We do live far north, compared to most of the world. It was still a surprise that snow fell this morning.
It was not a lot of snow, just a centimetre, but it was there for a while. Then the snow disappeared a little later today.
Daniel told us there can even be snow in May, though this is rare. I would not want to experience this.
We lit a candle for Viola tonight. The light shone for a long time. Our memories of Viola will live forever.
There is a new Shogun TV series, based on the book by James Clavell. While I do not have much to write about it, I believe Hailey and Polly would have. They were of a Japanese breed and naturally interested in anything Japanese. The TV series has been praised as a very good production. I believe Hailey and Polly would recommend it. You have to make up your own mind.
The first memorial statue of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has been unveiled. It has two dogs of the breed Welsh Corgi at the base. The Queen was also known as a breeder of Welsh Corgis.
I love the fact that these dogs were added to the statue. It adds a greater depth to the image of the late Queen and it highlights the importance that dogs had to her and has to humans in general. It is a great memorial monument of the Queen.
Complications after giving birth. Our dear friend Viola passed away suddenly this afternoon.
Her son is still alive. We hope there is some other bitch out there who can take care of him.
Daniel was at a lodge meeting today, where they had a band who played Brazilian music. I like the fact that it was Latin American music, but I would have preferred Mexican music. You cannot get everything you want. Daniel said it was good anyway.
The EU has issued a new consolidated version of the Regulation (EU) No 576/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals and repealing Regulation (EC) No 998/2003. This is good to know for all humans who go on trips between EU countries and EEA countries with their dogs.
The Swedish Göta Court of Appeals, in a judgment 15 April 2024 (case no. B 73-24), has sentenced a man to prison for smuggling pups from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Sweden. The man had travelled in a bus in the lane for nothing to declare, but had several pups without passports or pedigrees in the back of the bus.
The pups are said to have been Bichon Frisé pups, but without pedigrees, we cannot be certain.
It is good that he has to go to prison, even though I do not agree with the fact that the court of appeals lowered the sentence.
Swedes are weird sometimes. While all of the Catholic world, which includes Mexico, celebrates St. Patrick on the day of his death, the 17 March, Swedes say that the 16 of April is his day. This is today. I would follow the example of the Irish, whose patron saint St. Patrick is, and celebrate on the 17 March.
We are half way through April, and Sweden shows that we live close to the North Pole. We had frost in the morning. There is often winter weather here half of the year.
You should know that the reason people can live a reasonably nice life here in Northern Europe is thanks to the Gulf Stream, which takes warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic Ocean to the west of us. Just like the best dogs come from Mexico, Chihuahuas, the warm water that brings reasonable temperatures to this part of the world come from the Gulf of Mexico. A lot of good things come from Mexico.
Daniel says that one of his favourite songs is I Don’t Wanna Dance by the artist Eddy Grant. In a way, I can fully agree with this. I don’t want to dance. Dance is for humans, not for dogs. We are too dignified to move our bodies in dance. We walk, run, hunt, or sleep, but we don’t dance. We leave dance to our humans.
Archaelogical evidence in South America suggest humans there kept foxes as pets, like modern humans keep dogs. Some foxes were buried together with humans.
Dogs and wolves are the same species. Foxes are closely related to us, but are of a different species. I am not surprised humans do not keep foxes as pets any longer. Dogs are just much better as pets. It is still interesting to read that foxes have been pets in earlier times.
Daniel was away from home last night. He came back again this afternoon, just to leave again. We did not mind, he had an important board meeting to go to tonight. The regional kennel club, where Daniel has a seat, had a meeting. We got to be with Daniel a little later instead. Life is nice.
There was a total Solar Eclipse in North America. Here is a film from Mexico, where you can see what it looked like.
Hailey and Polly were both named for Lunar eclipses, but I believe they would have written about a Solar eclipse as well. The nice thing for me is that the film is from Mexico, where my dog breed is from. I would not have gone to Mexico just to see the eclipse live, though, as I have understood some humans do. There must be better causes to visit Mexico. Meeting more Chihuahuas would be one of them.
Spring is still at least days away. This morning, snow fell. We got so much snow that Daniel went out to shovel some of it away.
