The Most Boring Month of the Year

Napping dogs.  Business as usual.

Good God.  January is boring.

Nothing really went down this month at all, folks.  Aside from Abby's pom routines, and some friend hangouts on the weekends, we didn't really do much this month. . . which is pretty typical for January, honestly.  After the Holidays wind down and we all head back into our routines, the drudgery of winter really sits in.  We haven't had much snow this month - not a single, Goddamn Snow Day this month, if you can believe that - but what snow we did get hasn't melted at all because it's not reached above 18 degrees all month.  This has been a cold, boring, hellscape of a month.

That being said, I'm sharing with you some pictures and video that we took this month, mostly of weekends and crap like that.  A lot of dog pics this time around, because Kris and the girls - whose pictures I regularly collect - take lots of pics of the damn dogs.

Enjoy. . .

Samson and Watson, as photographed by Alayna's friend, Ava.

(Probably begging for food, here. . . that'd be my guess.)

Both dogs continuously fight over this random, stuffed dinosaur that one of 'em got in a stocking at Christmas.  This is a pretty common occurrence around these parts.

Most of January looked like this.  Snow on the ground, freezing temperatures, but nothing worthy of calling off of school (unfortunately.)

The Johnsons took Abby skating with them one weekend, towards the beginning of the month.  She enjoyed it, which is more than I can say for myself - I despise ice skating.

Finally wore Kris down to try fish this month - bought some cod at Meijer.  We've all attempted to start off the New Year eating healthy, and fish is a great, healthy protein source.  I've lost five pounds this month, which isn't a bad start for my age.

More dog shenanigans.

Kris took this picture to send to her sister, Jessica.  Jes mailed this old Jem and the Holograms t-shirt to Alayna when she was like four years old, back when we lived in Florida.  Alayna still wears it as a pajama shirt.

Abby documents Watson's obsession with the dinosaur.

Another shot of a lazy-ass dog. . .

Yours Truly, ukin' it up.

Haven't been record-shopping in awhile, but I popped into Radio Wasteland towards the beginning of the month to celebrate their 5th year anniversary of opening (only fitting, seeing how I was in the news story that covered the original event.)  Bought a few used records, and this limited repressing of the only Pink Floyd album I can stand listening to (seeing how I'm a regular, Jim gave me the used vinyl free of charge, noting that it's the least he could do seeing how I made an ass of myself on local TV.)

The wives all went out one Saturday for a Mom's Night Out, leaving us dads to watch all of our damn kids over at the Colliers.  Here's Danielle, Courtney, and Kris.

En route to a restaurant. . .

A big ol' gaggle of wives. Kris, Amy, Courtney, Stefanie, Susan, Mees, Danielle, Alicia, and Kelli.

As usual, the wives asked to have a group picture taken of them while they were out eating. . .

To make fun of them - as all good husbands should do - we took this one to copy them, right down to the posing.  The position of the dads here actually matches up with our respective wives.

Throwin' darts in Collier's basement.

Abby made waffles one morning the girls had off of school (unfortunately my school district still had to report to work. . .)

Later on in the week, Abby's pom team performed at the half times of both Northeast/Mt. Pleasant basketball games.

(Abby's in the second row, center-right.)

More pictures of Samson lying around like a lazy bastard.

Decided to spin this limited release as a tribute to the demise of the 'Loaf.

Some random video we found on Abby's phone. . .

Build-a-Bear shenanigans over at the Johnson residence.

One weekend, half-way through the month, I deep-cleaned and reorganized the Captain's Quarters, my personal sanctuary/office in the house.  Took all damn day, but the end results were definitely worth it.

The monitor second-from-left is for the VCR/DVD player and PS2.  The one second-to-right is for the Atari, Nintendo 64, and my pre-Atari consoles, and the one at far right is for the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo Switch.  Just in case you were curious.

The work station, cleaned up and organized.

Abby decided to bake herself a cake one day after school.  Did the whole thing from scratch.  None of us figured it'd turn out that good, because Abby's cakes in the past have all been hot messes, but this one actually turned out.  She feasted on it for weeks.

Costco's Kirkland line of off-brand spirits has been a god-send for our home bar:  each label is identical to their more-expensive counterparts, but a half-gallon of the Kirkland option is about half the price of the originals.  A half-gallon of their dark, spiced rum - identical to Captain Morgan - only costs $13.  Their Irish Whiskey - a Jameson clone - is only $35.  This alone justifies the annual cost of our Costco membership.

