Three Quests

Hello Internet.

This weekend was one of those weekends that saw all members of this family scattered to the Four Winds. Friday saw all schools in the area - including mine and the girls' - being cancelled due to insanely cold weather (-20 with wind chill, far too cold for kids to be waiting at bus stops and walking to school.) That afternoon, Kris ventured north to somewhere outside of Gaylord to a friend's family member's cabin on a lake (somewhere) for a low-key Mom Weekend (they've hit up this place before, a few years ago, for one of their not-nearly-as-cool-as-Brocation weekends.) She only took like three pics (she's horrible with pictures), but it more or less had seven or eight wives sitting around in pajamas, doing nails, listening to 90s music, and drinking wine for an entire weekend.

Sounds boring to me, but whatever - happy wife, happy life.

Meanwhile, Abby accompanied her best friend, Ella, and her mom, Courtney, up to Northern Michigan University up in the U.P.'s Marquette (where Courtney and her husband went to college.) Courtney had been wanting to take Ella up there for a hockey game this winter, and decided that this was the weekend to do so. . . regardless of the fact all her friends were away on that Mom weekend, and there was a giant snow storm forecasted to barrel down on the region (which you'll see in the following pics.) They invited Abby along because, as I've said before on multiple occasions, our kids are basically siblings at this point.

That left Alayna and I to hold down the fort here in Midland. She ended up having to work most of the weekend, which was good for her 'cause she's been wanting to recoup some hours after a dry spell over the Holidays which depleted her spending account. Yours Truly, therefore, more or less had the run of the house all weekend, which was f***ing AWESOME. I didn't have any errands or work crap to take care of, so my schedule was wide open to undertake the one, single obligation I had for the next three days. . .

Dungeons and Dragons.

WMU, 2002. Left to Right: Russell, Yours Truly, Adam, Mikey and Zack.

I never got the appeal of this back in the day, I always thought it sounded like nerd crap for dorks (and it still kinda is.) I had some friends get into it back in high school, and I tried it out once back in the late '90s, but it really wasn't for me. Thirty years passed and I didn't think twice about every playing it again, until one day, about a week ago, when an old college buddy (and former roommate/band member) of mine, Zack, texted me and asked if I'd be willing to join him and two other of our friends from Western Michigan University - Russell and Mikey - in a DnD campaign. I asked how he planned on accomplishing this, seeing how I'm in Midland, Russell is in Grand Rapids, and the other two are in the greater Detroit area, and he said they were going to do it all via Zoom and a few different online apps.

So I said 'screw it,' and signed up.

I'll get into the super-nerdy details regarding all of this later when the pics come up, but HOLY SHIT was it ever fun. Had I known how much f***ing fun this was I would have done it years ago, nerdy or not. I'm too old to care about stuff like that anymore.

Anyway, here's some pics and video detailing how the Hough Family spend their three-day weekend, scattered across the snowy state of Michigan.

Behold. . 

Abby and the female Johnsons hit up a Starbucks on their way north Friday afternoon, because no feminine undertaking would be complete without it.

With Kris and Abby already on the road to their respective weekend destinations, Alayna and Samson joined me in the Study to listen to some vinyl and drink some coffee in the Study.

A couple hours later, Abby prepares to cross the frozen straits of Mackinac (hard pass for me, this looks terrifying.)

Castle Rock (I haven't been there since like 2022, I think - that Brocation we did Mackinac Island.)

As Courtney drove further into the Upper Peninsula, the roads got dicier and dicier. Multiple 'highways' (if you can even call them that up there) were closed off and impassable, so she had to take a bunch of alternate ways up in order to reach Marquette. The amount of snowfall up there is absolutely insane; the pics you see here are not hills or rock formations, but drifts of snow.

Carving a path through the wilds of the north.

I used Google Gemini to add an Imperial AT-AT to this random pic Abby took from the window as they continued their drive north. I think it makes it cooler.

That evening, the three of them went out to the Berry Events Center for their scheduled hockey game. . .

(These two often add text to their social media posts like this - must be a Snapchat thing or something.)

Not sure what's going on in these videos, I just took them off Abby's Google Photos. . .

Walking back to the car, a block or two away, after the game, the weather had fallen far below zero (with the wind chill), and Abby spotted a bunch of locals clearly unprepared for the weather. Boys will be boys.

This is, like, the one pic Kris took all weekend (aside from two pics of her friends doing stuff that, to me, wasn't noteworthy at all, but I guess you had to be there in order to understand why the pic was being taken.)

After leaving NMU, Courtney and the girls continued driving west in order to get to her dad's house, where they'd be spending the next day and night. Abby was bundled up for warmth, chilled to the bone after having to walk a couple blocks out in the U.P. cold. She later told us that was the coldest she's ever been in her entire life.

