Sam is better

Sam exhibited some joy and energy this evening. I'm supposed to remove his fentanyl patch tomorrow. 

These flowers are from my next-door neighbor's stairs. This is the neighbor who has an incredible garden on her deck, not the next-door neighbor that I bought flowers for after her daughter looked at my garden and asked why her mother didn't have ANY plants. 

I baked burritos tonight! That sounds like inches away from enchiladas. Were they good? Well, when you make a burrito out of mushrooms and quinoa you need a lot of hot sauce and cheese. 

If you think I have wildlife problems in my garden, check out the extra so you can see what some of my other neighbors are dealing with. 

I am so relieved I won't be in Cape Town next week. It would have been non-stop stress to try to get all the arrangements/paperwork done in time. Ugh. I hope I have more enthusiasm next opportunity. It is a shame to miss the jacaranda though. 

Meanwhile, I just got my Global Entry card. I had flown from Iceland to the US. I stood for hours in a line. Then I stood for what might have been another hour in another line to answer questions. In my picture I look a little wasted, but in a totally different way from Samuel. 

The Kremilin is furious. We got the son of one of Putin's officials arrested -Artyom Uss - for participating in a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme. They accuse us of taking hostages for political purposes. Interesting accusation. Maybe they'd trade Brittany Griner for him. 

Central Asian leaders are feeling a little strained with Putin. They are appalled at the violence toward Ukraine. They refused to endorse the invasion. They refused to endorse the annexation. They won't return draft dodgers. Putin likes to make other world leaders wait for him. Last month he waited for the President of Kyrgyzstan. At the summit in Kazakhstan last week, the president of Kazakhstan failed to have a one-on-one meeting with Putin. 

Not only are Russian-speaking Ukrainians learning Ukrainian, and people changing Russian street names, and knocking down Russian statues, but so are Latvians. Latvian governments passed laws over time requiring an increasing proportion of Latvian school classes to be held in Latvian. In September they set a date for when all classes must be in Latvian and everyone is very clear that the reason is the war. Latvia recently banned 20 Russian TV channels. 

Nine lions are out of harm's way, away from Ukraine, and in a wildlife sanctuary in Colorado. They were first evacuated to Romania. 80 acres!

There is finally a group of people happy about Russia's mobilization:  women whose exes haven't been paying child support.