Sippi Lovin'

I don’t exactly know why, but I’ve felt compelled to post here lately. Perhaps it’s because life as a graduate student has finally slowed down. I no longer work 70 hour weeks, now it’s more like 50, and even when the going gets rough, I seldom have any work to do after 7 PM. For a while, OK a long while, I avoided anything that even remotely resembled work and quite frankly, this blog resembled work.

For those who haven’t heard, either through the grapevine or straight from my mouth, I’ve accepted an internship at the Southern Mississippi Psychology Internship Consortium. As a result, Michelle and I will be spending an additional year in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The best news, of course, is that I will be spending that year on internship and not as a student. Short of moving back to Minnesota, this was the best possible outcome. The program is accredited by the American Psychological Association, the pay is right, the training model is generalist in nature, there are opportunities to work with patients across the developmental spectrum, and we won't have to move. Michelle and I are very excited and look forward to moving back home one year from now.

Now, as for that new-found free time I alluded to earlier, I have been trying to reacquaint myself with the act of reading for fun. In the past four months I’ve read, “Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States” by Pete Jordan, “Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season” by Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King, “Chasing Lance: The 2005 Tour de France and Lance Armstrong's Ride of a Lifetime” by Martin Dugard, “The Long Hard Road out of Hell” by Marilyn Manson and Neil Strauss, “Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France” by Floyd Landis and Loren Mooney, and “Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive” by Bill Lofy.

None of the books could be described as a “tough read,” but I enjoyed each. If I had to pick a favorite, I would probably choose Pete Jordan’s “Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States.” It’s not particularly well written, but the stories are entertaining and his thoughts on Hattiesburg were especially interesting. As for the most disappointing book of the bunch? I would have to say Marilyn Manson’s “The Long Hard Road out of Hell.” That may not come as a surprise for some of you, but my own high expectations left me feeling let down. It’s always been obvious to me that Manson is an intelligent individual who finds creative ways to shed light on the hypocrisy of our society, but his book also reveals him to be depraved, narcissistic, ignoble, and an ass. That being said, many critics praised this book. The central difference, I think, between their takes and mine is that most of the critics seemed shocked by his honesty; while I expected nothing less, and believed (hoped?) that his willingness to be open about his depravity was an indication that he now understood the stupidity of his past indiscretions…I don’t know if I’m convinced.

A month before my parents arrived, Michelle and I set out to brew the Portland Pale Ale kit that my brother and sister sent me for my birthday. Although we were confident that the homebrew process would be a fun one, it took us several months before we found the time and energy required to take on such a project. Not surprisingly, Michelle was the driving force behind the project and did most of the work. Shown here is a photo of her reading the directions.

After sanitizing everything thoroughly, we assembled the ingredients and began boiling the wort. We were told to be wary of the "boil-over blues" and I very nearly ruined everything while snapping this next photo.

Following such a close call, I stirred often and obsessively tweaked the burner dials until it was time to remove the wort from the burner and transfer it to the fermenter. In order to do so, we had to first cool the wort by creating a bath of ice water for the brewing pot to sit in. Following the transfer, our instructions said to gently rock the fermenter so as to put oxygen back into the wort.

Later, after nearly 3 weeks had passed (this was perhaps a little too long), Michelle and I finally got around to bottling the beer. Shown here is a photo of us siphoning the brew from the fermenter to the bottling bucket.

At the bottom of the bottling bucket is a spigot. Using a plastic hose, which was attached to the spigot, and a bottling tube, we managed to fill roughly 50 bottles. We ended up drinking the first beer the night before my parents left (exactly 10 days had passed since we first bottled it) and Dad seemed impressed. I must admit, I was pretty happy with it too!

My parents left Hattiesburg early Friday (3/14) morning after an action-packed week of board games, barbecue, bike rides, blues, and bickering. Michelle and I woke up at 7:00 AM to prepare Western omelets, toast, juice, and shrimp and they were on the road by 8:30 AM. For the uninitiated, shrimp may sound like an odd choice at the breakfast table, but my mother loves it and we had a ton left over from the shrimp boil on Wednesday evening.

Highlights from the week included:

The rockin' tunes of Dr. E and The Voodoo Kings at the Walnut Circle grill on Saturday night.

A 30 mile bike ride up the Longleaf Trace late Sunday morning. This was especially fun because the sun was out throughout the entire ride and the temps hovered in the low 70s.

A two-day trip west to Natchez, MS where we toured two antebellum homes (Longwood & Melrose), ate gringo pie and sipped margaritas at Fat Mama's, lost $4.00 aboard the Isle of Capri Casino boat, watched the sun set over the Mississippi river, visited the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, saw Richard Wright's childhood home, explored its City and National cemeteries, sampled ten varieties of muscadine wine at the Old South Winery, ate lunch inside Mammy's Cupboard, and slept in the Eola Hotel.

The shrimp boil on Wednesday evening at the Lee household. A shrimp boil is very similar to a crawfish boil, which I've touched upon here in the past. Very tasty and filling.

The fabulous food...as predicted, we ate pulled pork at Leatha's and it was fabulous. However, we did not eat at Mugshots as I had anticipated and instead, ate delectable shrimp po-boys from Peter's Po-Boys.

Of course, there was also plenty of gameplay as well. Shown below are a few pictures from Natchez.

This is a photo of everyone holding margaritas at Fat Mama's in Natchez, MS. Although the margaritas were as good as advertised, I felt the gringo pie (also said to be a house specialty) left something to be desired.

This photo was taken as the sun set over the Mississippi in Natchez, MS.

This is a photo of Mammy's Cupboard where restaurant goers are treated to lunch inside a 28-foot tall black woman's skirt. It's difficult to know what to make of it all. I read somewhere that "Mammy's" ethnicity has been made more-or-less ambiguous by her most recent touch-up, but even if that's the case, does it matter? At any rate, there's no question the food is superb...blueberry lemonade served in mason jars, savory roast beef, soft and chewy sandwich bread, etc.

This is a photo of the Melrose home built in 1841 by the John T. McMurran family. Today the home is maintained by the National Park Service and we were able to tour the slave quarters, as well as the home itself.

This is a photo of the octagonal Longwood home built in 1861. The six-story home was designed by Samuel Sloan for Haller and Julia Nutt, but construction was permanently halted when the civil war broke out.

I'm expecting my parents to arrive sometime tomorrow (3/8) afternoon. It's been quite a while since Michelle and I have seen them, August of '07 I believe, and we're both eagarly awaiting their arrival. Dad tells me they plan on driving through the night. I hope everything goes smoothly. Dad also mentioned that he would like to visit Robert Johnson's gravesite in North Mississippi. As I understand it, there is quite a controversy surrounding the actual location of his remains. Three separate tombstones exist with evidence to support each one being the "true" resting spot for one of the most famous of Delta blues musicians. Hopefully Dad picked the right one.

The week's agenda is mostly up in the air, but we're planning on catching "Dr. E and the Voodoo Kings" at Walnut Circle Grill Saturday night, visiting the Camp Shelby military museum at some point, having a crawfish boil with the Lee family, and possibly venturing up to Natchez mid-week. Of course, food will also be paramount...at the very least, we're planning on taking them to Leatha's and Mugshots. Leatha's has the best barbeque in all of Mississippi & Mugshots serves the best burgers in town.