They closed the forest

Lincoln National Forest is closed. No hiking, no camping, no hunting, no nothing.

Formerly living in Arizona, forest and brush fires are kind of common place. It's a different story when your house is literally in the forest and surrounded by trees. I guess the closure order is to reduce the risk of a man-made fire wiping out Cloudcroft, we'll see what happens.

Dog Druggies!

Our standard poodle, Celeste, has a skin problem. Ever since the day we got her she's chewed on her paws and other places on her body. Never enough to draw blood, but constant chewing. We have her on healthy coat non-allergic dog food, she gets bathed with special shampoos, no perfume is used on her, etc. We try to accomodate her, but we just don't get no improvement. (mangled English on purpose, I'm tired)

Today Russet goes to give her an over-the-counter allergy pill that our vet recommended. We're out. And she's chewing pretty bad right now, Russ says pine pollen is a problem right now. Russ recalls a conversation with the vet that it would be alright for the dog to take the allergy pills that Russ is on. So Russ gives Celeste an allergy pill.

The itching/scratching immediately ceases.

Russ takes Celeste to the observatory, takes her for a walk around the grounds, and not once does the poodle plant her butt on the ground to do some unscheduled serious scratching.

So Russet calls the vet. Vet gets upset because she did not say that Celeste could have that pill. But considering the remarkable success of the pill and the lack (so far!) of side effects, it might be a good pill for the dog, so the vet is going to research the pill before pronouncing her blessing on it. It would not be good to solve the skin problem only to find out the pill causes liver damage or something.

Dracula 1897: The Diary

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dracula1897/

Someone has set up an LJ where they are adapting Bram Stoker's Dracula into a daily diary sort of format. They just started up, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.