10 on the 10th - Would you rather ...

It's time for Marsha in the Middle's 10 on the 10th again.
Today she has another round of "Would you rather ..." for us.

Would you rather vacation in Alaska or Bali?

I'll take Alaska, but not in winter. Too much snow for me.

Would you rather learn to play a musical instrument or learn to paint?

I had violin lessons when I was (a lot) younger, but my one attempt at learning how to draw failed (not through my fault) and somehow I never managed to try again, so I'll take the painting, please.

Public domain via pxhere

Would you rather wear flip flops or sneakers?

Sneakers. I hate flip flops.

Would you rather ride the highest roller coaster or bump along on the Lazy River ride?

If I really have to pick one, it will be the Lazy River ride. I have been on a roller coaster - no huge one - and it's not for me. I never tried a Lazy River ride or even got the chance to, so I don't know if I would like it.

Would you rather go on a road trip or take a flight to a faraway destination?

Definitely a road trip!

Public domain via pxhere

Would you rather have a summer birthday or a winter birthday?

I have a summer birthday, but I don't celebrate, so I would be fine with any day of the year.

Would you rather go to a flea market or a craft fair?

A craft fair is really nice of course, but I'd always pick the flea market because of the surprise factor if I had to choose.

Public domain via pxhere

Would you rather go tubing down a river or zip-lining through the trees?

Neither. I'm really not that kind of person and never have been.

Would you rather go on a safari or a whale watching tour?

That's a difficult one. I'm never sure what to think about either of those. I find all animals fascinating, though.

Would you rather be able to control the weather or talk to animals?

Turning the current heat off or being able to control the weather's impact on the planet for the better sounds tempting of course, but I wouldn't trust any human with an ability like that, no matter if they would abuse the power or messing things up inadvertently despite wanting to do something good.
Talking to animals - sorry, as much as I would like to know right now what Gundel wants from me (probably to control the weather for the better), I don't think humans are ready to hear what they would tell us.

10 on the 10th, erm, 11th - Cat Days of Summer

As you know, I don't like to post twice on one day, so I'm a day late for Marsha in the Middle's 10 on the 10th. I think you'll forgive me for that.
So let's see, what does Marsha have for us this month?

She's gotta be kidding me. Is that an evil laugh I'm hearing in the distance there? How could I keep it down to ten?
It will be difficult, but here you go - in random order as usual.

Cat herding. I still don't know what the company this commercial is for actually does (or did), but I couldn't care less, anyway. This is hilarious.



Looking at my hands, I know exactly who does this right now preparing for the next time I dare touching her without permission. Little hint ... she's black as well.

I don't think I need to say much about Franz Marc's "Die weiße Katze" from 1912. I love this painting.

From the collection of Kulturstiftung
Sachsen-Anhalt - Kunstmuseum Moritzburg
Halle (Saale)

It's pretty unbelievable that "Simon's Cat" has been around for 18 years already.
I still remember when one of our student helpers at work - who had a cat as well - said I just had to look at this video. We could both relate to this so much (minus baseball bat of course).



Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen didn't just include cats in many of his illustrations, he also sculpted cats.
We used to have a print of this poster he designed for the cabaret "Le Chat Noir" in 1896 on our wall. I wonder where it's now.

I follow Baby Corn on social media.
He's - actually, I'm not sure we even know all of what he is yet. He was surrendered to a city shelter as an orphan cat together with his two sisters at about three weeks old. They were normal size, Baby Corn wasn't. He's still small at over a year old, he's wobbly (cerebellar hypoplasia), he squints and he has a funny little flat top. He fights wind and corn and he's well traveled. And adorable.

Actually, Baby Corn is not the only cat with cerebellar hypoplasia I follow. There are also Elvis Westley and Nuggie, for example. If you wonder why, I used to have disabled pets myself.



Do you know "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers", created in 1968 by Gilbert Shelton? Then you also know Fat Freddy's Cat.

Bastet used to be a lion warrior goddess (still a cat, at least in parts) and later became the Egyptian cat goddess we usually associate her with today.

