All Hallows Eve (on the Horseshoe)

Happy Halloween, folks!

The apex of October has, for at least most of the last decade or so, seemed more like an epilogue than a climax. That obviously has more to do with our own Halloween Party, which every year detracts attention away from the holiday itself by absorbing all of our energies on costume-hunting, party-prepping, and house-cleaning/decorating.

Not that I'm complaining.

Another win for Southern Tier's Halloween beer.

As we've done the last seven years, we rolled in to the Johnson's residence for their annual Trick or Treat the Horseshoe party. The Horseshoe is the nickname given to the neighborhood compromising their street (Sweetbrier), Highbrook Dr., and Westbrier Terrace (the outside outline of the 'horseshoe' shape), and Greenbrier Terrace, Canterbury Dr., and Lawndale Dr. (the inside outline.) It's all self-enclosed, so super safe for trick-or-treaters and their families, and a lot of houses participate in the distribution of candy.

Not nearly as good as we had it back in the 80's and 90's, but definitely a few clicks above the usual.

Erik had a fire going and several chairs set up by the time we got there, with their garage emptied of vehicles to accommodate Courtney's buffet-style table set-up. Like we always do in this group, everyone brought food to pass as well as candy to contribute for the evening, but after a measly two hours of giving it out we still had a crap-load on hand (which is par for the course, honestly - we all buy too much, every damn year.)

This isn't an all-night rager, compared to our party last week, but it's a nice, chill time and super nostalgic seeing all the kids running around in costumes having the time of their lives. We were home and in bed by 11pm or so, and I did my damnedest to help finish off the half-barrel of Miller Lite that we had worked on at my house the week before. . . but we didn't quite do it.

So here's one, last installment of pictures from October, gang - enjoy. . .

Another appearance of the Wild Kratz

I don't know all of these kids, but Julianna is left of Ella, and that's Harper in the Minions shirt.

And the obligatory weird one.

Before all the trick-or-treaters set off for their two-hour odyssey, we were able to get one picture of all of them together in the Johnson's front yard. This took multiple attempts, folks.

Erik set up a TV by the driveway, which was streaming old horror movies from like the 1950s for awhile, before some big football game or something came on, then folks wanted to switch to that.

After I had consumed my required Halloween, fancy beers (I always save a couple for the big night itself), I switched to our trusty keg.

Folks hanging out and snacking in the garage.

The food spread.

Kids eventually trickled in, coming into the house to start the usual sorting and trading process (good to see kids still do this sacred tradition.)

Loading up plates.

Brandon, Holty, and Collier

Womenfolk, probably talking about something super important.

Collier, Tom and Mitch, watching the game (sorta.)

If there's anyone who shouldn't be playing around with a hatchet, it's Holty.

My wife is special needs, don't make fun.

Holty and his wife, Alicia.

Collier and Mitch

As the temperature continued to drop, the fire became more and more popular. By around 10pm most of the folks had taken off (this party is definitely more a 'swing by' for a bit sort of an event, which most people hanging out in the 6pm to 8pm window of trick-or-treating.)

Most of the night looked like this right here.

Selfies in Ella's bedroom.

Hey look, I'm actually in a picture.

Another Halloween in the books. We'll see you guys next year.

- Brian 

The Randoms of October

Hey gang.

October usually seems to drag the first two weeks of the month, then slams into overdrive as we hit the mid-way mark. . . which makes sense when you realize that the entire month is just a build up to our annual Halloween Party. Most of the months it's just the usual weekday-grind (school/work, gym, pom practices, etc.), with our weekends eaten up with high school football games and social get-togethers, etc. 

Then, a couple weeks later, we realize how daunting of an undertaking our party is and jump into a mad scramble buying all sorts of crap, deep cleaning the house, etc. as the deadline approaches.

My monthly insight from Amazon Music. . .

This month was no different. The first week or two the weather was surprisingly warm (mid-60s to low-70s, and it didn't feel like Fall at all - more like early/mid-September), and aside from leaves starting to fall more frequently, it was just a continuation of the previous month. Seriously, I still found myself mowing, like, once a week, it was crazy.  

Not a whole lot of noteworthy stuff went down this month, aside from our Halloween Party, Abby's impromptu weekend trip down to Clearwater, and Homecoming. We spent a lot of time in the bleachers watching Abby's pom routines, Kris and I celebrated our 19th Anniversary, Alayna was either at Delta College or Taco Bell most evenings, we lost power one morning after a bad storm, we hung out with our tribe on the weekends, and otherwise just prepped the house for the end-of-the-month big events.

