Packing

Hello, Karstuhl here!

We have prepared for a trip to Halland on the Swedish west coast. Mommy, Orange, Daniel, and I will go there for a couple of days. We will visit Daniel's parents at their summer house.

Daniel has packed bags. I just made sure he packed the most important things: dog food and food bowls.

Mommy is disappointed, because we will not go to a dog show. She believes dog shows are the most fun places to be. While I like dog shows, I do not believe they are that great. I think we will have a good time, nevertheless. When I am around, dogs and humans often have a good time. I cannot say for sure whether this is thanks to me, or whether it is just that I have such a positive view of life that I feel like people have a good time when I am there. It is nice, either way. I am sure we will have a good time.

Dirty Campaign in Tokyo

The people of Tokyo in Japan will elect a new governor. This is one of the most important political positions in the country.

The front runner Ms. Yuriko Koike belongs to the big Liberal Democrat Party. She has not received the support of the party, however, because she did not consult with the party leadership in Tokyo before announcing her candidacy. I can understand that this is a reason for the party not to support her.

There has been a lot of negative campaigning, among these sexist commentaries against Ms. Koike even from members of her own party. Sexist comments do not belong in a political campaign. I wish there would never be any of those. If for nothing else, I hope Ms. Koike wins, just to show people who have used sexist comments against her that this is futile and silly.

Darker Outside

It is getting considerably darker outside as we are leaving midsummer further and further behind. Paula and Daniel were away this evening and had not switch on any lights before they left. It was not really dark when they came back home, but darkness had started to fall. We did not mind. It is quite cozy to sit around while darkness is starting to come. Later on, it will be darker earlier, but then we will have lights on when we are watching the house in the evenings. It will all be nice.

Kitten Survives in Washing Machine

A kitten in England was accidentally trapped in the washing machine, when his human turned it on for a 60 degrees washing cycle. Luckily, the human heard thuds from inside the machine, saw his fur colour, and hurried to get him out. The kitten was not inside the machine for more than two minutes. After veterinary care, he seems to get a full recovery.

It was fortunate that the kitten survived and did not get any injuries. Still, it is an upsetting story. I have had puppy litters in our bathroom, where we have our washing machine. Paula and Daniel has always made sure no puppy would go inside the washing machine when doing the laundry. I do not want to consider what would have happened otherwise, and idåf a puppy would have been trapped in the machine.

Perhaps it would be best not even to think about these things. After all, it is quite unlikely that a puppy would end up trapped in the washing machine, sustaining permanent injuries. I do not get puppies of my own anymore. I might be able to forget about this until I get another litter of grandchildren or great grandchildren.

Good Riddance

The former party leader of the Swedish communist party, C.H. Hermansson has passed away.

Communism is a political ideology that has ruled a lot of countries in the world. Every communistic country has become poor. A lot of the people living in these countries have been murdered by the communistic leaders and elite. Communism is no good.

It is always a tragedy when somebody dies. The tragedy is bigger in some cases than others.

We are all equal in death. Some are more equal than others.

Water

They said on the radio there are low water levels around here now. This may affect us, who have a well of our own as water supply. There was some rain today, however. We received 4 mm. I hope there will be more rain, preferably at night, when we are indoors anyway. We can never have too much water in the well, I believe.

Fire in the Wilderness

A fire rages in the forest some kilometres north of Örebro, where we live. The fire fighters have taken control of the fire, but it may take weeks before there is no fire left.

Humans often want to control fires and put them out. At the same time, scientists have learned more and more of the benefits of letting wildfires burn. It gives way to new growth and benefits the eco system. Perhaps it would be a good idea to let more fires burn?

Blueberries

Paula went to the woods today, with her father and our Affen Pinscher friend Morran. They were out to pick blueberries.

I would have liked to come, not because I am so fond of blueberries, but because I love a long walk. I had a nice afternoon at home, watching Formula 1 on TV with Daniel, but a long walk would have been a little better. Oh, well, it might be my turn next time.

The blueberries went into the fridge. They will be frozen for later use. I guess this is nice.

Qualification in Rain

There was qualification for the Hungarian Grand Prix in formula 1 today. A part of the first qualification round had to be red flagged, that is delayed, due to heavy rain.

The Swedish Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson ran off and crashed, when the first qualification round started again after the rain. This was the second qualification in a row where he crashed. We wonder if he is good enough to keep driving in formula 1. We hope he is, but we wonder.

