WOTW 07/30/06

Hola, my friends and neighbors! I trust that you all had an excellent week spreading the news of last week’s WOTW and that you will continue to do so this week. I am so very excited to bring you this week’s word, as it is one of my personal favorites. So I’m just going to cut the rambling short this week to bring you the word of the week:

-dendrophilous (den-drof’i-lus) adj. --> loving trees, loving them so much as to live in them
Ex: My dendrophilous nature caused me to abandon the humdrum life of roofs and beds and make my permanent abode in a lovely forest.

I am also excited about this week’s random fact, as it pertains to my favorite animals, which do have vocal chords. Here it is:

Giraffes have the same number of neck bones as people do.

Alrighty, folks, I’ve enjoyed spending time with you today, and I hope that the week ahead is relaxing and energizing, all at once. Ok, à toute à l’heure!

Dr. J

Irukandji and Méla

Hey all 2 people who are reading this! Welcome to the super-amazing all-animal blog! My first subject of discussion is of a very serious, life-or-death nature. I need to alert you about a very real threat that faces us. This threat is none other than Irukandji, the deadly Australian jellyfish. Though this jellyfish is only a minute 2 cm long, it's venemous tentacles inject a venom that cause excruciating pain and sometimes even death. So please, my friends, take extreme precautions next time you are swimming in the perilous waters near Australia, or at least bring some vinegar with you, which may reduce the pain slightly by deactivating some of Irukandji's stingers.

Alrighty, with that disturbing yet imperative warning out of the way, let's move onto the more exciting news about my dear kitties, Méla and Matilda. Méla continues to be an unintelligent, dirty, doglike companion who I love dearly. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Méla, she is my 2-year-old cat who is incapable of cleaning herself, likes to play fetch like a dog, gets stuck in trees, and is probably the most affectionate animal in the world. Sometimes she's happy and dumb, and sometimes she's evil and dumb. Either way, she's my wonderful kitty... it's not her fault that she lacks intelligence, anyway. She was accidentally slammed in a door as a kitten by someone who will remain nameless... :) But anyways, she's good as usual. She has managed to avoid getting hit by a car in spite of sitting in the middle of the road, and she has been getting vacuumed regularly to reduce the amount of grime that she can't seem to clean on her own. Matilda is, as usual, skittish, skinny, and starved for attention. And she drools. Gross. Ok, I need to go do something about the spit-up, drool, and snot that was smeared on me today. Oh, the joys of working with babies! Ok, friends, have a great night!

Fondly,
The crazy cat lady

Hiking, Applebee's, and The Devil

Hey everyone! So today was my day off, and it was a great day... I started my day bright and early so I could get in a nice hike in at a state park near us. It was a great hike, although not quite as long as I would have liked. But I guess the important thing is that I got a good heartrate going and I enjoyed the view from the very scenic "scenic overlook". After my picturesque, though humid hike, I headed out to lunch and a movie with my mother, sister, and stepsisters. We enjoyed each other's company at Applebee's, where I loved my chicken fingers and fries (very sophisticated, I know... I think I'm catching my work kids' affinity for chicken nuggets). It was a good meal in spite of the man in the next booth who answered his cell phone at least 10 times... Then we took an exruciatingly long walk in the sweltering heat (ok, it was really only like 5 minutes) to Loews Movie Theater, where we sat quietly through The Devil Wears Prada. I want to thank my movie-going companions for their lack of conversation during the movie... chatty theater-goers are one of my least favorite things, so I enjoyed the considerate silence of my companions today. It was a pretty good movie... it was fairly mindless entertainment, but it was entertainment nonetheless. I'll be signing up for Netflix as soon as I finish rewatching Season 1 of Lost on DVD, so let me know what your favorite movies are, so I can add them to my "queue". Anyways, I enjoyed the movie and then enjoyed some cholesterol-rich cheese pizza for dinner. Yum. Alrighty, it's getting late, and I need to go watch some Lost, so have a great night! Tune in next time as I discuss killer jellyfish and rabid kitties in my all-animal post. Aloha...

Dr. J

La Musique

Howdy, folks. I figured since I listen to music for a good portion of my day, I thought I would share with you my favorite musicians of the moment. So who are the artists that are getting the most playtime in my iPod lately?

