Randoms from the Month of April

Things have definitely slowed down again around here. . . thank God.  March and early April were absolute insanity, what with the house being being packed up, my parents coming in to town and loading up the truck, our house being listed and the flood of potential buyers that besieged us as a result, multiple family adventures (Clearwater, St. Patrick's Day, etc.), and all of this outside of the usual work/school/piano/girl scouts bullshit.  Only recently, in the last week or two, have things finally calmed down and we can actually have a day off where nothing needs to be taken care of.

It's awesome.

Anyway, here's your monthly installment of Holy Random from the House of Houghs.

Enjoy:

Yes, it's that hot out already.  By the time mid-March rolls around down here, it's time to start swimming in the backyard.

Our backyard grass is beyond help.  I'd care more about this, but. . .  hell, I'm moving soon.

Watson's definitely intrigued by the pool, but has yet to jump in.

Showing the girls - fresh out of their nightly baths - the new Star Wars: Episode VII trailer (featuring a couple of my childhood heroes.)

Checked out a new micro-brewery in Winter Garden with Adam a couple weeks ago called Crooked Can Brewery.  Winter Garden is kind of a yuppy/hipster-ish community (Michigan people, think 'Grand Rapids'), so it was only a matter of time before they built themselves a local brewery (in a brick building, to boot.)

This particular brewery wasn't anything too out of the ordinary - I'm finding a lot of microbreweries start tasting the same after awhile - but their higher ABV IPA wasn't bad (I didn't care for their Stout, my usual go-to beer.)

Adam and I bought a couple flights (seen here) which are nice if you've never tried a brewery's different beers and want a sample of several different ones before committing to a single selection (these here are all about eight-ounce glasses.)  I want to find one of these bi-plane flights - they're awesome.

Found this on one of my students' homework assignments earlier this month.  I get hell from my kids on a regular basis because I refuse to buy/wear tacky Air Jordans (which are insanely popular with today's youth.)

. . . then you find shit like this, and can't help but wonder if this is some kind of a political endorsement.

The Cannonball decides to help 'sell our house.'  Rest assured, we made sure to take this down prior to showing the house.

Yes, that's our kid cramming an ice cream sandwich in her face.

Once again, Alayna got a hold of the Powershot.

This year's harvest was about as big as last year's - hope the new homeowners enjoy peaches.

- Brian

The Houghs Throw an Ad Hoc Garage Sale, and Other Tales

I've been stuck in a portable during FCAT Testing.

How's it going, America?

Well, the school year's starting to slow down a bit as we enter that final gauntlet towards Summer.  It's been a pretty hectic year - not stressful, but busy.

Holy crap has it been busy.

Usually school-related warfare is limited to Yours Truly, but since Alayna's now in kindergarten, we've doubled the load of homework around here. . . which, believe me, sucks.

Setting up shop

We're still three weeks or so away from being able to breathe, and lately our weekends have been packed with social obligations, other kids' birthdays, field trips, girl scouts outings, and tons of other crap that robs me of my sitting-in-the-sun-and-reading-a-book-and-having-a-pipe time.

Time to sell some crap. . .

Like community garage sales, if you will.

Kris and Watson.  Having a blast.

We knew our subdivision hosted an annual garage sale sometime in May, but - for whatever reason - our HOA decided not to advertise said event.  Nor did they bother telling their own residents when this event would be - Kris had to email the director (leader?) of the HOA in order to get an answer.

Turns out it was today.  Hurrah.

We had about four days notice to decide what crap around the house we were willing to get rid of on the fly, which wasn't much time really at all.  That barely gave us time to clear out space in the garage to sort through all of our crap we were willing to part with, and so it was to no surprise that we didn't end up raking in a fortune this time around.  There was barely any traffic to speak of, and from 8am to 11am, when we called it quits, we took in a profit of about $70.

Ka - ching.

$40 of that was the kids' PowerWheel, which we bought for $65 three years prior.  Not bad.  Another $10 was made by selling two really shitty N64 games that I haven't played since I was 15.  The rest was old kids books (because our house is a library and we have mountains of books), some puzzles and games, old toys, and a Brita filter/pitcher that some Indian family spent ten minutes analyzing before buying it for $2.

Clean water is really, really important to some people.

All in all, it was pretty meh day. . . but at least we got some fresh air, I guess.  And we cleared a huge space out of our garage, which was cool.

And I suppose that $70 could buy us a coffee at Starbucks, or a small popcorn the next time we take our kids to the movies.  So there's that.

Here's some other pictures for you.  Enjoy:

Waiting for Dr. Eckert at All-Star Pediatrics (Abby was bit by mosquitos awhile ago and scratched the bites so much that they became infected - hooray)

I had to leave work early to take her to the doctor.  I hate taking time off when a kid's not even that sick.

This looks like Abby's lighting a cigarette (she wasn't.)

Kris helps Alayna finish a project for her class.  She had to make a book review presentation on her favorite book, which - inexplicably - is Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham (which she never reads.)

Gossip time.

Selfies

We knew we had a peach tree in the backyard, but the previous two years we haven't seen much from it in terms of a harvest crop.  This year made up for it.  And then some.

My backyard, somewhat resurrected.  Many hours of sweat and toil went into the weed holocaust that I orchestrated here.

Millions of peaches. . .

Ol' Ma Kris, up in the tree, bringin' in the peach harvest. . .

We're growing so many Goddamn peaches that they're falling on the ground and rotting before we can pick them off the tree.  We try in the evenings, after work, but by then countless dozens have fallen on the ground and been ransacked by insects.  You can imagine how awesome that smells.

Those peaches that do survive and find their way into our kitchen are pretty good, though.

- Brian

April Updates

Yes, I'm fully well aware of the fact that we haven't been updating this thing in some time. . .

This month has been complete and utter madness, and outside of work we haven't really done all that much.  For Yours Truly, it's been the dreaded FCAT and all the prep work and adjustment that goes into that piece of s***.  It's honestly the worst time of year for educators down here, and as such I haven't even had the time to think about posting anything online in weeks.

But, since it's the end of the month now and we haven't thrown up anything in awhile, here's a little of what happened around our homestead in April.

Enjoy.

Lately Alayna's become a big fan of 'curly hair,' and since she inherited the straight hair of her forefathers,  Kris has to tightly braid her hair (while it's wet) before she goes to bed. . .

As you can see, Abby's more than a little jealous about all of this.

Done.

Mustaches are always hilarious.

Finished product. 

When this Daddy comes home from the bar, he brings balloons. . .

My second favorite room in the house.

. . . though it's constantly cluttered up with kids' crap.

Since the PowerWheel's battery has become quasi-dependable lately,  the girls' ride has more or less evolved into a piece of patio furniture.

Some Spring samplers I picked up from Knightly Spirits the other day.  Sam Adams usually delivers a pretty good variety, but all Blue Moon's stuff seems to taste the same. . . I don't know why I keep buying their seasonal varieties.

Hanging out, waiting for their clothes to dry after Abby decided to up and piss into the bin of stuffed animals. . .

Alayna, pretending to be a 'bride.'

SEGA!

The Houghs are now harvesting peaches.

The downside to owning a peach tree, evidently, is that you have to go out and check it nearly every day.  They ripen so fast that if you forget to periodically check the limbs, you find yourself picking up rotten fruit off the ground on a regular basis.

Stowaways found in my briefcase at work. 

The Cannonball has been borderline obsessed with the 1993 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers lately.  It is arguably the worst show ever made in the history of television.  I stand by this statement.

- Brian