One last selfie of these two weirdos at the end of the night.

The next morning, Courtney and the girls and got up to once again hit the road for a small day excursion up to Houghton/Hancock, halfway up the Keewanaw Peninsula.

Backseat homies.

Meanwhile, back in Midland, Yours Truly had some coffee on the couch while Samson kept watch over the front yard. Ever vigilant.

Later that morning, I hopped on Discord with (clockwise from top left) Russel, Zack and Mikey for the launch of our DnD campaign. All three of these guys - especially Mikey - are well-versed in how this game works, so I was just kinda along for the ride. Russell's setup was badass: we used this in-app rolling bot on Discord for dice rolling (which is how one determines successes and failures in the game - whether you can pick a lock, strike an opponent, decipher ancient texts, etc.), we used another website for maps and character placement, and yet another website for character information in order to keep track of our stats and inventory. Required me to use two different computers, but once all set up it was perfect.

Russell generated AI images of our characters for use on the online maps during gameplay (so we could keep track of where the characters were in relation to everything going on in the game.) My dude is a Rogue, with a Thief specialty, so he's lightly armored and relies on dexterity and stealth; good at picking locks, sneaking around, springing traps, infiltrating, that sorta thing. Can't use magic at all, but make up for it with swordsmanship and shitty one-liners.

Z-Baby's character is a Fighter, so all brawn and zero magic. . . basically Zack in college.

Mikey's character is a Warlock with a noble background, so he's our resident spellcaster - whipping fireballs around all the time.

Russell's the Dungeon Master, so he's the one driving the story, playing the enemies, setting up the maps and organizing everything. He's got like four monitors running during gameplay, using various AI platforms for dialogue and story descriptors - it's pretty impressive. He also is playing a character as well, a half-orc Paladin, which is like a Knight with healing abilities (which comes in handy when the rest of us take crossbow bolts to the shoulder, which happened to my guy in the opening part of our campaign.)

A screenshot of the map screen, which started out with all of us locked up in the bowels of a dungeon. Russell applies a 'fog of war' to the map - see the circles above - that black out parts of the map we haven't gotten to yet, opposed to having everything revealed right from the get go. Makes it more realistic in gameplay, and all of us being able to move characters about the map is super helpful when playing online. We played for about four hours when, due to the frigid temperatures Michigan is experiencing this weekend, the pipes in Russell's washing machine burst and he had water leaking all over his floor. So we scheduled to continue the game the following weekend, and will hopefully be playing on weekends for the foreseeable future. Like I said, this game is beyond nerdy, but incredibly fun. . . and being in my mid-40s now, I'm too old to give a shit about being labeled a nerd for playing it.

Back up in the U.P., Abby and the female Johnsons were driving up the Keewanah Peninsula towards Houghton/Hancock. This is Abby showing off her gas station snacks, which doesn't look ideal for one's stomach, but whatever.

Nap time.

Not sure what all they ended up doing in Houghton while they were there, but they got a couple pics posted in front of the bridge that spans the river dividing the two towns.

I can't imagine driving on those roads in the winter time, when we went up there a few years ago during the summer Kris' van could barely make it up the steep inclines on bone-dry roads. You couldn't pay me enough to live up there during the winter.

Eating dinner. . . somewhere. Ella looks thrilled.

That evening Sophie came over to spend the night with Alayna, and after dropping her off Morgan hung out for a few drinks with me and we listened to some Rat Pack on vinyl while having a couple drinks. Erik, Mitch and Collier were out bar-hopping at dive bars around Pinconning, but the two of us didn't feel quite up to that (we sent this pic to the three of them after getting one of them sitting at some towny bar.)

That evening, Courtney took Abby and Ella to some arcade somewhere, I assume Houghton 'cause there's not a lot to her hometown, which is about the size of Farwell.

She was probably able to buy a pencil topper or silly putty or some shit with all these tickets, arcades are total scams.

Kris and I are seeing Rise Against at the Soaring Eagle Casino on March 14th, the same day we're headed to the Clare Irish Festival (which we'll have to cut short in order to head to Mt. Pleasant.) Tickets were like $92, which I'd have no problem paying for some bands, but not Rise Against (a punk band that I really like, but wouldn't pay that much to see.) Fortunately, Morgan's boss gets a few complimentary tickets to every concert at the Soaring Eagle, and gives them to his employees for free on a first-come basis, so we were able to get them free of charge. Can't complain with a free punk concert.

While chatting on the Sausage Pad text thread later that night, after Morgan had left, someone mentioned our old, inflatable mascot, Suckie Fish, which we acquired from Damon's mom's house at one point (forget how and when.) We would take it with us on all of our group adventures throughout college - Key West, road trips, etc. and they wrongly assumed it was long gone. I sent them this pic of Suckie Fish to assure them otherwise (I hold on to everything, I'm the lore master in every group I'm a part of.)

