Risa

This is a problem that has been going on for about a year now and occurs about once a month. I have not been able to figure out any correlation with food, allergens, etc. My dog will randomly repeatedly lick the air and swallow/gulp rapidly typically for several days. My dog (pit bull mix) has allergies so I thought this was some kind of allergy problem but allergy medication did nothing (she’s on a hydrolyzed protein diet for food allergies too). I took her to the vet and she thought it was gastritis and would be solved by taking medication she prescribed me (unfortunately can’t recall the name) for a week followed by six weeks on Prilosec. This seemed to do the trick for a while but the problem has returned. Sometimes accompanied by vomiting, but usually not much. But this time the vomit was white foam and she threw up four times in a few minutes. She seems to be gassy, though I’m not sure if that’s just from ingesting air. I’ve tried feeding her with her dish elevated in case this was GERD but that had no effect. I’ve tried so many times to look this up and all I’ve found is that this is indeed something that happens to some dogs and that veterinarians seem to be unable to solve the problem. There is so little information out there I’m hoping someone has seen/heard of this before and can tell me definitively what it is and how to treat/prevent it. I am taking her back to the vet, but of course this happens on a long weekend. 

I recently started getting into bookbinding, but as I've gotten better I'd like to start making more books and working with leather more as well. I'm wondering if there are any good suppliers of leather and paper suitable for bookbinding, preferably not insanely expensive since I'm still only intermediate. Online or physical stores are both fine, but I'm not sure what physical stores exist around me (Cleveland area). Thanks!

I know pores tend to get larger as you age, but just over the last couple of months, mine have become huge, and I'm only 25. I have never had visible pores before, but now they are so large that the skin on my nose actually looks lumpy. I have been doing a ton of research on how to minimize pores and have been trying clay masks, toners, different face washes, homeopathic remedies, staying extremely well hydrated, etc., but nothing has been helping. Also, everything I have read about large pores seems more focused on getting dirt out to minimize them, but mine are actually really clean, or seem to be. I don't have any blackheads or acne, and whenever I use those Biore nose strips, they're always almost completely clean afterwards. The only thing I will say is I have always had a more oily T-zone, which I know over time can cause pore enlargement. But I don't really understand why this happened so suddenly and so severely. The skin on my nose almost looks deformed because of it, and I feel really self conscious because it's not like I can cover up pores with makeup. I don't want to try anything drastic like a chemical peel or anything yet, and I honestly don't have a ton of money, so I'm mostly looking for people who may have experienced/are experiencing a similar situation (sudden and drastic pore enlargement, what seem to be pretty clean pores, slightly oily T-zone) to see if anything has really worked well for you. Thanks in advance for your help, it's much appreciated!

I have had my beardie since October. Even since back then, he has never shown a ton of excitement or interest in food like I've seen from some other beardies. I have always provided him with a varied diet of insects from the beginning (in addition to salad of course), but it has always been a bit of a struggle to get him to eat. I have a nicely sized separate feeding bin for him so he can easily catch his food, but he still would never eat anything that wasn't right in front of him. He won't go after anything ever. I have to place the insects right in front of his nose, and even if they just start crawling away a little bit, he'll look, so I know he can see it, but he won't move to get it. Recently it's been getting worse. He will hardly eat anything, and hasn't eaten at all in two days now. Is it possible that he has been going through brumation since I got him in October (I know they can start in the fall sometimes), and that he is in a deeper brumation now that it's full-on winter? I do keep an eye on the temps in his habitat. There's a nice gradient and it's plenty warm, but I know that doesn't always matter when it comes to brumation. I give him baths regularly, don't overload him with calcium, he goes to the bathroom regularly, etc. I'm just getting a little concerned and wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light on this and perhaps provide some feeding tips to get him to eat more or to be more interested in food. I'd appreciate any helpful tips. Thanks.

My bearded dragon will only eat crickets, as far as protein goes. He actually does eat his greens, so I m not worried about that. He is only about 4-5 months old, so I m trying to make sure he gets his bugs in him, but he will only eat crickets. He won t touch the superworms I ve tried to feed him. And I know mealworms aren t very good for them, but I offered him some just to see if he showed interest. Nothing. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to get him to eat different bugs? I want him to have a varied and balanced diet, and also I can t always get crickets for him to have every day. Thank you.

My left upper eyelid has been twitching for almost 3 months now. I am not stressed out, I have been making extra sure to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night, and I have completely cut caffeine out of my diet (for about two months now) and have not noticed a difference. I haven't really been able to find a possible cause or solution online and was wondering if anyone might have any idea. I am living out of the country right now, which is why I haven't gone to a doctor. While it is EXTREMELY annoying (and does affect the vision in that eye when it's happening), it is not painful or extremely detrimental to my vision. Also, I do not notice any unnatural drooping in the eyelid, so I just assume wait to see my doctor when I return home in another month. However, I just would like to know if anyone else has experienced this and what was the cause/solution. Thank you.

