Sarah Jersey, PhD Canidate

I was NOT the first one to fail the qualifying exam. in fact, I didn't fail! I passed.

Baby its cold outside

Let me start off by saying that tomorrow is the big day. Word on the street is that the Q.E. is easy and I'll pass, but I still ask for prayers. I really don't want to come back here again.

why don't I want to come back here? yesterday I checked the weather. Today's high was 50ish with a high tomorrow of 25ish and a low of 15ish. It was about 48 degrees when I stepped off of the plane in Indy. It got worse and worse as I headed towards C-U. By the time I got here it was practically full on blizzarding. Actually, it isn't snowing all that much. HOwever, there is a wind out there that will bite your face off. RIght now the temperature is officially 9 degrees, but the wincdchill is -17. Yes, that is a negative. Tomorrows High is about 22 with windchills around -14. GROSS. This type of thing is why I never really want to come back to the midwest again!! There, I said it, and I meant it!!!

The latest read

My friend Erin introduced me to the Pasta Queen. You need to check her out! I could read her blog all day long. She is absolutely AMAZING - having lost half of her body weight. http://www.pastaqueen.com/halfofme/index.html. Today she discussed this 4 mile run in North Carolina. I'm down iwth running for charity. Not so down with eating a dozen Krispy Kremes in the middle of said race. Check it out! Krispy Kreme Challenge!

Fun Facts about Mississippi

I received an e-mail forward with a bunch of fun facts about Mississippi. Rather than forwarding it I'm putting them up here. Some of them were great! I particularly enjoy the one about sleds. Does anyone else find it ironic that the best sleds in the world come from a place that sees little to no snow?

• The Mississippi Gulf Coast, from Biloxi to Henderson Point, is the largest and longest man-made beach in the world.
• The Ringier-America company in Corinth, MS prints national Geographic.
• The world's only cactus plantation is located in Edwards with more than 3,000 varietiesof cacti.
• Mississippi has more tree farms than any other state. Mississippi has more churches per capita than any other state.
• Norris Bookbinding Company in Greenwood is the largest Bible rebinding plant in the nation.
• H.A. Cole in Jackson, MS, developed the cleaning product Pine-Sol.
• Pine-Sol is manufactured only in Pearl, MS (Jackson).
• Dr. Tichenor created Dr. Tichenor's Antiseptic in Liberty, MS (not in South Louisiana as
  commonly believed).
• Four cities in the world have been sanctioned by the International Theatre/Dance Committee to host the International Ballet Competition: Moscow, Russia; Varna, Bulgaria; Helsinki, Finland; and Jackson, Mississippi.
• David Harrison of Columbus owns the patent on the "Soft Toilet Seat." Over one million are sold every year.
• The first football player on a Wheaties box was Walter Payton of Columbia, MS.
• The Teddy Bear's name originated after a bear hunt in Mississippi with President Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt refused to shoot an exhausted and possibly lame bear. News of this spread across the country, and a New York merchant capitalized on this publicity by creating a stuffed bear called "Teddy's Bear."
• H. T. Merrill of Iuka flew the first round-trip transoceanic flight in 1928. The flight to England was made in a plane loaded with ping-pong balls.
• The birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo includes: a museum, a chapel, and the two-room house in which Elvis was born.
• The world's oldest Holiday Inn is in Clarksdale.
• Blazon-Flexible Flyer, Inc., in West Point, manufactures the best snow sled in the country, the Flexible Flyer.
• Greenwood is the home of Cotton Row, which is the second largest cotton exchange in the nation and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Emil and Kelly Mitchell, the King and Queen of Gypsies, are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Meridian. Since 1915, people from all over the world have left gifts of fruit and juice at their gravesites.
• The 4-H Club began in Holmes County in 1907.
• The Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg is the largest research, testing, and development facility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers in Friendship Cemetery. This gesture became known as Decoration Day, the beginning of what we observe as Memorial Day.
• Shoes were first sold as pairs in 1884 at Phil Gilbert's Shoe Parlor in Vicksburg.
• Inventor James D. Byrd of Clinton holds seven patents and developed the plastic used as a heat shield by NASA.
• Mississippi University for Women in Columbus was the first state college for women in the country, established in 1884.
• Every commercial airliner has at least one hydraulic component manufactured
  by Vickers in Jackson.
• The McCoy Federal Building in Jackson is the first federal building in the United States anmed for a Black man. Dr. A. H. McCoy was a dentist and business leader.
• Hat Maker John B. Stetson learned and practiced hat making in Dunn's Falls, MS.
• The oldest field game in America is Stickball, played by the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi. Demonstrations can be seen every July at the Choctaw Indian Fair in Philadelphia, MS.
• Alcorn State University, in Lorman, is the oldest black land grant college in the world.
• The International Checkers Hall of Fame is in Petal (Hattiesburg).
• Natchez was settled by the French in 1716 and is the oldest permanent settlement
  on the Mississippi River.
• Natchez once had 500 millionaires, more than any other city except New York City.
• Natchez now has more than 500 buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Captain Issac Ross of Lorman freed his slaves in 1834 and arranged for their passage to the west coast of Africa. They founded the country of Liberia.
• Oliver Pollock was the largest individual financial contributor to the American Revolution.
  He invented the dollar sign ($). He is buried near Pinckneyville.
• Resin Bowie, the inventor of the Bowie Knife, is buried in Port Gibson, MS.
• Liberty was the first town in the country to erect a Confederate monument, in 1871.
• The Pass Christian Yacht Club is the second oldest yacht club in North America, founded in 1849.
• The Mississippi Legislature passed one of the first laws in 1839 to protect the property rights of married women.
• The Natchez Trace Parkway, named an "All American Road" by the federal government,
  extends from Natchez to just south of Nashville, Tennessee. The Trace began as an Indian trail more than 8,000 years ago.
• The Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the Blues, which preceded the birth of Jazz, the only other original American art form.
• The Vicksburg National Cemetery is the second-largest national cemetery in the country. Arlington National Cemetery is the largest.
• D'Lo was featured in Life Magazine for sending proportionally more men to serve in World War II than any other town of its size; 38 percent of the men who lived in D'Lo served.
• In 1894, Coca-Cola was first bottled by Joseph A. Biedenharn in Vicksburg.
• Mississippi was the first state to outlaw imprisonment of debtors. (Praise the Lord!)
• Belzoni is the Catfish Capital of the World. Approximately 70 percent of the nation's
  farm-raised catfish comes from Mississippi.
• Fred Montalvo owns the company that makes "Icee" drinks from Edwards.
• Peavey Electronics, in Meridian, is the world's largest manufacturer of musical amplification equipment.
• Proportionally more Mississippians were killed during the Civil War than from any other Confederate state.
• Serving during Reconstruction, Hiram Revels was the first Black U.S. Senator.
• The first Parents-Teachers Association was founded in Crystal Springs, MS.
• Babe Ruth's last home run was hit off a Mississippian, Guy Bush of Tupelo.

