Dingdingdingdingding!

Actually Dalek and fisherbear got pretty dang close.
Shawn doesn’t count because, as he said, he already knew what the word meant.

Andrew, who doesn’t really count in these quizzes because he lives with me and often hears me muttering, or shouting depending on the situation and the subject of study, actually looked up the etymology and came up with a bit that even *I* didn’t know.

DIPHYODONT
A critter with two sets of teeth. Most mammals fit in this category, but critters like horses, and rodents are brachydonts which means that the primary teeth they’re born with are the teeth that they live with their entire lives.
People are diphyodonts, cats and dogs and bats are diphyodonts because we have a set of primary teeth that erupt within a certain period of time after we’re born and are shed as we mature.

Andrew reports that the fragment diphy means “to move forward” which, if you think about how primary teeth are lost because the permanent teeth push them out of the way, makes damn good sense.

So grape jelly (or currant if you so desire 😀 ) all around.

Today’s word of the week is: EPITOPE.
Not anywhere near as fun as diphyodont, but much more relevant to the current topic of study.
Only 87 pages more to go before Thursday…..SIGH.

Paging Mr. Blivious, Mister and Missus O. Blivious.

Andrew and I are both dedicated NPR listeners. We listen in the morning, we listen in the afternoon, we listen in the evening. There’s lots of national and world news, there’s lots and lots and lots of news.

Joan and Tony have been off on another one of their jaunts. They’ve spent the last week or so bumming around Paris, and Andrew and I were anticipating having them stay here for a few days to recoup from their transatlantic flight before taking a transpacific flight back home. We had even gone so far as to plan a minor soiree on Monday. Andrew has the day off, they were going to take a jaunt to the market, snoop around for a bit then come back with stuffs for dinner which we would all enjoy in the company of my parents and a couple of other folks once I got back from work.

This morning Andrew and I laid our plans to prepare for guests. Andrew would go out and do the shopping and running around while I would stay home cleaning things and getting the guest room ready.
To the point where I even just got back from making a quick dash up to Value Village to drop off the accumulated scurf that has been collecting in the guest room since our last donation run about six months ago.

Remember that bit about listening to NPR a lot?

On my way to work yesterday morning I was listening to the morning news and to the segments on Morning Edition about the Icelandic volcano that has disrupted air travel all over Europe. Yesterday evening Andrew and were talking about a segment on The World that was basically an interview with one of their reporters who was stuck in London because of the vog. The kicker to this interview was that the reporter being interviewed was not too put out to having been stranded in London, London being a nice place to be and all, but he was a little anxious as he and his wife were all set to move from Boston to Brussels on Wednesday and their plans were going to have to change dramatically if he couldn’t get back from London. The next segment on The World was all about how the news media aren’t using the name of the volcano that is currently causing all the trouble because no one who isn’t a native Scandinavian has a prayer of being able to pronounce the name. The host of The World even took a prolonged lesson from a colleague at the BBC, but wasn’t really able to pull it off.
All morning this morning, bits on Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, bits on the news, even jokes on Car Talk……
Right. Volcano erupting in Iceland, air travel disrupted all over Europe.

Do you think your parents would like some orange juice? How ’bout bagels, we’ve got all that smoked salmon cream cheese.

It is 4 freakin’ 40 p.m. and Andrew and I only just realized about 15 minutes ago that Joan and Tony won’t be showing up tomorrow afternoon.

Oh well, at least the house is clean.

See, I’m getting smarter already.

Major, MAJOR word nerd cred to the person who can, without resorting to a dictionary or the internet, figure this one out.

The $10 word of the day is: diphyodont

No booby prizes, I’ve already purchased my lifetime quota of electronic yodeling pickles. But if one of you word nerds out there can translate that without help I will by god come up with something appropriate. Probably grape jelly since I’m still up to my eyeballs in it and, oh dear god, the rhubarb is burgeoning, the loganberries and grapes are leafing out, and what in the name of all that is good will I do when summer comes around and I’ve still got 5 gallons or more of various preserves left over from last year?

But that’s beyond the point.

Diphyodont. Work that one out for me.

Oh.
My.
God.
I haven’t had to study like this in almost 20 years. Like, since I was studying for my national board exams.
And I did this to myself voluntarily. On PURPOSE no less. I PAID for this torture. I paid a lot of $dough$ for this torture (well, really only $320 which, considering that I’m getting 16 continuing education credits for it is a pretty damn good price, but still).

Which is not to say that I’m not enjoying the intellectual stimulation, but why, when I KNEW that I had extremely little down time, at a time of year when there are PLENTY of other things that are demanding my time……

Well, I can only conclude that I’m a nutjob.

My interpretation of my performance in class so far (two weeks into an eight week course)?

I do fine with thyroid issues. I’m pretty up to date on diabetes and hypoglycemia. I SUCK at adrenal and parathyroid. Thank GOD we’re moving on to dentistry this week. If, for no other reason, than it means that I can try and put my miserable performance as regards adrenal glands, behind me.

As for the rest of the world as it pertains to chez Us…….
The garden really, REALLY didn’t like the cold and wind snap that we’ve had. The peas are doing okay, the radishes and onions are doing okay, but I’m not sure whether the beans are going to do anything. The front garden is lovely and there are two mysterious patches of tulips coming into bloom that *I* didn’t plant. No idea at all where they came from.
Andrew and I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday taking the train into the market, puttering around the market and then taking the train back home.
Have I mentioned that we’re light rail whores?
Right. The Link rocks. That is *R*O*C*K*S*.
Best trip we’ve had to the market in a LONG time.
Andrew is up to his eyeballs in obsolete computers that he is refurbishing for a local charity. He’d be donating them to this local charity, but every time he and Brother Herman manage to get ahold of each other (which is rare) they can’t manage to actually meet face to face so that Andrew can hand over the refurbished computers. It’s a good thing that Andrew’s man cave is good sized, because otherwise he’d have no space to work.
We are currently in the process of torturing Flit mercilessly. At least that’s her interpretation of the way things are going. About six weeks ago I found an abrasion on the inside of her right front leg which we have been trying, using various means, to keep her away from. At this point we’re down to bandaging the leg, smearing the bandage with foul tasting cream, and keeping Flit on happy drugs. Which makes her stoned, her brother insecure, and me, as Doctor In Residence, switching between annoyed, frustrated, and very sad about the fact that there’s something wrong with the cat that I can’t fix.
Maybe I should be taking those happy drugs too.
Except I know that they’d interfere with my performance in class. 🙄