We had warm and sunny weather at home all day. There was some rain late in the evening, however. Rain is good, it makes sure we have water in our well, so we have water in our house.

Wood

Daniel has sawed and chopped wood today. This is about the warmest day of the year, but it is good that Daniel thinks about winter.

Russians Banned from Olympic Games

Russian track and field athletes will be banned from participation in the Summer Olympic Games, that starts in a few weeks. This is because Russia has had a state-sponsored doping programme.

I think it is correct to ban the athletes. Doping is cheating, and any cheating should be punished. It might be that not all athletes have cheated, but if their national team has cheated, it must reflect upon them as well. There must be severe punishments, to make sure people understand that the consequences of being caught cheating is so hard that it is not worth trying to cheat.

This is true in all competitions, I believe. If somebody would cheat in dog shows, which is where I have competed myself (not without success), I think both human and dog should be banned from participation. The dog would not cheat, but if the dog's human would cheat, it could affect the dog's show results, nevertheless.

Cheating is despicable.

Redecorating

There has been a fascinating pattern on our bathroom door for a while. This has been made by us dogs once in a while, by accident, but it has been interesting , nevertheless. Paula does not like this pattern, however. She took some paint today and started to repaint the door. She wants it in the plain white colour it had from the start. This is called redecorating. It is supposed to make the door look better and raise the living standard and the value of the house. I am not sure I agree.

Cat Food Commercial

There was a cat food commercial on TV tonight. In it, there were kittens. Kittens are cute, but cannot be compared to pups. There should be more commercials with pups on TV. This would be very cute TV.

Pups in real life are even cuter. I have already had all my pups. Perhaps my daughter Karstuhl will get another litter? I am sure her daughter Soya will eventually have pups. As great grandmother, I would be excellent at helping her raise them.

Cat food is delicious, bit wasted on cats or kittens. I would rather eat it myself., or give it to pups.

Blog Readers

I do not know how many readers my blog has got, neither how many there are who read often, nor how many who read once or twice. I like all of my readers, they are the ones I write for, but I allow them to tell me who they are by making comments, I would probably never ask who they were.

We watched an episode of a comedy show on TV tonight, where one of the carachters started a blog. This was the start of many jokes, some of which dealt with comments or other bloggers writing about the first blog. There are almost no comments on my blog, so I did not really relate to these jokes. I have fun writing my blog anyway.

No matter who you are, when reading this blog, you are always welcome to stay tuned or come back later. There will often be new blog posts.

Chicken

We got some chicken in our food today. Chicken is tasty and good food. I love it.

It is not every day we get extra treats in our food like this. There is often just dog food. There is nothing wrong with dog food, but it would be boring to have just dog food day in and day out. Luckily, this is not the case for us. Chicken is among the best thing we can have.

Sushi

If you ever wonder if Japan is a great country, just try the Japanese specialty sushi. We had some sushi for dinner today. It was marvelois, as always. Do I need to tell you more?

I guess you all know what sushi is. This is common knowledge these days. If you have not tried it yet, you should. You are in for a treat. The Japanese know food.

Coup d'etat in Turkey?

A group of military personell claim to have taken control of Turkey in a coup d'etat. This is not yet confirmed.

This is stupid. You should not take control of a country by using force.

There was an attempted military coup d'etat in Spain in the early 1980s. King Juan Carlos I put an end to it, however, by dressing in his military uniform as general of the army and order the coup men to step down.

There is no King in Turkey who can do this. This is one of the major faults of a republic.

The Emperor of Japan made sure Japan gave up the war in 1945, before too many lives were lost for a cause that was already lost. Monarchs are good this way.

A Swedish Classic

We watched a documentary this evening about people who compete in what is called "A Swedish Classic". This is four long distance competitions i bicycling, swimming, running, and cross country skiing. If you complete all four in a year, you complete a Swedish Classic.

There are no similar competitions for dogs. I believe, however, that if you win three CAC's in one year, becoming a champion quickly, this could be called a classic. It would be nice calling it so.

The Emperor Might Resign

It is an important day today. News agencies say Emperor Akihito considers abdication in favour of his son, Crown Prince Naruhito.

Some would say the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, and her cabinet, is more important. I do not agree.

It is without precedent in the modern history of Japan that the Emperor resigns. As far as I know from history, it is also without precedent that the Emperor resigns voluntarily.

China Defies Decision on South China Sea

An international legal tribunal in the Hague has ruled in favour of the Philippines, which claimed China had no claim on most of the South China Sea. China boycotted the proceedings and will not accept it, however.

