Month of Caesar

What's up, Internet.

July was a busy, busy time around these parts.  Every weekend saw the Houghs out and about adventuring around the state, while the weekdays saw Kris at work and Yours Truly, kids, and dogs hanging around the house, packing for the next trip on the docket and attempting to keep the house (and yard) in working order.

The last day of our trip up into the Upper Peninsula, as we left the greater Marquette area and started our looooong descent back out of the wilds of the North towards Civilization, Kris made it a point to stop over at a Dunkin Donuts so she could grab herself - and the girls, who now fully appreciate iced coffees - some drinks and treats.  Happy wife, happy life, folks.

The Gateway to Civilization.  But seriously - f*** this bridge.

The same evening we rolled back into town, the guys were all heading out to the Dow Diamond for an exclusive Dad hangout.  Mitch picked me up and we met up with the rest of the crew downtown at Decker's.

Erik and Morgan had won a private viewing box at some charity auction back in 2019, but hadn't been able to capitalize on it yet (thanks again, Pandemic.)  It was high time we all take advantage of their spoils.

Mitch and Morgan

This was about the only time any of us actually watched the game.

Front Row, L to R:  Erik, Omkar, Tom and Ryan.  Back Row, L to R:  Mitch, some devilishly handsome fellow, and Morgan.

It was 'Comic Book Night' at Dow Diamond, so they had everything comic book-themed.  People walking around dressed up like comic book characters, playing theme music from various movies and TV shows, and showing stuff like this on the scoreboard.

We took this picture in the neighboring box, which belonged to Northwood University, so that we could send it to Lonnie, one of the dads in our crew who couldn't make it out this time around, and who coaches basketball at the school.

First poor choice of the evening.  The bar was low on decent booze, so someone ordered shots of Jack Daniels, which - I'll tell ya, folks - goes down like unleaded gasoline.

Erik meets some locals out in the wild.

A glorious mullet out about town.

(No, we didn't know who this guy was.)

Ryan and Morgan

After the game, while the game's fireworks were shooting off, we decided to head over to the 702 Bar - a former dive that has developed a large, outdoor seating area during the Age of Covid.

They had a band playing and everything, doing covers, and they were surprisingly pretty damn good.

I absolutely love people-watching. . .

Enjoying some of my recently acquired Ore Dock ale - Bramble on the Rose.  This growler kept that beer fresh and carbonated for an entire week - worth every penny.

Kris' bottle of wine - and souvenir glass - that she bought in Munising 

Now that Alayna is 13, she qualified for her Covid vaccine.  Now Bill Gates has a microchip in her.

Kris bought me these Picture Disc frames for my birthday, which I had been wanting for my two souvenir records that I bought on our Florida Vacation two years ago.  Like I said before, these babies feature the soundtrack, sounds, and scores for each ride (my two personal favorites) - in their entirety - on one side, while showcasing various stand-alone songs, sound effects, segments, and supplemental music from the rides on the other.  Since both of these albums are available on Amazon Music anyway, and I bought them for display purposes anyway, I wanted to frame them.  The quality of these frames - aesthetically and material-wise - more than makes up for the high price tag.  I figure we'll hang these up somewhere in the Den at some point this summer.

Yet another Mom Night Out.  The only missing I think is Courtney. . . unless she's the one taking the picture, I don't know.

One day, Abby and Ella wanted to go to the local community pool down at Plymouth Park, but they didn't have any money and I didn't have any cash on me.  I said they should attempt earning the money themselves, so they asked if they could make a lemonade/brownie stand.  I was fine with this, as it gave them something to do and would get them out of my hair for awhile.

I had no expectations of them making any decent money doing this, and expected them to make $5 or so, thereabouts.  But they were gung-ho about the prospect.

Hustlin'

They were out there for a mere two hours and, no joke, pulled in a whopping $52.  Un-frickin'-believable.

As you know, I'm somewhat of a Christmas enthusiast, and get overly-excited about Hallmark Ornaments.  I check early in the summer for scheduled releases, and saw this baby being released on July 10 at midnight.  Last year I bought the same ornament, only it was the original NES console, so I knew the quality of this next one (in what I assume is the second in an ongoing series of videogame consoles) would be stellar.  The same night I was out with the dads at the 702 Bar (detailed previously), I pulled the trigger the second it went on sale, and had it shipped to my local Hallmark Store in the Midland Mall.

Sooooo happy with this purchase.  I'm assuming next year they'll release a Sega Genesis or Nintendo 64 - either of those would be logical choices if they're going in chronological order of consoles.

One of my summer projects this year was to sift out the dirt in our rock beds surrounding the house.  My buddy Ryan let me borrow his rock sifter - he had undertaken this project last summer - and, now that I had some free time where the weather wasn't too unbearably hot (or rainy, as was the case in most of June), I set to work.  It was back-breaking work, and took forever.  I enjoyed none of it.

This butterfly sat on our back screen door for hours before Abby finally decided to pick it up and see if it was still alive.

It was, and didn't appear hurt or anything, just super chill.  After awhile of carrying it around the house, I had her release outdoors and it flew away.  Totally weird.

Kris and Samson, catching some Z's on the couch one afternoon.

Abby had a low-grade fever one day, and Samson offered some snuggle support.  He's a big fan of sleeping on the couch, just like Watson.

Saving the cushions during a monsoon.

After work one Friday, the Inner Circle hung out over at the Johnson's place for some driveway hanging out (and cornhole, obviously.)

The following night, keeping it chill in the backyard with some Head Bandz.