Abby's social media is filled with videos like this one (as is all her friends' - their generation is weird.)

Later that night, back at Courtney's dad's house, sitting around playing some kinda game.

Yet another video for TikTok, interrupted by Ella's grandpa's dog. Thus concludes another weekend for the Houghs - we'll see you guys next time.

- Brian 

Another Bleak Winter Month

Hey gang.

Kris and Alayna found the dress for her first prom this month. . .

February sucks, no matter which way you look at it. School's boring right now, the weather is abysmal, there's no sun to speak of, there's not much going on. Pretty much the worst possible time of the whole damn year. It's been so damn cold - going on nearly six weeks of temperatures hovering below 25 degrees - and snowy that we haven't gone anywhere outside of work and school. These doldrums don't cease until mid-March, when St. Patrick's Day offers us a rare respite of revelry in an otherwise bleak and mundane existence.

This year, February centered around pom for the first half of the month, and orchestra festivals for the latter. That was literally all we did on the weekends, with a scattering of social get-togethers with the usual suspects thrown in here and there whenever we could swing it (which wasn't much.) We're hoping that next month, with the weather (hopefully) warming up slightly, we'll start doing more fun stuff again.

So yeah, as usual here's your monthly dose of All Things Hough. Enjoy. . .

Hanging out with Lexi for a weeknight study session, towards the beginning of the month.

Later that evening, over at Cristina's house with Rita and Toby.

Had to celebrate Groundhog's Day with this cinematic classic. . .

Alayna whipped up this culinary masterpiece one evening. A cheeseburger with hash browns in place of a traditional bun. Not the healthiest option for dinner, but damn did it ever look good. This is the sorta grub you want to devour at 2am after an entire night out at the bar.

The Cannonball, hard at work in the orchestra room.

Heading in to Lodge for Royal Arch the first Wednesday of the month.

I've been making an effort to attend more monthly meetings lately - I have three each month, for the regular Masonic meeting, Royal Arch, and Commandery - but doing all three is pretty difficult on account of our packed, weekly schedules.

At school, this time of year finds my class learning about Westward Expansion. I always have my students play through the epic classic, Oregon Trail, on their chromebooks as part of the unit, and obviously I have to play through it as well so they can see what a total, Gen X badass I am.

Kris picked up the girls some Dunkin when she was out shopping downstate. Her priorities are straight.

The usual, morning routine in the girls' bathroom. This generally takes a couple hours every day. And of course they rarely fight during the process.

Watson and his beloved pickle (which is holding up insanely well considering he's played with it NON-STOP for months now.)

Samson, hanging out in Alayna's room one day after school.

Abby and the JV Pom team performing at halftime for a boys basketball game.

Kris and I were supposed to go see this Hades Town play at the Midland Center for the Arts with the Larsons, but I got super sick Friday at work and spent most of the weekend on the couch in pure agony. As a result, Mees ended up going as Kris' date.

In the seats, waiting for the show to start.

A few hours later, after the show ended, getting a pic in front of the sign.

The following Monday, after our insane weekend downstate for Abby's States Championship for pom, I was still pretty under the weather (fortunately I had taken the day off of work and spent the entirety of the day in bed.) Alayna and Watson came in at one point to check on me.

Another day on the couch, after work, where I get to hang out and relax for about 45 minutes before turning around and heading out to the gym for a couple hours. Burning the candle at both ends these days. Lots of fun.

We got another snow day a couple days later, and since our neighbors were down in Costa Rica for the week, they asked if we'd mind shoveling their driveway for them. FYI - shoveling two driveways, back to back, is JUST as fun as you'd think it'd be. . .

And in case you were curious, both the girls were still asleep while I was outside doing all of this bullshit. Lazy teenagers.

One of my students got me this for Valentine's Day. 'Milk Chocolate Flavored' doesn't sound very reassuring. . .

Abby and Brooklyn, working hard at school.

I have no idea what the hell this is on her face.

We find a lot of pics like this on Abby's phone. . .

Abby and the pom team held a 'camp' for a bunch of elementary-aged kids so they could learn how to pom. After the hours-long practice, parents got to check out the final performance at the high school.

We've had a lot of frickin' snow these last few weeks. Getting straight-up ridiculous out here.

One day after I was done with the gym, Mitch and Erik told me to meet them out at the local golf simulator, which is in the same strip mall that the Man Cave, Tobacco Shoppe, and Blackball Tattoo is in. I hung out for about an hour while they played through this virtual course, which was absolutely insane to watch. The technology involved in this is hard to wrap your head around: this virtual course is based on a real-life course (somewhere in Canada), and the people who designed it must've walked every square inch of the course with one of those Google Maps 360-degree cameras. Super realistic.