KS_aus_F (Katharina Surhoff) (GFDL)
via Wikimedia Commons
Statue at the Senckenberg
Naturmuseum Frankfurt

Medieval cats. Granted, many medieval animals look fantastic (as in a "too much cheese" fantasy), but the cats ... judge for yourself.

The cats from the cartoons of Scott Metzger, Mark Parisi - they also have other topics -, and Lingvistov. You see them and think, yup, that could be mine.
I follow Scott and Mark on social media and Landysh on Patreon (you can find old Lingvistov cartoons here), but am not going to share any of their cartoons here.
Instead I give you a caricature my animator friend made of me and the ex ages ago. Cat wearing a cat tee (I never had a nose like that, though!).

I hadn't planned to include my own cats because I knew going through their pictures would make me cry and it did, but I just couldn't leave them out. It would have felt wrong because of course they will always be my #1 favorites.
Afterwards I couldn't handle making another collage for the other family cats.

Quite the mix, isn't it? I bet tomorrow my list could be looking completely different and again the day after tomorrow.
Thank you, Marsha, that was (mostly) fun.
Did you notice something about the post?

10 on the 10th, uhm, 9th - Things we love about the coming season

Sorry, one day early as tomorrow is already full with another post which should have been posted on Thursday which is already full with a silent movie post, though. How can blogging be so complicated?
Anyhow, with no further ado ...

Uhm ... you may think this should be very easy, but for me it isn't.
Let's see how far I can get.

My birthday.

Now that was easy, wasn't it? Not that my birthday is such a special day for me. I have never celebrated it the way many others do (except once, but that's a long story), there's no party, small or big. I may have one or two visitors which I enjoy and I'm not averse to one or two gifts, especially small surprises, but I'm just as happy to spend the day all by myself (why do I have the urge to add a smiley to make clear that I really mean that?).

That's what I call a sustainable
birthday card, I loved the idea!

That doesn't mean I'm one of those people who have a problem with their birthday as in seeing the numbers go up, by the way. I'm just past the childhood excitement, I guess?
Fun fact - I have always taken the day off from work, no matter if I had something planned or not, so it was always "my" day.

Ice cream coffee.

"Excuse me, what?" I hear you ask.
The German word "Eis" can mean both "ice" and "ice cream". "Eiskaffee" is not the iced coffee that Americans know.
During my friend Jenn's second visit in Germany we went to a café and asked her if she wanted to try it. She vehemently declined because she thought we meant iced coffee and she was very surprised to see what we got. After trying it she immediately had to have her own and it became one of her favorites.
I rarely ever drink coffee, for years - iced coffee wasn't a thing in Germany then - this was the only way I had it at all.

A classic "Eiskaffee" is easily done. Put some vanilla ice cream in a tall glass, pour chilled coffee over it and crown it with some whipped cream and a wafer or a "cigarette russe".
It's usually served with a long spoon for the ice cream and a straw to sip the coffee.
You don't like coffee? Try an "ice chocolate" instead.

Summer memories.

Actually, summer memories have been a 10 on the 10th topic before. I have some good memories, but reading the post didn't help me for this one because those were things that won't be happening again, one reason being my reduced mobility - no summer fleamarkets, no travelling, no long walks in the woods, etc.
I still have the memories, though, some fun ones and some funny ones!

Summer rains.

After a scary hailstorm some years ago, I'm not as relaxed about thunderstorms anymore, but a nice long rain after a hot spell is absolutely the best.
When others rush inside, I'm going out there to cool down.

I love this old picture and I can hear, smell, and feel it.

Trees, lakes, and ponds.

In my opinion, they are the best spots in the summer heat, hands down. Some would probably pick beaches, but I'm not that much of a beach fan which is convenient as there are none in the area.

Public domain via pxhere

I don't know how good my chances are to get anywhere, but at least I made it to one of my favorite spots this month. Extra points for no people being there so early in the morning, except a biker who took a picture and left again.

The Lautertopf, the spring of the small Lauter river.

Whining.

As you can see, I'm seriously grasping for straws here now!
I love to whine in summer. Well, I don't love having to whine, so in this case I guess "love" means I can't help doing it. Sometimes it may be more of a pathetic moan. Very annoying.