This was a first for me, spotting an electric car plug-in here in town - this one at my favorite local beer store, Cork and Ale.

And, in closing, a side-by-side I made up after coming across a picture of my Dad when he turned 40 (while looking through family pictures up at Eight Point, earlier in the month.)  The pic of me is when I turned 40, last year.  I think I've aged like fine wine, obviously.  At least I'm not sporting a Cosby sweater.

- Brian

Randoms from the Month of Brian

Hi readers.

The epoch of summer, the Month of Brian, being formerly attribute to the late Gaius Julius Caesar, seventh month of the Gregorian Calendar, was a hodge-podge mix of calendar-clogging social obligations, family obligations, work obligations, house obligations, and days-long stretches of. . . well. . . absolutely nothing.  So goes the month of July in the annals of all things Hough.

Kinda like the months of October and December, where every weekend is jam-packed with a ton of shit going on, but then, during the week, we don't do anything but go to work/school and otherwise sit on our butts.

July, of course, has much better weather than the previous two, so it's got that going for it.

As you know, we moved into our dream home a month ago, so this summer - despite its ridiculous amount of previously-discussed obligations - was devoted to settling in, painting, unpacking, and picking up new home decor, yard tools, and other probably-unnecessary items for the new house.  This month's installment of Holy Randomness, therefore, is exceptionally random in nature.

Ye be warned.

The Study, first day of July.  Coming along quite handsomely, if I don't say so myself.

Kris had to work on my birthday (which fell on a Wednesday this year), so I was forced to take the girls with me when I decided to treat myself to an outing to my favorite local record store, Radio Wasteland.   I spent waaaay too long in this store - probably an hour and a half - taking my time perusing through each section of the store, so I let the girls play on my phone to keep them occupied and buy me as much time as humanly possible.  Here's a video of them playing Heads Up! on my phone (a charades game that takes automatic videos during gameplay.)

A modest $20 birthday haul, but these are all pretty sweet albums. . . and all in VG+/NM- condition.  Can't complain.

Dad and Cindy invited us up to Clare one weekend to hang out and enjoy their pool, which, obviously, is something we never say 'no' to.

Gorgeous weather for it, too.

Jeff, Annie and their brood showed up a little later in the afternoon. . . by which point in time the pool was thoroughly trashed with kids toys.

Nana and Abby.

Owen and Papa

Hanging out with Baby Levi in the shade

Our girls have to brush the bejesus out of their hair after swimming, or else it turns into nappy, bird nests.

At a work conference downstate, I got to hang out in a hotel room on my own for three or four days.  Needless to say, I don't know how to buy myself groceries without my wife around.

Remember when hotel rooms only came stocked with crappy, little 4 oz coffee makers?  I'm embracing the change.

When this nerd travels, you best believe he packs his Command Center. . .

I wish my bedroom at home looked like this. . .

So, our house was more or less perfect upon moving in, but that's not to say that there weren't a few things lying around that got under our skin.  The house's previous owners were obsessed with baseball, and stickers (yes, stickers.)  All the ceiling vents, any unfinished exposed metal, etc. - you better believe it was slathered in stickers.  And, to top it off, there were even a few giant wall decals to boot.  While most of these large decals were in the garage, and easily covered by posters or tool equipment, there's one in the basement (shown here) that is basically uncoverable.  You can't tell from the picture, but it's literally in the top right corner of the wall - we can't cover it with anything because it'd look stupid being so high up in the corner.  We can't tear it off because it'll rip off the paint along with it.  So, more or less, we're stuck with this decal on our wall until we decide to repaint the entire sidewall of the basement.  GO LOONS.

The Captain's Quarters, more or less finished for the time being.  I ran all the mood lighting into a light switch that's controlled by a remote, so I can alternate between the bright fluorescent shop lights and the Christmas lights/antique lamp lighting at the drop of a hat.  Because priorities.

I have so many swords and walking sticks now I don't have anywhere to display them, so they're hanging out here in this 'weapons rack' for the time being.

Don't kid yourself, America - you wish you had this room in your house.

One day about half-way through the month, while Kris was once again at work and I was once again left in charge of keeping the kids out of trouble, I took the girls out to Big Boy for lunch, as they had expressed interest in going one time as we drove down Saginaw Road.

These kids love pop.  (We're those parents that never give our kids pop.)

Abby tries a cheeseburger for the first time, and fortunately found it worthy of her time.

Obligatory post-lunch ice cream sundae.  'Cause that's how dads roll.

This is what the girls' playroom looks like on any given day of the summer.  Feel free to stop by and impale your foot on a Lego piece or Playmobil accessory, folks.

BFF playdates with Abby and Alayna's respective besties, Larkin and Madi.

Running errands out at Gilroy's Got It in the Do It Center over on Ashman and Cambridge.  The girls and I perused these Adirondack (or however the hell you spell that) chairs for awhile, but decided to hold off until we knew which color of chair wouldn't get us in trouble with the Warden.

Spent a decent chunk of change on a Persian-esque rug for the Study, but - damn it - I've been questing after this dream room of mine for years, so I'm not sparing any expense.

Got Granny and Grandpa's ukes hung up finally.

Wouldn't be a true summer without the girls trying to con the neighborhood into drinking their shitty lemonade. . .

We got some solid use out of this fire pit this month.  We're all big fans of this $100 investment, for sure.

A shot of the Captain's Quarters in the alternate, fluorescent shop-lighting.

The Living Room, coming along.

Another shot of the Study

This kid's going to be a handful in about six or seven years. . .

- Brian