Melissa Aho

Despite not being able to fly this week due to the bad winter weather, it was still an aviation week with visiting the Commemorative Air Force – Minnesota Wing and Museum and attending the CAF Red Tail Squadron’s premier of RED TAILS with Cheryl, Bill, and Sarah. The CAF – Minnesota Wing has some beautiful WWII planes including the P-51C Mustang aka the “Tuskegee Airmen,” a B-25 “Miss Mitchell,” and a Harvard Mk IV (AT-6 Texan) airplane that I got to sit in! The movie premier was sold out and the movie theater had it playing on 2 screens. I thought it was a good movie, had some great acting, a lame love story (which was out of place in the story arc), and had some incredible flying scenes.

7:30AM Breakfast
8AM-10AM IDV 721 Statistics I with Dr Naghshpour
12PM Lunch
Drove around campus looking at the new construction
Home to Minnesota!

Day #2 started way too early!

8AM Official individual IDV photos
8AM-10AM Conference Presentations and Etiquette with Dr Butler
10AM-12PM Comps Workshop with Dr St. Marie and Dr Naghshpour
12MP-1:30PM Lunch and presentation by Olivier Scherlofsky “Peacekeeping and Nation-Building in the Balkans”
1:30PM Official IDV group photos
1:30PM-4:30PM IDV725 Field Research with Dr. Butler
6:30PM-9PM Great Southern Club

7:30AM Welcome and Breakfast with Dr. Butler

8-10AM IDV721 Statistics I with Dr. Naghshpour

10AM-12PM Lunch and Lunch Presentation with Dr. Frances Lucas, VP/CEO USM Gulf Coast on Women in Higher Education (She was fantastic! Great talk)

2PM-3:15PM Faculty/Student Roundtable with Dr Pauly and Dr St. Marie

3:15PM-4:45PM Dissertation Workshop with Dr Butler

5PM-6:30PM Dinner and Presentation with Dr Richard Peet and Dr. Elaine Hartwick (Great discussion, although some were argumentative about the Marxist approach. Loved how people were pushed outside their comfort zone with different ideas)

6:45PM-8PM Research Team Meetings

Then off to Juan Tequila’s with the gang (Madeline, Brian, Issam, Jane, and me) for Pina Colada’s, nachos, and fried ice cream!

Back to Mississippi for the start of the PhD Spring Semester.

Turns out I had one more book review published in 2011:  Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World by Mark Norell & Denise Patry Leidy with Laura Ross. Published in the ‘Xpress Reviews: Nonfiction | First Look at New Books, December 23, 2011′ in Library Journal. You can read it here at http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2011/12/books/nonfic/xpress-reviews-nonfiction-first-look-at-new-books-december-23-2011/

Tonight was the annual Dead Pool Party. Food, the giving of awards (trophies and money), and the annal Dead Pool Draft rounded out the night. A fantastic time was had by all, including me as I won $5.00 on the quiz “Dead or Alive?”!

This year’s stats:

2011

Sweepstake
1st – Derek K (Board 1)
2nd – Kathryn T
3rd – Janet S (Board 2)

Draft Pool
Winner – Derek
Runner Up – Kathryn

It was Omnifest time at the Science Museum of Minnesota! For the past few years I have been attending the Omnifest films with my friend Susan. Sadly, this is probably Susan’s last Omnifest as she is following her heart and moving to Australia to be with the dashing Mark. We watched the first two shows: Wolves and Journey into Amazing Caves and then had a lovely lunch.

A lovely, but slightly windy day to fly. I worked on some turns, some stalls, and some slow flying. I eventually go the Grounds Speed knots down into the 24′s (25.9 is in the photo), but I did not beat the 4 that someone else in the club had last week.

Han Solo frozen in Chocolate.