My fan.

I'm my fan's biggest fan and I don't care if people tell me that a fan is doing nothing. It does for me. If that's just in my head, that's fine by me as long as it works.


That's it from a grumpy summer hater.
Sorry, but I just couldn't come up with more than those quite weak seven because summer is my least favorite season.
(If you wonder why I didn't mention flowers, well, they are not summer-specific, are they?)
After a very hot week I told several people that I'm very much looking forward to September and my favorite season.
I even asked family to help me get to ten, but all we realized was that we are very different in some regards! 😂 

10 on the 10th - Would you rather ...

First of all, yes, I know it's not the 10th. I'm just weird about not having two posts on the same day.
So, without further ado, here are my 10 on the, well, 11th.
These are the questions Marsha gave us.

Would you rather rock a mullet or a perm?

Perm although I've tried it twice without convincing results many years ago. I have always dreamed of soft waves, but I only had those when my hair was wet, no matter how much I kneaded. It's funny that years ago I suddenly got some waves in my very long hair, but weirdly it's only some strands and not necessarily the ones on top.

Would you rather have a magic carpet or a crystal ball?

Easy. Definitely a crystal ball. Even as a kid I had problems to think about Detective Teffan Tiegelmann flying on his magic carpet. Look at the picture, doesn't that make you nervous? I mean, is it like a wooden board or does it sag during the flight? What about turbulences? Can you really put a barrel on it? No no, I'll have the crystal ball, please. I'm not saying I'd use it, though. It can look pretty on a table in the corner.

Would you rather be able to teleport anywhere instantly or read minds?

Another easy one. Teleport of course! If a mere finger snap could do it, that would be great. No machines, it makes me think of "The Fly" or a very creepy story I once read.
Being someone who's not very mobile, teleporting sounds great. First thing I'd do would be visiting some online friends.
Reading minds - no. Seeing minds being dumped on the internet all the time, that's actually a terrible thought. Unless you could turn it off and on. Nah, not even then.

Would you rather eat chocolate-flavored broccoli or broccoli-flavored chocolate?

I read that as chocolate-covered broccoli first, but of course broccoli-covered chocolate might be a tad difficult to achieve (and it sounds disgusting).
Where's the choice here? I could always close my eyes to forget that I'm eating broccoli for the perfect chocolate flavor, couldn't I, but I don't think it would work the other way round.

Would you rather have a talking toilet or a talking fridge?

I'm no fan of my appliances talking at all. I yell at my washing machine when it beeps at me from the bathroom (yes, many Germans have their washing machine in the bathroom) telling it to shut up, I will be there when I'm ready. If my fridge beeps to let me know the door has been open for too long while I try to shove the last items from the grocery delivery in, I yell "I know, I know, I'm hurrying up!"
I talk to inanimate objects, I really don't need them to talk back, but if I have to choose, it'll be the fridge. I just wonder if we will have philosophical conversations or if it will keep reminding me of the dying vegetables or the living cheese.

Would you rather sneeze glitter or cry jelly?

Have you ever seen a slow-motion video of a sneeze? And have you ever seen me do a surprise sneeze? I don't want to live in a world of glitter. I like the look of glitter, but I have given up on it a long time ago for good reason.
Now I can't imagine how difficult it would be to cry jelly, but given the body temperature it probably wouldn't be too terrible?

Would you rather make a snowman or build a sandcastle?

Picture via pxhere

From experience, I'd say I'm pretty terrible at both. I'm not a big fan of the beach as in lying in the sun, but you - looking at you, Marsha - know I hate snow, so the ugly sandcastle it'll be.

Would you rather have a pet unicorn or a pet dragon?

I'm not going to choose. I'm ... I'm going to have both. Yes, and they are going to be best friends ... and we are going to have the best adventures and ... and I'm going to call them Amalthea and Puff ... and they are going to sleep in my room ...

Pictures via pxhere

Sorry, but with such a question I can't help turning into a child again. I hope you heard my excited breathing and I may have had a finger in my mouth in order to think better (and still couldn't came up with less stereotypical names).
But yeah, I'm definitely going to have both.

Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the smartest person in the room?

Well, that depends on the circumstances, does it? If I'm about to deliver a stand-up routine, I'd prefer to be the funniest, at a work meeting I'd prefer to be the smartest.
Generally speaking, though, I'd always choose to be the smartest and hopefully not in an annoying way.

Would you rather have a conversation with your past self or your future self?

I'm terrible with that time-travelling stuff. I could give my past self a lot of advice, but what would that do to my present self? I don't want to use the crystal ball, so why would I want to talk to my future self?
I'd rather talk to my fridge about fuzzy cheese.

How would you have answered these questions?

10 on the 10th - Things I hate to love

Welcome to February's 10 on the 10th.
This is the prompt Marsha from Marsha in the Middle has given us for today - tell us about ten things you secretly love and hate that you love them.
I don't think I can do that. Either I love them secretly for a reason and don't want to put them on the web for everyone to see (that doesn't mean it has to be something "bad", maybe it's just something I don't want to discuss) or I don't really care which means I don't hate that I love them because it's my choice.
Or does it simply mean guilty pleasures like watching Hallmark movies for Christmas and liking a few because they are nice or some because they are hilarious? Does that make me guilty of being not intellectual enough and therefore I should hate it?

Now I think I might be overthinking this, another thing I'm totally a pro at (not just making toast, and by the way, did you know that Merriam-Webster says it's a preposition is absolutely fine to end a sentence with, also this here definitely isn't academic writing, anyway).

Picture by
Teslariu Mihai via Unsplash

Let me give you one example. I'm a pushover when it comes to my cats. That's why I don't live with dogs. When I say "my feline overlords", that's pretty much true. Surely, it can get annoying at times and make me hit my head against the wall (not literally), but like so many cat servants I'm still kind of proud for them to be little punks (that's not the word I would use in real life, I don't think I have to explain more). Do I dislike that I am? No.

Wait, maybe I hate to love my parentheses, I already have four in this post so far.
Nah, not really. If you knew me in person, you could probably hear parentheses when I talk. I can feel them in my thoughts. Sure, there may be better ways to deal with my added information that probably no one but me finds in the least interesting, but ...

Maybe I hate my habit of leaving some sentences open and my fondness of ellipses ...
Nope. Some sentences need additional information and some sentences don't need an ending - not to be accompanied by a dramatic look of mine hinting at ominous things I like to leave hanging in the air instead of writing them - because you know where they are going, anyhow ...

Oh, and of course the em dash — which I'm never typing right simply because I'm too lazy for ALT+0151 (which I keep forgetting after using it once, so ... (oh, and by the way, the German one has a different combination)) - or rather the hyphen that runs through my posts without hyphenating anything.
Again, no real regrets.
I'm not a writer and don't pretend to be one, and while I'm sorry that you have to deal with it, I feel no hate for it. This is pretty much what falls directly out of my brain onto your screen, and if you have been grinding your teeth over this, I apologize again, but I doubt it's going to change.

Wow, I haven't even found one single yet ... (ominous pause)
I think I might have been better at "things I love to hate" although that makes it sound as if I hate something because that brings me joy which makes no sense at all. Argh, overthinking again!

While I'm at it, feel free to take a few of these if you need them! I have plenty.
((((((((( ... ... ... ... ... - - - - - —— — — )))))))))))


Marsha, I'm sorry, seriously.
You didn't get what you asked for, but who would even be interested in my not appreciating the fact that I still can't keep my fingers off dairy? Oops, gave you one, do you think you could let this count? 🤡

10 on the 10th - Things I won't do this year

The 10 on the 10th are back!
When I read Marsha's prompt, however, my first thought was that this could prove to be more difficult than I could handle. Let me explain why.
I could, for example, list things like "I won't be eating as much carbs as last year.". Sounds like a resolution, doesn't it? Resolutions can be worded either way, "I want to buy less ...." or "I don't want to buy as much ...". I don't do resolutions, so those things are out.
Let's try something else. "I probably won't be visiting a museum this year." Hm. "I probably won't be taking a class in person this year." Like that I'm either going to depress myself by listing things that I would like to do, but can't anymore, or I'm going to sound incredibly negative, whiny, and annoying.

