Vicksburg

This weekend, I had the pleasure of heading out to Vicksburg with Rosanna, Sarah Louise, Sarah, and Jen. Rosanna's parents were kind enough to host me, and between them and Sarah Louise's parents, let's just say that the five of us ate very well. Thankfully, Rosanna's in training for the Vulcan 10K, and after a four-mile run, I felt slightly less guilty about potato casserole and lemon tart.

Vicksburg is a former port city known for being besieged by the Union, and its many antebellum homes are testament to its 19th-century prominence. As the Pilgrimage is currently ongoing, we were able to tour some of these homes. First up was Anchuca, now a B&B and restaurant, where we had a lovely luncheon (including a piece of "bonzo" cake split five ways) and walked around the grounds.

After lunch, we headed to Cedar Grove, a former plantation home that's now also a B&B and restaurant. For $6 each, we were given a print-out of the self tour, which was so poorly written that Jen, who works on the copy desk, threatened to pull out her red pen and send them the revised draft. Cedar Grove is actually quite nice, and still has a cannonball embedded in one wall from the siege.

We also had time to take in downtown Vicksburg's Homewood-esque row of shops, where Rosanna and Sarah Louise were accosted by nearly all the sales staff and forced to explain that they were only home for the weekend. Our shopping turned into the puppy tour of Vicksburg, however, as many of the stores we visited had at least one resident dog. A ceramics studio, for instance, had both a tiny dog that wanted no part of us and an overly friendly Husky who just wanted affection. One store did make me laugh - Crown to Heels is a boutique-cum-gown rental-cum-tanning salon owned by a longtime pageant contestant, and the store is decorated with her crowns, trophies, banners, and portraits. World peace, indeed.

Rosanna's parents have their own shuffleboard court, so we discovered the joys of cruise ship athletics and pushed the pucks around on Saturday night as we learned about the Gages' local problem wildlife - deer, raccoons, beavers, and an alligator, who, as her father later suggested, might be keeping the beaver population under control. After dinner, the girls graciously agreed to watch Hot Fuzz instead of Mansfield Park, which may have been a poor choice as all four of them fell asleep at one point during the movie and woke to the prolonged shootout and an understandable bit of confusion.

After an extravagant Sunday lunch, we headed back to Birmingham, and Rosanna came across a book on tape that she had yet to finish. With four hours ahead of us, we settled back with Lipstick Jungle, a steamy romp by the author of Sex and The City that made me laugh. One Amazon reviewer wished there were a rating below one star for this particular stinker, but still, the time passed quickly enough as we listened. Sadly, we were never able to finish it, though Rosanna did offer me the CDs...

No. I'm not that desperate to find out how Nico's tryst with the male model ended.