June (Besides the Other Stuff)

What's up, America.

Well, as you've all seen so far, this month has been pretty crazy.  Wrapping up the School Year dominates the first part of the month - the girls and i all have blinders on until the year wraps up - and after the dust settled from running that gauntlet, we went in to scramble mode to prepare for the highlight of the month (if not summer):  our Vacation to Florida.

As you know, we spent nine days down there, so by the time we were done with that we only had a week or so left in the month.  Honestly when all's said and done, we didn't really do a whole hell of a lot in our down time this month. . . mainly because we didn't really have any downtime.

And so, with that, I will leave you know with some pics (and video) of some of the remaining, random stuff that happened to the Houghs in the month of June.

Enjoy.

This is what happens when dad and the girls go grocery shopping unattended.  You can imagine how thrilled Kris was with this haul.

At the close of another school year.  After dismissing my students for the last time, and packing up the room as best as possible, I hit the lights off for the last time and got the hell out of dodge.

I usually let my kids graffiti my white board on the last day.  I'm sure the custodians love cleaning up this crap every summer.

The rest of my Social Studies Department showed their appreciation for me after I spent the entirety of the school year lesson planning on all their classes - presentations, edited videos, planned assessments, handouts, lesson pacing, you name it - by presenting me with a hefty gift certificate for Cork and Ale (my favorite liquor/beer store.)  They know me well.

Abby's new favorite past-time is destroying her glasses.  We're a big fan of dropping these off to the optometrist every other week to have them fixed.  We're NEVER buying her wire frames again. . .

Breaking out the cornhole boards for the first time this summer.  The boards themselves - which are gorgeous, by the way - are perfect, but our bags (despite being regulation) are heavy as hell and not broken in at all, so they're difficult to throw and they bounce off the boards easy.  We're definitely going to need to break these suckers in this summer. 

(The girls are slowly improving.)

Arguably the best purchase I've made in a long, long time, I picked up this GoPro for our Florida trip, and it definitely came in handy for all the water stuff we did.  It came with a shit-load of accessories, which I rarely use and can't figure out how to work.

While visiting her mom one weekend (to deliver a pet cat for her. . . seriously), Kris was rear-ended in Clare by a deaf guy.  You can't make this shit up.  Instead of reporting the incident to our insurance provider, Kris had her best friend Kim's husband, Matt, pop the dent out (he works on cars, fortunately, and was able to touch it up to the point where you wouldn't be able to tell there had been any issue in the first place.)

Every Thursday in the first half of the the summer, the City of Midland hosts Tunes By the Tridge:  they have multiple food trucks, kiosks, activities for kids, and - of course - live music.  You just bring a cooler, a camping chair, and some sunscreen and spend a few hours hanging out down by the river.  Not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening.

Ella, Sophie and Abby were called up to the stage (along with a bunch of other kids) during a song to do some dancing (if you could call it that.)

While the wives and kids hung out down by the river, the Dads all ventured up to Main Street periodically to stock up on drinks (most of the bars downtown in The Commons allow you to order 'drinks to go,' which is handy.)

Erik and Morgan, waiting for the other dads to grab their orders.

Setting back off towards the river.

Our route to and from The Commons to the riverside always took us past the 'secret' entrance to me and Erik's lodge, which we always enjoy pointing out to our non-Mason buddies.

A little while later, getting another round of drinks on Main Street.

The Moms.

Packing up at the close of the evening. . .

The music was still going, but we wanted to beat the traffic out of there.

Kids were exhausted, too.

In preparation for this year's ridiculously HOT trip to Florida, I bought myself a Yeti for use in the parks.  And you bet your ass I had it personalized (with my family coat of arms on one side and my nickname on the other.)

Dropping the dynamic duo off at Shelby's in Coleman (the lady who runs it does a great job with our boys while we're away) the evening before we left for Florida.  Our dogs, as seen here, usually get pretty upset when we initially drop them off, but they have a good time after awhile.

