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

Kitchen Overhaul

Hey gang.

Kris has been unemployed for nigh on two months with maternity leave, and I have been working part time teaching Summer Grade Recovery at my school (in order to round up some extra cash for unnecessary purchases). With all this not-working going on, you'd think we'd be a lit more motivated to get stuff done around the house.

Not so much.

Maybe its our bipolar 'Terrible Twos' Toddler throwing toys about like Godzilla and screaming for God knows why, maybe its the bottomless pit that is our immobile new addition, who knows... but we cannot get shit done around this place.

Seriously.

It wasn't until we flew my folks in that we were able to get progress rolling with our Summer Agenda. With their assistance, remodeling continues in the Fortress of Houghitude.

Next up: the Eatery (or 'Digestion Nook').

Our kitchen, while spacious enough, used to look nasty. See for yourself.

Pretty gross, right? Granted, a lot of this has to do with the fact that most of our appliances date to the late '80s/early '90s (no, seriously), when Yours Truly was busy flipping up blue jean jacket collars and picking his nose to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Alas, most of our kitchen's eww-ishness stems not from crappy old appliances, but instead from our fugly, fugly kitchen cabinets.


They have disgusted us since we moved in, and, over the course of the last four or five months, we have brough up restaining or painting them at least once a week. So, when my mom and stepdad flew down to hang out with the grandgirls and help remodel various parts of the house (see The Library(ish) Room), we figured we'd make good on something that was long overdue.


I didn't think repainting the entire kitchen was feasible. These cupboards were nasty. Besides, I was preoccupied with grad school and Summer School, and - quite honestly - didn't feel like spending my free time painting a kitchen. Kris, however, was adamant about getting this done.


So, while I taught Summer School, and John was occupied with the Library and various other projects around the house, Mom and Kris went to war with the kitchen.


This is what they accomplished:







Hooray for women in the kitchen.

- Brian