My Week Off is Over

Being back in the office today is tough, folks. Having the past 7 days off was much needed. Of course, it flew by before I could really settle in to relaxing. As mentioned in earlier posts, Baby G and I went camping the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had a great time. We also saw the new Harry Potter flick and put up some Christmas decorations around the casa.

For Thanksgiving itself, I traveled home. On Friday, my mother and I ran around town and pretended to be tourists. We visited the Old Courthouse Museum, home of many cheese-tastic artifacts from the Civil War to the mid-20th century, including the famed pregancy minie ball. (The story goes like this: a shot was fired. The bullet, or minie ball as they called them then, went through the loins of a Confederate soldier, then continued on through the womb of a woman standing on her porch. The supposed sperm on the minie ball impregnated her and she gave birth to a healthy baby 9 months later. The doctor who sewed her up after the gunshot introduced her to the soldier and they married and had 2 more kids the "natural" way. Apparently getting shot in the nuts didn't stop him.) Indeed.

After the museum, we went to the National Military Park, a sprawling scenic park that houses various state memorials to Civil War participants and features the Siege of Vicksburg. When I was a kid, I loved going to this park and climbing on the huge monuments. Texas (see right) has a nice monument, but it's not as big as I remember, nor as big as some of the other states' monuments. The Illinois monument is the biggest and has the best echo chamber in the state! Missouri has a particularly pretty monument made of pink granite.

The newest monument in the park is a tribute to the African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Gee, it only took 106 years for the state of Mississippi to give some recognition. Good job, Mississippi! Way to keep current! Sheesh. At least the monument is beautiful . (NOTE: Blogger is being wonky right now and not letting me load pictures. More later.)