The third weekend of the month found us back over at the Colliers for an inner-circle hangout with three of the five main families of our friends group.  Ella and Abby entertained themselves with the train set the Colliers have set up in their basement.

Ryan and Erik toss darts in the basement.

Kris, Mees and Courtney

Behold:  Yours Truly vanquished my enemies at darts.

Watching Ella and Abby practicing their pom routine, in preparation for next weekend's big pom Regionals meet down in Northville.

White Russians and Skip-Bo at the end of another night with the friend group.

- Brian

February: Apex of Winter

 'Sup, Internet.

Sooo this winter has seen far colder temperatures and far more snow than last year, that's for damn sure.  Like in previous years, winter didn't really begin until the second week of January or so, and then came in with a vengeance.  We got dumped on a couple times last month, but what really compounded things was that this month we were hit with a polar vortex that lasted quite some time, and consequently the snow never melted.  As additional snows came, it just added to what was already there, and so while we only had a handful of heavy snows, we were pretty blanketed for the majority of the month.

Weather aside, we were slightly more active this month, but not by much - as in January, with everything closed due to Covid, we were more or less homebodies.  I've attached some pics and video of some random things that took place over the course of the last couple of weeks, buuuut it's not much.

Anyway, here you go - February '21.

Our daily morning video notification from Ella.  Her mom or dad picks up Abby for school in the mornings on their way to work (seeing how Kris and Alayna leave about a half an hour earlier, and me an additional half hour before them.)

Time for orchestra. . .

Not sure what's up with the Minnie Mouse ears.  Must've been something going on at school that morning.

Headed back to Lodge for our monthly meeting, our first after a prolonged, winter quarantine. . .

We purchased new globes for the outside of the building (in the previous picture, you can see our old one illuminated - it lights up whenever we have a meeting.)  There are four others - a generic 'Midland Masonic Center' one, a Royal Arch one, a Cryptic Council one, and the Commandarie (Knights Templar.)  The old ones have been around for decades, and are smaller than these - despite the hefty price tag, they should look pretty badass once they're installed.

Shoveling out the driveway.  Again.

I don't mess around with the panoramic shot on my camera very often, but figured I'd give it a whirl while Kris did something productive around the house.

BP swears by this stuff, so I figured I'd finally get around to giving it a try.  Took me forever to drink the damn thing, not sure it's my kinda beverage.

On SuperBowl Sunday, as parents began to prepare their dishes to bring to the party/game, Abby hung out a the Johnson residence and watched the ridiculously-bad classic, Hook.

Mitch whipped up his usual sushi, which was awesome. . .

Meanwhile, Morgan - who was once again hosting this year - worked on 'cleaning his house.'

I forget who made these briskets, Erik or Mitch. . .  

The wives had staked out the living room for the big game, so we dads had to cram in to the Larson's craft room. . .

As always, a ridiculous amount of food was on hand.  That's why no one in this group ever loses any weight.

Like in previous years, we created a board for gambling purposes (artwork by Yours Truly.)  Folks can buy a square for $5, and if the last digits of either team's score at the end of each quarter coincides with the square you bought, you get 1/4 the total pot.  Alas, our family didn't win any this year.

Even more food. . .

The wives are really fond of weird-ass pictures like this.  One of these days we'll get all the dads to recreate this.

After the party, while cleaning up, Morgan came across this 'sympathy card' some of the kids (including Abby, apparently) made for Sophie, who must've gotten in trouble at some point in the evening.

Every year, while learning about Westward Expansion, I make it a point to let my classes play through Oregon Trail (you can find the emulator of the original game online for free.)  As always, I name my party members in the game after my real-life coworkers, which the students find hilarious.

The Ring picked up this video randomly one day, while we were all away at work and school. . .

So the owner of a local printing shop - the guy from the previous video - dropped this off for Kris and I.  We must be valued customers, seeing how we've both, in the past, placed large orders for our school (me through work, Kris through the Chestnut Hill PTO) through this guy's print shop.

Inside was chocolates, coffees, soaps, etc. from local businesses - I'm assuming he partnered with these companies in assembling the care packages.  An interesting marketing gimmick, for sure.

Would've been a lot cooler if there had been booze in it.  Just sayin'.

I'm convinced every, last one of these chocolates contained a Golden Ticket, but Kris was clearly excited about getting one. . .

The usual chaos of the Hough House.

Artwork, by Abby and one of her friends, that was left at one of our friend group's family homes.  You can always spot a Hough.

It's been awhile since I showed off my current classroom, and earlier - back in August - when I did so, it wasn't completely set up.  So, here you go. . .

