To the Victors Go the Spoils, or How Christmas Came Early to the Houghs

HAPPY FUCKING CHRISTMAS, INTERNET !!!

The Houghs just got PAID.

So remember a month or so ago when the Rain God - whom I must've blasphemed against at some point in time, I don't know - decided to Old Testament-style smite us while we were camping with our group of friends at a Jellystone Campground over in Silverlake?  How my MacBook Pro, SLR and multiple lenses, and several other pricey electronics and miscellaneous items were destroyed in muddy water?  Remember all of that?

Well, the insurance company FINALLY paid up.

The entire process took a little too long for my liking, personally, but hey - that's insurance.  I'm sure they like getting money from their 'customers' rather than paying it back out when it's needed.  We filed our claim after being transferred back and forth between a few different representatives, and told them how the water damage had occurred (how the water came at our tent sideways and was unavoidable, seeing how fast it had come on, and how it hadn't flooded from underneath the tent.) 

Both Kris and I wanted to be 100% honest with them with regards to what was lost - we didn't overstate anything, only looking to replace the value of the items actually lost, that's it - and so we filed our claim and awaited their response.  A couple weeks later, they sent a team of guys out to our house to 'inspect' and 'test' our destroyed items.  They took apart my MacBook Pro, which I've owned since 2009, and - I kid you not - there was mud and even a little water still inside of it, all over the circuit boards.  They tested the SLR - a t4i - and its shutter release, even when switched to 'off,' would fire non-stop.  They tested the lenses, and saw that those were toast as well.  When all was said and done, they verified our initial claim:  everything was a total loss.

A couple more weeks went by, and we hadn't heard anything, so Kris began to call the company.  She'd get the run-around from different reps, saying she'd have to verify this or that with Mr. or Mrs. Random Person in such-and-such a department.  A bunch of red tape, basically.  Fortunately, we happen to live a few houses down from an insurance agent from the very same company, so we had them go over these folks' heads and start asking other people questions.  Within a day we had verification that a check had been cut for us and was in the mail, headed our way.

Definitely helps to know someone in the industry, folks.

We had initially been told that we would have to pay $1,000 out of pocket for our deductible, and that we'd have to make all of the purchases out of our own pockets and that they would reimburse us for the expenses.  This was less than ideal, obviously, but we were willing to take it if it meant recuperating those initial losses.  You can imagine our elation, therefore, when we realized we wouldn't have to pay back any deductible, and we wouldn't have to pay a cent out of pocket - they simply cut us a check for the amount of items that were destroyed.

So, basically, we just got to go shopping.  I want to talk with you about the two big-ticket items that were replaced, if only so I can nerd out a bit, here.

1.  The Canon 77D

I replaced my old SLR - the Canon T4i - with a model that was a few grades or so higher, seeing how the amount the new one cost was equal to what I paid for my old one in 2013 (remember?) After much deliberation, I went with the Canon 77D, which is a quasi-pro, middle-tier SLR that has more professional-grade features to it (which I'm going to have to spend a lot of time figuring out.)

The settings are far more advanced than my old camera's were (the t4 series was a step up from their entry-level SLR, so it was pretty easy to use), but I can definitely get some quality shots with them.

2. The iMac

Having a Chromebook laptop already (which I use religiously for work and around the house just browsing the Internet, and which I'm actually using right now), I didn't really need to spend the high-price of replacing my old MacBook Pro.  Why pay extra for the portability aspect of a second laptop?  For the same price, I could pack far more RAM, memory, storage, graphics, and processing power into a desktop model and keep it down in my office (known around these parts as the Captain's Quarters.)

Therefore, I pulled the trigger on a suped-up iMac (I selected higher specs across the board so it'd be a frickin' workhorse.)  She's gorgeous, and suits my needs perfectly as a graphic design computer (I wanted an Apple for my graphic design work - Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. - as well as my movie-editing and Garageband side-projects.)

We replaced several other items, but I won't bore you any more with the details - I doubt any of you honestly care all that much anyway - but hell, I'm excited.  What, at the time of the storm, seemed to be the End of All Things, turned out to be a Blessing in Disguise.  Sure, we had to go a month without my trusty camera and computer, but after that period of time I was able to seriously upgraded both, free of charge.

If that isn't proof of Divine Providence, hell - I don't know what is.

- Brian

March: The Beginning of Spri- NOPE, Still Winter.

Hi, America.

I'm so pissed off I can't see straight.

