Philotic Web

Yup. Small version of a pastel I did several years ago.

Are our London Pwebbers safe and sound??

I'm not sure we have any Londoners, unless Yebra is having an ill-timed visit. Fortunately, everyone I know is safe, though!

I'm sure you've posted this elsewhere, Alea, but I'm too lazy to look. When are you hoping to move to Chicago?

Apologies ahead of time but when asked a simple question, I either can't parse it or can and over-answer it; this is going to be a case of over-answering. I'll put the TL;DR version up front, though.

It is my hope to be either there or on my way no later than April of 2012. Super-ideally, I put my two weeks notice in on my birthday and then hit the road.

For the longest time, it was a very casual, if I can make it happen, that'd be awesome sort of approach and that lasted up until I went for the first time in 2007, at which point it was confirmed it is in fact as awesome as I was led to believe it was; I got much more serious then. In 2008, when I was given extra incentive to get the hell out of AZ and sooner rather than later, I started looking into the overall weather patterns. That is, "When is it going to be mostly done snowing?"

The general consensus seemed to be by April it was mostly done, so I went with that as the desired moving month. I kind of want to deal with something familiar (heya, sun!) for as long as possible before getting bombarded with cold stuff. I've lived in a snowy area before but I was 3-4 years old and didn't really have to go anywhere or do anything then. (Also, if I'm being honest, I am hoping to have, at the very least, some minor dating stuff going on because I am really wanting to kiss a boy in the snow and will need all the time I can get to convince a boy he wants to help me accomplish that.)

The 2012 comes from wanting to be out of my house before 30 (and not cutting it by the teeth before 30) and also wanting to move with an emergency fund no smaller than $20K, to make sure I could take care of myself if job troubles presented themselves. I have that, as of last month, so now it's just a matter of getting offered a job. I applied to one position (don't expect to get it) but am sticking with my original plan to really hit the applying process hard come October.

Have you had that one before? It looks familiar.

I didn't even realize it had changed.

This isn't so much about Kimme, but I do have a question to ask her!

So, do they make allergy shots for dogs? Because my poor pup-pup is basically allergic to being alive. We control for his food allergies, but we can't control everything.

I can't believe I just saw this! Sorry, Helen!

And, yes, they do make immunotherapy injections for dogs. Though, there's a lot of argument about whether they work. They're also a lifelong committment.

How often/how much steroid do you have him on? That's the criteria our dermatologists use for when to start pushing allergy shots. Usually they start talking allergy shots when the dog is on an anti-inflammatory dose of pred for more than 4-6 months out of 12.

Our vet just said to give him benadryl. He takes 75mg a day, and more when he has a flare-up.

(We can only feed him one dog food, Nutro Natural Choice Grain Free Venison and Potato. Not any other kind under any circumstances or he has hives and/or diarrhea and vomiting. If the store is out of that I have to just approximate some dog food on my own.)

Oooh! Kimmie! While you're taking veterinarian-type questions, any good tips on preventing hairballs? Oh. My. God. We've never had a season like this before. It's horrible for all of us. I'm trying to brush them more regularly, but it's a losing battle.

Helen, if you're still on just benedryl, you're doing ok! The food allergies definitely suck and they're super hard to deal with, but immunotherapy generally doesn't work for them anyway. Good luck!

Kirsten... I wish I had good hairball advice for you! I have a similar problem. I think as hot as it's been even my indoor cats are shedding more, and therefore consuming more hair. Brushing is probably the best way to go, but I totally get how impossible that is. Like, I know I can't successfully brush my cats every other day (or even weekly) and not just blow our relationship all to hell. I tried switching them to a hairball formula food. It's supposed to help move the hairballs along the GI tract. My cats refused to eat it. I have upped their canned food intake (and decreased their dry food intake) to get more water in them and help keep the hairballs from getting as ball-y and hopefully pass more easily. You could also consider getting something like Laxatone, which is this fishy paste stuff you rub on their tongues, to help lubricate the hair balls and get them going the right direction. (But, much like brushing, this tends to be a relationship damaging exercise.)

He still gets hives about once a week for some unknown reason. Poor pup only has about half his fur at any given time.

Our vet just said to give him benadryl. He takes 75mg a day, and more when he has a flare-up.

(We can only feed him one dog food, Nutro Natural Choice Grain Free Venison and Potato. Not any other kind under any circumstances or he has hives and/or diarrhea and vomiting. If the store is out of that I have to just approximate some dog food on my own.)

The vet I worked at said Benadryl actually makes allergies worse over time, She suggested i use chlorpheniramine. It stops the allergy reaction without making it worse.
Be careful with the Nutro Naturals, We had our dog on the Venison and Brown rice because of food allergies and sensitive stomach, but they changes their formula when they were purchased but some big dog food company and she started getting terrible hot spots so we had to switch again

Helen- have you tried any of the prescription allergy dog foods? Purina HA is soy based and hydrolyzed, Hill's Z/D is chicken based and hydrolyzed (supposedly proteins less than 10,000 kDa aren't supposed to get an immune response... though, there's only been one study so, take that with a grain of salt). I know Royal Canin also has some allergy diets, though they don't market at us as heavily, so I'd have to actually hit the books to look up their products.


Teresa- I've never heard that about Benedryl! I'll have to do a lit search. The practice I work at generally goes Benedryl --> chlorpheneramine --> pred --> cyclosporine.