Upon our return from Florida, Kris went to war with our front garden bed.  We had a lot of Snow-on-the-Mountain growing all up in it, a ground cover that spreads quickly and is a pain in the ass to kill, so eventually we had to destroy the whole bed and start from scratch.  It actually got to the point where we had to hire a professional gardener to come in and help us out.  I hate this kinda stuff - anything beyond mowing the grass is not in my wheelhouse.

Another Thursday, another Tunes-By-the-Tridge hangout.

After hanging out there for awhile and elderly woman wielding an SLR that, I'm sure, was heavier than her, approached me and handed me this piece of paper.  I guess she covers these events during the summer. . .

This was her picture she took of us.  I look like my f***ing grandfather in this picture.

Getting more drinks on Main Street with the dads (you can see our Lodge building in the background here.)

Erik hits up a truck for some tacos.

Once again, perfect weather for the evening.  I love June.

The Three Amigas:  Abby, Sophie, and Ella.

The Tribe

Moms, cluckin' about stuff

Kris' Uncle Wayne gifted us this old whiskey barrel when he picked us up from Florida - he knows a guy who gets them all the time, so he said he'd be able to hook us up with more in the future.  Kris wanted to refinish it and then cut it in half in order to turn into tables or flower pots or some shit.  I would rather keep it as after touching it up a bit, using it as a standing table of some kind in the basement, but we'll see who wins out in the end.  For now - and probably for the unforeseeable future - it's hanging out, untouched, in the garage.

The third week of the month me and the girls drove up to Clare for my nephew Blake's high school open house (Kris had Covid again so she wasn't able to attend.)

They had ordered a food truck, which was pretty awesome (burgers, sandwiches, stuff like that) - I might end up going that route for when our own girls graduate high school.

We didn't stick around too long - long enough for the kids to eat and drink a few pops - aside from my folks and sister's fam we didn't really know anyone, so we gave Blake $100 cash (because I forgot to get a card) and headed back to Midland.

So Alayna and a bunch of her friends have decided that they're 'getting in shape' this summer (we'll see how long that lasts.)  I figured I'd humor her for as long as it lasts, and showed her how to use the treadmill in our den.

Believe it or not - and I can't believe this myself, honestly - she did three days in a row towards the end of the month logging two hours (at a fast walk) each day.  Since she's watching Tik-Tok videos on Youtube, I'm assuming her short-attention span prevented her from realizing she was even exercising at all.  We'll see how long this lasts.

In a very, very rare form of sisters getting along, here we have the Cannonball helping Abby do her nails.  This happens, like, once or twice a year.  If that.  Hence snapping a picture of it.

Abby finally got braces towards the end of the month, which was quite the big deal for her. Not that she needed as much work done as Alayna, though - Alayna needed way more work done in order to give her half-way normal set of chompers back in the day (she looked like Snaggletooth for a couple years there.)

And, in closing, here's a picture of Alayna and her friend, Ava, sitting in the back of some kinda truck.  I have no idea what this is or where it is, but Kris took this picture. . . I'm including it because it happened in the month of June.  So you're welcome.

- Brian

Record Store Day '19

What's up, Internet.

Hey, check out this record I didn't buy today. . .

You know, all I really wanted to do today was head over to Radio Wasteland for Record Store Day.  That's it, nothing crazy.  I wasn't even planning on waking up at the ass-crack of dawn like I did last year, either:  compared to the 2018 release list, the offerings in 2019 were pretty lame.  A couple items that raised an eyebrow, but the only one I was really interested in was a limited release of B-Sides and alternate takes by Weezer from their Blue Album era.

That's about it.

Nevertheless, it's a hell of a lot of fun to putz around in a record store day, and since it's Record Store Day and everything, I figured it was a fitting way to spend one's morning and afternoon.

Buuuuut, Kris' van had other plans.

Emptying out Kris' old 2007 Chevy Uplander. . .

Over the course of the last couple weeks, her minivan - that she's owned since 2009, if you'll be so good to recall - started making strange noises.  Rattles, whistles, you name it.  It would come and go, too, and would vary in intensity and volume depending on the day.  Eventually, she took it in and had it looked at, and, long story short, she needed to have several things replaced and/or repaired.  We're talking upwards of $1,000.  On a twelve-year-old van.