Definitely more cramped than my last classroom, that's for damn sure.

I have more art and craft supplies than I know what to do with.  There could be far worse things to have to worry about with this job.

The Command Center

These flags are actually historical and relevant to my curriculum, I promise I'm not some asshole Trumper.

We got new $7000 tablet panels during quarantine - these things are pretty damn fancy. More like giant tablets than traditional SMARTBoards. . .

My ever-growing classroom library.

Mr. Skeletor, my classroom assistant.

Imagine squeezing 30 teenagers into this space.  And then add their winter coats and backpacks into the mix (seeing how they can't utilize their lockers, due to Covid.)  It's f***ing awesome.

A student of mine from two years ago made me this mask, and so now we've got it chillin' on ol' Skeletor's face.  Why not.

One Friday, after she got out of school, Alayna went out with Kris and had a blowout done (not sure what exactly that is, but apparently it's a hair thing that involves cutting, dying, etc. . .  to the tune of $50.)

. . . can you tell the difference?  'Cause I sure as hell can't.

Kris' friend, Kim, came into town one Friday to hang out with Kris, and the two of them went downtown and grabbed some dinner at Molasses (some fancy BBQ joint that opened up last year.)  They had to sit outside in one of these weird-ass, plastic igloos, but said it was enjoyable.

I'm not a huge fan of 'homestyle' food, but Kris loves the shit out of it. . .

The next day, despite the frigid temperatures, Kris took Alayna up to Midland City Forest so that she could sled for the afternoon with her friend, Cristina.

(Not sure why they're doing this.  I just nabbed all these pics off Kris' phone.)

This seems unsafe.  The kids are standing on the frozen river (the concrete wall there being the side of the bridge, further up the trails from the sledding hill.)

Instead of parenting, Kris is taking selfies in the woods.

Sitting on a river, under a bridge.

. . . aaaaand more selfies.

Pajamas and movies to close out the evening.

The next morning, we got around and headed to Kris' church, the first time there's been an in-person service there in about a year.

Afterwards, while we worked on cleaning up the house and getting ready for the work week, the doorbell rang.  Getting up, I saw Morgan's truck in the driveway.  Confused as to why my friend was stopping by unannounced, I opened up the door to find his son, Jackson, standing at my front door with a flower.  Then it hit me:  it was Feb. 14th. Valentine's Day. . .

Good God, I'm not ready for this yet. . .

Later that night, Ryan was hosting a dad-only hangout session for the Daytona 500.  There was way too much food on hand for the six or seven of us that showed up, so we all gorged ourselves stupid.

During a lull in the racing - there were a few delays due to rain - we threw some darts and played cards.

We also each threw $15 into a betting pool, and, believe it or not, I ended up winning the pot at the end of the night.  You know, 'cause I'm clearly really into NASCAR and shit.

Not sure what the hell happened in the first place that would solicit a frickin' treaty, but I'm honestly impressed they knew the term and what it means.  Most of my 8th graders certainly don't.

This happens every day.  Non stop.

Shoveling, once again.

After one particularly heavy snowstorm, Kris and I had to get up super early in the morning in order to shovel the drive enough for her van to make it out of the driveway for work.  Fortunately, the girls and I were able to take a Snow Day.

Shit's getting ridiculous around these parts.

Apparently the snow isn't so bad that it deters Abby from scootering around.

I use this app on my phone called Hoopla in order to listen to audiobooks.  It's linked to my local library account, and I have access to hundreds of thousands of books, it's pretty awesome (that's how I eat up my hour or so a day I spent in my car, commuting to/from work.)  Anyway, while looking for new books to check out one day, I spotted this hilarious title (which is identical to the name of a song my old college band, Virgil Q's Dixieland Kazoo Revue, recorded long, long ago.)

These two lazy bastards, soaking up some sun in the dining room. . .

They didn't budge for a couple of hours.  What with winter usually being all bleak and gray out, they were probably starved for some Vitamin D.

Due to Covid (again, I feel like I'm saying that shit constantly), we're unable to do our usual 'houses' (think Harry Potter) thing with our students this year, but I still have my Ausdauer decor hanging up in my classroom.  My animal sigil is the wolf, taken from my family coat of arms.

While watching one of the Avengers movies one night, Alayna decided to play around with one of her make-up pallets and create the Infinity Stones.  On her face.

Fired up the ol' grill for the first time this winter, having not touched it since Halloween.

Here's a pic of some. . . thing. . . that the girls had to do for their Church youth group.  Not sure what it is, but this is Abby's.

. . . and here's Alayna's.

- Brian