We had thaw in the afternoon, but a kotor the snow is still there on the ground.
We will have to see when spring will finally come.
Paula had a croissant tonight. She gave me part of it. Then Viola came along and tried to steal my piece. I fought back. She put up a fight. Daniel separated us. Everyone went mad with Viola.
Viola is a dear friend, but she needs to be better at knowing the difference between what is mine and what is hers.
No, there will be no common holidays in the EU. What I wrote yesterday was an April’s fool’s joke, of course. We will keep our different national holidays and Easter Monday will still be a holiday.
It is fun to make up April’s fool’s jokes, when you get nice ideas. Life gets funnier this way. Humour is healthy for us. It makes life more worth living.
Stay tuned, and stay funny!
There is a suggestion in the EU to further unite the union by having the same public holidays in all countries. This would make it easier to trade between the countries,. You would not have to worry that you work on a day which is a public holiday in the other EU country you trade with, or that you do not work when someone in another EU country want to trade with you.
The public holidays on national holidays will be replaced by a common public holiday on Europe Day, the 9th of May.
Easter Monday will no longer be a public holiday in those EU countries where it is. This is a bad suggestion, in my mind. Easter is an important holiday and I would rather see Easter Monday as a common EU public holiday. You do not have to be Christian to want this, just remember how much Easter candy you will not be able to eat, if you have to work on Easter Monday instead of staying at home and taking it easy. Keep Easter Monday as a public holiday!
In a small town in Mexico, a woman was accused for the death of a little girl, and a lynch mob beat the woman to death. People have protested against the police for not doing their job.
There are times we do not feel proud of Mexico, the land our dog breed Chihuahua come from. Thisis one of those times. People accused for the death of others must be investigated and put on trial in a court of law.
We can only hope no dogs were hurt in the violence.
This Friday is called Long Friday in Sweden. It is because it feels long, when you do not do much, but commemorate the torture and execusion of Jesus. In English, the day is called Good Friday. This sounds better, I believe. The story is the same, of course.
We had a discussion on whether God’s sacrifice on the cross was just for human sins. We believe so, because we cannot say that dogs sin.
Every dog, and every human with a dog, has known this for millenia. Human scientists have now proved it. Dogs can understand words.
It is curious how human scientists sometimes research things that are common knowledge.
There are days when nothing much happens. This was such a day. Daniel was at the office all day, and when he got home, he sat by the computer to play bills. Nothing much else happened either. These days can be nice sometimes, but I felt like doing something today. For some reason, I did not do anything, anyway. I was just bored. We will hope more will happen in the days to come. Easter is coming up, so chances are there will be more to do.
Daniel came home late tonight. He was at a meeting with the encampment in the Order where he is a member. It was a good meeting, he said. We do not really believe him, because there were no dogs at the meeting. Any good meeting is a meeting where dogs are present.
Paula and Daniel went away to Lake Tysslingen today, to watch migrating birds. These birds often have this lake as a stop over on their spring migrations.
I am not sure about the appeal of watching the birds, but humans tend to like it.
What makes birds migrate also puzzles me. It is better just to live in one place, I believe. The migrating birds must have their reasons, but I do not think anyone of them would ever be able to tell me. I guess it will stay a puzzle to me.
Daniel and I watched this nice video on Youtube on a sausage stand in Stockholm. The best part was when a Chihuahua went by and made a success with the film crew.
I would like to get one of those sausages. They seem tasty.
Daniel went to change tyres on the car. It now has summer tyres instead of winter tyres. This is a good sign that it is now spring. We just have to hope there will not be any more snow on a day when we have to go anywhere by car.
We got up earlier than usual today, because Daniel had to go up early to catch a train to Solna. His employer has another office there, and he was scheduled to do a presentation at that office. He came back home in ordinary time.
It was still dark outside when we got out this early. We are used to darkness on the first time outside every day during the winter, but this has changed and the morning light has come back. It was just today that we got up too early for the morning light.
We could go back to sleep, Daniel could not, so he is the one I felt sorry for.
