Pet Tricks / Ukraine

Here’s how things have evolved—perhaps, devolved.

I spend a lot of time at my computer and I drink a lot of Diet Coke that has lots of caffeine in it. The caffeine may be a significant reason I haven’t had a heart attack since suffering two before I was forty-five. The caffeine is definitely the reason I pee a lot.

When I have to go to the bathroom (that is through my bedroom), Ethel’s radar has her immediately run into the bedroom and onto the bed. She wants me to play Kill My Finger—a game that has me put my hand (with my thumb of a finger raised) under the bed covers and move it around. She pounces and kicks it and tries valiantly to rip it off my hand but the covers keep me from being hurt by her teeth and claws.

She’s been doing it since we discovered/invented the game together with increasing urgency. 

Well, first Fred took note. He wasn’t going to miss out on anything. So now he joins us and often ruins the game because he’s so big and strong (and he likes to jump and pounce like a fox) and he hurts my hand. Still, I adapted the game for three (from two).

But now, Sheba, ever the jealous one, ruins everything. She jumps on the bed and moves bout or growls to disburse the cats. She loves them, but the bed is ours! She makes that very clear. 

So now we can’t really play. The game’s been kind of ruined and the biggest loser it poor Ethel. It was her/our thing to do together. Fred loves to be patted … forever. Ethel, not so much; Playing Kill the Finger was our thing.

Once, this blog became a monster hit in Poland. I was getting two-to-three thousand hits a day and sometimes five thousand hits. Now it’s Ukraine. There are not as many hits as came from Poland, but there are more hits from Ukraine than from all the other countries contained in the Analytics visitors report.

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I’m watching the third season of Mrs. Maisel and I’m enjoying it. I can’t help it. The writing is good—and there’s lots of it; everyone talks a mile-a-minute in this show—and I absolutely adore many of the actors: Tony Shaloub, Michael Zegen, Alex Borstein and Marin Hinkle.

But as with every show in it’s third season, my passion fades. The characters don’t change. Characters seldom change or grow; they are all one-dimensional. Midge’s (Rachel Brosnahan’s) relentless pace and endless wardrobe are becoming boring; I’m more interested in the secondary characters now. But the sets and costumes, in fact most everything else about the show, are rich, elaborate and fabulous.

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It’s almost 10° this morning. That’s quite warm for (almost) winter. 

My plan for the day is to make a big wreath of Norwegian Pine cones and I’ll add the leaves I dried and varnished—and maybe some lights. I’m going to hang it up outside beside my entrance walkway; I’m having a dinner party here next week—six people! So I want to have something festive to acknowledge the season (regardless of my feelings for the holiday).

Regina and Matthew are coming, and so is Patsy. I’ve also invited Judith and Jay but haven’t heard back from them yet. So we’ll be six. And I’m going to try to cook something at least a little challenging. I’m going to go to Nanaimo mid-week to get some good and different ingredients.