a two-hour concert.

They took a handful of middle school orchestra students from Northeast, Jefferson, and Bullock Creek, and Abby and Ella were both among the number of Northeast kids who were selected (they're both pretty good.) The entire concert was 'water' themed (something to do with benefits going towards getting drinking water to developing countries, something along those lines), so the song selections all had a connection to water somehow.

(Abby is in the front row of cellos, sandwiched between the two adult guys.)

Here's a bunch of pics and video of the afternoon performance (you're welcome). . .

The Midland Community Orchestra performs all the time, but once a year perform with a selected few middle school students (like I said before.) Even then, the orchestra will perform, like, three or four songs on their own, then bring in the middle schoolers for three songs (probably easier songs, I imagine), then the middle schoolers will go back offstage and the orchestra will resume playing adult-level music. Here's where they had the middle schoolers all stand up, at the conclusion of their last song, so the audience could clap for 'em and stuff.

Abby and Ella, following the show.

Samson and Alayna, relaxing after another chaotic weekend at the Hough house. . .

Late on in the week, Alayna took a some pics (and apparently video) of the dogs. . . .

Black Santa says 48 Days Until Christmas. I busted out the interior Holiday decor a little earlier than usual this year, around the second weekend of the month. I'm too old to care any more, society can kiss my ass.

Upgraded our interior light game to LEDs this year (these strings usually are hung up underneath my kitchen cabinets, and I got sick of replacing them every couple of years.)

Alayna made a fortune this month dog-sitting for our next-door neighbors, Dave and Sherri. They flew down to New Orleans for a week, and so Alayna had to stay at their house on this inflatable mattress in their living room for like six nights or something. They end up paying Alayna about what they'd pay to board their dogs for a week (nearly $200), and their dogs have the benefit of staying in their own home and having someone they know play with them. Definitely a win-win situation.

Toccata and Herc the Jerk.

Some video Alayna took of her time over there.

Once and awhile, Abby would swing by after dinner to help play with the dogs. Alayna didn't cut her in on any of her salary, though.

Smooshy.

That Friday, at the end of the week, Kris got up on the roof and threw up our Christmas lights. It's always weird seeing our backyard from this angle.

I'm not sure how the conversation came about, but at one point in time over dinner Friday night the topic of 'who had the best handwriting' came up. Abby chose a sentence (a lyric from some Ice Spice song she likes) and we took turns writing on the fridge's white board. Abby at top, then Alayna, then Yours Truly, then Kris at the bottom. Clearly I'm the best.

On Veteran's Day (which fell on a Saturday this year - not sure why I'm thinking it's usually on a Monday), I finally reached the pinnacle of my Masonic degree work and was inducted into the Knight Commandery - the highest level of York Rite Freemasonry. 

This final stage in York Rite is made up of three, individual degrees: Order of the Red Cross, Order of the Knights of Malta, and Order of the Knights Templar. Like I did a few years ago in Traverse City when I undertook the four Royal Arch degrees, I'd be doing these three Commandery degrees with a small group of other candidates (four other guys and myself this time around.) And, instead of Traverse City, these degrees would be held at Saginaw Lodge No. 77. . . about a mile down the same road where my school is located.

Obviously I can't take any pictures inside the Lodge when all this went down, but needless to say, after four hours and three degrees, Yours Truly was made an official Knight Templar (you know, the guys you see march in parades with large, white plumed hats and carrying swords.)

That evening, once I got home, I decided to pour myself a special glass of bourbon (which I learned to appreciate over the summer whilst on Brocation '23) to commemorate the achievement. A long time coming, and definitely worth the hard work put into it. 

Kris had been getting funned out with our current 'coffee station' for the last year or so. While the tea cart that she painted, distressed, and decorated aesthetically looked cool - which is why I insisted on holding on to it for years, despite her grumblings - it wasn't all that functional. The storage space in it wasn't great, it didn't hold as much as we wanted, and the surface stained pretty easy. While on a recent trip to Aldi, Kris stumbled upon a bar cabinet and, upon reading raving reviews about the item, she pounced on it. It took Yours Truly about two hours to assemble, but the finished product was well worth the money and effort that went into it.

The quality of this thing is insane - it holds all of our coffee crap, plus has built-in wine racks that helps alleviate some of the storage space above our beer fridge (where we had been storing it prior to getting this thing.) Only downside is that it's pretty damn tall, standing about four and a half feet tall - Kris has to reach up to fill up the water reservoir in the coffee maker. Still, definitely a stellar upgrade.

