Labor Daze

The Hough gals (Kris at right) on the backyard trampoline. . .

Happy Labor Day Weekend, America.

So this year we did the exact same thing we did last year for this Death Rattle of Summer:  we spent the first half of it up at our family lakehouse on Eight Point Lake, and the second half partying it up back in Midland.  The weather for the lake aspect of it wasn't as sunny this year (though it was warmer than last year, thank God), which convinced us to only stay up there one night instead of two, but we were still able to do enough up there that the kids weren't too bored.

We opted for a family bonfire Friday evening.

Following our overnight stint at Eight Point, we returned to Midland for the annual Collier party Sunday afternoon/evening:  just like the Houghs hold down parties for Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, the Colliers open and close ours Summers with annual Memorial Day and Labor Day parties.  This friend group runs that shit like clockwork.

So yeah, I'll leave you guys now with a brief rundown of yet another Hough Family Labor Day Weekend. . . the official Death Rattle of Summer.

Enjoy.

Playing a few rounds of Think n' Sync, a decent little card game that's good for when you're just sitting around and don't want to invest too much time or energy in a legit board or card game.

The following morning, we loaded up our kids and dogs - along with a couple friends, Ella (for Abby) and Cristina (for Alayna) and hit the road for the lake.  Before we hit the lakehouse, however, I had Kris stop off at the Lake General Store so Kris and I could pick up some drinks, along with some ice cream for Cindy and a treasure trove of junk food for the girls.  That store, admittedly, is pretty fun to shop in.  When we finally arrived at the lake, Abby and Ella immediately jumped into wet suits and hit the water.

Alayna and Cristina did too, just not nearly as energetic. 

These two logged some serious time into these kayaks.

They actually paddled about 40 ft off the shore for a decent distance down the lake and then came back.

When they returned, I took turns whipping the kids around the lake on the jet ski.  It was kinda windy out so Dad didn't end up taking his pontoon out on the lake this weekend, which always sucks.

Samson thoroughly enjoys the sand.

The Whites arrived shortly after lunch, and the girls not-so-patiently waited for Uncle Brian to finish eating so he could take them out on the boat.

Still kayaking.

Just in case you were curious. . . phones are still popular with teenagers.

Jill and Kris, cluckin' about mom stuff.  Probably leggings and wine or some shit.

Food of Champions right here.  Each of these girls downed a quart of chocolate milk in a sitting.  This will come into play later this afternoon, just wait for it.

Along with the chocolate milk, they also scarfed down pigs-in-a-blanket and about a pound of chicken/cheese dip apiece.  Just the idea of all that crap jostling around in one's gut makes me want to throw up. . .

So, immediately after gorging themselves on all that food, Brian finally caved and agreed to take the girls out tubing on the lake.  Keep in mind, these girls just finished stuffing their faces.

Pulling out of port, about to do some serious damage to a handful of girls (Alayna, as always, had zero interest in tubing and preferred to remain on the boat and watch.)

And so it begins. . .

Heading back in to port, after an hour or so of whipping little kid ass around the lake.

This picture right here says it all.  Both girls were nauseous and miserable, and shortly after stepping ashore both girls puked their asses off.

This is where they hung out the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Full-on recovery mode.

Beer Can Chicken.  An Eight Point Lake staple for the Houghs.

The Cannonball and Cristina

Dad and Cindy 'wrapped' a gift for Jax (we celebrated a Jax/Bradley combo birthday up here this weekend, to make things easier for everyone.)

It was on-again/off-again drizzling throughout the evening, so we didn't think the lake association would move forward with their plans for the annual firework display (which, like their Fourth of July one, are always better than most other local displays.)

Like f***ing London this weekend. . .

Kris and a couple dogs, killing time until it's socially acceptable to go to bed.

What had been a slightly boring evening was suddenly broadsided by a barrage of noise from outside.  The lake association decided to pull the trigger on the annual Labor Day fireworks, drizzle be damned.  And, as always, these fireworks rivaled those of even Midland.

The girls were appreciative to say the least (unlike some of the lake residents, who bitched about having to watch fireworks while it was slightly drizzling out. . .)

After the firework finale, the girls retired to their lower level for the evening and we adults settled into a documentary series on Hulu called McCartney 3,2,1, which was pretty cool.  Anything with Rick Rubin is bound to be good.

