Yesterday was a happy anniversary for Kindel and I! Raquetball, salad and rice, cribbage, who could ask for anything more? It was great.

As of this morning, I have 4/5 PhD applications complete. Princeton, Stanford, Rutgers, and Johns Hopkins applications are all in the hands of their respective admissions departments. My application to Notre Dame is taking a little longer, but will be finished soon. I'll be informed of my acceptance status any time between early February and early April. At that time I'll have to decide if I want to be a Tiger, Cardinal, Scarlet Knight, Blue Jay, or Fighting Irish.

If I had to choose off of the mascots, which could be final decision factor, I'd have to go with Princeton. Who wouldn't want to be a growling/purring tiger??? Chalk it up the testosterone, if you like. The pictures tell the whole story:

Bronze statue of the mascot outside Princeton's Nassau Hall. Festive, eh?
















Even if the football team sucks, who wouldn't be amused by this mascot for an hour or two?



Grrrrrrrrrr.

The University of Notre Dame is among the five schools I'm interested in doing my PhD at. Surprisingly, this is quite the application. They require two of everything - letters, transcripts, personal statements. But what brought that common, confused smile to my face was a question asking my religion! Some of the answers not shown in the picture below include Catholic, Baptist, Buddhist, Christian, Episcopalian, Jewish, and Eastern! What should I choose???