Now Kris gets to mess with selling this thing on Facebook Marketplace. I do not envy her.

As the Season progresses, our front porch gets more and more festive. Kris recently bought a bunch of crab to snaz up our whiskey barrel. 'Tis the Season.

I know I've said it before but I'm gonna say it again: I love this time of year for beers. Imperial stouts are all my all-time favorite type of beer, and no one does them better than Southern Tier.

A selfie of Abby and Ella we found on Abby's phone. . . when she was supposed to be in school learning stuff.

The Opening Day of Deer Season, Kris and a bunch of her co-workers apparently coordinated to wear camo in to work.  Fun fact: I own nothing camouflage.

I don't know if this was for a Northeast Spirit Day, or just for funsies, but one morning Abby and Ella went to school 'twinning.' 

Flannel Day at the office. . . I guess. I had no idea they dressed up as much as they do, not sure what the occasion is here.

Testing my battery-powered candles in preparation for my annual Constitutional Convention. The State of Michigan's Social Studies Standards dictate I teach kids about the Constitution - the process of how it came to be, the issues debated while ratifying it, etc. - during Unit 2 (the second marking period of the year.) This is, without a doubt, the most boring unit of study for my 8th graders (government and politics is pretty dry, dull stuff for teenagers), so I try and liven things up a bit by doing different activities as we learn about crap. For the Constitutional Convention, I assign students roles of historical delegates that were actually at the Constitutional Convention, decorate my room with quill pens and fake candles (shown here), and let them debate (or rather, yell and scream at one another) for a week as they try and figure out how to compromise with opposing viewpoints. Breaks up the monotony a bit.

Kris' porch, still expanding as the Season rolls on. . .

Wouldn't be the Holiday Season without Christmas-y coffee creamer, folks. It's a strict must-have for our household, and I'll throw a full-on Man Tantrum if I don't have it every morning during the Holidays.

The third Monday of the month, I went up to Lodge for our monthly Royal Arch meeting (regular Masonic lodge meets the first Thursday of every month, but I haven't been going to those lately, opting instead for the cooler York Rite meetings.)

They light up the bulbs for whatever appendant body is meeting in the Lodge on any given night, so you can see the York Rite bulbs - Royal Arch, Cryptic Council (which never meets but is technically a York Rite body), and the Knight Commandery - are lit up here.

I love my Christmas Vinyl - this small batch up 30 or so records that I keep in steady rotation. These are the ones that have been rated '7' and up in my Great Christmas Record Odyssey over the years.

The dogs had their annual vet check-up this month, which ended up being a total money pit - we dropped over $500 on the two assholes, as both needed multiple vaccinations this time around. Samson is overweight (he's up to 22 lbs) so we have to scale his food back to 1/3 cup of dog food twice a day, and Watson's heart murmur has gotten worse so we have to put him on some expensive-ass heart supplement that he has to take every day for the rest of his f***ing life. Once these two are dead I'm gonna be done with dogs, I swear to God.

Kris learns how to play Fortnite with the girls later on that weekend. . .

These girls never play video games, but if they have friends that are playing online they'll once in a great while jump online and get their asses handed to them. 

Our first snow of the season came shortly after Thanksgiving, which was appropriate considering that's the 'official' start of the Holiday Season (we're a couple weeks into ours at this point, buuuuuut Thanksgiving isn't a real holiday, so who cares.)

You'd think, looking at this modest dusting, that this would have melted off right away (seeing how it's not really sticking to the concrete yet), but this snow stayed around for over a week. We got a few additional dustings over the next few days that led to some dicey commutes into work towards the end of the month.

Abby and Kris, pamperin' their dogs.

Remember a second ago when I was talking about my Constitutional Convention activity? This is what it looks like when we do that (I, as George Washington, sit at the small red table at the front of the classroom and move things along - it's like herding cats.)

While watching Season 3 of Netflix's The Witcher one weeknight after getting out of the gym, I spotted a familiar sign in the background of one of the scenes. One of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter Eggs shows sometimes put in there for eagle-eyed fans to spot and nerd out over. I paused the show and sent this pic to Erik (also a Freemason) - clearly someone involved with the show is a Brother.

- Brian