It's been a while since I wrote anything so I have a lot of catching up to do. I guess I'll start with the biggest of items; my home in Mobile. After about a year of having it on the market to sell, and two offers falling through, we've decided to turn it into a rental. The negative is that I still have a home that sits on my credit. On the plus side, someone else will be paying the mortgage and every expense associated with the house is now tax deductible. Definitely the way to go about fixing up a house. Let other people live in it while you occasionally make repairs and then let uncle sam take the hit.
At the end of April, I mentioned in a prior post that Jillian wanted to do some yard repair and plant some sod in the back yard. Ball parkin' it, I told her to order three pallets of centipede grass despite her assumption that it would take four or more. While she was at work, the truck showed up and gristly old white guy unloaded our three pallets onto the driveway after volunteering his dislike of black people. I paid him and started at it. It took about six hours to get through the first two and a half pallets before Jillian got home from work and was able to pitch in. It was just about this time that I also realized that she was right about it taking four pallets to finish the yard, so that was some pleasant crow to eat.
Because of the shortage, Jillian had to order another pallet from a different farm and we had to pick it up ourselves to avoid a substantial shipping charge.We got lost finding the farm and we could tell it was it wasn't of the same quality as our first batch. It wasn't until we got it home that we realized how much poorer quality it was. You'll bee able to tell from the pictures where it is, b/c it all looks on the edge of death. Luckily, everything else seems to be flourishing after several days of watering, so I'm pretty confident that everything will live throughout the summer and hopefully until we leave this rental home.
Jillian and I have already made our first two beach trips of the season. The first during the Hangout Music Festival, where we bypassed the festival and drove to the state park down the road. It was surprisingly busy for a weekend that sees the majority of hotel and rental homes booked by people going to the Hangout. I guess it was just a bunch of locals with the same idea. The second time we went to the Hangout ourselves. Despite the way it sounds, the Hangout is actually a beachfront restaurant (that happens to host a giant music festival). This has become our preferred location due to the fact that there's plenty of parking and if we hang around through lunch, we can just leave our stuff in the sand and go inside for a bit of food and shade. Both trips were basically flawless; perfect weather, great crowd watching and a full cooler.
This past weekend, some of our McKelroy relatives were passing through our area on the way to Destin, FL for their annual beach vacation so we had a bite to eat with them at the Blue Gill on the causeway. It was a pleasant lunch as we got to hang out with the young'uns and talk travel with my Uncle James (who does quite a lot of it for work). We had heard on the radio that Food Network's Great American Food Truck Race was making a (assumed last episode) stop downtown on Dauphin street so we thought we'd go over and see if we could grab a little extra food before heading to the rental house to make sure it was empty before it's first tennant. Parking wasn't a huge issue, but the lines for food were. All three food trucks were parked steps from each other and all of their lines were over a block long. A guy I knew in high school had just placed an order and told me he had been in line for three hours. No thank you. Instead, we took a few pictures and went across the street to a bar called Haley's and grabbed a few drinks before leaving. It was interesting getting to see how the tv crews operated. I was able to snap a few pictures.
Job Related: I'm about 90% sure I have a new job lined up with the University of South Alabama. I had two initial interviews and then a second and third within their purchasing department. It will be a bit of a change from the financial accounting field, but I could use a change. Not only does purchasing seem like an interesting career path but getting a job with a state university has great benefits. Unfortunately, I'll be dropping from 23 PTO days a year to 10. Might put a crunch on my travel plans for a while; especially if we start having kids.
Our niece Allie had her first birthday recently. She had a few parties but the McKelroy version was celebrated at the Cracker Barrel in Spanish Fort. Allie had a field day with her pink and black icing cake; choosing to smear it all over her hair, face, the table, her high-chair and the floor. Not a piece of it went in her mouth. I think we spent more time cleaning up our corner of the restaurant than she did enjoying her cake.
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