Morning over Eight Point Lake ('Merica.)

Abby and Ella were determined to kayak out to the Sandbar this morning - something that is quickly becoming a tradition for our girls, who knows why.

Fortunately they made it all the way out there and back without being struck by a dumbass boat motorist, so that's a win in my book.

After bidding farewell to my folks at the lake, we drove back to Midland, dropped Cristina off at her house and the dogs off to ours, then loaded up and drove over to the Colliers for their annual backyard bonzana.  Cornhole, it should go without saying, is always on the menu in this group.

The Three Amigas:  Ella, Sophie, and Abby

Ryan serves the hungry masses

And here's a crap-load of dads.  This is the entire group, minus Lonnie Big Balls, who had his RV out at some campground with the fam this weekend.

A couple different games going on here.

Kris throwin' bags

Ryan somehow ended up having a sliver of metal stick in his eye towards the end of the night, and nothing we could do could get it out.  It didn't hurt him, it just felt weird, but in the morning he ended up going to an urgent care and having it safely removed.  Still has no idea how it ended up in there, though.

On Labor Day itself, Yours Truly spent hours and hours grading, planning, and trying to get my shit together for the coming week (not something I usually have to do on weekends, but this year I'm the only veteran Social Studies teacher in my entire grade-level department, so I'm having to plan for four teachers this year. . .  loads of fun.)  Kris , however, tore up the entirety of our birch tree garden bed.  Finally.  She had been talking about it for years, but with the weather just about perfect for gardening, and a wide-open itinerary, she decided that today was the day.  She tore up all the plants, dug out all the weeds, then raked the bed level with the surrounding grass.  Next we're going to plant a bunch of grass seed and thatch it down well so that the seeds stay moist.  Hopefully, in a year's time, this will look identical to all the surrounding grass. . . and will become my new hammock area.

- Brian

All That Was May

One of our backyard gardens, pre-mulch restoration.

Happy Last Day of May, Internet.

This month consistently ranks as one of the year's busiest, surpassed only by November, December, June and July.  As temperatures heat up, and nature itself begins to scream out for attention, one suddenly finds themselves surrounded by weekend activities (social obligations, house/yard obligations, kid-related obligations, etc.)  Every weekend is consequently filled up, and so one attempts to squeeze more time out of the weekdays, after work and school.  By this point in the school year, everyone's wrapping up shop with last-minute tests, end-of-the-year planning, and room clean-up, and being busy with all this bullshit makes time go insanely fast.

Aside from this month's previous posts, what follows are some leftover randoms from other stuff that happened around these parts during this month, the last hectic gauntlet of the school year.

Enjoy.

Tulips blooming in the front garden bed.

Some animal keeps scurrying across the black mulch, revealing the shittier light brown mulch underneath.  If I can find what ever animal is doing this, I'm going to f***ing kill it.

We have these tulips blooming up all over the dang place.

Abby had a sleepover with her friend Sophie towards the beginning of the month.  Here they're dancing along to one of our Wii U Just Dance games.

Behold the Super Nintendo Classic - a miniaturized version of the original SNES, preloaded with 32 games, 1080p resolution, and HDMI and USB compatible.  I'd been keeping an eye on this system since it first dropped over last summer, but with such a short supply available these things had a tendency of selling out in minutes.  They're only available on Ebay and Amazon at an insane mark-up (usually about twice what they're supposed to go for), but I miraculously was able to snag one during my lunch break at school one day during a flash sale, and scored it at its normal price.

Being the ever-industrious fellow that I am, I further upped the system's awesomeness by hacking into the console's operating system and uploading about 150 Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Gameboy Advance games.  Couple hundred classic videogames ready to go on a single, wallet-sized console in my bedroom?  Don't mind if I do. . .

Abby assists Alayna in. . . sooooome sort of science-ish experiment.  That I'm sure irreparably damaged and/or stained something in the house. 

We found this in one of Abby's bathroom drawers, left behind by her slightly-demonic older sister.  When asked about it, Alayna casually explained that she was just 'leaving behind a prank.'  They did that sorta 'prank' in Vietnam, people. 

Abby decorated one of Kris' coffee mugs for Mother's Day.