While I am happy about the verdict, I do not think tensions in the region will be smaller. The statement from China about not accepting it says so. I think China would want to claim even more than this. Hopefully, there will not be a war, it would surely be a big war. Any war is bad, but big wars are worse than small wars.

Election

There has been a general election in Japan. The ruling party LDP and PM Shinzo Abe won and remain in power.

Final

It is the final game in the Euro 2016 footbal championship. France plays Portugal. Our Poodle friends root for France, their breed is from France. I have no other preference, so I do the same.

After full time, no team had scored. It was a rather boring game between two good teams. I would normally rather see a game ending in 3-3 than 0-0. The defence may be too strong, if you know what I mean.

Portugal won in extra time. Well, I do not cry because of this.

Calm Day

There are days when nothing special happens. Nothing special at all. These days are great, when I am in the mood for it. Today has been such a day. We have spent the whole day with Daniel at home, just doing whatever we feel like for the moment. (Meanwhile, Paula is with her sister and mother on a weekend trip.) It has been a wonderful day. Rest is something you need once in a while. This was a day when we got it.

Summer Holiday

Daniel did his last day at work before his summer holiday today. He will stay at home much more in the coming weeks. Paula did her last day yesterday. We like this. It also means we can get up later in the mornings. This is also great.

It is good that Daniel and Paula have good jobs, which give them decent incomes. Nevertheless, I prefer to have  them at home. We hope they will spend a lot of time at home. We also hope we will go to some dog shows, of course!

Cous cous

We got some cous cous in our food bowls today. This was new to me, but quite tasty.

I am always prepared to test new kinds of food. It gives a little excitement to life. In a way, you can even say it spices up life. Most kinds of food are tasty. I love some kinds of food better than others, but there are very few things i dislike. I love everything from a fine steak to water melon. Cous cous makes it to the long list of foods that I like. This list is so long, I could not even say how many items are on it.

I hope you all get food that you like.

Remote Control

When Paula or Daniel watches TV, they use the remote comtrol to switch channels from the sofa. That is, if none of us dogs lay upon the remote control. It may happen that they are not eager enough to switch channels, that they dig out the remote control from the dog who lays upon it. It is not that we want to stop the switching of channels, but it is more comfortable to stay put. Life should not be about having to move, because somebody else wants the remote control.

Laila

Our Poodle friend Laila celebrates her name day today. It is not common for dogs to have name days, this is normally just for human given names. I know of nobody but Laila who is a dog and has a name day. She deserves to be celebrated, nevertheless.

I wish Hailey had a name day.

Fourth of July

It is the 4 July and national holiday in the USA, my Mum's home country. Mum moved to Sweden when she was five, but never forgot where she came from and was always an American patriot. (Calvin is also from the USA and claims to be an American patriot, but he moved here when he was just some months old and actually does not remember very much about America.)

I am half American, and proud of it. I love the USA and celebrate today, in the way my Mum taught me. For the land of the free, and the home of the brave, we salute today!

Rain

It rained a lot yesterday. It also rained this afternoon.

Daniel had planned to mow the lawn, but he could not because of the rain. It is not just that it is uncomfortable to be outdoors in the rain, the main reason is that the straws of grass in the lawn mostly just folds when they are wet. This makes lawn mowing rather futile. Daniel stayed indoors with the rest of us instead.

We watched the Austrian Grand Prix in Formula 1 together. This was a much better afternoon, than if Daniel would have been outdoors mowing the lawn.

I like a well mowed lawn, not least because ticks dislikes it, but it is still nice when Daniel spends time with us dogs instead of mowing the lawn.

Penalties

The quarter final tonight was Germany versus Italy. The game ended in a tie which was not solved in overtime. It went on to penalty shots. After a lot of penalty shots, Germany got through as winner.

By the time the game was over, it was almost midnight. I did not have time to write any blog entry before midnight. Well, here is a blog entry anyway.

Dad

It is the 1July. Dad would have celebrated his birthday, had he still been alive.

Dad's own dad was from Belgium. I hoped Belgium would win in the quarter final against Wales today. We all thought they would, because Belgium is ranked much higher than Wales and has played well so far in the tournament (except for the loss against Italy in the first game).

In this game, however, Belgium did not play well. The defence was not as it should be, without two key players. Wales was a better team. Wales deserved their 3-1 victory. I congratulate Wales!