Mormons and Magnolias at Melrose

Look at this cool picture that I took with my cell phone today at Melrose! The flowers on the magnolia trees are starting to bloom--and they are HUGE! This blossom is probably about the size of a basketball. I love it when the magnolias bloom. This morning I had some people from Illinois on my tour, so I pointed out the Nauvoo painting upstairs at Melrose, and they said that they lived about 30 miles from Nauvoo. I told them that I spent a semester of school there, which I guess gave away the fact that I was a Mormon, because then this other family on the tour (with a cute but loud baby) told me afterwards that they are Mormons and that the husband served his mission here in Mississippi. So I've been having a lot of people ask me if I'm a Mormon, but today there were actually other real-life Mormons on one of my tours! It was fun to chat with them for a while. Yesterday I had a guy asking me about the people who crossed the Plains with wheelbarrows. I said, "You mean handcarts?" He said, "Oh yeah, that's what I mean." He thought that was a pretty amazing feat--which indeed it was.

Last night Nathan, Kate, Tim, and I had a really good deer sausage dinner over at Nathan and Kate's house. It was nice and sunny when I walked over there at about 7:00, but then all of a sudden these black clouds rolled in and we got hit with another doozy of a thunder and lightning storm. It was pouring rain, and it sounded and felt like lightning was striking nearby. It was craziness, but luckily I didn't have to be out in it like I was the other day. Kate was nice enough to give me a ride home (even though I live pretty close by). I got home just in time to watch my favorite TV show "24" at 8:00, but, horror of horrors, the Fox cable channel had gone out (probably because of the storm)!! I couldn't believe it--of all the times for it to get knocked out. Of course it came back on later in the evening after "24" was already over. Thankfully Mom took notes on what happened and gave me the lowdown later in the evening. The cable service is just a little questionable down here--I remember this from last summer. That's okay though, there are definitely worse things in life! I hear some thunder outside right now. It seems that these afternoon downpours are going to be a pretty regular thing (except on the days when I actually bring my umbrella to work--then it's nice and sunny). As I mentioned the other day, there is always something bizarre in the newspaper here. Today one of the headlines read: "Tainted catfish not a health hazard." Oh great--that is really comforting! I guess that some catfish that came to Mississippi from China showed traces of illegal antibiotics in them. But the state health guy says it's not harmful. That doesn't really make me want to go someplace and order catfish though. Today Angie and I steered clear of catfish places for lunch and grabbed a sandwich at Subway.

Oh! I got the coolest early birthday present in the mail from Mom yesterday--Perry Mason DVDs!!! Thankfully I had those last night so that I was able to watch an episode during my "24" time.