Adoption

This past summer we adopted our amazing dog Lilah from a doggy foster mom named Shilpa. Shilpa had rescued Lilah from the Liberty Humane Society. When we got Lilah, Shilpa told us that we would need to go to the vet to have Lilah’s rash checked on (Shilpa had Lilah less than a week and was using topical cream which seemed to help a bit on the rash).

Here is a pic of the first day we got Lilah, notice the rash on her right rear leg.

Treatment, Take 1

We took Lilah to the Vet and they did a scan of Lilah’s rash with a florescent light which did not show any fungal infections.  This fluorescent light method will not catch all fungal infections.  Our vet, Dr. Jay (who we absolutely love BTW) from Twin River’s Animal Hospital in NJ put Lilah on Prednisone.  The Prednisone greatly reduced the rash when she was on the full dose twice a day.  As soon as we would back-off the medicine to a single dose a day, the rash would come back in full force.  We went on another full round of Prednisone, and we were told by Dr Jay if that did not work we should go to a dermatologist for a second opinion. The second round of Prednisone had the same effect: great when on full strength but the rash came back as soon as we used lower doses.

Time for the Doggy Dermatologist

We then took Lilah to the wonderful people at Garden State Veterinary Specialists in Tinton Falls NJ (as of this posting they are also taking care of Patrick another inspiring story that is worth a look). Dr. Kathleen Kalaher, the GSVS dermatologist took care of Lilah.  Dr. Kalaher informed us that this could be ringworm, but that is rare in dogs in comparison to other animals such as cats.  At this point we were informed that we should keep Lilah away from people and other dogs until we figured out the root cause.  This was tough being around the holidays.  Dr. Kalaher did a fungal culture which came back positive. Lilah had ringworm. Later, Dr. Kalaher sent the scrapings out to get an exact strand of ringworm and it was Trichophyton.

When we were waiting for the results of the first fungal culture I looked on the internet to find pictures of Dog Ringworm and I found the same pictures over and over and none of them really looked like Lilah’s.  I vowed that once we got through our case of ringworm that I would post pictures for other people to see (that’s what you are reading now!). The other thing that was odd was that my wife and I never got ringworm and we are always hugging, kissing, and overall glomming Lilah.

Treatment, Take 2

The treatment was done with several 14 day intervals of Fluconazole.  We originally purchased the Fluconazole from Walgreens and it cost over $200, but I just got it since I was in a rush to get Lilah better.  There was no time to price shop. It turns out that Sam’s club and other places had the same thing for around $50!  So if you have to get these meds, shop around!  A few phone calls could save you major $.

Lilah Gets Cured!

The treatment took about two months and now Lilah is 100% cured! Her hair has grown back without any scaring! We had several fungal cultures done afterwards and they all came back negative.

Photos

I have a full set of photos of Lilah’s leg on flickr but here is a quick rundown here.

First day with Lilah

The rash gets better than worse once the Prednisone wears off

Here is where the rash was “sort of” getting better

Sometime during the start of treatment with Fluconazole (the rash was wider by this time) – some hair coming back (see the white)

Today (this is many months later but it has been cured for quite some time).  Amazing recovery!

One last one of us down at the Asbury Park Boardwalk.  She’s awesome!  Thank you Shilpa, Dr. Ajay Madaan (Dr. Jay) and Dr. Kathleen Kalaher you have made our family very happy!

Server 2008 with iTunes 8 installed.  This machine is where I store all of my music, photos, videos, and other entertainment related files.  The interesting thing is that I also use this server to wirelessly broadcast my iTunes music digitally to my kick-ass home studio setup (a Benchmark DAC1, Coleman Audio M3, Quested Powered F11As, and a REL Subwoofer). The setup that I am about to describe should work equally as well for those of you who have any kind of audio playback equipment that has an optical audio input.

The setup is simple.  I bought a Shuttle XPC SD30G2B and a RocketRaid 1740 card off of NewEgg.com.  Here is the machine stashed away behind some of my other gear.  The server has no monitor attached and I use Remote Desktop to connect to it.  The other key component is the Apple Airport Express which has a digital audio out.

When I launch iTunes, it get the following error message, since the onboard audio card is not configured properly (I believe that is because I do not have anything hooked up to the onboard audio card).  This message can be ignored.

After iTunes launches you can choose the Airport Express from the dropdown list on the bottom of iTunes.  You only have to do this once, if your Airport Express is always plugged in.

Here is the Benchmark DAC1 (on the bottom of the rack) set to its optical input with it’s blue status light lit up.  The blue status light will light up on the Benchmark DAC1 as long as something is playing from iTunes.

This area also doubles as my home office, where I work as an independent Software Development Consultant.  I get to listen to music on a kick-ass system while coding!

The setup is also very reliable, Windows Server 2008 is rock solid and so is the Airport Express.  One last note: Originally I had setup Windows Home Server but it has file corruption issues, so I highly recommend staying away from WHS.

EDIT: 7/24/2009 – This does not work when you try to use the physical soundcard connected to the server.

I just tried switching from using AirTunes to a physical sound card on the Server and it does not work when using via RDP (Remote Desktop).  When I RDP into the server and click on Control Panel –> Sound, I see a message: “No audio devices are installed”.  If I log on locally at the physical computer, I can see all of the devices fine.

It turns out that this is “by design” and choosing “Leave at Remote Computer” in Remote Desktop is ignored by Windows Server 2008 x64″.  Here is a link to the KB article and a thread on the TechNet forums describing this.

So, at least for the time being, I can still play iTunes from the server to AirTunes, even when logged into the server via Remote Desktop.

Cheers,
Jon

We found out about CBO when Nicole ran into one of our friends Jen who happens to work at CBO.

We always start off the night with the excellent Arugula salad and  bruschetta with fresh mozzarella.

I took this picture of the two pies we got tonight on my iPhone.  Nicole usually orders a Pattie Pie on wheat – easy on the cheese  (pictured on top). A Patti Pie is basically a gourmet pizza topped with bruschetta.  I keep it real and order a Sausage and Peppers Pie (pictured on the bottom).  I keep it unreal by getting it on wheat as well:)

The night is capped off with fresh cookies from the amazing bakery next door to CBO.

On Saturday morning I eat all the left over’s.  If you live in Jersey or come to visit, come check out CBO for that great pizza indulgence without the “I shouldn’t have ate that” feeling afterwards.

Addition 8/23/2010: Neil the owner of CBO found this blog article, thanked me for the kind words, and asked me to do a website for his additional location in Middletown/Red Bank, NJ.  His new restaurant has a slightly different name: “CIBO” (Coal Infused Brick Oven) and the website is here: www.cibopizzacafe.com