Kitty Rulz, Dog Droolz

So SarahK and Rachel Lucas (no relation) are having a dog war, and I want to challenge someone to a cute kitty war. Anyone? Anyone?

We have Princess Sophie:

And Fierce Sophie (Tyra would be proud):

We have Oliver:

And the newest addition to our herd - Sassy, a sweet white & gray kitty who was born to a stray (Tiny) that has adopted us.

Sassy was actually part of a litter of two - she had a sister, Dolly, who we haven't seen for a week or so. Poor little pink-nosed Dolly - I hope she found her way to a friendly home. Darn it, I get so attached to these little critters, so fast!

Ollie has taken Sassy under his wing - uh, paw - though. They're big buddies.

As you might expect, Ollie's OTHER big buddy, Sophie, is a little miffed about this. So she's not sure what to do about Sassy. She hisses at her occasionally, but usually just runs away from her and pouts. And she DOES NOT let Sass share her shoes.

So, anybody want to take on my brood in a challenge of cuteness?

Father's Day & Mother's Day, both a little late

I meant to do this on Mother's Day, but I had some evil test or another - or, now that I think about it, I believe I had just finished a set of blocks and was still in post-block stupor. (A phenomenon, by the way, with which only medical students can identify - or maybe all professional students in the sciences (dental students, pharmacy students, physical therapy students) - I don't know. Anyway, what happens to me and some members of my class is that after we have exams, we can't seem to form coherent sentences. They come out sounding like Steve Martin's water-smudged "Dear John" letter from Bernadette Peters in The Jerk* - "I meant to tell you that blah bluh blee, and then we can bloo blah." And then one stares into space for about seven minutes. Sometimes we would go out for lunch after our last exam, and I would have a horrible time ordering. "I'd like a guacamole side plate of tomato dressing, I mean, a salad with extra plates and side guacamole on the dressed tomatoes, I mean, a plate of salad with extra tomatoes, dressing on the side and guacamole no. Oh well, that's good enough." Poor waitresses. No wonder we make them run away. And strangely enough, when I'm speaking post-test jibberish, other medical students can understand me.)

Enough about that. Then I meant to do this for Father's Day yesterday, but I was busy hanging out with my dad in between naps. (His naps and my naps!) So, I love my mom and dad to pieces and wanted to say so. Here's some pictures of wee Kim with Mom and with Dad (I think you can figure out which is which.) Forgive Dad's unfortunate hair - it was the 70s, after all. And wasn't my Mom so pretty? That's probably what I was trying to tell her.

Or maybe I was saying, "I want a cat." Or, "My pancreas hurts." Or, "What's an anxiety disorder?" Speaking of anxiety disorders and my pancreas, my parents are so understanding and helpful when I'm hurting, mentally or physically. I know that when I hurt, they hurt, and when my heart breaks, theirs breaks twice as much. I will never be able to pay them back for all that they have given me, and I love them dearly. By example, my Mom has taught me compassion, generosity and the importance of family. (And also how to cook stuff.) And Dad is my definition of hard work, responsibility and sacrifice. He's a great businessman and I am totally going to enlist his help in building my own medical practice if I ever decide to do so.

They both make me feel very loved and cared for, and I hope they know that I love them right back. From then to now ...

* Here's a mp3 if you haven't heard that scene. (Right click and "save target as", as usual.) There's some other great quotes from the movie here at "got wavs?" - man, that's a funny movie. Maybe I should watch it again.

Sometimes, I'm still a Clay Aiken fangirl.

Once a Clay Aiken fangirl, always a Clay Aiken fangirl - I guess. I mean, I'm not as looney tunes as these people, and I usually point and laugh at all of their video montages (seriously, if these people used their time and talents more constructively, I wonder what they could get done?) But this one is so pretty - particularly from 3:20 to the end - and I like the song (Ordinary World by Katharine McPhee.) Clay does make me smile, I have to admit. But I don't want to have a million of his babies or stalk him around the country. Nor do I want my first thoughts to be like this:

I woke up this morning wondering what Clay will wear for the Hard Place Tour this summer. I'd love to see him in some beautifully fitting soft linen pants (unlined of course) and a gauzy shirt tucked in (no undershirt) with the sleeves rolled up and at least three buttons open at the top.

Ack.

This reminds me - Mia? Corrie? Misfit? Katrina? Jodi? Karen? Are y'all still reading? I was thinking of you today.

Random nostalgia for Arrested Development

Gob is accidentally working a day in his life (as a waiter), and charming up the customers:

G.O.B.: If you didn’t have adult onset diabetes, I wouldn’t mind giving you a little sugar.
Mrs. Van Skoyk: Oh, G.O.B... you could charm the black off a telegram boy.
Voiceover, aka Ron Howard: We'll just tell you now - she's the one who dies.

Ah, Arrested Development. How I miss ye, especially your blatant self-promotion in this S.O.B. (Save Our Bluths) episode. It's a good thing you're on G4, even if it is a confusing station for you to be on.

Also, holy crap on a stick, the USMLE Step One is HARD, y'all. But I am done, done, done!!! Now let's just hope I didn't screw it up TOO badly. I'll elaborate more later, but not so much that the USMLE will send their goons to my house to beat up my entire family (including the kittens who live out back.) The USMLE people are mean like that. They'd probably beat up kittens.

Political talk

Mom: I saw some polls on the news - in the national poll, Hillary was first among the Democrats ...
Me: They're idiots if they give Hillary the nomination.
Mom: ... and Fred Thompson was third among the Republicans.
Me: Yay!
Mom: Then they had a state-by-state poll, and John Edwards was first ...
Me: Boo.
Mom: And Mitt Romney.
Me: Well.
Mom: It was a state-by-state poll, you know, for the carcasses.
Me: Ha ha ha ha.

