No Title

There were a number of titles available for this post but, in the end, "No Title" seems just as appropriate as some of the following contenders:

Trip to "Sly"dell
Welcome to Slid"hell"
Sli"dealt" a Bad Hand

Before I get into it; some back story. About a week ago, Jillian and I began discussing the idea of making some big changes to attempt to save more money for a future down payment on a house (after mine sells in Mobile). We looked through our monthly expenses and the one that really jumped out was my Truck payment. After some discussion, we decided to downgrade my vehicle to one that didn't require a monthly payment; one that also got better gas mileage.
After a few days of scouring the internet and a couple unsuccessful viewings, we thought we may have found the perfect vehicle at a wholesale dealer in Slidell, Louisiana. (Richardson Wholesale for anyone that cares). Jillian found the 2007 Toyota Camry on Craigslist for around $7900. She gave them a call and asked them about the condition of the vehicle apart from what could be seen in the picture(s) I'll post below. There were a few of them, but this one sums it up. A good looking a car and, based on the information from the dealer, in pristine condition apart from a slight paint job on the driver side door.
ACTUAL AD PICTURE:

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled about four hours of driving to look at a car, but a relatively new Camry with 147k miles isn't easy to pass up. The number of reasonably priced Camry's (in good shape) in this area are few and far between.
We ran some morning errands and started driving to Louisiana around noon. The trip felt relatively short for two hours. Exceeding the speed limit may have helped. A few turns off of the interstate before taking the bridge to New Orleans and we were sitting in front of the dealership parking lot... alone.
The first problem was that the parking lot was fenced off and locked and the dealer wasn't there. That was solved after a call and he was there to open things up for us after a few minutes. We both parked and he unlocked and walked into the building on the lot. After looking around the lot from the steps of this building, I noticed problem number two. The Camry we drove there for was not on the parking lot. Back to the phone; this time his. He called the owner and then an assistant. Turns out the assistant had taken the car home with him. I thought that was interesting. A few minutes later and the third problem showed up. This problem was the car.
Almost immediately I noticed the baseball sized crack on the front windshield and then as it turned to park, the four foot scratches from the driver side door the the rear wheel well. What minor paint repairs they had mentioned on the car were nowhere to be seen. The bate and switch was in full effect. Inside, the dash in front of the passenger seat looked like a tiger had been trying to escape. The back seat had obviously been the playhouse for children who owned ballpoint pens and drew forcefully. It was a complete disaster. I think Jillian and I took less that two minutes to agree it was a complete waste of our time. We got back in the truck and promptly left. What's humorous is that almost immediately after parking the car, the driver got out and started removing the license plate as if the sale was a sure thing. I can only assume that he was driving blind and had never actually seen the car he was just in.
This is not an actual photo... but close enough:

The drive home was a little longer b/c I obeyed the speed limits and we made a stop at McDonalds to get a cheap late lunch. We also stopped at my house in Mobile to check on it. It was enjoyable though, even though we were returning empty handed. There were some lessons learned though; like never trust anyone from Louisiana. We have decided now to keep the search closer to home.
The only other good thing about this story is that we took Stella with us and she took a dump on their property and the contents are sitting in their trash can... hopefully stinkin' up the joint.

Jillian's 5 yr class reunion

Jillian and I just got back from our short weekend trip to Birmingham. Her dental school class reunion was held at the Hyatt Regency (Wynfrey) Hotel last night. It was an interesting trip. We showed up fashionably late at 7:15 and were just in time for a class photo. I snagged one on my cell phone b/c no one was really sure who the photo was for or where people could get a copy.
The people I met were nice. A few of them were surprisingly drunk 15 minutes into the event. I wasn't so much surprised at how quickly alcohol can take effect, but more so surprised at how much people must have spent or been willing to spend to make it to that state. Liquor drinks were basically $9 and cheap domestic beers were $6 at their cash bar.
Conversations seemed a little redundant among most people; the standard "where do you work now?", "doing what?" "how many kids?". Thankfully, there was a nice meal in the middle that took the pressure away from forced conversation. Even better for a tag-along like myself. They served some shrimp filled pasta as well as chicken parmesan and some terrific rice dish. The meal had a turn for the worst as the terrible desserts literally left a bad taste in our mouths.
We didn't linger much long after the meal was over and Jillian was quick to say her goodbyes before we drove back to father's house to end the night. I tried to persuade her to make a pit stop at the wedding reception across the hall from the class reunion, but she declined.
This morning we woke up pretty early and tried to get ready as quickly as possible. Around 7:15am, I grabbed our hanging clothes and started out to my truck to pack it away and didn't realized the house alarm was on. That was a real treat for the neighbors I'm sure. Someone else in the house must have been near an alarm panel b/c the siren didn't last too long. Still thoroughly embarrassing. Before we actually packed up the truck and left, Jillian rummaged through the garage to find her old water skis and ended up also grabbing a wooden children's chair that had belonged to her older brother. She decided it would have better use in our future child's room, so she cashed in on an early inheritance.
The trip home was a short one. We only made two stops; the first was for gas and a Whataburger breakfast, the second for a Monster Energy drink. I'm not really good at staying awake on any drive longer than two hours. Oops, I just remembered that we also stopped at the Loxley, AL Piggly Wiggly grocery store to grab hamburger meat. Make that three stops. We ultimately made it home around noon. Just in time to miss Olympic Curling on NBC.

The Most Important Thing I've Ever Posted

During the "devastating ice storm week", Jillian and I began working on a super cheap 1000 piece puzzle I bought from Walmart several months ago. Through incredible perseverance and backaches, we completed it in just around a week. Before destroying the final product and putting it in the yard sale pile, I took a picture to commemorate our first puzzle as a couple... which, as everyone knows, is a crucial milestone for any marriage.

The Great Winter Storm of 2014

January 29, 2013:

The last days of January finally brought some respectably cold winter weather for the season. Before the cold arrived, I made some snide remarks on facebook about people panicking and signalling the oncoming apocalypse. Turns out, I may have underestimated the storm; at least for the more northern portions of the state of Alabama. While people were still at work on Tuesday, the snow and ice moved in and half the city was either trapped at work or in their cars while returning home. There were a lot of tales of people walking for hours through the snow to get home; having abandoned their cars on the interstate.
Here in Daphne, however, things were about as I had expected them. It was cold and we did, in fact, get a lot of ice. So much so that it looked like we got snow. I took some videos and pictures to share. To avoid driving on icy roads, I worked from home a couple days. Don't judge me... I'll use any excuse to stay away from the office.

Jillian Sold Her Motorcycle

After a lot of thought, Jillian decided to put her 1973 Honda CL 125 motorcycle up for sale on Craigslist. Despite not fulfilling all of the hopes she had for the bike, she wanted to make sure it was gone before we started having children and, because she had been riding it less, she wanted it to go to a good home. It didn't take long to start getting offers, but a lot of them were under her solid price of $1500.
In the end, she sold it to a younger couple from Pensacola that were looking for something to scoot around town together. She even gave him a $100 birthday discount.Before they came an picked up the bike, Jillian cleaned it up and took it for one last spin and then set it up on a cement block for a photo shoot. She no longer has the bike, but she's got a few cool posters from her photo shoot and a lot of good memories.