Walpurgis Eve

It is Walpurgis Eve, a celebration for the Medieval Saint Walpurgis and spring.

Unfortunately, this celebration is connected with fire crackers in Sweden, if not as many as at New Years Night and Easter Eve. This is the most annoying Swedish tradition of all, one that should stop immediately. It is scarry for many dogs. The basis for the tradition is the ancient belief that the crackers would make evil demons go away, but since I believe most Swedes nowadays do not believe in such evil demons, they have no reason to fire the crackers. I hope they will stop.

Happy Walpurgis Eve, everybody!

Games

Daniel is playing computer games. This stops me from gaining access to the Internet and my blog. I have to nag to get the computer. Why does he have to be this selfish? Is it not more important to publish my blog? Perhaps not...

Changing Tyres

Daniel had planned to change tyres on our Relatively new BMW today, from winter to summer tyres. It turned out he could not, however. Our car is so new, the tools for changing tyres are extras that has to be bought separately. People nowadays probably let others change tyres more and more often, so in a way, this makes sense. It was just that we were surprised, we had not expected this.

Candy Ice Cream

We tested a new flavour of ice cream today, from the Swedish ice cream manufacturer Siaglass. It was called Godis (candy), and was sweet with pieces of hard candy inside. We liked it very much. I usually like all flavours of ice cream, but some are better than others. This was one of those flavours. I never eat chocolate ice cream. Daniel likes it, but since chocolate is supposed to be poisonous for dogs, he never shares it with us dogs. There were no such concerns with the candy ice cream that we had today.

Slow Connections

I am not the only one, being annoyed by slow connections to the Internet. Today, it felt like many minutes went past, before I could start to write my daily blog entry. It was late at night, and I almost fell asleep waiting. Now this feels like the urgent matter to write about. Daniel has an Ipad with wireless connection that I borrowed today. The weird thing is, that the little icon in the top left corner seems to show the same available band with all the time, regardless of how quick or slow the connection is. Why is that? Well, I shall not ponder anymore, I feel more like sleeping now.

Huge Volcano Eruption A.D. 536?

There might have been a huge volcano eruption in Central America in the year A.D. 536, where a lot of debris was ejected into the atmosphere, affecting the climate for many years to come. Archeological evidence supports the theory, though there are little written evidence to anything but a strange sky and cold summers. Still, it is interesting to read about stuff like that. Some humans boast about them causing the global climate to change, when a single volcano can do so much more. We are all at the mercy of nature, at least until fully artificial biospheres can be constructed.

Daily?

Hello, Karstuhl here!

Mommy did not feel like writing anything in het blog today, so she asked me to do it instead. What if neither I, nor any of the other dogs, would have wanted to write anything either? It is Mommy who has a blog that she wants to call daily. Well, I could not really come up with anything good to sat, but it was a daily entry, anyway. It might be more interesting tomorrow.

Strange Things Happen

We had a strange experience on the morning walk today. Part of the walk is always along a road with regular traffic. This time, a car braked close to us and stopped by the side of the road. We were curious, wondering if the driver or passengers were people we knew. As we came a few steps closer, we saw that this was not the case. We could not remember seeing the driver or the child in the back seat before. The child stared at us, not happily, as a child who loves dogs, but just a stare with his mouth open. Then, just as suddenly as the car had stopped, it started to move again. It did not get away directly, the driver was not experienced enough to get the car rolling sooner than at the third attempt.

We do not know what this was all about. Did they just want to watch us dogs? As I wrote, they did not look happy, the way people do who watch something they find cute. I guess it will remain a mystery.

Pancakes

Daniel made pancakes yesterday. There was a lot of them left today. Guess who were lucky enough to share them? Yes, the dogs of our household. Pancakes are great food.

Does Fame Lead to a Shorter Life?

An Australian research into obituaries in the New York Times seem to suggest that performers and sport stars die a few years younger than people who are successful in other careers. If this is really true, and what would cause this, remains yet unknown. It might be due to the stressful life of people of fame. Whatever the cause, I do not believe it would affect dogs of fame. Dogs have a very straightforward way of looking at the world, those of us who become famous never think much about it. Famous or not, the important things in a dog's life are still sleep, food, and love. A famous dog is never more stressed than other dogs.

Leaving

Hello, Karstuhl here! My second and last pup, Suzuki, left us for his new home today. He will live in Finland. His new humans were here to get him, and they were really nice people. While it is sad that Suzuki has left us, I am sure he will get a good life. It is only natural for most pups to leave and get a life of their own.

Stomach Ache

Paula still suffers from her bad stomach. She and Daniel were supposed to go to a party tonight, but she felt less well than usually, sonthey staied at home. While I like it best when both our humans are at home with us dogs, it is sad that the reason was Paula's bad stomach. It is getting generally better, but I wish it would do so faster.

Superman

Today, seventyfive years ago, the first ever story about super hero Superman was published. He was the first super hero, and is certainly the best known. My favourite, however, is Superman's dog, Krypto. Small wonder, isn't it?