So kind of a lengthy installment this month, but not as crazy as some we've had in the past. I'll let you peruse the following pics and videos at your leisure, folks - enjoy. . .

Our out-lawn trees (whatever they are, I'm not a treeologist) are always the first to change colors and fall.

Kris' 'fall' display this year (minus the pumpkins, which we hadn't picked up at the time she took this picture.) One of these days I'm going to set that scarecrow of hers on fire, I hate that damn thing.

Made it another year, everybody. These days our traditional 'hand' picture requires all hands on deck (pun intended.)

The Cannonball and her roommate.

Abby and a buddy of hers (forget her name) on a bus one morning, heading downstate for some field trip.

Pretty sure that's Abby at far left, walking with some of her classmates through downtown Lansing.

Posing in front of the State Capitol Building.

(Honestly, I forget what this trip was for - think it had something to do with one of her classes or something.)

That's a shit-load of Goldfish. . .

The first Friday afternoon, after school, Abby and her teammates meet up for a 'team dinner' at the school as they get ready for the home game (they do this for every home game.)

Nica and Abby, on the sidelines at the game.

Houghs, Johnsons, and some of Alayna's friends.

Weird selfie.

Kris loves these flag runners.

Touchdown, Midland High.

This evening's game was horrible: the weather was abysmal, and it began to rain later in the first half. During the halftime routine, you could see it drizzling down in sheets (just look at the lights in this pic.)

The Varsity Pom Team, executing their kick line.

You can bet your ass we left RIGHT after halftime this evening.

After heading back to the house, Kris and I threw together a cooler and headed over to the Collier's house. There was some kinda sports game on and Collier was itching to try out his new kegorator (which he picked up for super cheap off Facebook Marketplace.)

Abby and her friends toughed it out for the remainder of the game (not surprisingly), and afterwards went out onto the field for their usual barrage of picture-taking.

Pretty sure tonight's theme had something to do with 'pink.'

Erik pins down Winnie. He is the dog-whisperer.

Broke out my old stein that I picked up at Ore Dock Brewing a few years ago - this thing is perfect for keg beer.

Ah, a Tigers game - that's what it was. Now I remember.

Kris (and the dogs) re-arranged the Den a bit one afternoon so that kids could watch TV in there during our Halloween Party - kind of a chill room while the rest of the basement is exploding with the chaos of thirty-plus kids.

Picked up some more Halloween beer this week, including some must-haves from one of my new, favorite (out-of-state) breweries, Southern Tier.

Cannonball selfie.

Alayna's costume was pretty pricey this year, but she piece-mealed all of it together herself (and funded most of it.) One of the things she wanted that was a bit too frivolous (and that she consequently footed the bill for) was this Airsoft assault rifle that looked waaaaay too realistic for our liking. We told her she's not allowed to leave the house with it.

Trees, still changing colors.

This year's big Costume Contest trophy. Winner TBD.

Ancestry.com updated our DNA results this month (they do it every year), and this year appeared to self-correct the major changes that we saw last year (which didn't make much sense.) These results are Kris', and seem to be far more accurate than her results last year.

Yes, just in case you were curious, it turns out she is still part African. That wasn't a fluke from last year, she got the same regions and percentages again this year with her results. Which explains that butt of hers.

Mine is still pretty boring - like 99% Anglo-Saxon (English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.) They broke down the specific regions within these countries this year - the first time I've seen such specified results like this before, which was pretty awesome. Still, nothing my research didn't already tell me (I'm a genealogy nerd.)

Abby, doing something at school one day. With some giant-ass piece of pink paper, by the looks of things.

Samson standing guard over our front yard. Kris sent me this one Friday morning while she was home on her day off.

So I sent her this in response, on my planning period. Not working in the slightest.

Alayna saw a goose randomly walking down Whitewood Drive one day. Minding his own business, giving zero f***s.

Abby found this old video of Ella leaving a string of messages on our answering machine (back when we used to have a landline in our house, years ago - we got rid of it back when the girls hit middle school and got their own cell phones.) She posted this video - and caption - on one of her social medias.

The dogs, staring out the window (whoever took this was standing on our front porch, shooting through our picture window.)