So what are my options?
Marsha replied to my comment "Have fun with all the wild and weird things you won't do." Oh Marsha, a challenge, eh?

This year, I probably won't ...

1. ... participate in a winter expedition.

Picture via pxhere

 
Yeah. No. You gotta be kidding me, people, look at that. Haven't you seen "The Gold Rush"? Shoes, I'm just saying shoes!
Seriously, though. I really don't like snow and I could happily live completely without it.

2. ... go deep sea diving.

Picture via pxhere

Do you know what those helmets do to your hair? 😜
I love watching documentaries about the ocean, but whenever I was at a beach and saw the vastness of the ocean, I felt strangely overwhelmed. Calling it thalassophobia would probably be too much, but I never went into the ocean further than ankle deep.

3. ... climb Mount Everest.

None of the translation apps have Yeti on their list and what other reason should I even have to climb up there?
Ok, so these days I have problems with a simple hill, but I don't have that gene of needing great adventure in my life, either. I'm fine with tiny adventures.

4. ... read "Ulysses" by James Joyce.

Can you believe a family member once suggested a read along and discussion of "Ulysses"?
If you read it, good for you, but my ten brain cells founded a union and threatened to quit. Can't have that.
There are things I don't need to have done to prove myself. Struggling through "Ulysses" is one of them.

5. ... go to a rave.

Picture via pxhere

I can hear and feel this picture and both isn't good for me.
Of course I wasn't even a fan of discos when I was young. Can you tell I was never a dancer? 😂
I managed one dancing class (thanks to peer pressure and I didn't enjoy it), but while I like to move with a rhythm and occasionally danced with some of my cats, I preferred doing so in the privacy of my home or from a chair.

6. ... eat snails.

A friend of mine, a polymer clay
artist, made this little beauty for me.

Too bad I'm a vegetarian, isn't it?
I have never been a very adventurous eater even before I was. I wouldn't want to try ants in chocolate or mealworms. How about you?
I did try my rabbits' vitamin pellets once, though, to see why they were SO crazy for them. Kind of dry. I guess you had to be a bunny to appreciate it.

7. ... keep my cats, but foster a bunch of dogs instead.

"Could someone make her stop
talking, please? Can she get any
more embarrassing?"

Ok, you didn't believe that, did you? Neither did my cats.
I really love dogs, but I would be a terrible dog mom because I'm notoriously bad at setting limits, so I would probably be eaten up in the first week or dragged into the streets.
Once I told friends that I would gladly babysit their two smaller dogs for a few hours in their own home, but that I had to draw the line at taking them for a walk.

8. ... take up playing the violin again.

No one, absolutely no one, would want that. It just has been too long.
I played the violin for about 5 1/2 years until I was 16. I wasn't bad, but I don't think I was good, either. My heart wasn't really in it and the violin hadn't been my own choice (long story).
I tried again in my 20s, but unsurprisingly, my motivation was even less.

9. ... become a 3-star chef.

Picture via pxhere

More like -10. I just don't find any joy in cooking or baking and love everyone dearly who does it for me.
There was quite a short phase when the ex and I moved in together and it felt that cooking was just a part of it. I even tried out things then.
I would happily blame my lack of motivation on the ex and his love for his mother's food which I could never match (I liked it, too), but that just wouldn't be true. I simply don't like to cook, no matter how good recipes sound to me.

10. ... write the great German novel.

Picture via pxhere
(a recipe, not a novel, I just liked the picture)

Maybe next year ... 😉
I never had the ambition to write a book and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the patience to do it. I told myself stories on walks back home, for example after the violin lesson when I had missed the bus, to make them less boring, but never wrote any of them down.

That was really random and completely unplanned, but in the end you learned a bit about me after all. Not sure you wanted to learn it, but there you are.
It's practically a miracle I made it to 10!

10 on the 10th - Would you rather ....