This has been the longest, most drawn-out winter - maybe not as ferocious as last year's in terms of snowfall, but definitely colder.  We've had a sprinkling of days over 45 degrees, but mostly Winter temps, regardless of The Beginning of Spring, St. Patrick's Day, and now, tomorrow, frickin' Easter.  We're still hovering in the mid-30s, for the rest of the foreseeable future.

I'm sure Republicans point to weather like this and use it to deny climate change.

F***ing Michigan.

Anyway, we did quite a bit in March, it seems - the month definitely went by fast.  Now if only the rest of the school year can go as fast, we'll be all set.

Enjoy.

Alayna gets some pet-cuddlin' in with Kris' Grandma's dog while we were over at her place helping her pack up her stuff for her upcoming move to Arkansas. . . or Arizona.  One of the 'A' states.

Revenge of the Nerds.

The Cannonball gave me a totally rad hand tat.  Let's hope they live up to her expectations in the fall.

Abby and her BFF Larkin at the Chestnut Hill Elementary Carnival

We had the Whites, Dad, and Chris' family over for pizza one Saturday, seeing how we hadn't seen people in awhile.  The Whites hadn't seen Chris' boys yet, and we had been meaning to get together with them for awhile.

Babies are a lot cooler than kids that run around screaming and getting into trouble, which is where we're at these days.

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a land line through Vonage so that the girls had access to a phone at home.  Vonage is an Internet phone service, and utilizes an adapter box that connects directly to your router in order to create a phone 'signal.'  Unfortunately, running this new phone signal our house's existing phone wiring wasn't making the house's jacks 'hot,' so to speak, so I had to get creative.  We wanted the main phone hub in the Study, upstairs, so I had to break out some power tools in order to make that happen.  I first drilled a hole in order to run the phone line from the router in the main basement area through a wall into the laundry room, then ran it up above the drop ceiling panels.  This phone cord was then run the length of the basement, through another wall, and up through a vent (the patch of light you see here is the bathroom part of the laundry room, a floor below.)  A lot of wiring, but all out of sight (Kris was adamant about no wires being visible - mission accomplished.)

I then had to cut some of the drywall back in order to allow the phone cord to fit with the air vent in place.  Not the cleanest cut, but you barely notice it with the vent in place.

Hooked up and operational.  Now with the hub established, we were able to activate our satellite phones throughout the house and - voila - we have ourselves a working land line.  I even ran a separate line throughout the basement in order to power four more phones downstairs (not that we need four phones in the basement, but I inherited a few vintage phones from Granny when she passed, and I always wanted to hook them up to a working phone line, so now there's two working phones in the Captain's Quarters.  Booya.

Kris goes to Ulta a lot (I think it's a make-up store. . .?), and she's recently introduced the girls to it.  Needless to say, they're both fanatical converts now.

Seriously.  This is the kind of stuff that happens when Yours Truly is away with the guys (this was taken while I was brewery-touring with the Sausage Pad in Kalamazoo.)

Breaking out some quality 2004-era video gaming with the offspring:  Star Wars Battlefront II for the PS2.  

Graphically it's comically out-dated, but the gameplay still holds up.  The girls had fun with it, especially our resident Star Wars aficionado, Abby.

No idea - Kris took this one.

A rare glimpse of the Cannonball actually doing her homework.

Another round of Trivial Pursuit.  We have a running protocol in this house that I'm the only member of the family that has to use the more-challenging Adult question cards:  Kris and the girls get to use the Kid question cards.

The night before St. Patrick's Day, me and a bunch of the husbands of Kris' group of Girl Scout/PTO/workout moms she regularly hangs out with all went out for a few drinks, bar-hopping between Diamond Jim's, Whichcraft, and Oscar's in downtown Midland.  While at Whichcraft, I was able to get my hands on Founders' KBS Stout: a barrel-aged bourbon stout that's one of the highest-rated and celebrated beers you can find - it's incredible (if not ridiculously potent.)

Pool at Oscar's, towards the end of the night.

Alayna had to create a diorama about a Native American tribe for her class, and was assigned the Chippewa.  Thankfully, her old man still had a bunch of old Playmobil figures lying around.

100% historically accurate.