Viola saker me today why I do not write blog entries on news stories as often as Polly or Hailey did. In a way, she has a point. This is not my blog, I am just a custodian of it until an heir of Polly moves in with us and take over. This means I should write the blog in the manner of Hailey and Polly. Still, I have to do it mainly my way. The most important part of my custody of the blog is to keep it going. I cannot do this in a good way, if I have to mimic the way Hailey and Polly blogged. My blog entries must be written my way, otherwise I cannot go on. Viola does not want to take over the responsibility for the blog, so she may keep her critique to herself in the future. She is a great friend, nevertheless.
At an annual meeting tonight, Daniel was not re-elected to the board of the local party organisation. It was his own choice not to stand for re-election after fourteen years. He is glad it is over, even though he has not ruled out a come back some time in the future. Time will tell. We are happy for Daniel, who thinks it is nice to have one less reaponsibility.
Some people write about Saint Patrick on social media. He is the patron saint of Ireland. However, Daniel tells us that in Sweden, we celebrate Saint Patrick on the 16th April. Today is the day of Saint Gertrud in Sweden. This is especially important in our family, since Paula’s mother is called Gertrud. Paula and Daniel have congratulated her on her name day. National traditions are important, and may vary from country to country. In Sweden, we stick to Swedish traditions.
There are times when I would like to do something else, be somewhere else.
On the other paw, I quite like it where I am. Life is good.
Daniel cut his thumb on a knife today, when he cooked dinner. It was not a big cut, but needed a band aid to help stop the bleeding. The trouble is that the band aid sits just at the small area of the thumb, which Daniel uses on touch screens. I am glad my paws hold up better, so I won’t need a band aid on the part of my front paw that I use on touch screens. Band aids are good, but the ability to use touch screens is impaired. I guess the cut is healed tomorrow.
Some humans say that Friday the 13th is a day of bad luck. There is, apparently, some sort of event in European history that took place on a Friday the 13th one year and which was the root for this superstition. Today is Wednesday the 13th. I have never heard anything about bad luck on a Wednesday the 13th. I am not superstitious, we dogs are not. It is just that I find it odd that it is just the combination of the 13th and a Friday that would bring bad luck. Why not a Wednesday? Humans are odd in their beliefs sometimes.
We got some cheese as a late night snack.
Cheese is one of those processed foods that make me glad I am a dog. Our humans make cheese for us, through their ingenuity. If our foremothers had not joined forces with humans, to become dogs, instead of wolves, we would never enjoy cheese. Sure, the meat that wolves eat is great, but as a dog, you have a more diversified diet. This is tastier and, I dare say, healthier.
I wish we would get cheese more often.
Paula is starting a new job today. We wished her good luck before she left.
The first work day was short. There will be longer periods without Paula further on. We are prepared for this. It will be all right.
A paid of Norwegians won the Swedish qualification round for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was a rather nice song and we hope this will give us a lot of Norwegian votes. We are not sure on what grounds people from one country can compete for another country, however. This has happened many times before. We guess there must be some rules connecting the artists, song writers, producers, or anything like that to the country they compete for, but perhaps it is enough to enter and win the qualification round of the country you compete for.
There could be more cross country skiers from Norway competing for Sweden.
From today, Sweden is formally a member of NATO. This was anticipated, but it has taken a long time. Two countries have stalled: Hungary and Turkey. (These country names make me hungry for turkey, but the names are in the pile of positive facts about these countries.) I believe Sweden will not be great friends with the two of them, among all of the other members of the alliance. Stalling what most members want is just silly. It will be different now.
The temperature is going up and down around the freezing point. At night, we have winter, during the day, we have spring. Most of the snow is gone, but there is still frost some of the mornings these days.
It seems like the weather cannot decide on whether there should be winter or spring.
We will have spring, eventually.
Our bed can be folded, so a human can lie down in it or sit up in it. This can be fun. It may also be disturbing for us dogs, if Paula or Daniel decides to rise or lower the bed, when one of us is comfortable on the part which will be moved. For the most part, though, I lie down on parts of the bed which is mostly not moved. It is a bigger problem for Morran, who likes the parts of the bed that are more often moved. She continues to chose those parts of the bed, so I believe her complaints are not very sincere. Going up and down can be fun.