Kris and Abby drove up to Clare one Saturday to visit her mom at her new place, over in the 'high rises' (whatever the apartments across the street from Witbecks is called, I forget.)

(Not sure what this commons room is called.)

Touring Marcy's new place.

After visiting with her mom, Abby and Kris continued up to Harrison (blegh) for her best friend Kim's family-focused Halloween party, which is held on their property somewhere out in the country.

Meanwhile, back in Midland, Alayna had Sebastian over and they built some Lego set in the basement that he brought over.

It contained two sports cars (he's a huge car guy), and they each kept one of them. This is Alayna's, on her bookshelf in her room.

Upstairs, me and the dogs hung out on the couch watching a documentary about swords on Amazon Prime ('Reclaiming the Blade' - I recommend it if you're a huge sword nerd, like I am. . . otherwise you'd probably be better off avoiding it.) Samson clearly found it boring.

The 'spooky' trail through the woods on their property. Their party is geared towards little, little kids, so not as much drinking and the like (that you'd find at ours, for example), and more stuff like hay rides in tractors and what-not.

A pretty cool little set up they got there, though.

Alayna tries on another piece of her costume.

After Sebastian left, I went over to the Collier's place (where some of the guys were all hanging out, playing cards), and Alayna went over to a co-workers house for a mini-Halloween Party over sorts. This is her and one of her co-workers from Taco Bell.

We killed the rest of Collier's quarter barrel this evening, over the course of a few rounds of Euchre.

The next morning, Kris and I awoke to a loud BOOOOM around 5am. Kris thought it was a gunshot at first, but I thought it sounded more like a cannon going off in our backyard. We lost power, and would be without power until about 1pm. As it turns out, our neighbor's tree - which is incredibly overgrown - knocked down the power line connecting the overhead lines to our house. About six houses on our block all lost power, and Consumer's Energy had to come out and deal with the frickin' tree (which Kris had actually warned them about a month or so ago.)

Two of the three or four trucks that were parked in front of our house throughout the morning. This must have been a big team effort (unless they were just bored or something, I don't know.)

Most of the tree was trimmed to shit, but I couldn't care less - ain't my tree.

The view of the trucks in front of our house, from across the street (Kris took this, not sure how - looks like she's standing in someone's driveway.)

Alayna working the drive-thru on one of her shifts (she always does the drive-thru register, like her parents before her.)

My buddy Erik invited me out to see the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band one Sunday night at the last minute. An extra ticket fell into his lap and it was free, so I figured 'what the hell. . .'

A view of the stage in the side theater at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw, as we were coming in to take our seats. We were dead-center of the stage, seven rows back - AWESOME seats.

Kris and Alayna help Abby with a school assignment (she had to make some kinda video for one of her classes.)

Like most '70s acts, only three or four guys were from the original line-up - the rest were all added in later years.

The main singer and his son, who now plays lead guitar for them.

The bassist (who hung out in the back all evening, as all bassists should.)

As you could probably surmise, I screenshot all these pics off of someone else's Instagram post (I don't take pics or video at concerts, I just steal other people's instead - I prefer to just enjoy the show.)

Abby has to record one of these pom 'practice' videos for her coaches every Sunday night. Looks frickin' exhausting.

The dogs, snuggled up in Alayna's bed while she does her homework one morning.

Alayna has been getting accepted to multiple colleges this month - CMU, Oakland, etc. - but she's pulling the trigger on SVSU for her pre-med coursework. She had been leaning towards Oakland, due to their specialized Radiology program, but at $25k a year that was going to be pricey. Her new goal is to live at home and save up money while knocking out the remainder of her Bachelors program (she'll have her Associates and her Gen Ed stuff taken care of by the time she graduates high school), then transfer down to Oakland for med school. Definitely a wise move on her part, and we're all super excited for her (and proud, obviously.)

Kris took a pic of a deer charging through a field towards the road while riding along with Abby one evening (so that Abby can log more driving time in on her permit.)

Abby fund-raised so much with the last Pom fundraiser of hers that she earned a free, Varsity pom jacket of some kind. She was pretty stoked.

Playing with the dogs in the living room one evening.

Another pom practice video for the coaches.

Collier came over one night to our house in order to fine-tune the kegorator. Erik and I had gone out the night before and picked up a half-barrel of Miller Lite from Eastman Party Store, but we didn't wanna mess with Collier's CO2 tank and lines. This, of course, is all in preparation for the big Halloween Party we'd be throwing that weekend.