She meant caucuses. Caucusi? What's the plural of caucus? Don't tell me, I don't have room for that information until Wednesday evening.

Amusing ringtones and some health issues

We were in a biostatistics/epidemiology lecture for our Step One review course yesterday, and our professor's phone went off (it happens often when the instructor is an M.D.) and his ringtone was Alright by Janet Jackson. BWAH. He said, "Janet Jackson. I live in the 80s." And we all laughed, so he explained to whoever was on the phone, "My ringtone is Alright by Janet Jackson." That was probably the most awesome thing that happened in my life yesterday. (Isn't that sad? Oh my gosh.)

Probably TMI

Oh! And I think I peed out a kidney stone. I've been having some right flank pain and UTI symptoms (the whole burning pain, frequency, urgency, etc.) and the pain kind of moved from my right side to my right lower abdomen, so I diagnosed myself with some sort of ovarian malady. I also felt like I was going to barf for a couple of days (I attributed that to nervous stomach, since I have this giant beast of an exam hanging over my head and getting ever closer.) Then yesterday, I found myself peeing out something that looked like a wee little dark orangish-red Nerd. (You remember Nerds, don't you?) I think I blunted the pain over the past few days because my pancreas has been hurting so I've been taking my trusty Vicodin, but that kidney stone continued to hurt through the Vicodin HP. Wow. Those things must really suck if you don't have a narcotic.

/Probably TMI

And finally, someone made me laugh while I was trying to eat lunch, and my epiglottis malfunctioned and I ended up with cheeseburger lung.

And that's all I've got for now.

Yay! Feedblitz will work!

I've been tinkering with my messed-up RSS feed for awhile now. Since I switched to the new Blogger (erstwhile Blogger beta), my RSS feed has stopped updating. I discovered that it is because, since I publish on my own server instead of Blogger's, that they hate me. Not really. But Blogger hasn't worked out the kinks to get FTP publishers' RSS feeds to update like they're supposed to, and that made my Feedblitz service come to a screeching halt.

So I created another Blogger blog - published on their server - just for Ramble Strip updates. And I called it, creatively, Ramble Strip Updates. When I post something new on THIS blog, I post a link to the new post on the Updates blog (which is the RSS feed that Feedblitz uses now), and then my Feedblitz subscribers get an email that I've updated, with a link to the new post. Yay!

So you can subscribe via Feedblitz now, if you want to know when I've updated. Feedblitz doesn't spam - they will only send you an email when I post something new. There's a button in yonder sidebar if you're interested.

Also, here's a picture of my gloriously dorky class (well, some of the class) and our beloved First Aid for the USMLE Step One books. I ::heart:: these people. There's this kinship when you go through something crappy with other people, you know? And if I don't pass Step One next week (ack! Next week!) and end up in a class that does not include these guys - it will just be wrong.

Doctors who are nice. I like that.

I was reading through the comments on Kevin, M.D. for the post in which he mentioned my unfortunate incident with an evil hair-removal laser that burned and scarred me and a dermatologist who must have been absent on the day they taught ethics, and I read this comment that I wanted to bring over here for posterity. I would LOVE to know which physician that knows me took the time to post this in my defense - it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I know this woman. I am a doctor. I can't believe that after seeing the pictures, untouched, of an 18 year old woman with facial disfigurement, that anyone has the right to critique the patient! Yes, all procedures have risks - this case of substandard care was artificially absolved as follow-up care for a major burn with keloid scarring was remediated. However, the patient did trust that the ethically correct move was being made in this regard and the physician mocked her by dropping all guilt as soon as "time for a lawsuit is up!" This is an outrage and a sadness to a profession. Knowing the patient's character and decency, I assure you that the blog is meant as a warning, not as a critique among all physicians. It is also meant as a testament to the standard of care of which SHE chooses to practice after medical school.

SarahK wants you to see if you should be gluten-free. And other things.

SarahK, my favorite person with blunted intestinal villi, wants you to know if you should be gluten-free. So go take this quiz, and talk to your doctor if you score high.

/PSA

The other day, while we were in our Step One review course? Someone slapped a cheeseburger (cheese-side down) on Christy's car window. I really don't know what would motivate someone to do that type of thing. I mean, if I have a cheeseburger, it's going in my mouth - not on someone else's plexi-glass. What a waste of some good saturated fat. She could have told you this herself (and it would have been funnier, because she is funnier than I am) but I can't get her to blog with me. She seems focused on this test - this USMLE board exam - most important test of our lives or some such mumbo-jumbo.

So, I finally broke down and bought a pair of MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) shoes from Bliss. They're supposed to help tone your butt and legs - I'll let you know in about a month if it was a crazy purchase. But I can tell you that they are VERY comfortable - and that they look like orthopedic shoes. If they work, though, it will be worth it.

Scott is finally on Facebook. Yay!

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - and meh. Waaaaay too long with a convoluted plot. I fell asleep for awhile, and then actually left the theater and walked to Coldstone Creamery nearby to see what time they closed. (I really needed a Cheesecake Fantasy, and I managed to get one after all of the swashbuckling finally ended, with about three minutes to spare.) Johnny Depp, of course, was entertaining and all kinds of pretty - and I still think Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the best movie characters of all time. But in my opinion, the rest of the film fell apart around him. Scott and I are seeing Shrek the Third tonight - I'll let you know how that goes.

Okay, I need to hit the Kaplan QBank. Hard.