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

Grandma and Papa John, Pt. I

Picking up tourists from the airport. . .

Welcome back, readers.

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and for we union-loving, baby-sitters, that means a week off of work.

I'm sort of looking forward to this.

Thankskilling. Check it out. It rules.

It also means serious horribleness is about to go down for the Houghs; it always seems to around Turkey Day.  The Hough Family has always suffered from a terrible Thanksgiving Curse, dating back several hundred years when an ancestor of ours had an extramarital affair with a prominent turkey's wife.

I'm pretty sure how all that crap started.

Anyway, this year, we're sharing our time off with my folks - Grandma and Papa John - who flew in from Michigan on Saturday and are staying at Hough Manor until Thursday morning.  They were eager to spend a laid-back week with their granddaughters, relaxing in great weather, etc. etc. . . but holy shit have we ever put these two to work over the last couple of days.

Check it out:

Alayna shows Pinky the Orlando International Airport as we wait in the nearby Cell Phone Lot for Mom and John to clear the baggage claim area . . .

. . . you will be seeing plenty of Pinky over the next couple posts.  Alayna was selected to 'babysit' Pinky for her classroom this week.  I guess each kid in her class gets a week-long turn at home with the soiled stuffed bear.  (I desperately wanted to give this thing a bath in Clorox).

After picking up the grandparents, we bought some Chinese and ate out on the patio. . . (Papa John didn't get much eating done).

Papa John does floor exercises with Abby while Grandma and the Cannonball work on friendship bracelets. . .

Breaking in Papa John's knee. . .

At the end of Pinky's stay with us, we have to document his stay with us with pictures, notes, etc.  (I've had to reel in the inappropriateness like crazy this week. . .)

Pre-coffee interrogations

Fancyin' up Papa John's feet

Primed for a neighborhood constitutional

Wackiness ensues in the Playhouse of Terror

The Cannonball has mastered the Vulcan Death Grip

Pickin' peppers

The fruit trees had been growing out of control long before we even moved in to the house, and while they were bearing more than enough fruit, they weren't growing the right way.  Papa John was fortunately able to swoop in and prune the bejesus out of our fruit trees so that, in a year or two, they will be pumping out even more fruit and growing healthier.

See ya in Hell, conifer.

The Apple Tree meets its maker (. . .which I'm assuming is Johnny Appleseed, but I'm not a fruitologist.)

We also decided it was time to clear out the brush from behind the house, but every time I opened the door to weed-whack, mow, and raze back there, I was accosted by three pit bulls.  Apparently the cool thing to do down here is own pit bulls.  And apparently its really cool to let them roam about the neighborhood without a leash.  Awesome.

Farewell, Pineapple Pear Tree. . .

Grandma stands lookout for ravenous pit bulls. . .

Trimming up the Orange Tree (unfortunately, we had to tear out the Pepper Bush growing underneath it)

They may not look it, but these oranges were ripe.  Who knew.

Picking off fruits and peppers from discarded branches.

Tackling the root system from Hell with the trusty ol' pickaxe.

Kris was at this for about three hours.

Some of the salvaged peppers.  They're spicy, but also have a sweetness to them.  So far I've been using them a lot in eggs.

Consider this foe vanquished.

The Mandorin Tree.  Pruned to shape.

Shaping up the Lemon Bush.

Not sure what type of fruit tree this was.  But it's dead now.

I'll definitely have a lot more room to mow now.

Helping Grandma rake up the aftermath.

Besides laboring in the yard like a couple of field hands, we also employed my folks to help us with a few house projects.  Having someone around that actually knows what they're doing when it comes to house construction definitely comes in handy.

The Living Room has become a war zone.  Next up on the docket:  the Bookcase (stay tuned)

Behold Monster Bush.

This was taken over a month ago, after I trimmed it for over an hour.  This stupid bush fell over sideways, as the previous owner had bound the bottom of the bush with that white, plastic grating, forcing the branches to grow sideways.  This increasingly unbalanced weight caused the bush to eventually break through the grate and crash down onto the ground.

. . . and a few weeks ago, it came into bloom again.  So then we had ourselves a big Purple Monster Bush.

. . . but then Papa John and I went to war with the damn thing.

This probably took a solid 2 - 3 hours, with John and I trimming it back into a somewhat reasonable shape and Grandma and Kris hauling away debris.

It looks a little sparse now, but by Spring it should fill in those holes that we had to create in order to break apart the renegade branches. . .

More to come - stay tuned. . .

- Brian