Ready to rock and roll.

Snuggle pups.

Abby walks into another pom practice, under a super-gay rainbow.

Prepping for another home, football game the Friday before our party.

Alayna recently got a couple new piercings at her usual piercing place in Bay City (Voodoo Tattoo, I think it's called.)

Alayna took this pic of her sister (in the pink lei) at a school assembly that day.

The pom team performed later on, too (including Abby, second from right.) Today was the big Midland High vs. Dow High game, the biggest rivalry of the year.

Assembling outside the school (for some reason.)

Driving to the game (with Ella behind the wheel. . . good lord.)

Time to do hair. . .

Alayna and her friends got ready for the game at our house (as usual.) Watson apparently thought food was involved.

Bree, Alayna and Amelia.

At the beginning of the game, the pom team leads the way onto the field (Abby is second from the front, closest to the field.)

This year Dow High got the 'Home' side of the stadium, so us Chemic folk had to sit in the Visitors stands like a bunch of frickin' peasants.

An okay sunset tonight, but the clouds certainly looked perilous. It started to drizzle before the game, but stopped and fortunately didn't pick back up again. Lucked out this time around.

The girls' pom routine at the start of the game.

The flag bearers race down the sidelines after a Midland High touchdown (one of their few during tonight's game - they got straight-up slaughtered by Dow.)

Attempting to liven up the disillusioned crowd.

You can barely see it, but if you look closely towards the top left of this picture, you can make out three, green lights. Someone had flown a very large drone over the football field and they had to pause the game and demand the owner fly the drone out of the area before they could resume play. The balls on some people. . .

Kris and the moms walked over to the Home side of the field for the Halftime Show, as the band and - more importantly - the Varsity Pom Team - would be facing that side.

The view from the Visitor's side, where me and a few of the dads remained (if the band looks bigger than usual it's 'cause they had both the Midland and Dow bands out there doing a combined routine, which was pretty impressive.)

Abby and the Pommers, doing their routine.

Sebastian and Alayna, after the end of the game.

The Gruesome Twosome.

Abby and Erika (a foreign exchange student from Korea, who has been here for a couple years now - I didn't think they could do that, but she's still here.)

Another night, another Halloween beer to try. This one tasted pretty good, but if it was slightly stronger I'd like it a whole lot more.

No idea.

Alayna and some of her co-workers during one of their shifts. I'm not convinced they actually work at this Taco Bell location. . . .

Susan left this Halloween frog over at hour house for us to find at some point during our party. It's gonna be a permanent addition from now on.

The following Monday, we attended a combined orchestra performance over at Midland Center for the Arts.

Of course, because it's a high school symphony orchestra, all the songs were far too big to upload the videos here (again, my apologies), but I included some pics of the girls playing. You can spot Abby playing her cello if you look closely in the back.

Alayna is in the second row, closest to the audience.

Midland High stands for applause. Midland, Dow and CMU also had orchestras AND choirs perform this evening. Made for a long-ish night, but the music was awesome.

The combined performance, featuring all three orchestras and all three choirs. About seven minutes long, but DAMN it was a great piece.

After the show, Alayna got a pic with Ms. Mammassian (her conductor) and Sebastian.

One of my students brought me in a pumpkin he carved at home. I kept it on my desk until it started to rot, then had to toss it. It's the custodian's problem now.

The garage, no longer prepped for our party, and now converted into a teen hangout spot for Alayna and her friends. Their plan was to hang out in here and listen to music and gorge themselves on food, drink, and whatever while passing out candy to Trick or Treaters on the 31st (when we'll be away at the Johnson's annual Halloween Party.)

Thursday night Kris and the girls decided to try carving pumpkins again - something we haven't done since the girls were like in elementary school, probably (maybe not, I don't remember.)

Abby still loathes the smell of pumpkin guts, she's always gagged doing this.

Somethings never change. . . .

The Cannonball

Get in them guts, Ma. . .

I ended up gutting and cleaning out Abby's pumpkin for her. That's what dads do.

This was my contribution to the evening. You're welcome.

Kris, mid-burp.

Helping Alayna finish gutting hers.

Kris and her finished product.

Wine time. 'Cause Thursday.

Hough Pumpkins '25, from left to right: Kris', Alayna's, and Abby's.

Another October in the books, kids - see ya next month.

- Brian