Thaw

There has been a lot of snow this winter, and it has been lying around for a long time. This week, however, spring is really here. There is not much snow left now. One advantage of getting rid of the snow is, you find a lot of toys that have been gone throughout the winter, hidden in the snow. This makes for nice reunions. This is one reason to love springtime.

Early mornng

We had to get up for the morning walk an hour earlier than usual today, just because Daniel had avtrain to catch really early. It was no fun, enough said.

Puma

We have received reports that Puma is doing very well in her new home. Polly and Puma's brother Suzuki misses her, as do I, but it is easier when we know she is doing all right.

Puma Moved

Hello, Karstuhl here. Today is a sad day, my daughter Puma left us for her new family. I miss her. Still, I believe she will get a good life, and it is only natural for pups to get their own lives. My son Suzuki will stay a little longer.

Early Night

We are taking an early night tonight. This is because Paula and Daniel will get up very early tomorrow, to take April's som Jackpot to the airport. He will move to his new family in the United Kingdom. You migt think it is a little late for Jackpot to move away from home, he was born on the 16th of December and is four months old now. Normally, this would belate for a pup to move. However, the UK has special rules for importing dogs, in order to keep some diseases out. I understand this. The weird thing is, nevertheless, that Jackpot had to have a rabies vaccination before moving, even though Sweden in a country free from rabies. This year, I hope the UK will win the European Song Contest. Their song, sung by Bonnie Tyler, is great. If they win, Jackpot can take part in the celebrations.

Orienteering

Paula and Daniel has started a course in orienteering. This is a human sport where the aim is to find your way through the terrain in the shortest possible time. Humans use maps and compasses to do this. As a dog, I think this is unnecessary. If I want to find a way, I do it anyway, with the help of my nose, ears, and eyes. There is no need for map and compass for me. Well, we all have different skills.

Cleaning, Cleaning, Cleaning

Most of us dogs are blowing our coats, now that spring is here. The snow is melting and it is muddy outside. This means we have to clean the floors every day, to keep them reasonably clean. I rather do that, though, than having my paws dried everytime I am coming indoors.

Grandchildren

I had some quality time with my grandchildren today. Polly, their mother, was also there. This is quite understandable, they are still of an age that she feels the need to protect them. Polly is a good mother. Her pups are great pups, well behaved. I guess I have raised Polly well, when she raises her pups this well.

Successful Daughter of Mine

My dear daughter Anzu, Aangenaam Valencia, got an excellent result at a dog show today. She lives in Bergen in Norway, and on a show there, she won Excellent, won her competition, and became fourth best female. I am so proud of her. For me as a mother, this result also show me something more. Anzu must have a great life with her humans in Norway. If she wouldn't, she couldn't have done well on a show. This makes me happy.

Hello, Peanut here! We have been cleaning the house today. This is something we often do in the weekends, when Paula and Daniel are home. It is not easy, I guess we have to work a lot, we dogs, when Paula and Daniel do not...

Internet Traffic

In my blog application, I have statistics that show how many readers there have been each day and what Internet sites have been the greatest contributers of traffic to my blog. I normally recognise the sites, but not today. It said pezajop.dynamic-hosting.org, itplatib.hostoi.com, and www.vampirestat.com today. I had no idea these sites existed. I do think it is nice to get readers, so I am just happy about this, but it still makes me wonder a bit what made these sites point to my blog. When following the links, I did not find any clues. On the other hand, life is full of mysteries, so I might just as well consider this another mystery and let it be.

A Man Eclipsed By the Moon

It has been said that the Apollo astronauts who were alone in the command module, while their fellow travellers went down to the Moon surface, were the loneliest humans ever. This is because when they were sitting there alone on the far side of the Moon, they were very far from the other two astronauts and further away from Earth than any human had been before and has been since. You can say that they were eclipsed by the Moon, vis-a-vis the Earth. I read an interesting article about one of these men, Al Worden, who was the command module astronaut on Apollo 15. He rather enjoyed being there alone, he said. I understand that. A lunar eclipse can be a rather good thing.

No Dogs

No, there will not be portraits of dogs on new Euro notes. I certainly would like to see it, but it was just my April's fools day joke for this year. However, it might be just as well, because it would involve a cost to change the looks of the Euro notes.

New Euro Notes

The EU has decided to issue a new line of Euro notes. Instead of pictures of bridges, like on the current notes, there will be pictures of dog breeds native to EU countries. I believe this is a great idea.

There will, of course, be no Shiba Inus on any notes, because Japan is far from being a member of the EU, and this is understandable. Seeing Euro notes with the faces of European dog breeds is good enough for me. They will not do like they did with the bridges, draw up generic bridges that was not supposed to depict any real bridges. The pictures of dogs will be of real European dog breeds.

In a statement from the EU, it is said that since many people love dogs, having dogs on the notes will hopefully make people love the Euro more. This could be useful, given the current Euro crisis.