For these 10 on the 10th "Marsha in the Middle" gave us another list of "Would you rather ..." questions. Let's see if I can answer all of them - all 11 of them!! 😉

1. Would you rather eat deep fried Twinkies or butter?

Sorry, no idea. I have never had a Twinkie in my life - we don't have them here and I never thought to try one during my USA trips - and simply can't answer this.

Picture via pxhere

2. Would you rather eat a hot dog cooked or uncooked?

Not at all, I have been a vegetarian for more than 35 years. I don't think I have ever had an uncooked hot dog before that.
I did have uncooked sausage like "Saiten" (what we call Vienna sausage in my part of the country" or "Rote" ("red sausage"), a bit like a thicker version of "Saiten") and I liked those better than cooked, but I wouldn't want to compare a hot dog to either of those.

3. Would you rather dig for gold or dig for gemstones?

I wouldn't want to do either because it's hard work.
I would prefer the gemstones over the gold, though 😉

Quartz and amethyst in my wire
crochet stars for a necklace

4. Would you rather plant your feet in the sand or in the snow?

That's easy. I like looking at snow from inside with a nice beverage in my hands, but I don't want to be in it. Sand it is.

Picture via pxhere

5. Would you rather read a book with no chapters delineated or a book with no chapters at all?

The first one, I guess.

6. Would you rather wear flip flops with tights or high heels with tube socks?

I hate flip flops with a vengeance. I hate the look and I hate the sound even more.
My high heels times have long been over, I probably wouldn't be able to make a single step in them, but if you force me, I'll take them with the tube socks. I had a dream about tube socks just a few days ago although I have no idea why a food truck would give them out and why we got a complimentary extra pair. They were yellow and red, it would be very hard to find heels working with those.

According to "British Vogue" everyone in London is wearing socks with heels right now, by the way. At least, they still did in February.

7. Would you rather wear the twins Polly and Esther or their evil cousin, Latex, for a posh evening of your choice?

Polly and Esther it is. No one wants to see me in Latex. I know I don't.

8. Would you rather watch a really bad movie with your bestie or a really good movie by yourself?

I would do both. Watching a bad movie with a friend can be absolutely hilarious, but I usually watch movies by myself, anyway.

9. Would you rather color in the lines or outside?

That depends on my mood. It can be a concentration exercise to color in the lines, but it can also be incredibly liberating to color outside of them.
That works for all kinds of creative ventures, I think.

Picture via pxhere

10. Would you rather drink warm root beer or cold "hot" chocolate?

I get sick from root beer, I can't even stand the smell, but I could bathe in chocolate, so the choice is easy. I prefer cold beverages to hot ones, anyway.

Picture via pxhere

11. Would you rather have taco chips or celery string stuck in your teeth?

Well, celery is another thing I don't like, so I'll go with the taco chips.

If nothing else, you have sure learned a lot now about all kinds of things I don't like or hate! 😂

10 on the 10th, uhm, 9th - Dogs

Early once again. The 10th is Thursday - silent movie day.
So I'm already here today to talk about the prompt "Marsha in the Middle" gave us - our favorite dogs. Dogs??? Everyone knows I'm a cat person (you will know it even more in a few days)!

Luckily, I love dogs almost as much as cats in all shapes and sizes, but obviously I never lived with one. Marsha gave us an escape route for that, though. 
"They can be dogs you've owned, grew up with, are on tv, dog food cans, whatever!" Sure, Marsha. I always fall in love with dogs on dog food cans, sigh. But hey, I think I know a good "whatever" ...
As usual, the order is quite random.

1. Flocki was the first dog I met on the farm on my friend's parents. As the farm wasn't close to us, I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked. I loved that sweet girl and I still miss her. I even got a tee with a picture of her once, it must still be in my wardrobe.
There's one unforgotten story. Once my friend visited her parents over the weekend and I came along and slept on the living room couch. The next morning I woke up to a nose in my face. My friend's mother told me that Flocki had insisted on seeing me first 🥰 quite the shock to my friend who was usually the first one to get woken up by her on visit weekends. When Flocki comes up in our stories, so does this story ... my friend still isn't over it, hehe!