During one of my school's Spirit Weeks, students got to dress up as one of their teachers.  I had quite a few kids dress up like me (apparently, I wear a lot of grey and black - wasn't aware of that until this month, actually), but this girl colored a pair of white shoes to replicate my pair of Asics I wear to work.  My students jokingly give me hell for having 'horrible shoes' all the time - since they're not, like, Jordans or something - so this was definitely hilarious.

For the last month or two, my riding lawnmower has been acting weird.  At first I attributed this to a weak battery, and after charging it up in the Spring, and letting some Stabil and other fuel crap run its way through the engine,  the mower seemed to work fine.  Then, one day, I started it up and engaged the PTO, and the engine seized up.  Wouldn't turn over at all, despite the battery being fully charged, the fuel tank being full, the oil recently changed, and new spark plugs put in.  I reluctantly called a local specialist to come pick it up, and when he did so he located one small fuse that had blown, and recommended I change that first.  I did so - it cost about 20 cents and took about 6 seconds - and ever since then this thing has run like new.  I'm a f***ing idiot.

Abby's actual birthday fell on, like, a Tuesday this month, so after dinner we let Abby open up one of her birthday gifts from us. . .

She's been asking for light-up 'rollerblades' for about a year now.  We were going to pull the trigger on them at Christmas, but figured her birthday was bound to be more weather-appropriate.

After nearly 14 years of valiant service, Kris and I decided this month to finally put our old couch and loveseat up for sale.  We'd been keeping an eye out for a sale on the sectional we had seen at Godwin's a couple months back, and we finally found one that we couldn't pass up.  I was willing to frickin' give away the couch and loveseat for free (like we did with the matching recliner, about two years ago), but Kris wanted at least a little for it.  In the end, a couple typical college dudes swung by and paid us $50 for both, and hauled away our old fart-ridden, Fezzig-nibbled, kid-colored, dog-soiled memories.  After the set was gone, we had about four days of a near-empty living room (see the available seating in this pic here) before the sectional arrived.)

Unfortunately, when the sectional arrived, one of the reclining pieces was broken, and they forgot one of the inserts.  I was on the verge of calling and cursing someone out, but Godwin's rectified the situation the following morning (replacing the broken piece and bringing the missing one.)  Shown here, all we're missing is the console insert (check it out here) - which will be showing up in early June, thereabouts (they had to back order it.)

One of the reasons we got this particular sectional was the back cushions can't be shoved down like they could on our old couch, which Watson loved because it gave him a comfy seat for his window gazing.  He's pretty pissed at us right now, and sulks in this spot most of the time.

Dad and Cindy swung by our house one weekend, towards the end of the month, to give the girls their birthday presents, seeing how Dad wasn't going to be around for the girls' upcoming combo-birthday party (remember? I talked about this - the trampoline thing.)

The girls are to that age now where they don't really play with toys anymore, and have soooooo much shit already clogging up the basement and their rooms that they don't have much space for anything else.  Dad and Cindy slipped each kid a $50, which, as you can see here, went over rather well.

. . . same goes with these shirts that they threw in, too.

Birthday-ish girls.

Trying out her new light-up skates at the local roller skating rink, Roll Arena.

On an afternoon family bike ride down to the BMX park at Stratford Woods Park. . .

We didn't end up staying too long, though, since there were some pretty ominous storm clouds barreling down towards us.  We stayed about five minutes, then rode the half-mile back to our house, making it just in time before the heavens opened up and all hell broke loose.

The Sunday before Memorial Day, we dropped the girls off at Marcy's and went over to a grill-out at my old high school buddy Trevor's house.  Here's the familiar deck where I practically lived during the Summer of '97.

Meanwhile, hanging out with Grandma Jordan in Clare. . .

Kimmel and Scrunge were supposed to be around, too, but both were forced to cancel at the last minute.  Matt Lee and his girlfriend were in town, though, visiting from San Francisco for the week.

This dude cooked up a ridiculous amount of food - chicken, ribs, potatoes, you name it.

We stayed until the evening, then swung out to pick up the kids from Marcy before heading back to Midland.

The next morning, Kris, the girls, and the city's various Girl Scout troops all marched in the annual Memorial Day Parade.

(Alayna's behind the kid at the right - you can barely make out her head and sunglasses.)

Abby fails to realize this is seriously like the worst time one can possibly drop an American flag. . .

More flowers, this time on the back of the house.  No idea what these are, but I know I hate them for being Farwell colors. . .

- Brian