Once again we dodged the bullet, but others in our state weren't as lucky. Ever since Benji lived in Kosciusko, I've been aware of how often tornadoes touch down in Attala County. Eleven homes and 1 business were damaged or destroyed there yesterday. Several other places in the state got hit, as well, including Lee County with several trees downed and power outages.

I was feeling well enough today, regardless of the hangsonahelluvalongtime cough, (Thanks, George, for cluing me into the name of this godawful bug that's going around) to go out for the first time in a week. Mike and I had lunch at Ryan's, then went to Target and Kroger. Ryan's finally has cornbread! I thanked the manager for finally acknowledging the taste of their Southern clientele. For an all-you-can-eat buffet to open in the middle of redneck Rankin County and not offer cornbread just rubbed me the wrong way every time I went in the place. Seems they're under new ownership and have tried to make improvements. He asked me to please call the 800 number on the receipt and give him and his store 5-star ratings across the board. I'll be registered to win $1,000, he said, if I would. I probably will.

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Skip is excited about the new cousin who found us. Both of us are itching to see the contents of the trunk his grandmother has, but Kevin is sending some of the old pictures and letters, so that may suffice for now. Do I see another trip to Texas in our future, Cuz? Neither of us has done much genealogy research since we hit the Johnson brick wall. It's a very discouraging brick wall. I knew, at some point, that some cousin would discover an old trunk which contains valuable information, and that until that happened, we were spinning our wheels. Maybe it's this trunk. My fingers are crossed.

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Paul has a couple of good fish tales this month. The Mississippi Sportsman column is here, and the Clarion Ledger blog is here. Read 'em if you haven't already.