Photo of an ancient mosaic. The border looks like a multi-color braid with tesserae in several colors including yellow, red, white. In the center are several nested borders. The first one is a thin square frame which is made with a single row of red tesserae. Within that is another border of 3 rows of white, gray and black tesserae. Then a single border of black, an alternating row of black and white, another border of black and a single border of white. Within all of these borders is an image on a black background of a light-colored cat laying on a blue-green cushion. Above the cat are the Greek letters ΖΜΑΡΑΓΔΙΝ which translates to Emerald.

This sweet kitty on her pillow is Emerald! She was immortalized in a mosaic along with a doggo friend, Ocean, 1,800 years ago in Turkey. You can read all about the mosaic here. It's thought that they were the household pets and there is a theory as to how Emerald may have gotten her name.

Thursday's hip replacement went well! I had no low blood pressure issues at the hospital so I was allowed to go home the same day. Although, I ended up having 2 low blood pressure episodes at home. It's the general opinion among the doctors involved with my care that I'm just sensitive to spinal anesthetic.

I was in a lot more discomfort from this surgery when I first woke up in recovery. I wouldn't even call it pain, just extreme discomfort. That eventually went away later that first day. The surgeon said my acetabulum (the socket on your hip bone where the head of the femur goes, which forms your hip joint) was badly eroded (from arthritis) and he had to spend time rebuilding it so that's probably why I was feeling a lot more than the first surgery.

Today, 3 days post surgery, the only thing bothering me is that the surgical site burns and stings when I get up and move. He said that is probably from the nerve endings that were cut during surgery and this wasn't an unusual symptom to have.

Listening

Some podcasts I've listened to:

Reading

I've put aside Knight Training by Jon del Arroz once again. I know, I said in the last blog post that something happened in the story to pique my interest. But I kind of lost interest in it again and at this point I'm debating whether or not to just DNF it. I got it as part of a newsletter subscription and I'm feeling kind of guilty about not finishing it but that's just me being weird.

I've started reading Finders Seekers by Gayle Greeno. This is the first book in The Ghatti's Tale series. Ghattis are catlike telepathic creatures who bond with a person. This series came out in the early 90s and I don't know how I missed it then.

Watching

I've finished season 3 of Silo. I enjoyed it but I thought it dragged in the middle. The next season will be the last one and I'm so glad that this has a finite storyline and they're not going to try and drag it out endlessly.

Next show on my radar is Ponies, which was cancelled after the first season. It looks like it was really good, though, so I'm going to enjoy what there is. It's set in 1970s Moscow and the main characters are secretaries with the CIA and become operatives after their husbands are killed.

Spy stuff - I love it! Retro spy stuff - even better! If you are also into retro spy stuff, I absolutely highly recommend Deutschland 83. A young East German man is sent to infiltrate the West German army to act as a spy. It had 2 follow-up seasons, Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89. Excellent viewing. If you watch it, let me know what you thought!

Link Lagniappe

That's about it for this week!

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