I have applied to the MFA program in Creative Writing at BGSU and still haven't heard from them regarding their decision. I can't seem to get an answer from anyone over there regarding the relative date when they send out decisions. I received decisions from 5 other universities over a month ago now, so I would just like to know around when I can expect to hear from Bowling Green, if anyone happens to have any idea. Thank you.

I have recently been placed on the waitlist for the Creative Writing Program in Poetry at Columbia University. In the email they stated that this waitlist is very small and selective. Of course I would love to actually get in, so I was just wondering if anyone has any idea how small "small" actually is (roughly)? This is mostly for the sake of curiosity, but I guess I kind of want to know how decent or poor my chances are of being accepted from the waitlist. Thank you!

I am currently looking to book a room with Airbnb for Carnival in Cadiz. My only problem is I don't know how to judge what locations are good. Can someone tell me where the main festivities during Carnival take place? Or maybe suggest some good areas to be by during Carnival? I just don't want to book a room that's too far away from where I want to be. Thank you!

I majored in English in college and now I want to make my way toward getting a PhD in English. I remember when I was applying to undergrad schools there were tons of books which gave ratings and descriptions of colleges. I am having a bit of a hard time finding the right graduate school for me, so I was wondering if anyone knows of any good, reliable books containing things like academic ratings and "summaries" of the schools and their programs. Thank you.

I have medium-dark brown eyes and am looking for a pair of green contacts, non prescription. I want them to look as natural as possible, but would like a rich green color (I don't like the yellow-greens and prefer an emerald or jade color that's not super light). I have done a lot of research but everything I have found so far just looks too fake to me. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot!

A long time ago when I was living in Connecticut I got a freakishly large spider in my house. It was about 3 inches long including its legs and it was black. Its abdomen was not particularly bulbous. In fact I would describe the spider as being sleek/slender with long skinny legs and no or very little hair. Also upon trying to catch it in order to take it back outside I discovered that it was an extraordinarily fast runner. After doing some research myself I thought it looked the most similar to some kind of fishing spider, but that is not what it was. Any ideas what kind of spider this could have been?

In about a year I will be going to teach English abroad in Japan. However, while it is not required of me, I would like to learn as much Japanese as I can since I will be living there for a year. However, I am on a very tight budget right now and was wondering if there are any good free websites that teach Japanese? I am pretty good at self-teaching, so if there is a website that has free lessons or something like that, that would be really helpful. Any advice regarding this would be much appreciated! Thanks!

I got my cartilage pierced about a year ago, and it is now fully healed and I want to change the earring. However, I was wondering not only if I can wear a regular 20 gauge earring in that piercing, but if I will be able to get my 18 gauge earring back in the hole after wearing the 20g? Thanks a lot!

I am studying in Barcelona and have been to many stores, but am struggling to find stores that are not super expensive yet not touristy. Two things: I would really like to get a nice pair of (preferably leather) shoes, so I was wondering if anyone knew of a nice shoe store with prices at or under 80 euros. My absolute maximum price would be 100 euros, but the shoes would have to be breathtaking. Second, I want to buy a nice quality fan for my mom. All the stores I have been into have the more touristy fans that are cheap quality. Does anyone know of a store where I can get a beautiful, good quality fan for around 40 euros?

I have always had very good eye sight, but recently I have noticed that when I am sitting in a classroom, sometimes when I go from looking at my notes up to the board, the words on the board are fuzzy and I cannot usually completely focus on them even after looking at them for a while. Also, sometimes while I am looking at something like a website, the words are fuzzy too. Is there any way I can just get non-prescription glasses to help with this? If so, I am not familiar with the different strengths of glasses, so could you please tell me what a very low strength would be?

I just got a brand new laptop and it has been working beautifully for about two months up until a few days ago. Don't make fun of me, but my friend and I went on this baby morphing website to see what our baby would look like just for laughs, and ever since that the internet runs very very very slowly and sometimes doesn't even work. I'm not really sure what happened. I tried using the system restore, but my computer did not create a restoring point previous to when the computer started having problems, so it was basically totally useless. Is there anything I can do to fix my computer and make it go back to how it was before I screwed it up?

I am obsessed with Halloween and the person I want to be has black or really really dark brown hair. I do not want to get a wig - I hate wigs - but I also do not know much about hair dye as I have never colored my hair before. Is there a good wash out dye that, after Halloween, I can wash my hair like 2-3 times and get all the color out? I have reddish-brown hair, not super dark, and like I said am looking to dye it really just for the one night to a very very dark brown, almost black color. Any suggestions?

I love making rice balls (onigiri), but sometimes I make too many for one day or want to make some to have for the next day or two. However, whenever I have refrigerated them, the next day the rice becomes very hard. Is there a better way of keeping rice balls preserved if you are not going to eat them right away or to make them softer after storage in the refrigerator?

I am looking to buy a new computer for EXTREMELY cheap...I have found one online that seems to fit all of my needs, but I am not sure how fast or slow it will run...I don't want to be sitting at my computer for an hour just to look up one thing online. It has 1.40GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, and a 40 gig hard drive. I would just be using it for school...typing papers and surfing the web...I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me if this would be a decent computer or if it's totally not worth it, regardless of the low price. Thanks!