2. I don't have a picture of Hera because she was the German shepherd on the farm of my godmother's parents when I was a kid. When I think of Hera, the first image that comes to mind is her waiting for the kittens to be done when raiding her bowl.

3. Chloey is a family member's dog. She's a French mademoiselle who found a new home in Germany via a shelter for polar dog breeds.
She keeps reminding me of a fox with those ears and this face and red coat (lighter or darker depending on the light), so I like to call her "onser Fichsle" which is just Swabian for "our little fox".
Do you see her grinning? That's because she knows exactly she has her two people wrapped around each single paw. The motto is: "Everything for the dog. Everything for the dog." (You're legally bound to say it twice, I know because we have the same one here, only with "cat".)

4. is a double pack. Kosimo, called Kosel, and Nemo, called Schnuck, are the resident dogs in our house. As you can see they are natural models, so natural indeed that they don't believe in weird poodle cuts (which traditionally had to do with poodles going into the water as they were bred for the duck hunt, but which are merely for optics today).
Kosel is all over me sometimes and I love it even if he had the habit to steal one of my pink shoes from the hallway. He loves pink and had to have this flamingo that his nephew is trying to steal. Just look at those dark eyes.
Nemo holds back with me a bit more after trying to knock me over for a greeting, but the other day we had a big hug.

5. Struppi was the first dog I met at my best childhood friend's house. He was a wirehaired dachshund and for some reason I always think of him as a little grumpy old man. No picture available, sorry.
Of course, there are quite a few memories connected with him, but I'll share just one.
We were in the car. My friend's Mom had made given us both a slice of bread with butter and salami on it. Ah, you know where this is heading, don't you? My friend and I sat in the back and Struppi next to me. One moment he looked out of the window, the next moment the salami was gone from my bread and he still looked out of the window!
In my innocence, I had held the slice of bread up and looked away for a second. It was practically like an offer and he took me up on it so fast I didn't even see it. 

6. Finni was another friend's dog, also a dachshund, but a longhaired one.
I can't remember Finni ever being anything but nice, quite amazing for a dachshund, a breed that can be very stubborn (I knew more than just Struppi and Finni). The only thing I remember her being extremely stubborn about was not eating a certain brand of kibbles.
There is a picture of her somewhere, a Polaroid, in a stack of loose photos, I don't know how well it still looks after all those years. If I find it, I'll add it. 

Of course I have met a lot of other dogs over the years and sometimes it was love at first sight, but often we had to part ways after just one fleeting encounter ... at the vet's, on the train, downtown ...
So here comes the "whatever" now.
There are a few dogs on the internet I'm in love with (or should I say I have a parasocial connection to?).

7. It started with Olive and Mabel.
They are the pals of Scottish sports commentator Andrew Cotter. When Covid hit and there wasn't any sports, Cotter commentated "The Dog's Breakfast Grand Final" - which the older and more experienced Olive won, by the way. Sorry for the spoiler.
Cotter followed up with more hilarious videos, for example Olive and Mabel lying on their online dating profiles or joining a gym, but even just him walking through his garden with the labradors has something very calming.



8. I found Ollie and Tato on Instagram and instantly fell for them. Their videos make me happy and give me a moment of peace, much needed these days. Who wouldn't be happy seeing labradors doing their own version of the Lion King (very impressive, that one), Ollie caring for his own pumpkin or Tato (the baby raptor) and his plotting against Santa?
Animal videos are the only time I'm not even disturbed by AI voices. I live for Ollie's mlems and Tatey's pew-pews.

There isn't much on YouTube as they are mostly on Instagram and TikTok, but here's one example.
Most of the time, they are perfectly normal dogs with normal lives, by the way.

9. I also found the Sisters of the Snoot on Instagram, well, the algorithm threw them in my path, start with one dog channel and they pop up like crazy.
The Sisters are Abby (void horse = borzoi), Cleo (chaos worm = silken windhound), and Marcy (void horse in training = younger borzoi). I have no idea why it's so funny to me to hear them being called noodles.
There isn't that much on YouTube here, either.