Jars of Clay is and will probably always be my favorite band... my favorite albums are "Who We Are Instead" and "Furthermore: From the Stage". Each of their albums has such a unique sound from the others, but you can always count on their lyrics to be insightful and relevant.

Lately I've been giving Relient K a lot of play time, especially with their newest albums "Mmhmm" and "Apathetic EP". Their music is very energetic and fun to listen to, and their lyrics are occasionally very intense, often funny, and always pushing listeners to move in the right direction. You can listen to a few of their songs on their purevolume page

I've also been enjoying Damien Rice's album "O", with its more mellow, acoustic sound. His music manages to be tranquil without being boring and passionate without being overwhelming... it's a really nice combination of these great qualities. The album has some bizarre points in my opinion, but overall I really enjoy it.

I've also really gotten to like Switchfoot lately by listening to their album "The Beautiful Letdown". This album holds everything from rock to soaring ballads to upbeat pop-like songs, and their lyrics are also stellar. Switchfoot also has absolutely the funniest video podcast I have ever seen... you should definitely check it out if you're into Switchfoot, podcasts, or laughing.

Alright, before I end this thing, I just need to say that if you don't have iTunes, you should download it. It is so user-friendly, you can manage all your music in one place, you can download songs for $.99 and most albums for $10 or less, you can get podcasts for free, and iTunes is absolutely free to download! I can't even remember how I managed to listen to music before I got iTunes and my iPod... alright, maybe I'm being dramatic, but tonight I really feel like being an unpaid advertiser for Apple, so there you go. Go get yourself some iTunes and become addicted to your computer like me! :) Ok, folks, I have rambled long enough. Please leave me some comments and let me know what your favorite music is, as I'm always looking for good music to blow money on. I have the day off tomorrow, so tune in tomorrow for an exciting post about my adventurous day! A demain!

Jill

The Big Update

Alrighty, folks. I figured I would start off with a big general life update for those of you who I don't get to see much. I'll cover work, family, school, and maybe something else interesting. So I work at a daycare in Newtown, CT. I work with the infants and toddlers... mostly toddlers, they're my favorite. I swear, kids are the best thing ever (except when they try to beat you up). I just love my job. And it was really random that I found this job, because it happened to be listed in the classified ads of our town's paper on the 1 and only day that I happened to look in them. So work is great. VERY tiring, but that's ok, because it's probably the most rewarding job in the world. I'm still living at home with my madre and her husband. I spend a lot of time with my sister and her 2 lovely children. Keith Jr. is now almost 22 months and as many toddlers as I get to see, he is still absolutely the cutest (and the smartest!). Luke will be 3 months old tomorrow... he's very cute, even if he does spit up unceasingly. As for school, I finished up last semester at our little community college, and I'll be going back there next year also. I'm looking at places to transfer to for Fall 2007. So far I'll be applying to Connecticut College and the University of Hawaii, which is where I'm really seriously considering going. Yes, Hawaii is far away, but hey, this is probably the only time in my life when I'll be completely unattached and free to go wherever I want. So I'll keep you updated on the never-ending saga that is applying to college. What else exciting do I do? Not much... I listen to a lot of music, play some music, read a little bit, and devote entirely too much time to Lost. I guess that's enough rambling from me for now. I'll be back in the next couple days with a post about my favorite music... have a great day!

WOTW 07/23/06

Here's this week's WOTW:

-kalopsia (kal-op'see-u) n. --> condition where things appear more beautiful than they really are
Ex: The man realized the kalopsia of the situation as he jumped into the dazzling blue water and was promptly attacked by a shark that lurked below the surface.

And now, for this week's random fact:

Dog saliva is an antiseptic and can help to heal wounds.

Don't forget to use the word very, very often in your conversations! Bye.

Dr. J

Welcome to my blog...

Hey everyone who's reading this (all 2 of you)! As you can see, I love wasting my time sitting in front of my computer, and I never ever write back to individual emails that people send me, so maybe this will be useful to people who care about my life updates. Hmm... I guess I'll just write about what's going on in my life and I'll post the WOTW (word of the week for those not on the supercool mailing list) every Sunday and I'll share stories about my life as a neurosurgeon and I'll probably even put up pictures of fun life things. So anyways, nobody is probably ever going to read this, so I'll go waste my time on something else. Au revoir, mes petites aubergines.

Jill