Interesting to Us: The Jacksons are Back!

After a LONG layoff, The Jackson's are back. What has been going on with us? Well, we closed on a house (along with all the horror stories of real estate dealings that you have heard from others, so I will bore you with other details). It's a great home already, and that's before we have done any real decorating.

This is a pic of the fridge that almost broke the deal for us. The seller didn't want to part with it. We've found out why - there's an ice and water dispenser!

I secured a low-paying job in the field of education (redundant I know), while enrolling in a night class at UAB (Blaze, Blazers!). My job is at Homewood High School as a "media specialist" which is to say I promote the school in the news outlets.

Dana now has less time in the car, and more room in the house. I don't know how we lived together before the double sink, the regular sized washer-dryer, or the two-car garage.

This is our first month here, and I must say we are really happy to live in Birmingham. There are a few things that you need to take care of to make it your "home town," and I feel like we knocked out two of them this week. First, I went and got a haircut at "Treadwell's Barber Shop," in Mtn Brook. The whole time I was thinking that it would make for a great blog entry to compare and contrast that barber shop with my home base, "The Northport Barber Shop." So that is still to come. The second that happened this week is that we took the recommendation of John and Delaune and went out for Mexican on Friday night (a given back in Tuscaloosa), and I think we've found our place: "Sabor Latino!"

Speaking of John and Delaune, they came over and John (with limited help from me) designed and built a doghouse for Pistol and Grits. It is "aesthetically pleasing" and even has their names on the front...now I just need to teach them to read.

Note the smug look on my face as though I did any REAL work aside from holding things while John cut or nailed them in. I think you can tell who played what role by "the things they carried."

As we'd hoped, Birmingham has been a good move for us. Dana gets to go to lunch and on walks with friends, I get to play pick up basketball and football with some old college friends, as well as have people over to cookout a lot. As Frank Costanza would say, "This is the PLACE to BE!" We're glad we came.

This week, my sister returned home from Oregon to visit for the week. There has been a great number of people who wanted to see her and hang out with her, including my dad, Lanna, and the Bean (aka "little Lanna" although she's growing up so we can't just call her that anymore). We cooked out steaks and talked about Jen's job at the University of Oregon (hence the hat and shirt) and laughed a lot. Dana made some killer corn and tomatoes. When we got the house, these were the days that we'd hoped to have here, entertaining family and friends.

It's been good to see Jennifer after about a ten month gap. We even performed "Midnight Train to Georgia" just like the old days at Jackie's Lounge. Although there was no emcee to call us up to a stage, "And now, Jennifer and the Pip."

And now for the serious stuff:

Football begins this week. That's right! I could not be more excited!!! Exclamations all around!!!!! Top o the Muffin TO YOU!!!!!!!

We scored two tickets to the Alabama - Va Tech game in the Georgia Dome. Somehow we have put aside our memories of the 4th quarter against Florida when Tim Tebow broke our hearts and are picking up the pieces and trying again to be national champions. So, as the season kicks off, I should make my predictions for the dozens of readers we have (probably actually 7 readers).

1. Alabama may lose in conference, but it won't be to Ole Miss. No offense to the Rebel fans, but I just don't think it will happen. There's too many people telling the Ole Miss players they are awesome, and that has a negative effect in a locker room unless the coach can effectively use that hype to keep them hungry. Houston Nutt has never done well with expectations high, and this year will be no different. I'm choosing to ignore the fact that he has actually given Saban fits throughout his SEC career.

2. I am still undecided on Florida. I have typed and deleted a sentence that said they would either win it all or not make it. On the one hand, they shouldn't lose...ever. We saw last year that when Tebow wills it, it is no dream. on the other hand, this is a team full of 19-21 year-olds dealing with unrealistic expectations (no one in the country thinks they will lose a game...in the SEC...or against Texas or whoever they'll play in the Nat'l championship), that is tough to accomplish. Let's not forget that the last team in this position was USC in 2005. Two Heismans in the backfield and a stout defense. They came up a few plays short, and almost lost to Notre Dame that year. The whole season of expectations wore on them, and they played in the freaking Pac-10. If the Gators do it, I would be fine to not only rank them alongside the greatest teams of all time, but go ahead and crown Tebow the greatest college player ever. His resume would be unbeatable. I just realized this is not really a prediction as much as it is an observation...I hope our readership doesn't dip to 5.

3. Outside the SEC, it just won't matter. I almost feel bad for fans of schools like Michigan, Florida State, Georgia Tech, etc. because not only do they not have a shot at getting to the national championship, they don't get to play anyone else that has a chance either. I mean Tennessee is going to have a bad season, but at least they get to measure themselves against Florida and Alabama. Outside the SEC, people that are making the argument that their conference will line up with or overtake us for football supremacy are sorely mistaken. But it will at least sell tickets to the Missouri-Texas Tech game.

"Now men, this is the number of games we'll win this year"

4. Auburn will have a terrible year. I don't want to devote any more time to this. They stink. They're acting like they don't stink. Their coach still has a 5-19 career record, they still have no athletes, they still have no direction. All they did was give me a prediction that I can hang my hat on. If I'm wrong about everything else, at least I got this one right. Auburn stinks.

5. Alabama will go back to Atlanta this year...for a second time. I don't want to become one of those fans that never believes his team will lose. But outside of the LSU and Ole Miss games, Bama ought to be cruising through the year. Of coursse, Dana and I have accepted an invitation to Lexington which immediately puts that game in doubt. But even if UA goes 1-1 against Ole Miss and LSU, I don't think either one of those teams will be able to beat everyone else needed to go to the championship game. They don't call him "Two-loss Les" for nothing and we've covered H.D. Nutt.