We have a running list of "bad foods", "questionable foods", and "safe foods". I wish I had that list right now! We've found that a lot of the allergy diets have tomato or rice. Both of those are on his bad food list.

The vet hasn't discussed alternate foods with us much because we found a food that works for him. He's mentioned that he thinks there are environmental allergies, too, like grass.

I started out with my dog on Diamond naturals when she was a puppy, but she would get bouts of diarrhea every few weeks, possibly because she had giardia as a pup. I brought it up to my crappy vet and they put her on Royal Cannin digestive health. The first three ingredients are corn and corn byproducts, apparently my dog is very allergic to corn... Lots of hot spots and missing hair later we switched to Nutro, and after they changed the formula we put her on California Naturals herring and sweet potato. She i happy and heathy which makes me happy.

Since this has turned into Vet corner, is there any reason that a cat would shed continually all year round. My cat sheds like a beast no matter what. For the first six years we had her, she was very much an indoor cat. Since my family moved and cat proofed the yard, she has been allowed outside for the past for 4-5 years. Doesn't matter. Massive amounts of hair every where. Brushing is a no go because she hates the brush. We can brush her fine until she actually sees the brush. I don't understand why her hairballs aren't worse either, because she is constantly cleaning.

Kimmie -- thanks. It's good to know there's not an obvious solution that I'm just missing, at least. I tried the paste about a year ago, and Tara -- who will happily lick things like salsa or grapefruit off of my fingers -- pretty much ran from the room screaming. Ugh.

The good news is that they don't hate being brushed. I have pretty good luck teaching them to enjoy (or, at least, tolerate) grooming. They barely even notice when I clip their claws. But they won't necessarily sit for brushing, either, and I forget a lot (although, I've definitely been doing it a lot more lately. At least a couple of times a week).

Although, in fun kitty-cat news, I have been working fairly successfully at teaching Reece to sit. Tara is not taking to it quite so well.

I'm not sure we have any Londoners, unless Yebra is having an ill-timed visit. Fortunately, everyone I know is safe, though!

Actually I've just moved back down here (mooching a place to live off the folks while I do my Masters) but it happens I was out of country at the time so all's well (also it was all a few miles down the road). Weird to see places I know on the news like that though.

Although, in fun kitty-cat news, I have been working fairly successfully at teaching Reece to sit. Tara is not taking to it quite so well.

Are you taking advantage of your free ride from changing the litter box while pregnant? I loved that part.

We can only feed him one dog food, Nutro Natural Choice Grain Free Venison and Potato.

Man, I think everyone on here must have an animal with food allergies. Our Holly is allergic to a lot of foods, too. We feed her a salmon and rice formula, unfortunately it makes her breath fishy. The other two eat the same thing (it's much easier), but Holly's the only one with the allergy.

Although, in fun kitty-cat news, I have been working fairly successfully at teaching Reece to sit. Tara is not taking to it quite so well.

Are you taking advantage of your free ride from changing the litter box while pregnant? I loved that part.

Oh, totally. It is AWESOME. I plan to continue that from here on out if I can get away with it. I mean, there's always a CHANCE I could be pregnant.

(You also probably have had cats long enough that if your indoor only cats have toxo, you have already had an acute infection and therefore are not at risk of any of the birth defects associated with it... but, even though I know this, I'm totally going to play that up.)

(You also probably have had cats long enough that if your indoor only cats have toxo, you have already had an acute infection and therefore are not at risk of any of the birth defects associated with it... but, even though I know this, I'm totally going to play that up.)

(I know. Teeheeeheee. That's part of what makes it awesome. I did mention that to Donny, once, so it's not totally unfair, but pregnant-wife paranoia totally won out and I didn't argue terribly hard.)

Hey Cezen: how should I be pronouncing your username?

I HAD A QUESTION LAST NIGHT (for Steph, I think), BUT I FORGOT IT.

ALSO I'M TYPING IN CAPS.

Hey Adam, you said in your interview that you've worked on several different reality shows over the years. You've mentioned before that you worked on American Idol and it used to be in your location. What other shows have you worked on, if you don't mind saying in a public space? Favorites? Any you couldn't stand? Also would your name appear in the credits for these shows?

(Personally, I think you need your own thread for this stuff like Kelly has. )

Brian, but most likely Steph:

We just got our Guinness World Records 2012 and there was no Brian in it. Did you guys not get the witness issue resolved in time?

no comment * 3 and yes my name is in the credits.

I know Kelly isn't worried about divulging stuff here, but on my latest show I signed an NDA that penalizes from $500,000 to $1,000,000 if I inadvertently reveal something about anything, so no thread.

That's totally legit, Adam. I too, have signed non-disclosure agreements and have things about my job or former jobs that I would never, ever discuss here or anywhere else.

Brian, but most likely Steph:

We just got our Guinness World Records 2012 and there was no Brian in it. Did you guys not get the witness issue resolved in time?

It's still not resolved. His case worker is really bad about being at her desk and returning messages. And unfortunately, Guinness doesn't do books as a year book of records.....they just put together a "pretty" book every year. Earning a record doesn't guarantee being printed in the book or even on the website. Guinness is kind of elitist and it's pretty frustrating.

I wonder what the record is for holding a record the longest before it's printed in the book.

Are they trying to imply Brian isn't pretty...?

I didn't know that's how it worked. How stupid and inaccurate, not to mention incomplete.

Josh, why do you sniff all the time? Are you a cocaine addict?

I admit nothing!

Kelly, how long have you lived in your apartment?