Earlier in the month, I decided to pull the trigger and have my old MacBook Pro sent out for servicing.  I bought this thing back in 2009, and the last three years or so it's been basically unusable:  it runs ridiculously slow, and so iTunes and iPhoto - honestly the only two programs I use it for - take forever to load (if they do at all.)  I briefly contemplated buying a new MacBook, but they're over $1300, and they're definitely NOT worth that much - I can't justify spending that much on a computer that's nowhere near as good as my current model.  Now, my dad offered an alternative:  he had recently sent in my step-mom's Macbook Pro, which was basically as old as mine, to a company called Tyrosys, out of Texas, and recommended I do the same.  Tyrosys revives old computers - updating RAM and operating systems, installing different drives, fine-tuning hardware etc. - thereby allowing me to keep my existing computer, at about half the cost of replacing it entirely.  They sent me a custom-fitted box, charged me about $500, and about two weeks later I had basically a brand-new laptop.  I couldn't recommend this place enough.

Kris had lost the Blu-Ray player remote, and for two weeks we tore apart the house looking for it.  Then, one day, she decided to paint her nails.  I hate wives.

Yoga session with Larkin.

Celebrating Grandpa Chinery's birthday over at Mom's house, one Sunday.

Baby juggling (Jeff's family was over at Annie's parents' house, so things weren't as chaotic as they could've been.)

During Spring Break.  Abby had consumed a ridiculous amount of Easter candy one day, and had vomited throughout the morning as a result.  She built an impromptu fort in the basement in an effort to quarantine herself from her family.  I found this quite considerate of her.

More roommate selfies. . .

There's this evening track activity in Midland called Fleet Feet:  a bunch of Kris' mom friends have their kids enrolled in it (like the girls' friend, Sophie, at center), so Kris wanted to see if the girls wanted to try it out as a Spring activity.  It's basically just running around a track at Northwood University, on the others side of town, twice a week, so we figured we'd give it a shot.  Alayna - as you can see here - wasn't a big fan of it.

Alayna liked hanging out with her friends, and drinking water from her sports bottle (according to her), but she didn't like the actual running part of it.  Since that's the whole frickin' point of the damn thing, we let her opt out of the activity.

Abby, too, decided against it.  Although more athletic and sports-oriented than her older sister, she found running around the track 'boring' and 'tiring.'  Honestly, she kinda has a point.

A recent Radio Wasteland haul.  I traded in an old copy of Led Zeppelin I I didn't need anymore (I recently bought a deluxe, remastered 3-LP of it, which is totally badass), and was able to pick up six vintage LPs at NO COST.  Some of these are 2-LP releases, too, and Jim even threw in some free Discogs and Third Man Records stickers and pins.  Not bad for a record-shipping trip.

Found the girls a cool little rocking chair for $5 at a local thrift store.  March was a good month for vintage shopping, let me tell ya.

On a rare above-40s weekend, towards the end of the month, Kris and I spent quite a bit of time in the yard, cleaning out the garden beds and preparing our yard for the Spring.  Now that we're home-owners again, we're taking every, necessary  precaution so that our property doesn't end up looking like a hobo's asshole.

While I cleared the yard of debris, Kris pulled up dead shrubs and plants from the beds.  We're going to have to drop some serious money into mulch and river rock this Spring, for sure - our beds are in desperate need of revitalizing.

We also need to look into fixing up this wooden bridge - it's covered in green crap and looks absolutely disgusting.

Abby lends a hand with. . . something.  Who knows.

One Sunday, Kris and I took the girls out with us Estate Sale shopping.  We scored a ridiculous amount of awesome books at one place (where you got to fill a bag of books for $5), along with a few pairs of brand new shoes for Kris and some random crap for the girls.  Kris was gunning for stuff that she could distress and use as decor for the house ('cause Pinterest), but didn't find much she was interested in.  At one house, they had this really, really creepy pool in their backyard.  Like something out of the '50s. . . or a horror movie.

This record cleaner got a lot of use over Spring Break. . .

Tragedy struck towards the end of the month:  my Pioneer receiver began cutting in and out while using my turntable, so I was finally forced to bite the bullet and drop some money on replacing my far-nicer Denon receiver.  I had been putting this move off for years because a.) I had a receiver that worked just fine (the Pioneer), and b.) it was next to impossible finding a qualified person to fix a vintage receiver.  Recently, while record hunting at Radio Wasteland, I learned of a guy here in town that fixed vintage stereo equipment out of his home, so with the sudden death of the Pioneer, I finally pulled the trigger and dropped off the Denon for repairs.  The repair dude said it'd take some time to fix, due to the fact that he was extremely busy with other repairs and there were a few receivers lined up ahead of mine on his to-fix list, but I wanted to get the order in as quickly as possible:  it's going to be a long, looooong record-less month ahead.  Pray for me.

A girl-requested glam pic.  'Cause why not.

- Brian