Abby's official pom pics for this season.

The Midland JV Pom Team.

The third week of the month, we had the annual Pom Banquet to attend (this year in the high school cafeteria, opposed to like the Community Center where they used to hold it back when she was on the Northeast team.) When we were walking in we saw the Johnsons pull up in Erik's truck, and they parked like this. We were curious about the parking job until we spotted Ella - who recently completed driver's training - behind the wheel. In her defense, her dad's truck is practically a tank.

After folks ate and they presented the usual player awards, the girls all posed for a team pic with their coaches.

Then - as always - we stood around for about an hour so the girls could get a variety of poses with various teammates, in varying combinations (probably for their Snapgrams, who knows.) Here we have Abigail, Harper, Ella and Abby.

Abby won a couple awards for her work this season, including one for 'Outstanding Execution' (basically she treats every practice like it's competition time.)

Super thrilled her mom asked a for a couple solo pics.

One with the coaches.

Abby, Ella and Harper wanted to recreate a couple of their middle school pics while they were at it. I combined them in PhotoGrid for her.

A fam pic. We're all very, very pale these days.

I feel like I need more bags under my eyes. . .

Abby and one of the varsity pom coaches (their team was also there this evening - the two high school teams combine their banquets, I guess.)

Ella and her requested flowers.

Kris changed the bulbs in our bedroom ceiling fan one evening, later that week, and didn't remember to check out the color tone of the bulbs first. So that was cool.

Abby and Nica. Not photoshopped at all.

This is the image Midland High uses to advertise upcoming MHS Hockey games in all their online 'marketing' (whatever the school equivalent of that would be.) If you look closely, you can see Abby and Nica - who, during hockey season, attend these games religiously (for boy-watching, despite what Abby says about liking the sport itself) - right above the player's head on the left. She's super proud about this.

That Friday night, Kris and I met up with the Johnsons for dinner and drinks at the Boulevard, sans kids (which is always awesome.)

Some old guy at the table next to us - who, based on his demeanor, was probably twelve beers deep by the time we got there - kept buying our table shots.

Courtney and Kris, talking Disney (we're going to Disney World with the Johnsons in June this year.)

(Our waitress photo-bombed us.)

Kris picked up this dog ornament art kit thingy around Christmas, but we never opened it up to try it out. That weekend, as we were sitting around the house bored, we decided to give it a go.

You wet the dog's paw, then press it down into this pre-made clay. Then the clay air-dries over the course of the day and you have an imprint of your dog's paw preserved for all time (or whenever you decide to toss it out.)

Clearly some dogs are better at this than other dogs. . .

Look how much fun Samson is having with this. . .

Yeah, this didn't turn out that awesome. Not sure what we're going to end up doing with this, but I'll be damned if this monstrosity ends up on our living room Christmas Tree. . .

Sunday evening, as we got ready for yet another super-fun week of work and school, Alayna does some homework while Kris and I watch TV on the projector downstairs.

My students like doodling on my classroom Promethean board sometimes. 

Abby and Samson, snuggling on the couch after school one evening.

The Gruesome Twosome, at Midland High later that week.

(I don't know what room this is in, but it looks too big to be a regular classroom.)

Picking up a quick pizza the following Friday, as we were short on time due to the evening's big event: Orchestra Festival.

We were in for a crazy twelve hours. Since Alayna and Abby are in different orchestras this year - Alayna is in Symphony and Abby in Concert - they had different performance times for this year's Festival. Alayna was slotted for 8pm on Friday night, and Abby was slotted for 7:30am (seriously) on Saturday morning. About as shitty of a schedule as you could hope for, really.

Alayna, Abby and Ella in the van.

The MHS Symphony Orchestra, shortly before performing (we weren't allowed to take any pics or video of the actual performances, which is pretty typical for Festivals, so my apologies for the lack of songs, folks.)

This year's Festival was at Bay City Western High School, in Auburn, which was only like a ten-minute drive from our house (thank God.) We awaited the orchestra's scores in the cafeteria, and they thankfully got the scores out within ten minutes or so. You can see Alayna's blood-shot eyes in this pic - she broke multiple blood vessels in her eyes (and eye-lids) when she woke up violently puking in her bedroom a few weeks ago. Took a long, long time for that to heal.

The kids swarm the board. Symphony ended up scoring perfect 1's across the board - couldn't ask for better.

The Cannonball with Lexi and Amelia.

Posing with Mammassian.

Abby the pack mule, hanging on to her sister's stuff.

Heading home after the Festival.

At the end of the night, watching TV and psyching ourselves up for our early, early waked up tomorrow morning. Watson had the audacity to try and grab Alayna's pizza out of her hand. He's gotten to that age - almost 12 - where he just gives zero f***s anymore. Which is kinda awesome. See ya next month, kiddies.

- Brian