The great Swedish cross country ski classic Vasaloppet was held today. Norwegians won both the gents’ and the ladies’ classes. There have been a lot of Norwegian victories in later years.
We want a Swede to win next year. Morran, as an Affenpinscher, would also like to see a German victory. For us Chihuahuas, we would also be happy if a Mexican would win, but to be fair, this seems very far fetched.
Paula’s father participated, as he usually does, as a hobby skier. He finished far from the top, but at his age, just finishing the race is a great effort. We congratulate him for this!
Paula is not feeling well today. We feel sorry for her and take it easy around her. We wish her well. It is easier for all of us, when everyone is healthy and sound. This is especially true for the one who is feeling sick for the moment, to get well. It must be better soon.
There are times when the year is evenly divided into four seasons. By this division, spring is March, April, and May. Thus, today would be the first day of spring.
We do have temperatures above the freezing point, but some snow and ice is still left on the ground. There may still be more cold weather and snow.
We want spring, but we know we may not really get it yet. Time will tell what happens.
This evening, Viola jumper down from the bed. She usually gets up again soon. This time, however, she misscalculated the jump and missed the bed. Daniel lifted her up into the bed instead. Viola was not physically hurt, but her pride took a hit. I believe she will get her pride back the very next time she wants to get up into the bed again. We all know she can do it, and she will do it. Then it will be great again.
Sweden is about to become a member of military defence alliance NATO. This consists of countries with the aim to defend democracy in Europe and North America, around the North Atlantic Ocean. Canada and the USA are members, but not Mexico. As a Chihuahua, I think it would be nice if Mexico was also a member. Then my home country and the home country of my dog breed would be part of the same military alliance. This would be cool.
We had a snowfall again today. The snowflakes were very large, some were a couple of centimetres across. None of us think we have seen such large snowflakes before.
Winter is not over yet. After all, we are still in February, which is certainly a winter month. While a lot of this snow melted away almost immediately, we are not certain spring will soon be here. The weather is not foreseeable in this way.
Paula and Daniel ate tacos. They did not finish all of the taco seasoned minced meat, so Daniel gave it to us dogs.
You might think that dogs like us prefer less seasoned meat, but this was very tasty. Taco seasoning gives us a taste of Mexico, home of our breed. Morran, an Affenpinscher, also enjoyed it.
Later, Paula asked about the meat. She wanted some more, which I can fully understand. Daniel told her, however, that he gave it to a dogs. Paula was content with this, and prepared other food instead. There are a lot of different foods that are tasty, so everyone was satisfied at the end. This was good.
The movie that I recommended yesterday was quite boring. I appologize for this. However, the fourth and final qualification round to the Swedish qualification competition to the Eurovision Song Contest tonight was even more boring. Two established artists were qualified with songs that were not that good. No other songs were particularly good, either. Now that we have heard all of the songs that may represent Sweden, we believe Sweden will get a bad result this year. This may be the plan, to avoid the cost of arranging the Contest next year as well. We will have to see what songs there are from other countries.
An American space probe has landed on the Moon. This is the first American Moon landing since the last Apollo landing in 1972. It is also the first Moon landing ever conducted by a private company.
Hailey and Polly were always interested in news about the Moon. This was fitting, considering their names: Lunar Eclips and Full Moon Eclipse. Polly told me humans have visited the Moon and that someday, humans and dogs might live there. I would not want to, but to each her own wishes.
This Friday evening, there is a Japanese movie, Drive My Car, aired on SVT2 at 21:45. For the sake of my late friend Polly and her mother Hailey, who formerly used this blog and who was of a Japanese breed, I want to tell all of my readers about this. I have not seen the movie, but it has had good reviews. I plan to watch it tonight.
Here is a great story about a service dog in the UK.
There are times when I would like to be a service dog or something like this. Service dogs do so much for society.
Some days ago, Pepe acted as a service dog. He told Paula to go to the hospital with her troubled stomach, which made her decide to go. The staff at the hospital said it was good that she came as soon as she did. We are all grateful for Pepe for this. Next time, perhaps I will be the hero.
There were sausages in the dinner tonight. Paula made a classic dish from her family, with spaghetti, mushroom soup, bacon, and sausages. It is easy to cook and tasty.