So we had to face the music.  Was it better to a.) dump a couple grand into the Uplander, that we don't owe anything on and have been making zero payments on for almost a decade, in the hopes of getting it to last another couple years, or b.) sell the Uplander while it was still worth something, and use the trade-in value and some of our money in savings as a down payment towards a new van.

We decided to go with B.

Alayna says farewell to the Tactical Family Transport Vehicle. . .

(Was a bit windy out.  And we had to take a break from our time at the dealership to pick her up from a sleepover birthday party, hence the unkempt appearance.)

2016 Chrysler Town and Country

Our good friend Morgan works over Midland City Ford, and had promising to hook us up whenever we needed a new vehicle.  We knew he'd give us a an optimal deal on a new vehicle, and were therefore determined to buy through his dealership.  For a week or so, we perused their website, keeping tabs on all the new and incoming minivans they had in stock.  Eventually, we came across a black 2016 Chrysler Town and Country with only 50,000 miles on it at a reasonable price, and decided to go in today to check it out.

Unfortunately, we ran into a few snags.  First of all, Morgan had the day off, so he wouldn't be in to help us out.  Secondly, the van had two viewings (where potential customers make a scheduled appointment to come in and check out the vehicle) for the day - one in the morning, one around noon.  If the van was truly the catch it appeared to be, we were convinced it wouldn't be around long enough for us to have an opportunity to check it out.  Someone would pounce on it.

We did have a few cards up our sleeve, however.  Morgan, who's an assistant sales manager at the dealership, hooked us up with a trusted salesman who he knew well that would take care of us.  He was also able to get this salesmen to squeeze us in between the two viewing appointments, and even went so far as to have the salesman deter the first customers away from the van in question.  This ultimately proved unnecessary, though: the first couple that looked at the van decided against it because they wanted a minivan with heated seats.

Seriously.

Kris takes the Town and Country for a test drive. . .

We rolled in around 9:30am and met up with the salesman, who showed us the van and went over the fine print with us.  The Town and Country was only two years old and looked brand new, and looked very similar to an older model that we had picked up as a rental when we flew home for Christmas of 2011.

Kris crunches some numbers while waiting for our salesman to return.

Following a test drive and a review of the vehicle's service record, we decided to pull the trigger on it.  We spent the next couple hours negotiating the price of the vehicle down to a few grand below the original asking price, with about $2,000 for our trade-in (R.I.P. Chevy Uplander) and a new set of high-end tires thrown in (the tread on the Town and Country were at about 60%, so we negotiated for nicer ones.)  The entire duration of this back-and-forth negotiating had Morgan texting me, his sales rep, and their boss repeatedly, making the deal as beneficial as possible to everyone.  We're extremely grateful he was able to win us the deal on this that he was - saved us the hassle of having to deal with sleazy salesmen or other dealership theatrics.

Happy wife, happy life.

The Cannonball was pretty excited to get a new car, too.  As can be seen here.

One of the van's features that Kris completely goes ape-shit for is the fold-down seats, which allows for a ridiculous amount of storage room (summer camping trips comes to find, for sure.)  With the back row seats upright, the truck space is nearly triple what we had in the last van (because it opens up below into a sub-floor compartment as well. . . which will come in handy on weekly grocery trips, or whatever the hell Kris does with her van on a weekly basis, I don't know.

Kris and her new ride

So, on what should have been a pretty bitchin' Saturday for Yours Truly, spending a few hours digging through stacks of records and scoring a few treasures, Kris bought herself a nearly-new, top-of-the-line minivan.  The irony in all of this, of course, it that it was me that was supposed to be getting a new car next - we've been snowballing money into our savings account so that I could buy a new car out of pocket (my car being even older than the Uplander, and handling far worse in the snow.)

And now that we pulled a chunk of change out of savings to put the down payment on Kris' new van, we're going to have to make up all that lost ground, and my new car will have to recede further into the distance.

Being an adult sucks.

- Brian