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Suzie is a rescue dalmation that we saved last year. When we got her, we noticed a small lesion on her stomach which turned out to be cancerous. We had our vet remove it via surgery and thought that it was all gone; however, she has a new lesion about the size of a dime on the other side now. We have scheduled another surgery at our vet for next week. Has anyone out there experienced a similar problem with their dal? We are saddened, as expected, and worry whether we're doing the right thing or not. Any suggestions? I am attaching a picture. We look forward to any responses!

It's hard to believe it's been nearly six years since the unjust gassing of Firefly. Now, possibly out of some kind of penance (or corporate ratings calculation), Fox has given genre master Joss Whedon another shot at major network exposure. This time around, Whedon has traded in spaceships for hot chicks in a unique sci-fi outing called Dollhouse. The premise of Dollhouse is that a group of young women have their minds and bodies reprogrammed by the secret titular organization for various reasons. Sometimes they're killers, sometimes they're fantasy dates. I'm sure as the series progresses we'll get to see any number of other applications of the technology, especially considering that this is a story tailor-made for stand-alone canned episodes. There are plenty of familiar faces in the cast of Dollhouse, and with good reason. Whedon's last outing with Fox had a stellar cast (no pun intended), but many of them came from the fringes of television and independent film. They were recognizable but they weren't draws for TV audiences. Such is not the case this time around. Star Eliza Dushku may have gotten her big break from Joss Whedon as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer but we've seen plenty of her since then. By taking on the role of "Echo" Dushku has cemented herself as what Farscape star Claudia Black referred to as a "sci-fi babe". Despite the extremely short run of Tru Calling, Dushku proved herself capable of taking on a lead role with nuance. It'll be interesting to see Whedon push her boundaries. Aside from the requisite Buffy alum, Whedon has pulled his cast from some high-profile corners of film and television. Those of you who are already sci-fi fans should recognize the actor playing FBI Agent Paul Smith. It's Tahmoh Penikett, aka Karl "Helo" Agathon of Battlestar Galactica. Among others are Harry Lennix of 24 and Enver Gjokaj of The Unit. Fans of Joss Whedon (and there are many) have come to expact a certain balance of drama and humor from his work. Dollhouse itself is being billed as a drama, but seeing as it's a Mutant Enemy production I suspect it'll be as much a dramedy as other modern favorites like House. Whedon is not only the chief writer on this project, he'll also be directing a nice chunk of the first season episodes. Because the guy can't ever seem to be too busy, Whedon will also be putting together a slew of webisodes that are reported to come out on a weekly basis. Set to debut on Februrary 19th after another one of Fox's sci-fi gambles, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse is chock-full of promise. It'll be slick and sexy so it's likely to last longer than Firefly on sheer visual awe, be it the stunning set pieces or the flesh that inhabits them. Were the show in somebody else's hands I wouldn't have much faith that Dollhouse would be worth the timeslot when this year's TV schedule is already near critical mass for speculative fiction. But this is Joss Whedon we're talking about. He's yet to let us viewers down, even when we can't say the same for the networks that air his shows.

People often talk about "dry wine" as something markedly special. You'll sometimes hear people use the word "dry" in reference to wine as a synonym for excellent. In an informal survey of academics at a party where all of them were drinking wine, and considered themselves fairly knowledgeable about wine, three people told me that a dry wine was an aged wine; two people told me dry wine was put on the labels of high quality white wines.

They were wrong, of course. "Dry," for wine, or beer, refers to the fact that the beverage is comparatively low in sugar because fermentation has converted the natural sugar of the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Sometimes the process is referred to as "fermenting out" the sugar. The naturally occurring yeast that causes fermenting has consumed the sugar and converted it to alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat. The wine master ordinarily stops the fermentation before the sugar is consumed, but in order to make a dry wine, the yeast is allowed to do what it does best. In Europe the law stipulates that in order to be labeled "dry" the final wine is .4% or less (that's 4 grams per liter).

In order to make non-dry or "sweet" wine, the winery may add sweet grape juice (or juice concentrate) back to a dry wine; this is typically done in order to increase the alcohol content, rather than to make it taste sweeter. In California, winemakers are legally prohibited from adding sugar to wine. Other ways include adding additional alcohol to the wine, which is how Port or other "fortified" wines are made, or, most commonly, by stopping the natural fermentation process by adding sulfur to the wine, or cooling it to the point that the yeast can't survive, or a combination of both. Then of course, with the right sorts of wine, bottle aging tends to increase the dryness of a wine.

In English, you'll notice wine labels with "dry" or sometimes "Extra Dry" as a description; you may note sec, trocken, secco, or asciutto, on imported wines. The very dry wines often have a lovely character, but they can take a bit of getting used to if you typically drink Rieslings or other, sweeter wines. Keep in mind that most red table wines are dry by nature, even if they lack a label to that effect. Your Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon are likely dry.

You don't have to make the transition all at once, though. The Chateau Ste Michelle Dry Riesling, for example, retains much of the character and robustness of their traditional Riesling, just without quite so much sweetness. This makes it awfully nice with food, especially zesty, spicy, rich, or salty dishes. And gives you a chance to experiment with a wine that's familiar, extremely drinkable, but a good deal less sweet.

Very dry wines are also excellent to cook with, for making fondue, marinades, dressings, and reductions, because they're very flavorful without becoming syrupy. The process of experimenting is half the fun of buying and consuming unfamiliar wine, of course.

Who isn’t always looking for the next latest and greatest bargain to found?

Exactly! We all are, myself included, always on the prowl for the next big deal to be found. And to put it bluntly, online shopping will almost certainly yield to you the best deals to be found, in most cases. There are ample reasons behind why e-shopping is a deal finder and a money saver. Namely, because websites tend to have far less overhead or associated costs involved in their management and day to day operations than any local retail establishment does. This lowered cost of operations, combined with wholesale product acquisition, makes for some pretty sweet deals—deals that are passed on down to you and me: the avid and anxious, deal-ready consumer!

Finding Online Deals is Easily Done During the early days of ecommerce and the internet, finding deals online was far more tedious than it is in the technology laden world of today. These days, finding the best online deals sometimes simply means opening up your browser to a major search engine and querying the product or service that you are seeking. Then the consumer has their choice of merchants and ads to peruse, deciding which website or company has the deal that they desire. For sure, online shopping is the new medium of the deal fancying protagonist, and will be until the end of days, thanks to this new electronic internet medium. Things to Look for in Online Merchants There are some things that you want to assure are prevalent in any online merchant that you choose to do business with. First and foremost, assure that their website is protected from hackers by a big online security company that verifies that the site is safe to use every hour of every day; most sites will have a security badge that you can click to verify. Secondly, read up about them online and try to find customer reviews, so you can see what others have to say about their experiences with this company. And finally, make sure they offer free shipping and have a good returns policy, so you don’t have to fret about extra costs or returning defective items.

What is a Shopping Comparison Search Engine? The best way that you can go about finding the best deals online is by utilizing the power of a shopping comparison search engine. These are basically e-shopping search engines that thousands of online merchants pay a fee to be listed under. You simply type in the keywords of the product or service that you are seeking and they match you up with several merchants, compare the prices offered and even provide a star rating for customer feedback. This is the best way to find the best online shopping deals to ever be had. And you can know that you are dealing with an ethical and rated merchant. Shopping comparison search engines can save you hours of time that would otherwise be spent researching different ecommerce sites on your own. And, you will not find better deals or better rated merchants anywhere else. Some good shopping comparison search engines that I recommend include: netrate.com, bizrate.com, shopping.com and deals.com.