Some of the sausages went to us dogs. This is always a treat. We wish we could get sausage more often.
Paula and Daniel went away to watch a game of handball live this afternoon. I would not have the patience to sit through a whole game like that. Live sport can be watched live on TV, but then you can come and go as you please to the game. If I am to watch a competition on site, it is a dog show. Otherwise, I would rather stay at home. I did today, it suited me fine.
A Japanese Lunar probe set down on the Lunar surface at the wrong angle. It has still been able to take pictures of its surroundings.
The Japanese team operating the probe from Earth, has named rocks on one picture for dog breeds, apparently to give viewers a sense of the size of the rocks. One rock is called Shibainu, Hailey and Polly would have liked this. Another rock is called Toy Poodle, Laila would have liked this. While we like it as well, we would also have liked a rock called Chihuahua and another called Affenpinscher. It is still nice to see the impact of dog breeds on the names of those rocks.
It is Valentine’s day, a day to express your feelings for your loved ones.
There is one Chihuahua male here, Pepe, but two Chihuahua females, me and Viola. Pepe said he can be the Valentine for both of us. While Pepe is often a charming dog, this did not make me or Viola especially keen on doing anything Valentine like with him. We both told him so. He ended up next to Paula, instead.
It is not often, but sometimes, Daniel work until very late at night. He did this tonight as well. I blame him for writing my blog post for Tuesday past midnight, because when he worked so late, I did not realise how late it actually was, before we all went to bed.
You will get a blog post on time for this Wednesday.
It would have been the 150th birthday for Swedish childrens’ book author and illustrator Elsa Beskow today. In some of her books, there were dogs, although these seldom played an important part of the story. It is still nice that she had dogs in the books. The illustrations were really good.
Another qualification round for the qualification round of Sweden to the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest took place tonight. It was another stretch of bland music. If you want to compete in music, why can’t you do better music than this? We had the TV set on, but did not play the competition all of our attention. There better be better music further on.
It is Friday night, and we go to bed rather early. We do know the alarm on the alarm clock is turned off, but it is still rather nice to go to bed early, even when we know we can sleep until late tomorrow morning. Friday nights and Saturday mornings must be the best parts of the week. I wish we had those more often.
Once every fortnight, the dust cart collects our garbage from down the road. When Daniel works from home, like he did today, he usually goes out to get the emptied dust bins as soon as he can. He does not like the sight of them down by the road. I do not care, but if it satisfies him, I do not object to it either. Everyone gets to have his or her special ideas.
The IBU World Championship in biathlon started today with the mixed relay competition.
For a while, it looked like the Swedes would end in a position far from the medals. This changed and Sweden managed to win the bronze. France won the gold and Norway won the silver.
Morran was disappointed that Germany did not finish better than fifth, after Switzerland in fourth. Her breed is from Germany, so she usually roots for German teams. Germany led for a long time, which made the disappointment worse.
We hope for better results for both the Swedes and the Germans in the competitions to come.
We got some more snow tonight, while we were out for the night. It was not much, but if it continues to fall throughout the night, we will have a lot by the morning. I hope not. We have had enough snow as it is this winter.
Swedish climate should be more like Mexican. It would fit us Chihuahuas better.
Dinner was a bit simple today. It was bread with melted cheese. Even the simple dishes can be really tasty. Cheese is always tasty, melted cheese even more so. I wish we could get cheese more often.
It was cold outside today, a few tenths of degrees below the freezing point. Thus, no melted snow. Then it felt even better to eat melted cheese.
There are many days around the calendar year that are assigned to different things or causes. Late last night, Paula discovered that yesterday was the annual Carrot Cake Day. We did not know until she told us, so nobody had made sure we had any carrot cake to eat.
Paula and Daniel went to make some grocery shopping this afternoon. One of the things they brought home was a carrot cake. Thus, we celebrated Carrot Cake Day one day too late. It is a s the old saying goes: better late than never.
We blame the late celebration on the great amount of annual days. If there were fewer days, it would be easier to remember them.
We will have to see if we remember Carrot Cake Day on the right day next year.
