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

Papa, Nana and Sandy

Our patio room - recently 'mega-lit.'

I'm sure you guys already know this, but the Houghs don't really have a whole lot of family down here in Florida.  None, actually.  So whenever we get the chance to import relatives, we're always pretty pumped up about it.

This weekend, Dad and Cindy flew down to spend the pre-Halloween warm-up weekend with the grandkids (and us, I suppose).  We plan on rounding up some pumpkins later, but here's a little of what we've been up to thus far - enjoy:

Flashy, personalized hand bags/trick-or-treat bags, courtesy of Nana.

Papa admires Abby's fancy headgear.

New My Little Ponies = crack for preschoolers.

"GOLDFISH"

Heroes (at right) and Redneck, White-Trash Villains (at left)

Abby marks her territory on the living room floor. . .

Ukulele lessons with Yours Truly

The Cannonball can play a C chord well enough.  Abby's doing well if she manages to hold it the right way.

 

Papa and girls

A Tea Party (. . .that doesn't make you want to off yourself with a shotgun)

Yet another Lemon harvest. . .

Diva parade.

Checking out the scrapbook Cindy made for Abby. . .

Nana taking the girls for a stroll through the 'hood

Peering into the Study

The Cannonball in front of Monster Bush

Photo courtesy of Alayna

Photo courtesy of Alayna

Photo courtesy of Alayna

Photo courtesy of Alayna

Duelin' cameras

Not sure what's going on in the foreground here, but is that blood on that chick's coat (on the TV)?

 

This is a pretty standard afternoon in our house these days. . .

Watching Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure.  Like a bunch of gangsters.

(Papa was really trying to follow the plot line)

We walked the girls down to the park later on in the afternoon.  The playground equipment sucks, but it's only a block away from the house so we said 'screw it.'

Swingers.

Alayna recently figured out how to swing, so now she's a big fan of it.  Before you couldn't even sit her down in a swing without her throwing a major bitch fit.

Abby still doesn't know what she's doing, but she's still a big fan of being pushed.

Damn it.

Papa gets kicked off the playground.

Hurricane Sandy is beating the bejesus out of the East Coast, but all we got out of the deal was some bad winds. . . which I'll take any day over flooding, gas rationing, and power outages.

Abby fancies herself some tunnel slides.  Mucho.

Abby about to push Alayna down from the top of the slide. . .

Shoulder rides on the walk home. . .

We never had a formal 'couple-in-front-of-their-first-home' picture, so this is the best we could come up with.

This captures our kids' personalities perfectly.

After the park excursion, we (the girls) began whipping up some Halloween cookies (Yours Truly was too busy playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.)

Kris shows off the Hough Family Rolling Pin

Sugar!

Abby brings in another citrus harvest (this time off the tangerine tree)

I don't know what the hell this is, but it's blooming.

Watching another Hough Girls 'stage' production on the shed steps. . .

The Lemon Tree

The Orange/Red Pepper Tree/Bush

These things are awesome - a little spicy, but also sweet.  Only thing that sucks is that they're about the size of a popped kernel of popcorn. 

The Tangerine and Pear Trees

Taking the Stage

Hugs

Discussing the current human rights situation in Syria and what it means to the politico-social integrity of the Middle East

Hough gals

Decorating Halloween cookies eating frosting.

Adult supervision required

Kristina's. . . witch?

Every Halloween cookie batch needs a sad manatee cookie.  Right, fellas?

Halloween Cookies - finito!

Dad and Cindy were nice enough to take all of us bums out to Azteca de Oro - a really awesome Mexican restaurant across the street from our subdivision - for dinner. . .

(. . .of course, having a few preschoolers in tow isn't necessarily the sort of ingredient one would want to throw in when planning a 'nice dinner out.)'

Trying to capture the Cannonball's attention span

Daddy's 'coffee.'

Go go gadget. . . GADGETS!

Watching Yo Gabba Gabba on Papa's iPhone

Sunset over Ginger Mill

(my Escalade is in the shop)

More to come tomorrow - stay tuned. . .

- Brian