Denim its Da Norm

For most of us, Denim is pretty much a staple of our everyday lives. Last nights pRoject Runway Challenge involved the designers being told to take some Levi's 501's and do something "Iconic" with them.

I have to admit, Project Runway is my new favorite show. I hate that it is reality and that I like it - but I just do. I enjoyed last night's episode since it had all the requisites: stress, ugly clothes, and pretty clothes.

I have to say, i'm not sure that i really know what Iconic means in terms of fashion, but i didn't think that Ricky's dress was iconic. It was a bit short. I did like the button usage - which i think is what made it win. Nothing says 501's like the button fly.

I liked a bunch of the designs though. I really enjoyed Christians. To me, it was iconic - it actually spoke to me. i looked at it and got a wow factor - it was a look. Most of the rest of the stuff didn't have that shot. I also really liked Sweet Pea's outfit. That dress was just plain old cute! I would totally wear it. The fact that I would totally wear it was probably what made it an "unwinable" dress. One look at two Jackets and I knew that Jillian and Victorya were out. I'm glad Victorya was out - her "trench jacket" was really hideous. Jillians wasn't that good - but I could at least tell that she had put some work into. I felt like I could have done Victorya's!

A little PhD Humor...

It really actually is pretty much fitting of any job though

A walk in the park...

Today Daisy, Madison and I took a walk in the Military Park. It was a pretty day, and the warm side of the temperatures got to a point where we could actually walk outdoors. Lately we've been walking around the neighborhood lake, which is about a 1.25 mile walk - sometimes adding a sidestreet in. Since we had the day off and housework wasn't calling my name, we went to the park.


One of the few beauties of living in VIcksburg is that we have this huge military park with 16+ miles of trails in the middle of town. For the low rate of $20/year I can get unlimited access to the park. We re-newed and hit the trails. 2.75 miles later, after enduring the Lousinia hill (it is HORRIBLE - try it and you'll regret it), we returned to the car.


It was a fun walk - we got to see some deer - a doe and her fawn. The dogs got to sniff a million new things. This was also the first time I tried the park with both pups. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The pups were EXHAUSTED when we got home. They ate their supper and went to pass out. I guess they are feeling it just as much as me. We'll be hitting Vicksburg and all of the local parks in the upcomming weekends in an effort to get into shape for the Annual Run Through History! This was what they looked like when i was making my supper! Tired little girls.

By the way - wasn't this a wonderful way for them to get out of bathtime. Every time I consider throwing them in the tub I hear a sigh come out of one of them. Such spoiled babies! Right now they are sleeping on my feet, keeping me warm, and snoring away. What a hard life!