The first round to decide which songs will participate in the Swedish qualification round to he Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was aired on TV today. There were no excellent songs. At least, the worst Song got the worst result and the best of the mediocre line up won. We agree that there are too many pre-qualification rounds. The final qualification round should be enough. Then you would be spared the really bad songs, we believe.
It remains to be seen if any excellent songs will take part in the other pre-qualification rounds.
Yesterday night, Paula told us she would cut our claws today. This never happened.
We do have rather long claws, but not so long that they need to be cut. Not yet. The claw cutting may wait.
The list of judges to the Askersund dog show this summer is published. This is the show that our regional kennel club is arranging, and where Daniel and Paula are helping out. They are looking forward to the show. We all hope it will be a success again this year, just as it usually is. We believe it will be.
Paula and Daniel had some chocolate for dessert, when they ate dinner tonight. We asked to taste some, but they refused. They said chocolate is poisonous for dogs. We have heard this before, but are not sure. Could it be, that the humans just want all of their chocolate for themselves?
If we had the chance to eat chocolate, would we dare to try? I am not sure about that. I probably would, butI might hesitate.
Paula and Daniel finished the chocolate. The good thing about this is that we donor need to wonder whether we should try or not.
Daniel was away at a brush up for ring stewards this afternoon. He has been an authorised ring steward for many years, but the rules say you have to go to a brush up once in a while to get to know new rules et cetera. We are proud of Daniel for being a ring steward, thisis an important job at dog shows. He told us the brush up was really good and that there were nice people there. Daniel had a good day.
We have a low stool that is primarily used by Viola and Pepe to get up in the bed. Today, however, Viola could not use it. Totte had chosen to lazy downon the stool to rest, and there was not enough room for Viola to pass him. Viola was a little annoyed, but we all respect our cats and let them be, when they do not want to move. For my part, I am not like Viola, who often go down, then up, then down, then up. I stay where I am.
In a little while, Totte had made up other plans and went away. Thus, it all turned out well in the end.
We watched a cross country skiing mixed relay competition on TV today. It went very well for the Swedish teams. They finished first and second, in fierce international competition. It was exciting to watch, and a great result.
Winter is nice, when you can stay in the warm rooms indoors and watch ski competitions on TV.
Daniel went to a meeting with people fromhis Odd Fellow lodge this evening. When Daniel got out, so did Totte and Malin. When Daniel came back home, so did Totte and Malin.
Totte told me that he and Malin had also been to a meeting with their lodge. He said it is a lodge of Odd Felines. While this is a nice twist on the Odd Fellow name, I am not sure Totte tells the truth. I believe he is just a joke. A nice joke, but, nevertheless, a joke. When I said so to Totte, he just smiled. We will have to see if Totte keeps up with this joke.
Sigh!
It was a boring day today. Nothing of importance happened. It is difficult to come up with anything to write about, on days like this.
If you have ideal for me to write about in the blog, please let me know. I will consider every idea.
We have thaw, and snow has been sliding down from the roof today. Sometimes, it has slid down with a rumble.
While we like spring, it feels like it is too early. We are still in January. On the other paw, it may be more cold weather to come. We will have to see. It has been a winter with very changing weather so far, it may continue to change.
There was a gala on TV tonight, where people gave awards to sportsman and sportswomen for efforts during 2023. There were no dogs who got awards, despite all the dog competitions of different kinds that goes on each year. Sports can be fun to watch, the gala was not. Paula and Daniel thought it was more interesting than I did, but this is up to them.
One would think we would be tired of coldness now, in the middle of a winter which is colder than usual. Nevertheless, Daniel served ice cream for dessert to the Sunday dinner tonight. All of us dogs got a little serving of ice cream. This is something cold that I never get too tired of. Ice cream is good, even when you are tired of ice.
Denmark’s new King, Frederik X, has been honoured with a new type of cake at an old patisserie in Copenhagen.
The cake has a lot of chocolate in it. Humans say dogs must not eat chocolate, that it contains a poisonous ingredient that dog bodies cannot digest (but human bodies can). Thus, we will probably not eat any Frederik X cakes. Nevertheless, I like the idea of getting a cake made and named for me. I wish this would happen to me some time.
Paula had a late night snack with chips tonight. She gave some of the chips to us dogs.