10. is not exactly a dog. It's a lot of dogs to fall in love with.
It's a channel on several platforms which constantly makes me laugh and cry, not hard to do even with good things. I'm talking about "We Rate Dogs".
"We Rate Dogs" started on Twitter almost ten years ago by - surprise! - rating dogs or "complaining" about people sending pictures in of non-dogs (aka "seals", "polar bears", "sharks", etc.).
Nowadays "We Rate Dogs" is also on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, TikTok, YouTube and who knows where else. That could be reason to turn me off in other cases, but the owner Matt Nelson has not only turned this into a job by saying "The dogs were good again this week. Here are my top 5."




Part of the proceeds go to the 15/10 Foundation helping to sponsor dogs with medical or behavioral issues and supporting rescue organizations.

There you go, I made it all the way to 10 😊

P.S. How could I forget Snoopy???

10 on the 10th - What I really like or love

"Show us photos of things you really like or love."
That sounds like an easy enough prompt for this month's 10 on the 10th, but as I wrote in my comment to Marsha's preview post, it really seems impossible to choose just ten from my thousands of cat pictures, especially because so far there have been 12 cats I've had the honor to serve.
Not kidding, at this point I didn't even know if I was going to get to ten this time, not because there are not enough things (which I will be interpreting loosely as cats and other animals are not things, neither are people, but you know I don't show people on my blog, anyway), but because I probably don't have pictures of them all.
Also this is difficult because we already did the "Diamonds in your life" post in April and I'm bound to repeat myself. Sorry about that. I'll try to choose different pictures at least.
As usual, the order is quite random (except for the cats, they rightfully insisted to be at the top) and I could keep going if I had the pictures for it (for example movies and music are missing for lack of good pictures) or if I had thought of the other things first.

1. Cats.
I love them. I'm obsessed with them. They are beautiful and elegant (most of the time), they can be very goofy and sweet, and they can be very effective predators. Big and small. Also they have been with me through good times and hard times.
The names are in the order they came into my life.

2. Animals.
I didn't have any pets of my own as a kid, but I always had animals in my life - dogs at my friends' houses, cats, cows, and bunnies at the farm of my godmother's parents.
Then the ex and I had not only our little zoo at home once we moved in together, but also the little zoo in my hometown where we volunteered. How many people can say they have been "combed" by a coati (there was no one around to take a picture, sorry)?
This is just a very, very small selection of animals from home and the real zoo.

3. Books.
You already know this picture, but I think it expresses it best.

4. My collections.
I have already told you how I feel about my collections, but at least I can show you some different pictures.
My main collections are Steiff animals and vintage Barbies.
 

5. Flowers.
I'm no gardener and like to tell anyone that I have ten black thumbs. That doesn't mean I don't like flowers or plants, though.
I have taken these pictures in our little garden and on trips, in Botanic Gardens and zoos.

6. Beads and wire and cabs and everything else you can create with!
That probably doesn't come as a surprise. There is so much you can make and do with tiny bits of glass or roving, stone or metal.
Here's a little selection.

7. Museums and libraries.
Can't say I always approve of the method of acquisition, but I could never resist a nice museum.
Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures without someone standing in front of a museum or library.
These are the best I have (a mix of Cardiff, Cambridge, Edinburgh, London, and Weil am Rhein).

8. Cemeteries.
They have something peaceful. I like the smaller ones, with trees and with benches where you can sit and dream and feel the stories of the people around you.
My town has two cemeteries that we call the old and the new one (the new one opened up in 1903). The old one is around our oldest building, the Oberhofenkirche (built from 1436 - 1490).

9. Vintage.
Vintage this and that. Toys, furniture, decorations, books, paintings, calendars, clothes, fabric, tools, needles, dishes, glasses ... I could go on and on. Unfortunately I have neither the space nor the money for everything I love, but I may have one or the other item around.

10. Chocolate.
I can't help it. I don't have the habit of photographing chocolate, though. So this one picture from a birthday a few years back will have to suffice. These are so-called "Göppingerle", named after our town and made in our oldest café (macaroon with a vanilla souffle in fine chocolate, available in different flavors).