Chips is my favourite form of potato. It was a good finish of the day.
Denmark has a new king, Frederik X, after the abdication today of Reigning Queen Margrethe II.
We wish all the humans and dogs in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland, good luck with your new Head of State.
On the twentieth day Canute,
Christmas is danced out,
If I may try to translate what we say about this day in Sweden. It is the name day of Knut, a name known in English as Canute, for Canute the Great, who ruled Denmark, England, and Norway. He has also given the name to this day. We count it as the last day of Christmas in Sweden. This is originally because Canute was celebrated on the Thirteenth Day of Christmas, which is the day seen as the last day of Christmas in most countries. However, when the festivity day for Canute was moved forward one week, centuriea ago, so was the end of Christmas.
We have had a nice day at home with everyone in our family. This has been good.
Paula had porridge for dinner. There is no meat in porridge, but she thought it was good, nevertheless.
Daniel cooked the porridge. He told us this was the very first time he had cooked porridge. Paula was surprised to hear this. Perhaps Daniel had beginner’s luck, when Paula liked his porridge.
I am glad there was dog food for us dogs, and not porridge.
Minced meat is great. We got to taste a little in the kitchen tonight. Even a little minced meat is great. It is a little greatness.
Rumour has it, there are humans who do not eat meat. I do not know if I believe this. Meat is great, tasty and healthy. Why would you forsake this?
After many days when the temperature was down around -20° C, we now have a much milder winter. We just had a few degrees below the freezing point today. It is almost comfortable to be outdoors now, at least compared to howit has been. I like this kind of winter mich more than the colder winter we have had. This is how the winter can continue for many weeks, if I can make a wish. It will probably be both colder and warmer, though, before spring will come. A not very cold winter is nice.
There was meatballs for lunch today. All of us dogs got to taste the meatballs. This made the Sunday lunch a great lunch.
Meatballs are great food. I wish we would get meatballs more often.
On the thirteenth day of Christmas, we celebrate that wise men came from the east and hailed the newborn Jesus as a King.
Tradition holds that there were three men, who were called Casper, Melchior, and Balthazar. However, these names are not mentioned in the Bible. Not even the number of visiting wise men are mentioned, the text just says that there were three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
I rather agree with Snoopy, in Charles M. Schulz’ comic strip Peanuts, who questioned why one of the expensive gifts was not a puppy.
We watched the final game in the IIHF Junior World Championship in ice hockey. The tournament was in Gothenburg, so the Swedes had home turf, when they faced the USA. However, the USA have played great throughout the tournament and was the better team in most of the final. Sweden lost, the players had to settle for silver. This is not bad, but gold would have been better. Kudos to the Americans, who were better.
Daniel rode his bicycle to the office today. The roads are icy, so I think this was a little daring, but he made it. He is an experienced bike rider, he generally rides his bike throughout the year. This makes him able to ride on the icy roads. I would not, but then again, I would never ride a bicycle at all, anyway. It was nice to be able to stay at home.
It is many degrees Celsius below the freezing point. With our coats, all of us dogs can handle it. I feel a little sorry for Viola, however, with her short coat. She claims that she manages, but I feel sorry for her, nevertheless. We all hope it will be a little milder weather soon.
The new year has started badly in Japan. There was a big Earth quake there. Then a small aircraft with people due to help the victims of the quake collided with a big passenger aircraft, as the latter landed on a Tokyo airport. While everyone on the passenger plane was evacuated and survived, five of the six humans on the small aircraft died. It is still not known what caused the collision, but we look forward to hearing the explanation.
I hope the deceased humans did not have dogs who will now miss them.
Hailey or Polly would surely have written about this, had either of them still written this blog. It was, thus, self evident for me that I would write about it. As a custodian of their blog legacy, this is the least I can do.
This morning, we woke up to a new year.
I guess I slept through the celebrations at midnight for yet another New Year’s Night. As far as I have been told, there were crackers and fireworks that could be heard to us, but they did not wake me up. I really do not care much. Dogs do not need to keep track of time, the way humans do. What’s another year?
If I get to make any wishes for the new year, it is for more peace, tranquility, and candy.
